White Chocolate Chunk Blondies with Homemade Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

February 28th was my birthday. My quarter of a century on this Earth. So, while I make lots of amazing birthday cakes for everyone else, I wanted to have something a little different for myself. This was the result


Breaks my heart but as I sell these at my stall, I can't share the recipe. Sorry!!

However:

Homemade Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (without an ice cream machine!)
from David Lebovitz

Ingredients
1 cup milk
pinch of salt
3/4 cup sugar (I used caster sugar, which is more fine)
1 vanilla bean
5 egg yolks
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a saucepan on low.
Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the milk with the tip of a paring knife. Add the bean pod to the milk.

Whisk egg yolks together in a large bowl.
Slowly add about half of the warm milk mixture into the egg yolks while continuing to whisk. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan.

Cook over low heat (unless you want scrambled eggs!), stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heat-resistant spatula until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula.

Strain the custard into the heavy cream.

Rinse the vanilla bean and put it back into the custard and cream to continue steeping.

Pour into a roasting dish and allow to chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Remove and give the mixture a bit of a whisk, and put the roasting tray into the freezer. Every 30 minutes, take it out and quickly whisk it very quickly, and put it back in the freezer. Within 3 hours it should be set. If its not, just leave it in there a bit longer. I simply scooped it out and put it into an old ice cream container! So decadent.

No Fail Sugar Cookies

I haven't gotten any good pictures this year, but I have my amazing spread from last year captured. I hope I'll have time with two little ones to get them iced (I use homemade royal icing), I'm baking up a batch tomorrow, I think. I've been piping a lot over the last year, so I'm hoping they turn out even nicer this year.



No Fail Sugar Cookies
from Lovin' From The Oven

I found this recipe last year and I have to say, she's nailed it as "no fail". I remember, no offense to my own mom, the sugar cookies we made every year for Christmas and well, the memory isn't good. Always fun to decorate, never the first cookie I wanted to eat. I'd scoff down the chocolate chip cookies or the spritz. But these, guys these are delicious. Kind of a shortbread/butter cookie taste. Let's just say I've already made one batch and they didn't last long enough to get iced.

Ingredients

6 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt

Directions
Simple.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add eggs and vanilla.
Sift dry ingredients.
Add slowly to butter mixture.

Chill for at least 1-2 hours.

Roll to 1/4-1/2 inch thick, and cut your shapes.

Bake at 180C/350F for 8 to 10 minutes. You'll get 4-5 dozen cookies, depending on how big you cut them.

My daughter Jane turns 2

It's her party, and she'll stick her fingers in the hip surfboard cake mommy made for her if she wants to.



This isn't good advertising for my business! However, it was too cute not to share. She loved it, of course. She was picking out bits of marshmallow fondant to eat. I did cry though (hormones, I blame) when I saw the disaster zone, as I had been exhausted (7 months pregnant now!) and forced myself to get it done the day before so I didn't have to worry about it on the day of her party. So is life!
When the birthday girl is this cute, you forgive! We were lucky, sunshine and a great party-- and no complaints about the finger holes while everyone scoffed down the cake! This was vanilla with vanilla buttercream, two layers and covered in marshmallow fondant. Simple.

Cake for Twins

I had a first birthday cake to make for twins this weekend. This was complicated by the fact that I had to go from Friday-Sunday to a La Leche League conference. So, time had come for me to employ some of the tactics of my busier counterparts. After being very reluctant to freeze my cakes, but reading many a baker saying they often freeze on PURPOSE to improve taste, I went for it.

Baked Thursday night, froze, removed on Sunday, layered and crumb-coated with buttercream and covered with marshmallow fondant. I found clear vegetable shortening, and my god, the difference it makes in handling the fondant is unbelievable. It's ever more delicate, however. I was so tired but honestly having split up the days for decorating it wasn't as big of a task as I had thought. Each cake is three layers- one is vanilla/chocolate/vanilla and the other is chocolate/vanilla/chocolate.

The rainbows nearly came out too light, but I brushed darker royal icing over the fondant and the colors came out just how I pictured them. I really hope the customer liked the cake as she had a very clear idea how she wanted them to look and I'm unsure how close I came to what she had pictured. They are not exactly the same, but they flow together, and they are each special in their own way.

The good news is I had Cormac taste test the cakes when I cut them to shape and he said they tasted just fine (he may as well be an expert at these sort of things). I'm off sweets, as we are expect spawn #2 and they are making me feel pretty horrible. So much for the worry that all this cake making would pack on the weight!

Moist Pink Vanilla Cake with Buttercream Filling Covered in Marshmallow Fondant

So, I mostly started this blog because I'm thinking about selling my cookies and cakes. I've had a lot of rave responses to my very American style cookies and cakes here in Ireland, so I though, why not set up a market stall in a few places. I'm still looking into the specifics.
However, I have a cake order for the first week in February for a Christening, so I'm trying to decide between buttercream icing and a marshmallow fondant. I had never made marshmallow fondant before, so naturally I had to practice. It was about 8pm, Jane running around while Cormac watched her and I rolled out the icing to put on my cake, so I didn't get too creative. I was bringing this to a little La Leche League meeting, so I put three L's and some boobs nursing a baby on it for funsies. Fondant is fun, you can really play with it. I'm looking forward to having more time to make something that looks amazing.



Yeah, there is a little wetness shining on the cake. It looks a little blah, I know.
Dear God, though, this cake tastes amazing.

Try the Magnolia bakery vanilla cake, as mine is an adaptation of that.

Marshmallow fondant is pretty easy:
Melt about 16 ounces of marshmallow in the microwave on low heat with a few tablespoons of water. Just stop the microwave every once in a while and give it a stir. When its pretty much melted take it out and stir until its all melted. Slowly sift in about 2 lbs of icing sugar. The instructions were to grease you hands with crisco-- I don't have it here so I didn't do that. It was fine. You just want to knead it for ages, like bread dough. Once its smooth and not sticky, stick it in the fridge until you are ready to use it. Do not, DO NOT, put a cake into the fridge after you've rolled out and laid fondant over it. Bad idea.