Pink-Lemonade Thumbprints & Strawberry Cream Cheese Cupcakes!

Jas and I have two great recipes that are a must for your summer list of things to bake! Last weekend, Jas and Kevin had their open house and engagement party with huge crowd of 30 people! Dessert is always a must so Jas and I made Pink-Lemonade Thumbprints that taste light and buttery with a fresh shortbread flavor that crumbles in your mouth. The glaze is equally good and sweet, and is perfect summer dessert! The recipe is listed below:

Pink-Lemonade Thumbprints

Active Time: 35 min.

Total Time: 2 hr.

Makes: About 2 dozen

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

2 cups confectioners’ sugar, plus more for dusting

1 tsp coarse salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

2 tbsp. finely grated lemon zest, plus ¼ cup fresh lemon juice

1 raspberry

Preheat oven to 325*. Whisk together flour, ½ cup confectioners’ sugar, and salt in a bowl. In a large bowl, beat butter with ¼ cup confectioners’ sugar, zest, and 2 tbsp. lemon juice on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in flour mixture on low speed.

Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets, 2 inches apart. Freeze 10 minutes.

Bake 10 minutes. Remove sheets one at a time and press the end of a wooden-spoon handle into center of each ball to indent. Continue to bake until golden on bottoms, 16 to 18 minutes more. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks.

Whisk together remaining 1 ¼ cups confectioners’ sugar and 2 tbsp. lemon juice with raspberry in a bowl, breaking up berry. Dust cookies with sugar, spoon glaze into indents, and let set, 10 minutes. Cookies can be store in a single layer at room temperature up to 1 week.

http://www.marthastewart.com/1114953/pink-lemonade-thumbprints

We also made Martha Stewart’s Strawberry Cupcakes with her Strawberry Cream Cheese frosting. The frosting is so addicting, I challenge you to try and not eat a cup of it plus the cupcake. Both were equally delicious and the strawberries gave it a gorgeous presentation and taste! Due to space, the direct links are provided below for your convenience! We hope you enjoy these recipes and try them out this week! J

http://www.marthastewart.com/349933/strawberry-cupcakes

http://www.marthastewart.com/257030/strawberry-cream-cheese-filling

Chocolate Raspberry Icebox Cake

You never know when you'll stumble across a recipe that is a must try! I was at the mechanics getting a safety inspection done on my car, and he has a very limited variety of magazines to browse through. Field & Stream, Popular Mechanics, Good Housekeeping, & Redbook were the top picks. I went with Redbook & found this decadent Chocolate Raspberry Icebox cake recipe! The presentation is beautiful with the layers of raspberries, and with the cream cheese and heavy whipping cream it's sure to satisfy anyone's sweet tooth! I couldn't find a direct link with this recipe to Redbook; however, I took a pic of the page & it's also featured on one Pinterest link. For space purposes I will attach the link below, but I hope this recipe makes it on your list of desserts to try this week! Enjoy!:)

 https://www.pinterest.com/pin/407505466256563277/?no_auto_redirect_or_interstitial=1

Kit Kat Mega Cake!!

I was asked to make a birthday cake for my good friend Megan son's 2nd birthday party! The beauty of Kit Kat cakes is that once you make the cake layers you can form a Kit Kat border around them for added structural support. Add some bright fun ribbon, and once chilled the cake can hold its own when the ribbon is removed.

To make a cake this large I would encourage a test run. I did a test one a week before and it greatly helped with figuring out layer size, coloring of cake, and how much frosting to incorporate. This cake was 3 boxes of Betty Crocker White Cake, almost 2 cups of egg whites and close to 6 cans of frosting ( 3 being white & 3 being milk chocolate). The ribbon I purchased at Michaels, and the fondant lettering I was able to pick up at Hy-Vee's bakery since when I tried frosting the name it wasn't thick enough to stand out.

This cake ended up being 9 layers with four (9 inch layers) on bottom and five (6 inch layers) on top. Each layer of cake was really cool to see once you cut into them, with each layer a different burst of vibrant color!

This is the link I loosely worked off of, and then put my spin on the rest of the cake. Hope you enjoy!:)

https://micakela.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/kit-kat-and-mm-rainbow-cake-15/