I tried Dominos' Chocolate Lava Crunch Cake last night, and it was surprisingly good! Homebake it and it'd be amazing, I think. It's similar to your normal ramekin molten chocolate cake, but the bottom and sides are crunchy. Does anyone have a recipe for something similar, or have an idea on how to make this? It's seldom that a dessert from a pizza delivery place surprises me, so I'd like to make use of it. Thanks!

Tweaks and enhancements

• As a number of you reported, a service interruption impaired sending and receiving notifications for a couple of days. This was due to an avalanche of snowflake cookies. We've removed the free snowflake cookie and unclogged the pipeline. Timely notifications should resume shortly. Please note that there's a backlog in our queues, so you'll be getting earlier notifications first. For more details, check out this post at lj_maintenance.
• In anticipation of the new year, we've embarked on a self-improvement kick to boost our backend (pun semi-intended). This will allow us to offer you a holiday promotion in the next few weeks (yes, we're listening and working very hard to make it happen). We sincerely appreciate your continued patience and support.

Holiday vgifts are here!

We've added some fantastic new vgifts to help you spread holiday cheer. We also hope you'll honor AIDS Awareness Month by purchasing virtual red ribbons. Priced at $2.99, we'll donate 100 percent of gross proceeds to IAVI.org (the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative) to support the development and global distribution of an affordable HIV vaccine.

Introducing: LJLimericks

We cordially here do invite you
To craft a fine limerick. Might you?
Each week, a new theme,
Then a poll, that's our dream
Winner posted on news to delight you!

In honor of all the brilliant writers on LiveJournal, we've created a brand new community: ljlimericks! Each week, we'll enter a handful of limericks into a poll (which we'll tuck snugly under an LJ-Cut). The winning poem will be published in the following newsletter. In addition, the author will receive a virtual blue ribbon! If you have the time, come drop us a rhyme. Please keep the "Nantucket" stuff on the downlow, since this is a youth-friendly community. Our first prompt is: Insomnia in winter.

Photos of the week

We're back with more incredible images from our global photography community. Congratulations to sempre_marseeya, who has been awarded a virtual blue ribbon as the winner of our second lj_photophile poll.

We hate to squelch your creativity, but, as a courtesy to other users, please post only one photo at a time and keep the main photo no larger than 350x350 (so images display properly via mobile and on friends pages). You can link to a larger image and/or post photos under a cut. Just so you know, we select photos for the poll blindly, based on user comments and staff feedback. Please continue to vote, comment, and, of course, enjoy. You can check out the week in pictures and view more awesome user content after the jump!

( Read more... )

Curtains

Thanks, again, for joining us. Stay warm and safe out there!

I didn't check the tags since I'm posting this really quickly at work, so feel free to point me in the right direction if I missed it!

I'm looking for a recipe for spanakopita (sp?) cups. My boss has one that she's going to look for tonight, but I thought you ladies (and gents!) might have something worth using. I'm looking for one that uses the frozen filo dough cups at the grocery store, would need to make probably 30-40 or so for Christmas.

Also, any idea on how to transport these? I have a covered pan that I usually use for brownies... think that would be ok?


TIA!

xposted to bakebakebake and cooking

I’ve never tried to bake under restrictions before, but since my beau's birthday was this past weekend and he happens to be lactose intolerant and misses coconut cream pie, I thought I’d take a stab at it. Well, not coconut cream pie because that’s self explanatory, but at least a coconut cake. And hold the phone, but I actually found the most genius, delicious way to make it dairy-free. Yes, you have to sacrifice the usually finger-lickin’ glorious cream cheese frosting, but the use of coconut milk in the batter instead of regular (or even soy) gives the entire cake the most delicious, fragrant, and awesome consistency I want to now use it in everything.

Tons more pics and info at my blog jonesing for...

( Recipe and more pics under the cut... )

These are just a few icons I made the last few weeks. I just wanted to post them so that I can start a new batch. I made a few Alice/Hatter icons from Syfy's Alice which you should watch because those two=love.




( Half awake in a fake empire )

Hi all!

I'm really tempted to make some cupcakes this season with Salted Caramel Frosting, but all the recipes I've seen call for ridiculous amounts of butter.

Now, I have nothing against butter in general, and prefer it very much to margarine/vegan versions. However, I really despise the taste of butter in frostings.

Normally I make cream cheese frosting, but it seems like that would be gross combined with salted caramel. So does anyone have any suggestions at all about how to make something resembling a Salted Caramel frosting without 3 sticks of butter? Or in general, frostings that are not cream cheese but also do not use hideous amounts of butter would be great.

Thank you for any help!!!

Title: Skip A Heartbeat
Fandom: Merlin
Characters: Merlin, Morgana, Arthur, Gwen.
Summary: A pair of mysterious, new students arrive at Merlin's school.
Warning: None.
Author's Note: Set in an alternate universe, where the characters have been re-incarnated. This is sort of continuation of another fic ( The Heart of the Matter ), so it might make more sense if you read that first. However, they can both be taken as oneshots, too.

thepersephone,vedetar, elphie_uk, submissionadict, thriae5, squishy_faces,ctkelly,
frames_in_aria and one_dreamery - this is for you, because you wanted more.

Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin. Duh.
( The class buzzes with excitement, all eyes fixed on the pair standing in the doorway, the mysterious pair with confident smiles on angelic faces )

Today a second batch of pics for the scheme http://www.anightlessordinary.org.uk has been released. 9 pics of Colin and 18 of Bradley - all HiRes - can be found HERE @ my journal.

So our group wants to do a cookie decorating party on Thursday. Which, to my way of thinking means soft, delicious sugar cookies! Except...it's a weeknight and all that chilling and rolling and cutting is just too much to do the night before. (Especially since I will be doing massive holiday baking shortly and I don't want to burn out my hubby on cookie baking ; ).

So...anyone know if you can make drop sugar cookies? Or any other kind of drop cookie that would frost well?

In trade I offer my favorite sugar cookie recipe:

http://www.landolakes.com/mealideas/ViewRecipe.cfm?RecipeID=8215

I omit the orange peel and they are the BEST sugar cookies. Nice and soft and fluffy and delicious.

Today I had some spare time, and I figured that instead of just lazing around, I would challenge myself.

I made chocolate macarons with loganberry buttercream. It definitely was a challenge!

( forgive my terrible cell phone quality )

I was so happy when I looked in the oven to see that they had sprouted their feet! I practically danced around the kitchen!

I followed the recipe on this website http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2005/10/french_chocolat.html

I ended up grinding my own almonds for this recipe, and it took FOREVER. But to me, that was the most difficult part of this process. By no means are these macarons perfect, but I suspect that they can only become so after much practice.

A few of them came out a little lopsided, which I suspect was due to their large size. I piped some of them larger than they were supposed to be.

I used loganberry syrup that my boyfriend had received. He told me I could do what I wanted with it, and so I did =] I was going to use the raspberry extract that I bought, but I didn't like the smell of medicine that it gave off. Loganberry is a hybrid between blackberry and raspberry anyway, and I figured that it was close enough since I'm probably the only one that will be eating these (so ronery). I just eyeballed powdered sugar and shortening for a normal buttercream, then added the loganberry.

All in all, I am proud of myself and will probably make more in the future.

And so begins the Holiday Baking Season ...

I was asked to make a cake for a committee meeting today at my office:


I should have made the wreath bigger, but it's not too bad.

More will come by year's end, culminating in what will be my most complex cake project to date.

I hope everyone has a Delicious December!

Several years ago, my local newspaper did an article on a German family that lives here. They included a recipe for Lebkuchen that the lady of the family's ancestors had brought over from Germany.

It's perfect for those that don't care for molasses, great for eating as cookies, and even builds awesome houses. It's become a yearly holiday staple for me, as both my dad and my Father in Law love gingerbread.

( Recipe! And pics! )

Happy 27th Birthday Vinnie!!



Thank you for making funny faces when you sing, and for growing your hair all crazy, for sitting on the stage singing Play Crack the second night in Philly, and for the way you play Tommy Gun live.