If donuts were healthy...

I'd eat one every day. And I'd rotate days between Kane's donuts in Saugus, Randy's donuts in LA and double down on Congdon's donuts in Wells, ME.

Last time we were in Wells, I got a honey dip and J got an apple fritter. How amazing do these look?! Tell me about your favorite donuts in the comments below!

Sunday Summer Berry Pie

Sometimes a summer night just needs some pie.  Berry pie.  And ice cream, of course.  Ever have one of those weekends, where this...

Is the perfect cap-off to this...?

Boston skyline from Spectacle Island

If you're anything like me, you don't feel like doing much besides sitting on the couch and sipping a glass of wine after a sunny day at the beach, but this pie is simple and totally worth the ten extra minutes on your feet.

This is an awesome berry pie that uses frozen berries and is nice and quick to put together (although I'm sure in-season, fresh berries would make it even better!)  If your summer night needs a little dessert, whip this up and you'll be happy as pie, sweets ;)

As always, let me know what you think if you try this recipe out by posting a note in the comments below.

Triple Berry Pie:
Need:

• Enough pie dough for 2 crusts (for this one, I just bought the Pillsbury pre-made pie crusts in the refrigerated section at the food store.  Note- Pillsbury did not ask me to post them, I just really like their pre-made pie-crust and highly recommend it if you don't feel like rolling out your own!)
• 5 cups frozen mixed berries 
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Do:

1. Mix the frozen berries with sugar, flour and cinnamon in a large bowl.  Let stand for 45 minutes so the berries can thaw out a little bit.  (I did this step, then took a shower and blow-dried my hair which took about 35 minutes and then kept going...perfect timing!)
2. Heat oven to 375 degrees F
3. Line a pie plate with half of the crust (or 1 crust, if you bought the 2-pack)
4. Pour all the berries into the pie crust and spread around making an even layer
5. Place the second crust on top and crimp the edges to seal
6. Cut a few slits in the top crust to let the steam out
7. I brushed the top of my pie with a little milk and put some Sugar in the Raw on top, but you can skip this step if you'd like.
8. Cover the edges of your pie with tin foil so they don't burn
9. Bake at 375 for 50 minutes, then remove the foil from the edges
10. Bake at 375 for an additional 30 minutes - the pie should be bubbly and crust nice and gold at this point.
11. Let the pie cool completely if you want nice and neat slices, or, you can dig right in and enjoy some nice gooey berry pie with a scoop of ice cream on top like I did :)

Step 1:  Berries + Sugar + Flour + Cinnamon

Step 1 cont.  Mix 'em up!

Steps 3 & 4 (after heating the oven) line a pie plate and fill with berry mixture

Steps 5, 6, 7- Put on top crust, crimp edges, brush with milk, sprinkle with sugar and cut steam slits

Fresh out of the oven, hot berry pie

I spy hot pie. <3

Picnic on the Esplanade!

The Star Spangled Banner is playing, it's the perfect temperature outside, I'm sitting with two of my best friends in the world watching the rehearsal for the 4th, and we have CUPCAKES!!! From Curlycakes on Beacon Hill.

Here's to the USA!! Have a great weekend, everyone!

Brooklyn Brewery Food Experiment Tour: Cake in Boston

When my friend Neil (aka Chef Diesel) wrote and told me about Brooklyn Brewery's cake competition, I knew I had robe a part of it. No rules, just bake the best cake you can and go out for some fun. I love fun! And cake ;)

The competition was this past Sunday, and it was a blast. My sous chef (husband, haha) and I went for a "cake tasting" theme and brought wine cake bites; Chocolate Pinot Noir and White Riesling. Each had wine flavored buttercream to match. It took a full week of recipe testing and tweaking to get them right but in the end the testing paid off and I brought some pretty tasty little cakes if I do say so myself. Lots of the folks that stopped by the table seemed to love them and came back for seconds and thirds, and I got asked quite a few times if I have a bakery and if I take orders. (No storefront yet, but yes I do take orders!)

White Riesling Cake Bites

Chocolate Pinot Noir Cake Bites

We were Team #1! (sadly didn't win #1, hah!)

Sadly my little cake bites weren't deemed a winner, and neither were the prize-worthy Kahlua Cakes of Neil or the Chocolate Stout Cake Cookies with a Kick by my friend Jamie. Next year we really need to get the masses out to vote for us. The people who recruited tons of friends to show up won the fan-voted prizes by a landslide, but we're over it.. ;) Seriously though, it was a great and I'm so glad I participated.

Chef Diesel

Jamie & Jon

Sous Chef! 

I wasn't being a good blogger and didn't even check out all the tables because I was having fun chatting with everyone that came to mine, but some of the other cakes I saw at the event were:

• Goat cheese cheesecakes with cherry port savory topping (these won the grand prize. I really liked it!) 
• Cheesecake with ritz crackers? (another winner.. Didn't taste these) 
• Some sort of spam pineapple cake (no way would I ever eat spam...J tried one and thought it was bacon. I think he liked it) 
• Sangria cake (didn't try) 
• Tequila Sunrise cake (wasn't a fan) 
• Banana Cake (didn't try) 

The Food Experiment Tour goes nationwide with different themes in each city. If you're not in Boston, checkout their site because the tour could be heading your way! I heard that next years theme for Boston will be something savory, so my thinking cap is on. How can BostonSweetie go savory... I will find a way! I was being selfish and only took pictures of my own table, so those are here. Sorry for the poor quality, it was insanely dark in there! If youre dying for more, check out more at the Food Experiment's Flickr site, they came out great. Last thing- if anyone is interested in the recipe for the wine cakes, let me know in the comments below and I'll be happy to post. BostonSweetie, over and out.

Mini Cake- Small Batch Baking!

And birthday season continues!  Today I want to share a mini birthday cake I made for my Auntie Judy.  I brought this to our family's Memorial Day/Auntie's birthday cookout.  After loads of grilled meats, veggies, salads and fresh corn on the cob, I knew a huge slab of cake wouldn't be on the top of everyone's dessert wish list...a nice bowl of fresh berries with cool whip was more like it!  But, what is a birthday without a little cake?!

For this cake, I didn't want to make a full batch of batter and frosting and have tons of leftovers, so I researched some recipes and adapted a couple from Country Living for this 'small batch' project and the result was perfect.

The following recipe makes a two-layer 4" cake and enough frosting to generously cover the mini-cake.  Both recipes follow steps that are different from what I typically do when baking, which made it fun.  The frosting comes out super creamy and light- I love it!  I didn't like the extra buttery flavor, so added in some vanilla and it was perfect.  I filled this mini-cake with raspberry preserves and it was the perfect summer cake to pair with Grammy's berries and cool whip.

For the finishing decorative touch, I covered the whole cake in old school multi-color sprinkles before piping a "J" for Judy on top. I just love the whimsy of white frosting, bright sprinkles and birthday candles.  Perfect!

Do you have any small-batch baking recipes?  Let me know in the comments below!

Mini vanilla cake (makes one two-layer, 4" cake)

Adapted from this Country Living Basic Vanilla Cake recipe

Need:

• 3/4 cup flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup skim milk

Do:

• Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
• Spray two 4" cake pans with non-stick spray
• Mix flour, baking powder and salt in large mixing bowl
• Beat in the butter, one small spoonful at a time until the mixture looks like coarse sand
• Beat in the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the mixture looks like fine, damp sand (NOTE- make sure to scrape down the bowl a few times, especially the bottom.)
• Beat in the egg
• Beat in the vanilla and milk on medium-high, until just blended.  Do not overmix!!
• Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 30 minutes
• Cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then completely out of the pans.

Fluffy Butter Frosting - adapted from this recipe by Country Living

Need:

• 1/4 c. melted unsalted butter
• 1/4 c. cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 3/4 c. confectioner's sugar
• 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Do:

• Beat the 1/4 c. melted butter with the confectioner's sugar, salt, milk, lemon juice and vanilla in a mixing bowl on medium-high. 
• Beat in the 1/4 c. cold butter, one small piece at a time, mixing well after each piece.
• Use immediately, or chill. If you put this in the fridge and use it later, let it sit out for 5-10 minutes, then whip with a little extra milk or vanilla to make it 'fluffy' before using.