033: you guessed it--another birthday!

so yesterday was my wonderful boyfriend's 22nd birthday (happy birthday, darlin!), so of course i had to make him a cake (as well as his banana pudding--it was a party, after all!). anyway, james's favorite baseball team is the los angeles dodgers, and so what better way to celebrate than by making a cake in the shape of a dodgers jersey?  i do, however, have to credit his mom with this perfect idea.  thanks annette!  and happy birthday, james!

equipment:
mixing bowl
measuring cups and spoons
9x13" pan
cutting board
sharp knife
frosting knife
food coloring
frosting tips
candles



ingredients:
1 box (you know i cheat) cake mix (i used devil's food--james's favorite) and the ingredients on the box
2 cans frosting (i used cream cheese)


steps:
1.) make cake according to box instructions and bake in a 9x13" pan. i also pulled out 1 cupcake's worth of batter and baked it in a silicone cupcake liner (which is awesome cuz you can let it bake freestanding in the oven and it took the same time as the rest of the cake) to use for the baseball.   let everything cool completely, and the flip it onto a cutting board by placing the cutting board upside down on top of the pan and turning it over.  freeze this until cake is hard.

2.) cut the cake into the shape of a jersey.  i cut out the neckline and then only about an inch off the sides underneath the sleeves.  i then added some of this cut out cake to the sleeves to make them proportional, connecting them with some of the frosting.

3.) crumb coat the cake and freeze it again (this just makes it all easier to work with).

4.) frost the cake in the colors of the team of your choice.  obviously for james this was the dodgers.  i used the most awesome frosting tool of all time that i inherited from my mom (thanks mom!) who inherited it from her grandmother.  it is a metal tube that holds frosting and the end pushes down to push frosting out of one of 12 tips that go with it (pictured above).  it made frosting control soooo much easier!  love it.  i then decorated the cupcake into the shape of a baseball and put candles on (as buttons).  easy, fun, done.


time:  less than 10 minutes prep time, 35 minutes bake time, cool and freeze time, about an hour to crumb coat then decorate
difficulty: 1.5 (1 being easiest, 5 being hardest)
rating: ♦♦♦♦1/2◊ (4.5 out of 5 stars)
suggestions for variation: try different jerseys and teams.  have fun with it!


anyway, happy 22nd birthday, james!  i love you!
-kl

032: welcome to the south! banana pudding

why hello there! yes, i know it's been forEVer since i've posted, but i have been sooo busy (yes, i know i always say this, too). but this time i think my excuse is pretty legit--i moved to florida and have been establishing my new kitchen. it's super cute with yellow and black tiling on the counters and tons of cabinet/cupboard space--i love it! also, my AMAZING housewarming gift from my wonderful parents was an electric 12 speed cuisinart standing mixer with a whip, dough hook, paddle, and splash guard and places to put on attachments such as a meat grinder, pasta maker, blender, food processor, juicer, and etc. loooooovvvvveeee it!!!!   anyway, i am loving florida life and my job, and of course being able to see my fantastic boyfriend everyday.  in fact, yesterday was his birthday (happy 22, love!).  to celebrate, i made his favorite dessert of all time (which i had never even heard of til i moved to the south last summer): banana pudding.  it was easy and delicious AND i got to use my new mixer!  all in all it only took about half an hour.  i hope you northerners give it a try and that all enjoy!

equipment:
mixer (handheld or standing)
spatula
mixing bowl
measuring cups and spoons
9x13" pan
knife


ingredients:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 package instant banana cream pudding mix (dry)
2 c. milk
1 1/2 t. vanilla
1 carton cool whip
6 bananas, sliced
1 box vanilla wafer cookies


steps:
1.)  beat softened cream cheese on medium until fluffy.

2.)  in a separate bowl, whisk instant pudding mix with milk.  add pudding mixture, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla to cream cheese.  beat all together on medium until smooth.  fold in cool whip until smooth.

3.) in a 9x13" pan layer pudding mixture, vanilla wafer cookies, and sliced bananas.  chill and serve cold.


time: about 30 minutes
difficulty: 1 (1 being easiest, 5 being hardest)
rating: ♦♦♦♦1/2◊ (4.5 out of 5 stars)
suggestions for variation: i wanted to try this with adding some banana liqueur and/or rum to the mix, but i didn't have time to run to the liquor store.  next time, though!


enjoy!
-kl :o)

029: another birthday!

this time it was my mom's birthday, and she loves her garden.  so what more fun could be had than a flower-themed birthday cake?  or, rather, cupcakes.  this was fun, and easy, and absolutely adorable.  i got compliments all night long on these sunflowers :o)

equipment:
knife
plastic bag
scissors
frosting tips if you have them (petal and point)
small flower post (i used really fun colored 3.3" plastic pots from the hardware store (washed, of course!) and stuffed the bottom) 
paper to stuff the bottom of your flower pots


indredients:
cupcakes (i used my red velvet cupcake recipe)
frosting (i used chocolate cream cheese on top of the cupcakes and dyed vanilla for the flowers)
food coloring
oreo or oreo style cookies


steps:
1.) frost your cupcakes with frosting (i used chocolate cream cheese, as it's brown, which looks more like dirt than regular cream cheese frosting to pair with red velvet cupcakes).

2.) place a small daub of the same frosting on the back of an oreo-style cookie and put either one or two cookies on top of each cupcake.

3.) use either colored or dyed frosting for the next part (i used vanilla and colored it yellow with food coloring).  if you don't have frosting tips, place your frosting into a plastic bag and cut one of the corners off (make sure it's small!  frosting comes out quickly, and you can always make it bigger if necessary).  if you do have frosting tips, do the same using the petal tip.

4.) draw petals around the edges of each oreo-style cookie.

5.) repeat step 3 with green frosting, this time using the pointed tip for drawing the leaves.  draw the leaves straight onto the top of the cupcakes.

6.) it might be prudent at this point to freeze your cupcakes, covering them very lightly with plastic cling wrap.  this will harden the frosting and make it easier to handle for the next part.

7.) stuff the bottom of your flower pots with some kind of paper (given the birthday theme i used tissue-style paper) so that the new bottom of the pot is about 2 inches from the top.

8.) place your cupcakes into the pots!


time: about an hour for decorating and finishing time
difficulty: 2 (1 being easiest, 5 being hardest)
rating: ♦♦♦♦♦ (5 out of 5 stars)
suggestions for variation: play around with different cupcake and frosting combos, different cookies, and different kinds of flowers.  just have fun with it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LYNN!

enjoy :o)
-kl

028: red velvet cupcakes

these are the most moist and fluffy cupcakes i've ever eaten in my life.  and i didn't even manage to get a picture of one!  but i used the finished product for my sunflower cupcakes.  prep time was about 10 minutes, and bake time was around 20.


equipment:
cupcake/muffin tins
cupcake/muffin liners
mixing bowl
spoon
measuring equipment


ingredients:
devil's food cake mix (and ingredients the box recipe calls for)
1 package dry pudding mix (i used vanilla)
2 t. vanilla
2 T. instant hot chocolate powder mix
red food coloring
chocolate cream cheese frosting


steps:
1.) preheat your oven according to the instructions on the box.

2.) make the devil's food cake mix according to the box instructions.  add pudding mix (vanilla actually emphasizes the flavor of chocolate, but you could easily use chocolate, too), vanilla, and hot chocolate mix to the batter.  mix until well blended.  add the red food coloring until the batter has a red-ish tint.

3.) fill your cupcake/muffin tins with cupcake/muffin liners, or grease your tins.  fill the tins about 2/3 full and bake according to the box instructions.

4.) let cool completely.  frost as desired, but chocolate cream cheese frosting was wonderful on them!


time: about half an hour
difficulty: 1 (1 being easiest, 5 being hardest)
rating: ♦♦♦♦♦ (5 out of 5 stars)

see how easy that was?  and they're so delicious!  enjoy :o)
-kl

027: graduation fun!

so for those of you who don't know, i recently graduated from college!!!  i've been so busy finishing up my degree, that i haven't had time to post much.  but!  i did have time to make a few fun graduation-themed desserts for our grad party.  fun, delicious, and super easy--i got compliments on these throughout the party :o)

both of these ideas are for graduation mortarboards that are edible and tons of fun!  the first is for the one on the right.

027a: mini reece's peanut butter cup and hershey's chocolate mortarboard

equipment:
knife

ingredients:
mini reece's peanut butter cups (i used the 40 oz bag, which had approximately 60 cups in it)
hershey's milk chocolate bars (i bought 2 of the 8 pack bars, and used 15/16 bars)
mini m&ms (my school colors are blue and white, so i used just blue ones)
school colored frosting  to make tassel
peanut butter (optional)

steps:
1.) unwrap your peanut butter cups and chocolate bars.

2.) flip peanut butter cups upside-down and put a small bit of either frosting or peanut butter on the now top of the peanut butter cups (i used peanut butter).

3.) break the chocolate bars into double-wide squares.  given that each column is 3 squares, you will have extra single squares left.  you can either use these singles together to make a double (as seen in the front of the picture above) or eat them :o)

4.) put a line of frosting on the top of your now mortarboard-shaped treats beginning at the center and working out to an edge or corner.  place a mini m&m on the top in the middle.


time: about half an hour for all 60 or so
difficulty: 1 (1 being easiest, 5 being hardest)
rating: ♦♦♦♦♦ (5 out of 5 stars)



the second recipe is a 3-4 biter instead of a 1 biter like the above, and is more chewy.  in the very first picture, it is shown on the left.

027b: brownie cupcake mortarboards

supplies:
mixing bowl
measuring equipment
knife


ingredients:
mini brownie cupcake mix (i used this mix and made 2 boxes, or 4 total packages, to make a total of 24 cupcakes.  an advantage of these is that they come with their own tiny cupcake pans).
chocolate covered graham crackers (i used these)
frosting (given that everything else was chocolate fudge, i used chocolate fudge frosting) (optional)
school colored frosting to make tassel
m&ms, reece's pieces, york pieces or other circular coated candy in school color (i used york pieces, given that they're blue and white and so are my school colors)

steps:
1.) bake mini brownie cupcakes according to package instructions.

2.) while your brownies are baking, cut some of your chocolate covered grahams in half.  the ones i got were rectangles and looked awkward, so to make them square, i used a sharp knife and cut some of them in half and later fused the two together on top of the brownie.  but i'm getting ahead of myself.  since i made 24 brownies, i used 36 total cookies, and cut 12 of them in half.

3.) after they're done, let the brownies cool completely, and flip them over.  put flavored frosting (or colored frosting) on the now top of the brownies.

4.) put the flavored frosting on the "raw" edge of one of the cut graham pieces and use the frosting to "glue" it to one of the whole ones.  then, put this whole square on top of the frosting on top of the brownie cupcake.

5.) to finish, put a line of colored frosting on the top of the mortarboard-shaped dessert, starting at the middle and working toward and outside edge.  to disguise the seam, perhaps draw it along part of the seam, as pictured above.  end by putting the york pieces (or whatever candy suits your school's colors) in the middle.


time: 5 minuets prep, about 20 minutes to bake, an hour for cooling, and half an hour for assembly and decoration, for a grand total of about 2 hours.
difficulty: 2 (1 being easiest, 5 being hardest)
rating: ♦♦♦♦1/2◊ (4.5 out of 5 stars)


these treats really were the hit of the grad party.  hope you enjoy them, too!
-kl

 congrats to all the grads of 2010!!!

026: better than sex cake

yes, i know, i know, another cake.  but look at the name of it!  how can you not want to know more??  well, i assure you it's quite simple, and i took it to a girls' night party, and it went quickly and got rave reviews.  no, it's not an original recipe, but i did make a few modifications here and there.  prep time is about 5 mins and total time around 2 hours.

equipment:
9 x 13 glass baking pan
medium bowl for mixing
liquid measuring cup
2 gallon-sized ziplock style bags
hammer
toothpick


ingredients:
1 box german chocolate cake mix (though you could also feasibly use devil's food if you were so inclined) and everything the box mix says you need to make the cake (usually oil, eggs, and water)
1 can (14oz, though you won't use the whole thing) sweetened condensed milk
caramel sauce (i bought a 12oz container, and only used about 8oz of it)
1 container (8oz) of whipped cream (i used the publix version of cool whip)
1 bag of fun sized heath bars or 8 king sized heath bars
chocolate sauce (you'll only need a bit, so the smallest size is fine if you don't have any ice cream to put the rest on)


steps:
1.) make the cake according to the directions on the box.

2.) while the cake is baking, unwrap the heath bars, put them into one of the bags and that bag in the 2nd.  on a safe surface use a hammer (or something equivalently hard) to crush them into small pieces.

3.) let the cake cool completely.

4.) poke holes in the top of the cake with a toothpick almost all the way down the height of the cake.

5.) generously pour the caramel and sweetened condensed milk over the top of the cake (it's going to seep down into those holes you just made).

6.) frost it with whipped cream.

7.) sprinkle crushed heath bars over the top of the whipped cream and drizzle chocolate sauce over the top.

time: 5 minuets prep, about 2 hours total bake, cool, and top time
difficulty: 1 (1 being easiest, 5 being hardest)
rating: ♦♦♦♦1/2◊ (4.5 out of 5 stars)
suggestions for variation: mess around with the toppings you use.  maybe try twix instead of heath bars?  different kinds of cake?  fudge instead of or in addition to caramel, sweetened condensed milk, and/or chocolate sauce?  have fun playing around with it!

enjoy!
-kl

024: even MORE birthday fun!

i know, i know, you're sick of birthdays.  BUT i have a lot of awesome people i'm close to born right around the same time, sooo... deal with it.  haha.  anyway, today is my roommate's birthday.  things rachel loves: ice cream, ice cream cones, cupcakes, funfetti cake, and frosting.  so this idea combines alllllll of those in one fantastically delightful (and super easy) birthday cake.

equipment:
muffin pan
cupcake liners
mixing equipment
frosting knife
candles (optional)


ingredients:
cake mix (i used funfetti cuz it's rachel's favorite)
frosting (again, i cheated and used the canned stuff--it took me 2 cans)
cake cones (flat-bottomed ice cream cones)
sprinkles or other decorations


steps:
this was sooo easy it's unbelievable.  mix up your cake mix and spoon it into the cupcake lined muffin tins.  then, place the ice cream cones upside-down on top of the batter (it's best if you smoosh them down just slightly into the batter so the cupcakes rise right into the cone) and bake them.  then let them cool completely, and remove the cupcake liner from the top of the ice cream cone.  frost and decorate!  i was also surprised to find that these did not require a crumb coating, and i just dipped the frosted cupcakes into the sprinkles, however you can probably use crushed nuts, candies, and etc.  get creative!  so easy and so fun, and a delightfully innovative way to eat a cupcake.  the only tricksy part is storing them, as they're somewhat top-heavy and gooey with frosting.  i ended up cutting rounds in old shoe boxes to store them upright.

 happy 23, rachel!  i love you :o)
-kl

023: more birthday fun!

boy oh BOY have i been busy!  i have several recipes to upload, and i will get to them all when i can, but for now, this is just another fun cake i did for my dad's 50th birthday!  he absolutely loves trains, so with a little help from betty crocker, i made this masterpiece for his surprise birthday party.  this cake fed around 20 people with leftovers, so it's definitely possible to halve the recipe and make it on a much smaller (aka not table-sized) scale for your train lover.  delicious AND fun :o)

 equipment:
 2-4 loaf pans
serrated knife
glass of hot water
cookie sheets or cutting boards
frosting knife
candles (optional)


ingredients:
cake (i cheated and used 2 boxes of cake mix)
frosting (this bad boy took 1 can of chocolate and 3 of vanilla)
food coloring
round candies


steps:
because we were feeding so many, 2 batches of cake mix were necessary (many thanks to my mom for making the cakes!).  these were mixed into 2 loaf pans per batch (4 total loaf pans) and frozen after they cooled and were removed from the loaf pans

after they were frozen thoroughly, each cake was removed from the freezer individually and the rounded top cut off using a serrated knife.  *hint: this process becomes much easier if you dip the knife in hot water between each cut!  flip the cakes over so the part that used to be the top (now flat after cutting the rounded part off) is facing the counter and becomes the bottom.  this makes the cakes much more structurally stable.

first, i made the engine.  this is its own loaf pan, and is the biggest piece you'll be working with.  cut off the sides the long way of the cake so the cake is about 3 inches wide.  then cut 2 of the corners off so the shape is now a really awkward hexagon.  then, about 2 inches back from the back edge of those cuts, cut halfway down the height of the cake in 2 strips about 2 inches apart, the across the bottom of those 2 incisions to remove a piece half as thick as the cake itself.  "glue" this piece back onto the cake with chocolate icing so the back lines up with the first incision you just made.  confused yet?  check out the diagram below for some visual help and much needed clarification.

the rest of the cakes are really easy--just quarter them.  again, be sure to have the side that you cut the rounded top off become the bottom.  these quartered pieces become the "cars." place them the long way behind the engine piece.  i just placed my pieces on cookie sheets, but you could also do it on cutting boards or whatever you have that is big enough to support the whole train.  regardless, it should be something that you can put in the freezer.  after all your pieces are cut, place them onto whatever surface you're using (from here on out, i'll just say cookie sheets) in a train-like shape, meaning the engine followed by the cars in whatever arrangement suits your location best.  once arranged, put them back in the freezer, as this makes your decorating job MUCH easier.

the hard part is over!  phew!  now comes the tedious stuff--decorating.  i used all chocolate frosting on the engine and all vanilla on the cars.  take your cookie sheets out of the freezer one at a time, and crumb coat your pieces.  this means that you cover the pieces using frosting and a knife just to seal the crumbs of the cake in so that they don't affect your final decorating.  freeze each cookie sheet again after each piece on it is crumb coated.

then comes the actual decorating.  i did the engine all in chocolate, but each car i dyed a different color by mixing food coloring into the vanilla icing.  after each car was frosted, i added wheels by using round candies.  i piped spokes on to these with colored frosting, and connected them to the cars using plain frosting.  add whatever other decorations you like to your cars--be creative and have fun!  add candles if you want, but above all, enjoy :o)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!!!  i love you :o)
-kl

021: birthday fun!

so today is my friend tyler's 20th birthday, and tyler is absolutely obsessed with all apple products. so what better way to celebrate his birthday than to make him an apple [logo shaped] cake?? well, maybe throw in a taco bar, playing super mario (super nes, of course) projected to take up an entire wall, some fantastic party games, and awesome friends and you've got yourself a party! happy 20th, bud :o) anyway, back to the CAKE!


now this baby was a double layered cake and took a 3 day process to make. despite that, it was not difficult at all, only time-consuming. i guess i cheated, because i used cake mixes and store-bought frosting. you are allowed to give up now and call me a fraud, but i hope you'll stick it out.


equipment:
9x13 pan
cooling rack
cutting boards
sharp knife
frosting (butter) knife
cup of HOT water


ingredients:
2 boxes of cake mix (i used one chocolate and one yellow)and their respective mixing ingredients
3 cans of frosting (white)
food coloring


steps:

the reason needed 2 boxes of cake mix is that tyler's favorite is marble cake. it is almost impossible to shape a marble cake, so to get the same marble taste, we went for 2 layered cake. i began with the chocolate on the bottom and added yellow cake to the top so as to mess up the coloring of the frosting less (yellow cake offers a more blank palate than does chocolate).

i began by making a 9x13 pan of chocolate and greased the WHOLE pan and sides really well. i baked it according to the instructions on the box, and let it cool for about an hour. i then put a cooling rack on top of the 9x13 pan, held it in place and flipped the whole cake pan over onto the cooling rack without the 2 ever losing contact. this makes it easier to flip onto another surface later, as well as serving to let it squash down a little bit so your cake isn't quite so tall. after this fully cooled, i used the same process to flip it back into the 9X13, and then again into a cutting board (i used white to be a blank palate). i just cut the cake to fit onto the cutting board without discarding too much cake. after this, i wrapped the cake and cutting board in saran wrap and refrigerated it overnight.

the exact same process was used for the yellow cake, and this went onto a second cutting board, though this one doesn't matter regarding color or material, as the cake will eventually get transferred on top of the chocolate one.

i then took both cakes out of the fridge and frosted the chocolate one (i just kept this frosting white) on top to act as the congealing layer between the two cakes. transferring the yellow cake on top of the chocolate one was probably the hardest part of the whole process, and i ended up using a slow slide and transfer process, though i think freezing the yellow cake might work better so as to be able to get a firm grip on it without fear of it breaking or crumbling apart, which is the trouble i was facing.

the final product, but for an idea of the layering involved

then i made a rough outline on the cake of an apple and mostly carved the corners away with a sharp knife, soaking it in a cup of HOT water in between every cut. this is a classic wedding cake trick to get the cleanest cut and get rid of any cake or frosting particles that you don't want in another area of your cake. so the apple shape was cut and all that remained was the leaf. i used the "bite" piece (cut after the whole apple shape was cut) as the leaf, as they are essentially the same shape. this i had to prop up with toothpicks, but i later frosted over them and warned the person who ate the leaf about them so they wouldn't choke and die, haha.

then it was time to frost. i did this in two layers--one as a rough covering and one as a finished layer. looking back on it, i could have done the first layer in white and not worried about the coloring yet, but i did not know at the time that it would take two layers to look good. so i just used food coloring to dye my white frosting and put it in the proper locations to cover both the sides and the top of the cake. *TIP: put the cake in the freezer for a few minutes (20 or so) before you start this process, as it will be much easier to frost, and also do this (10 minutes or so) in between every color change.* i also froze it for about half an hour before starting the second layer, and then kept it refrigerated until it was served. this was the time consuming part, but none of it was hard.

anyway, it was a major hit at the party. to cut it i again used my sharp knife and hot water and cut it like a wedding cake. everyone seemed to enjoy it, and the reaction was more than worth the tediousness of the effort!

015: i'm baaack! the tale of my summer

hello there! well, i'm finally back on campus, in my apartment, and BACK TO MY KITCHEN! goodness how i missed it. see, i was living and working all summer at a hotel in florida, and needless to say, i had an excellent time. however, given that it was a hotel, i did not ever have access to making my own food :( and i haven't exactly been back in mine yet this year--only got back to campus a few days ago and have been training for and/or working one of my 3 jobs since i got back. BUT. the good news is that i have a few pictures of projects that i undertook this summer. nothing original. nothing fancy. but just a little fun and creativity en la cocina.

this was way back in may before i left, and if you're not aware of it already, i am a HUGE minnesota twins fan! however, one of my friends is a huge milwaukee brewers fan. now this is not normally an issue between us, given that the two teams are in different leagues, but they play each other for two series a year, and the border battle gets quite intense. so, just because it was his birthday, i had some fun making some baseball themed cookies.



these are the ones i made for mr. brewers fan.



and these are the ones i made for the twins :o)

it was fun. it was fast. and it brought joy to everyone that went to the game. for the record, the twins ended up SWEEPING the brew crew, and then won 2/3 in milwaukee later in the summer. what up TWINS!!! (also, i am going to the last ever game in the metrodome in october, and i absolutely cannot wait!).

anyway, i promise i will get back to cooking soon. this was just a litte something to whet the appetite, because as i always say: life is uncertain, eat dessert first :o)
-kl

010: swirly cake

so today is my roommate's birthday (happy birthday, rachel!!), and of course i had to make her some cake, and an awesome cake at that. so then i remembered that her sister-in-law made this crazy wicked cake that she was mooning over, and i decided to give it a try. so here it is. we like to call it rachel and the amazing technicolor clown cake. have fun!




equipment:
1 mixing bowl
twice as many bowls as colors of food coloring that you have
twice as many spoons as colors of food coloring that you have


ingredients:
white cake recipe (i used a boxed cake recipe for a 9x13" pan *NOTE: for better colors in your dye, use the egg white recipe instead of the whole egg recipe, as it eliminates the yellow from the yolk that might mess up your dye colors*)
white frosting recipe (i used a pre-made store-bought white frosting)
food coloring


steps:
1.) mix cake batter according to recipe. separate equal amounts into as many bowls as food coloring colors that you have (i had 4 colors, thus i quartered the batter into 4 bowls).

2.) mix different color into each bowl.

3.) spoon batters into cake pan. i know this sounds weird, but i promise that it will stay put and you won't have colors running into each other to make a non-chocolate brown cake (unless you mix them together yourself). be sure that the batters cover the surface of the cake pan at an even level. if not, add a color (either the same or different, which creates an awesome layering effect) over the top of the bottom layer. be sure to use all of the batter.

4.) bake according to recipe instructions. LET COOL COMPLETELY (this is important).

5.) if you're so inclined, do the same thing with your frosting as you did with your cake batter. i put the same color frosting as was the color of batter underneath just by mixing the frosting together with the food coloring and basically frosting by numbers using the colored cake surface as my guide. the colors thus went all the way through the slices.




time: according to recipe
difficulty: 1 (1 being easiest, 5 being hardest). not hard at all, just a touch tedious.
rating: fun!! (no star scale this week, as the recipe belongs to a major cake/baked goods manufacturer and came out of a box)
suggestions for variation: try writing something in the batter, or making other sweet designs and shapes rather than just random swirlings.


enjoy!
-kl

009: cranberry apple oatmeal cookies

how about something sweet? mmm cookies!! and all things considered, they are not terrible for you. prep time is about half an hour, and bake time is 10-12 minutes each sheet. yield is 30-36 cookies.




equipment:
medium and large mixing bowls
measuring cups and spoons
cookie sheets


ingredients:
1 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
3/4 t. cinnamon
1/4 c. applesauce (i used chunky applesauce with cinnamon in it)
2 T. canola oil
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
1 t. vanilla
1 and 1/3 c. dried oats (dry oatmeal)
3/4 c. dried cranberries (craisins)


steps:
1.) heat oven to 350 degrees. in medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

2.) in large bowl, mix applesauce, oil, brown sugar, sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth. add flour mixture to this and mix well.

3.) fold in oats and craisins until well blended.

4.) drop dough onto greased cookie sheets in teaspoon sized quantities. place them 2 inches apart on the sheet. bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees.

5.) let cool on sheet 2 minutes, then loosen and transfer to rack.


time: 30 minutes prep time, 10-12 minutes bake time
difficulty: 2 (1 being easiest, 5 being hardest)
rating: ♦♦♦♦◊ (4 stars out of 5)


enjoy!
-kl

004: plátanos fritos (fried bananas)

this is another popular spanish dish, and is typically served as a dessert, though it could also be a snack or side as well. it is super easy, and pretty darn scrumptious. *NOTE: i have this recipe set up on a per banana basis, though you could feasibly expand it to pretty much any number of bananas you want. a note, though: only prepare as many as you can eat, as they do not store well.* prep time is about 5 minutes, and cook time is less than 10.



equipment:
skillet
knife
1/4 c. measuring cup
small bowl
spatula


ingredients:
1 T. margarine or butter
banana (still slightly green--barely ripe)
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. orange juice


steps:
1.) melt margarine or butter in skillet while cutting banana into 1/3" chip like pieces.

2.) add banana chips to melted margarine or butter.

3.) let simmer for 3 minutes, flipping once. mix brown sugar and orange juice in separate bowl and add to banana in skillet.

4.) let simmer 5-10 minutes or until mixture is caramelized. serve hot.


time: 15 minutes
difficulty: 1 (1 being easiest, 5 being hardest)
rating: ♦♦♦♦♦ (5 stars out of 5)
serving suggestions: serve with any or all of the following: drizzled in honey; sprinkled with cinnamon; sprinkled with nutmeg
suggestions for variations: try with pears, pineapple, even oranges. be creative!


enjoy!
-kl