Cupcakes Cups

Hey guys! 

When you're looking for a clever way to brighten up a party, consider baking cupcakes & placing them into bright & colorful cupcake cups.  My husband & I made these yesterday for Valentine's Day - even though it was for a party of 3 (hubby, me & our son) I thought it might be fun to try this together! We purchased a fun cupcake cup pack with decorative hearts from Eli's Market here in NYC.  Eli's Market is a great place to get fun & unique sweets for entertaining or just to eat at home! 

How cute are these?

Hope you enjoyed your Valentine's Day yesterday!

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Holiday gift ideas for Moms

I am not posting many GIFT guides this year, but I will do a few. 

For starters, I wanted to put together one for moms. You see, this year, I became a first-time mother....so, I know just how challenging motherhood can be.   Every so often it's nice to receive a little something new ....ya know.........like a gift!   What better place to-go for gifting to mom than Sur La Table ? Below are some of my favorite items over at Sur La Table for moms. 

Heck, or for anyone that loves to entertain or enjoy a nice hot chocolate at home.  Which gift would you buy your mama friend or your own mother?

 

Have a great weekend!!! 

P.S. on another note, I am currently working on a blog re-design, stay tuned! 

-post by jen ramos

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FOOD: Double Chocolate Pancakes

Hi Made By Girls! This is Jen from Pretty Eats bringing you a fun and decadent way to wake up, Double Chocolate Pancakes.  I love trying to incorporate non-dairy options in my recipes, and experimented with Chocolate Soy Milk with these pancakes…delish!! Now these thick, chocolately treats are really more dessert than breakfast, but once in a while won't hurt. Don't forget my trick to make these cakes even more special, a sprinkle of fresh berries on top! Enjoy!

Double Chocolate Pancakes
Ingredients:  makes 10 medium sized pancakes

    •    1/2  cup unsweetened cocoa powder
    •    1 cup all-purpose flour
    •    1/2 cup sugar
    •    2 tsp baking soda
    •    1/4 tsp salt
    •    1 1/2 cup chocolate soy milk
    •    1 egg
    •    1 tsp vanilla
    •    High quality maple syrup
    •    Fresh berries of your choice

Directions: 
    •    In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and whisk well. Allow batter to sit for 15 minutes (or refrigerate if longer than 15 min).
    •    On a greased griddle (medium heat), scoop 1/4 cups of the batter onto surface. Flip when bubbles begin to rise to the top.
    •    Stack 'em up, drizzle some syrup, and enjoy with a topping of fresh berries!

-post by jen olson

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William Sonoma This V-DAY

How will you be celebrating this Valentine's Day? My husband & I were originally going to go out to a nice dinner, but we decided to take the fancy dinner money & donate it to a charity.  It's the first time we've ever done this on V-day....but we knew that we could come up with something fun to do anyway.  So, Mat offered to make a lovely dinner instead - then we both will be making something FUN for dessert! Neat huh?

However, if you're NOT in the cooking or going out mode, I suggest ordering something sweet & pretty for your Valentine - I recommend William Sonoma.  They have the prettiest cakes & candies for that special day.

Here are a few of my faves, and even though I'm still looking to try some of these....just out of sheer beauty I'd buy some.

Seriously, who wouldn't be impressed with any of these arriving at their door?

-post by jen ramos

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FOOD: RUSTIC APPLE TART

Hi there! Jen from Lemon Drop Love here and I wanted to share an easy, but incredibly impressive dessert. This rustic apple tart is perfect for fall and you can eat it warm, at room temperature or cold for breakfast, an afternoon snack or, of course, dessert ( I ate it every which way and it was always delicious). In the past I’ve been a little intimidated by tarts and pies because I never want to mess up the crust recipe, but this little dish is fool proof and I’m looking forward to making this tart again and again with all different types of fruits and berries.

Rustic Apple Tart

INGREDIENTS: (recipe adapted via Ina Garten)
For the dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon sugar
12 tablespoons (11/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced
1/2 cup ice water
For the apples:
4 Granny Smith apples
1/2 cup sugar
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, small diced
1/2 cup apricot jelly or warm sieved apricot jam
2 tablespoons water


DIRECTIONS:

• For the pastry, place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Pulse for a few seconds to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the butter is in small bits the size of peas. With the motor running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse just until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a floured board and knead quickly into a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
• Roll the dough slightly larger than 10 by 14-inches. Using a ruler and a small knife, trim the edges. Place the dough on the prepared sheet pan and refrigerate while you prepare the apples.
• Peel the apples and remove the stems and cores with a sharp knife. Slice the apples crosswise in 1/4-inch thick slices.
• Place overlapping slices of apples diagonally down the middle of the tart and continue making diagonal rows on both sides of the first row until the pastry is covered with apple slices Sprinkle with the full 1/2 cup of sugar and dot with the butter.
• Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the pastry is browned and the edges of the apples start to brown. Rotate the pan once during cooking. If the pastry puffs up in one area, cut a little slit with a knife to let the air out. The apple juices will burn in the pan but the tart will be fine!
• When the tart's done, heat the apricot jelly together with the water and brush the apples and the pastry completely with the jelly mixture. Allow to cool and serve warm or at room temperature. 

 -post and images bu jen costea

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Dude, Sweet Chocolate

Dude, Sweet Chocolate. What a cute name for a company no?  Lets' face it, pretty much anything with dark chocolate will make me look twice.  So, this company based out of Texas is no exception. It's run & owned by Chef Katherine Clapner - with 3 locations in Texas.  They manufacture, distribute, and retail dark chocolate inspired creations as their core business. The chocolates usually contain fudges, truffles, toffees, nuts, artisan chocolates, and basically anything the talented chef decides to improve by introducing it to cacao.

Another thing I thought was cute... was the names they give their unique chocolate products, such as, Crack in a Box , FDA Chocolate Vegetarian Salami (which is made with dates & dried figs ground and added to California marzipan with Valrohna cocoa nibs), Tub of Love Spread (great for spreading on breads),  One Night Stand Potion (great with sorbets or coffee) & more!! Unfortunately, I'm lactose intolerant - so I'd have to stay with the vegetarian & dairy-free options they have...would love to try these someday!

Have you tried Dude, Sweet Chocolate??



-post by jen ramos

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Food: Baked With Love

Happy Valentine's Day! Lauren here, and I love this month since it's all about sweet treats & little love notes, celebrating our significant others and also our girlfriends. I usually package up these heart cookies around Valentine's Day, but this year I was inspired to use my mom's sugar cookie recipe to create something new. 

Inspired by Jen's LOVE prints and colorful paintings, these painted LOVE cookies send a sweet message to their lucky recipients. I am not a gifted baker, so I promise they're incredibly easy too...they'd even be fun to make with kids! Keep reading for the rundown...

Whoops: I had a little kitchen accident and dropped one of my Anthropologie bowls, filled with flour, all over the floor. So I made the most of my mess and just photographed my ingredients right where it landed! My favorite part of these sugar cookies is the lemon...the lemon rind and juice add a subtle citrus flavor that really kicks them up a notch. 
 

I ordered this set of alphabet cookie cutters to create my L-O-V-E. Another fun option would be to use X-O-X-O.
 

For the dough:
 

1 cup butter, softened

1 3/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Finely grated rind of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

As you can see, things may get a little bit messy, but that's okay! It's time to let your inner artist come through and not worry about making these perfect. Experiment with layering different colors on the paintbrush and trying different.

brush strokes. I used the edge of a sponge paintbrush we had on hand, but I'd actually recommend using a smaller art paintbrush. Just make sure it's brand new and hasn't been previously used with real paint. 

For the icing:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon heavy whipping cream

Food coloring

Paintbrush

The final touch: See-through boxes that ensure your painted cookies are perfectly packed for gifting to loved ones at Valentine's Day. 

Makes about 3 dozen.

Instructions:

1. Cream butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, vanilla, lemon rind, then lemon juice. Add flour, soda and salt; mix until blended.

2. Divide dough; wrap each half in plastic wrap and pat into a disc. Refrigerate several hours until firm.

3. On a floured surface, roll one disc about 1/4 inch thick. Cut with letter-shaped cutters (ex. LOVE or XOXO).

4. Transfer to a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake in a pre-heated 325-degree oven for 12-15 minutes, until barely browned. Cool on wire racks and repeat with remaining dough. 

5. To decorate, stir 1 tablespoon of cream into 1 cup of powdered sugar. Divide among small bowls and use food coloring to make intense shades.

6. Use a paint brush to paint the cookies with the icing, adding a little extra cream into the icing if needed to make it thinner. Wipe the paintbrush off in between, or even let a little color remain on the brush to overlap shades. Go back over each cookie with extra brush strokes.

7. Make sure you let the icing fully dry on each cookie, then stack into boxes.

-Recipe & images by Lauren Craig

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Coconut Cake & Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Hi! This is Mat, Jen's husband. This is the recipe from a photo that appeared on Jen's Instagram last night. 

Jen is fasting from coffee and chocolate for 21 days, so by the end of the day she's looking for something sweet to and I thought this would do the trick. It's pretty easy to make from scratch but if you're nervous about the cake part, you can always substitute a mix. Plus it's also no milk, low fat & half the sugar.

(photo via instagram)

Also, this is a recipe for a very small batch. We're only a couple and making big batches is so wasteful so I prefer to make only a few at a time. This should make about 5 cakes.

Coconut Cake
1/2 C granulated sugar
4 Tbs unsalted butter, room temperature
2 egg whites
1 tsp coconut or vanilla extract
3/4 C cake flour (use sifted all-purpose if not available)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 C coconut, rice or soy milk
3/4 C shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease the sides and bottom of six cups in a cupcake tin with butter.  Cream the butter and sugar. Once creamed, beat in the egg whites one at a time, then add the extract. Add the flour and baking powder and mix until creamy, then add the "milk" and coconut and finish mixing.

Evenly distribute between the cups until they are 2/3 full. Bake for 17-20 minutes. Be sure to cool completely before frosting.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream
2 egg whites
1/2 C granulated sugar
12 Tbs unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

Cut the butter into 1 Tbsp chunks and leave out so it reaches room temperature. In a metal bowl, add the egg whites and sugar. Place the bowl into simmering water (leave on the heat) and whisk slowly until the mix is hot to the touch (about 140°F). Remove from heat, and using mixer with wire whisk, beat for 2 mins producing soft peaks. Change to a paddle mixer. Add 1/2 of the butter and beat for 1 minute, add the remaining butter and beat another minute. Add the vanilla and beat 1/2 minute more.

Once the cakes have cooled, you can frost them. The frosting doesn't have to be perfect - in fact just a nice spoonful on top of each cake served with some berries on the side works fine.

(photo via instagram)

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Oh Baby!

Ok, despite my crazy schedule (especially on Mondays and Tuesdays) I've managed to sneak in this YUMMY post about this awesome bakery shop called BabyCakes. Situated on 248 Broom Street in New York City, this shop caters to those who like to indulge in sweets without the sweets. Isn't it awful to walk into a bakery and walk out with nothing because almost 'everything' has ingredients like butter, gluten, sugar etc. Unfair don't you think?

Well not anymore. BabyCakes puts a whole new twist on things, creating delicious little cupcakes and cookies without using wheat flour, eggs, and our famous enemies>>>> sugar and butter!! I've been eating mostly 'gluten free' foods ever since I got back from Hawaii this past September, so this bakery is perfect for me (only problem, i live in Vegas)! Anyhow, Baby Cakes uses ingredients like organic spelt flour, agave (one of my favorite sweeteners, you can use with almost anything), fruit purees, garbanzo beans etc.. Impressive! When I head to the Stationery Show in NYC this coming May, I will definitely stop by Baby Cakes and have 2 or 3 of their cupcakes....and not feel so bad about it!

Please visit their site for more info and if in NYC stop by their cute little shop. Has anyone been here yet?? If so, please tell us about it.

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