Tuesday, June 5, 2012

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?

Thursday, February 9, 2012

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 :)

Sunday, February 5, 2012

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!