Challah

So as the exam period has officially started, so has procrastination baking. It is the perfect way to forget about exams for a little bit and relax. I have made Challah bread before when I was younger, but this was my first time trying it alone. It turned out really well and perfectly tasty. The great part about it is I don't have to fight with my siblings for the delicious crustless pieces!
Well I guess I should get back to studying.. good luck on exams everyone!!

activating the yeastletting the dough restready for the oven!ready to be eaten!

Anne's Birthday Cupcakes

So this post is a little late seeing as I made these cupcakes on Wednesday, but I couldn't post about them til after my friend Annes birthday, or it would have ruined the surprise. As most of you know, I LOVE to bake cupcakes, its just so fun! So whenever there is an excuse to bake up some delicious little treats I will take advantage of it. For Anne's birthday I made devils food cake chocolate cake and my signature cream cheese icing. I was going for a turquoise colour with the icing, but it is a lot harder colouring icing then one might think! Unfortunately, there are no cupcakes left, so you will just have to imagine how delicious they were by looking at the pics!

Mixing the wet ingredients

The dry ingredients being sifted

Fresh out of the oven


All dolled up!

Cake recipe:
Cream together 1/2 cup butter and 1 1/2 cups white sugar
Add two eggs and 1 tsp vanilla, beat until smooth
Sift 1 3/4 cup flour, 1/2 cup cocoa, 1/4tsp baking powder and
1tsp baking soda in a separate bowl
Boil 1 cup water
Blend into butter mixture 1/3 of the flour mixture unitl almost incorporated
Than add 1/2 cup of water, and repeat process til all is incorporated (the
flour mixture should always be added last)
Bake at 350 for 18-20 mins in a cupcake tin

Icing recipe:
Cream 1/2 cup butter and 1 pkg cream cheese (both at room temperature)
Add 2 cups icing sugar and 1tsp vanilla
Colour as you please

Sun-dried Tomato Risotto

Staring at the container of sun-dried tomatoes sitting on my counter I wondered what to do. The first thing I thought of was pasta, but that idea didn't have enough umph, so I decided to go with a risotto. A risotto looks and seems much more complicated than it actually is. I used the basic risotto recipe on the back of the abborio rice box, and just added the sun-dried tomatoes at the same time I added the rice.

sauteed onions (front) ; chicken broth (back)toasting the risotto and sun-dried tomatoesthe finished product

Recipe:
Sautee 1 finely chopped onion in 1tbsp olive oil on medium heat
Add 1 cup abborio rice and 10 diced sun-dried tomatoes, toast for 1 minute
Add 3 1/2 cups chicken broth, 1/2 a cup at a time, waiting until previous broth is almost all absorbed
When all chicken broth has been added, rice should be plump and ready to eat
Season with salt and pepper and add 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
Enjoy!