Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Fourth of July Festiveness

I swoon over anything that is made holiday themed and being off work last week allowed me to really have fun in the kitchen! I was able to try a few new receipes, some successful some a total fail. I'm pretty sure my husband doesn't get my excitment over these small things but maybe someday if I have kids they will love it.
 
One morning I switched out my normal morning smoothie for this fun little piece of toasty cuteness.
 
 
Another night I was finally able to try out grilled pound cake. I used this Pinterest recipe and it was a hit! I added a little extra lemon curd to mine and substituted raspberries for strawberries. I probably could have left them on the grill a little longer but I was a little nervous to burn them. It was the perfect light and summery dessert for an evening on the patio.
 
 
I was gifted a donut baking pan for my birthday in April and I have been anxiously waiting for the time to be able to whip up some donut cuties. I'm not typically a donut kind of girl but I thought if I could bake them I would feel less guilty about it. AND how fun are donuts anyway?! I knew I wanted to be able to have fun and festive donuts the morning of the Fourth so I went in search of the perfect baked donut recipe and decided to go with this vanilla bean recipe.
 
 
 
 
2 cups cake flour, sifted
3/4 granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 buttermilk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean

Vanilla Glaze

1 cup confectioner’s sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
gel food coloring (optional)
 
Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 and spray doughnut pan with non-stick cooking spray.
In a large bowl sift together flour, sugar, baking power, and salt.
In a small bowl lightly beat eggs, then add buttermilk, butter, vanilla extract, and seeds from one vanilla bean. Combine with flour mixture. Fill each doughnut pan 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 7-9 minutes then allow doughnuts to cool 5 minutes before removing them. Once cooled, dip doughnuts into the vanilla glaze and add sprinkles if desired.
Original recipe from A Pumpkin and a Princess

Baked Vanilla Bean Donut Recipe
 
 
Aren't donuts just the cutest? They are such happy little morsels and it was so fun to bake and decorate them!
They were also very tasty aside from their cuteness. I warmed mine up just a tad and it almost tasted as yummy as a warm cupcake. I think next time I will add one more vanilla bean to give it a tad more flavor.
 
A lot of people ask me how I bake so many tasty and oh so bad for you goodies and keep them around my house....well I don't. After these babies were done I kept a couple and boxed the rest up and off they went to my parents and in-laws to spread a little red, white and blue sparks.
 
 
Along with the success of trying these new recipes also comes a few fails. I was over joyed about trying BombPop Champagne annnnnd I'll go ahead and mark this one as a complete fail. HOW did she get it to look so dang cute?!
 
 Hers on the left and my attempt on the right, obviously ha
 
Maybe my glasses were too tall? Sparklers too short? Not sure but I panicked and quickly set my glass down waiting for it to shatter into tiny pieces when I wasn't able to get the sparkler pulled out in time. The glasses did not break or burn but our BombPops were melted and our champagne had ashes in it. Fail. Little Baby Garvin, I need to learn your tricks!
 
 
And another total fail...Krispy Red, White and Blue Sparklers. I made attempted these for the cookout at my in-laws house and holy cow, glad I also made a mexi corn peppered dip cause ha these were not my best work.
 
I assembled them all and started putting them into an arrangement in a vase when all the stars became well shooting stars and flying right off the skewers. I decided I would just lay them on a platter and quickly put them into the freezer until time for the cookout. After defrosting the berries melted and ran and the stars once again fell off and the guests just ended up picking the Rice Krispy treats off. So, lesson learned and next year I will be getting the Summer Berry Fruity Pebbles and will make treats out of them.
 
What fun things did you make this year to celebrate the Fourth?
 
 
 

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