Valentine Desserts

Last week was Valentines Day and it is the perfect opportunity to make cute deserts. I made these chocolate cream-filled cupcakes for my Tuesday night Community Group. Chocolate... cream... you can’t go wrong! They are definitely a crowd pleaser. For my Wednesday night Community Group I made Red Velvet Cake balls, aren’t they perfectly Valentine-y? So cute! 

The next day, my friend, Jaimee, took a few to work and one of her co-workers liked them so much she asked to hire me to make them for her upcoming baby shower.  So I will be making 30 of these little bites of awesomeness for that! I love getting hired. :)

Here is the recipe:

Red Velvet Cake Balls

Cake:

2 cups sugar

2 sticks of butter, at room temperature

2 eggs

2 Tbs. unsweetened cocoa powder

1 oz. red food coloring

2 1/2 cups cake flour

1 tsp. salt

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vinegar

Frosting:

8 oz. cream cheese

1 stick butter, softened

1 lb. powdered sugar

1 bag white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter, beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition. Mix cocoa and food coloring together and then add to sugar mixture; mix well. Sift together flour and salt. Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Blend in vanilla. In a small bowl, combine baking soda and vinegar and add to mixture. Pour batter into two 8" round greased and floured pans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from heat and cool.

After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.  Mix thoroughly with cream cheese frosting. Roll mixture into balls and lay on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Insert a toothpick into each cake ball and freeze.Melt the white chocolate and dip the cake balls. Sprinkle with sprinkles if desired.

Another thing I made last week was vanilla scones. We had them for one of our Downton Abbey movie nights. Scones seem kind of British sure, why not? These ones are very similar to Starbucks version, so if you like those, these will be right up your ally!

Vanilla Bean Scones

4 cups flour

1/2 cup vanilla sugar

1 tsp. lemon zest

2 tsp. vanilla bean paste

1 Tbs. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

10 Tbs. unsalted butter, cold, cut into small chunks

2 eggs

1 cup heavy whipping cream

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

2-4 Tbs. milk

1 tsp. vanilla bean paste

Scones:

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Combine the flour, sugar, zest, baking powder and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour until the mixture looks like crumbs. This usually takes about five minutes or so—don’t rush it! In a large bowl combine the cream, vanilla, and eggs. Beat to combine thoroughly. Dump the flour mixture into the bowl and stir, just until the flour is incorporated. Stirring too much will result in tough scones.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and kneed the dough gently four or five times then pat the dough into a circle that is about 7 inches round and about 1 1/2 inches thick. Cut this circle in half, then cut each half into four pie shaped wedges. Place the scones on the baking stone or a baking sheet lined with wax paper.

Bake for 15-18 minutes, rotating the racks midway through baking. The scones should be light brown on top. Let the scones cool on the sheets for 30 minutes, then paint with the glaze. A silicone basting brush is ideal for this job.

Glaze:

Combine the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla. You can adjust the consistency of the glaze to your liking. A thinner glaze will give just a shimmer of sugar to the outside.

Good ole' fashioned barn raising!

I have a great back yard space (for an apartment). It is about 12x14 feet and aside from the time that I had the roommate the turned it into a beer brewery, it has been completely under-utilized space. That, combined with the fact that several times a year I host events at my house with 20+ people, I decided that the back yard needed to be set up properly so we could use the space. So, I bought a gazebo and some patio furniture a few weeks ago but when it showed up in 8 huge boxes, I realized that there was no way I could put this together by myself. Since I haven't started my "rent-a-man" company yet. (my million dollar idea that I thought of way back then) I decided I needed to have a party - a "build Tamara's back yard party". I have to say, that was one of my best ideas yet!

I invited both of my community groups to come over after church to help me build everything. About 15 people came over and the back yard was done in about 3 hours. Other than making food for everyone, I didn't have to do anything, it was brilliant! This afternoon really was community in action. I am so thankful for such great friends! And here they are working hard while I "supervised".

And here is the finished product, well, semi-finished. I now have to buy a light to hang from the ceiling of the gazebo and some decore, I am thinking some candles and succulents and I am not sure what else but I am sure I will be inspired when I go to Pier One and World Market! When I sat on the couch when we were all done I noticed that there is a nice sized wall area where I could hang a sheet and use for an outdoor movie. Ooooh... the possibilities!

And here is the finished product.

The day time view:

And the night time view:

Since no entry is complete without a recipe, I will post the "Lemonies" that I made for dessert today. You have probably seen them on Pinterest, they are everywhere. They are the texture of a brownie but made with lemon. They are not quite as rich as traditional lemon bars, I really like them. They are kind of a refreshing dessert. 

Lemonies

Bars:

3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1 stick butter, softened

2 eggs

juice from 1/2 lemon (about 1Tbs.)

zest from 1/2 lemon (about 1 tsp.)

Glaze:

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 Tbs. lemon juice

Directions:

Bars:

Grease and flour an 8x8 pan. Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Mix in the softened butter. In another bowl whisk the eggs with the lemon juice and zest. Add to the larger bowl and mix well.

Pour into prepared 8x8 brownie pan. Bake at 350°F for 25 minutes. You can double the recipe and bake in a 9x13 pan for 30 minutes.

Remove and let cool, then glaze.

Glaze:

Stir together and pour onto cooled bars.