Lemon Yogurt Cake

This lemon yogurt cake is delicious. I made this in tiny loaf pans instead of regular loaf pans because I was giving these away as gifts. I doubled the batch here. Everyone that I gave it to loved them! I hope you do to!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Sift the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. 

In a large bowl, whisk together, the yogurt, 1 cup of sugar, eggs, lemon, and vanilla. 

Slowly whisk in the dry mixture. Once that is all combined, fold in the vegetable oil.

I baked these for 40 minutes.

This is the glaze to put in the cake right after it comes out from the oven. It is just sugar and lemon juice.

For the frosting, just whisk in confectioner sugar and lemon juice.

Once the cakes are cooled, pour the frosting on the top and that is it!

Lemon Yogurt Cake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 salt
1 C whole-milk yogurt
1 1/3 C sugar, divided
3 extra-large eggs
2 tsp grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 vegetable oil
1/3 C freshly squeezed lemon juice

Glaze:

1 C confectioner sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a standard-size loaf pans. (I used 4-5 mini loaf pans)
2. In a bowl, sift together to flour, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the yogurt, eggs, vanilla, lemon zest, and one cup sugar. Slowly whisk in the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. With a rubber spatula, fold in the vegetable oil, making sure its all incorporated. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 50 minutes (if using standard-size loaf pans), 40 minutes (if using mini loaf pans).
3. Cook the 1/3 cup sugar with 1/3 lemon juice until dissolved and clear. Set aside.
4. When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully set it on a baking rack. While the cake is still warm, pour in the lemon sugar syrup and allow it to soak in. Let the cake cool.
5. For the glaze, combine the confectioner's sugar and lemon juice and pour over the cake.

Enjoy!

Spring Rolls with Peanut Sauce

These spring rolls are so refreshing to eat during the summer. There are no measurements to this recipe, just eyeballing and taste. The best part about spring rolls is that you can add any ingredients you want to. This might be really hard for me to explain the directions, so I apoligize ahead of time.

You can use chicken breast or pork shoulder butt roast (I used pork). I used shrimp also.

Boil the shrimp with the peel on, and the pork. Peel the shrimp and slice down in the middle. Slice the pork into somewhat thin slices, but not too thin.

This is the brand of noodles that I used. These are rice noodles. All I did to these noodles were boil them and rinse in cold water after.

For the sauce, brown the minced garlic in some vegetable oil.

Add in water. Wait for it to boil, then add peanut butter. The ratio of hoisin sauce and peanut butter is 2:1. I added a little soy sauce and sugar.

The veggies that I used were lettuce and cucumbers. Like I said earlier, you can add anything like cilantro.

The outcome of the peanut sauce.

The rice paper that I used was with the picture that has three ladies on it. I placed three shrimps, two to three pieces of pork, a piece of cucumber, lettuce and noodles.

Enjoy!

Spring Rolls

Ingredients:

Pork or chicken (optional)

Shrimp, peel on (optional)

Lettuce (optional)

Rice noodles (optional)

Cucumber (optional)

Rice paper

Peanut Sauce

Ingredients:

Minced garlic

Water

Peanut Butter

Hoisin Sauce

Soy sauce

Sugar

Directions:

1. Boil the pork and shrimp. Leave the peel on the shrimp on. Let the pork cool down before you start slicing it. Once the shrimp is done boiling, immediately start draining it and rinse it in cool water. Slice the shrimp down the middle.

2. For the veggies, rinse the lettuce. Peel some of the skin of the cucumbers and slice the cucumbers into long rectangles. 

3. Boil the noodles and rinse in cold water right after.

4. For the sauce, brown the garlic in oil. Once it is browned, add water depending on how much sauce  you want. The peanut butter acts as a thickener so I would start with two spoonfuls, and add more if needed. For every spoonful of peanut butter equals two spoons of hoisin sauce. Add in a little bit of soy sauce and sugar up to your taste.

5. To start rolling, just put the rice paper in water where the whole thing just gets wet. Don't leave it in the water for a long time. Place it on a cutting board and leave part of it off the edge of the cutting board. Place all of the ingredients in the middle. start rolling and make sure all of the ingredients are together pretty tight. After two rolls, fold the sides in, then continue to finish rolling. 

6. Serve the sauce individually in a bowl. If you want the sauce to be spicy, add some siracha sauce. 

Hope that was easy to understand!

1 XXL Death by Chocolate Cookie

I made one of my friends took me to my physical therapy appointment. In return, I made this cookie for him. This cookie is pretty big and it tastes just like a brownie. If there are any chocolate lovers, they would love this. Enjoy!

The picture below is the original picture. My cookie did not turn out like this.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream the butter and sugars with a fork or spoon.

Add in the eggs and vanilla extract.

Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then combine with the wet ingredients.

Fold in the chocolate chips.

Pile the dough into a ball with a spoon and add extra chocolate chips on the top.

Bake for 14-15 minutes. This is how my cookie turned out, but it still tastes delicious.

1 XXL Death by Chocolate Cookie

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

2 Tbsp granulated sugar

2 Tbsp light brown sugar (or dark brown)

2 Tbsp beaten egg (crack an egg, beat it, and use 2 Tbsp)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 C all-purpose flour

2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 C dark chocolate chips + 1 Tbsp, divided (or semi-sweet chocolate chips)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a medium size bowl, mix the softened butter and sugars together with a spoon or fork until creamed. Mix in the egg and vanilla.

3. In a separate bow, mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix to combine. Fold in the 1/4 C of chocolate chips. 

4. Place the dough in the middle of the baking sheet and form it into a tall ball with a spoon because it is sticky. Dot the top with 1 Tbsp of chocolate chips. Bake for 14-15 minutes and up to 16 minutes. Do not over bake, the cookie will be soft and chewy. 

Chocolate Chip Cookies

The special ingredient in this cookie is that there is vanilla pudding in it. 

First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

I melt 2 sticks of butter and add both of my sugars and I cream them. 

Add the eggs and mix.

 Next add the vanilla pudding and mix, then mix in the vanilla extract.

Add in all of the dry ingredients and mix.

You can mix the chocolate chips in, but I like to fold them in the batter.

I used a mini ice cream scooper per each cookie.

I baked them for 10 minutes.

And voila! Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1 C butter, melted

1/2 C sugar

1/2 brown sugar

2 eggs

1 (3.4 oz) instant vanilla pudding

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp baking soda

2 1/4 C all-purpose flour

2 C chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cream the butter, sugar, and brown sugar.

3. Mix the eggs 

4. Mix the vanilla pudding, then add the vanilla extract.

5. Add the remaining ingredients except the chocolate chips.

6. Fold in the chocolate chips.

7. Bake for 10-12 minutes. (I did mine for 10 minutes)

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

So today, one of my friends asked me to bake for her because she had a special occasion. I decided to make her red velvet cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies. On this post, I will share the recipe for the red velvet cupcakes and my next post will be the chocolate chip cookies. I hope you guys enjoy!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add all of the wet ingredients, then mix with a hand mixer.

Add all of the dry ingredients

Line the muffin pan with cupcake liners. 

I used a mini ice cream scooper and poured in each cupcake liner twice.

I baked the cupcakes for 20 minutes. Remove the cupcakes and let them cool down. 

 As I wait for the cupcakes to cool down, I made the frosting. For the frosting, combine all of the ingredients and mix with a hand mixer for about 2 minutes. Be careful, I had powder sugar flying everywhere.

Once it is all combined, I moved the frosting into a big ziploc bag and cut a piece off from the corner. I cut mine a little too big, hence my frosting design wasn't so good.

 You can frost your cupcake whatever way you want to. Enjoy!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Ingredients:

2 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1 1/2 C sugar

1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cocoa poswer
2 eggs
1 1/2 C vegetable oil
1 C buttermilk
2 Tbsp red food coloring
1 tsp white distilled vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

4 C confectioners' sugar (I only used 2 C but depends on how sweet you want it)
8 oz cream cheese
2 sticks of butter
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsp vanilla extract


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. In a bowl, gently beat vegetable oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla with a handheld mixer.
3. Add the dry ingredients in.
4. Bake the cupcakes for 20-22 minutes. Let them cool before frosting.
5. For the frosting, combine all of the ingredients and mix for 2 minutes.

Bio

Hi guys! So a little history about me before I start running this blog. My name is Desiree, I recently just finished playing my four years of tennis for Brigham Young University, but I do have another year of school. I was born and raised from Southern California. Although I live in Utah right now, I will always be a Cali girl! Since tennis for me is on pause right now, I have been an addict to working out. Not as in running forever, and full on dead lift, but working out as in cross pit, muay thai, and pilates. I am so used to working out for four hours a day that I realized I had a lot of free time.

My favorite things to do on my free time is to bake and cook whenever I have the opportunity too. This is the reason I started this blog. From now on, every time I bake or cook, I will post the recipe instructions and pictures. Most of the recipes that I make are not my own creations. A lot of the things that I make come from Pinterest, and I'll get in the cooking mood and whip something up. So I hope you guys enjoy my posts of delicious food!