Okay, I’ll admit three weeks ago, I didn’t really know what the “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” was. Turns out it is ALL the RAGE with the preschool set. And since Eileen and I were in charge of making a birthday cake for a darling little girl’s second birthday, we had some research to do on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!

Eileen did ALL of the research, and found a really great cake design on flickr that we used as our inspiration. Our cake was a bit smaller than the model, so we ended up making some modifications that I think made it look just as great as the original!

Eileen started us off right by pre-making the cake using our all time favorite chocolate cake recipe and by making and coloring a bunch of our homemade fondant (based on this recipe), so when I arrived for decorating on Saturday, we were able to go straight to icing. We made our standard buttercream (1 pound butter + 4 cups powdered sugar + tablespoon vanilla) and I iced and trimmed our layers. You always ice a fondant cake first (don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be pretty) then apply the fondant.

Next up, fondant rolling. Fondant is like pie dough–you have to roll it out evenly, in a circle, and it CANNOT stick! Maybe I’ve just rolled a lot of pies in my day or I’m a little OCD (likely the latter), but for some reason I’m really good at rolling out fondant. So Eileen always nominates me for the job. You used cornstarch to keep the fondant from sticking, but you have to be careful to keep it on one side when you roll.

I’ve never mastered actually applying the fondant to the cake, so that’s Eileen’s job! You smooth it and pull it, trimming as you go to get that famous, smooth fondant look!

Once we had the cakes covered, we turned our attention to the individual fondant pieces that would form the Clubhouse. We used round objects in the kitchen (measuring cups, tupperware) to cut the base of the clubhouse and the mickey head, but we handcut all of the other pieces. It was a bit tedious, but worth it. Then we slowly applied the pieces to the cake, using a bit of water to attach each piece.

We added some characters bought from the Disney store, and we were really happy with the results!

And so was our birthday girl–who went up to the cake and asked “Is that the Clubhouse?” in her cute 2 year old voice!

Lots of happy clubhouse cake eaters!

Last year, I confessed my love of rhubarb. With another rhubarb season upon us, my love is back and it’s tremendous.

Remember when I bought the so-so strawberries? Well, that morning I was really looking for rhubarb. Because earlier in the week I had eaten rhubarb crisp twice in as many days and I was ready for more. Rhubarb + crispy sugary oatmeal topping might be one of my favorite things, EVER. But sadly, that morning there was no rhubarb in sight. So I took my strawberries and went home, fearing that rhubarb season had passed me by.

Thanks goodness, the farm gods smiled on me the next weekend, and there was rhubarb a plenty at the market! After my fear of a miss, I was worried. And I may have made Noel promise if we ever have a place where I can grow stuff, I get to grow rhubarb. Because I can’t have these rhubarb crises every year!

Rhubarb Crumble
Adapted from Martha Stewart

I may have a crumble problem. Like, I can’t stop eating it, and I have to order it immediately whenever I see it anywhere. Of course, it never lives up to my high crumble expectations. Even when I order it fancy places, like I did at Charleston the other night. Yes, Noel and I had dinner at Charleston to celebrate our anniversary–cross another one of the list! And Noel says my crumble is better than Cindy Wolfe’s.

This is enough crumble to make a full pie plate or 8 ramekins full. I’ve successfully 1/4ed the recipe to make 2-3 servings.

12 tablespoons chilled (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup packed dark-brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
2 pounds (6 large stalks) rhubarb, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (6 cups)
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
Juice of 1 lemon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Make crumb mixture: In a large bowl, whisk together flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and oats. Add melted butter and stir with a fork until well combined and mixture is crumbly. If mixture is still wet, add more flour, 1 tablespoon at a time.

In a large bowl, stir to combine rhubarb, zest, and lemon juice; then sprinkle remaining sugar over rhubarb until just coated. Pour 1 cup rhubarb mixture into each ramekin, and top with 1/2 cup crumb mixture. Bake until the rhubarb is tender when pierced with the tip of a knife, about 30 minutes (or about 40 minutes for the pie plate). Transfer from oven to a cooling rack. Let cool slightly, and serve warm.

You all know I have a tendency to get a little bit excited about local produce. Maybe sometimes too excited.

Like last weekend. Instead of our normal Sunday Baltimore Farmer’s Market run, I decided to go to the uptown Waverly Market on Saturday. Because, you know, I had other stuff I was doing on Sunday morning. After becoming thoroughly disoriented on my way to Waverly and then further confused by the market setup–they practically let you park in the MIDDLE of the market!–I was overly excited by the produce.

There seemed to be more and different things than I had seen just a week before downtown, including strawberries, my favorite early summer seasonal item. Okay, maybe it’s a tie between peas and strawberries, but I do LOVE strawberries. I excitedly snatched up some strawberries and took them home.

But then when I went to eat a few. And it was not good. They weren’t bad per se, they were just early season. So instead of letting them die a slow death in the fridge, I went to look for recipes. I had a strawberry loaf in mind. But then I found these muffins, and they seemed the perfect compromise. The bready treat I was looking for, but without two sticks of butter! Bonus!

Strawberry Muffins
Adapted from Whole Living

These muffins aren’t too sweet and don’t have too many strawberries–so they’re just right! Because they’re not overly sweet, they make a good breakfast item or afternoon snack!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup low-fat buttermilk (I used 1 cup skim milk with 1 tablespoon vinegar)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. Toss together strawberries and 1/3 cup sugar. Using a potato masher, lightly mash berries; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In a glass 2-quart measuring cup or a medium bowl, combine buttermilk, oil, egg, and vanilla; whisk to combine.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the buttermilk mixture and the berry mixture (with juice). Fold just until combined. Using an ice cream scoop, divide the batter among the muffin cups. Sprinkle the tops with remaining sugar.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Cool 5 minutes in the pan, then transfer muffins to a wire rack to cool completely.

Happy Royal Wedding Day!

Yes I’ll admit it, I’m a bit of a royal watcher. I think I’ve been one almost since birth, since my mom and Princess Diana were pregnant at the same time in 1981/82. After I was born, my mom famously said that Diana “must be carrying a boy, because the princess had already been born that year!” Yep, really. I can’t make this stuff up!

I think my royal watching/fascination was only enhanced by my mom’s collection of Franklin Mint dolls, which includuded a set of Charles and Diana dolls (in full bridal attire, of course) along with a couple of Scarlett O’Haras and Rhett Butlers. Maybe I should get mom a Kate doll to complete her collection this Mother’s Day?

I think like most girls my (and William’s age) I had a serious crush on William when I was a teenager. And I was pretty convinced I was going to become the youngest US President and he was going to fall madly in love with me. Oh, teenage dream!

So is it any surprise really that I’m excited about the wedding today? And that I may have risen extra this morning to watch the wedding as I got ready for work. And certainly no surprise that I’m celebrating the occassion with a bit of baking. We’re having a little tea party/breakfast at work this morning, so what better way to celebrate than with the master baker Martha Stewart. Because if I can’t make a cake out of McVite’s Digestive Biscuits, a Martha cake must be the next best thing!

Glazed Lemon Bundt
Adapted from MarthaStewart.com

This cake is rich and tart–just like the royals! And note, these pictures are of a mini bundt I made for Noel. The cake makes enough batter to fill this AND a full size bundt!

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pan
3 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pan
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
Zest of 2 lemons, finely grated
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups sugar
5 large eggs
Lemon Glaze

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with rack in lowest position. Butter and flour two 4 1/2-by-8-inch (6-cup) loaf pans.

In a small bowl (or liquid measuring cup), combine buttermilk with lemon zest and juice. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

With mixer on low, add flour mixture in three parts alternately with the buttermilk mixture in two, beginning and ending with flour; beat just until smooth (do not overmix).

Divide batter evenly between pans; smooth tops. Bake until a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes (tent with foil if browning too quickly). Cool 15 minutes in pan. Turn out cakes onto a rack; cool completely before glazing.

Set rack with cakes over a baking sheet lined with waxed paper. Pour glaze over cakes, letting it run down the sides; let dry, about 30 minutes.

A bit of royal wedding humour, courtesy of the New Yorker.

Sometimes, I think I forget that other places have different seasons than we do. I’ve lived in Maryland my whole life, so sometimes it’s hard to imagine life any other way!

But now that I have a lot of friends from the interwebs that live all over the place, I see that everyone is not exactly in the same place as we are season wise. Some are already sweltering, some had some early spring snow. And in some places, it’s basically tropical all the time, as I was reminded by this month’s Everyday Food, where the seasonal flavor of the month was pineapple. Really!

It’s so strange for me to think that pineapples are in season when I’m still shivering under my winter coat, or dealing with crazy March blowing in like a lion. But sure enough, when we went to the store there were pineapples EVERYWHERE! Coming from Hawaii, they’re not exactly local, but then not much of our produce is this time of the year. So we picked one up and set out to make this recipe, which is officially my new favorite way to eat the spiky fruit!

I’ll admit, this recipe makes me want to glaze just about everything with maple mixed with cayenne and served with a side of pineapple. But I know the citrus-like sweet tart of the pineapple really balances nicely with the richness of the salmon, so I’ll stick to this for now. Because if I start glazing everything in maple, i’m going to be in trouble!

Maple Glazed Salmon with Pineapple
Adapted from Everyday Food

Ingredients:

1 cup long grain rice
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 pound skinless salmon fillet, cut into 4 pieces
1/2 of a whole pineapple, peeled cored and cut into chunks
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
lime wedges

Directions:

Preheat broiler with rack in top position. Cook rice.

In a small bowl mix syrup and cayenne. Season salmon with salt and pepper. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with non stick cooking spray. Arrange salmon and pineapple on the tray in a single layer and brush with half of the maple glaze. Broil salmon until cooked through, 8-11 minutes, brushing salmon and pineapple with glaze half way through. Add cilantro to rice. Fluff rice and serve with salmon and pineapple, and a lime wedge.

Twas the week before Christmas and all through the house…

Pandora was playing Christmas music–it must be cookie baking time!

This year, thanks to our weekend in Florida, my annual cookiepalooza in preparation for the Ratskellar Christmas Party was seriously condensed. To one day. Yikes! Somehow I survived, and at the end of the day I had four types of cookies, candy, and some of the most amazing brownies ever (but you’ll have to wait until next week to hear about the brownies).

My favorite of this year’s cookies? Snickerdoodles–which are a cookie I always love, but never seem to find time to make in between satisfying everyone else’s annual cookie requests. But this year, I decided to make room for my favorite. Maybe because I’m still punishing training my body for the half marathon . Or maybe just because I wanted to!

Snickerdoodes
Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cookies

I like this recipe for snickerdoodles because unlike a lot of recipes, it doesn’t call for cream of tartar, which is something that I typically don’t have. Good thing, because I might need snickerdoodles more than just at Christmas time!

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp coarse salt
1 cups (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. Combine flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Put butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in eggs. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture.

Stir together cinnamon and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar in a small bowl. Shape dough into 20 (1 3/4-inch) balls; roll in cinnamon sugar. Space 3 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges are golden, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

I’m a big fan of Everyday Food magazine. So much so, that I actually like to sit down and *read* it instead of just flipping through it like I do with most magazines.

When I was flipping through the December issue, I was delighted to see a bacon feature in the table of contents. Because I love bacon (but who doesn’t?). But when I reached the bacon feature I was AMAZED to find this recipe. For. Bacon. Pancakes.

An idea so simple, yet so perfect, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it before! Because bacon and pancakes are made for each other, and bacon is always better with syrup. I immediately put out a food emergency bulletin to the usual suspects and less than 24 hours later we were enjoying bacon pancakes. Breakfast perfection.

Bacon Pancakes
Adapted from Everyday Food

These pancakes take the best parts of breakfast and combine them into one fantastic dish. If you want to double the recipe, double everything in a bowl except the liquid. Then add the liquid slowly until it reaches your desired pancake thickness.

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 egg
8 slices thick cut bacon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 200. In a bowl whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl, combine buttermilk, butter, and 1 large egg. Combine and stir until just moistened with small lumps remaining.

In a large skillet fry bacon until it is just crispy. Remove bacon and drain on paper towels. Remove grease from pan, retaining a few teaspoons.

Place about a teaspoon of bacon grease on a hot griddle. Pour pancake batter on pan, using about 1/4 cup for each pancake. Place a strip of bacon in the middle of each pancake. Cook until batter is bubbling and side touching pan is golden brown. Flip the pancake (so now the bacon side is down) and cook until golden brown. Place cooked pancakes on plate in oven to keep warm until all pancakes are done. Serve with maple syrup!

Half Marathon training may be kicking my butt.

(however, marathon training is also awesome at combating the effects of this.)

Ironically, it’s not the long runs that are getting me. I feel awesome when I get up, eat some breakfast, then go for a long run. Even if I paint for 6 hours after I get back. It’s the weeknight runs that are out to get me. After a 9+ hour day, driving home in rush hour traffic, running 4+ miles is tough. Especially when I decide to do 4 miles at my predicted 10k pace. Owwwweeee! Running outside seems to help some, but a lot of times by the time I get home, I just want to collapse.

But sometimes, the baking bug calls. Or I just plain forget that I volunteered to bring a baked good to the office party du jour. And then I’m happy that I stumbled upon this recipe, which came into my life thanks to an email blast from the folks at Everyday Food. Because this comes together faster than you can finish stretching after a run. If you’re together enough to melt butter in the microwave, you can make this, which is just what I need when I’m dead tired after a mid week workout. And the results are amazing for something this easy. So you can have your run and keep your baking reputation up at the office!

Quick Chocolate Chip Blondies
Adapted from Everyday Food

Martha’s folks did these up for Halloween, but I think they’re too good to come out only in October. So I swapped out the candy topping with chocolate chips, making these something you can make at the last minute with the simplest of pantry staples. And yes, there is a lot of butter in this recipe. But that’s what makes these bars so delicious!

The recipe bellow makes an 8×8 pan of blondies. Double for a 13×9 pan.

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
1/4-1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously spray an 8×8 pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, whisk together butter and sugars until smooth. Whisk in eggs and vanilla. Make sure your butter has cooled some before you add the eggs, or else your eggs will cook! Add flour and salt; stir just until moistened. Transfer batter to prepared pan and smooth top. Sprinkle chocolate chips over the surface of the pan.

Bake until top of cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool completely before cutting into 1 inch squares (trust me you’ll need the portion control!)

Enjoy! Having one of these waiting at the end of a run is a perfect was to refuel!

The other night when I was running around the park, I noticed a slight crunching sound under my running shoes. Confused, I looked down and noticed that the ground was littered with leafs. I looked up and sure enough, the huge trees above me were starting to yellow. It seems even though we’re stuck in perpetual summer (yeah 90 degrees today!) the seasons have still made up their mind to change.

All summer long I’ve been waiting for this moment. The moment when it finally felt cool enough to break into the fall baking supplies. More specifically, to open one of those cans of pumpkin puree that have been lurking in my pantry for the past year. Yes, I stockpiled pumpkin in a panic last year. Don’t judge! I love my fall spices, and I need a delivery vehicle!

And just to prove I’m not kidding…

Do you think I’ll run out of cinnamon…ever? And that container’s not even that old! But one of my life mottos is “everything’s better with cinnamon!” And fall means cinnamon, making it one of my favorite seasons!

Everyday Pumpkin Spice Cookies
Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food

Since these were my first dabble in fall baking this year, and I was leaving out the chocolate the original recipe calls for, I spiced up these cookies A LOT. But spice is the flavor of life, right? I would like to try these sometime with chocolate, but since I made these in a rush, it will need to be a day when I have more time!

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1-2 teaspoons cinnamon (to taste–obviously I used 2!)
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
dash of cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 can (15 ounces) pure pumpkin puree

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices, and salt; set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg; beat until smooth. With mixer on low speed, alternately add flour mixture in two parts and pumpkin puree in one, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix just until combined (do not overmix). Scrape the sides to incorporate all flour.

Drop dough by heaping tablespoons onto two baking sheets, about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until puffed and edges are golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Immediately transfer cookies to wire racks, and cool completely.

Enjoy a quick bit of fall in your kitchen this weekend!

So where were we? Oh yeah, I had a cake to share with you!

After a major furniture rearrange in our rental house and the better part of a day, we had one beautiful cake. It’s amazing what 18 sticks of butter and 7 pounds of powdered sugar can turn a humble blueberry cake into!

And you know what? This cake was fun to put together! Amazingly not stressful for such beautiful results! Eileen and I just hit a rythmn with this one and everything fell into place. In the morning I manned the mixer making batch after batch of Martha’s beautiful buttercream while Eileen crumb coated. Then in the afternoon, we iced finished layers and assembled in record time. We were so not stressed, we took a lunch and shopping break midway through the process. I think that low stress level upped the love in the final product.

Adorable (homemade!) fondant turtle cake toppers. I know someone is going to ask, so I’ll tell you, they were a request from the bride. There’s a story out there about the turtle pond and the couple’s love!

After the ceremony, I couldn’t wait for the cutting! Ryan and Eli were nice enough to bring us up and introduce us to their guests before taking the first slice…

…and sharing it nicely.

After that first piece, it was all a blur for me. The cake went so fast–with many, many people coming back for seconds before we were even done cutting–I had to have Noel snag me a piece and hide it to make sure I even got one! I’m glad he did, since the cake was delicious–moist with tiny Maine blueberries sprinkled throughout, a crumble between the layers, and a wonderfully thick coating of buttercream.

All night long Eileen and I had people coming up to us telliing us how delicious the cake was, with several people saying it was the best wedding cake they had ever had. There were no sad pieces left on tables at the end of the night–all of it was eaten!

So, all in all, I would say this cake was a smashing success! We went, we baked, and we shared one fantastic evening with a great couple. Thanks again to Ryan and Eli for letting us be a part of your big day! We wish you all the happiness in the world as you start out your lives together!

And for you dear readers, here’s the link to the first part of this story (in case you missed it!).