Happy Mother's Day!

I was flipping through one of the recent food magazines that I get and I saw an ad that struck me.  It asked “Why do you cook?” and it had a bunch of different reasons all around it.

The more I thought of about it the more complicated the answer seemed.   My mother always said “There are two types of people, people who eat to live and those who live to eat.”  And I know that the two of us are in the second category.   

Everyone has to eat and food provides a way to connect with people.  I use it as a way to connect to and show love for my family and friends.  I use it as a way to be closer to my mother and grandmother who taught me to cook.  I love using my grandmother's recipes from her cookbook when I miss her because it provides a connection to her.

And some day I will cook for and with my daughter as a way to connect with her.  I’ll be able to teach her the same recipes and show my love for her in the same way my mother and grandmother did for me.

  

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers, mother-like figures, moms to be, and potential mothers trying so hard to have a child. 

To celebrate Moms everywhere – here is a super easy fresh dessert. 

Puff Pastry Berry Tart

-One sheet of defrosted puff pastry

-Pastry Cream – I like Martha Stewart’s recipe found here

-Fresh berries

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2) Roll out the puff pastry to a rectangular shape.  Score about a half inch from the outside for a crust and poke multiple holes in the middle to keep it from rising too much. 

3) Place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes.

4) Prepare the pastry cream (or even some sweetened cream cheese or sweetened mascarpone cheese, depends on your taste and what you want.)

5) Let the baked puff pastry cool completely, then topped with the pastry cream. 

6) Top with fresh berries.  I chose strawberries, blueberries and raspberries.

7) Enjoy and celebrate Mom! 

The difference the right tool makes - Spring Confetti Cupcakes

I’ve always thought that my cake and cupcake decorating skills were subpar.  I’d have great flavors, great textures and then you’d look at it and be like – well at least it tastes great.  Or worse: the thought that appearances are deceiving and that it tastes much better than it looks. 

I’ve tried pastry bags with tips, icing guns, and no matter what I do I’d always end up with more icing on the plate, on the counters or on me rather than on the cupcakes.

But, as most people know, I’m stubborn.  And I’m going to keep trying at it! 

 

So I researched.  I looked in my cook books, I looked at Pinterest, I looked at blogs.  And then I found it!  Someone explaining how those darn pastry bags work and how to get that bakery style swirl.  (I was starting to think you only learned it in pastry school!)

What I found out is that all along I’ve been using the wrong size tip?!? No wonder it looked terrible and would take f-o-r-e-v-e-r.

So thanks to Sara and her blog Our Best Bites I was finally able to achieve some decent looking cupcakes! 

 

I bought the Ateco set that Sara recommended and tried out her directions this weekend.

 

 

The three big things that I learned were:

• The consistency of the icing is critical
• Be sure to pack the icing into the pastry bag so there are no air bubbles.
• Icing tip size matters – use a large or a jumbo size tip

 

I call these cupcakes spring funfetti cupcakes with very vanilla frosting and they are so easy!

 

99% of the time I make my cupcakes from cake mix, but the trick is to always make homemade frosting. You can doctor cake mix to be as good as homemade and you don’t have to worry about the leavening and whether it will rise or not because all of that is premeasured for you!

• One box of white cake mix (whatever is on sale!)
• Eggs (according to the directions)
• Melted butter (same quantity as the box says for oil)
• 1-2 tsp of vanilla
• Spring sprinkles 

Preheat to the oven to the temperature on the cake mix and line a cupcake tin with liners.  

Melt the butter, Mix cake mix, eggs, butter and vanilla in the mixer and beat for 2 minutes.   Add the sprinkles and mix to combine. I didn’t measure the sprinkles, I just added enough to make the batter speckled and colorful.

 

The trick is to always make homemade buttercream.  I used Food Network’s Quick Vanilla Buttercream Frosting, but increased it to 2 tsp of vanilla. 

 

And voilà! Beautiful bakery quality icing job finished with a little bit of sanding sugar!