the british are coming!

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I'm not ashamed to admit that there's a lot I love about the United Kingdom. So many of my favorite shows are set there (in one era or another)(and for the record, Sherlock tops my list right now, without question or competition), and I enjoy the accents and overall demeanor of its people.


That being said, I'm happy to promote a site from across the pond that's full of recipes, both British and otherwise. This carrot cake comes from a recipe found on Baking Mad, and it's one of the best I've ever eaten. Sure, I had to do some converting (when will we all be on the same measurement system already!?!), but it was worth it. I love special add-ins when it comes to carrot cake, and pecans, coconut, and raisins are some of the best.

I ♥ carrot cake.

Go ahead and peruse Baking Mad, and I defy you to come away without seeing something--whether it be unique muffins or interesting cakes--that you'd like to make!

In other news, my brother has decided to raise some chickens. He has layers, which will hopefully keep him well supplied with eggs, and boilers, which will meet a fate of which we will not speak quite yet.


I asked him to take pictures keeping me abreast of their growth and progress in life, so hopefully you'll see these cute little buggers again soon!

Will you please just LOOK at that itty bitty wing?!

I'm too attached to them already.

pig pickin' cake!

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I've become a contributor to what's rightfully being described as the social network of the South--The Southern Coterie. If you have any fascination with or connection to the southern US, you simply must take a look at our site.



It's brand new, and there are lots of giveaways to break the ice. You'll find everything from food and fashion to football and family.

I decided to showcase a Tropical Pig Pickin' Cake as my debut. It's the kind of cake that becomes unrecognizable the longer it sits in the fridge, as the cake layers and frosting slowly merge together into one blissfully moist and tasty concoction. It's a winner, plus, what a name!

Speaking of names, the first rule of raising chickens is simple: DO NOT NAME THEM.


Doh.

spoom moany

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Sometimes I think people write down a bunch of ingredients on little slips of paper, toss them into a bowl, pull out a few, and combine them all in one random dish. I'll bet that's how the Spumoni blend was created. What other option could there be?



Cherry, pistachio, chocolate. Never in a million and two years would I toss those things together, and in ice cream, no less! Apparently vanilla is sometimes used instead of chocolate, which makes a little bit more sense since this treat is of Italian origin and those are the colors of the Italian flag. Hmm. Regardless of how the combination arose, these ingredients simply DO come together well. I can't explain it, and luckily, I don't have to.


These Spumoni-inspired cupcakes begin with a fluffy chocolate cupcake (my go-to recipe, as a matter of fact, and one that's so good that I haven't felt the need to try a new chocolate cake recipe in some time!) that gets filled with a(n unnaturally) green pistachio whipped cream and mounded with a cherry-flavored buttercream frosting. The cherry on top seals the deal. The only thing missing from these surprisingly tasty cupcakes was crunch. If I had had some pistachios, I definitely would've folded them into the whipped cream filling. Perfetto.

Spumoni Cupcakes
(makes about 24)

Ingredients:
Chocolate cupcakes:

• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup warm water
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pistachio cream filling:

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon pistachio flavoring
• green food coloring, optional

Cherry buttercream frosting:

• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 2-3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 1/4 cup cherry pie filling
• 24 maraschino cherries

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners; set aside. Sift together cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Add eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla, and mix until smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to assure batter is well mixed. Divide batter evenly among prepared cups, filling each 2/3 full. Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 20 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.

To make the filling, simply whip the cream and sugar until stiff, then blend in the pistachio flavoring. Add in a few drops of green food coloring if desired.

To make the frosting, beat the butter with an electric mixer for a few minutes. Add the pie filling and briefly blend. Add the powdered sugar gradually until the frosting is thick enough to spread easily.

To fill the cupcakes, carve out a cone-shaped hole (forget donut holes--I'm marketing cake holes!) and squirt the pistachio whipped cream inside. Apply frosting generously to the cupcakes, top each with a maraschino cherry, and, after giving the components a few minutes to get to know each other, devour.

the streak

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You might be surprised to learn that Ray Stevens is one of my all-time favorite singer-songwriters. When I was but a wee lass, I listened to his greatest hits cassette tape (remember those?) until it no longer functioned.


Mississippi Squirrel Revival. (Spoiler: The squirrel went berserk.) The Dooright Family. It's Me Again, Margaret. Gitarzan. Everything is Beautiful. I could just go on and on. Another of his ditties that I can still sing to this day is The Streak.

He ain't rude,
He ain't lewd,
He's just in the mood to run in the nude

I so often feel that way. If you're unfamiliar with the man (and most of you probably are) and in need of a chuckle, check him out! He also did a cover of I'm My Own Grandpa, which is simply one of the most hilarious and ingenious songs ever written.


Speaking of streaks (brace yourselves for a tremendous segue!), I'm pretty excited about these streaky sugar cookies. All I did was take regular sugar cookie dough, split it into 3 hunks, dye each hunk a different color, then knead and roll. Isn't it a nifty effect? Have fun with it--every cookie in every batch you make will be unique!

(Oh yes, they call him the) Streak Sugar Cookies
Makes about 5 dozen cookies
Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups butter, softened
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Various food colorings or gels

Directions:
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until it is smooth.
Beat in the eggs and the vanilla.
Stir in the flour, baking powder and the salt.
Divide the dough into four portions, shape each into a disk, wrap with plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour (or overnight).
Remove one disk of dough from the fridge and split it into three balls.
Add the food coloring to each of the dough balls, kneading it in just until desired color is achieved.
Briefly knead the three colors together so that a swirl effect is obtained. Don't go too crazy or you'll end up with brown dough.
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.
Roll out the now-colored dough (on a floured surface) so that it is 1/4- to 1/2-inch thick.
Cut the dough into shapes with any cookie cutter.
Place the cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake them for 6 to 8 minutes in a preheated oven. Cool them completely, then frost as desired.

goat cheese giveaway!

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Are there foods with which you have a love-hate relationship? I can think of several, and near the top of my list is goat cheese.


Sometimes I'll eat it and it'll be perfectly tangy and flavorful, but other times, it tastes as though it's been coated with the stuff you scrape off a filthy fish tank.


Happily, Belle Chevre goat cheese falls firmly into the former category. Though I only tried the honey variety, I'm confident that the other options (everything from coffee- or cinnamon-flavored spreadable breakfast cheese to Tuscan marinated cheese) are just as tasty.


I think the trick to get me to like goat cheese is to mask its true flavor with something I find more enjoyable. Like honey. Or coffee. Or cinnamon. Those folks at Belle Chevre know what they're doing.


They have several partnerships with companies whose products are highly compatible with goat cheese, and one of those is Anna's. They make all kinds of cookie thins, including orange, almond, chocolate mint, and ginger, which I was fortunate enough to try. They were marvelous when paired with the honey Belle Chevre goat cheese (and a plop of pepper jelly!)--truly a match made in heaven!


Want to try some for yourself? You're in luck. I'm giving away two tubs of honey Belle Chevre goat cheese and two boxes of Anna's ginger thins. To win, all you have to do is leave a comment telling me a food with which you have a love-hate relationship. For extra entries, tweet about this giveaway and/or like Belle Chevre and Anna's on Facebook and leave me separate comments telling me you did so.


Good luck! This is a great prize promoting two terrific companies! I'll contact the winner in one week, on Friday, August 17th.