banana rum coconut cake and a dream

March 13, 2011 by cristine roy in make it bake it, sweet

Rainy and dreary here in Portland. Yes, the daffodils are blooming and the trees are budding, the temperature is rising and I know spring is almost here. Still, I'm over it. I ~~want~~ need some sunshine. I've been closing my eyes and going to my happy place, floating in the turquoise waters of the caribbean with the sun working it's magic. I knew when the mister walked in the door the other night with three mangos he was feeling the same way. It was time to bake a little tropical sunshine:

Banana Rum Coconut layer cake recipe from Nick Malgieri's The Modern Baker.

Banana? Tropical. Rum? Tropical. Coconut? T-R-O-P-I-C-A-L!

I wanted to eat a slice of this cake and feel like I was sitting on the beach. I know those two are typically mutually exclusive. Who eats cake and thinks, cool, let me put on my bikini? But for today, in my little dream, cake and bikinis are friends.

The banana cake is very simple. I could tell from the picture in the book that it was going to be more on the dense side. After baking, it had risen up and I thought maybe I was wrong, but once it cooled it flattened out and my observation was correct: it was like a banana bread-cake.

The frosting is delish! Whipped cream, dark rum, and sugar. Top that off with some sweetened coconut and you're sipping a creamy tropical cocktail with your toes in the sand.

chewy chocolate-cherry cookies

March 09, 2011 by cristine roy in make it bake it

I wanted chocolate.

This led me to flip through my collected recipe/idea binder, which led me to chewy chocolate-cherry cookies.

I found the recipe in Cooking Light many years ago. It's almost like a chocolate crinkle cookie except with dried cherries and chocolate chips.

Very yummy.

I topped half my batch with a little fleur de sel as soon as I removed them from the oven. I like sweet and salty.

If you would like to make them, see the recipe page.

oatmeal cookie craving

February 23, 2011 by cristine roy in make it bake it

I woke up yesterday with a hankering for oatmeal cookies.

We've been battling colds, fevers, ear infections, exhaustion, and bad days at work. I most certainly think a cookie can make it all feel better.

There is one thing that kept me from making such cookies;

they will never be as good as Grandma Lily's.

This is a comment I have heard for every batch of oatmeal cookies I have ever made since I've known my husband.

Until now.

I abandoned the recipe on the box of quaker oats and found a new recipe which I am quite 'smitten' with.

FINALLY!

Oatmeal raisin cookies that are thick, chewy and yummy.

In the past mine always came out so thin and crispy. I never understood why.

Yesterday I learned that this won't happen if you chill your batter before you bake your cookies. Why has it taken me so long to learn this?

Thumbs up from the mister followed by,

"Didn't you make any with chocolate chips? That's how Grandma Lily makes them."

heart shaped cherry hand-pie goes awry and the rest of our valentine's day

February 15, 2011 by cristine roy in life & love, make it bake it

When I was pregnant I craved cherry pie.

In the pacific northwest there are some really yummy cherries and people bake all sorts of elaborate pies. The kind of pie that you know exactly which farm the fruit was picked at, organic of course, pure ingredients; you get the picture, cherry pies with hazelnuts, liquors, flavored crusts, and even fried.

That's great and all but I wanted bright red, over processed, too much sugar, high fructose corn syrup cherry pie filling from the can. I couldn't find it anywhere. Until now.

I thought it would be very valentinesy.

My idea was to make a heart shaped cherry hand pie.

It was going to be great.

That is, until I wondered why it smelled like crayons burning in the house and was it getting smoky? Yes. The smoke detectors started to beep and I opened the oven to what I thought was parchment paper but actually was wax paper (which I realized as I glanced over at the box on the counter. Genius.) drying up and smoldering. Fantastic.

So much for my heart shaped hand pie.

But just like life (and love) sometimes better things come from events that seem, at the time, like they are a disaster.

I looked over at the little bit of dough I had left.

What is better than one big heart? Why, two half hearts that make the whole, of course.

How romantic.

(peanut butter)icing on the (cup)cake

February 12, 2011 by cristine roy in make it bake it, sweet

This peanut butter icing recipe is incredible.

The kind of incredible where you have to stop yourself from "trying" it while you make it or there won't be enough to frost the cupcakes. The kind of incredible that you might just want to forget about frosting anything at all and just grab a spoon and eat it straight out of the bowl. Here is the recipe.

I'm beginning to think that my oven is running a little hot as things tend to bake too quickly. I know I have an oven thermometer around here somewhere. Is my mom yelling at the computer right now saying she bought one for me for Christmas a few years ago? Probably. I just have to locate it. Anyway.

For fear that the chocolate cupcakes would be on the dryer side I decided to forego their wrappers and slice them in half. I figured a little peanut butter goodness in the middle like a cupcake sandwich might help the situation. The result?

They look amazing, if I do say so myself, in a not-so-perfect homemade-with-love kind of way. I topped them with peanut butter cups and peanut butter filled m&m's in red...like a cherry on top!

rainbow cupcakes

December 13, 2010 by cristine roy in sweet, make it bake it

Rainbow cupcakes.

A little something I was very excited to try out and no better excuse than for a nice friend's birthday.

They are so fun!

Knowing that layering colors of batter would be slightly labor intensive, I started with white cake mix and divided it into six bowls. Drops of food coloring made the rainbow colors.

Spoon a little of the colored batter into the cupcake cup and push to the edges. Repeat until your rainbow has been made. This is no easy task. I wasn't sure exactly how much to use and was slightly afraid that all six colors wouldn't fit. My cupcakes papers were VERY full. Next time I know to uses a little less.

I got a little lazy by the second tray and sort of left blobs of colors without actually spreading them to the sides. You know what? They actually came out just as pretty!

I frosted them with whipped white frosting and rainbow sugar.

Click on the photos below to see the process: