monogram wedding cookies

My cousin Yvonne got married to her longtime fiance Marvin a few weeks ago (YAY!), and I offered to help out my making wedding cookie favors!  Her wedding color was robin's egg blue, so I made blue and white "Y" and "M" monogram cookies, representing their initials.

As always, I used my favorite homemade sugar cookie and royal icing recipes, but you could of course use store bought..  Since I was making 200 cookies, I ended up making 8 batches of the sugar cookie recipe!  After letting the dough chill in the fridge, I rolled it out and used these Alphabet cookie cutters to cut our my letters.

When all of the cookies were baked (it was late at night by now), I stored them in airtight containers to keep them fresh overnight.  Then the next day I started on my icing.  I made two batches of royal icing, and colored half of it robin's egg blue (I used a combination of Americolor sky blue and teeny bit of lemon yellow), trying as best as I could to match it to the colors on the invitation.  I decided to make the "Y" cookies blue, and the "M" cookies white - by first piping a stiff icing outline around each letter, and then filling it with runny icing.

After the icing had dried (I let it dry overnight), I piped a dotted border around each cookie to finish it off.

Two hundred cookies later, I was done!

Finally, I wrapped the cookies in cellophane bags (one "Y" cookie and one "M" cookie in each bag), and tied them with custom favor tags and raffia.

The wedding turned out beautiful!  The ceremony was lovely, the food was deelish (lobster, filet mignon, cuban rice, and fried plantains!), and the Matthew and Melodie had so much fun dancing all night long.

Congratulations Yvonne and Marvin!  We love you!

purple ombre roses cake

My friend H introduced me to her friend S a few years ago, the day that the three of us stood in line at Macy's for hours to meet Sarah Jessica Parker at a perfume signing event.  It was so much fun!

After that day, I've bumped into S here and there, and we eventually discovered that we share a love for food and food photography.  Then one day recently, she asked me to make a cake for her birthday.  She specifically requested the rose cake (that I love to make), which uses the rose cake method from I Am Baker.  And since she requested either purple or white, I decided to make it a purple ombre rose cake, similar to my purple ombre petal cake, which would start with purple at the bottom and gradually grow lighter until it became white on the top.

For the cake layers I made my favorite homemade dark chocolate cake.  I only used half the recipe, which filled two 6-inch cake pans.  Then I filled the layers with chocolate mousse (recipe from the Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake from America's Test Kitchen).

Then I whipped up a batch of cream cheese buttercream, and did a quick crumb coat over the entire cake.

And then came the fun part - the piping of the roses.  I divided the rest of the frosting into three parts - I left the first portion white, then the next portion I colored a light purple, and the third portion I colored a darker purple.

Then using a Wilton 1M tip and I Am Baker's rose cake method, I covered the top of my cake with white roses.

Next came the lighter purple roses, and finally the darker purple roses on the bottom.

Isn't it pretty? :)

Happy belated birthday, S!  Hope you enjoyed the cake!

hello kitty strawberry rhubarb tart

After making the strawberry rhubarb mini tarts in a recent post, I decided to make one large strawberry rhubarb tart, with a twist - I wanted to use the extra pie crust dough to decorate the top of the tart with Hello Kitty!

So I made an all-butter pie crust, rolled it out, and carefully lined a 9-inch tart pan with the dough.  Then I rolled my rolling pin over the top of the tart pan to cut off the excess dough, and wrapped the extra dough in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for later.

For the filling, I again chopped rhubarb and strawberries into same-size pieces, then tossed them with sugar, flour, and a pinch of salt.

Then I filled my prepared tart pan with the strawberry rhubarb mixture, using a spatula to push the mixture out to the sides of the pan.

Next, I took my extra pie crust dough out of the fridge, rolled it out, and cut out a few Hello Kitty shapes with a cookie cutter.  Aren't they cute? :)

I only had enough extra dough for four Hello Kitty shapes, which I arranged on top of the tart.

Finally I used egg wash to brush on top of the Hello Kitty shapes and exposed pie crust, and then sprinkled on some sanding sugar.  Then I popped it in the oven and let it bake for almost an hour.  Once it was done and the crust was golden brown, I took it out and resisted the urge to cut into it right away, otherwise all the beautiful juices would flow out!  So I let it cool before cutting into it.

And there you have it.  Flaky crust, tart rhubarb, and juicy sweet strawberries, and all topped with Hello Kitty!  A perfect combination if you ask me!

*** Update:
You can now find my recipe for Hello Kitty Strawberry Rhubarb Tart in my new book, "The Hello Kitty Baking Book"! Enjoy!

panna cotta with fresh berries and balsamic vinegar

For Father's Day this year, I asked my husband what he wanted to do.  He decided that he would love for the family to spend the day at a lake near our house, so I obliged and planned a day of hiking and a picnic lunch.  For lunch I made ham and cheese sandwiches with farmer's greens, while my mom made sticky mochi rolls filled with shredded dried pork (pork sung) and chinese pickled mustard greens.

 

For dessert I had planned on making little portable jars of panna cotta and fresh berries, but I had waited too long to make them and didn't have enough time to let them set in the fridge.  So I figured we'd have them when we came back from the lake, and instead made them in cute star-shaped ramekins - a recent birthday gift from one of my best friends (thanks Reggie!).

I used Ina Garten's panna cotta recipe, which uses heavy cream, yogurt, gelatin, sugar, and vanilla to create a tangy and delicious and panna cotta.  I poured them into my ramekins until they were almost full, leaving some space at the top for the berries topping, and then let them set in the fridge.

After they were set (about 5 hours later), I topped them with fresh blueberries and raspberries.

Then I made the balsamic strawberry topping from the same panna cotta recipe, which combines sliced strawberries with balsamic vinegar and sugar, and poured that over the fresh berries.

I also made a few in the little jars that I had planned on, just so I could see my original vision come to life.  Aren't they cute?

I think these would also be great for a simple Fourth of July dessert!

strawberry rhubarb tartlets

In my last post on my recent obsession with making rhubarb tarts, I had used a new rectangular tart pan which delivered a different aesthetic to my tart, and I loved it.  This led me to order these mini tart pans, which escalated my tart-making obsession to another level!

For the crust, I made an all-butter pie crust, divided the dough into 6 equal portions, and rolled each one into a circle and carefully lined each tartlet pan.  Then I ran my rolling pin over the tops, in order to cut off the excess dough.

For the filling, I decided to add strawberries to my rhubarb, since I love that specific combination of flavors.  So I chopped my rhubarb and strawberries into same sized chunks, and then tossed them with sugar, flour, and a pinch of salt.

Then the tartlets were ready to be filled.  Usually I would arrange a nice pattern with my rhubarb when making regular-sized tarts, but in this case the strawberries were already starting to grow soft from the sugar and the rhubarb was chopped into chunks, and there wasn't really way to arrange them nicely.  So I just divided the filling among the prepared tartlet pans, and used a spatula to push the filling out to the edges.

After they baked for about 50 minutes, they were golden and beautiful!

They were best while still warm and fresh out of the oven!  But still good the next day as well.  The strawberries and rhubarb combined were divine, as the strawberries mellowed out the tartness of the rhubarb, and the colors together were just beautiful!

I decided that I like the mini tarts even better than one big tart, a) because the crust is even flakier and crispier - perhaps because it's a smaller amount of filling than in one large tart, and b) because you get a whole tart to yourself!

rhubarb and honey tart

Last month, I went to the dentist three times.  There was a checkup visit, a second visit to replace two cracked fillings (during which I endured 3 painful shots to numb me which did not work), which led to a third visit to actually replace the fillings (this time I got numb after 4 painful shots, yay!).  As you can see from my Instagram picture, I wore my favorite Hello Kitty shoes to cheer myself up ... I was really nervous!

The day after my fillings were finally replaced, I announced out loud that I was going to make a rhubarb tart, to which my husband promptly reminded me, "Think of all the trips to the dentist you just had!"  But, fueled by my recent revisit to baking with rhubarb, I insisted that I must do it while rhubarb was still in season!  Although, I compromised with him - based on my husband's theory that honey doesn't give you cavities (question for you dentists out there - is this true?), I decided to try making this rhubarb tart with honey instead of sugar.

Usually I make my rhubarb tarts in this round tart pan with removeable bottom, but this time I chose to use my new rectangular tart pan (similar to this one).  So I made my favorite all-butter pie crust, and carefully rolled and lined my tart pan with the dough.

Then I sliced my rhubarb and mixed it with honey (about a half cup), a pinch of salt, and a couple of tablespoons of flour.

Then came the fun part - arranging it in the tart pan!  I've tried arranging it in a vertical pattern as seen here, as well as a horizontal pattern as seen here, but this time since I was using a rectangular tart pan I decided to make two long rows of rhubarb.

Then I brushed the exposed pie crust with egg wash, and sprinkled on a bit of sanding sugar before popping it in the oven.

After about 50 minutes in the oven, it was done!  By this time the whole house smelled delicious.

When I first sliced it, I didn't love the way the rectangular piece looked.  I was starting to think I should have made it in the round tart pan after all.

But then I realized that I could still slice it into triangular pieces.  In love with rectangular tart pan once more.

It's even better with a scoop of ice cream.  For breakfast.

With a cup of coffee to top it all off.  The end.