Petit Fours

Hello everyone! Sorry I didn't post yesterday, I was out of town again...actually delivering this weekends post. I told you last week to stop back for a play on "Mail from Grandma".

March is a very fun month for my Grandma and I. We both have birthdays in March, literally back to back. Mine was the 20th and my Grandma's was the 21st. Now the on going game each year is to see who's birthday will be on the first day of spring. This year it was mine but I guess you could say my Grandma's was the 1st official full day of spring :)...if you are in to technicalities.

So yesterday my family gathered together to celebrate Easter and my Grandma's birthday. I wanted to make her something "springy". Don't ask me why but I find Petit Fours delicate like new blooming spring flowers.

Mail "to" Grandma

Petit Fours

Ingredients:

Pound Cake
Buttercream Frosting
Jam of your choice

Powdered Sugar
Corn Syrup
Water
Almond Extract
Food Coloring

I purchased a half of a pound cake from the grocery store.

I cut the cake into thin slices and used my smallest circle cookie cutter to cut circles.

Next I used a thin layer of frosting and a thin layer jam on each circle and stacked 3 circles together. Then frosted the outside.

On the stove top I melted 3 cups of powdered sugar, 1/4 cup water and  1Tbs of corn syrup. I stirred to combined and brought to a temperature of 100 degrees F.

Once to 100 degrees I removed it from the heat and stirred in a splash of almond extract and coloring. I decided to make it mixer blue :) surprise surprise.

I poured the icing over your mini cakes. Which I placed on a rack with a cookie sheet under it to catch the icing.

I poured a second layer because the first layer was thin. Then I adorned with a pink candy on top.

I placed the Petit Fours in a flower cupcake liner and in a cute "springy" box to hand deliver to my Grandma.

Of course we had to sample. Look at the cute cupcake liner and the yummy layers. It was delicious, if I do say so myself :). Definitely worth the tedious work.

A half of a pound cake from the store will make about 12 Petit Fours. I would double the poured icing ingredients so you will have enough. I hope you enjoyed this "springy" idea. Now only if it will start to feel like spring around here.

Have a sweet day!

Cheesecake

Hello there. Sorry for not posting last week. It got super busy.

Today we were grocery shopping and it was decided I was making cheesecake. It's a funny thing, Brian does not have a sweet tooth like I do but he loves cheesecake. So when he gets a craving you kind of drop everything and make a cheesecake :)

Cheesecake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

6 Tbs melted butter

1/4 cup sugar

4 8oz packages of cream cheese

4 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 Tbs vanilla extract

In a bowl combined the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter and sugar.

Press into the bottom of a 10" spring form pan and place in the freezer for 10 minutes.

In your mixer cream together the cream cheese and sugar.

Add your vanilla and eggs slowly.

Pour the mixture into your spring form pan. I also lightly tap the pan to get the air bubbles out. 

Bake at 325 for 55 minutes. Cool completely and enjoy!

It was an extra special Sweet Tooth Saturday for me because Brian had a sweet tooth :) Yay for Cheesecake!

Stop by next Saturday for a special twist on Mail from Grandma.

Sourdough Blueberry Popovers

Hi everyone. So I came across this foodie calendar and thought it would be fun to implement it in my blog. So tomorrow, March 10th is National Blueberry Popover Day. I looooooooove blueberries and thought I would honor the day by making some popovers.

We have a sourdough starter that we have been feeding and making bread with. It was time to discard some of the starter so it worked out perfect because the starter is only used as a flavor in the popovers not as a rising agent.

Sourdough Blueberry Popovers

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sourdough starter

3 eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup flour

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup blueberries

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg

* Makes 6 popovers. You can easily double this recipe to make a dozen.

Whisk together sourdough starter, eggs, milk and salt.

Add the flour, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees and place your muffin tins in the oven while it is heating up. Once heated take the pans out and spray with cooking spray. Then fill to the top with batter and your blueberries.

Bake at 450 for 15 minutes then reduce the heat to 375 and bake another 15 minutes.

Look how they "pop" up!

They are so delicious with the blueberries and hints of cinnamon and nutmeg.

I hope your Saturday has been sweet and your Sunday is even sweeter with National Blueberry Popover Day!

Brown Butter Banana Cupcakes

What day is it??? Saturday? Sunday? That just goes to show you how busy my weekend was. Well happy Sweet Tooth Saturday/Sunday everyone!

This past week was my friend Makenzie's birthday. We had a little celebration at work. I wanted to do something special and unique for her. I also wanted to challenge myself a little with my baking.

Makenzie and her boyfriend have beehives they take care of and she always has awesome stories to tell about their experiences with the bees. I decided I was going to do something with beehives, honey and bees. I stumbled across this wonderful sounding recipe by Zoe Francois. You all need to check out her blog. She is an awesome and very talented baker and artisan. 

Brown Butter Banana Cake & Honey Buttercream

Zoe made a very cute beehive cake. I decided to make mini beehive cupcakes(easier to grab and eat at work). This recipe is a great one and SO delicious. 

Check out this link for the recipe and Zoe's blog: http://zoebakes.com/2011/06/22/beehive-cake-brown-butter-banana-cake-and-honey-buttercream/

See you all next week.