Love Potions – Rasberry Gelato

Getting ready for the warm weather? Our friends at BakeSpace have contributed another luscious recipe for our Love Potions.

Enjoy this creamy rasberry gelato dessert worth serving to your date or sweetheart.

INGREDIENTS

• Servings: 6-8
• Preparation Time: 3 hours
• 12 oz. fresh raspberries
• 2/3 c. sugar (I used half granulated and half vanilla sugar)
• 2 c. whole milk
• 1/2 c. heavy cream
• 1 tsp. fresh lemon or lime juice

DIRECTiONS

1. Process berries, sugar, and whole milk in a food processor or blender until smooth. Pour into a nonreactive bowl.

2. Add in the heavy cream and mix just enough to combine. (Do not whip the cream.) Add in the lemon or lime juice. Cover and refrigerate for at least four hours and up to overnight.

3. Transfer the mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Serve immediately or freeze up to one month.

***Note: You can substitute the following fruits using the above recipe: bananas, peaches, pears, strawberries, blackberries, apricots, Granny Smith apples, and blueberries.

Love Potions – Candy Corn Cookies

For our Love Potions, romantic recipes, we’ve selected this Candy Corn Sugar Cookie recipe from our friends at Bake Space.

To celebrate Halloween, try this simple and easy recipe that is not only delightful to look at, but you’ll have fun nibbling on them with your next online date or at a Halloween costume party.

Ingredients

• Cooking Time: 9-11″
• Preparation Time: 10″
• 18 oz tube refrigerated sugar cookie dough
• 1/2 c flour
• 2 t lemon zest
• 2 t orange zest
• 1/4 t vanilla
• yellow food coloring
• orange food coloring
• 1/2 c white chocolate chips
• organ and yellow sanding sugar

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Beat flour into cookie dough, then divide into three parts.
• Beat lemon zest and yellow food coloring into 1 part; set aside.
• Beat orange zest and orange food coloring into another part; set aside.
• Beat vanilla into remaining plain part.
• Roll each section into a long rope.
• Lay side-by-side on a lightly-floured surface, with the orange in the middle.
• Use a rolling pin to roll (lengthwise), forming one sheet of dough with three stripes – plain, orange, yellow.
• Use a knife or pastry cutter to cut into triangles.
• Bake 9-11″ and let cool for 1″ before transferring to rack to cool completely.
• Microwave chips for about 1″ to melt, then dunk some of the tips or backs into the chocolate and sprinkle with colored sugar.

Love Potions – Chocolate Chunk Cheesecake Cookies

Love Potions - Chocolate Chunk Cheesecake Cookies

My friends at Bakespace.com have been featuring different cookies every day this week.

If you are in the mood to get decadent and don’t mind avoiding counting the calories, here’s one of my favorites.

INGREDIENTS

* 4 Tbsp butter, softened
* 8oz cream cheese, softened
* 1 egg
* 1/4 tsp vanilla
* 1 box yellow butter cake mix
* 1 bag chocolate chunks

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine first five ingredients and stir in chocolate chunks.
2. Drop dough by Tbsp on cookie sheet.
3. Bake for 9-11 minutes at 350 degrees, being careful not to overcook.
4. Raspberries, blueberries also good in place of chocolate chunks.

This Love Potion recipe was contributed by kmmahon2 at BakeSpace.com.

Twiistup 6

I have attended Twiistup several times. Their latest gathering took place at the Universal Hilton Hotel on July 30th and 31st. This group of technology leaders and entrepreneurs meet to showcase new technology companies and incubators. Members of the VC world look at the prospects for investing.

Twiistup Music and Technology Panel

The highlight is always the Twiistup Evening party. Prior to the evening festivities, I attended the Music and Technology panel with rap star and recording artist Chamillionaire, Topspin’s Ian Rogers, and QD3.

Chamillionaire clearly rocked the show and was passionate about using Twitter, giving back to the community, and paying it forward. He gave his Twitter tips to the group and said it was a “must” for anyone who wants to connect with their audience. He added that “Authenticity and passion are keys for success for social networking.” At the time of this writing, he has over 45,000 followers!

Chamillionaire and Julie Spira

The theme for the evening was 60s and many dressed up for the occasion and enjoyed listening to music from that decade while nibbling on cupcakes from Crumbs Bake Shop at the BakeSpace booth. It was a social networking crowd and everyone was enjoying the festivities while tweeting away and watching their tweets on the PeopleBrowsr monitor.

Julie Spira is the author of The Perils of Cyber-Dating: Confessions of a Hopeful Romantic Looking for Love Online. Visit her at www.CyberDatingExpert.com