For the Love of Pie

Dessert is a beautiful, beautiful thing. It allows me to bake, and ply Dede full of sweets. Pie is his favorite, especially berry pie. In our household, there is berry pie all year long. Mostly this is because berries are another fruit staple in our household. And when they desperately need to be used, there are two ways to use berries. The first is my mother's way, cook all the fruit in the household into "fruit soup" which is just hot fruit juice. The second is my way, make berry pie. I use whatever it is that we have in the fridge, which is why my berry pie always comes out different, and why there is no exact measurement for how many berries you will need. Now I'm not actually going to post a pie crust recipe (yet again!) because I haven't yet found one that I liked. I used to make mine with shortening, but a close friend swore up and down that cream cheese was the way to go. Obviously I must continue to tinker about in the kitchen until I find the flaky crust of my dreams.

Berry Crumble

Freeform Berry Pie

Use your favorite pie crust recipe, or a pre-bought pie crust.

All the berries in your fridge that need to be eaten

1 cup of sugar, or 1/2 cup of fruit jam/preserves

1/4 cup orange juice (if you don't have any, just use water)

Instructions

Wash, drain, and cut all the berries

Combine the berries, juice, and sugar in a large saucepan over medium heat

Cook over medium heat for 10-15 minutes, just to break down the berries and release their juices. Take the berries off the heat and drain, making sure the reserve the liquid in another bowl. Toss the berries with a little flour or cornstarch and sugar before filling your pie crust. Usually I have plenty of berries leftover, so I put them back in the pot with the reserve liquid over medium heat to continue to break down. You want to cook the remaining berries down until the liquid has thickened to make preserves. This usually takes another 30-40 minutes, but you could speed this process up by adding a roux, or a little cornstarch to the pot. If you only have the reserve liquid left, it makes a great mixer for drinks, or add cornstarch to make a jelly.

* If you opt not to use sugar, but to clean out some old jars of jam, then whisk the jam until smooth with the juice or water first before adding to the berries in the pot.

How to top your pie: as pictured above, you could use a crumble topping. If you bought pre-prepared pie tins, then a crumble is a great solution. It's simple butter, sugar, and flour. I used a crumble mix since I already had one on hand. If you bought pie crusts, then obviously you can use the second pie crust to seal off the pie. Bake at 375 deg. F on a sheet pan (it will catch any juices bubbling over) for 40 minutes

There are also a few ways in which pie can also be very romantic (and I don't just mean sliding a ring into the pie). You can top the pie with cookies, we often like to use the pre-cut pillsbury sugar cookies that have images printed on them (you can use them for different occasions like Easter pie, or Halloween pie as well). Since cookies require less time to bake, bake the pie halfway first, take it out of the oven and slide the cookies on top, put back in the oven and continue to bake.

Love pie, using the pre-cut pillsbury valentine cookies

Last, but not least, proposal pie ...

I used shortbread cookies and cut the letters into the shortbread squares

Actually, it was more of a crumble. I came up with this during the summer when I had some extra shortbread cookie dough left over. Dede had been brainstorming for many months on how to propose, and taking pitying on the poor man, I came up with this idea. Not that this is actually how he proposed, but he was so happy when he saw it. It also happened to provide good inspiration for a proposal blog post.

And this is how we ate the proposal pie, in a mug with a big scoop of ice cream

Pizzas Galore!

There's nothing like a great slice of pizza. My mouth is watering, thinking about a fresh hot slice, especially when I'm in need of comfort food, or in the middle of the night when I've been out having a few drinks with some friends. As a New Yorker, I always thought that great pizza came on thin, crispy crust. But when I went to college, the Chicken, Bacon, Ranch sicilian at Antonio's taught me that great pizza also comes on a thick, flaky crust. So if you live in New York, and haven't experience the wonder of Artichoke Pizza, head on down to 14th st. between 1st and 2nd aves. Just this morning, in the wee hours before dawn, we grabbed ourselves some Artichoke pizza, and it was the best goshdarn thick crust pizza I've had since Antonio's. It was like artichoke and spinach dip, on a thick, flaky crust.  I will dream about this pizza, but I won't have to in the middle of the night because the best part about Artichoke Pizza is that it's open until 5am. If only I hadn't stuffed my face with it and taken a picture for this post. 

Before I started making pizza, I thought it was one of those things that would be hard to make at home. Oh, how I was wrong. Pizza is one of those things that is incredibly easy to make. Once you have a dough you like, you can put whatever you want on it.

My go to recipe is a pizza dough from Tyler's Ultimate. I don't have a stand mixer, so if you want the stand mixer instructions, follow the link to the original recipe.

Pizza Dough

1 package active dry yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

1 cup warm water

1 tablespoon kosher salt

Extra-virgin olive oil

3 cups all purpose flour, plus more for dusting

Instructions

In a large bowl, combine the yeast, sugar, and warm water; whisk gently to dissolve. Let the mixture stand until the yeast comes alive and starts to foam, about 5 to 10 minutes.
Add the salt and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the flour, a little at a time, whisking until all the flour has been incorporated. When the dough starts to come together, switch to a spatula to slowly fold the flour into the dough. Get a feel for the dough by squeezing a small amount together: if it's crumbly, add more water; if it's sticky, add more flour - 1 tablespoon at a time. Mix until the dough gathers into a ball, this should take about 5 minutes.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and fold it over itself a few times; kneading until it's smooth and elastic. Form the dough into a round and place in a lightly oiled bowl, turn it over to coat. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel and let it rise in a warm spot (i.e. over a gas pilot light) until doubled in size, about 1 hour. This is a good time to stick a pizza stone, pan, or baking sheet in the oven and pre-heat to 500 degrees F.
Once the dough is domed and spongy, turn it out onto a lightly floured counter. Roll and stretch the dough into a cylinder and divide into 3 equal pieces. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes so it will be easier to roll out.
Roll or pat out a piece of dough into a 12 inch circle, about 1/8-inch thick. Dust a pizza paddle with flour and slide it under the pizza dough. Brush the crust with a thin layer of olive oil, and top with your favorite flavors. Slide the pizza onto the hot stone in the oven and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the crust is golden and crisp. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Now what are some great flavors you can put on your pizza?

Breakfast pizza, it disappeared so fast I barely got to take this picture

This is one of my favorites

Breakfast Pizza

3 tablespoons pesto (I use store bought, often Costco)

1/2 cup halved grape tomatoes (heirloom in the picture)

1/3 cup sliced mushrooms

couple slices of chopped canadian bacon, or regular bacon (as much as you want on the pizza)

4 slices of aged provolone

1 cup shredded parmigiano-reggiano or pecorino romano

1 tablespoon olive oil

Two eggs

Instructions

This is a thin crust pizza, so you want to roll it out thin, about 1/8 inch. Use 1/2 of the dough you've made from the recipe above. Slide the dough onto a oiled sheet pan.

Brush the top of the dough, especially around the crust, with olive oil. Then, using a spoon, spread the pesto thinly over the surface. Break your provolone slices into large pieces and scatter over the pesto. Top with the parm-reggiano.

Evenly distribute the halved tomatoes, mushrooms, and bacon over the surface of the pizza before popping into a pre-heated 500 degree oven. Bake for 5-8 minutes before pulling the pizza out of the oven. Crack the eggs over the top of the pizza and pop back in the oven for another 5-7 minutes or until the cheese has a nice caramelized crust.

Mushroom and Mexican Blend Pizza

This is a thick crust pizza. I used a pizza pan (doubles as a grill pan) to bake this pizza.

Mushroom and Mexican Blend Pizza

3 tablespoons tomato sauce

1 cup Mexican blend cheese

1/2 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino Romano

1/2 cup sliced mushrooms

1/4 cup halved grape tomatoes *optional

Instructions

Roll the dough out into a circle, about 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick. Slide onto your pizza stone, or oiled pizza pan.

Brush with a little olive oil, and spread the tomato sauce over the surface. Layer first the mexican blend cheese, then the parm-reggiano over the tomato sauce. Top with evenly distributed sliced mushrooms and tomatoes before popping in 500 deg. oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the cheese has caramelized. This pizza will bake for longer because the crust is thicker.

Classic margherita pizza

This is my favorite, one I'm sure to order especially at a new establishment. You can't, or shouldn't be able to, go wrong with a classic margherita pizza. You can make this thin crust by rolling it free form to 1/8 of an inch, or thick crust as pictured above. This was my very first attempt at making pizza at home, without making the crust (taking baby steps). If you don't have the time, or don't feel up to making pizza dough, Trader Joe's sells 3 kinds of pizza dough. The one pictured is their herb garlic pizza dough.

Margherita Pizza

1/2 ball of fresh mozzarella, sliced

2 Roma tomatoes, diced or sliced

1 handful fresh basil leaves

3 tablespoons tomato sauce

1/3 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino Romano

Instructions

Brush your rolled out dough with a little olive oil, and then spread your tomato sauce evenly over the surface. Layer first the fresh mozzarella, then the parm-reggiano, roma tomatoes, and finally the fresh basil leaves. Bake in a 500 deg. oven 12-15 minutes for thin crust, 15-18 minutes for thick crust, or until a nice caramelization has formed as pictured above.

Black bean and goat cheese Pizza

This is the newest pizza we made, on the same night we accomplished roasted rack of lamb. Now you can see why we were exhausted. This recipe was inspired by the scrumptious Spicy Chicken and 3 Cheese Pizza at Max Brenner's. Because I don't eat chicken, this was a meatless pizza. If you wanted, you could totally put the meat back on the pizza by using pre-cooked chicken. We also couldn't find jalapenos so this was a non-spicy pizza. If you have jalapenos, definitely utilize them on this pizza.

Black Bean and Goat Cheese Pizza

1/2 cup canned black beans, drained

1/2 cup goat cheese

1/2 ball fresh mozzarella, sliced

1/2 cup shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino Romano

3 tablespoons tomato sauce (made by mixing Hunt's tomato sauce, and tomato paste to get a strong, bright tomato flavor)

1/2 cup diced cherry tomatoes

Instructions

This is a thin crust pizza, so roll out to 1/8 inch thick, free form, sliding onto a oiled baking sheet. As always, brush the surface of the dough with a light layer of olive oil. The layering of this pizza is important, because I got it wrong the first time.

Even spread the tomato sauce across the surface of the pizza. Then layer the goat cheese, and black beans, before topping with fresh mozzarella, parm-reggiano, and diced tomatoes.

You want the goat cheese under everything else because you want the goat cheese to remain moist. When I made this, I crumbled the goat cheese on top, which dried out the goat cheese and prevented the mozzarella from caramelizing all over.

Bake at 500 deg.F for 12-18 minutes, or until cheese has caramelized.

EAT RIGHT AWAY! ^_^

3 course Romantic Dinner

Valentine's Day is fast approaching, and some of you may be brainstorming to cook up a romantic Valentine's Day dinner. Since Valentine's Day falls on a Tuesday, many people will no doubt be rushing home from work, or school, to cook this romantic dinner. Keeping that in mind, this post features a sophisticated, yet easy to prepare, 3 course dinner. The best part is that it takes very little time to prepare, and cook this 3 course dinner. Today's post will feature Ricotta, Feta, and Mint Layers w/Honeyed Blood Oranges; Roasted Rack of Lamb, and Chocolate covered Strawberries. 

To save on time, get dessert done first. Once you have it chilled in the fridge, prepare your lamb. While it's roasting in the oven, you can use that space of time to prepare your ricotta and mint layers. You should be able to turn out this 3 course dinner in the time frame of 1 hour. 

Original photo from food52, their slideshow features more step by step photos

Ricotta, Feta, and Mint Layers w/Honeyed Blood Oranges  - courtesy of food52.com         

Serves 3 or more

4 ounces feta

4 ounces ricotta

large bunch of fresh mint leaves

olive oil

sea salt

4 tablespoons honey

2 blood oranges, segmented and chopped, membranes reserved

Instructions

In a shallow bowl or dish, mash the feta with the back of a fork. Add the ricotta and stir together very well.

Lightly oil a 3” x 6” mini loaf pan with olive oil.

Spread 1/3 of the cheese mixture into the bottom of the pan. Cover with a single layer of mint leaves, and gently press them into the cheese.

Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Continue with another layer of cheese, followed by a layer of mint leaves, drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of sea salt.

Spread the last layer of cheese on top, another drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt. Wrap with plastic wrap or cover with a damp towel to keep it moist.

Combine the honey and chopped orange segments in a bowl. Squeeze the juice from the reserved membrane onto the segments. Stir together gently.

Remove the plastic wrap from the cheese. Run a knife around the edge of the loaf pan and invert the mini loaf pan onto a serving dish. Spoon the honeyed oranges over top.

* Garnish with additional fresh mint leaves. Serve with pita chips, pita bread wedges, or crostini.

I did not use the suggest loaf pan, which didn't help it aesthetically

I used grapefruit instead of blood oranges, which required a little more honey

Spread on crostini. Serve immediately, or the layers will become soggy as pictured in the background

Moving onto the entree. I usually don't cook lamb because I am a pescatarian. However, both my fiancé and my father love lamb, so I dared to try my hand at roasting a lamb rack. This was literally the first recipe I pulled off of the web. We purchased the lamb rack from Costco for about $18. This same entree would have cost probably $30 per person if we had dined out. The original recipe used fresh chopped rosemary, which you should definitely use if you have it. Unfortunately my plant  is struggling to survive, so I turned to the dried herb instead.

Please forgive the plating and bad pictures. My fiance took them; he and Dad were so hungry they couldn't wait

Roasted Rack of Lamb –courtesy of allrecipes.com                                 

Yields 2 servings

1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

2 tablespoons minced garlic

1 tablespoons dried rosemary

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 (7 bone) rack of lamb, trimmed and frenched

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

 Instructions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C), with the oven rack in the center position.

In a large bowl, combine bread crumbs, garlic, rosemary, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. When adding the dried rosemary, just rub it between your hands to break up the rosemary. Toss in 2 tablespoons olive oil to moisten mixture, all you need is a fork to mix these ingredients together. Set aside.

I like to use food safe gloves when working with meat, but you don't have to. Drizzle a little olive oil over the lamb rack and rub into the surface of the meat. Season the rack all over with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, get a large heavy oven proof skillet going over high heat. Once your pan is hot, just hold your hand above the pan, pour 2 tablespoons of olive oil into the pan. This is so you get that nice sear on the outside of your lamb rack. Don't forget to turn on your exhaust hood!

Sear rack of lamb for 1 to 2 minutes on all sides. Set aside for a few minutes. Brush rack of lamb with the mustard. The original recipe called for rolling in the bread crumb mixture, but patting it down onto the lamb rack worked fine for us. Make sure it's evenly coated. Cover the ends of the bones with foil to prevent charring.

Arrange the rack bone side down in the skillet. Roast the lamb in preheated oven for 12 to 18 minutes, depending on the degree of doneness you want. With a meat thermometer, take a reading in the center of the meat after 10 to 12 minutes and remove the meat, or let it cook longer, to your taste. Let it rest for 5 to 7 minutes, loosely covered, before carving between the ribs.

We left ours in the oven a little longer, until 160 deg for medium

The original plan when I was planning this dinner was to finish the night with a pot de creme, but we were exhausted after all the cooking (we made multiple recipes in one day). So we finished the dinner with chocolate covered strawberries

Freshly dipped strawberries

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

12 oz chocolate (we prefer using Nestle's chocolate chips, not only because it comes in bulk at Costco, but also because it melts very easily)

1 box of already washed and dried strawberries (preferably the long stemmed kind, which is easier for dipping)

Parchment lined baking pan

Instructions

To melt the chocolate, we'll use the double boiler method. I'm not going to be specific about the amount of water used because every household carries different sized pots and bowls. Find two pots roughly around the same size, or a bowl that will fit nicely over a pot.

Fill the pot which you will be using on the bottom, about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way with water and get it to a boil before lowering the heat to simmer.

Make sure that the bowl or pot which you are using on top to melt the chocolate is absolutely dry. You don't want any water in the bowl/pot or else your chocolate will seize. One way is to heat the bowl over the simmering water so it will dry out inside before getting the chocolate in there.

The steam from the water will melt your chocolate. You want to use strawberries which are nice and dry because once again, you don't want water getting into the chocolate. Coat all sides of the strawberry, and transfer to the parchment lined baking pan. When you set the strawberry down, just slide it slightly forward. This will give it that little foot you often see on chocolate strawberries in the store, and smooth out any cone shapes down at the tip.

* These strawberries will not keep, but they shouldn't since they're meant to be devoured all at once.

Bon Appetit!

Birthday Sangria!

I've posted about the cake we had on my birthday, but I haven't yet posted about the sangria which I made!

Working on a budget sometimes means buying 3 Buck Chuck from Trader Joe's, which is ok because if you're making a sangria, you're mixing it up with various other flavors anyways.

As you can see, there were three kinds of sangria present during my birthday bash. We served them in gold cups, but for picture purposes I used glassware. To the left is the sauvignon blanc, in the middle is the shiraz, and on the right is the white zinfandel.

Cooking in my house often means thinking fast on your feet. Often ingredients have multiple uses for various recipes. When I originally broached the idea of making sangria for the party, I didn't know what I was going to be using in it. I knew that most likely oranges and apples would be going into the red, and peaches usually go well with the white. Dede had made candied grapefruit peels, and we had the flesh of 2 large grapefruits left, as well as a large amount of grapefruit flavoured simple syrup. So I grabbed a bottle of the white zinfandel, resolved not to let the grapefruit go to waste. I had needed some extra fruit for the trifle (the canned peaches, or rather jarred at Trader Joe's) and picked up some fresh mint leaves as well. I love putting fresh mint into drinks. The sangrias (I use this term rather loosely) I make are usually different, as are the recipes I concoct. They usually involve trying not to let food in my fridge go to waste. Waste not, want not ...

Peach and Mint White Sangria:

1 bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, 1 jar/can of peaches (diced), the juice of 1 jar/can of peaches, and a large handful of finely chopped mint leaves.

*If you want to make this into a spritzer, just add seltzer. 

Sorry about the blurriness. My hand shook

Citrus and Pear Red Sangria:

Imagine to my surprise that there were no apples in the house. Bananas and apples are two fruit staples that are always in the house. My father literally eats 1 apple a day. Thankfully we had pears in the fridge.

2 bottles of Shiraz, 2 cups of orange juice, 2 lemons sliced into thin rounds, 1 large orange (or two medium sized) sliced into thin rounds, 1 Bartlett pear (large dice), 1 Asian pear (large dice)
*optional Cranberry Jelly

Ideally if I had had apples, I would have used them and sliced them into rounds for aesthetic purposes. I used the cranberry jelly because I had a jar of homemade cranberry jelly that I needed to use (these things don't keep long!). Cranberry jelly on the right, pictured below.

The star of the night - Grapefruit and Mint Sangria

I picked up that bottle of White Zinfandel because grapefruit is pink, and so is white zinfandel, and a pink drink is always so so pretty. It was a good thing we'd kept that simple syrup because the grapefruit was so bitter, we'd needed most of it to balance out the bitterness of the sangria.

1 bottle of White Zinfandel, 1 large grapefruit (segmented), a large handful of finely chopped fresh mint, 1/2 cup simple syrup.

You want to crush the grapefruit segments with a fork to get all the grapefruit juice, before pouring in the white zinfandel. Whisk in the simple syrup (I said about roughly 1/2 cup simple syrup but really add it to taste. If you prefer the bitterness of grapefruit, add less, if it's just too bitter for you, add more) before adding the chopped mint leaves.

Enjoy!

Birthday Trifle!

I recently celebrated my 23rd birthday, although ringing in the year of the Dragon the next day would make it my 24th birthday in Chinese. What better way than to spend it with friends, eating delicious food? We went to the Smith, and unfortunately I completely forgot to take pictures ... yes that happens quite often.

But I digress because this post is really about birthday cake, or to be more accurate, birthday trifle! To read more about the process by which we reached the birthday trifle, check out my birthday post on my joint blog with my friends.

Now what is a trifle? A trifle is quite simply put, a whipped cream layer cake assembled in a bowl. It doesn't require nearly as much effort to assemble a trifle as it does to assemble and decorate a layer cake.



This is the first trifle that I made, which inspired my birthday trifle. This trifle came into existence the way that a good deal of my recipes do, I needed to throw things together so as not to waste food in my fridge. I had Meyer lemons that needed to be used, lemon curd that was reaching it's expiration date, and leftover cupcakes that no one was going to eat. So I decided it was time to turn lemons into lemon curd (instead of lemonade ;) ), after all that was what I had purchased them for. I wanted to use honey instead of all the sugar I kept seeing in the recipes, so I came across this recipe courtesy of The Nourishing Gourmet.

Meyer Lemon Curd
Makes 1 1/2 to 2 cups

3 eggs
1 tablespoon lemon zest (from 2 meyer lemons)
1/4-1/3 cup of honey
1/2 cup freshly squeezed meyer lemon juice
6 tablespoons of butter (evenly cubed)

Instructions:

In a medium stainless steel or enamel saucepan, whisk together the first three ingredients until light in color.

Whisk in the lemon juice, and then add the butter. The reason why you want to cube the butter into even size pieces is because you want the butter to melt evenly.

Continue to whisk slowly over medium heat until all the butter has melted. Cook until the mixture thickens, stirring on occasion, and you start to see a few bubbles popping at the surface.

Remove from heat, and scrape into a fine sieve set over a bowl. Strain the curd, gently stirring through the sieve.

Refrigerate for several hours to thicken.

* Will keep about one week or longer in the refrigerator.

I found that this recipe turned out rather mild in flavor.

The freshly made lemon curd is on the left, and pre-bought lemon curd is on the right. This store bought lemon curd is absolutely delicious. For those of you would like to make the trifle without making your own lemon curd, I purchased mine from Trader Joe's.

Now having made my own lemon curd, I found it to be a little runny. On the other hand, the lemon curd from Trader Joe's had thickened quite a bit (perfect for spreading on toast, a scone, or spooning directly into your mouth). Reaching a perfect consistency merely required me to mix a little of homemade lemon curd with a jar of the Trader Joe's lemon curd. I wanted to thin out the Trader Joe's lemon curd because I wanted the cupcakes to soak in that delicious lemon curd, and I also wanted to use the lemon curd to add a little moisture back into the cupcakes.

Normally you would use a sponge cake in a trifle, but as I said, I used cupcakes instead. The denser texture was lightened by the lemon curd and the whipped cream.

This cupcake was an experiment. I usually make a vanilla cupcake following the Sprinkles recipe for Peppermint-Vanilla Cupcakes, excluding the peppermint extract. I was experimenting with making my own jars of cake mix as Christmas presents. I had already prepared vanilla sugar using real vanilla bean, and vanilla extract. However I had fumbled with the measurements to fill the large jar I was using, and afterwards, I realized that according to the recipe, I had messed up the layers. I put sugar on the bottom, and the flour mixture on top, when I should have done the opposite in accordance to the instructions. So I decided to dump this jar out and see if the measurement conversion would have worked. Unfortunately ... I also forgot to check to see if I had sufficient eggs. Not having sufficient eggs, nor wanting to waste any part of the egg, I decided to separate all the egg whites. I would fold stiff egg whites back into the batter to incorporate more air into them. The result was not a vanilla cupcake, but a cupcake that tasted like a sugar cookie. Perfect for the holiday baking I was doing. Here is my accidental sugar cookie cupcake recipe:

Sugar Cookie Cupcakes

*Makes about 18 cupcakes or two cake rounds

2 cups all-purpose flour , sifted

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. coarse salt

3/4 cup whole milk , room temperature

1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 stick unsalted butter , room temperature

1 1/2 cup sugar

3 egg yolks , room temperature

3 large egg whites , room temperature

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 12-cup and 6-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners; set aside. * Do not butter or spray the tin. The cupcakes will have difficulty coming out.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

In a wet-measuring cup, mix together milk and extracts; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter on medium-high speed, until light and fluffy. Gradually add sugar and continue to beat until well combined and fluffy. Reduce the mixer speed to medium and slowly add egg yolks until just blended.

With the mixer on low, slowly add half the flour mixture; add the milk mixture and mix until just blended. Slowly fold in remaining flour mixture, scraping down sides of the bowl with a spatula, as necessary, until just blended.

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff. First fold in half of the stiff egg whites gently into the batter until blended, and then fold in the second half of the egg whites until incorporated.

Distribute batter evenly between the muffin tins. Bake 22 to 25 minutes.

Wait until cooled to dust powdered sugar over or decorate with colored sugar.

I whipped the cream with a little sugar, and a little lemon curd. And then layer of crumbled cupcake, lemon curd, blueberries, and whipped cream piled atop each other into a medium sized glass bowl. Dede went nuts over the trifle and ate half the bowl in one sitting. All that lemon curd had seeped into the crumbled cupcakes, and it was moist, delicious, and light.

When I found out that buying a cake in NYC apparently costs $60-$80 (Dede thought there would be 18 guests attending the not so surprise birthday party) with an additional $2.50 plating fee at The Smith, I brought up the idea that we could have cake at my place. He had already spent a lot of money in preparation for my birthday (plus Valentine's Day and our anniversary). Cake was not an expense that was particularly important to me, especially since I am currently without a cake store that I love. We had all the ingredients, and he knew how to assemble a trifle (because there was no way I could teach him in such a short amount of time how to assemble and decorate a layer cake). Plus, I had two more jars of Trader Joe's lemon curd that needed to be used!

This is the trifle he made, with strawberries and canned peaches in between the layers instead of blueberries (we used whatever fruit we had in the fridge). Since we were preparing for a large number of guests, we used a large glass bowl instead.

Now the tricky part was decorating a trifle. I used up all the cream layering the trifle, so what could I use to decorate the trifle? I'm not particularly good at piping icing words either. So we created a border with the blackberries, and melted some chocolate to pipe the words.

Piping chocolate was surprisingly easy, and fun. We made scrolls, and swirls, hearts, and even a high heeled shoe.

The candles were gold! (Party City)

And of course, the making of a wish and blowing out of candles ^_^

All in all, this birthday trifle was yummy and cost much less than $80. One day I'm going to start calculating how much each recipe cost me to produce. After all, that's one of the purposes for which I started this blog. The added benefits? I got pictures for my blog, to show off my baking skills, and didn't waste anything in my fridge/pantry.