Lemon Bars AGAIN?

Yes, I have decided to try and make lemon bars again. I have adjusted the recipe and feel like this one is even better than the other one I had.

Recipe here!
Ingredients:
1/4 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cups flour
1/16 teaspoon kosher salt (I took a 1/8 of a teaspoon of kosher salt and then divided it in half)

Directions:
For the crust, cream the butter and sugar until light in the bowl of an electric mixer.
Combine the flour and salt and, with the mixer on low, add to the butter until just mixed.
Dump the dough onto a well-floured board and gather into a ball.
Flatten the dough with floured hands and press it into the greased baking sheet.
Chill.
Bake the crust for 10 minutes, until very lightly browned. Let cool on a wire rack.

I was hoping that my 5 lemons would get me 1 cup of lemon juice, but it didn't, but it was 3/4 of a cup. I just adjusted all the others to it.

Ingredients:
5 extra-large eggs at room temperature
1 3/4 cups + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
grated lemon zest from my 5 lemons
3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup flour
Directions:
For the lemon layer, whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and flour.
Pour over the crust and bake for 25 minutes, or until it sets.
Let cool to room temperature.

Dust with powdered sugar.


<3 Nina

My Infamous Mini Cheesecakes

Those who know me, know my cheesecakes.
I love my cheesecakes and I like making them. Ever since I made them for Josh's party, they've been my secret and wonderful dessert. Ive made them for Ace of Cakes and other events as well.

Finally, I'll let out my secret cheesecake recipe
Mini Cheesecakes:
(adapted from here)
Ingredients:
1 package of vanilla wafers
24oz of cream cheese, softened
1 lemon, juiced
4 eggs
1 tsp of vanilla
1 c of granulated sugar
Directions:
Preheat oven at 350 F.
Crush at least 30 vanilla wafers for the bottoms. Put as much as you want, but I sometimes put around 2 tsp worth, other times up to 2 tbsp worth.
Bake for 10 mins, or golden.
Mix together the juice, eggs, cream cheese, vanilla, and sugar. I used a hand mixer, but try not to over mix.
Pour mixture over the baked bottoms. I normally put around 2 tbsp worth in.
Bake for 15-20 minutes.
Let cool, then place into fridge for at least overnight.

They are so yummy!
Enjoy!
<3 Nina

April!

April needs a special cupcake!
I'll document the whole process with pictures.
Now which one?
Poll on the side.

Choices are:
-Coffee Cake Cupcakes
-Pineapple Upside Down Cupcake
-Jello Shot Cupcake
-Fruit Loop Cupcake

Tell me your choice!

and those I know at Berkeley, if you vote, you get a cupcake!
<3 Nina

Major Picture Post

Since I do not have all of my pictures of my creations here on my blog, I decided to post them all.

If you are needing any of the recipes/if you want me to create any of these for you, just let me know.

Apple Pie Cupcake
Brown Sugar Cookies
Chocolate and Vanilla Kiss Cupcakes

Carrot Cupcake
Chocolate Cupcake
Chocolate Peppermint Cupcake
Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcake
Oatmeal Cranberry Cookie
Chocolate with Cherry Cupcake
Kahlua Cake
Lemon Bar
Mini Cheesecake
Pineapple Muffins
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Reeses Brownie
Tiramisu Cupcake
Twix Brownie

<3 Nina

Lemon Bars

Lemon Bars this time.
I know that Linda absolutely loves lemon bars, and how to ensure that Linda will get it? I make it when we're like just a mile or so apart from each other with the use of cars and with everyone else many more miles away.

So I had just bought new bakeware because I have none at home, so yay to new bakeware. And also a zester thing. I have no real zester at school either; it's just a grater that I use, but now that I have a zester I feel like I can make more things and zest chocolate too! More baking to come.

And I thought since my parents have a lemon tree at home, what better place to make them, but was I wrong or what. First off, the lemon tree only had like one workable lemon. Then my oven at school is a lot better than the oven here since it actually tells me when its done pre-heating, much easier to deal with. Third, because of that, I feel like the recipe needs work because I kind of followed it, but I did not have a precise oven temp.

recipe found here.
So first the crust:
Ingredients:
1/2 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 cups flour
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt (I didnt have kosher salt, so I just put a little/almost nothing salt in)

Directions:
For the crust, cream the butter and sugar until light in the bowl of an electric mixer.
Combine the flour and salt and, with the mixer on low, add to the butter until just mixed.
Dump the dough onto a well-floured board and gather into a ball.
Flatten the dough with floured hands and press it into the greased baking sheet, building up a 1/2-inch edge on all sides.
Chill.
Bake the crust for 15 minutes, until very lightly browned. Let cool on a wire rack. Leave the oven on.
Now onto the filling. Well the recipe that I found had two types of fillings; a more fuller one, or a lesser one. So I decided to see how much lemon juice I had first before determining how much I could make. I had juiced my 3 lemons and that came out about 2/3 cup. So I made the less filling one.

Ingredients:
4 extra-large eggs at room temperature (I used about 6 large brown eggs)
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest (3 to 4 lemons)
2/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2/3 cup flour
Directions:
For the lemon layer, whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and flour.
Pour over the crust and bake for 30 to 35 minutes.
Let cool to room temperature.

Dust with powdered sugar.

Now comments that I had gotten from people who had it.
Linda said that they were amazing and really good.

But then I had Brent taste them a little later in the day and he suggested to half the crust recipe with this thinner lemon layer. I think next time that is what I should have done.
They are really good regardless. But now that they are cooled, the two layers have not stuck together. It's kind of weird.

<3

St. Patrick's Day Special

Green!! That's all I could think of when I thought about today. I had make something good, something green, and most of all, something AMAZING! Well it happened when the Food Librarian decided to post her "Girl Scout Thin Mint Chocolate Cupcakes", I knew I had to make them.
So starting out with that, I thought, yes a cream cheese frosting would be nice...but green peppermint frosting would be even better. So I found another recipe for that...

But here are the recipes in full form and with pictures.

Cupcake:
(modified from here)
Ingredients:
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons canola oil
2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 sleeve of crushed thin mints
1 teaspoon of pure peppermint extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift together cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl.
Add eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla, and mix until smooth, about 3 minutes.
Then add in peppermint extract and the crushed thin mints.
Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to assure batter is well mixed.
Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, filling each 1/2 full (approximately 2 tablespoons full).
Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 15 minutes, rotating pan once if needed.
Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.

Crushing the thin mints while watching a tivo-ed episode of Jon and Kate plus Eight.
yay finished when the episode was done...

Then the frosting:
(modified from here)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
6 tbsp. soft butter
2 tbsp. cream or milk
1 tsp. peppermint extract
Green food coloring
Directions:
Mix the butter and 1/2 cup of powdered sugar.
Then add 1 tbsp of cream and mix.
Add the rest of the powdered sugar, the peppermint extract, and the rest of the cream and throughly mix.
After, add green food coloring until the color is the one desired.
Putting it together:
Frost the cupcakes.
Break the thin mints into fourths, and place decoratively...Or crush some thin mints, and sprinkle onto the frosting...
<3

Happy Pi(e) Day!

Yes, I know it is just Pi day, but I felt like I needed to bake some so I made Apple Pie Cupcakes!
So I had found this WONDERFUL recipe online, but I absolutely have no knife skills. I am horrible at slicing and dicing and all that good stuff so I decided to do it my own way. Well, yeah. I thought they came out decent, but not the best I could have done...

Apple Pie Cupcakes
Apple Filling/Topping first!
Ingredients:
6 tbsp unsalted butter
2/3 cup granulated sugar
3 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and diced
(I do end up with a little sauce and apples left, so I used them to decorate the tops and dipped the sauce in the cupcake)
Directions:
Place butter and sugar in a large fry pan over low-medium heat.
Stir to dissolve sugar.
Add the diced apple and cuntil apples are caramelized/taste kinda sweet and soft.
Remove apples from pan and let cool completely.
Then the cupcakes!
Ingredients:
2 1/4 all purpose flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
9 ounces (2 sticks plus 2 tbsp) unsalted butter, softened at room temp
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup (8 fluid ounces) whole milk (I used soymilk)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325F.
Sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
Set aside dry ingredients.
In a bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides if the bowl occasionally. Beat in the vanilla.
On low speed, add the flour mixture and mix until flour is barely incorporated. Add the milk and mix until just smooth.
Divide the batter among lined muffin wells, filling each well about 1/2 full (2 tablespoons full). Top with the apples.
Bake at 325F until a cake tested comes out clean, about 15-20 minutes. Remove from pan and cool cupcakes on cooling racks. Make sure cupcakes are completely cooled before frosting.

Then last but not least! The frosting!
Ingredients:
12 ounces (3 sticks / 340g) unsalted butter, softened at room temp
1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Directions:
In the bowl, beat the butter until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add the confectioner's sugar and cinnamon and beat for another 5 minutes until light and fluffy.
Frost the cupcakes with an icing spatula or piping bag.
First some pi cupcakes!

Onto regularly decorated ones...

ALL were enjoyed by Circle K members at Andrea's Scrapbook Work Party!

Well, thats going to be the last of my baking...until maybe Tuesday. St. Patrick's day always needs something special. ;)

<3

recipe found here