Gearing up for the Fall Season with some Sweet Goodies!

This time of year has to me my favorite! I really enjoy the cooler weather and the last bits of sunshine before they disappear behind the clouds of  the winter rain and possibly snow. Today, I was checking over my calendar and noticed there are exactly two weeks till Thanksgiving and I thought it's about time we all start thinking about what we are going to make for the Holiday season dinners and parties. Here a few recipes I want to try this coming season! Enjoy!

Pumpkin Scones from The Baker Girl

Now this would definitely make me want to skip dinner and go straight to dessert.
Candy and Caramel Apple pie from She's Becoming Domestic

or you could delight your guests by serving this lovely looking cake!
Heaven and Hell Cake from Whisk Kid


If you enjoy a lighter dessert but still very impressive at your Thanksgiving meal,
My own Recipe for Pumpkin Mousse

Pumpkin Mousse

1 Pint of Whipping Cream

1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons of Splenda

1/2 cup of Pumpkin Puree

1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Pour the whipping cream in to a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment . Turn on to med speed and whisk about 3 min. till the cream comes to a soft peak when you lift the whisk out of the bowl.Add remaining ingredients and whip till combined and the mixture is stiff. Don't over beat. Test the flavor and adjust the sweetness or the spice level to your liking. It is best to serve right away. But you can save it for later in the refrigerator, a late night snack maybe? Serves 4 small servings or 2 large.

Enjoy!!

The Pastry Diva

Chocolate Strawberry Ice Box Pie

This past week I was able to spend a week at a beach house for the 4th of July with Geoff,his Son and a family friend. It was a much needed time away from the world.  While planning our big 4th of July dinner I wanted to make a special dessert, like I always do when there is any kind of party or gathering.

 I had a limited supply of baking pans. I found a glass pie pan and decided I could modify it and still make it a very good dessert we could enjoy after our meal and while we watch the fireworks.

Here are the ingredients I used. If I was home making this I would have made real whip cream but the store bought whipped topping turned out to be very good. This is a great Semi-homemade recipe if you are having your own summer gathering.One note:Ignore the baked beans in the picture, they aren't part of the recipe, unless you WANT to be adventurous. NOT!!! Ha Ha!!

Chocolate Strawberry Ice Box Pie

2 1lb Packages of Strawberries
1 box of Famous Nabisco Chocolate Wafers
2 Tubs of Extra Creamy Whip cream
A Glass or metal pie pan

1.Wash and chop one of the containers of strawberries
2.Mix one tub of whip cream with the chopped strawberries and set aside
3.Line the pie plate with chocolate wafers using extra to cover any holes
4.Carefully spread the whip cream,strawberry mixture onto the wafers.
5.add another layer of chocolate layers over the top and spread the other tub of whipped topping over the wafers.
6.Slice a few more strawberries and decorate as desired
7.I crushed 4 or 5 left over wafers and sprinkled the crumbs over the top.

Chill in the refrigerator 4 hours or overnight.

Enjoy,
The Pastry Diva

Wordless Wednesday's

Brioche

I have never been one to shy away from a challenge, so when I came across a recipe for brioche bread I decided I would give it a try. I have experience baking bread although I haven't really made any in a long time. King Arthur flour is a great site recourse for a wealth of baking information and if you leave a message or comment on any of their recipes and you had trouble with a recipe coming out right, they will respond with helpful suggestions on how to make the recipe better.

This recipe for Brioche look like it was going to be the one I wanted to try and after reading the reviews and comments it looked pretty good.

If you notice the picture of the dough rising the braided loaf didn't really retain its shape and turned out more like bread sticks then a loaf of bread. Oh well, you live and learn. I think that my kitchen wasn't warm enough to sufficiently let the dough rise enough. The braided loaf in the bread pan didn't raise enough but baked well and had a beautiful brown top. I am happy with the results but I guess next time I may let it rise in a warmer place longer? Since it baked well and the taste was very good I decided to use it to make French toast for dinner the next night.
The Kids loved it and I even made home made syrup.

I know even if it turn out "picture perfect" it did taste amazing for dinner the next night.

Enjoy,
The Pastry Diva

Wordless Wednesday's

Blackberry Blueberry Pie

Pie is something I grew up making. Weather it was a cream pie, fruit, or a savory chicken pot pie. The crust always intimidated me, I always thought it was a chore and i would just decide to use the boxed version which was loaded with ingredients that I couldn't pronounce and didn't really have any flavor. You just add water, it was very bland. So for this pie, I decided to search for a more flavorful and flaky crust recipe to compliment this fruit pie recipe. I found a recipe for pie crust that was very simple and included butter which, as everyone knows, butter always makes everything taste better. The trick to this crust is to make sure your ingredients are cold. I recommend measuring out all the dry ingredients into a blown, add the butter pieces and place in the refrigerator. That is the secret to an extra flaky crust.

Martha Stewart's Easy pie crust. It's very easy and if you have a food processor it takes seconds to whip extra to keep in your freezer for the next time you go to the farmers market and pick up some amazing Summer fruit available right now.

This was a very easy pie to make and I had a lot of fun making it. Oh, and it taste pretty good too. I followed the recipe I found on the Martha Stewart website but it was for a blueberry but knowing it was a berry pie,mixing it up with two cups of blackberries it would have the same outcome. One thing I learned about berry pie sit that if you aren't careful or add the right amount of thickeners ie: Flour,cornstarch. One or the other but I found the right combination in this recipe to come out with a pie that wasn't soupy. I found a great secret that helps in avoiding the soupy mess with the pie filling. The recipe calls for adding the sugar to the fruit. If you wait about 30min you will see that the fruit has become soupy, drain the extra juice off and continue with your recipe. Pretty simple.You may at this point want to add a little more sugar but only about 2 tablespoons of so. My filling was a little on the "not so sweet side" which had more of the natural fruit flavor then it being really set like some pis fillings can be.

Here are the only changes I made to this recipe:
*3 cups of frozen Blackberries
*2 cups of fresh Blueberries

Blueberry pie from Martha Stewart

With the combination of this very tasty,buttery crust and fruit filling, your family and you will be very happy with the outcome and the taste of this pie.

Enjoy
The Pastry Diva

So much sugar, so little time

Well here we go. I know it has been almost forever since I have posted here and I do apologise that i haven't kept up with the going's on around my kitchen here and around the "baking" world. I have been really busy baking,organizing and allot of other things that go into starting a baking business. Allot of which I have no knowledge about, so I have been reading,asking and trying to figure things out while I also  being busy with baking, writing and test recipes. I have had a really fun time coming up with new and tasty recipes to share with everyone and to hopefully add to my baking business.

I thought I would share with you a few things I have been baking up in my kitchen.

Cookies and cream cupcakes, Vanilla Bean with Pink White chocolate buttercream.

This is a sweet Jon Deere theme cupcakes with a Fondant cake I made with handmade fondant animals. Too cute!!

Vanilla Bean Bisotti and an all butter lemon Pound cake. Which I think would make a great cupcake, frosted with lemon butter cream? Yummy!

I found this recipe for the Pound Cake on the Martha Stewart web site and it turned out so good. I would definitely make it again.
There is a recipe link to the galze but I just mixed about 1 cup of Powered sugar and some lemon juice to the right consistency then I poked holes in the warm, not hot, cake and poured on the glaze and let it seep into the holes.

Enjoy,
The Pastry Diva

Easy Homemade Ice Cream without a Machine!

Now that summer is almost here, but living in the Seattle area you wouldn't know it by the recent fall-like weather we have been having. I am very hopeful that we WILL have a summer with sun and a little heat. If we make it there or not, you can enjoy this very simple recipe for ice cream that I  make on a regular basis now. It is really good and the best idea for ice cream I found from one of my favorite blogs from Kevin&Amanda's amazing blog!!

I have made this a few times, tweaking the flavors and coming up with combinations that are too good for words!! If you check out the blog link above they have some amazing flavors like "cinnamon bun" and "crispy cream doughnut" YES!!! I know, YUMMY!!!!!! Try out some of your favorites, maybe take a day when the kids are home and have them come up with a few combinations of their own. Key lime pie, vanilla birthday cake...so many!!

For this batch I decided to raid my pantry and come up with a "trail mix" inspired flavor, I also added some vanilla bean extract too. I chopped it all up and added to the ice cream mix.

*Salted peanuts
*sweetened coconut
*raisins
All measurements were just a small handful. You want enough to equal about 1 1/2 cups total.

Freeze as directed on the original directions.

I will do some flavors next time with fresh fruit, although it will not make it very health but it will sure taste good!! Blueberries w Graham crackers to simulate Blueberry pie, or blackberries with a drop biscuit pieces for a cobble flavor. The possibilities are just limited to your imagination.

Enjoy
The Pastry Diva

One Cupcake Four Ways!!

Today I made a very good basic vanilla bean cupcake and vanilla bean frosting for a cupcake tasting I am having today. I wanted to make something she could taste and decided to choose four different way to decorate them with what I had in my pantry.

It was very simple but I think they turned out so pretty!!

Enjoy!
The Pastry Diva

Flower Pot Cake

This flower pot cake is one of my favorites and when I started seeing other bakers make them I wanted to try something a little different for Mothers day 2011. Most give cards some flowers maybe balloons. Well, I wanting to be a little different and being a baker I knew this would be a wonderful idea for a gift for my Mom.

It was so fun to make and pretty. I made cookie pops and covered them in chocolate and decorated them with butter cream or little fondant decoration.

any sugar cookie recipe will work just make sure you roll them out thick 3/4 in and pierce them with a bamboo skewer I soaked in water first so it won't burn while it cooks. Bake them till they are barely browned.Let them cool on the pan for 5-6 min then transfer carefully to a cooling rack.

I baked the 3 8in cakes the night before so they could cool. I also used a basic butter cream for the filling and the cake.

The cake after I assembled it, crumb coated it and inserted some skewers for support.

Here are some of the other goodies I included in my "flower"display. Chocolate covered marshmallows with candy sprinkles and some pink coconut!

I wanted to let you know I learned a few things making this cake. I did use a box mix for this cake. I had it around to make some cake balls but decided to use it along with the my recipe for butter cake I used for one of the three layers. I noticed that the boxed cake was not dense enough to hold up to a cake that is going to support the skewers that was holding the cookies and the marshmallows. I noticed this when I woke up and while dragging myself in the kitchen to get my morning coffee I  noticed that the cookies had caused the back to fall off the cake onto the table. Oh dear!! I was able to save it by using some extra butter cream I had left over and good thing it fell off it one piece. So using butter cream and repositioning the cookies it turned out pretty good! After I fixed it I put it back in the refrigerator so it could set up a bit.

Success!!!!!! What do you think? Learning from my mistakes I will be using my knowledge I learned to make an even better one next time. I will be making the cookies again soon. They were a hit and so good.

Here is a picture of my Mom with her Mothers Day "pot of flowers" cake.

Enjoy!
The Pastry Diva