Guilt Free Carrot Bundt Cake & a Jillian Review

Yes! Two posts in one day! I did it. It's a miracle. I didn't think it would ever happen.

Do you know what has never happened in all my twenty-two years living in the Springfield-Branson area? Fifteen inches of snow. The National Weather Service has issued a blizzard warning for our area. That is nuts! That is just plain crazy. I've never been under a blizzard warning either. The ice/snow is supposed to start in the middle of the night and continue all day tomorrow. I might have to update the blog with snow pictures if we get as much as they're saying.

Maybe I'll even make some snow ice cream. Nah, probably not because I made real vanilla ice cream today. There's nothing like homemade ice cream and a blizzard! That's what I say.



How's everyone's diets going this year? I hope they're going well for you if you are on one. I haven't been dieting this year, but I've been mixing up the desserts... some nights I eat healthy ones... some nights I do not. I've been working out quite a bit and trying out some new workout DVD's.

You may recall, I have a workout DVD addiction. I've been collecting Jillian Michaels' workout DVDs since last summer. Now they're pretty much the only ones I use. The rest of my workout DVD's don't compare at all. I always feel like I get a good workout when I use her DVD's.

Now that I've been working out to Jillian I feel like I'm stronger and in much better shape.


It all started with this DVD. I recommend 30 Day Shred over any of her other workouts. It's a complete workout with cardio, upper body, and abs. The DVD is divided into three twenty minute workouts with different levels of intensity.


No More Trouble Zones is another tough workout. This is a forty minute circuit that focuses on upper body, lower body, and abs. The upper body sections kill me in this.


Banish Fat Boost Metabolism isn't quite as hard as the first two. It's more cardio than the others. It's a forty minute circuit like No More Trouble Zones.


Yoga Meltdown is a workout I use on my "down" days, even though it's still difficult. It's yoga at a faster pace and anyone can do it. I had never completed a yoga DVD until this one. By the way, I can't do crow. I've tried multiple times.


I bought Shred-It with Weights about two weeks ago. The first time I tried it I was sore for days and could barely walk. Haha. That's a sign of a good workout DVD. The DVD is a total body workout and is divided into two thirty minute circuits. You need a kettlebell or hand weights for this one.


6 Week Six Pack is my newest DVD and it's HARD; I had to pause it several times to rest. I wonder if you can really get a six pack from using it? I guess it's possible... this DVD is divided into two thirty minute circuits. You basically repeat the same routine in each circuit.

Well, I hope my little Jillian review might help you out if you're on the fence about buying her DVD's or trying to decide which workout is the right one for you. :)

Have you tried Jillian? What do you think?



Guilt Free Carrot Bundt Cake is a healthy dessert, but it's really flavorful and tastes good. This cake still contains oil, sugar, butter, and cream cheese, just in smaller amounts. Shredded carrot, toasted coconut, toasted pecans, pineapple, raisins and spices add extra flavor and nutrition to this carrot cake.



The cake is still pretty moist even without the fat, because the batter contains buttermilk and pineapple juice, and the carrot and pineapple add moisture too.

The bundt cake is topped with a cream cheese frosting made out of reduced fat cream cheese, butter, confectioners' sugar and vanilla. I used fat free cream cheese, but I would not recommend it. I don't think I'll ever use fat free cream cheese ever again; the texture is too stiff and rubbery. Use neufchatel cheese if you bake this cake.


Guilt Free Carrot Bundt Cake
Printable Recipe

1 3/4 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/3 cup oil
2/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups shredded carrot
1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut, toasted
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted
1/2 cup raisins, soaked in hot water
1 (8 ounce) can pineapple tidbits, coarsely chopped (reserve juice)
1/2 cup old fashioned oats

Frosting
3 ounces reduced fat cream cheese (a little less than 1/2 block), softened
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat inside of a bundt cake pan with cooking spray.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger. In a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat together oil, buttermilk and brown sugar until well combined - about 1 minute. Beat in eggs and vanilla until well combined - about 1 minute. Beat in carrot, coconut, pecans, raisins, pineapple, pineapple juice and oats until well combined. Reduce mixer speed to low and gradually beat in flour mixture until just combined.

Spread cake batter into prepared pan. Bake 35-40 minutes or until well risen, set, and golden brown. Cool 12 minutes on a wire rack before flipping out cake onto a platter.

To make the frosting, in a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese until creamy - about 1 minute. Beat in butter until combined. Beat in confectioners sugar and vanilla until combined - about 2 minutes. Drizzle/spread frosting over cake.

Makes 8 servings

Skillet Pineapple Butter Cake with Whipped Cream

Today I'm going to attempt to post two recipes in one day. I don't think I've ever done that before. It's completely necessary because I have way too many things I've been baking lately and need to post about.

I'm going with this pineapple cake recipe first, because I really don't like the pictures and I want to hide this post as soon as possible.

I edited the pictures and added a 1960's vintage effect to them. I wish I lived in the sixties and the seventies. I think I'd fit in much better. I would listen to Three Dog Night and drive around in my Gremlin and go roller skating all the time.
It. Would. Be. Awesome.



Here's the story (of this cake), morning glory. I bought a pineapple. It was $2 and that's way cheap for a pineapple so I ended up taking her home with me.

I have a cast iron skillet. I received if for Christmas and have been itching to bake an upside-down-cake in it. But I didn't couldn't figure out how to core the pineapple and make rings so I ended up cutting the core out of it and chopping the pineapple into chunks.



But then I couldn't make a pineapple upside down cake because I didn't have beautifully sliced pineapple rings, so I chopped up the pineapple even more and used it in the cake batter.

I still wanted to use my cast iron skillet and decided to bake the cake batter in that and then just top the cake with whipped cream.

In conclusion, this is a very buttery pineapple cake, baked in a skillet, topped with whipped cream. It was delicious and worth blogging about. But next time I'll use pineapple rings. I just have to figure out how to core a pineapple. Do pineapple corers exist? Is that another kitchen gadget I need? I have way too many as it is.

I'll be back later with a better post. In the meantime, watch this.


Skillet Pineapple Butter Cake with Whipped Cream
Printable Recipe

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large egg yolks
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped fresh pineapple

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Coat the inside bottom and sides of a 10 or 12-inch cast iron skillet with butter.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat together butter and sugar until creamy - about 1 minute. Beat in vanilla and egg yolks until combined - about 2 minutes. Reduce mixer speed to low and gradually beat in flour mixture, alternating with buttermilk, until combined - about 2 minutes. Stir in pineapple until combined; spread batter into prepared skillet.

Bake 25-30 minutes or until deep golden brown and a toothpick inserted into cake comes out with moist crumbs attached. Cool 12 minutes before running a knife around outside edges and inverting cake onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the whipped cream, in a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on high speed, beat together cream, confectioners' sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form. Spread whipped cream over cake.

Makes 10 servings

Golden Pear Jam with Goat Cheese-Hazelnut Biscuits

All is well today in our little townhouse in Springfield. I settled on a cake and ice cream to make for my dad, made them last night, and I think both are going to be really good. Recipes to come!

All is well today because the house smells like more of my crock pottery. That's the term I use for my crock pot cookery. I've been doing more experimenting lately with my slow cooker and it's been fun.

The next thing I want to make in it is short ribs, so if you have any good recipes let me know. I've never, ever made short ribs before. I hadn't even tasted a short rib until I went to Daniel.

Now I can't stop dreaming about short ribs. That short rib I had was amaaazing... I'm guessing they didn't use a crock pot to cook it. Anyway, I'm craving short ribs. I want them now.



Sometimes I get really strong cravings for goat cheese. I wouldn't even say that I love goat cheese or anything... it's okay... it's not my favorite though. But every once in a while I have to have it.

Do you know what I'm talking about? Is it just me? Maybe it is.

I sprinkle it on soups, on breads, on pasta, on eggs, on salads. It's so goaty and funky and creamy and delicious.

Goat cheese reminds me of France and the trip I took with my dad (Happy Birthday, Dad!). We had dinner outside at a little cafe and I had a goat cheese salad, roasted chicken, and a big glass of beaujolais nouveau... and I wasn't even twenty-one yet! That was fun.

That's not much of a story for you, I'm sorry. Goat cheese=France. That's all.

So I guess you could say this recipe is French inspired - I think of pear, thyme, lemon, hazelnut and goat cheese as being French flavors. I used these flavors together to create a sweet and savory recipe.

I made a jam with pear, olive oil, onion, golden raisins, honey, thyme, lemon juice and zest, and used it to spread on some biscuits I made. The biscuits are buttery and rich with goat cheese and toasted hazelnuts.

Make! Enjoy! Pretend you're sitting at a cafe by the Seine while you eat these biscuits and jam.

Signed,

The woman with the golden pear jam


Golden Pear Jam with Goat Cheese-Hazelnut Biscuits
Printable Recipe

1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cups finely chopped peeled pear
2/3 cup finely chopped yellow onion
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup honey
3/4 teaspoon crushed dried thyme leaves
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice + 1/2 teaspoon finely grated zest
4 teaspoons cornstarch

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour (substitute all purpose, if desired)
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup finely chopped hazelnuts, toasted
8 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup crumbled goat cheese
1 large egg
1/3 cup buttermilk

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Coat a large sheet pan with cooking spray.

Heat olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat; stir in pear and onion, and cook 15 minutes, stirring frequently, until softened and tender. Stir in raisins, honey, thyme and 1/4 teaspoon salt until combined. In a small bowl, whisk together lemon juice, lemon zest and cornstarch until well combined; stir mixture into skillet until combined. Cook pear mixture for an additional 5 minutes or until thickened and bubbly. Transfer pear jam to a serving dish and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt; whisk in hazelnuts until combined. Knead in butter using two forks or a pastry blender, until butter is well incorporated and mixture starts to clump together; stir in goat cheese until combined. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together egg and buttermilk until well combined. Stir dry ingredients into egg mixture until just combined and a soft dough forms – do not overmix!

Take about 1/4 cup of dough and shape into a ball; place on cookie sheet and flatten slightly to a 1/2-inch thickness. Repeat process with remaining dough. Bake 15-17 minutes or until well risen and golden brown. Serve warm biscuits with jam.

Makes 10 biscuits

Banana Pudding Cake

Hello everyone! Good morning to you. I hope you're having a good day!

Last night I made split pea soup. I've never had split pea soup before. It sounds just awful, doesn't it? In my mind I picture a bowl of murky green soup that tastes disgusting.

But the other day I picked up a bag of dried split peas because they were so pretty and bright green... and cheap. So today I put them in my crock pot with some chicken broth and then went to work. When I came home I sauteed carrot and onion, added it to the split peas along with some curry, a pat of butter, salt and pepper, and then blended the vegetables into a soup.

I ate the soup with a scoop of jasmine rice in the center, with a sprinkling of fresh cilantro. Guess what? It was good! Really, really good! Now I'm a split pea soup lover for life and will be making it again and again. It was really ugly, though. Good food isn't always pretty.

Are there any vegetables or vegetable dishes that you're wary about trying? Or are there any vegetables you just don't like?

I really love all vegetables... I'm probably more picky about fruit. But, if I had to pick one I don't love, I guess I would chose brussel sprouts. I've never had a batch of brussel sprouts where I was like, WOW these are incredible! I have to make them every day!

I could eat bananas every day; I love them so.


It's hard to get creative when you have super-ripe bananas and you need to make something with them. Most of the time all I can think to make is banana bread... which is why I have about six or so recipes for banana bread on this blog.

Recently I'd been thinking about making a dessert that was a twist on banana pudding. I settled on banana pudding cake.



Moist banana cake with vanilla whipped cream on top, followed by a sprinkling of salted toffee covered crushed vanilla wafers. Aren't vanilla wafers the bee's knees?



To make the vanilla wafer toffee, I boiled together butter, brown sugar, cream and salt, stirred in the vanilla wafers, and then baked the wafers until crispy. Then whenever your cake is baked, cooled, and frosted with vanilla whipped cream, you sprinkle the toffee over the top.

SO good! I give this dessert two thumbs up.

Now I have to come up with a dessert to make for my dad's birthday on Friday. He wants something chocolate and creamy.

P.S. The bread machine and ice cream maker were delivered. I could make ice cream. I could make bread ice cream.



Banana Pudding Cake
Printable Recipe

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup oil
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large bananas, mashed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large egg yolks
3/4 cup buttermilk

Vanilla Wafer Toffee
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups coarsely chopped chopped vanilla wafer cookies

Vanilla Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy whipping cream
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour bottom and sides of a 10-inch springform pan.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat together butter, oil, sugar and banana until creamy - about 1-2 minutes. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla until combined - about 1 minute. Reduce mixer speed to low and gradually beat in flour mixture, alternating with buttermilk, until combined.

Place batter in pan; bake 30 minutes or until well risen and golden brown. Cool completely on a wire rack.

To make the Vanilla Wafer Toffee, melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat; whisk in brown sugar, cream and salt and bring to a boil, whisking frequently. Keep whisking and cooking for a minute or two, until sugar is dissolved. Remove pan from heat and stir in vanilla wafers until well coated. Scatter wafer pieces over a greased cookie sheet. Bake 8 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly. Cool on waxed paper, breaking toffee into smaller pieces.

To make the Vanilla Whipped Cream, beat cream, sugar and vanilla together in a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on high speed, until stiff peaks form.

To assemble the cake, first remove sides from springform pan. Pipe or spread whipped cream over cake. Sprinkle vanilla wafer toffee on top of cake.

Makes 10 servings

Irish Oatmeal-Frosted Cranberry Cookies

I promised you some semi-healthy recipes and this is one of them. And when I say healthy, I mean it's not as fattening as most of the stuff I bake.

So there you go. A little healthy present from me to you in the end of January. Is it spring yet? I'm over this winter stuff.

When the weather is like this all I want to do is either bake and eat cookies or shop online.
Both are very dangerous.

Currently heading my way via UPS:

- 1 bread machine
- 1 ice cream machine
- 1 coffee grinder
- 1 cookie dough scoop
- 2 books
- 1 DVD

Hopefully the shopping is out of my system for now. And to give myself a little credit, I used up some gift cards I've had a while.

Let's move on to today's breakfast. CoCo Wheats! "The creamy hot cereal with the cocoa treat!"


I love CoCo Wheats cereal; I eat it every morning unless I have oatmeal, and no, they're not paying me to say that. It's a chocolate hot wheat cereal that's filling and delicious. I've been buying it for a while and I finally tweeted my love for the cereal on Twitter and mentioned how much I wanted a CoCo Wheats T-shirt.



For once it actually paid off to have a Twitter account. Little Crow Foods (the company who makes CoCo Wheats) contacted me and said they'd like to send some of their goodies AND a CoCo Wheats t-shirt! It was my lucky day. Thank you, Little Crow!

Yessss! I love it.


CoCo Wheats. I eat this while I watch Coco.

Eric and I taste-tested everything they sent. The sweet corn bread was our favorite, followed by the country style corn bread. I loved the corn bread almost as much as the CoCo Wheats. I used the Bakin' Miracle to bake some chicken breasts and the Fryin' Magic to fry some chicken legs and both were good. The pancake mixes were okay - not my favorite, to be honest. :)


I tried and tried to make a recipe using CoCo Wheats, but I was unsuccessful. I made cookies, I made brownies, and nothing worked. I don't think it's possible to bake with that type of wheat cereal... it's too dense, and the wheat granules would dry out, making them kind of crunchy and hard to eat.

So I ended up eating my CoCo wheats as hot cereal with banana, Greek yogurt and vanilla soy milk. I don't think any cookie or brownie could top that.



My other favorite hot cereal is Irish oatmeal; my parents got me hooked on it a few years ago. It's healthy, it's hearty, it's chewy, nutty and delicious. I used cooked Irish oats in a cookie and it worked!
It's a Bakin' Miracle.



The oatmeal was mixed into the batter along with butter, brown sugar, some spices, toasted almonds and frosted cranberries. After a quick chill the dough is rolled into balls, rolled into cinnamon-sugar, and baked.



I wasn't sure what to expect with these cookies, but they turned out well. The outsides are crisp and the insides are moist. The cinnamon-sugar makes the cookies taste like an oatmeal snickerdoodle.

If you have leftover cooked oatmeal, this would be an excellent cookie to make. These are pretty healthy, too... it makes a lot of cookies for the amount of butter and sugar you use.


Irish Oatmeal-Frosted Cranberry Cookies
Printable Recipe

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cooked Irish oatmeal, cooled
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided use
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup white chocolate/yogurt covered cranberries
3/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted
1/4 cup granulated sugar

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat; cook 2 minutes, whisking frequently, until butter foams and turns golden brown. Transfer butter to a small bowl and chill in freezer or refrigerator until solidified.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. in a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat together oatmeal, browned butter and brown sugar until creamy - about 1 minute. Beat in vanilla, egg, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger until combined - about 1-2 minutes. Reduce mixer speed to low and gradually beat in flour mixture until combined. Stir in cranberries and almonds until combined. Chill dough in freezer or refrigerator for 30-45 minutes or until well chilled.

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Coat cookie sheets with cooking spray.

In a small bowl, stir together additional 1 teaspoon cinnamon and granulated sugar until combined.

Take heaping tablespoons of dough, roll into balls, roll into cinnamon-sugar, and place on cookie sheets. Bake 12-14 minutes or until cookies are puffed and golden brown around edges. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

Makes 2 dozen big cookies or 3 dozen small cookies

Orange Babycakes with Vanilla Buttercream

Happy Friday! There's not too much going on over here today. Just catching up on my stories while I'm stranded in the townhouse. It snowed yesterday and I refuse to drive. Snow freaks me out and gives me panic attacks when I have to drive in it. It doesn't matter if it's only two inches.

So here I am stranded in the house, watching HBO and Showtime shows online, eating Kix and reading food blogs.

Then this question popped in my head:

What five foods do you associate with your childhood?

So I pondered this a while and came up with this answer:

1. Asparagus. My dad grows asparagus in the garden every year. He cooks it by blanching it, which is the best way to cook it, in my opinion. It's refreshing in the summer when it's chilled down with a dash of salt.

2. Homemade vanilla ice cream. Mom always makes vanilla ice cream on the fourth of July (my birthday!). Love. You can't beat homemade ice cream, I don't care what you say. Mom also made tutti fruiti ice cream. Has anyone had that before?

3. Blueberries. We've always been a blueberry family. We ate a lot of blueberry pie and blueberry buckles when I was growing up, and we always had frozen blueberries in the freezer. We would stock up at the farmers' market in June.

4. Homemade pasta. Dad's homemade fettuccine pasta was/is always a treat. I remember helping him make the noodles with his pasta maker. So eggy and delicious. I preferred them with butter, but sometimes I went with the pesto.

5. Chocolate bread. Mom used to make this in the bread machine. It was a slightly sweet chocolate yeast bread with chocolate chunks. I haven't gotten her to make it in years. Luckily I might be able to recreate it because I just bought a bread machine using a gift card. Ican'twait! Have I ever told you the story about the time I dropped a bread machine on my nose? Perhaps another day...

So now tell me, what foods do you associate with your childhood? I'm curious!



Perhaps many of you had orange creamsicles growing up? Or orange julius? Or orange freeze? I didn't really grow up with any of those, but I've always want to try the orange freeze they make at Steak 'n Shake.

*I'm interrupting my rambling to tell you that I hear someone stuck in their car in the snow outside; they keep pressing on the gas. See? I told you two inches was dangerous.*

Anyway, what I was getting at is, orange and vanilla flavors work so well together. When I bought a bag of ripe, juicy oranges last week, I knew I wanted to make a creamsicle flavored dessert.

And then I created Orange Babycakes with Vanilla Buttercream. And the clouds parted and sun came out.



They're mini orange flavored-cupcakes with a REAL vanilla buttercream piped on top. I haven't made a Swiss meringue buttercream in a long time and forgot how good it is... and it's not that difficult to make. Try these babies! You can have one little babycake and not ruin your diet. Or two! These are practically fat-free, anyway.


Orange Babycakes with Vanilla Buttercream
Printable Recipe

1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened, divided use
1/3 cup + 1/2 cup granulated sugar, divided use
1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest
2 large eggs
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a (24 cup) mini muffin pan with cooking spray.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. In a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat together 1/4 cup butter, 1/3 cup sugar and orange zest until creamy - about 1 minute. Crack open the eggs and place whites in a large heat-proof mixing bowl. Add yolks to mixing bowl with batter in it, along with milk and orange juice; beat 1 minute or until combined. Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in flour mixture until just combined.

Place batter into each muffin cup. Bake 10-12 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Cool babycakes 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the buttercream, Place bowl with egg whites over a pot of simmering water; whisk in remaining 1/2 cup sugar. Cook, whisking frequently, until the mixture reaches 160° F and the sugar has dissolved. It will look thick and marshmallow-y.

Beat mixture using a mixer on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form and the mixture has cooled to room temperature, about 8 minutes.

Reduce speed to medium and add remaining 1/2 cup butter, a tablespoons at a time, until well incorporated and fluffy. If the frosting looks curdled, continue to beat on medium-high speed until thick and smooth again, about 3-5 minutes more. Beat in vanilla until combined.

Pipe buttercream on top of cupcakes and eat!

The Photography Post

Like I mentioned in the blogging post, I'm not an expert in blogging or photography, but I may or may not have some advice that will help you. I really would like to take a photography class sometime soon so I can lean more. I have a photography book that I've read through a few times, but honestly, it didn't really help me much.


I think the best way you can learn is by playing around with your camera and taking a lot of pictures. I think my pictures have gotten better over the years just because I've taken so many and practiced.

I take pictures using my Nikon D40. I purchased it maybe... 2 1/2 years ago. I love my camera! I've gotten so much use out of it and I definitely think it was worth the $$$ I paid. I believe any of the Nikon or Canon SLR cameras would be good investments. Eric and my sister both use Canon Rebels, and my dad uses a Nikon D3000.



I will probably upgrade eventually, but for now, my Nikon is treating me well. I even bought a new sling bag for it! (I was sick of lugging it around in my purse.)

I use a 60 mm macro lens or a 18-55 mm lens when I shoot pictures of the desserts I've made. The 18-55 mm came with the camera body, and the macro was an investment I made last year.

There are plenty of point and shoot cameras out there that would work just fine... don't feel that you need to run out and buy an expensive DSLR. I've had my Canon Powershot for years and it still takes really good pictures.

Photography vocabulary!

The Nikon D40 is an SLR camera - single lens reflex camera. An SLR camera allows you to manually adjust the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO.

Shutter speed is how long the camera shutter is open (exposure time).

Aperture is the size of the opening in the lens when a picture is taken. Aperture is measured in “F Stops.” The size of the stop affects depth of field. Smaller stops (larger f numbers) produce a longer depth of field, allowing objects at a wide range of distances to all be in focus at the same time.

The ISO number refers to the sensitivity of the image sensor. The lower the ISO number, the less sensitive the camera is to light. Higher ISOs are better in darker situations, but the pictures will be grainier.



Tips

- Don't use the flash unless necessary!

- Use natural light, if possible. I know this is difficult for food bloggers in the winter. I'm lucky I can take pictures of my desserts in the daytime.

- Have a steady hand when you take pictures or use a tripod.

- Invest in a light diffuser/reflector. I use my diffuser when there's too much light coming through my window. (Especially during the summer months.)



- Use two white boards as your background. I set them on a little table by my window, place the food on top, and then take pictures. I think I'm going to start experimenting with wooden backgrounds now, though.

- Use interesting props, backgrounds, dishes, placemats, to make your photos pop.

- Use a photo editing program such as Photoshop, Picnik, Picasa, etc. to edit your pictures.

That's really all the advice I have for you. I have a lot to learn and this post has inspired me to do so. I've read the blog posts about photography from these blogging experts and I've already learned so much! I would recommend reading these links if you're looking to improve your photography.


*Edible Perspective

*Vegan Yum Yum

*The Pioneer Woman

*Simply Recipes

*La Tartine Gourmande

Feel free to leave any advice/tips in the comments section... I know I would love to read them and I'm sure others would as well.

Cupcake post coming soon. I know more about cupcakes than photography.

Cheers!

Cream Puffs

Happy MLK day! I hope you're having a good one. I better make this a quick post and not ramble on because I need to work out, clean, and take pictures of the four desserts I baked yesterday. Haha. I would like to bake more today, but we already have all of these desserts sitting around.

I can't believe I'm still talking about Christmas desserts. It's really time to move on, Emily. I do have to mention I made cream puffs to go along with the cannoli. I hadn't made cream puffs or eclairs in years, so I decided to make some and challenge myself a bit. Then when I started making the cream puffs, I realized they aren't that hard, and why don't I make them more often?



Sure, cream puffs are a little tedious, but difficult, no. Cream puffs are also called profiteroles; they're balls of dough that are baked in the oven until puffed and golden brown. The dough balls are split and filled with whipped cream and garnished with either chocolate, caramel or whipped cream.

The dough you use is called choux pastry, and it's special because it puffs as it steams, creating a hollow center in the pastry. You make the dough by melting butter in a saucepan before whisking in milk, sugar and salt, and bringing the mixture to a simmer. All at once you vigorously stir in flour until a dough ball forms.



Then you transfer the dough to a mixing bowl and beat in the eggs until well incorporated. The dough is ready to bake at this point, so you can either fill a piping bag with the dough and pipe blobs onto cookies sheets, or you could use two spoons.



After baking, cooling, and splitting the puffs, you can fill them with whipped cream. I couldn't fill the cream puffs with regular old whipped cream because that would be boring, so I actually filled them with the same filling I made for the cannoli - a combination of whipped cream, ricotta cheese, powdered sugar, orange zest, pistachios and chocolate chips.



I topped the cream puffs with a little melted chocolate and powdered sugar to complete the dessert. These were very, very good - I preferred the cream puffs over the cannoli. I definitely will make the choux paste again, but I'll create some different fillings to fill the cream puffs. Not that there's anything wrong with the cannoli filling... I just rarely make the same dessert again.

Sorry the pictures are bad - it was Christmas and I was distracted.

Have you made cream puffs before? Did you like them? Do you prefer to call them profiteroles? I'm not sure if there's a difference between cream puffs and profiteroles.


Cannoli Cream Puffs
Printable Recipe

Puffs
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all purpose flour
4 large eggs

Cannoli Cream
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar, plus additional for sprinkling
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
1/3 cup finely chopped pistachios, toasted
1/4 cup finely chopped semisweet chocolate chips

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Coat cookie sheets with cooking spray.

Melt butter in a large saucepan; stir in milk, sugar and salt and bring to a simmer. Using a wooden spoon, stir in flour all at once. Reduce heat to low and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Transfer dough to a large mixing bowl; add eggs and beat using a mixer on medium speed, for 4-5 minutes or until dough is thick.

Place dough in a piping bag and pipe dough blobs onto cookie sheets, about 1-inch in height, spacing about 1-inch apart. Bake 15-20 minutes or until deep golden brown. Turn oven off and allow dough puffs to cook an additional 10 minutes in oven. Transfer puffs to wire racks to cool.

To make the cannoli cream, in a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on high speed, beat cream until stiff peaks form. Beat in ricotta, confectioners' sugar, vanilla and orange zest until well combined. Beat in pistachios and chopped chocolate chips until combined.

When puffs are cool, slice in half; fill bottom halves with cannoli cream, and cover with tops.

Place a spoonful of melted chocolate on top of cream puffs. When chocolate has hardened, lightly dust cream puffs with confectioners' sugar.

Makes a lot of cream puffs (3-4 dozenish)