don't know why I always miss the posting date

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

SO I havent updated in over a month, I'm a good person....kinda

I made the cheesecake for a couple of friends like april 4th.. it was lovely I went with a chocolate strawberry theme

Quick life update before I get back to it:

im a nerd I'm service club VP and student council secretary for next year and thats taking up some time, uhh not any thing else im gonna put up here thats going on, ask me in person =]

bake sale =]

It became necessary to throw an impromptu bake sale

and I was worried

because i have had past failures...

but thats okay

because we made $400

oh yeah

20% of a school in africa

sweet.

these were my contributions...
for the first day haha

So if your ever looking for a recipe for:

• perfect sugar cookies
• cupcakes/icing
• black forest rolls
• popcorn balls
• puppy chow
• whoopie pies

Leave me a comment I've got you covered =]

Daring Bakers

I suppose I should work on my creative title(ing?)
So this is my first recipe with the seemingly huge online baking community "Daring Bakers" =]
It seems that the deal is someone chooses a recipe and everyone follows it adding their own little touches, then posts it on the same day… and this month was a flourless Chocolate Valentino cake and we were to choose our own flavor of ice cream?
The mandatory two lines are as follows:

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

So I chose cherry ice cream because its just been a flavor I've enjoyed using lately, and it turned out beautifully, one of my favorite ice creams ever. I also decided to use small ramekin dishes to prep the cakes and attempted chocolate wraps to improve the appearance, but they didn't go that well…

Here is the cake recipe:

Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

And the ice cream:

Cherry Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1/4 cup cherry juice concentrate 1/2 cup fat free milk 1 cup vanilla low-fat yogurt 1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup white sugar 1 pinch salt 1 cup frozen dark sweet cherries 2 teaspoons almond extract

Directions:

1.	Place the cherry juice, milk, yogurt, and heavy cream into the bowl of a blender. Add the sugar, salt, cherries, and almond extract. Puree until only small bits of the cherries remain.
2.	Pour into a 1 1/2 quart ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's directions.

I couldn't find cherry juice concentrate so I just took some of the frozen cherries, thawed them and blended them with some sugar and water, and I also used cherry flavored yogurt, not vanilla =]

*i apologize for the spacing of this post... there is something wrong with my computer/me and I can't fix it....

Happy Valentines Day!

Ganache Meringue kisses
2 egg whites
1/2 c sugar
1/2 t vanilla powder
2 drops pink food coloring

8 oz dark chocolate
1/2 c heavy cream
4T butter

1. preheat oven to 300 degrees, line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper
2. using electric mixer beat egg whites until soft peaks form, gradually add sugar, beating after each addition until stiffened and glossy
3. transfer to piping bag fitted with 1M wilton tip and pipe 1" starlets
4. Bake for 25 minutes
5. to make ganache: boil cream with butter until boiling and butter melts, place chocolate in heat proof bowl, poor cream over chocolate and leave set for 3 minutes, then whisk until smooth
6. to assemble: dip the bottoms of 2 kisses into the ganache then push together until stuck, repeat with all meringues then let set until hardened or overnight
7. enjoy =]

in between time...

kinda creepy

sideways!

So here i am bored between my plans for tonight, so i have decided to grace you with random pictures of my room, and me =]

I dyed my hair darker, and i really like it this color...

I really don't like taking pictures of my self, not one bit.

have a lovely evening...

crackersss...

I slightly remember about a year ago having a conversation with my mommy about how lots of people make their own bread and everything else, but not crackers, why not crackers?

then i recently became readdicted to tastespotting.com and i saw that now people are making their own crackers...

so i made my own!

Its not that hard actually, just mix a few ingredients together and roll it out..
bake it

then eat it with some nice vegetables...

the recipe i found honestly looked boring.. I like things whole wheat, but it cant taste like card board, no one wants to eat that.

SO i simply added some clementine zest, and used himilayan pink sea salt with some rainbow peppercorns and shredded parmesan... any sea salt and some telicherry pepper would have a similar affect =]

Thin whole wheat pepper crackers

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup AP flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 c milk

2 T honey

1t orange/clementine zest

1/3 cup canola oil

1. mix salt and flour in a medium bowl with a wisk or by hand, combine liquids and zest in small bowl.

2. make a well in the flour mixture and add liquid, combine with a large wooden spoon, dough will be soft

3. turn out onto floured surface, knead, adding flour until mixture resembles modeling clay

4. divide into thirds and roll out each piece individually, until 1/8 inch thick, spray with olive oil (if using coarse salt and pepper grind with mortar and pestle) and sprinkle toppings evenly on top

5. cut into strips or desired shape, lay out on baking sheet and bake at 300 degrees for 25 minutes, until brown

to much time.

this is mostly words cuz im bored, just letting you know

I still have way to much time on my hands.. I hate it, it has to change, but the thing is I don't know what else to do. I need a job, my mother howevery disagrees with the fact that i have to much time, so no ride to einstein brothers to get an application. I refuse to watch television, i hate it whenever i do..because:

• its a waste of time


• I would much rather further my own life then watch some one elses


• if i watch the crime dramas my family watches i can't sleep


• its not even remotely realistic, they never every address the real consequences of the crazy things they do


• idk what else i just hate it

however i do occassionally watch gossip girl while i do sit ups in my room.

I found this quote to day on facebook of all places: there is said to be only two natural fears:the fear of loud noises and the fear of falling.all other fears are learned. I've never thought of that, but really how true is it? every fear most people seem to have comes from things that have happened to us?

mmk wordy post i will leave you with a picture of Vixi sleeping with a snowman i suppose?