Archive for the ‘recipes’ Category

Sweet Treats: Chili Lime Cupcakes

Aug 11, 2011 Filed under: recipes

I made these last night and I am completely in love with them. Like with mojito cupcakes, you start by making white cake cupcakes with a recipe like this one. Or if you’d rather not make the cake from scratch, Duncan Hines Classic White Cake mix is quite good especially if you replace half the water with milk to make it richer.

Lime Icing

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

zest of one lime

1/8 tsp salt

a few drops of green food coloring

cayenne pepper or chili powder, depending on the taste you want

2 cups powdered sugar

Mix all ingredients except powdered sugar until creamy. Then slowly add powdered sugar using a little more or less to make the consistency of icing you prefer.

Ice the cupcakes and sprinkle cayenne pepper or chili powder on top.

Sweet Treats: Mojito Cupcakes

Aug 8, 2011 Filed under: recipes Tags: baking, cupcake, mojito, recipes, summer recipe

I made mojito cupcakes this afternoon and they were the perfect finish to a lovely staycation day of uninterrupted writing and reading. I’m going to include a link to a white cake recipe but if you’d rather not make the cake from scratch, the Duncan Hines Classic White Cake mix is quite good especially if you replace half the water with milk to make it richer.

Mojito Cupcakes

You can use this recipe for white cake.

Filled lined cupcake cups 1/2 full. Bake as directed and cool completely.

Glaze

3 cups powdered sugar

1/4 rum

1/4 cup fresh squeezed lime juice

1 tsp lime zest

1/8 tsp salt

Mix ingredients together and add more powdered sugar or more rum if needed to make a good pourable consistency.

Pour glaze over cooled cupcakes. Top with lime slices and mint leaves (which got left out in my photo).

 

Sweet Treats: Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Jul 28, 2011 Filed under: recipes, sweet treats

Cupcakes and brownies are my current obsessions. I’ve got a whole list of new recipes to try and this week, I made Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes. They were amazing!! So I had to share the recipe.

Chocolate Cake

• 1 cup sour cream (yogurt works too)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups flour
• ½ cup Dutch process  cocoa powder
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup light brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 eggs, plus 2 egg yolks

Combine baking soda and sour cream in a bowl and set aside. Combine flour and cocoa and set aside. Beat butter and sugars until creamy. Add salt and eggs and mix until thoroughly combined. Add flour mixture and sour cream mixture alternately starting and ending with flour. Mix after each addition.

Fill lined cupcake cups 2/3 full and bake at 350F for approximately 20 minutes.

Mint Frosting

1 cup butter, softened

1/3 cup heavy cream

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp peppermint extract

4 cups powdered sugar

1 cup crumbled Andes mints

Place first five ingredients in mixer bowl and mix until creamy. Add sugar 1/2 cup at a time mixing until icing is the right consistency.

Ice cupcakes and top with Andes mints.

 

Dinner for My Heroes

Jul 25, 2011 Filed under: erotica, interview, m/m, paranormal, recipes, shapeshifter, web event Tags: Changeling Press, deer shifter, erotic romance, erotica, gay erotica, gay romance, Heroes, m/m, m/m romance, paranormal romance, shapeshifter

I’m in the author spotlight at Whipped Cream this week and each day I’ll have a different blog post where I cook dinner for one of my heroes. To really know a man I have to know what I would cook for him and I’m happy to have a chance to share all those gastronomic delights with my readers.

In today’s post I’m making bacon burgers and blueberry pie for Jason from Sex on the Hoof.

Sweet Treats: Lemon Cupcakes

Jul 21, 2011 Filed under: recipes

My daughters and I made these lemon cupcakes from the Big Book of Cupcakes last week. They were delicious and great for helping us think cool thoughts in the heat. We topped them with orange candies because we couldn’t find lemon ones.

Lemon Cake

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/2 tsp lemon extract

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

Heat oven to 350F. Combine milk, juice and extract and set aside. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and mix until combined.  Measure dry ingredients into a medium bowl. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk, mixing after each addition.

Spoon batter into lined cupcake cups, filling them 2/3 full. Makes 24 cupcakes. Bake 18-20 minutes.

Lemon Frosting

1 cup butter

1/4 tsp salt

3T lemon juice

1 tsp lemon extract

3-4 drops yellow food coloring

1 tsp lemon zest (optional)

4 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup heavy cream

Mix first six ingredients in a stand mixer. Gradually add powdered sugar and cream, alternating the two. Continue mixing until frosting is thick and creamy.

Frost cupcakes and decorate as desired.  Enjoy!

Sweet Treats: Brownies

Jun 30, 2011 Filed under: recipes Tags: brownies, chocolate, recipes

Thanks to Xavier, I’ve been on quite a brownie kick recently. I’ve made Oreo Brownies which are orgasmic in the extreme and next up I want to make these sea salt caramel brownies. But today I’m going to share my recipe for plain old regular brownies because sometimes a brownie is just a simple comfort. And sometimes I just need to eat a spoonful, okay several spoonfuls, of the batter so much that I make these up just to indulge myself. And if some get cooked, so be it. I like my brownies dense and very chocolatety so my secret ingredient is coffee which in small quantities brings out the flavor of chocolate without adding the taste of coffee, not that I mind a nice espresso brownie on occasion.

Silvia’s Brownies

4 oz unsweetened chocolate

3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) butter

1.5 cups sugar

1/4 cup strong brewed coffee

3 eggs

1t vanilla

1 1/4 c flour

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9x13in pan. Melt butter and chocolate together in microwave. I heat about a min and stir and then continue heating in 20 second intervals until everything is melted. Stir in sugar, coffee, eggs, and vanilla until well combined. Then stir in flour. Spread evenly in pan and bake approximately 30 minutes, less if you like them gooey and not quite done like I do.

 

Recipe: Pancakes and Bacon Cupcakes with Maple Bacon Icing

Jun 20, 2011 Filed under: book recommendation, recipes

So after spending a rainy afternoon during which AJ Llewellyn and Serena Yates seduced me with the amazing descriptions of cupcake delights in their book, The Cake, I had to do some cupcake baking of my own. So after looking at few recipes online and pulling ideas from here and there, I made up a recipe for Pancakes and Bacon cupcakes and topped them with Maple Bacon icing. They turned out just like I wanted them and now I’m afraid I’ll want to make them every morning.

 

 

 

 

Pancakes and Bacon Cupcakes

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 t salt

1.5T baking powder

1 3/4 cups milk

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 egg

2T melted butter

4 pieces cooked bacon, crumbled

Preheat oven to 400F.

Mix dry ingredients. Add egg, milk and syrup. Stir until well combined. Add melted butter and bacon pieces. Stir until just incorporated.

Fill muffin cups halfway and bake for 15 minutes. Cool completely before icing.

Maple Bacon Frosting

8 T butter

2 T bacon drippings

1/4 cup maple syrup

2 cups powdered sugar

1/8 t salt

4 pieces cooked bacon, crumbled

Use a mixer to whip butter, bacon drippings, salt, and maple syrup until fluffy. Add powdered gradually until well combined. Add bacon pieces and mix until incorporated.

 

Recipe: Triple Chocolate Cake

May 30, 2011 Filed under: recipes

Triple Chocolate Cake

1 pkg Devil’s Food cake mix
1 pkg instant chocolate pudding
1 cup chocolate chips
8 oz sour cream
4 eggs
1/2c vegetable oil
1/2 c water

Stir cake mix and pudding mix together. Add other ingredients except chips. Stir until combined. Mix on high speed for 2 minutes. Sprinkle chocolate chips with flour (prevents them from sinking to bottom of pan as cake cooks) and mix them in on low speed. Pout into a bundt pan and bake according to cake box directions.

Recipes: Chicken with Capers and Devlishly Good Cookies

May 19, 2011 Filed under: recipes

I love the Simply Recipes blog. It’s one of my favorite resources for quick, easy dinners that are creative and impressive. One of my favorites is Chicken Cutlets with Capers. I made it for dinner last night and it was ready 15 minutes after I walked in the door.

It would be a great dinner to serve to company, especially with a loaf of crusty bread and these amazing chocolate chocolate chip cookies based on a recipe from Death By Chocolate by Marcel Desaulniers (food porn at it’s best).

Deep Dark Chocolate Fudge Cookies
Makes 3-3.5 dozen

1 1/2 c flour
1/2 c cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
8 oz semi-sweet chocolate
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 1/2 c brown sugar, packed
12 tbs unsalted butter, softened
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
8 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt into a bowl and set aside.

Chop both chocolates and microwave for 30 seconds. Stir. Microwave in 15 sec intervals stirring in between until fully melted.

Combine the brown sugar and butter in electric mixer. Beat until soft and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each egg. Add the vanilla and beat 30 seconds. Add the melted chocolate beat until just combined. Add flour mixture and beat until combined. Add chocolate chips and beat another 10 seconds.

Spoon by rounded tablespoons onto parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake 15 minutes or until just set. Cool on pans for 5 minutes then on cooling rack or just eat them right off the pan letting the chocolate chips burn your mouth like I do 🙂

Recipe: Swiss Chard and Corn Soup

May 12, 2011 Filed under: recipes

It’s Swiss chard season now and while I love it sauteed with garlic and lemon juice, this is my very favorite way to eat it:

Swiss Chard and Corn Soup

4 cups chicken broth (of veggie broth)

1 T butter or olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced (I usually use more like 6)

1 tsp chili powder

1 cup corn kernels (fresh or frozen)

1/2 cup pastina (I’ve used orzo)

1 large bunch of Swiss Chard (you can also use spinach or another green), chopped or torn into large pieces

Saute onion in butter or oil until slightly brown, add garlic and saute 1 minute more. Add chili powder, salt, and pepper, and cook another minute or until very fragrant. Deglaze with stock. Bring to a boil and add the corn and pastina. Cook until pastina is done (approximately 10 minutes). Add Swiss Chard and remove from the heat. Stir until Swiss Chard is wilted.

This soup is wonderful served over grated cheese and accompanied by crusty bread.