The Outcome - Bon Appetit Challenge

Last Saturday, I spent the evening with my brother and sister-in-law working on the Bon Appetit Challenge. In order to broaden our horizons with cooking in the kitchen we like to go to Bon Appetit and challenge ourselves in the kitchen in Appetizers, Main Dishes and Desserts. We typically each select a course and then seek out a recipe from Bon Appetit to create. For this challenge, my sister-in-law selected the Appetizer, my brother selected the main dish and I selected the dessert. Here are pictures and links to the recipes we created. 

Butternut Squash Tart with Fried Sage

Skirt Steak with Romesco Sauce

Key Lime Cheesecake

Creating the Graham Cracker Filling!

Creating the Custard

Creating the Filling

Spooning the Custard and Filling into the Crust

Smoothing out the Filling! 

Finished Cheesecake! 

Looking good - Cheesecake!

Yummy Goodness! 

A Slice for You!?

Those layers look pretty yummy! 

We all walked away winners! 

 Happy Cooking!

Baking with my Brother

After receiving an email from my brother with the following subject:

"Subject: Bread receipt that I want to make "

I knew I was going to be in for a good time! 

My brother saw this recipe on the Saveur website and immediately wanted to make it. So with the weekend coming up we quickly made plans for this four-hour baguette - knowing it'd take us much longer! Here is the great recipe that I highly recommend and make sure you have plenty of things to do in-between all the rising!  

Here is the dough in the midst of rising. 

The dough is separated ready to rise on the pain. 

The dough has risen, the two to the left rose together, a little separation was needed. 

All Baked! 

All cooled - ready for eating!

The bread was amazing!! We ate one baguette that evening then we each took one for ourselves - mine did not last long. This was an incredibly easy recipe - but - very time consuming! Start time: 2:30 Ended: 9:30 Total: 6 Hours! 
If everything else was store bought for the evening - this bread is a must!!

Happy Baking!

22. Make a Multicolored Cake - Complete

 A long process of making, coloring, and baking all the layers of the multi-shaded pink cake! 

 All iced up!! Started with white at the tops and ended in hot pink at the bottom! 

Surprise inside!! 

White - Pale Pink- Light Pink- Crayola Pink - Hot Pink

After many  views of this similar cake online - I jumped right in to make it for the baby shower last week! I wanted to share yet another completion of the "29 List"

Happy Baking! 

Cake Balls 101: Part Two

Disclaimer: Please work with me here as I am learning how to explain in writing the process of making cake balls. The last time I made cake balls, I timed the process to give you an approximate "cooking time". I made 108 cake balls and it took 5 hours over a period of 3 days. Day 1: Bake Cake, Cool, Combine with Icing & Refrigerate - 1 hour Day 2: Scoop and form cake balls into balls & Freeze - 1 hour Day 3: Dip cake balls into candy coating and decorate - 3 hours

Cake Ball Making Instructions by Kady:
1. Bake cake according to the directions on the box in a cake pan of your choosing. 
2. Let the cake cool completely before transferring to a mixing bowl. 
3. Crumble the baked cake into a mixing bowl. 

Cake Balls 101 - Not forgotten

Dear Readers

I have taken a VERY long break from blogging. I kept on forgetting to take pictures while making cake balls this holiday season... too many times. I plan on doing the pictures this next week during the day to help with the pictures! Yay! I hope everyone has had a blessed holidays. 

-Kady

Cake Balls 101: Part One

Cake Balls have become the new cupcakes, with an even bigger price! I am still in shock for a mere dozen you can be paying $13 or more! With my recent adventures in cake ball making I have come down to this equation:

Box Cake Mix $3 

Can Frosting $3

Eggs 20 cents

Canola Oil 10 cents

Coating Chocolate $4 (times 4 = $16)

Total $22.30 + Labor (Free if you do it yourself) 

I have found using a Melon Ball scoop, I can make 108+ cake balls with one box cake mix... drum roll please... approximately 20 cents each, so paying nearly 5 times as much is rip off, when you can do it all yourself. Thankfully, Paula Deen put together a mighty fine and quite delicious list of Cake Ball pairings! I have to warn you it takes time and on top of that it takes a lot of effort. Your first adventure in cake ball making might be difficult, but stay strong - you never know when someday someone will be paying you to make them cake balls! Over the next week I'll be adding pictures and steps to making cake balls at home.

Step One: Gather all of the ingredients

Left to Right: Chocolate Sprinkles, Chocolate Coating, Cake Mix, Canola Oil, Chocolate Frosting, Toothpicks, Eggs & Four-Pronged Fork. 

Left to Right: Disposable Gloves and Melon Ball Scoop

Happy Shopping!

Kady

Farm Fresh Eggs

I have to be honest about something, white eggs kind of creep me out especially after being exposed farm fresh eggs. I'm genuinely curious, "Where do white eggs come from?" I'm sure someone out there can help me with that question or I can just "Google" the question on my own. 

My Aunt and Uncle live a few hours North of me and when I'm lucky, I receive gifts of farm fresh eggs, fresh basil and other homegrown items. After a visit up North, my mother brought me back farm fresh eggs as a surprise. These eggs were especially unique this time and I knew I wanted to post them for everyone to see. Please take note to the color variations of the different eggs. Whenever you see a sign for farm fresh eggs or have the opportunity to have farm fresh eggs, please try them someday! 

This is a mixture of eggs.
One store bought white egg, three store bought brown eggs and  seven farm fresh eggs.