DUJOUR MAGAZINE » Letitia

thou shall not covet: wild things

Letitia — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:08:24 +0000

Thou Shall Not Covet is back! And this week…we are totally having a wild moment.

Abbey Lee Kershaw shot for Dazed&Confused

we love: moccasins

Letitia — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:09:36 +0000

Dujour wants to know how your wear the moccasin style?

kitchy weekends: pink cake

Letitia — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 22:37:40 +0000

contributed by guest food blogger Sugar Crawler

Cupcakes are cute, pretty and irresistible. But sometime layers cakes are just equally cute, pretty and irresistible. Sometime a slice of layers cake is more tempting than a cupcake. Sometime layers cake screams birthday louder than a cupcake. Last Thursday was my 22nd birthday and I had a big and tall carrot cake with cream cheese frosting from my favorite bakery. I couldn’t stop adoring the layers inside the cake, they were so gorgeous and…delish.

Looking back to my birthdays in my early life. I always got a pink birthday cake, with clowns or balloons or ballerina or swans or other vintage figurines on top. The years when such things as fondant and edible picture have not exist. I love those years! When cakes were only vanilla, chocolate or lemon. When there was only vanilla buttercream or chocolate glaze. When colors were so soft.

Cake slice always have a special place in my heart, just next to a cupcake. Maybe if baking a layers cake were less messy and exhausting, I’d bake layers cake more often. Too bad, for me, baking a layers cake is always an all-day baking affair with extra buttercream mess here and there and mount of dishes. And that is why I always opted for cupcakes almost every time.
But it has been a long time since I last baked a layers cake, I couldn’t even remember what kind of cake it was. So, I think my birthday will be the right time to bake a festive layers cake, with pink buttercream and sprinkles. With simple vanilla cake and vanilla buttercream. Lets just forget the carrot cake for a while and after all, there is no such thing as ‘too much birthday cake’ right? A birthday girl can always have two or even three birthday cakes right?

So I fought with all the mess that happens every time I bake a layers cake. I used my favorite-favorite-favorite-go-to vanilla cake from magnolia bakery’s recipe and my always go-to vanilla buttercream. The result? Well, it’s a vanilla birthday cake with pink vanilla buttercream. Its special, in its own way.

VANILLA CAKE

recipe courtesy magnolia bakery

1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Grease and lighly flour three 9×2-inch round cake pans, then line the bottoms with waxed paper.

3. In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.

4. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended.

5. Divide the batter among the prepared pans and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

6. Cool the layers in pans for 1 hour. Remove from the pans and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

PINK VANILLA BUTTERCREAM

recipe from Sugar Crawler

“I use vegetable shortening only because butter alone cant stand the heat in my country, it always melts and/or become runny and soupy but you can always use your favorite buttercream recipe”

1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup heavy cream
pink food coloring

1. cream together the vegetable shortening and butter in a large mixing bowl until creamy, add confectioners’ sugar and continue beating until fluffy. add the heavy cream, vanilla extract and pink food coloring (depends on how pink you want it), beating until you reach the desire consistency.

we love: frou frou

Letitia — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:24:47 +0000

Its amazing. Whilst researching the frou frou look, we were inundated with childrenswear. Well that’s just poppytalk. Who says a bit of frou has to be for little girls only! We say embrace your inner mini goddess and let the frou run wild. Knock up the maturity a bit by paring a multi-layered skirt with a tailored menswear inspired jacket. You’ll be the envy of class.

How do you wear your frou frou when no one is looking?

Here, Daisy Lowe pairs her fitted tuxedo blazer with a Louis Vuitton ballerina skirt.

Here, Susie Bubble pairs her Opening Ceremony (Where The Wild Things Are Collab) Ira Skirt with chainmail gloves, opaque black leggings and some serious boots for a badass faux fur warrior princess vibe.

model mondays: joan smalls

Letitia — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:00:47 +0000

The Puerto Rican beauty, with a Queens address has been modeling since 2007 for everyone from Nordstrom to Ports1961. This long legged, golden skin goddess in her suitcase always carries bikini, a pair of black high heels and a pair of comfortable jeans.

then…

now…

kitchy weekends: gingerbread waffles

Letitia — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 01:57:43 +0000

contributed by guest food blogger Becoming Lola

Gingerbread Waffles

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg, separated
3/4 cup buttermilk (may substitute regular milk if necessary)
1/4 cup molasses
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

for serving (optional)
confectioner’s sugar for dusting
whipped cream and cinnamon sticks to garnish
warm maple syrup

Directions:

Preheat waffle iron.

In a large bowl of a stand mixer, combine the first seven ingredients (flour through ground cloves); blend thoroughly. In another stand mixer bowl, mix brown sugar and egg yolk until fluffy; add buttermilk, molasses and butter. Switch bowls and stir wet mixture into the dry ingredients until just combined—do not over mix.

In a small bowl, beat the egg white and cream of tartar using an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Gently fold into the existing batter.

Quickly (and evenly) spoon batter onto a preheated waffle iron. Bake according to manufacturer’s directions, until light golden brown. Sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar if desired, and/or garnish with whipped cream and cinnamon sticks. Serve with warm maple syrup, strawberry yogurt and tea.

kitchy weekends: butterscotch cookies

Letitia — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 23:31:45 +0000

post contributed by guest food blogger SugarCrawler

There are days when all I want is lying in my bed, watching all Grey’s Anatomy episodes, wearing only boxer and baggy over-sized T-shirt, skipping shower and praying that my boyfriend would never see me like that. I call that my comfort day, in my comfort day I only eat comfort food and I wish I would not regret eating the comfort foods.

In my mind, comfort food is something easy, simple and sinful. Talk about chocolate chip cookies we are. I used to get chocolate chip cookies craving every now and then, lucky me, I’m good at chocolate chip cookies baking, I even have my very own recipe that got very good rave from my friends and family. But when you bake too much of chocolate chip cookies, you’ll get bored of the cookies and decided that chocolate chip cookie is no more that appealing.

Although, I was longing for the texture of chocolate chip cookies, how chewy, soft but crunchy at the same time. Longing for the vanilla and brown sugar scent of the cookies, I still haven’t got my chocolate chip cookies craving back. So butterscotch chip cookies it is! So i used butterscotch chips instead of chocolate chips in the cookie dough for non-chocolate chip cookies. It was a very good decision because when im baking the cookies, the kitchen smelled wonderful and the cookie itself is just as wonderful.

For this cookie recipe, I went with the very first cookie recipe I used way back then in my early baking craze. Its just so easy to whipped with very good cookie result. Crunchy on the edge and soft and chewy in the center. this is why I always fancy kid’s cookbooks, yes, the recipe comes from a cookbook for kids.

YOU BET YOUR BUTTERSCOTCH COOKIES

makes 2 dozen

1 stick softened butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 cup butterscotch chips

1.    preheat the oven to 375 F
2.    cream the butter and sugars in a large mixing bowl (I only used spatula to creaming the butter and sugar)
3.    add the egg and vanilla to the creamed butter and sugar. Blend the ingredients well.
4.    Mix the flour, salt and baking soda in the other mixing bowl. Add this dry mixture to the wet mixture. Blend it well. You have cookie dough! Now mix the butterscotch chips into the dough.
5.    Spoon the dough onto the greased cookie sheets to make these drop cookies. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.
6.    Allow the cookies to cool before eating them.