Monday, July 25, 2011

It Has Been So Long

I am so sorry. It has been a crazy month. Work has been keeping me very,very busy but I have some great stuff coming. Again so sorry, but keep coming back I have some awesome stuff.

Monday, July 4, 2011

Shrimp and Grits

I have some wonderful co-workers on my current project. I feel like I have made some great friends and I am very grateful to have met them and having them in my life. My one friend is from the South and brought me a cookbook from her local town where she is originally from. I love southern cooking and wanted to try a traditional southern meal. Therefore, I made shrimp and grits.

My husband and I feel in love. It was so good. It is a very heavy meal calling for bacon and cheese but it was very worth it. I will admit the pictures do not make it look very appetizing but it was DELISH. I only have orange cheddar cheese so that is one reason why you will notice the grits to have a orange tint to them. But it was still delish. I am not going to post the recipe right now because I have some changes to it that I need to test before I post the changed recipe.

The grits, again I used orange cheese. My mistake but still is delish

The finished product. Loved it will be making it again very soon.

Second post for Pink Champagne Cake


So this is the 2nd part of the pink champagne cake post. It is a white cake recipe and added champagne to the batter to make it a “pink champagne cake” . One secret that I always do with my cakes is to slightly under bake them. It is so hard to make a cake from scratch that is both moist and not dry. You have to be so careful not to over mix the batter or to over bake. Baking cakes from scratch have been one of those things for me that I just can’t seem to completely master. This is either my third or fourth cake I have made from scratch and I still don’t have it down perfect.


As well as under baking the cake I try to under mix the batter. I keep an eye on the mixture and once I think it might be a minute or two of mixing left I take it off the kitchen-aid and pour it into my pans. I also do not use anything on my pans; I don’t add flour, butter or pam. I make sure that pans are non-stick and just keep my fingers crossed the cake does not stick.

Ingredients
18 tablespoons (2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pans
4 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising) I have used regular flour as well and it turns out fine
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 ½ cups Champagne
9 large egg whites, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/4 cups sugar


** The batter will be runny but it cooks really well. Just be aware that it will be somewhat runny.


Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.


In a medium bowl, stir together, milk, egg whites, champagne and extracts. Into a second medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.


In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed for 30 seconds. With machine running, gradually add the sugar. Continue beating until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl as necessary.


Add one-third of the flour mixture and one-third of the milk mixture, and beat on low speed until just incorporated. Add remaining flour and milk mixtures in 2 separate batches beating between additions to fully incorporate. Scrape down sides of bowl, and stir by hand to finish.
Divide batter evenly between prepared pans. Smooth surface with a rubber spatula. I under bake my cakes, but if you want to completely bake it make sure a cake tester comes out clean when inserted.


Let cakes cool in pans on wire racks for 5 minutes. Run a small metal spatula around the sides of the pan, and invert cakes onto greased racks. Reinvert cakes onto cooling rack. Let cool completely before filling.


The cake when it first came out of the oven. You can see from the cake it is a light color like I said I under cook my cakes.



The second cake. Again you can see from the color I underbake the cake.


The cakes on on top of the other.




The finised product. So delish. Please try to mkae your own cake and let me know of any secerts you may have.