baking

A Mardi Gras Birthday Party

May 5, 2019 by Jessica Leave a Comment

Hello there 🙂 I’m still here. STILL working on house projects on our new home in Virginia. It’s taking me a lot longer than I thought, which is typically how these type of projects go. But I have some things to share and I am ready to do so starting with this nod to Louisiana. I’m not one that feels every party needs some big fabulous decor and such, but I will get inspired at times and I do love adding special touches to someones special day. This past January (so long ago!) we hosted a get together for my mother in law. Now, we had lived in Louisiana for six years and my in-laws actually lived there for a while as well and they appreciate all the Louisiana things so I decided to throw her a Mardi Gras birthday party. It was a lot of fun to put together! My main goal was for it to be sophisticated and I felt I was able to do that using different shades of the typical purple, green, and gold.

I have a basket full of all kinds of different size balloons and I used them to create a balloon garland for one of the decor pieces. I strung in garland and ribbon to make it a little more festive too. I was really pleased with how it ended up turning out.

Of course I wanted to add some beads, but I was initially having a hard time finding Mardi Gras party things even though it was near that time. I should have had some foresight and had my LA friends ship me some stuff, but it all worked out. I found these beads at Hobby Lobby and loved the muted colors which went with what I was going for. I hung them from the chandelier which reminded me of how you would see these hanging from trees, light posts, etc. after all the parades. My kids would always have a large collection every year from all the parades they would have in Lake Charles, LA. I didn’t realize how family friendly a lot of these events were until we lived there, so I appreciate the new perspective on how that community really knows how to have a good time all together.

I baked a simple cake using this coconut bundt cake recipe from Five Boys Baker, which I have made a few times before. It’s really yummy. I added some Mardi Gras color flowers and a simple gold mask I found at Party City. It was simple but sweet.

Now, you can’t do Mardi Gras without some King Cake! I didn’t find any locally at the time and wasn’t convinced I could pull off making a legit one so I made these King Cake Bites using this recipe from Plain Chicken. They were easy to make and really yummy. As you can see on the bottom layer, I kind of messed up my cutting initially but quickly saw my wrong and fixed that lol.

But before we got to all that dessert we did eat some chicken and sausage gumbo. It took us a while to find a good comparable sausage to what we would use in LA, but a local butcher had some that worked. We went everywhere and were so glad to have found him! It’s such a good winter dish and my husband knows how to make it just the way I like it best.

We were thankful to be able to host this Mardi Gras birthday party and look forward to all the family events we now get to be a consistent part of now. (And yes, I totally found an image from Pinterest to do that chalkboard because I have no skills in that area hahahaha). So put on some zydeco music and “Laissez les bons temps rouler!” Let the good times roll……

PS: We didn’t do this, but I thought it would have been cute to do this Cajun Name game 🙂

Blueberry Hand Pies Recipe

August 22, 2018 by Jessica Leave a Comment

This summer we have found several you-pick farms to go get produce from. One of the first places we went to was a you-pick blueberry field. It was the first time my daughters (and me!) had even done that. We picked a ton of blueberries and then I came back and found some recipes to try and even put together a few things I learned to create this blueberry hand pies recipe. I have made it multiple times, playing around with different aspects until I had it down to exactly what I wanted. I was inspired by this Simple Blueberry Syrup by My Frugal Adventures and love how it is a great filling for these hand pies.

*Scroll to bottom to get full recipe*
The blueberry hand pies call for simple ingredients: blueberries, white sugar, water, cornstarch, 2 pre-made refrigerated pie crusts, and an egg.

The first thing you do is mix the cornstarch with one of the tbsp. of water.

Then you add that, the blueberries, and sugar to a sauce pan. You cook it on medium high until it is boiling, then you let it boil for 1-2 minutes. After that, you turn it down to low to let it simmer 5-6 minutes, mixing occasionally. Next you let it cool and then stick it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. You want it nice and cold for cooking.

Once the filling is cooled, pull out the refrigerated pie crusts and place on top of each other. Then cut it into eighths. I start by cutting it in half, then fourths, then eights.

Place 8 of the pieces on a parchment paper lined baking pan. (Make sure the pan has short sides in case the sauce leaks.) Then mix one egg with 1 tbsp. of water to create an egg wash. Brush the egg wash onto the edges of each piece.

Pull out the blueberry mixture and add a spoonful to each piece. I personally like this amount (as do many others who have tried these) and it uses up all of the sauce. However, my husband would prefer more filling. The problem I had with that is they seemed to leak a ton more when I really tried to cram a lot in there. So, you can totally double the blueberry mixture so you can add more and then have some leftover if you like.

Then you place the other 8 pieces on top and push down all the edges. You can use a fork to add a pretty pattern on the edge and help secure the layers together. Then brush on the egg wash on top of each piece and sprinkle on a little bit of sugar.

I baked mine for 22 minutes at 375 degrees/F, but I suggest starting to keep an eye on them around the 15 minute mark to make sure they aren’t cooking too fast.

Once they have cooled, they are such a great snack to eat by hand. We have toted these around with us on summer adventures and we have also put them on plates and topped with ice cream and whipped cream. It’s also a great recipe to make and give to others. Be inspired to use local ingredients and share with those around you. Happy baking 🙂

Blueberry Hand Pies Recipe

An easy recipe to create 8 individual blueberry hand pies.

Servings 8 people

Ingredients

1 cup blueberries can be fresh or frozen
1/8 cup white sugar plus a little extra for sprinkling
2 tbsp water
1 tsp cornstarch
2 round pre-made pie crusts
1 egg

Instructions

1. Mix the cornstarch with 1 tbsp of water.
2. Add cornstarch/water mixture, blueberries, and sugar to sauce pan. Cook on medium high until boiling. Let boil 1-2 minutes and then turn down to low for it to simmer for 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Allow blueberry mixture to cool completely and then chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
4. Once chilled, place some parchment paper onto baking tray with edges. Then turn on oven to 375 degrees/F.
5. While oven is warming up, take out the two refrigerated pie crusts and lay on top of each other. Cut into halves, then into fourths, then into eighths.
6. Place 8 of the the pieces on the parchment paper. Mix one egg with one tbsp. of water. Brush egg wash onto top edges of these 8 pieces.
7. Get blueberry mixture from fridge and add one spoonful to the middle of each piece. Then place the other 8 pieces on top of these and push down the edges all around to seal in the blueberries. Use a fork to add a decorative touch to all the edges.
8. Brush egg wash on top of all 8 hand pies and sprinkle on a little bit of sugar. Place in oven to cook for around 22 minutes. *I suggest keeping an eye on them once at 15 minutes and on until they are light brown as each oven can cook differently.* Allow to cool before handling. Eat by hand or serve with ice cream and/or whipped cream. Yum!

Recipe Notes

If you desire more filling, simply double the blueberry mixture recipe to: 2 cups blueberries, 1/4 cup sugar, 2 tbsp. water, and 2 tsp. cornstarch.I have found that they tend to leak more with the more filling in each one, but some might desire more blueberry/dough ratio.

Finding My Go-To Baking Recipes

April 4, 2018 by Jessica 2 Comments

6 inch Three Layer Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting | happy together

I love to bake. It is a fun creative process for me. I have found that I have had more opportunities to bake lately and have been working hard to find what I would call my go-to recipes. I wanted to share some that I have found and what kinds I’m still trying to figure out. Let’s start with the above cake. It is a 6 inch three layer mini chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting. I LOVE chocolate and peanut butter together. So delish! I will have to say after trying quite a few chocolate cake recipes my favorite that is always consistently good is the recipe on the back of the Hershey’s Cocoa Powder box which you can find here: ‘Hershey’s “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Cake. It is so moist and does great with stacking layers. I can’t remember which recipe I used for the peanut butter frosting (which is sad since I should have saved it ’cause it was good!), but I have yet to try a recipe I have found on pinterest for it that hasn’t turned out yummy. I did cheat on this cake for the “chocolate ganache”. That is one thing I need to sit down and figure out, but I was pressed for time and due to lack of ingredients I simply used Torani Dark Chocolate Sauce. The bottle seems to last forever! I initially bought it to add on top of my whipped cream in hot chocolate but have found it works on all kinds of other desserts.

Coconut Bundt Cake | happy together

The above cake is a Coconut Bundt Cake and is really good! I had never made a coconut cake before and have made this one 2 more times since. You can find the recipe from 5 Boys Baker here. It is very moist and the coconut flavor is perfect. Even my youngest who doesn’t like coconut liked this. I have added this to my go to list, although I do have some eyes on some other coconut cake variations I want to try.

6 inch Three Layer Red Velet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Chocolate Covered Strawberries | happy together

This cake was my first try at a Red Velvet Cake from scratch. Sadly, I used the wrong type of food coloring and then did not have enough to get it really red so it was more of a pink hahaha. But it still tasted good. Then I used a cream cheese icing and drizzled some more of that Dark Chocolate Sauce on it with chocolate covered strawberries. While I was the one that made the mistake, I think I will try another recipe as the one I used wasn’t the clearest. Anyone have a good red velvet recipe? I did use this tip to make the chocolate covered strawberries which worked like a charm.

6 inch Three Layer Vanilla Cake with Vanilla Frosting and Sugared Fruit | happy together

This last cake was simply vanilla with vanilla frosting. It was good, but yet again, I want to try some other recipes to see if I can find something even better. I did like this recipe for the sugared fruit. My oldest was eating all the extras the next day like crazy!

Valentines Cupcakes | happy together

The thing I have learned by making these mini cakes with 6″ pans is that I can always have leftovers to create a few cupcakes to add on the side. I was able to make about 6 cupcakes from each of the mini cakes batters. Since all of these were for a bake sale, having the extra cupcakes made for even more product to sell. And good news! All of these completely sold out! A success for sure. -jess

Brownie Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

April 23, 2016 by Jessica Leave a Comment

I recently came across TOME, which is a bakery in Australia, and fell in love with their elegant designs. I decided I wanted to make a little cake and bought three 6 inch pans with the hopes of doing so soon. Now, I really love to bake, but cooking on the other hand….. well, it’s necessary. Ha! But if I baked all the time I would eat all the things and be rather unhealthy. So I wait for events to do some baking. A friend of mine recently had a baby girl after having three boys. She didn’t find out the gender of the baby so she was over the moon when they saw she was a girl. I decided to make a cake to be the dessert portion of the meal I brought to them. I found this peanut butter cookie dough brownie layer cake recipe and used the brownie cake recipe portion and the chocolate ganache part but opted for a plain peanut butter frosting recipe to use instead of the cookie dough stuff. Since my cake would be smaller than what the recipe called for, I put the extra batter in a small pan for us to nibble on. The cake portion is more of a cakey than a fudgy type of brownie. It was good and tasty, but if I was to make this again I might try to find a more fudge like brownie recipe (just personal preference). It was my first time making a chocolate ganache and I forgot to get heavy cream so I found this substitution recipe online and used that in place of the actual heavy cream. It came out tasting yummy.

I had fun putting the cake together and it went together rather easily. I didn’t add the ganache in between layers like the recipe though since the icing was enough for this cake. I like “naked cakes” because they looks so great but don’t require a ton of experience to come out looking beautiful. I went to the local grocery store for some flowers and they were very limited so I stuck with some simple pink roses and greenery. I had some gold sprinkles but really want to get some of that edible gold foil looking stuff for future cakes. Do you have a favorite cake flavor combination?

-jess

New Recipes Tried This Month

October 2, 2014 by Jessica Leave a Comment

I’m always on the lookout for good, easy, and on the healthy side (or not lol) kind of recipes. In September, I tried 5 different recipes I found while browsing Pinterest. The first was this black bean soup recipe. This has become one of my husband’s favorite meals lately. It was really easy to make and very inexpensive as well. To save even more time, I used pre-cut frozen onions. I don’t have an immersion blender, so I just used a mashed potato masher to smoosh some of the beans. Not as “creamy”, but still made for good soup. We also added some chicken one time which really took it up a level.

The Stuffed Honey-Ham Biscuits were a really good “need to make something quick for dinner” kind of recipe. So simple to through together and the honey made them extra yum. Yes, the honey was the show stopper for these.

This Lazyman’s Stuffed Cabbage Casserole is another quick recipe with a few ingredients. Again, I used the frozen pre-cut onions to save time (and my eyes!). The suggestion I have is if you use brown rice to make it before putting everything together. I tried this recipe a few times with brown rice and can never get it fully cooked in the oven. I have gone over the time, but then the edges start to overcook. So next time I plan on just cooking the rice before hand and seeing how that works. It might not take as long to cook then as well. I will let you know how that goes when I do that.

I tried out these Toasted Coconut Onion Rings. I love onion rings and was interested in how the coconut might do paired with the onion. We loved them! I did the baked version and would say they are more on the dry end this way but are still really good. Having a nice dip takes care of that though. I liked mine dipped in plain old ketchup.

And since it’s fall I had to try a new pumpkin recipe! I LOVE the pumpkin muffies and muffins from Panera’s and went hunting for a copycat recipe. I found Copycat Recipe: Panera Bread’s Pumpkin Muffie Tops and could tell they were a winner just by those beautiful pictures in the post. Mine didn’t turn out quite as perfectly beautiful as those, but they were delish! And tasted pretty much the same as the Panera’s ones. I did substitute Olive Oil for Vegetable Oil since that was all I had and I didn’t have any parchment paper to use, but again, they still came out fantastic. I want to look into getting a cookie scooper thing now so I can make them perfectly round next time.