Blintz Soufflé

Such an easy dish!

Maybe because I cheated a little bit!

Line up the frozen cheese blintzes in a 9" x 13" dish over melted butter.

Combine remaining ingredients except cinnamon in a blender, or in this case, in my mom's old school Food Processor.

Pour over the blintzes.

Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Bake at 350 degrees for one hour.

Blintz Soufflé

18 frozen blintzes (cheese, cherry, blueberry) I used only cheese

5 tablespoons butter

6 eggs

2 1/4 cups sour cream

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/2 tablespoons orange juice

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Melt butter in a 9" x 13" baking dish.  Lay frozen blintzes in pan.  Combine rest of ingredients except cinnamon, in blender or mixer and blend well. Pour over blintzes. Sprinkle with cinnamon.  Bake one hour. Serve hot from oven. 

My suggestions:

I would add about a tablespoon of sugar to the cinnamon before sprinkling over the blintzes.  Also, I prefer to let the dish set for about a half hour to bring it down to room temperature before serving.  I even like it cold, the next day!  Finally, a sweet berry coulis always tastes delicious on the side!  

Enjoy!

Duff's Cake Pops!

I bought it, I read it,

I baked it, I brought it!

I was so excited when my copy of Bakerella's Cake Pops Cookbook finally arrived!!!   And, it was the perfect weekend to experiment making cake pops for the first time since my family is opening up a restaurant this week! I have made cheesecake pops before, but cake pops...never! I felt like an amateur, but Bakerella's step by step photos made each step easy to follow.  I even took a few shots of myself to show those of you who may not have your own copy of her book yet, what to do.

Bake a cake in a 9"x13" cake pan and let cool overnight. The next day, cut into four sections.

Set up your station with all of the supplies you will need.  Pictured above are lollipop sticks, candy melts, frosting and the crumbled cake. Crumble the cake by cutting each section in half and rubbing the pieces of cake against one another with your hands to form crumbs. Since each section makes about 12 cake balls, I only used half of the cake for this recipe. I froze the other half. 

Add frosting to the crumbs and mix with the back of a metal spoon.

For consistency, I used an ice cream scoop to divide equal amounts of cake to be rolled into balls.

Roll cake into balls and set on a parchment lined cookie sheet.



Cover with saran wrap and place cake balls in the freezer for about 15 minutes until firm.

Gather all materials needed to dip and decorate the cake balls.

I looked all over the city to find Candy melts! After calling about four stores, I finally found these at Party Packagers, only to find out that they are being discontinued! YIKES! I guess I will have to visit Michael's more often, since it seems to be the only store in the city of Toronto that carries these!

Melt the candy melts in a microwave safe bowl for 30 seconds at a time and stir with a spoon in between. Continue to microwave for another 30 seconds until fully melted. Mix with a spoon until desired consistency is reached.

Dip a lollipop stick about 1/2 inch into the melted candy coating.

Insert the stick no more than 1/2 of the way into the cake ball.

Dip the entire ball into the candy coating.  I found that after the first few cake pops, I needed to spoon the coating onto parts of the ball in order for the pop to be fully covered.

Since I wanted the cake pops to look similar to the color of chicken wings, I immediately poured red sugar crystals on the candy coating over a large bowl.  The candy coating acts as glue when items are placed on almost immediately after coated. Stick each pop into a styrofoam block to set. Repeat with the remaining cake pops.

Creating the tags. I was inspired by all of the tags Bakerella had in her cookbook, but most importantly, the ones that she made for Rich's proposal to me.  Since I knew that I wanted to bring these cake pops as a dessert for the Family and Friends night at the new Duff's location, I decided to make my own tags, to go with the theme of the night! I created the tags on the computer and had them printed on thicker paper. I cut out the circular tags with scissors and used an exacto knife to cut two diamond shaped holes, one on the top and another on the bottom, in which the lollipop stick could slide through. 

Here is a close up of one of the tags.

And a jumble of the others!

Love the slogan of the restaurant as seen on the back of the server's shirts!

Say hi to my cousins Richard and Loren who will be running the show on Rutherford. Their brother Steven was in the kitchen preparing all of the food. The restaurant is lookin' good boys...best of luck!

So...what are you waiting for? Take a bite!

Duff's Famous Wings located at Bathurst and Rutherford in Toronto, is the third restaurant that my cousins and their family will be opening very soon.  See you there!

What's your favourite wing flavour?

Bakerfella

I can't believe my husband...always coming up with some new idea to make me smile!  On Sunday afternoon, Rich forwarded me an e-mail he had sent to Bakerella just a few days before! Of course, (without telling me), he e-mailed Angie (Bakerella) to tell her that we are now married and sent her a link to my Cookie Seating Card Post.  As if that wasn't enough, he also sent her the link to our wedding highlight video. And now this...!  Bakerella posted a follow up post to our proposal!  Check it out by clicking here....Thanks Richie, I love you! 

Honey Spice Cake

Honey cake is a dessert that I made to bring over to a friend's house for the Jewish New Year. Rosh Hashanah is a Jewish holiday referred to as the Jewish New Year. One of the symbolic foods that represents this holiday is honey. Apples are often dipped in honey to represent a sweet year. In this recipe, although there are no apples, 1 1/2 cups of honey is included, making this cake sweet and delicious, and one of the desserts commonly baked and eaten at Rosh Hashanah. 

Combine dry ingredients with wet ingredients.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes until golden brown.  Smell the delicious aroma that fills the kitchen.

Enjoy!

Honey Spice Cake (Taken from Second Helpings Please, Revised Edition)

4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup oil
1 lb. liquid honey (1 1/2 cups)
3 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup cold coffee or tea
zest of one orange

Beat eggs and sugar.  Add oil and honey and blend well.  Combine dry ingredients and add alternately with liquid. Pour into an ungreased 10" tube pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, reduce heat to 300 degrees and bake for 1 hour. When cake is done, cool for 15 minutes.  Then, invert and cool completely before removing from pan.