marble glazed donuts

My mom loves donuts, as do I, and I have many memories of us happily eating donuts together! From when I was in high school and we would (quite often!) get donuts from Happy Donuts down the street; fast forward to the time we took a trip to Boston with my daughter and the three of us had donuts for breakfast almost every day that we were there. (The three of us later took a trip to New Jersey together and spent a morning searching for donuts to eat for breakfast!). So when I saw this PureWow post right before Mother's Day last year, I knew I had to make them!

And even better, the recipe was for baked donuts, not fried!

For the glaze, I used lemon juice (instead of milk, which the recipe calls for), and I was glad that I did because it offset the sweetness of the glaze perfectly. And while the glaze was simple to make, I had a hard time dipping the donuts without making a mess! Guess I need more practice!

After dipping, I let the donut dry on a wire rack to let the glaze set. I think in the future, I would make the glaze a bit thicker, and I would also use a knife or something to smooth out the edges of the glaze to get a cleaner donut without messy drips.

While the donuts came out soft and fluffy, they unfortunately did not come close to the texture of fried donuts. The only other time I've made baked donuts was when I made these pumpkin donuts, which had a denser moist texture that more closely resembled (cake) donuts. But still, these weren't bad, and of course we at them all up anyway.

Hope you had a happy Mother's Day!

purple and white floral wreath cake

Every year for my Mom's birthday, I make her some sort of coffee-flavored cake. It started out with tiramisu cakes, mocha cake, and lately it's been coffee chiffon cakes. For her most recent birthday, I made coffee chiffon cake again, but this time covered with Swiss meringue buttercream and topped with purple buttercream flowers! (I've been super into make wreath cakes lately, and this was no exception!)

I started out by making four 6-inch round coffee chiffon cake layers (I forgot to take pictures of the cake layers, but you can get the gist of it here). Normally with coffee chiffon, I like to use a whipped cream frosting because chiffon cake is so light an airy, and American buttercream is usually to heavy for it, but this time I though I'd try a lighter buttercream by using a recipe for Swiss Meringue buttercream (you can find the recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book).

I typically do a quick crumb coat of frosting first, the let the cake chill in the fridge for 30 minutes, and then do a final coat of frosting, smoothing it all out with a long metal icing spatula.

Then it was time to decorate with my buttercream flowers! I had piped onto small squares of waxed paper ahead of time - using a pastry bag fitted with a petal tip, I piped each flower onto a flower nail (which you can use to easily spin your flower around when piping petals). You can see this post for more details on this technique, but you basically pipe the flowers ahead of time, and then put them in an airtight container in your freezer, so that they can harden and are easier to handle when placing them on your cake.

Before adding the frozen buttercream flowers, I first piped a ring of frosting on the top of the cake, so that you have something to nestle and position the flowers on. Then I started adding my flowers, one by one.

The final step was to use a leaf tip to pipe green leaves all around the flowers - this fills in the gaps in between the flowers (and also hides the ring of frosting that you are placing the flowers on and around).

And then it was done! Don't the flowers look so pretty?

Happy Birthday, Mom! We love you!

coffee chiffon rose cake

It's my mom's birthday next week, and I'll probably be making her another coffee chiffon cake! The past few years I've been making her some form of coffee-flavored cake, so I think I'll continue the tradition this year as well!

This was the cake that I made for her last year - light and fluffy coffee chiffon cake, filled with espresso whipped cream. I started by baking up three 8-inch layers of coffee chiffon, which I filled with freshly whipped cream that was flavored with an espresso paste (espresso powder mixed with a few tablespoons of hot water).

After the layers were filled, I covered the top and sides with the espresso whipped cream, smoothing it out with an offset spatula.

Then came the fun part - decorating it! I've done several piped rose cakes in the past, a method first pioneered by the talented I Am Baker, and since I had yet to make one for my mom, I thought this would be the perfect time.

The technique is so simple, yet comes out so pretty! I filled a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip, and piped large rosettes around the sides of the cake. Then I piped large rosettes on the top of the cake, starting from the outside, until the entire top was filled.

There were still some open spots afterwards, so I just used the same large star tip to fill the gaps in. And then it was done! So easy!

This is still one of my favorite ways to decorate a cake, not only because it's fast and easy, but also because the effect is always so pretty.

 

Stay tuned to see how this years cake will turn out!

 

 Happy Birthday, Mom!
 

ombre ruffle coffee and cream cake

For my mom's birthday every year, I typically make some sort of coffee flavored cake, since I know that she loves coffee flavored desserts! In the past I've made her a Hello Kitty tiramisu cake, a mocha pocky layer cake, and a tiramisu layer cake. So this year I decided to continue the tradition by making her a coffee chiffon layer cake! (Boy, have I come a long way since my first coffee chiffon cake a few years ago!)

So I baked up three layers of coffee chiffon cake, and filled them with espresso-tinted whipped cream.

Since I wanted to do an ombre effect with piped ruffles along the sides of the cake, I covered the top with regular whipped cream, and the sides with espresso whipped cream. Then using a Wilton #104 petal tip, I piped three rows of ruffles with the espresso whipped cream, and then piped three rows with chocolate whipped cream (I basically just folded in melted and cooled bittersweet chocolate).

To finish it off, I sprinkled a few gold and silver dragees and white sugar pearls along the perimeter of the cake.

I think I could have even gone with a fourth layer of cake, just to give the final cake more height. But I still thought it looked cute.

Here's a quick shot I took (with my camera phone) of the inside of the cake. Love the striped look of the layers!

Happy Happy Birthday, Mom! Hope you enjoyed the cake and dinner party! :)

mother's day brunch - canadian bacon strata, garlic lemon asparagus, fresh pea soup, and mimosas

To go along with the heart surprise-inside Mother's Day cake that I made this year, my husband and I also cooked up a lovely brunch for my Mom. The night before the brunch, I assembled my Canadian bacon strata (it's basically like a savory bread pudding). I have made this strata many, many times, and I love it each time. I usually make it when we have house guests, because this is the perfect morning breakfast dish that you can prepare the night before, and then pop in the oven first thing in the morning. That way, you can catch up with your house guests over coffee while it bakes, and you won't have to be busy in the kitchen cooking up breakfast!

I saw this recipe on the Everyday Food cooking show several years ago, and have been using the same recipe ever since. First halve and toast your English muffins (I like to do this all at once on a sheet pan in the oven, but you could also use your toaster if you prefer).

Once toasted, slice each English muffin in half to create a half circle. Then get your Canadian bacon and slice those into half circles as well, and then alternate English muffins and Canadian bacon when layering them into your buttered baking dish.

Next, assemble your custard mixture (milk, eggs, mustard, hot sauce, and seasonings) and pour it all over the English muffins and Canadian bacon.

Finally top it with grated cheddar cheese and a little bit of grated parmasan.

And that's it! So simple! Cover it with plastic wrap and let it set in the refrigerator overnight (or you could just let it set for 2 hours if you are making it the day-of). Then first thing in the morning, remove the plastic wrap and bake it at 350F for a little over an hour (the recipe says one hour and 30 minutes, but I usually don't need to bake it that long).



For our Mother's Day brunch, I set a nice and simple table, with champagne glasses for Mimosas. :)

For the Mimosas I just combined equal parts orange juice with champagne, but you can also add Triple Sec if you like.

To go with the strata, I also made a simple fresh pea soup adapted on this recipe from Sunset Magazine, with a sprig of fresh parsley and drizzled with good olive oil. (I excluded the almonds since my daughter is allergic to all nuts, used parsley instead of mint, and also added a bit of sour cream for richness).

Finally, my husband whipped up my favorite Mario Batali asparagus to go with the brunch. Lightly blanched and then tossed with lemon zest, garlic, and olive oil, this asparagus dish is so fresh and tasty, even the kids like them!

Hope you had a happy Mother's Day, Mom!