Vanilla Bean Cookies & Cream Ice Cream Cake (Dairy Free)

With all this weather we’ve been having, I can understand if it’s hard for you to imagine eating an ice cream cake. I’ve spent most of my life in some Midwestern state and I’ve seen my fair share of cold snaps and blustery streaks, but this is too much. That and Seattle spoiled me rotten with it's perpetually 45 degree winter days. While I'm naturally inclined to exaggerate, I don’t think it would be unreasonable to claim that it didn’t get above 10 degrees for a month straight. Or when it got right up to 10 degrees, it felt like a heat wave and I was itching to get off the treadmill and into the slush.

I don’t know how much more of this I can take! Yet oddly enough, an ice cream cake in the middle of the worst of it was just the thing I needed. And exactly what one Marybeth Falish wanted.

The girl I mention above? It’s my pleasure to call her both a good friend and co-worker. When the personal life gets messy or the work gets tough, she’s there for me on both fronts. Days where I think I just can’t make it through another excel document, she’s there to help me and then engage in a little bit of girl talk. Moral of the story: I am so incredibly grateful to work with such a wonderful woman and call her my friend.

Naturally, I made a cake for her birthday. In early January. When the temperatures refused to crack zero degrees. And what did she request? An ice cream cake. An unexpected bonus to making an ice cream cake in January is that my little ice cream machine performed much better in a chilly kitchen than its usual setting - a torturous 95 degree day. 

Armed only with the direction to include ice cream and those “little black flecks” (vanilla beans), I went to work crafting a cake for MBF’s 24th birthday bash. Goat butter is still in nonexistent supply, so I knew I had to go vegan for my cake base (plus eggs). Earth Balance buttercream is not too pleasant, leading me to try making coconut whipped cream for the first time. Topping the experiment off, I had never made an ice cream cake before!

With the photos as evidence, the cake turned out surprisingly well and was the delicious hit of the night! 

Vanilla Bean Cake

Adapted from: More from Magnolia

Ingredients:

• 2 ¾ cups All Purpose Flour
• 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) Earth Balance butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup almond milk
• 2 vanilla beans, cut in half and seeds scraped out

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease/flour cake tins.
2. In a small bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream (preferably with an electric mixer) the Earth Balance until smooth and light yellow in color.  Gradually beat in the sugar until fluffy, approximately 3 minutes.  Add in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla.  This is key: after each addition, make sure to beat enough to incorporate the ingredients, but do not overbeat.  (This will create gluten and you will have a rough and dry cake)
5. Fill the prepared cake tins.
6. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a cake tester is inserted into the center of the cake and comes out clean.

Vanilla Bean Cookies & Cream Ice Cream

Adapted from Healthy Food for Living 

Ingredients:

• 2 (14 oz) cans full-fat coconut milk
• 1/2 cup unrefined granulated sugar, such as evaporated cane juice
• 1 Tbsp vanilla bean paste
• 20 all-natural cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies (I used Newman’s Own)

Directions:

1. Refrigerate the cans of coconut milk for 1 hour (no longer). Chilling the coconut milk will cause the coconut cream to rise to the top of the can and slightly solidify. Carefully scrape out the coconut cream and milk from both cans into a large mixing bowl. Add in the sugar and vanilla bean paste. Hand-whisk lightly to break up the solidified cream, and then whip with an electric mixer for about 10-20 seconds, or until smooth and thick - don’t whip for any longer than a minute.
2. Pour mixture into your ice cream machine and churn according to manufacturer's instructions, gradually adding in the chopped/crushed cookies during the last 5 minutes.
3. Transfer mixture to a freezer-safe air-tight container and freeze until desired consistency is reached (at least a few hours).

Coconut Whipped Cream

1. Buy a can of full fat coconut milk. Thai coconut milk is fattier and works the best.
2. Place it in the fridge overnight.
3. Open the can without shaking it or turning upside down.
4. Carefully spoon out the top layer of opaque white stuff that has gathered at the top of the can. Spoon into a mixing bowl. You will be left with about 1/2 cup of white syrup-y looking translucent liquid. Leave this in the can.
5. Add 2-3 Tbsp of powdered confectioners sugar to the coconut cream.
6. Using an electric mixer, whip the coconut milk froth until creamy. Start on low and move to a higher speed, move the beater in an up and down motion to infuse the mixture with as much air as possible.
7. Use to frost the cake!

Key Lime Bundt Cake

Every person I've talked to has bemoaned that this has been the most hectic summer in recent memory. Work, family, friends, life - it was all wanting equal parts of you without enough downtime to spare. "A" and I can group ourselves into that camp and complain. Yet what's the point? Now that we live in the Midwest, even though it takes some gas and time, we are able to drive to see both our families with a days notice and a weekend's time. While one family is a 4 hour drive to the west and another a 7 hour drive to the east, the fact that we can both see family more than one or two times a year is priceless.

Giving up the American tradition of barbecuing and relaxing with a day free of labor, "A" and I drove to Michigan for a Labor Day weekend filled with good food in Ann Arbor and an (age need not be mentioned) birthday for my beautiful Grandma, Betty! 

It's pretty much an unspoken rule that if I'm in attendance at a birthday party (family or not), I'll supply the cake. Even though I have a pretty good roster, my mother demanded that I make her mother a Key Lime cake. Not that new fancy chocolate cake recipe I've been waiting to try out. Not that caramel cake that most people would line up to try. Nope - a cake filled with Key Limes and not in pie form.

As I mentioned earlier, the weeks of summer have been filled to the brim and the temperature steadily rising, the thought of turning on an oven for even five minutes seemed to daunting. So instead I adapted a Key Lime cake recipe I have previously developed, threw it in a bundt pan and made it in my parents kitchen after my morning run. Oh yeah, did I mention I've been training for a running race? That's another story for another time.

Needless to say, the birthday girl was happy and I have yet another successful birthday cake in my storybook. 

Key Lime Bundt Cake

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup fresh or bottled key lime juice
• 3/4 cup goat yougurt
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime zest

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease bundt pan with oil or melted butter and flour.
2. Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together into mixing bowl. 
3. Add eggs, oil and lime juice mix on medium speed of an electric mixer until creamy. 
4. Add goat yougurt and zest; mix until smooth. Pour cake batter into bundt pan and bake for 45 minutes, or until tester is inserted and comes out clean.
5. Cool in pans for 5 minutes and then turn the cake out onto cooling racks. Cool for 1 hour.
6. To decorate, make a glaze with key lime juice and powdered sugar and top with toasted unsweetened coconut.

Red Wine Chocolate Cake with Cherries

Somehow July sneaked past me and decided not to stop by to say hello. If you asked me what I did last week, I would think I just watched the fireworks booming over Lake Michigan. Sitting on the Michigan-side shores and looking back on a town of my childhood. But apparently that happened just about a month ago, if you believe the calendars. Personally, I think a Time Lord visited Madison and erased my memory to hide our wild adventures.

Yep. That's my story. Time Lord. In July… in Madison, Wisconsin. Quite logical really.

So that means that I made this cake just a few days ago if we're thinking back to last week, "the beginning of July." Rumor has it there was a nasty heat wave that swept though the region and made me think of my stove as the catalyst to the apocalypse. Good thing that "hasn't happened" yet and I made this cake pre-heat wave for a wonderful lady named Kate.

Kate and "A" are grad school friends and soon after moving to Madison we bonded over being Michiganders and living approximately five doors down from each other. After many potlucks, late-night group beers, dog sitting and crazy landlady adventures, I can honestly call this gal a good friend.

And anyone who knows me knows friends get cake, especially on their birthday. And what's a Michigander girl to do for a Michigander's birthday? Make a Michigan "Kate Cake." Ok, maybe the term "Kate Cake" isn't hot yet but trust me! It will be as it is composed of (only what I assume is) Miss. Kate's favorite things: Michigan cherries, (Michigan) red wine and dark chocolate. It doesn't hurt that it's utterly delicious and one of my favorite cakes that I've made! 

Anything that has a tight but moist crumb, chocolate and is easy to decorate is a win in my book. I also can't discredit the fact that it's relatively low sugar and incorporates fresh fruit! So while the cherries are still blooming and the temperatures are mild, make someone you know a Kate Cake! They won't hate you for it.

Chocolate Red Wine Cake

Adapted from Food & Wine Magazine 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks unsalted goat butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups sugar (I used a little bit less)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups dry red wine

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter and flour a 12-cup bundt pan. In a bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.
2. In a large bowl, using a handheld electric mixer, beat the butter with the sugar at medium-high speed until fluffy, 4 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until incorporated. Add the vanilla and beat for 2 minutes longer. Working in two batches, alternately fold in the dry ingredients and the wine, until just incorporated.
3. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a rack; let cool completely. Top the cake with pitted and sliced cherries reduced in a small sauce pan with a little bit of water.

Triple Chocolate Strawberry Cake

This recipe is brought to you by the friendly skies, courtesy of Delta Airlines and the generosity of my dad's frequent flyer miles. I'm totally lying about Delta Airlines, they have no idea who I am. The fact that I am currently writing this post at, oh, about 36,965 feet in the air somewhere over South Dakota (thank you in-seat monitor!) is due to my ol' pops lending me a few thousand air miles so I could make it home for Christmas. This post is not brought to you by the man across the asile watching Twilight or the overly touchy-feely couple next to me. Nope. Not at all.

I'm slowly but surely getting into the Christmas spirit. I would like to think my journey down jolly lane began somewhere in West Seattle sitting in a second-run theater watching a slightly askew showing of "A Very Muppet Christmas". Not only was I good Seattelite and donated a massive bag of dog food to the Humane Society of Seattle (there are more dogs than kids in the city, it's obvious who we love more) but I also roped two of my closest friends into going with me. We left the theater feeling spirited, mainly due to the excitement of the hundreds of children surrounding us, and my skin is losing its green tint and I think my heart has grown at least 1.25 sizes. The last part may be because of holiday food but let us pretend it's from Christmas and going back to the Midwest for the first time in a year.

While I may still be working up to celebrating Christmas, I was surely in the celebratory spirit last weekend.  One of my best friends from not only high school, but also college, now lives in Seattle with her boyfriend (also an alum of BHS and Michigan) doing the whole AmeriCorps thing. I can't be the first one to say it's always nice to have a piece of your upbringing in your new home. As her birthday falls at the end of December, she rarely is able to have a birthday party, let alone in the company of twenty plus people. Her boyfriend came up with the idea to throw her an early surprise birthday party with me at the helm helping spread the word. While I guess actually having people at the party is pretty important, I personally think having the perfect cake is crucial.

Casually bringing up the topic of cake at our weekly girls Glee night earlier in the week, the birthday girl in question explained to here that there can be no such thing as too much chocolate. Ever. Triple chocolate diabetic-shock ice cream? Bring it. Girl hath no fear. So I made the most ridiculously over the top chocolate cake. Dark chocolate cake PLUS dark chocolate almond whipped ganache PLUS a dark chocolate cake collar.

OH YEAH.

Oh, and it was pretty cool that a lot of people showed up too the party too. And that 'A' turned 24. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Dark Chocolate Cake

Adapted fron Ina Garten

Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup almond milk
• 2 tablespoons white distilled vinegar 
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup strong black coffee
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 8-inch cake pans and line the bottom with parchment paper. 
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking power and salt. Mix together.
3. In a small glass, milk almond milk and vinegar together with a fork. Allow to sit for a few minutes until almond milk starts to "curdle." (Note: if this doesn't need your cake to be dairy-free, use 1 cup of buttermilk).
4. In a medium bowl, beat eggs until they begin to froth. Whisk in almond milk mixture, coffee, vegetable oil and vanilla extract.
5. With mixer running, slowly add in liquid mixture until completely incorporated, taking care not to overbeat the batter.
6. Divide better evenly between the two cake pans and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until tester is inserted into the middle of the cake and comes out clean. When done, leave in the pans for 10 minutes and then turn the cakes out onto a wire rack until completely cool. Frost as desired.

Whipped Dark Chocolate Ganache

This recipe is incredibly flexible. I always do equal parts chocolate and almond milk but you can adjust the ratio to suit your ganache consistency tastes.

Ingredients:

• 200g dark chocolate, chopped
• 200g almond milk

Directions:

1. Chop dark chocolate and place in a medium heatproof bowl.
2. In a small sauce pan, heat almond milk until it starts to boil. Keep on eye on it - it tends to boil over when it's not being watched.
3. Pour heated almond milk over chopped chocolate and let it sit for one minute. Whisk together until uniform and smooth. Allow to cool completely (I sometimes use my fridge and freezer to speed to up).
4. When cooled, use a whisk or whisk attachment on a mixer and beat until light in color and the texture of mousse. 
5. Use as desired on cake.

As this was the first time I've ever made a cake collar (I think it turned out pretty decent!), I'll direct your attention to a site that does a much better job explaining the process than I ever could. Here you go.

Apple Spice Cake with Maple Goat Milk Buttercream

Do you ever have those times where you think "we'll, I'm just sitting here on my couch and the Netflix instant streaming queue is a little subpar right now… I should probably write a blog post." You keep thinking this over and over but alas, no blog post.  Story of my life right now.  I think in the time I thought I wanted to write a blog post I: watched some movies of questionable quality, ate a bowl of popcorn, did my laundry and cooked a whole bunch of things but failed to take photographs of them.  Though I have been catching up on emails and planning a camping trip like my life depends on it.  I mean, it kind of does but really I'm just procrastinating.

Remember above how I mentioned I've been cooking a lot but failing to take photos?  I would like to blame 4 of my best girlfriends, but in reality I continually forget to bring my camera to Tuesday night girl's dinner.  That's right, every Tuesday we gather at Katrina's house to drink wine and cook an (according to all her roommates) extravagantly gourmet meal.  So far we have made roasted butternut salad with fried sage/goat cheese crostini; whole wheat pizza with caramelized onions, figs & goat cheese; pumpkin cashew coconut curry and last night this delicious fall vegetable galette.  I can feel the disappointment and resentment from my parents from the other side of the country; they always urge me to post more "real food."

I'll just set a goal for myself of, no matter what, no excuses, I will bring my camera to dinner next week. Until then, as an act of mid-20's rebellion, I will blog about cake.  At least it's a small cake that I made for a boy on his birthday.  I think you get negative good karma points if you hate on a birthday cake, especially one for a boy that you think is cute.  Disregarding shame and karma points, this cake was perfect for two people and I imagine it would work even better for a small gathering. The boy and I each had a small slice and I sent him off with the rest wrapped up and ready to be frozen.  From what I understand, he ate a couple slices for breakfast the next day and polished it off not much later.

While is he a guy and this doesn't mean much because it is common knowledge that all guys are human garbage disposals, this cake was pretty good.  A simple spice cake with the addition of grated apples made the cake incredibly moist and light and the maple goat buttercream, as usual, provided an interesting and complex tang.  While you can obviously make this cake larger or divide the batter up into cupcake tins, the recipe below works perfectly for two layers of a 5 or 6 inch cake. I used the largest ramekins I had on hand, I'm not exactly sure how large they are.

Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Buttercream

Did you know, before today, I hadn't had a cup of coffee in almost a week?  I'm trying to make changes here people and my complete and total dependence on coffee was a good start.  That, and I really hate cleaning my French press.  Today is a different story.  As I type, I am waiting for my friends to show up so we can head into the Cascades to do some hiking.  Guess what time I woke up?  6:30 am.  Without an alarm.  Can someone please tell me why I naturally wake up so early on the weekends yet it is feat of strength for me to even pull the eye-shades off before 7:30 during the week?

Regardless, I had coffee this morning.  A whole French press of coffee.  I haven't done this since college and now I am remembering why I don't do this on a regular basis.  I feel like I'm on magical cocktail of all the mood enhancing drugs in the universe.  I sorted my laundry!  I'm writing a blog post!  I made my lunch!  WEEE!  Let's hope the inevitable crash comes AFTER I'm done hiking for the day. [fact: it didn't]

Now that I've forewarned you to how drugged I am, tally-ho!  Onto the food!

This is a cake I made for my friend Sasha's birthday.  We play kickball & bar trivia together, so she knows about my baked goods.  When her birthday rolled around, she asked for a birthday cake knowing that I willingly make extravagant cakes.  After questioning her about cake flavors (Chocolate?  White?  Yellow?  Neon Green?) and toppings of choice (Rainbow sprinkles? Fruit? Fluffy clouds?) she decided on her favorite flavor combination: chocolate and raspberry.

Easy for me as I've made cakes & cupcakes with this combo countless times! As far as the raspberry buttercream goes, you can use either fresh or frozen raspberries, just make sure you strain the puree before reducing it.  I made this mistake once… I almost lost a friend over a rogue raspberry seed.  Even after adding some preserves to the puree, if the color isn't to your liking, feel free to add a pin prick of rose food coloring.

Healthier Baked Buffalo Wings

I can't remember the last time I was this sick (fever, chills, sleeping until noon and the like), so I am going to keep this post short & sweet, actually, it's going to be a little more savory this time...

My dad told me I needed some "real food" on my blog.  Silly father, cheese puffs, brownies & cake are real food.  I mean, they may not be the healthiest thing ever, but they are real food!  Especially if you compare them to half of the things in the supermarket today - no artificial color, xanthan gum or Microcrystalline cellulose here!

So dad, here is some real food: Buffalo wings, adapted to be healthy.  They have protein, W sauce, hot sauce, love & deliciousness.  So I better not be getting a phone call later saying that I yet again didn't post real food.

As you probably guessed it, I made these for the Superbowl.  You'd also be correct if you guessed that I took this picture after I let all the vultures swoop in and take part in the wing feast.  I made somewhere in the ball park of 25 wings and 10 minutes later, these are all that were left.

For the actual cooking part, please make sure you have some jellyroll pans.  Aaron and his roommate somehow didn't own a single one and I had to jiffy-rig an aluminum foil covered oven rack in its place.  It worked, but not so well.  The chicken drippings dribbled all over the bottom of the oven, set off the fire alarm a few times (it's not good until the fire alarm goes off, am I right?) and had to crack every window in his apartment.  Even with all that drama, these turned out so well.  Aaron and his roommate made sure I talked them through the recipe and gave them a copy so they could make the wings again & again.

Best part, this was my first time ever making wings.  In the words of Charlie Sheen, WINNING!

Gougères

…And so begins my Elizabeth Taylor marathon.  As I write this post, I skillfully positioned my instant streaming Netflix window in the lower corner of my Macbook as to watch Ms. Taylor in "Cleopatra."  Some might say, "no no, start from the beginning," I say to hell with them.  I want to start off with something big & epic… and it also happened to pop up first on Netflix.  Regardless, RIP Elizabeth T.

It's also nice that such a fancy recipe corresponds to such an opulent movie.  But shhh, I'm going to let you in on a little secret… these cheese puffs, ahem Gougères, aren't hard to make at all.  While it certainly helps if you have a piping bag, you can easily use a sturdy ziplock.

You say you don't have fancy cheese?  Pish posh - I ran to Trader Joe's, stood scared in front of the cheese wall and asked an employee who looked mildly worldly his recommendations.  Gruyere?  Sounds good.  Good Parmesan?  Already got some in the fridge.  No excuses.

Even once I got to the party (yes, this is yet another Superbowl recipe) the comments wouldn't stop flowing in about how they couldn't believe I made from scratch cheese puffs or that they were a nice contrast to the usual Superbowl fare.  Even though football season is over (and might continue to be for a year plus), it is officially soccer season (Go Sounders!).  Why not make these for your next soccer, erm football (as this IS French food), party?

Soft Pretzel Bites

One batch makes a lot of bites!

Have you ever had "one of those weeks?"

I have been having one of those weeks time 5.  I found out I fractured my tailbone and have been utterly wiped out (unrelated to the buttock, I think).  However, there is a plus side to everything.  Now I get to carry around my own cushy pillow and no one can judge me.  Ohhh yeah.  After toting around my cushy pillow, I usually can sleep really well at night, a pretty big plus.  I also found out that I actually really love riding the bus, a big plus that's easy on me & the wallet.  There is nothing better than waking up during my commute to the Eastside by listening to some Stuff You Should Know and This American Life.  Maybe, just maybe, I might start blogging on the bus.  You hear that Ginger Cook followers?  I might have a regular blogging schedule!  Maybe this week hasn't been so bad?

But these pretzels can make any day better.

Small enough to pop in your mouth and no need to feel guilty when you eat 10 of them because you totally didn't eat a whole soft pretzel.  Nope, not at all… 

As I mentioned in the previous post, the next few posts will be food that I made for the Superbowl.  I would consider pretzels to be a quintessential football food (see my earlier argument) and people are usually impressed that soft pretzels can be made outside of a mall.

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

So, Superbowl was how long ago?  A month?  Maybe a month and a half… oh, who really cares.  Better late than never, right?  I've proposed a lot of questions to in the first few sentences, but this is a fact, cookies are cookies and no matter what time of year it is and the only thing that changes is how they are decorated.


As I've already mentioned, the slew of food I made for the Superbowl will be the main focus of the next 6 or 7 posts.  Yes, I made a lot of food but what do you expect?  One of my favorite things to do is to cook for a large crowd and I think I even outdid myself this time.  There were 10 to 15 people crammed into a small Capitol Hill condo and we still had leftovers for the next week.

The reason these sugar cookies are the the typical color of your typical sugar cookies because I made them chocolate in an attempt to provide a decorating shortcut.  However, I realized that they were much darker than actual footballs and I still had to ice the whole thing.  Oh well, maybe it gave them a double dimension of awesomeness?  And yes, I did dye coconut green to make green for the pigskins to rest on.  I'm not an overachiever or ANYTHING... never.  Ever.

However, I thought the chocolate flavor of these was a litter blander than I would have hoped.  Maybe even a little flat.  Next time I make these, I think I am going to adjust the amount of cocoa powder and see if I can get the rick flavor I was striving for.

Pumpkin Tangerine Chocolate Truffles

Sooner or later I promise I will get to a healthier selection of recipes, but for the time being its going to be a little bit on the side of later.  At least you can rest easy knowing that this is my last Christmas cookie recipe!  Yes, there were other cookies on my plate, but they were either tried and true favorites or, quite honestly, the pictures were way less than stellar or I wasn't a big fan of the cookies themselves.

That's right, I failed miserably and I will (slightly hesitantly) confidently admit that.  I. Failed.  I tried making "bulls-eye cookies," alternating rings of red, green and white sugar cookie dough rolled up and cut into medallions.  To jazz it up a little, I thought I might roll the logs in chocolate sprinkles or crushed up candy canes.  Chocolate sprinkles were a good idea (they held up to the temperature of the oven) but the crushed candy canes melted everywhere.  This made the edge of the cookies sticky and to add insult to injury, the outer ring of those cookies were green.  You can guess what that looked like… toxic green Christmas sludge cookies.  Yum.  As I've mentioned earlier, my oven is a little finicky and sometimes things come out burnt even if I baked them 5 minutes shorter than the recommended time.  Ironically, these cookies were way under-baked even though I kept them in for almost 8 minutes longer than suggested.  I bet you really want to keep reading my blog now, but hey, I think admitting my defeat makes me a more credible source, no?

You aren't here to read about my failures,  you want to eat with your eyes and find delicious recipes!  Cut to these Pumpkin Tangerine Chocolate Truffles, in the words of an unnamed and slightly annoying Food Network television personality "DE-LISH" (I can't believe I just said that, but this is post of banishing norms).  I had originally intended to use a recipe I found on Annie's Eats, but I soon realized I had no oranges nor did I have any white chocolate.  Instead, I had over a pound of dark chocolate and more tangerines than I could ever need.

I was slightly disappointed that the truffles didn't have a stronger pumpkin flavor, but I did like that they took on the flavor of the traditional Christmas chocolate orange.  Even though the pumpkin flavor was more of a afterthought, the puree did help contribute some 'lightness' to the texture.  If you want to make the original recipe, head on over to Annie's Eats: http://annies-eats.net/2010/12/08/pumpkin-spice-truffles/

Green Beans With Hazelnuts and Blue Cheese

A few years ago for Thanksgiving, my mom made green beans with blue cheese and toasted hazelnuts and after helping myself to seconds, thirds, heck, probably even fourths, that night… I haven't been able to stop thinking about them.  Cut to 4 years later and I finally decided to attempt to recreate said blessed recipe for Friendsgiving.  And you know what?  Every last nibble of the green beans were gone.  I got a text message a few days later from Julie begging me for the recipe.  The power of the blue cheese green beans lives on!!

Now, I should them you know that I really love blue cheese.  It's my preferred pizza topping, it goes of almost all of my salads and I pop handfuls of crumbles into my mouth.  I like the strong stuff, the mild stuff and everything in-between.  I blame my mother, she got me hooked early.

If blue cheese doesn't make your skirt fly up, that's ok.  I'll convince you sooner or later.  For the time being, try a buttermilk blue cheese in this recipe.  It has enough flavor to satisfy a seasoned veteran like me, but is mild enough to ease the unexperienced in.

If you were wondering, this recipe is quick to make, easy to store and a dream to reheat (…if there are even any leftovers).
 
Green Beans With Hazelnuts and Blue Cheese
Ingredients

• 2 pounds green beans, trimmed
• 1 1/2 tablespoons butter
• 3/2 cup whole hazelnuts
• 3/4 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
• Salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add the green beans, return to a boil and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, or until bright green and crisp. Drain well and set aside.
2. Return the pot to medium-high. Add the butter and hazelnuts and stir until the nuts are lightly toasted and fragrant, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the green beans and stir until heated through.
3. Remove the pan from the heat. Add the cheese and toss until melted. Season with salt and pepper.

Red Wine Cranberry Sauce

Last night was the first annual Friendsgiving, which is, in my opinion, the greatest holiday of all time.  If you haven't yet heard of Friendgiving (for shame!), I will tell you.  It is a holiday that celebrates friendship and Thanksgiving; a feast of Thanksgiving fare with friends, plus lots and lots of wine.  No seriously, lots of wine starting at 2pm and ending well after the desserts of done.

For the feast, I as assigned to bring a pumpkin cheesecake and green beans… but being who I am I also brought cranberry sauce, pumpkin chocolate fudge and homemade whipped cream.   But you know what?  I don't think anyone was complaining, and if they were, I didn't really care because more food equals more material for my blog.

If this is any indication of how much food I ate, I had to wear a high waisted skirt as to accommodate my Thanksgiving belly.  Julie brined a whole turkey (which I tried a little bit of!), Rachel made mashed potatoes and rolls, Gabe and Christine made cranberry relish and the boys brought a lot of tree previously mentioned wine.  After we were all done eating until we couldn't get up (really, we had to crawl out of our chairs), we played some makeshift charades using "Apples to Apples."  Confused?  We would use the 'red' cards and act out what was on them.  Some one were easy to guess like "diamond"… but it's a little more difficult to act out "Meg Ryan."

Next came dessert… oh boy.  There were three types of pie and that doesn't count the fudge.  Coconut cream pie from Dahlia Bakery, my pumpkin cheesecake and an apple pie by Brandon.  I thought I wouldn't be able to eat for days, imagine my surprise when I woke up hungry this morning.

But the cranberries.  I don't even like cranberries and I loved this sauce.  I knew, generally, how to make cranberry sauce; cranberries + sugar + water.  Simple enough, but I wanted to shake it up a bit.  I thought, why not replace the water with wine?  There's citrus zest in mulled wine, why not add it into the sauce?  Obviously to balance out the sweetness of the cranberries, I had to throw in some sugar (but not too much).  It really seemed to be a hit!  Even the sauce snobs on the groups loved it and Julie asked if she could keep the leftovers!  I don't know about you, but that's the highest compliment I can get!

I'm really going to rush and try and get all my "Thanksgiving" themed recipes up quickly so you might get some inspiration for your own Thanks(or Friends)giving feast!

Red Wine Cranberry Sauce


Ingredients:

• 1 ⅓ cup sugar
• 1 ½ cup dry red wine
• 1 cinnamon stick (optional)
• 24 ounces package cranberries
• Zest of one lemon

Directions:

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar, wine and cinnamon and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves and the wine has reduced slightly, about 4 minutes.
2. Add the cranberries and the zest. Simmer until the cranberries soften and the sauce thickens, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the heat; remove and discard the cinnamon. Set aside to cool for at least several minutes and up to several hours. Serve warm. (Do not refrigerate; the flavor is muted by the cold.)

Caramel Pecan Layer Cake

Very slowly, but surely, I have been settling into Seattle.  I dropped my family off at the airport yesterday (a tremendously sad event) and have been trying to do things to fill my days since.  Being unemployed, the job hunt always continues, but you can't do that all the time!  My new roommate Rachel and I took a stroll around Green Lake... but don't ask me to tell what district it's in, I'm just getting a hang of that stuff!  But then we went to this wonderful vegetarian restaurant "Cafe Flora."  It is decorated so serenely; the center of one room has a small rock garden/waterfall complete with a bonsai tree while the walls are lined with bamboo.  The other room, which features the bar, was a little more lively.  But both sides serve their wonderful food.  Now, you're talking to someone who would ask to eat at Seva (an Ann Arbor vegetarian restaurant) every chance they got.  So it means a lot when I say this place was better than Seva!  The didn't have as wide of a range of dishes, but everything they make they appears to be made perfectly.  I personally got the black bean burger with caramelized onions with a side of yam fries.  I would give it a 4.5 out of 5 stars.  The only reason it doesn't get five stars is because I have yet to eat something so good it literally knocks me off my seat.  But the burger... it has the perfect balance of flavor and spice.  It was spicy enough for me, but not so spicy that the flavors of the black beans and onions couldn't shine through.  I'm exited to go back and try other dishes.

But you're not here for  restaurant review... maybe you are... but the point of this post is cake!  Lots of cake for a wonderful person - my Grandma!  As I was moving (erm... now moved) to Seattle, I wouldn't be able to celebrate my Grandma's birthday on her actual birthday, so we surprised her with a party a month before hand!  As seen in a previous post, I made her cards, my sister gave her a book and a bookmark that she made and my mom presented her with a wind spinner she bought from the Ann Arbor Art Fair.  It was so nice to see someone so surprised and happy!  In my opinion, one of the best parts was the cake I also surprised her with.

It's from my new cookbook "More from Magnolia" (looking back, it's ironic because I now live in Magnolia) that I purchased from the Magnolia Bakery in New York City when I was there in early July.  I flipped though all the recipes and my mom and I decided a Caramel Pecan Layer Cake would be the best one for her.  She, and my mom, love caramel.  And toasted pecans.  And cake.  And cake in layers.  Obviously, there were no objections.  The cake was easy to make and better yet you had to make the frosting beforehand!

Caramel Pecan Layer Cake
Adapted from: More from Magnolia

Cake:

• 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened at room temperture
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, at room tempture
• 1 cup milk
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Icing:

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 5 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
• 1 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons dark corn syrup
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Garnish:

• 2 cups coarsely chopped toasted pecans

Directions:

1. Toast the pecans, place on a baking sheet in a 350-degree oven for 15 minutes... or until your whole house smells like pecans.  Keep oven at 350-degrees.
2. Line two 10-inch spring form baking pans and grease.
3. In a small bowl, combine the flours then set aside.  In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth.  
4. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy (3+ minutes).  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add the dry ingredients, beat until all the ingredients are incorporated... but take caution to NOT over beat (this will create gluten and make the cake tough).  Scrape down batter into the bowl, making sure all the ingredients are incorporated.
5. Divide the batter among the prepared pans and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the cake.  Let the layers cools in the pans for one hour.
6. When the layers have cooled completely, ice the cake (recipe below).

Caramel Frosting Directions:

1. In a large bowl, on the medium speed on an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth.  
2. Add the sugars and beat on low speed for 2 minutes.  
3. Add the milk, syrup, and vanilla, and beat until smooth and creamy, 3-5 minutes.  Store covered, at room temperature, overnight or up to 2 days.

Asparagus Frittata

Happy Mother's Day to my beautiful Mom, Ann, and my always glamorous Grandma, Betty!!  All our plans for going out for brunch fell through, so we ended up having brunch at my parents house, but I am so glad we did!  It was honestly one of the best Mother's Day I have witnessed - I got four new recipes for my blog, it was a casual morning sitting around and chatting, the food was pipping hot and we never felt rushed to eat!  And right at the center of the dining room table were flowers my dad and I bought my mom - sunflowers, her favorite.

First up in the list of Mother's Day foods is an asparagus frittata.  I should let you know I despise quiche, but I love this frittata!  I have never made a frittata before, nor had I eaten one, but I had seen them in restaurants in Europe and all over TasteSpotting.  And what's even cooler is that they really aren't that hard to make but so amazing!  The texture is dense while having a nice bite to it and the crunchy cheese crust on top makes it even more delectable!  For your next lazy Sunday or breakfast in bed, I recommend you whip up one of these, it's sure to impress!

Asparagus Frittata

Adapted from The Traveling Table 

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 bunch asparagus, trimmed, peeled and blanched for 2 minutes,
• cut into 1-inch pieces
• 8 eggs, slightly beaten
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Dash of hot sauce to taste
• 4 ounces fresh Dubliner cheese, finely grated
• 1 tablespoon chopped Chinese chives (harvested them fresh from my Mom's new chive plant!)

Directions: 

1. Preheat the broiler. Heat the olive oil in a non-stick 10-inch skillet. 
2. Add the onion and garlic. Sauté until the onion is starting to brown. 
3. In a medium bowl break the eggs and whisk. Season with the salt, pepper, and hot sauce and pour into the pan. 
4. Scatter the asparagus into the pan. Lift the edges to allow the liquid egg to run into the bottom. Cover and cook for 5-6 minutes until the eggs are setting and the bottom is starting to brown. 
5. Drop the cheese over the top in small mounds and place under the broiler until the top is set and crusty brown. Sprinkle the chives over the top (at this point, because I was still making hash browns, the frittata was warming in an oven set at 170 degrees). 
6. Let cool for a couple minutes, slide out of the pan, and cut into 6-8 wedges.

Jake Trithart's 22nd Birthday Cake - White Cake with Fresh Raspberry Buttercream

Happy Birthday…about a month ago… Jake Trithart!  He did get this cake on his birthday, but I have been relatively busy and haven't been able to update as much as I'd like to.  When asking the Jake's what they wanted for their cakes, Mr. Trithart said "A white cake."  I said that's great and all, but I doubt you want just a white cake with no frosting.  He said I know my way around a kitchen and gave me the freedom to come up with something.  I was, and still am, very into experimenting with fresh fruit buttercream's and thought the taste of raspberries would compliment the white cake.  I also added some dark chocolate ganache just to make it even prettier.  Too bad I'm not always good at judging space - I wrote "Happy" in the middle of the cake thinking I'd have enough room to write "Happy Birthday Jake!"  Instead, I had to write "Jake, Happy Birthday"… not as aesthetically pleasing but it tastes just the same! 

It was so adorable when I went over to have Jake blow out his candles and eat some cake.  All the boys in the house rushed down to the living room as soon as I yelled "BOYS!  I HAVE CAKE!"  Jake was quite appropriately dressed in wolf pajama bottoms and a Zoltan Mesko shirt.  And good news - Jake was still able to blow ALL his candles out in one blow!  After cutting the cake and inhaling a slice, we popped in the always amazing Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

White Cake

Adapted from Culinary Concoctions 

• 1 ½ cup whole milk, room temperature
• 9 egg whites
• 3 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 ⅜ cups cake flour
• 2 ⅝ cups granulated sugar
• 6 tsp baking powder
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• 1 ⅛ cup unsalted butter (9 oz), softened

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Grease three 9 inch cake pans, line the bottom with parchment paper, grease the parchment paper and flour the pans.
3. Combine milk, eggs whites and extract in a small bowl with a fork. Set aside.
4. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in an electric mixer and mix at slow speed with a paddle attachment. Add butter. Continue beating at slow speed until mixture looks like wet sand (If you’re doing this by hand, sift the dry ingredients together and rub in butter).
5. Add all but 1/2 cup of milk mixture and beat at medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes. Add remaining milk mixture and beat for an additional 30 seconds, scraping the sides of the bowl if necessary. Do not overmix.
6. Divide batter evenly between prepared pans and gently shake to smooth batter. Bake 30-35 minutes, until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
7. Let cakes cool in the pans for 15 minutes then invert onto racks to cool completely before frosting (I froze mine overnight, wrapped in Saran wrap and placed in a freezer lock ziplock bag).

Fresh Raspberry Buttercream

• 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 4 cups (may need more or less) powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 cup raspberries, purred in a food processor
• ½ cup seedless raspberry preserves
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• A pinch of salt

1. Puree raspberries in food processor with raspberry preserves, set aside.
2. Beat butter and 1 cup powdered sugar on medium speed for 1 minute.
3. Add vanilla and raspberry puree and beat for 1 minute.
4. Adding 1 cup at a time, add the remaining powdered sugar. You may find that you need less than 4 cups or more than 4 cups depending on the consistency of the frosting you are going for. I wanted a stiff buttercream so I added more like 5 cups.