Here's what I'll be drinking...all summer long

Now that the hot weather is here....my drink of choice from Starbucks is a Venti Shaken Passionfruit Iced Tea Lemonade with a shot of Raspberry Syrup....it's nice, cold and refreshing. However, as I am currently not of the working (outside of the house) world it gets to be a bit pricey.

My solution: Make my own! I know...simple, huh?

I started out with this:

I made sun tea using 7 tea bags and sat my jar in the sun for about 4 hours. I also kept the tea bags in the jar overnight in the fridge.

Then I used these:

When I asked my neighbor if I could have some lemons from her tree, she brought me a bag of 27 lemons.

I used the recipe I found at Simply Recipes to make the lemonade.

Then I combined half iced tea and half lemonade in my glass....and it was right on.

(Minus the passionfruit, plus the pomegranate.)

Thanks for stopping by....

TWD: Chipster Topped Brownies

Ok...maybe a little much with the cookie dough baked on top of the brownie. Don't get me wrong, I love them both but after this recipe I think I will keep them separate.

This week's selection was chosen by Beth over at Suppilicious.

After reading the comments over at the TWD site, I got a little concerned about my brownie layer not baking through. I did not have a problem with that. My issue was the cookie layer...pretty much raw save for the top crispy layer of golden brownness.

Chocolate and butter melted and ready for the brownies.

Here's how it turned out. Brownie layer into the pan perfectly. Tasted lovely. Mixed up the cookie dough layer, which tasted lovely as well, plopped it on top of the brownie layer which had set up just enough to keep the cookie dough on top. Easily spread the cookie dough over the top of the brownie and into the oven it went. No problems with dough mixing, chocolate chips sinking. Everything looked good to go.

No problems here.

Now....here's where I may have run into a little problem. My cookie dough was nice and browned on the top, the tester came out with a little bit of chocolate on the top, so I pulled them from the oven and set them aside to cool. When I lifted them out of the pan and cute them...the top pretty much shattered at every slice. What I had on my hands was a perfectly baked brownie layer....a raw cookie dough layer...and then a pocket of air ??? and a nice thin crispy layer on top.

Is this supposed to happen?

I was able to get a few from the outside edges to take to my Memorial Day BBQ. Everybody loved them and they were very tasty. I did still eat the raw bits in the middle! :) I just don't know if I would make these again. There were a lot of dishes... a lot of ingredients and like I said, I think I prefer the two elements separate.

Thank you Beth...I always enjoy trying something I have never baked before....that's why I joined!!

Check out what the others came up with over here.

Thanks for stopping by.

Put da lime in da coconut

I have a friend who had a birthday a while ago and I wanted to make her a birthday celebration cake. I asked her what kind she would like and she said "pie". Well....I am not a great pie baker...yet :) so I asked if she was to have cake, what kind? So she says...no frosting...no layers...not too sweet and I like coconut.

I found the perfect cake for her.

The Key Lime Coconut Cake in the March issue of Gourmet.

It is baked in one 9x2 pan.....1 layer.

It is topped with coconut....no frosting.

It has key lime zest and juice in the batter and on the top....not too sweet.

I made this just like the recipe says. I even found a bag of key limes at Wal-mart so I was able to stay true to the recipe. But jeez, have you ever tried to juice a little key lime? Or zest them? And I swear it took me like 20 limes to get the amount of juice the recipe called for. (I might be exaggerating a little, I didn't count while juicing. It sure seemed like that many!)

The recipe says to bake the cake in a 9x2 pan. Make sure you do that! I accidentally baked mine in a 9x1.5 pan (Why I have one I don't know) and the cake rose over and spilled onto the handles. No mess just a little misshapen cake on the bottom...nothing a knife and my mouth couldn't handle.

The end result was nice and refreshing. A great summer treat.

I would have liked the cake to be a little more moist...ahh, hate that word :) so next time I would double the amount of glaze for the top of the cake. I poked holes with a wooden skewer so that the glaze would get down into the cake. That helped a lot.

Oh yeah, I left out the rum as kids had some of the finished product.

Happy Memorial Day....let's not forget.

Thanks for stopping by.

Here I am BBs.....

Barefoot Bloggers I have not forsaken you. This month's bonus recipe is The Barefoot Contessa's Lemon Cakes. Lovely Little Lemon Cakes. Of course I used some of my Meyer Lemon stash. I made these for my 2nd grader to take to his teacher during teacher appreciation week. I baked them into little loaves as his teacher has 3 daughters she needed to share with. They were a hit!

And I baked one large loaf for my pre-schooler to take to his teacher. She didn't have anyone she had to share with....except her husband.

Unfortunately, I didn't save any for myself. (Or fortunately if you happen to be talking to my hips!)

The teachers both told me their loaves were delicious!

Can't ask for anymore.

Thanks for stopping by.

Bummer

My first attempt didn't turn out too well.

Puffy tops but hollow inside.

Used Trader Joe's Almond flour which has the almond skins ground up in it. Ok it you don't mind the speckles.
(With some leftover blackberry buttercream....someone told me it looked like ham! Ha!)

Think I folded too much.

I'll try again!

Let me tell you about these little beauties....

I had an order for 1 dozen mini cupcakes for a baby shower. I wanted to try something a little different than the vanilla/chocolate combo so I found this recipe over at Love and Olive Oil. Vanilla Almond Cupcakes with Fresh Blackberry Buttercream. Sounded light and summery and girly at the same time with the pink frosting piped on top. So pretty too. (I love the piping on the ones there!)
Batch #1. You can kind of already tell something went wrong with the numbers listed huh? I didn't even realize that the recipe was a vegan recipe until I started making them! My first vegan cupcake. This recipe uses coconut milk and almond flour too. Ok, so I started my first batch and the batter was oh so tasty. Poured some into each mini cupcake holder. (The batter was very thin) Popped them into the oven and took them out when the toothpick came out clean. After cooling I got this:

Major sinkage.

Batch #2. Made it again but this time left out the baking soda and reduced the baking powder to 3/4 tsp. These turned out better but still didn't puff up. Either the way, both batches tasted great. The sinkers were just a little more dense. Still tasted of vanilla, almonds...a hint of the coconut and the blackberry buttercream....oh yum.

I made little fondant flowers to put on top and big ones to scatter around the tower. Oh yeah, one extra large cupcake for the mom to be.

I think I still need to work on this recipe and I like that it was vegan (without the buttercream though that would be an easy enough fix). It's always nice to have diversity in your repertoire!

They were a hit at the baby shower and that's what matters!

Thanks for stopping by....

TWD: Tartest Lemon Tart

Summer has come to Northern California...well technically it is still spring but this weekend we are expecting heat in the triple digits...nothing like bypassing spring all together!

For the time being...let this spring-y tart surprise you with it's tasty twists and turns.

Thanks to Barb from Babette Feasts for choosing this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection.


As you know...I typically have an over abundance of Meyer lemons around here. I put them to good use here.

This recipe uses the whole lemon!! No wasteage, I like that.

The taste is not what you would expect, it does have an edge of bitterness but I enjoy that it is not so sweet-tart. And the crust....just like a shortbread cookie! I used almond flour in mine...I love that you can see the little flecks of almonds in the crust. :)

Check out what the others have created over here.

Thanks for stopping by...I'm off to try my skills at.....MACARONS!!! I'll keep you posted.

I'm Out!

No TWD Tiramisu cake for me this week. Too much going on. I will post something yummy later.

Make sure you check here to see what the other bakers have created.

Thanks for stopping by.