Vanila Chocolate Chip Cake with Chocolate Cream Icing

This cake was delicious. I made a sheet vanila cake with chocolate chips. Then, cut it into 4 rectangles and stacked into a 4 layer cake with 3 layers of chocolate cream and chocolate ganache over it. Then, added some strawberries an voila!

For this cake, you have to use the same steps I used in my last cake, the Tripple Chocolate Cake - where you can also find link to get the recipe for the chocolate cream and ganache.

PB&J Cupcakes

Last weekend I decided to turn one of my husband’s favorite sweet treats, PB&J sandwich, into a cupcake.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Cupcake Ingredients:

• 1 box of white cake mix, you can also use butter cake mix
• 2-3 cups of Peanut butter spread; I used Jiffy’s reduced fat
• 3 eggs
• 3-1/2 sticks of unsalted butter (oil substitute)
• ¼ cup sour cream
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1 cup of milk (water substitute)
• Grape or strawberry jelly
• 1/2 cup chopped peanuts
  

Directions:

1. Cream about ¾ cups of peanut butter with ½ stick of butter
2. Just follow the instruction of the cake mix box, but make the substitutions listed above.
3. Add to creamed peanut butter - cake mix, eggs, vanilla extract, 1 stick of butter, sour cream, milk
4. Fold in chopped peanuts
5. Bake according to cake box instructions
   

After cooled, inject the jelly into each cupcake with a piping tip and voila! Now, it’s ready for icing.

Peanut Butter Icing

Mix about 1-2 cups of peanut butter with 2 cups of confectioning sugar; taste it to make sure it’s not too sweet and make sure it stays at a good consistence for decoration. Not too hard and not too soft.

Well, it turned out delicious and I even had extra for a little cake.

If you like PB&J sandwiches, this is a must. I am sure you will love it!

Strawberry Banana Cake

Last Sunday I made a delicious and moist strawberry banana cake with Coconut Swiss buttercream; then, sprinkled some coconut flakes on top.

The recipe was a mixture of a semi homemade magazine strawberry cake recipe and my usual recipe. But, instead of using a strawberry cake mix I used a white cake mix and added strawberry gelatin to give it color and flavor and it made it really moist, this was the recipe from the magazine. Then, just added butter, milk, eggs, sour cream, vanila extract, and a pinch of salt. After it's all mixed up I added the fresh chopped strawberries and bananas. Baked at 350 for about 40 minutes. Then, voila! !

Let the cake cool for about an hour then frost with the Swiss coconut buttercream - DELISH!

BTW- I took the Swiss buttecream recipe from cupcake recipe book .

See more strawberry cake at http://lapetitebaker.blogspot.com/2009/07/starwberry-cake.html

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
   

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!

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!

Sunday Baking - Chocolate Cake

This Sunday I wanted to try a chocolate cake from a box with coffee; to give a deeper taste. I have been using box cake mix lately but adding a few different ingredients to make the taste better and almost like all homemade; it just saves a lot of time and you get almost the same. I wouldn’t do it if it was a special order, but just for us at home it’s really perfect. I still bake homemade cakes once in while but why not take advantage of the box mix and save time.

Anyway, the replacement and extra ingredients are:

• 1 cup of sour cream
• 1/3 cup of real butter
• 1 cup of 2 % milk
• In this cake, I also used strong coffee (½ of the liquid ingredients)
• Chocolate chips (optional)
• Cocoa powder (1 tbsp)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
  

The cake came out delicious and I just used some butter cream icing I had from my last cake, plus added some Nutella to cover the sides and embellished with berries and whipped cream – DELICIOUS! I even added a chocolate design on top.

Chococlate Raspberry Cupcakes