Girl Scout Thin Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

Girl Scout Thin Mint Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

The Cherry Blossoms trees are starting to bloom (sakura season).
The wildflowers are blossoming with amazing patches of colors.
And them Brownies and Girl Scouts are out selling crack.

Yes, it's almost Spring.

Besides having "jet lag" from the one hour time change, it is Girl Scout Cookie Season. So when a little girl dressed in brown or green tilts her head (very important aspect of the sales pitch) and says in a sweet voice, "Would you like to buy Girl Scout cookies?" you just automatically reach in your wallet and pull out a wad.

I made Martha Stewart's One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcake as a base with one sleeve of crushed Thin Mints added (in 2009, the sleeves are shrinking so that is 16 Thin Mint cookies - I believe they had 18 cookies previously).

Frosting is one 8 oz. block of cream cheese and 1 cup of powdered sugar and some vanilla.

I broke some Thin Mints to garnish the cupcakes...of course, some of the pieces weren't suitable and I had to eat them quickly!

I made 24 Thin Mint Chocolate Cupcakes (the frosting was light - if you want to twirl it wider or higher, use 2 blocks of cream cheese and 2 cups of powdered sugar).

I'll tell you the truth. I never made it to Girl Scouts! I was a Brownie but then our adult leader moved away so I never went higher. Well, I hope this cupcake is Girl Scout Badge Worthy. :)

Recipes: Martha Stewart's One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcake
Frosting: one 8 oz. block of cream cheese and 1 cup of powdered sugar with some vanilla.

Lemon Cup Custard (Tuesdays with Dorie)

Lemon Cup Custard

This week, Bridget of The Way the Cookie Crumbles selected Lemon Cup Custard on page 387 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Not since the raisin haters came out of the closet was there so much trash talk about the egg on the Tuesdays with Dorie website. Who knew that the little egg caused so much gag reflex to so many! Unlike my Ecuadorian friend who eats everything with an egg, I discovered there are many a baker out there who aren't card carrying members of Egg Custard Council.

I'm not a big fan of the egg custard, but I wanted to give this recipe a go. I made 1/4 of the recipe and that filled three mini-ramekins.

I followed Dorie's basic recipe and couldn't find my lemon extract so I just used the zest of two Meyer lemons to lemonize the custard. It's beyond simple to make, and I'll let my friend decide. I think I overcooked it a bit and it should have been a bit more jiggly (like parts of my body nowadays...but I digress). Also, I strained it twice...when adding the milk and when placing the custard in the ramekins. I probably won't make again, but I'm glad I gave it a shot.

Lemon Cup Custard

Thanks Bridget for the pick! I'm interested to see how other bakers changed up the flavors! Check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers!

Dorothy Mae Brown's Apple Spice Cake NOT with the Caramel Sauce (Martha Stewart)

Dorothy Mae Brown's Apple Spice Cake
(check out that caramel sauce...because it's soon going to leave)

Have granny smith apples and a new Bundt pan? Make an apple cake!

Dorothy Mae Brown's Apple Spice Cake is one of the most popular recipes on Martha Stewart's website. I've made it once before. I love, love apple cakes and this caramel sauce is to die for...when properly made! (see below for the disaster)

Find the recipe (and video) for Apple Spice Cake on Martha Stewart's website

Here I am PEELING off the caramel!

Oh my goodness! What the heck went soooo wrong? Okay. I really take full responsibility for this, but I'd like to call out the Oct0-mom as a contributing problem! For some reason, I can't stop following the Octo-mom. While I was making the caramel sauce, I was totally into the Today Show's story about her 911 tapes (where her 5 year old is missing)...and must have completely ruined the caramel sauce. However, it's all bubbly with brown sugar, butter, evaporated milk and vanilla...and I didn't know it so I just poured it over the cake.

I took photos...and then cut into the cake. OMG. It was harder than the caramel that covers a caramel apple. This cake would be endorsed by the Conference of Periodontics and Implant Dentists...because it would totally pull out all your teeth. And that is sooo expensive; my parents got a bunch of implants last year and they could have gotten a new car instead...

So, since I thought it would be rude to involuntary rip out the library staff's teeth, I peeled the caramel off and ended up with this crater filled apple bundt cake.

Here is the "final" cake. I threw on some powdered sugar. Even with all its trials and Octo-mom train wrecks, the cake was very tasty. I added walnuts this time and will do it again. You should give the recipe a try! Here's the recipe for Apple Spice Cake.

Heath Oatmeal Toffee Cookies & Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Heath Oatmeal Toffee Cookies

Half a bag of the Heath Toffee Bits remained after making the Caramel Crunch Bars with Tuesdays with Dorie...so I turned the package over and found the recipe for Oatmeal Toffee Cookies!

Half the batch were Oatmeal Toffee Cookies (click for recipe) with Heath Toffee Bits, and the other half used mini-chocolate chips.

I cut the sugar from 2 cups to 1 3/4, used old fashioned oatmeal instead of quick cook oatmeal, and (of course) did not include the optional coconut flakes. The package says you should get 4 dozen cookies but I got 5 dozen because I made them a bit smaller.

My toffee cookies came out a lot flatter than the chocolate chip ones...I wonder why? Same dough, just different "bits" added in. Oh well, they were gobbled up at the library.

Here is the recipe for Heath Oatmeal Toffee Cookies on the Hershey's Kitchen website!

Strawberry Banana Muffins

(California) Strawberry Banana Muffins

Whoo Hoo! California Strawberries are in season! I went to two local Farmer's Market for the last two weekends and more and more vendors are pulling out their red gems of deliciousness.

(And no, I'm not working for the California produce lobby with my recent posts of California goodness...but I need to remind myself of reasons why I love living in a land where I can't afford any real estate.)

I made Strawberry Banana Muffins from Joy of Cooking's website.

Yummy California Strawberries!

This recipe calls for 1 cup chopped fresh strawberries and 1 cup mashed bananas.

I topped the 12 muffins with some sanding sugar for a nice crunch on top.

Inside view with lots of strawberry pieces.

These were okay, but there weren't my favorite muffin. I think it boils down to the fact that I like my strawberries raw or macerated in sugar...not baked. However, I do want to try a strawberry cupcake in the future. My banana wasn't terribly ripe, so that might have been an issue too. Why don't you give them a try and let me know how you do? :) Here's the recipe for Strawberry Banana Muffins from Joy of Baking!

Chocolate Armagnac Cake (sorta) - Tuesdays with Dorie

(Completed subbed) Chocolate Armagnac Cake

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie, Lyb of And then I do the dishes selected Chocolate Armagnac Cake - The Cake That Got Me Fired on pages 279-281 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours. Check our Lyb's site for the recipe or get the book.

While baking in a top restaurant, Dorie got bored and changed up one of the restaurant's classic recipes. She was fired for "creative subordination!"

I might get fired too...for substituting too many things! I don't drink so I used orange juice instead of the armagnac...don't worry, I didn't try to flambe my OJ! :) I made 1/4 of the recipe. Since it was just for me, I skipped the glaze because I'm actually not the biggest fan of chocolate frosting. I dusted it with a heavy East Coast-type snow of powdered sugar instead.

Be sure to check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers!

P.S. It's Square Root Day! (3/3/09 = 3x3=9) I'm a closeted math geek and think it is way cool. It's also Girls' Day in Japan!

Broken Glass Jello

Broken Glass Jello

Ever since I made the 5-layer Jello for Valentine's Day, I've been craving Jello. Recently, my friend gave me great notecards from JustJennDesign. You have to check out her site! Such awesome stuff and she somehow manages to also write very funny blogs!

On her site, she has a recipe for Broken Glass Jello. I've seen variations of this in Mexican grocery stores and eateries, but haven't seen one with such vibrant colors. I had to make this...and you should too!!! So easy, so little labor, and so much fun to eat. Sure, it doesn't require the usual KitchenAid mixer, imported sea salt, 72% cocoa chocolate or Tahitian vanilla beans...but sometimes, we need something simple! :) And I think kids would love this!


Broken Glass Jello
(Adapted from JustJenn)

Printable Recipe Here

4 small boxes (3 oz. each) of Jell-O or store brand "gelatin dessert" in different colors. (I used strawberry, lime, orange and blue. My store only sells the big 6 oz. box of blue jello so I weighed 3 oz. or half of the package).

1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk (don't get evaporated milk)

2 envelopes unflavored gelatin (that Knox stuff)

For each flavor, dissolve one box of jello in one cup of boiling water. Pour into a container and chill (overnight is probably best, but I chilled it 3 hours until firm). I just love these retro Tupperware containers I picked up at a garage sale!

Please note: Only add 1 cup of water to each box of colored Jello. Ignore the instructions on the box of Jello (they say to use 2 cups of water). Use only 1 cup of water so the Jello is firm and can be cut into blocks.

After chilling the four flavors, cut them into small blocks.

Carefully mix the blocks in a 9 x 13 pan.

In a separate bowl, sprinkle 2 envelopes unflavored gelatin into 1/2 cup cold water. After the gelatin blooms, add 1 1/2 cup boiling water and dissolve. Add the can of condensed milk. Stir and cool. Pour cooled milk mixture over jello and chill overnight.

Cut into blocks or shapes and serve!

Thanks JustJenn for this fantastic recipe and inspiration!

Coconut Layer Cake (Everyday Food)

Coconut Layer Cake with Lemon Curd Filling

As I mentioned in this early post, I want to make the four cakes from "The Best Cakes" episode of Everyday Baking. I made the Spiced Carrot Cake in February, and here is cake #2: Coconut Layer Cake.

Coconut Layer Cake recipe on the Everyday Food website and on Martha Stewart's website.

This recipe has two layers of basic vanilla cake, seven minute frosting and a frosting/lemon curd filling. It said to use store bought lemon curd and although I have a basket full of Meyer Lemons, I felt like picking up this jar at Trader Joe's (it is way good and only $2.99).

I just love the Seven Minute Frosting - egg whites, sugar, corn syrup, cream of tartar can turn into magic frosting! This is the second time I made it...and both times missed the part about beating it off the heat (after beating it over a double boiler for 7 minutes) for another 3-5 minutes to cool it down. I just slathered on hot frosting...oops. I also like bringing out the old school plug in mixer! I think there is a 30 year old patina on it!

The lemon curd/frosting filling is covered with coconut. I'm not a fan of shredded coconut so I tend to scrape that part off! :)

Recently, I made the Southern Coconut Cake from Sky-High Cakes. I think a combo of these two cakes would be perfect. Sky-High has a great cake - it is made with cake flour and coconut milk...it is soft and delicious. I do like the addition of lemon curd in this one and the frosting was light. I messed up the Sky-High frosting so I threw on a cream cheese frosting. I think either the seven-minute or cream cheese frosting would be good...and, of course, without those pesky coconut strands (but I think some would balk at that! :)

Coconut Layer Cake

Recipe for Coconut Layer Cake

California Citrus Tart (Navel, Cara Cara, Tangelo, Blood & Clementines)

California Citrus Rocks! Tart

If we were face-to-face, I would look you straight in the eye, get all serious and say:

"I have something to tell you.
{pause for emphasis here}
California. Citrus. Rocks."

I'm not kidding.

I went to the Studio City Farmers Market last weekend and picked up a bunch of citrus to make this Ode to California Citrus tart!

The Oranges:
Navel (front right big one)
Cara Cara (behind the blood)
Tangelo (funky top, back left)
Blood (middle front, reddish skin)

Clementine (note to self: not fun to section a little itty bitty Clementine tangerine!)

Outside alternates between the navel and pinkish Cara Cara orange. Next circle is tangelos and blood followed by those little tiny sectioned clementines.

Isn't the blood orange awesome!?

I made Dorie Greenspan's Sweet Tart (fully baked) and Ina Garten's Pastry Cream (I skipped the liquor and added the zest of one navel orange)

The pastry cream was a bit too soft so it oozed when sliced; next time I might make little tarts or figure out a way to make the cream more solid (cook it more?)

I glazed the tart with a bit of simple syrup to add a bit more sweetness and shine. I think I can skip that next time or use a warmed marmalade.

Recipes:
Cafe Johnsonia has great step-by-step photos to make Dorie Greenspan's Sweet Tart Dough. Ina's Pastry Cream recipe is on the Food Network's website.

This is a delicious dose of Vitamin C in a tart shell! My co-workers liked this a lot and I was really pleased with the combo of fresh citrus and well, lotsa butter and eggs! Caroline said it was like eating an orange creamsicle! :)