Blueberry Breakfast Cake

I've been dying to make this recipe for so long...long as in, usually I want to make a recipe for a while and then eventually lose interest, and this was before I lost interest. So just 1 or 2 months. I wanted to make it immediately but kept on forgetting to buy blueberries, and in my Collegetown I guess I can buy 6 ounces of "fresh" blueberries for $4, so no way was I going to do that. Eventually I remembered when visiting Target (they just brought Fresh food to our Target in March!) and got the frozen blueberries, and made these about two weeks ago.

This was sooo good and soo easy! A perfect addition to breakfast. It was delicious warm but also good for a few days after!

For this recipe I used 10 oz frozen blueberries, regular salt, and instead of buttermilk I used skim milk with a little vinegar and it worked fine and tasted just as delicious.

Blueberry Breakfast Cake
Recipe from Dainty Chef

½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tsp. lemon zest or more — zest from 1 large lemon
7/8 cup* + 1 tablespoon sugar**
1 egg, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
2 cups fresh blueberries
½ cup buttermilk
* 7/8 cup = 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons
** This 1 tablespoon is for sprinkling on top

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Cream butter with lemon zest and 7/8 cup of the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined.

Meanwhile, toss the blueberries with ¼ cup of flour, then whisk together the remaining flour, baking powder and salt.

Add the flour mixture to the batter a little at a time, alternating with the buttermilk. Fold in the blueberries.

Grease a 9-inch square baking pan (or something similar) with butter or coat with non-stick spray. Spread batter into pan. Sprinkle batter with remaining tablespoon of sugar.

Bake for 35 minutes. Check with a toothpick for doneness. If necessary, return pan to oven for a couple of more minutes. (Note: Baking for as long as 10 minutes more might be necessary.) Let cool at least 15 minutes before serving.

Cookies and Creme Oreo Cake

It's my friend Jimmy's birthday today, so yesterday I made him this cake. Overall I think it was really delicious--I wish I'd used better quality butter because in the frosting it looked grainy, but it didn't taste at all grainy. I thought it'd just taste like chocolate cake in the end but it really tasted oreo-like! It was really good! I think I'd like to try making it with four 8-inch layers next time, and maybe make the cake a little more moist (or maybe splitting the layers would do that for me!) but I thought it was really good--the frosting was excellent, I think I'm really liking this flour-frosting recipes!

For this recipe I used two 9-inch cake pans and baked them for 3-5 minutes less. I think less oreos could be crushed, too.

Cookies and Creme Oreo Cake
Recipe adapted by Sunny Side Up in San Diego from Family Circle Magazine

Cake
1 1/4 cups All-purpose Flour
2/3 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder (or Hershey's Special Dark)
1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
3/4 cup Unsalted Butter
1 1/2 cups Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
3 large Eggs, room temperature
1 1/4 cups Buttermilk

Frosting
Scant 1/2 cup Flour
1 1/2 cups Milk
2 tsp Vanilla
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) Butter, softened
1 1/2 cups Granulated Sugar
25-30 oreos

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two 8-inch cake pans with butter and flour.

Into a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a standing mixer, or a large bowl using a hand held mixer, beat together the butter, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. About 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated and scraping down sides as needed.

With mixer on low speed, add 1/3 of the dry ingredients, mix until incorporated. Then add 1/2 of the buttermilk, mix until incorporated. Repeat until the last 1/3 of flour has been used. Mix until incorporated and then beat for 1 additional minute.

Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the sides begin to pull away from the edges. Allow to cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Turn the cakes out onto the racks and allow the cakes to cool completely.

While the cakes are baking, prepare the frosting. In a saucepan, whisk together the flour and milk and cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens (I would compare it to mashed potatoes). It is very important to whisk continuously so clumps don't form. This took me about 4-5 minutes, but it's best to go by texture.

Set milk mixture aside in an ice bath and allow to cool completely.

In a medium bowl, (or bowl of a standing mixture fitted with a whisk) beat together the butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and beat for 1 minute. Add the cooled milk mixture and beat on high for 3-5 minutes. If it looks separated, keep beating.

Cake Assembly
When the cakes are completely cool, cut each cake in half* horizontally. Use 1/3-1/2 cup of frosting to fill between each layer. When all the layers are stacked, set aside 1/2 cup of frosting then use rest to frost the outside.

Using a ziploc bag and a rolling pin, crush all but 6 of the Oreo cookies. Apply the cookie crumbs to the sides of the cake**.

Use the reserved 1/2 cup of frosting to create 6 swirls on the top of the cake, place a cookie in each swirl.

*If you don't have cake leveler tool, you can use a knife to score the cake half way up all the way around. Then place a clean piece of fishing wire or floss in the groove and slice away.

**I set my cake plate over a large piece of parchment paper to catch the extra crumbs. It can get a little messy.

Cream Puffs

I have always been intimidated by cream puffs, but when my boyfriend said he really liked them (with ice cream, which made it easy cuz I didn't have to make the cream), I decided to check out a recipe. And wow. For some reason, I always thought they were fried! These are THE simplest things to make, ever. And they don't look simple--I always thought they were so complicated! I never really liked them but with the vanilla bean ice cream I put inside, these were really good! Best the day-of, so next time I make them I'll try to make them for a crowd, because even with my roommates these couldn't be finished in a day.

You can make them any size, but I made a medium/large-size cream puff that's good for a single serving. Bite-size with different fillings would be fun, or even filling the ones I made with something to make it a mini-meal or appetizer would be fun!

Cream Puffs
Recipe from The Comfort of Cooking
Makes 12 cream puffs

1 cup water
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ tsp salt
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray two baking sheets with nonstick spray and set aside.

Put the water, butter, and salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-low heat. Remove from heat. Add the flour all at once and stir well until the flour is completely mixed in.

Return the saucepan to medium heat and cook, stirring constantly for 2 minutes. Scrape the dough into a large bowl.

With a wooden spoon, beat in the eggs one at a time until all four eggs are well-incorporated.

Spoon the dough into 12 rounded mounds onto the prepared baking sheet. Dip your finger into a little water and smooth out the edges to make sure that no small bits burn. Bake for 40 minutes, and let cool for 30 minutes before filling.

Once the cream puffs have cooled, fill with your favorite filling, or garnish with desired toppings.

Easter Dinner

I usually don't do anything for Easter but this year I decided I wanted ham, which I picked up at Wegmans and just reheated. Then I threw together some beans derived partially from a recipe my mom sent me (though I kinda changed it a little...it ended up very lemony but it was alright, probably would add less next time though since I'm not sure how many beans I had!) and I threw together a potato recipe based on one I found at Allrecipes, here, but it's not exact so I rewrote a recipe below.

Green Beans
Adapted by me from my mom's recipe

About half a pound of green beans, trimmed
1 cup water
3/4 tbsp olive oil
3/4 tbsp butter
1 garlic clove, minced
juice from half a lemon
salt & pepper to taste

Bring water to boil in large skillet.

Lower heat and add beans and cover for about 8 minutes, simmering until tender.

Drain beans. Heat oil and butter in pan over medium heat. Add garlic and saute for 30 seconds.

Add beans, lemon juice, salt&pepper. Cook for about 2 minutes or until heated.

Roast Potatoes
Recipe adapted by me from Allrecipes

Several small-medium sized potatoes, cut into small chunks to fit on a baking sheet
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp basil
black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place potatoes on the baking sheet and toss with oil, salt, oregano and basil until evenly coated. Add pepper to taste. You can add more oregano/basil as needed. Spread the potatoes in a single layer.

Bake for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve immediately.

Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Scones

Just realized I forgot to top my scones with sugar--oops, but they were sweet enough without it. It probably didn't need the egg coating either. I've been so busy lately! I haven't really got a chance to bake at all, and 3 weeks ago I promised my friend Philip that I'd bake him something for his birthday...and still haven't. I made these because hey, breakfast is easy to make and eat. I wanted to make some other breakfasty bread but I have no food and the only special food this required was chocolate chips, which I could easily buy. I substituted milk and a pinch of vinegar for the buttermilk and there didn't seem to be a difference.

These were perfect warm, but I'm not sure if I'd make them again because the next day they weren't as good. They were soft and crumbly the day-of though, so if you're planning on serving to a group, these were super easy!

Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Scones
Yield 8 scones
Recipe from evilshenanigans

2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces and kept very cold
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup cold buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg, well beaten
Sugar for topping

Heat the oven to 400 F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Add the cold butter and rub it in with your fingers until the butter is in small pieces, no larger than peas. Add the chocolate chips and mix well.

Pour in the cold buttermilk and vanilla and mix until the liquid is absorbed. The dough will look very dry and shaggy.

Turn out onto a cutting board and knead the dough three times by pressing the dough into a fat disk, folding the dough in half, turning it 1/4 turn and repeating. Do not over knead.

Once kneaded press into an 8″ circle and cut the disk into 8 wedges. Places the wedges on the prepared baking sheet and brush with beaten egg. Top each scone with as much sugar as you like.

Bake the scones for 15 – 18 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown. Cool ten minutes on the pan before transferring to a wire rack.