Old Fashion Donuts + My Plate Obsession

I am not quite sure where my affinity for beautifully crafted plates originated but perhaps it all started when I was growing up. Ever since I can remember my mom has always had colorful and delicate plates hanging in our kitchen. Her collection from around the world creates a wonderful aesthetic and always keeps me eyes wandering around the walls. 

Anthropologie is a store I will cautiously visit because I literally would buy everything in this store. I recently discovered a collection of Calligrapher Canape Plates with 26 unique and delicately water colored paintings and I was lucky enough to receive them as christmas and birthday gifts this year! I am looking forward to seeing this collection grown and finally getting to use them!

To say I like donuts is a complete understatement because if I had the opportunity I would gladly eat a dozen of them with absolutely no shame! Not to mention if I'm ever in the city before 12 pm I will always make it a point to try and go to either Donut Vault(if I have cash) or Do-Rite-Donut. So now I thought it was my turn to have a go at making these sinful treats!

:INGREDIENTS:

2 1/4 cup cake flour
1 1/2 tspn baking powder
1 tspn salt
1/2 tspn ground nutmeg
1/2 cup sugar
2 TBSP butter, at room temperature
2 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sour cream
Canola oil(for frying)

3 1/2 cup powdered sugar (sifted)
1 1/2 tspn corn syrup
1/4 tspn salt
1/2 tspn lemon extract(or vanilla)
1/3 cup hot water

:DIRECTIONS:

1. In a bowl sift together the cake flour, salt, baking powder and nutmeg.

2. In a mixer beat the eggs and sugar together. Then add the egg yolks until well blended. 

3. Add the dry ingredients AND the sour cream alternating between the two. Start with the dry ingredients. Cover with plastic wrap and leave it in the fridge for an hour. 

4. On a floured surface roll out the dough until it is about 1/2 inch thick. Then using a donut cutter, cut out as many donuts as you can, rolling out the dough a few time with the scraps. 

5. Pour about 2 inches of canola oil into a heavy pan or deep fryer and heat it to 325 degrees. Then toss in 2-3 at a time and cook about 2 minutes on each side. Then lay on paper towel to soak up the excess grease. 

6. For the glaze whisk together the powdered sugar, lemon extract, hot water, corn syrup and salt together until smooth. Then dip the donuts in the glaze and let it sit on the rack for about 10 minutes. 

7. ENJOY!!!!!

Lemon Berry Cake… or something like that

I'll be straightforward and tell you right now that shortly after I assembled this masterpiece of yummy fruit and buttercream for days… it started to unravel and we quickly had to sing happy birthday to my sister and serve the cake!

While we sang happy birthday to my now 21 year old little sister I could see the cake buckling from the weight of the fruit I suppose so I tried singing faster in hopes the crowd would catch on but instead it felt like they slowed down.

With that disclaimer out of the way, the cake was DELICIOUS!!! How could it not be though with that much butter, cream cheese and fruit? I think I discovered my mistakes and I'll let you know to to not meet the same fate if you try and bake it! I definitely encourage you to make it because it was ridiculously easy and tastes so fresh and sweet!

RECIPE

Lemon Cake:

1 box white cake mix

3 eggs

1/3 cup melted butter, cooled

Zest of 2 lemons

1/3 cup lemon juice

2/3 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup sour cream (or plain yogurt)

2 cups blueberries

Raspberry Buttercream*:

1/2 cup butter, softened

8 oz. cream cheese

2 T. raspberry puree(pureed in a blender) 

strained to remove seeds

3 1/2 - 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Lemon Buttercream*: 

1 cup butter, softened

8 oz. cream cheese

Zest of 2 lemons

1 T. lemon juice

3 1/2 - 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar

* Let both butter creams cool in the fridge before assembling cake so that the cake doesn't fall apart mid Happy Birthday song.

How to make it…

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease three 8-inch pans.

2. Sift cake mix into a small bowl and set aside.

3. In a large bowl, combine eggs, butter, lemon zest, lemon juice, buttermilk and sour cream until smooth. No electric mixer necessary, just a good old fashion hand stir!

4. Stir in cake mix and blueberries.

5. Divide batter between the three pans.

6. Bake for 17-22 minutes or until a toothpick come out clean.

7. Let the cakes cool completely.

8. Raspberry buttercream: In an electric mixer beat butter and cream cheese until smooth. Stir in pureed raspberries; gradually add powdered sugar until it reaches a desired consistency.

9. Lemon buttercream: In an electric mixer again beat the butter cream cheese and lemon zest. Stir in lemon juice and gradually add powdered sugar. 

10. To assemble the cake, stack the layers spreading the raspberry buttercream between each layer. Cover the entire cake with the lemon buttercream then top with fresh berries!

ENJOY!!

Recipe credit to Make it with a CAKE MIX by Lizzy Early

Banana Bread + Broken Platters

 Banana Bread Recipe

Made my first attempt at mastering banana bread today. It went… ok. I scoured through Pinterest to find the perfect recipe. Finally found one without walnuts to accommodate my inconvenient allergies and I got to work! I learned the key to a great banana bread needs ripe banana to keep the bread moist. I however was impatient and couldn't wait for them to ripen. The crumble was incredibly easy to make and tasted amazing. I'm considering putting crumble on every desert I make from now on!

The plate was one of the treasures I brought back with me from South Africa. Unfortunately it did not survive… In fact it did not even survive 3 hours after I purchased it thanks to my clumsiness. So now instead of using it to plate beautiful pasta dishes at the hypothetical dinner parties I throw, it will just have to be used as decoration.