BREAKFAST IN BED - WHO DOESN'T LIKE IT?

If you are bringing breakfast in bed for anyone, put attention to the details. Please, no disposable plates! I was impressed by my dear husband and kids' choices! From the plate to the arrangement of the food. Beautiful & delicious! They really put their hearts into it. Literally! THANKS!

(Pictures taken with my brand new Nikon D5000! Thanks again!)

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TRADITIONAL BRAZILIAN PARTY CANDY, YUM!

These are trademarks at kids birthday parties in Brazil: "brigadeiro" and "beijinho de côco" or chocolate candy balls and coconut kisses. All my friends know  they are part of my parties! They are pretty easy to make, it just takes time to roll them, but the effect is worth the work. Besides they are amazingly delicious! Say goodbye to your diet!

Chocolate Balls (brigadeiro):

• 1 can of Nestlè condensed milk
• 4 tbsp unsweetened chocolate powder
• 1 tbsp unsalted butter + butter to roll the balls
• chocolate sprinkles to coat

Coconut Kisses (beijinho de côco):

• 1 can of Nestlè condensed milk
• 100g coconut powder + some to coat the balls
• 1 tbsp unsalted butter + some to roll the balls
• cloves 

(Do not buy sweetened American coconut. You will need to use pure coconut, dry and powdered. If you have a Brazilian store nearby or a grocery store which offers Brazilian products on their Internationl isle you will can find it. Or you can find it at the Indian section at your supermarket too. In Texas we have Fiesta where I find mine at great part with Indian products.)

The preparation is the same for both:
In a sauce pan add the condensed milk and chocolate or coconut. Mix well BEFORE, then heat the pan at medium flame. When warm add the butter. Keep mixing until it starts to thicken. It will get more watery before it thickens. Don't stoop mixing and don't try to use high heat to speed up! It will burn the mixture! When it starts coming of the bottom of the pan, it's ready! Turn off the stove and place it on a buttered shallow pan (glass or metal) until it cools. Once it is completely cool, it is ready to be rolled.
This process is simple and easy, but it can get messy. It is WAY easier if you have two people. One to roll the balls and another to coat them. First open the paper or aluminum cups you will use to serve. (I am lucky enough to have someone bring to me the tiny cups above, I never found them here). Use the smallest cups you find. Place a thick layer of the coat (chocolate sprinkles or coconut powder) on a plate. Spread butter into hands and fingers and roll the balls into your palms in circular motion. Then coat with the coconut or sprinkles. If you don't  have a helper, make a few then coat them, wash your hand and start again. A helper will save you the constant hand washing! You can use color sprinkles too, like I did above. For the coconut kiss, decorate with a clove in the middle, but remove it to eat.

(The size of the balls and quantity of them will depend on the size of cups you find, thus the size of balls you are making. For mini cupcakes paper cups, you will get about 30 chocolate or 4o coconut balls for each recipe.) If baking for a bigger party, you can double or triple the recipe with no change on the results.

TIPS: If you do not like chocolate or coconut (some people ARE crazy!) you can do a white ball just with the condensed milk. If you LOVE both, try coating the chocolate balls on coconut! Yum! For a themed party use colored sugar to match the theme!
These recipes can be made up to 10 days to 2 weeks in advance. Freeze the rolled balls into a container and place them on the cups the day before the party. If baking up to a week before, just keep it refrigerated.

Bom Apetite!

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JUMBO CUPCAKE, a show of rainbow colors!

For my daughter's rainbow birthday party I made small cupcakes for the kids and a jumbo rainbow cupcake to sing the happy birthday and served that to the adults. The cake was beautiful to decorate the table of treats but specially colorful when cut open! It is said that people eat with their eyes... I don't know, but for the first time we had no leftover  from the kids' birthday cake!

 

I used a white cake mix (because I had made from scratch a lot of other treats) but you can use any white cake recipe. Do not use whole wheat flower or yellow cake mix, because the colors are never going to be right. Divide the cake dough in six equal parts and color using food or frosting coloring to make purple (blue +red), blue, green (blue + yellow), yellow, orange (yellow + red) and red. Layer on a jumbo cake pan (I bought it at Walmart) starting from purple and going up to red. Follow the usual instructions of your recipe for baking. You will do the same with the frosting to top after cooked. Take a look at my post on the small cupcakes with rainbow frosting. (I colored extra frosting when baking those to cover this cake). Start applying the frosting from the top (inside) and move outwards. I am not a super baker, so I didn't achieve the perfection I would like but to be honest it didn't matter!  The colors do the trick for an attractive cake anyway! I recommend placing cake on a white cake stand or decorating with white marshmallows around the cake if you do not have a white stand or serving plate. (the contrast is better and if using the marshmallows they will look like clouds!). This same technique can be used for smaller cupcakes. Enjoy!

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PARTY CUPCAKES WITH RAINBOW FROSTING

Since I had so much to do for my girl's party, I decided to use a ready cake mix for these cupcakes served to the kids. I used Funfetti from Pillsbury but any cake will do since the colorful detail is the frosting anyway. Simply separate any frosting you decide to use in six equal parts (bellow) and color them, if using store bought, the 50% less sugar is best. TIP: making the cupcakes was easy, the presentation was awesome and it cost me a fraction of ordering a cake! For the adults I made a Jumbo Cupcake with colored dough!

TIP: Look for frosting color at a craft supply store as they usually have a bigger variety of color. Or simply use food coloring as such: purple (blue and red), green (yellow and blue), and orange (red and yellow). Top with colored sprinkles and arrange on a neutral color platter or tray! Voilà! It looks like the kids liked them...

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HAPPY VALENTINES! BAKING WITH THE KIDS

Kids LOVE baking! This Valentine's Day take time to let your kids mess up the kitchen and learn the pleasure in giving. There are many easy treats and cards you can make together. They will feel proud of giving out goodies THEY made! But please, let THEM pick their own Valentines. If you really feel they left someone behind you think they shouldn't , just tell them that now it's YOUR turn and include that person or family on the delivery list.

Just add 3-4 drops of red food coloring to any white cake baking mix and you have pink cake. For the topping we used 50% less sugar vanilla icing with 2 drops of red color and my 2 year old spread the red sprinkles on top! We hope the Parkers and Gurfinkels like it!

Nothing was easier than baking these ready to bake Valentine cookies. To add charm we used a pink cake stencil as base, on top a silver charger. Alternatively, you can cut red or pink construction paper to use as background!

You can't figure out if the chocolate makes the strawberries tastier or if the the strawberries make the chocolate richer! This is such a fast and easy recipe! Wash and drain 1lb medium to large organic strawberries leaving the green stem and leaves. Microwave a 4oz semi-sweet chocolate bar or any chocolate you like broken into pieces for 30 seconds. Stir and repeat in increments of 15 seconds until soft. Dip strawberry in chocolate holding by the stem and decorate with your favorite  sprinkle. If you like a thicker chocolate coat, let the chocolate harden and repeat the dipping process before applying decoration. Refrigerate for 1 hour or freeze for 10 minutes. Yields about 20 deliciuos chocolate covered strawberries!

Use heart shaped cookie cutters to cut pancakes, bread, cheese, turkey... or as a stencil to create Valentine Cards. Make heart shaped breadsticks using crescent roll dough and Parmesan cheese! It is so simple. Be smart! Be creative! Be sweet! Be lovely! 

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