Tag Archives: desserts

Cuisine - Desserts, Disney, Disney World, Recipes

DIY: Mickey Mouse Cake Pops

Mickey Mouse Silhouette Cake PopsEditor’s Note: This post is featured on the Disney Blog Carnival #34. Read more great posts about all things Disney!

In honor of one month ’til I’m back at my most favorite place on Earth – Walt Disney World – I decided to make my first batch of cake pops.

Cake pops are little balls of crumbled cake and frosting that are then covered in candy or chocolate coating and decorated with more candy, sugar crystals or sprinkles. These little sugary treats have been popping up all over WDW the past year or so (check out Disney Food Blog’s intro on the cake pop infiltration), and they have also seen a rise in popularity from Bakerella.

The process of making cake pops is very labor intensive. Be sure to do your homework on this project before you start. It helps to know all of the materials you’ll need (styrofoam blocks, paper sticks, candy coating, etc.) in advance so you’re not scrambling for items in the midst of dipping or forming the pops – since the candy coating sets fairly quickly.

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Cuisine - Desserts, Foodie Destination, Shopping

Foodie Destination: Ghirardelli Square

Ghirardelli Square SignNo trip to San Francisco is complete without taking a few nibbles of chocolate from those chocolate dream-makers at Ghirardelli. However, Ghirardelli isn’t just one store. It’s an entire square just steps from the Bay City’s waterfront, overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.

I have never been to SF before so when I found I’d have a little free-time after a work conference, I had to make the most of it. Trolley ride, dim sum and a stroll through Chinatown, and a famous Ghirardelli hot fudge sundae straight from the source.

I’m no stranger to Ghirardelli’s decadent treats. I’ve enjoyed their sundaes already at their locations at Downtown Disney in Walt Disney World and on the Miracle Mile in Chicago. Ghirardelli’s sundaes are special because theyLombard Street in San Francisco make their own hot fudge and you can select milk or dark chocolate. The result is a dessert that will have you licking up every last morsel of fudgy goodness.

After being coaxed into a little second story restaurant in Chinatown and enjoying a quiet, yet great dim sum meal, I took the old-fashioned cable cars down to the wharf area. Our trip took us past Lombard Street, the famous avenue with eight hairpin turns. The end of the Powell-Hyde Cable Car line is just a short, two-block walk to Ghirardelli Square.

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Cuisine - Desserts, Shopping

Kara’s Cupcakes – San Francisco

Kara's Cupcakes San FranciscoChef Kara Lind has been featured on Food Network’s “Cupcake Wars” and in magazines like “The Knot.” Her cupcake flavors run the gamut from traditional (chocolate, vanilla and red velvet) to some more creative ones like “Sweet S’mores” and passion fruit.

When I was recently in San Francisco for work, I walked to the wharf area so I could hit Ghirardelli Square, the Mecca for chocolate lovers. While roaming the little shopping area, I came across Kara’s Cupcake’s. Even though I didn’t indulge to try one of her cuppies, I did grab a few pictures. (Sorry, I had to save room for the massive hot fudge sundae I was about to inhale all by myself! I know it’s a tough job I have…)

The store is filled with natural light from the floor-to-ceiling windows and lots of pink.

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Cuisine - Desserts, Recipes

Recipe: Beet Cupcakes with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

Grated beets for cupcakesOk, you’re probably thinking she’s gone mad. Beet cupcakes? Yes, I know it sounds very off-kilter but they are really tasty!

As you know, Brett and I joined a CSA (community-supported agriculture) for 30 weeks. A few weeks ago, we received tons of beets in our weekly crops. Both of us had never had a beet before (besides the occasional one that was slipped into a salad) so we didn’t even know where to begin when cooking these devilishly red veggies at home.

I was chatting with a co-worker one day when she mentioned her mom made a cocoa beet cake that was amazing. I typed away at Google and found this “Chocolate Beet Cupcakes with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting” recipe on Food.com, that was adapted from a recipe in “Cooking Light” magazine.

While I initially liked the recipe because it said “chocolate” in the title, the end result tasted more like gingerbread to me and all of my test guinea pigs (Note: No real guinea pigs were harmed in the making of these cuppies.) I suppose you could just add more cocoa powder in to get more of a rich taste, but I actually really liked how they turned out. I think the best part is the cream cheese frosting. There’s nothing like homemade cream cheese frosting but poke-me-with-a-fork-I’m-done when you add in orange rind to anything. It just gives it that added oomph of flavor! Mmm!

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Cuisine - Desserts, Cuisine - Italian, Places - Boston

Review: Mike’s Pastries

Mike's Pastries ExteriorThere are some places where you will always remember the first time you visited. Mike’s Pastries in Boston’s North End is one of those places for me. Every time I walk through the doors, I am reminded of the summer of 2004. It was my first summer in Boston during grad school. My fellow Emersonian and friend Angela and I had been spending the summer break from school experiencing some of the city’s best food finds like the produce market at Haymarket near the Boston Garden (the Fleet Center or whatever it happened to be called at the time).

One of the destinations we wanted to try most was Mike’s Pastries. We had heard stories about their fantastic cannolis with their crunchy shells, smooth ricotta cheese interiors and chocolatey coatings. Finally, one day we made the trek.

I remember ordering a chocolate-chocolate cannoli (chocolate ricotta cream filling) in a fresh shell dipped in chocolate, and then chocolate chips adorning each end. Our little treats were bundled in the signature Mike’s Pastries white box with twine. We proceeded to walk along the Rose Kennedy Greenway to Christopher Columbus Park. As we sat along the waterfront watching boats and tourists pass us by, we indulged in these intensely sweet treats.

Mike’s Pastries is a memory-making kind of place. From the time you walk in the doors, you’re welcomed by the sugary aroma of so many different types of desserts from mousse cups to cupcakes and gelato to petit fours. There is a little something for everyone in this historic place that I think everyone should try.

Let’s step inside for a closer look:

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