Apple Cake

My mom was taking my little brother over to his friend's house for a little holiday celebration (Rosh Hashanah, they were having a sukkah party), and wanted to bring a fruity treat over, with fruits being a main appreciation during that holiday. However, she only had about half an hour to make a cake, and I didn't have to guess hard to predict that she was hoping she could bake my aunt's famous apple cake (a recipe she got from a friend from germany!), which has evolved into a family favorite.

It has been constantly made not just my aunt, but my grandma and occasionally my mom, and lets not forget myself! Even the base of the recipe itself ,without the apple on top is a fabulous basic cake batter to work with. It is nice and moist, but still has a sturdy structure.

Anyways, there was no way the neat freak, aka my mom, could make a cake in less than half an hour, so I immediatly started peeling some apples for her (about 6) and took buttered a baking dish. Once she managed to mix all the ingredients together, a great advantage of the cake is that the mixing steps are so simple, I started layering the apples onto the cake, which I had lightly tossed into some cinamon, brown sugar, and sugar. My mom and I both agreed that some slivered almonds would add a happy crunch to the cake and would be a good combination to the apples, so not only did I add slivered almonds to the cake but I melted some butter with cinamon and brown sugar, and drizzled that over the apples and almonds layered onto the cake. Yummy!







I would have pre heated the oven as well, but their wouldn't have been enough time to bake the cake at our house, so my mom shrewdly, or so she thought, decided on baking it at my brothers friend house. But that is where all the trouble started;
Don't worry, my mom didn't drop the cake on her way to their friends house. However, the oven still didn't seem very friendly to invite to the cake into it, and literally refused to go onto the bake setting. The buttons were all set to 350 F on the bake setting, and after about half an hour in the oven, or so I heard, my mom
checked on the cake to see how it was cooking, and it was completely raw! Of course, out of all days for the oven not to work, it picked a day a delicious apple cake wanted to bake in it. So after minutes of stress and confusion, the oven seemed to cut my mom and my brother's friend's mom some slack, and decided to let its broil setting to work. And so the cake was cooked on the broil setting with a big blanket of foil wrapped on top of it. So the result? Umm, well it couldn't end up being that amazing moist texture everyone loves, but it still had that delicious flavor and tasted even better with a dollop of whipped cream.
The actual flaw of the cake that wasn't he ovens fault was that my mom didn't cover every corner of the cake enough with foil, so a good amount of the edge of the cake was a burnt black color, which she was kind enough to take home..so I could photogragh? ;)


I wish I had better pictures of the moist apple-licious beuatifully colored apple cake it was supposed to look like, but I guess this is just an excuse for you to go ahead and bake this amazing cake and send me some pictures. No seriously, it tastes amazing, as long as your oven doesn't feel like broiling on you!

The recipe follows: APPLE CAKE

-6 eggs
-2 cup. Sugar
-3/4 cup. Oil
-3 cup. Flour
-3 Tsp. Baking Powder
-1/2 cup. Orange Juice
-Vanilla
-5-8 apples
-1 Tbsp.Cinamon, brown sugar, and sugar to toss the apples in (optional)
-1 Tbsp. butter melted in cinamon and brown sugar (optional)

Directions:
1.Mix the eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla together.
2.In a separate bowl, mix the flour and baking powder together
3.Alternate adding the flour and baking powder mixture and the orange juice to the wet ingredients, starting with the flour and ending with the flour.
5.Slice the apples as thinly as you like and layer them onto the cake however way you like, after you've tossed them in some cinamon, brown sugar, and sugar (optional)
6. Optional: Sprinkle some slivered almonds on top, and about a tablespoon of butter melted with cinamon and brown sugar in it, on top of the cake.
7.Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Berry Gelato

Finally, an icecream maker machine has found its way into my kitchen! There have been so many times I have come across delicious icecream, sorbet, and gelato recipes that look so scrumpcious, creative, and much lower in fat then what you find in your local grocery store! Each one playing its role as a flavorful, creamy, icey, refreshing treat.
I am a big fan of berries, which is why I awlays keep a package of Trader Joe's frozen mixed berries on hand, so I'm always pretty comfortable in experimenting with berries as the base of my flavors for new recipes. I also wanted to take advantage of being able to make my frozen treat extra healthy, the healthier it is, the more scoops you get ;), so I decided to go with a berry gelato.

I didn't search too much to find a berry gelato base, and was confident in picking a recipe I found at http://www.recipezaar.com/Skinny-Peoples-Berry-Gelato-141620. The steps are pretty simple, meaning it isn't to hard to put it all together, and to be honest, the step that took me the longest (that I wasn't prepared for), was waiting for my icecream machine to chill in the freezer for over 24 hours! Ahhh, a little advice; read the intructions of any new device you get ahead of time, so that your not stuck waiting with a ready made batch of gelato batter that has to impatiently wait in the fridge for over a day, to let the icecream machine chill!

Instead of using a certain type of berry, I just threw in the 3 whole cups of mixed frozen berries that came all together in the package, which i let thaw for a bit. I take that back, knowing how impatient I am, you uprobably figured I let them thaw for 30 seconds-a minute in the microwave. :)

Overall, the flavor of the gelato was pretty good. The cornstarch, in the ingredients was noticable and for the future I would like to find a replacent for it. I used low-fat milk, which was fine for me, but if you would like a creamier gelato, use whole milk, or any milk with a higher fat content.


The only major thing I was disspaointed in, was the texture of the gelato. Throughout a few days in the freezer, it started to get a more solid texture, almost like a popsicle. However, that could have been, because the berry mixture was in the fridge a day longer then it was supposed to be, but hey, maybe I just mixed it for the wrong period of time. After all, this was my first time using an ice cream machine.

Rugelach

My mom has cousins living in Israel, and one of them was coming to visit with her hubby and 1 year old. I don't get to see them that often, so I was very excited. Of course, of course, of course I had to bake dessert for the following night that they were coming over for dinner. Something tasty, wonderful flavors, great texture, and comes from the background of Israel. 1 word: R-U-G-E-L-A-C-H. I never made rugelach before this, but I was eager to try.
I found probably the best recipe I could have found, from the fabulous, Ina Garten. The link to the recipe is: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/rugelach-recipe2/index.html

I didn't have the apricot preserves that the recipe called for, so what I did was
1. Quartered up some dried apricots.
2. Put them into the blender with a few very small drops of lemon juice, a splash of orange juice, and however much sugar I needed to sweeten it up.
3. I pureed everything together, adding as much hot water as I needed to thin out the puree.





I really liked the little creation I had made as my replacement for the apricot reserves. It had a nice texture from the apricots which couldn't get completely pureed, and was perfectly sweet. In the future, I will definatlly use this puree again instead of buying a whole jar of apricot preserves, although one day I have to try the preserves to compare the differences. Anyhow, both ways seem delicious.

As far as the assembly of the rugelach went, it was a bit time consuming, but all the steps were very simple.
Start out with rolling one of the 1/4's of the dough into a round cirle. Don't worry about getting the edges straight, because the edges are going to be unseen after you roll them up anyways.

Next spread out your layer of apricot puree (I spread it out with a brush)

Sprinkle on the sugar/nut mixture, and then cut the cirlce into 12 even wedges.


Roll up a wedge at a time, starting from the biggest side of the triangle wedge.


After you've got them all rolled up and on a baking sheet, give them all an egg wash, and then sprinkle on the cinamon sugar mix


These rugelach were one of the best things Iv'e every baked. That surprises me, because I didn't even think I like rugelach. Everytime I bake somthing, I can't help but think of all the things I could have added or shouldn't have. But these, oh these were just about perfect. The only complaint I would have with these, besides being so addictingly good, is how the sugar sprinkled on top of them created a hard chewy crust on the bottom of each, although that complaint was turned into a complament by many of the guests who enjoyed these treats with me, since they liked that sugary crust on the bottem.



We started out with 48 ruhgelach, I mean 45, considering all the ones I managed to sneak into my mouth right when they came out of the oven, at the begining of the night...


And were left with...

Peanut Butter-Banana Stuffed French Toast

I was watching an episode of "The Best Thing Iv'e Ever Tasted," a show on Food Network and the main subject for that episode was 'breakfast.' The best thing Chef Bobby Flay had eaten for breakfast was "Stuffed French Toast." While he was explaining were they serve it at, I was too lost in the words of the french toast being stuffed with peanut butter and bananas to pay attention. So of course, the following morning, I was eager to make some Peanut Butter-Banana Stuffed French Toast (PBBSFT)! Just as I was about to grab the bananas, I realized I didn't have any bananas! Me, with a sad face, was stuck eating cereal that morning, instead of my hot 'PBBSFT.' However, the next morning after that, after I was sure to buy bananas, I was able to make my stuffed french toast.

I made a plain peanut butter-banana sandwhich on whole-wheat bread


After I had closed the sandwhich, I soaked it into a mixture of 2 eggs, 1/8 cup of milk, salt, vanilla and:


I let it soak for about 45 seconds on each side


Cooked it on a buttered pan until the it was nice and crisp on both sides:


Then sliced it in half, dusted some powdered sugar and cinamon on top...


...drizzled some maple syrup on top, and ate it with a glass of orange juice...

..and experienced a little taste of heaven for breakfast :)

Lemon Wafers with Lemon Glaze

I love the concept of a light and very tasty cookie and was lucky enough to find a great recipe for (mini) vanilla wafers on http://bakingbites.com/2008/07/mini-vanilla-wafer-cookies/, which has turned out to be one of my favorite basic cookie recipes. If you add an extra 1/4 cup of flour to the batter, it keeps the shape and form of the cookie you pipe out, so you can use any shaped you like. I decided to change the vanilla cookies into lemon cookies instead, and all I did was add 1 1/2 teaspoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice instead of the vanilla extract and used all white sugar. I zested the lemon earlier, and sprinkled the lemon zest on top of the cookies right before they went into the oven.
'Unwisely' I piped the batter into a bit more unique of a design than little rounds, and even though they looked nice going into the oven...

..the cookies didn't keep their shape and came out flat because of the low amount of flour put into them


To spice up their flat appearence, I mixed the extra lemon juice (about 1 tablespoon) with sifted powdered sugar (about 1/4-1/3 cup, depending on how thick you want your glaze) until they were fully combined togeher as a glaze. I just drizzled that glaze onto the cookies in rows of stripes, but be careful not to drizzle on too much, so that you don't overpower the cookies with it.


Once the glaze hardened, I had myself a batch of delicious petite lemon wafers with a lemony glaze :D

^^These cookies wern't photograghed with the most attractive looking "lemon zest stripes," but I tried

Whole-Wheat Strawberry Shortcake

I was at my grandma's house, and my aunt brought a simple and very tasty dessert. Strawberry Shortcake. I decided to post about it, because shortcakes have only a couple of steps, can be put together as slopply as you like, and always taste good.
For the cake part, my aunt used the recipe she always uses, only this time, she used whole-wheat flour in replacement of white flour:

-6 eggs
-2 cup. Sugar
-3/4 cup. Oil
-3 cup. Flour
-3 Tsp. Baking Powder
-1/2 cup. Orange Juice
-Vanilla

Directions:
1. Mix the eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla together.
2. In a separate bowl, mix the flour and baking powder together
3. Alternate adding the flour and baking powder mixture and the orange juice to the wet ingredients, starting with the flour and ending with the flour
4. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

After the cakes are ready, start layering in a large serving bowl a layer of cream, sliced strawberries, cake, cream, sliced strawberries, etc. Do this until the whole bowl is filled to the top with a final layer of cream and decorate with strawberries if you like


There is really no better way to serve this, than to just dig in with a big spoon. Even if it gives of a sloppier appearence of the cake, that's just part of the fun of it, and your still going to be eating the same wonderful flavors from the strawberry shortcake.

Theirs the spoon that's been attacked ^^ with cream

Strawberry shortcake anyone? It's whole wheat..

Banana-Berry Parfait

Just a simple, quick, and I guess I could say healthy, snack for a hot summer afternoon. Iv'e made a berry parfait before, and there really isn't much to it, but they always end up looking elegant and yummy enough to post about. I used a simple wine glass for my cup, and pretty much just threw in a layer ofnon-fat vanilla yogurt on the bottem, berries (that have chilled in the freezer for about 30-60 mins). Then some non-fat cottage cheese (cottage cheese?...Oddly enough, I like the combination of it with the berries), then granola, and then sliced bananas. Pretty much, you can just keep layering the parfait with whatever ingredients you like, but I finished it wit a dollop of yogurt, leftover berries, and a little bit of granola on top.

*The lighting wasn't to good when I took this picture**


Do you know that point after you've eaten half of your parfait, and your starting your way down to the point where all the ingredients sort of come together in your next spoonful!?...I sure did :)

..but it sure didn't last too long

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Covered Banana with Nuts

A few weeks ago, half a banana was eaten, and the other half layed unappealingly lonely on the counter for the rest of the afternoon. So what's a girl who's never eaten a chocolate covered banana before supposed to do? That's right, I went to the cupboard and grabbed a handful of chocolate chips to melt, to smear onto that banana! I do love bananas with a drizzle of peanut butter on them, and I do loveee peanut butter with chocolate, so i think we already know what happened next...;)

After I inserted a stick into the banana I smeared an even layer of peanut butter all around it

After the peanut butter on the banana hardened up for about 15 minutes in the freezer, it made spreading a layer of melted chocolate onto the banana a lot easier

Which then dove its way into a pile of nutss...

I only had almonds on hand so I chopped them up and they still added a great nutty crunch
(I only coated half the banana in nuts, and placed the nutty side down on the tray so that none of the chocolate touched/stuck onto it)

Once the whole things done and coated in whatever toppings you like, plop it into the freezer and put it into the refridgerater for 30-45 minutes before you want to eat it

Crepes with Chocolate & Cream & Strawberry Puree..oh my!

Occasionally, I will find some time to make my brother a sweet treat for breakfast or lunch, and one of his favorites is a crepe! Unfortunatley, I didn't have any nutella on hand to smear on the crepe, so instead I finally chopped up some chocolate chips (you can use any type of chocolate, the better quality chocolate you use, the better flavor you will get), so that it melted instantly when placed on the crepe

The recipe I used was a basic one I had found years ago (unfortunately, I can't find the link to the website that provided me with such an amazing recipe, so if anyone finds out the link from were the recipe originally came, please send it to me. Thanks, and once again all kudos go to the person who originally is responsible for coming up with this recipe)

I usually halfen the recipe for just a few crepes and add a couple drops of vanilla and powdered sugar to sweeten it up.

-4 eggs
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-2 cups flour
-2 ¼ milk
-¼ cup melted butter or margarine

Directions;
1. Break all eggs into a bowl with salt and whisk together until the egg looks uniformly yellow
2. Slowly add the flour (may look a little lumpy so sift it first)
3. Alternate pouring in the flour and milk, to the mixture (start with the flour and end with the flour)
4. Whisk it all together until it looks smooth
5. Add melted butter and whisk until the batter is smooth again
6. Cover the batter, put in refrigerator

To get a thin crepe, drop in a couple of tablespoons of batter into your buttered pan (to make it nonstick) , and instantly spread it out by tilting the pan until a thin layer of batter covers the whole skillet.

After you flip the crepe, sprinkle on the chocolate (as well as any other additional toppings you might want to add; Berries, Nuts, Caramel, etc..) immediately, because the other side will cook extremely fast and you want to give the chocolate enough time to melt.

After the crepe was fully cooked, I folded it in half, and sprayed on some cream (the premade ones that can get sprayed out when you press the nozzle of the container, which started melting when it touched that hot hot crepe!

I had pureed stawberries previously to flavor an icing, and used the excess I had stored in the fridge to drizzle over the crepe, and then sprinkled on some extra chocolate that I had chopped up a bit more roughly.

Brown Sugar Scones w. Lemon/Vanilla Drizzle

I have pials of recipes just sitting in a binder which Iv'e never tested out. Last week, when pastries ran out in the kitchen, I decided to seek into my binder of recipes I had printed out, and make one. I barely make scones, and the ones I make are with plain white flour and sugar, so a recipe for brown sugar scones, really caught my eye. I originally found the amazing recipe on http://veganvisitor.wordpress.com/ which providedes the very recipe on http://veganvisitor.wordpress.com/2008/04/03/brown-sugar-scones/.

The recipe is all vegan, but I made a couple of changes when I baked mine:
- Instead of 2 cups all-prupose flour and 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour I put in 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour and 1 cup orf whole-wheat flour
- I didn't have any vegetable shortening on hand, as well as any shortening, so I replaced the shortening with butter
- I didn't have soy milk either, but regular works just fine
- I threw in some blueberries, dried cranberries, oats, chocolate chips, and some chopped up almonds and walnuts

I knew the flavor of coffee would go great with these scones, but wasn't quite sure how to incorporate it into the scones. I decided to press little stripes of coffee onto the scones with a brush, which gave the scones a unique look to them. I also sprinkled oats onto the scones with oats in order to tell the difference.


After they were baked, I felt like they could use a little bit more flavor and I wanted to add more to the apperence of the scones. To contrast the flavor of the blueberries I wanted a lemony flavor and some vanilla as well. And so, I mixed up some lemon juice and vanilla juice with powdered sugar, until it became a nice thick drizzling consistency, and then swirled some on top of each of the scones after they had cooled.

The Glaze hardened nicely after about a half hour and tasted delicious on the scones

Strawberry Banana Smoothie topped w. a Chocolate Covered Strawberry

Hot Day + Banana+ Lots of Fresh Strawberries + Blender = Strawberry Smoothieee Timeee!

Big boxes of strawberries went on sale for a great price so of course they came home with me.

However, the large amount wasn't getting eaten fast enough and was on its way to rott, and so i threw them into the blender with chunks of a banana

To make it more rich and creamy havving a thick greek yogurt, vanilla yogurt, and even strawberry banana flavored yogurt on hand, they all got thrown into the blender with the fruit

After it was all blended for a good few minutes into the consistency I wanted, I poured some into a serving glass and garnished it with some whipped cream and was hoping to find a mint leaf to put on top of the cream. Even though I coudn't find any mint, I conincidently had made chocolate covered strawberries earlier for someone and was able to use one of them to take the place of the mint leaf.

Fruit Salad with Grapefruit

We had tons of fruits in our fridge on their way to rott. Over summer it's tempting to ignore the fruits and go straight to the cookie jar. So what better way to eat all the your fruits then to cut them up and toss them altogether in one bowl? I didn't have the classic berries you would find in a fruit salad, but I had fruits like honey dew, melon, pinapple, cherries (pit them first of course), apples, peaches, mangoe, strawberries and grapefruit fresh from our tree which no one would eat.



The grapefruits actually added a really unique flavor to the fruit salad. I cut them up in wedges and squirted the access juice onto the fruit salad.


Of course, you can put anything you want in fruit your fruit salads, so if you also have fruits rotting away in your fridge...


I love the crunch you get by adding some slivered almonds (ad them right before you serve it so they won't get soggy) and a sprint of mint for garnishing