Baked Alaska, penuche and cat treats

It's a little surprising how peaceful the lake can be even during the winter. Last weekend I went to my dad's place out at a lake about two hours from where I live. Despite it being pretty chilly (and we certainly stayed away from the water), the air was clear and the water beautiful. 

I got some reading done, I enlisted my dad to help me with some baking (which I'll share with you next week), I cooked kebabs for lunch one day, and generally hung out with my dad and stepmom. Also, it was an excellent place to watch the second episode of Sherlock, which was scary enough in broad daylight! If you haven't watched this show yet, go find the first season on Netflix. Excellent British television, and each episode is a like a mini movie.

Baked Alaska is one of those things that's always seemed a little weird and intriguing to me. After all, you're baking ice cream, and that's not totally normal. So on a recent trip to Aunt Betty's, we made it.

Courtesy of Joy of Cooking, we made the chocolate genoise cake bottom, molded the cookies and cream fro-yo and piped on the meringue, which insulates the ice cream so it doesn't melt like you think it would. And actually, as far as desserts go, it's not that terrible for you. I think next time, though, I'll make it for a dinner party or something. Definitely a dessert for many.

Back when I visited Keane in Salt Lake City, we went to a chocolate and candy shop where I met my new favorite candy: penuche. Basically, it's brown sugar fudge. I was definitely one of those kids who tried to sneak tastes of brown sugar when my mom made cookies when I was little. So having a brown sugar-flavored fudge is like heaven. This is also a Joy of Cooking recipe that includes pecans mixed in. And I will definitely make it again.

Aunt Betty suggested we try making cat treats because, you know, we're cat people. Well, animal people. Anyway, this is Archie, her black kitty, investigating the treats. We made tuna treats and modified the recipe a bit so it wasn't too runny and would actually form treats. Basically, they're tuna-flavored patties that you bake to dry them out. Honestly, they weren't much of a hit with both Archie and my cat, Melvin. Oh well. Worth a shot!

A New York minute

Last week, I spent a few days in NYC with my mom. That is, after I got past my almost 5-hour delay on Frontier that was caused by weather but then airline error. Whatever. I got a voucher, so that's nice.


We had a couple days there, days we spent walking/cabbing all over the city seeing cool stuff. A lot of it was food-related, but a lot wasn't. Like this awesome Barbie foosball table at FAO Schwarz. Price tag? $25K. Supposedly because there were only 10 name. I think some scissors and glue could do relatively the same thing.


We just stumbled on a Crumbs Cupcakes on our way to Fifth Avenue. There were SO many choices, like cookie dough, Irish cream and the whopping blackbottom cheesecake brownie, complete with 1090 calories. Yikes! I got that butterscotch one right at the front, which was a vanilla cake with butterscotch frosting and chips. Definitely tasty, and not overwhelming.


I ate it in Bryant Park, where Fashion Week used to be. It had beautiful trees, a great juxtaposition to the skyscrapers behind it.



We spent a fair amount of time on Fifth Avenue, and like I said, spent some time in FAO Schwarz. If I were a child, I would be in heaven. Three floors of toys, ranging from Sesame Street stuffed animals dressed in New York outfits (I may or may not have gotten Cookie Monster dressed in an NYPD uniform) to Harry Potter toys to the giant piano from "Big." On my way out, I saw this wall of Muppets near a station where you can make your own Muppet. If only I had $100 to just waste on this sort of thing. It made me think of my friend Spencer, though, who does puppetry as a profession. So neat. I think I might go watch Muppet Treasure Island now...


We eventually made our way to Dylan's Candy Bar, which has the coolest stairs ever. It's kind of like a little slice of heaven. Every candy imaginable is in this store...I could spend a long time there.


Then we headed down to Serendipity 3 on Lauren's recommendation. The place was very hole-in-the-wall, with lots of Tiffany-style lamps hanging up. The place is famous for its frozen hot chocolate, but we went for the sundae, New York-style, instead: the Forbidden Broadway Sundae. Chocolate blackout cake, vanilla ice cream and yummy hot fudge. No, we did not finish it. Later that day we met Mary down in Soho for dinner and Asher for drinks. Great time seeing both.


We visited Jackie O the next day at the Met. I love me some Warhol.


Then we headed down to Little Italy per on my boss's suggestion. Dennis said to go to this place, Positano, in the heart of Little Italy. It was legitimately the best pasta I'd ever had. Vodka penne? Awesome. Finished the whole plate, and I NEVER do that when I eat.


Then on down the street, after a quick shop at a street vendor, to La Bella Ferrara, another place Dennis said to go. He said the cannoli was the best he'd ever tasted, but the whole spread was pretty darn impressive.


But I followed Dennis's suggestion and got the cannoli (which, I'd like to point out, is a dessert my mother had never heard of. Really). It was also amazing. Perfectly fried outer part, great pastry cream inside. Mmmmm.


Then we walked a few blocks north to Papabubble, a place I saw on Food Network's "Kid in a Candy Store." It was so worth the walk. Look at all those different kinds of candies!


They were making candy when we were there. They combine the different stripes into one big log, which they keep on the reddish table, which is warmed to keep the candy malleable. They were putting it through that machine to cut it, which if I remember correctly is the only machine they use for candy.


This is what they ended up with: strawberry-flavored candy. I got a container of various flavors, and it's already gone. Now if only they had one of these in Kansas.


While we were walking in Little Italy, we saw some observant kitties. Had to take a photo, of course.


We also made the trek to Mood Fabrics, which is a place "Project Runway" devotees know well. It's where designers on the show shop, and it was three floors of fabric goodness. Definitely amazing.

Last on the list was Broadway, and we went to see "Wicked." I'd seen it before in Chicago, but nothing beats Broadway, and this show held true to form. This is the stage before the show, which is easily one of the best I've ever seen. No one makes mistakes on Broadway.

All in all, it was a pretty fun trip. We covered a lot of ground in a couple days, and ended up with very sore feet at the end!

Baking for my parents: Mountain Dew cupcakes, pudding cake + ice cream, raspberry lemonade cupcakes and blondies

Well, the Taurus has officially been retired as my car. I now have my grandma's old car, which is a year older than my former car, but has less than half the miles. Sounds great, right? Except for the whole thing that it's a manual...and like I said last week, I can't drive a manual. I took this car out, and I'm great with all parts of driving except for starting. Kind of an important part. I know I need to just go sit out in a parking lot and just practice. Guess that's what I will be doing next week. Any tips are appreciated :)


To get the car, I went to my dad's place on the city lake of Council Grove to spend some time with him, Cathie and Drew. I had a three-day weekend, and spending part of it away was the perfect thing to do. I was celebrating my dad's birthday, too, so of course I had to bring cupcakes! My dad is a Mountain Dew addict and he kind of imparted that on me. I've been wanting to try this Mountain Dew cupcake recipe for a while, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. It's funny, because there isn't really that much Mountain Dew in them. It's much more lemon and lime juice and zests of the two fruits. When you're finished eating them, though, it really does taste like Mountain Dew.

It was great to be at the lake, though. When my dad got this place, it had wood paneling, shag carpet, all kinds of '70s nastiness. My dad's the ultimate handyman, and so far he's put in wood floors, completely redone the living room, leveled the patio, leveled the back yard, put in all kinds of landscaping...well, he's done a lot. He's still going to build a deck, paint the house, maybe build more rooms. It's a perfect place to just chill. It was perfect weather, especially in the shade of their trees. I got some reading done, some relaxing done, some TV-season-watching done, and some time spent with doggies done. I actually read a young adult book, probably the first one since I read Harry Potter. It was the first in the Percy Jackson series; I wanted to read it after seeing the movie. Definitely a good YA book, especially for people like me who love mythology. Pretty sure I read the whole book in one night.


I also made a second dessert for the weekend — my dad's favorite dessert of all time. Pudding cake. It's from an old 1979 Betty Crocker cookbook and totally confuses me in its chemistry. You mix a cocoa cake in the base, then sprinkle cocoa and brown sugar on top and pour hot water over it. When it bakes, somehow the top part becomes the solid cake and the bottom becomes something like a cross between hot fudge and pudding. Combine that with some homemade vanilla custard (made from the book that came with the ice cream maker) and we had one tasty birthday dessert. Happy birthday Dad!


After the lake, we came home (in the car I can't quite drive) to go to a cookout with Mom at my aunt's house. Mom was on her way through town from Denver, and we wanted to do a cookout. I decided to create my own cupcakes from a mashup of multiple recipes I'd tried. The ultimate goal was raspberry lemonade cupcakes. First, I made this lemon cupcake recipe, which is a nice, strong cake. Then I made a syrup out of raspberry lemonade concentrate and poured it into the cupcakes like in these cherry limeade cupcakes. It's a great way to get more flavor in the cake. For the icing, I made a double batch of Martha Stewart's buttercream icing, the recipe for which I now have memorized (3 sticks butter, 4 cups powdered sugar and vanilla...real healthy!). Half of it I mixed in lemon juice, lemon zest, a little bit of lemon extract and some yellow coloring. The other half I mixed in more of the raspberry concentrate. Swirl together and top with a raspberry and a candied lemon peel (which Drew made again!) and we got some pretty neat looking cupcakes. My family loved them too. :) I'll post the whole recipe below.


I had to get one more baking day in before I leave for vacation, so last night I made a really quick and easy recipe: pretzel M&M blondies. Have you tried these new M&Ms? They're wonderful! And so is this recipe. It has a total of seven ingredients and takes no time to throw together. Apparently blondies aren't a common thing, but in case you didn't know, they're basically brownies without the chocolate. I promise, it's a good thing! These are definitely worth trying.

For the rest of the week I'm headed to Chicago (and hoping to hit up as many cupcake places as possible!). I'll take pictures for sure. I can't wait!


Raspberry lemonade cupcakes

For the cake (From My Baking Addiction):
makes 24 cupcakes

2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
4 large egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar
lemon zest from two lemons
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract

For the syrup (Adapted from Annie's Eats):
3/4 cup raspberry lemonade concentrate, thawed
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

Set oven to 350° F. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.

Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Add the butter and, working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light. Beat in the extracts, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed. Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated. Add the rest of the milk and eggs, beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.

Finally, give the batter a good 2-minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated. Place the batter into the cupcake tins. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until the cupcakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean. Cool on wire rack.

Mix syrup ingredients. Poke holes in cupcakes (I use a bamboo skewer). Use pastry brush to brush the syrup over cooled cupcakes, repeating until complete.

Frost accordingly. I would post a recipe for my frosting...but I just added flavoring until it tasted good!

Picnic baking: Root beer cupcakes, apple pie ice cream and bread x 2

Well, it's definitely summer in Kansas. Every winter it gets so friggin cold, and then I can't believe how hot it gets! It says it's 93 right now, but I bet the heat index is way up there. And the thunderstorms have been wild too, what with all the rain and wind and craziness. Saturday I was working and the power flickered before kicking to a generator, which killed the cable, our sites and eventually the internet. Lemme tell you, it's hard to web produce when there's no web. And I've been baking a lot of foods that seem like they'd fit in with a picnic...but it's too hot to picnic right now.


It's been a fairly low-key week for me, which is exactly what I needed. I worked weekend days this week, which meant I was actually around when a lot of other staffers were. Which for me, naturally, means baking. Kelly and I made root beer cupcakes, which I think are totally weird but were a big hit. Root beer concentrate is definitely not the easiest thing to find in Lawrence. The cupcakes have both the concentrate and root beer in them, so they make a really runny batter. We couldn't decide what flavor of icing to do, so I swirled root beer and vanilla together, and then put a straw in them. I think they were cute :) And they newsroom definitely ate them up!


Saturday the weather hit the newsroom, like I said, and Sunday was just plain hot. Monday, though, I went to Aunt Betty's and we did a baking extravaganza. I've been wanting to try out ice cream, which yes, I admit, isn't baking. But it's dessert, so it works. I found this really great recipe for apple pie ice cream, it just sounded perfect for summer! So I made it the night before. I'd never made custard before, which involves cooking a milk mixture to a certain temperature, adding in the eggs slowly, cooking that to a certain consistency and then cooling it down really fast. It made me nervous, but apparently I did it right, because the next day when we put it in the ice cream maker with the apple mixture, it turned into ice cream! And it was sooo yummy. Ice cream might be my new thing, and I don't even really like ice cream that much. But the homemade stuff just tastes so much better, you know? We made a quart, but between me, my aunt and uncle, we finished it off.


Also on the list of things to make was a yummy pesto bread that a friend at work posted a link to. I like making bread at Aunt Betty's because she makes it so often and it always turns out perfectly. We made the pesto from the basil in her garden, definitely tasty. I know I'm going to ask for a new food processor for my birthday, because hers is so much better than my crappy cheap one. Yes, I live dangerously, asking for a food processor. Anyway, the bread was made kind of like a jelly roll, spreading out the pesto inside and then rolling it up, which also meant some pesto squished out. In the end, though, it turned out looking very pretty. My coworkers Sarah and Whitney also made the bread, and Whitney wrote about it on one of our sites. Definitely a fun thing to try making.


When I was browsing the site the pesto bread was on, I also found a recipe for pretzel rolls. You never realize how much goes into making pretzels until you actually start. You make the dough, let it rise, cut it into separate rolls, let it rise again, boil it in a baking soda-water combination, egg wash it, salt it, cut it and then bake it. All of those steps are worth it, though, because these might have been my favorite of the day. They browned wonderfully and were soooo yummy right out of the oven. And they were yummy with peanut butter, too! I think I will make some into sandwiches later.


I wanted to take that ice cream I made earlier into the newsroom, so two nights ago I remade a giant batch. I took it by last night and it seemed well-received. I can already tell how much of a workout my ice cream machine is going to get this summer! In between ice cream-making, I've been doing some massive cleaning and painting. I even organized my baking cabinet so I can see all my cupcake papers for next time I want to bake. I'm a dork, yes.

No cleaning for me today, though. I definitely have the itch to bake again, but instead I'm going to make use of my new gym membership after I take a nap. :) I love summertime!

No time to bake or blog

Today was the first time I baked in a week. Can you believe it?! I sure can't. But I did bake a few things more than a week ago.
Right now I'm in between finals — I took one on Monday and I have one on Thursday. Monday was Contemporary Feminist Political Theory (eek!) and Thursday is my computer class. I keep forgetting I have to take this test and study for it. But, after it's over, I'm done with college. Done! And I'm so excited. Not to say that KU hasn't been a blast, because it has. I've had a great time on the Kansan too. But it's definitely time to move on. I'd say nine semesters in that newsroom were enough. It's given me some of my best friends, which I'm incredibly grateful for. What's funny is that working will actually be a break for me, a lot fewer responsibilities than I've had in the past. I looked on my calendar the other day and saw a day with nothing at all! It looks like a wonderful thing.
The past few weeks have been completely nuts with school and work and stuff. My project ran, like I said last time I wrote. I also took a test, wrote a paper and sent a yearbook that week. The paper was for that feminism class, and let me tell you, watching "Dexter" through the lens of feminist theory is pretty interesting. The yearbook took a lot of effort to put together, but I finally finished it with Drew's help, and now it's out! It's so strange to see something you put together on glossy paper and full color — it looks SO much better like that. I thought I'd have time after all this stuff, but then I had to write a paper for another class about my ideal society ideology-wise. I wrote about Salina...again an interesting exercise, especially when I haven't lived there for four years. Then there was reading for this feminism final, and on top of all that, working! Two of my good college friends got married this weekend, too, which brought a lot of friends I hadn't seen in a very long time to Lawrence. It was awesome to see them all, but I wish it happened more often. Seems like weddings are the key to getting everyone to town :)
This weekend is graduation weekend, so right now I'm in a frenzy trying to clean. There's a bunch of ceremonies to go to, but it will be great seeing my family. Mom gets in later tonight, so I'm preparing an ice cream cake for her. More on that next time, though, since it's not done.
A couple weeks ago, I was definitely in a peanut butter kind of mood. I made monster cookies for one, and took them by both the Kansan newsroom and the LJ one. I love this recipe, which I think is from Paula Deen, but I always leave the raisins out. Ick. Then AC and Rummans came to town, and they wanted me to make dessert before I went to work. Rummans picked out these peanut butter brownies with chocolate ganache topping. It's one of the tastiest (and richest) desserts ever. Part of that could be because I always make twice the amount of ganache, but I just don't think one amount of it is enough. Last time I made these for the Kansan newsroom, and they were a hit. This time I brought them to the LJ, and people seemed to like them again. I will definitely keep them in my rotation :) So I was keeping some of these to take pictures, and Drew threw them away. Blame Drew for lack of art ;)
Then I felt like making cupcakes for my last day of depth reporting class. I made my favorite yellow cake recipe (plus sprinkles to make funfetti) from Smitten Kitchen, but I've never made it in cupcake-form before. It made an awesome birthday cake for Drew, but it definitely makes more than 24 cupcakes. If I had to guess, it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 36 or more. But I thought they looked pretty cute when I was done. And they were all gone.
Like I said, I baked the beginnings of an ice cream cake today. I also have cupcakes for graduation. Beyond that, I'm not sure. Definitely have a cheesecake on the list of things to make. But I'm pretty sure being graduated will mean a lot more baking.

Vegas Vacation

Well this week was spring break, so not much baking for me. But I did go to Vegas! I made it a goal to get as many creative desserts as possible, and I took pictures. Most of them were amazing! Too bad I got sick during the trip, and am now home, in bed, on antibiotics. Ugh. Oh, and if you've ever wondered, flying with any sort of infection in your head (mine was ear) is a bad, BAD idea. My ear has yet to pop since we landed Thursday at 4. Painful. So anyway, I'll do food first, then other various pictures.

Our first night we went to Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill in Caesar's Palace. We did this last year and had the most amazing chicken tacos with a peanut butter spicy barbecue sauce. Mmmmm. I even got my favorite prickly pear margarita! For dessert, chocolate corn bread pudding. I was too full to eat too much of it, but it was reallly tasty.


Liz and her friend Alex went to Vegas the same time we did, so we did a lot of walking around. Which meant some pretty monster blisters. We went inside the new Aria casino, part of the new City Center development. I think the theme is as-over-the-top-as-you-can-possibly-get. None of it really goes together, but it's still cool. These awesome cakes are from Jean Phillippe Patisserie and were so pretty!


Then we got crepes there. Liz inspired me to get a Nutella crepe, and it was wonderful! I know the crepe place in the Paris casino used to be the only one, but now everywhere makes crepes! That's definitely on my list of things to learn how to make.


This is a chocolate fountain from the Jean Phillippe store in the Bellagio. Doesn't that look tasty? I'm not even a chocolate person and it looks yummy.


This is an edible toucan also from the store in the Bellagio. I guess all toucans are technically edible by carnivores, but this is a chocolate/pastry one.


We stayed in the Mirage, which is easily my favorite casino. The rooms were amazing (and the beds quite comfy!) and everything we wanted to do was right near us. Drew and I saw the Beatles LOVE Cirque du Soleil for the second time, and I loved it even more this time. It is my favorite show, hands down. Everyone should go see it! This is some yummy cheesecake frozen yogurt. Maybe that will be on my list of things to learn how to make too.


This is a black and white shake from a place called the Burger Bar in Mandalay Bay. It's done by a chef named Hubert Keller. If you watched Top Chef Masters, he's the French guy. The shake was cookie dough and vanilla ice cream and tasty. The burgers were excellent too, although too much food for me!


For dessert here (after having a shake already!) we got the dessert burger. The bun was a doughnut with a filling of cheesecake, strawberries and pineapple. I know it sounds really heavy, but it was actually pretty light. I'm sure it wasn't in the calories though. This was the day we went to Ka, another Cirque show in MGM Grand. It's based on a lot of martial arts, which is something I'm not as interested in, but the stage was a-maz-ing. As in, the whole thing was on hydraulics and went vertical and spun and everything. It was the most fantastic stage ever (check this out at about the 2:10 point).


The last day I was stuck in our hotel room sick for most of the day. Drew got me this key lime pastry from the Jean Phillippe store. The green disc thing on top is edible and really cool. I'm thinking it was white chocolate. I did go to Lion King this night, which we got free tickets too. A good show, although my least favorite of the bunch.


Now for the non-food photos. This was the Grand Canyon out our plane window. I guess I forget how gigantic it is!


This is the ceiling of the Bellagio. I know it's fairly famous, but still stunning! These are all glass.


This is in the Wynn. So cool and colorful.


We all know by now that I'm an animal person too, which means we definitely had to visit the dolphin and cat exhibit at the Mirage. It's for Siegfried and Roy, so it has some of their tigers and all that kind of thing. Last year we went too, and there were baby dolphins, but this year they were all grown up. These dolphins were 7 years old and the other was in his 30s, which the trainer said is on the upper end of their expected lifespan.


One of my favorite kitties was the big lion down in the right-hand lower corner. He was sleeping with his tongue out :). Top-left was a panther, a.k.a. Melvin's big cousin. Next to that is a white tiger who hated some lady outside his cage. I think it might have been the colors she was wearing (yellow and green). He was pacing his cage and stared at her, then sprayed her multiple times. Yuck. Next to him was a tiger that was a teenage tiger last year, laying in the sun. In the bottom left was one of the two babies they had there. They were eight months old and this guy was chewing on a box. The other one was licking a block of ice that they froze blood into. They were super cute.


On the right is the leopard we saw this time. To the left is him last year as a baby. So cute!

So now I'm home with a giant to-do list unable to do it because either my sickness or medicine is making me sleepy. My final project is due a week from today — eek! But, I did have a really cool story run on the front page of the Journal-World last week. It was super fun to write! I'm going to update my Web site to include it for sure. Anyway, I have Princess and the Frog on repeat now, so hopefully I get better soon and can get some stuff done! Also, it's snowing. Seriously Kansas??