Easter Cookie Pops

I made these pretty cookie pops for R Jr.'s friends at school. He will be having an Egg Hunt at school today and I thought it would be a good day to give these to his friends. They were painful to make. I am quite used to melting dark chocolate by now(though I am not the most proficient), but melting white chocolate is even more painful. They harden so quickly. Nonetheless, I think they are totally worth the effort and hope they bring a smile on the faces of those who get them.

Baked donuts

Yes, I have seen baked donut recipes everywhere now and seen the pans in the baking aisle of every store. So I had to buy the pan and try them out. I am glad I did...not only did they taste great, my fussy R Jr. loved it and gobbled three of the chocolate glazed ones. Plus fewer calories too...and don't we all love that. I saw a lot of recipes with mixed reviews, and after a lot of thought decided to go with this one. These babies were ready in no time and wiped out in even less time.
Here is the recipe that I followed:

• 7/8 cup Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons dried buttermilk powder
• 2 large eggs
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons yoghurt
• 
  
• 1) Whisk together all of the dry ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl.
  2) In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, oil and yoghurt until foamy.
  3) Pour the liquid ingredients all at once into the dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Transfer the batter into a ziploc. Cut a small piece of the ziploc bottom and pipe into the molds. Make sure to fill only half the mold.
  4) Butter or grease the doughnut pan; non-stick pan spray works well here. 
  5) Bake the doughnuts in a preheated 375°F oven for 10 to 12 minutes. When done, they'll spring back when touched lightly, and will be quite brown on the top.
  6) Remove the doughnuts from the oven, remove them from the pan, and allow them to cool on rack. Glaze with icing, or coat with cinnamon-sugar or any non-melting sugar.
  

Preparing for Easter!

I am really behind this time...New job has been keeping me very busy. But I hope to get atleast some crafts done with R Jr. before Easter. I had a week off before starting work and created an Easter garland and some fun egg creatures. Take a look...

Owl

Bunny

Cat

Mouse

Dog

Chick

I love how each of these turned out. The garland came out wonderful. I saw it somewhere on pinterest. Among the egg creatures, it is hard to decide which one is my favorite. They all turned out wonderful and are now adorning my mantle for Easter. More posts on Easter to follow soon.

Chocolate-Cinnamon Bundt Cake

It was R Sr.'s birthday two days ago and the boys asked for a different chocolate cake. I had bought a new bundt cake pan and wanted to test it. So, this recipe was the perfect one to try on. Very easy to make with very little preparation ahead of time and with ingredients that are at hand.

The cake turned out nice and moist, without either of the key ingredients dominating (chocolate/cocoa, espresso or cinnamon). The recipe also asked for Mocha icing (sugar, butter and espresso). I thought adding espresso again would kill the flavor of the cake and so, decided to go with buttercream frosting.

Ingredients:

1 cup boiling water

1/2 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp instant espresso powder

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp salt

2 cups golden brown sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 1/4 cups mini semi-sweet chocolate chips (recipe asks for 1 cup, but I think the extra 1/4 cup added to the flavor)

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Brush a 12 cup nonstick Bundt pan with butter, and sprinkle APF all over the buttered pan. Tap out the excess flour.

Whisk the boiling water, cocoa powder, and espresso powder and keep aside. Whisk flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat brown sugar, oil and vanilla in a large bowl to blend. Add eggs, beat to blend. Beat mixture until smooth, about 30 seconds longer. Beat in half of the flour mixture, then cocoa mixture. Add remaining flour mixture, beat to blend. Fold in the chocolate chips. Pour the batter into pan.

Bake pan for about 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes and invert cake on to rack to cool completely.

Classic Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks or 1/2 pound), softened (but not melted!) Ideal texture should be like ice cream

3-4 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar, SIFTED

1/4 teaspoon table salt

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

up to 4 tablespoons milk or heavy cream

Beat butter for a few minutes with a mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed. Add 3 cups of powdered sugar and turn your mixer on the lowest speed (so the sugar doesn’t blow everywhere) until the sugar has been incorporated with the butter. Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla extract, salt, and 2 tablespoons of milk/cream and beat for 3 minutes. If your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add remaining sugar. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add remaining milk 1 tablespoons at a time.

Source:

Cake: Bon Appetit

Frosting: Savory Sweet Life

Indian corn

I was browsing for craft ideas last night, while R Jr. saw a picture of Indian corn and said "Let's do this, Mama....with lots and lots of buttons". I didn't have too many buttons so I gave him jewels to glue on it. It came out really pretty and it is so easy. I have seen similar crafts done with thumbprints too.

Halloween 2011

I always loved Halloween. It is one of my favorite days...ooh, the possibilities of crafts and food!

However, this year was a pretty quiet one, with R Jr. being sick on and off and me going through some tough times. But inspite of all of that, I challenged myself and carved three pumpkins.

R Jr. was Buzz Lightyear this year. He got to wear his costume the second he got out of bed and had it on till he fell asleep at nite on Halloween.

We made bookmarks for his friends and teachers at preschool

And had fun halloween shaped pancakes for breakfast...

Gumdrops!!!

R Jr. loves gumdrops so much. So, when I saw this recipe on Bakerella, I knew we would have as much fun making it. R Jr. was in charge of adding the colors and the essence. They turned out wonderful, though I would make a few notes to myself. May be, keep the pieces bigger next time, so you actually get to taste the flavor and not just the sugar coating them. I plan on doing these again for Christmas...So easy...