Grandma's Lemon Meringue Pie

 

 

When I was younger and would go to visit my Grandma Carrie, I remember her most delicious lemon meringue pie. In my memory it was always there. Though, in reality, it was most likely just for special occasions. As the years went by, and Grandma got older, we saw the pie, less and less. One of my regrets in life is not asking her to show me how to make her wonderful pie.

 

So I vowed to conquer the pie! To find her recipe and master it. I got her recipe from my aunt and lets just say my first attempt didn't go so well. It was more like lemon meringue soup....Maybe she had tweaked her method? Maybe she had changed something and never changed it in the recipe? I had to figure it out! So with some tweaking of my own (just the method-not the ingredients!) and on attempt number three (third times the charm right?), I got it!!!

 

Grandma's Lemon Meringue Pie in all it's glory

 

It's amazing how a taste can bring back memories. If I just closed my eyes I was back at Grandma's house sitting at the table, eating the pie right there

 



Housewarming Treats

This year, my husband and I were fortunate enough to move in to out very first house! And this summer we hosted an open house style housewarming for all our friends and family to come see our new place.

 

So of course I had to put together some treats :)

 

The theme was " Home is where the Heart is"

 

 

The set up

 

 

The cake! It's a 6"square and 4" square chocolate cake with caramel and espresso buttercream fillings and vanilla buttercream frosting. Fondant accents.

 

 

Cookies and Marshmallow pops!

 

 

How adorable are these picket fence cupcake wrappers?!

 

 

Hard to see, but chocolate key favors 

 

A guest enjoying the very blue frosting on the cupcake :)

 

Can't wait for the next party to plan!

 



Banana Bars

I don't know about you, but I'm never able to eat all my bananas before they start turning brown. This time, as they turned, I decided to try something other than banana bread...banana bars!

 

I used a recipe from the classic Betty Crocker's Cooky Book. They turned out a little dryer than I would like but I think after a few adjustments, they would be awesome!

 

Here are some of the ingredients. Sorry if the photos are somewhat yellow- the white balance was off on my camera and I couldn't remember how to adjust it!

 

 

Here is the recipe:

1/4 cup shortening (I used butter)

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup mashed bananas (2-3)

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups AP flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

 

Heat oven to 350

Grease 1/4 sheet pan, or whatever size you'd prefer. Depends how thick you would like your bars.

Mix shortening, sugar, eggs, bananas, and vanilla thoroughly.

Blend dry ingredients and stir into banana mixture.

Spread in pan and bake 20-25 min, or until golden brown.

 

Slab oh banana cake, with the edges trimmed.

 

 

Here they are cut and glazed.

The recipe doesn't call for a glaze but I added one anyway :)

It's simply a mixture of powdered sugar and milk mixed to your preferred consistency. 

 

Voila! Banana Bars!

 

Enjoy!



Valentine's Day

Okay, I realize it is ten days past Valentine's Day but better late than never, right?? 

We celebrated the day at Pastrygirl with so many special treats!

Our regular White on White cupcakes with a special shortbread topper

Shortbread hearts and bees with a Valentine's message



Hibiscus shortbread with a passionfruit buttercream filling. So good!

This is little 5" espresso velvet cake with a mascarpone filling and espresso buttecream frosting. Cocoa powder heart and a chocolate covered espresso bean on top.



Cameos!!! Milk chocolate and white chocolate with a little gold luster dust.



White chocolate rose petal truffles.



Espresso caramels!



My shirt that I wore to work that day :)

Hope everyone had a fantastic Valentine's!

Catching Up!

Oh man, have I ever fallen behind on blogging! Yikes, am I horrible. Let's dedicate this posting to playing a little catch-up on the cakes I've done.

Now these are in no way in the correct order, but here goes...

Fun crayon shaped cakes for a crayon themed birthday party



Fun, last minute Star Wars characters on a 6" cake



I love the old-school Mario games so I was super excited to do this cake! It's two 1/4 sheet cakes put together for two brothers celebrating just weeks apart.



Fun cupcakes to go along...



This was a TINY smash cake to go with a much larger Pooh themed cake. Smash cakes are all the rage for a first birthday party. The smash cake is only for the one year old, and typically they just smash right into it!

This took me forever to cut out! But so worth it- a lovely small cake to sit atop a tower of cupcakes for a wedding.

This was my own birthday cake! An espresso cake, with caramel buttercream filling and an espresso buttercream frosting. Yumm!!

This was a fun Wonder Woman cake, what you can barely see in the picture is her tiara goes around the base of the cake.

This 1/4 sheet cake was super tall for a Super Why! themed cake

I like playing with layers of fondant to give some dimension 

Who doesn't love Hello Kitty! This was to replicate the party invitations for a Hello Kitty themed party.

Another smash cake! This one year old's party had fun circus animals. The smash cake is only 4" wide!

For a butterfly lover. Hand-painted on fondant.

Looks simple, but took a lot of time. Had to cut and trim each piece, then measure and place!

Fun life-preserver cake with anchors adorning the side

Sophie the Giraffe!

Pretty browns and golds on espresso buttercream

I'm still developing my sculpting skills so Ariel was a little squat, lol.

Fun coral, kelp, and bubbles along the side.

I LOVE making these! It's a cake shaped like a cupcake! This one was super small-only about 4" at it's widest point!

Laura made an amazing pillow for it to sit upon!



I'm really hoping to keep on top of these postings!

Stay tuned for a Valentine's post coming up!

Harry Potter Mania!

I'm a nerd. I love Harry Potter. While watching the last movie, I had chills the entire time and was on the verge of tears...it was THAT good. I did a great birthday cake the week before the release and then on the day of the release, we did some HP themed treats at Pastrygirl.

Here is the cake I made, with a Draco Malfoy theme :)

 It's a 1/4 sheet chocolate cake with peppermint mousse. The top is covered in fondant but the sides are just buttercream, shaped to look like the pages

I made the Slytherin badge out of fondant, also a "Potter Stinks" and "Prefect" badge

 

Delicious Pumpkin Juice :)



Butterbeer cupcakes- a cream soda cake with a butterscotch ganache filling, butterscotch buttercream, and a deathly hallows topper

Chocolate Frogs! Eat them quick or they may hop away!



Lightning bolt shaped shortbread



We decorated our White on White with a special Hedwig topper

And a delightful English Trifle ala Aunt Petunia