Peach Frozen Yogurt and Georgia Peach Buttercream

I have been playing around with my photos a little bit. It's pretty fun.
I don't really remember how it came up, but some of us were talking about making ice cream and Nancy mentioned how delicious David Lebovitz's Peach Frozen Yogurt was and since I had peaches, I made it.

I didn't weigh my peaches (mistake)- I just assumed that my peach mixture was the perfect amount, but when I churned it, I realized I should have just measured the darn things. My frozen yogurt yielded way more than 3 cups and it was really peachy, which was fine with me, but I don't think it turned out exactly how the recipe wanted it to. We still enjoyed it. My youngest came in and saw me taking pictures and snatched the cone from me- so I let her hold it for the pic.

My mother-in-law had a birthday at the end of July and I decided I would make her a little cake. She had a really busy day, so I just made it, took it over and put it in her fridge, and she was surprised later, when she came home.

I saw the recipe for Georgia Peach Buttercream in the June issue of Southern Living and it sounded like a perfect, summery frosting. Plus, I live in Georgia, so I pretty much had to make it.
The frosting is a basic buttercream with peach puree added to it, to give it a light peachy flavor. I read a couple of the reviews and one of them said that the peach flavor was really light, so I added more peach puree than it called for. It did add a little extra flavor, but made the frosting extra hard to keep on the cake. I think this frosting would work great on cupcakes or a 9x13-inch cake. Maybe it was just really hot- once I put the cake in the fridge it was all good.

I used this cupcake recipe, which uses a white cake mix, but adds buttermilk, butter, and almond extract, which all give it a great texture and flavor. I made three 6-inch cakes and my mother-in-law called me later raving about the cake. She said it was her new favorite. Yay! for birthday success!
Here are all the links to the recipes

David Lebovitz's Peach Frozen Yogurt

Georgia Peach Buttercream Frosting

Basic White Cupcake

One Year Ago-Greek Chicken Pizza

Banana Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

I don't usually make something twice. Unless it is really, really good.

So, when my friend asked me to make a couple of cakes for a family celebration, I thuoght back to this delicious banana cake with chocolate frosting. I made it for my son's 6th birthday and I remember how good it was. The cake is super moist, studded with delicious pecans, and the chocolate frosting is divine. The actual monkey was very difficult to decorate because although this frosting is delicious, it is very hard to spread or decorate with, but the taste makes it worth trying.

The second time I made the cake, we decided the monkey wasn't necessary and just made a double layer cake. I still made the yellow buttercream, just so there would be a splash of color to make it more interesting.

They loved it. If you need a party cake, this one tastes delicious and can please kids or adults and usually ends up doing both!

Monkey Cake from Martha Stewart
An animal theme can really get things swinging at a kid's birthday party. Indulge your child's penchant for monkey business with a fanciful banana cake with chocolate buttercream icing shaped and decorated to look like a curious friend.
Ingredients
Serves 10 to 12.
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pan
3 cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising), plus more for dusting
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 very ripe, large bananas, mashed (about 1 1/3 cups)
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups packed light-brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup chopped pecans, optional
Fluffy Chocolate and Yellow Buttercreams
2 black-licorice drop candies
Black-licorice rope, for decorating
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour an 8 1/2-inch-diameter 3-quart stainless-steel or ovenproof bowl and 1 cup of a large (1-cup capacity) muffin tin; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter and brown sugar; mix on medium-high until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in eggs. Reduce speed to medium; mix in flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with banana mixture. Stir in pecans.

Fill prepared muffin cup three-quarters full. Transfer remaining batter to prepared baking bowl. Transfer to oven, side by side. Bake cupcake until a cake tester comes out clean, about 30 minutes.

Let cool in tin on a wire rack. Continue baking large cake until a cake tester comes out clean, about 1 hour and 10 minutes more (1 hour and 40 minutes total). Let cool in bowl on a wire rack 30 minutes. Invert bowl to remove cake; let cool completely.
Trim flat side of cake to be level. Trim away top of cupcake to be level. Cut cupcake in half vertically for the two monkey ears. Cut bowl cake in half horizontally to make 2 layers. Spread 3/4 cup chocolate buttercream on top of flat layer. Top with domed layer. Transfer to a cake plate. Spread a thick layer of chocolate buttercream over entire monkey head. Spread buttercream over cupcake ears. Attach ears to sides of head, top of cupcake facing forward, securing with toothpicks.
Place remaining chocolate frosting in a piping bag fitted with a small plain round tip (such as Ateco #5). Pipe dots around bottom edge of cake in a continuous line. Switch to a small multi-opening tip (such as Ateco #233); pipe hair on top of head.
Fill another piping bag fitted with a large plain round tip (such as Ateco #11) with yellow buttercream. Pipe an oval near the front base of cake. Fill in with frosting, and smooth. Place 2 small pieces of licorice rope inside for nose. Add a long piece of rope for mouth. Place licorice drops above oval for eyes. Pipe yellow half-circles in centers of ears; fill in with frosting, and smooth. Decorated cake can be refrigerated up to 3 hours.

Fluffy Chocolate and Yellow Buttercreams
Ingredients
Makes 3 3/4 cups chocolate frosting and 1 1/4 cups yellow frosting.
1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 1/4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
Yellow food coloring
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Directions
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine 1 stick butter, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, and 1 1/2 cups sugar; mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Stir in food coloring to make pale yellow. Transfer to a small bowl; cover.
Put remaining 3 sticks butter in mixing bowl. Beat on medium-high speed until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to medium; add cocoa. Mix until smooth. With mixer running, add remaining 3 3/4 cups sugar, 1 cup at a time. Add remaining 1/2 teaspoon vanilla; mix on high speed until incorporated, 10 to 20 seconds more.

Up Next- TWD- Chipster Topped Brownies

Happy St. Patricks Day! Thin Mint Cupcakes

I saw these cupcakes a week ago when Mary posted them on her blog, The Food Librarian and thought they were a great way to use up those Thin Mint Cookies. Then yesterday Laura, over at Real Mom Kitchen, posted them too and I decided they were the perfect dessert for tonight.
I had exactly 1 sleeve of Thin Mint cookies left and that is what you crush up and add to Martha Stewarts One Bowl Chocolate Cupcake recipe. I made the vanilla buttercream Laura made, but reduced the milk and vanilla and added 1/4 tsp pure mint extract, for just a hint of mint in the frosting. I also added just a tiny bit of green food coloring.
My brother tasted one and he said they were fabulous! We are going to have them after dinner tonight. So, hurry- there is still time for a St. Patricks Day cupcake if you haven't made one already!


Link to Food Librarian's Post and Link to Real Mom Kitchen's Post
Here is the LINK for the One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcake Recipe
Link for the Vanilla Buttercream

My Final Cake

Here is the final cake that I made last night at my cake decorating class. It was pretty fun learning how to make more variations of flowers and some other decorating techniques.

Monkey Cake and Jaguar Cupcakes

This monkey cake was so fun to make and the actual cake/frosting combo was very tasty.
It was a banana cake with chocolate and regular buttercream frosting. It was not very easy to pipe the frosting onto the cake, but it was worth the effort.


Baby Jaguar Cupcakes were fun to make also. I used a cake mix and store bought frosting, which also is not as easy to use as decorator frosting for details. The kids loved these.