Easy Meringue Cookies

My daughter saw these beautiful meringue cookies on the cover of a magazine and insisted I make some for her birthday party. Its a carnival themed party so she wanted colorful cookies. An easy trick is to line the inside of your piping bag with gel food coloring. More coloring will make your meringue cookies more vibrant. Also patience and time is key. The meringue itself is quick and easy,but the time spent in the oven is when the patience comes in.

Vanilla Meringue Cookies

3 Egg Whites
1/4 tsp Cream of tartar
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
1/4 C Granulated sugar
Pre-heat oven to 250o

In a large mixing bowl add egg whites, cream of tartar, and vanilla extract. Whisk until soft peaks form. Slowing add sugar one Tbsp at a time while whisking by hand or on high speed in standing mixer.Whisk until stiff peaks form and mixture is glossy. Line piping bag with colors of your choice. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper and pipe half dollar circles of meringue onto parchment paper. Bake for 45 min then turn oven off and leave cookies undisturbed for another 45 min. This step of leaving cookies in the oven allows the center to dry and not leave the cookie chewy. You can store cookies in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Key Lime Pie- The Easy Way!

Well summer is officially here. Which means beaches, parks, bbq's, and summer parties. If you don't want to show up empty handed, here is a dessert that is not only super easy and tasty, but people will think it took a lot more work than it actually did. And who doesn't love pie?!

Key Lime Pie

1 graham cracker crust

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1/4 cup lime juice

5 egg yolks

Mix condensed milk, egg yolks, and lime juice in a bowl. Pour into crust and bake for 15-18 min at 350°. Once its cooled, top with easy home made whipped cream.

Whipped cream

1 1/2 Cups heavy cream

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp. Vanilla extract

Whip cream til it starts to thicken. Add sugar and vanilla. Whip until cream is thickened. Top pie and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Enjoy!!

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Dessert Empanadas

The other day I was in one of my experimenting zones and just couldnt get empanadas out of my head. After making a variety of savory ones, which included beef and buffalo chicken, I wanted something sweet. Why not a dessert empanada?! I like to use the store bought Goya empanada discs. They are super easy to use. After making to different fillings, one of banana and chocolate, and the other with berries and cream cheese, I sealed and rolled the edges in. I then put an egg wash and sprinkled them with granulated sugar and put them in the oven. They were flaky and sweet, and sooooo just what I wanted :) Using the already made empanada discs leaves more time to concentrate on being creative with those fillings and baking them cuts a lot of fat. I hope you have as much fun with these as I did!

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Not Just Cupcakes Anymore!

So I have expanded (and no I don't mean from eating all these cupcakes)! I have ventured out into custom cookies. Now some people might be intimidated by the amount of time it can take to just do even a dozen, but I found it so much fun and creative.If you are going to do designs and get artsy then I would recommend starting with a really good sugar cookie base. Cupcakes defrtyinitely take less time to do but the cookies are just as rewarding! :) There are also endless possibilities! Enjoy :)

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A Cupcaketastrophie- The Dry Cupcake

I recently had a conversation with a co-worker about the differences between cupcakes from scratch and box cupcakes. We both agreed that after baking for so long and eating cupcakes from scratch, scratch is definitely the better way to go. So why is it more people don't bake from scratch? Well, one reason I've been told is moisture. Some have told me that they prefer box over scratch not because of taste but solely because there scratch has come out too dry. So I've done some research and wanted to list some reasons as to why your scratch cupcakes may be too dry and hopefully convert you!

1. Over mixing- Now this is probably the most common reason as to why you may have a dry cupcake. Remember, you don't want to try and get every single lump out of the batter. Lumps are our friends! You just want to make sure all ingredients are incorporated and once they are mixed, STOP.

2. Too much baking powder or baking soda- This will cause your cupcakes to rise to fast and dry out.

3. Uneven ratio- Having too many dry ingredients or not enough liquid  can cause your cake to be dry. If you are a beginner, look for recipes that call more for milk and oil as opposed to butter. Also having too many egg whites, which can dry out your cake.

4. Oven temp.- If your oven temperature is too high, this will almost always dry out your cake. Try baking at a lower temp.

I hope that this will help and make some of you more comfortable with baking from scratch. So, get started and be creative! :)

Need some milk?

Pumpkin Bacon Redone!

          The first cupcake I experimented with was the Pumpkin Bacon cupcake with Maple Butter cream. It was a play on the salty and sweet, and who doesn't love bacon?! Well that was a couple of of years ago, and since then I've done many cupcakes of all different combinations. I decided though to go back to the one that started it all. It was a really good cupcake, but I wanted to make it better. I added more pumpkin flavor, more maple flavor, and of course more BACON! It came out just right! So boys and girls, here is a rough draft of the recipe.

Yes, that's bacon on top!!!!!!

Pumpkin bacon cupcakes with Maple butter cream

Cupcake:
2 1/2 C Flour
3/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 Stick Salted Butter
1 1/4 C Sugar
3 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
1 C Milk
3/4 Canned Pumpkin
2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Cloves
1 tsp Nutmeg
1 Package Thick cut bacon

Maple Butter Cream

2 Sticks Salted Butter
2 Cups Powdered Sugar
1/4 C Maple Syrup
1 tsp Vanilla

Mmmmmmm Bananas Foster

Bananas Foster is one of my families favorite treats. They love the brown sugar, bananas, and rum! How the flavors just go so well together. Of course I had to re-create that beloved dessert in cupcake form. I thought it was going to be more complicated than it actually was, but getting the banana flavor to not over power the brown sugar and rum, and keep all the flavors in harmony. Well, it was just magic!
When my husband took that first bite of the cupcake and I saw his eyes light up, I knew I had gotten it right. I'm so glad it turned out to be another hit! What's your favorite banana cupcake?