Pantone Cake | Happy Mother’s Day

My mother always wears red lipstick. I’ve never seen her wear any other color, and it’s almost as if the lipstick is a part of her.

Even as a toddler I remember her wearing red lipstick…

…and I may have also grafftied several walls with those lipsticks….

Because of the lipstick, the first color that comes to my mind when I think of my mother is a bright, vibrant red, which is what inspired this cake for her.

My original idea was to have a rainbow cake with six layers, however, I felt that was too  random. I still wanted to do a colorful cake however, so I thought of the various pictures of Pantone swatches I’ve been seeing on pinterest and tumblr lately, deciding to do a red gradient cake. One problem remained: usually when you do a gradient of red, it starts out pink, and pink was not a  color I associated with my mother’s character at all, thus I did a yellow to red gradient instead, which also reminded me of summer, her favorite season.

I had very little time, so by the time the cake layers were baked and ready to use, I didn’t have time to whip up icing, crumb coat the cake, wait for it to dry and then ice the entire thing. Instead I just used a white chocolate glaze on the whole thing,  which I now regret doing because the cake with glaze doesn’t taste as great as cake with icing. However by itself, it was great,with a soft and spongy texture.  For that reason, I’m only going to include the cake’s recipe, not the glaze, so instead I reccomend pairing the cake with swiss meringue butter cream(for which Kaitlin of Whisk Kid has an amazing step by step guide for).

White Cake 

Adapted from Whisk Kid

• 2 sticks (226 g) butter, room temp
• 2 c (426 g) sugar
• 5 egg whites, room temp
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 1/2 c (426 g) flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 1/2 c (355 ml) butter milk at room temperature
• Red and Yellow food coloring.

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Oil and line some 9″ cake pans(however many you have, I only have two so I reused them)
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Cream the sugar and butter, then add the egg whites and add them a little at a time. Add the vanilla and mix until fully incorporated. Then, alternating between wet and dry, add the milk and flour mixture in two parts.

Divide the batter amongst 6 bowls, (i just used my one cup measuring cup, and divided it up  among six bowls, but you can do it by weight as well, just make sure you weight the bowl you’re using before you put anything in it, and then weight it after you’re done preparing the batter, then subtract the weight of the bowl before from the weight of the bowl after, and then divide it by six and put that amount of batter into each bowl).  Next add the food coloring, here are the ratios for it

1st bowl: add as many drops as red food coloring as you want until it looks vibrant enough to you.

2nd bowl: add and yellow food coloring, and keep it to a ratio of 2 red drops to every one red drop(so basically if you ad five yellow drops, then you have to add ten red drops, that way it makes it more of a reddish orange). Don’t start out with ten yellow drops then, have to put in twenty red drops, the mixture will probably be overwhelmed by red, and it won’t look too different from the plain red. Start out with about four yellow drops and add eight yellow drops, until it looks like an orange tinged red to you.

3rd bowl: add red and yellow food coloring in equal amounts to make a regular orange.

4th bowl: add red in yellow food coloring, in the reversed ratio thats in the 2nd bowl, so basically 1 red drop to two yellow drops, to make a lighter more yellowy orange.

5th bowl:  add just yellow food coloring

6th bowl: just leave alone. it’ll be your white layer (  I made a white layer for my cake, however I just ate it plain instead of using it, because I ruined it because i forgot to line the pan before i put it into the oven.)

I’ve only given you the  ratio for the colors because I did this entirely by how it looked to me, and if the color of the batter was vibrant enough, so, keep in mind, that whatever color you see in the batter is exactly the color it will be after it bakes, it won’t darken or lighten or anything.

When you remove them from the oven, let them rest on the cooling rack, in the pan, for ten minutes, then remove it from the pan, and cover it and put it in the fridge to cool quickly, and then frost them with whatever you like.

Tip for frosting: Do a crumb coat, since this is a extremely colorful cake, any stray crumbs from the cake will look really bad if it gets into the icing.

for those who don’t know: a crumb coat is a thin layer of icing that you put on the cake and let it dry so that a layer forms around the cake to prevent crumbs from straying into the whiteness of your icing.

Happy Mothers Day!

~dee

Chocolate Silk Pie

I’ve spent many times in my life sitting down in the dark with my little sister watching movies. Movies fascinate me, with film making stories come to life. I haven’t had time for movies as of late, actually I haven’t had time for anything. However, this weekend, I finally managed to find some time for myself, and sit down to watch The Help. I absolutely loved the movie, it was sweet, had a good amount of laughs in it, along with a good amount of meaning as well. Also, the vintage clothes and the whole setting of the movie was great. One thing that really caught my attention was a chocolate pie that one of the characters, Milly, had made. So, as a result, I decided to make chocolate pie [not the special pie for Hilly(; ].

Chocolate silk pie is a symphony of rich, smooth,  chocolate, with a buttery graham cracker crust to top it all of. I’ve tried this recipe with a traditional pastry pie crust, however  found it to be not as amazing in taste. The filling and the crisp graham cracker crust are a perfect pairing, like peanut butter and jelly. The filling of the pie is perfectly rich,  smooth, and melts in your mouth. It’s absolutely amazing.

French Silk Pie

adapted from Pillsbury

• 1 Crust (crust recipe below) (you can use a store bought one, or a regular pastry pie crust, but believe me it tastes better with a graham cracker crust)
• 5 oz. semi sweet chocolate
• 1 cup room temperature  butter(do not use margarine)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 eggs(pasteurized)

Graham Cracker Crust

from allrecipes

• 1 1/2 cup of graham crackers
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 1/3 cup of melted butter

1. Prepare the crust by mixing together the sugar and graham crackers in a small bowl, and then adding the butter in, until the butter is evenly distributed. Dump the whole mixture into a 9 inch pie pan and press into the sides and bottom of the pie pan. Bake at 375 degrees F for 8-9 minutes(time may vary a little depending on your oven). Set aside to cool.

2. Melt the chocolate down using a double boiler, and set aside to cool.

3. Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy, and then add the chocolate(which is cool now) and the vanilla extract, until mixed in smoothly.

4. Add one egg in beating until the color lighten and the volume of the mixture increases( about  2 minutes on high speed).

5. repeat step four for the remaining two eggs.

6. pour the mixture into the pie crust(which must be cooled or the mixture will start to melt), and smooth the top over.

7.  Refrigerate for about 2 hours, garnish with whipped cream and whatever else you feel urge to add, and serve :)

Enjoy!

~ Dee :)

Almond Cookies | A Tradition

January has passed by in rushed afternoons, studying as the sun crept down the sky. I missed having time to relax, read, or even to bake. As you can see baking hasn’t quite been in my schedule as of late, and I started to miss spending afternoons stirring up ingredients, feeling the warmth of the oven against my face, and biting into my creations just as they came out of the oven. Finally after weekends of studying relentlessly, I finally found myself an hour of time.

With this extra time, I made these familiar little cookies. I grew up with them, watching my mother bake them at nearly every special occasion, however I never quite liked them, or appreciated them. Soon, my family’s life became a lot busier, and my mother stopped baking the cookies for a while and the tradition was forgotten.

But only for a while.

A couple of months ago, in December I had to complete a school project about my family’s traditions, and the very first thing I thought of were these little cookies. I did not have much time that particular weekend, and my mom was more familiar with the recipe, so I asked her to make them for me. When I finally bit into one I realized how much I had missed my mother’s cookies, and remade them for my family.

Almond Cookies

• 16 tablespoons butter at room temperature (I used browned butter, but that’s purely optional)
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 1/2 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup of ground almonds

1. Toast the almonds until golden brown.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and the brown sugar together until fluffy, then add in the egg yolk, oil and vanilla, and mix well.
4. Add a half a cup of flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix in well.
5. Repeat step three until all of the flour mixture is mixed in.
6. Add the almonds to the mixture, and mix in well. Scoop 1/2 a table-spoon for each cookie and roll them into a ball and space them out on a cookie sheet evenly.
7. bake at 350 degrees farenheit for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Christmas | Red Velvet

Christmas is one of those seasons that has a contagious mood, and it makes everyone want to be happy. The lights, the colors, and the happiness of the season is amazing.

My family isn’t Christian, but since we’ve been in America  for so long, we’ve taken on some of the traditions, and added many of our own.

The week before Christmas when I was four I  saw a red velvet cake for the first time. This may sound strange,  but in my little four year old head there were only to types of cupcakes: chocolate and vanilla, and chocolate was the better one.  When I saw this red velvet cupcake, frankly: it blew my mind, I was amazed, and immediately obsessed. So for that Christmas, a new tradition started: we would have red velvet cake for a snack on Christmas along with our tea. A strange tradition, yes, but it’s something I just love and look forward to every year.

The tradition has altered a little, now instead of just having cake, my sister decided that cupcakes were I quote: In style, and definitely cuter. Admittedly, I don’t like red velvet cake as much as I used to, the cake part’s flavor isn’t all that amazing. However my mother and sister are great fans, and I still remain a fan of cream cheese icing on the cake, so the tradition remains.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

From Confetti Cakes Cookbook, via Smitten Kitchen

• 3 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 ½ cup canola oil
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup of melted and slightly cooled semi sweet chocolate
• 3 large eggs
• At least five table spoons of food coloring (this can be increased or decreased by the red color you want, since this recipe has a good amount of chocolate in it, it takes a whole lot more coloring to make it red and same goes for any other colors you feel the urge to try out)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 ¾ cup buttermilk
• 2 teaspoons baking soda & 2 1/2 teaspoons white vinegar mixed together

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line cupcake tray with liners.
2. Whisk together the cake flour and salt in a medium sized bowl.
3. Mix together the canola oil, sugar, the chocolate and the eggs( don’t put the chocolate in immediately after heating it! Let it cool down a little, other wise it can scramble the eggs) in a large bowl until smooth.
4. Add the food coloring
5. Add the butter milk and the flour alternately to the oil/egg/sugar/chocolate bowl, and mix to smoothness, then add the vinegar/baking soda mixture…
6. fill the cupcake trays
7. bake for about 25 minutes(i reccomend letting it bake fifteen minutes, then coming back and checking, every five or six minutes after), until you are able to put a tooth pick in it, and pull it out cleanly.

The Icing.

• 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter room temperature (you need it at room temperature, other it won’t blend smoothly)
• 3 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted  ( you may need more if you want a stiffer icing, in these pictures i used 4 1/2 cups)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon espresso (optional, i just find that it adds something extra to the whole cupcake)

1. Mix together cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract, and espresso.
2. add cup, by cup of sugar and beat it, till fluffy and light. (mixers make it easier)

Note:  When frosting this, note that cream cheese frosting can be a little heavy, which is why i piped the icing on the pictures above a little flatter than i normally would.

Enjoy, and happy holidays!

Vanilla Sugar

A couple days ago I was sitting in my biology class, listening to my teacher talk about evolution, the past of earth, and fossils. Fossils were a subject that have fascinated me ever since I was a child, it amazed me how an animals body could turn into stone, however I never quite looked into it, intimidated and confused by the complex terms I didn’t understand, being the age of seven(even though I did try making my own fossils). However, when I grew older, I switched on to a different scientific fascination, forgetting about fossils until now. I’ve finally found out how fossils become the way they are, and the strange thing is, when I was reading about this, it reminded me vaguely of vanilla sugar. No, I don’t always relate everything I learn to baking, however this was one time I did :)

So with fossils what happens after its buried is that the minerals in the bones of the organism and other hard tissues get replaced with metal ions and other inorganic materials, and also combined with the pressure of the sediment on top of the whole thing transforms it.

With vanilla sugar you have two simple elements, sugar and a vanilla bean, with the insides scraped out. Now you leave them in an air tight jar for a while. The sugar starts to take on the smells and tastes of vanilla like the bones did with the metal ions and inorganic material. However in the end, unlike the process of fossilization, you end up with a delicious vanilla tinged sugar that adds a little flair to everything you put it in.

So, you ask, what exactly is vanilla sugar, and what do we do with it?

Well that’s simple. It’s simply sugar that  has this amazing vanilla taste to it, and you can do many things with it, like spoon a bit into your tea, or coffee in the morning, however I mostly prefer using it for making creme brulee, trust me it makes a difference compared to regular granulated sugar!

So I’ll start over from the beginning for how to make it.

you need:

A vanilla beans with the insides scraped out or used(i usually use mine in ice cream, and keep the pods around for exactly this purpose).

An airtight jar | I usually make really big jar of this but for depiction purposes:

and lastly: sugar. Just plain ol’ granulated sugar.

so what do you do with these?

1. Take the jar and fill it up with sugar(not fully to the rim. Just below is good.)
2. Take your vanilla bean, and push it into the middle of the sugar, like so:

3. Put it in the pantry wait for a month. Yes a month. Although I recommend checking on it every week and a half, because I’ve heard other food blogs say that their vanilla sugar was made much faster than mine. How do you know its ready? You open the jar, and the first you smell is the light aroma of vanilla, and if you taste the sugar it should definitely taste vanilla-y.

Bon apetit :)

~Dee D.

Simple Spinach Dip

School has finally started again, and as have the hectic days filled with work. Days seem to get shorter, and fall is soon approaching. The leaves haven’t yet fallen, but you can feel it in the air. I’d say fall is one of my favorite seasons, with its warmth of flavors, the colors, and even fall fashion. Its the season of pie, cinnamon, apples, and pumpkins. However, summer is also one of my favorite seasons, and one of the vegetables I see as part of the summer is spinach. It may seem strange, but its very much like summer, bright, vibrant and good for you. This post is a good bye to summer.

This spinach dip is a simple easy spinach dip, and you can add more to it to add a bit more of your own flavor to it. I’ve never made this recipe the same, not even once. What is here is simply a base, that you can add to, and make it better.

Simple Spinach Dip

adapted from Sailu’s Kitchen

• 1 3/4 a cup of spinach
• 1 tbsp. of butter
• 1 1/2 tbsp. flour
• 1 c. of milk
• 3 tbsps. of cheese
• 1/2 tbsp garlic
• any other ingredient you feel you want to add, to give it a little more flair :)

1. Parboil the spinach, adding a little bit of water to the bottom of a medium sized pan(until its about centimeter deep), and cover. Check every couple minutes, and cook until wilted.
2. Turn off the heat, and strain the spinach with a sieve to remove the water. Set aside
3. In a pan, melt the butter, then add the flour. Cook until slightly browned.
4. Add the milk and cook for approx 5-7 minutes on high-medium, until the flour/butter mixture is smoothly blended in.
5. Add the cheese, and anything else you want to add(such as more cheese/ different cheese or artichokes, or increasing the garlic, or instead using roasted garlic or whatever you feel is right)
6. Add in the properly drained spinach ( if theres too much water left in the spinach, it could mess with the consistancy of the dip).

Sometimes I even use this dip for a sandwich.

Bon apetit & happy fall!

~Dee D.

Europe

Houses in Burano, Venice

You may have noticed for the past month or so I’ve been a little absent…

No, I wasn’t being lazy and slacking off…I was actually in Europe! It was amazing, and I have some pictures and stuff to show you guys of places and things(including food).

I pretty much lived in London, and every now and then on weekends I would go with my family to other places in Europe, such as Scotland, Paris, Venice, and Rome.

So the first place I’d like to share with you guys…

Venice.

Gondolas in Venice

I would say, out of all the places I’ve traveled, this is the most amazing. It’s simply the fact that its such a different place from what people are normally used to. The whole city of Venice is quite literally on the water. There are no cars, just boats, and it is absolutely gorgeous, and magical.

A little off Venice, there is are three islands, Murano, Burano, and Torcello. The first one, Murano is famous for its glass making…

It’s a pretty great place, just like Venice, however on a smaller scale, and with much more beautiful glass.

If you ever visit, I would recommend checking out a glass blowing demonstation, its pretty amazing how the glass-blowers work with the glass.

A glass-blower in Murano 

The next island is an island famous for its lacework, and its amazingly colorful houses.

Its a great place to simply just walk around and admire the colors and beauty of the place. Even its windows are fascinating.

Another couple pictures of Burano/Venice

Gondolas in a canal

Houses In Burano, Venice

Gondolas

Venetian Mask Shop

Another thing Venice is famous for besides being on the water are their gorgeous masks. It really amazing.

The next place to show you is Paris.

I suppose I wasn’t as impressed with Paris as I expected it to be. Don’t get me wrong, it was a pretty amazing place(and the food…), but it struck me as any old big city. It was like london or new york with slightly different buildings, a different language, and a whole lot more bakeries. Still a great place to go though, here are some pictures…

The Louvre

The Louvre was amazing. Its crazy how there were so, so many pieces of art all in their, and some of this all being from so long ago. I did indeed see the original Mona Lisa, which was weird, and great in all.

A Stained-Glass Window in the Notre Dame

Another place that you must check out while in Paris is the Notre Dame. Its absolutely stunning, from the inside, because of all the huge stained glass windows.

Palace of Versailles

I feel as if I’m using the same adjectives too much, but once again, this was stunning. The Palace of Versailles is a great piece of history as well.

The Eiffel Tower

As for the Eiffel tower, at first when I saw it, I was quite confused. It didn’t live up to my expectations…however I had a ticket to go up on the Eiffel tower at ten thirty so I ended up staying a while. And I was quite glad I did, because the Eiffel Tower at night is completely different from it during the day.  And if you come at the right time, you can also watch it “sparkle”. I couldn’t quite capture the effect for you guys with my camera, which is why you see little white blotches all over it.

This isn’t something you really have to visit, I just thought it was interesting. Around the Eiffel Tower is bridge, and on that bridge, are hundred of locks,  and I suppose the couple puts them on there to symbolize their love. I found it strange how people all managed to do this… did just start out with one lock that people copied? Or was it a bunch of people who spread the word?

Sacre Coeur Basilica

The Sacre Coeur Basilica was also quite grand and this Basilica stood out to me the most for one reason. Its made out of color changing rocks which turn whiter when there is supposed to be bad weather, an effect which I  didn’t see, but I thought was very interesting.

Also around the basilica is the town of Monmarte, and even though its in France, its not at all like the places around it, it’s not very city-like, and its an interesting place to walk around.

The next place I went to was Rome. Rome’s history is honestly a very fascinating thing. Or to me atleast, I found it quite amazing how Rome rose to be such a great empire, and it also fascinated me how, it was so different from what it used to be, or it seemed to be different. Rome again, was your giant metropolis, but with amazing history and so many places from the past.

One of the places being…

…the Colosseum. Its really amazing how some thing so old still lasts today, and if you think about it you were in the same place people we standing hundreds of years ago.

The Trevi Fountain

The Trevi Fountian is also a great place to visit. Actually there are many, many fountains all around Rome, however I believe this is most likely the most famous of them all.

St. Pete’s Basilica, Vatican

St. Peter’s basilica, in the Vatican,  is probably the grandest of all the basilica’s I visited whilst in Europe. Its probably also, the most famous, because it is where the Pope is.

The Oculus of the Pantheon

Another church like the Sacre Coeur, which i found really interesting was the Pantheon. It was originally created as a temple to all greek gods, however it was converted to a christian church. Also as you can see, it has a hole in the top, called the oculus. The interesting thing about it, is that it is said, that it never rains in the pantheon.  The reason, which I will not reaveal here, is quite interesting, and its not because the oculus is sealed with glass.

And the last place I visited, was Ediburgh, Scotland. Once again, this place was also filled with sites of historic value. It’s also great to wander through the streets though, its very quaint, yet not so quaint.

Edinburgh also has many castles, and is home to Holyroodhouse, a residence of the queen. It was also fairly different from all the places I went, and I really liked it.

While i wasn’t off exploring these other places I just showed you, I stayed in London.

I honestly loved living in London. It was definitely different, from normal life, but I like it. The people in london seem much more relaxed than people in America. And it was great that to go places I mostly walked in the street, and used the tube which is something you can’t do in the suburbs of America. It may seem a simple thing, but I really liked it.

And I nearly forgot! What did I eat there?

Well many things. Most of which I forgot to take picture of for you guys. Don’t blame me, its was seriously yummy food!  But some of those things are already on this blog(such as tiramisu, which i had ALOT of in italy, panna cotta, crostata, and chocolate mousse), and others will soon be coming.

But here are somethings that I did remember to take pictures of…

Sticky Toffee Pudding

I like to consider this the british equivalent of apple pie. Its seriously yummy, and is even better warm with a scoop of ice cream on top.

This most likely will pop up on here sometime, as soon as i find a recipe :)

Belgian Waffles

Best waffles ever. Period. You don’t even need syrup.

Chocolate Bombe

This was so delicious, and so richy and creamy!  A bit like mousse…but thicker.

And I suppose that’s all. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Hope to blog soon,

Dee D.

Fudge | Summer

It’s really hard to believe that my first year as a freshman is over. It really feels like I was ranting about my fears of high school years just yesterday. I honestly anticipated this year to take forever, just like everything I don’t like seems to take, but really it just rushed right by. I’m surprised that I’m now a sophomore. I can still remember clearly of how I walked into the high school for the first time as a student, and wondering why school decor was always so drab.

And so sophomore year starts…

On a brighter note: I have a quick and simple recipe to share!

It’s fudge.

A fudge shortcut. Its ridiculously easy to make, and you can make it in ten minutes.

Seriously.

Oh and one last little thing: I made a face book page for the blog! Go and check it out and like it!

Here’s the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Notorious-Experiments/182235575167065?ref=hnav

and here is the recipe:

Simple Fudge

PS: before you start making this recipe, know that it is very, very sweet. I rarely eat more than one or two pieces in a sitting because it is simply that sweet.

Adapted from Baking Addiction

•  3 cups chocolate chips(semi-sweet or dark chocolate is good, in the pictures above I used dark chocolate)
• 14 oz of sweetened condensed milk
• 1/4 a tsp of salt(fleur de sel is preferable but i have used regular table salt sometimes)
• 1 1/2 a tsp of vanilla
• if you really want to add some sort of nuts or something go ahead!(i recommend about a cup)

1. Line an 8 x 8 pan with aluminum foil
2. Mix together the chocolate, condensed milk, and salt in a medium pan, until the chocolate is completely melted and blended in.
3. Remove from heat and add in the vanilla.
4. working quickly pour the mixture into the lined pan(or else it will cool and harden, and when you’re smoothing the top, it’ll start cracking[it will look like its cracking], and it will look strange)
5. Cool in the refridgerator for at least 45 minutes or until it is completely cold and firm.
6. To cut it: make sure you use a knife with no ridges, or anything on the blade, other wise the edges of the fudge pieces will look strange. You want a knife like this:

Enjoy!

~Dee D.

Strawberry Tart | Me

Dear Readers,

I’m sorry I haven’t been around…

I’ve been caught up in some of my business(which involved staring at textbooks and math equations relentlessly)…

If you’re a new reader, hello and welcome :)
Hope are enjoying it :)

This is going not going to be one of my usual posts, it’s going to be somewhat more quick and direct because at the moment I am busy, and I just wanted to post something quickly…

Also, some of you commented and emailed me for step by step pictures of each of posts, and here’s why I don’t want to do this:

I have nobody around most of the time to take pictures for me, so I’ll have to take them myself. No it’s not because I’m lazy, it’s because I will get involved in what I’m making and forget to take pictures, so you’ll probably end up with half of the pictures for all the steps…

I will try however :)

I know I’ve said this before, but just in case you don’t know: if some of you have questions about anything, feel free to email me, or just leave a comment below, and I’ll reply to your email and/or comment! My email is: thenexperiments@live.com. If you want to tweet me as well, go ahead! My username is @thenexperiments (there’s also a follow button on the side somewhere).

Now about this tart I’m supposed to be talking about… I’ve had this recipe, and these pictures for a while now, except I never got around to posting, and I forgot about it, until now when I realized it was strawberry season, and this would be perfect for use!

I really love this tart. Its crust is amazing, and ridiculously flaky and buttery. The pastry cream, isn’t fully solid but it ta

stes great, and it uses a only a little of heavy cream(I’m really attempting to find recipes for things without heavy cream, its notoriously bad for you! How ever I am being a little hypocritical, considering the tart shell, but I cannot not use that shell! its amazing!)…and the topping of the fresh

strawberries really just is great :) It adds a fresh taste to it :)

Hope you try and enjoy it!

Fresh Strawberry Tart

• 1 pack of strawberries(16 oz.) quartered.
• tart shell(recipe below)
• pastry cream (recipe below)

Use this recipe from David Lebovitz for the tart I followed the whole thing exactly, and he has pictures of certain steps as well :)

Pastry Cream

Modified from Barefoot Contessa in Paris via Culinate

• 5 large egg yolks at room temperature
• 3/4 a cup sugar(I didn’t fully fill each of the cups to minimize the sugar content in this  somewhat)
• 3 tbsp. corn starch
• 1 1/2 cups of scalded milk(scald the milk by heating it at a medium, until it develops a skin on top and that skin starts to rise and turn off the heat before the whole thing boils over. note: scald this right before you start the first step of this)
• 3/4 tsp. pure vanilla extract.
• 1 tsp. rum
• 1 tbsp.unsalted butter
• tbsp. heavy cream

1. Whip up the eggs and sugar, until it become a very pale, almost white-ish yellow and the mixture will be very thick.
2. If you are using a mixer, lower the speed of the mixer and add in the corn starch. if you are doing this by hand, simply mix in the cornstarch.
3. Then while constantly mixing pour the scalded milk into the egg yolk and sugar mixture. Don’t stop mixing, or the eggs may scramble.
4. Pour all of this, in to a medium pan, and put it on medium heat stirring with a whisk.
5. After a while this will start to look at though it is curdling, so at this point start stirring vigorously with the whisk.
6. after a while it will come together a little bit more and that is when you put in the rum, vanilla extract, butter, and heavy cream. Stir it in and continue to cook for a minute, then remove from heat.
7. Grab a strainer, and put it over a a bowl and strain the mixture.
8. Cover the bowl of the mixture, and put it in the refrigerator until it is cool.

To assemble tart:

1. make sure pastry cream, and the tart shell are cooled down completely.
2. pour the pastry cream into the tart shell. Be careful, the tart shell is a little delicate, and spread it out evenly.
3. top the whole thing with the strawberries, you can simply toss them on there, or arrange them like I did, what ever you like.

Note: this recipe for this tart can be pretty flexible.

So you say you want lime and coconut tart? Add approximately a teaspoon(taste and adjust) into the pastry cream, and a half cup of coconut, and top the whole thing with shredded coconut.

Or if you want a black forest gateaux inspired one, cut up some maraschino cherries, and mix them into the pastry cream, and replace some of the flour inthe tart dough with chocolate powder, and cover it all with a chocolate glaze perhaphs.

Be creative, and if you have any questions email me.

Hope you enjoy!

Blondies | Hello Spring

I love spring, its one of the most beautiful seasons, with birds coming out of hibernation, flowers blooming, and the very best part: more sunlight.

The lack of sunlight is one of the biggest reasons I despise winter. The sun used to set at five everyday, and even then it was so drab and depressing because the sun almost never came out from the clouds…but now a five, the sun is still out shedding its vibrant rays of sunshine upon us.

I would say flowers are my very favorite part, however I have ridiculous pollen allergies…although I’m not experiencing  the allergies that badly this year, the occasional sneezing fits…well they’re not fun.

I remember back in first grade where they used to be truly horrible, that one day in class my teacher took pity on me, and let me be teacher for half a day, because she felt bad for me. She even colored my project in for me. I loved that day, and i still do :)

But even with that I still think spring is wonderful. And to celebrate I baked some of my favorite baked goods: Blondies.

I really love blondies. In fact I love them more than brownies!

Just because I’ve encountered a lot of confusion when I’ve mentioned blondies, I ‘ll explain what they are: Like chocolate cake is the opposite to vanilla cake, the opposite to brownies, are blondies! Where brownies depend upon chocolate to flavor it, blondies depend on butterscotch like flavor. Both have the same density(between a cake and fudge), its simply their flavoring that differentiates them.

They are amazing, so buttery and lighter in taste than brownies, which are rich and somewhat heavy tasting.

Blondies

Adapted from Whipped 

• 1 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 c. & 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• any extra toppings that you want such as nuts or chocolate chips and such.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees farenheit.
2. Line an 8 inch baking pan with baking parchment, or aluminum foil.
3. Sift together flour baking powder and salt into small bowl. Set aside.
4. In a medium saucepan melt the butter down, and cook until it starts looking brown and smells nutty.
5. Add the brown sugar, and continue to cook until this darkens slightlfy, smells like butterscotch and the sugar is fully melted down. *If the sugar for some reason isn’t melting, which has happened to me sometimes, remove it from heat and put it in a medium sized bowl letting it cool for two minutes, then add in the eggwhisking the whole time. If you stop whisking the eggs will scramble. If the sugar starts chunking up its okay! Mix as much as you can until the bottom of the bowl feels very mildly warm to the touch, then grab a sieve, and drain the what ever liquid-y parts you have in to a small bowl and reserve that. Grab your food processor, and put the chunky sugar parts in the sieve into the food processor and blend until it is no longer chunky, then put this back in the medium sized bowl that you started with, and add that liquid part that you had reserved. Stir in the vanilla.* How ever if your sugar did properly melt down, remove it from heat, stir it a little with a wooden spoon until cool down a little for approx 4 mins. Then add in the eggs and the vanilla mixing constantly.
6. Stir in the flour mixture, and any additional toppings that you chose, spoon the batter into the baking pan, and spread it evenly.
7. Bake until the center of the batter seems set(approx 20-25 mins)
8. After taking it out, let it cool completely, then remove the baking parchment or aluminum foil, cut and enjoy! :)

~Dee D.