Birthday Bash!

I'm very excited because last wednesday (March 30th) was MY BIRTHDAY and I threw a party with my closest friends on saturday, I was very excited because of the menu, and of course because hanging with them is just AWESOME! I got the chance to see a friend that I was missing a lot and haven't seen like in a year (that's a lot for me).
So, the party was great, full of laughter, some screaming (because of the pictionary round), well everything that makes a party between gals PERFECT! We are very noisy, but we have lots of FUN.

In the pictionary game we had to draw from Pamela Anderson to an ATM, and everything was just so fun that I ended up with tears because I was laughing so hard!

My first cake pops

Another reason for my excitement was because of the menu I prepared for this day, it was the first time I prepared cake pops, so I was hoping they were good so I could keep on with the cake pop making.
Well, the menu for this special day was:

• Spaghetti all arrabbiata
• Pizza (pepperoni, ham&sausage and, pepperoni&sausage)
• Cake pops

Cookie Quest Part II

I'll tell you something about this Quest! As I've found that everyone has a differet opinion about how they like their Chocolate Chip Cookies the most, I decided to make every wednesday a different recipe. First one chewy and then one crunchy recipe. So I´ll put a name in brackets like (Chewy 1) for you to know what I´m talking about. Later for not saying (or writing) it all, I'll just use C for chewy an K for Crispy-Crunchy, each one with their number. This will also be helpful for the pictures and if you like any recipe you can email me or leave a comment (down there) with the name of the recipe you like and also the number so I know and I can answer as soon as I can.
So... let the battle review  BEGIN....
[DING DING DING... ]

CHEWY VS CRISPY

This has been a great battle, the first two recipes were really tasty, but there were some things that I disliked a bit.

1. CHEWY 1: They were in fact chewy, but while in the oven they fell flat, really flat. They were huge but thin and that's what I disliked of the first one. Also, they were a bit too sweet for me, and the reason for that is that I used milk chocolate chips, so there was nothing to balance the sweet+sweet flavor. My bet, I know, but as it was the beggining of the quest and I couldn't find any semi-sweet chocolate chips in this tiny city I decided to go forth with milk ones! I´ll never do taht again, unless I mix them with semi-sweet ones.
2. CRUNCHY 1: The flavor was waaaaaaay better than the first ones, great balance of sweetness, but there was something BAD. They came out of the oven and they looked GORGEOUS! really (you can see in the pictures) I tasted them like 5 minutes later and they were almos perfect, yeah, something was missing, something that I hope I'll find in the next recipes. But, anyway, after they cooled I stored them in a container and the next day, when I took them to my friends they were all hard, but really hard. I don´t know what happened, maybe next time I have to leave them less time in the oven! but we´ll try that later.

Espresso Pound Cake with Cranberries

Yesterday, I decided to bake something, apart from the CQ, I wanted something that could combine with a glass of cold milk and also that could enhance the flavor of coffee... so I came across this recipe.
Let me tell you it was a huge success here at home, it lasted just one day, well actually 12 hours!
I used a mold that was donut-shaped, but as a result i came with a smaller pound cake, well it was not so tall because the recipe doesn't rise a lot.You can see in the pictures.
But here is the original recipe, I made some changes and the result was ---------->
so feel free to change everything you like! :D

This recipe comes from Bon appètit, March 2011.
By Lauren Chattman

Espresso Pound Cake with Cranberries and pecans

*For the cake

•1 cup + 6 tbsp unbleached all purpose flour
•2 tbsp cornstarch
•1 tsp ground cinnamon or 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
•3/4 tsp baking powder
•4 large eggs
•1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
•3/4 cup sugar
•1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
•1 tbsp instant espresso powder
•3/4 cup chopped toasted pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, or almonds
•3/4 cup dried sweetened cranberries or dried unsweetened cherries or blueberries

Cookie Quest Part I

Hello Cookie Monsters! This post is dedicated to chocolate chip cookies! The reason why it is called Cookie Quest is because I'm in one! I'm looking for the best choc chip cookie recipe!
Each week I will post a recipe that I've tried and what do I think about it, obviously with it's photographs and if you like you could try it and leave a comment. You know I appreciate what you think! So, I wanna know which cookies you like the most, chewy or crispy edges & chewy center or maybe just crunchy?
Personally I prefer crispier cookies! Maybe that's why I didn't love the first recipe I tried, the cookies were chewy and... well, I'll start with my review for this recipe.
This recipe tasted good! Nothing really amazing, and also they were chewy, and flat! I don't know what happened but when they entered the oven they were round, but as time passed they became flatter!! I didn't like so much that look, but anyway, the other persons who tasted them said they were great, well, some of them were good to me and told me that maybe they were a little bit sweet. Maybe it's that I'm so demanding when it comes to cookies+chocolate or any kind of thing I cook/bake!
So, tell me, do you have any favorite recipe? Which one is it? Would you like to share it with me?
Later in part II (of an indefinite number of parts) I'll post the recipe and some photos.
Hope you like and join me throughout this cookie quest!

Cookie hugs and choc chip kisses
V

The jello affair

I know i've been abscent from the blog for a good time, but lately i've been busy with all the college stuff because i'm about to finish high school and deciding where to continue studying is a great decision, but... this is not the posts' point!
This post will be about the recent jello recipe I tæsted (that's for tasted and tested!)

it had a little ♥ in the center

I was excited about the idea of a creamy-foamy-spongy jello, i have tasted it before but i had never tried to do it and i wasn't sure that it would end up being this recipe the One!