Dorie's Perfect Party Cake!

I had SO much fun with this month's Daring Baker's Challenge! This month's challenge was hosted by Morven at Food Art and Random Thoughts, and you can find the recipe HERE . The recipe is from Dorie Greenspan's Baking from My Home to Yours.

I was thrilled when I found out this month's challenge was a cake. That's without a doubt one of my favorite things to make. It is a wonderful cake with raspberry preserves and whipped cream between each yummy layer....plus a fresh lemony taste! To top it all off, it includes a divine buttercream icing (made from scratch, of course!).

I got creative with it by dying the shredded coconut green and placing candy eggs on the top. I ended up with an Easter Egg Hunt cake, which I took to our Easter celebration. The thing that made my cake extra special was the golden, candy egg hidden inside the cake. We gave a prize to the person that got the piece with the golden egg...fun, huh?? It was such a big hit, that I think it will become an Easter tradition.

Here are some pics!

Ingredients!

I used "Bonne Maman" fresh raspberry preserves...they were so good!

Here's the golden egg...hidden inside!

Look at those layers!

Close-up of one of the candy eggs...they looked really pretty on the cake.

I added a flag to the top to announce the "egg hunt."

I made two cakes!

A slice of yummy-ness!

This is also my entry for the Easter Cake Bake...check out the blog event HERE!

Honey Mustard Chicken with Almonds

***This was another one of those nights where I had to take stock of what was in the pantry and get creative. This dish turned out to be a new favorite! The flavors all blended wonderfully. I simply whipped up some homemade honey mustard sauce and sprinkled the chicken with sliced almonds.***

Ingredients:

4 Chicken breasts

2-3 tbsp. E.V.O.O.

Salt & freshly ground black pepper

4 tbsp. honey

4 tbsp. dijon mustard

Sliced almonds (I used Italian Parmesan flavored almonds)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Place chicken in an ovenproof dish. Drizzle with E.V.O.O. and season with salt & pepper. Bake for 35 - 45 minutes, or until juices run clear and chicken is cooked through.

Meanwhile, mix together honey, dijon mustard, and a dash more of salt & pepper.

Drizzle cooked chicken with honey mustard mixture. Top with sliced almonds. Serve immediately!

Sun-Dried Tomato & Basil Rice

***This has to be one of the simplest side dishes ever. All I did was cook a batch of white, long-grain rice. Once it was ready, I added a few tablespoons of Amore brand Sun-Dried Tomato paste and stirred it together. I seasoned it with salt & pepper and then topped it off with dried basil...simple as that! It's such a great way to jazz up plain ol' white rice. My mom makes it by adding stewed tomatoes to white rice...another variation that's also very good.***

Oven Baked Tilapia with Lemon

***Wow...it's been over a week since my last post...I apologize! It seems like I've been making several of my tried and true recipes for dinner this past week. I made the Lemon Butter Grouper, Oven Roasted Chicken & Pasta, among a few others. I even made a second batch of the fresh French Baguettes....YUM. I'm also extremely excited about this month's Daring Bakers Challenge. I cannot post anything about it until March 30th, so I guess I'll have to keep quiet until then. I will only say that it was a huge hit on Easter...I can't wait to share it!***

***But, now on to the recipe at-hand....

There's a recipe on the side of the Bisquick box that I've used before called "Oven Baked Chicken." I remembered it being really good, and the other night I was looking for something quick and easy to do with tilapia. I saw this recipe and thought, "Why not?!" I jazzed it up a little bit by adding lemon juice, since I was working with fish. The end result was quite scrumptious! Brad enjoyed it too. You can't beat it for a super simple dinner.***

Ingredients:

4 tilapia fillets

1 Tbsp. butter or margarine

2/3 cup Original Bisquick mix

1 1/2 tsp. paprika

1 tsp. garlic salt

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

1/4 tsp. pepper

2 lemons

Directions:

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Melt butter in an ovenproof baking dish in the oven.

Stir together Bisquick mix, paprika, garlic salt, Italian seasoning and pepper; coat tilapia. Place in heated dish.

Bake approximately 10 minutes, and then carefully flip tilapia. Bake an additional 10-15 minutes, or until fish easily flakes. Drizzle freshly squeezed lemon juice on the top of eash fillet. Serve immediately!

"You Make My Day" Award =)

I was so surprised when I opened up Blogger today and saw that I had been given a "You Make My Day" award! I was so excited. Sarah, thank you so much for seriously making my day today! =)

Please be sure to check out her blog, Sensible Suppers and Decadent Desserts . She's got some amazing recipes, including her Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars ....they look simply divine!

I hope everyone has a great weekend, and thanks for reading my blog! =)