Birthday party preparation—choosing a theme

September 17, 2014 by Chandra Leave a Comment

Matthew turns 1 on the first of October. To me the first birthday is all about the smash cake! Every time the girls eat cake they want to share with Matthew and we won’t let them—we want the first birthday to be all about experiencing the smash cake.

Since I am really most interested in the smash cake I wanted to keep the theme fun and simple. When I am planning a party I first set a theme and then plan all around the theme! This year we are sticking to sprinkles! What is more fun than sprinkles on cakes?

For the party we are just having the grandparents come into town to celebrate for the weekend. We aren’t doing a formal birthday party but I had to great some kind of invitation to remember the event. I made a simple postcard with sprinkles and a recent picture of Matthew. I think it turned our super cute! I can’t wait for the grandparents to get them in the mail–it’ll be a fun little treat for them.

Now I’m off to plan a weekend full of SPRINKLES

Always Perfect Go-To Vanilla Bean Cupcake Recipe

September 4, 2014 by Chandra Leave a Comment

I don’t know about you but I’m always in search of that perfect recipes that becomes one of your “Go-to” recipes. You know the recipes, the ones that you have memorizes, the ones that come out perfect every time you bake them, the ones that when you need to whip up something for friend that you can rely on to turn out well.

Well this Vanilla bean cupcake recipe is just that for me. I just LOVE cupcakes and I’m always trying out new recipes but time and time again I make this one. This is the vanilla cupcake recipe that I make for almost every birthday party.

These cupcakes are easy to make, it makes one dozen perfect cupcakes that are moist and delicious. I adapted this recipe from one of my favorite Australian cake blogs-Hello Naomi. If you aren’t familiar with her work you should really go check out her site. I promise you will be inspired with her gorgeous cakes and cupcakes!

These cupcakes are perfect with a vanilla glaze, a swiss meringue buttercream or your favorite whipped american buttercream. For kids parties I top these with my favorite whipped american buttercream (as seen in the recent rainbow swirl cupcakes).

Try out this recipe and let me know what you think!

Always Perfect Go-To Vanilla Bean Cupcake Recipe

Prep time

30 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

50 mins

This is my favorite go-to vanilla bean cupcake recipe. It comes out perfect every time I make it!

Author: The Daily Dabble

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Serves: 12

Ingredients

½ cup unsalted butter-room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
2 eggs
½ cup warm milk (whole milk if you have it)
¾ cup self-rising flour, sifted
¾ cup all-purpose flour, sifted

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Place butter in a mixing bowl and beat for 1 minute until smooth.
Add the sugar ⅓ at a time beating for a minute between each addition.
The fluffier the butter and sugar, the fluffier the finished cupcake will be.
Add vanilla paste.
Add eggs one at a time mixing on med-low and for a minute in between additions.
Once the eggs are mixed add in ½ of the flour mixture mixing on low until just incorporated.
Add ½ of the milk and mix through (still on low)
Add remaining flour and mix through.
Finally add remaining milk and mix through.
Do not over mix at this stage or your cupcakes will be tough.
Place 12 cupcake wrappers in cupcake pan.
Divide batter evenly between in cupcake pan. Use an ice cream scoop to make it easy.
Bake for 15-18 minutes until cupcakes are just baked through.
Let cupcakes completely cool before frosting (about an hour).

Friday Family Favorite: Simple Homemade Margarita

August 29, 2014 by Chandra Leave a Comment

I have a special treat for you today! This is hands down my favorite party drink. It’s fail proof and delicious. Whenever I make this I always share and there’s never a drop leftover. I’m going to warn you—this is a strong margarita!

To me the secret in this recipe is that there is that you add some lemon juice in with the classic lime juice that you see in many recipes! I highly recommend fresh lemon and lime juice. You will appreciate the fresh squeezed juice in this recipe. It’s worth the extra step.

I prefer a margarita on the rocks but with this recipe is somewhere in between. The recipe adds some ice that is blended to mix the ingredients together.

Try it out and let me know what you think! This is definitely a go to recipe for me and I hope it will become one of yours.

Simple Homemade Margarita

Prep time

15 mins

Total time

15 mins

A perfect refreshing summer drink. Homemade with just a few ingredients!

Author: The Daily Dabble

Recipe type: Drink

Cuisine: Mexican

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

1 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
¼ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 cups triple sec
1¾ cups white tequila (the cheap stuff is perfect)
5 cups ice
coarse salt for glass rims
lime or lemon slices for glass rims

Instructions

Put all ingredients into blender
Mix until well blended and no ice chunks remain
If salted rim is preferred rub rim of glass with slice of lime or lemon.
Dip glass into coarse salt
Pour margarita into glass and enjoy!

Rainbow Swirl Cupcake

August 28, 2014 by Chandra 1 Comment

These rainbow swirl cupcakes turned out just like I had imagined! I have girly-girls and they love all things pink, purple and yellow. With a little upfront work on the icing preparation these cupcakes come together much easier than you think. The kids go crazy for the added color. One of my favorite things about this is that no two cupcakes are the same. Some have more purple or yellow or pink but they look great together or by themselves on a plate!

If you want to try out your own rainbow swirl icing here are the steps that I took.

Make a batch of your favorite icing and your favorite cupcakes
Divide the icing into bowls for the desired number of finished colors. 2-3 colors work best. If you add more than 3 colors they tend to get too mixed up and you loose the desired impact. Choose colors that are vibrant and contrasting from one another. Opposite colors on the color wheel are a good place to start.
Add gel food colors and stir to completely mix
Insert star tip into piping bag.
With a spatula place first icing color bag leaving space for other colors. The picture below is a visual of the piping bag filled with the 3 icing colors. Notice how the colors start to merge together-that’s OK it helps the colors mix together.
Add additional colors on top.
These colors will merge together but that helps create the swirl
Pipe icing in swirls on cupcake

I hope you will try this out. I’d love to see some new combinations and how they turned out!

Rainbow Swirl Cupcake Icing

Prep time

30 mins

Total time

30 mins

Turn your favorite icing into a masterpiece with a few added steps

Author: The Daily Dabble

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Serves: 12

Ingredients

Your favorite icing-needs to be thick enough to pipe (American buttercream is perfect)
2-3 gel food colors
Favorite piping tip (I used a large star tip)
Piping bag

Instructions

Make a batch of your favorite icing
Divide the icing into bowls for the desired number of finished colors (2-3 works best)
Add gel food colors and stir to completely mix
Insert start tip into piping bag.
With a spatula place first icing color bag leaving space for other colors
Add additional colors on top.
These colors will merge together but that helps create the swirl
Pipe icing in swirls on cupcake

Easy Fondant Cupcake Topper

August 22, 2014 by Chandra Leave a Comment

Do you want to know a little secret? This cupcake topper is quite possibly the easiest cupcake topper and it is so simple that it is almost embarrassing to post!

You only need 2 things-

Fondant
Toothpick

Roll the fondant out to about 1/4″ thickness and use your favorite cookie cutter to stamp out a shape.
Insert a toothpick into each shape.

Now comes the hard part (just kidding) you have to let them dry out. Let them dry on one side and then flip over and let them dry on the other side. I let them dry out for several days and will just flip them over whenever I’m thinking about it.

If you want the toppers to be really hard then either make them out of gum paste or a combination of fondant and gum paste. I find it much easier to roll out the fondant than I do rolling out gum past so my preference is a combination of them!

This is my favorite fondant and gum paste. I LOVE the taste of this fondant and it is very easy to work with. I always have several colors in my pantry!

Kids love that the toppers are editable and if you’ve used fondant or the fondant/gum paste combination they taste better than the pure gum paste. Just remember the more fondant the softer and the more gum paste the harder the toppers will be.

See how simple that was? You can get super creative or just keep it simple like I did here! Try it out and let me know how your’s turned out.

Make your own baby food-It’s easier than you think!

August 21, 2014 by Chandra Leave a Comment

DIY your own baby food

Have you ever thought about making your own baby food? I (briefly) thought about it with my first 2 children and now with our 3rd baby I wonder what I was so afraid of! I have to give credit to my Vitamix blender. Chances are that if I hadn’t gotten this for my birthday this year that I would still be purchasing my baby food instead of making it. I got a Vitamix blender about the same time that Matthew was ready to start eating baby food. My mixer has a fancy “puree” setting and I thought I’d give it a try. It turns out that making baby food couldn’t have been any easier. Matthew is now 10 months old and is transitioning to table food. Nearly all of his baby food has been made in my Vitamix blender. In the early days of baby food you want just one type of food and you want it pureed smooth. If you would normally cook the food then you should cook the food before pureeing. For example, I’d steam peas, carrots, bake sweet potato, butternut squash, and I’d cook apples and pears on the stovetop. Things like strawberries, blueberries (things that you eat uncooked worked fine just pureed) don’t need any cooking.

Baby food ready to puree

Here are my quick tips on making baby food that your little one will love!

Stage 1 baby food (one type of food)

Prep your fruit or vegetable by cleaning and cooking if necessary

Baby food prep
Single type of food in blender and puree until smooth
Pour into individual containers for freezing or eating. Keep enough out for 1-2 days and freeze the rest.
When ready to eat the frozen food defrost in the refrigerator or on the counter.
You will find lots of storage examples on the internet but I stuck with simple plastic disposable containers. These are my favorite and we use them for LOTS of things in our house. I already had these containers in my house and when I started making the food I debated how to store the prepared food. I decided to give these a try and then purchase something later if this didn’t work. Well, Matthew is 10 months old and we are using these containers so they have worked great for us!

Baby food storage

Stage 2 baby food (2 types of food, still pureed)

Stage 2 baby food simply takes 2 or more of the stage 1 baby food and combines them together!
This is where you can get creative and mix a variety of things together. A good way to get ideas is to take a trip to your grocery store and see what the ready made baby food is combining together.
I found that apples and pears really added well to lots of things and Matthew loved it because it made things sweet.
Matthew is a big eater and for most of this baby food I added in a filler–rice, oatmeal, mixed grains. This not only helped in filling up Matthew it made the food thicker and was much easier to spoon feed!

Stage 3 baby food (chunky baby food)

This is the stage that we are in today! We are in the process of transitioning Matthew from baby food to table food.
This stage of baby food had been a little harder for me. I want Matthew to eat what we are eating but prepping baby food everyday is not something that I’m in the habit of doing.
I have 2 basic ways of making food in this stage.

Use the stage 2 baby food and add additional items that are not pureed. Put everything in the blender and pulse until the food is the consistency that your baby can handle
Take whatever you are fixing for dinner and pulse in the blender until desired consistency…this has worked well for spaghetti and meatballs!

That’s about it for now! I hope that you try making your own food. Add a comment for any questions you have and I’ll do my best to help out.

Time flies when you are having fun!

August 19, 2014 by Chandra Leave a Comment

Everyone says that time flies when you are having fun! Well we’ve had a super fun summer and boy does it seem like time flew by. My girls are already back in school (second grade and kindergarten) and I’m having a hard time believing that the fun days of summer are gone. Matthew is missing his sisters during the day but he sure does love going to the bus stop in the afternoon!

We had lots of fun this summer and it seems like every day was pack full of activities. From the beach, to swim team, to camps, and checking out new parks we made the most of our summer break.

I have lots of fun things planned now that we are back to our school days schedule. Check back often and let me know what you thing! Hope to see you soon.

It’s a Great Cookie Cake

May 6, 2014 by Chandra Leave a Comment

Who doesn’t just love the cookie cakes from the mall? I know that love them and my kids do to! We love to get a slice to share. Of course that means that I only get 1-2 bites at most. I’m just thankful that I get a taste. It’s the combination of the soft chocolate chip cookie with the yummy icing that makes them irresistible. Abigail loves cookies and thought it would be the perfect treat to take to school for her birthday lunch. I was short on time so I did this semi-homemade and the outcome was perfect!

I bought cookie dough tubes, added some corn syrup (to make chewy) and cream of tarter and spread it into an 11×17 pan. I baked at 350 for about 20 minutes. For the icing you can use your favorite buttercream. I’ve included the icing that I used. For this icing I wanted a cross between the classic american buttercream and the commercial icing that you’d get on the cookie cakes at the mall. The trick was using half butter and half crisco for the fat.

It's a Great Cookie Cake

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

30 mins

Quick and easy; soft and chewy cookie cake

Author: The Daily Dabble

Cuisine: Dessert

Serves: 20

Ingredients

3 tubes cookie dough
¾ cup corn syrup (just under ¾ cup works best)
¾ teaspoon cream of tarter
¼ cup butter
¼ cup crisco
¼ cup milk
1-2 teaspoons vanilla
6 cups powdered sugar
dash salt

Instructions

Mix together cookie dough, corn syrup and cream of tarter until smooth.
Spread into 11/17 cookie sheet that is lined with either silpat or parchment paper
Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes until just soft and chewy.
Let cool and remove from pan.
Ice with your favorite icing.
To make icing-cream butter
Add remaining ingredients and mix on low until incorporated
Once ingredients have been mixed together beat on high for 5 minutes to make light and fluffy.

Cookbook Review: Momofuku Milk Bar

April 30, 2014 by Chandra Leave a Comment

One of the things that I’d like to share with you on a regular basis are the many cookbooks that I have and what I took away from reading/trying recipes found in the cookbook.

I’ve posted several of the recipes that I’ve tried from the Milk Bar cookbook. If you are like me, you will learn many things from reading this cookbook. First off, the cookbook reads like a story and it’s really interesting to read from cover to cover. Christina has a great sense of humor and it comes through in her writing. I am fascinated with professional pasty chefs and how a restaurant/bakery works. One of my favorite parts of this cookbook was that you get a glimpse in how the restaurant/bakery world runs.

Secondly, this cookbook teaches you many tips and tricks in each of the recipes that you can use in all of your baking. I love that you learn the building blocks to make an endless number of creations. I learned to not throw away my crumbs of anything…chances are there’s another use for them–maybe a pie crust or a filling for a cookie or cake balls…all are yummy options!

This is a great book to add to your collection and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do! I have marked many more recipes in the book that I’d like to try in the future so don’t be surprised if another recipe pops up down the road.

In the meantime, here are the recipes that I’ve tried to date:

A slice of pie

Crack Pie

Chocolate chip-cornflake-marshmallow cookie

Momofuku Milk Bar: cornflake-chocolate-chip marshmallow cookies

April 29, 2014 by Chandra Leave a Comment

If you remember when I wrote about the Crack Pie there there were many, many recipes that I wanted to try from the Milk Bar. Well after trying the crack pie I decided that my next recipe would be a cookie. I happened to have all of the ingredients available for the cornflake chocolate chip marshmallow cookie and thought the combination sounded delicious!

Like most recipes in this cookbook, there are many steps and there is preparation in making the cookies but it’s completely worth the work! For this recipe you have to first make the cornflake crunch. This cornflake crunch does just what the name implies in the recipe-it adds crunch to the cookie!

These cookies are delicious cooked but they are also great straight from the fridge as cookie dough (I couldn’t resist–i really LOVE cookie dough and this one was no exception!) For these cookies you definitely need to chill them in the refrigerator in order for them to cook properly. These cookies bake up with a crispy exterior and slightly chewy inside. We are used to really chewy cookies so at first my kids were concerned that they wouldn’t like them. One taste of the finished cookie and my oldest cleaned her plate at dinner for a week in order to earn a cookie for desert.

So all in all, this recipe like the last in that it’s not one you are going to whip up and eat immediately but the wait is worth it. I can’t wait to try the blueberry cookies next!

One last thing…here’s the perfect thing to do with the leftover cornflake crunch (the recipe calls for 3/4 of a batch so you have some leftover–that’s a good thing!) I made a yogurt parfait and replaced the granola with the cornflake crunch! Delicious!

Here’s a like to the original recipe from Milk Bar but I’ve also included below to print nicely.

Momofuku Milk Bar: cornflake-chocolate-chip marshmallow cookies

Prep time

1 hour

Cook time

18 mins

Total time

1 hour 18 mins

The perfect salty and sweet, crunchy and chewy cookie

Author: The Daily Dabble

Serves: 15-20 cookies

Ingredients

225 g (16 tbs) butter, at room temperature
250 g (1¼ cups) granulated sugar
150 g (2⁄3 cup tightly packed) light brown sugar
1 egg
2 g (1/2 tsp) vanilla extract
240 g (1½ cups) flour
2 g (1/2 tsp) baking powder
1.5 g (1/2 tsp) baking soda
5 g (1½ teaspoons) kosher salt
¾ recipe (3 cups) cornflake crunch (recipe below)
170 g (1/2 12oz box or 5 cups) cornflakes
40 g (1/2 cup) milk powder
40 g (3 tbs) sugar
4 g (1 tsp) kosher salt
130 g (9 tbs) butter, melted
125 g (2⁄3 cup) mini chocolate chips
65 g (1¼ cups) mini marshmallows

Instructions

combine the butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and cream together on medium-high for 2 to 3 minutes. scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the egg and vanilla, and beat for 7 to 8 minutes. (see page 27 for notes on this process.)
reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. mix just until the dough comes together, no longer than 1 minute. (do not walk away from the machine during this step, or you will risk over mixing the dough.) scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
still on low speed, paddle in the cornflake crunch and mini chocolate chips just until they’re incorporated, no more than 30 to 45 seconds. paddle in the mini marshmallows just until incorporated.
using a 2¾ oz ice cream scoop (or a ⅓ cup measure), portion out the dough onto a parchment-lined sheet pan. pat the tops of the cookie dough domes flat. wrap the sheet pan tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or up to 1 week. do not bake your cookies from room temperature—they will not hold their shape.
heat the oven to 375°f.
arrange the chilled dough a minimum of 4 inches apart on parchment- or silpat-lined sheet pans. bake for 18 minutes. the cookies will puff, crackle, and spread. at the 18-minute mark, the cookies should be browned on the edges and just beginning to brown toward the center. leave them in the oven for an additional minute or so if they aren’t and they still seem pale and doughy on the surface.
cool the cookies completely on the sheet pans before transferring to a plate or to an airtight container for storage. at room temperature, the cookies will keep fresh for 5 days; in the freezer, they will keep for 1 month.
Cornflake Crunch:
heat the oven to 275°f.
pour the cornflakes in a medium bowl and crush them with your hands to one-quarter of their original size. add the milk powder, sugar, and salt and toss to mix. add the butter and toss to coat. as you toss, the butter will act as glue, binding the dry ingredients to the cereal and creating small clusters.
spread the clusters on a parchment- or silpat-lined sheet pan and bake for 20 minutes, at which point they should look toasted, smell buttery, and crunch gently when cooled slightly and chewed.
cool the cornflake crunch completely before storing or using in a recipe. stored in an airtight container at room temperature, the crunch will keep fresh for 1 week; in the fridge or freezer, it will keep for 1 month.