Cruise Cuisine

It's strawberry time! And nothing goes better with strawberries than cream. This recipe is my version of the delicious soup I had on our Carnival cruise.

Strawberry Bisque
Serves 4

Ingredients:
2 cups sliced strawberries (or a pint/pound-same thing)
2 cups milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sour cream
4 tablespoons sugar, or to taste

Directions:
Slice strawberries and mix in sugar. Set aside until juice is extracted, (thank you osmosis).
Combine strawberry mixture, milk and cream in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. In a food processor, combine all ingredients and puree. Chill in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight, before serving. Best served in chilled bowls. Garnish with mint or strawberry slices.

Click here for the printable recipe at Tasty Kitchen.

Les Petits Diables

Last summer I was itching to try my hand at petits fours, so when I was asked to help with a wedding shower for my friend David and his new wife Bethany, I volunteered to make the tiny sweets. It turns out I was a bit too ambitious, because what I thought would be an easy project turned into a nightmare. In my attempt to make the petits fours fabulous, I made them too complicated. I wanted them to have a layer of lemon filling as well as lemon flavored fondant in 5 different colors. After spending practically all day on them, you can probably guess how sick I was of making them. Thus, I changed their name from petits fours to Petits Diables, or Little Devils. And as it turns out, they were delicious little devils, (not to be confused with the Valentino flick.) So here they are, white cake petits diables with lemon filling and lemon flavored fondant.

Here is the Lemon Filling recipe from Wilton's website. I highly recommend it.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cold water
2 egg yolks slightly beaten
1 teaspoon lemon peel grated
juice of a medium lemon
1 tablespoon butter or margarine

Combine sugar, cornstarch and salt in a small saucepan. Gradually add water and whisk until well blended. Whisk in egg yolks, lemon peel and lemon juice. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until thick and bubbly. Boil one minute; remove from heat. Stir in butter. Cool to room temperature, without stirring.
Makes 1 cup

A Yummy First

I thought this would make a nice "First" post.

My daughter's first birthday was in April. She had a Classic Pooh party, and I made a smash cake for her using the same cake pan that was used for two of my younger siblings. I also made cupcakes for the guests. I used techniques that were new to me, and considering that, I feel things turned out well.

Smash Cake

I used Royal Icing to make Pooh Bear. I think he is so cute!

Bee Cupcakes

The cupcakes were butter cake with buttercream icing. The bees were made of vanilla fondant. I wish I had used edible ink to draw the stripes, but they still turned out cute...and tasty too!

Sophie had done well with the practice smash cake I made on her actual birthday...

But she wasn't as enthusiastic about the one at the party. We had to guide her a bit.

But what we were really hoping for was a face plant, and we were not disappointed.

It's nice that someone other than Sophie was able to enjoy the cake too!