Baking with Isaiah! Chocolate Dipped Key Lime Pie on a Stick

Here in Minnesota there has been too much snow and it has been too cold for too long, so I decided to bring back some memories of warm times.  

When I was 7 I spent the summer with my dad it Key West Florida. With the sandy beaches and calm waters this is the perfect place to remember when it is too cold.

The best dessert I had when I visited Key West was key lime pie. Once I had chocolate dipped key lime pie I loved it.

Adding chocolate makes it 10 times better. The first time I tried chocolate dipped key lime pie on a stick is when we stopped along the way to Key West at a gas station that sold it.

Ever since that I have been waiting for an excuse to make chocolate dipped key lime pie on a stick. ~ Isaiah

Chocolate dipped key lime pie on a stick

Crust:

1 ½ cups graham crackers or crumbs

1/3  cup sugar

6 Tbsp butter, melted

½ tsp ground cinnamon

Filling:

1(14oz) can sweetened condensed milk

3 egg yolks

½ cup KEY lime juice

 ¾ cup sour cream

2 Tbsp KEY lime juice

3 Tbsp sugar

9-14 Popsicle sticks

The first thing you do is crush your graham crackers. You can also use the pre-crushed graham cracker crumbs. I used my food processor to crush my graham crackers but you don’t have to. You should get the crumbs fairly fine.

Now in a large bowl combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar, cinnamon, and butter.

Next with the back of the measuring cup or you fingers gently press the crust into the pie pan and bake at 375F degrees for 7 min.

Now mix together sweetened condensed milk, egg yolks, and key lime juice. Pour filling in to pie crust and chill in fridge for 10 min.

In a smaller bowl mix together sour cream, key lime juice, and sugar.

Pour and spread the second mixture over the first mixture and bake at 350F for 30 min. Then let cool and freeze until rock hard. (This is very important.)

Cut small slits every 2-3 inches and insert the Popsicle sticks in them. Place back in the freezer.

Cut the pie into slices and spoon melted chocolate on then then flip over and repeat. Make sure the chocolate goes over the sides and covers to whole thing, let chocolate harden.

 Enjoy!

note from Lisa: First off I want to say a big thank you to Isaiah for sharing these amazing and delicious looking Chocolate Dipped Key Lime Pie on a stick on my blog! Isaiah happens to be a friend of my sister's! When I asked her if she knew anyone who would want to guest post on my blog she sent me Isaiah's name. He writes the blog Baking Adventures of a Ten-Year-Old where he shares his adventures learning to bake and cook. He was recently featured in his city's newspaper The St. Cloud Times Newspaper and he has his own YouTube Channel! 

Poison Kitchen

There are those places in books that you long to go, but sadly they live in the author’s mind and not in the real world. In the series, Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor is such a place. Laini has created Poison Kitchen with such vivid detail that I really thought the restaurant had to be real. 
Here is an excerpt from the book:

Down by the Devil’s Stream, Poison Kitchen was a place rarely stumbled upon by chance; you had to know it was there, and duck under an unmarked stone arch into a walled graveyard, beyond which glowed the lamp-lit windowpanes of the cafe.
Unfortunately, tourists no longer had to rely on chance to discover the place; the latest edition of the Lonely Planet guide had outed it to the world—

The church once attached to this medieval priory burned down some three hundred years ago, but the monks’ quarters remain, and have been converted to the strangest cafe you’ll find anywhere, crowded with classical statues all sporting the owner’s collection of WWI gas masks. Legend has it that back in the Middle Ages, the cook lost his mind and murdered the whole priory with a poisoned vat of goulash, hence the cafe’s ghoulish name and signature dish: goulash, of course. Sit on a velvet sofa and prop your feet up on a coffin. The skulls behind……the bar may or may not belong to the murdered monks…. 

—and for the past half year backpackers had been poking their heads through the arch, looking for some morbid Prague to write postcards about.
This evening, though, the girls found it quiet. In the corner a foreign couple was taking pictures of their children wearing gas masks, and a few men hunched at the bar, but most of the tables—coffins, flanked by low velvet settees—were unoccupied. Roman statues were everywhere, life-size gods and……nymphs with missing arms and wings, and in the middle of the room stood a copy of the huge equestrian Marcus Aurelius from Capitoline Hill.
“Oh, good, Pestilence is free,” said Karou, heading toward the sculpture. Massive emperor and horse both wore gas masks, like every other statue in the place, and it had always put Karou in mind of the first horseman of the Apocalypse, Pestilence, sowing plague with one outstretched arm. The girls’ preferred table was in its shadow, having the benefit of both privacy and a view of the bar—…

Two of the main characters, Karou and Zuzana, frequent Poison Kitchen to eat their world famous goulash! The traditional Czech goulash is a soup or stew of meat, noodles, and vegetables seasoned with paprika and other spices. It originally is from the Hungarian culture.

As a child I grew up eating a goulash made by my step-father that was a bit more modern and could be made with ingredients already in our kitchen. He wasn’t the best cook, but the goulash did taste like home! In honor of my love for Poison Kitchen and the third book in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series release, Dreams of Gods and Monsters on April 8^th, I decided to share my goulash recipe! - Missie

Ingredients

• 1 lb (500g) ground/mince beef
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 large green pepper, chopped
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 28 ounces (800g) petite diced tomatoes
• 15 ounces (425g) tomato sauce
• 1 lb (500g) elbow macaroni
• 1 cup Monterey jack cheese, shredded 

---

Instructions

1. Brown ground beef, onion and pepper.
2. Season with garlic salt, paprika and pepper.
3. Add tomatoes and tomato sauce.
4. Simmer 10 minutes while macaroni is cooking.
5. Boil macaroni al dente, drain, rinse.
6. Return macaroni to pot, add beef mixture and stir in cheese until melted.
7. Serve in bowls (makes great leftovers, the ingredients really meld together!)

note from Lisa: Thank you Missie for making this yummy Goulash and sharing it on my site! Missie and I have been friends since university! Even though it's been years since I last saw her, I know that the next time I see her it will be like I saw her yesterday. We always had the same taste in books, TV shows, movies etc... so we would have plenty to talk about! For more posts like this check out Missie's site: A Flurry of Ponderings!

Transformer's Birthday Cake!!

My sister, Indiana Baker, made this for her son Carter's 7th birthday!!

Turned out really well!! Wish I had been there!!

I just made a two layer chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Wiltons fondant tinted black with the Autobots symbol in Wiltons yellow sugar sheet...all edible! ~Indiana Baker

Resource: for the Autobot symbol click here!

Mahogany Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

adapted WW recipe - makes 12
guest blogger Sarah@ExPat-Bride

When I heard Lisa would be celebrating International Cupcake Week on her blog, I couldn’t not participate! (Even though I’m on a diet, yikes!)

These cupcakes are a healthy all-natural spin on the classic red velvet cupcake. Instead of loading them up with artificial food coloring, use pureed beets to give them a rich mahogany color and keep them fluffy and moist. Not to mention all the vitamins and nutrients that beets are bursting with may help you feel slightly less guilty!

What you need:1 ¼ cup flour
1 cup granulated sugar
3 tbsp cocoa powder (unsweet)
1 ½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 small can (8 ¼ oz.) whole or sliced beets
½ cup buttermilk (lowfat)
¼ cup canola oil (UK: rapeseed oil)
2 large eggs
1 tsp white vinegar
8 oz cream cheese (fat-free)
1 cup confectioners’ sugar (UK: icing sugar)
1 tsp lemon zest

What to do:
1. Preheat the oven to 350F /180C and line a 12-cup cupcake pan with paper liners.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, granulated sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. Drain the beets and puree in a blender or food processor.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients: beet puree, buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vinegar.
5. Slowly add the wet mixture to the dry while stiring. Stir only until everything is moist, do not over mix.
6. Pour batter into the cups, filling them about two-thirds full.
7. Bake for around 20 minutes.
8. Meanwhile, beat cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar, lemon zest with an electric mixer until smooth. Refrigerate until use.
9. When cupcakes are completely cool, spread about 1 tbsp of frosting per cupcake.

Sarah’s Tips
-          For the frosting, be sure to sift the sugar into the bowl otherwise you will be beating the clumps out for hours!
-          At about 16/17 minutes, turn the temperature down a bit. This keeps the cupcakes fluffy and stops them from sinking back into their cups.
-          Make sure it is 100% cooled before attempting to frost. I usually wait an hour, just as a rule of thumb for anything. That will also give the frosting plenty of time in the fridge.
-          Don’t worry about measuring out the lemon zest. 1 whole lemon will give you the perfect amount of tang, feel free to zest straight into the bowl.

 Did you try this recipe? How did it turn out for you? Have any tips to add? Post a picture on my facebook page!
Sarah
The Ex-Pat Bride

Day 2: National Cupcake Week! Thank you Sarah for shareing these amazing looking cupcakes!! Sarah shared her Healthy Berry Crisp with us earlier this year. If you want to see what's she's up too visit her blog!! x Lisa

Roasted Banana Cupcakes with Honey-Cinnamon Frosting

taken from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes
guest post IN-Baker

3 ripe bananas (plus 1 or 2 to garnish)

2 cups cake-flour (not self raising) sifted

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

¾ tsp salt

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp.

¾ cup sugar

3 large eggs, separated

½ cup sour cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Pre-heat oven 400*F
2. Place 3 whole unpeeled bananas on a baking sheet and roast for 15 minutes (peels will darken).
3. While your roasting sift together cake flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
4. Remove bananas and cool before peeling, re-set oven to 350*F
5. On med-high cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add egg yolks one at a time, making sure it’s well combined each time.
6. Add roasted bananas and beat to combine
7. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of sour cream, and being until just combined after each addition.
8. Beat in vanilla
9. In a separate bowl whisk egg whites to a soft peak, fold 1/3 whites into batter to lighten. Gently fold in remaining whites in two batches
10. Divide batter into your cupcake liners (in tin) Bake for 20 minutes rotating half way through. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

For the Frosting:

2 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 tbsp honey

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat all ingredients until smooth. Use immediately!!

Finish the cupcakes, fill a pastry bag fitted with a medium French-star tip (Ateco #863 or Wilton #363) with frosting. Pipe seven scallops around the perimeter of cupcake, and pipe a large starburst in the center. Don’t garnish with sliced bananas until serving time. Brown bananas aren’t really that attractive!

Day 1: National Cupcake week. Here in England it's National Cupcake week so, get ready for a week full of yummy cupcake recipes from myself and some lovely guest bloggers!! There is still time to vote on which cupcake you'd like me to bake so please vote!!

my first post

I'm busy trying to design this blog to my liking (expect it to change here and there) but to get started I'm going to share a link to my cousin's blog where I guest blogged my first experience with whoopie pies!!

A Tale of Two Whoopies