Eye Candy 2

Again, I really do not like blogging at all. This is my way of sharing with you what I have made in the last...year.  Aside from maybe two things, all of these items have been made while away at college. I am not your stereotypical college student.  I throw dinner/dessert parties for my friends, and everything is made from scratch (except for rare instances when I realize I may need to take it down a notch and focus on school a bit more).  I am a student and caterer by day, extraordinary baker by night!

Strawberries and cream napoleans

Chocolate shortbread crust filled with salted
caramel and topped with chocolate ganache

Churro Cupcake filled with dulce de leche

Thrown sugar
(yes, this was done in a dorm room kitchen)

Homemade Dulce de Leche

Earl Grey infused caramel

Butterscotch and Baileys bread pudding bites

White bean and asparagus tart

Strawberries and Chocolate cake

Homemade berry sorbet with fresh
whipped cream and mint (made in my dorm)

Mother's Day

I am a terrible blogger. If only I blogged as I much as I baked...
Anyways, this cake was made as a belated mother's day cake since I was still away at college. As I was  unable to celebrate and take part in the festivities with the fam bam I planned a nice little summer dinner and lovely dessert.  Now, I'm pretty darn proud of what I made for dinner that I think it deserves an honorable mention. After tossing veggies in olive oil with fresh rosemary and garlic, s&o, I grilled corn on the cob, red and orange peppers, onions, and zucchini on the BBQ.  Once that was all hot with grill marks I tossed it with some penne pasta, more rosemary, olive oil, s&p, garlic and ka-ching! Dinner is served. Oh baby oh baby, it gets better. Why? Because there's dessert!!! Which is what this post is supposed to be about.

So I made a hummingbird cake with cream cheese frosting.  It is a basic white cake with pineapple, banana, and walnuts.  Tasted more like a banana bread to me.  If I were to re-make the cake I would definitely make it a carrot cake with walnuts and pineapple (more pineapple too).  I'll post the website where I found the recipe and also the idea for the topper.  I just decorated the top with pineapple flowers and golden raspberries from our local farmer's market. Gotta love summer berries! I feel like the ratio of words to pictures in my blog posts is a little off, but I always like looking at food pictures better than reading the recipes. You know what they say, you eat with your eyes first!

Recipe adapted from:
http://www.ambrosiabaking.com/2012/05/hummingbird-cupcakes.html
p.s  I had the pineapple in the oven for 1 hr 30 total

bon appétit! 

My lovely mother. She's pretty amazing and doesn't she make that cake look good?

Tuesdays with Dorie- White Bread

The first recipe on my culinary adventure was White Bread!  I was a little apprehensive at first, but once I pulled those two little buns out of the oven I knew I was hooked. Fresh bread is like nothing I've ever tasted, and the smells coming out of that oven are almost as good as the taste.

I made the recipe with my boss at the bakery. The recipe said you could either use bread flour or all purpose.  For this recipe we agreed to try both. I used bread and she used AP.  We went home made our bread and then came back the next day to compare.
Bread flour resulted in a softer bread, equatable to sandwich bread, and it rose a little higher.
AP flour resulted in a bread that was a little more dense (kind of like a sourdough), and a little less height.

Both breads were delicious!
To find the recipe go here: http://someonekitchen.blogspot.com/
and to read about Tuesdays with Dorie please go to: http://tuesdayswithdorie.wordpress.com/

Mixin' away and comin' together

First Rise

2nd rise in the pans.   My apartment was SO cold  I has to improvise.  Blankets and heaters baby!

It's so cute! It's like my baby :)

Voila!!! Two beautiful golden loaves. I'm so proud of them!!

New Culinary Adventures!

Hello readers!

I have decided to follow a blog called Tuesdays with Dorie. Two Tuesdays every month many food bloggers all over the world will be baking their way through Dorie's book Baking with Julia. 

The first recipe will be posted on the blog and my job is to bake it exactly how the recipe is listed and post in on my blog on Tuesday. I realize that my first posting is late, but I will be more diligent about my Tuesday postings.

I am simply a college student following my passion to make, bake, and create delicious savory desserts.


Rachel :)

Eye Candy!

I haven't posted anything on my blog for some time now, but that does not mean I haven't been busy baking away! Below are some pictures of the delicious creations I have made since my last post. Enjoy!

Mother's Day Cake

Halloween Shattered Glass Cupcakes

French Apple Tart

My "1st" official birthday cake

50's Theme Night at Church-Milkshake cupcakes

50's Theme Night at Church-Record cupcakes

Chocolate Fudge pie with a Peanut Caramel Sauce

Holiday Cranberry Bliss Bars

Lemon Cupcakes-vanilla cake, lemon curd filling, candied lemon peel

Oat crumble topping with lemon sorbet

Chocolate Ganache tart

Birthday chocolate lava cakes

Nutmeg Beignets 

Birthday cake for Sara!

Serena's 7th Birthday

Homemade Strawberry Pie (slightly deconstructed) 

Tiramisu

Layered Things~

Oh Summer! How I have missed you...

Since coming back from school in Washington I have been on a fruit kick! Every dessert I seem to make has something fruity in it. All year long I look forward to the time I come home from school so I can go to the Little Italy Farmer's Market in SD. I absolutely love fresh fruit.  I have a lemon tree in my backyard that has so many lemons starting to grow on it my mind is going completely crazy thinking of all the different recipes I can make with those lemons!
In addition to making fruity desserts I've also been into layers.  I made a lemon layer cake, chocolate nutella layered bars, and yesterday a strawberry tiramisu. What??? A strawberry tiramisu? Is that even possible you ask? Why yes, yes it is!
One of my favorite desserts is tiramisu. So when a dear friend of mine asked me to make a dessert for our Sunday Sandwich extravaganza I immediately knew I wanted it to have fruit and layers. What I didn't know was that there was a recipe for a strawberry tiramisu! I knew I had to make this dessert.
It had way more less steps than your typical coffee tiramisu and a lot less ingredients and lots of delicious summery strawberries...and layers :)
I have three HUGE lemons to use up so you can expect another post in the near future...perhaps I'll try this recipe but with lemons!

 Ingredients: 

1 1/4 cups strawberry preserves

1/3 cup plus 4 tablespoons Cointreau or other orange liqueur

1/3 cup orange juice

1 pound mascarpone cheese, room temperature

1 1/3 cups chilled whipping cream

1/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

52 (about) crisp ladyfingers (boudoirs or Savoiardi)

1 1/2 pounds strawberries, divided

Directions: 

1. Whisk preserves, 1/3 cup Cointreau, and orange juice in 2-cup measuring cup. 

2. Place mascarpone cheese and 2 tablespoons Cointreau in large bowl; fold just to blend.

3.Using electric mixer, beat cream, sugar, vanilla, and remaining 2 tablespoons Cointreau in another large bowl to soft peaks. Stir 1/4 of whipped cream mixture into mascarpone mixture to lighten. Fold in remaining whipped cream.

4. Hull and slice half of strawberries. 

5. Spread 1/2 cup preserve mixture over bottom of 3-quart oblong serving dish or a 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish. Arrange enough ladyfingers over strawberry mixture to cover bottom of dish. Spoon 3/4 cup preserve mixture over ladyfingers, then spread 2 1/2 cups mascarpone mixture over. Arrange 2 cups sliced strawberries over mascarpone mixture. Repeat layering with remaining lady fingers, preserve mixture, and mascarpone mixture. Cover with plastic and chill at least 8 hours or overnight.

6. Slice remaining strawberries. Arrange over tiramasù and serve.

Dinner Time!

One of the best things about coming home from college is being able to cook all the meals for my family.  However, this summer has proven to be a challenge when dinner time roles around.  My Dad will eat pretty much anything I make, but my brother eats "natural," that is veggies, fruit, and meat...lots of meat.  I on the other hand prefer to not eat meat.  So the challenge lately has been to make something that pleases both the carnivores and myself without having to cook two completely different meals.

So tonight I made an AMAZING white bean salad. The flavors were so fresh in this dish I can't wait to make it again.  I cooked a steak for the carnivores and covered both sides in salt, pepper, and fresh picked rosemary.  After the steak was done I added some fresh zucchini I had gotten from the farmers market last Saturday and sauteed  (sp?) them in the pan.  Next I made a sauce from the leftovers in the pan and added some curry powder to that.
For myself I cooked a portabella mushroom and some zucchini  and prepared it the same as the way as the meat.

Overall, dinner was a success! The meat-eaters thoroughly cleaned their plates and I enjoyed mine equally as well.

White Bean Salad
1-15oz can white beans
3Tbs sherry vinegar
2 Tbs capers
1/2 c fresh mint
1/2 c finely diced red onion
1/2 c finely diced red pepper
1T olive oil
salt and pepper

Simply add all the ingredients together!