It’s National Donut Day..! (Who spells it doughnut anyway?!)
And Talk about perfect Timing!

Careful.

Addiction Ahead.

These are the easiest things to whip up..
(And eat. All gone. Sorry about that.)

They remind me of fluffy Snickerdoodles.

Ingredients

• ½ C. Sugar
• ¼ C. Butter melted
• ½ c. milk (subst soy milk is fine!)
• 1 Tsp. Baking Powder
• 1 C. Flour

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a mini-muffin tin.
Mix sugar and butter in a bowl. Add baking powder, flour, milk and stir until just combined.
Fill muffin tins about ¾ full and bake for 15-20 minutes. (Turn up the heat on the oven to 375° to jumpstart the baking soda… a little science trick.) NOTE: no eggs! Interesting huh?

Topping

• ¼ C. Butter, melted
• ½ C. Sugar
• 1 tsp. Cinnamon

Mix the cinnamon and sugar together in a small bowl. Keep the melted butter in a separate bowl. When the muffins are done, remove them from the pan. Dip the tops of the donuts in the melted butter and then roll in the cinnamon/sugar mixture.

Let them cool…..

Hahahaha.. as if you’ll be able to let them cool first. That’s a good one!

In fact. You should double the batch. I did and it only made about 30 muffins. 60 mini donuts would be much better.

Yeah. Quadruple it. I dare you.

Happy National Donut Day!

You are SO wishing you were at my house this week!

I mean. 2 CAKES.

Like THESE.

Where WERE you?

First, the Chocolate Layer Cake of Ultimate Awesome Strawberry Splendor.

The recipe I stole borrowed called it Eggless Chocolate Cake, but whatever.(Thanks to @Foodwhirl for pointing it out!)

My husband likes strawberry shortcake for his birthday.
Every year.
But I figure, this IS a cake.
It has a LOT of strawberries in/on it. It counts. The chocolate is a bonus this year.

Here’s what you do. Go follow the recipe from Passionate About Baking. (Or make a Betty Crocker, whatever.) But THIS recipe comes out not too sweet or overwhelming. The strawberries shine and the dark chocolate GANACHE (you must say that with a french accent btw, more like gaNAWSH) stands out as the big flavor that binds the whole thing.

A food writer I am not. But seriously, try the eggless thing. It uses vinegar/baking soda instead so you have a mini volcano on your hands. (Not really, but my 7yrold little boy loves that science-y crap.)

If I were doing it over the one thing I would change would be to cook 4 different cakes instead of trying to cut two cakes in half for the four layers. Not sure it would work better, but I would try. Her photos are much prettier than mine and all smoothy smooth on the sides. Yeah, I was just proud of my first attempt at the whole ganache/gaNAWSH thing, so there.

The strawberry filling is maybe the most amazing thing on the planet, at least the most amazing I’ve tasted THIS WEEK. And super duper easy. The hardest part in the recipe is figuring out what the heck 200 grams of strawberries looks like? HUH?

I just chopped up about 1 1/2 lbs of the things and said a strawberry prayer when I threw them into the pot with the balsamic vinegar and  a little sugar.

YEAH. I said BALSAMIC.
I know. That strange and wonderful thing that normally I like drinking a bit with some bread on the side. It’s Fabulous, trust me. You whip up some light whipping cream and mix into the cooled strawberry jam-like stuff.

If you feel like it, stop there. Eat the strawberry filling on scones or biscuits and pretend you are British at a tea party.

OR—

Spread it on the layers of cake.

And now the gaNAWSH.
I googled what 200 grams of chocolate means and google thinks that’s 7 ounces of dark chocolate. I agreed. I melted it with more cream and at first I didn’t think it was working. It was kind of still separated and not gaNOSH-y at all. But then a magical thing happened and it was smooth and creamy and dreamy.

I googled HOW to put a gaNAWSH on a cake and YouTube says just pour straight from the pan. Okay? I did it.

I was a beautiful site watching it flow all over the cake and down the sides of the cake (and off the plate and onto the counter). I looked back at the recipe.

Oh. She ‘reserved’ a bit for more decorations. Hmmm.

Nevermind. Throw some strawberries on top and call it a masterpiece.

Really, it was the most perfect, moist, strawberry-ific, and chocolate masterpiece.
I’m crying a little as I type this.

NOW to put the RAWR back in Birthday Cakes for 7yrolds

Each year my kids pick out and dream about and deliberate what we will make for their birthday cake.
Usually starting the day AFTER their birthday. Usually it goes through many revisions.

We’ve had iPods, ballerina slippers, igloos, castles and yes we make them ourselves.
Sometimes we give in and buy a store cake, but really?

Isn’t this so much more fun and memorable for the kids?

Tony the Tiger was chosen many moons ago from a book called: Classroom Treats.
And the list of ingredients is long. But the overall effort to make it: EASY!

Make a Betty Crocker: one round, 2 cupcakes. (Eat the rest of the batter or make a few extra cupcakes.)
Buy all these ingredients:

• Oreos
• M&Ms
• Red Licorice Stings
• Chocolate Sprinkles
• HoHos
• Pink Airhead Candy
• Frosting, dye it orange

Look closely at the picture and make a Tiger Face. (Eat all the leftover candy, it’s a birthday party after all!)

Next, post your photo on Facebook, and be prepared for HUNDREDS of people weighing in to tell you how awesome you are. Who knew Tiger cakes would get so much traffic? I’m making a hippopotamus next week.

But really, this was very easy. The hardest part was getting the little sprinkles into triangles around the cake.

What do your cakes look like?

Camera Raw.

I tried it.
I LIKE IT!!

Check out this terrible photo. Yeah I’m awesome that way. Especially in the evening, in my kitchen with crapalicious lighting.

BUT…

Have no fear! I remembered I shot this in my Nikon D5000′s Camera RAW setting.

And Voilá!

Literally two steps later….

Seriously this is the same image, opened with Photoshop Elements 8 Camera RAW editor first. Clicked a few of the options and toggle bars… and oh my gosh! An image I wouldn’t have been able to save at all in a regular JPEG, is miraculously pulled back from the overexposed brink.

I am one happy photog mom right now.

I’d like to thank Marcel Walker! I managed to get a private Skype lesson a few nights ago. I begged her for a quick tutorial on photo editing with PSE. She took about 15 of my most favorite recent vacation photos and walked me through how to easily and quickly edit them like a pro (with the non-pro software!).

After the editing tips she asked if I ever shot in Camera Raw. I said no, I don’t really like sushi. She said just TRY it. You might like it.  And I did (camera raw not sushi-blech!). And now I need to go make more Strawberry Rhubarb Pie.

Oh and BONUS. I found out what LEADING means. (In the PSE Type Tool.. at the top where it has two little As stacked… when you have a second sentence changing this option moves the sentences closer or farther apart! Oh how I love Photoshop.)

Keeping on a  roll here. I found a tutorial for tricking PSE into letting you alter the spacing between letters in a word. It’s called ‘kerning‘. And in PSE it’s a bit strange as you have to turn on the Asian lettering? Weird, but hey.. it works!

Talk about chocolate BLISS.

My 12yrold came home from her church youth activity with Easy Chocolate Truffles! Wha… wow? I’m going to young women’s next time!
Get this. There are only three ingredients…

Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate 8oz.


Whole Package of Oreos

2} 8oz. Packages of Cream Cheese

Last weekend when she asked to make them at home… oh boy, she REALLY had to twist my arm.

And the little sister helped. She ‘shaped’ the truffles…

The recipe is all over the internet, google “easy chocolate oreo truffles” and you’ll find it.

Basically you simply use a food processor to grind up the Oreos then mix into the softened cream cheese (use your hands). Then form small balls (or hearts?) and dip in melted chocolate. (We melted the chocolate on medium low on the stove.) Let them cool for a few hours in the fridge and… (uh huh, we didn’t make it that long either!)

(shhh don’t tell your kids; it’s whole-grain-good-for-you)

A while back I posted a whole list of banana luv goodness.

And I promised I would one day share my very own Super Banana Bread Recipe.
First, I cannot seem to make regular size loaves come out right.  The middle never cooks? I gave up long ago. Instead I make muffins or mini loaves and the soggy center situation is history.

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Sugar (+/- to your taste)
• 2 Medium Bananas (or about 1 Cup)
• 1/2 Cup vanilla yogurt or sour cream
• 1 egg

Mix the above ingredients and add

• 1 Cup white flour
• 1/2 Cup Whole Wheat flour
• 1 teaspon soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 Tablespoons Whole Grains*
• Mix ONLY til combined and then add
• 1/4 Cup melted butter

Mix gently and pour in lined muffin cup pan or 3 small loaf pans.
Cook on 350° for 15-20 minutes. (Till toothpick comes out clean.)

*I LOVE love LOVE whole grain ‘cereals’ from Bob’s Red Mill. I rarely use them as a breakfast food. Instead I toss a couple handfuls in many of the baked goods and even dinners we eat. Ideas for adding whole grains to your otherwise less than whole recipes.

• Pancakes
• Spaghetti Sauce, I know, give it a try you’ll be surprised!
• Casseroles
• Lasagne
• Cakes
• Cupcakes
• Soups
• Salads (See my Over the Top Salad idea)