Lemon blueberry trifle

I made a lemon blueberry trifle cake for Christmas. It is a simple recipe that we got from one of my mom's coworkers. It's just an angel food cake, homemade whipped cream (no sugar added to the cream) with lemon curd folded in, and blueberries. You could easily make this with raspberries or any other berries that are in season, however, blueberries and lemon go together really well.

Just whip the cream by itself.

Fold in that lemon curd.

Bake an angel food cake (we used a box mix).

Let it cool.

Make some layers. Add slices or chunks of angel food cake, then a layer of the lemon cream, and then some blueberries. Repeat.

Make sure those blueberries have been washed and are dry before adding them.

Look at those layers! Let it chill in the fridge for a few hours or overnight for everything to get all nice and soft and mixed.

Take a scoop out and enjoy!

Butter cookies

I decided to make some simple butter cookies to go along with a trifle for Christmas. I got the recipe here:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/butter-cookies-100918

It's a really simple recipe with simple ingredients. You just mix it all together, shape it up and put it in the freezer to chill long enough to cut it like any other refrigerator cookie.

Here they are being cut before baking.

They came out very good. They were not a red/pinkish tinge as this photo looks, but more of the light dough color with some golden brown on the bottoms. They were a hit with the family and much preferred to some chocolate shortbread store bought cookies.

Croatian Swirl Bread (Provitica)

I have been getting more into baking breads and after watching the Great British Baking Show on Netflix and looking through recipes online, I came across this recipe on Saveur and decided to give it a try.

http://www.saveur.com/article/recipes/povitica-croatian-walnut-swirl-bread

The original recipe is for a walnut bread, but due to allergies in my family, I switched to pecans.

First I toasted the pecans in a frying pan for a little bit.

Then I made the filling in a food processor that easily grinded up everything for me.

The result was this butter nut paste that tasted pretty good with a cinnamon roll flavor.

The dough was a yeast based dough that had to rise for a while, but then you roll it out really thin and add the nut paste.

Then you roll it up really tight.

I accidentally made mine too wide, so I just folded it over in the bread pan and hoped for the best.

The bread has to cook for so long that the outside of mine got really crispy.

The crispiness made the outside layer fall off when I cut it into slices.

It came out tasting like cinnamon roll bread or similar to a Hungarian nut roll that my grandma makes around the holidays. I thought it could use a bit of icing on top and definitely less cooking on the outside to keep it from falling apart when cutting. It is definitely something I want to experiment with more and would recommend giving it a try.

Hershey's Smores Cupcakes

My mom saw the Hershey's Smores Cupcake mix at the store and decided it needed to be tried considering that both cupcakes and smores are delicious. The box includes a chocolate cake mix, a graham cracker base, and a marshmallow filling.

The first step was to press the graham cracker crust into the bottom of each paper cup. The paper cup is essential.

Next you add one dollop of the cake mix to cover the graham cracker crust. I spread it evenly so the whole area was covered.

Then the marshmallow filling is added. You need to keep it in the center so that the cake mix can completely cover it. It is kind of difficult to get out and not have it stick to everything.

Then you completely cover the marshmallow by dividing up the rest of the cake mix between the cupcakes.

After a quick trip into the oven they come out looking like this. You can't use the traditional cake tester method since the marshmallow core will always have it come back sticky. Instead, if they look like this, then they are done.

The cupcake is easy to eat. It seems like a bit of the butter in the graham cracker crust leaked through the paper cups, but it is easy to peel away.

The marshmallow filling reminds me a bit of a ding dong or a hostess cupcake. I love those, so the addition of the graham cracker makes it a unique cupcake. I'm unsure whether I would add some frosting to the top. I do love frosting, but it might be too much.

Chocolate Crinkles

Chocolate crinkles are my favorite cookie and I was really craving them, so I decided to make some. I used the recipe in my Betty Crocker Cooky Book.

You have to chill the dough otherwise it is too sticky to roll into balls. I have ended up with chocolte dough covered hands because I was too eager to wait for the dough to chill enough. When in doubt, just make the dough the night before and let it chill overnight.

You then roll the balls in powdered sugar.

When the cookies bake, they melt from ball form into the typical cookie shape. This makes the powdered sugar split and crack like in the photo above.

As long as you don't overcook them, you're in for a world of yummy chocolaty goodness. Just be careful with the powdered sugar when you're eating them. I always find a trail of powdered sugar and crumbs when I try to eat them and walk around the house.

Mine Run Candy aka Honeycomb Candy

My mom showed me a recipe for this mine run candy which is a honeycomb candy like a violet crumble. Seeing it ripped from a magazine suggested to me that she tore it from a waiting room magazine, but I would probably do that too if I had seen it. The actual recipe can be found here: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/mine-run-candy

This is how the candy looks when it is poured out. I regret not getting a picture of it before, but a really neat reaction occurs when you add the baking soda and it starts puffing up like an awesome chemistry experiment. Without even trying it, that reaction made me want to make this again. Just a word of warning if you've never made any candy before: be careful, because you're getting sugar up to 300F and that stuff will hurt really bad to be careful not to touch it until it cools.

The hardest part is to break the large candy into smaller pieces. With all the air pockets, it is really easy to crumble.

As you can see, I had a lot of crumbs.

Then you dip those bad boys in chocolate. I recommend having extra chocolate, because I ran out.

Once dipped they need to dry and have the chocolate harden. Putting them in the fridge helps this process along.

Then, when they are all ready, you can take a bite into one and fall in love with this recipe. It takes great especially if you are a fan of honeycomb candy like I am. This is a really simple recipe to make and really tasty.

Giada's Strawberry Meringue Clouds

My mom was watching the food network and saw an episode of Giada De Laurentiis where she made strawberry meringue clouds. What caught my mom's attention was that she put freeze-dried strawberries into the meringue. You normally can't add anything wet like fresh fruit to a meringue, because they have to be bone dry for them to set correctly. My mom printed off the recipe and told me to give them a try and I did. The recipe can be found here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/strawberry-meringue-clouds-recipe.html

The strawberries had to be cut up into smaller pieces.

You just make a basic meringue and get it to the shiny stiff peak stage.

Then I added the strawberries,

a bit of lemon zest, and then folded those into the meringue.

They have to bake forever, so keep that in mind before you start.

Here's how they came out.

The strawberries gave it a unique flavor and twist to a traditional meringue. I'd like to try these again, but mix it up with different dried fruits now that I know that it can be done.