Margarita Cake, my way

 I love making and baking cakes, but rarely eat more than a small slice; however, I've just started going to Bingo and found out that they love it when someone bakes a cake and donates it.  The cake is raffled off, and usually the winner shares it, so it's a win-win.  Not only do I get to bake a cake, but I get to taste it as well.

I signed up to make a cake this week, and since it's the day after Cinco de Mayo, I thought it would be fun to make a Margarita Cake.  Well, once I started looking for a recipe, I went down a rabbit hole, but I managed to find a side tunnel and came out with this.  

If you know me, you may know I do not like using cake mixes.  I much prefer baking from scratch, and I have to say 90% of the time, it works well.  

After glazing the cake, I let the excess glaze run onto some paper towels (less mess and cleanup) 

Then I had fun.   I added the third glaze, which was a lot thicker, zested some more lime over it and added some candied lime slices. 

Put it onto a pretty platter and brought it with me to Bingo.

BTW, I made the candied lime slices just like I used to make Candied Orange Slices.

Margarita Cake

Author: Sid's Sea Palm Cooking - Adapted from many recipes

A fun cake to make to celebrate Cinco de Mayo or anytime you want a celebratory cake, this one is perfect for many occasions.

Ingredients

Cake

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees and grease and flour a 12-cup bundt pan; set aside while mixing the cake.
• 1 cup butter (2 sticks) softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 cups AP flour
• 1/4 cup cornstarch (mix in with flour to make cake flour)
• 3 large eggs
• 4 oz. softened cream cheese
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• Zest from 2 limes
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 1/4 cup Tequila ( good stuff, you can taste the difference
• 1/16th cup Grand Marnier or a good orange liqueur
• Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the softened cream cheese, and continue to cream together.
• Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix well.
• Add the zest, lime juice, tequila, and orange liqueur, mix.
• Add the flour and baking powder mixture alternating with the milk, one-third at a time. Being careful to not overmix.
• Spoon the batter into a prepared bundt pan and bake in 325 deg oven for 45 minutes. Checking for doneness at 45 minutes, and baking an additional 10 minutes if needed, and a toothpick or cake tester shows that the cake has not cooked fully.
• Take out of the oven when baked and place on a cooling rack, upside down. Let cool for 30 minutes before applying the first glaze.

Instructions

Glazes to top baked Bundt.

1. 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
2. 1/8 cup tequila
3. 1/8 cup fresh lime juice
4. Zest of a half lemon
5. Mix well, and drizzle half over the baked cake in an even fashion. Let it sit for an hour and then apply the second glaze
6. Make the second glaze by adding more confectioners' sugar, enough to make a drizzle glaze. Drizzle half of it on the cake in a pleasing design. Set aside.
7. Add enough more confectioner's sugar to make a stiff glaze and spoon or spread across the top of the bundt cake. Decorate with candied lime slices and a sprinkle of lime zest if desired.
8. The first two glazes will set nicely, as will the third. If the glazes get too stiff, add more lime juice, 1/4 teaspoon at a time.
9. It's very easy to make the glazes too loose, but if you do, you can correct it by adding confectioners' sugar to compensate.

Estimate only

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Blini with Smoked Salmon

 I love Smoked Salmon.  

That was a complete sentence. 

 I've been known to pick up pieces and just shovel them into my mouth, ok, so I was a little more delicate than that.    I've made quite a few dishes/recipes with smoked salmon over the years, but this is one of my favorite ways to use it, for now.  I may change my mind in the future.  As I experiment try new recipes. 

I've used both cold-smoked and hot-smoked salmon in my recipes.  I think it elevates just about every recipe you make.   I've made Salmon Mousse, Smoked Salmon Tarts, Salmon Cakes, topped Deviled Eggs with a curl of smoked salmon, and I've even made my own Gravad Laks.  And I made this amazing Smoked Salmon Cheesecake once as well.   And a few years back, I made this Chunky Shrimp and Smoked Salmon spread, and people still ask me about it.  It is good, I will say that.   It also looks pretty on a plate. 

Get the idea, I like Smoked Salmon?  Well, I do.   I actually have way more Smoked and regular Salmon recipes on my blog.  Go ahead and take a look.  I would detail them here, but this post is all about Elegant Appetizers for Mother's Day for our Sunday Funday Bunch.

And I just had to participate, with, you guessed it, Smoked Salmon.  Our hostess this week is Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm. Even though I'm the only mother I'm celebrating this year, I can make it special for me.  So I did, make it special, that is.    And I blame it all on The Great British Bake Off.   They had their contestants make Blini with Hot Smoked Salmon once, and I kinda glommed onto that idea and came up with these little bites of deliciousness. 

Too much hyperbole? Nah.   

I made some buckwheat blini (I had some buckwheat flour on hand to make buckwheat Pancakes).  And then I played, a lot.  

I raided my dill plant, minced up some red onion and some capers, and decorated. 

 Then I consumed.

But before I finished consuming, I decorated with some fresh Dill Fronds, cause I could. 

 I even topped them off with some Caviar.  I had way too much fun, and now I have a jar of Caviar in the fridge to use on something. I'm sure I'll come up with an idea or two to use it.   I'll share my attempts on here as well.  

Take a look at what our other fabulous cooks came up with: 

• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Wendy Klik Blini with Caviar 
• Amy's Cooking Adventures: Crackers with Salami & Pepperoni Rosettes 
• Sneha's Recipe: Crumb Coated Cheesy Veg Crepes 
• Karen's Kitchen Stories: Fresh Artichoke and Spinach Dip 
• Culinary Cam : Roasted Carrot Tarte Tatin 
• Sid's Sea Palm Cooking : Smoked Salmon Blini 
  
• Mayuri's JikoniMayuri's Jikoni: Sweet Potato Brie Bites

 

Buckwheat Blini with Smoked Salmon

Author: Sid's Sea Palm Cooking - Adapted from many recipes

Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 3 MinInactive time: 30 MinTotal time: 43 Min

Make this Mother's Day extra special with these bites of deliciousness. Be aware, this recipe makes a lot of blini. 

Ingredients

Blini

• 1/2  cup Buckwheat Flour
• 1/2 cup AP Flour
• 1 egg separated - room temperature
• 3/4 cup warm milk
• 1 teaspoon yeast
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Toppings

• 1/2 cup Crème Fraîche
• 1 tsp. Creamed Horseradish
• 2 + oz. Cold Smoked Salmon, sliced thinly
• 1-2 Tablespoons finely minced Red Onion
• 1-2 Tablespoons, finely chopped Capers
• 2 + teaspoons Caviar
• 2 + teaspoons finely chopped Fresh Dill, plus more for decorations
• Mix the Crème fraîche and horseradish together and set aside

Instructions

1. Heat the milk to about 110 degrees, add egg yolk, yeast, and sugar, set aside until frothy.
2. Sift the dry ingredients together, then add the milk-yeast mixture and combine.
3. Cover with some plastic wrap and set aside for about an hour or until the batter has doubled in size.
4. Beat the egg white until stiff. Fold into the risen batter.  
   
   
   
5. Place a non-stick frying pan on the stove and heat to medium-high. Or spray some cooking spray in a frying pan and heat.
6. Dollop about a tablespoon of the batter into the heated pan, doing about 4 at a time, cook until  bubbly, turn over and cook an additional 45 seconds or so. Remove to a warmed platter.

Assembly

1. Now for the fun part, assembly:
2. Dollop about a half teaspoon of the Crème fraîche-horseradish sauce on each blini.
3. Form a 'rose' out of each piece of salmon, and place carefully on top of the creme fraiche mixture. Top with a sprinkle of the finely minced onion, capers, and chopped dill. Add a 1/4 teaspoon of caviar on top if you wish. Use some dill fronds to decorate further if desired.
4. Serve immediately.

 

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Recipes that use Paneer

 As you may have surmised, I have fun in the kitchen.   And one of my fun activities (mainly because I don't know any better) is to play with new recipe ideas.   I'm part of a group called Sunday Funday, and every week we have a theme we can make food for.  You can participate or not, but a week or so in advance, you tell the organizers what you're making and schedule the recipe to go 'live' at the same time. 

Mayuri Patel of Mayuri Jikoni is our hostess this month and said to create a dish using either cottage cheese, paneer, or tofu.  It should be the star ingredient and could be either sweet or savory.   Personally, I love cottage cheese and paneer, but I cannot stand the texture of tofu.  So I went exploring on the net.

I hope you're not bored yet, cause this week I decided to go ahead and play again. I've missed a couple of weeks, but I'm back and ready to have fun again.

A few years back, I was a member of the Secret Recipe Club, where we posted a recipe once a month that we'd found on our assigned blog and wrote about it. 

My assignment for one month was Camille's blog , and I found a recipe for Palak Paneer on there.    At the time, I wasn't aware of any place in the big city where I could find ready-made Paneer (Indian Cheese), so I made my own.   I've since found it there and keep a block of it in my freezer, ready to use when I'm in the mood to use Paneer in a recipe.   I still make my own, though, cause this stuff is good and is so darn easy to make as well.  

And since it's so easy to make your own Paneer, I decided to make some this week and share some ideas for how to use it.   

I love most of the Indian food I've tried, and decided to make some Paneer Makhani (aka Butter Chicken, if using chicken).    That was until I forgot to buy some tomato paste, so I pivoted.   I made some Paneer Pakora instead.    

But first, I had to make some paneer; well, I didn't have to, but I wanted to.  

I processed a half-gallon of milk into two batches of Paneer. I even borrowed an idea from one of my sisters: rather than using a pot to boil the milk and the risk of scorching it, I put it in a microwave-safe 4-cup measure and zapped it until the milk boiled.     When you have modern conveniences, you should use them.   I had a couple of lemons I juiced up and added to the milk to make the Paneer.   I also decided to fill the bowls with water to press the paneer out.   A gallon of water weighs 8 pounds, so it made sense to do it that way.  

And just cause I could, I also made some Naan to go with the Palak Paneer.   

I borrowed a dictum from Red Green (Canadian) and used my Tortilla press for the Naan.  As Red Green used to say, any tool can be the right tool, and it worked beautifully for the Naan.    Although true confessions time, I used a real shortcut to make the Naan, and they were not as good as my original recipe.   

And now to the Paneer Pakora.  I did a bit of a swivel on here as well.    I had some Chutney in the fridge and decided to use it.  And I'm not sorry I did.  I just had the best meal.  And totally understand why these are a great snack, but I made them into a meal.    In India, these are also sold as street snacks, and are made as after-school snacks as well.    All I know is, I'll be making them again.  

Paneer Pakora

Yield: 2-4

Author: Sid's Sea Palm Cooking - Adapted from many recipes

A fun little appetizer that's a touch different.

Ingredients

Batter for Paneer

• 1 cup Besan Flour (aka Chickpea Flour)
• 2 tablespoon gluten free flour
• 3/4 tsp. Turmeric
• 3/4 tsp. Garam Masala
• 3/4 tsp. chili/paprika spice mixture
• 1/4 tsp. cumin powder
• 1/2 cup water +1 tablespoon + add more if needed by the teaspoonful
• salt if desired, to taste
• Oil for frying, to a depth of around 2 inches
• 8 oz. Paneer, cut into cubes
• Mango Chutney or your favorite chutney.

Instructions

1. Mix the batter ingredients together, adding more water as needed, until it envelops the paneer cubes.
2. Heat the oil to around 335 degrees.
3. Dip the cubes in the batter and add to the oil; cook for a couple of minutes, turning over if needed to ensure they are cooked on all sides. Drain on a paper towel, and serve with some chutney.

 

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Check out what my fellow Sunday Funday Bloggers came up with: 

• Corn Paneer Parathas from Mayuri's Jikoni
• Cottage Cheese Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Cottage Cheese Wraps from Making Miracles
• Cheese Paneer Tikka Open Sandwich in Air Fryer from Cook with Renu
• Firecracker Tofu Broccolini Stir-Fry from Food Lust People Love
• Homemade Paneer Recipe Ideas from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
• Paneer Tomato Rice With Leftover Rice For One from Sneha's Recipe
• Pasta with Green Beans and Ricotta from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Potato, Cottage Cheese, & Caramelized Onion Pierogi from Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Retro Cottage Cheese Jello Salad from A Messy Kitchen

Shrimp and Cucumber Salad

 Have you ever made something that's so good, you have trouble not finishing off the entire recipe by yourself?  

I was introduced to this salad by a friend, and could not stop eating it.  In fact, I made a bit of a pig of myself; I went for seconds and may have gone for thirds, but memory fails me on that one.   All I know is that it was so good and I had to make some for myself.   And then, me being me, I decided to add in some Sweet peppers I had on hand, and well, it was good before, but this added a certain little extra.     

This is a great low-carb meal, and yes, it does have mayonnaise in it. You could probably sub in either low-fat mayo or even Greek yogurt, but why?  

I will also add a bit of caution here, because of the vinegar in the sauce/marinade, it can make the shrimp go a bit 'mealy', but honestly, it doesn't matter, cause the overall taste is wonderful    And while it tasted amazing, I had to take more pictures of it. 

I kinda loaded up on shrimp, and that was not a problem.   The only thing that might have added to the meal, a nice warm piece of my homemade No-Knead bread.   Slathered with butter, of course.    And I have to admit to eating the rest of it for breakfast and lunch the next day.    And life was good.   I'm planning this for dinner again next week.  

It's that good.  

Shrimp Cucumber Salad

Yield: 2-3

Author: Sid's Sea Palm Cooking - Adapted from many recipes

This salad is brilliant on its own or with a nice slab of homemade bread. Quick and easy to put together, as well as totally delicious.

Ingredients

sauce

• 2 Tbsp. Cider or Rice Vinegar
• 2 Tbsp. Sugar
• 4 Tbsp. Dijon Mustard or Whole Grain mustard
• 4 Tbsp. Mayonnaise
• 3 Tbsp. Chopped fresh Dill
• Whisk together and set aside while you prepare the other ingredients

Instructions

Salad

1. 4 pickling cucumbers or small seedless ones, or a single English Hothouse cucumber cut into cubes.
2. 1-2 large ripe mangoes, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
3. 1 lb. Cooked shrimp cut into either halves or thirds
4. 1-2 small sweet red, yellow or orange peppers, cut into 1/2 inch slices
5. Combine all the cut-up ingredients in a bowl, then pour the sauce/marinade over them. Toss to combine and place in the fridge for an hour or so before serving. Season with salt and hot pepper sauce if desired. Serve and enjoy.

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Homemade Sprinkles

 Did you know you could make your own sprinkles to go on top of a cake or cupcakes?  You can.  

A while ago, I was watching the GBBO (Great British Bake Off), and one of the tasks they had to do was to make their own sprinkles.  Well, I thought that was cool, but didn't give it much more thought.  Until this week.  

I signed up to bring a cake to be raffled off at our local Bingo night.   I started going there with some Snowbird friends a few weeks ago, and just could not help myself when I found out they love it when people bake a cake and bring it to Bingo, where it is raffled off.   The money raised stays in the community, and baking and donating cakes are among the ways I like to support my local community.     
A few weeks ago, I made this cake and brought it to Bingo night.   It was my Chocolate Cake with Seafoam Frosting.   The lady cutting the cake did an incredible job, BTW.  

 

And then I promptly signed up to bring another cake.    This is my Easter Cake, decorated with my homemade sprinkles.  

This was before I decided to use up as many sprinkles as I could on the cake.   I think it was almost tastefully decorated, but... Why not have some fun?  I stuck the marshmallow peep bunnies in the middle as if they were coming out or going back home after leaving some Cadbury eggs for whoever. 

But I wanted more. So I threw most of the rest of the sprinkles on the cake. I had made lots of sprinkles and decided they needed to be used.

 As you may know, I also like to play in the kitchen.   I've made a few decorated cakes in the past. This was a Bunny cake, I put together at 6 am or so, when I was cooking lunches at the Senior Center. 

 

I also made this Easter Basket cake for the Legion Cake Raffle a few years later.   

As I said at the beginning, before I got totally distracted, I decided to make my own Sprinkles.  Mainly because I really do not like commercial sprinkles, they're made with a lot of weird ingredients I can't even pronounce, much less spell.    

I had made up a bunch of royal icing at Christmas, which I hadn't used, so I froze it.   And decided to take it out of the freezer and start playing.    

What triggered this? Well, a couple of random comments made at the market, from people who absolutely abhorred coconut.  And honestly, I didn't feel like coloring coconut.   I wanted to bake a bundt cake in my new bundt pan and decorate it for Easter.   And somewhere in the dim recesses of my memory, I remembered that GBBO episode, especially when I started looking at decorating ideas online.   I also didn't feel like searching out some sprinkles. As you can see, I had lots of green, so I decided to use it as 'grass' for the eggs.  I also made a seafoam (7-minute frosting) frosting for the cake as well, and placed (sprinkled) my homemade sprinkles on it, along with some purple and blue sprinkles.    Can I just say, this was fun.  Making the sprinkles, that is.   

And here it goes.  How to make sprinkles.  First off, make some royal icing.  You know the kind made with meringue powder that dries hard.  In other words, the same kind you make to decorate Christmas Cookies.  I use the recipe on the Wilton website.   However, it does make a lot of icing/frosting, so... I cut the recipe in half.  Luckily, I have a set of measuring spoons that let me measure out half tablespoons, so that's what I do.  I've also been known to freeze leftover frosting in sealed frosting bags, then just massage the bags to reincorporate everything.   Just saying...

 Divide the frosting into several small dishes and color them with gel colors, mixing well.  And then go have fun.  Pipe them into little rows,

using either a very small piping tip or just cutting the very tip off the frosting bag, let them dry overnight, then break them up and use with abandon.  😉   Have fun, in other words.   I now have lots of leftover sprinkles for future bakes. I'm told you can keep them at room temperature for up to a year, but I like to freeze stuff, or I may just pull out my vacuum sealer, put the little container in there, and seal them in that way.    Decisions, decisions...  At least I don't have to buy sprinkles again, unless I want cute little bears or trees for the Christmas sprinkles.  And honestly, why would you want them when you can make your own sprinkles?  

The cake underneath all the fun was my Thanksgiving cake.    I love using sweet potatoes in cakes and other stuff like my Sweet Potato Tortillas, both of which are gluten-free and delicious.    Just click on the underlined text to go straight to the recipes.  

I had another thought.  You can actually pipe out letters, shapes, etc.  And use those to personalize a cake as well.  
I've got another cake coming up in a couple of weeks, and I'm going to use my newfound 'skill' to make some letters and really personalize the cake.  

Go have some fun...