On Mother's Day

Mother's Day is a special day when people all around the world honor their mothers and motherhood.  Children will give their mother's presents and do something special for their mothers on this one day out of the year.  But for me, everyday is Mother's Day and I'll appreciate my mother everyday.

So, Mom, I'll give you a kiss today and tell you that I love you, and then I'll tell you that I love you tomorrow, and the day after, and then the next, and so on.  I'll clean your room nicely today and then clean it again tomorrow.  I'll pick some flowers for you today and then when they wilt, I'll pick some more for you.  I'll make you breakfast today and then I'll make you breakfast again whenever you want me to.

And I want you to know that I appreciate everything you do for me, every single moment of my life, even if I don't show it all the time.

Mushy gushy stuff aside, what you see in these pictures is the lovely blueberry cream cheese coffee cake my little sister made today.  It is quite possibly the best thing that ever happened to me.  You should smell my kitchen right now -- it smells like melted cream cheese with a tinge of blueberry.  Which smells heavenly.  The first picture is so you can appreciate the cream cheese cubes in the cake.  The second picture is there so you can appreciate the crumbly sugary topping.  And this last picture is so you can appreciate the flowers I picked from my backyard. ;)

This post is a little different from my usual posts and I won't be giving you the recipe.  However, here is the link for the recipe my sister followed from the blogger Confessions of a Cookbook Queen.  Make sure you try this recipe out for breakfast, lunch, or even dessert.  It's a keeper.

Trifle Pudding Cups

Hello everyone!

How was your weekend? Mine was awesome! If the photo above doesn't hint to that already, there was something else special that went down this weekend. My grandfather, who I haven't seen in a couple years, came to visit from Pakistan! And if this wasn't exciting enough, my relatives came over and stayed till midnight eating good food and catching up with my last surviving grandparent.

Of course, such an auspicious event calls for a beautiful dessert to go along with it.  Let me tell you, even bakers and bloggers succumb to cooking with box mixes and store-bought whipped cream when a combination such as this tastes so delicious. Now let me just make it clear right now: I am a full supporter of store bought mixes, but I try to keep them off of this blog. It's just that there are a couple desserts that are so easy to make but yield such amazing results that I cannot stay away from them.  So here I am, sharing this super simple but beautiful and mouth-watering dessert with you (made from all store-bought ingredients).

Strawberry Trifle Pudding Cups
Makes around 10 individual cups

Ingredients
1 box instant vanilla pudding mix
1 Sara Lee pound cake diced into 1/4" cubes
1 box whipped topping
1/2 cup diced strawberries
sliced strawberries and blueberries for decoration (optional)

Assembly
Step 1: Prepare all the ingredients.  Follow the instructions on the box of the pudding.  Whip the whipped topping on high speed in a chilled mixer bowl until soft peaks form (almost hard).

Step 2: Alternately layer all the ingredients in the pudding cup until you reach the top.  Make sure the pudding is the last layer.  Top the mini trifles with whipped cream, strawberries, and blueberries for a burst of color.

A variation of these trifle cups is made by using brownies, crushed Oreo cookies, whipped cream, and one box of Oreo pudding mix -- heavenly!  That looks something like this:

Oreo and Brownie Trifle Pudding Cups

Actually, Chocolate Overload Trifle sounds just as good and gives a more accurate description of the flavor of this trifle in my mouth.  If you couldn't already tell... I was pretty darn happy eating that trifle.

Peeta's Mini Cinnamon Apple Tarts

Hello everyone!

You all should be familiar with the book series - Hunger Games Trilogy.  Ever since the first book was made into a movie, "Hunger Games" has really become a household name.  I completely fell in love with the books when they first came out and so did all my friends.  So it wasn't surprising when I was invited to a Hunger Games themed party this weekend.  And it was even less surprising that we were all asked to bring Hunger Games themed food.  The beautiful host of the party had planned a creative menu and I decided I wanted to bring dessert - "Peeta's Apple Tarts."

These adorable mini tarts were an absolute success!  They were super easy to make and had a beautiful presentation.  I was in a rush when I made them so let's just say I had to cheat a little.  Here's how I made them-

Peeta's Mini Cinnamon Apple Tarts

1 can apple pie filling
1 tub of Cool Whip, at room temperature
2 tablespoons of cinnamon
1 box mini pastry shells
1 apple
powdered sugar

Step 1:  Chill the bowl of your mixer and whisk attachment in the freezer for around five minutes.  Then whip the Cool Whip and cinnamon together until stiff peaks form.  Be careful not to over beat the mixture!  Set aside in a cool place.

Step 2:  Meanwhile, open your can of apple pie filling and break the apple slices up using a fork until they are small chunks.  This is important because the pastry shells are too small to accommodate the apple slices.

Step 3:  Dust the pastry shells with powdered sugar to make them sweet.  This step is necessary because the pre-made pastry shells are made neutral for both sweet and savory dishes.

Step 4: Then, spoon the chunky apple pie filling into the shells.

Step 5:  Fill a bag with the whipped topping, snip off the end, and pipe swirls in the center of the tarts.  Sprinkle the tarts with cinnamon powder and place a small slice of apple in the center.  Alternatively, drizzle the topping with caramel sauce and place caramel corn into the center.  Yumm!

Enjoy! And may the odds be ever in your favor!

DIY: Heart Cutout Cupcakes

Hello everyone!

It's been a while since I last posted.  My break ended and once again, I was swamped with readings and school work.  Plus, I didn't get a chance to make anything post-worthy for a while.  Luckily, I had some pictures from before and I finally found time to sit down and write up a post.  Let's just hope I can continue posting during this quarter!

I made these cupcakes for my dad's birthday a week ago.  Yeah, I know, you guys were thinking that I made this for Valentine's Day or something.  I can explain... The truth is, my family doesn't celebrate birthdays.  When we do, it's really just an excuse to make something sweet to eat or an extravagant dinner to enjoy.  So when my dad's birthday came around, I remembered these adorable cupcakes I saw on the amazing blogger, Glorious Treats', site (she did make them for Valentine's).  I just couldn't resist!  Anyways, it's not like my dad doesn't deserve hearts on his special day.  Congratulations Dad!

I took a new approach to this tutorial.  I'm just going to sit back and let you look at these step-by-step pictures of the process.  Since making this adorable cupcake is super easy, I'm sure it'll be enough.  Be sure to leave questions in the comments below!  And let's get started!

Heart Cutout Cupcakes

 

Oh, by the way, I made chocolate cupcakes with strawberry cream cheese filling - heavenly!

Sticky Date Cakes

Hello everyone!

I'm finally back with a new post, and this time it's a recipe!  I've been wanting to do something special for my mom as a little way to appreciate everything she does for me.  When I came across this recipe for sticky date cakes, I knew it was the perfect way to do just that.  My mom loves dates, honey, and coconuts, and this recipe has an abundance of all three.  So sit tight and I'll take you through the recipe.

Sticky Date Cakes (Serves 6)

Ingredients


Cake:

1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup self rising flour
2/3 cup unsalted butter
1 cup pitted dates chopped
3 tbsp. orange juice
1 tbsp. honey
2 eggs large


Sauce:
1/3 cup butter unsalted 
1 cup heavy cream 
1/2 cup brown sugar 
1 tbsp. honey

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Then, mix two tablespoons of brown sugar and two tablespoons of shredded coconut and spoon it evenly into six small baking bowls. 

Step 2:  Sift the flours and baking soda together.  Mix the rest of the shredded coconut in too.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture for the wet ingredients.

Step 3:  Meanwhile, stir the rest of the brown sugar, butter, honey, orange juice, and chopped dates in a saucepan over low heat until the butter and sugar have dissolved.

Step 4:  Fold the mixture into the flour until smooth.  It looks kind of unappetizing at this stage but don't worry -- we're not done yet.  Stir in the eggs.

Step 5:  Spoon the mixture into the little bowls and pop them into the oven for 35 minutes or until a toothpick poked through the center comes out clean.

Meanwhile, let's make the sauce...

Stir all the ingredients in a saucepan on low heat until the butter and sugar has dissolved.  Stir for another two minutes and then, serve on warm cakes.

Finished!

Enjoy!

Zebra-Inspired cake

This is Mehwish, back with a cool cake technique I tried last week. School may be in session, but it can't take me away from baking :P

Similar to marbling, the technique that I learned requires using two contrasting colors of batter, which are layered into one pan to create... stripes! These "zebra" stripes will awe the cake-consumer, who will question you over and over till you tell them how simple it is to create it.

This post is more about the procedure than the recipe, so choose your favorite white cake recipe and scroll down to be enlightened :)

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

1. Cake batter, prepared for one cake and split equally into two bowls
2. Food coloring or cocoa powder
3. Cake pan, the appropriate size for your recipe (I used two pans to make two layers of cake, but you can use just one)
4. Two 1/2 cup measuring cups

STEP 1:

Mix food coloring (or cocoa powder) into one of the bowls of cake batter, making sure you add enough so that the baked cake will be dark. I used black food coloring for this cake. 

Now you should have two bowls of cake batter, one light and one dark.

Prepare your pan by lightly greasing it and placing a cut-out circle of parchment paper in it. This will make it so much easier to get your baked cake out of the pan all in one piece!

STEP 2:

Now, use a separate 1/2 cup measuring cup for each batter to pour the batter into the pan. 

Start with any color. Fill the cup and carefully pour it in the center of the pan. Don't try to spread the batter out or anything. 

Now fill another cup with the second batter and pour that in the center of the pan (right on top of the first cupful of batter).

As you pour, you will notice that the batter in the pan is spreading until it reaches the sides and the pan eventually fills to around halfway up.

 

Keep pouring, alternating the batters until you have poured all of the cake batter from both bowls into the pan(s). 

 

Bake the cake at the correct temperature for the recipe you chose.

  

I torted the slight dome off of my cake layers so that they would be nice and flat when I decorated the cake. The pattern on this layer looks epic. In fact, I think it looks kind of like a peacock tail feather!

Here I placed the first layer on a cake board and spread it with a layer of strawberry glaze.

Then some sliced strawberries...

 

And finally, the whipped cream filling! This scrumptious filling was then covered with the second layer of cake. You can use any filling that you want, of course. 

My parents had just brought home a whole box full of fresh organic strawberries so I sneaked some for my cake ;)

 

Here is a photo of the ganache I made to cover the cake with. For this, I used semisweet chocolate that I had at home.

Yummyy.

 

After covering the cake with ganache, I decorated with more strawberries.

And drizzled chocolate over it all...

I found these coffee wafers at my favorite Asian grocery store, so I bought some for cake decoratin' purposes :D

I like how the stripes on the wafers match the inside of the cake.

 

Andd it's done! 

 

Those strawberries look nom-worthy, no?

 

I finally cut the cake! Stripy :D

Not only did this cake look really good, but it tasted amazing too. The wafers were fun to eat and the strawberries were really sweet.

Hope you found this post helpful and enjoyed the pictures! DO try this at home, and share in the comments below if you do!