A really big reason for a post!

So I know, I know. It's been a really long time since I've posted here. What have I been up to? Coaching, racing, working, training, training and more training.

My Rammets went undefeated yet again and took home a 9th straight sectional championship. My level 4s took home a trophy bigger than (most of) them at the biggest meet of the year.

I PR'd at two races.

Amish Country 1/2

Reindeer Run 5k

Ran a Marathon Relay.

Visited Philly.

Turned 24.

Celebrated my youngest cousin's Bat Mitzvah.

 
And oh yea, signed up for my first 1/2 ironman distance triathlon.

Oh! I also baked/cooked a bunch of stuff you should try!
Pumpkin Bread (loosely based on my banana bread, I added choc. chips and pecans)
Pumpkin Pancakes
Pumpkin Oatmeal
Pumpkin Cheesecake (sensing a theme?)
Pumpkin Curry Soup
Sweet Potato and Lentil Soup
Cocoa Thumbrints (I used Candy Cane Kisses in the center)
Carrot Cake Cupcakes (this one's mine. I'll share it soon)
Carrot Ginger Bisque
Tomato Basil Soup w/ Orzo

I'm thinking now that I have my Big Goal squared away and paid for I'll actually be blogging more. Maybe I'll make it my New Year's resolution ;) I'm going to need a training plan, too!

So yea, I've been busy. How have you been?

Red Velvet Cupcakes and Cream Cheese Frosting

Yay! A recipe!

There's not really much to say about this one, except that I was in the mood to bake and for some reason I wanted to make something tried and true. Scooping out dozens of cookies felt like too much work. Plus, I wanted to frost what ever I made. So that meant either the Silver Palette Carrot Cake or these Red Velvet Cupcakes (from Bakerella).

I last made these for my roommates birthday and they were a hit, so despite the lack of a special occasion, I ran to Wegmans for red food coloring and buttermilk.

Anyway, they came out great. The only thing I can't figure out it why the tops have a slight crisp to them. They're not over done. The insides are perfectly moist, they just spring back when you touch them and they taste great. But I can't figure out what would make that top layer crust over? Any ideas?

Ugh. I need to stop using my iPhone for pics.

The Red Velvet Cupcake Recipe is from here.

My go to Cream Cheese Frosting recipe is the one that accompanies the Silver Palette Carrot Cake recipe and you really can't go wrong with it. It's perfect :) The lemon at the end is optional, and I normally don't use it, but today I did. I'll never leave it out again.

Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz. Cream Cheese
6 Tbsp. Butter
~3 Cups Powdered Sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla
Juice of 1/2 Lemon (opt.)

Cream together butter and cream cheese. Add powdered sugar slowly (1/2 cup at a time). Mix well after each addition. Beat in vanilla and lemon juice.

Frost. Makes enough for more than 2 dozen cupcakes, or 2 9-inch layer cakes.

Healthier Cinnamon Chip Banana Bread

I know I written about this one before. But I couldn't pass up the chance to revisit it, especially since I tried an idea that I've had in the back of my head for a while. I was worried it would be like committing a crime against my favorite recipe, but miracle of miracles, it worked!

Here's the original for your reference.

It's funny how I wrote that you could mess with this recipe and it will still turn out. I had forgotten about that. But it still holds true.

Here's what I did: subbed out half the white flour for whole wheat (1 cup). Got rid of all the oil, and used applesauce (1/2 cup). Then I didn't bother with chocolate chips (we didn't have any). The baking time was a little shorter, but that may have been thanks to my parents' amazing new oven. Just keep an eye on it.

So how'd it taste? Pretty darn amazing if I do say so myself. (My mom and sister agreed.) It wasn't exactly the same, and it definitely tastes a little healthy, but to me that's a good thing. I really liked it, and I'll definitely do it this way again. Not every time, but whenever I'm feeling the need to be a little bit good while I'm being bad :)

Crappy iPhone alert...

Lemon Pound Cake with Raspberry Buttercream and Whipped Cream Frosting

I’m going to come right out and say it—I don’t like cake. However, I really like to bake cake. When there’s a special occasion coming up that requires a cake, thoughts of flavor combinations, recipe possibilities and decorating options literally consume me.  This lemon and raspberry combination has been on my mind since before Mother’s Day. I can’t remember why but I didn’t get the chance to make a cake for my mom.

Fast forward to last weekend, when Wegman’s was giving away samples of EVERYTHING while I did my weekly grocery shopping. One of those samples just so happened to be a teeny, tiny piece of white cake with lemon and raspberry fillings and a whipped cream frosting. I only took it so I could eat the frosting. Take it from someone who doesn’t like cake—the flavor combination was incredible. Thoughts of cakes I could bake started to float around in my head with a renewed vigor.

Luckily for me, Father’s Day was fast approaching, along with my Grandma’s 80^th Birthday. A little Googling and I found recipes for white cake, lemon buttercream, raspberry buttercream and whipped cream frosting. I blocked off time in my weekend to really do it right.

In the end we (my sister and I) simplified a little, deciding to go with what eventually became the final recipe: Lemon Pound Cake with Raspberry Buttercream Filling and Whipped Cream Frosting. Let me tell you (yes, from someone who doesn’t like cake) this was divine, although some of that may have had to do with how beautifully it came out.

You should try this. And if you don’t want to bake it yourself, I’d be happy to do it for you. For a cost of course. I’ve got to get this baking business off the ground somehow :) I also take custom orders. *Wink, Wink.* If you want me to make a cake for your special occasion, or non occasion, I'd love to do it! I could use all the practice I can get!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Yea, it's recipes like these that would keep me running if I didn't already love it.


**Update!!! Here's what the cake looked like on the inside :)

Wasn't it gorgeous??


Lemon Cake From Ina Garten/Food Network

• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar, divided
• 4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 1/3 cup grated lemon zest (6 to 8 large lemons)
• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, divided
• 3/4 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 8" round cake pans. 

Cream the butter and 2 cups granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs, 1 at a time, and the lemon zest.

Combime the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, combine 1/4 cup lemon juice, the buttermilk, and vanilla. Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the batter, beginning and ending with the flour. 

Divide the batter evenly between the pans, smooth the tops, and bake for 45 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Combine 1/2 cup granulated sugar with 1/2 cup lemon juice in a small saucepan and cook over low heat until the sugar dissolves. When the cakes are done, allow to cool for 10 minutes. Poke holes in the cakes with the cake tester. Remove the cakes from the pans and set them on a rack set over a tray then spoon the lemon syrup over them. Allow the cakes to cool completely.

Raspberry Buttercream adapted from Martha Stewart Weddings
1 1/2 cups sugar
6 large egg whites, room temperature
1 pound (4 sticks) butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
12 ounces fresh or frozen raspberries, pureed and strained to make 1 cup


Bring a saucepan with about 2 inches of water to a simmer. Combine sugar and whites in a large heatproof mixer bowl set over (not in) simmering water. and Whisk until whites are warm to the touch and sugar is dissolved, 2 to 3 minutes.


Place bowl on mixer stand; whisk on low speed until mixture is foamy. Raise speed to medium-high; whisk until stiff, glossy peaks form and mixture is cooled completely, about 10 minutes.


Reduce speed to medium-low; add butter 2 tablespoons at a time, whisking to incorporate fully well after each addition (if buttercream appears curdled, at this point simply beat until smooth). Whisk in vanilla and raspberry puree.


Switch to paddle; beat on low to reduce air bubbles, 3 to 5 minutes. To store, refrigerate airtight up to 3 days, or freeze up to 1 month. Bring to room temperature; beat on low until smooth about 10 minutes.

Whipped Cream Frosting highly adapted from Homemade by Holman
2 cups heavy cream
powdered sugar (we used about 6 Tbsp)
1 tsp vanilla extract


Chill mixer bowl in the freezer for 5 minutes. Add heavy cream and vanilla and beat (with the whisk attachment) on low speed. Slowly increase to high speed as the cream thickens. Add sugar one tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached.
Frost cake, then decorate!

I Will Be Making These....

Parmesaen Pull Apart Bread

It's like savory Monkey Bread. Yum. Although while I'm at it I should probably make the Monkey Bread, too. Who's up for eating lots of carbs with me? LOL

Starting Fresh

It’s funny, but it’s been exactly two years (give or take a day) since my last blog post. To look back and realize how much has changed in such a relatively short time is crazy. I’ve been contemplating bringing back the blog for a while now, and today seemed like a great day to resurrect it, seeing as it’s Easter and all. Not that I celebrate Easter, but it’s finally Spring, we’ve almost made it through Passover and I’m about to kick off a summer full of racing and I wanted to have a place to document my training.

I’ve got four races lined up so far this summer and I’m hoping to PR at all of them.

• Mountain Goat 10 mile — Old PR: 99 minutes/Goal: under 90 minutes/Actual: 90:50
• Komen CNY Race for the Cure 5k — Old PR: 24 minutes 45 seconds/Goal: 23 minutes/Actual: 22:04 (2nd place in my age group!)
• Athleta Iron Girl Triathlon (600m swim, 18.6mi bike, 5k run) — Old PR: 1 hour, 56 minutes/Goal: 1:45:00
• SkinnyMan Triathlon (800m swim, 14mi bike, 5k run) — Goal: 1:45:00

I’m also thinking about the Boilermaker 15k, but I’ll have to see. Sometime before the end of my gymnastics career, I managed to fracture my back. A doctor (finally!) found it this past February. I’ve gotten the ultimate vote of confidence from this so-called medical professional, “I don’t think you’re doing any more damage.” Well anyone who knows me knows that that’s all I need, so I’m still running.

Right around the time I found out about the fracture, I started running with a coach at the Y, hence all the lofty goals of four PRs in four races. (Though that last one’s a guaranteed PR since I’ve never raced that distance before.) Despite the fracture and a new job, I’ve been running more than ever, which is a good thing because I love to bake, cook and eat :).

Actually, since I just PR'd by over 14 minutes at the NYC Half Marathon in March, I guess it's 5 PRs in 5 races.

Then, people have started telling me I should open a bakery. It’s always been a pipe dream, but they’ve got me thinking about it more lately then ever. Typical, right? Tell a Jewish girl she should start a bakery during Passover. So over the last week, I’ve been thinking about all the recipes people have raved over that I never bothered to save. I’m hoping this becomes a place to document trials, failure and hopefully a few successes along the way. Then if this pipe dream ever becomes a reality I’ll have an archive to look back on. If it doesn’t, hopefully a few people will learn from my mistakes or triumph from my success.

So that’s where I am in my story. Documenting the trials and tribulations out on the road and in the kitchen (and probably in a doctor’s office or two, unfortunately). I don’t know if anyone’s out there reading this or not. But if you are, take a minute to say hi!