A Sticky Toffee Pudding Send-Off

If you happen to follow me on Twitter, lately you have seen me gushing a lot about @darrenstravels. The owner of that twitter handle is my hero, and lucky for me, he also happens to be my uncle.




@darrenstravels (aka "Uncle D") My hero
"D", as he is affectionately called by nearly everyone in the family, is my mom's baby brother - "baby" by enough that he is only 12 years older than me,

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Egg Nog Bread

I saw this on my pal Tina's blog Mommy's Kitchen and knew I had to try it. This is one of those recipes that grabs my attention. A-because I love bread; B-because my whole family loves Egg Nog; and C- I don't like Egg Nog, but love stuff made with it such as the Egg Nog shake at the local Drive-In.

This bread is incredibly moist and incredibly addicting. Beware if you make this-you're gonna have to hide it from yourself or make mini loaves and just keep one out and freeze the rest. Very true story.

 



Egg Nog Bread

2  eggs

1 1/4  cups sugar

1 3/4 cups eggnog

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. rum extract

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1 - 3.4 oz package instant french vanilla or vanilla pudding

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom of bread pan or mini loaf pans. Beat eggs, add sugar, eggnog, butter, rum and vanilla extract. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Add the flour mixture to the batter and mix well. Add the instant pudding and blend. Pour into greased pan or mini loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for about 60 minutes for 9" loaf pan or 20-25 minutes for mini loaf pans. Bread will be golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes. Remove and cool completely on a baking rack. When cool drizzle Egg Nog Glaze on top.

Egg Nog Glaze

1 c. powdered sugar

enough Egg Nog to make glaze drizzle over the bread

Printable Version

 

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Happy to be here!

How are you dear readers and followers? I am very happy to come back! what happened you may wonder? let's just say some health related issues kept me away. Nothing to worry about, just going through some changes :)
I definitely missed blogging, baking and photography. I Missed all of you, fellow friends. To everyone who follows my blog and always waits for new recipes and pictures, I say sorry for being absent for so long. I am sure all of us go through stages where we find ourselves unable to surmount life's demands, and I am sure you would forgive my brief disappearance.



Although I have been inactive lately, I was following amazing works from different flickrer/ bloggers. I got the ispiration for these cupcakes from the amazing Aran of Cannelle Et Vanille. I had mascarpone, wanted to have Tiramisu but since it takes some time to make I thought about making something quicker, cupcakes! I made few changes to the recipe in order make it more "tiramisu-ish", I added some coffee to the batter. I also made a mascarpone cream icing flavored with vanilla and coffee instead of the whipped ganache. The icing turned amazingly light and tasty....
I hope you try this recipe and I also hope everyone is enjoying this time of the year and the coming holidays!



Tiramisu Cupcakes (adapted from Cannelle Et Vanille)

Cupcakes (makes 11 to 12 cupcakes)

1 stick of butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature
1 tsp espresso powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda

1- Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a muffin tin with baking cups and set aside.
2- Combine the chocolate and the coffee. Melt over a double boiler. Set aside to cool.
3- In a bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter and the sugars. Whisk until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking well after each addition. Mix in the melted chocolate.
4-Add the vanilla and half the buttermilk. Add the flour and baking soda then the remaining buttermilk.
5- Divide the batter between the liners and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Mascarpone Cream

300 g mascarpone cheese, room temperature
150 ml heavy cream, chilled
80 g sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla paste
1/2 tsp coffee extract

Whip the heavy cream and sugar until soft pick. Add the mascarpone and whisk until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and coffee extract.

Pipe icing on the cooled cupcakes and decorate with shaved chocolate. enjoy!

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I'm Guest Blogging Here...

My Fudge Revel Bars recipe is featured on Or So She Says today! I have shared them here, but it's such a great recipe that I had to share it over there, as well. Head over to visit them and see the other amazing posts from other incredible ladies.

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Choose Your Flavor Cake

 My sister-in-law brought this cake to dinner one day and I love it. It is more like a quick bread/cake. And the best part is that you can choose how you want it to taste. You just pick your cake mix and a pudding mix and there you go. You can simply dust it with powdered sugar and be done or drizzle it with a glaze that matches. Lemon glaze, chocolate glaze, vanilla glaze, and on and on.

Printable Version

Ingredients

1 box of cake mix of your choice (I used yellow)

1 pkg. instant pudding of your choice (I used lemon)

3/4 c. water

4 eggs

1/4 c. oil

powdered sugar for dusting

Directions

• Mix all together and pour into a greased bundt pan.
•  Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes.
• Let cool in pan 5 minutes then turn out onto wire rack to finish cooling.
• Dust with powdered sugar and serve.

 

You can sprinkle with powdered sugar, or drizzle a glaze that matches your cake flavor over the top. Another yummy trick is to sprinkle the bottom of the bundt pan with cinnamon sugar before adding the batter.

I wanted to show you my tree, as well! Be sure to notice two very important characters on it. Our decorations on the tree are made up entirely of each of our ornaments we received growing up and that our kids are now getting from us.

We received the Leg Lamp last year and I love it!

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Apricot Crostata

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.


























I was pretty excited when I saw the challenge for November, because I've actually

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Caramel Corn Puffs

Maybe you've seen these already. Maybe you haven't. But you'd know if you had. You would have remembered gaining at least 5 pounds. That's what happens when you eat these. Because you can't stop. Not even after half the bowl is gone. Just sayin. These would make great neighbor gifts or party snacks or your husband is gone to Wyoming working in the oil fields every other week treat.

Caramel Corn Puffs

1 (8 oz.) bag Barrel O' Fun Corn Pops or Cheetos Puffed Butter Pops (both found in the chips isle)

Place these in a large roasting pan.

Caramel Coating

1/2 c. butter

1/2 c. light corn syrup

1 c. brown sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

Mix in a saucepan for two minutes on med-high until bubbly around the edges. Remove from heat and add baking soda. It will foam as you stir. Pour over the puffs and stir until all are coated.

Place in a 250 degree oven and bake 40-45 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Remove from oven and dump onto wax paper. Break into clumps before puffs cool.

Printable Version

I shared these on Mommy's Kitchen Potluck Sunday

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