Lu's Next Challenge

 So, Miss Lu, your next challenge is to make a cake or cupcake inspired by the flavors of a candy bar. And no, sprinkling snickers bits on top or inbetween layers doesn't count. Think about the flavors and actually make them into the dessert. Happy baking!

My Big Fat Greek...Baking Challenge!

Lu: Well look at this!! A lovely visit from my HotGlue culminated in one of our more difficult baking challenges, which was learning how to make baklava!
Rachel: Lu considered making baklava when I gave her the challenge to make something that begins with the letter b, I wanted to learn the skill and had amazing baklava on my first trip to Pittsburgh. So Lu found an easy recipe for us to follow and we each brought some ingredients to the table.
Lu:The recipe we followed was by Michael Symon and can be found here:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/michael-symon/baklava-recipe/index.html

Something to keep in mind when brushing the phyllo dough: make sure to keep the sheets moist! We did this by putting a damp towel on them, because if they dry up they tend to crumble easily. Also, the recipe calls for 4 sticks of butter, but we only used 3 and were just fine.

Rachel: Shelling the pisachios was annoying, but not hard and the rest of the recipe seemed to go fairly well. (Although, thats easy for me to say because Lu seemed to do most of the work). I loved that Raul thought the baklava was yummy and ate several pieces. I bought some home for Mike and he said that he wasn't the best he'd ever had (I think he had some in Europe) but that it was up there

Lu: Haha...that's one thing I learned from this recipe...always remember to read the ingredients in detail!! If I had noticed it said ground nuts we could have saved a bit of time! Nevertheless, it was still a lot of fun. And of course it was the best way to celebrate our reunion!!

Why is the RUM always gone!!

**Tip: Pick a good Rum! I used what I had,but I bet a Bacardi Rum would work best

My most recent baking challenge was to create cupcakes inspired by a drink, and to also decorate them the way the drink would be presented. This was a toughie because there were a billion fruity drink cupcakes I wanted to make (strawberry daquiri, pina colada)but alas...I'm functioning on the poor college student's budget. So I was lucky enough to stumble upon a really great cupcake recipe inspired by an equally wonderful drink that I had all the ingredients for! This drink is my wingman at the bar, the

first drink I order almost every time I go out, because it's a nice simple starter and always puts

me in a good mood=the Cuba Libre, also know as the Rum & Coke!

"Cuba Libre" means "Free Cuba" in Spanish, and I'm no history buff but I thought it was pretty neat that the origins of the drink are said to have come from during the Spanish-American War in...you guessed it...Cuba. Legend has it that a soldier ordered the drink for the first time and enjoyed it so much that they rallied together and toasted with the phrase "Por Cuba Libre!", which was the battle cry they used in their war for independence. The variation between the Carribbean Cuba Libre and the American Rum & Coke is that the Carribbean version usually always includes lime juice and lime, while in the US it's optional.

These cupcakes were a delight to make, and they disappeared so fast!

You can find the blog I found the recipe on here: http://www.coconutandlime.com/2007/01/cuba-libre-cupcakes.html

The only problem I encountered with these cupcakes: the dipping in the middle! I just don't know how to fix this! I've consulted baking websites who say it can be a variety of things: overmixing, undermixing, too much butter/heavy ingredient in the batter, opening the oven too early, the oven being too hot, etc...:( if anyone has any advice let me know!

The Cream Cheese Rum Chocolate Frosting was amazing! I didn't leave the cream cheese out long enough so it was lumpy at first, but a quick 10 secs in the microwave fixed that. Also, note the convenient Coca-Cola bowl ;)

And here are my baby Cuba Libre cupcakes!!!

Savoury Scones

Lu challenged me to make something that orginated somewhere fabulous. I've been missing Scotland and the carefree feeling I associate with my time there. I had every intention of making scones and was debating between lemon blueberry and chocolate cherry, when a recipe for bacon scones from Brown Eyed Baker landed in my inbox.

Here's the recipe:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 stick chilled unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese
4 green onions, thinly sliced
10 slices bacon, cooked and chopped into 1-inch pieces
3/4 to 1 1/2 cups buttermilk*
1 large egg
2 tsp. water

*I used lemon juice mixed with 2%milk instead of buttermilk

Cook the bacon. When it cools tear it into one inch pieces.

Mix the flour and baking powder and cut in the butter until the chunks aren't any bigger than peas.

Stir in the cheese, onions and bacon pieces.

Add the buttermilk until the dough sticks  to itself. Roll into a ball and put it on a floured surface. Roll the ball out until it is in a circle about 8 inches wide and (most importantly I think) 1/2 inch thick. My circle was about 12 inches wide but was 1/2 inch thick.

Cut into 8-10 wedges and coat with the eggwash made from the whisked egg and water.

Bake on parchment paper or a silicone mat for 15-22 minutes. Mine took 15 minutes. They should be lightly brown on top and not sticky in the middle.  I tested mine with a toothpick.

I think these were fantastic and I definitely want to make them again. I made them for us to have for a quick breakfast tomorrow (Easter) before driving to my sister in law's church but I ate 1.5 of them tonight!

They have a wonderful flavor and texture. I guess its the egg wash that gives them a the wonderful, yet slighty eggy taste? Whatever it is, it adds the perfect touch!

HOTGLUE: Hurry up and make your cupcakes chica! And let  me know when you've got another challenge for me!

Holy Cannoli!!

Less than 50 days until graduation, but with this workload I'd rather be anywhere else but here...somewhere warm, exotic, with good looking men and even better looking desserts! Rach, I bet you agree, so your next challenge is to make a treat that originates in any one of these wonderful, foreign places. Cannolis from Italy, Croissants from France, Baklava from Greece, Flan from Spain, Scones from Scotland! Anything from somewhere beautiful, so that we can live vicariously through our taste buds. Good luck!

pop Pop POP!

Tarts, that is.
I thought I would try my hand at making a homemade version of a yummy breakfast treat. I had lovely pictures and guidance from Brown Eyed Baker. However, mine did not turn out quite as picturesque. Rather, they had the crumply look of biscuits. However, they tasted fabulous! I made strawberry but now I want to experiment with other flavors, like peach and nutellaa and of course, chocolate peanutbutter banana.
Here's what happened:
First, I couldn't open the new jar of strawberry jam we bought from the Amist store, so I waited for Mike to wake up from his nap and open it for me. Husbands sure are handy. ;)
I combined two tablespoons of flour with 1 tablespoon of water and 3/4 cup of the abovementioned jam in a saucepan. I brought it to a boil and let it simmer for two minutes and stired frequently. I then let it cool down.

While the jam mixture was cooling I mixed together 2 cups of flour and 1 tablespoon of sugar. I worked in two sticks of salted butter with knives, until the chunks were pea size. I whisked together an egg and 4 tablespoons of milk, and added it to the bowl. I kneaded the dough togehter and divided it in half.  I rolled out one piece of the dough and cut it into 7 rectangularish shapes, though the recipe called to make 9.

I put them on the pan and spooned filling onto each piece, trying to leave a 1/2 inch on each side. I rollded out the second part of the dough into 7 of the same size/shape pieces and placed them on top, pressing the edges together.
I let the pastries sitt in the fridge for 3 minutes, uncovered, and then cooked them 25-30 minutes at 350F. I then ate one, scalded my tongue and forgot to take a picture of the final result.
But trust me, they were fabulous.
LU--- Your next challenge is to make, and decorate a cupcake that tastes like a cocktail/drink Will you  choose a margarita? pina colada? strawberry daquiri? dr pepper? Can't wait to find out!

What to do with leftover mango flavored cream cheese icing?

This question has tormented me since I made the mango cupcakes. I tossed around the idea of making mango cinnamon rolls, but figured I would get stuck eating them myself. Then, I found out we would be having company for dinnner Friday night so I decided to make an Amish Cake, top it with the frosting instead of brown sugar and nuts, and then pipe whipped cream and fruit along the base of the cake.The cake was simple to bake, and frost. But I totally should have left the whip cream off the edges. It totally didn't pipe out of the bag in lines, but in clumps, so it looked really sloppy. And I didn't fully read the iced the cake recipe, until after I'd iced the cake, so I didn't realize that it was best served warm. Whoops!
Amish Cake
1/2 cup butter2 cup brown sugar2 cup buttermilk2sp baking soda2 tsp vanilla3 cup flour
Cream together butter and brown sugar.Add buttermilk, baking soda, vanilla and flour. Bake for 40 minutes at 350F in a greased pan.
The recipe goes on to suggest mixing together6 tbsp melted buter4 tbsp milk1 c brown sugasr3/4 favorite nuts
and then putting it ontop of the cake and baking an additional 10 minutes or until bubbly