Simply J Life » Festival of Desserts http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com One man's love for life, food and photography Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:47:30 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Festival of Desserts 2008 http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com/2009/01/festival-of-desserts-2008/ http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com/2009/01/festival-of-desserts-2008/#comments Sat, 10 Jan 2009 11:06:50 +0000 James http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com/?p=110
Festival of Desserts 2008 11

These red velvet cupcakes were an absolute showstopper. They were made by friend, Marvin, for this year’s Festival of Desserts. I am hoping to get the recipe for them and I will post it here. This was the first year that we had guest desserts. I made 10 desserts, ranging from sweet potato pie to cranberry oatmeal cookies and chocolate eggnog rum cake. As always, we had ham and chicken. A great time was had by all.
Additional photos from the Festival of Desserts can be seen here. I am already cooking up ideas for Festival of Desserts 2009. :)

]]> http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com/2009/01/festival-of-desserts-2008/feed/ 0 Dessert Goodness – Part 3 http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com/2007/12/dessert-goodness-part-3/ http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com/2007/12/dessert-goodness-part-3/#comments Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:35:33 +0000 James http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com/?p=116

Dessert Goodness, originally uploaded by in2jazz.

Once again it is that special time of year when wonderful baked goods come from my oven. The 6th Annual Festival of Desserts was quite fun this year as you see from the photos above. I will come back shortly to share recipes.

]]> http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com/2007/12/dessert-goodness-part-3/feed/ 0 Dessert Goodness – Part 2 http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com/2006/01/dessert-goodness-part-2/ http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com/2006/01/dessert-goodness-part-2/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2006 14:46:46 +0000 James http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com/?p=91

Dessert Goodness #2, originally uploaded by in2jazz.

These are photos from the 4th Annual Festival of Desserts and other holiday baking. Over 40 people stopped by for dessert during the course of the evening and I still had leftovers. Everyone had a great time and I am already thinking about this year’s festival. I did learn something important along the way. The “bake cake now and glaze later” approach will have you glazing and frosting cakes all evening.
The desserts included the following:

]]> http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com/2006/01/dessert-goodness-part-2/feed/ 2 Dessert Goodness… http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com/2005/02/dessert-goodness/ http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com/2005/02/dessert-goodness/#comments Fri, 04 Feb 2005 08:31:53 +0000 James http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com/?p=82 .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }
Desert Goodness


Cakes Galore, originally uploaded by in2jazz.

I know you have been waiting and wondering when I would post the photos from last year’s Festival of Desserts. Click on the Cakes Galore link or the photo above to see more desserts. I used Flickr to create the photo album for this baked goodness. In addition scrumptious chicken and ham, we enjoyed the following desserts:

I ran short of time so I was unable to make the cheesecake and red velvet cake. I made the cinnamon rolls a couple weeks after the festival and they were great. Special thanks to CW, JS, & JS for the ham, chicken, and coffee. Also, thanks to everyone who took photos and sent them to me.

]]> http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com/2005/02/dessert-goodness/feed/ 3 The Second Annual Festival of Desserts http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com/2003/12/the-second-annual-festival-of-desserts/ http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com/2003/12/the-second-annual-festival-of-desserts/#comments Mon, 22 Dec 2003 02:03:22 +0000 James http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com/?p=125
Egg Nog Pound Cake

It is that special time of year. Continuing the tradition started last year, I hosted the second annual Festival of Desserts on Friday. As always, I ran out of time and didn’t make all the desserts I wanted to prepare. Here are the desserts that were enjoyed for this year’s festival.

  • Banana Chocolate Walnut Brownies
  • Chocolate Brownies
  • Egg Nog Rum Cake
  • Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
  • Cheesecake
  • Lunchroom Butter Cookies
  • McNannygocious Pound Cake
  • Egg Nog Pound Cake
  • Red Velvet Cake
  • Banana Nut Bread
  • 7 Up Cake

Special Guest Desserts

  • Lemon Squares
  • Sweet Potato Pie

Special thanks to Joey for the lemon squares, David for the sweet potato pies, and JS & AF for the chicken. Another big hit of the party was the hot apple cider with the mulling spices from Williams-Sonoma. A good time was had by all. I must apologize for not taking more dessert photos.

]]> http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com/2003/12/the-second-annual-festival-of-desserts/feed/ 12 Holiday Baking http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com/2003/12/holiday-baking/ http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com/2003/12/holiday-baking/#comments Fri, 05 Dec 2003 08:27:25 +0000 James http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com/?p=126
7-Up Cake-sm.jpg

7 Up Seven Cake
3 sticks of butter
3 cups of sugar
6 eggs
3 cups of cake flour
3 tsps of lemon extract
3/4 cup of 7-Up

Preheat the oven to 325. Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl until well mixed. Add the eggs, flour, lemon extract and 7-Up; mix well. Spoon mixture into a 10-inch tube pan coated with cooking spray. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until cake tests done when a wooden toothpick is inserted and comes out clean.

Lemon Glaze

juice of one squeezed lemon
powdered sugar
Add powdered until you have the desired consistency then spread onto warm cake.

Recipe taken from “The Church Ladies’ Divine Desserts” by Brenda Rhodes Miller.
Another great cookbook is Joyce White’s “Brown Sugar: Soul Food Desserts from Family and Friends.” It is filled with holiday baking treasures.

I am very proud to present My Baking Portfolio which displays some of the tasty treasures that I have made over the past year. Don’t worry, I will continue writing about the music that we have all come to love but I also notice that occassionally people search the site for recipes so I decided to do this feature. I will eventually create a separate blog for baking, maybe. Here are some other holiday favorite for your enjoyment.

McNannygocious Pound Cake
Lunchroom Butter Cookies
Hershey’s Best Brownies/Banana Chocolate Walnut Brownies
Cranberry Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Pecan Tarts
Egg Nog Rum Cake
Sweet Potato Pound Cake
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Red Velvet Cake

]]> http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com/2003/12/holiday-baking/feed/ 8 The First Annual Festival of Desserts http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com/2002/12/the-first-annual-festival-of-desserts/ http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com/2002/12/the-first-annual-festival-of-desserts/#comments Thu, 26 Dec 2002 08:27:01 +0000 James http://www.simplyjlife.j-notes.com/?p=134 The Ultimate Dessert Tray
Every now and then, you come up with a really cool idea but do not realize how big it will be until you do it. I recently hosted the 1st Annual “Festival of Desserts” and it was quite well received. Besides collecting music, I enjoy baking. I am often listening to good music while baking. For the festival, I made 11 different desserts including egg nog rum cake, sweet potato pound cake, McNannygocious pound cake, red velvet cake, oatmeal raisin cookies, and butter cookies. Even though many goody bags were taken home, I had enough leftovers to make two trays for a holiday party the next day. I wanted to make a three layer yellow cake with chocolate frosting but that would have been overkill. When I told my mom I was doing this, she said “you are having some food, right?” Thanks to js and af for bringing the great chicken and also the mashed potatoes and gravy that hardened as the night went on. I had a great time and may do this again next year but maybe not as many desserts. We will also have hot apple cider next year since I got some mulling spices from Williams-Sonoma for Christmas. I have included a few pictures from the festival to tempt your taste buds…enjoy!!!
P.S. More recipes to follow….
Hershey’s Best Brownies/Banana Chocolate Walnut Brownies
Cranberry Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Pecan Tarts
Egg Nog Rum CakeSweet Potato Pound CakeOatmeal Raisin CookiesRed Velvet Cake

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