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fruit

Raspberry Sorbet Mimosa Float

Thanks, Le Grand Courtâge, for sponsoring the development of this Raspberry Sorbet Mimosa Float recipe!

I had a crappy morning. There weren’t any major disasters, but there was a lot of minor crappiness. I had to wake up early to take Byrd to the groomer before work. Mike didn’t get a chance to take her out before we had to leave, which meant she would have to potty in the dewy grass on our way out and would probably get water, mud, and puppy pee all over my cute skirt in the car.

When we got to the groomer, no one was there. Turns out the groomer was stuck in traffic. I paced for 10 minutes with a very nervous Byrd, worrying that I’d be late for work. The groomer had clearly had a similarly harried morning, so I wasn’t angry with her; we were in the same boat. I finally left Byrd around 7:40 and raced toward work, hoping I still had time to get a coffee on the way.

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September 11, 2014 by Julie Ruble | 5 Comments

cakes

Drenched Lemon Cream Cake

Drenched Lemon Cream Cake

Y’all, let’s get real. There’s nothing wrong with taking nude photos. Nothing.

I’m a middle school teacher, so let me qualify that: there may be moral and practical implications with sending those photos to people, posting them online, or Snapchatting them to someone (good grief, DON’T DO IT). In any of those scenarios, you’re voluntarily giving the photos to someone else you may or may not be able to trust. In the case of Snapchat, you guys know nothing is ever really deleted for good on the internet, right? So trust me, some of those things are not wise.

But acting like Jennifer Lawrence and other violated celebrities somehow “should’ve known better” than to take nude photos in the first place is so odd to me. Why? What’s wrong with that?

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September 2, 2014 by Julie Ruble | 54 Comments

pies and tarts

Strawberry Pop-Tart Pie

Strawberry Pop-Tart Pie

I wrote this post as part of the Plugrá Butter Brigade. Thanks, Plugrá, for sponsoring this post and for making my favorite butter!

One of my blogger friends recently asked, “If you drink milkshakes, what’s your favorite flavor?” on her Facebook wall. It was a happy conversation until someone chimed in just to note how disgusting she felt milkshakes were. My friend responded, “Please don’t yuck my yum.”

Strawberry Pop-Tart Pie

What great advice, right? Since then, I’ve noticed people doing this EVERYWHERE: you mention loving hot dogs and someone has to pop out of the woodwork to let you know that hot dogs are nasty. You mention you’re going to see a movie and someone has to pop up and tell you they hated it. You mention that you can’t wait for the next book in a series to come out and they let you know that they just can’t get into it.

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August 4, 2014 by Julie Ruble | 73 Comments

cakes, cookies, cupcakes, pies and tarts

14 Summer Desserts from Willow Bird Baking (plus some from other blogs!)

Thanks, Foodie, for sponsoring this post.

Thank you so much for filling out my reader survey! If you haven’t yet, you can still do so here. I’m not surprised at all by how kind and thoughtful your comments were, but I do feel humbled by it. I seriously have the best readers in the world. One of the things I appreciated most was how many of you have made LOTS of recipes from the blog and how many of you love my stories. I can’t adequately put into words how much that means to me, since it’s been my dream since I was little to be a writer. I feel really blessed to share with you here.

Because I’m in total denial about school starting soon (I’m still going to sleep at 3 a.m. every night, so that should be fun to correct), here are some of my very favorite summer desserts from other bloggers (above) and 14 summer desserts from Willow Bird Baking (below). I only picked the absolute BEST EVER summer desserts, so make them ALL. And make them quickly to savor every second of the fading summer (Wahhhh.)

1. STRAWBERRY COBBLER WITH LEMON CREAM.

cooking difficulty: easy

2. GOOEY BUTTER STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE.

cooking difficulty: easy

3. STRAWBERRY COCONUT CREAM PIE.

cooking difficulty: intermediate

4. BROWN SUGAR POP-TART ICE CREAM SUNDAES.

cooking difficulty: easy

5. CARAMELIZED BANANA UPSIDE DOWN COCONUT CAKE WITH COCONUT WHIPPED CREAM.

cooking difficulty: easy

6. LEMON RASPBERRY SQUARES.

cooking difficulty: easy

7. KEY LIME PIE CHEESECAKE WITH SKY-HIGH MERINGUE.

cooking difficulty: advanced

8. FRUITY PEBBLE STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM SUNDAES.

cooking difficulty: easy

9. END OF SUMMER BERRY COBBLER.

cooking difficulty: easy

10. STRAWBERRY LEMONADE CHEESECAKE BARS WITH A SHORTBREAD CRUST.

cooking difficulty: easy

11. HOT RASPBERRY CAKE WITH VANILLA ICE CREAM.

cooking difficulty: easy

12. LIMONCELLO-SPIKED SHORTBREAD ICEBOX CAKE.

cooking difficulty: easy

13. RASPBERRY CHEESECAKE MORNING BUNS.

cooking difficulty: intermediate

14. LEMON RASPBERRY GOOEY BUTTER CAKE.

cooking difficulty: easy

August 1, 2014 by Julie Ruble | 4 Comments

cakes

Hot Raspberry Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream

Soooo, MAUVE. What an awesome color, right? Let’s talk about the many reasons mauve is so wonderful.

1. What color would your great-aunt Ida choose for her bath mat if mauve hadn’t been invented? She’d probably be steppin’ out onto a bright yellow mat that would give her indigestion. It wouldn’t even match the soap.

2. Without mauve, how would we describe the color of old, well-chewed bubble gum?

Hot Raspberry Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream

3. There was even a book written about mauve, believe it or not, and how it paved the way for synthetic dyes. We’d all still be dying our clothes with berries if it weren’t for mauve!

4. It was apparently “all the rage” in 1858, according to said book. They called its eruption of popularity the “mauve measles.” COME ON, YOU KNOW YOU WANT THE MAUVE MEASLES. And we all aspire to Victorian fashion, right?

Hot Raspberry Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream

5. We need a color we can use for the plasticky wrappers of feminine products that we don’t have to then use elsewhere and be reminded of feminine products. VOILÀ: MAUVE.

6. Nail salons need dozens of colors to fill up their shelves. Most of those need to be good colors, obviously, but wouldn’t it be nice to have a few bottles that would always stay full? (Oh, and a few that they could use on your great-aunt Ida, should she ever come in for a manicure.)

7. You can pronounce it moh-ve or mah-ve. Isn’t that fun? Isn’t it??

Hot Raspberry Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream

OKAY LISTEN, I KNOW MAUVE IS NOT EXACTLY THE MOST APPETIZING COLOR. I don’t know why this stupid glaze decided to turn mauve. I’ve tweaked the recipe below a bit (adding whole raspberries and making it in a food processor) in hopes that yours won’t turn mauve. You can even add some red food coloring if you’re really particular.

BUT I HAD TO POST THIS CAKE BECAUSE IT’S ONE OF THE BEST THINGS I’VE EVER EATEN. We can’t be fussy about colors at a time like this, y’all. It’s HOT RASPBERRY CAKE. And that glaze, while decidedly mauve, is also delicious. You have to make this super easy cake right this second and eat it with vanilla bean ice cream (on the balcony, straight from the skillet; you know the deal.)

One year ago: Strawberry Lemonade Cheesecake Bars with a Shortbread Crust
Two years ago: Shredded Wheat (or Weetabix) Breakfast Scramble
Three years ago: Soft Sugar Cookies and Cookie Decorating with Freedom School
Four years ago: Spicy Peach and Cucumber Salsa

Hot Raspberry Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream

Recipe by: Willow Bird Baking, adapted from the Blueberry Coffee Cake by Sweet Anna’s
Yield: 6-8 servings

This cake is absolutely to die for. It’ll come out of the oven seeming biscuity on top, but inside it’s the most tender, soft, buttery hot raspberry cake. It’s so easy, too!

Cake Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup buttermilk
3 cups frozen raspberries (do not thaw)

Glaze Ingredients:
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoon seedless raspberry jam
8-9 fresh raspberries
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
milk to thin (I used around 3 tablespoons)
fresh raspberries and vanilla bean ice cream for serving (optional)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Reserve about 1/4 cup of this mixture in a small bowl.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the egg and extracts and blend until just combined. Add the flour mixture and buttermilk alternately, beginning and ending with the flour. Toss the raspberries in the 1/4 cup reserved flour and then fold them (and the rest of the reserved flour) into the batter. (The dough is quite stiff, so be patient as you’re folding in the berries. It’ll seem like it’s mostly berries, but just trust me. It’ll be awesome.)

Spread the batter into a 10-inch skillet (I used the back of two spoons to work it around.) Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs (cooking time in a cast iron skillet can be variable, so check early and often.) While the cake is still hot, purée the jam and raspberries together in a food processor. Add the extracts. Slowly add the powdered sugar as you process. Add milk slowly to get the desired consistency — I ended up adding about 3 tablespoons. Pour your glaze (which is hopefully NOT mauve) over the hot cake. Serve while still warm with fresh raspberries and vanilla bean ice cream.

July 17, 2014 by Julie Ruble | 15 Comments

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