Party Cake!

June 4th is a big day in my family.  It's my parent's anniversary and my twin sister's birthday and nothing for me.  But that's ok because that means I get to plan a celebration and bake so that's alright with me. :)

This year we did a family get together at our apartment in the city.  Unfortunately only one twin was there as Alli is in Denver but she was there is spirit.  As much as we missed Allison this meant that I could make a dessert just for Jeannie.  Well growing up Jeannie LOVED colors so when I saw this rainbow cake a few months ago I pinned it and knew I had to make it for her birthday.

You start off with a basic white cake and then split the batter into six containers and dye each one.  I did the colors of the rainbow but I suppose you could do any color combo.

The finished product is below.  My colors didn't spread out as much as I wanted but I think I just have to shake the pans a little bit more or spread the batter more with a scraper.

But it still looks good and more importantly it was delicious!

Ta Da!  And I frosted it with a tasty tasty frosting.  And even decorated.

Happy anniversabirthary!!!

Happy 25th birthday little sister!!!

And yay for a great family dinner.  Thanks to bay area cousins for coming to celebrate!

Blueberry-Buttermilk Scones

Every Thursday I work from home.  I love it.  I can work in my pajamas, sleep in a little bit and bake!  I usually try and bake something every Thursday but sometimes it's tough to decide what to bake so I need to look for inspiration.  This Thursday we went to breakfast and the place had an open kitchen and I saw someone using a pastry blender to make something yummy so I decided I needed to make scones.

But before I get to the recipe let me talk about my breakfast.  First of all, we went to Mama's on Washington Square.  It's a very popular and place.  Case in point: we got there at 8:15 am and still had to wait for 30 minutes.  But it was worth the wait.  I had delicious chocolate cinnamon french toast with fresh fruit.  My socks?  Rocked right off!

But now onto the recipe.  I usually make muffins or something on the healthier side but sometimes you just want a baked good in the morning that has a little more butter in it (not Paula Deen style but more than nothing) so these scones fit the bill.

I used this recipe from one of my favorite blogs.

First you mix all of the dry ingredients together:

Then you take cold butter and cut it into small pieces:

Now using a pastry blender and cut the butter into the dry ingredients like this until it resembles a crumb like substance.

Kinda like this:

Now you add the blueberries.  So it makes it a lil healthier.  Woo woo antioxidants!

Mix in the wet ingredients and stir until just combined.  You'll knead it out next and pat it into a circle.  Some of the blueberries will pop as you knead but that cool.  I was afraid that my scones would turn a little purple but they don't.

After this you'll cute the scones into 12 pieces.  I like to make them into triangles but you can do whatever shape.

I then sprinkle them with sanding sugar.  Basically bigger pieces of sugar.  You are supposed to first brush the scones with a beaten egg.  Unfortunately I only had one egg on hand and I had to use it in the scones.  I know, I know a baker only having one egg on hand is kinda like me not having flour in my cupboards (but not worry I have 5 types of flour in my kitchen and I don't think that's overkill :)

Now bake 'em!

They came out nice and golden brown.  And of course I had to eat one right out of the oven when they're nice and hot.  Perfect with a cup of tea and all my work on a rainy SF Thursday.

Strawberry Shortcake

First of all, Happy Strawberry Shortcake day!!  Yes this is a holiday and definitely one worthy of celebration.  Not only are strawberries one of my favorite fruits but Strawberry Shortcake happens to be a nickname of mine.  The nickname comes from the food, not this adorable lil lady (although maybe there's some resemblance between us?):

So in honor of this day I give you one of my favorite strawberry shortcake recipes.  I actually made it last week before I even knew about this holiday.   love this dessert (even though it's not chocolate, it's probably in my top 10 favs) but I've never actually made it.  This meant I had to find a yummy recipe.  Well Google Reader makes it super simple to search through alllll the blogs I read (and let me tell you, there are a lot!) and helped me to find this one.  I love it because it's an Alice Waters recipe and I have a serious girl crush on her.  Google her, she's THE California cuisine/eat fresh foods/get schools to have gardens pioneer!  She is also the founder of the restaurant Chez Paniesse restaurant which we ate at a few months ago and I took all the pictures but forgot to do the blog post on.  Anyways, I think she's cool.  You had me at Alice.

Anyways, the shortcakes tasted delicious.  I even made then special by cutting them out with a fun cookie cutter - in the shape of the US (why yes, I am a US history nerd!) - instead of circles like suggested.  And at this point I wish I had a picture to show you but we gobbled them up too quickly/I completely forgot.  Oooppsies.

Pizza Pizza!

Pizza is one of my favorite things to eat.  My mom always made us home made pizza growing up and it was the best.  We never had delivery pizza growing up because my mom's was just so good.

But pizza can be a lil tricky to make because you need to use...yeast.  Now for bakers out there yeast can be intimidating.  Yeast can be temperamental, the water has to be the perfect temperature and if you mess up then the whole recipe could be ruined.  Pressure, I tell ya.

But fortunately my mom told me I had nothing to be worried about and I trust her.  So I went off the make my pizza dough.

So here's what you do:

Put 1 teaspoon of sugar in 1 cup of warm water (just make sure the water is warm to the touch, like bath water.  Other people might say to use a thermometer but I was good without it) then you add 1 packet of yeast (ok, so I got over zealous - shocker - and bought a whole jar of yeast instead of just a packet because I WILL make pizza and yeast breads more often!) and stir.  Let it sit for about 5 minutes.  The yeast will bubble and I wish I took a picture of this but I was kinda shocked by it so I tots forgot about the camera...sorry.

Next you add 1 teaspoon of olive oil (I used my tasty rosemary flavored olive oil from Croatia) to 2 1/2 cups of flour.

Then you mix it all together and knead it until it forms a dough, like below:

Now cover this with a damp towel and let it rise in a warm oven for 30-45 minutes.  (Sorry that wasn't very exciting so no picture.)

Then you punch the dough down - the fun part - and you then roll/pat the dough into pizza shapes, like below:

Now, I forgot to do this next part even though my sister Jeannie told me I should (yes, Jeannie was right.  There I said it!)  You need to pour the tomato sauce on the pizza shapes before you let them rise a second time.  Otherwise they puff up too much and it's kinda tricky to put the sauce on then.  Anyways, with the sauce on let them rise another time for an hour.

Then you can put on any toppings you want and bake them at 425 degrees for 10-20 minutes.

And above are the tasty pizzas displayed by the lovely models.  Sorry about the poor picture quality but I'm still learning to use Jeannie's camera.

Yummmmmm!