White Chocolate Raspberry Cake

In August, we celebrated my husband's, brother's and mother's birthdays. A white chocolate raspberry cake had been requested from a local bakery, but I didn't realize they needed over a week's notice to make it. Instead, I found a recipe for white chocolate cake and made it myself. It was sandwich layer included the icing as well as some raspberry sauce which was also served with the finished cake. I topped it with raspberries and melted dark chocolate that I used to write out "Happy Birthday" and create scroll work designs.

This cake was time consuming, calorie-laden, and more expensive in terms of ingredients than I normally would go for, but it got a unanimous thumbs up!

A Very Berry Tart

I had never made a tart before, and maybe never even eaten one, but I stumbled across this recipe from the blog Cooking with my Kid, and was inspired to make it for a book club brunch I was hosting.

It was quite easy. I used fresh raspberries and frozen blueberries, and have decided that frozen works perfectly - just use frozen (don't thaw the berries first). I don't keep self-rising flour on hand, but here's a simple recipe to make it.

As I said, I'd never had a tart before, so I'll let you know it tasted like a cross between a cookie and a cake in terms of texture and density. Not overly sweet, with nice tart berry bursts.

Roasted Chicken

First crack at roasting a whole chicken, and I wanted crispy crackling skin. I followed this recipe for Perfect Roast Chicken, which was FANTASTIC. I used butter instead of margarine, and my only complaint is that it needed far less butter than it called for, so I will half the quantity next time. It also cooked faster than expected, so make sure to take periodic temperature readings as you baste it.

Banana Bread

Based on THIS recipe, but with an adjustment recommended by one of the reviewer - replacing some of the white sugar with brown sugar.

Did you know adding peanut butter makes it even more delicious?!

Buffalo Chicken Won Ton Bowls

Inspired by this recipe from Joyously Domestic. My won tons are filled with: shredded chicken, cottage cheese, diced tomatoes, and buffalo sauce.

After baking:
1 Weight Watchers Points Plus Values each.

After topping with cheese, ranch dressing, carrots and celery:
2 Weight Watchers Points Plus Values each.

Baked Sweet Potato

To accompany the fish and mushroom risotto I made for supper tonight, I decided to use up a sweet potato I had laying around. I just tossed it in at 350F until I remember it was still in there. The skin of the potato had come away from the flesh, so I peeled it off, made some gentle indents in the potato and sprinkled it with sea salt.

Sweet, salty, and oh-so-filling, this is something I will definitely make again!

Improvised Rolls

All the recipes I find online are for larger batches of rolls. I wanted enough to make a sandwich for supper with leftovers for tomorrow's lunch, so I improvised and tried my hand at creating a simple recipe (below photos). Tune in tomorrow to find out what I used the rolls for!

Before/after/after cooking:

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp dry active yeast
• 3/4c warm water
• pinch of brown sugar (about 1/2 tsp)
• A couple of dashes (about 1/4tsp) table salt
• 1c + 1/2c flour
• herbs/cheese to garnish (optional)

Instructions:

1. Stir these first three ingredients together in a medium-sized bowl and let sit about 10 minutes.
2. Add salt to mixture and stir.
3. Add 1 cup flour to the mixture and stir with a fork. Add more flour until it forms a ball, and sticky sides are coated with flour. Let rise about an hour in a room temp (or warm) spot.
4. Punch dough down. Add more flour so you don't stick to it.
5. Divide dough (I took 5 pieces), and knead each into a roll.
6. Place rolls on baking sheet lined with parchment paper and cover with damp tea towel for 20 minutes.
7. Uncover, sprinkle rolls with a couple drops of water and sprinkle any toppings on. I used oregano and parmesan cheese.
8. gently squish rolls flat (ish).
9. Bake at 350F until bottoms are browned and top is stiff when knocked on (about 12-16 minutes).

Nutrition info per roll (from batch of 5):
Calories: 111
Fat: 0
Carbs: 24
Fibre: 0
Protein: 4