Blueberry Glazed Doughnut Muffins

One of my best friends came to visit me this past Memorial Day weekend so I decided to make him a delicious breakfast!  While I don’t eat doughnuts often, one of my favorites that I usually gravitate towards when I do eat them is a blueberry glazed doughnut.  There’s something about these doughnuts that is amazing… the blueberry flavor or the glaze frosting?  Recently, I saw a recipe for glazed doughnut muffins that looked fabulous, so I knew I had to make Blueberry Glazed Doughnut Muffins.  These muffins came out delicious especially with the addition of the glazed frosting.  I tried to make these muffins a bit more healthy by adding applesauce and whole wheat flour.  Definitely give these muffins a try if you’re having a good friend over for breakfast or if you just feel like eating 15 blueberry glazed doughnut muffins.  Hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day!

In other news, I will be traveling for work and am always looking for guest bloggers.  If you’re interested, send me an email at HappyWhenNotHungry@gmail.com.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 pint blueberries, washed

For the Glaze:

• 3 tbsp butter; melted
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar; sifted
• 3/4 tsp vanilla
• 2 tbsp hot water

Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 425°F. Lightly grease 15 muffin tins.
2) In a medium-sized mixing bowl, cream together the butter, applesauce, and sugars till smooth.
3) Add the eggs and vanilla, beating to combine.
4) In another bowl, stir together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
5) Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour and making sure everything is thoroughly combined.  Gently fold in the blueberries.
6) Spoon the batter evenly into the prepared pan, filling the cups nearly full.
7) Bake the muffins for 15 -17 minutes, or until they’re a pale golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the middle of one of the center muffins comes out clean.
8.) In a medium bowl, prepare the glaze by mixing together the melted butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla and water. Whisk until smooth.
9.) When muffins have cooled slightly, dip the muffin crown into the glaze and allow the glaze to harden.
10.) Serve warm, or cool on a rack and wrap airtight. Muffins will keep at room temperature for about a day.

*Makes 15 muffins

Recipe adapted from My Baking Addiction

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Strawberry Spinach Salad & Bowling at the White House

Guess what I did tonight?  I went bowling at the White House!!!  My hubby and I were invited by a friend who is on detail there.  There were about 12 of us that went and it was definitely an amazing experience (a lot more fun than our usual Wii Bowling).  Check out some of my photos.

Bowling was definitely a cool experience… now on to the food!  Since strawberries are in season down here in the DC Metro Area, I decided to make this fresh and healthy Strawberry & Spinach Salad.  This salad is so simple to make and so beautiful as well.  I added a little red onion for extra flavor and some walnuts for crunch.  The vinaigrette I used is really simple; I just whisk olive oil with fresh lemon juice, lemon zest, sea salt, and fresh cracked pepper.  It’s simple, but that’s all you need for this flavorful and fresh salad.  Enjoy and have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!!

Ingredients:

• 4 cups loosely packed baby spinach leaves, washed and patted dry with paper towels
• 1/2 red onion, finely diced
• 1 cup walnut halves
• 1 ½ cups fresh strawberries, halved
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon zest
• Sea salt and fresh cracked pepper for seasoning

Directions:

1. In a medium-sized serving bowl, lightly toss spinach, onion, walnuts, and strawberries and set aside.
2. In a small mixing bowl, whisk olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, and pepper until combined.  Pour dressing over salad and lightly toss until coated.

 

Baby Shower Neapolitan Cake

This past weekend, my sister had her 2nd baby shower back home in Syracuse. It was a wonderful weekend and the baby shower was so much fun! The food was delicious and my sister got a lot of really cute baby gifts. For this special occasion, my Mom and I baked my sister a 3-tiered baby shower cake with fondant. I’ve wanted to use fondant for a while now. I took a cake decorating class with my Mom and sister several years ago, but we never moved on to the fondant class.

To my surprise, working with fondant was not as difficult as I had imagined. Working with my Mom was definitely a huge help; she rolled out the fondant while I dirty frosted the cakes. I must say, store-bought fondant was really easy to use and I would highly recommend it for someone who wants to experiment with it for the first time or for someone who likes to bake these cakes every so often. I also found a package of baby shower fondant that came in pastel colors of yellow, blue, pink, and green. This was perfect to decorate the cake with, so I ordered some miniature baby cookie cutters to cut shapes out of the pastel fondant. Not only did the cake come out well, it tasted great too! We made Neapolitan flavors of chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla – one for each layer. Here are some things that I learned from working with fondant for the first time:

• Make a dense cake – I’ve heard of people mixing pound cake mix into their cake batter to make it heavier. Our cake was a bit crooked and we were nervous that it was going to implode. Next time, I will make the cake batter for the bottom layer heavier. Does anyone have any suggestions for this???
• Don’t open fondant prematurely – My mom and I opened the packages of pastel colored fondant and then were trying to decide the finishing touches of our design. Fondant dries out fairly quickly and will start to crack. We should have had our design set and then opened one package at a time.

My sister loved her cake, and my Mom and I were happy that we finished it in time and that it actually looked pretty cute!!

Have you ever worked with fondant before? I’m definitely new at this, so any tips you have would be helpful!

My mom was at someone else’s baby shower who strung up a clothes line and hung baby onesies all over it. We thought this was so cute, so we decided to do the same for my sister. How cute are these onesies?

Fruit and Nut Muesli

When I was doing graduate school work in Italy three years ago, I lived in a hotel for four weeks.  Normally, living out of a suitcase for that long would drive me crazy especially because it would mean that I couldn’t cook my own meals.  But in Italy, I had a lot of healthy and delicious meal options to choose from.  One of my favorite breakfast options was Fruit and Nut Muesli.  Muesli is so easy to make and so delicious.  Every morning I would mix it with different fresh fruits, nuts, and yogurt.  It’s not only delicious, but it’s filling as well.  Definitely give this recipe a try!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups quick-cooking oats
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup fresh orange juice
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1-2 medium apple, finely diced
• 1 cup strawberries, diced
• 1 cup sliced almonds

Directions:

1. Mix oats, milk, and vanilla extract in a large bowl.  Let it stand 5 minutes to soften oats.
2. Whisk orange juice and honey in medium bowl.  Stir in apples, strawberries, and almonds.
3. Stir fruit mixture into oat mixture, cover, and chill in refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Rosemary and Potato Chip Chicken Tenders

A couple of weeks ago, Shawnda from Confections of  a Foodie Bride was having a giveaway for Jennifer Chandler’s Simply Suppers cookbook and guess what… I won!  I was so happy to win this cookbook because who wouldn’t love more delicious recipes that are easy to make and are perfect for a weeknight meal?!  This cookbook has loads of beautiful dishes that are simple and require few ingredients.  I love recipes like that especially for weeknight meals.  The first recipe I tried was for the Rosemary & Potato Chip Chicken Tenders.  These tenders came out tasting fantastic and were extremely easy.  To make the recipe a bit more healthy, I baked my tenders instead of frying them and I used low-salt potato chips instead of the full-on salted ones.  I added some fresh rosemary as well since I love the rosemary-and-potato combo.  I accompanied them with some sweet potato fries.  They came out tasting great – definitely give this recipe a try!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup flour
• Sea salt and fresh ground pepper
• 2 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 bag (11 oz) potato chips, crushed
• 1 1/2 lbs chicken tenderloins

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or spray with cooking spray.
2. Place the flour in a bowl and season with salt, pepper, and rosemary.  Place the beaten eggs in another small bowl.  Leave the crushed potato chips in the bag.
3. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and season each side with salt and pepper.  Dredge both sides of a tenderloin in the flour, shaking off the excess.  Dip the tenderloin into the egg wash and allow the excess to drip off.  Dredge the tenderloin into the crushed potato chip bag, coating both sides.  Place the tenderloin on the baking sheet and repeat this step until all tenderloins are coated with potato chips.
4. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
5. Serve with honey mustard, BBQ sauce, or my hubby’s favorite, ranch dressing.

*Adapted from Jennifer Chandler’s Simply Suppers

Rhubarb Upside Down Cake

Hi guys!  For my Rhubarb Upside Down Cake recipe, check out my guest post at the Daring Kitchen Food Talk!!!

Toasted Coconut Cake

This past weekend, my sister-in-law graduated from college (yay!), so my hubby’s family was down here for the festivities.  My brother-in-law’s birthday is next week, so I decided to bake a Toasted Coconut Cake for him and my sister-in-law to enjoy.  I used organic, unsweetened coconut that my Aunt had given me.  I toasted the coconut which not only brings out the flavor, but also gives the cake a beautiful golden color.  I made three cakes and layered frosting in between.  This cake is awesome and definitely will make some tummies very happy.  Hope you had a wonderful weekend!  Enjoy 🙂

Cake Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp cake flour
• 12 ounces or 3 cups of sifted cake flour
•  2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 3/4 cups sugar, divided
• 2/3 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 6 large egg whites
• 1 cup unsweetened coconut, toasted

Frosting:

• 4 large egg whites
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups unsweetened coconut, toasted

Directions:

1. To prepare the cake, preheat oven to 350 and lightly coat 3 (9-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray.  Dust pans with 1 tablespoon flour.
2. On a baking sheet, spread out unsweetened coconut and bake, stirring occasionally, until golden, 7-10 minutes.
3. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
4. Place 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar and butter in a large bowl and beat with a mixer at medium speed for 2 1/2 minutes or until well blended.  Note: I used a hand-held mixer since I wanted to use my stand mixer to beat the egg whites.
5. Add flour mixture and coconut milk alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat in vanilla and coconut.
6. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat 6 egg whites on high speed until foamy. Add remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form (do not overbeat).
7. Carefully fold egg whites into batter and pour batter equally into prepared pans. Bake for 18 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
8. Cool in pans 10 minutes on wire racks and then remove from pans to cool completely on wire racks.

Frosting Directions:

1. To prepare frosting, combine 4 egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt in the bowl of stand mixer and beat at high speed until foamy.  Add 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form.
2. Combine sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Cook, without stirring, until candy thermometer registers 250°.
3. With mixer on low speed, pour hot sugar syrup in a thin stream over egg whites.  Gradually increase speed to high and beat 8 minutes or until thick and cool.  Stir in vanilla.
4. Place 1 cake layer on a serving plate and spread with 1 cup frosting.  Top with another cake layer.  Repeat procedure with 1 cup frosting and remaining cake layer, ending with cake layer on top.  Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake.  Gently press shaved coconut onto top and sides of cake.  Store cake loosely covered in refrigerator.

*Adapted from Cooking Light