Peachy keen bars

We have been picking fresh peaches from our local farm for more than a month now and before the picking season was over, I decided it was about time I baked some peach desserts. :) I love peaches and nothing can compare to the taste of a freshly picked one right off the tree!

The first peach dessert I chose to make is a cross between cheesecake and peach crumble bars. It is very easy to make because it uses a shortcut- a box of dry cake mix. Since my days have been somewhat crazy with the beginning of the school year, I figured I could definitely use a shortcut this time around. :)

The dessert, while it didn't totally wow me, was a pretty big hit with my co-workers. In fact, I was asked for the recipe. So, here it is:

 

Ingredients

1 package dry cake mix- white, yellow or french vanilla

1/3 cup butter, room temperature

2 eggs, divided

4 cups diced peeled peaches, about 4-5 peaches (or 29oz can light peach slices, drained)

8 oz cream cheese, room temperature

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13” pan with nonstick cooking spray. 

In a large bowl combine cake mix, butter and 1 egg; mix with fork just until crumbly.
Set aside 1 ½ cups crumbs for topping. Press the remaining crumbs on bottom of prepared pan; Bake 10 minutes. 

Spoon diced peaches onto partially-baked crust. 

In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar, 1 egg and vanilla extract; beat with mixer until creamy.
Spread over peaches. Sprinkle with reserved crumbs.

Bake 30 minutes.

Chill at least 30 minutes before serving. Store leftovers in refrigerator.

Adapted from: www.justapinch.com

Mango-tomatillo salsa

Although not exactly falling under the "baking" category, this post recipe is equally delicious, trust me! Since we have a huge vegetable- and most importantly tomato- garden, I have been making this yummilicious salsa all summer. It has been an absolute hit everywhere I have taken it and of course at home! In fact, the last party I brought this to, I was asked "to sell the recipe". :)) But since I am more into posting recipes for free :), I figured I'd just put it up here. So, here goes...

Mango-tomatillo salsa

1 very ripe mango, chopped (the riper the mango, the sweeter the salsa)
1 or 2 good size vine-ripened garden tomatoes, chopped (I use large heirlooms with tons of flavor)
1 yellow tomato, chopped (I grow these too and they are even sweeter than the red ones)
2-3 tomatillos, chopped (this was the first year I grew these in my garden and it has been great!)
2-3 tbsp sweet onions, minced
1 small jalapeno, minced (optional- only if you like spicy food)
2-3 tbsp finely chopped cilantro
1-2 minced garlic cloves (I know this is not typical for salsa, but I like the depth of flavor it adds to the dish)
the juice of 1 lime

Mix all ingredients. Chill for a few hours or overnight. I like making this a day in advance because I feel the flavors really marry that way. I like using this dish not just as an appetizer, served with tortilla chips, but also as a garnish to grilled chicken or fish- it is amazing!

I have also made this with pineapple instead of mango and it is awesome as well. Also, I have added avocado in it and that makes the salsa really creamy. There are a lot of combinations possible here, and you can really run with it, the key factor is fresh garden-ripened tomatoes. If you don't have a garden yourself, try to get them at a local farmer's market. It will make a world of difference.

Mini cupcakes galore :)

An order of 5 dz mini cupcakes for a friend's party today. Two flavors in three different colors: dark chocolate cake with peanut butter cream cheese frosting and vanilla cake with vanilla-almond buttercream (which I make the same way as my regular vanilla buttercream, only I add 1 tsp almond extract as well):

Peanut Butter Cheesecake Chocolate Chunk Brownies

Last weekend we were invited to a party and, of course, I wanted to bring a dessert. :) I wasn't in the mood for making a cake, plus I thought something more like finger food sized portions would be more appropriate, so, I decided to make these decadent brownies. There have been quite a lot of versions for "brownies with a twist" hovering around on Pinterest lately, but I sort of came up with this recipe on my own, combining bits and pieces of others out there. The final result did not disappoint. I made a big batch and took about 2/3 to the party,  saved some for home and brought the rest to my co-workers. Everybody raved about them! Within a day, they were all GONE! What I love about this recipe is the fact that it starts off with a boxed mix of brownies (since I was a little short on time at 11PM when I started baking :)) but then quickly gets transformed into something way, way better than regular boring brownies out of a box. Check this out:

Recipe:

Brownie layer:
1 box brownie mix, your favorite brand, mixed according to package instructions
(in this particular case, I had to add 2 eggs to the mix but I only had 1 left, so I substituted 1 egg  for 1 tbsp flax seed mill and 3 tbsps water- it worked great and I will be doing this on a regular basis from now on!)

Cheesecake layer: 
1 (8oz) pkg cream cheese, at room temperature, I used 1/3 less fat cream cheese
1 egg
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
 Mix everything until creamy and smooth (I actually used my little Kitchen Bullet for that and it worked great)

Peanut Butter Layer:
1 cup peanut butter, melted for about 1 minute in the microwave (I stir it a little after the first 30 seconds), I used natural chunky peanut butter because I like the texture it gives the brownies but creamy will do just fine

And last but certainly not least,
about 2-3 oz of your favorite chocolate, broken up in small chunks (I used milk chocolate in this case)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400F.
Cover a 9x13 inch baking pan with foil. Grease well.

Pour 2/3 of the prepared brownie mix batter on the bottom. Next, drop the melted peanut butter by spoonfuls on top of the brownie batter. Pour the cheesecake mixture. Spread the chocolate chunks. Pour the rest of the brownie batter on top. Using a fork, swirl around the batter to create a marbleized look.
Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out almost dry (it may still stick a little bit because of the cheesecake batter but that's okay; as long as it doesn't jiggle in the center, it's done).
Cool in pan. Cut and serve. They won't last long, trust me! :)

Butterfly cupcakes for Miss Lizzie's 3rd Birthday :)

Normally, I don't do too much baking in the hot summer months because I just can't bring myself to turn the oven on when it is 100F outside and no AC can cope with that effectively. However, my sweet daughter Elizabeth's 3rd birthday was an exception. When I asked her what she wanted for her special day, she didn't hesitate too long. "Butterfly cupcakes" was the almost immediate request and I just had to oblige. :) I baked our now favorite vanilla cake recipe (see here) by changing it up just a tad: instead of 1 whole cup of sour cream, I did 1/2 cup sour cream and 1/2 cup strawberry flavored Greek yogurt. The second alteration I made was instead of 2 tsps of vanilla extract, I put 1 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp strawberry extract. This way, I gave the recipe just a slight hint of strawberry, since the birthday girl loves this fruit. Of course, the icing had to be pink- with pearls on it (!). I just whipped up a batch of the fluffy pudding frosting that everybody in my family likes for its light texture and not too sweet taste. It is super simple when you are not in the mood for major whipping from scratch. It is not too stiff, but holds up somewhat okay for piping, as you can see from the pictures below. 

Fluffy Pudding Frosting

1 (3.5 oz) pkg of instant vanilla pudding mix

1 cup of milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 (8oz) container of Cool Whip (thawed)

In a medium bowl, combine pudding mix with milk and vanilla. Mix until smooth. Gently fold in whipped topping until no streaks remain. Add food coring if desired. Frost and enjoy your masterpieces! :) 

Lizzie's favorite colors: pink and purple combined in one cupcake: :) For the decoration, I took the easy way out and used ready made butterflies which are not edible but so adorable, Elizabeth was ecstatic!

The Birthday girl, thrilled with her cupcakes and ready to blow those three candles: :))) 

Beachy cake for end-of-year school party :)

I got to make another cake for Anna's teacher, this time for the end-of-year school party. :) Anna thought that vanilla cake would be best since most people like that flavor. I used my favorite vanilla cake recipe (too see it, click here) and frosted the cake with vanilla buttercream (recipe below) and put fresh strawberries between the two layers since they are in season right now and so yummy. :)

I frosted the whole cake in a very light blue buttercream, then decorated it with a shell border (both top and bottom), sea weed, and starfish. I also put a big smiling sun on top, reminiscent of a first grader's drawing. :)

I just realized that although I have been posting a lot of pictures of my cakes and cupcakes frosted with buttercream, I never actually posted my recipe for it. So, I am correcting this mistake right away... :)

Vanilla Buttercream

Ingredients: 
1 1/2 cup (3 sticks butter), at room temperature
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 tsp salt
8 cups (about 2 lbs) powdered sugar, sifted
1-2 tsp vanilla extract (or the flavor of your choice)
5-6 tbsps (or more) heavy whipping cream, or half-and-half, or whole milk

Directions: 
In the work bowl of your stand mixer, beat butter and shortening on medium-high until very smooth and creamy (2-3 minutes). 
Add sifted powdered sugar gradually (covering your mixer with a towel to avoid clouds of powdered sugar all over your kitchen), and continue creaming until well blended. 
Add salt, vanilla, and  whipping cream/ half-and-half/ milk. Blend on low speed until moistened. Add additional 1-2 tabsps whipping cream if necessary. Beat at high speed until frosting is fluffy.

Very berry vanilla cake

Last night, I baked a cake for my daughter's 1st grade teacher, since it is teacher appreciation week. Anna loves Mrs. Lugones, so she requested a cake that is as special as the bond the two of them share. She chose vanilla berry "poke" cake. It was an 8-inch two-layer vanilla cake "poked" with raspeberry jell-o, filled with my homemade blueberry/strawberry jam, and frosted with a strawberry buttercream.
The recipe for the vanilla cake is the same one I have been using for a while now- my favorite! You can get it by clicking here. 

 

I decorated the cake all very girly-girl- just like my little Anna- with lots of pink roses and drop flowers. :)

Anna wanted to write "To the best teacher- Mrs. Lugones. Love, Anna". So, that's what we did. A lot yummier than a simple thank-you card. :)

The side of the cake had little drop flowers. The bottom had a "shell" border, again in pink, with lots of green leaves throughout.

The border was made of roses with little pearls and green leaves.

Not surprisingly, after all this, Anna's teacher was tickled "pink" :))))

Peaches and cream cake

Happy Birthday to me! :))) This is the cake I baked for my birthday this year. It was three layers of classic sponge cake, also called pan di spagna, or genoise. The fillings were vanilla pastry cream and my homemade peach jam. I used stabilized whipped cream frosting for the rose design on the top and sides. And I soaked the cake with a classic sugar soaking syrup. After two days of whisking, mixing, baking, stirring, and piping, I ended up with an extremely moist, beautiful and decadent cake- very much European and very much what I grew up eating as a child back in Bulgaria. I guess you could call it a nostalgic cake. :)

Sponge cake is a cake that uses only beaten eggs to give it volume, no baking powder or baking soda are added to it.  It requires a lot of whisking, but if you have a stand mixer, you should have no problems with it. :) It is very light and fluffy and can serve as the base for a multitude of layered cakes.

Ingredients

8 eggs, separated into yolks and whites
190 g/ 6.7oz sugar
95g/ 3.3oz all-purpose flour, sifted
55g/ 2oz corn starch, sifted
45g/ 1.6oz butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease and flour a 10-inch round spring-form cake pan. Line it with parchment paper.

Place egg yolks in the bowl of your electric stand mixer. Whisk on high speed until creamy. After 1 minute, add 2 tbsps of the sugar. Continue to mix for a couple more minutes, until the mixture becomes thicker. Add vanilla extract. Keep mixing until the mixture doubles in volume. Turn off mixer. Transfer egg yolks to a separate bowl.

Thoroughly wash mixer bowl and whisk attachment. Make sure they are washed extremely clean; if not, any fat that remains on these utensils will negatively affect the mixing of the egg whites. Place the egg whites in the clean mixer bowl. Whip them on high until they become white and frothy. Slowly add sugar a little bit at a time. Once the mixer is nice and stiff, turn off the mixer. The whipped egg whites mixture is ready when it clings to the whisk attachment and does not drip.

Pour the egg yolks over the egg whites and fold them in with a rubber spatula. Make sure you do not over-mix!

Combine flour and corn starch in a sieve.Slowly sift them into the egg mixture. Sifting the flour will make the cake lighter. Fold together remembering not to over-mix.

Finally, add melted butter, combing it in briefly.

Using a rubber spatula, transfer the batter into the lined cake pan. Spread evenly. Give the pan a few good shakes to remove air bubbles. 

Bake at 350F for about 27-30 minutes. Test with a wooden skewer. The cake is ready when the skewer comes out batter-free. Set aside to cool before removing it from the pan. Once it is cool, run a very sharp knife around the edge of the cake. Remove spring form pan. Fill and frost with your choice of fillings and frosting.

If you prefer a very moist cake, as I do, you can soak it with some simple sugar syrup.

Simple soaking syrup

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 water
1/2 tsp vanilla extract or your favorite flavor extract

Mix together the water and sugar in a small pot. Bring to a boil, and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat, mix in vanilla extract and cool before using. When cool, sprinkle or brush on cake.

The stabilized whipped cream frosting was a new recipe I tried and was very happy with. I will be posting the recipe in a later blog post. It is not only light, fluffy and delicious, but it also holds up extremely well after being piped- two, three, even four days! Highly recommended!

The vanilla pastry cream was time-consuming but so worth it! I will definitely be making it again- and will post the recipe very soon.

For video tutorial on how to make the sponge cake, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI3PQ1baI4U

Perfect homemade pizza dough

Tonight, we made our own pizza for dinner and we all loved it! This time, I used a new- and I have to say fantastic- recipe for pizza dough. It produced the best pizza crust we have ever had- better than our local take-out pizza, which we really like.

Perfect Pizza Dough

1/2 cup warm water (about 110 degrees)
1 envelope (about 2 1/4 teaspoons) instant yeast
1 1/4 cups water, at room temperature
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 cups (22 ounces) bread flour, plus more for dusting work surface and hands
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
Olive oil or nonstick cooking spray for oiling the bowl

Directions:

Measure the warm water into a 2-cup liquid measuring cup. Sprinkle in the yeast and let stand until the yeast dissolves and swells, about 5 minutes. Add the room-temperature water and oil and stir to combine.

Place the flour and salt in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle. Briefly combine the dry ingredients at low speed. Slowly add the liquid ingredients and continue to mix at low speed until a cohesive mass forms. Stop the mixer and replace the paddle with the dough hook. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Form the dough into a ball, put it in a deep oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap. Let sit for about 1 1/2- 2 hours, or until doubled in size.

When ready to make your pizza, place a pizza stone on a rack in the lower third of the oven. Heat the oven to 500° for at least 30 minutes. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Use a chef’s knife or dough scraper to divide the dough into three or four pieces. Form each piece of dough into a smooth, round ball and cover it with a damp cloth. Let the dough relax for at least 10 minutes but no more than 30 minutes.

Working with one piece of dough at a time and keeping the others covered, shape the dough, then transfer it to a pizza peel that has been lightly dusted with semolina or cornmeal. Top as desired. Slide the dough onto the heated stone. Bake until the crust edges brown, 8 to 12 minutes. Cut into wedges and serve immediately. Enjoy! 

  

So thankful I found the recipe for this pizza crust on: Annie's Eats

Classic Creme Caramel

Creme Caramel has been one of my most favorite desserts ever since I was a little kid. My Mom used to make it all the time. Then, when I became a teenager and developed an interest in baking/cooking, I started making it myself. It is a simple, yet really elegant dessert and certainly a very classy finish to any dinner party.

Creme Caramel is actually the French name for this yumminess. In the U.S. it is more commonly known as flan. It is equally delicious, whichever way you prefer to call it. :)

In order to make it, you will need about 6 ramekins and a deep baking pan which can accommodate them.

For the custard:
2 cups whole milk
4 eggs
1 cup sugar

Heat the milk until very hot but not boiling (at this stage, if you want to shake things up, you can infuse the milk with different kinds of tea, citrus peels, vanilla beans, etc by letting them steep for about 15-20 minutes and then discarding). Separately, in a medium-size bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until really pale. Slowly pour the hot milk into the egg/sugar mixture and mix until well incorporated. Let cool. 

For the caramel:
3/4 sugar
1/4 water

In a medium-size heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring sugar and water to boil over medium-high heat whisking constantly. When mixture starts to boil, turn heat to medium-low and stop whisking. Continue to simmer until mixture turns golden brown, 15-20 minutes. Quickly pour into ramekins, swirling to coat bottom and sides.

Preheat oven to 350F.
To prepare your water bath, pour about an inch of hot water in a deep baking pan.

Pour the egg custard mixture on top of the caramel and set your ramekins into the baking pan. Add more water if necessary, the water should come to about half way up the sides of the ramekins.

Bake for about 35-45 minutes or until the middle still jiggles a bit when shaken as the mixture will continue to cook and set when refrigerated.

Let the water bath cool off for a few minutes and remove the ramekins. Let them cool off to room temperature. Refrigerate a couple of hours before serving, and up to 2 days.

To serve, gently loosen the edge of the creme caramel with the tip of a sharp knife to help release the custard and cover mold with an inverted serving platter. While holding the platter against the mold, flip over. Gently lift off mold. Caramel will fall as a liquid sauce over the custard.

Bird's nest cupcakes :)

I made these bird's nest cupcakes for the Orthodox Easter party we went to on Sunday. My kids helped me decorate them- they placed all the "eggs" in the nests. :) It was a really fun project!

The cupcakes were our now favorite chocolate/peanut butter recipe combo.

For the recipe, click here. This is my original chocolate cake recipe with peanut butter cream cheese frosting. For cupcakes, bake only 18-19 minutes.

Carrot Cake for Easter

Happy Easter to all my Christian Orthodox  friends! We went to a party yesterday and I made this carrot cake to take there. I decorated it with jelly beans in bright colors, so the kids have fun. :) This cake is THE best carrot cake you will have in your life! I absolutely guarantee it! I am forever grateful to our friend, Don Cotrell, for sharing this recipe with me!

Ingredients: 

2 cups all-purpose flour
2-1/4 tsps baking soda
1 cup vegetable oil
2 tsps cinnamon
3 large eggs
2 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups white sugar
8 oz crushed pineapple with the juice
1-1/2 cups shredded coconut

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and line two 8 or 9 inch round cake pans with parchment or wax paper.

2. Mix flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon together.

3. Separately, beat oil, sugar and eggs WELL.

4. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture

5. Fold in pineapple, carrots, coconut and walnuts (if using)

6. Bake at 350 F for about 40-45 minutes (but you may start checking at 35 minutes because different ovens take different time).

Note: One trick I have started using when baking my cakes is wrapping a wet tea towel around the cake pans and securing it with a pin (one that is all metal, no plastic on it), then baking the cakes just like that in the oven- don't worry, the towels don't burn because they are wet- they just dry out and brown- make sure you use old towels for this. :) This way, the cakes bake very evenly on top and the sides do not get too hard in order for the center to bake through- which seems to be a tendency for this particular recipe, as wonderful as it is. The wet towel strips around the cake pans during baking totally solved this problem for me and the cake was extremely moist throughout. Give this a try! Of course, you could also use ready store-bought baking strips from stores such as AC Moore but the tea towels work great for me. :)


I frosted the cake with a simple Cream Cheese Frosting:

Ingredients :

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 tsps vanilla extract

Cream the butter and cream cheese well. Add the powdered sugar gradually, covering your stand mixer with a towel to avoid sugar flying all over the place. :) Add vanilla extract and beat until fluffy.

This frosting can be made with a lot less sugar but for my purposes, I need it stiffer in order to pipe it when decorating, so the 4 cups make just the right consistency- and I haven't had anybody complain about it being too sweet. :)

Special thanks for this fabulous carrot cake recipe to my husband's co-worker, Don Cotrell. This one is a keeper!