The Hazel Bloom

Bake it Pretty Grab Bag

If you've visited this blog before, you've probably seen that I'm a huge fan of Bake it Pretty. We're talking seriously cute cupcake liners, straws, vintage-y party supplies, bakery boxes, kitchen twine in terrific colors... heaven.

The first time I ordered from Bake it Pretty, I realllly wanted one of the grab bags. Grab bags are so hard to resist, aren't they? Must know what's inside! But resist I did. Sometimes I can be good. The second and third times I ordered, grab bags were sold out. The fourth? In stock! Sold!

I ripped open the box, pushed aside the green and white striped paper straws (cute) and carnival stripe baking cup assortment (awesome) and reached for the adorable lime-and-white gingham bag. And I ripped that sucker open.

An adorable heart cookie cutter. A pink cupcake ring. And with every Bake it Pretty order I've received, they've thrown in a few gift tags. Totally handy.

And cupcake picks! A half a dozen red-and-white-striped pennants, a lifesaver, and a yellow "rubber" ducky!

And cupcake liners. I think I like the purple with white polka dot liners better than any that I ordered.

Plus, little "I love chocolate" twisty ties!

 

So cute.

Good thing they're sold out of grab bags again, at least for the time being. Yes, I checked. I would have been receiving about five more next week.

Salvaged Patio Cart

This thing cost me $5 at a garage sale last Friday.

Total shocker, right? I mean, it's in such pristine condition...

I know, I know. Not.

It's certainly a little worse for the wear, but it was the perfect size for our patio - where I wanted a cart or a table for drinks, BBQ prep, snacks, stuff like that.

I originally thought I'd paint it, but the truth is, I really kinda like the greenish yellow thing it had going on. And painting can be a pain.

So I stopped at the fabric store and picked up some fabric with a plastic laminate over the top. And, using spray adhesive with a very light touch, I applied some of said fabric (Moda Fabrics, Odyssea collection) to the top.

And you know, it's still not the most perfect thing in town, but I love it.

This stuff is the coolest damask pattern ever. Look closely, right there in the middle of the pattern. Fish!

Yeah, I kinda love it. Though, unless I seal it in some way, it'll probably only last me a season, then I'll have to find another plastic-laminated fabric or oilcloth to cover it with. But for now, I am instantly gratified.

Now to finish the other 99.9% of the patio and yard... no "instant" about that.

Oy.

Fire-Roasted Artichokes with Chipotle Aioli

 
Oooooh yeah. It's artichoke season. Green, spiny, scaly, perhaps slightly mysterious - and so fun (and delicious) to eat.

A plain old artichoke can be slightly intimidating to the uninitiated. But once you know the drill, they're truly a cinch to cook up, and just as easy to eat. 

I love the article entitled How To Cook and Eat an Artichoke over on Simply Recipes. It's a terrific, informative piece. I usually use her cooking method - throwing a bay leaf, clove of garlic, and slice of lemon into the steaming water. 

The other day, I decided to take it a step further - slap a few on the BBQ, serve it up with a spicy mayo concoction, and see what happens.

Artichoke magic, that's what happens.

Wine check/perfect pairing: Maryhill Winery's Rose of Sangiovese. We first tried this when we were at their winery last summer, on a 100 degree day. We bought a bottle of this lovely stuff, light and slightly sweet, perfect for the hot weather, and drank it under their big grapevine-covered deck overlooking the Columbia River. Along with the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches we brought. Hey, I never claimed we were the classiest couple in town!

(It's inexpensive, too - generally under $10 a bottle.)

I really do love Maryhill wines. But I've digressed plenty - back to the artichokes.

Fire-Roasted Artichokes are a company-worthy dish that would be low-maintenance to churn out (steam the 'chokes earlier in the day, then throw them on the BBQ when it's time to eat), and totally impressive. Or just make a few for yourself. I'm willing to bet you'll find yourself wanting 'em again and again. (Have I mentioned my stomach is growling?)

Here's the recipe!

Fire-Roasted Artichokes with Chipotle Aioli

Artichoke recipe adapted from this one for Claim Jumper's Fire-Roasted Artichoke

Fire-Roasted Artichokes - Ingredients:

• Artichokes
• One bay leaf
• One garlic clove
• One slice of lemon
• Melted butter for brushing

Chipotle Aioli - Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise (I love the reduced fat olive-oil based stuff from Kraft)
• 1 teaspoon canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, seeds removed (unless you want heat galore) and chopped fine
• 1/2 teaspoon adobo sauce (from the can of chipotles)
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Fire-Roasted Artichokes - Instructions:

Prepare and steam the artichokes:

1. Clip the tips of the artichoke leaves. They're pokey; who needs it! I, for one, haven't got time for the pain.
   
   
   
2. Lop off the top of the artichoke - about 3/4 of an inch worth.
   
   
   
3. Cut off the stem, so that the base is flat.
4. Remove just the very bottommost leaves.
   
   
   
5. Rinse well under cold water.
   
   
   
6. Bring about two inches of water, along with the bay leaf, lemon slice, and garlic clove, to a boil.
7. Set the artichokes bottom down in the water, and cover with lid.
   
   
   
8. Steam the artichokes for about 30 - 40 minutes, until tender.
9. Remove from water and allow to cool.
   
   
   
10. With a very sharp knife, slice each steamed artichoke in half.
    
    
    
11. With a spoon, scrape out the fuzzy middle above the heart.
    
    
    
     
    
12. Brush with melted butter.
    
    

Barbecue those bad boys:

1. Lay cut-side down on a hot grill - medium heat, about 325 - 350 degrees.
   
   
   
2. Cook for about 5 - 6 minutes, until there are nice brown grill lines on it.
   
   
   
   
3. Serve with chipotle mayo, or garlic butter, or lemon butter, or even mayo and soy sauce mixed together. I have yet to try this, but my friend Vix was raving about it just yesterday. I'll likely be trying it soon and reporting back.

Chipotle Aioli - Instructions:

1. Mix all the ingredients together well.
   
   
   
2. Chill for a couple of hours before serving, ideally, so the flavors blend well.

(I forgot to take a photo of the final product, so here again is a photo with the artichokes and the chipotle aioli in the background.)

Dang. Now I'm hungry.

Spider Cake

While planning our little Halloween shindig, one of my first food ideas was to make a spider-shaped cake.

He's made from a dome-shaped cake a'la the famous Barbie skirt cake, which I thought would also work out to be the perfect shape for our little buddy. The idea for Barbie cakes is this: Bake your cake in an oven-safe bowl, plop it out inverted, frost it, and stick Barbie in feet first so that it looks like her billowy dress. Hoo boy. I'm actually kind of surprised I didn't beg and plead for this one when I was a kid.

I baked a test cake first, in an oven-proof bowl from Crate and Barrel. I used a boxed cake mix, and yay, it baked up fine - after about 60 minutes in the oven.

So as the party neared, I decided to bake the real deal. But the spider's innards could be no ordinary cake. What would be better than cutting into the spider only to reveal bright red innards, a'la the famous Steel Magnolias armadillo cake? Enter: My first ever attempt at Red Velvet Cake - baked in a bowl!

Unfortunately, this one took about an hour and a half to bake all the way through. So the outside was nice and crisp by the time the inside was cooked. I figured I was SOL (Spider Out of Luck). Note lack of photographs from here until the surprisingly decently happy ending.

The next morning, with barely a glimmer of hope, I hacked off the burned outer layer and, because I was actually left with a reasonable amount of still-dome shaped cake, I decided to give it a whirl. I made yummy chocolate cream cheese frosting (see recipe at bottom), and frosted that dome to within an inch of its life (and actually probably about an inch thick). It worked!

So here's the deal. I'm just going to give you a few spider cake instructions, and a frosting recipe, and I'm sorry, but I don't have very many photos. But I promise, this really is super easy once you figure out the dome cake. Make the dome cake in a well-greased oven safe bowl (I hear Pampered Chef batter bowls are perfect), frost it, put on the candy face and some licorice legs! Boom, fresh spider!

Spider Cake

Ingredients:

• One cooled dome-shaped baked cake (see, I jumped right to the cake. Just prepare your batter that you know will bake up correctly in your bowl [boxed cake worked for me, red velvet cake didn't]. 
• One batch Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting (below)
• Two sour apple slice candies
• Two blackberry gumdrops
• One red licorice strong
• Two candy corns
• Eight strands of black licorice vines
• Note on the candy: I raided the bulk foods section at my local grocery store. This place is genius for finding pieces for things like this. 

Instructions:

1. Using a sharp serrated knife, slice the dome shaped cake horizontally into two pieces. Set the larger piece, flat bottom down, on your cake plate, and frost the middle of the cake with about a half inch of icing.
2. Top with the second piece, flat side down.
3. Frosting the sides first, and then the top, make sure the entire cake is covered in a thick layer of frosting. Just try not to melt down, and quit fantasizing about being the next featured story on Cake Wrecks. Oh wait, sorry, this is going to be working out WAY better for you at this point than it was working out for me. 
4. Take the sour apple rings, and shove the blackberry candies through from the green side out the white side, in a spiderly eye fashion.
5. Stick the eyes on the cake. Wasn't that easy? He's starting to look like a cute, albeit dorky, spider! He also looks kind of like a legless octopus. (Ooh, I think someday I'll make an octopus cake.)
   
   
   
6. Unroll the red licorice and cut off about four inches or so. This is the mouth. Apply to cake!
7. Stick the candy corns under the red licorice, point down. These are the spider fangs, or whatever those things are on spiders. I sort of like to think of them as buck teeth, too.
   
   
   Lookin' good!
8. Bend the licorice pieces in the middle so they're just a little bent. And just stick four into the cake on either side. Legs!
9. We added a couple antennas over the eyes, too, just to add to the dorky effect.
10. Sprinkle with chocolate sprinkles - I just kept them on the top, mostly, as I was liking the idea of a hairy-backed spider.

And that's it! We kept him chilled until about an hour before serving time.

Even with all the troubles with the red velvet cake, it was worth it. For one, it really was delicious. For another, I have to admit I loved cutting into this poor little guy and revealing his red innards. I'm a sick, twisted woman.

And here's the chocolate cream cheese frosting. It's really really easy, and really really good. Really.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Adapted from Food Network's Cream Cheese Frosting recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 pound cream cheese, at room temperature
• 4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 1/2 cup cocoa (I used Scharffen Berger for this one)
• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 4 cups sifted confectioners sugar - whoops! That's only FOUR cups of confectioners/powdered sugar total. Apologies!
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions:

• Beat the cream cheese, powdered sugar, cocoa, and butter on low until it all comes together, then beat on high until light and fluffy - about five minutes.
• Add the vanilla, then beat again until it's fluffy.
• If necessary, you can chill this to make it thicker.

Pumpkin Ginger Mini Cheesecakes with Dark Chocolate

After just a few short weeks of doing this blog thing, I'm realizing how common, natural, and cliche it is to start a story with "I love..." It's just that, this is what it's about! Stuff I love!

But I think I need to mix it up a bit, come in at things at new angles, or at the very least get my thesaurus out. That said...

I adore cheesecake. I crush on, cherish, am captivated by, and think the world of it. I know, I know, it's a little unhealthy to be so wild for a dessert. Lest I go overboard, I do make it rarely... and sometimes, I like to make it mini.

Just a few little bites of bliss.

I came up with this version after I picked up a few boxes of Anna's Ginger Thins - have you ever had these? If not, get thee to a cookie aisle stat! They're yummy crisp gingery thins in cute little flower shapes - low calorie, no trans fats, gotta love them. Er, admire them.

Anyway, I thought they'd make an excellent crumb-based cheesecake crust... and with pumpkin cheesecake (adapted from Paula Deen's pumpkin cheesecake recipe), all the better for this time of year. Topped with a little dark chocolate, they were perfect for our little Halloween shindig. Or anytime.

Here's the recipe:

Pumpkin Ginger Mini Cheesecakes with Dark Chocolate

Makes 18 mini cheesecakes

Ingredients

Crust:

• One box Anna's Ginger Thins (5.25 ounces)
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling:

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese at room temperature
• 1 cup pureed or canned pure pumpkin
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Topping

• 4 ounces of your favorite dark chocolate (I used 70% dark chocolate bites from Trader Joe's) 

Instructions

1. CRUST: Turn the oven to 350. Place cupcake liners into 18 (regular sized) muffin cups, and lightly spray with Pam.
2. Place the ginger thins into a Ziploc bag, and crush with a glass or rolling pin.
3. In a bowl, mix the ginger thin crumbs with the melted butter.
4. Place a heaping tablespoonfull of the crumb mixture into each muffin cup.
   
   
   
5. Press the crumbs firmly into the lined muffin cups. If you're lucky, you have a guy who kept various beer sampler glasses from Beerfests past. This works perfectly for me. A small juice glass or shot glass might work, or you can just press with your fingers.
   
   
   
   
6. Bake for 6-7 minutes, until set, then remove and set aside.
7. FILLING: Start with the cream cheese - beat for a couple minutes until it's smooth and starts to get a little fluffier. Add eggs, sugar, pumpkin, sour cream, and spices. Then add the flour and vanilla. Mix until well combined. Note: Do not carelessly place the eggs on the counter where one may roll off. Just sayin'.
   
   
   
   Anyway. Coming together!
   
   
   
   
8. Pour about 1/3 cup worth into each muffin cup. I know, I need a new muffin pan.
   
   
   
   
9. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes. You want the cheesecakes to be JUST past being jiggly in the middle.
10. Remove from oven and let cool for 15-20 minutes. Sorry, I should have taken a picture of them right after I pull them out of the oven. They looked like the photos of the finished products, except a little more puffed up in the middle, if that helps.
11. Wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
12. TOPPING: This part is fun. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
13. Chop up the chocolate, and place in a microwave-safe bowl with 1/2 teaspoon vegetable shortening.
14. Microwave on high for 30 seconds, remove, and stir. Continue to microwave in 15 second intervals, removing and stirring, until the chocolate is just melted. 
15. Spoon the chocolate into a Ziploc bag (or pastry bag).
16. Snip the end of the Ziploc bag JUST BARELY. You just want a tiny hole.
    
    
    
    
17. Now draw with chocolate! Squirt the chocolate onto the parchment-paper-lined cookie sheet. Make any little shape you want to top your cheesecakes with. I was making these for our Halloween party, so I opted for spider webs and spiders. Well... I attempted spider webs and spiders. I'm no artist. See?
    
    
    
    (But you know, it seems like people are always impressed with chocolate shapes, no matter what. I think it's just the fact that you went to the effort. Or maybe just because, hello, it's chocolate. Chocolate always looks great.)
    
    
18. Set your chocolate art aside to harden. If you do this at room temperature, it may take an hour or more. Or you can refrigerate to accelerate the process.
    
    
    
    
19. ASSEMBLE: Remove the cheesecakes from the muffin tin. It may help to use a butter knife on the outside of the cupcake liner to gently pry it out.
20. Carefully remove the chocolate shapes from the parchment paper, and arrange on top of the cheesecakes.
21. Enjoy! And/or, let your guests enjoy. (A very important step!)

Deviled Egg Eyes

I thought I'd dreamed up this idea all by myself, but a quick Google tells me otherwise. Deviled eggs! Made to look like eyes! The perfect Halloween hors d'oeurve! I guess I can see how I wouldn't be the first person to dream this one up. It's not much of a stretch. Ah well. I still love how these turned out.


 
Here's how:

Deviled Egg Eyes

• One dozen eggs and preparations for your fave deviled egg recipe (I just smash up the yolks with about 1/2 cup of mayo, about 1 tablespoon of mustard, a couple drops of tabasco, and salt and pepper to taste)
• Green food coloring
• Blue food coloring
• Ziploc baggies
• Black olives
• Paprika
• Toothpick

Instructions:

1. Slice hard boiled eggs in half and mash yolks using your favorite recipe
2. Add three or four drops of green food coloring
3. Spoon half the yolk mixture into a Ziploc bag (or a pastry bag)
4. Cut off the tip of the bag
5. Pipe into egg halves by the pair
   
   
6. Mix three or four blue drops to the remaining yolk mixture
7. Spoon into a new Ziploc bag, cut off the tip, and pipe yolk mixture into remaining pairs
8. Cut the sides of the black olives so that they're fairly round (my guy was so good at this, I had him cut them all. Boy, was he thrilled!)
   
   
   
9. Place them in the center of the deviled eggs like pupils
10. Pour some paprika onto a plate and wet with enough water to make a paste
    
    
    
11. Using a toothpick, lightly draw on a few veins here and there

That's it. Deviled eggs that are outta sight!

 

Witch's Finger Breadsticks

Come hither, my pretties. That's right... just a little bit closer.

These numbers – or shall I say, digits – beckon everyone to bite the hand that feeds them. Well, at least the fingers. Possibly the creepiest breadsticks ever, these witch's fingers are great for dipping in soup or chili, or scooping up some marinara (ooh, bloody looking! Perfect!)

 

I wish I could say I pinpointed this idea all by myself, but I actually borrowed it from this Cheddar Witch's Fingers recipe from Sunset. While I'm all for homemade cheese crackers like in the Sunset version, (my mom makes the most amazing cheese crackers, that reminds me – I really need to get her recipe), I'm a little short on time lately, so I decided to do this the easier way.

Enter: Pillsbury!

With a tube of Pillsbury breadsticks and a pack of sliced almonds, I whipped up some creepy severed breadsticks in as many minutes as I can count on both hands. Too bad there are a couple of witches out in the world who won't be able to say the same anymore... mua ha ha ha ha!

Here's how to make 'em:

Witch's Finger Breadsticks

Ingredients:

• One roll of Pillsbury soft breadsticks
• Handful of sliced almonds (that pun was unintentional. Promise.)
• For some extra flavor, some melted butter and grated parmesan

Instructions:

1. Turn the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Unroll the breadsticks onto a large cutting board (or your counter or wherever you like to do doughy things)
3. Using a pizza cutter, slice each breadstick into two skinnier versions like so:
   
   
4. Place the long, skinny dough pieces in a row on a cookie sheet.
5. Pull each long skinny piece into two pieces. Grabbing with your very own fingers near the middle, pull them apart, and then cut again down the middle with the pizza cutter, so that each long skinny dough piece is now two.
6. Press a sliced almond onto the tip of the skinniest end of the breadstick dough (hopefully in the middle, this is why I had you pull them apart a little) - that'll help 'em look a little more like fingers. Really, it's all about the nasty almond fingernail. so even if you just cut them in half without all the pulling nonsense, they'll still look fine.
   
   
7. If you're adding butter and parmesan, use a pastry brush to brush a little melted butter onto the dough now, and then sprinkle on the the cheese.
8. Bake for about 12 minutes, until they're puffy and start getting the teensiest brown on the top. I start checking at about 10, but ovens vary.
9. Let cool for five minutes or so, then using a turner, remove the breadsticks from the cookie sheet.
10. Arrange on a plate or anywhere else you, and everyone else, will be able to fully appreciate them in all their super-severed glory.

 

And give yourself a hand!

Smiley Cupcakes

Sometimes an aspiring domestic diva doesn't have the time to do the things she wants to do. Sometimes she can't make the cupcakes and frosting from scratch, and and go overboard creating impressive cupcake decorations. Sometimes, when the aspiring domestic diva works a full-time job and needs to squeeze in some time in the evening to whip out some birthday treats for a coworker's birthday celebration the next day, she has to resort to... gasp... boxed cake mix and frosting out of a can.

There. I said it. I feel... cleansed.

But really... it's not all bad. You can still have fun with your blasphemous from-a-box-and-from-a-can cupcakes, whip the monstrosities out in record time, and even do something a little cute with them while you're at it. Such as... Smiley Cupcakes!

Betty Crocker spice cake mix, Betty Crocker vanilla whipped frosting and a little yellow food coloring, and some black licorice strings procured from the Bulk Foods section for 30 cents.

Color your frosting, cut up your licorice string, frost on the faces, carefully press the smile in (be sure to press it in, don't just lay it, lest it turn upside down!), and drop the eyes in, positioning with a toothpick. Voila!

They may not taste quite as scrumptious as homemade, but they'll be tasty enough. And surely they'll bring smiles to a few faces.