Mini Orange Chocolate Chunk Cake

This is the first time I baked the same thing twice in the same week! It was that good! First, because I recently came to discover that my little brother loves chocolate and orange as much as I do so I wanted to make it for him. And second, because my mom liked it so much she wanted it for her Birthday.

If you recall, I made the bundt version of this cake awhile back, but something about these little minis was soooo much better! The recipe can be found here.

I used a Martha Stewart mini bundt pan, made by Nordic Ware that was only $8 on clearance at Kmart. These baby cakes slid right out of the pan-it was incredible! I must buy more Nordic Ware soon!

I took a lot of pictures this time because I couldn't resist. They are just so darn cute!

Chocolate Mascarpone Brownies

I crave brownies ALL the time so I'm always looking for that perfect chewy brownie recipe that will turn out just like the boxed mix. I came across this recipe and thought how perfect since I already had a tub of mascarpone that needed to be used up. So far every other recipe I've tried has failed me until now. Well, sort of...

These brownies win for taste, but are still lacking the right consistency- in my opinion. High quality chocolate is suggested for this recipe and makes all the difference in taste. I used Valrhona cocoa powder that I bought online from Chocosphere.

If you are craving something really rich and indulgent, these are for you. In the meantime my hunt will continue for the ultimate chewy and fudgy brownie. Anyone want to share their favorite recipe?

Sugar Cookies

If you're like me and don't have the patience for roll-out sugar cookies, you must try this recipe. These turned out so soft and amazing, not hard like most I've had. The frosting was really good as well. I didn't change a thing about both of these recipes and they were just perfect.







A little messy though. I had food coloring all over the place!

Pecan Bars

Here's another Cooks Illustrated recipe that I adore for classic pecan bars. It's super easy just like making pecan pie.

Pecan Bars
Cooks Illustrated

Makes 24.

Toast all of the pecans for the recipe (2 ¼ cups) on a rimmed baking sheet in a 350-degree oven until fragrant (about 8 minutes), stirring once. Assemble the pecan filling while the crust bakes. Once the crust is lightly browned, spread the filling on top and continue baking. Because of their high sugar content, pecan bars store well and taste great up to 5 days after baking. While we liked bourbon the best, dark rum is quite good. For a very boozy tasting bar cookie, add another tablespoon of liquor.

Crust
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (5 ounces)
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar (2 1/3 ounces)
1/4 cup toasted pecans , chopped coarse, toasted
1 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (3/4 stick), cut into 1/2-inch pieces

Pecan Filling
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
1/3 cup light corn syrup
4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 stick), melted
1 tablespoon bourbon + 1 tsp or dark rum (for a little more booze, add 2 tbs total)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 large egg , lightly beaten
2 cups toasted pecans , chopped coarse, toasted

1. For the crust: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 8-inch square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Fold two 16-inch pieces of foil or parchment paper lengthwise to measure 8 inches wide. Fit 1 sheet in bottom of greased pan, pushing it into corners and up sides of pan (overhang will help in removal of baked bars). Fit second sheet in pan in same manner, perpendicular to first sheet. Spray sheets with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Place flour, brown sugar, pecans, salt, and baking powder in food processor. Process mixture until it resembles coarse cornmeal, about five 1-second pulses. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles sand, about eight 1-second pulses. Pat mixture evenly into prepared pan and bake until crust is light brown and springs back when touched, about 20 minutes.

3. For the pecan filling: While crust bakes, whisk together brown sugar, melted butter, corn syrup, bourbon, vanilla, and salt in medium bowl until just combined. Add egg and whisk until incorporated.

4. Pour filling on top of hot crust and sprinkle pecans evenly over top. Bake until top is brown and cracks start to form across surface, 22 to 25 minutes. Cool on wire rack for 1 hour. Remove bars from pan using foil or parchment handles and transfer to cutting board. Cut into bars that measure 1 1/2 inches by 2 1/4 inches.

Best Ever Snickerdoodles

It's been so long since I've posted anything. Where does the time go?
I thought I'd take a quick second out of this insanely busy day to post my FAVORITE Snickerdoodle recipe before Christmas is all said and done.



I made these cookies last month and again the other day. You have got to try them. They are super easy and fast!

Apple Pie Cupcakes

As promised, here are the apple pie cupcakes. As soon as I saw these cupcakes at alpineberry a year ago, I could not wait to try them. They are without a doubt delicious!!

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Every October we host an Autumn pumpkin fest to celebrate our favorite season and all things pumpkin. I am totally crazy about pumpkins if you haven't noticed by now so it's a lot of fun!!
We serve lots of food, pumpkin beer, hot cider and just hang outside by a cozy fire. Here are a couple pumpkin ideas from this year's party. Inspired by the M. Stewart.



I also made these pumpkin cupcakes along with the chili from last post, apple pie cupcakes, and some amazing whoopie pies which I'll post next, I promise.



Not quite the orange I was going for and you can barely see the cute yellow stripes on the liners, oh well.

Pumpkin-Swirl Brownies

Chocolate and pumpkin is probably my favorite combo ever. It's the best!



I thought these brownies were just ok, but everyone else loved them. I thought something wasn't quite right with the texture so I need to try them again soon. I'm tempted to try this cheesecake version instead.

Apple Crisp

I rarely ever use my Betty Crocker cookbook except when it comes to classics like good old fashioned apple crisp. This has become my "go to" recipe that I use all the time. It's just so simple and delicious.

Farmers Market Blueberry Cupcakes

A few months ago I heard about Trophy Cupcakes while watching "Cupcake Week" on the Martha show. Since then I've become obsessed with cupcakes and got really excited when I saw this recipe featured on their site.

These cupcakes took me about 3 hours to make, but were a lot of fun. They should not take 3 hours, but since I STILL do not have a Kitchenaid stand mixer, it took me a little longer plus I messed up. For the meringue you have to beat the egg whites for about 10 minutes or so and I had to do that twice (by hand-mixer) because I ruined the first batch. Whenever you need to beat egg whites for airy meringues or souffles do not allow a speck of egg yolk into the bowl or they will not fluff up at all. I was whipping and whipping away for like 20 minutes until I decided to "Google" my problem and found out what was wrong. So lesson learned.





Here are my thoughts about the overall outcome. I thought the meringue was really really buttery. I should have know better since Swiss Meringue is supposed to be buttery. The recipe called for a whole pound of butter for the frosting alone. Yep, that's right... 4 whole sticks of butter! It does make a lot though and I have to say the consistency was dreamy. It was the perfect piping frosting. The cake part was a tad dry and almost tasted more like a muffin.

I still really liked these cupcakes, but will try to tweak a few things next time and will try a different meringue recipe.

S'more Tart

I made this tart a few weeks ago for a family picnic. You really can't go wrong when it comes to s'mores or marshmallow..anything. I don't know anyone who doesn't love them.



I used Callebaut (it's the best) semi-sweet chocolate for the filling, but I will probably use bittersweet next time. It was very sweet.

This was a lot of fun to make, but a nifty little kitchen torch would of come in handy to toast the marshmallow topping. I think I left it in the oven too long because the topping started to melt a little bit.





S'more Tart
adapted from a lot of sources

For the crust:
1-1/4 cups Graham Cracker Crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
5 tbsp. butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375°F. Mix all ingredients until well blended.
Bake 8 min. or until lightly browned; cool completely.

For the filling:
7 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate or semi-sweet, chopped finely
1 cup heavy cream, (I used half-n-half because that's all I had)
1 large egg, at room temperature for 30 minutes
pinch of salt

Put chocolate in a large bowl. Bring cream just to a boil in a 1- to 1 1/2-quart heavy saucepan, then pour hot cream over chocolate. Let stand 1 minute, then gently whisk until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Gently whisk in egg and a pinch of salt until combined and pour into graham cracker crumb crust (crust will be about half full). Bake until filling is softly set and trembles slightly in center when gently shaken, about 25-30 minutes. Cool pie to room temperature on a rack (filling will firm as it cools), about 1 hour. (I chilled in the refrigerator to speed up the process.)

For the topping:
1 7-ounce jar Marshmallow Creme
3 large egg whites
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar

Scrape the jar of marshmallow creme into a big bowl and set aside.

Beat the egg whites with salt in another large bowl until foamy. Add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time and beat until stiff and glossy peaks form. This can take 7-10 minutes.
Add 1/2 cup of the beaten egg whites to marshmallow creme and stir with rubber spatula until just incorporated. Fold in remaining whites in 2 additions until just incorporated. Spread or pipe meringue over top of cold pie. Swirl with a knife to create peaks or use the pastry bag to do the same. ( I used a big star tip to pipe the top).

Bake pie just until peaks and ridges of marshmallow meringue are lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Don't walk away from the oven! Or if you have a kitchen torch, use that to lightly brown the peaks. Let stand at room temperature until meringue is cool. Enjoy!

Sweet Cherry Pie

Summer is almost over and it would not be complete without a sweet cherry pie. I meant to post this last month when cherries were at their peak, but have been caught up with.. well, you know, summer things.

While I've never really been a fan of cherry pie, it is my husband's favorite. Most cherry pies that I've had were either too tart or sour and in my opinion, the sweeter the better. I was graciously given a HUGE bag of juicy and sweet bing cherries so there was no excuse not to make cherry pie when they are free and this gorgeous.





Thank God for that handy little pitter. I still had cherry juice all over myself. What a mess!





I used this recipe from my Everyday Food magazine. The only thing I changed was add a 1/4 tsp. of almond extract.

The pie was definitely different than the cherry pies that use the canned filling. It seemed almost more like a cherry cobbler. It was still delicious, but the filling wasn't quite thick enough. I will try a different recipe next time or maybe it was just something I did wrong. If anyone has knowledge on the topic or wanna share a great recipe, I'm all ears.

Blueberry Crumb Cake

In my Fourth of July post I mentioned this blueberry cake. It is a very simple and old fashioned recipe.

My dad and Justin absolutely love crumb coffee cake so I will be making this one a lot.

Fourth of July Blueberry Pie

I love blueberries so much that just about every day this week I came home with a few quarts. There were 8 quarts total to be exact. I also made a blueberry crumb cake that I'll post later on. It was very yummy!







You can get fancy if you'd like and cut out festive little stars. I don't think I used the correct star cut out because the tips were a little more pointed than shown in the picture in my Martha book. You can also see a photo here which was inspired by Martha. My stars sunk a little bit!



The recipe can be found here; although, it is not the Fourth of July version.

Fresh Strawberry Cream Cheese Tart

My favorite thing about summer is the abundance of fresh-picked strawberries. I love going to all the little farm stands where the produce is as fresh as it gets!

This strawberry tart is probably my most requested dessert to date. It is my absolute favorite!



I have made the crust with homemade pie dough, graham cracker crumbs, frozen store-bought pie dough, you name it. My favorite so far is with this recipe for a sweet tart crust.



Instead of using the currant jelly for the glaze, I use T. Marzetti Glaze for Strawberries. You could also make your own which I've also done. I like to use the Junket Danish Dessert mix.
Either way, just brush some on top of the strawberries and use as little or as much as you'd like. This tart is the best!

Homemade Cannoli

A few weeks ago for Father's Day, I made cannoli for my Italian father and grandpop. I did't know what I was in for when I got the idea in my mind, but went ahead and took the plunge anyway. I stayed up all night frying dough and ruining batch after batch, but I learned so much and would do it all over again.



For anyone who does not know what cannoli are, they're Sicilian pastry desserts. Singular for cannoli is cannolo and it means "little tube". So basically they are tubes of fried dough that are filled with a sweet creamy filling that usually consists of ricotta cheese, vanilla, chocolate chips, or candied citrus fruit. Cannoli are a family favorite of ours and in my opinion, one of the best things in life!

There are so many different versions for cannoli and I couldn't decide which recipe to use. That was actually the hardest part for me because I really wanted something simple for my first time, but as "Italian" as possible. At first I was planning to use a recipe from Lidia's Italian-American book that I own, but the problem was I could not find candied orange and did not have time to make them. At last I found this one. The recipe was great, but I did need to make a few changes. Hopefully, I can remember all of them.



Here is the dough all rolled out and cut into little rounds waiting to be wrapped around the forms. I added a few more tablespoons of the Marsala wine to get it to the right consistency. The cookie cutter I had was too small, I think 4 inches, which made mini cannoli. I did the first batch this way, but then decided they were way too small. So I ended up using a bowl to cut out about 5 1/2 " rounds. It was much easier to work with. I ruined a few batches because the dough would not stick to the forms.



I used canola oil to fry with instead of shortening because it's healthier.
I only had four forms, so it was a long process of rolling, wrapping, frying and cooling.



Here are the cannoli waiting to be filled. A note about the filling: drain the ricotta overnight or you will be left with a soggy filling that will not hold its shape. I luckily found out about a trick to thicken it if you forget, just add a few tablespoons of vanilla pudding mix - it worked like a charm and saved me. I also added a pinch of cinnamon for more flavor.



Here is my messy bowl and pastry bag. I started out with a star tip, but it kept getting clogged because of the chocolate chips so I had to switch it out while the bag was still filled which was a complete mess!





Here they are filled and all ready to go. Next time I will fill right before serving because the shell becomes too soft otherwise. They were still really good and everyone couldn't believe they were homemade!