photo courtesy of Linda Bainter at lovinthelight.com
Okay, so this is probably my dearest baking recipe. This is my “fancy white cake” recipe, if you will. This is the recipe I use for wedding cakes and special occasions. It is more work than any other cake recipe and it is infinitely more perfect in flavor and texture because of it. Call me shallow, but I DO judge books (and movies) by their covers (and rightfully so, or else there wouldn’t be people out there being paid to try and make them look appealing, thank you very much) and therefore it is super important to me that when I cut into a cake I’ve made, it makes this perfect, flat, clean cut and doesn’t crumble into a hot mess all over the place. So this cake really is perfect (see above). My favorite pairing with this light vanilla-almond white cake isfrom a raspberry jam (with seeds if people don’t mind—yum!). The original recipe pairs it with a white chocolate buttercream (used in the picture above to create rosettes), which is delicious, light, and sweet and I will post as well. It isn’t my normal crusting buttercream that I use for wedding cakes, but I will post that another day. So if you are feeling ambitious or have a special event coming up, give it a go! Or call me and I will make you something special ; )
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So somehow I have gone my whole cooking “life” without ever making a meatball. It has literally never even crossed my mind. Strange, huh? I’ve had loads of delicious bbq meatballs at parties on toothpicks and loved them and never thought to ask for the recipe. And if I ever wanted spaghetti and meatball(s) I’d call up the road for some take out with a big bowl of garlic knots (yum! and I put the ‘s’ in parentheses because that wonderful place does one BIG meatball….mmm…). So after 3 days of having a fever and eating ‘cup of noodle’ 3 meals a day (ironically while watching a marathon of Worst Cooks in America BTW…woops…) I decided it was the time to treat my sweet hubs and myself to some real food courtesy of my own personal chef slow cooker.
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I got a special request to make these. My Uncle saw it and posted the link on my wall for Thanksgiving, which we wouldn’t be home for. I thought it was cute and forgot about them, but as Christmas got closer my mother informed me that my Uncle had hinted that he sure would love to try one of those apple pie apples….wink wink, nudge nudge. Of course, after looking them up to find the directions, the first thing that pulled up was a link to a “pinterest fail” with a picture of how it looked on pinterest (perfect little apples, browned and round) next to the “my attempt” picture, which looked more like the poor girl put mini bombs inside of each apple because they had literally exploded into a big mushy mess. Needless to say, I was a little worried as I embarked on making these myself. Luckily, they came out beautifully and were delicious (plan to put a scoop of vanilla on top if you have the chance!) although they don’t keep well so cook them accordingly so they can be eaten within a few hours of being out of the oven. Rumor is you need to keep an eye on them and don’t over bake, I believe that’s when the explosions occur, as the apples get too soft and you’ll end up with apple sauce.
The recipe is per apple, which gives you the flexibility of picking the number of apples you want to do. We did 8, 4 granny smiths and 4 fuji apples. The best types of apples for pies are granny smiths, braeburn, fuji, and pink lady apples. Some less easily available but delicious choices if you can find them are jonathan, jonagold, pippin, and gravenstein apples. Some to avoid are red delicious and golden delicious, gala, and cortland, since they tend to become mealy in pie fillings.
I baked these right after flying in to my mom’s house the night before Christmas Eve, so I opted for a premade pie dough in the refrigerated section and it made this recipe even easier and was delicious. If you have the time, try out making your own dough which I will post below as well.
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I love blueberry muffins. They are the all pleasing breakfast treat, always welcome and always yummy. Recipes vary here and there but overall they end up with the same basic result. This recipe is the recipe you’ve been looking for. The recipe I always wanted but never found. It’s the kind of muffin you’d want to make if you owned a bakery because it’s better than JUST a blueberry muffin. It’s a blueberry muffin with swirls of homemade blueberry jam and a lemon sugar crust to top. It’s simple yet grand, soft yet crunchy. It may seem like a lot more work than your typical muffin recipe but really it’s just an extra 10 minutes. And I will let you in on the modifications to make it a healthier option as well—using some applesauce, splenda, and wheat flour. It’s now the only blueberry muffin recipe I use, and I get rave reviews every time. And to really impress or for a great gift, make them jumbo size.
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I saw this and knew we would love it. The idea of this recipe is simple and brilliant. It’s everything lovable in a simple Italian meal, all in one beautiful presentation. Pasta, sauce, cheese, and delicious garlic bread. One of our favorite recipes is also a crescent roll style braid, and I love the variability in these types of meals because they are easy to change up to fit different tastes or what you have on hand. This was easy and delicious, I made it without any meat to save some time, but some sausage or ground beef/turkey would add something extra as well.
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