Archive for the 'Dessert' Category

(Chronologically Listed)

Very Strawberry Cupcakes!

As if cupcakes on their own aren’t spectacular, these cupcakes in particular were really something. I had aimed to work strawberry flavors into every element of this cupcake, as if the title of this post didn’t already convey that. Strawberry cupcake? Check. Strawberry cream-cheese frosting? Check. Strawberry Rhubarb jam filling? Check. Awesome? Yes.

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam Filled Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting and some indecisively placed strawberry garnish. I hate strawberries ;-)

With all of this strawberry action at once, you might be surprised, but the result wasn’t just getting hit in the face with strawberry. It actually worked quite harmoniously and each component kind of showcased a different side of strawberry: the cake was subtle, sweet, and floral, whereas the frosting was rich, creamy, and really a much more vibrant punch of strawberry. This is all in contrast to the strawberry rhubarb jam piped inside the cupcake. Oh, and funny thing, the only reason I thought of these cupcakes? I was shocked by how much jam I had made and thought I needed to get to work and use…
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Posted by mike on May 10th, 2008 under Cake, Dessert, Fruit | 26 Comments »

Sweet “Faux” Gras Pâté on Pear Chips…wait, wtf? Chicken for dessert?

Jeff at Culinary Disaster posed a challenge among a few friends recently to make a dish using chicken. I think we’ve all made many a chicken dish before, and seeing how dessert is where I seem to have the most fun, I thought it would only be appropriate that I try to do something a little odd and make a chicken-based dessert since I thought (a) that has to stand out and (b) that sounds like a hell of a challenge. I know…dessert…and chicken? You didn’t misread, so let that one sink in and bear with me (have I ever steered you wrong, dear reader?). Trust me, this one has a happy ending!

Obviously, one has to tread carefully to get a dessert out of a chicken, and leaning too heavily on eggs seems like a crutch (given how obvious they are in dessert, anyways). So I thought I might be better off looking away from the usual breast/thighs and to the…
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Posted by mike on May 7th, 2008 under Chicken, Dessert, Fruit, Mediterranean, Side dish, Snacks | 27 Comments »

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

Seeing how I knew my steamy love affair with strawberries simply wouldn’t last forever, I decided that jam would be a fantastic way to prepare myself for strawberries and I going our separate ways for the season. So to commemorate the tapering off of the winter strawberry harvest in Florida and to indulge my newly discovered pension for rhubarb, I made Strawberry Rhubarb Jam.

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

This was my first ever jam-session ( *rimshot* ), so I approached with just about as much irrational fear as my first preserving experience. Something about saving fresh produce for many months to come just has me worrying that I’ll screw something up and give myself botulism or some other happy malady. But if you’re reading this, I’m still here, alive and well, so phew! :-P

In addition to not wanting to let the strawberry season go, I also go through jars and jars of store-bought strawberry jam (I love peanut-butter and jelly bagels on the weekend),…
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Posted by mike on April 25th, 2008 under Dessert, Fruit | 21 Comments »

Vanilla Bourbon Butter Pecan Ice Cream

The campaign for delicious home-made ice cream continues on! This week, I decided to take a break from the usual fruit-based flavors, and instead, opted for a more grown-up oriented flavor: bourbon. Specifically, vanilla bourbon butter pecan (now there’s a mouthful!).

Vanilla Bourbon Butter Pecan Ice Cream

I enjoy many a drink–a good beer, a nice bottle of wine, whatever. But if I had to pick one thing, I’m more of a whiskey guy. Some weeks, that means a good, single malt scotch, and others, a nice bourbon. Each have their charms. So why not combine a nice after-dinner drink with a nice after-dinner dessert? And so here we are.

But a bourbon-based ice cream wouldn’t quite be enough. Vanilla seemed like a natural combination (plus, it would mix very well seeing how the flavor of vanilla is extracted using alcohol), but I wanted a little something more. Seeing how that usually means nuts, I decided to mix in another ice cream flavor I’d had on…
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Posted by mike on April 16th, 2008 under Dessert, Ice Cream/Sorbet | 28 Comments »

My Mom’s entries for Strawberry Seduction: Strawberry Cheesecake and Pancakes w/Strawberry Compote

My mother has been a loyal reader of my blog since the beginning. Aside from enjoying seeing what I write about here and making sure that I’m eating well :-P , I think one of her favorite parts of this blog are the many comments you leave for me, my loyal readers. She was interested in Strawberry Seduction when I first posted it, and so she has happily joined the fray with some entries of her own (along with a good number of you–the round-up of all of the entries should be my next post!)!

Without a blog of her own, I am hosting her entries here, so please say hello, readers! :-) So enough of my interruptions, here is her post:

Strawberry Supreme Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

Slice of Cheesecake


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Posted by mike on April 4th, 2008 under Breakfast, Cake, Dessert, Fruit | 22 Comments »

A very loose interpretation of a Strawberry Swiss Roll

This is the last of my marathon of strawberry desserts (more are coming, just not at marathon pace :o ). Today: a Strawberry and Creme Mousseline filled Swiss Roll:

Slice of a not-so-rolled Strawberry Swiss Roll

Now if you know anything about Swiss Rolls, you know that the above photo bears very little resemblance to any other Swiss Roll out there. I had grand visions for this, really: a rich, buttery pastry cream (the Creme Mousseline), sliced strawberries, all drizzled with some strawberry coulis, wrapped artfully in a light as air sponge cake. I mean honestly, that sounds pretty damn good, doesn’t it? Every step of making this dessert went wonderfully and each component tasted amazing, but at the very last step–the most important step–eh, not so successful.

The last step, you see, is where you roll this up into a beautifully presented cake, the roll in Swiss Roll. Basically, you have a large, rectangular sheet of cake with the filling spread out on it, and then you…
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Posted by mike on April 2nd, 2008 under Cake, Dessert, Fruit | 17 Comments »
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