Carrot Cake & Lemon Bars

On Easter I decided to make a carrot cake and lemon bars (that's easter-y, right?) I apologize that there aren't any pictures with this post. I thought about not posting at all because of that but I thought, a picture-less post is better than no post at all.

So the carrot cake. amazingness. I'm making this again asap.

The recipe is found here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Carrot-Cake-III/Detail.aspx

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 cups grated carrots
• 1 cup chopped pecans
•  
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
4. To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in chopped pecans. Frost the cooled cake.

Seriously delicious. I put the frosting in the microwave for a few seconds so that it spread easily on the cake. Worked very well. Now I'm just wishing there was more of it.


As for the Lemon bars, I found this recipe on epicurious: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Lemon-Bars-101162

I haven't ever made lemon bars before but I found them really easy and pretty delicious.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

These were made a while ago but I lost the images until recently. Since I found them, I thought I'd share. I made these for an Oscar party (hence the red velvet - red carpet with added clear sprinkles for "bling").

Here's the recipe for the red velvet cupcake part:


Red Velvet Cupcakes 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 ounces water
2 ounces red food coloring
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Prepare cupcake tins as directed as directed in the recipe you are following.
2. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
3. Add eggs and blend well.
4. Make a paste of cocoa and food coloring and add to the butter mixture.
5. Sift flour and salt together into this mixture.
6. One at a time, add the following ingredients: buttermilk, vanilla, and water.
7. In a small bowl, combine the vinegar and baking soda. Fold it into the cake batter. Make sure it's incorporated, but don't beat it.
8. Pour the batter into the cupcake tins. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the cake springs back when touched.
9. Remove from oven and let cool for about 10 minutes, then turn the cupcakes out of the tins and onto a rack to finish cooling completely.

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These cupcakes were really dense. In thinking about it, all of my homemade cakes have been very dense and I'm wondering if it's because I don't use cake flour, I use regular flour. I've tried buying cake flour but they don't carry it at any of the stores I've been to. If anyone has any insight into this, let me know! I want to try it one last time with cake flour before I give up and get box mixes for cakes.


The icing, however was DEVINE. I highly recommend it and it was incredibly easy. 

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Here's that recipe:


Amy Sedaris's Vanilla Buttercream Frosting 1 box confectioners' sugar
1 stick unsalted butter
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract*
1/4 cup milk or light cream
food coloring (optional)

*Less than 1 teaspoon pure almond extract can be substituted.

In a bowl combine: one box of confectioners' sugar, one stick of unsalted butter, one teaspoon of pure vanilla extract, and 1/4 cup of milk or light cream and beat for a while. Really whip it, don't be afraid to get in there. I occasionally add food coloring and sometimes substitute pure almond extract for vanilla.
If you do choose to add pure almond extract instead of vanilla, you're on your own. I don't know the measurement for it, but I do know it's less than the amount of vanilla you would add.

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I used the vanilla extract. I wouldn't change a thing. Super delicious icing. 


Yum.

ps. I also enjoyed making these because I got to try out my new icing bag and tips. They make the icing look so much prettier... although I still can't figure out how to get them to look like the DC Cupcakes that look so incredible. 

To the Moms out there...

I found this great website that I wanted to share! It's http://www.ontobaby.com

Really cute stuff and a very well done site. This baby shower is especially cute.

And I have another confession to make. Well two confessions.

The first one is I apologize to those parents that get rid of their pets after they have a baby. I used to judge. I used to think, "then why even get a pet?" Yeah, and now I get it. They are dirty, they take up time and money and wake up the baby pretty much every. single. day. There's been more than once that I've wanted to dismember my dogs little bodies and bury them in the backyard. A little harsh? Maybe, but after you've spent a whole day just trying to get a grumpy little girl to nap and then they bark at the neighbor playing basketball in his front yard and wake her up... Yeah. Madness ensues.

My second confession is a baking confession. I don't know how to make french toast. I mean, I know the ingredients but every time I try to make it, it comes out gooey and undercooked in the center. I have trouble shot a few times and I still don't know what I'm doing. So if there are any french toast ninjas out there please share your secrets with me. I will love you forever.

Petite Pochettes

This recipe looks and sounds really complicated, but it's not. It's actually so easy that I prepared the dough with one hand while I held my daughter just out of her baby-arm's reach of the butter. These are delicious, flaky and amazingly sweet. Think kind of like mini-pies. But better.


The recipe is from the food network magazine and can be found online here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/melissa-darabian/petite-orange-and-raspberry-pochettes-recipe/index.html


(But I'm also posting it here with my pics and notes)

Ingredients

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1/3 cup orange marmalade
• 1/3 cup raspberry jam
• Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

*My friend made me some pineapple preserves with coconut and lime (I know right?! Amazing) so I decided to use her preserves in these little pochettes because it deserved something yummy. Wow. One word to describe that decision: epic. 

Directions

Beat the butter and cream cheese in a bowl with a mixer until light and creamy. Slowly add the flour, mixing just until a dough forms (do not overmix). Divide the dough into 2 balls, then flatten each into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Roll out 1 disk of dough on a floured surface with a floured rolling pin to 1/8 inch thick. Cut out as many rounds as you can using a 3-inch-round fluted cutter. Top each with a heaping half-teaspoonful of orange marmalade. Brush the edge of the dough with water, then fold the dough over to make a half-moon and press to seal. Place on an ungreased baking sheet. Reroll the dough scraps and repeat, then repeat with the remaining disk of dough, filling with the raspberry jam.

Bake the cookies until golden, 20 to 22 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely. Dust generously with confectioners' sugar.

So delish. One thing to know is this recipe only makes about 2 dozen of these so plan accordingly. They're pretty sweet so you don't really want more than two, but still, doesn't make a ton so you may want to double the recipe if you're making them for several people or an event. Enjoy!!!