140/365: Cupcake Trial 1

I baked a trial run of cupcakes for Mika's party, since I wanted to make sure I can make them look like cups with ice cream.

The cupcake cups are from Bake It Pretty and they work amazingly well; they are self- standing so you just fill them and line them up on a cookie sheet.

I overfilled them though, they are taller than the regular wrapers so I thought I should fill them up more but.... they really need to be filled half way. That's what the trial runs are for, right? :)

The dough is the lemon cake from the book Confetti Cakes for Kids by Elisa Strauss and it is absolutely brilliant. It is extremely light and fluffy (uses only egg whites) although I will double the lemon zest and juice, since I want it to have even more lemony flavor... I will also probably reduce the amount of sugar in the dough, since the frosting is basically pure sugar...

124/365: Death by chocolate

May 17th

So, yesterday was a rainy Sunday... actually, let me backtrack here by first explaining my untested recipe stash. In my daily wanderings on the internet I will often come across recipes that sound interesting enough to try, it is then that I print out the said recipe and stash it... literally

There is a designated place on my cookbook shelf for these slivers of paper, magazine rip outs, quickly scribbled notes.... Some recipes will sit in their spot gathering dust and wilting away for a looooong time but some tug at me, and refuse to leave my mind...

Yesterday, a rainy Sunday, was a perfect day to try one of these; between piles of laundry and episodes of True Blood season 1.

These little babies came from Pioneer Woman and let me tell you: the moment you take a first bite your mind will immediately start playing that -sweet mother of god- reaction you will sometimes see people in movies get. Seriously, I am not joking.

I think it has to do with the fact the the recipe doesn't use chocolate but cocoa that you melt with butter. I didn't use Hershey kisses though, as with most US chocolate I consider Hershey kisses to be an abomination that couldn't be further from chocolate. Instead of Kisses I used blueberries, I had some in my freezer.

I was afraid they might make the cupcakes soggy but no, it was pure perfection. I made mini cupcakes, a perfect bite size for this recipe, and put 3 blueberries in each. The blueberries created this amazing layer of freshness in the cupcakes, just absolutely perfect. I cannot wait to try this recipe with different fruits, blackberries maybe.

Oh, I also didn't have buttermilk so I used the milk with white vinegar trick... and no cream so I used butter to make the chocolate silky. I was fighting using corn syrup in the ganache but with a sad heart I have to admit that the difference in the gloss of the ganache is unmistakable between syrup and non- syrup cupcakes.

114/365: Blue

May 7th

Meringues for the Teacher Appreciation Week, for Mika's daycare. I don't have a photo of the final product, but I did a platter of strawberries with the teal meringues in the middle.

I hope the teachers like it. I got the recipe from TomKat Studio. These were so easy to make I think I will use them for Mika's birthday party.

107/365: Samo za Zivu part 2

I feel like a disclaimer is needed here: it is not my intention to turn this into a cooking/ baking blog. This blogs' intention doesn't change, it is still a Project 365, daily photo diary first and foremost.

My reasons for baking are the same as for cooking 95% of our family meals at home. I want to make sure my kids eat the best they can, even when it comes to sweets.

Who is Ziva?

Ziva is a very good friend from Croatia who has been asking me to share some of the recipes I use for a while now. Since none of these were created by me, but were found online and tweaked through trial and error, I don't see a problem in sharing them (I will try to reference where I got them from when possible).

I hope this explains why recipes will show up here and there on the blog.

Onwards to my most favorite cookie EVER, no joke!

CHOCOLATE CUT- OUT COOKIES
I found these by literally googling "Chocolate Cutout cookies" and I cannot find the site I found them on, for the life of me....

11/2 CUP flour
3/4 CUP cocoa powder (unsweetened)
11/4 TS baking powder
1/8 TS salt
3/4 CUP butter/ shortening (I use shortening because I cannot successfully soften butter, without melting part of it )
2/3 cup brown sugar (in muffins, you could substitute brown sugar for honey, but I don't recommend it here)
1 egg

In a mixer bowl: cream shortening and sugar, beat in the egg. Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and slowly start adding to the mixer bowl. In the end, you will be left with an equally moistened mixture that will be on the dry side and not completely cohesive.

I really like playing with flavors so I will usually add a flavor to the original recipe before I start adding the dry ingredients. For these cookies I like adding orange extract, or raspberry: about 1 TBSP since you don't want to water the dough too much.

You will need to kneed it a bit for it to be cohesive. Split the dough into two equal parts, wrap into plastic wrap and refrigerate for AT LEAST 2 hours.

I usually don't have time enough to do this all in one go, so I will leave the dough in the fridge overnight; take it out the next day about 3 or 4 hours before I'm ready to start rolling it out. This dough does tend to break easily but trust me all the frustration is worth it in the end. Roll out to 1/8 inch thickness, bake for 8 min at 375F.

Once the cookies cool I will usually melt some dark chocolate, spread over the cookies and add what I feel like on top, i.e. shredded coconut, almond slices..... play with it

103/365: Samo za Zivu part 1

April 24th

Breakfast muffins

These are my go to muffins, they are extremely easy and fast. I didn't start baking until we got married and I wanted to give Jack snacks that were healthy and I knew they weren't filled with preservatives and chemicals.

My philosophy is simple: find a recipe base that is easy and simple and that you can add to depending on the flavor you want. These muffins are just that:

THE BASE
11/4 cup oats
1 cup flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 ts salt
1 cup milk
1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Dump it all in a bowl in the order listed and mix with spatula until there's no dry pockets and everything is nice and moistened.

Add whatever fruit or chocolate you want, 2 cups. My go to choices are usually: shreded apples, bananas, blueberries, dried apricots, raisins or chocolate chips.

Fill a dozen cupcake pan, bake at 425F for 20 minutes. Decorate with chocolate or almonds and honey or whatever you feel like really.

Ziva, let me know if this is detailed enough....

101/365: Cuppy cakes:)

April 22nd

I've picked up these baking cups a while back and decide to use them this evening. I attempted to make filled cupcakes and they seem a success.

The cups are cute and have a potential to be striking but definitely cannot be used for actual baking. If I can find lime green ones I'll use them for Mika's birthday party.

Cupcakes are lemon, filled with blackberry jam and chocolate icing.

84/365: Sweet things

April 3rd

This is part of why this weekend was so hectic... Spring cupcakes and cookies!
The cookies turned out rather well for my first attempt in decorating them this way, don't you think?

I also made some "flower cookies" for day care. Not sure why is Blogger posting this one vertically, when I 'm uploading it as a horizontal photo, oh well...

59/365

The dreaded FCAT day *insert thunderous noises*

This is technically a photo for yesterday, Monday... I made these bars last night as part of Jack's breakfast for today. I try to make sure his breakfast before the FCAT days is a little bit special, hence the bars.... and plus they have coffee in them which tends to calm him down :)

41/365

My arms still hurt like crazy but I had to get the Valentine's Day goodies done.... the big cookies were Valentine's for the teachers (those are as big as my hand), the kids got a bunch of small cookies.... and for Mika's party cupcakes... chocolate filled with straberry jam and buttercream icing..

The photos are horrible but I just didn't have the energy for more stylized stuff.... way too tired...

30/265

"XOXO Bears"

Cupcake decorations for Mika's Valentine's Day Party... need 20, made 9 so far....

23/365

No photo for yesterday- was way to tired and PMSy...

Today a photo as demonstration of my labors; had to make two care/ thank you baskets.
One for a friend whose mom just died and another for a friend who supplies us with his farm air free range eggs :)

The chocolate covered muffins are chocolate chip/ blueberry muffins, the other ones are oatmeal apple muffins covered with honey and almonds. Yum!
The cookies are chocolate with coconut.

According to Mika, Jack & David everything is delicious.