All posts tagged Baking
This Strawberry Coconut Cake made many people happy, including the one year old tasting cake for the first time in her life. Since the birthday girl can not yet talk, her older sister made the decision that the cake be strawberry. I got the cake recipe over at the Southern Plate. The frosting was my butter cream with coconut pressed into it. I tinted the coconut a hot pink for a fun effect. The red and white mushrooms were created out of fondant with my Cricut Cake using the Freshly Picked cartridge. The little white bunny was made by hand out of white fondant. I made the bunting out of vintage pillow case fabric and backed each one with felt triangles. I sewed it onto pink and white twist Bakers Twine and then tied the bunting onto wooden skewers. Not only was it super cute – it tasted yummy too!
Since I had some left over mascarpone in the fridge from another recipe so I thought I should use it up. I made some delicious lemon cupcakes and frosted them with the mascarpone and topped with slivered almonds and drizzled with honey. Yum! My baking studio is getting a lot of use these days. I am sweating anyway so I might as well bake! Click here for the Lemon Cupcake Recipe
After receiving nearly 10 lbs of figs from a friend I had to begin the hunt for recipes. I love recipe hunting using a key ingredient in the search. The fig search turned up mostly desert and pork recipes which I will gladly participate in but I also found some great other items that I will try out too. Of coarse the first thing out of the tall one’s mouth was could you make a fig pie? I wasn’t really feeling up to rolling dough but I did agree to a cake. So my first fig recipe installment is a delicious fresh fig coffee cake. It is excellent the next day after hanging out in the fridge overnight and served as cold breakfast coffee cake.
Here is the Recipe thanks to Karin Christian found on allrecipes.com. I altered a bit to serve my needs.
Fresh Fig Cake
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup chopped fresh figs
- 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 cups chopped fresh figs
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 8-inch round cake pans with vegetable oil spray.
- In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking powder. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream butter with the sugar until fluffy.
- Add egg and beat well.
- Add flour mixture.
- Add evaporated milk.
- Fold in vanilla and almond extracts and chopped figs.
- Divide into two prepared 8 inch round cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out dry.
- To make the filling: In a saucepan, combine 2 cups figs, brown sugar, water and lemon juice. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until thickened, about 20 minutes. Spread thinly between layers of cake and on top.
- With the left over evaporated milk, add a teaspoon of vanilla, a 1/4 cup of powder – mix. Pour over top of cake.
After reading the book Hattie Big Sky I have been uber inspired to use what I have in my pantry and freezer and add only fresh veggies, milk and eggs. My first day of this I whipped up a really delicious baked pasta dish. The tall one asked where I found the recipe! Ha – invented out of ingredients I had on hand. I also made home made biscuits. They didn’t really rise and didn’t look that great but they tasted fantastic. For desert I made a baked cream of wheat pudding that received rave reviews from all! I love being limited – it really makes me so creative. I am also now working on raised bed planter boxes to grow veggies – thanks Hattie Big Sky for the inspiration! Find that crazy cream of wheat pudding recipe here: cream of wheat pudding
For a Memorial Day BBQ I thought I’d compliment the dogs and burgers with a yummy butter pecan cake decorated red, white and blue. It was pretty tasty and was frosted with butter cream frosting. The blue stars are made from colored fondant and were cut on my Cricut Cake using the Independence Day Cartridge.
