That may be THE most misleading title for a post I have ever made!

I’m sorry about that. The fact is that you don’t need a recipe or a post to make this “2 ingredient no-calorie dessert.” All you need is to buy a box of Angel Food Cake Mix to achieve the same end result.

Except for one minor little change…

The Angel Food Cake Mix called for water as ingredient #2, I used diet orange soda to make this a Creamsicle Angel Food Cake.

Keep reading if you’re intrigued, if not, come back tomorrow. But know before you go, Creamsicles were my favorite thing on earth when I was 8 years old.

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I found a recipe on the internet that I’m going to recommend you do not make.

On Sunday, Father’s Day, I arrived home from the airport at about 3:45 and immediately began to make dinner for my dad, husband, and son.  Since I’d already been awake for 12 hours, I didn’t want to have to think too hard about what to make.

Since I have a peach tree that was full of ripe peaches, I decided to whip up a peach cobbler for dessert.

I wanted to be able to post the recipe so it needed to be somewhat different from the three peach cobbler/crumble recipes I already have posted here. For that reason, I turned to the web to find one that I could “make my own” and get done easily and quickly.

The recipe I stumbled upon first was the Pioneer Woman’s Peach Cobbler. Her version used frozen peaches and since I was using fresh, I figured that would be a perfect recipe to switch up. I made a few other minor changes, with the addition of spices and such, and popped it into the oven while I made the rest of the meal.

I’ve tried many of the Pioneer Woman’s recipes before and they’ve always been wonderful. I thought that this too would be a “sure thing.”

In fact, I’ve loved a couple of them so much that I reposted them, almost exactly as originally written. This Dip recipe and this Poppers recipe are two of my all-time favorites. So please do not take this as a bashing of the Pioneer Woman and her recipes – but this peach cobbler recipe is one that I can not endorse. No way, no how.

Instead, you should make one of the three peach cobbler/crisp recipes I’ve previously posted – one of the ones I should have made for Father’s Day.

Mason Jar Peach and Berry Cobbler

Peach-Blueberry Cobbler

Blueberry-Nectarine Crumble

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The last day of school is quickly approaching, in fact it’s Thursday around these parts! The kids are going to be home and will be looking for treats to cool them off. That’s what I’ve got for you today.

My dad has a good friend who did some much needed repair work around his house as a favor. This friend is taking his grand-kids to Disneyland in a couple of weeks and my dad wanted to get him a little something as a thank you. I picked up some Disneyland gift cards for him to enclose in the thank you card … and that reminded me that I had yet to post the recipe for this Disneyland all-time-favorite cool treat.

Dole Whip!

The Dole Whip is so popular that the lines to get one are often longer than the lines at some attractions. On average, 1.3 million Dole Whips are purchased per year at Disney Parks and Resorts. At Disneyland alone, 600,000 Dole Whips are sold each year.

If you are the first person in line when the stand opens and you order a Dole Whip, you receive a “First Dole Whip of the Day” button to wear with pride as you walk around the park. Everyone will be envious! Yeah, they’re that popular.

I’ve got a homemade version for you to make. You won’t get a button but…

No lines!
Instant delicious gratification!

Pineapple Whip

1 large fresh ripe pineapple
1 cup cold almond milk
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1 ½ cups whipped cream, divided

Peel, core and cut the pineapple into cubes. Place in a freezer-safe container and freeze the pineapple cubes overnight. Combine the frozen pineapple, almond milk and agave nectar in a Vitamix blender or food processor.

Blend until completely smooth.

Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and fold in 1 cup of the whipped cream.

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I found this cake on Pinterest. I made it for the first class of my three-week series of cooking classes at Les Gourmettes. It was a brunch menu and the cake was a hit.

The recipe makes one cake. In some of the photos, there are two cakes since I needed to make two for the class.

Cinnamon Roll Cake

Cake
2 ¾ cups flour, divided
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 package yeast
1/4 cup milk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup cold tap water
1 egg, room temperature
Filling
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ½  tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
Vanilla Maple Glaze
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cake: Place 2 ¼ cups of the flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in the bowl of a standing mixer and blend together until combined.

Heat the milk and butter together in the microwave until the butter is melted. Add the cold water and test the mixture to be sure it is not too hot but just warm to touch, test on your wrist as you would a baby bottle.  Stir the butter mixture into the flour mixture.  Add the egg and just enough of the remaining 1/2 cup of flour to make a soft dough. The dough will be ready when it gently pulls away from the side of the bowl and has an elastic consistency.  On a clean surface that is just lightly dusted with flour, knead the dough for about 3 minutes.

Form a ball and place in a lightly greased bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let rise for 30 minutes.

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On Tuesday night at Les Gourmettes Cooking School, we had two very charming gentlemen teach a class on Burmese cooking. Robert Carmack and Morrison Polkinghorne also happen to be the authors of The Burma Cookbook – Recipes from the Land of a Million Pagodas.

The class was not only informative and delicious but really fun – thanks to Robert and Morrison and their exceptionally outgoing and fun personalities.

For dessert they made one of the most popular of all Burmese desserts, a semolina cake.  Semolina is the coarse, purified wheat middlings of durum wheat used in making pasta, breakfast cereals, puddings and couscous.

The book is beautiful, the guys were great and the cake was sublime.

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Valentine’s Day is Friday. Are you ready? Maybe this decadent chocolate dessert will get you in the mood.

Barbara Fenzl taught this recipe during the last semester of classes at Les Gourmettes Cooking School. It is too creative, beautiful, and delicious to not share with you. <3

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As I’ve told you many times before, I am NOT a baker.

I don’t like to bake.
I don’t have the patience to bake.
I am not skilled at baking.

That being said – I baked these cupcakes… and they are The BOMB!

Seriously! I gave Connor one to sample and his eyes rolled back in his head with delight! He made me promise him that I would make them for his birthday in May. That is a promise I intend to keep!

The recipe came from HERE.

If every recipe on bakersroyale.com is as scrumptious as these cupcakes, and if YOU love to bake, you should be going to this site every day from here on out!

All I did was change them from standard cupcakes to mini cupcakes. Otherwise, I followed the recipe almost as written and they were perfection! So much so, that I could eat the caramel frosting, with a huge spoon, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

OK, maybe not! The frosting alone has a pound of butter – but to be fair, there was quite a bit of frosting left over, even after all the cupcakes were made.

To prevent me from using a spoon to eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I put it in the trash and then dumped the nasty contents of my Roomba on top of it!

I can’t have that sort of temptation around here!

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The final Thanksgiving leftovers recipe of the season is a dessert, using up the last of your mashed sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and whipped cream. It’s a wintertime take on strawberry shortcake.

If your sweet potatoes weren’t mashed, mash them before making these biscuits.

Oh, and did you know that you can buy powdered buttermilk? I’m not certain if I’ve mentioned this product before, but it sure is handy to have when you have all the ingredients for a recipe … except buttermilk. And isn’t that the point of using up leftovers – being able to use what you have and not having to make a special trip to the grocery store? It’s simple to use. Just as with powdered regular milk, you just mix it with water.

One last note – One of the secrets to light and flaky biscuits is to not overwork the dough. When handled with a light touch you should be able to see specks of the fat, whether that is butter, as in this recipe, or vegetable shortening or lard. Less is better when it comes to biscuits.

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Last November, I found and pinned this adorable dessert recipe on Pinterest. Like so many things I pin, I didn’t get around to making, as planned, last holiday season.

But, also like so many wonderful things I find on Pinterest, it was there when I wanted it (that is the joy and wonder of Pinterest!) and I got around to not only making it this year, but also sharing it with others at the cooking class I taught last night at Les Gourmettes Cooking School.

I’ve rewritten the recipe to be a little more clear and detailed.

When I first tested the recipe, I used two different size pumpkin cookie cutters. A 3×3-inch cutter that made the most of the pumpkin bread cutouts. And a smaller 2×2-inch cutter.

I was surprised to find that the cutouts from the smaller cutters looked nicer when the cake was sliced.

This is a photo of the second cake I made, once I’d figured out the tricks and tweaks. All other photos are of cake number one.

I found that covering the bottom of the loaf pan with a thin layer of the pound cake batter, then arranging the pumpkin bread cutouts on top, created a cleaner and more defined pumpkin look.  This is something that could not be done with the larger cutter, because the cake would be too tall and not covered with enough pound cake batter down the center, on the top.

There is a bonus TIP at the bottom of the post. Just in time for all of your Holiday Baking. You are gonna LOVE it!

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