I just started the South Beach diet and you can follow me on my new blog:
http://sidsquestforskinny.wordpress.com/

I might be back – I might not.

Also, I started a cupcake business in Jerusalem – you can find it here:

http://www.cupcakecaterers.com

I like to make Tiramisu for Shavuot.  I usually put Kahlua in it.  This year, since there were new mothers and lots of kids coming to the traditional dairy meal at my in-laws, I decided to make it a virgin-Tiramisu.

The Tiramisu recipe is from a Cooking Light magazine I had years ago and have adjusted it over the years.

Homemade Tiramisu - means PICK ME UP in Italian

Tiramisu (Altered recipe From Cooking Light)

1 package of Lady Fingers

Creamy Mixture:

2/3 Cup Powdered Sugar

1 cup cream cheese (80z – block)

2 cups whipping cream (2 small boxes)

Egg White Mixture:

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup water

3 egg whites

Coffee Mixture:

1 cup hot water

2 Tlbs. sugar

2 Tlbs. instant coffee

1/4 cup Kahlua (optional)

Beat whipping cream, set aside.

Combine powdered sugar & cream cheese in mixer – beat on high speed.  Fold in 1 cup of whipped cream.

In a double boiler, combine white sugar, water & egg whites.  Beat on high until stiff peaks form (about 5 min).  Stir 1/4 cup into cheesy mixture – then gently fold in the rest.

In a shallow glass dish, combine hot water, sugar, instant coffee & Kahlua – stir to dissolve sugar.

Quickly dip lady fingers into coffee and arrange one layer in serving dish. Pour 1/2 the creamy mixture over lady fingers and repeat for second layer.  Spread remaining whipped cream over top and dust with cocoa powder or shaved chocolate.

Place into freezer and freeze for at least 3 hours.  Remove from freezer 30 minutes before you want to eat it.

Tip: I cut the lady fingers in half and made individual servings.  This was a great way to serve a bunch of people without having to cut pieces.  Everyone loved it!

Fondant Covered Train Cupcakes

When it came time to put something small together for Little A’s daycare, I didn’t have enough fondant leftover to make another cake, but I still wanted to use up what I colored.

He loved his Train Cake – so I went with the same theme.  I made these dairy-free chocolate cupcakes (adapted from Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cake) for my son’s birthday party at his small daycare. They only have 5 kids there – so I made 5 little train cars and added 4 extra cupcakes so the family of the daycare provider could have some.

They absolutely loved them. This was my first attempt at covering cupcakes with fondant – I don’t know what I was afraid of – it wasn’t so bad. I used a large glass that was the same size of the cupcakes to cut out the fondant circles. Then I used the leftover fondant from his train cake to decorate it. I spread a thin layer of chocolate genache frosting (chocolate melted with non-dairy cream) over the cupcakes then placed the fondant on top of that. Next time I will smooth out the frosting better, and roll the fondant a little more thicker – as bumps were noticeable and when I tried to smooth them out there was some tearing of the fondant.

They were fun to make and I plan to decorate more cupcakes with fondant in the future!

Train Cake using Fondant

I am starting to really like it, however I still struggle with rolling it out to cover the cake – I can’t seem to make it even and round.  I also almost always have rolled it too thin (due to a fear of not having enough for the rest of the cake design).

I made this cake for Little A – who just turned 3.  He is fascinated with trains at the moment so when I was getting his party plans together – I knew I had to find a simple design for a train cake.

I was pressed for time, so I used a devils food cake mix for the base and made some chocolate butter cream frosting.

I first cut out the mountains and then the trees and clouds.

For the trees I used a large flower cookie cutter and for the clouds I used a medium flower cookie cutter and pulled it sideways so they looked more like clouds.

Then I created the train tracks using the black fondant – which came out a little gray.

Then I created each train and added tiny wheels and lights.

I used the leftover red fondant to create some flowers & fruit in the trees.

I printed out some railroad signs and stuck them to toothpicks with some glue.

The clouds and trees covered most of my mistakes that I made due to rolling the fondant a little to thin.  No one noticed!

Best of all, my son absolutely loved his train cake!

I also made some mini whoopie pies and some sugar cookies to match the train party theme.

Chocolate Whoopie Pies with chocolate genache frosting & Train Sugar Cookies

Mini Whoopie Pies (click for recipe) – non dairy

Buckeyes – dairy

Chocolate Crinkles – dairy

Date/Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Bars – non-dairy

I’ll post the recipes for the rest of the cookies separately.

Vanilla Cupcakes & Chocolate Genache Frosting

I held onto this recipe for vanilla cupcakes when I saw an old Martha Stewart episode with the New York Cupcake shop – Billy’s Cupcake owner Billy Reece. They looked amazing – and once I choose to make vanilla cupcakes – I knew this would be the recipe to go to.

The segment from the show when he show’s how to make the cupcakes is on the page with the recipe – it’s a good tutorial for someone that is looking for guidelines!

From Billy’s Cupcakes (on www.marthastewart.com)

Vanilla Cupcakes

Makes about 30 cupcakes

• 1 3/4 cups cake flour, not self-rising
• 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt; mix on low speed until combined. Add butter, mixing until just coated with flour.
2. In a large glass measuring cup, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla. With mixer on medium speed, add wet ingredients in 3 parts, scraping down sides of bowl before each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.
3. Divide batter evenly among liners, filling about 2/3 full. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 17 to 20 minutes.
4. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat process with remaining batter. Once cupcakes have cooled, use a small offset spatula to frost tops of each cupcake. Decorate with sprinkles, if desired. Serve at room temperature.

The changes that I made to make them non-dairy was to substitute the butter with shortening and the milk with non-dairy creamer diluted to milk consistency.

Vanilla Cupcakes - cooling and waiting to be frosted

The cup cakes themselves were pretty good – a moist yellow cupcake – with potential to be my favorite yellow cupcake recipe!  I wasn’t sure why they are considered vanilla cupcakes – there is only one teaspoon in the batter – I will put more next time for more flavor.

For the frosting – I made some genache with some dark chocolate (250 gr) and non-dairy whipped cream (about 1/2 cup) – let it cool then whipped it.  It needed to be a little more sweet, so I added about 1/4 cup of powdered sugar.

It was still too strong – more like a truffle.  I would add some cream cheese or fold in some whipped cream next time – so it’s creamier.

All in all – it was a good recipe and good combination of moist yellow cupcakes and chocolate frosting.

Big A enjoying the batter

I’m not really into jewelry, so when my son was born my husband asked me if I wanted jewelry as a gift – I said no thanks.  I had my eyes set on a waffle maker!  It’s just one of those things that I wouldn’t buy for myself.  I usually make waffles on Saturday mornings for brunch, then freeze the leftovers for quick breakfasts during the week.

I had seen the Krups Belgian one in my baking supply store – and tipped him off.  I was thrilled to finally have one!  At first I made our waffles using the Aunt Jemima mix but they are dairy and as soon as Little A was old enough to eat waffles I searched for a non-dairy alternative.  I found this basic whole wheat waffle recipe online a few years ago and made a few changes.

Whole Wheat Waffles

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups milk

1/3 cup oil

2 eggs

combine everything in a bowl and let sit for a few minutes.  warm up the waffle maker and enjoy!

(instead of milk – I diluted some non-dairy creamer to milk consistency)

Ideas for additions to waffles to make them even yummier; choose from one of the following or combine them:

1 very ripe mashed banana

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

1/4 cup chocolate chips

1/4 cup blueberries

1/4 cup  strawberries

I’ve tried all these add-ins and really love the walnuts and bananas together.  (Little A eats his waffles without any add-in’s).

Last year for Little A’s 2nd birthday, I made a waffle party and put out a table of waffle toppings including maple syrup, strawberry syrup, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, chopped nuts & fresh fruit.  It was a big hit!

Smaller version of the whoopie pies - using a teaspoon drop of dough

I’ve attempted these whoopie pie cookies several times and haven’t had any problems with them – they are easy and quick.  However,  I’ve always wanted to perfect the recipe for the filling. The actual chocolate cookie part was easy enough and I had all the ingredients in my pantry already – I will make them again for sure.  The whoopie pie cookie has been described as Devils Food Cake in a cookie form – and it definitely tastes like it.

Little A & Big A helping with the whoopie pies

I took the recipe for the Whoopie Pies from the Good Housekeeping website:

Chocolate Whoopie Pies:

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

6 tablespoons butter/margarine melted

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

Mix everything in a bowl.  use tablespoons to drop batter on a cookie sheet that is lined with baking paper.

bake for 12 minutes at 350 (175) degrees. -

My notes: When you are mixing, make sure the lumps are all out.  I noticed while I was putting the dough on the cookie sheets that there were small lumps of cocoa powder.  Next time I will sift everything.

I also made some changes to the original recipe so that it would be dairy free.  I substituted the milk with some non-dairy creamer thinned with water to imitate milk.  I also did not use butter or margarine – but oil instead.  I did not notice a difference.

I did not use their recipe for the filling this time because I have in the past and it wasn’t exactly what I expected. I was hoping for a Devil Dog type filling.  I am going to continue to experiment to get it perfect!

For the filling, I used the Vanilla Filling recipe from Joy of Baking:

Vanilla Filling:

1/4 cup (55 grams) vegetable shortening

1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) (55 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup (115 grams) confectioners’ (powdered or icing) sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup (120 ml) light corn syrup

beat butter & shortening, add powdered sugar – beat 5 min.  add vanilla & slowly stream corn syrup in – whip until fluffy.

I made half this amount – so that I could use up some chocolate frosting I had in the fridge for some of them.  Also – instead of making it with butter, I used only shortening so that Little A could eat it.

The kids loved it – and my husband thought it was pretty good.  I was expecting the filling to be a little more like a devil dog – but it wasn’t.  It was more like meringue before you bake it.  I will try again another time with a different filling.  I recently came across a few whoopie pie sites – while on the search for the perfect filling.

Did you know there is a Whoopie Pie Festival?

I’m kinda glad I don’t live near there – I would be tasteing every whoopie pie at the festival!

Also, another site I found with whoopie pies is www.wannahavacookie.com – they look absolutely amazing – and they ship all over the country!!  Their flavors look so good – I think i’m going to try making a pumpkin whoopie pie sometime before Thanksgiving!

Brownie with chocolate chips - non dairy recipe

I’m one of those people who collects recipes from all over with dreams of one day trying them all.  Well, I’ve been holding on to this recipe for so long – I think it’s been well over 10 years!  A friend of my mothers used to make these all the time and I knew they were easy I just never got around to making them.  I’ve actually never made brownies from scratch before, I usually just use Duncan Hines Brownie Mix.  Since I had some leftover cake flour from the red velvet cupcakes last week, I decided to try these brownies.

Like I mentioned before, Little A is lactose intolerant and so I’m always looking for recipes that he can eat.  Personally, my favorite part of a brownie is the crust – and since I decided to make them in my cupcake tin – there were lots of edges!!!  The middles sunk down and stayed gooey.  It would be perfect for a scoop of vanilla ice cream and some chocolate sauce drizzled on top.  I am definitely going to make these again!!

Brownies baking – yummy gooey centers and lots of edges!!

Brownies with Chocolate Chips:

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup cake flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup chocolate chips

mix everything together – spray cupcake tins and fill half way.  bake for 25 minutes at 350 (170).

I think the brownies would be fine without the chocolate chips, but they did add a little extra richness.  I used dark chocolate chips and next time I will add some chopped walnuts.

Red Velvet Cupcakes w/Cream Cheese Frosting

I’ve always been hesitant to try red velvet cake – due to the amount of red food coloring that is called for in every recipe I’ve found. I decided to finally try it.

I think they came out great – except for the fact that I only had gel food coloring and could not figure out how much to use to be equivalent to the liquid one – after they came out I realized that I could have put more in and they would have come out more red.

Little A loved them – I actually made my own “mock-buttermilk” with non dairy milk and vinegar so that he could eat them since he is lactose intolerant.  And I served them to him without frosting.  I really liked the frosting and will use it next time I make cupcakes because it was creamy and sweet.  Butter cream is a little too sugary and grainy for me – although the kids love it and my son can eat it when I use all shortening.

For the red velvet cupcakes I used the recipe from my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook which actually is called Red Waldorf Cake.

Here is the recipe:

Red Waldorf Cake by Better Homes & Gardens: (aka Red Velvet Cake)

2 eggs

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 oz red food coloring (1/4 cup)

2 1/4 cup sifted cake flour

1/2 cup shortening

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup buttermilk or sour milk

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vinegar

beat shortening, add sugar & vanilla, then eggs.  combine cocoa and food coloring to form a paste and beat in, add flour and buttermilk slowly.  combine baking soda and vinegar then add to batter.

pour into cupcake liners – bake at 350 (175) for about 12 – 15 minutes.

Cream Cheese Frosting from Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook

1 8-oz block of cream cheese – softened

1/2 cup butter – softened

2 teaspoons vanilla

About 6 cups sifted powdered sugar

beat cream cheese, butter and  vanilla – add powedered sugar until it’s fluffy