Baklava and Red Velvet Cupcakes

To celebrate my daughter's class play Julius Caesar, I whipped-up some yummy treats topped with Caesar himself! {see below}

If you like Baklava, you can't go wrong with this recipe from allrecipes.com.
It's 5 star rated with over 1,000 reviews. It's so easy, it's a must try!

Ingredients

• 1 (16 ounce) package phyllo dough
• 1 pound chopped nuts
• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup honey

 Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F(175 degrees C). Butter the bottoms and sides of a 9x13 inch pan.
2. Chop nuts and toss with cinnamon. Set aside. Unroll phyllo dough. Cut whole stack in half to fit pan. Cover phyllo with a dampened cloth to keep from drying out as you work. Place two sheets of dough in pan, butter thoroughly. Repeat until you have 8 sheets layered. Sprinkle 2 - 3 tablespoons of nut mixture on top. Top with two sheets of dough, butter, nuts, layering as you go. The top layer should be about 6 - 8 sheets deep.
3. Using a sharp knife cut into diamond or square shapes all the way to the bottom of the pan. You may cut into 4 long rows the make diagonal cuts. Bake for about 50 minutes until baklava is golden and crisp.
4. Make sauce while baklava is baking. Boil sugar and water until sugar is melted. Add vanilla and honey. Simmer for about 20 minutes.
5. Remove baklava from oven and immediately spoon sauce over it. Let cool. Serve in cupcake papers. This freezes well. Leave it uncovered as it gets soggy if it is wrapped up. 

 

RED VELVET CUPCAKES I made these Red Velvet cupcakes with a revised Martha Stewart recipe. 

1. I added a 1/2 cup of coconut oil to replace the vegetable oil, 

2. I used apple cider vinegar instead of white, 

3. I used 1/2 the amount of red food coloring.

 

So, technically it wasn't your typical red- red velvet, but I couldn't bring myself to use all of the red dye {and one of my daughters is sensitive to red dye}. It actually made a really cool swirly purple-ish red color. I'd definitely do it again, everyone love them!

 

 

{homemade cupcake liners & cream cheese frosting}