Gotta Love the Green ~ Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

What gorgeous weather today for St. Patrick’s Day!

It’s been a busy time for me lately. Getting ready to be in a bridal show as a vendor (Baking is my Zen LLC) on March 20, 2011 hosted by WeddingSetGo. But, I had to post something for St. Patrick’s Day.  Baking with liqueurs is a relatively new thing for me. I really like using this ingredient in baking. So, more testing in this arena by me in the future.

I made Irish Cream Cupcakes which you can find a video by The Cupcake Show (cupcake show #19). Recipe and video is here.

My comments: I found the cake to be dense. Some may enjoy that. I personally prefer airy, light cake in my cupcake. I couldn’t taste the Bailey’s Irish Cream in the cake. So, it should either be amped up a bit or omitted. No need in using an ingredient that you can’t taste…right? Nod your head up and down and agree with me!

I decided to try another recipe where the cake is lighter in texture and contains no liqueur. The liqueur was added only in the Swiss Meringue Buttercream. And, of course, I sprinkled the cupcake with mini shamrocks and adorned it with one shamrock made of fondant.

The second recipe I made was Magnolia Bakery’s Devil’s Food Cupcakes. For the frosting, I used Swiss Meringue Buttercream recipe located Martha Stewart’s website.

You can find the recipe on my blog post here as well. I added Bailey’s Irish Cream only to the buttercream (add according to your taste preference). I did not add Bailey’s to the cake. Loved this cupcake. The light texture of cake with the creamy, Irish Cream laced buttercream was so good!

These recipes are not limited to St. Patrick’s Day. Bake them anytime.

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Well, back to getting ready for the bridal trade show at Rutgers College Gym in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Before signing up to book a table, I visited several bridal shows to observe what it takes to do this successfully. It was lots of fun. Met a lot of folks and learned a lot.

It’s my first bridal trade show. Wish me luck!

 Have a fun St. Patrick's Day!

Peace in Baking,

Carmen

Baking is my Zen…sweet nibbles for the soul

Love Ya Back ~ Happy Valentine’s Day ~ 2/14/11

LOVE is a beautiful expression of life.

LOVE…at the end of the day, is all that matters.

“Love is the emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. In some religious contexts, love is not just a virtue, but the basis for all being, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels. Love may also be described as actions towards others (or oneself) based on compassion. Or as actions towards others based on affection.”

As a flickr member, I compiled photo mosaics using other flickr friends' photos and my own.

The subject: Twosome; namely, any photo with ‘two’ subjects in the photos.

I want to say THANK YOU FLICKR FRIENDS for sharing your photos and being a part of this project. Love you! J

Name and Flickr AccountName

Carl                 

Carl Loves Somerset

Dorothy           

D Cunningham

Eduardo          

Eduardo Amorim

George

ghholt

Guylaine          

PhotosNature-Guylaine

Jay                  

JayCaps

Joe                  

Joe Bodner

Keith               

Pheanix

Les                  

Leswag

Marc               

broadcastmarc

Maria              

©EpicureanPiranha

Mike               

buttons77

Patti & Mike   

canikon 1998

Priya               

Sugar Pot

Stephania        

micettes

Suwandi          

pvcpvc

Vivi                 

Miss Vivi Gold

Carmen (this is me)

Baking is my Zen, LLC 

Six Mosaics as seen in Flickr:

Valentine’s Day baking…I made heart-shaped pocket pies and filled them with strawberry and raspberry filling using a heart-shaped mold by Williams-Sonoma.

These heart-shaped pocket pies are fun to make and fun to eat! You can pace yourself by making the dough ahead of time and using store bought jam to fill the pocket pies. Dough recipe is on the back of the box.

Williams-Sonoma also has other molds (apple and lattice).

The dough recipe can be found in my post, here.

Just a note…make sure you place the heart opening on the right side, not the left, as I did.

Oh well, live and learn, right?

Have fun baking these sweet treats…most of all,

Have a loving Valentine’s Day!

Peace in baking,

Carmen

Baking is my Zen…sweet nibbles for the soul