Baking Bites

6 Delicious Desserts to take to a BBQ

2013-05-23T22:34:43Z

Summertime is barbecue season. Planning barbecues is always fun, whether you’re making dinner for the family or cooking for a big group of friends. When it comes to food, there are lots of options. You can opt for smoked or grilled meats, hamburgers, sausages and all manner of grilled veggies, and sides like salads and fruit salads are always welcome. Dessert gets a little bit tricky, though, because you generally need things that can be served outdoors and don’t need special serving conditions. Since barbecues tend to offer a lot of savory foods, it helps if dessert is a little on the light side, too. These six desserts are all sure to be a hit at any summer barbecue, from first-of-the-season Memorial Day kickoffs right through Labor Day.

This Strawberry Chiffon Cake is packed with fresh strawberries and lots of flavor. The chiffon cake is very light but sturdy, which means that you can serve slices directly into waiting hands without having to plate them. If you do have extra paper plates, you can finish it off with fresh berries and whipped cream.

Summer squash often get grilled, but zucchini can be easily incorporated into a dessert like this Zuccini Cake with Lime Cream Cheese Frosting. The flavorful cake packs in a lot of veggies and, since it is a sheet cake, it is easy to transport and will serve a big crowd.

Lemonade is a refreshing drink that is always a hit at summer parties and this Pink Lemonade Cake takes it from drink to dessert. The airy, lemony cake only needs a simple glaze to finish it off, so you don’t need to worry about frosting melting on a hot day!

Cool slices of watermelon can be a good dessert option on their own, but these Watermelon Cupcakes might be even better. They look like little tiny watermelons and they taste like melon – thanks to a splash of melon liquor that is added to the batter. The alcohol should bake off in the oven, but look for melon extract if you want to eliminate the alcohol in your batch.

Stone fruits find their stride in the summer and a Summer Nectarine Cake is a lovely way to serve them up. The dessert showcases fruit as well as a shortcake, but there is no assembly required before serving it. Fruit cobbler lovers will definitely find themselves reaching for a second slice of this one.

If you’re grilling over an open flame, the best desserts you can serve are Homemade Campfire S’mores. You just need chocolate bars, graham crackers, marshmallows and some sticks so you can get those marshmallows hot and toasty over the fire while maintaining a safe distance. They’re always a hit with kids AND adults.

What is coconut cream?

2013-05-23T14:06:42Z

Coconut cream is a type of coconut milk, the creamy liquid that comes from pressing fresh coconut meat. The difference between coconut milk and coconut cream is the consistency. Coconut cream is very thick, almost paste-like, and contains much less water than coconut milk does. It has a creamy, slightly oily texture to it and a distinct coconut flavor and is good for use in recipes where you are adding coconut and want some extra richness. For instance, it can be a great addition when making a coconut ice cream recipe, where some additional fat will result in an even smoother and creamier finished product.

Coconut cream is typically sold in cans and it should be poured out and stirred before use, as the water and solids in the cream will often separate if it has been stored for a while. When shopping for coconut cream, check labels carefully so that you don’t accidentally buy “cream of coconut” instead. Coconut cream is different from cream of coconut in much the same way that sweetened condensed milk is different from evaporated milk. Products labeled “cream of coconut” are made for use in drinks and typically have a lot of sugar added to them. Coconut cream, however, is not sweetened, and switching the two can throw off your flavors in a recipe.

Watermelon Cupcakes

2013-05-22T19:47:31Z

There are few things that are more refreshing on a very hot summer day than a slice of cool, sweet watermelon. It’s even better if you top it with a sprinkle of sea salt to make the melon seem even juicier. These Watermelon Cupcakes don’t have quite the same cooling effect as fresh melon, but they definitely capture the look! They’re fluffy, tender and will put a smile on the face of everyone who bites into one.

The cupcakes look like miniature watermelons thanks to the help of some red and green food coloring. I added mini chocolate chips to the red portion of the batter to mimic the look of the seeds of the real melon. You can get the look with any flavor cupcake batter just by using some food coloring, but I took it a step further and infused my cupcakes with some actual melon flavor. I added Midori, a melon liquor, to the cupcake batter. The liquor is sweet, with a very pronounced melon flavor to it, and it works nicely with the vanilla that is already in the cupcake and really ties in well with the look of the finished desserts. The liquor does have a slightly greenish tint to it, but since there is food coloring in this recipe anyway, you won’t see it in the finished cupcakes.

I used my Wilton Two-Tone Cupcake Inserts to make these cupcakes, which allowed me to center the red batter within the green cupcake. If you don’t have the insert, you can still make the cupcakes, but your red batter might not be as perfectly centered. I’ve included instructions for centering your red batter below, although you can make things easy on yourself by putting the green batter on the bottom of the muffin cup and the red on top and going for a half-and-half look, too. I topped them off with a little green frosting. You can opt for vanilla or melon-infused frosting and both will be tasty, but don’t skip the green food coloring that ties the frosting in so well with the cupcakes.

Midori was the best way that I found to get some melon flavor into the cake. If you don’t want to put any alcohol into your cupcakes, they do make melon and watermelon extracts (you may be able to find them at your local market, depending on how large the baking section is) that you can use instead. If you are using an extract, simply replace the Midori with more buttermilk and add in a teaspoon of your extract. Alternatively, you could make a plain vanilla buttermilk cupcake – again substituting more buttermilk for the melon liquor – and just keep the look of the watermelon.

Watermelon Cupcakes
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup Midori liquor*
1/4 tsp green food coloring
1/4-1/2 tsp red food coloring
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Place liners in a 12 cup muffin tin.
In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and the vanilla extract until mixture is smooth.
Stir in half of the flour mixture, followed by the buttermilk and Midori. Stir in remaining flour mixture, mixing just until no streaks of dry ingredients remain.
Transfer 1 1/4 cups of batter into a small bowl. Add in 1/4 tsp red food coloring (adding additional, if needed) and mini chocolate chips and stir until the food coloring has been completely incorporated.
Add green food coloring to remaining batter and stir to incorporate.
Add a small amount of green batter to each muffin cup. Add a dollop of red batter with mini chocolate chips on top of each dollop of green batter, then finish off the cupcakes by dividing the remaining green batter evenly over the top of the red. Each cup should be roughly 3/4 full.
Bake for 18-20 minutes at 350F, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
Turn the cupcakes out onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Makes 12 cupcakes

*If you want to keep the cupcakes nonalcoholic, simply replace the Midori with more buttermilk. The Midori is the best way that I’ve found to get some actual melon flavor into the cupcakes, but you can keep an eye out for melon extracts, as well.

Melon Vanilla Frosting
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla or melon extract
1 tbsp milk or Midori
2- 2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
green food coloring

In a medium bowl, beat the butter until soft. Add vanilla extract (or melon extract) and add Midori (or milk) and confectioners’ sugar. Beat until frosting is creamy, then add in green food coloring and mix until desired color is reached. Frosting should be about the same color as the cake. If the frosting is too thick, add a small amount of milk or water to thin it out.
Pipe or spread frosting onto cooled cupcakes.

Bites from other Blogs

2013-05-22T14:10:32Z

Baking Chic‘s Orange Cupcakes with Sweetened Condensed Frosting are a simple dessert that deliver some delicious flavors in a small package. The fluffy cupcakes are flavored with a generous amount of orange zest – two whole tablespoons – for a very fresh citrus flavor along with a little hint of vanilla. The sweet, orange-laced frosting is the kind that you casually spread on to your cupcakes, not the kind that you pipe elaborate decorations with. It ties in with the cupcakes perfectly in terms of flavor and also marks these as an everyday treat to bake, not one that you have to save for a special occasion.
There are a lot of great elements packed into these Coffee Heath Bar Crunch Swirl Cookies from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody. The swirled cookies have two different flavors of cookie dough rolled into one. Half the dough is spiked with instant coffee and the other half has melted chocolate and cocoa powder added to it. These doughs are rolled out together and topped with a generous sprinkling of finely chopped Heath bars before being rolled up and cut into buttery, swirling cookie rounds and baked.
Cinnamon rolls aren’t the only bun option at breakfast. Averie Cooks made some Strawberry Sweet Rolls that offer a fruitier option for summertime brunch. The rolls start with a soft yeast dough and are filled with strawberry jam. Use a high quality jam that features pieces of fresh fruit for the best effect. The jam intensifies in flavor as the rolls bake, leaving you with buns that are sweet and fruity, as well as fluffy and tender. They’re finished off with a drizzle of vanilla cream cheese glaze to take them over-the-top.
Gluten Free Canteen paired some summer fruit with a hint of apple in this Blueberry Apple Pie. The filling is mostly made with bright, sweet blueberries. There is a small amount of applesauce, which acts as a kind of binder for the filling in addition to providing a hint of apple flavor, and just enough cinnamon and lemon zest to make the berries pop. The rich filling is a great match for the pie’s crisp crust – which just happens to be completely gluten free! You could also package this filling in a traditional pie crust for those who don’t need to watch their gluten intake.
The Fudgy Fluffernutter Swirl Brownies that Chocolate Moosey baked recently are a slice of decadence. The rich chocolate brownies have peanut butter chips in them and are topped with a layer of marshmallow fluff and peanut butter – which give the brownies their fluffernutter name – before baking. The sweet-salty effect is delicious on its own and just might be even better with chocolate. It might get a little messy when you’re applying the marshmallow and peanut butter toppings to your brownie batter, but that is just part of the fun.