Top 5 Pins: Spring Fashion

I've been a pinning fiend lately, and have been browsing Pinterest almost daily to help me pick out my daily outfits.  Here's my top 5 favorite fashion pins for Spring looks right now.  Enjoy!

Preppy Pink Dress:

Aqua, Grey & Gold Chain:

Sperrys! (I desperately need new gold ones):

Pastel Pleated Skirt:

White Tassel Loafers:

Kappa Tuesday - Raspberry Rhubarb Bake!

Well hello!  I'm sorry it's been a while since my last post.  Life has been busy, but the baking hasn't slowed down!  I'm kicking BostonSweetieBlog back off with a Kappa-licious bang for you.  I mean it.  Kappa-LICIOUS.

Last night our girls dessert was provided by the lovely Miss Lindsay.  She made an absolutely amazing dessert for us - Raspberry Rhubarb Bake with vanilla gelatto.  She brought all of the ingredients to dinner, quickly assembled everything, popped it in the oven when the chicken was done, and an hour later our dessert was ready!  This is warm, sweet, satisfying, and absolutely delicious.

 

The recipe is so easy, this is a GREAT thing to make for summer potlucks, parties, or when you're craving a sweet on a random weeknight.  The recipe is below.

Before I sign off- I have to give a shout-out to Shannon who provided our Kappa Dinner:  Rosemary chicken, sauteed green beans and rice pilaf.  It was SO good, and she was proud of how pretty she plated everything.  I know my blog is all sweets, but this meal was pretty sweet (ohhhh!) so thank you Shanns!  Here's a pic:

Coming up tomorrow: Smore's bars and a care package to a deployed soldier, my participation in Operation Baking GALS!

Raspberry Rhubarb Bake - serves 6
Recipe from Lindsay's mom's cookbook "One Dish Wonders"

Place 2 cups of sliced rhubarb (fresh or frozen) in a greased, square 8"x8" baking dish.  Sprinkle with half of a 3 oz. package of raspberry or strawberry Jell-O, 1/6 cup of sugar and half of a box of yellow or white cake mix (in that order.) 

Pour 1/2 cup water evenly over dry ingredients.

Drizzle with 1/6 cup butter or margarine, melted.

Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes, or until rhubarb is tender.

Great idea from Lindsay's mom Barb: "I would put the other half of the Jell-O and cake mix in ziplocks and stick them in the cupboard or freezer if you think it will be a while before you make it again.  Doubled, this recipe fills a 9" x 13" pan, which would be good if you were going to a group event."

Strawberry Banana Galette

My family and friends know me as a chocolate-cake-brownie dessert type gal.  90% of the time I am...nothing makes me happier than chocolate-cake-brownies-one-or-all-three-doesn't-matter-I-LOVE-IT!  Last night was one of the rare days where I was craving dessert of a different type.  I wanted something doughy, sweet, and tart.  Sitting on the couch thinking about what would be the perfect fix, my new Pies & Tarts book by Martha Stewart caught my eye.


Every time I see this book, I smile.  I had mentioned a while back to a coworker that I was looking for it, but had been unsuccessful at finding it in a store.  She happened to see it at Costco a couple weekends ago and picked it up for me!  My new favorite Martha book greeted me at my desk on a Monday morning- best way to start the week ever!

So I'm flipping through Pies & Tarts and thinking man, I don't have the ingredients for any of these things. As I was reading through the freeform section I decided to try a galette, and try putting my own spin on it with fruit I had in the house.  With some strawberries that weren't going to last much longer and bananas that were in the same boat (har har) came my creation- Strawberry Banana Galettes.

Mine looks nothing like Martha's, but it tasted great and definitely hit the spot.  A galette is a simple pate brisee with fruit filling.  It's meant to look a little rough around the edges, and served hot with a nice scoop or two of vanilla ice cream on top, it tastes like a personal open-faced pie. Perfect rainy night treat.

What type of dessert person are you? Chocolatey? Fruity? Or none at all? I noticed I have a fair amount of readers- would love to hear from you!

Strawberry Banana Galettes

Adapted from Martha Stewart's Mini Rhubarb & Raspberry Galette recipe

Need:

-Pate Brisee (make enough for one 9" pie crust, or check out my recipe below)

-All purpose flour for dusting

-1 1/2 cups chopped fresh strawberries

-1 medium chopped banana

-1/8 cup cornstarch

-1 cup granulated sugar

-coarse sanding sugar, for sprinkling

Do: 

- Divide dough evenly into 2 pieces.  Roll out each piece to approximately 7" round, 1/8" thick.  Transfer rounds to a parchment-lined cookie sheet, several inches apart.  If these feel soft at all, REFRIGERATE!  I didn't, and it led to the galette fail that I will show you below.

- In a large bowl, combine strawberries, bananas, cornstarch and sugar.  Toss to coat evenly.

- Split the berry mixture evenly between both rounds.  Leave at least 1" border, I left about 2-3".  Gently fold the edges up around the fruit mixture.  Make sure to leave a hole in the middle.  Gently brush the folds with water and press to connect them.  Refrigerate again about 30 minutes until firm.  Again- I neglected to do this and got a galette fail.  

- Preheat oven to 400 degrees, and brush cold galettes with water, then sprinkle with sanding sugar.  Bake for 30 minutes- crust should be golden brown.  Reduce heat to 375 for about 15 minutes more, until juices are bubbling.  Martha says to let cool completely.  I say, serve hot (and eat carefully!) with a hefty scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.  Get ready for a warm, ooey gooey delicious single-serve bowl fulla pie.  

If you're dying for dessert and decide to skip the refrigeration parts of this recipe, fear not, you will still have a delicious treat!  It will just expand and maybe not be so pretty...

Don't say I didn't warn ya!

Now, if you need a pate brisee recipe, here's Martha's, reworked by moi to make just enough for 2 mini galettes:

Need: 

1 1/4 c. all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

1 stick cold, unsalted butter cut into small pieces

1/4 cup ice water

Do:

-Whisk together flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl

-Add butter and mix around so all of the butter pieces are coated in flour.

-Quickly cut in butter with a pastry cutter until mixture resembled coarse meal, with larger pieces remaining.

-Drizzle with 1/4 c. ice water and mix together with a fork until mixture starts to come together.  If dough is too dry, add another 1/4 c. ice water.

-Divide dough in half onto two pieces of plastic wrap. Gather each into a ball, wrap loosely in plastic, and then flatten into a disc.

-Refrigerate at least 1 hour for best results.  (I put mine in the freezer for 15 min. and you can see the results above.  Coldness is key!)

Bridal Shower Cake - Stephanie & Dennis

Today I had the honor of putting together a three tier bridal shower cake!  It has been a while since I decorated a cake, so I was beyond excited to take on this project when one of my girlfriends asked me for the favor.

The most important thing about any fancy cake is making sure that it tastes good!  My friend gave me full creative license with flavors, so I went with a springy combo of pink champagne cake, strawberry filling, and almond icing.

Putting together a nice tiered cake takes a little leg work but it's well worth it.  I learned all my tricks from the Wilton Cake Decorating courses I took at Michael's.  My instructor, Maxine, was amazing, and a little fireball.  Her recipe for flawless decorator's icing listed at the end of this post is my go-to recipe for cakes that need to last a couple days and have decorations that hold up.

Are you thinking of trying out a tiered cake?  Here's a few tips as you work through it.  First, you want to make sure all of your cakes are level.  Wilton sells a leveling tool, but I just eyeball it and use a bread knife.

Once they're leveled, pipe a border of icing around the edge of the cake, called a "dam."  This will prevent your filling from oozing out the edges.  Let the dam set for a few minutes (put it in the fridge to speed this part up if you'd like), and then add your filling.  

Once your bottom layer is filled, gently place on the top layer.  Make sure the flattest side is up.

Next, you want to "crumb coat" all of your tiers.  This means putting a thin layer of your buttercream on to trap any crumbs that may come off into the icing.  All of your cakes should be on cake boards the same size as the cake.  You can buy pre-cut ones at most craft stores, or cut your own out of old cardboard boxes and cover them with foil to make them look nice.  Make sure your crumb coat is nice and smooth, and let this set for at least 30 minutes.  I like to let mine set in the fridge, as it's much easier to work with cold, stiff cakes than warm, soft ones.

While you're waiting, I highly recommend trying a tastie- we ate cake scraps topped with filling and icing to make sure everything paired well.   After 3 or 4 tasties each, hubs and I agreed that this cake was going to be a hit.

After your crumb coat has set, it's time to create some support in your cakes.  Depending on how big and heavy your cake is, you can use different types of support.  I used plastic smoothie straws.  Stick a straw in the cake (put it in a place that will definitely be covered by the next tier!) and pull it out.  Trim your support and use that first one to measure others for your layers.  I used 4 on the bottom layer and 2 for the middle layer.  You want to measure and trim your supports, FULLY FROST your cake, and then put your supports in last.

Decorator's tip - see the pretty design on my cake?  I achieved that look by gently pressing a paper towel onto the top!  This is a nice touch when frosting with buttercream instead of fondant.  Some people use a small foam roller to smooth out their icing.   You can buy these for less than a dollar at any hardware store.

So now your cakes are frosted and supported, it's time to stack them!  Very gently, place your middle tier ontop of the bottom, and then place the top tier on the middle.  Depending on the size of your cake, tie all three layers together by putting a sharp support straight down through the middle.  This cake was rather small and compact so I didn't include that here.  Now's the fun part, decorating time!!

I used white and yellow buttercream and a spool of ribbon to decorate this cake.  Pressing the ribbon into the icing while it is just barely still tacky will make it stick yet still be easy to remove without pulling off all the icing.

 

And, voila!  Three tiered wedding cake!  Best wishes to Stephanie and Dennis as your wedding approaches - enjoy every minute! 

Maxine's Decorating Icing:


Note - S= small batch,  M= medium batch, L= Large batch


Need: 


Shortening - S, 1 cup.  M, 2 cups.  L, 4 cups.
Milk - S, 1/4 cup.  M, 1/2 cup.  L, 1 cup.
Confectioner's Sugar - S, 1 pound (4 c).  M, 2 pounds (8 c).  L, 4 pounds (16 c.)
Flavoring - S, 1tsp.  M, 1 1/2 tsp.  L, 2 tsp.

*I made a medium batch for this cake and had some leftover.

Do:
- Soften shortening by stirring it in the mixing bowl for about 2 min.
-Add confectioner's sugar in 3 - 4 batches.  After each batch, add part of your milk, and part of your flavoring
-Continue whipping until desired consistency and flavor.  Add more sugar to stiffen, more milk/flavoring to soften.

Coconut Cupcakes...For You??

Light and moist coconut cake, topped with a smooth coconut icing and delicate coconut flakes... this delicious treat by Boston Sweetie could be all yours!

In less than one week, Bloggers Bake for Hope online bake sale goes live!  I will be participating by auctioning off a "Frost Yourself!" Cupcake Kit!  If you visit the site between May 4 and May 6, you can place your bid on my kit, and if you win you'll receive:

• 12 freshly baked coconut cupcakes (recipe from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes)
• 1 tub of freshly whipped pink coconut icing
• 1 disposible piping bag
• 1 plastic star tip
• 1 baggie of coconut flakes for decoration

I will ship the winner's treats anywhere in the US, and pack everything up nicely so that when it's received you can put on your apron and frost yourself!

All of the funds raised in this bake sale will go to a great cause, the MA Komen for a Cure foundation.  Please check out Bloggers Bake for Hope, and make sure to save the date and place your bids starting next Wednesday!!

Kappa Tuesday - Mini Carrot Cupcakes

A couple of my college sorority sisters and I have a great tradition of meeting for dinner, dessert and wine every other Tuesday. We rotate apartments, and rotate duties. Each of the three of us provide one of the three key elements :) This past Tuesday, dinner was pasta with homemade sauce and a garden salad. For wine, we tried Ruffino Chianti, and for dessert, ohhhh dessert, gourmet mini carrot cupcakes with caramel cream cheese frosting. HEAVEN!

These beauties were leftovers from my friend's Easter dinner. Her aunt, Maura Kilpatrick, is an amazing pastry chef here in Boston, baking up treats at Sofra Bakery, and Oleana. I didn't see carrot cake on the Sofra menu, but if the other items match the quality of these cupcakes, my advice is to RUN THERE and try something!

Friends, wine, cupcakes, mid-week bliss.

(PS - The Bruins just beat the Canadiens in Round 1 of the Playoffs and I am so over-filled with bliss you have no idea. GO BRUINS!!!!)

Easter Dessert at Grammy's

Happy Easter Sunday! I hope that all who celebrated today enjoyed every minute of it. J and I were fortunate to spend today with my family (minus Mom & Dad who are off on a Caribbean cruise celebrating their 25th anniversary, yay!), and we will have an Easter part two next weekend with his family. After an amazing seafood lunch at the Dolphin in Natick, we all went back to my Grammy's house for dessert. The whole house was festive with lots of Easter and spring-time decorations. I love the vintagey look to the bunny above- so cute!

So, let me walk you through the experience known as "Dessert at Grammy's." One thing to know about me is that being a sweet-lover is a classic trait in my family, and I definitely take after my Grammy's taste for dessert. Maybe it was all of our trips to the Belmont Brigham's for coffee ice cream sodas when I was little, maybe it's just in my blood, it's probably both.

Grammy's main dessert (yes, we have main desserts, and side desserts, no matter the occasion) was home-made strawberry shortcake. Grammy baked the biscuits and prepared the strawberries yesterday, and whipped the cream fresh right before we sat down to eat. These.were.amazing. There is nothing better than a 100% homemade strawberry shortcake on a beautiful spring day. The recipes for all three pieces are very easy- if you're interested in seeing them, just leave me a comment and I'll gladly post.

It can't be dessert time at Grammy's without coffee or tea. Today I had coffee. In a NH mug. This is another "thing" about my family, we all LOVE the White Mountains in New Hampshire. Over the years my parents and grandparents have gathered a rather impressive collection of NH-themed goods. It's probably hard for you to go to either house and find a mug that is from somewhere besides New Hampshire or Maine. It's part of the charm, and the fun, to look at a mug, and then talk about all the fun things we've done or seen at that place.

Surprise birthday cakes are not a traditional part of dessert time at Grammys, but they are ALWAYS welcomed, especially by cake-fanatic, Boston Sweetie! To celebrate Grammy's birthday that was last week, my aunt picked up a birthday/Easter cake from one of their favorite bakeries, Ohlin's, in Belmont. This bakery has been there for "eons" (Grammy term) and is one of their favorites. Grammy loves the donuts the most, especially the glazed ones.

My Aunt's favorite thing from Ohlin's are their "Hermits" - ginger cookie bars with raisins. She said she was eyeballing their quiches this morning, but managed to avoid the temptation and left with just this really cute Easter/Birthday cake. She said it was the only one with chocolate frosting; the rest were all white. Important note: Grammy likes gold cake with chocolate frosting best. Other important note: Me too.

I'm pretty sure this was not my first Ohlin's experience, but it was the first one I was really paying attention to. The cake was REALLY good- light, delicate, almost spongy. The frosting was the best part- rather than a chocolately buttercream, this tasted like the chocolate frosting they put on donuts. It was the perfect amount, perfect texture, perfect all around. I was pretty psyched when Grammy packed up two slices for us to take home with us. Remember how I mentioned side desserts? Grammy also offered ice cream and fresh brownies. I was too busy chowing down to take pictures, sorry!

Dessert at Grammy's today concluded with Easter bags! This was a surprise that really made my day. I've been eyeballing Easter candies at the grocery stores and CVS every time I go in, and I have had a mean hankering for a Lindt Bunny. Grammy and my aunt presented J, my sister and I with bags full of the best of the best - Lindt mini lambs, York Peppermint Patties, CADBURY CREAM EGGS, Hershey chocolate eggs, Junior Mints and scratch tickets! We had so much fun picking through and feeling like kids opening up their Easter baskets.

I know it's hard to believe but after all that, all of our plates looked like this- scraped clean. We love our sweets, what can I say! Did you have an insane Easter dessert? Comment below and tell me what sweets made your day!

Almond-Lemon-Lavender Cupcakes

It feels like Christmas Eve...except its Cupcake Camp Eve!! I just finished up my cupcakes for tomorrow and I am psyched!

My friend Christina of All's Fare Food Blog & I will be joining the ranks of amateur bakers for tomorrow night's cupcake fiesta.  She put together some super cute Red Velvet Baseball cupcakes (hopefully they'll be good luck to our Sox) and I just finished up my Almond-Lemon-Lavender cupcakes.  They are a heavy white almond cake, with lemon curd filling and topped with some homemade lavender buttercream.  Perfect for spring, right?

I have to say, this is one of the messiest cake recipes I've followed yet!  To be fair I was kind of rushing the fun part so I could make it to my girls night dinner on time, but sheesh, next time I will be sure to use my splatter guard on the KitchenAid and stir slowly with a nice big spatula!

The batter comes together very thick, and bakes into a fairly dense, but still moist cake.  I was initially concerned that the eggs whites were too prominent in the cake, based off of my miniscule toothpick test to make sure they were done. 

So I went to town with my new cupcake corer and tried a "tastie" as my hubs and I are calling them, which made me confident that the over-eggy-ness was just my paranoid imagination.  This cupcake corer is amazing...and affordable.  Only $5.00 at Williams-Sonoma!  Highly recommend if you like to fill your cupcakes.

To make sure I'd be brining something worth sharing, I topped some tasties with a dollop of lemon curd and a dot of lavender buttercream.  So good, and a great way to keep me from "testing" a whole cupcake at 11PM!

I definitely had a blast making these for tomorrow night and my husband can't get enough of the lavender buttercream.  You know it's good when your sweetie goes back for seconds, thirds, fourths... Do you have a recipe that is a super hit? 

Also- for anyone who made it this far, were you at Cupcake Camp too? Let's trade notes!

White Almond Cake (adapted from Martha Stewart's white cupcake recipe)

Need:

• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 tablespoon pure almond extract
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (2 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 7 large egg whites

Do:

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake or muffin tins with papers; set aside.
• Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
• Mix milk & almond extract together (Martha suggests a glass measuring cup...I used a plastic measuring cup and it was fine.)  Once mixed, set aside. 
• Place butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, and beat until pale and creamy. With the mixer on medium speed, gradually add sugar in a steady stream; continue beating until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low.
• Add flour mixture to butter and sugar bowl in three batches, alternating with the milk/almond liquid, and starting and ending with the flour. Do not overbeat. **This is serious!  Mine got TOO thick...I highly suggest stopping beating as soon as your final batch of flour is completely mixed in.**
• Wash out your electric mixing bowl really well- make sure there is NO butter left anywhere!  Put on your whisk attachment, and beat egg whites on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form.
• Take one third of the egg whites and fold into the batter.  This should help lighten it up a little bit. Fold in the remaining egg whites in two batches, and be gentle!  This is where it can get messy, and you also don't want to flatten your eggs.
• Pour batter into prepared tins, filling cups to about 1/2 inch from the tops. Bake until a cake tester inserted near the centers comes out clean and the tops spring back when pressed lightly in the center, 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven; let cool completely before removing the cores.
• Once cooled and cored pipe in lemon curd filling.  You can make your own, but I used Dickinson's brand from Stop & Shop.

Lavender infused buttercream:

Need:

• 1/4 c. water
• 2 tbsp. dried lavendar
• 2 sticks of room-temp butter
• 1/2 c. vegetable shortening
• 2 tbsp. milk (i used skim)
• appx. 5-6 cups confectioner's sugar
• food coloring

Do:

• In a small saucepan or microwaveable bowl, heat water to boiling.  Add in dried lavender and let simmer for a good 15-20 min or so. 
• Strain lavender water into another bowl, removing the lavender and leaving just the hot infused water.  Put the water in the fridge for another 20 minutes+ to cool.
• Beat the butter and shortening together until nice and light.  
• Beat in milk then add confectioner's sugar 1 cup at a time until it comes together into a nice buttercream.  You may need to add a splash of milk or more sugar to reach your desired consistency.  I always eyeball my buttercreams and never keep track of how much sugar I actually end up using.  The key is to watch the consistency and TASTE! 
• Once you like how it's looking, add in your cooled lavender water and food coloring.  To make the pretty purple color in mine, I used probably 16 drops of blue, 8 drops of red...and then 1/4 teaspoon of violet gel color too.  The drops were just creating a not-so-pretty greyish color, and then when I added the violet gel it finally turned the pretty purple I was hoping for.   Mix your buttercream until all of the infused water and color is combined.  Give it a taste, make sure it feels right to decorate with (not too smooth, not too stiff) and either use immediately or save in an air-tight container for up to one week.