Easter Hummingbird Speckled Egg Cake

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Speckled Hummingbird Cake

By: Sarah

Easter is one of my favorite holidays. I love buying cute little outfits for my kids, going to church with my family, having Easter egg hunts, coloring eggs, and of course eating the yummy Easter goodies (aka CHOCOLATE). This year my 2 year old and I colored eggs together for the first time. He enjoyed it, but I loved it. It reminded me of when Christy and I colored eggs at Mimi's house.  I used the eggs we colored to decorate the cake I made to take to our Easter dinner.

My little helpers!

This was the first time that I have made a Hummingbird cake and this will definitely not be my last. It takes banana cake to the next level.  Banana cake is my husband's favorite, but he suggested that this be my new go to recipe.  The recipes came from Southern Living (thanks Grandma Kate for the subscription!) Southern Living suggests to fill the hummingbird cake with a cream cheese custard filling, which complements the cake nicely. The filling does not have a strong flavor, so it blends in well with the flavor of the cake.  I used Christy's buttercream icing and it was delicious! Buttercream icing is my kryptonite when it comes to dieting! Other than the great flavor of icing, I liked her icing recipe because it crusts over nicely.  This is helpful when making the icing smooth.  The final touch was to speckle the icing in order for it to look like a bird egg. This has to be one of the easiest and fun ways to decorate a cake. It is a great way to hide imperfections in the icing. My kitchen was a mess afterwards, but I had a blast getting the chocolate speckles everywhere.

Hummingbird Cake

by Southern Living

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. table salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 cups diced ripe bananas (about 3 medium)

3 large eggs, beaten

1 cup chopped toasted pecans

1 cup vegetable oil

1 (8 oz.) can crushed pineapple, undrained

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Stir together the first 5 ingredients in a large bowl; stir in banana and next 5 ingredients, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened.  Pour batter into 4 greased and floured 9 inch square or round cake pans. (I used two 9 inch circle cake pans and instead of greasing and flouring I used Pam Baking Spray with flour.)

2.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks, and cool completely.  (My cakes took about 30-40 minutes to bake.)

Cream Cheese Custard Filling

By Southern Living

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cups all purpose flour

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups milk

1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, cubed and softened

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

1.  Whisk together first 2 ingredients in a heavy saucepan; whisk in eggs and milk until smooth.  Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, 8 to 10 minutes or until mixture reaches a chilled pudding-like thickness.  Bring to a boil, whisking constantly; boil, whisking constantly, 1 minute.  Remove from heat, and whisk in cream cheese and vanilla until cheese melts.  Cool to room temperature (about 1 hour).  Place plastic wrap directly on mixture (to prevent a film from forming), and chill 6 to 24 hours. (I had issues making this custard.  The first time I made it, I had the heat set too high which caused it to burn.)

Buttercream Frosting

inspired by Magnolia Bakery

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

6 to 8 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup heavy cream or milk

2 tsp. Vanilla extract

Beat butter for about 3 minutes until smooth.  Then combine butter, 4 cups sugar, milk, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy, 3 to 5 minutes. Gradually add remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating for about 2 minutes after each addition, until icing reaches desired consistency; you may not need to add all the sugar. (Instead of 2 tsp. vanilla, I used 1 tsp. vanilla extract and 1 tsp. butter flavoring.)

Cake Speckles

cake inspired by thecakeblog.com

1 Tbls. cocoa powder

2 Tbls. vanilla extract

1.  Mix together the cocoa powder and vanilla.  Use a paintbrush to flick the paint on the finished cake. Once you have the cake speckled, let the cake dry. I recommend practicing this on a paper towel before starting on your cake.  Beware, this makes a big mess!! Have fun!

Cake Construction Instructions

Bake cake and let cool.  Once cool, spread cream cheese custard filling between between layers. Use buttercream icing to frost the cake.  Speckle cake.

Happy Easter!  

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Chocolate Chip Cookie Cheesecake Bars

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By Christy

March Madness is in full swing and one thing that means is parties. What is better for a party than a crowd pleasing, impressive combination of chocolate chip cookies and cheesecake. Guests don't have to know it is semi homemade, cheap to whip together and easy to make. One of my BF's and I went to visit my sister and her family in Louisville and seriously we were in and out of the grocery store and had this ready to put in the oven 15 minutes later. Everyone raved about it and it was definitely the hit of Sarah's March Madness party!

Ingredients:

Family size chocolate chip cookie dough

2 packages cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup of sugar

1 tsp of vanilla

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350. Taking half the cookie dough, spread it out over a 9x13 pan. Take your softened cream cheese and beat until smooth. Add the sugar, followed by the remaining ingredients. Pour cheesecake mixture over the cookie dough in the pan. Then crumble the remaining cookie dough over the top of the cheesecake mixture. It doesn't have to be perfect but as long as most of it is covered it rises and spreads nicely over the top. Bake until Cheesecake is set and the cookie dough is golden brown. (about 45 minutes)

Enjoy!

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Iced Easter Sugar Cookies

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By Sarah

It has been quite a while since I have written any posts. Here is a quick update on my life in the last year....

Last March we moved into an awesome house in a great neighborhood. Moving was just as you would expect it to be..STRESSFUL! However, a year later most of our short term home goals such as painting, decorating, small fixes, etc. have been completed.  It seems like we were working on the house constantly and it's finally started to slow down.  Most recently, on January 31st our second child was born.  Our daughter, Caroline, was 6 lbs. 11 oz, 19.5 inches long, and perfect. We didn't find out the gender until she was born which was so exciting! My mom and my sister, however, hated the wait! The moment we found out she was a little girl was priceless. I wouldn't trade that memory for the world. Nick and I are very blessed to have such wonderful children and I can't imagine a world without them.

Now that I'm not pregnant and can stand for longer periods of time without feeling miserable, I'm finally back into the kitchen. I know this is bittersweet for my husband ;)  He loves the food, but hates the mess. However, making the mess is half the fun!

Since I've been on maternity leave, I have had a few free moments to surf the pinterest world.  I luckily stumbled across cookie decorating which I have recently become obsessed with. The last few nights I have had very disturbing and crazy dreams about cookie decorating. In the past, I have thought about decorating cookies and once tried it around Christmas time. It went ok, but I knew I needed more practice. I've always had issues with cookies spreading too much or they were too sweet or the icing all ran together. Thanks to pinterest I found a blog that walks you through cookie decorating step by step, so I tried it again.  If you haven't heard of Sweetopia.net check it out! I used her sugar cookie and royal icing recipes and I was very happy with the way the cookies turned out! The cookies held their shape well and the taste was just right.  The cookies that I made are quite simple and very far from perfect, but these 2 recipes are keepers!! Try it for yourself :)

Easter Cookies 2013

These turned out to be my favorite!

This is from Christmas 2011. My first attempt at cookie decorating.

Here are a few things I learned from cookie decorating this week:

• 1. Plan ahead!! It is important to have a general plan of how you intend your cookies to look. Either sketch it out or find a picture to copy. Pinterest is perfect for finding a picture to mimick.
• 2. Make sure you have all the right tools. I thought I had everything I needed, but come to find out I need to buy smaller tips for piping.  
• 3.  The cookie doesn't have to be perfect. I have a hard time with decorating sometimes because I expect it to be perfect. There will always be issues that I notice, but to someone else they may think it is supposed to look that way.
• 4.  I have no will power when it comes to cookie dough. Yummy!
• 5. Practice makes perfect... or at least better :)

Sugar Cookie Recipe from Sweetopia.net

2.5 cups unsalted butter (room temperature)

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

3 t vanilla

5 cups flour

1 t salt

1. Cream the butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer on low to medium speed.  (Use the paddle attachment).  Mix until thoroughly incorporated – for about one minute.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a plastic spatula and mix again for a few seconds more.

Over mixing the butter and sugar in this step will cause too much air to be incorporated into the dough.  If you’d like a light and fluffy cookie, that’s ideal, however the dough will spread more during baking; not ideal if you’d like the cookie to hold its shape.

2. Add eggs slowly and mix.  Scrape down the bowl with your spatula at least once and mix again.

3. Add liquid vanilla extract.  Stir briefly.

4. Sift your dry ingredients together.  (Flour and salt).

5. Add all of the flour mixture to the bowl.  Place a large tea towel or two small tea towels between the edge of the bowl and the electric mixer so that the flour won’t escape.  Mix on low speed for 3o seconds.  Remove the tea towels and observe the dough mixing; when it clumps around the paddle attachment it’s ready.  It’s also important at this stage not to over mix the dough (the glutens in the flour develop and the dough can become tough).

6. Roll the dough out between 2 large pieces of parchment paper.  Place on a baking sheet and into the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour.

7. Roll out the dough further if you need to, and cut out cookie shapes.  Place on parchment paper-lined baking sheet.  Re-roll scraps and repeat.

8. Put cookie dough shapes back into the fridge for 10 minutes to 1 hour to chill again.  They will then hold their shape better when baked.

9. Preheat your oven to 350°F or 176°C.

10. Bake cookies for 8-12 minutes or until the edges become golden brown.  The baking time will depend on the size of your cookie.

11. Let cookies cool to room temperature and decorate!

Royal Icing Recipe from Sweetopia.net

3/4 cup warm water
5 T meringue powder
1 t cream of tartar
2.25 lbs powdered sugar

1.  Mix water and meringue powder with whisk for 30 seconds.

2.  Add cream of tartar and whisk for 30 seconds.

3.  Add all the powdered sugar and mix on slow with mixer for 10 minutes.

4.  Tint with food coloring.

(I added a 1/2 t vanilla and 1/2 t butter flavoring during step 1).

Sweetopia recommends the 10 second rule when determining if your icing is at the right consistency.  Basically, drag a knife through the icing going about 1 inch deep.  Count to 10. If the line disappears right at 10 seconds, the icing is perfect.  If it disappears before 10 seconds it is too thin. Add some powdered sugar.  If it takes longer than 10 seconds it is too thick.  Add some more water.  I usually add water 1 tsp at a time to make sure I don't over do it.

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Triple- Chocolate Chubbies

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By Cindy

The recipe I chose this week involves two of my favorite ingredients, chocolate and pecans.  I'm still thinking about making those homemade turtle candies, but the theme this week is cookies so my desires will have to wait.  These cookies are wonderful.  The bottom is firm, and the top is soft, gooey, and chewy.   They have a very intense chocolate flavor and are kind of like a brownie cookie.  The recipe is very simple and easy to make, and you don't have to set butter or cream cheese out to soften or anything.  It doesn't require any special ingredients so there is no excuse not to try these out.  

Triple-Chocolate Chubbies

Prep 25 minutes plus cooling - Bake 12 minutes per batch - Makes about 24 cookies

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/2 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

8 squares (8 ounces) semisweet chocolate, chopping

6 T butter or margarine, cut into pieces

1 cup sugar

2 t vanilla extract

2 large eggs

6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (1 cup)

1 cup chopped pecans

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In small bowl, with wire whisk, mix flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.

2.  In 3-quart saucepan, melt chopped chocolate and butter over low heat, stirring frequently, until smooth.  Pour into large bowl; cool to luke-warm.  Stir in sugar and vanilla until blended.  Stir in eggs, one at a time, until well blended.  Add flour mixture and stir until combined (batter will be thin).  Stir in chocolate chips and pecans.

3.  Using a mini ice cream type scoop, drop batter 1 1/2 inches apart, on ungreased large cookie sheet.  Bake until set, 12 to 14 minutes. Cool on cookie sheet on wire rack 2 minutes.  With wide metal spatula, carefully transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely.  If the cookies cool too much, they are more difficult to remove without tearing.  

recipe adapted by

Good Housekeeping

Best Loved Desserts

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No-Bake Ding Dong Cake

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by Cindy

 

You all know how I love chocolate, and yesterday I tried this delicious new chocolate dessert.  Kim, one of my coworkers, brought it in for a going away lunch for one of the other women.  It kind of reminds me of Robert Redford Cake but has a few differences.  For one thing, it's actually a little faster and easier to make - who wouldn't like that?.  The crust is the chocolate coating of the Ding Dong.  That thin chocolate coating at the bottom was my favorite part. After that, it's very close to the other cake recipe, which is really good too.  Robert Redford Cake has competition!  This is ohhhh so yummy!

No-Bake Ding Dong Cake

12 Ding Dongs

2 - 8 oz. tubs whipped topping

1 - 8 oz. pkg cream cheese, softened

2 t vanilla

2 small pkg instant chocolate pudding

3 cups milk

Cut Ding Dongs in half and place cake side up in 13 x 9 inch pan.  Mix softened cream cheese and 1 tub of whipped topping and vanilla.  Spread mixture over Ding Dongs.  Beat milk and pudding mixes until thick.  Pour over cream cheese mixture. Top with other tub of whipping topping.  Refrigerate overnight.

Recipe from Kim Hayden from 

www.recipe4living.com

shared by deblou

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Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins with Lemon Glaze

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by Cindy

In my quest to use all of my fresh lemons, I came across this recipe.  If you're a lemon lover, this recipe will be a hit with you.  It's got great lemon flavor because of all of the lemon zest.  Lemon zest is wonderful, and really does add intense lemon flavor to a recipe.  I love the microplane gadgets used to get the zest from fresh citrus fruits.  They do the trick with ease. Cooking with lemons makes me anticipate the warm summer days to come.  I love the change of seasons - so bring on spring!! 



Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins with Lemon Glaze
makes 12 muffins

2/3 cup sugar
grated zest 2 lemons
juice of lemon
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
3/4 c sour cream
2 large eggs
1 1/2 t pure vanilla extract
1 stick (8 T) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 T poppy seeds

Icing

1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
2-3 T fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Put paper liners in a 12 hole muffin pan.  Place muffin pan on a baking sheet.  In a large bowl, rub the sugar and lemon zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and the fragrance of lemon strong. 

Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

 In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk sour cream, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and melted butter together until well blended.  Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend.  Do not over blend - a few lumps are better than over blending the batter.  Stir in the poppy seeds.

 Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until tops are golden and a knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.  Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.  Cool the muffins completely on the rack before icing them.

Put powdered sugar in a small bowl and add about 1 1/2 T of the lemon juice.  Stir with a spoon to moisten the sugar, then add enough lemon juice, a dribble at a time, to get the icing that is thin enough to drizzle from the tip of the spoon.  Then drizzle lines of icing over the tops of the muffins or coat tops entirely.



adapted from

www.pickycook.com

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