3-layer angel food peeps cake

We're eating this tonight and I can't wait.  It seriously took A LOT of self control not to chow down on this cake while photographing it.

Jordyn baked this cake last night (I helped by sifting and showing her weird things on tumblr...), and then my mom and I finished decorating it with buttercream layers, 7-minute frosting, and peeps!

Does anyone out there actually even like peeps?  I had my first one today...and I'm not a huge fan.  But they are kind of cute, so I guess I can handle them once a year. Ha!

This cake was inspired by Tieghan from

halfbaked harvest

, who created a gorgeous

6-layer coconut creation

with peeps on top!  If you don't follow her

blog

....hop to it!  She's insanely talented and so creative.

Now this cake has a lot of icing going on, so it's definitely for those of you that have a major sweet tooth!

I love the idea of putting coloured icing inside cakes.  It's such a nice, fun surprise when you finally cut it.

The recipes for homemade angel food cake and 7-minute frosting are below, but if you'd like some step-by-steps photos as well, you can click

here

for our original post including both of them!

Angel Food Cake

from: Fayrene De Koker (allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of Egg Whites (approx. 10-12 eggs) - *it's important that your eggs are at room temperature before you start!

1 1/4 cups of Icing Sugar

1 cup of Flour

1 1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar

1 1/2 tsp Vanilla

1/2 tsp Almond Extract

1/4 tsp Salt

1 cup Sugar

optional (but not really optional): 

1 TBSP

nonpareils (sprinkles) - to make your cake colourful!

Directions:

1)  First, separate the egg whites from the yolks, being careful that no yolk contaminates each egg white.  Make sure that you have 1 1/2 cups of egg whites, and place in a mixing bowl.

2)  Next, in a separate bowl, sift your icing sugar and flour together three times, and set aside.

3)  Add cream of tartar, vanilla and almond extracts, and salt to the egg whites.  Beat on high speed, and gradually add in sugar.  Mix until all of the sugar is dissolved, and stiff peaks have formed.

4)  Very gently, fold in flour mixture, 1/4 cup at a time.  Then fold in nonpareils!

5)  Gently spoon into an ungreased 10-inch tube pan.

6)  Bake for 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees.

7)  Immediately invert pan onto a cooling rack, and let the cake cool completely before removing from the pan.

7-minute Frosting

from: Company's Coming: Cakes - Jean Pare

Ingredients:

2 egg whites

1 1/2 cups Sugar

1/3 cup Cold Water

1 1/2 tsp Light Corn Syrup

1 tsp Vanilla

Directions:

1)  Set up a double boiler (ie. one pot sits on the burner with a bit of boiling water, and another pot/metal bowl sits on top of it.) and bring water to a rapid boil.

2)  In your top pot/bowl mix together egg whites, sugar, water, and corn syrup until well mixed.

3)  Place it over boiling water, and beat constantly on high for 7 minutes, or until the frosting will stand in peaks when the beaters are raised.

4)  Remove from heat, and beat in vanilla.

5)  Immediately frost your cake, as this frosting will set very quickly.

Buttercream

Ingredients

1/2 cup Butter or margarine (at room temperature

3 cups Icing Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla

2-5 TBSP Cream

Directions

1)  Begin by beating your butter on medium-high until well mixed.

2)  Add icing sugar, vanilla, and a couple tablespoons of cream.

3)  Beat on medium until combined.

4) Here's the tricky part: use a spatula to test the consistency, and stick a spoon in to do a taste test.  Adjust the taste and consistency by adding any of the above ingredients!

Once our angel food cake was completely cooled, I carefully cut it into three layers using a large serrated bread knife.  Then I made a batch of butter cream, coloured half pink and half purple, and iced each layer one colour.  After the cake is reassembled, we made 7-minute frosting and iced the rest of the cake, and added the sprinkles and peeps.  Be sure to add your peeps on quite quickly, before your frosting sets!

And props to my mom for letting me cut this cake up before we served it at our family's Easter dinner! I put it back together and nobody could even tell.  Ha!

p.s. 

♥

 kelsey (&  jordyn & momma)

chicken vegetable soup (aka: clean out the fridge soup)

My family loves soup.  In addition to our "What's new Wednesday" - the day we try out a brand new recipe, "Fish Taco Friday" - the day we have fish tacos (

recipe here!

), we also have "Soup Saturday".

Yeah we really like alliterations.  And food.

If you haven't figure it out yet, "Soup Saturday" is the day we have soup. It is also bun day, (hmmm do we need an alliteration for that? Wheat Weekend?)  so we often have soup to complement my mother's delicious home made buns.  

We made this recipe when my parents were vacationing in Arizona (with our Grandparents, no fair!), so we didn't have any fresh homemade buns to enjoy.  So, on her way home from work, Kelsey stopped by a local farmer's market and picked up a fresh baked baguette!  It was delicious, and we even added some cheese and broiled it to make some cheesy bread.  It was the best.

Chicken Vegetable Soup

by: Jordyn Siemens

Ingredients:

2 tbsp oil

1 sweet onion

3 cloves of garlic

4 carrots

4 celery stalks

3 red potatoes

1/2 zucchini

1/2 large yam

1 can of black beans

1 cup of corn

1 tsp thyme

2 tsp oregano

salt and pepper to taste

6 cups chicken broth (more or less)

2 chicken breasts (chopped and sauteed)

Directions:

1) Chop everything into bite size pieces (finely chop your garlic)

2) In a large pot on medium heat, heat one tablespoon of oil.  Add onions and saute until translucent, then add garlic and stir to incorporate.

3) Add chopped carrots, celery, potatoes, and zucchini and saute until they start to get soft, then add the chopped yam.

4) Once everything is tender, add black beans and corn.

5) Stir in spices, and add chicken broth.  Bring soup to a boil, and let simmer to fully cook the vegetables.

6) While soup is simmering, heat one tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan, and saute the chopped chicken breast until cooked all the way through.

7) Once the vegetables are fully cooked, add the cooked chicken.

8) Serve!

This soup recipe is super easy, and you can add/subtract any of the ingredients quite easily.  Add any random veggies you have in your fridge - broccoli, cauliflower, chopped brussels sprouts, or add chickpeas instead of black beans. Whatever suits your fancy!

p.s.

 ♥ jordyn &

 kelsey

skinny fettuccine alfredo

Not all food is photogenic.  That is the lesson of this week. Ha.

#foodphotographerproblems.

Did I just hashtag in a blog post?  Yep.  I do what I want.

Honestly, I'm quite enjoying this new venture into photographing actual meals instead of just sweets, and I can't believe it's taken me so long to get around to it.  Although I must say that this dish was an interesting challenge since I had no idea how to make a pile of noodles look mouthwatering.

Cupcakes or ice cream?  The camera loves them.  Pasta?  Yikes.

Now, Jordyn is the master chef (yet again), and this recipe is her baby.  Our family loves pasta, but we also love trying to make things a bit healthier.  This "skinny" version of uses greek yogurt in place of butter and cream, and it's oh so creamy and delicious!  And it's packed full of protein, so you can easily leave out the chicken if you wish.

Skinny Chicken Alfredo

serves: ~4

recipe by: jordyn

Ingredients:

2 cups broccoli

4 large carrots

1 cup brussel sprouts, halved

assorted spices (salt/seasoning salt, pepper, garlic powder)

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces and sauteed

8 ounces fettuccine

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 garlic cloves, minced 

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup chicken broth

1/3 cup plain greek yogurt

black pepper to taste

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (freshly grated is the best, but whatever you have works!)

Directions: 

1. Chop all the vegetables into bite size pieces and spread out on one or two greased cookie sheets (we like lots of vegetables so we did it on two)

2. Sprinkle with your choice of spices.  We did salt, pepper and garlic powder.

3. Roast at 350 for 15-20 minutes, or until a desired roasty-ness is reached.  Set aside.

4. In a medium sized saucepan, heat olive oil at medium heat.  Add minced garlic and saute, stirring often, until golden brown.  This should only take a couple of minutes, be careful not to burn the garlic!

5. Turn the garlic down to low, and measure out 2 tablespoons of flower into a bowl/measuring device.  Slowly incorporate 1 cup of chicken broth into the flour (start off with about a tablespoon of broth, or else you might get lumps! and then slowly add more).

6. Add the chicken broth mixture to the saucepan.

7. Add 1/3 cup of greek yogurt to the saucepan, bring to a boil, stir constantly.

8. Lower the heat and let it simmer for about 3 minutes, it should begin to thicken.

9. Incorporate 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese.

10. Cook fettuccine.

11. Heat 1 table spoon of olive oil in a large frying pan/wok over medium-high heat.

12. Chop chicken breasts into bite sized pieces, add them to the frying pan and saute until fully cooked (about 5-7 minutes). 

13. Once everything is ready to go, combine it in a large frying pan/wok and heat through.

14. Serve with a sprinkle of fresh parmesan!

Also, can we talk about how awesome daylight savings is?  I know it sucks "losing" an hour of sleep, but man do I think it's worth it.  I went out to feed our chickens and collect eggs at 7:30 and it was still light out!  Sweet.

p.s.

 ♥ kelsey & jordyn

happy pancake day!

Mardi Gras.  (Fat Tuesday).  Shrove Tuesday.  Pancake Day.

I don't care what you call it.....I'll take any excuse to eat pancakes.

I hope you were able to enjoy some pancakes, or at least something fatty. Ha!  Calories don't count on Fat Tuesday, right?  Riggghhht?!

These pancakes are actually gluten-free, and were surprisingly fluffy and amazing. You can find the recipe here, at Mountain Mama Cooks!  Delish.  And oh so good for having in my back pocket when I have any of my gluten-free friends over for breakfast!

Anyway, Happy Tuesday friends.  Hope all of your weeks are going well....and if not, then you deserve to treat yourself to some pancakes!

p.s. ♥ kelsey

superfood salad (with shrimp)

Hold up....this is a post about food, and yet there is no caramel or chocolate in sight.

Jordyn and I have really really been wanting to start sharing our favourite meals (in addition to all the desserts we love) here on the blog, not only to share with all of you, but for ourselves and friends to have easy access to our everyday recipes.  So, be prepared (hopefully) for more legitimate meals to be appearing here.

Don't worry, there will always be a healthy dose of sweets as well!

Anywho....this is superfood salad!  It actually does have superpowers....since I'm not a huge fan of pomegranates or oranges, but since eating this salad I have been converted.  There is so much protein and goodness going on in this salad, that it makes a wonderful lunch or supper, or even a great side dish.

Superfood Salad

(heavily) adapted from:

Iowa girl eats

Ingredients:

3 cups quinoa, cooked

1/2 white onion, diced finely

2 oranges, chopped into bite-sized pieces

1 to 2 avocados, chopped

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 pomegranate (seeded)

1 3/4 cup frozen corn, thawed

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

Vinaigrette:

2 limes, juiced (you can substitute lemons! whatever you have on hand)

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, finely minced

salt & pepper; to taste

Optional:

12-15 Shrimp  (or grilled chicken would be great as well!)

1)  In a large bowl, combine quinoa, onion, oranges, avocados, black beans, pomegranate seeds, corn and cilantro.

2)  In a small bowl, mix together all vinaigrette ingredients.  Pour over salad, and toss.

3)  If cooking shrimp, brush a bit of vinaigrette onto them (before pouring it over the rest of the salad), then saute on high heat, just a couple minutes on each side.  Serve on top of salad!

Mmmhhh....I'm totally obsessed with this salad right now.  There are leftovers in our fridge that our calling my name right now.  Second supper anyone?

Hope you enjoyed this venture into "grown up food"!

p.s.

 ♥ kelsey (& jordyn)

chocolate pecan caramel thumbprint cookies

Mmmhhh....caramel!  You can't say that you're surprised that it's shown up again so soon. Ha!

We made these cookies for Christmas (yeah yeah...I'm working on the whole procrastinating thing), and they were a huge hit.  Definitely a bit more work than your average cookie...but well worth it when you want something extra special.

These cookies have so many wonderful textures going on...from the crunch of the nuts, chewiness of the chocolate cookie, and finally the smooth creaminess of the caramel!

Chocolate Pecan Caramel Thumbprint Cookies

adapted from: taste of home

Yields: ~2.5 dozen

Ingredients: 

1/2 cup butter, softened

2/3 cup sugar

1 egg, separated

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup finely chopped pecans (walnuts would be a great alternative!)

FILLING:

12 to 14 caramels

3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

Directions:

1)  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2)  In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

3)  Beat in the egg yolk, milk and vanilla.

4)  In a small bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa powder and salt.  Gradually add to the creamed mixture.

5)  Shape dough into approximately 1-inch balls.  Place egg white in a shallow bowl and beat.  Place chopped pecans in another shallow bowl.

6)  Dip dough balls into the egg white, then pecans.  (You may need to pat the pecans on to help them stick to the dough)

7)  Place on a greased baking sheet and press a deep indentation into each dough ball.  (We used a measuring spoon, which worked well!  Your thumb would also be a good option...haha).

8)  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until set.  As soon as you remove from the oven, re-press your indentations to make sure they're deep.

9)  In a medium saucepan, melt caramels with cream on low and stir until smooth.

10)  Fill each cookie with the caramel mixture and allow caramel to cool and set. (Work as fast as possible here as the caramel tends to set very quickly.)

p.s.

 ♥ kelsey

mocha cheesecake

I could have titled this post: "the only cheesecake I ever make", because that is the truth.  

I've tried several other recipes for cheesecakes, but this one is my all-time favorite.  Since cheesecake is a relatively expensive dessert that I tend to only make once in a while (for special occasions!), I really don't like experimenting too much.  I just love this recipe too much!

Also, for those of you who aren't really coffee fans...fear not!  I'm totally not a coffee drinker (at all), and I can't get enough of this cake.  If you're still not sure, you can always leave out the instant coffee for an excellent chocolate cheesecake!

Mocha Cheesecake

from: Jean Pare - Company's Coming: Chocolate Everything

Ingredients:

1/3 cup margarine, melted

1 1/3 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/3 cup sugar

3 tbsp cocoa powder

3 oz semisweet chocolate chips

3 packages cream cheese (8 ounces each), softened to room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp flour

2 tsp vanilla

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1/4 cup milk

1 tbsp instant coffee granules

*whipped cream for topping (optional)

Directions:

Crust:

1)  In a small bowl, stir together margarine, crumbs, sugar and cocoa.

2)  Press into an ungreased 9-inch springform pan; set aside.

Cake:

1)  Melt chocolate using a double boiler (or in the microwave if you're very careful not to burn it!).  Set aside and let cool to room temperature once melted.

2)  Beat cream cheese, both sugars, flour and vanilla in a medium bowl.  Add in melted chocolate and beat until well mixed.

3)  Add eggs, one at a time, until just mixed.

4)  Stir together milk and instant coffee until granules are completely dissolved.  Add to the batter, mixing until just combined.

5)  Pour over crust.

6)  Bake at 300 degrees for about 1 1/2 hours until the center is almost set.

7)  When you've removed the cake from the oven, run a knife around the edges to help the cake settle without cracking.

8)  Chill for 8 hours or overnight.

Optional:

Chocolate Magic Shell Sauce:

Melt together 1/2 cup of chocolate (doesn't matter what kind!), and add 1 tbsp of coconut oil.  Stir together.

Pour over chilled cheesecake like you would a ganache, and the chocolate will form a shell!

*Our cheesecake was a teensy bit warm when we poured our magic shell over top, so that's why it looks a bit glossy still.  But if you've chilled your cake properly, or if you pop it back in the fridge once you've poured the chocolate over, then it will form a shell of chocolate that is so pretty!

This cake is long gone, but editing these photos were seriously making me drool.

#foodphotographerproblems

p.s.

 ♥ kelsey

tasty tuesday: hunky bills

Now Hunky Bills are actually something we make at Christmas time, but since I'm an excellent procrastinator (and life was nuts around Christmas), I'm just blogging about them now!  Really they would be a delicious treat all year round, we just happen to only make them once a year.  Which is probably good for my waistline!

Funny story:  their real name is definitely not Hunky Bills....but rather: Uncle Bill's Cuban Lunch.  Somehow, someway, over many many Christmases.....they slowly morphed into Hunky Bills.  

My family all knows it's not right, but we can't help that we call them that!  It's pretty hilarious.

Moving on.  These babies are another easy peasy recipe, where all you do is melt chocolate and stir deliciousness into it!  (Deliciousness being chips and peanuts....yum.)  

Man, I'm such a sucker for anything  sweet and salty!  Just so darn good.

Hunky Bills

from: my Auntie Bobbi

Ingredients:

3 cups chocolate chips

3 cups reese's peanut butter chips

200 grams plain Ripple Chips, crushed (these usually come in a 200 gram bag, so measuring is easy!)

2 1/2 cups salted peanuts, chopped

Directions:

1)  In a very large saucepan, first melt the peanut butter chips.  Add chocolate chips once the peanut butter chips are melted.  Stir together.

2)  Allow mixture to cool slightly, and then add crushed chips and chopped peanuts (you want the chunks of chips and peanuts pretty small).

3)  Line a mini cupcake pan with mini cupcake papers, and spoon the mixture into the papers.  Let them cool until firm enough to remove from pan.  

*We always pop ours in the freezer for a few minutes until hardened, remove the hunky bills, and then do another pan until all of the mixture is gone.

Soooo....once you've finally caved on your healthy New Year's Resolutions, you know where to find this recipe.  Ha!  They're totally worth it.  Promise.

p.s.

 ♥ kelsey