French Macaron Obsession

I have fallen in love with French Macarons! What was first just a challenge of my baking prowess has now become a slight obsession tangled with a terrific business idea. Jeff and I have talked about some day owning our own bakery/cafe/restaurant and these macarons have inspired us to start the slow process of turning this cookie into a dream. We're working on getting a website up and running with descriptions and prices of what we're planning on offering. For a shameless plug: if you're interested in buying any of our delicious treats, just let us know and we're more than happy to create something amazing for you!

The road to the perfect macaron was a bit of a struggle. I had read so many blogs about them and everything you should or should not know and figured out very quickly that these were one finicky cookie. But oh, are the worth it! They are one of the most fun desserts to eat! The cookie part is crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside and whatever filling you decide to use fills the rest of your mouth with flavor.

I've been using this recipe from Your Homebased Mom as it was easy to follow and came with a great video as well. I haven't had to modify it much but for some of the flavors I needed to add and subtract a few things to make sure there wasn't too much dry ingredients. So let's take a walk down my macaron journey as I realize how to do better with each batch.

First Attempt - Raspberry

I thought I did everything like I was supposed to. I sifted the almond flour and powdered sugar and I got stiff-peaked egg whites. I thought the batter looked sort of like lava, but my hopes were cut short when they barely held their shape on the tray. I continued though and left them out for 30 minutes before baking. They didn't get those classic feet though! Let me tell you, when you are making macarons, the feet are where it's at! My issue here is that I did not stir the batter long enough. I learned later that the point of mixing the batter is to DEFLATE the egg whites. You do not want to be gentle with them. Smash your spatula against the side of the bowl as you fold in the dry mixture. And stop mixing just when everything looks smooth and shiny.

Second Attempt - Too Gooey Chocolate

I didn't even take a picture because these were such a huge fail. It was late and I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do them right and get the feet! I couldn't even get them piped! I felt like I had stirred enough but it was so runny. I proceeded to have a macaron meltdown in the kitchen as I created a giant macaron puddle on the cookie sheet. I realized I didn't get stiff enough egg whites and would have to try again.

Third Attempt - Chocolate with Vanilla Buttercream

Time for some chocolate macarons. My inspiration for these were classic whoopie pies. I made these the night before I flew out to California to go to Vegas with my mom. I stayed up until 11 because I'm crazy and had to challenge myself. I remember being on the phone with my mom while Jeff was asleep in the other room getting so excited about the macarons having feet! At the time, my mom didn't understand what that meant...but she does now! Ok, I finally have feet going, I did something right. But there were cracks in the tops of them which meant I wasn't patient enough in letting them dry. They tasted great though, but still not perfect.

Fourth Attempt - Pistachio

Feet...check. Smooth top...check. Amazingly delicious...check! The pistachio macarons were perfect! I did everything right and they came out great. I actually ground up some pistachios and put it in the batter in place of some almond flour so even the cookie had strong pistachio flavor. They were just amazing. They held their shape when I piped them out better than the others before and got amazing feet. They were smooth as glass on top and created the perfect cookie.

Fifth Attempt - Pink Lemonade

I'm not sure if these are attempts anymore. I feel pretty confident in myself now but there is definitely room for improvement. I need to find powdered food coloring as the gel dye I'm using now is not made for baking and is thus turing the color of my beautiful, bright macarons to a dingy brown. However, for this attempt I really noticed that it was a much thicker batter. I had a fair amount of batter left after I piped two sheets out so in a small brownie pan I decided to try and make tiny macarons to see how they would hold the flavor. I didn't realize I was creating one of the best bite-sized confections known to man! I call them Mini Macs and they are amazing! It's easy to eat a handful but really have to watch myself as I am currently writing this at the end of a long sugar coma filled weekend.


Jeff and I are excited for the future and are looking forward to getting our first orders. We are still perfecting our craft and once we do, we'll be ready for customers (aka our awesome family and friends!) Stay tuned for more information about our bake shop. For now, it's something we're planning on doing on the side, but who knows what could happen!

Tips and Tricks for French Macarons

• When you fold in the dry ingredients, don't be gentle with the egg whites. You want to deflate them so there is as little as air in the batter as possible. Smear the batter along the side of the bowl each time you fold.
• Bang your cookie sheet flat against a table a few times after you've piped the macarons. This will help any extra air bubble escape.
• Use powdered food coloring instead of gel. It won't brown and the color will be more vibrant. Also, if you find a store that sells these instead of online, please share that with me.

Good luck to any of you trying macarons for the first time. Don't be too intimidated. Even though my first attempt didn't look great, they tasted amazing and were the right texture when all said and done. Enjoy your mistakes and move on to make them even better the next time!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie: For the Birthday Girl, By the Birthday Girl

I know it might seem strange to some, but I love baking so much that I made my own birthday "cake" this year. I wasn't sure what kind of treat I wanted to make, so as usual I poked around Pinterest and asked myself: "If I could have anything for my birthday, what would I want?" I am always a sucker for chocolate and peanut butter in any form, so now I just have to figure out the perfect way to combine them.

Over the weekend, my mom got me tickets for my birthday to see Phantom of the Opera with Jeff. It was both of our first times seeing it. We were absolutely stunned by the amazing sets that rotated flawlessly with each scene change. And now I find myself listening to the music and garnering a whole new appreciation for the story. It can be hard to follow your first time so I feel like I'm understanding so much more now.

Anyway, before the play, we got dinner (and dessert) from a restaurant a few doors down from the Boston Opera House. We shared a few small plates and settled on a chocolate peanut butter mousse for dessert. We knew we were in for a treat when our adorable waitress fawned over how amazing it was.

Ok, so it was pretty awesome. But I knew I could do better. I prefer when there's a crunchy bottom followed by a strong peanut butter punch rather than creamy throughout with chocolate overwhelming the pallet. I found a recipe pretty quickly on Pinterest and got to work Monday night.

The first step in this recipe was to make an Oreo cookie crust. Jeff and I try to stay away from overly processed foods, so we went over the organic section and found some Newman O's instead that would do just the trick. I don't have a food processor, so clever me thought to use our Ninja Blender to pulverize the cookies. It worked out pretty well, but was such a pain in the butt to clean!

With my crushed up "Oreos", I was ready to make the crust. I should have measured how much of the cookie crumble I had because the recipe called for 2 cups and looking back I had much less. I therefore added way too much butter because of this and will not be making that mistake next time. Butter was oozing out of the bottom of the spring-form pan in the fridge while I let everything set afterward--oops!

The recipe called for a 9-inch spring-form panned but it just looked too big for the amount of crust I was going to end up with, so I opted for a 6-inch pan. I would highly recommend this! I personally loved how tall it was so that every bite was jam-packed with flavor. Also, I lined by pan with parchment paper which made everything easier; I definitely suggest the extra step.

While baking the crust, I made the peanut butter mousse filling. It was so incredibly easy to just blend together peanut butter and cream cheese and then fold in the whipped cream. The hard part came while waiting for it to set in the fridge. By this time, it was already 7:30 at night so I knew I wasn't going to be able to wait 3 hours to put the chocolate ganache on it. That would have to happen on my birthday.

And now...we wait.

I never realized how simply easy making chocolate ganache is. Just boil cream and stir in chopped up chocolate. Easy peasy! After pouring the chocolate over the peanut butter that was well set, I sprinkled a little kosher salt on the top of the chocolate and put it back into the fridge. This time we only had to wait 15 minutes for the chocolate to solidify a little.

I used 60% dark chocolate

Waiting for the cream to boil to make some sweet, sweet chocolate ganache!

Cool down already!!

After dinner from my favorite take-out place, Jeff lit my candle and I made him sing Happy Birthday to me! It was the sweetest ending to a fantastic day. And I have so many leftovers still that I've had to bring them into work to pawn off the devilishly delicious and fattening treat onto my coworkers.

You can see all the butter on the crust...but honestly, who cares?

Special guest Jeff's hand.

Pawning off the extras to my coworkers! Excuse the horrible hack job but there's no better way to cut these!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

Recipe adapted from Food & Wine

Serves 8-10

Chocolate Crust

1/2 stick unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons

8 ounces chocolate wafer cookies, finely ground (2 cups)

Peanut Butter Filling

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 cup chunky peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 cup well-chilled heavy cream

Kosher salt

Chocolate Topping

4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped (1/2 cup)

1/2 cup heavy cream

Garnish

1/4 cup Chopped Peanuts, chopped

1/4 cup semi sweet chocolate, chopped

MAKE THE CHOCOLATE CRUST: Preheat the oven to 375°. Melt butter and stir into the cookie crumbs. Press the cookie crumbs over the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan and 1 1/2 inches up the side. Bake the crust for 10 minutes, or until set; the crust will continue to firm up as it cools.

MEANWHILE, MAKE THE PEANUT BUTTER FILLING: In a large bowl, using a handheld electric mixer, beat the cream cheese with the peanut butter, sugar and vanilla extract until blended. In another large bowl, using the same beaters, whip the chilled cream until firm. Fold one-third of the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture to loosen it, then fold in the remaining whipped cream. Spoon the filling into the crust, smoothing the surface. Sprinkle lightly with salt and refrigerate until set, about 3 hours.

MAKE THE CHOCOLATE TOPPING: Place chopped chocolate in a medium bowl.  Heat cream over medium heat until simmering.  Add cream to chocolate and stir until melted.

Spread the chocolate topping over the peanut butter filling and refrigerate until just firm, about 15 minutes. Sprinkle the chopped peanuts and chocolate around the edge of the pie. Carefully run a thin knife around the pie crust to loosen it, then remove the springform ring. Using a sharp knife, cut the pie into wedges. Run the knife under hot water and dry it between each cut.

Margarita Cupcakes

Growing up in California, Cinco de Mayo was the equivalent to St. Patty's Day on the East Coast. I remember celebrating it in school as a kid which meant traditional food, costumes, and performances. I vaguely remember getting to host one of these celebrations and writing out my index cards of what to say the night before. Even though I'm 3,000 miles away from California, I still had plenty of reasons to celebrate the mostly American holiday. I'm currently running the social media accounts for Santana Rae's, a local mexican restaurant with great food and amazing margaritas. They've been thinking of Cinco de Mayo since they opened last October and this weekend and I was excited to be a part of it. We also were going to a party on the Tres de Mayo so it was just a great weekend to try and make Margarita Cupcakes!

As with most of my recipes, I pulled from a couple different pins from Pinterest. I love reading about what worked for each one and what didn't...and I also love finding different components that I could add to make mine special. These cupcakes have my blood, sweat, and tears in them. (Well, at least a little blood was shed as I thought it was a good idea to zest my thumb instead of the lime!)

I used the tequila lemon cake and lime buttercream recipe from I Am Baker:

Tequila Lemon Cake

1 box lemon cake

4 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup tequilla

2 tbsp lemon juice - (my addition)

1 tbsp lemon zest - (my addition)

Instead of using the recipe on the box of the lemon cake, mix all of the above ingredients together. I added the lemon juice and lemon zest because it wasn't citrusy enough for me.

Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 way full and bake for about 18 minutes at 350.

My cupcakes came out with an unpleasant little dome on top and after a little research, I think I found a quick solution to my problem for next time. The cake on the outside cooked faster than the middle, so next time I will cook them longer at a lower temperature, and that should take care of it!

The night before I frosted the cupcakes, I made a tequila lime curd from Kathleen's Confections. It needed to chill completely so I wanted to make sure I wasn't rushing anything. I totally forgot to take pictures of this part so I really apologize on that part!

Tequila Lime Curd

2 egg yolks + 1 whole egg

1/3 cup lime juice and tequila (you can choose what ratio, but I did 1 part tequila: 3 parts lime)

1 tbsp lime zest (2-3 limes)

3/4 cup sugar

Whisk eggs and sugar together until creamy.

Place over a double boiler and whisk constantly for about 20-25 minutes (tedious, yes, but don't quit too soon or else it will all be runny). The mix should be kind of thick.

Add the liquid and zest and mix until pudding consistency, probably another 10-15 minutes.

Cool completely with a layer of saran wrap touching the top of the curd so a crust doesn't form.

This filling was the best part of the entire cupcake. Standing in front of the stove for 35 minutes was totally worth it! The tequila doesn't really "cook off" so it still had that awesome flavor. Was just like a margarita.

Finally, I made the lime buttercream, as mentioned before:

Lime Buttercream

1/2 cup butter, softened

4-5 cups powdered sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons lime zest

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons lime juice

1 to 2 Tbsp. milk or half and half

In a mixer, blend butter, lime zest (make sure it is a very fine grate if you are piping out the frosting), vanilla, and salt until fully combined.

Add in powdered sugar one cup at a time, alternating with lime juice.

If you need more liquid add the milk or half and half to reach your desired consistency.

To till the cupcakes, I put the tequila lime curd in a pastry bag with a star tip on. Simply inserted the tip into the cupcake and filled until the cupcake visibly expanded. Next time I fill a cupcake this way, I would suggest using a larger tip so the filling can get deeper.

I piped on the frosting with a star tip and finished them with a lime slice candied by Jeff, a sprinkle of lime zest, and of course drink straws from the bar at Santana Rae's. Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Fruit Basket Cake

I've decided to pursue a big passion of mine: baking. I've always loved to bake and am always excited to try new recipes, but now I am challenging myself even further. I've always admired fondant and piped frosting from afar, but have never ventured farther than browsing Michaels aisles of baking goodies. Jeff and I have dreams of one day opening up our own restaurant/bakery/coffee shop/general eatery so this will be my way of preparing for this future journey. Even if things don't work out, I will always be that family member who will always bring the most amazing goodies to any holiday or party.

As baking can be expensive and time consuming, I am going to be challenging myself to make one amazing cake each month. Jeff and I decided that we just cannot keep this much cake around all the time, so this will be one of the few cakes we enjoy ourselves and plan on giving away the rest. This month, I decided to stick with something simple and reminiscent of my childhood. More than once, I remember my mom driving all the way across the city to get this amazing cake called the Fruit Basket for my birthday. It was a very simple yellow cake with strawberries and bananas in the middle. I couldn't remember all of the details, so I used Pinterest to piece together the full picture.

I knew I wanted a yellow cake with a whipped cream frosting and of course the strawberries and bananas in the middle. I started with a delicious yellow cake from Pinterest that promised to be moist. Here's the recipe for that:

Moist Yellow Cake

1 cup (2 sticks) of butter (room temperature)
2 cups of sugar
4 eggs (room temperature)
3 cups of sifted self-rising flour (White Lily)
1 cup of whole milk (room temperature)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (McCormicks)
1/2 teaspoon butter flavoring

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour (3) 8 inch cake pans.
Using a mixer, cream butter until fluffy.
Add sugar and continue to cream for about 7 minutes.
Add eggs one at a time. Beat well after each egg is added.
Add flour and milk (alternating to creamed mixture), beginning and ending with flour.
Add vanilla and butter flavoring to mix; until just mixed.
Divide batter equally into three cake pans.
Hold each layer about 3 inches above your counter and carefully drop the pans flat onto counter several times to ensure release of any air bubbles. This will help you have a more level cake.
Bake for 25 – 30 minutes (depending on your oven) until done.
Cool in pans for 5 – 10 minutes.
Remove and immediately wrap each layer in plastic wrap to seal in moisture. Cool completely on wire racks.
Once cooled, you are ready to assemble your cake.

I didn't have butter flavoring so I left that out and it was still delicious. Picture a sugar cookie in cake form. Also, since I am practicing my techniques, I just used a 6 inch spring form pan so I had plenty of batter left over. I went a little crazy and made some mini cupcakes and ramekin cakes as well!

Searching for "fruit basket cake" on Pinterest, I came across a helpful blog that had created a custard for the filling to go with the fruit. I'm almost embarrassed to admit, but I don't actually have a whisk aside from the attachment for my standing mixer. I think the lack of the whisk combined with the fact that I cut corners and halved the recipe, resulted in a much thicker custard than I wanted. It tasted great, but could have been a little more liquidy.

Custard Filling

2 cups of milk
5 large egg yolks
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of flour


First, bring two cups of milk to a boil in a saucepan.
In a bowl, add five large egg yolks.
Add in 1 cup of sugar and cream until the mixture is pale yellow.
Beat in 1/2 a cup of flour.
Slowly drizzle in the boiled milk, when the mixture is well combined, return it to the saucepan and bring to a boil, while whisking the mixture the entire time.
A lumpy mixture will form and then smooth out as you whisk, this is your custard.
Remove from heat and whisk in one tablespoon of butter and vanilla extract. Set aside.

I assembled my cake after it had spent a few hours in the fridge. I don't have a cake leveler so I did the best I could. The biggest mistake I made was not leveling off the top of the cake. It was slightly domed and made a difference once I was decorating it. Won't be making that mistake again!

I sliced up strawberries and bananas very thin so I could get as many in the layer as possible. The beauty of this cake is that you could add any type of fruit you want to it. Blueberries and raspberries would also be amazing! I smoothed out the custard as best I could as it really thickend up after cooling and made a dam of the whipped cream to catch all of the fruit.

For the whipped cream, I tried another recipe from Pinterest that claimed to make the whipped cream frosting as sturdy as they use in the bakeries. I must have done something wrong, because there were gelatin pieces in the resulting frosting. The cake needed another layer of whipped cream anyway, so I just made it the usual way (1 cup of heavy cream with 2 tbsp of powdered sugar and a touch of vanilla extract) and covered up the layer with gelatin bits in it! Weird! For those of you interested, here's the recipe for the stabilized whipped cream:

Stabilized Whipped Cream

1/2 tsp unflavored gelatin powder
2 tbsp cold water
1 cup whipping cream (regular or heavy--I always use heavy cream)
2 tbsp confectioner's sugar

Sprinkle gelatin over cold water in small bowl to soften. 
Scald 2 tablespoon of the cream (this means you put the cream in a pan and bring it to a simmer on the stove); pour over gelatin, stirring till dissolved.
Refrigerate until consistency of unbeaten egg white. (This takes about 10-15 minutes.) Then, with a whisk, beat until smooth. 
In a stand mixer with a whip attachment, or with a hand beater, whip remaining cream and sugar just until soft peaks form; whip in the smoothed gelatin mixture, stopping to scrape the bowl twice. Whip until stiff peaks start to form, but be careful not to over beat. You will probably only need to whip it another 10-20 seconds before it's done.

Fills and frosts top of 2 8" or 9" cake layers; or frosts 10" angel
cake or spongecake. Tops one standard 9" pie with some left over to enjoy from a spoon.  Stands up well, even in warm weather. Keep leftover frosting and any product topped with it in the refrigerator until ready to eat.

Recipe is easily doubled. 

This was my very first time using buttercream frosting to do piping details. I was very excited to try out my new frosting tips I bought last weekend. I just beat together 1 cup of butter and 4 cups of powdered sugar for the frosting and added my colors in once it was done. I practiced a little before I took my hand to the cake but was a little antsy to just try it out. The buttercream frosting didn't stick well to the whipped cream frosting...so I would make sure to account for that if you ever try to do the same. I wish I would have planned my flowers out a little better, but in the long run, these are just the first of many flowers to come.

Once we were done with dinner, Jeff and I were so excited to finally dig into this cake I'd been making all weekend long. It needed more fruit to go along with it so I sliced some more up and put it on the side. It was absolutely delicious! The buttercream frosting was the sweetest part so it was nice to have little bursts of it every now and then.

For next time:

• Make sure the cake is actually leveled properly.
• Do 3 layers instead of 2 to get more fruit in the cake.
• Instead of a design on top, decorate it with strawberries.
• Could possibly even put more whipped cream in/on it.
• I don't think the custard would be missed, so possibly add whipped cream to the filling.

Bonus: I practiced piping words with the leftover frosting!

Focus Board

For the new year, we created a focus board to keep track of all of our resolutions. We wanted this board to be something that we'd see every day to remind us of what we want to accomplish. I also wanted to be able to update it frequently so we could add goals to it throughout the year. We divided it up into four sections: one for short term goals; one for long term goals; another for places we want to visit; and one for general happenings. 

It was pretty simple to make. I found the board at Target and used ribbon to make the sections. I found this app called PicLab HD to make the beautiful pictures with text overlay to display our resolutions. I also cut some things out of magazines that I either wanted to try it display. It's a little girly, but Jeff is excited to have something to keep us focused and inspired.