TWD Banana Coconut Ice Cream Pie

Last night got a little busy, so I missed posting, but I had made little pies! I am not a fan of the banana-chocolate combo, and generally I don't like coconut in desserts, so I made a few substitutions :) The crust I kept the same, and only bananas on top of the pie (not in).

I also tried a version with Breyer's Heath ice cream and a little cocoa powder that was pretty tasty.
















Thanks to of spikebakes for this week's pick!

Poodles

I got Greweling's Chocolates and Confections and some molds for Christmas, and I just got to try playing around a little!















Based on what I happened to have, I tried the Poodles, but I molded them instead of dipping and rolling in the chocolate curls, so it probably doesn't seem to make sense that these would be called Poodles. Anyway, the cream's infused with coffee, then used in the ganache. It was my first time using a polycarbonate mold, and it got incredibly messy. And I had trouble keeping the chocolate in temper, working with a smaller amount. I'm not sure how I'll change that yet... but in spite of it all, they were pretty tasty :)

TWD Apple-Apple Bread Pudding

I didn't get a pic til the very last piece -we really liked this bread pudding! My changes were no apple butter (not having it in the pantry) and to tear the bread instead of doing the slices, I've never had great luck with slices all getting soaked. I love traditional bread pudding and was a little hesitant about the apple variation, but we really liked it. I think that they were caramelized first made them a little less like biting into a baked apple in the middle of the bread pudding. It was still cold here, so bread pudding was perfect!

Thanks to Elizabeth of Cake or Death? for this week's pick!

Kumquat Marmalade

I *do* like marmalade! :)

This kumquat marmalade is great (especially on the whole wheat brioche from HBin5)! It set just right, sweet and tangy and citrus-y. I'll have to try others again next year.

Now on to the 28 rhubarb plants that came with our new backyard (this is just one bed)....

Tea Party!

My daughter's Daisy troop had a Teddy Bear Tea Party last weekend, so I had to find a girly dessert to bring!

I've done the Peggy Porshen royal icing butterflies before, and it worked out a little better. I tried doing too many at a time and my pink icing was too thick, so the wings weren't as fine, but it worked out anyway. I cheated, too, and didn't bother putting them together on the folded paper, I just made the wings, stuck them in the icing and then royal iced the body. The bodies are still wet here, but had dried by the time we got to the party an hour later.

I used Toba's Moist Yellow Cake for the cupcakes. One recipe makes about 27-28 cupcakes. They're fantastic, though at least in cupcake form, need to be eaten the day of, otherwise they dry out. They're pretty great cupcakes same day.

The frosting's a double batch of Rosenberg's buttercream that's available online as a mocha version (just omit the water and coffee). We love the buttercream, and have eaten plain with fruit, because we're so health-minded :)

The tea party was cute, the girls were all dressed up, posing with their teddy bears. Fun little tea party!