Rainbow Cake For Cake: 2 1/4 cups cake flour (9 ounces) 1 cup whole milk, at room temperature 6 large egg whites (3/4 cup), at room temperature 2 teaspoons almond extract 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar (12 1/4 ounces) 4 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon table salt 12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened but still cool Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple gel food coloring For Frosting/Filling: 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar 10 large egg whites 2 pounds (8 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons, softened 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 1 pound best-quality white chocolate, melted and cooled Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare your cake pans by first liberally buttering the pans, then line the bottoms with parchment paper rounds. Butter the rounds and set aside. Pour milk, egg whites, and extracts into 2-cup glass measure, and mix with fork until blended. Divide batter evenly between six medium bowls. Let cakes rest in pans for 3 minutes.
28 Muffin Recipes You’ll Want to Try I love muffins. I love them even more than cupcakes. Probably because they are so quick to make. Of course, not all muffins are the sweet variety. Here’s a list of muffin recipes gathered from this site and all around the web too. Snickerdoodle Muffins – Just like the cookie, only in muffin form. Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins Cranberry Muffins with Orange Marmalade Glaze – The glaze would be really good on other kinds of muffins too. Chocolate Chip Muffins Blueberry Muffins with Orange Glaze Apple Brown Betty Muffins Poppy Seed Muffins Blueberry Sour Cream Muffins Graham Muffins Pumpkin Muffins Argan Banana Muffins from Maroc Mama Sweet Potato Spice Muffins from The Jammie Girl Pumpkin Muffins with Streusel Topping from Hoosier Homemade Banana Muffins with Tart Lemon Icing from Addicted to Recipes Apple Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffins from Barbara Bakes Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins from Mommy Hates Cooking White Chocolate Pineapple Muffins from Mommy Hates Cooking Pear Muffins from The Happy Housewife
rolled paper flowers {tutorial Welcome to flower week – five days of simple and delightful flower projects. I could probably do three weeks of flowers because there are so many different ways to create them, but I’ve limited it to five of my current favorites. Before we get started, let me make a few disclaimers: 1. 2. 3. Okay, so let’s begin. Here’s what you’ll need: :: paper {either cover or text weight} :: florist wire :: scissors, pencil, glue gun STEP ONE: cut irregular circle This circle is approximately 8 inches, but you can do any size you wish. STEP TWO: cut spiral Start at the outside edge and cut in a spiral fashion to the center. I like a sort of bumpy shape so that the petals end up a bit irregular If you aren’t so sure about your cutting skills, feel free to draw your spiral before cutting. To add a little interest to my bouquet, I used a variety of yellow scrapbook papers {my favorite is that yellow dot} STEP THREE: roll your blossom start at the outside edge and coil tightly STEP FOUR: release coil
Macaroni & Cheese There’s nothing that can be said. But there is much to be eaten. Come, my child…come. I shall take you by the hand and take you where you need to go. I shall show you the food that is solely responsible for my bones and tissues multiplying and growing at a young age. It’s macaroni and cheese. Come…come, my child. I shall show you the way. Elbow macaroni. You’ll need butter. And just note that I pretty much never use unsalted butter except for a few select baking recipes. All-purpose flour. WHOLE MILK. Dry mustard. 1 egg. And cheese. But today, it’s all cheddar, all the time. Cook 4 cups dried macaroni until it’s very “al dente”. Nutshell: Undercook the macaroni! Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk the egg. Add a good teaspoon or so of salt to the water. Now, in a large saucepan or dutch oven, melt 1/4 cup (1/2 stick OR 4 tablespoons) butter. Sprinkle in an equal amount (4 tablespoons) flour. Whisk the mixture together over medium-low heat (careful not to burn!) Whisk it together…
Strawberry Shortcake Snake | Themed Cakes This photo originally appeared in FamilyFun Magazine Ever wonder how many seeds sit on a typical strawberry? Two hundred, to be exact. But even more impressive is the amount of vitamin C strawberries pack. One serving, which equals about eight medium berries, provides 130 percent of our bodies' daily requirement. Whether you're choosing a cartonful at the grocery store or picking your own at a farm, look for bright-red color, a sheen and fresh-looking leaves. With plenty of strawberries fresh from the patch, summer is no time to scale back on dessert, particularly if one of these shortcake snakes winds up on your plate. What you'll need How to make it Heat the oven to 400 degrees.
Vertical Layer Cake Tutorial I really need to preface this tutorial with... I am sorry. I am SURE there are easier ways to do a Vertical Layer Cake. But I was being a brat for my birthday. I wanted real cake, and not sponge cake. I wanted two different flavors. I wanted massive amounts of frosting. Hence, I bucked every traditional mold I had seen for a vertical layer cake and made my own. Sorry. The second time making the cake I was surprised by how quickly everything went. Huh. Anywho... Here is an important step... I then placed the cut parts together. The reason I do this is: 1. 2. 3. If you have a 5in deep cake pan and can successfully bake a 5in cake then just do that! Now! We will begin to cut out our layers! I simply used a cardboard cake round as my guide. I am now going to cut off the outside circle. Place the template back on the cake. Follow the template as close as you can. You are going to do this with BOTH cakes. Now I cut off another circle and started the process again. Do this to both cakes. 1. 2. 3.
The Butter Steak: What's the Best Way to Cook a Steak? I'm not interested in carbonizing the surface of the meat. To me that ruins the flavor. - Alain Ducasse It was a bachelor weekend of sorts. This should have been a simple meal, one requiring little skill beside turning on the stove and plopping a pan on a burner. My initial thought was to mimic the technique nearly every serious steak house in the Midwest does: broiling it under an inferno. But I was a little taken aback by what I read. And it's science that I don't quite understand. Though I am intrigued by the science, what honestly sold me was the serious food porn on eGullet's site. It would require skill and care. Still I had my doubts. I adjusted the cooking times, hoping that I could still get a nice a rare steak, but I was just a little off. The Butter Steak 1 16-ounce Ribeye 2 tablespoons butter 2 cloves garlic salt and pepper I set an iron skillet over medium heat. I cooked it for about 5 minutes until it had rendered a decent amount of fat.
10 great science fiction novels that have been banned @djscruffy: And that's why you're a heathen and should be burned at the stake. @djscruffy: In defense of public schools, I would suggest that the reason many of these books are challenged so often is that they're frequently included in school curriculums and libraries. I grew up in a state that, according to these links, engaged in book-burning less than a decade before my birth. That makes me shudder. I suppose I've wandered a bit. @djscruffy: To be fair, it's not usually the schools that want to ban the books, but the few overprotective parents who make wild assumptions about the books we try to teach. Most of us really try to teach the kids to think, rather than becoming nice little automatons.
Magazine/Cookbook Monday: Slow-Baked Mac and Cheese Happy Monday! And my second official Magazine/Cookbook day! awhoohoo! This week I wanted something easy because I was focusing on cupcake making.... more on that later ☺... So I picked a recipe from a cookbook that I have had for awhile but have actually never used, "Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes for Two" by Beth Hensperger. Slow- Baked Mac and Cheese Recipe Courtesy of "Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes for Two" Ingredients 1 1/2 cups milk One 12 oz can evaporated milk (I used skim, evaporated milk keeps the egg and milk from curdling) 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted, cooled to room temp 3 large eggs 1/2 tsp salt 3 cups (12 oz) shredded cheese (I used an Italian blend, recipe calls for Italian fontina cheese) 1/2 pound elbow macaroni or mini penne tubes, par cooked and drained (this means cook them for about five minutes until tender but not completely cooked) Freshly ground black pepper to taste 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese on top.
Chocolate Buttercream | Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting I know that saying anything is the best is a bold statement, but I stand completely behind this one. There’s nothing I love more than buttery, satiny smooth and sublime frosting. And few things are worse than an absolutely subpar frosting. You can easily play around with this basic recipe to make a milk chocolate frosting, straight up dark chocolate frosting, white chocolate too. Looking for some chocolate cupcakes to put under this frosting? What’s your favorite cupcake/frosting combination? One year ago: How to Roast Garlic Yield: Enough to frost 12 cupcakesPrep Time: 15 minutesTotal Time: 15 minutes Ingredients:1 cup (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature 2½ cups powdered sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 4 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooledDirections:1.
Absolutely Amazing DIY Birthday Cakes! Parenting.com has a fabulous birthday cake gallery/tutorial that is nothing short of AMAZING! Each of the 31 cakes in this gallery comes with step-by-step instructions on how you can recreate it at home. There’s some serious creativity & resourcefulness going on here! Pictured at top: Castle cake – featuring ice cream cone turrets…SWEET! Pictured below: Pirate Ship and Soccer Ball cakes. This Lion cake design is adorable too… especially the chow-mein noodle “mane”! More favorites pictured below: Purse Cake with Giant Tootsie Roll handle, Train Birthday Cake – Engine (also check out the entire train cake) ,Ladybug cupcakes, Snake cupcakes, Dump Truck cake, ridiculously clever French Fries cake (toasted pound cake slices with red frosting dip!) Click here for a thumbnail view of all 31 cakes!
Food You Can Make in a Coffee Maker Like so many before me, I was once hungry in college. With term papers looming and the dining hall already closed for the night, food had to come from somewhere. That was the night I learned to make ramen in my coffee maker. At first I was nervous, pouring the hot water over noodles in my bowl, covering them, and letting it steep. This was cheap food prepared in as cheap a manner as possible. 1. Put two packets of instant oatmeal into the carafe. A dead simple recipe, but with the twist of adding a tea bag for flavor. 2. Fill a coffee filter with six broccoli florets. Clever coffee maker cooks will find a way to whip up a cheese sauce to go with this. 3. Put 1/2 cup of instant rice per person in the coffee maker. Rice cookers are for squares. 4. Place the eggs in the coffee pot. Several commenters observed that if it is possible to poach eggs in a coffee maker, other foods could easily be poached. 5. Place chicken breast in coffee maker. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. (image via briefpenguin)