Thursday, March 27, 2008

Red Velvet Cake & Cream Cheese Frosting



This is one of my favorite types of cake, and the best red velvet cake I've ever had.

Red Velvet Cake:
(not sure where I got this recipe)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon fine salt
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tablespoons red food coloring (1 ounce)
1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream Cheese Frosting, recipe follows

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray 2 nine inch cake pans.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In another large bowl, whisk together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla.
Using a standing mixer, mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined and a smooth batter is formed.
Divide the cake batter evenly among the prepared cake pans. Place the pans in the oven evenly spaced apart.
Bake, rotating the pans halfway through the cooking, until the cake pulls away from the side of the pans, and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean, about 30 minutes.
Remove the cakes from the oven and run a knife around the edges to loosen them from the sides of the pans. One at a time, invert the cakes onto a plate and then re-invert them onto a cooling rack, rounded-sides up. Let cool completely.
Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 pound cream cheese, softened
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter (1 cup), softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand-held electric mixer in a large bowl, mix the cream cheese, sugar, and butter on low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to high, and mix until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. (Occasionally turn the mixer off, and scrape the down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.)
Reduce the speed of the mixer to low. Add the vanilla, raise the speed to high and mix briefly until fluffy (scrape down the bowl occasionally). Store in the refrigerator until somewhat stiff, before using.

May be stored in the refrigerator for 3 days or freeze in a tightly sealed container (rewhip before using again).

Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies







Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
By: Quakers

2 sticks margarine or butter softened
1 c firmly packed brown sugar
½ c granulated sugar
2 eggs (I use egg beaters)
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ c all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt (optional, I use it)
3 c Quaker Oats (uncooked) (I added an additional ½ to ¾ c)
1 c raisins (I added an additional ¼ c) (I soaked my raisins in warm water with vanilla extract for 10 minutes)

Heat oven to 350 degrees
Beat together margarine and sugars until creamy.
Add eggs and vanilla, beat well.
Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt, mix well.
Stir in oats and raisins; mix well.
Drop by rounded tablespoons onto prepared (cooking spray works best) cookie sheet.
Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.
Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet, remove to wire rack.

Makes 3 dozen

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Yellow Cake


Yellow Cake
from bakingbites

2 ½ cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup butter, softened (I used margarine)
3 eggs (I used egg beaters)
1 cup milk (I used skim)
2 tsp vanilla extract (I used clear)
1 drop Yellow Food Coloring
Preheat oven to 350F.

Spray 2 nine inch round cake pans with non stick spray.

Sift cake flour, baking powder and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer. Add sugar and, using the paddle attachment, mix on low speed to blend. Cut butter into 4 or 5 chunks and drop into the bowl with the flour. Blend on low speed until mixture looks sandy and no large chunks of butter remain, 1-2 minutes.
In a large measuring cup, combine eggs, milk, vanilla and food coloring. Beat lightly with a fork until combined. With the mixer on low, pour 1 cup of the egg mixture into the bowl. Turn speed up to medium and beat for 1 ½ minutes. Reduce speed back to low and pour in the rest of the egg mixture. Continue to beat at low speed for an additional 30 seconds, until liquid is fully incorporated.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat for a few more seconds. Pour into prepared pans and spread batter evenly with a spatula. Tap gently a few times to eliminate any bubbles.

Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes, until a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool for 30 minutes in the pan before turning out onto a rack to cool completely.

Frost with Chocolate Frosting or your favorite icing.

Chocolate Crème Brûlée






















Ingredients:
8 egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups cream
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp chocolate syrup
2 tsp cocoa
Use more chocolate for a stronger chocolate flavor.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees
Stir egg yolks and sugar together until sugar is dissolved and mixture is light yellow. Add cream and vanilla, stir until combined.

Pour through strainer (I used a colander) over a bowl to remove bubbles.

Place towel in bottom of large baking dish/roasting pan. Pour cream mixture into 6 ramekins (depending on size) and place in baking dish on towel.

Place dish holding ramekins onto oven shelf. Pour hot water in to baking dish (Turn up a corner of the towel and pour the hot water under the towel so not to splash the creme brulees) halfway up the ramekins. Bake for 40-50 minutes, depending on size of ramekins. Take out oven and let cool in water bath.
Chill thoroughly for at least 2 hours, up to 2 days.
If you don't have a hand torch, you can use your broiler-- just keep an eye on it! :)

I used turbinadao sugar for the caramelized tops, or you can use demerara (they are similar)

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Twice Baked Red Potatoes


Ingredients:
10 small/ medium red potatoes
¼ c skim milk
2 tbsp reduced fat sour cream
2 tbsp 1/3 less fat cream cheese
2 tbsp butter or margarine
Adobo to taste (type of seasoning salt)
Fresh ground pepper to taste
2-3 oz 2% milk sharp cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Directions:


-Thoroughly wash and dry potatoes and pierce the skin several times with a fork then wrap in foil.

-Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees (check them at 30 minutes because mine were finished at this time)

-Let potatoes slightly cool and using a small spoon (I found that using a baby spoon works well), scoop out main portion of each potato half, leaving a solid shell.

-Place scooped out potato into bowl with cheeses, sour cream, butter, spices, and skim milk.

-Mix together with a hand mixture for 1-2 minutes.

-Prepare baking sheet.

-Carefully spoon mixture into the shell of the potatoes using a spoon or it can be piped in.
-Place potatoes onto baking sheet.-Bake filled potatoes until heated thoroughly, browning slightly on top, approximately 10 minutes.

My 1st Post

I have decided to jump on the blogger bandwagon. I'm a lacto ovo vegetarian so this blog will have some meat less recipes. I also love to bake therefore I foresee this blog being at least half baking related. Since blogging is new for me please disregard any errors I might make.
Thank you,
Kim