Family recipe - Tiramisu Cold dessert

This is a delicious cold dessert my mother and gramma used to make. I tried a few times but had no luck. Then, finally asked my gramma for the correct recipe; it turned out delicious. In Portuguese, this dessert is called "Pave Gelado" similar translation would be "Cold Dessert"

Ingredients

• 1 can of condensed milk
• 1 can of milk you can use 2% but full fat is always better
• 1 can of table cream
• 4 eggs - separate egg whites and yolks
• 2 packs of ladies fingers wafers
• 4 tbps of sugar
• 1 cup of chocolate milk

Directions

Freeze the table cream for one hour before using, to eliminate liquids. Place condensed milk, milk and 4 egg yolks in a sauce pan ; stir it until you get a thick consistence. Place the thick cream in a glass dish, 11'x8" approximately. Dip ladies fingers in chocolate milk and sugar and place two layers of the wet wafers over the thick cream.

Beat the 4 egg whites until peak and add table cream, from freezer (make sure there is no liquids on the top layer), add 4 tbps of sugar. Mix is all and pour it over the wafers' layer. Cover with aluminum foil and place it in freezer for at least 2-3 hours.

Enjoy!

Tips -

1. you can add some instant coffee to bottom or top layer to give it a bit of tiramisu taste.
2. if you like coconut, sprinkle some coconut flakes on top of the last layer and/or shaved chocolate like I did
   

Baby Shower Purse Cake

This was my third purse cake and it came out real cute. It was for my girl friend's baby shower yesterday. I got the idea from another baby shower purse cake picture someone sent me a while ago. I made the cake a day before to let it cool and decorated the next day. It was a chocolate cake with chocolate chips and coconut buttercream icing.

The little green shoes and bibb were made with fondant. I added a few baby spoons on the side pocket and a little baby bottle. Also, a real pacifier next to the baby shoes.

Everyone loved the cake and they kep telling me a should open a bake shop!

This is Melissa - she looked so cute! She is having a baby girl ;-)


Messy picture of the cake after we started slicing it. But, it was delicious.


Find some instructions on how to make a purse cake or Making a purse cake

Orange Peel Cake

Saturday I made a delicious orange peel cake. And, I made it out of a moist yellow cake mix. I like to sometimes mix my recipes, it’s a bit dangerous because they say baking is a science and you need to follow the measurements to have it all come together. But, it’s fun to experiment and see the results, plus you can also learn along the process.

So, even though the orange cake tastes it shrunk about 1” or 2”, from when I took it out of the oven. My husband thinks it need to bake longer; I don’t agree because I did the tooth pick test and it came out dry so it was time to remove from the oven. I think that the one possible reason the cake shrunk is because I opened the oven once and actually moved the rack out of it to check o nthe cake; and I read in this other web site http://www.baking911.com/ that you are not supposed to do that. Oh well, live and learn. I won’t do it next time. My husband likes the taste but still think he can taste the dough; I think it’s because the cake is really moist. I added orange juice, a whole orange, orange rum, and milk; so a lot of liquids.

Here is the recipe:

1. 1 box moist yellow cake


2. Eggs, follow cake mix instructions


3. ½ stick of unsalted butter


4. 1 cup of sour cream


5. 1 tsp vanilla extract


6. 1 tbp orange rum


7. ½ cup of milk – 2% is ok
   
8. ½ cup of orange juice
   
9. 1 whole orange, ground in food processor
   

Follow cake mix package instructions for oven temperature. Grease 9” round pan; I use Bakers Joy. Also, follow instructions from cake mix for mixing ingredients, you will be replacing the oil for the butter and the water with milk and the orange juice, add the vanilla and rum orange extracts. Then, add the whole orange.

I made a creamcheese icing for this cake, but you can also do an orange glaze, or no icing at all.

Once it’s done, let it cool and enjoy!

Julie & Julia - My Movie review

I watched Julie & Julia this afternoon, with my husband, and we both loved. It was funny and a even emotional at times. I think a lot of people can identify with Julie, the girl making Julia's recipes; her frustrations, ups and downs about what to do with her life and her work. Plus, you get a little glimpse of Paris, circa 1950 - I hope it was Paris - if not, it was still a pretty scenery.

Meryl Streep did a great job playing Julia Child; she is too funny and was able to walk in those really high heels to be as tall as Julia was. She had a real loving husband, Paul, and they both loved each other very much and seemed to always encourage each other a lot, no matter what; something to learn from them. So, I recommend to all of you food fanatics out there and even if you never watched food shows from Julia Child, like me, you will still like the movie and be encouraged to start cooking and, in my case, I will look for a Julia Child DVD to see some of her cooking shows. And, I am even thinking of getting the book Mastering the Art of French Cooking

Now, go watch it!

Here is a clip from one of Julia Child's TV show

Smart Penguin

Smart Penguin and cute! This post has nothing to do with baking but a cool and funny video to watch. Penguin was able to dodge the whales and make some new friends ;-)

Ok, some baking stuff now - so I will be making a cool baby shower cake next week - came back to see it. It will be a baby purse with baby stuff in it. I will be making the tiny baby shoes with gum paste this weekend.

Cake Boss Video

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Easy Blueberry Peach Pie

The other night I made a very easy and delicious blueberry peach pie, with ingredients I had in my pantry. Since blueberries are in season and at low cost, I stocked up to get my antioxidants servings for the day, suggested 5 servings by Dr. Oz , Oprah’s doctor, and also used to make this delicious pie.

Ok, so here is what you need – Blueberry Peach Pie Ingredients:

• 1 package of room temperature Pillsbury pie crust – keep package to follow instructions
• 1 can of sliced peaches
• ½ cup of fresh blueberries
• Get ingredients listed on pie crust package – it might be a recipe to make apple pie, but you can sue the same things this pie, just replacing apples with blueberries and sliced peaches
  

Directions

1. Roll out pie crust on round baking dish
2. Make pie filling by following instructions from pie crust using package; sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, flour etc – use sliced peaches and fresh blueberries instead
3. Pour pie filling into pie crust
4. Roll out second pie crust to cover pie, sprinkle some sugar
5. Bake in oven at 425 degrees for about 40-45 min. Set rack in middle
   

I wonder if blueberry pie slice would count as a serving of our needed antioxidants for the day! Probably so, but also count for the calorie intake and sugar, carbs etc – all that bad and good stuff we love ;-)

Enjoy!

Banana Butterscotch Cream Pie

This weekend I made a quick dessert with some bananas and sugar-free butterscotch instant pudding – easy and delicious. So, here is what you need:

• 2 bananas

• 1 pack of instant pudding – butterscotch for this recipe but you can also use vanilla; it doesn’t have to be sugar-free but it makes me fell a little better and it tastes just as good as the regular pudding


• 1 chocolate gram cracker crust; you can also make your gram cracker crust if you prefer – but since this was a quick fix I used the store bough gram cracker crust

Directions

1. Slice the bananas, and place them all over the crust


2. Prepare the pudding according to box directions and pour it over the bananas


3. Place it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours to
   

I also topped with chocolate cookie crumbs - just delicious!

You know, before I started baking I never knew that almost every ingredient you by comes with a little recipe on the box; I never paid any attention to the box; I used to open and discard it right away – not anymore! How can you go wrong? This is how I started many of my baking and some cooking too – just look at the box and try the suggested recipe.

My Test Kitchen

That weekend I was trying a few differeent things to enter the Pillsbury Bake-Off contest, which I did and now I am waiting to be called ;-) so I hope!

Ok, so I made a delicious chocolate tart, which got perfected later and fa ew other sweet things - check out my test kitcehn post at http://webbyzard.wordpress.com/2009/03/17/having-fun-baking/

Peanut butter cookie stack

Baking on Sunday – Cupcakes, wheat bread & more

You have to check this post I did a few months ago, it's in my other blog; and I guess I am just to lazy to move it all to the new La Petite Baker blog, so I will be adding links to my older baking posts here and there.

Anyway, that Sunday I wanted to finish a lot of the stuff in refrigerator, like ½ can of cranberries and ½ can of crushed pineapple. So, in an effort to not let the food spoil ..... read more go to http://webbyzard.wordpress.com/2009/03/24/baking-cupcakes-wheat-bread/

Key West Key Lime Pie

If you have ever been to Key West, FL you might have seen that some stores sell their own key lime ice cream; which tastes just like a key lime pie on a stick but covered with rich dark chocolate - very delicious.

So, with that in mind, I decided to create my own version of the Key West Key Lime Pie. And, as you can see in the picture, it came out great. I used the blottled key lime juice and just followed the directions, then added some coconut flakes, coconut is one of my favorite ingredients to add to my baking. Ok, so ater the pie was baked and cooled I poured a tick layer of good dark chocolate ganache, and to the refrigerator it went. At the end, just made some homemade whipped cream and decorated. Voila!

Below is a picture of my ordinary Key Lime Pie - but also very yummy!

Wedding Cake

Wedding cake customer testimonial below (about 75 guests):

Hello,
That cake was huge. Do you know that every one had a piece and we still had leftovers of the cake. That by far was the best cake I had ever had and prettiest! I think the shells just made the cake. Dave loved the fondant and the chocolate in the cake. I will be sending you pictures of the wedding. Thank you again.

Sincerely,
Elizabeth L. – Dec, 2008

Now, on my end, I had fun making this 3-tier cake but it was soo much work! Since I was doing in my own kitchen sometimes the space was somewhat limited. Also, I can't just keep going and not cleaning after each step - I am a Virgo and with a little OCD - but, in the end it was great!

But, next time I would go for fresh flowers vs fondant.