Recipe: Orange Kiss-me Cake

The alternative to boring coffee cake, with vitamin C to boot!

Recipe: Green Tea Layer cake

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 teaspoons matcha green tea
• 1 1/4 cups white sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.Grease and flour 2 - 9 inch round pans.
3.Sift together the all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking soda, salt, and green tea powder; set aside.
3.In a large bowl, beat together sugar, oil, and eggs until smooth. Stir in 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the yogurt, mixing just until incorporated.
4.Pour batter into prepared pans.
5.Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 30 minutes before turning out of the pans.

Green Tea Frosting:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 teaspoons powdered green tea
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons milk

Directions:

1.Sift together confectioners' sugar and green tea powder. 
2.In a medium bowl, combine tea mixture with butter, cream cheese, vanilla and milk. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth. 

Sophie

Recipe: Strawberries with Balsamic Vinegar

Ingredients: 

• 16 ounces fresh strawberries, hulled
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste

 Directions:

1. Place strawberries in a bowl. Drizzle vinegar over strawberries, and sprinkle with sugar. Stir gently to combine. Cover, and let sit at room temperature for at least 1 hour. Before serving, grind pepper over berries. Eat by itself or use as ice cream topping.

Prep Time: 10 minutes   Full cooking time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Enjoy.

Sophie 

Cooking With Sophie

Recipe: Golden Drachma Cookies

So last night I went to go see Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief. It was good, enjoyable even, but if your a fan of the books your going to have to pretend your hearing the story for the first time or you will nitpick. I've become quite good at this, because in recent years for some reason almost every book I've fallen in love with was turned into a movie. So I have a lot of practice.

Well in keeping in the theme of Greek mythology and me having cookie cravings I came up with a Golden Drachma cookie recipe. The Golden Drachma is the money of the gods.

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup butter
• 1 cup of Cinnamon Sugar (Easily obtained by mixing cinnamon and sugar together)
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 6 ounces of Butterscotch chips 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (170 degrees C). Lightly grease baking sheets.
2. Beat butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla at medium speed of electric mixer until fluffy. 
3. At low speed, gradually beat in flour, just until blended. By hand, stir in butterscotch chips.
4. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls, 2 1/2 inches apart, onto lightly greased cookie sheets.
5. Bake for 17 minutes or until they're GOLDEN brown around the edges. Allow to cool on baking sheets five minutes, then remove to racks to cool completely. 

Sophie

Recipe: Blue (White) Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recently I've been reading The Percy Jackson and The Olympian Series and I'm totally going to go see the movie tonight. So In honor of The Premiere I decided to make Percy's favorite food Blue Chocolate Chip Cookies. Well I'm not a big Chocolate fans so I changed out the chocolate chips with White Chocolate Chips. So feel free to change them out.

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 6 ounces white chocolate chips
• Blue Food Coloring as needed

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (170 degrees C). Lightly grease baking sheets.
2. Beat butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla at medium speed of electric mixer until fluffy. 
3. Add in the Blue food coloring until you get the color you desire.(Note: Color will dull out as it bakes)
4. At low speed, gradually beat in flour, just until blended. By hand, stir in chocolate.
5. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls, 2 1/2 inches apart, onto lightly greased cookie sheets.
6. Bake for 17 minutes or until tops look dry. Allow to cool on baking sheets five minutes, then remove to racks to cool completely. 

 Then enjoy with a nice cold glass of milk and a Percy Jackson Book.

Sophie