Spur of the moment trifle... without the triviality.

Silly's mom has recently developed a serious crush on tiramisu.

The boy and I were planning a little gourmet celebration for her birthday: dinner by the insanely attractive son, dessert by yours truly.

And I was completely stumped at what to make.

I woke up late the morning of with the inspiration... tiramisu!

Wait.

Three problems...

1. I've never made tiramisu in my relatively short life.

2. No ladyfingers. Where do you even get ladyfingers??

3. Where the hell am I going to find time to bake some cake-like substance in order to make said tiramisu by tonight?

The solution? Serious recipe-tweaking and spontaneous trifle-making.

So grab one of those guilty, store-bought pound cakes (hello, Costco!), a tub of mascarpone cheese, and get your trifle on!

 

 Oh, and you'll totally impress that boy's mom.

♥

Coffee so good, you can kick that Mr. Coffee to the curb.

I love coffee.

I love the smoky, earthy, and chocolate-y undertones of flavor.

I love that little kick of caffeinated joy.

What I don't love about coffee?

That nasty burnt flavor of coffee over-brewed and sitting too long on the hot pad of the coffee maker.

Yuck.

While flipping through Food and Wine a few weeks ago, I noticed a recipe for "cold-brewed" coffee.

That's right. Coffee, sans the Mr. Coffee.

Thick, gritty goodness.

All you need is a bag of whole bean coffee, a grinder, some cold water, and 24 hours of patience.

The best part?

No more burnt coffee!

♥

Ooey gooey cinnamon rolls. 'Nuff said.

Not just your everyday cinnamon rolls.

Cinnamon pecan rolls, made with Amish Friendship Starter.

Yep, that's right. Another use for that bag full of regenerating, magic goopy stuff.

I might or might not have eaten two or three of these fresh out of the oven.

Make these dense, flaky morsels for a crowd, or you could end up with a very full stomach.

♥

Amish friendship bread...waffles?!

It's been ten days since my first Amish friendship bread baking extravaganza, and it's time for yet another baking day!

I was itchin' to try out some untraditional, non-loaf recipes using the starter, so this morning I woke up and whipped up a batch of waffles.

Decadently fluffy, not-too-sweet, tangy Belgian-style waffles.

So take that dusty waffle maker out of the cupboard and stuff your face with these piping hot lovelies.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's starter spin-off - another breakfast favorite.

Trust me, it's worth it.

♥

Immortal bread. Awesome!

A little over ten days ago, my best friend shows up on my doorstep bearing delicious gifts.

A loaf of Amish Friendship Bread, and...

...a bag of bread starter that keeps on giving.

Cinnamon-sugar crusted, moist, scrumptious bread every ten days when one starter multiplies into four.

Yesterday, I baked two of the starters into two mouth-watering batches of bread:

Classic style with cinnamon sugar crust,

and chocolate chip with cocoa-cinnamon crust.

A little research turned up some inventive, non-loaf recipes using starters. Stay tuned for late next week, when it's Baking Day, take two! ♥

Starter how-tos, and recipes after the jump...

The violence of lemons...

Lemons are violent little fruit.

The smallest bit of juice on your tongue twists your face up grotesquely.

The citric acid eats away at your hard-earned tooth enamel.

I won't even begin to describe the exquisite pain if you get sprayed in the eye while juicing one.

This pretty pink watermelon lemonade is punch-you-in-the-face-only-to-apologize kind of violent.

The tanginess of the lemon aggressively grabs your taste buds, and the cool watermelon soothes and refreshes.

It's delicious masochism.

♥

Baking with red, white, and blue...

My go-to recipe to make on the Fourth of July for the past few years is red velvet cupcakes with my brown sugar cream cheese frosting.

 This year, Middle Name Silly and I decided to challenges ourselves to bake something red, white, and blue.

However, I wasn't quite ready to give up that addictive red velvet flavor, so I decided to make a flag-color-pallete inspired velvet cupcake.

Red-tinted cream cheese frosting with a hint of strawberry, blue velvet cake, and creamy white pastry cream filling.

It started with this...

Buttermilk - fresh from a smurf!

The result?

 ♥After the jump...

Three milks = ridiculously mouth-watering cake.

Ice cold, rich, creamy, almost custardy tres leches cake topped with freshly whipped cream and raspberry sauce.

Tasty goodness directly from plate to face.

 

Yum!

Blackberry and Pastry Cream Parfaits: the secret to romantic picnic success

Despite the mixed signals from Mother Nature, summer has arrived in sunny California and Middle Name Silly and I are feeling the heat!

When a delightfully breezy day came upon us yesterday, we packed up some chilled goodies - ravioli salad, pink lemonade, and farm-fresh cherries, oh my! - and put the pedal to the metal to a shady spot at our favorite local park.

Then - oops! - I totally forgot cups for the lemonade. Thank the bottled drink gods for straws.

Middle Name Silly was also thankful for these blackberry pastry cream parfaits I snuck into the picnic basket and later pulled out with a flourish.

Go ahead - knock someone's summer flip flops off with sexy, silky parfaits in fancy-pants glasses! ♥

Made with a thing called love...

This Valentine's Day, I was totally conflicted on what to bake. I was inspired by all of the heart-shaped cookies, cakes, and truffles flooding the blogosphere, but craving something simple and sweet like cupcakes.

The compromise?

A tasty fusion!

The results were chocolate heart-cutout cupcakes filled with a luscious strawberry-cherry cream cheese frosting...YUM!

And the finishing touch?

I found these adorable cupcake wrappers from Pink Peacock Paperie! B creates some insanely cute designs that are free to download (like this one!) or available for a small fee. Drop by her site for some eye candy!

Anyways, you may be curious as to the fate of the leftover pieces of heart-shaped cake...

Heart-shaped mini cakes + leftover frosting equals...

Squish together and stuff into mouth. Immediately.

Bite size ice cream cakes + whipped cream + sprinkles = JOY!

Nothing screams "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" quite like an ice cream cake!

Middle Name Silly's (the boyfriend!) birthday was last month, and as an avid devotee to the wondrous marriage of smooth ice cream and fluffy cake, there was little trouble deciding what to make for him!

The trouble started when it came time to choose the flavors.

I knew I wanted to have a chocolate cake base, but what flavor of ice cream to pair with it??

Cookies and cream, chocolate fudge, vanilla bean, mint chocolate chip, strawberry, coffee...

WAY too many options!!

After much deliberation, I settled on strawberry with a hot fudge filling.

Which flavors would you choose? ♥

A spoonful of warm berries helps the chill go away...

Now don't get me wrong: Winter and I are life long buddies. We go way back.

However, after a long winter break filled with freezing rain, a dusting of snow in the central valley (can you believe it?!), spending each night mummifying myself in a mountain of blankets, and far to many wet sock incidents; I've had it up to my ears with my chilly friend.

I hate to say this Winter, but I need some space.

I need to feel the sun's warmth and save my poor, little frozen toes.

I need to warm up in the morning with some molten berry sauce over french toast.

Mmm.
It's getting toasty already!

♥

A love letter.

Dear Cardamom,

You make me weak in the knees. One whiff of your spicy goodness sends me straight to a land of Christmas cheer filled with mouth-watering images of my mother's famous pfeffernusse cookies. YUM.

Basically? You rock my world.

Thanks for giving me an early taste of the holidays. Keep up the good work!

Your most loyal devotee,

Rachel

I wish there could be Smell-o-Vision for this.

Trust me. Make this for yourself and someone special.

Dollop a bit of whipped cream and drizzle some caramel sauce on top, and feel (and smell!) the love.