Spring Radar

 A new season brings about the urge to try the new and different, This could cooking ,baking or even barbecuing if there's warm weather,.Its a time to try new ingredients and new recipes to freshen up the kitchen repertoire.

One of the ingredients on my Spring radar is in abundance in my front and back lawns.Dandelion flowers or heads! I wrote about fryingthese the other day and the recipe really piqued my interest.What really got me was the description of their taste. SOme recipes said they taste like popcorn, other like squash flowers. I want to try them and , thankfully there is an air fryer recipe for easy cooking. They're little round bites that can be dipped ina sweet or savory batter.I think I'll stick with the savory because I love the taste of squash flowers and I think these will have a similar taste.I'll have to pick around thirty flowers - easy enough, wash them, and then batter dip.One large egg is needed along with flour and beer - I think I'll sub in seltzer for a more bubbly and lighter batter. It's a quick air fry and then dipping them in a sauce ro squirting with lemon juice. Should I use the greens for a salad? Yes! Dandelion greens are full of such vitamins as A,K,C and E.They;'re also good for liver and kidney health which is what  need to improve. I have an idea to mix them with chickpeas for a fun warm weather salad.

The warmer days do mean barbecue and this is the time to try exotic spices to liven up ribs and chicken. Try chicken wings and ribs ribbed with Berbere spice.This is a mellow and spicy blend used in Ethiopian and Eritrean cooking It makes for a different and delicious rub for barbecue favorites. You can easily buy it I=on Amazon or possibly find it in your grocery;s spice section.It canbe made it at home by coming ground ginger, nutmeg, cardamon, cloves  and fenugreek.A pinch of cayenne is added for some heat while cinnamon and allspice is used for some sweetness. Garam masala is another great spice mix that;s perfect for barbecued chicken. You can make an easy rub by combining it with olive oil and adding some salt and a pinch of paprika.Of course Spring is also the time for baking. Lavender is the one ingredient that all bakers want to try to elevate both their cakes, cupcakes and frostings. If you can  pick your own then do so,. English lavender is the best for baking and icings. It has the lowest camphor content and the sweetest , most floral scent.If you use the fresh use only half the amount needed in the recipe since most recipes call for dried. Also fresh lavender makes for wonderful decoration on cakes and cupcakes too.

Spring is the time for new recipes and flavors. Be daring.Be bold. Be creative with whatever is on your radar this season.

Sweet Treats For Less

 May is the time for parties and get togethers. Yet these can be expensive ,especially desserts. WHat to do? The old fashioned thing - make and bake yourself. You can have fun with with all sorts of treats from cakes to candy.

LIke yesterday with savory main courses and sides, a sumptuous dessert table is easy to create at home. This is  fun to do, especially to decorate. Customized sheet cakes are  very expensive at $28. at Acme while Wal-Mart sells one at a startling $24.96. A fully frosted and decorated vegan cake can go up to a jaw dropping $80. at the Vegan pastry Lab in Englewood, New Jersey(their cakes are phenomenal but stick to the occasional cupcake from them)THis is a time for bake your own.Before you bakes anything make sure you have the right pans. For a party think a throw away cake pans that makes for an easy cleanup. Also have a good cake carrier .Wal-Mart has the Mainstays cake and cupcakes carrier which makes it easy for you to transport dessert to any event. Also make sure your decorating Both Wal-Mart and Amazon has good prices on these and the icing bags. Home bakers can buy a fifteen piece cake decorating set for only $4.30. This a really complete set with cake scrapers to make wavy lines  and ruffles on the cakes sides like bakeries do.

As for the actual ingredients, it pays to shop around for the best prices for sugar and mixes. Again look to Wal-MArt for good prices and a good variety. The store seems to have almost every flavor of Duncan Hine's Dolly Parton's cakes and icing.They're is selling the mixes for $1.97 right now. These can be great for parties ,Create a chocolate covered strawberry treat by baking her strawberry cake and then frosting it with her chocolate frosting. You can create your own scratch cakes ,cupcakes and cookies.Target, Wal-mart and Acme have the cheapest prices on all purpose flour with Wal-Mart being the cheapest at $1.99  for a two pound bag. Target  has the  Good and Gathered unbleached variety at $2.59 for five pounds. What about confectioner's sugar.It's all important for creating perfect glazes and frostings. Acme has it in sale now for $2.49 a pound. ( heads up confectioner;s sugar or any sugar doesn't;t go bad,it will get lumpy and lose it;'s taste with age) As for frosting gels to write messages and names, Wal-Mart has the best bet at $1,56 a tube.As for other candy decorations, you can get creative with cheap bags of M&M,s Sour Patch kids and other small bite sized pieces.

Desserts can be made at a cost for any big shower or party. Best of all they';re fun to make and decorate. Save money by baking a fun slice or cupcake.

Halloween Cupcake Crazy

 Nothing is as fun as a Halloween cupcake. Home bakers can have a field day with creating all sorts of fun decorations  from witches hats to mummies. Yet you start out with the right icing and topping to create an Insta ready little cake (it big cake if you want ).It just takes patience and a flair for fun.

The first thing is do you use a store bought or homemade frosting (keep in mind that frosting and icing are interchangeable words but they are different. Frostings have some ki nd of fat, - whether butter, plant butter  cream cheese, whipped cream or eggs  in them while icings are just confectioners sugar , milk cream juice or egg whites. ) Store bought frosting is denser while homemade is lighter and airier thanks to it constantly being whipped. However you can lessen the density of the store bought kind just by whipping air into it. One important tool you will need is either wax or parchment paper. Tear off a good sized sheet (about six inches long ) and cut into squares. Use them when you have to flatten the puffs of icing into a workable canvas. A n icing spatula can also come in handy when smoothing a frosting's surface and sides. If you're planning on using sprinkles  make sure you have a bowl for them. This also makes it easier to roll the cupcakes in them for decorated edgea.

Decorating is the fun part once all the cupcakes or cakes are iced.Reese's mini peanut butter  cups can double as witches hats or as the bottom of a broom, once iced. Mini ice cream cones can also work well as a crone's hat too. Just thoroughly dip these in either dark or milk chocolate , let set and them place on the cupcakes. Use black gel icing for the band around the base of the cone part and add yellow or gold icing to create a belt. A broom us made by inserting a pretzel stick in the center of a mini peanut butter cup and then using brown or dark yellow icing draw lines up and down to simulate straw. YOu can also create either white, dark ro milk chocolate spider web ls by pouring chocolate in thin, concentric circles and then attaching them .Let dry and stick on the top of  the cakes, Spiders are made just by putting two blobs or black icing together and then drawing eight legs out from the body. Use candy eyes for the eyes. You may have to use tweezers for this. A spooky cupcake might have a tombstone on top. Use Pepperidge Farms Milano cookies for this. Write RIP on them and just stick into the icing. Add a gummy work or two for more creepiness.

Halloween cupcakes are always a nice addition to any holiday party. Go wild with decorating.It wil only add to the day.

Fall Baking

 THis is definitely the time for baking. The weather is perfect for creating everything from muffins to pies.There are spices to try and fruit to add. It'll be a busy season.

Yes , this is also pumpkin spice season.Yet what would be better than pumpkin pie or pumpkin tartlets. You could use fresh pumpkin although most home bakers used the canned variety. This already is spiced and just needs to be poured into a shell. A different spin on it would be creating tartlets, perfect for fall parties. You can easily use a muffin tin for this .It;'s putting cups of pastry dough in them and filling them with a mix of pumpkin puree, half and half , brown sugar, ginger, salt allspice and egg.(the last to bind th epuree and give it some body." After they''re baked you can add a puff of whipped cream. Another pumpkin laden treat is pumpkin bread, perfect for a snack or for breakfast.it too has such warming spices as cinnamon along with the pie filling. Another breakfast treat are pumpkin muffins, made with pumpkin puree and milk. There are also the requisite spices too like ginger and cinnamon.You can also make pumpkin cupcakes too, with out without a tangy cream cheese frosting.

Of course what would fall baking be without apples? They're everywhere. Most sweet tooths love a good cinnamon laced pie. These are great , especially after a fall Sunday dinner but what about something a bit more rustic yet sophisticated?Try a galette which is an easier bake than a regular pie.This is just rolling out the dough and then filling with with sliced apples. The crust is then folded over the apples with an opening in the middle. Some home bakers drizzle caramel on it after it's been baked. Another sweet treat is a turnover stuffed with the fruit. The dough is a light  flaky one that crackles and is the perfect foil for the apple mix. A  These make great snacks to bring to school or to work.  Use puff pastry sheets (which can store easily in your freezer for the shell and Granny Smith apples for the filling. Granny Smiths are the best option for these because of their tartness and are not overly sweet. Turnovers can be decorated with a drizzle of a confectioner's sugar glaze. This is just a blend of the sugar milk and vanilla and then it;s piped onto the turnovers tops.

It's fall and the season for baking. You can go with anything pumpkin or anything apple. The end result is a sweet treat perfect with a hot cup of tea or coffee.

Holy Saturday Traditions Breaking

 Usually Holy Saturday is the day I frost my lamb cakes. This year I am taking a break.

I have a lot coming up and that includes cooking tomorrow's Easter dinner. I relied on the excellent bakers at my local Acme to provide ne with a Easter dessert  - mixed chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with gobs of brightly colored icing on top along with plastic symbols and toys ( a rabbit ring!) on top.

Have a blessed and joyous Easter full fo treats , and sweets. Count your blessings for family and a good life.

Changing Up Spring Sweets

 This is the season for baking holiday treats and sweets. Yet it's usually the same thing, from kugel for Passover to Easter themed cakes , cupcakes and cookies . What about changing ot up a bit? Put in a new recipe that the family will love.

Passover begins on April 5th this year and ends on April 13th. The usual desserts are ones made with out flour namely kugel. Yet it's time to break out of that classic mold. Why not serve a refreshing fruit salad or fruit cups instead. Make it colorful with pineapple chunks, kiwi slices and strawberries,Add blueberruies ,s liced grapes and tangerine slices for more sweetness. Now zing it up with a honey lime dressing. Another dessert not necessarily associated with Passover are chocolate covered strawberries. Dip these ruby gems in dark chocolate for a different kind of ending . Give them a dusting of kosher sprinkles to make them even fancier.The days are getting warmer so think about fruit sorbets.Create an easy three ingredient one by using fruit, honey or agave syrup and a squueze of lemon juice.It's pureeing the fruit and mixing with the sweetener and juice. Pour this into ice cube trays and then freeze. Take the frozen cubes and placed into a food frocessor. They're transformed into a cool creamy dessert. Think a a strawberry or blueberry sorbet for a refreshing end. You can also make a chocolate one too using both Dutch processed chocolate and cocoa powder.

As for Easter, yes those bunny cakes and cupcakes are cute but they can be a little boring. Why not end the Sunday meal with homemade ice cream spiked with chocolate eggs or the fun multicolored robin's egg malted milk eggs. You can make a vanilla or choclate ice cream loaf to be sliced and served with whipped cream.. It can even be served in multicolored cones for the little ones. Brownies may be known as an after school snack but they can be topped with a thin layer of icing and a Peep for a colorful end to your Easter dinner. You can use a box mix or try a scratch recipe.Another unusual idea are cake bites baked to look like small Easter eggs. You can use molds (which can be bought on Amazon) to create the shapes and then decorate them in pretty colors.Both kids and adults will love meringues. These are airy puffs of sweetness which can be made with vegan or non vegan ingredients. The non vegan is made with aquafaba or chickpea brine and tastes the same as the regular ones made with egg whites. Dye them pink with all natural beet root which gives them a candy pink color. Of course coffee flavored ones are great for the adults.

Change up your Spring treats with new and exciting recipes .Break away from the classics.Serve fun sweets for Passover and Easter

Cookie Making Part Two The Icing

 What makes a Christmas cookie cute? How it's artfully decoarated. However it does take skill and patience, along with a solid icing.

That's what I thought I had when I was all set to decorate these, those sugar cookies that I baked from a Wilton recipe.

I was more than excited to use my Wilton's squeeze bottle icings

These have to be heated in the microwave every fifteen seconds to get the icing more pourable

. It worked with the white and with the green somewhat. The red was another story. It was very runny and dripped off the cookies.

                                                           These are the early ones

To be honest it was hard to work with the icings. They could be drippy or like paste. I used a small plastic knife to flood in the Santa and snowmen hats with the thin red icing.

As for the Chrsitmas lights I just filled those in with a squiggle of any of the three colors and white icing at the bottom to simulate the screw in. 

It took a while and several microwave heatings to decoarate all thirty  cookies. I was very lucky to have my three tier cookie rack from Wilton to put them. The cookies needed air so they icing could dry properly.

The icing set pretty nicely and adds a lemony flavor to the cookies. They look cute and are fun to eat. I just need more practice for my next batch.

What is a Christmas cookie without icing? Just a cookie. It needs a zing like Wilton's icing to give it some zing and oomph!

High End Versus Low End Baking

 Home chefs are starting to think of the heavy baking season ahead. There' are pies and breads to make for Thanksgiving  followed by the intense cookie race for Christmas.One of the big questions is do they go for the more expensive ingredients and implements or save money with buying cheape ingredients.

It's a hard dilemma. Purists will want to use the best quality yet for some it's hard to do thanks to inflation. A simple compromise is using both high and low end in the same recipe.If you;re going high end then think King Arthur. This is one of the oldest flour companies in the country  first starting in Boston in the 1790's by Hnery Wood. Over two centuries later home bakers rave about its finely milled flours and pure extracts.Yes it is expensive.You can buy a pound fo flour for $4.95 online or at your local grocery. Acme sells their organic flour  for $7.19 , Their almind flour there is around nine dollars. Their cake mix is close to nine dollars for a box. You could easily go to your local Stop & Shop and buy a box of Duncan Hines cake mix for only $1.25 on sale right now. Again it's up to you. If you want to indulge yoru family then go for the more expensive. Their doughnut and muffins pans are high quality with prices as high as almost thirty dollars.Are they worth the money? You can probably get twenty years out of them so the answer is yes. King Arthur also sells extracts  and cocoa powder too. They are expensive with a tin costing $12,95. You can get ti for a lot less again at any store.

What about cookies? Many home bakers make tins of all different kinds for family and friend gifts along with for the office or class party. Family and friends can get the best.You can use the the better flour and Kerrygold butter along with the top grade vanilla extract. You can decorate them with the Wilton cookie decorating kit. This has the nozzles and bags to create sweetly stars and angels. you will have to supply the icing yourself. A better deal is Wal-Mart's cookie kits. Their own brand Great Value is offering some cool and inexpensive kits like their gingerbread one for only $4.97. It comes with the mix, cutter, two tubes of icing  and candy decorations. You can;t beat that! Another good Wal-Mart deal is their  BUild Your Own Brownie Tree kit which has the brownie mix , an icing pouch, cutters and candy decorations. These are perfect for the kids to make  but also fun on any holiday dessert table.  Another idea is cutting back on the amount you're planning to bake. Instead of two pr three pies for Thanksgiving choose one and stick with it. As for cookies opt for three or four as opposed to five or six. 

It's a dilemma about choosing high or low end baking. Base your choice on what works for you financially. Welcome  holiday baking. DOn;'t be fianancially drained by  it.

Your Easter Treat Selection

 Easter is only less than two weeks away and it's time to start thinking about treats. and dessert. What would be fun for an Easter Egg hunt? What would be the perfect ending to a ham dinner. There are so many choices.

One of the most traditional id the lamb cake or the Osterlamm in German. The American version can be made with any kind of cake mix while the German has a simple vanilla cake recipe. You will need a special mold such as this one.

This was my Mom's that I inherited.it's over forty years old and from Wilton. You can get something similar from Amazon for around twenty three dollars. There is also an Osterlamm mold for $37.98.  You will need to use Dream Whip because this gives the cake body.I've the cake in vanilla and chocolate .each had different icings , from traditional butter cream to chocolate to coffee for the chocolate. Decorating was fun, with colored vanilla buttercream for the outline of the ears and eyes  and the ribbon around the lamb's neck. You can also bake a bunny ro Easter egg Again these are fun to decorate. For a more sophisticated dessert, think a lemon or orange Bundt cake with a lemon or orange glaze. This is perfect with coffee and tea after a big meal.

Smaller Easter egg cakes are a cute handout at Easter egg hunts. You can add M&Ms and jelly beans to the decorations. A fun idea is having the kids decorate them at a trimmings bar and them give a prize out for the best looking one. Easter cookies are also a fun treat any any Easter gathering.Again egg shapes iced and decorated with colored icing, sugars and candies are a highlight to any gathering. Bunny cookies are another sweet treat. You could do a dusting of bright colored sanding sugar to resemble Bunny Peeps.Peeps can also be featured in cookies. Think about wrapping cookie dough around them for a gooey kind of treat.  You can also top plain sugar ones with them as well.Rice Krispy treats can be molded into fun shapes like carrots and chicks. You can also make the traditional squares and then decorate them with melted pastel chocolate, sprinkles and M&Ms. 

There are so many different kinds of goodies to make for Easter. Pick something cute or something sophisticated.Either choice will be a holiday hit.

Kitchen Wants And Needs

Every home chef wants the perfect kitchen. It has to be perfect for cooking and baking, outfitted with the best equipment and appliances. Yet is all of it worth it?Or will it just be a room full of unused junk? What makes a kitchen want and kitchen need?

Writing about food makes one want every gadget and appliance under the sun. That's what happened to me. I read and saw what professional and home chefs have and instantly craved their gadgets and gewgaws. I still have a madeleine pan from four or five years ago. I really wanted to make them but never got around to making them. The recipe is very labor intensive, involving melting butter and high speed beating. Now I recently bought two doughnut pans, one for plain baked ones and the other for fancier ones. Will I use them? Hopefully.  Should home bakers have all these fancy pans? Yes, if you're really into baking. The pans and the molds are not that expensive and if you have the room go for them. What home bakers really need is two cookie sheets, especially around the holidays and for bake sales.Also a roll or two of parchment paper will always be needed, especially if you make a lot of meringues or meringue based desserts such as pavlovas and Eton mess.Do you need icing and cookie guns? Again if you do a lot of baking. Cookie guns are great for making those buttery bakery style cookies and they can create a variety of pretty shapes. Sturdy , long lasting loaf and cake pans are a must. One loaf pan will suffice while two or three simple cake pans are all you need.

What about those gadgets that are more or less like appliances? All home chefs should have a crock pot. That's a given.It's wonderful in making homemade tomato sauce and slow cooked chili.It's also good for making homemade soups and chowders like minestrone and corn chowder. Many have embraced the all encompassing Insta-Pot which is like a crock pot on steroids. Using it a lot will pay off the price which can range anywhere from $59.00 to $99.00, depending on the make and the store selling it. They can cook everything from pasta to pot roast. Some can even be used for baking  - a boon for those who have participate in bake sales and cookie exchanges. Assess your needs before springing for one. If you feel you need something that can do a lot freeing you from the kitchen , then buy one. However if it's just one or two people or you need slow cooking once or twice a month then opt for the crock pot. Air fryers are another popular kitchen must have. I'm a big fan of them , using mine at least three or four times a week. Air frying is a lot easier than oven roasting and stove top frying. My favorite part is the beeping timer , letting you know  when the food is done. Another plus is that air fryers cook in half the time of a regular oven.Get one. You won't regret adding it to your arsenal of gadgets. Now there are smaller versions of these pods , and they 're selling for only $29.99 at Target.

It's up to you to decide what you want and need for your kitchen. As with any purchase think about if it's a need or a want. If you can use it buy it. Make that your rule for future kitchen buys.

Mix Versus Scratch

There is a huge controversy going on right now -and it's not what baby box Sussex will be named. It involves cakes mixes versus the all natural scratch cakes. Both have merits.Both have their detractions. What's a home baker to do?

Scratch cakes have been around since Roman times when special breads were baked with honey, butter and eggs. The18th, 19th and the first thirty years of the 20th Century saw housewives mixing ingredients such as eggs, flour, sugar  and butter into crude pans and baking them. They were eaten no matter how they turned out. The 1930's saw the birth of cake mix and it took twenty years for it to be a household staple.Now there's an internet controversy about which is better. Many home bakers- especially moms of young children - prefer using scratch recipes. The ingredients are natural plus they can change the recipe to suit gluten and allergy problems.One of the pluses of the internet age is that there are tons of scratch cake recipes from basic chocolate and vanilla to rum and strawberry flavors.Thanks to grocery stores , Amazon and King George's Flour ,all ingredients such as corn starch and vanilla pods can be found. Yet , despite  all this are scratch cakes better? Is the taste better? What about the crumb?

I baked both scratch and mix cakes during my lamb experiment.What produced a better bite? The box mixes, of course. As with scratch ones I could alter the recipe, getting rid of the vegetable oil, adding double the amount of eggs along with including a cup of cold water. The crumb was dense and moist, perfect for the lamb cake and a good foil for the super sweet icing that would frost the lamb.The baked vegan lamb was not that great tastewise. The recipe was from Vegan Cooking In Colorado which was taken from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World and modified. (I bought the cupcake book and will be experimenting with its recipes soon). To me there was too much almond extract - four teaspoons - that gave the cake a sickly sweet taste. The crumb was so delicate that the lamb's head fell off. Maybe the recipe would have worked  for cupcakes or layer cakes. The color was very pale too. There was no richness there. The mix cakes - all Duncan Hines blended with Dream Whip had this , possibly because of the addition of Dream Whip. I won't rule out homemade cakes yet when I want to impress  - then it's a Duncan Hines cake mix all the way.

What's the best recipe to use when making a cake? That's really up to the home baker. What works for one baker may not work for the other.As with cooking the answers lies with experimenting.

The Lamb Experiment

One of the highlights of my Mom's baking career was her Easter lamb .It was a super moist, super dense cake covered in icing and coconut. She made several - for my cousins, neighbors, friends. Everyone enjoyed theirs, going wild for the jellybeans that wreathed it or the buttery icing layer/
Now it's my turn.

This is the lamb - Lambie

It's a metal tin from Wilton and it's close to forty years old. The company still makes them and they $16.97 on Amazon, a good price for something that will last decades.With the lamb came the instructions for baking and icing it>There was also an extra - my Mom's version of the cake recipe written in her enviable neat and concise handwriting. She always used Dream Whip which was responsible for the cake's moistness. I recently bought a package.

It can be used on its' own as a whipped topping along with dense, rich cakes. Dream Whip  can also be  used as an icing, mixed with cold milk and any pudding mix. I may go this route because the Wilton icing has both butter and vegetable shortening. I did order a complete set of Wilton  icing nozzles and icing bags from Amazon. I may try half buttercream and half Dream Whip icings when I bake this for my friends' Greek Orthodox Easter.

Then there's the cake mix.My Mom always swore by Pillsbury but as we all know I'm more a Duncan Hines kind of baker. I bought their French vanilla flavor.

I'd recommend a plain flavor without any additions like their butter flavor which needs a stick or two of butter. I may make the next cakes (remember the first one is the tester cake) in chocolate.I saw one on the internet with an uniced face and it looked pretty much like a real lamb.

This is going to be a daunting experiment to say the least. I look forward to baking the challenge. It is a complicated bake and finishing but I am up to it. Let's hope the creative acorn doesn't fall far from the creative tree.

.

Your Super Bowl Shopping List

With  the Super Bowl less than a week away ,it's time to plan your game day shopping list. Will you go the appetizers only route or plan a winter barbecue with ribs and burgers? It now the time to decide.

One of the first items you should write down are sturdy paper plates. Chinet has the best and sturdiest paper plates that can stand up to the sauciest chili or ribs. If you're planning on a lot of different dishes, then get the plates with three compartments. Another must? Sturdy plastic utensils. Buy extra packs because a few knives and forks  will surely wind up in the trash or recycling bin. Napkins and wet wipes should also be right up there.You don't want to bring out the good stemware so have plastic glasses and cups for beer and if the party wants it - coffee and tea afterwards. If you want glasses that can last well after the Super Bowl, then go to Target. They have an excellent selection of tumblers from regular plastic to clear plastic tumblers that look like cut glass.Each glass is between 79 cents (!) and two dollars for the clear plastic.Parties produce trash so make sure you have plenty of hefty trashbags to handle the mess.Another should buy is plastic containers for any leftovers or take homes. Buy these in different sizes to accommodate however many leftovers there might be.

As for foods, ask yourself what do you and your guests want? Is it just going to be chili  and chips or something mor?. Even a dish like chili requires planning.Do you make one of the alarm ones or a mild one that people can add pepper flakes and hot sauce?Will it be ground beef, turkey or soy? Do you serve it over rice, polenta or tortilla chips?. If you're going for a more heartier spread, then there's the choice of meats. Do you go for the fun and sloppy  fare such as wings and ribs - or more contained foods like hamburgers and grilled steaks. If it's the last make sure you have enough charcoal or gathered twigs (which you can get on a walk through your local woods. Then there are the sides. Do guests bring them or do you provide all of them? What about the nibbles. Remember to include two or three flavors of chips,  and different kinds of tortillas, and pretzels. You can also write down popcorn, both plain and kettle flavors too. Always have soda on hand and seltzer too for those watching their weight or who just want a clean crisp, drink.as for dessert, ask yourself if you want to bake or just buy cake, If you bake, then get the mix and the ingredients for the icing along with the decorations.

Planning any party , including a Super Bowl one can be daunting. It helps to have a game plan to get you through the shopping. Then it's onto the store for the kick off of shopping.

The Poppy Seed Lemon Cake

I had poppy seeds and I had lemons. What could I do with them? Make a refreshing cake , free of any pumpkin spices. The recipe was from OH Sweet Basil blog, from the writer/baker, Fiona. I have to admit , it is labor intensive. Have one or two people around to help.

  The first step is grating the zest.The recipes needs three tablespoons.

Then it was juicing them both for the cake and the icing. This is where you want to call in your kitchen cavalry. Juicing is hard work.

The cake needs 1/4 cup while the icing uses a tablespoon. Next time I'll just use lemon juice.

Then it 's mixing all the dry stuff

Flour, cornstarch, baking powder and baking soda.

Also butter and flour a 9 by 13 inch pan. I used a metal sugar shaker for an even coat

Then it's mixing the wet. The eggs - three of them

The butter about 3/4 cup

I used the good Neisen Massey vanilla, about one tablespoon

Then it's adding the sour cream and flour and mixing in with the wet ingredients.

The recipe called for two to three tablespoons of poppy seeds.I used Pereg's.

And this is what it look's like all mixed together.

This it it baked.

Onto the icing. Mix the cream cheese and butter first.

Keep these at room temp and cut into pieces for easy mixing.

Then it's the confectioner's sugar  - about three cups along with a tablespoon

 of vanilla and three tablespoons of lemon juice.

Then it's a quick blend with a hand mixer.

It's very gooey and sticky for an icing.

This is a very light , summery kind of cake, I love that the poppy seeds add color and crunch.The crumb is very crumbly, but normal for a scratch cake.

It's a labor intensive cake and icing  but worth it.

Cooking Shortcuts You'll Love

Everyone loves a shortcut, especially in home cooking in baking. It makes for less stress and less work The end result is more or less the same - without a headache or two.There should be no guilt in not sticking  the original recipes. The chefs and bakers who created them probably had a hack or two up their sleeves as well.

Cooking hacks or shortcuts have been around ever since early man put water in a bowl and boiled it over an open flame. There have been a number of commercial shortcuts created in the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the first was the dessert Jello, followed by instant gravies and mashed potatoes.A easy hot lunch or dinner shortcut, is picking up sliced turkey, Stovetop Stuffing and jarred turkey gravy.Make the stuffing, heat the gravy and serve with the meat. Add a side of steamed veggies for a filling hot meal. One of the most delicious dishes any home chef can make is quiche. However it can be a pain to make, especially the crust. The easiest solution is premade pie crust. Everyone from Pillsbury to Stop & Shop have excellent ones.I just made Ione's Zucchini Pie, from Heirloom Cooking With The Brass Sisters. The recipe is labor intensive, with zucchini being grated and onions being chopped. My days are busy so making a homemade crust is a lot of work and time. I asked the sisters if it was all right to sub in an already made crust. The answer was yes and I used Stop &Shop's brand . The crust was light and flaky which shattered upon biting. I plan on using it when I make quiches for the holidays,

One of the best cooking hacks is the bouillon cube.Instead of cooking chicken and beef bones for hours to achieve the perfect Paleo broth. you can just drop two or three cubes in boiling water for the base of soups, bisques or sauces. A couple of bouillon cubes in water can be the basis for chicken or beef noodle or minestrone.Surprisingly there is even fish bouillon cubes that you can use for chowders and bouillabaisse .The chicken and beef add extra flavor to gravies too, including turkey gravy.Another hack is steamed veggies. Most of us grew up with them being steamed in a pot. Unfortunately one  glaring side effect was mushy, tasteless vegetables . Nowadays  it's bags steamed in the microwave for a few minutes and the result is a fresh tasting carrots, peas and broccoli to name a few. Open a can of cream soup ,  pour over them and you have a tasty side that only took minutes to create. Home bakers have been using short cuts for years.For those who love creating a cake or icing - like myself - cake and cookie mixes are a godsend , especially when there is serious cooking to do also. Icings- and pre made candy decorations are also a blessing , especially around the holidays.

There's nothing wrong with a cooking hack, It saves times and cuts down on the stress.Use one or two to make cooking and baking a lot easier  and a lot less complicated.

Dainty Bites

With shower and outdoor tea season  in full swing , it's time to think about dainty bites, those sweet little two bite cakes that are perfect with tea or punch. Surprisingly, they're just as easy to make as they are to eat.

Petit fours are the classic dainty bites.Many home bakers are put off ,one by their small size, and two, French name, One of the simplest recipes, from All Recipes just requires a sponge cake base. It's basically two of everything, from egg yolks to cups of flour to two teaspoons of baking powder.If this is too daunting , then use a cake mix. The frosting can be a buttercream or melted white chocolate similar to  the little cakes that Swiss Colony sells. The last is more elaborate because it needs corn syrup for gloss and body  Fillings are usually some kind of jam , lemon curd or orange marmalade. Remember the cake does have to be sliced so that there's three layers. Some home bakers shave off the cake's top layer for a more even surface. Another idea is soaking the layers. This is simply using a pastry brush to brush liqueur over them to give a boozy zing. That's up to you. Some more experienced bakers do tiny buttercream roses on top. If you're not that adept, then use real violet buds or any kind of sprinkle . Candy confetti will do just fine. Clear a place in the fridge to set the icing and keep the petit fours cool.If you're serving them outside, try to set the table in a shady spot so the icing doesn't melt and slide off.

Fairy cakes are primarily a British treat, being the star of many a child's party. Yet they can be a lovely accompaniment to the petit fours.They're a smaller version of a cupcake (think mini cupcake)usually made up of a sponge cake with an icing. The famed baker and Great British Baking Show judge, Mary Berry, has several excellent recipes for them. There is one that 's a basic sponge cake with a simple confectioner's sugar icing. A chocolate one  has the taste of a brownie and is topped with a sculpted swirl of dark cocoa buttercream icing. There are even   plain ones, sans, icing , flavored with only chopped apples or jam. These would be the perfect foil for those fancier frosted bites. because of their simplicity.Of course the most popular dainty bites are macarons. These, too, can be daunting for home bakers.The recipe is pretty simple though and you can make a vegan one using aquafaba or bean water, the liquid that chickpeas  come packed in. The consistency is similar to egg white and makes a very good and delicate treat. They do require a lower temp oven to bake than macarons made with egg white.. Macarons can be dyed in a variety of pretty colors and flavored with everything from lavender to chocolate to fruits, They also make cute favors for guest to bring home.

Dainty bites are the perfect sweets for an outdoor tea or brunch. They have the right amount of flavor without being overpowering. Serve them with iced teas or tea punches for the perfect Spring Sunday gathering.

The Bonbon Cake

What could be better than a chocolate covered strawberry? A cake made like one. I had this idea pop into my head when I saw Duncan Hines' strawberry cake mix.It sounded  like a good idea......

Here is what the batter looks like, a kind of Pepto Bismal pink with dried strawberries thrown in.

It's the standard Duncan Hines, add three eggs, 1/3 cup vegetable oil, and one cup water. Bake for thirty minutes .

And this is the result. The pinkish shade can't be seen here but there is a rosy hue to the cakes. I have to admit I was nervous , considering the birthday sprinkle cake fiasco. I had nightmares of gooey batter  dripping on my oven floor. Thankfully it didn't. It was then onto the icing.

I have fallen for the Two Sisters chocolate buttercream icing.I usually add more cocoa powder than they recommend . It creates a rich, fudgey kind of icing.

The two sisters recommend mixing the confectioner's sugar and cocoa powder first.

It looks like ashes

Two sticks or a cup of softened butter cut up .Milk is usally added but I prefer light cream for a richer, smoother icing.

This is what it looks like all mixed together.

This is the iced cake. I had leftover buttercream icing from the sprinkle disaster.I added a bit too much red food color (all safe) and got this watermelon colored icing.

I should have added lard to it so I could make more defined decoaration.

In the end it turned out to be the perfect ending to a perfect dinner/ (And thank you Polly Bertos and Lili Dugan for inviting us over and for a chance to for me to make this cake.)

The Perfect Birthday Cake

One of the crowning moments of any birthday is the cake. It's usually a perfect two layer affair with a yummy filling , frosted with buttercream. Buttercream roses or marzipan figures decorate it.It's a challenge for many home bakers , yet it doesn't have to be. Any home baker can create the perfect birthday cake.

One of the biggest dilemmas home bakers face is what kind of cake to bake.Scratch or mix? Many purists will tell you scratch is much better for you health wise and taste wise too. However, if you're pressed for time, a mix is a lifesaver. If you want to make a scratch one, keep it simple with a vanilla or a chocolate flavors Make sure you have all the ingredients from the baking powder to the butter and eggs. Remember to have unsweetened  cocoa powder if you're making a chocolate scratch cake. As for mixes, Duncan Hines  brand is really the best. The mix produces the best crumb - moist and flavorful. Pilsbury and Betty Crocker are also very good. All have a variety of different flavors that include such fruit flavors as orange ,lemon,pineapple and strawberry. Betty Crocker has the  fun SuperMoist Rainbow Chip cake , a mix filled with multicolored sprinkles. Once you decide on what kind of cake you're going to bake, check your inventory of pans.  The best kind is nine inch metallic ones. These  produce perfectly baked and even layers , with no burning. Also make sure you have a cake tester which is crucial is determining when the layers are done along with a sturdy wire rack for cooking.

The filling is important too. Many home bakers just use the icing as the filling, which can be OK if it's not too sweet. Cream cheese icing is the filling of choice for classic Red Velvet and carrot cake as well as banana cake. For other cakes, pureed fruit and whipped cream make for a nice  not too sweet filler. Try a layer of fresh cream and raspberry for any chocolate or vanilla cake.Lemon curd is a great filling for a lemon or pineapple cake. It's an easy mix of lemon juice with zest blended with egg yolk, sugar and butter to create a kind of pudding. A strawberry cake would be made decadent with a chocolate mousse one., and then iced with a dark chocolate butter cream. As for the finishing touch, buttercream is the way to go. Fondant, a combination of corn syrup, shortening and powdered sugar, flavored with vanilla is heavy and will make the cake cloyingly sweet. Save it for making figures and objects. Go with buttercream. The frosting can be made in a variety of flavors from vanilla to raspberry to orange to even peanut butter. Again, make sure you have the instruments to make the perfect gateau. An icing spatula is a must  because it gives a smooth glossy finish to the cake. Icing combs will give the sides those perfect even lines that bakery cakes have. Make sure you have a good cake icer that has a variety of nozzles to make buds and leaves. A cake nail is necessary to make those big roses that grace every birthday cake.Also have a nozzle with a small tip for writing.

The perfect birthday cake is the perfect gift. It should have a moist cake, a delicate filling and a creamy , buttery icing. The combination will give you  a memorable creation that's worthy of any birthday wish.

A Sweet Mother's Day Treat

One of the nicest Mother's Day gifts is a home baked cake - and luckily Duncan Hines has the perfect one  - their Perfect Size. This is an easy and fun bake!

This is the container.

All a home baker needs is one egg , a quarter of a cup water and two tablespoons of butter.

Everything is blended with a mixer for about three minutes on high speed. At the same time preheat the oven to only 300 degrees F.It comes with a sturdy  paper bowl that's peeled off  after its' been cooled off.Pour batter into bowl, bake for forty minutes and presto -

It comes with an icing bag that's blended with four tablespoons of butter (for both the cake and icing I used I Can't Believe It's Not Butter)

Then the butter 9which should have come first mixed with a tablespoon plus a teaspoon of water)

This is the cake , before icing ,put on a pretty plate,

Now afterwards with the icing.

I'm leaving it in the fridge overnight to set but tomorrow it will be a fine cake for a fine lady!

Happy Mother's Day to the Master Chef who taught me everything!