Vanilla Cupcakes

Vanilla Cupcakes

This is one of the most delicious cake batters I have ever tasted!  When my son asked for vanilla cupcakes, I could hardly wait to search the  internet for recipes.  This recipe from Joy of Baking looked luxurious and perfect. They were a huge hit with everyone, and even tasted great without any frosting.  Hard for me to imagine, since I think I only eat cake for the frosting!

I found a new food blog that I absolutely love, Cupcake Project. There the author has a slide show of her 10 favorite frostings. I hope to try them all. For these cupcakes, I decided on the strawberry whipped cream.

For this week, my Sweet for Saturdays is a simple vanilla cupcake!

Sweet As Sugar Saturdays

Chocolate Cinnamon Dessert Nachos

I love to see what everyone posts on Saturdays!

I was trying to think of something a little different. It seems I am always making brownies and cookies. Then I remembered this recipe from, Natalie Haughton’s book 365 Great Chocolate Desserts.

The recipe is really simple to make.  It calls for a chocolate sauce and a caramel sauce. You make one sauce base, divide it in half and add chopped chocolate to one half, and butter to the other. 

My kids walked by inquiring, “Oh! what are you making…”  My husband thinks it would be delicious with ice cream!

Here is the recipe:

Chocolate Cinnamon Dessert Nachos

Adapted from 365 Great Chocolate Desserts by Natalie Haughton

1/2 Cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

5 Tbsp butter

6 8inch flour tortillas

1 Cup heavy cream

1/3 Cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 ounce square unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 350. Combine 2 Tbsp sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Melt butter and brush on both sides of the tortillas. Sprinkle each tortilla with cinnamon sugar mixture. Cut each tortilla into eighths. Place tortilla  on a buttered baking sheet. Bake 10 minutes until crispy and slightly browned.

Combine cream and both sugars in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Stirring once in a while. Once it boils, continue boiling for 5 minutes until slightly thickened.

Place remaining butter in a small bowl. Add vanilla to the mixture. Pour half the mixture into the bowl with butter. Stir in chopped chocolate to remaining sauce in pan. Stir both until smooth. Cool.

Place tortillas in a serving plate. Drizzle with both sauces and dust with powdered sugar.

Enjoy.

French Fridays With Dorie

Honey Spiced Madeleines

Madeleines…I haven’t had a Madeleine in over 20 years.  I remember in the mid 70’s my mother and aunt used to make them.  They used the recipe from Craig Claiborne’s New York Times Cookbook. I used the same recipe.  A nice delicate sponge cake.

The batter went together quickly, and I chilled it for an hour or so. I ended up with more batter than pan, and they expanded quite a bit during baking. They tasted great, but did not look so good. They came out of the pan with more than a few taps on the counter, and one or two fell apart.

I omitted the ginger and cloves, as my family aren’t big fans of those spices. I will try it again, they are a great treat. My Madeleine tins must be pleased to be out of the bottom of cupboard after so long!

Salted Fudge Brownies

Salted Fudge Brownies

It's powdered sugar, not salt on the top!

This is a delicious brownie. The recipe came from the Food and Wine Website. It produces a think, dense chocolately bar.  Ever since I tasted a white chocolate covered pretzel I have loved the sweet salty combination.

It is a really great recipe.  It can be put together quickly and easily with basic baking ingredients.  I did, however, have to buy a 9-inch square pan.  I have always used an 8 by 8 pan, but lately I have seen more recipes calling for the larger pan.

Sweet, salty goodness! Yummy

Birthday Cake

I get bored easily. I like to try new recipes, and I use birthdays and other special occasion as reasons try new things. Last year I made my husband a variation on one of his favorites, Boston cream pie, Boston Cream Cheesecake. He loved it so much he said he never wanted another birthday cake.  My heart sank. I like change, but the cake was really good.  So this year I honored the request and made the same cake.

The recipe came from the Kraft Foods Website. I altered it a bit by using Gale Gands Ganache recipe from her recipe for Boston Cream Pie.  It is a fairly simple. First you partially bake a single yellow layer cake in a 9-inch spring form pan. When it is cool you top it with a cheesecake batter and bake again. The cheesecake recipe calls for a cup of sour cream, I was a little short so I added some Fage Non Fat Greek Yogurt. It was delicious!

 Recipe:

Boston Cream Cheesecake Recipe

Ganache Recipe

Birthday Lunch

We were looking for something fun and new to try for my husband’s birthday.  We have lived in the Fort Lauderdale area for about 25 years. We settled on a German restaurant we have been meaning to try, The Old Heidelberg Restaurant and Deli.  We picked out some bratwurst, salami and spicy mustard. It was a yummy feast enjoyed by all!!!

French Fridays With Dorie

Creamy, Cheesy, Garlicky Rice with Spinach

The title is correct!! Creamy cheesy comfort food. It kind of reminded me of risotto. This is the first of my participation in the French Fridays With Dorie. I have been a fan of her books and recipes for a while. Today I had all the ingredients and have been wanting to try this dish.

I thought this recipe  would work well. I  had all the ingredients on hand, including a bag of fresh organic spinach. Truly I could have eaten the cooked spinach by itself!! The recipe was really easy to follow.

I thought it was delicious. It was a bit too creamy for my husbands taste. I served it about a half an hour after it was made. It would have been better had we eaten it right away. All in all it was a success and I would make it again.

I highly recommend it!