red white and blue flag tart for july fourth, with fresh blueberries and strawberries

I'm back!!!  It's been a long time since I've posted anything, but I've been busy with the three kids! Plus, we decided to take a long vacation while I was still on maternity leave, so we went to Hawaii to visit my husband's family and hang out for a while ... in fact we were there for a month!  We stayed with my in-laws, so it was nice to have the extra help with the kids as well.

Anyhow, the first thing that I baked when we got back was for a July 4th BBQ at my cousin's house.  I didn't have a lot of time to bake since it was my first week back at work, so I decided to make a simple tart with fresh fruit on top.  Inspired by Martha Stewart's flag cake (that I've been wanting to make for ages), I decorated my tart to look like the American flag!

First I made my favorite all-butter pie crust, rolled it out and fitted it into a rectangular tart pan, then blind baked in the oven and let it cool.

For the filling, I found this Martha Stewart recipe for a no-bake cheesecake, and then I topped the tart with fresh blueberries and sliced strawberries.

The tart turned out to be perfect for a bbq on a hot summer day - crispy flaky crust, light and creamy filling, and fresh fruit!  I served it with my red, white, and blue ice cream (almond-scented ice cream with fresh blueberries and strawberries), which made a great combo! 

And now I'll leave you with some of my favorite pictures taken during our month in Hawaii.  Enjoy!

dr. seuss cat in the hat cookies

A few months ago, my husband's coworker asked me to make cookies for a Dr. Seuss themed baby shower.  She sent me a few Dr. Seuss cartoon images, and I was immediately excited at the challenge!  We decided that I would make Cat In The Hat cookies, Cat's hat cookies, and One Fish Two Fish cookies.

The first thing I did was ask my husband to make me a Hat cookie cutter.  He's the best at making custom copper cutters!  (See my Superman, Thomas the Train, Dora The Explorer, Spiderman, custom Cat, and Standing Piggy cookies).  We even have an Etsy shop up for them!

After using my favorite cookie and royal icing recipes, I was ready to decorate my cookies!  I started by piping an outline and stripes on the hat cookies with stiff black royal icing.  Then I filled them in with red and white runny icing.

After letting them dry overnight, I finished them by using an edible food marker to draw on the details, to give them a "cartoon" look.

For the Cat In the Hat cookies, there were a few more steps.  First, I used royal icing to hand pipe each Cat onto waxed paper, let them dry overnight, and then used an edible food marker to draw on the face and the details.  Then after I baked rectangular cookies, I outlined and filled them with blue royal icing, peeled off the pre-made Cats, and dropped them on the cookies while the blue icing was still wet.

I used the same technique for the One Fish Two Fish cookies, which were inspired by the ones at Sweet Sugar Belle (love her site and her amazing work!).

These ended up being the most complicated cookies I've ever made!  But they were also super challenging and so much fun, and totally worth it!

dark cherry ice cream

Near the end of my pregnancy with my third baby, I started making a lot of ice cream.  Like, a lot.  Particularly, various flavors of ice cream with chopped Oreos.  And then my cousin suggested that I make black cherry ice cream.  I instantly set about to find the perfect recipe, and finally decided on David Lebovitz's recipe from The Perfect Scoop (what a surprise!).

The first step was to make candied cherries by simmering cherries, sugar, lemon juice, and water together.  They cooked for about 30 minutes until the cherry liquid reduced and became syrupy.

For the ice cream base, the recipe called for making a custard with egg yolks, sugar, heavy cream and milk that had been steeped with chopped almonds to give an almond flavor in the custard.  But since my 3-year old is allergic to nuts, I skipped that step and instead used imitation almond extract.  Then after chilling the mixture overnight, I churned it in my ice cream maker, and added the strained and chopped candied cherries during the last few minutes of churning.

Let me just say that once I tasted this ice cream, I instantly fell in love with it.  And so did my husband.  I must have made it at least 5 times during my last month of pregnancy!  This is definitely at the top of my list of favorite ice cream recipes!

cat cookies and onesie cookies for a baby shower

To go along with the purple cat cake for Leona's baby shower, my good friend Diana had also asked me to make cat and onesie cookies as favors for the guests.  Using the cat logo from the baby shower invitation (designed by Diana and her husband Gavin, owners and creators of Bumble Ink), I decided to make two versions of the cat cookies - the original cat logo, and also just the cat face.

 I asked my husband to make custom cookie cutters for me, and he created both of them in one night!  He's the best!

For the cookie dough, I used my favorite homemade sugar cookie recipe, but you could of course use store bought sugar cookie dough.  After rolling out the dough, cutting out my shapes, and then baking them until golden, I whipped up my royal icing while waiting for the cookies to cool.  Once they were ready, I piped outlines on the cat cookies using stiff purple royal icing, and then filled them in with runny purple royal icing.

Then I did the same for the oneside cookies, except with this onesie cookie cutter and with white royal icing.

Once all the cookies were outlined and filled in, I let them dry overnight before piping on the details. The onesies were outlined with sage green, and I finished them by piping a tiny heart in the middle.

For the cat cookies, I used white for the details on the face, and more purple to add a final outline.

I thought the sage green royal icing matched the invitations pretty well, although the shade of purple royal icing for the cats was a bit off.  But oh well, they still looked cute!

And finally, a few pictures from the english tea themed baby shower!