Happy 4th of July!

Little late on this post, BUT hope everyone had a great 4th of July!

My family and I went to our friends beach house in Malibu to watch some amazing fireworks right on the beach !

How beautiful is that?

Anyways, I brought dessert, and I made Martha Stewart's Fruited Cheesecake Flag, and Patriotic Ice cream Sandwiches(I forgot to take pictures of those).

You can find Martha's recipe here. But this cheesecake was absolutely AMAZING! It was so good, and it made a lot, so everyone kept going up for 2nds and even 3rds! It was a huge hit at the party! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Amazing Carrot Cake

I made Sherry Yards( Executive pastry chef at Spago, Beverly hills) Carrot Cake for my dad for fathers day! The recipe is from her first baking book, which is absolutely amazing. The recipes in her book have NEVER failed me.

This cake was a HUGE hit with my family, everyone loved it. It was incredibly moist, the right texture and spice that a great carrot cake should have. And the frosting? AH, just amazing!

I have no recipe for you today, seeing as i'm a little too lazy to type it all out, but i highly recommend picking up Sherry's book if you can.

Hope everyone had a good fathers day!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Happy Cinco de Mayo! We had a spanish FIESTA in my Spanish class today in honor of this famous "Mexican battle"! My teacher brought in her indoor grills, and made us ALL cheese quesadillas, and we had chips and dip, and more great mexican food.

I brought dessert! I made Martha's Mexican Wedding Cookies, as well as her Tres Leches Cake.

Everyone loved them! Even my spanish teacher( who i'm CONVINCED totally does NOT like me) gave me so much praise! Yay for mexican food!!

Mexican Wedding Cookies

from Martha Stewart's Cookie Book

1 cup whole blanched almonds, plus 40 more

for decorating

2 cups plus 2 tblsp. all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 cup(2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp.

2 1/4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

1 large egg white, beaten

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Spread 1 cup almonds on baking sheet, toast until fragrant, about 12 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer to bowl and set aside to cool.

2. Place almonds, flour, salt, and cinnamon in food processor, process until nuts are finely chopped, about 1 minute.

3. Beat butter and 1 cup confectioners' sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add vanilla and almond extracts; beat until combined. Add chopped-almond mixture; beat on low speed until dough just comes together.

4. Roll dough into 20 1 1/2 inch balls; place on 2 clean baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Flatten slightly.

5. Place 40 remaining whole almonds and 1 tblsp. beaten egg white in small bowl. toss to coat. press 2 almonds into top of each cookie.

6. bake cookies until lightly browned around edges, about 25 minutes, rotating halfway through. transfer sheets to wire rack; let rest until cookies are cool enough to handle.

7. place remaining 1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar in a fine mesh sieve. sift sugar over cookies, reserving any remaining sugar. return cookies to baking sheet. let them cool 15 minutes, and coat with sugar again.

I apologize for the horrible pictures, but i forgot my camera today!

But that's the sliced cake, with one of my cookies.

My plate..haha I like chips =P

Here's the recipe for Martha's Tres Leches Cake.

Hope everyone has a great Cinco de Mayo!

Olay!!

TWD: Blueberry Crumb Cake

Sadly, I only took 1 picture of this cake. As it was completely devoured 

by the rest of family as soon as it was made.

See, here in my house, we LOVE coffee cakes. Not just like, we LOVE them.

So after making, and eating this cake sliced warm with a hot 

cup of coffee, I just sat back and watched as my entire family gobbled it all up.

It was quite a site to see.

Anyways, this was a GREAT recipe, super easy to make, and I had all the ingredients on hand already. I think i might just make another one of these babies

 in a couple days...?

Hope everyone liked it as well!

TWD: French Yogurt Cake with Marmalade Glaze

It's tuesday. And you know what that means...TWD ! This weeks choice was

picked by Liliana of My cookbook addiction. And after reading the comments

about this cake/pound cake, and seeing all the GREAT reviews about it,

I couldn't wait to make it.

Of course, it was amazing. As is ALL of Dories' recipes!

I read her comments on what to serve this with, and one of her suggestions 

was to pair it with Lemon Cream. And seeing ALL the fresh lemons

I'd just picked from our tree, it was a no brainer.

The lemon cream, slathered on top of the cake was fantastic. The cream had a 

perfect, tangy, lemony kick, which went SO well with the cake.

I'd definitely make this again.

TWD: Devils Food White-Out Cake

This weeks Tuesdays with Dorie was chosen by Stephanie of Confessions of a City Eater. 

I was insanely excited when I saw that we would be making the mouth watering cake that is the cover of the book!

The cake itself was not hard to put together, although, for some reason my layers didn't rise that high? Dorie says after the layers are cool, to cut them horizontally to make 4 layers. If I sliced those 2 cakes, the layers would be almost paper thin!

So I made another batch, and made 2 more layers...making the mistake of NOT slicing them horizontally. So while assembling the cake, the 3 layers were pretty thick. And like the picture, I piled on the frosting.

Well, while frosting the rest of the cake, I sort of ran out of frosting, so my mom suggested pushing the cake down, and using the frosting from the middle of the cake, to frost the rest of it.

...BAD IDEA. Although it worked at the time...when I sliced it, there was barely any frosting left on inside of the cake. 

That little incident on the side, it still turned out great! Next time i'll make sure to slice the cakes like the recipe says.

HAPPY "Funfetti" NEW YEAR!!!

I'm back!!!...after a long and STRESSFUL few weeks, i'm back and will hopefully be posting more often. I've been baking a lot lately, but just havn't had the time to sit down and do a full on write up...but now that the new year's FINALLY started, it's time to turn over a new leaf and get stuff done !

With that said, I am presenting you with this new years 09' FUNFETTI cake!

...So I used a boxed mix..SUE ME.

But where I lacked in using the cake mix(which came out SO good, as it always does), I gained in making my own from scratch vanilla buttercream.

I made the cake 2 layers, then frosted it all with my frosting....

The frosting came out SO good! It complemented the cake very well, and had just the right amount of sweetness to it.

I'm glad to say the cake came out great. All my friends loved it and it's practically all gone.

It took me basically no time at all, and it was a great dessert to end the new year!

Hope everyone had a fantastic night!

Happy new year!!

Happy Day after Thanksgiving!

So, I know it's the day after Thanksgiving, and the last thing on everyones mind is MORE food. BUTTTT, although our stomachs are screaming "no more!", our minds are still hungry to see what everybody else was eating.

Hence, I give you this cheesecake...

When I first got the November issue of Bon Appetit, I was soo intrigued to see the different dishes they featured for Thanksgiving. 

Since I was of course in charge of dessert, I wanted to do something big, but different.

Every year we always pick up a HUGE apple, AND pumpkin pie from Urth Cafe, in Beverly Hills, and let me just tell you, their pumpkin pie is one of the most amazing things i've ever had, no joke!

Anyways, we got those...but I still wanted to make something great.

Thats why when I found this Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap crust and a marshmellow sour cream topping, I knew I HAD to make it.

This cheesecake came out SO good. It was so creamy and dense, just the way a good cheesecake should taste.

My whole family said they absolutely loved it, and there's barely any leftover right now!

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!!

You can find the recipe HERE.

Oatmeal Banana Cake

Every single time I have ripe bananas I always somehow find myself making either banana bread, or banana muffins. Nothing else.

Well today I decided to change some things around...after all, now having a new president who is advertising the whole "change" idea, why not apply that to our every day lives??

That's when this "cake" comes in.

I was looking for something new to make when I found this recipe from a great blog, the pastry studio that has some wonderful recipes.

This cake combines 2 big ingredients that I LOVE to bake with. Bananas, AND oatmeal. YUM!

And it seemed simple enough.

This cake had a great, dense texture with a sweet chewy bite. And it's perfect with a cup of coffee, or tea. Or even just by itself! 

Make this cake, you will not regret it!

Oatmeal Banana Cake

8 T butter room temp.

3/4 C brown sugar

2 eggs @ room temp

2 large very ripe bananas, mashed

1 t vanilla

zest of 1/2 lemon

3/4 C flour

1 1/4 C oats

heaping 1/4 t salt

1 t baking soda

Topping

3/4 C oats 

1/3 C brown sugar

zest of 1/2 lemon

1/2 t cinnamon

1 T flour

4 T butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

line a 9" springform cake pan w/ butter and parchment

Wisk together dry ingredients for the topping. Add melted butter and stir with fork till crumbly. Set aside.

Whisk together flour, salt, baking soda, and oats.

Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Scrape down sides of the bowl.

Add eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition.

Add mashed banana and vanilla. Mix thoroughly.

Stir in dry ingredients until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and smooth evenly.

Sprinkle topping over cake batter, press down lightly.

Bake 30-35 min. until toothpick comes out moist but clean. Cool on wire rack. Remove cake pan ring.

Enjoy!!

Choco-Nilla Cake!!, For a Sweet New Year.

The other day was Rosh Hashuna, and being the great jew that I am, I decided to bake this lovely, and hugggge cake and bring it to my aunts house for dinner tonight.

I asked her what sort of cake she wanted me to bake, and she suggested either a carrot cake, vanilla cake, or a chocolate cake. While searching for the perfect one to make, I stumbled upon this recipe from the wonderful Bakers Banter blog.

Perfect!! I could give my family the best of both worlds by combining both a chocolate cake, AND a vanilla cake! I was excited. 

This cake looks like a lot of work, but is really not much at all. I was surprised at how easy it was to put together! I seriously do recommend trying this recipe for the next time your on the fence between chocolate or vanilla cake.

My dad eating his slice...as he devoured it, I managed to hear him say he absolutely loved it. So that was a good sign! Go check out the recipe, and I guarantee you, this a great cake to have on hand!!

The "ultimate" cookie cake...

YUMMMM, cookie cake. Who doesn't like cookie cake?? I mean come ONNNN. But this is seriously the ULTIMATE, 5 layers, with cream cheese frosting, GIANT CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE CAKE! "Droooooool."

That was the expression when I brought this out at a little summer kick off, pool party I had the other day. My friends couldn't believe this thing, jaw's dropped while I was cutting slices...trying not to ruin each slice as I cut through all 5 LAYERSS. 

This recipe is definitely a keeper, and I'll be making this again.

The recipe's from no other than the Martha Stewart blog, and while I was browsing it, looking for something to make for the party, my eye instantly went straight to it. Who can resist layersss of chewy, chocolate chip cookies, with cream cheese frosting as the glue to hold it all together. Just pure YUMMINESS.

Ingredients 

serves 16

*to make an even circle of batter, trace an 8 inch 

on the underside of the parchment paper.

4 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

6 tbs. unsalted butter, softened 

1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar

3/4 cups granulated sugar

3 tsp. pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs, plus 2 egg yolks

3/4 cup heavy cream

3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

40 ounces (5 packages) cream cheese, room temp.

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350. Whisk flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Put butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugars into mixer bowl; mix on medium until pale and fluffy.  Mix in vanilla, eggs, and yolks. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with cream.  Stir in chocolate chips.

2. For each of the 5 layers, drop one level cup batter onto center of a baking sheet, lined with parchment (keep unbaked dough refrigerated.) Using a small offset spatula, spread into an 8 inch circle.* Bake until edges are pale golden brown, about 12 minutes. Use offset spatula to reshape circle. Return to oven, bake until edges are golden brown, 8-10 minutes more. Transfer to wire rack, let cool. Can be stored airtight, up to one day.

3. Mix cream cheese, and confectioners sugar in clean mixer bowl on medium-high, until pale and fluffy. Spread onto 4 cookies. Stack cookies, placing unfrosted cookie on top. Refrigerate until frosting is set, at least 20 minutes, or up to 4 hours. Serve at room temp.

This turned out verrrry good. And it was gone by the end of the day.

Happy Birthday Dadddd....

So, it was my dad's birthday the other day, and I was sooo thrilled when both he and my mom asked me to bake. His actual birthday was on a sunday, but we made reservations that saturday night for dinner, at his good friends restaurant on Melrose called ComeCa. It's a fairly new restaurant, that has a sort of old, french type of cuisine. Verrrry good. 

Any way, I knew his absolute FAVORITE type of cake was carrot cake. So I of course went to my "baking bible", Dorie Greenspan's Baking from my home to yours, and decided to make "Bills Big Carrot Cake."

 

It was actually easier than I thought, and turned out GREAT. But then again, ALL of Dories recipes turn out great. I served it with some vanilla ice cream, and my whole family loved it. I've so far made this cake 3 times in the past, and this is always my go-to recipe for carrot cake.

Bills Big Carrot Cake:

From "Baking from my home to yours"

For the cake-

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. ground cinnamon 

3/4 tsp. salt

3 cups grated carrots

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans

1 cup shredded coconut(sweetened or unsweetened)

1/2 cup moist, plump raisins(dark or golden)- I used dark

2 cups sugar

1 cup canola oil or safflower oil( I used regular canola)

4 large eggs

For the Frosting-

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temp.

1 stick(8 Tbs.) unsalted butter, at room temp.

1 pound(3 3/4 cups) confectioners sugar, sifted

1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice 

1/2 cup shredded coconut (optional)

Getting ready-

Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat to 325 F. Butter three 9x2 inch round cake pans, flour the insides and tap out the excess. Put two pans on one baking sheet, and one on another.

To make the cake-

Whisk together the flour, baking power, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl, stir together the carrots, chopped nuts, coconut and raisins. 

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with hand mixer in a large bowl, beat sugar and oil together on medium speed until smooth. Add the eggs one by one, and continue to beat until the batter is even smoother. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture, mixing only until the dry ingredients disappear. Gently mix in the chunky ingredients. Divide the batter among the pans. 

Bake for 40-50 minutes, rotating the pans from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point, until a thin knife inserted into the centers comes out clean; the cakes will have just started to come away from the sides of the pans. Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes and un-mold them. Invert, and cool to room temp. right side up.

To make the frosting-

Working with the stand mixer, preferably fitted with a pattle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the sugar and continue to beat until the frosting is velvety smooth. Beat in the lemon juice.

If you would like coconut in the filling, scoop out about half of the frosting and stir the coconut into this portion.

To assemble the cake-

Put one layer top side up on a cardboard cake round or protected by strips of parchment paper. If you added the coconut to the frosting, use half of the coconut frosting to generously cover the first layer. Use an offset cake spatula, or spoon to spread the frosting all the way to the edges of the layer. Top with second layer, this time placing the cake top side down, and frost with the remainder of the coconut frosting. Top with the last layer, right side up, and frost the top. Refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes, just to set the frosting before serving.

Make sure to serve with a nice BIG scoop of vanilla ice cream =]]

**I wanted to frost the WHOLE cake, cause I know my family loves frosting, so I had to double the recipe for the frosting, and covered the whole cake.

Although, just frosting in between the layers of course works out fine.