Smoked Salmon Musubi
Here’s a great little appetizer- snack for New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day celebrations. Of course spam musubi is always popular, but this version is especially for those who don’t eat spam, like my dear little Quill. She loves smoked salmon a lot, and could eat it everyday. Start off with good rice. I...
Holiday Sherbet Punch
Once a year, at Christmas or New Year’s, we have this sherbet punch that my mom used to make for all our holiday dinners and special events. Really simple: 1/2 gallon sherbet, 1/2 gallon juice, and 2 (2 liter) bottles of ginger ale. I think Cole was about ten or eleven years old when I...
Animal Cracker Angels and Peppermint Roses
This post is dedicated to those who lost their lives at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut last Friday. Dorothy from Crazy for Crust is part of a group of bloggers who have organized a #BloggersforSandyHook online Cookies and Craft event to show support for the Newtown community. My heart broke as news of the shooting...
Enchanted Forest Cookies
It all started when I first saw these whole grain tree branch cookie cutters. “How odd, but interesting…” I mused. Then, I had to have them. Quirk is my middle name. My chai cookie dough is the perfect color for this. I rolled the dough out about 1/4″ thick and started cutting out the branches. The...
Chantilly Cake Tutorial: Splitting and Frosting Chantilly Cake (Part 6)
Have your cake platter, two flexible cutting mats, a butter knife and a serrated bread knife out and ready. Here I’m using a Tupperware Cake Taker (2 pc set: bottom cake platter + top cover with handle); I’ve found it to work the best over the years. Unless you already own one, I wouldn’t recommend...
Chantilly Cake Tutorial: Chantilly Frosting (Part 5)
The frosting will need to chill for three hours, so plan ahead by baking the chiffon cake the day before, or while the frosting is chilling. Keep in mind though, you should never frost a warm or even lukewarm cake. It’s actually much easier to frost a chiffon cake that has been refrigerated. Melt butter...
Chantilly Cake Tutorial: Mixing the Cake Batters and Baking the Cake (Part 4)
Now let’s prepare the cake batter. Start with unsweetened cocoa. Any of these brands will work, but like anything else, better quality will yield better taste. Pour some boiling water into unsweetened cocoa powder. Mix and blend until smooth. Set aside to cool down a bit. Whisk together the dry ingredients– cake flour, sugar,...
Chantilly Cake Tutorial: Whipping the Egg Whites (Part 3)
We’ve separated the egg whites from the egg yolks, and now we’re on to whipping them up. In a standing mixer, start whipping the eggs on medium speed. When they become a little frothy, add the cream of tartar. After the egg whites have about doubled in volume, increase the speed to the highest and...
Chantilly Cake Tutorial: Separating the Eggs (Part 2)
Here we start off with some tips for separating the eggs for the chiffon cake portion. You can separate the eggs as soon as you take them out of the refrigerator, as they’re easier to separate cold. The whites though, because they whip up better at room temperature, should be loosely covered and allowed to...
Hawaiian Chantilly Cake
Hawaiian Chantilly Cake Chantilly Cake is one of the absolute best cakes in the world. Found only in Hawaii. If you’ve read my post I’m Dreaming of Cakes, you’ll know how special this cake is and how much I love it. This holiday season, I’d like to share my version of Chantilly Cake –my gift to...
