dessert or disaster?

Saturday, July 10, 2010

pb cookies & Karthik's birthday pie

Yesterday, Rosie wanted to bake peanut butter cookies! We cheated and used a box mix :)

I missed Karthik's birthday, so I decided to make him Banberry pie! This recipe didn't ask for anything too difficult, and if you click here you can see that most of it required store-bought ingredients. And even though I wouldn't have used this recipe when I was in my "from scratch only" phase, I got inspired by Sandra Lee's show Semi-Homemade Cooking on Food Network. She uses store-bought ingredients to create her own recipes and it's legit. :)

Rosie making peanut butter cookies.

We put semi-sweet chocolate chips into them, too.

For the pie, I whipped store-bought vanilla pudding mix with cold milk.

We lined the bottom of a graham-cracker crust with bananas.

After pouring the pudding on top and letting it settle in the fridge for about an hour, we garnished the top with strawberries.

Then we added strawberry glaze.

I realized that store bought whipped cream is actually cheaper than heavy cream which I would always have to sugar and whip myself.

(He said he liked it! Successss!!) Happy 19th Karth!

Monday, July 5, 2010

Edible Eagles: 4th of July!

I know it's been awhile since my last post, but I haven't had much time since I started chem class class two weeks ago. Since it was a three-day weekend for everyone (4-day for me) I decided to create something special for Independence Day! I found this recipe for marshmallow edible eagles on noblepig. Making these was sooo simple, I was able to make around 30 eagles and served it at my family party!

With the help of my seester! :)

The original recipe calls for pre-made chocolate cookies for the base of the eagle, but since we had Oreos laying around the house we decided to hand-dip them in semi-sweet chocolate! Then we dipped the marshmallows in melted white chocolate!

Cover in coconut!

I thought the coconut portrayed feathers really well.

Cashews for the beaks...

My little cousins enjoyed eating these, although the adults were a little intimidated by the sweetness factor. If you're opting for a healthier dessert, these probably shouldn't be your top choice. But if you're looking for chocolatey-coconuty-sweet treats, these are your best option. And I gave them plus points for being cute. :)

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Father's Day: Brownie Bottom Ice Cream Cupcakes

For Father's Day, I decided to make Brownie Bottom Ice Cream Cupcakes as seen from Joy the Baker. The tricky part about this recipe is how quickly you have to work to avoid ice cream melting or the ganache hardening prematurely. I bought standard brownie mix (out of laziness)

I used semi sweet chocolate for the ganache!

I now realize why making whipped cream by hand failed the first time I tried...I hadn't whipped it long enough! This time I stood by the mixer for over 3 minutes to make it thick and fluffy.

Whipped cream, cherry and caramel syrup to top it off! (I tried really hard to decorate it better than Joy the Baker did because my poor cupcakes looked deflated without it all!)

Happy Father's Day!

Monday, June 14, 2010

Blondies

I wasn't having a great day, so I decided to bake some comfort food. Baking has always been therapeutic to me, so it wasn't a surprise that I felt much better after having made and tasted these in-between-cookie-and-brownie bars called Blondies.

I adapted this recipe from smitten kitchen again. I don't think I'll ever get tired of her. And if you're looking for a dessert recipe that's not too sweet, she's you're best bet!

My favorite part about this recipe is how versatile it is. I chose to add chopped pecans and chocolate chips, but you can add anything from espresso powder to dried fruit to mashed bananas to customize this recipe to your liking. Deb calls her Blondies "infinitely adaptable".

Jenelle's Birthday Cupcakes

Since I didn't have much time, I decided to bake cupcakes for Jenelle's birthday from store-bought cake mix. So here we have 19 cupcakes made from yellow butter cake mix with nutella frosting!