Tag: Baking

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Chocolate Cake w/ Fudge Frosting and Sprinkles: Yes, Let Them Eat Cake!

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Sometimes one lucks-out, i.e., is the recipient of unexpected good fortune.  Which was what my fate was last evening. 

My firstborn was baking a big chocolate cake for a Bake Sale in her school, when she felt exceptionally generous and decided to make–for all of us lesser mortals who share a roof with her–a Double-Layer Chocolate Cake with a Creamcheese Frosting between layers and a Fudge Frosting on top with sprinkles and stars to boot.

Here’s what it all looked liked!  Check out the series of pictures below.  Mmmmmm!  Mmmmm!  Mmmm!

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One Baked Potato: An Enormous Meal!

So, what could be more perfect than a large baking potato (a Russet, I think), scrubbed clean, wiped dry, wrapped in foil and baked at 425 degrees for an hour?  Well, for starters, if you’re doing one, you may as well do six.  Economies of scale and all, you see! 

And so, when you pull out your potatoes and slice right through the foil to make an opening large enough to start flaking out the fleshy insides–the steam coming up and almost giving you a facial–what more do you really need than a sprinkle of salt, and perhaps a dab of butter?  Well, if you added just those two things, you’d be in for a wonderful treat.  

But if you want a royal treat, well then, here’s what you do:  you take a handful of grated cheese of your choice (we used a sharp cheddar here) and sprinkle that on, add also some pre-cooked broccoli and then return it to the oven for another couple minutes.  When it comes out, it is nothing short of AAHHH-MAZING!  And if you wish to go completely berserk, well then sprinkle on some chives, a dollop of sour-cream, and some crumbled bacon-bits. 

That’s it!  You don’t need to eat anything else.  Because, this ain’t no ordinary baked potato– this is a gourmet potato which is a meal in and of itself.  I guarantee it:  you’ll walk away one satisfied person!

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Mother's Day Essentials: Cake and Flowers!

So, we had a small holiday this past weekend called Mother’s Day— a day set aside each year that you need never remember the date because that date might change each year.  What’s important is that you remember that it is always the second Sunday in the month of May.  Easy enough, right?  I certainly think so!  But as easy as that is to remember, I will be the first to admit that my cards and presents to my own mother seem to be invariably late!   Well, only by a day, I was told– which is not too bad, I suppose…

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At any rate, if your mother is with you, there are two things that you would always want to have at hand at some point during the day on Mother’s Day to make your mother feel special.  And what might those two things be, you ask?  I’m sorry you had to ask, but I’m also glad you did.  Listen up:  those two things are Cake and Flowers.  Yes, two superfluous things that will not last beyond a few days, and yet will create and convey to your mother a much-loved feeling.

Which is what I got.  Because I am privileged to bear the title of ‘mother’, not just once, but twice.  And in honor of this, my two lovely children gave to me, inter alia, a beautiful cake and a beautiful bouquet of flowers.  See for yourself!  The cake is a double-layered white cake with butter-cream frosting– too delicious to describe– and the bouquet of mini carnations are breathtaking! 

And do you think I feel loved?  You betcha, I do!  Works every time!  And the show goes on…  

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Quick & Easy Fancy Shmancy Yellow Bundt Cake

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So, do you wish you could do some fancy baking sometime?  Yeah, so do I.  Well, the fact of the matter is that I don’t have the time for the fancy stuff, but I sure do have ideas to make the ordinary look fancy (and like you slaved over it)!

Case in point:  A plain yellow cake out-of-a-box can be made to look oh-so-special when you bake it in a bundt pan— just like this!

Incidentally, I cannot take an iota of credit for this… this was baked last evening by my firstborn, an amazing creature who knows how to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Fancy Schmany, indeed! 

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Twice Baked Potatoes with Poached Eggs and Other Goodies

I happen to share a roof with three very creative individuals, two of whom are exceptionally bold and creative in the kitchen.  (Hmmm, I wonder where they get that from?!)  So, this is a post that is late by a couple of weeks, but is one that is no less a jewel of a post for two reasons:  first, it happens to be made by two of the most adorable creatures I know (aforementioned super-creative beings), and second, because these two creatures practically created this out of their imagination– inspired by a chance viewing of a somewhat similar dish on a TV-show. 

So, what these are, are Twice Baked Potatoes with Poached Eggs and Other Goodies.  Take a look at the slideshow below for how these were put together:

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Ravioli Casserole In A Flash

Ravioli

Okay, so for all my non-Italian friends, ravioli is square pasta-pockets with a filling, usually a cheese or meat filling.  I suppose you can make them from scratch, but I’ve never done that.  But then, neither have I bought the ubiquitous canned variety either. Instead, I prefer the frozen kind. 

And here’s why:  you can make a Ravioi Casserole dish in no time with essentially three ingredients in 55 minutes flat (5 minutes to assemble; 50 minutes to bake), and still give the impression that you slaved over it.  So, here’s how you’d do that: 

  1. Open your bag of frozen ravioli and empty its contents in a nice casserole dish; spread them around dish as evenly as you can
  2. Open a jar of spaghetti sauce and pour over the ravioli (I like the Prego mushrooms and onions variety)
  3. Sprinkle a cup of shredded mozzarella cheese on top; cover w/ foil; bake at 350 for 50 minutes

Serve with love!  And thick slices of homemade bread if you have any (the cheating kind is fine, btw!); otherwise, store-bought will do just fine!

Bon Appetit!

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Cheating At Baking Bread

It happens all the time.  And it happens more often than you think.  Cheating at baking bread, that is.  Well, if I’m wrong, then, at least, I’m honest as far as my own baking record goes.  Yes, I did bake all of these loaves of bread at home today.  But you see, I didn’t prepare the dough– I didn’t measure and mix the yeast, add it to the flour, knead it into a dough and all that good stuff.

All I did was buy the loaves from my grocer’s freezer.  I then left them out to defrost in the fridge overnight; this morning, I covered them in saranwrap and let them rise for several hours; then, I put them into a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

What you see is what you get.  Which is absolutely phenomenal!  Check out the slideshow below:

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Baking And Cooking

Bananawalnutbread

Time for the old posts to come out to the new blog!  This one was first published in my private blog on Thursday, December 04, 2008.

 
 


On a cold wintery mid-morning, what better a thing to bake than a loaf of my banana-walnut bread?  So, here it is. I used a large round pan (actually my cheesecake pan), but technically, I suppose, a loaf pan ought to be used… Well, these things don’t matter too much to me—loaf pans, cake pans, cheesecake pans, square pans, they’re all one and the same. What’s of import is what’s inside them!

The other thing I made just now is choley—with a twist. I added a can of black beans to the standard garbanzo (or chickpeas) beans. Serve it up with hot steaming white rice, and its an entrée fit for a king, don’t you think? 🙂

Lovely blend of East and West in cooking techniques and choice of dishes, no? A slice of the banana-walnut bread will go nicely with a cup of tea or coffee. And the choley will be dinner, of course.

Bon Appetit!