father's day fruit tart with oreo cookie crust

Usually by the time Father's Day comes around, we have had a ton of cake. In between multiple birthdays (including my own) and Mother's Day, we always have cake. So lately I have been making pie for Father's Day!

This time I decided to go with a simple yet refreshing no-bake cheesecake pie, decorated with fresh fruit. So I used this Martha Stewart recipe, except I decided to go with an Oreo cookie crust instead of the graham cracker crust. (This recipe at Crazy for Crust makes the perfect chocolate cookie crust, in my opinion!)

After letting the pie chill in the fridge overnight, I was ready to decorate with fresh raspberries the next morning. I wanted my raspberries to spell out the word "DAD", so I used cookie cutters to make marks in the pie as a guide.

And then I just fit my raspberries inside the outlines!

So simple! And tasty! The creamy pie filling, with chocolatey cookie crust, and fresh tart raspberries - the pefect combination!

Stay tuned to see what I make for Father's Day this year!

Happy Father's Day!

hello kitty giant macaron cake (cake that looks like a hello kitty macaron)

Since the first time I created my Hello Kitty macarons five years ago, I have seen them pop up all over the place, on the internet, and even in bakeries and shops. They were one of my favorite things to make, have been requested at bridal showers, and I have even made them for a wedding dessert table! It is one of my most popular blog posts, and so I had to include the recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!

Last year for my birthday, I made a cake decorated with (nut free) Hello Kitty macarons, and a few months later when I was brainstorming ideas for a Mother's Day cake, my husband suggested a different type of Hello Kitty macaron cake - one that actually looks like a Hello Kitty macaron! Genius!

Since I have an obsessive love for all coffee flavored desserts, I decided to make it a coffee chiffon cake. I baked up three 8-inch coffee chiffon layers, let them cool, and then used a Hello Kitty template (the same Hello Kitty pan sushi mold used for my Hello Kitty tiramisu cake) to cut each cake layer into a Hello Kitty shape. Then I topped each cake with a layer of coffee whipped cream ...

... and a pile of smashed oreo cookies (since I love coffee oreo ice cream SO much!).

Then I added more coffee whipped cream and smoothed the whole thing out with an offset spatula.

Next came another layer of cake, more coffee whipped cream, and more oreos.

After the final layer of cake, I covered the whole thing with coffee whipped cream, and smoothed it out as best as I could with an offset spatula.

Then I went to work making it look like a macaron! I used a large round tip to pipe a ring of pink around the sides of the cake (meant to look like the macaron filling layer), and then used an offset spatula to smooth it out. Then I used a small round tip to pipe little "dots and bubbles", meant to look like the ruffly sides of the macaron shells. 

I finished it by piping black eyes and whiskers, and a yellow nose. For the bow I of course had to pipe hearts to make up the bow, since my Hello Kitty macarons have heart sprinkles for the bow.

And there it is! A cake that looks like a giant Hello Kitty macaron!

Happy Mother's Day!

hello kitty oreos (hello kitty TKOs)

If you've read my blog before, you'll know that I often turn my desserts into Hello Kitty desserts on a whim. As was the case when I recently made homemade oreos using Thomas Keller's recipe from the Bouchon Bakery book. (His cookies are called "TKOs" ... Thomas Keller Oreos. Cute huh?)

I've had my Hello Kitty cookie cutter for years, and it's come in handy for so many things (Hello Kitty cookies, Hello Kitty tarts, Hello Kitty tarlets, Hello Kitty Pumpkin Pie, and Hello Kitty tortilla chips, to name a few!) And I love that it comes with a little stamper as well, so that you can stamp Hello Kitty's features right into the cookie before baking!

As mentioned in my previous post, these babies are filled with a delicious vanilla buttercream, which turned out to be the prefect sweet compliment to the extra dark and chocolaty (and slightly salty) cookies.

So cute and so delicious!!!

homemade oreos (homemade TKOs)

A few years ago, I tried making homemade oreos but I wasn't happy with them. The cookie was too crumbly, and the filling was too soft. Later on, I tasted the TKOs (Thomas Keller Oreos) at Bouchon Bakery. Delicious! I eventually bought myself a copy of the Bouchon Bakery book, and the homemade oreo recipe was the first thing I tried!

After rolling out the (very chocolaty) dough between two sheets of parchment paper, I cut out my scalloped circles with a 3-inch decorative cookie cutter.

And then baked them for about 16 minutes.

For the filling, I followed the white chocolate filling recipe in the book, but it didn't work for me. It came out very, very runny. So instead I whipped up a vanilla buttercream and used that instead.

The book tells you to pipe the filling in teardrop shapes, to accent the scalloped edges of the cookie. So pretty!

I have to admin, these were much much better than my first attempt at homemade oreos years ago. This cookie was more chocolately, with a slightly salty bite, and the texture was perfect to hold in the delicious filling. So addictive!!!

iron man birthday ice cream cake

My oldest baby Matthew is turning SEVEN next week! How did seven years go by just like that?!

Speaking of how fast time flies, it's been a year since his last birthday and I never got around to posting the cake I made him! In the past I've made him a Spiderman cake, as well as a Superman cake, and last year he had insisted on having an Iron Man cake! We ended up having just a small family get-together, so I made him a cookies-n-cream ice cream cake, with Iron Man piped on the top. Not my best work, but he still loved it!

The entire ice-cream cake recipe can be found in my new book (look for the Badtz-Maru ice cream cake), so I'll just do a quick summary of the steps. It started with homemade cookies-n-cream ice cream, which I churned in advance and then poured into an 8-inch round cake pan that I had lined with plastic wrap, before letting it set in the freezer. (You may have a little ice cream left over, but no worries you can eat it like soft-serve right away!)

Closer to the date of the get-together, I made the chocolate cake layer. Once it was cooled (you may want to stick it in the freezer for a bit so that it's nice and cold and won't melt the ice cream layer), I unwrapped my ice cream layer and placed it on top of the cake layer. Then I used an offset spatula to smoothout the sides where the two layers meet, and then let it chill in the freezer while I made my whipped cream frosting.

Once my whipped cream was ready, I set aside about a cup of it, and to the rest I added cocoa powder to make it chocolate whipped cream. Then I quickly frosted the top and sides of the cake, working as fast as I could so the ice cream wouldn't melt.

Next I filled my piping bag (fitted with a Wilton #21 star tip) with the chocolate whipped cream, then piped a shell border on the top and bottom of the cake. Then back into the freezer it went.

With the frosting that I had set aside, I divided it and colored it black, red, and yellow, leaving just a tiny portion of white. Then I piped my Iron Man face, filling it in with piped stars using a Wilton #16 tip. Then i added some rainbow sprinkles around the edges of the cake to make it look more festive.

When I was done it still didn't look complete. Something looked wrong with Iron Man's face. So I added some vertical lines to make him look more Iron-Man-y.

Hmm .. it still didn't look right, but oh well, I was out of time. Good thing 6-year olds aren't too picky about minor details!

Here's a shot of the inside ...

And here's the birthday boy and his cake :) He was so happy!

Stay tuned for details on this years's upcoming birthday cake!

easy brownie ice cream sandwiches

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to review these silicone baking cups by New York Baking Company, and I immediately knew what I wanted to make with them - ice cream sandwiches! That way I could use them both as a baking cup in the oven, as well as a mold for the ice cream in the freezer! I just love dual-purpose things!

I decided I wanted my ice cream to be sandwiched by chocolatey brownies, so I started by using this brownie recipe from Victoria Beckham I had been eyeing. The recipe sounded so easy and it was simple to divide the recipe in half, as I only wanted to make one dozen. (Although on a side note, these turned out not as chocolatey as I wanted. I think paired with the ice cream it was good, but on it's own I like the brownie recipe in my new book better - much more chocolatey and moist! Sorry, Victoria!)

Anyway,  I whipped a half batch up, lined my cupcake tin with the silicone baking cups (although they seem sturdy enough to be able to be used without a baking tin and just directly on a sheet pan), and divided the batter into my cups (I ended up filling them a litle less than 3/4 full). Then I baked them at 350F for about 20-22 minutes. Once cooled, I was able to pop the brownies right out of the silicone baking cups!

Then I cut each brownie in half horizontally, and popped the bottom layer back into the silicone baking cup.

Next I placed a scoop of softened homemade mint oreo ice cream in each cup (you could of course use store-bought ice cream as a shortcut, but I prefer to use homemade ice cream, mainly because I love making it!), and then used a small offset spatula to smooth out the ice cream.

Finally I placed the top of the brownie on top of the ice cream layer, and put it back in the freezer to set! So easy!

I would recommend serving these the day they are assembled, so that the brownie doesn't get too hard. But if you do leave it for longer than overnight, then before serving just leave them at room temperature for about 10-15 minutes to let the brownie layer soften a bit. Then just pop them out of the silicone cups (I found the easiest way was to turn the cups inside out!)



These turned out delicious and were super easy to make! Now if only New York Baking Company would make these in cute patterns or metallic colors! Fun!