Easter

Soft Bird’s Nest Sugar Cookies

By in Cookies & Bars, Easter, Kids, Sweets 8 Comments Tags: , , , , ,

soft birds nest sugar cookies

I love making things with Max in the kitchen, but if the project is too intricate or involved I find myself getting more stressed out then I like to be. I want us all to enjoy our time in the kitchen together, I want to foster a love for the kitchen, not memories of a stressed out mom. That’s why I love planning projects like this that are easy for him to help with, don’t make a ton of mess and look great no matter how tiny the hands are that made them.

This is the perfect project for toddlers and preschoolers because although their not quite adept enough to pipe sensical decorations onto cookies, they can decorate these cookies easily and have them turn out beautiful. They can choose the colours they like or mix and match them like Max did. They can have complete freedom and you’ll know the end product will add something special and delicious to the Easter table.

We topped our’s with candy coated chocolate covered almond eggs (wow, that’s a mouthful!) which I thought were the perfect complement to the coconut topping. When I made these I figured they would be just for looks but they were actually really delicious. This is one case where the toppings aren’t just there for show, they actually add something special to the flavour of the cookie.

The coconut topping is just shredded coconut that has been dyed with food colouring and water. I used liquid food colours but you could also use gel colours, although you may need to add a bit more water to make it the right consistency to coat the coconut. My favorite colour was definitely the purple and I’ve included the instructions below on the amounts of liquid colour I used to achieve the colour. The other colours are much more straight forward – just one or two drops from the average four-pack of liquid food colouring.

These are so tasty and so fun, I know I’ll be making them again next year. Im pretty sure we just found a new Easter tradition. :)

Soft Bird’s Nest Sugar Cookies

Just FYI, I had a lot of leftover frosting. But, I don’t think half the frosting would be quite enough. Better to have too much then too little right?

Soft Sugar Cookies
  • 1.5 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1.5 cups sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 5 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 4.5 cups all-purpose flour
  • 4.5 teaspoons baking powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt

Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well combined. Beat in vanilla.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl. Slowly beat into butter mixture, just until combined. Cover and refrigerate for one hour.

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Scoop 1/4 cup amounts of cookie dough, roll each into a ball and flatten slightly. Place on parchment-line baking sheets 2-3 inches apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes or just until set; do not brown. Let cool on baking sheet for 3 minutes before removing to cooling racks or paper towel to cool completely.

Frosting
  • 5 cups icing sugar (confectioners sugar), sifted
  • 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 7 tablespoons milk

Mix together all ingredients until smooth.

To Decorate
  • 1 cup shredded coconut
  • food colouring
  • water
  • chocolate covered almond eggs, chocolate eggs or jelly beans

Place 1/4 cup coconut into four ziploc bags. In a small bowl add 1/4 teaspoon water and desired food colouring, swirl to combine. Pour into one of the bags, seal and shake until the coconut is evenly coloured. Rinse the bowl and repeat with remaining colours. (To make the purple, use 3 drops red and 2 drops blue of liquid colour.)

Top each cookie with frosting, a good sprinkling of coconut and chocolate eggs.

Store, covered, at room temperature.

Makes approximately: 2 dozen cookies

Decoration inspired by Betty Crocker. Recipe Adapted from Annie’s Eats, originally from Hostess with the Mostess.

Easter Pavlovas with Lemon Whipped Cream & Vanilla-Rhubarb Compote

By in Easter, Simple Bites, Sweets No Comments Tags: , , , , , ,

pavlova

So, when I said I hogged all the rhubarb at the store I made more then just Rhubarb-Vanilla Lemonade. I also made some sweet and refreshing Easter pavlovas (in the shape of eggs) topped with lemon whipped cream and vanilla-rhubarb compote. Are you seeing a theme here? I have become obsessed with the rhubarb-vanilla-lemon combination, it’s just so darn good together. I’m sharing the recipe and some tips on making the perfect pavlova over on Simple Bites today.

“Pavlova’s are a perfect Easter dessert for so many reasons. 1) The majority of the work can be done a couple of days before serving. 2) You can make individual servings or one large dessert. 3) You can top it with whatever variety of toppings you like – or even serve it buffet style with a variety of topping and everyone can customize their own.”

Get the recipe and tips on Simple Bites.

Sparkling Rhubarb-Vanilla Lemonade

By in Beverages, Cold, Easter 7 Comments Tags: , , ,

rhubarb vanilla lemonade

I started thinking and planning for Easter a couple weeks ago. I love scheming up new and fun ideas for holidays and always start way to early. I do try to hold off on the blog though because even though it’s fun for me to plan, it always irks me a bit when one holiday is just over and you immediately see the next holiday popping up all over the place. Give me a little bit of breathing room first, if you please. But, now that Easter’s only two weeks away I thought it would be fun to start posting some Easter/Spring themed treats in case there are any planners out there like me.

When I saw rhubarb at my local grocery store I cleared out the shelves immediately. Sorry to anyone who may have been looking for some! I’m so done with apples, oranges and pears. I love them. But, I’m ready to move on… until fall when I’ll be craving them again.

If you’re able to find rhubarb in your area, and if some greedy booger hasn’t stolen them all already (again, sorry!), then please make this drink ASAP. It would be such a fun drink to serve guests in celebration of spring or Easter. The refreshing flavour of lemonade with the added oomph and fruity-tart flavour from rhubarb, mellowed out with vanilla bean – it’s spring in a glass. And, it’s such a pretty pink hue, it would fit right in at a little girl’s b-day party or baby shower. Just double, triple or quadruple the recipe for a crowd.

Now, on to what I know some of you are waiting for… the winner of The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food from my Frontier is Ashley who said, “Strawberries are my favourite!” Congratulations Ashley! I’ll be e-mailing you shortly for your mailing address! :)

Thanks so much for all your entries. I loved reading what all of your favourite spring produce is and the clever ways you serve them up!

Sparkling Rhubarb-Vanilla Lemonade

If you don’t like the look of vanilla beans in this drink you can substitute it with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, stirred in after it’s been removed from the heat.

Rhubarb-Vanilla Lemon Syrup
  • 4 cups chopped rhubarb
  • 1/2 cup lemon juice
  • 2 strips of lemon peel
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 vanilla bean, split and seeded

Place all ingredients in a medium-size saucepan. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool completely before straining through a fine mesh sieve. Store, covered, in the fridge until serving.

To Serve
  • 1 part rhubarb-vanilla lemon syrup
  • 2 parts sparkling water, chilled

Stir together syrup and water. Serve over ice.

I ended up with 1 1/3 cups syrup so I added 2 2/3 cup sparkling water which is equal to 4 (1 cup) servings.

Makes: 4 servings

Inspired by: Donna Hay Magazine, Oct/Nov 2011

White Chocolate Key Lime Pie

By in Creamy, Easter, Pastries, Sweets 28 Comments Tags: , , ,

white chocolate key lime pie

Is anyone else as giddy as me that today’s the first day of spring? I’m absolutely ecstatic! That means all this gorgeous weather we’ve been having here in New York isn’t just a cruel prank. It’s actually the start of something awesome!

Me and the kids have been going to the rooftop, kicking up our heels and drinking in the sunlight. We’ve been going to the playground in our t-shirts, having barbecues, eating ice cream and making no-bake desserts that slap you in the face with how springlike they are.

Yay spring! As my son is so fond of saying, “goooo-job” spring, “goooo-job”. I’m happy to see your smiling face.

White Chocolate Key Lime Pie. Mmmm. The first words out of my mouth when I tried this were, “oh goodness, that’s good.” I may have said it out loud, while I was by myself. I may even have skyped my hubby to tell him how good it was and that he’d better hurry home so we could have it with lunch. And while we’re at it , it might have taken every ounce of my strength to resist another bite until after I’d finished my lunch. This is a highly probable situation.

This is so easy to make and so refreshing that I just know it’ll become a staple around here in the spring and summer. This is prime potluck and barbecue material (or even Easter, for that matter). It actually makes quite a few servings even though it’s a regular sized pie. It’s very rich – like a big citrus truffle. I think lime and white chocolate are a perfect pairing because, even though this is a rich dessert, the lime makes sure that the white chocolate isn’t too sweet and the white chocolate makes sure the lime isn’t too tart. It’s a match made in heaven, I say.

White Chocolate Key Lime Pie

You can use key limes or regular limes for this pie.

Graham Cracker Crust
  • 1.5 cups graham cracker crumbs
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup butter, melted

Mix ingredients together in a 9-inch pie plate until evenly combined. Press evenly onto the bottom and up the sides of the pie plate. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before filling.

Pie Filling
  • 1 cup whipping cream
  • 11 oz. white chocolate chips
  • 1 tablespoon sour cream
  • 1 teaspoon lime zest
  • 1/3 cup lime juice
  • Garnish: lime slices and chopped white chocolate

Melt together cream and chocolate chips in a small saucepan set over low heat. Remove from heat, stir in sour cream, lime zest and juice. Pour into prepared pie crust. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 8 hours, or overnight.

Garnish with limes slices and chopped chocolate if desired.

Serves: 12

Crust adapted from allrecipes. Filling adapted from my recipes.

Strawberry & Lime Layer Cake

By in Cakes, Easter, Sweets 16 Comments Tags: , , , , , ,

strawberry lime cake

I can’t believe it’s already been a year since I first posted about our brand new baby girl. Ahhhh! *tears* She’s growing up too fast! I love the baby stage. Just look at those cute baby cheeks (below) and tell me you don’t want to squish them all day long. I know there’s a lot of wonderful times ahead and I’m looking forward to it all so much. But, it’s ok for me to be a little sad that my baby girl is taking one more step to adulthood right?

I wanted to give her a simple but girly birthday party so I decided to go with the theme of Strawberry & Lime. I know that at this age she really couldn’t care less about her birthday so I tried to keep everything simple and stress-free. After-all I wanted to spend lot’s of time with the birthday girl.

The main star to the show (besides the sweet baby) was the Strawberry & Lime Layer Cake – a white cake sandwiched with coconut lime curd and smothered in whipped strawberry frosting. Fruity, refreshing and girly.

The decoration was extremely easy to do and the result was so precious. Perfect for a little girl’s birthday party. I followed a tutorial from Sockerru, where you pipe big dots of frosting and smooth them out with a spoon (I used the Ateco tip# 808 to pipe on the dots). Seriously, it was so simple and quick, anyone could do it. The key is to make the crumb coat as smooth and flat as possible so that everything looks even (I follow this method to smooth my frosting). The only thing I couldn’t figure out was how to finish it up in the back where the pattern met. The solution I came up with? Put the seam in the back where no one can see it. :D

Happy Birthday to my favourite baby girl!

Strawberry & Lime Layer Cake

White Cake
  • 3 cups cake flour*
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 2 1/4 cups sugar, divided
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup milk
  • 8 large egg whites, room temperature (save the yolks for the curd below)

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Beat butter and 2 cups sugar for several minutes until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Mixing on low-speed, add flour in 3 additions, alternating with milk, starting and ending with flour. Beat just until combined.

In a clean bowl, beat egg whites on low until foamy. Add 1/4 cup sugar and beat on high just until stiff, glossy peaks form when beater is lifted.

Gently fold 1/3 egg whites into butter/flour mixture to loosen batter. Fold in remaining whites.

Divide batter between 2 9-inch round cake pans lined with parchment paper rounds and spayed with cooking spray; smooth tops. Bake at 350ºF for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool 20 minutes before removing from pans and peeling off parchment. Cool completely on wire wracks before wrapping in plastic wrap to store.

*To make your own cake flour place 2 tablespoons cornstarch into a 1 cup measuring cup, spoon in enough all-purpose flour to fill. Sift several times to combine. This makes 1 cup cake flour.

Coconut Lime Curd
  • 1 (15 oz) can coconut milk
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup cornstarch
  • 1/3 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup lime juice
  • 6 eggs yolk
  • green food colouring, if desired

Place 1 cup coconut milk and sugar in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook until sugar is dissolved. Mix together the remaining coconut milk and the cornstarch. Pour into the saucepan, stirring to combine. Lower heat to medium, add butter and whisk until melted together. Whisk in lime juice and egg yolks. Cook, stirring often, until thick and it coats the back of a spoon. Do not overcook or eggs will start to scramble. Stir in food colouring, if desired. Allow the mixture to cool slightly and then pour into a heat-proof bowl. Place plastic wrap directly on the surface of the curd to stop condensation. Allow to cool completely before refrigerating. Beat, to loosen, before spreading on cake layers.

Whipped Strawberry Frosting
  • 2 cups unsalted butter, softened
  • 4 cups icing sugar, sifted
  • 1/4 cup strawberry puree (from frozen, thawed berries is fine)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a stand mixer, beat butter for 6 minutes, until pale and creamy. Add remaining ingredients and beat for an additional 6 minutes, until light and creamy.

If not using all of it right away beat by hand with a spatula, to remove any air bubbles, before using.

To Assemble

Trim tops of cakes flat. Carefully cut each cake in half to make 4 layers of cake (here’s a great video to show you how). Place one cake layer on serving platter, spread with some of the coconut lime curd. Place another cake layer on top and spread with more coconut lime curd. Repeat one more time and then top with the last cake layer (you will have leftover curd). Crumb coat the cake to glue the crumbs to the cake and to make sure none of the curd shows through the frosting. Refrigerate 10 minutes to set. Frost as desired. Refrigerate until serving.

White Cake adapted from Martha Stewart. Coconut Lime Curd adapted from Donna Hay Dec/Jan 2012.

Guest Post: Strawberry Scones

By in Breads, Breakfast, Easter 10 Comments Tags: , , ,

strawberry-scone

This is a guest post from Karly of Buns in My Oven. If you don’t follow her blog yet, you should. It’s full of drool worthy eats that will get your tummy grumbling. Plus she’s tons of fun and you’re guaranteed to have a laugh while you’re there. I can´t wait to try these Strawberry Scones for myself. Welcome Karly!

When Cheri asked me to guest post on her gorgeous blog, I cried a little. I mean, seriously? Have you seen this woman’s gorgeous photos? And her scrumptious food? How the heck was I going to create something pretty enough and tasty enough for her blog?

Well. I don’t know about the pretty part, but these strawberry scones are outta this world good. They are perfect for a summer breakfast. Ask my son, he should know. He ate them all in about 5 minutes flat.

Side note: Growing boys are kind of scary. I have this fear that one day he won’t find anything that looks good in the fridge and he’ll just eat his family instead. Seriously, bottomless pit doesn’t even begin to describe tween boys.

Back to the scones, these were super quick to prepare and full of great strawberry flavor. While the scones are baking, the strawberries cook down a bit, so each bite has the taste of fresh strawberry jam, minus all the work of actually, you know, making fresh strawberry jam.

If you could take a bite out of summer, I’m pretty sure it would taste like this. At least, I hope it would taste like this. In truth, summer probably tastes a bit like stinky shoes and dirt. But, maybe that’s just the mom in me talking.

Strawberry Scones

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 tablespoon grated orange zest
  • 1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
  • 1 large egg, lightly beaten
  • 1/2 cup cold heavy cream
  • 1 cup diced strawberries
  • 1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons water or milk, for egg wash
  • 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
  • 4 teaspoons freshly squeezed orange juice

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In the bowl of your mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and orange zest. Beat in the cold butter until you have a coarse, crumbly mixture. Combine the egg and cream and slowly pour into the flour mixture with the mixer on low. Mix until just blended. Add the strawberries to the dough until combined.

Dump the dough onto a well floured surface and work into a ball. Flour your hands and a rolling pin and roll the dough into a rectangle about 3/4 inches thick. Flour a 3 inch round or fluted cookie or biscuit cutter and cut circles of dough. Place the scones on a pan lined with parchment. Gather the scraps to re-roll and cut more scones.

Brush the tops of the scones with the egg wash and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Scones should be lightly browned and feel firm to the touch. Allow to cool for 15 minutes.

Whisk together the confectioners sugar and orange juice and drizzle over the scones.

Recipe from Le Petit Brioche.

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