All posts tagged Baking
The King Cake is a Mardi Gras tradition that involves a bread type cake, a small plastic baby, and a party. Legend says the King Cake has a small plastic baby hidden inside and the person who gets the slice with baby in it has to host the next party. This recipe offers thriftiness because it makes two loaves, enough to freeze and save for later. It is a labor of love but well worth the all day process and since most of the ingredients are in your pantry, it’s a lot cheaper to make a King Cake for Mardi Gras then to rush out and buy one.
Learn how to make a Mardi Gras King Cake from my piece at The Phoenix New Times Chow Bella blog post: Mardi Gras King Cake
Lasagna can seem like an ingredients-heavy meal with a lot of steps and full of fat from the noodles and cheese, but there are ways around all of the road blocks. Make it simple by using “no-boil” lasagna noodles, skip the meat and add in grated vegetables for a sneaky healthier — and affordable — option.
Learn how to make this quick recipe from my piece at The Phoenix New Times Chow Bella blog: Quick and Sneaky Lasagna
What’s better then home cooking? Home cooked baked goods – that’s what! This week I am sharing the brownies I made for Valentine’s Day and decorated with powdered sugar. What made these extra special? I used my Cricut and the Valentines Day Cartridge: Love Struck to cut out paper “candy hearts” designs. I laid those paper cut outs on top of the brownies and used a flour sifter to coat with powdered sugar. Results? Love, kisses and a smiles all around.
Step 1: Mix up Brownie Recipe. For my homemade brownies click here: Valentines Brownies
Step 2: Pour the mix into a 5 inch pan.
Step 3: Take out of the oven, allow to cool, place paper cut outs on top
Step 4: Fill a hand squeeze flour sifter with powdered sugar and coat the top of the brownie. Remove paper hearts.
Step Five: Enjoy!
Happy Crafting and Happy Eating – Yum! xoxo Lovely Lula
While helping an elderly neighbor of mine to unpack all of her Christmas things I came across a vintage ornament printed with a recipe for Campbell’s tomato soup cake. She shared with me that this was a popular thing to do bake in the day when you were trying to be thrifty and change up flavors. It was also from the hay day of adding cream soups to everything. Those days have died out somewhat, but for a thrifty Christmas throwback I thought I would give it a shot. I didn’t follow their recipe because they just used a boxed cake mix and I am more interested in the “from scratch” approach. I added a contemporary spin by making the recipe into cupcakes instead of a cake. They are actually pretty good.
Learn how to make Tomato Soup Spice Cupcakes via my post over at Phoenix New Times Chow Bella blog: Tomato Soup Spice Cupcakes
Have you been invited to yet another cookie exchange this holiday season? Racking your brain on which recipes to make? What if you could make just one batch of dough and then add in different things to make variations off of the basic recipe? Guess what? You can!
Read my post at Phoenix New Times Chow Bella: Basic Dough Makes Cookies 15 Ways.
Some variations I recommend:
1. Make shaped sugar cookies
2. Mini tart shells
3. Add 2 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder to make chocolate cookies
4. Add a few drops food coloring to make colored cookies such as green wreaths or red candy canes
5. Add 2 tablespoons of instant espresso powder or instant coffee to make coffee flavored cookies
6. Add 1 tablespoons of pumpkin pie spice to make spice cookies
7. Add essential oils such as 2 tablespoons of mint to make pepper mint flavored cookies
8. Add 2 tablespoons of maple syrup to make maple flavored cookies
9. Add ½ cup nuts to make nutty cookies
10. Add ½ cup dried cranberries or other dried fruit to make cranberry, date or fig cookies
11. Add ½ cup fruit jam to make a fresher fruit cookie (can dollop into the center)
12. Add 2 tablespoons of liquor to make an alcohol infused cookie
13. Add ½ cup peanut butter to make peanut butter cookies
14. Add ¼ cup marshmallows and ¼ cup chocolate chips to make a s’mores style cookie
15. 14. Add ½ cup of shredded, toasted coconut to make toasted coconut cookies
