Sphinx Birthday Cake

I went to the Penn Museum's 100th anniversary party for their giant sphinx. It's my favorite thing ever. I love its goofy party hats and I love that the university made it (and us) cake. No, it wasn't sphinx-shaped, but it was still adorable and I tried to be cheeky with these pictures.

Game Day Lemon Tea Cookies

Still high on the Martha Stewart crack that led to the New Year's cupcakes, I decided to make some Minnesota Vikings' themed snacks to eat while the game was on. No, I am not a Vikings' fan, but I live with one and I love any excuse for a theme party, even if it is only for 2 people. I'm far too lazy/frugal to buy food coloring so I thought I'd try to fashion appropriately colored snacks out of natural ingredients: blackberries (purple) and lemons (yellow).

Total time: ~1 hour, but that includes an icing mishap (blackberry juice looks more pink than purple), taking a break for a glass of Albariño, and making up a Vikings-inspired cocktail. Also, zesting lemons always takes longer than I think it will.

VERDICT: total self-call, but the cookies are AMAZING (and were an excellent way to continue the pantry clean out). So delicate and buttery. The lemon icing was surprisingly light and the Meyer lemons were not as cloying as I thought they would be. Definitely making these again for summer gatherings.

Lemon Tea Cookies (with icing)

adapted from What's Cooking America, yields 2-3 dozen cookies (depending on size).

2 sticks butter

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

4 teaspoons lemon zest

6 tablespoons lemon juice (strained please!)

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 cup corn starch

1/4 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Combine butter, 1/2 cup of the powdered sugar, and 3 tablespoons of lemon juice.

2. Add flour, corn starch, salt, and lemon zest to butter mixture. Knead dough with hands to make sure that there are no lumps of butter.

3. Roll dough into 3/4 to 1-inch balls and space an inch apart on an un-greased cookie sheet.

4. For the icing: in a small bowl, whisk in powdered sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, to remaining lemon juice until icing has the consistency of thick glue. Add more powdered sugar if needed. For a boozy icing, use limoncello and lemon zest instead of juice.

5. Bake for 15 minutes. The tops will be pale, but the bottoms should be golden brown. Let cool completely before icing (the cookies are very delicate when they first come out of the oven; let them cool for a few minutes before moving to a cooling rack).

Minnesota Vikings' "Mojito" Cooler

frozen blackberries, muddled

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 oz lemon juice

1 oz vodka

mint-flavored sparkling water (I was too lazy to get mint so I substituted flavored sparkling water for the muddled mint and club soda.)

lemon twist (garnish)

ice

Added some yellow sugar to make the cookies pop.
The lemon 'V' was a complete accident.

Mini Pumpkin Souffles

I realized that it's almost DECEMBER and I hadn't made anything with pumpkin yet. Fall is hands down my favorite season and it's rare that there is a non-chocolate dessert that people love so I jump on the chance to bake with pumpkin. The other mini souffles turned out well so I decided to try a non-chocolate option (I almost always try a new cake recipe with chocolate first; it hides a multitude of sins).

On a more pathetic note, the thought of missing out on the short window of time where pumpkin puree is readily available hurt so much that I actually went to the store after vowing that I was going to be lazy and use whatever I had on hand and hoarded an extra 2 cans of the stuff for later.

Total prep time: 15 minutes + 20 minutes baking and cooling
Verdict: These were much more moist, for lack of a better word, than the chocolate ones. I'm not sure if it's because I had them in the oven for less time or if it's because I didn't remove them from the muffin tin right away and they ended up steaming while they were cooling. Overall, they're not very sweet. I would add milk to the mixture to make it more custard-y or serve them with a cinnamon/brown sugar/graham cracker topping to up the dessert factor.

my collapsed souffle :(

Mini Pumpkin Souffles

Adapted from Comfy Tummy, yields 12 mini souffles

1 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon Whiskey Vanilla Extract
3 eggs, separated
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1. Preheat oven to 375F, spray or grease baking dish (ramekin if you have it, muffin tin works too).

2. Combine 1/4 cup sugar, egg yolks, vanilla, spices and pumpkin puree.

3. In a separate (not plastic) bowl, add 1 tablespoon sugar to the egg whites and beat until stiff peaks form.

4. Gently fold egg whites into pumpkin batter. Work in small batches, adding egg whites in thirds to the batter, until the egg whites have just been incorporated into the batter.

5. Fill baking dish/cups/tin to the brim and bake for 12-15 minutes.

Mini Chocolate Souffles

The urge to bake was strong. In fact, it was much stronger than the urge to clean, finish a manuscript, do laundry, or go out with people. Of course, the urge to bake was tempered by being to lazy to do any real work in the kitchen (there's no flour to sift!) or buy any extra ingredients (for some reason there are TWO cocoa powder tubs in the pantry).

Total prep time: 10 minutes + 15 minutes to bake.
Verdict: Excellent way to burn through the extra cocoa powder and surprisingly satisfying given the lack of carbs in the dessert. I detest chocolate, so the roomie bravely tried it and liked it. Overall, tasty and gluten-free (bonus!).

Mini Chocolate Souffles

Adapted from Real Simple, yield = 4 mini souffles

2  tablespoons unsalted butter
3  ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate*
1/2  teaspoon Whiskey Vanilla Extract
2  eggs, separated
2  tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon butter or cooking spray

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

*I almost never buy baking chocolate and replace 1 oz of chocolate with 3 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder and 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil (butter works too).

1. Preheat oven to 375F, spray or grease baking dish (ramekin if you have it, muffin tin works too) and dust with cocoa powder.

2. Melt butter and chocolate together in a heatproof bowl over simmering water until smooth. Remove from heat and add vanilla extract and egg yolks. Stir well.

3. In a separate (not plastic) bowl, add sugar to the egg whites and beat until stiff peaks form.

4. Gently fold egg whites into chocolate batter. Work in small batches, adding egg whites in thirds to the batter, until the egg whites have just been incorporated into the batter.

5. Fill baking dish/cups/tin to the brim and bake for 12-15 minutes.