Monday, February 15, 2010

Orange Cake

During my great blizzard baking extravaganza last week, I made this orange cake for Van. I only had one orange in the house so I topped off the fresh squeezed juice with regular orange juice. I also just used the zest of one orange.

The recipe only made enough for one cake, but in the future I would double it and make a frosted layer cake. This would also be nice change of pace from the usual chocolate and vanilla cupcakes.

Ready for the Oven

The finished product with Hagen Dazs Peach Sorbet.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Just in Time for Chinese New Year

Just in time for Chinese New Year, OPI launched its 2010 spring / summer collection Hong Kong. Admittedly, most of the colors I wouldn't wear. The green and blue don't exactly scream professional, but Red My Fortune Cookie is perfect.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

My Snow Storm Diet

Since the great snowpocalypse started, I have been on a mission to use a lot of the items we've had in the freezer and pantry. Let's face it there's nothing like fresh baked goods on a cold winter day.

First, on the snowpocalypse diet was banana bread. I have been using this recipe consistently and always have the best results. Sometimes I add a quarter cup of chopped walnuts if we have them on hand.

Next, I made Paula Deen's Garlic Cheese Biscuits. I used bisquick instead of the Paula Deen biscuit mix. The biscuits still turned out very well and were buttery deliciousness. Seriously, Paula is the queen of comfort food and they were a great compliment to the shrimp chowder Van picked up for lunch.

Then I made brownies from scratch using this recipe. This was the first time that I have attempted to make brownies without a mix and I was pretty pleased with the result. They weren't overly sweet and were really cakey. I especially liked them with the Ben and Jerry's S'mores ice cream Van picked out.

I'm really hoping the snow ends soon. My snowpocalypse diet isn't exactly helping on the weight loss front.