Salt City Bakery

Hard Apple Cider Snickerdoodles

2011-12-12T22:56:00.000-07:00

Hard Apple Cider Snickerdoodles

It's kind of funny how these cookies came about. I couldn't decide between an apple pie cookie or a snickerdoodle for the last recipe. Then just randomly I saw that the food network did an apple cider snickerdoodle, so the idea came from there. I changed it up by adding some of my favorite hard cider, Samuel Smith's organic hard cider. The liquor cooks out, but if you wanted to make these with just regular apple cider you totally could do that instead!
This cookie would be very good with an apple cider glaze too.

1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1 stick, unsalted butter at room temp
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons hard apple cider (I used Samuel Smith's organic hard cider--you may also use regular apple cider instead)
1 tsp REAL maple syrup
1 egg
1 apple*, cored, peeled and shredded (using a food processor or cheese grater--I would use an apple with a more sturdy base... don't use a soft apple like a pink lady, etc. A granny smith or gala would do well)

*You must use a real apple for these cookies. I made the mistake using dried apples and when baked inside these cookies, they stay kind of hard. So trust me, use real apples!!

topping:
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1 tsp apple powder*

oven @ 375 (or 350 if your oven runs hot, like mine does)

- combine butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until fluffy
- add the egg, maple syrup, and hard cider. Mixture will look somewhat curdled--this is OK.
- in a separate bowl combine all of the dry ingredients, then add to the butter mixture and mix until well incorporated.
- add the shredded apple

line cookie sheets with parchment paper, then make the topping:

- combine all ingredients in a bowl
*note: to make apple powder you will need freeze dried apples. I use the organic Just Tomatoes Brand. Puree the apples in a food processor until no large chunks remain. Then sift through a fine mesh sifter until you get about 1 tsp of powder. You may also add a few chunks into the topping if you're feeling crazy!

Take a tablespoon size of dough and roll into a ball, then roll around in the topping until fully covered. Place about 2-3" apart on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper, and lightly flatten with the palm of your hand. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

This seems to be happening a lot lately, but these cookies tasted much better the following day. Something magical must be happening during the night, maybe some little elves are coming and sprinkling magical dust on them... or more likely it's probably just that the ingredients have time to meld together. But either way, these are better the next day!

Chocolate sandwich cookies

2011-12-11T14:56:00.000-07:00

So, I wanted to make some sort of chocolate sandwich cookie... kind of a mix between a homemade Oreo and a whoopie pie. But I didn't want the chocolate cookie to be really hard, or too cake-like. I wanted just a normal cookie; crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle.
I also didn't want this to be just your basic chocolate cookie with vanilla filling. That has been done over and over!
I decided to add a bunch of coconut to the cream filling along with some almond extract which kind of started to remind me of an almond joy, minus the big pieces of almond. I also went just a bit further and added some cream cheese into the frosting, just because I seem to be on a cream cheese kick lately and it sounded good!

I have to be honest with you guys. I was not all that excited about these when they were freshly put together. All I could really taste was chocolate cookie. The flavors didn't have time to come together. But, oh man, after sitting in the fridge overnight... they were almost exactly as I had imagined.

I think the only thing that I will change next time I make these is to toast the coconut before adding it to the frosting. Also I would add more frosting in the middle and roll the cookie in some toasted coconut so it would stick to the frosting bulging out of the sides.
Feel free to do these steps when you make this cookie, if you so desire. Don't get me wrong these cookies were quite delightful with out all this added hoopla too. Your choice my friends!

Also, in case you were wondering... this is recipe is super duper easy!

Chocolate coconut & almond cream sandwich cookie recipe:

1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup dutch process cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup of sugar (I felt like the dough was a little grainy with sugar... if I were to do these again I would only add 3/4 cup of sugar-just a personal preference though)
1 egg*
1 stick, plus 2 tablespoons of room temperature unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 350

- In the bowl of a food processor add combine the flour, cocoa, soda, baking powder, salt & sugar. Pulse until just combined.
- Add the butter and pulse until combined, then add the egg and pulse until dough comes together in a mass.

note: depending on the humidity, you may need to add an extra egg if your dough seems dry, just pick some dough out if it comes together when you squeeze your fingers together, then you're good with 1 egg... if it's crumbly and doesn't stick, add another egg.

- scoop out dough with a tablespoon, roll together and place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper about 2" apart, then with the palm of your hand flatten the dough slightly.

another note: once baked the tablespoon size of dough ball made giant sized cookies, about 3" and I was hoping for a bit smaller cookies. So you may want to take smaller amounts of dough, more like a half of a tablespoon or so. Unless of course, you want giant sandwich cookies!

- bake cookies for about 10 minutes. Place on cookie racks and cool completely before adding the filling.

While cookies are cooling make filling:

1 1/2 sticks butter, room temp
4 oz cream cheese, room temp
2 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup coconut
5-10 tablespoons of powdered sugar

- combine butter and cream cheese in stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until creamy and all the lumps are gone. Check out these more detailed instructions, on how to make a killer frosting.
- add the powdered sugar 1 tablespoon at a time until you reached your desired sweetness.
- add the coconut and almond extract, and mix until well incorporated.

Spread frosting over half of the cookies and put together with un-frosted cookies. Then if you can handle it, store in a airtight container overnight in the fridge before eating. I promise you, they will taste better!

There you have it, a coconut almond cream chocolate sandwich cookie!

S'more cookies

2011-12-10T16:18:00.000-07:00

This recipe was adapted from My Baking Addiction

2 sticks softened butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup cane sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
3 full graham crackers (go here for perfectly yummy homemade graham crackers)
about 1/2 cup mini marshmallows
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

- smash graham crackers either in a food processor or with a wooden spoon in a bag, set aside any large chunks for placing on top of your cookies
- combine smashed graham crackers, flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon in a bowl and set aside
- cream butter in the bowl of a stand mixer
- add the sugars until combined and fluffy
- add the eggs 1 at a time, then add in the vanilla
- add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture and mix until incorporated
- add the chocolate chips, and marshmallows (set a few marshmallows aside to add to the top of each cookie, if desired)

Scoop out dough with a tablespoon and set on baking sheet lined with parchment paper about 2" apart. Place extra chunks of graham crackers & chocolate chips on tops of cookie balls
Place cookie sheets in freezer for about 10 minutes, then bake at 325 for about 8 minutes, then open oven and place a few marshmallows on top of each cookie, bake for a few more minutes or until golden brown.

Eggnog Cookies

2011-12-09T16:12:00.000-07:00

I had a dream about these cookies before I made them. I had seen recipes for eggnog cookies before but all the pictures I saw the cookies were flat, and thin and they looked crispy. I really wanted a puffy and light, cake-like cookie. Thankfully, these cookies turned out exactly as I wanted!

2 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbs ground nutmeg
1 stick unsalted butter softened
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup pure cane sugar
2 tsp whiskey (I used Pendelton-this is also optional, you may use vanilla extract instead)
2 eggs
1/2 cup eggnog

eggnog glaze (optional)
1/4 cup eggnog
about 5-10 tablespoons of powdered sugar (amount depends on thickness desired)
1 tsp whiskey *optional

- cream butter, and both sugars in stand mixer until fluffy
- add eggs and whiskey and mix until well incorporated
- In a separate bowl combine the flour, soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
- alternate adding flour and eggnog to butter mixture starting and ending with the flour
- mix until incorporated
- scoop out a tablespoon size onto parchment lined cookie sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes at 350

eggnog glaze
whisk together the eggnog, whiskey (if using) and sugar until you get a thick, but spreadable glaze. drizzle over cookies, & top with freshly grated nutmeg

Cinnamon Honey Graham Cookies

2011-12-08T17:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, these technically say "cracker" in the name, but they are totally cookies!

Graham Cracker cookie recipe:

2 1/4 cup flour

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

7 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into cubes and very cold

1/3 cup honey

1 tablespoon of molasses

5 tablespoons of whole milk (or cream works too)

1 tsp vanilla

For topping:

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

- Combine the flour, sugar, soda, salt & cinnamon in the bowl of a food processor. Or you can whisk together in a a bowl.

- Next add the butter and mix until you have coarse meal. If using a food processor use the pulse method until you have the desired consistency. If mixing in a bowl, mix with a fork or cut the butter in with a pastry tool.

- in a separate bowl mix together the honey, molasses, milk and vanilla. Then add to the flour mixture and mix until the dough barely comes together.

- dump dough out onto lightly floured piece of plastic wrap and pat into a flat square, cover and refrigerate for 2 hours and up to overnight.

- remove from fridge and roll out dough about 1/4" thick, cut into squares using a pizza cutter, or cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters.

-place onto parchment lined baking sheets, and sprinkle topping on top of each cookie, then stab each cookie with a fork making about 3-4 rows of holes. Then bake in a 325 degree oven for about 7-10 minutes or until slightly golden around the edges.

Enjoy y'all!

Chocolate walnut cookie bars

2011-12-07T17:44:00.000-07:00

Chocolate Walnut cookie bars, recipe:

2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter
3/4 cup cane sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup chocolate chips or chunks
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350, grease baking pan (any size will do)

- combine flour, soda, salt & cinnamon
- cream together the sugars and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment
- add the eggs & vanilla
- add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix to combine

Once dough is combined, add the chocolate & walnuts and mix until incorporated

Dump dough into greased baking pan, and spread out evenly. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden around the edges. Let cool in pan then cut into squares & serve warm!

Everything but the kitchen sink

2011-12-06T12:35:00.001-07:00

I've been wanting to make cookies like this for awhile. They're like a granola bar, only better because they're a cookie!

I really put a lot of different things in these cookies, feel free to change it up how ever you'd like though. I'm pretty sure I'll never make them the same way twice!

This recipe is really easy, I told you that I was going to keep it simple this year.

Everything but the kitchen sink, cookie recipe:

1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp espresso powder
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup granulated cane sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs
1 tsp almond extract

2 cups rolled oats
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup almonds
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup M & M candies
1/2 cup dried fruit of your choice. I used cranberries, blueberries & pomegranate seeds (about 1/4 cup of each)

Preheat oven to 350 and line cookie sheets with parchment paper

- Cream the butter in a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachement, with the sugars

- Add in the eggs and almond extract

- In a separate bowl combine the flour, soda, salt, espresso, nutmeg and cinnamon. Then add to the butter mixture until just incorporated.

- Add in everything else (oats, coconut, sunflower seeds, almonds, chocolate chips, M & M candies and dried fruit) or whatever you feel like adding.

- Scoop out with cookie scoop and place on parchment lined baking sheets about 1" apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until slightly browned around the edges.

- Then stuff your face, because apparently that's what you do when you eat these cookies, because they are "like crack" and most of my co-workers couldn't stop eating them!

Carrot Cake Cookies

2011-12-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

When telling one of my work buddies about my 10 days of cookies, she suggested I make carrot cake sandwich cookies. After hearing her description of these, and being a big fan of carrot cake myself I instantly went on a quest to find the perfect recipe. I ended up taking bits and pieces from a few different recipes and making my own version.

When I made these cookies, I of course had to take them to work and have my co-worker buddy test them out... I had to make sure they were up to par, you know! Luckily for me, she loved them. Yay!
One of my other co-workers called these cookies a "carrot cake ball of deliciousness". I thought it was funny, and I like that name much better than "carrot cake cookies".... it's way more fun!

So I'm changing it!

Recipe for: "Carrot Cake Ball of Deliciousness"

You can make these several ways: As a plain ole' cookie. Or a cookie with yummy frosting on top... or you can make a sandwich cookie (i.e "ball of deliciousness") Of course I tried all three, just for fun!

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cream cheese softened
1 tbs molasses
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cup flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2-3 cups grated carrots (depending on how carrot-y you like them, I added 3 cups)
1 cup chopped walnuts (or nut of your choice-this is also optional)

- Melt butter, and set aside to cool
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the eggs & sugars until fluffy
- add the cream cheese, vanilla, molasses and melted butter to the egg mixer and mix on low until combined
- in a separate bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients (flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, soda, powder & salt)
- add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just combined. Add the carrots and nuts (if using) and mix until just combined.

Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes or up to a few days. I made my dough about 3 days before I actually baked it!

Remove dough from fridge and let come to room temp, about 10 minutes or so. Using a cookie scoop (i.e small ice cream scoop) place dough balls about 1-2 inches apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake for about 12-15 minutes in an oven pre-heated to 325 until golden around the edges.

Now, if you want to go the frosting route here is my very own super special recipe for maple cinnamon cream cheese frosting that I use on my carrot cake. Man you guys are super duper lucky for getting this recipe. Seriously! This has been a secret until now. And it's no so much about all of the ingredients that go into it, but it's about the process that makes this frosting so good. This is one of the best frosting's we make! At least I think so!

Maple cinnamon cream cheese frosting:

2 8oz packages cream cheese, softened
3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
about 3 tbs REAL maple syrup (you have to use the real stuff for this guys, no corn syrup crap!)
3-5 tsp ground cinnamon (the amount depends on how cinnamon-y you want it)
15 to 20 tbs powdered sugar* (approximately 1 cup)

Note: This first step is crucial! If you don't get it right, you'll have lumps of cream cheese and butter in your frosting, and nobody wants that! You also must make sure that your butter and cream cheese is SOFT. Like seriously soft... leave it out on your counter for a few hours (depending on the temperature of your kitchen-you may need to leave it out longer), or if you don't have time for that you can nuke-it in the microwave for a few seconds until it's soft. But be careful NOT to melt the butter you guys... you want soft spreadable butter, not melted! Got it? OK, now you're ready!

- mix the butter in a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment on medium for about 2 minutes, then mix on high for a few more minutes or until no lumps remain and mixture is light, fluffy and creamy. Note: mixing time can vary... so just mix until you get that light fluffy texture and no lumps remain.
-then, add the cream cheese and do the same thing... mix until there are no lumps and the butter and cream cheese are well combined, light and fluffy.

Note: during this creaming of the butter and cream cheese you may need to scrape the sides of the bowl several times to make sure everything is getting incorporated. Remember you don't want any lumps!

- now that you've got a fluffy, creamy mixture of butter and cream cheese with no lumps (yay), add the maple syrup and whip until incorporated. You can taste the frosting at this point and determine if you want more maple syrup (honestly, I usually add a bit more-but I always go by taste when making my frosting and never by measurements).

- add the cinnamon

- then add the powdered sugar 1 tablespoon at a time, do not add it all at once. By adding it 1 tablespoon at a time you are allowing the sugar to be well incorporated and also by doing this I find that you always end up using less sugar.
I have seen recipes where people are adding up to 4 cups of sugar... and I really hate frosting that is super duper sweet. And this frosting is not! It is, what I think, just sweet enough. You don't want a nasty overly sweet frosting that overpowers your cookies (or cakes or whatever) What's the point in even having the cookies if you're going to do that? You might as well just make the frosting and eat it by spoon fulls. Seriously. I hate really sweet frosting.

Anyway, as I said earlier, I always go by taste rather than measurement so add a few tablespoons then taste... add a few more, and taste again. Do this until you get the desired sweetness. I rarely add more than 20 tablespoons. Also with this frosting you must remember that you're adding maple syrup as well. This will add a bit of sweetness too.

So there you have it, my special (no longer secret) maple cinnamon cream cheese frosting.

Ball of deliciousness

Plain old cookie

Frosting on top

C Cookies

2011-12-04T11:00:00.000-07:00

What are "C" cookies you ask? They're a little concoction I came up with after having a delightful molten lava cake with caramel and cashews. It was so delicious it inspired me to create these cookies!

This is a Salt City Bakery original recipe... so I hope y'all feel special that I'm sharing this one with you!

Chewy & Crunchy Chocolate Caramel Cashew Cookies
See all the C's in that name? That's why I called them "C" cookies... because it's so much easier than saying "chewy and crunchy chocolate caramel cashew cookies". Betcha can't say that 10 times fast! Yeah, neither could I.

3/4 cup melted butter, cooled
1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup dark dutch process cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup packed brown sugar (dark or light-either works)
1/2 cup cane sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup crushed cashews
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped up salted caramel bits*

- mix butter, sugars, egg, egg yolk and vanilla in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until fluffy

- whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda & salt

- add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just combined

- add in the cashews, caramel & chocolate chips and mix until well incorporated

- scoop out desired amount (depending on how big, or small you want your cookies) onto parchment lined baking sheets. Then place baking sheets in freezer for 10 minutes, meanwhile preheat oven to 350.

- remove cookie sheets from freezer and bake for 12-15 minutes

*The caramel I used in these cookies was a delightful Fleur de Sel (salted caramel) from a sweet little shop called Have it Confections, and is hands down THE. BEST. CARAMEL I have ever had. This caramel is seriously SO good, you guys, I wouldn't lie!
The shop owners really know what they're doing, and you can tell they really love what they do. It certainly shows in their goodies, no only by the way they taste and all of the fine ingredients they use, but even in the way they package their goodies and their customer service! Phenomenal! So I couldn't resist using it in my cookies.

The shop is on Etsy, as you know (only a minor obsession of mine!) Go order your a bunch of bars just to eat, or even use in these cookies! Also when checking out their shop you MUST try their cloud 9 caramel, and their French hazelnut nougat. I seriously dream about this stuff! They also have really good homemade marshmallows... and that's saying a lot coming from me, because I hate marshmallows. I saw their hazelnut swirl marshmallows and couldn't resist, especially knowing how good all of their other sweets are, I knew their marshmallows would be divine, and they are!

Cranberry Pistachio Shortbread

2011-12-03T09:47:00.000-07:00

If you've ever been to Trader Joe's and gotten their pistachio's you know, that they're some of the best pistachio's out there. At least I think so anyway. Unfortunately I live in Utah, and do not have access to a Trader Joe's, luckily my friend has family in Vegas and has to go down there a lot. I always make her bring me home at least a few bags to last me until the next time she goes, but they never do... because they're so damn good I can go through an entire bag in one sitting, by myself!
Anyway, what I'm trying to get at, is that I used Trader Joe's pistachio's in these cookies and not only was their green color beautiful but they were also the perfect combination with dried cranberries.

Cranberry Pistachio Shortbread Cookies

3 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup granulated cane sugar
3 cups unbleached all purpose or pastry flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup roasted shelled pistachios

Preheat oven to 350

- cream butter in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment
- add sugar and vanilla to butter
- in a separate bowl combine the flour and salt
- add flour mixture to butter mixture
- add in cranberries and pistachios and mix on low until incorporated

Dump the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and combine with your hands until everything is incorporated and you have a big dough ball. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Remove from fridge and roll out 1/4 inch thick, cut out cookies using whatever cookie cutter shape you prefer and place on parchment lined (for cleanliness sake) cookie sheets.

These cookies make a beautiful and yummy gift for the holidays, just wrap them in a cellophan bag and tie with a red, green or even gold ribbon!

Second annual 10 Days of Cookies

2011-12-01T11:02:00.001-07:00

Happy December everyone!

I hope you are all getting excited for this year’s 10 Days of Cookies!

I've been busy in the Salt City Bakery "test" kitchen these last few weeks trying out recipes, making up my own, taking lots of pictures and of course eating lots and lots of cookies (I've gotta test them out and make sure they taste good, right?)!
I had a lot of different ideas for this year’s 10 cookie recipes, but ultimately decided to go with some simple, traditional recipes. Some of them are my very own recipes (yay) and some are traditional classics adapted from other blogger recipes and cookbooks.
I am very excited about sharing these all with you, and hope you're just as excited to try them all out!
For those of you that are new to the 10 Days of cookies, this is my second year! Each day I post a cookie recipe and some fun pictures. And yes every single recipe, whether my own or adapted, I actually make and test them all out for you guys!

It starts every year on December 3rd, and lasts for.. yep you guessed it... 10 days.
See you guys on the 3rd!

Pumpkin cake, round two

2011-10-31T20:38:00.000-06:00

Happy jack o'lantern cake.

Pumpkin & chocolate cakes layered with cinnamon cream cheese frosting, covered in fondant and topped with a fondant stem.

Have a happy and safe halloween everyone!

Wedding, plus 2 year anniversary!

2011-09-29T13:56:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago I did a dessert bar for a black, white & red themed wedding. The bride and groom, who also happened to be my Uncle and future Aunt were very easy going and just wanted everything to be simple looking and to taste good!

So we went with about 75 black and white cookies, about 25 cinnamon french macarons colored red, and a few chocolate cinnamon french macarons. For the cake they wanted to kind of stick with the fall theme there as far as flavors go so we did a 3 tiered round cake with the flavors as pumpkin cake with cinnamon swiss butter cream for the top and bottom tiers and the middle tier was a chocolate cake with hazelnut butter cream! I made the hazelnut butter cream from scratch, as in I didn't use hazelnut flavoring... I used real hazelnuts that I roasted then ground into a hazelnut butter and mixed that with real butter and sugar. It was to die for!

I made red gum paste flowers with black centers for the cake and then filled 3 glass candy jars/vases with black, red and white bubble gum.

I love how beautiful and simple french macarons look!

These flower decorations were handmade by the bride!

I used red accents on the back of the cake, just to tie everything in.

Here is a lovely picture of the bride and groom! I love her dress, it was gorgeous! And up close, the detailing of the black and white lace was amazing!

Today is also the 2nd anniversary of starting my blog. It's crazy--I can't believe it has been two years already. 2 YEARS! That seems like such a long time and I can't wait to see what happens in another two years! Maybe I'll go from having 10 followers to 20... yeah, all kidding aside though it's not about the number of followers I have, it's about the experience and the journey along the way. I have loved every minute of writing this blog and all of the experiences I've had a long the way!

Thank you everyone for all of your support, it really means a lot to me! Cheers to another 2 years (and hopefully more!)

The Next Great Baker

2011-09-01T17:02:00.001-06:00

--Let me just warn you all now, this is going to be a doozy, I'm sorry...there aren't even any pictures. Shame on me! So grab a beverage, maybe a light snack, and nestle into your chairs snug as a bug for some serious reading--

All set? Okay!

As some of you may know, I tried out for TLC's The Next Great Baker, season 2... You know, that cake baking/decorating competition show on TV with the Cake Boss? If you don't know what either of those are you're either a hermit, in which case you're definitely NOT reading this blog or (more likely) you don't have cable... Um, if you're into cake, AT ALL... I suggest fixing the latter!

Once the casting was open I excitedly went online, downloaded their 100 page (by 100 I mean 5, it felt like 100 though!) application and answered the many difficult questions, which took me about a week to fill out.
I finally sent it in and, to be honest didn't expect to hear back. I mean, thousands... literally THOUSANDS of people apply and really... what were the chances, right?

Um, yeah WELL..... I was wrong! About 2 days after I sent in my application, I received an email asking me for a video, I got all of these crazy instructions and only had about 48 hrs to do the video and submit it. Yikes!

Now normally, doing something like this, I'd employ my wonderful photographer boyfriend to help me shoot, etc. Yes, well unfortunately he was out of town in Mexico working/vacationing without me. Booo.
So I enlisted the help of my wonderful mother and her friend Roxanne; who were both incredibly sweet, and kind to take hours, literally hours out of their day to help me shoot and were very patient with me when I constantly wanted to re-shoot stuff. Thanks guys!

Now, for some bizarre reason I was incredibly nervous to record the video... I mean, it's just a video... of me... talking... about me... which I really don't like doing... and I'd have to watch it.... and critique it before sending it in... and I hate watching myself on camera... it makes me nervous.... wait, whose idea was it to try out for a TV show again?

So needless to say some booze was in order to help calm my nerves. It worked, except that I forgot to eat dinner, and then I ended up drinking the whole bottle of wine... which is very unusual for me, I'm a "light-weight" if you will. Lets just say... it was a rough night.

The second day of filming went smoothly and there was no liquor involved either, which was a plus, I did however have to film myself. So I decided to "spice" things up a bit and did some filming in the banana costume... just to help with the nerves again. Wait. What's that you say? The what what? Oh Yes, B A N A N A... as in fruit.

----
Let me explain: in 2008 I went on a mountain biking trip to Oregon, we brought the banana, we rode trails in our biking gear wearing the banana, my photographer boyfriend took pictures of us riding our bikes wearing the banana, when we got home he submitted said pictures to Bike, Magazine, one of those pictures was printed in the March 2010 Annual Trails Issue; on page 36 of that issue you'll find me cruising down a trail, wearing the banana, it's "tail-end" blowing gracefully in the wind... ever since the banana goes wherever we go, the banana gets it's picture taken a lot. And thus, the story of the banana unfolds. PS, you can find said pictures and others of the banana and possibly a whoopie cushion.... on the photographer boyfriend's website.
----

So I finished filming, watched all the video's, the photographer boyfriend came home, we watched them together, I had a mini-freak out because I couldn't stand watching myself and having him watch them at the same time (I'm my worse critic) he assured me they were "great" then I calmed down and away they went into the Internet abyss... i.e. YouTube... yeah don't bother looking for them, they're private-sorry. (I can't have all of you out there trying to copy my sweet moves in the banana now can I?)

Again, once I sent the video I assumed nothing would come of it.

Um... wrong again!

I get another email, saying they like the video and my personality (they like me... they really like me--perhaps the banana also had something to do with it?!?!) and that I was in consideration to be a semi-finalist. A SEMI-FINALIST.... WHAT? Are you kidding me? Is this bizarre-o world? This kind of thing doesn't happen to me. EVER.

From there I can't give out too many details, I've been sworn to secrecy by the TLC baking Gods... but what I can say is that YES I was ultimately picked as a semi-finalist along with about 25-30 other people (shut-up) and YES I flew to Jersey to audition in person: which was a crazy whirl-wind experience I was in and out of there in 24 hours!

I can also tell you that I met Frankie, and he was super duper cool! He showed me how to make a butter cream rose.

(yes, I know... I don't know how to make a butter cream rose, blah, blah, blah--you all know that I don't have any "technical" experience, I've never attended culinary school, (except to eat yummy treats at CIA) and I've never even worked in a bakery, (gasp!) everything I've ever done has been because I either was curious how it was done, and WANTED to learn it, or... someone requested something like this and I HAD to figure it out)

Literally ALL of the other people I met during the process were very cool, and super nice too! It was one of the more fun and nerve-wracking, experiences of my life. I loved every minute of it... even the parts where I was nearly puking because of my nerves!

SO.... are you wondering if I got chosen???... huh, huh are you?????

Sorry. No, I did not. But being one of the 30 other people that DID get chosen as a semi-finalist.... out of thousands of people.... that right there, makes me feel pretty damn good!! It's bloody amazing to me that they liked me, and my work (and banana) enough to want to meet me in person. It's so cool! For that, I am grateful!

I've been pondering why they didn't end up choosing me and I think I've figured out why: I lack basic experience, I mean come on... I didn't even know how to make a damn butter cream rose!

There are a lot of baking basics that I just don't know.

I know I still have a lot to learn; I mean I still consider myself a beginner. But I was excited about the chance to learn while being on the show, plus the winner gets to work at Carlos Bakery and I knew if I could make it that far that I would have a real chance at learning something from someone in the business.

I knew applying was a huge gamble, I mean can you imagine if I did make it on the show and was up against people that have graduated from culinary school, and own their own cake shops? That thought was super scary to me, but I applied because I was so confident that I could learn things during the process and that I would do well at it too... and that's why I tried out for the show.

During my video and in-person interviews I expressed very strongly that I was aware I would be the ultimate underdog, and realized a lot of stuff I'd have to learn on the fly. But I knew that would be okay, because learning while doing is something I am really good at.

Show me something once, and I'll be able to re-create it...
For example: when I told Frankie that I didn't know how to make a butter cream rose he was shocked, but once he took the time to show me (which I am so appreciative of!) how to do it and I made one he said to me afterwards that it was really good... better than some of the other people (and some of those people had attended culinary school!) he was shocked that I had never made one before... I'm not sure he even believed me!

So I think what TLC was really looking for were people that had graduated culinary school or at least worked in the business... and me, well I'm just a beginner. Do I feel like they made a mistake in not choosing me? Well, duh of course I do! But I'm not going to let it get me down!

That's my two cents anyway... and maybe I'm way off and that's not it at all. Either way... It gives me motivation to try that much harder next year, it gives me something more to want.

So I have a plan on how to improve my skills:

I have all of these awesome baking books some are actual text books used at The Culinary Institute of America that I have gotten over the years that, honestly, don't get that much use. I use a recipe here or there and that's about it. It's really lame of me actually, especially since these books aren't just recipe books they are filled with useful knowledge that I should be filling my brain with!

Duh! What is wrong with me?

So what is this plan, you say? The plan: to take the next year and teach myself by reading these books, front to back. I will try out every technique and recipe in them. Yes, every. single. one.

Since I can't afford to go to the culinary school that I would LOVE to go to this is the only other option. I know what you're thinking, "why don't you get a job at a bakery?" Well.... I did that actually, I worked at a cake shop for a little bit. Lets just say that it... um... didn't work out because of.... personal differences. Yeah.

So I'm going to read. I'm going to bake. I'm going to try making things like caramel that scare the crap out of me, and I'm going to conquer them. Oh, and, I'm going to blog about the whole damn experience, the successes and the failures... you didn't think I'd leave you out of all the fun now did you? No, I would never.

So wish me luck, or whatever. Now I'm off to learn!

Autumn Favorites

2011-09-01T16:34:00.001-06:00

I've been working hard these last few weeks dreaming up and creating some (what I hope will be) awesome macaron flavors for autumn. They better be awesome anyway, as autumn is hands down my favorite time of year I love everything about it! The air, the colors, the food... oh, the food!
Really if it could always be a crisp 60-65 degrees outside... just cool enough to wear a jacket everyday... and the leaves were always those beautiful warm reds, golds, and oranges, and I could eat squash, sweet potatoes, stuffing and turkey all year long... yeah that would be alright with me!

To give you a sneak peek of some of my autumn favorites I have a teaser macaron for you:

The s'more.

Some of you might disagree with me about the s'more being an "autumn flavor" some might say it's more of a summer-by-the-campfire dealy. Well for me, we camped a lot when I was a kid late in the summer and into fall... and I always remember having s'mores when it was that crisp 60 degrees out and the leaves were changing. So for me s'mores say autumn.

I know what you're thinking "a macaron and a s'more that's like an oxymoron... it's like mixing champagne and beer--is she crazy?" well yes, I might just be... crazy genius! I swear, the s'more macaron might just be one of my all-time favorite flavors. The graham cracker shell mixed with the dark chocolate and a warm toasty marshmallow... um yes... yes please!

Stay tuned for some new fall flavors coming soon... some of them might surprise you!

Neon stars & hearts birthday cake

2011-08-22T11:45:00.000-06:00

Neon pink, purple & black 80's-ish star & heart birthday cake!

Neon pink star & heart cupcakes!

Summer Time Macarons

2011-08-01T22:10:00.001-06:00

A few weeks back I was contacted by Danni at oh, hello friend, she and her friend Ruby from mycakies were hosting a photography workshop, snap it pretty in California and were in need of some goodies. Danni & Ruby's blogs are so adorable and PRETTY, and their pictures are just as amazing. I love their obsessions with vintage & pretty things!

I had been wanting to try a handful of new flavors ideas, so I figured this was the perfect time.

I started with some double-dutch mocha latte macarons, yum!

Then I decided, since it was a summer workshop and was going to be outside, these ladies were going to need some summer-time flavors.

Double Raspberry anyone?

Raspberry macaron shells with a fresh raspberry butter cream!

Or, how about a raspberry lemonade?

Sweet raspberry macaron shells & a refreshing lemon butter cream!

Oh, wait... what about raspberry & vanilla bean?

Simple, yet so delicious!

Or there's always the raspberry & dark chocolate! Perfect for the chocolate lover in you!

Are you sensing a raspberry theme? Yeah, I know... raspberries are in season, so I went a little overboard. It's okay, I don't think it bothered them any!

It looks like Danni, Ruby and their guests had a great time!

Also, it sounds like they'll be hosting more workshops in the future so if you're in the California area head on over to mycakies & oh, hello friend and be on the look-out for future announcements.

Be sure to check out the cool little video of the workshop, here, that Ruby made. I LOVE the music she put to it too, perfection!

Thanks again ladies, I had a swell time baking up these beauties for you and I hope we can work together again in the future!

The Land Before Time

2011-07-18T10:48:00.002-06:00

My friend at my "real job" Lindsay moved away to Portland Oregon, and I'm really sad! It seems that all of my great girl-friends move away to bigger and better things. (Anika, Kristien, and Lindsay... seriously I love you all, but, um I hate you...) And it sucks because it's hard for me to make girl-friends. I don't get a long with most girls very well... I've always been better friends with guys. I just don't like all of the "drama" that the ladies bring... you know? I don't have time for that.
I LOVE having girl-friends, but it seems that good ones are so hard to come by... at least for me.

Anyway.... I digress.

So, yeah. I'm sad. And when I'm sad, baking makes me happy. So I baked her a cake! A surprise going away cake too! She had no idea. Yay, I love surprises!

So me, Lindsay and a bunch of our friends had dinner together before her departure and I brought this:

Now, let me explain.

Lindsay has this "thing" for The Land Before Time. Some might call it an obsession. (Like my obsession, with the Wizard of Oz (shh, don't tell))

So she used to watch the movie over and over as a kid, and still to this day "cries at least four times during the movie". Don't judge!

She loves the character Little Foot so much, because she can relate to him. So she has this cute little foot doll from when she was a kid, he's traveled from New Mexico, to Utah, and he'll now be making his way to Portland!

It's cute, and I can totally relate to her obsession.

So what better way to say, "I'll miss you" than with a Little Foot cake, that (hopefully) she'll always remember.

Some Tree stars

Lindsay & her cake!

Little Foot cake and.... Little Foot doll!

Lindsay, THANK YOU for the awesome times over the last year! I sure will miss you... until we meet again, stay cool my friend. Stay cool!

Raaarwww!

2011-06-25T23:39:00.001-06:00

2D T-Rex cake for Kaio, Happy 4th Birthday little man!!

Volcano cupcakes! Red velvet cake with an oreo cookie on the bottom, cookie crumbs, and a mini oreo cookie atop cream cheese frosting. Yum!

2D fondant T-Rex.

fondant leaves

Triplets!

2011-06-03T12:03:00.000-06:00

I made some super fun cakes for 5 year old triplets, two girls and a boy.

Jonny, loves Transformers. So I made a 2D fondant Transformer logo and put it on top of a chocolate cake covered in blue fondant.

Hannah & Lily are two little princess' whose favorite colors are, what else, pink & purple!

Lily wanted a vanilla cake, with vanilla frosting and purple fondant. The tiara's were plastic ones purchased from the store. We thought it would be super fun to have the tiara's be something the girls could wear, rather than having fondant tiara's that would just get eaten.

Hannah wanted a strawberry cake with strawberry frosting, and pink fondant.

Because both girls love pink & purple I played off those colors and created accents for both cakes; Lily's cake got pink ribbon and Hannah's cake got a purple ribbon and their tiara's were slightly different as well, both had purple & pink accents, but Hannah's had a diamond shape and Lily's a butterfly shape.

Making these cakes was super fun, I especially loved that all 3 had completely different ideas about what they wanted. And I have to say, delivering the cakes was the best part, all 3 of the kids were ecstatic, and their Mom too... wow, what a reaction! They were very fun clients, and I hope they come back next year!

Dessert Tables

2011-05-04T21:44:00.001-06:00

Dessert tables are a great way to try out multiple goodies at a party or event. I really enjoy doing them because I get to make more than just cake, and everything is always smaller, and love tiny things!
They are so versatile; accessories, colors, and goodies can be changed to represent the party theme, or time of year!

Here is a recent dessert table I made for a spring time themed birthday party.

A perfect spring-time flavor: Lemon cake with strawberry cream cheese frosting!

Strawberry cupcakes with lemon frosting.

Facebook Giveaway!

2011-04-11T21:21:00.000-06:00

I did a giveaway on my facebook page a few weeks ago. I had fans vote on their favorite treat, the options were: Blondies, Lemon-Berry French Macaron's and Orange Cream cakes. And to my surprise the Blondies got the most votes.
I was only going to pick 2 winners, but when pulling the second name out of the bingo ball another name stuck to it and thus, we had 3 lucky winners.

Each person won a baggie full of blondies!

Chocolate Town

2011-04-06T15:03:00.000-06:00

Chocolate cake, chocolate ganache frosting with a rustic look and some silver sugar pearls. Welcome to chocolate town!

I gave the "Happy Birthday Bob" a Letterpressed look.

Cupcakes

Toy Story. Two.

2011-03-26T21:23:00.001-06:00

A few weeks ago I made my second Toy Story themed cake. It was for my Cousin's little boy, Jayden who turned 2.
This time around I made the cake just as huge (it was 4 layers) but I went with a butter cream frosting instead of fondant. I made fondant accents; clouds to put on the side, a #2 and name tag colored with edible food coloring and made to somewhat look like the Toy Story logo.

I had made some cute little Buzz Light year and Woody fondant accents as well to place on the side... unfortunately both of them were very fragile and they broke. I was so bummed out that I just threw them in the trash prior to taking any pictures. Pretty bummed about that too!

So I ran to the store and bought some little mini figures to place on top... luckily it ended up working out great. Jayden liked them so much that he played with them all night, plus it was a nice little extra for him to take home!

Vanilla cake with a fresh strawberry & vanilla pudding filling between each layer and a vanilla-bean swiss butter cream outside.

Gracie's 1st Birthday

2011-03-22T15:44:00.000-06:00

Just a year ago my Brother and Sister-in-Law were welcoming my little niece, Gracie, into the world. And on March 11th she turned one. One year old! It's crazy!

I cannot believe that a year has already passed. It has been one amazing year though! Little Gracie has completely changed my family's life. She brings so much love and laughter to our world.

I was looking back at the cake I made for her baby shower, before she was even born, (here) and cannot believe how far I have come making cakes too. In just a years time my skills have gotten so much better. It really is amazing what one year can do. It can turn an average caker into an intermediate one, and can turn just a little speck of life in someones belly into an adorable, funny and beautiful baby!

My sister-in-law, Portia wanted a brown, pink and white theme for the party. So when it came time to design the cake I thought it would be super fun to make the inside colors of the cake match the theme too. I decided to make a Neapolitan cake. Chocolate, vanilla & strawberry, layered with (what else?) vanilla-bean Swiss butter cream.

I had never made a 3-tiered cake before, and you know me, I always like to try something new. I thought what better time to learn!! Thankfully for me, (and everyone at the party) everything ended up turning out great!

I made the whole thing in one day too. It was a long... 13 hr day, but I still think it's pretty remarkable that I was able to accomplish a 3-tiered cake in one day (all by myself-btw) and I think that's also saying something about how far I've come in the last year! I am so looking forward to another few years from now when I have a lot more experience making cake and Gracie is a little older-so I can start teaching her how to bake and decorate cake!

The strawberry cake was my favorite part of this whole thing. I had never made a strawberry cake before so I was very excited to try it out.
When I researched recipes I was quite disappointed to find a boat-load that called for cake mixes and strawberry flavored gelatin mix. And I didn't want any part of that.
So I took my basic white cake recipe that always turns out fluffy and moist (same recipe I used for the vanilla portion of this cake) and added some pureed strawberries to the batter.

Let me just tell you-while this thing was baking my mouth was watering, big time! It smelled so amazing in my house. Like warm biscuits with fresh strawberry preserves or something.

Strawberry cake baking inside my oven instantly became my new favorite smell! I was nervous about the way it would taste though (even though the smell was so intense) seeing how I just added an extra ingredient into my already fantastic white cake batter.
But the taste was just as amazing as the smell! Um... can I just say; HEAVEN! Seriously!

So needless to say adding pureed strawberries to an already fantastic cake batter, um yeah.... probably one of the best decisions I've ever made!

So now that I've made you hungry-here are some pictures of the little peanut's 1st Birthday bash-that, um probably won't help in warding off that hunger-fest, sorry.

I bought some special cake wires and some crystals at the craft store and put them together and stuck 'em in the top tier of the cake.

Gracie & Mom.

Gracie's Grandpa (Portia's Dad) made a cute collage of pictures from the last year to display at the party. It looked really nice next to the (giant) cake.

Dad, Mom & Gracie

Gracie's 91 year-old great-great Grandfather (aka-my great Grandfather, aka the guy I made the Navy Ship cake for)

Gracie & Mom checking out a birthday card.

Getting into it! Ripping some presents open.

Reading with Dad, I think Gracie will be a great reader-she's already shown a huge interest in books and loves being read to!

Ya-I'm one!

The top tier (that was just vanilla) Gracie's "smash" cake was covered in fondant; Gracie wasn't too sure about it I think because she couldn't really dig into it. So Mom peeled it off and then Gracie went to town getting into the frosting.

Nom, nom, nom.....

Neapolitan Cake. Yummy!

Gracie's "smash" cake on it's way to the trash.

Present Cake

2011-03-21T08:53:00.000-06:00

I have these dear friends; Dean & Mary. They are two of the most wonderful, loving people I have ever met.

Dean's Birthday was back in February, so I surprised him with a cake. I wasn't sure what flavor of cake he liked most, so I decided on a marble cake with vanilla Swiss buttercream.

Green fondant with white fondant bow & ribbon.

Hand written (with an edible food writer) "gift" tag

Fondant Bow

Slackers, Crackers & More

2011-03-19T23:04:00.000-06:00

So, I have seriously been slacking on my posts lately. Sorry. I really don't have a good reason for it. I have been busy-but certainly not TOO busy to write up some posts. I have a lot to catch up on. But for now, here are some crackers, and other stuff I've made recently.

Rosemary & Sea salt crackers

Spicy Oat Crackers

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Granola Bars

Cinnamon & Honey Graham Crackers!

Valentines Red Velvet Cupcakes w/Swiss Buttercream

Mini Red Velvet Cupcakes

Parisian Macarons

2011-02-13T12:21:00.006-07:00

I recently had a chocolate macaron with a goat cheese and honey ganache at the The Culinary Institute of America, in Hyde Park, New York (Swoon! I dream of the day I will be able to go there... to learn!) while on my Christmas vacation to the east coast. Mostly I had to try it because the flavor combination was so intriguing.
It was one of the most delicious things I've ever had.

So never having made a macaron in my life, and only having one, yes one! while I was in Paris last summer (epic FAIL) I had to try making them and of course I had to try this flavor combination.

I couldn't find a recipe for goat cheese and honey ganache, probably because it's so strange. So I made up my own, it turned out pretty good I think. I especially liked that you could taste the tartness of the cheese with just a hint of honey in the background. I really liked that you could taste them both.

Unfortunately while making up the recipe I just started throwing things in the mixer and didn't write down what I was doing. (duh!) So I hope next time I go to make these I can remember what I did!

While researching how to make macarons I learned that they are, apparently, very difficult to make and that it's all about the technique. Also I guess it's incredibly hard to get that little "foot" on the bottom of the cookie if you don't mix it just right. In France, if your cookies are cracked, don't have the foot on the bottom, or aren't smooth on top... they're unsellable, and end up in the garbage!

I guess I must have been having a great day, because I only had a few minor problems really. You have to use almond meal/flour instead of regular flour with these cookies, and I didn't have any, so I made my own and my first batch of cookies weren't smooth on the top, they were kind of chunky. I didn't sift the almonds enough.

So I ground up some more almonds and sifted them through a fine sifter this time, twice, which gave me more of a flour than just tiny chunks of almonds. My second batch turned out right, they had the little "foot" on the bottom and were perfectly smooth on top!

Also, while researching I came across all this stuff about aging the egg whites, and letting them sit on the baking sheet for at least 2 hours before putting them in the oven, as well as a number of oven temperatures to cook them at... overwhelming, to say the least. This recipe though seemed very simple... and I followed it pretty closely, and my macarons turned out great, I thought!

Enjoy.

What's in your Sugar?

2011-02-11T23:08:00.003-07:00

I was shocked to learn from the cookbook Organic & Chic, by Sarah Magid I recently acquired as a gift, that most of the regular white sugars you buy in the grocery store are made from sugar beets and not sugar cane?

So what's the difference you ask?

The difference, Sarah says in her book, is that most sugar beets are cheaper and require only one form of processing to turn them into sugar, which sounds nice I guess. But the problem is that although the two types of sugars may look similar they can act very differently when using them for baking, and they taste different too.

AND the most astounding thing I learned: sugar made from sugar beets is typically processed using Bone Char-or Animal bone charcol to give it that "white" color. Gross!
There's more, most sugar beets are genetically modified too. Double gross! I don't want to eat something that has had it's DNA altered! Do you?

Sugars made from pure cane sugar, on the other hand, do not use this process; hence it's light brown hue-because it is closest to it's natural state.

Although organic pure cane sugar is usually more expensive it tastes better and is better for you because it's grown and processed without using harsh chemicals, or pesticides. Nobody wants to eat pesticides!

So next time you're in the market for sugar check out the organic or natural section of your grocery store. Most store brands, including those from Target, Costco and even Wal-Mart have organic and all natural products that are usually cheaper than name brands. So spend the extra dollar, trust me it's worth it!

Check out Sarah's book for more information about sugar, and other baking ingredients.

Now you know.

Utah Jazz Basketball Cake

2011-02-05T19:44:00.004-07:00

Mini Basketball with the Utah Jazz logo.

Yellow butter cake colored with the Jazz colors. Chocolate frosting. Covered in orange fondant with black fondant lines. The ball has the texture of a basketball it's just very faint and hard to see.

The logo is hand painted with food coloring on fondant.

Snowflake Cake

2011-01-29T18:21:00.002-07:00

My friend Kristien who just moved away, (*tear*) and is also a baker, a vegan baker at that! asked me to make this cake for her best friend Aimee's birthday. Aimee really loves snowflakes so we went with that theme.
Kristien and I were very sneaky and made Aimee believe that Kristien had accidentally sent her birthday present to me. So Aimee and I met up and I gave her this cake instead of the "present" she thought she was getting. She was so surprised! It was really fun making this cake especially knowing the whole time Aimee had no idea.

The cake is red velvet with cream cheese frosting, covered in white fondant and decorated with fondant snowflakes and balls and silver and white sugar pearls. Finished off with a goldish/silver ribbon.

Minnie Mouse

2011-01-23T12:20:00.001-07:00

This was for my 3 year old niece, Cicily who loves Minnie Mouse.

Red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and white buttercream fondant. Minnie Mouse is hand painted with edible food coloring. The polka-dots on the bow are edible sugar pearls. And it's finished off with black ribbon and red and white polka-dot ribbon.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CICILY!!

Golden 50th Anniversary Cake

2011-01-12T15:38:00.000-07:00

Carrot cake with cream cheese icing. Buttercream fondant, sugar paste flowers and fondant pearls all painted gold.

Checkerboard Sablée

2010-12-13T20:01:00.000-07:00

White Sablée Recipe
2/3 cup cake flour
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 cup cold butter, cut into cubes
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk (plus additional if needed)

- In a large bowl combine the flours, sugar and salt.
- Add the cold butter and lightly toss into the flour with your hands.
- Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter (or a fork) until the butter is no smaller than baby peas.
- Add the whole egg, and egg yolk and cut in with pastry cutter for about 3 minutes, or until the dough looks like gravel.
- If by pinching a piece of dough and it doesn't come together, or if it just looks too dry add another egg yolk at this point. If not, don't.
- Dump out the dough on a work surface and knead just long enough to get it to hold together.
- Roll into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Move onto chocolate dough.

Chocolate Sablée Recipe
3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup confectioners sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup plus 2 tbs cold butter cut into slices
1 egg

- In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, cocoa powder and salt.

- Add the cold butter and lightly toss into the flour with your hands.

- Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter (or a fork) until the butter is no smaller than baby peas.

- Add the egg and cut in with pastry cutter for about 3 minutes, or until the dough looks like gravel.

- Dump out the dough on a work surface and knead just long enough to get it to hold together.

- Roll into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

To make the checkerboards you'll need 1 egg white, lightly beaten to "glue" the dough together.

- Take the white dough ball and roll out flat, like you would for a pie crust, about 1/4 inch thick. Brush with the egg white.

- Roll out the chocolate dough ball the same thickness as the white and put it on top of the white.

- Trim the dough so you have even edges.

- Then cut the dough in half so you have two even squares/rectangles of dough. Brush one of the layers with egg white.

- Flip over one of the cut pieces of the dough and place on top of the other so you have a layer of alternating: white, black, white, black.

So here in the background you have your flat pieces of dough, and in the foreground is the cut pieces. I've cut off the edge a strip, laid it on it's side, cut another strip and flipped it over so the colors alternate and laid on top of the other.

- Then, using a sharp knife, cut a thin slice, about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick and lay it on it's side, brush with egg white. Then cut another slice, the same thickness as the first, flip over and lay it on top of the other slice so white comes up against black.

- Roll gently with your rolling pin to press the dough together.

- Repeat until you've used all the dough and have a bunch of black and white strips.

- To ease the cutting process place all the strips on a piece of plastic wrap and put them in the fridge for about 30 minutes, or to speed up the process put them in the freezer for about 5-10 minutes.

- Using a sharp knife cut the dough into about 1/2 squares and place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

- The cookies will be pretty tiny, so you'll want to watch them closely so they don't burn. Bake for about 8-12 minutes or until barely brown, at 350 degrees F.

With any remaining dough you can mix the white and black together to make marbled cookies like these.

Or you can even just make stripes, like these.

Madeleines

2010-12-12T15:07:00.002-07:00

No one is quite sure where these shell shaped sweets began. As story has it Louis VX's father-in-law first introduced them at Versailles. One thing is sure though, you will love them!
That's the hand-written note from my mother's boyfriends, French Mother who I've never even met, but can tell by her generosity to give me this recipe she's a very sweet lady! And I'm sure she's just the cutest little thing!

I had the opportunity to have an authentic madeleine in Paris this summer. We had just gotten off the metro and walked down this cute little street right in the Paris city center, and happened upon a cafe so we stopped in. It was delicious. The only thing I regret about that little cafe, is that I didn't buy more madeleines.

2 eggs, room temperature
1/8 tsp salt
1/3 granulated sugar
1 tsp grated lemon peel
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup melted butter, cooled

- Grease and flour each shell of frame of madeleine pan.

- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

- Beat two eggs with 1/8 tsp salt until frothy.

- Gradually beat in 1/3 cup granulated sugar.

- Crank up the speed of the mixer and beat until very thick and lemon colored, about 15 minutes.

- Fold in the lemon peel.

- Sift 1/2 cup flour over egg mixture and gently fold into egg mixture.

- Add butter and fold in quickly

- Fill prepared shells about 3/4 full.

- Bake 8-10 minutes or until golden.

Remove from shells to wire rack to cool.

Mai's Molasses Cookies

2010-12-10T13:08:00.000-07:00

This is my mother-in-law's recipe. Now, if you've been paying attention, you'd know that I'm not actually married (minor detail). However, although there isn't a piece of paper making us legally a family I still consider my boyfriends family, family.

Any-who.

The first time I had one of these cookies was before I had even met Mai. She was sweet enough to mail me a little package of them during Christmastime. And I knew the second I put one of these suckers in my mouth that I MUST have the recipe, and my life would never be the same. I couldn't stop eating them.

Shortly after that I received a little recipe book in the mail, hand-written mind you, of some of her recipes including this one. Best day ever!

These cookies are so yummy, they're soft and chewy and incredibly flavorful. Your taste buds will do a little dance, and your salivary glands will water until there's no tomorrow... or just until the cookies are all gone.

Oh yeah, one more, itty-bitty, minor detail I forgot to mention; Mai is a baker, she does this for a living and has been for 20 some-odd years. She, ah-hem, knows her shit. So trust me, you want to eat this cookie!

2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup dark molasses
4 cup flour
4 tsp baking soda
1 tbs ground ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

- Whisk together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl and set aside.

- Cream the sugar, oil, molasses, and eggs together in a mixer.

- Add the flour mixture to the molasses mixture and blend until combined.

- Take bits of dough and roll into about 1 inch balls.

- Place the balls on an ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.

- Measure out about 1/4 cup granulated sugar and put into a bowl. Using the flat bottom of a glass dip the bottom into the sugar and press onto cookie balls flattening just slightly, re-dip in sugar as necessary.

- Bake for about 10 minutes, remove when still soft and place on cooling rack

Then do what I do and eat these cookies until you can't move, because that's just how I roll!

Russian Tea Cakes

2010-12-09T11:36:00.000-07:00

I've never actually made these cookies before, so this is a first. But I'll tell you what, I've eaten plenty of them in my day, and they're damn good. Because they're made with confectioners sugar instead of granulated sugar they just melt away the second you pop them in your mouth! They're melt-in-your-mouth good! Yum!

I know it says cake in the name, but these cookies are hardly cake, they're not nearly as difficult to make as a cake is, tell you what. These are so simple you'll wonder why you've never made them before!

Russian Tea Cake Recipe:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temp
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 cups flour
1 cup hazelnuts (or nut of your choice), toasted and finely ground
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

For covering/dusting
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

- Beat butter in a large bowl until light and fluffy, then add the powdered sugar and vanilla.

- In a bowl whisk together the flour and cinnamon.

- Combine the flour and butter mixtures then add in the hazelnuts until incorporated.

- Remove dough from bowl and wrap in plastic and chill until cold, about 30 minutes.

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

- Whisk together the remaining 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon and set aside.

- Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place on baking sheet about 1/2 inch apart.

- Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown on bottom and just pale golden brown on top. Be careful, because these can burn on the bottoms quite quickly so watch them close. Don't, for example, go start some laundry while they're baking. Sit tight, right there in the kitchen.

- Cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet, then gently toss the warm cookies in the cinnamon/sugar mixture to coat completely, transfer coated cookies to cooling rack.

- Sift any remaining sugar over cookies prior to serving.

Black & Whites

2010-12-08T12:00:00.006-07:00

The first time I had a black and white cookie I was in New York City, (where else can you get a REAL one?), in a cute little cafe (that I don't remember the name of) on some random little street, and it was everything I thought it would be and more.
Black and whites are one of my favorite cookies, because they're similar to a cake and (hello!) we all know how much I love cake. And because they're pretty and elegant, but are also quite simple. One side black, one side white on a simple white cake-like cookie. Done and done. Oh, and they taste really good too!

I love them, and I whole-heartedly believe that they love me back!

Black and White Recipe:*

1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temp
4 eggs
1 3/4 cup milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups cake flour
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
a pinch of cinnamon (just a tiny ammount)

* Most traditional black & white recipes include 1/2 to 1 tsp of Lemon extract. I prefer to leave this ingredient out, because I dislike chocolate and citrus together. But please, if you want to go the traditional route, add in the lemon & be sure to leave out the cinnamon.

White frosting
2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla

Chocolate frosting
8 oz bitter or unsweetened chocolate
1 tbs butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
unsweetened cocoa powder (optional-see note*)

I wanted to do these cookies my way. Although I enjoy the traditional Black and White, I wanted to experiment with the frosting and change it up a bit. The traditional black portion of the frosting is... less chocolate-y than I would like, and is quite sweet. As is the white frosting, it's just too sweet. Not that I didn't want the frosting to be sweet, I just didn't want the frosting to overpower everything with it's sweetness! Plus I wanted to put my own spin on this cookie.

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

- Cream together sugar and butter until light and fluffy, add eggs, & vanilla extract

- Whisk together cake flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt.

- Add flour mixture to the butter mixture in batches, stirring well after each addition until combined.

- Add in the milk.

- Using a spoon, ice cream scoop, or your hands make little balls, place them 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake until edges brown slightly about 15-20 minutes.

- Allow cookies to cool completely on cooling rack.

While cookies are cooling, make the frostings.

White Frosting:

- Whisk together the heavy cream, vanilla, and sugar until the consistency is thick, but still spreadable. Add more sugar or cream as necessary to reach the desired consistency.

Chocolate Frosting: (which is more of ganache-but slightly thinner)

- Heat the heavy cream in a sauce pan just until barely boiling.
- Put the chocolate, chopped up (unless using chips) in a heat-proof bowl (microwavable), place the butter in with the chocolate.
- Add the heavy cream to the chocolate.
- Whisk all together until it's thick and not runny, but still spreadable.

*Sometimes, the chocolate ganache can be too thin, if you let it set for a few minutes it usually thickens, (it can also help to put it in the fridge for a few minutes too) if not you may have to add either more melted chocolate or you can add unsweetened cocoa powder instead (1 tbs at a time) until it thickens. This ingredient is optional- if the chocolate is thick enough you would not have to add it. And then obviously, if the mixture is too thick, heat more heavy cream and add to the mixture but not too much.

Once the cookies are completely cooled flip them all over so flat side is facing up.

Spread the chocolate frosting on half of the flat side of all the cookies. It's important to do this step first as the chocolate, especially since I made more of a ganache than the traditional recipe (which is more "runny"), tends to set and harden faster than the white. However, if it does start to set before you finish, pop your bowl in the microwave for 5-10 seconds and stir until it's spreadable again.

Repeat with the white frosting until, you have a black and white cookie!

Let the frosting set, (preferably overnight) then store in an airtight container.

Since these cookies are more cake-like they tend to go stale more quickly so enjoy up to about 3 maybe 4 days after making them. I would suggest taking them to work and impressing all of your co-workers with your awesome baking skills!

This recipe was adapted from Smitten Kitchen who adapted it (mostly) from Zabar's.

Sugar Cookies

2010-12-07T11:03:00.000-07:00

(Isn't this snowman just the cutest little creature?)

Sugar cookies have got to be one of the most widely known and loved cookies ever, and possibly the oldest. They are the perfect holiday cookie and are incredibly fun to decorate with your friends or family, in fact that's my favorite part.
For awhile there, though, I didn't even like sugar cookies. I know what you're thinking, how could I not like sugar cookies!? Something must be wrong with me. Well the good news is that I met my boyfriend, and his Mother makes the most killer sugar cookies on the planet, thus I fell in love. With both the cookies the boyfriend, and the mother!!

Day 5 of 10 Days of Cookies, SUGAR COOKIES!

Sugar Cookie Recipe:

2 1/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup (two sticks) plus 3 tbs butter, at cool room temp.
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk

Frosting (see recipe below)

Note: You can also make this dough a day in advance and keep in the frige until ready to use
- In a bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

- Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla until fluffy. Beat in the egg and egg yolk.

- Combine the butter and flour mixtures together until combined.

- Remove the dough from the bowl and fold it together into a ball. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and store it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

- After 30 minutes remove the dough from the fridge and lightly flour your work surface.

- Using a rolling pin, gently roll out the dough 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick.

- Cut into shapes with cookie cutters and pull away the excess dough. Repeat rolling and cutting until the dough is gone.

- Place cut dough on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until very pale brown.

To make the frosting you'll need:

1 pint heavy cream (or milk, but I prefer the cream it gives it a richer flavor and thicker consistency without using a ton of sugar)
2-4 cups confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla
a plethora of icing colors

Whisk all ingredients together until well combined and thick, but spreadable add more sugar as needed for consistency.

Separate the frosting into bowls and, color, color, color.

Then, invite over all your friends, family and neighbors over and have a cookie decorating extravaganza! That's what I did!

Hazelnut Biscotti

2010-12-06T11:51:00.002-07:00

Here's a little history lesson for you (information found here).
Biscotti are a twice-baked cookie originating in the Italian city of Prato. The word, biscotti, originates from the medieval Latin word biscoctus, meaning "twice-baked." It defined oven baked goods that were baked twice, so they were very dry and could be stored for long periods of time. Being very dry, biscotti traditionally are served with a drink, into which they may be dunked.

Biscotti are very versatile and can be enjoyed at any time. I usually like it with my morning coffee, or for a late night snack.

And now you know!

Hazelnut Biscotti Recipe:

2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup butter, melted (and slightly cooled)
1 1/2 cup hazelnuts, coarsely chopped

Chocolate ganache for dipping (see recipe below)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper

- Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar together in a large bowl.

- Mix the eggs together with a fork. Add the eggs and the melted butter to the flour mixture, stir until combined.

- Add the chopped hazelnuts and stir until well incorporated.

- On one of the prepared sheet pans, shape the dough into two 11-inch logs. Flatten the logs so they're each about 3 inches wide.

(note: I cut the recipe in half, so that's why I only have one log, shown above)

- Bake for about 35 minutes or until the tops of the logs turn pale brown.

- Turn down the oven to 300 degrees F and remove the logs from the oven. Let the logs cool for 15 minutes. Then slice them with a serrated knife on a diagonal into 1/2-inch-thick cookies using a sawing motion with very little pressure. If the dough is too soft and tears, let the logs sit for 5 minutes more.

- Arrange the biscotti cut side up on both sheet pans and bake for about 30 minutes**, or until golden brown.

- Let cool until set, then dip the ends of the cookies in the chocolate ganache if desired. Or you can drizzle the chocolate over the tops of them.

Chocolate Ganache Recipe:

1/4 to 1/2 cup heavy cream
8 oz bittersweet chocolate
1 tbs butter, room temp
unsweetened cocoa powder (optional-see note)

- Heat the heavy cream in a sauce pan just until barely boiling.
- Put the chocolate, chopped up (unless using chips) in a heat-proof bowl (microwavable).
- Add the heavy cream, and butter.
- Whisk all together until you have a thick, but still spreadable, chocolate sauce.
- Dunk one end, drizzle or engorge the entire cookie in the sauce. Enjoy.

Note: sometimes, for many reasons unknown, the sauce will be too thin, if you let it set for a few minutes it usually thickens, if not you may have to add either more chocolate or you can add unsweetened cocoa powder (1 tbs at a time) until it thickens. And obviously, if the mixture is too thick, heat more heavy cream and add to the mixture (hence the 1/4 to 1/2 cup cream-it kind of varies)

These will store well in an airtight container for a few weeks.

** I like my biscotti a little softer than the traditional hard, dry version. So I bake mine for a little less time, just until they're still barely soft. About 15-20 minutes.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Kisses

2010-12-05T12:21:00.001-07:00

Cookie #3 for the 10 Days of Cookies.
Peanut butter and chocolate go together like... wine and cheese. Unless you're some kind of weirdo (like my Grandma) and don't like peanut butter... you'd agree that it's probably one of the best things on the planet.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Kiss Recipe:

Makes about 24-30 cookies depending on the size

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temp.
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup peanut butter (smooth or crunchy-I used smooth)
1 egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

24-30 dark chocolate kisses, unwrapped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

- Cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the peanut butter. Then add the vanilla and egg, beat until combined.

- In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

- Combine the flour mixture with the peanut butter mixture, stir until incorporated.

- Roll the batter into 1 inch balls and place on the prepared cookie sheets about 2 inches apart.

- Place 1 unwrapped dark chocolate kiss on each ball of dough, and smash down just until the kiss sits inside the dough.

- Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until they turn light brown around the edges.

Enjoy warm. Store in airtight container for about a week, or you can freeze for longer storage.

Jelly Cookies

2010-12-04T13:25:00.000-07:00

Second for my first annual 10 Days of Cookies we have Jelly cookies!
These cookies are fun and easy to make with kids and are perfect for the holiday's! Play around with different flavors and colors of jams, you can even add chocolate instead!

Jelly Cookie Recipe:

2 1/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) plus 3 tbs butter, at room temp.
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk

1/4 cup of you're favorite jelly (I used my friends home-made strawberry jam)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (or if you're oven is like mine and runs hot, which I somehow seemed to forget while making these cookies, and mine got really brown really fast-preheat to 325 instead)

- in a bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

- cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy, add the vanilla. Beat in the egg and egg yolk.

- sift the flour mixture over the butter mixture and combine with a wooden spoon.

- wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for about 10 minutes.

- take dough out of the fridge and using a spoon scoop out some dough and roll it into a ball, you'll want each ball to be about the same size so they are all done baking at the same time.

- arrange all the dough balls onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper about 1 inch apart.

- flatten the balls into little flat rounds using the palm of your hand.

- then press a finger into the center of each of the rounds to make an indentation for the jelly.

- spoon just enough jelly into the holes so that it's level with the top, you want to be careful to not put too much jelly on them or it will overflow onto the pan.

- bake for about 20 minutes, or until very pale brown around the edges. Let cool then enjoy. These cookies can be stored in an airtight container for about a week.

Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-12-03T11:03:00.000-07:00

I love chocolate and I love coffee, so naturally this cookie had to be my first pick for my first annual 10 days of cookies.

Espresso Chocolate chip cookie Recipe:

This makes the smallest amount of cookies, (about 20-depending on their size) so double or triple if you plan on sharing!

6 oz chocolate chips (or bittersweet chocolate bar chopped) I used both.
1 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp coffee grounds, ground for espresso*
3/4 cup butter, (at room temp)
1/4 cup brown sugar (preferably light)
1/4 cup granulated sugar (the white stuff, yo)
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup nuts, such as walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F

- cream together the butter and sugars, then add the egg and vanilla.

- mix the flour, baking soda, salt and espresso powder *(I used Gorilla Coffee's espresso a-go-go whole bean and ground it really fine so it's like a powder) in a large bowl.

- combine the flour mixture with the butter mixture just until combined, stir in chocolate chips and nuts if desired (I usually leave out the nuts, because they just really don't belong in chocolate chip cookies... but hey, if adding nuts floats your boat, I say go for it)

- measure out two tablespoons of dough-you can also use an ice cream scoop-and roll into a ball. Place the balls about 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

- bake for about 15 minutes or until the edges are golden brown (oven times/temperatures may vary so watch the cookies closely)

- eat them all right out of the oven (like I did) or if you're sharing them, let cool and store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Photographs by Jesse Coss a Utah advertising photographer.

EggNog cupcakes

2010-12-02T18:20:00.001-07:00

These are for my friend Heather's birthday, which is today, wish her a virtual HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

EggNog cupcakes with vanilla and whiskey pudding filling and nutmeg infused frosting and they are YUMMY!
The blue butterflies came from Sweet Deja Vu and the photographs were taken by Jesse Coss who is a Utah advertising photographer, oh and he's also my boyfriend so I'm kind of lucky that I get to have professional photo-shoots every time I bake something!

First annual 10 days of Cookies

2010-12-02T00:01:00.001-07:00

I can't believe it's finally here, but yes, Christmas is upon us. So I decided it would be fun to do 10 days of cookies.

There are several reasons why I'm doing 10 days and not 12, or 20, or 25.

The first is that December is usually a very, very busy month for me (but really, who's December isn't busy?) There are a lot of birthday's, including my boyfriends (a very important one), in my family this month, thus a lot of cake making.

The second is that I go to New Jersey every year to visit my boyfriends family so again with being busy, you know, getting ready for that trip.

And the third, I had some free time between birthday and Christmas party cakes and it just so happened to be about 10 days worth of free time.

So here we are, my first annual 10 Days of Cookies!

I'm going to choose 10 of my favorite cookies and of course will include some holiday favorites. I encourage you to take these recipes and run with them. Make some cookies for your friend, your Mom, your co-worker, or little brother's friend's sister. Whomever you make them for, do it with love.

The fun begins tomorrow Friday December 3rd and will end on Sunday December 12th ... the excitement is killing me!!

Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T22:14:00.000-07:00

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and were able to spend time with your loved ones.

Thanksgiving is my all time favorite holiday. It's great because there is no pressure with buying people the right gift, I love just being able to spend the whole day with my family, cooking and baking, and especially eating.... a lot. We eat, play some games, eat, lay around, drink, and eat some more then we usually watch a good Christmas movie, the last several years we've watched Elf. Love that movie!

This year I made some carrot cake. I know, pie is the traditional Thanksgiving dessert, but that's my Mom's job. Really, she's the pie lady in our family... I don't even dare going there. One year, I tried, and it' wasn't pretty... I mean, I am sure the pies would have been alright, if my Mom would've even let me make them. She's very particular about her pies, and that's just what she does. So I let her. Plus, I'm the cake lady anyway so it's fine.

So I made carrot cake. My Great-Grandfather whom I made the Navy Ship Cake for last year, (here) loves carrot cake so I decided that I'd make him his own mini cake special just for him, to take home and eat it all up himself. He loved it, but couldn't figure out why I made it just for him, because "it's not my Birthday or anything" so cute!

And since I was already making a mini cake... I decided to make another mini cake so everyone could have some, along with the pie.

I decided to decorate the cakes very simple. I made little acorns out of fondant and I found these adorable rice paper autumn leaves from this cute little shop on Etsy, oh how I love Etsy! The shop is called Sweet Deja Vu and lucky for me, is actually located right here in SLC so I ordered the leaves and met the owner of the shop, Lena, to pick them up. She's super sweet and really does amazing work. She has a lot of other items, like butterflies, flowers, and even snowflakes too! So go check out her shop, and order something!

So, even though it wasn't my Mom's pie, the cakes still were a hit... I might just do this again.

Nightmare Before Christmas

2010-11-17T20:27:00.001-07:00

Jack Skellington cake from the Nightmare Before Christmas for a 17th birthday. The cake is chocolate stout and vanilla bean marble with vanilla Swiss butter cream, which by the way, is the greatest thing since the invention of cake. I'm in love with Swiss butter cream.

Pumpkin & Chocolate

2010-11-13T21:32:00.000-07:00

Very tall birthday cake. Pumpkin & Chocolate.

Halloween

2010-11-06T20:08:00.001-06:00

This is a little late, but better late than never right? Right!

I was asked to make a "scary" jack-o-lantern cake that should look "somewhat real" for a halloween party. Of course if you know me, having never made anything like this before it sounded like quite the challenge, and like it would also be super fun... plus halloween is like my favorite time of year! Cake + halloween = awesomeness!
Now, I think I say this a lot... which means either 1) I must be having more and more fun with each cake I do or 2) I am getting better with each cake (I think it's a little bit of both) but this was by far the coolest cake cake I think I have ever done. Also each step of the process got me more and more excited to see the finished product, I had a lot of fun doing this one! Although it was several days of long hours and late nights it was SO worth it!

Seriously, this is cool.... right?

It was made up of 5 layers of cake: pumpkin cake layered with cinnamon infused cream cheese frosting; then a chocolate stout cake layered with baileys irish cream buttercream; and last a hazelnut cake with chocolate & whisky fudge frosting.

The fondant is home-made. I decided the best route for covering the cake in fondant would be to cut out measured pieces and layer them on one-by-one, it was a long process but I think overall in the end gave it that pumpkin look I was looking for.
I layered one section (the part where the face would end up) of the orange fondant over a thin layer of black fondant I had put on first. I then carved the eyes, nose and mouth out of the orange fondant to reveal the black below, just like a real pumpkin (sort of)!
The stem is made from fondant I colored a very light green while it was still in the liquid state, then once I shaped it and put the lines in I colored it using a dry brush technique with dark green and brown gel-paste food coloring. I also used the dry brush technique on the pumpkin, by adding shading between each layer to give it some depth and dimension.

Here are a few photo's of the process:

Autumn

2010-11-06T19:20:00.001-06:00

In honor of Autumn, my favorite time of year, I've been making a lot of pumpkin cakes, carrot cakes, and cupcakes.

Here's a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, crushed walnuts and candied shredded carrots on top.

Pumpkin whisky cake with cinnamon and whiskey infused whipped cream.

Carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, gold sugar pearls and toasted candied carrots on top.

I also made a replica of a cake my mom and uncle shared as kids in the 1970's, their birthday's are one day apart and they requested it. It's a giant sheet cake made to look like two cakes put together. It was carrot cake (which they requested) with cream cheese frosting.

The birthday "kids", my mom and uncle.

My First Wedding Cake

2010-09-27T19:50:00.001-06:00

I made my first, real (as opposed to all those fake one's I've been making) wedding cake back in July. It was for a friend of mine who was also a former co-worker. Tatiana and her beau, Bob, got hitched on July 24th and had a small elegant reception in their backyard.

She wanted a carrot cake, on top as it was both the bride and groom's favorite cake, and an orange cream cake on the bottom layer.
For me, the orange cream sounded like a challenge, I had never made that flavor of cake before so I did some experimenting and came up with a recipe that I thought would work. It ended up working so well and being so good, that I craved it for days and days after I made their cake. I craved it so much that I made it for my own birthday recently, which is shocking because I really am a chocolate girl. And I know I'll make it again before the summer is over.
It was so refreshing and... I don't know... almost clean tasting, is that the right word? It was light and fluffy but packed full of orange flavor (by "flavor" I of course mean REAL orange juice and REAL orange rind-I tend to stray away from flavorings) but not overpowering. It's my version of the perfect summer cake.
I covered the two layers in homemade fondant tinted sage green and covered in white sugar pearls and a "W" made of gumpaste for the top.

Congrats to Bob & Tatiana!

Threadcakes

2010-09-27T19:29:00.003-06:00

So I entered a contest, oh I guess it was about a few months ago... I've been so busy (what with vacations, house cleaning, yard sales and in-laws in town) I lost track and haven't had time for caking (i.e. cake blogging).

The company is called "Threadless", it's a Chicago based T-shirt company. You submit a design, the Threadless "community" votes on it and if your design gets printed, viola, you get some cash, some t-shirts.... and some street credit. It's pretty damn cool for people looking to get their ideas out there... on a t-shirt.
Any way, a few years back they (Threadless) teamed up with a blogger from Arizona who just happened to love Threadless so much he started a fan blog called http://www.lovesthreadless.com/ and thus Threadcakes was born. The idea is to create, bake, sculpt, etc a 2D or 3D edible cake from a printed t-shirt design from Threadless. You can also enter as many cakes/designs as you can bake, which is nice if you're not able to decide on just one, like me.

Each year there are a handful of prizes donated by anyone from Charm City Cakes, to of course Threadless.

The first time I came across the it was shortly after their contest in 2009 had ended. At that time I was really delving into caking and knew that I had to enter the contest next year. Truthfully, the plan to enter the contest was not to win it (although I wouldn't have complained) it was just to try something new, and be creative.... and if anything, get my name out there.

So I waited, and waited for the 2010 contest to get under way, when It finally did I took me weeks, literally, to pick a design. I finally settled on a design called "God Save the Villain" I can't really say why I decided on it, maybe it was because it's a picture of the Queen of England, and I was about to take a vacation there for the first time, or maybe it was because it also looked like the joker from Batman. Or maybe it's just because the design is bad-ass!

So started by making 5, 10" round cinnamon flavored cakes and a batch of giant cupcakes for this one. By the time everything was said and done this cakes didn't taste good (it was stale) because it took me about 4 days or so to complete it. I have a full time job (outside of caking) so it sat in my fridge for 8 hrs a day until I got home and could work on it. Which was quite unfortunate as it seemed like it would taste very good. I'll have to re-visit this recipe.

And this is the original t-shirt design.

The second design I picked was called "Summer Wind" I chose this design because I liked the colors Orange and Blue together, and it just seemed so elegant and pretty. I made a carrot cake for this one, and I never been a huge fan of carrot cake and I've also never made one, but it really was very moist and delicious! I took it to a family party and everyone just ate it up. I hand painted on the face with food coloring and made the 3D flowers from gumpaste.

And here is what the original t-shirt design looked like.

The contest ended on my Birthday, and you would've thought that had to be reason enough for me to win... but it wasn't. Like I said, though, I didn't care about winning, I just wanted to participate. Not to mention the people that won were AMAZING. Some of the cakes that were submitted really blew my mind.
Check 'em out for yourselves. You'll see, I ain't lyin'.

http://www.threadcakes.com/home

I can't wait to get back to work picking more t-shirt designs and re-creating them into cake for the 2011 Threadcake contest.

Beach Ball

2010-07-06T22:29:00.005-06:00

Oh, Hi! I am still here. You've probably been wondering where I've been. Well, you know I've just been really busy working a lot of loooong hours at my real job. Not all of us "bloggers" can write on our blogs every day, or every week... sometimes not even every month.

But I'm back. I've even managed to bake a few things in my absence.

One of those things was a cake. A cake! You're shocked, aren't you? I know. It's weird.

So, I made my first round/3D/ball cake.
My friend Aubrey's son was turning 3, and he really loves balls (get your minds out of the gutter people-he's 3!) like beach balls, bouncy balls, basketball's... you know the kind you play with (ok, stop, please stop!) so she asked if I could make a Beach Ball cake. Like with sand, and a full on 3D beach ball made of cake. She wanted a fun cake on the inside too... so we decided on a rainbow cake. What could be more fun than cutting in to a cake shaped like a beach ball and having it be a bright rainbow on the inside? Um, I can't think of anything more fun.
We did keep the flavor simple though, vanilla cake, with vanilla buttercream and vanilla fondant.

Her idea was to have a beach themed party, with little kiddie pools, a sand box, bubbles and lots of balls. She even sent out these incredibly cute invitations. A mini beach ball that you had to inflate to read; she had written all the party information on the ball. SO freaking cute!

I knew for sure that it was going to be a challenge, I always welcome a challenge because I love trying something new, so how could I turn that down?

She wanted to come over and help me decorate the cake so she could learn a thing or two, it was really nice to have the help, and it was nice to spend some time with her. We both have pretty busy lives, her with her (almost) 3 year old, and me with my baking. So you can see, we don't really get to spend a lot of time together.

I started out by baking 5 cakes. 4-10" rounds, and one 11x11 cake. All rainbow of course. I let those sit overnight in the fridge to set up.

I first frosted the 11x11 cake with vanilla buttercream then Aubrey and I covered it with graham cracker crumbs we'd mashed up in the food processor. It looked just like sand.

Then we started on the 4 10" rounds. Layering each layer with vanilla buttercream, until the last layer... then the carving began. Oh the carving. Trying to make 4 10' round cakes look like a ball is hard work. The top layer of the top cake was flat, of course, so trying to make that round without carving away too much and having to start over was difficult, I had a hard time seeing how it would turn into a ball. Luckily I had Aubrey and my boyfriend there to help me see it. With Aubrey's help carving half of the cake, while I carved the other half a tiny bit at a time, we were in business. We had a ball!!

Then I covered it in buttercream and let it set up in the fridge while I rolled out the fondant I had made the night before.

As I saw it, I had two options for covering the cake in fondant. The first was to roll out a huge thing of white fondant and cover the ball with that, then layer on the 3 colors (red, blue & yellow) to give it the beach ball look.

The other option was to cut out each stripe or layer of color and put those on individually. I decided on the first option, I thought it would be the easiest and best looking.

I was wrong.

I didn't really think that placing a huge piece of white fondant over the ball would be as diffucult. But because the top of the ball was larger than the bottom, once I put the fondant on top, the bottom of it just got all wrinkled and torn. It looked terrible. I thought for a minute that I could cover up the wrinkled and torn bits with the colored panels. But I knew it would look terrible.

So I let it sit for awhile like that while I decided what to do... do I take off all the fondant and start over, (that included making more fondant) or do I try the second option of cutting out each panel of color indivdually and place each one on seperately?

I finally decided on that option, at this point I had nothing to loose, because if it didn't work I knew I had to make more fondant anyway.

Luckily, measuring and cutting out each panel individually and placing them on the cake one by one, worked even better than I could have imagined. It looked perfect. Just like a beach ball. In fact one of the party goers didn't realize that it was cake until we cut into it. He thought it was a real ball. Success!

I had a really awesome time baking, and decorating this cake, and I think it turned out to be one of the best looking cakes I've ever made. It was realistic, clean, and it tasted good too.

Mother's Day Cupcakes

2010-05-10T21:27:00.001-06:00

Is it weird to write two posts in one day?

Meh.

I don't care... I'm doing it anyway.

So as you all know-Mother's Day was yesterday. I hope you all spoiled your Mother's.

I LOVE my Mom. She's my best friend. And you know, she's a pretty special lady. Just putting that out there!

I decided to take a break from HUGE cakes (see previous post) and make little mini's. Cupcakes that is. I wanted to try something new, cute and fun, as far as decorating goes.
I didn't try a new cake recipe though (sad face), but the chocolate cake I make is pretty dang good, and I've yet to screw it up (knock on wood) PLUS my Mom loves chocolate.... so, yeah I had to do it.

The frosting though, that was new. Espresso butter cream.

I just used my basic vanilla butter cream recipe and added some finely ground espresso coffee from Gorilla Coffee in Brooklyn New York.

Let me just interject here-and say their coffee kicks ass, literally. It's strong, but SO damn good. Love it. If you're looking for a good early morning pick-me-up, look no further.
If you have not tried it, shame on you! Get online immediately and purchase a bag, or two.... You won't regret it. Promise.

Here I'll even give you the link.

http://gorillacoffee.com/

See I'm nice. I save you time.

My Mom loves pink. She's your typical girly-girl. Likes shoes, shopping, jewelry, manicures, pedicures, you know, stuff like that. However she's not afraid of snakes, or getting dirty and she loves to go camping. She's pretty cool if you ask me!

So because of her love of pink I decided to decorate the cupcakes with pink and brown accents. I embossed a "swirly" design onto the fondant that I topped the cupcakes with. I also made little flowers for each cupcake. Cute huh?

Oh, I also made a few super tiny, itty bitty, mini cupcakes too. See.

Some were also decorated with sugar pearls. Pink ones!

I packaged the cupcakes in these cute little boxes I found, and put my little note cards with them.

My cute little Mom, opening up her cupcakes!

Cute!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MOM!

Toy Story

2010-05-10T20:44:00.001-06:00

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY JACKSON!!!

I made a cake for a friend of mine, Erin who's son, Jackson is 3 today. Jackson is very into Toy Story, and she was having a toy story theme party for him so we thought a cake of the same theme would be great!

I did a 4 layer vanilla cake with blue, green and purple sprinkles inside, and then vanilla butter-cream with the same color sprinkles mixed right in.

I decided to make it look like Andy's bed from the movie. I purchased an edible cake topper (since I lack the equipment to make one myself-some day I'll be cool enough) and placed that on top of a "quilt" made of home-made (slightly almond flavored) fondant. I then made a headboard out of brown fondant.

The cake was HUGE. The tallest cake I've ever made, and I swear weighed 100 pounds. Ok. Maybe not 100 pounds.... but it was quite heavy.

It's one of my favorite cakes. It's very simple, but very cool.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again, there is just something all warm and fuzzy about making a cake for a child. Just knowing where it's going, makes it that much more special to create.
No matter what it is.
I must confess, I happen to find this one quite fun though-I don't know what kid wouldn't like this!

Enjoy.

And some pictures my friend took for me.

Jackson blowing out his candles, such a cute little kiddo!

Four layers of vanilla cake and vanilla butter cream makes for one LARGE cake!

Firsts

2010-05-03T23:09:00.000-06:00

This cake had a lot of firsts for me.

It was the first time making fondant from scratch on my own.
First time making and using royal icing.
I created a new recipe. Peanut butter & Chocolate--THE ultimate combination.
It was also my first time using a letter stamp (used to stamp the name right into the fondant).

That's four firsts. Hmmm. This was also a 4-person cake.
The party was a combined celebration for four different people. So naturally this cake had to have four different sides, right?

I just have to say making fondant from scratch was awesome and fun! It turned out great, with one exception... I think I added a little too much powdered sugar, thus it was a little dry and cracked. Glad I learned on family though. They don't care. Next time less sugar.
It was really tasty too. Much better than the store-bought stuff.

I didn't have as much fun with the royal icing though. The consistency wasn't right, and I couldn't get it there. I don't know why. I need to do some more research and hopefully next time it will turn out better.

The Peanut Butter and Chocolate cake was incredibly good. Like melt-in-your-mouth good.
It was a chocolate cake; very moist and fluffy. Then there was the frosting. Oh dear, the frosting. It didn't just have a "hint" of peanut butter it WAS peanut butter... with a few other (secret) ingredients. But wasn't overpowering. You could taste the chocolate and peanut butter separately, but of course, they went together very well... as everyone knows it's the ultimate combination!

The letter stamp was fun. Although with the dry, cracking fondant it didn't look as nice as I pictured. But I know that with softer fondant it will look good. I know this because I borrowed the idea from Le Cupcake. It is this amazing blog/bakery in Australia. My friend and I came across it one day while surfing the Internet. I am OBSESSED with her work. Her stamping is (obviously) much cleaner than mine, her colors are vibrant, her work is very clean, the figures (especially the cows) are incredible, and all of her ideas are just gorgeous! I can't get enough!
Too bad she's in Australia (or maybe not, I've been wanting to go there since I was 10) I could just pick her brain for hours and hours!
Check out her kick-ass blog here: http://lecupcake.blogspot.com

So the four-person cake was for, who else? My family. Seems I've been doing a lot of that lately, but I don't mind (neither do they-can you say free cake?) because I get to practice on them, and try new things.

To be honest, I am not overly excited about the way this cake turned out. I did have fun making it though, and it tasted amazing. I AM proud of that.
I know it could have looked better though. Although seeing how a lot of these things I had never tried before makes me feel better about it. It's the perfectionist in me.
See for yourself.

This side was my favorite. I found the design in a magazine, it was an advertisement for jewelry. I did it with royal icing.

Here's a picture of the ad.

The only boy on a cake full of girls. I tried to do something more modern and artistic.

Royal icing flowers.

Yes, that says Moriah. And no, it's not spelled wrong. I think it's neat. The sugar pearl idea also came from Le Cupcake.

Square cut-outs filled with silver sugar pearls, and a candle for each person.

Red Velvet Star-Burst Cake

2010-03-21T12:34:00.000-06:00

My Cousin Kierra turns 13 on Wednesday and had a party this weekend with all of her friends at Classic Skating. Ahhh... Classic Skating, and early teenage years, boy does that really bring back the memories. I'm not going to tell you about those memories, lets just say it brings me back.

So Kierra requested a birthday cake from me. But not just any birthday cake, she wanted red velvet.

Excuse me?
Red velvet?
Really?

My heart sank and I started to panic just a little bit when she said those words... red velvet... um... yeah... remember last time I tried red velvet? Well I do. It didn't turn out so well, I was up all night baking, and in a total panic, I tried two different recipe's, twice. And needless to say, I ended up making the majority of that cake chocolate instead of red velvet. Yeah. Red velvet and I don't really get a long.

However, I do remember saying I would attempt it again, and that I would defeat the damn cake... I just didn't think it would be this soon.

Well there is good news, believe it or not. About a week or so ago I was just browsing Bakerella's website.

(Note: please tell me you know who she is? She's only like the most famous baking blogger out there, in my world anyway. If you don't know about her, here is a link to her website: www.bakerella.com go check her out, NOW!!)

Checking her website is like my daily ritual, even though she only posts once a week... I still check back every day... just in case. Her website is so cute, and she always has the greatest pictures.

Anyway, you'll never guess.... yep that's right, she had just posted a gorgeous red velvet cake AND the recipe. So I decided to try her recipe since the other two I tried before had basically failed me.
And what do you know... the cake worked out perfectly. No screaming. No being up till all hours of the night baking. AND it was surprisingly easy. Like really simple. So thanks Bakerella for making all of my red velvet cake dreams come true....

Back to Kierra, her favorite color is purple and she asked for stars, stripes, or polka-dots so I went with the stars. I think they're fun. I decided to do this cute thing where it looks like the stars were bursting out of the cake so the fondant on the top tier has a torn look. I think it's cute. Very appropriate for a 13 year old.

I think she liked it. Enjoy.

Now that's Red!

Cream cheese frosting. Yum!

And of course, the birthday girl and her red velvet star-burst cake!

Ye Olde Irish Car Bomb.... Cupcake

2010-03-18T10:18:00.006-06:00

I'm not Irish, nor have I ever been to Ireland I'm sad to say. But I imagine these would probably be a hit there, they are.... after all, full of Irish alcohol. Whiskey, Guiness, and St. Brendan's Irish Cream liquor, who doesn't like that? Certainly not the Irish, I hear they love dark beer and whiskey, but that's just what I hear.

Oh yeah, and they're probably the best tasting cupcakes I've ever made. Like ever.
If you're a fan of beer or whiskey or Irish cream or chocolate OR all of the above... you're probably drooling right now. Go ahead, take a minute to wipe the saliva from your chin... better?

The best thing about these, other than the flavor, is that they are not overpowering. You can probably eat 10 of these and not feel sick... well maybe not 10, but at least 9. Each ingredient has it's own place but all go together so perfectly it's like they were born to be inside this cupcake.

I am not trying to imply that I am the greatest baker in the entire world and that there is no other cupcake out there that is better than these. Because I am sure there is, but these are up there, on my list at least, of like top 5 desserts I've ever had in my life. Really. In fact I can't even take full credit for this awesome recipe, because it's not even mine (insert sad face here).
I wish it were, but alas... it is not. And I am not the kind of gal who goes around stealing other people's recipe's and making them my own. That's bad baker's booga-booga. I give credit where it is due!
The recipe came from Smitten Kitchen (http://smittenkitchen.com/). So there, someone else has created the greatest recipe for alcoholic cupcakes ever, not me!

So... go to her website, unleash the baker inside you, and make these awesome cupcakes so you can see what I am talking about. They truly are the best!

I hope you all had a great St. Patrick's Day!
Anyway, enough blabbing. Here are some pictures.

Chocolate and Guiness cupcakes with an Irish whiskey chocolate ganache filling, and St. Brendan's Irish cream frosting. Yeah. Awesome!

I know they look like your normal, everyday cupcake... but they're not. They are better! Promise.

THANK YOU Smitten Kitchen for creating this awesome recipe and sharing it with the blogging and baking world. You rock!

Cheers!

Educational Cake

2010-03-15T23:22:00.003-06:00

I am so excited to announce that a friend of mine, whose kids go to The McGillis School, asked me to donate a cake, well... a gift card towards a cake for their Annual Gala and Silent Auction which will be held on Saturday March 20th at the Little America Hotel. My item will actually be auctioned off at a Live Auction which will take place at the Tracy Aviary. And all proceeds from the auction go to support the school's education programs. How cool is that?!?

The McGillis School is a member of the Pacific Northwest Association of Independent Schools. It has been around since 1991, and is currently a K-8 grade school with approximately 260 students. Originally founded as the J.C.C. Elementary School it changed it's name to The McGillis School and moved to a new location, the old Douglas School building, in 2002 thanks-in-part to Richard and Joanne McGillis.

I am very thankful to have been asked to participate in this event and the fact that I am trying to start up a business makes it that much more special. With the school itself being a local company, it is fully supportive of local business which is great for the community.

Not only is participating in this event going to be good for me by helping me get my business started, but I get to be a part of giving back to the community too, and that feels pretty awesome!!

I had some business cards made for this event. They're from this cute little Etsy store I found, called 'Dingbad Press', you all remember my posts about Etsy, right? I hope so.
The cards are just adorable. See for yourself....

I also made some cute little posters to display at the event. They're not so bad either.....

For more information about the event, volunteer opportunities, or to make a donation to the school go to: http://www.mcgillisschool.org.

PS to check out Dingbat Press' etsy store, go to: http://www.etsy.com/shop/DingbatPress

Gracie Girl

2010-02-17T20:53:00.000-07:00

I made a baby shower cake this weekend for my sister-in-law, Portia.

Portia and my brother are having a girl, and naming her Gracie Lyn. This is their first child.

I have been SO excited about doing the cake for her baby shower ever since I found out she was expecting. I can't wait to teach Gracie how to bake.
I couldn't wait for this weekend to arrive! Although by the time it did, I wasn't loving life so much... you'll see why later on.

The color of Gracie's room is going to be brown and pink, and the invitations I ordered for the shower were these adorable little pink and brown polka-dot cards from Etsy. We are also ordering matching birth announcements from the same place once little Gracie decides to come into this world.
So I decided to keep the brown and pink theme alive by doing, what else, a brown and pink cake with some sparkles, some ribbon and flowers...

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For those interested; here's the link to the Etsy store where I purchased the invitations. Cutest little store ever! I just love her stuff!!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/birdiescustomcards
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Portia's favorite type of cake is red velvet, so I attempted to make it...... three times (this is the part I was talking about earlier) the first batch I made looked O.K, the texture was fine, and they rose nicely... but it tasted terrible. I mean BAD, not something I would ever even serve to my cat... if I had one.

I should have known from the second I started mixing the sugar and butter.... the texture was off. Something was wrong. But I kept on adding ingredients anyway and it turned out bad. My own fault. I know better.

The second batch was worse and I'm not sure how or why but it was, the cake tasted like.... shit. Really. That's the best way to explain it. Enough said.

On the third batch I grew some smarts and tried a different recipe.
This one looked gorgeous and tasted good.... the only problem was that for some reason it formed this hard crust on the outside... kind of like bread dough does. It was strange.
So the cake was edible I just had to shave off the sides, top and bottom a little. Which of course made it smaller than I wanted.

As you can see I was running out of time so rather than making another red velvet batch (and have it turn out badly) I decided to do this amazing dark chocolate coffee flavored cake I've made several times before and it always turns out tasty and moist. And luckily it worked. Because if it didn't I was ready to go to the local baker and get a pre-made cake and just decorate it myself... I was so frustrated.

So I took the small sliver of red velvet I had left and put it in the middle of the two chocolate layers on the bottom tier. The top tier ended up just being chocolate. And I still made the cream cheese frosting which was really good, by the way.

I knew while I was having all this trouble that I would learn something from the whole experience, and at the time I didn't know what, but now I know.

First I learned to take my time, baking is a real science and you can't rush it (not that I don't know that already) also baking at this high of an elevation changes things a lot and sometimes I forget to take that into consideration.
Second, I learned that red velvet cake is a real pain in the ass to make and it'll be awhile before I attempt it again. I WILL attempt it again, and I WILL DEFEAT it... but it'll just be awhile.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I made all the flowers, except the little white ones... you know that ones that look professional.... again my first time attempting something, I think I did alright.

Enjoy!

I made the little pink flowers and the big pink one in the middle, the white ones I bought at the cake supply store.

I found the cutest ribbon that said "It's A Girl" with little foot prints, I had to use it!

Myself, The Mommy-to-be Portia, and my Mom.

Mmmmm...... Red Velvet & Dark Chocolate Coffee Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Bread & Etsy

2010-02-06T12:06:00.002-07:00

I took a little break from cake making this past week and made some bread. Can I just say, I love making bread. There is something so.... old school, about it. Hand mixing the dough, waiting for it to rise, hand rolling it, and baking it on a stone. It just feels so "old world" to me. I really enjoy it.

Also, I have a shop on etsy.com where I sell, a very small amount, of baked goods... like cookies, muffins, biscotti and bread.

And who'd of guessed but two people, within three days of each other, placed orders for bread. Which was kind of amazing, seeing how I've never marketed my store (because it's not 100% how I want it yet), and the only other person to buy bread from me, was my boyfriend's sister Linda.... which (sorry Linda, I love you) doesn't really count as a customer, because she's family, you know?
So having two random people (one in NYC and the other in Minnesota) somehow find my store and make a conscious decision to buy my bread was pretty damn cool!

So I sort of had to make the bread; and bread making is SO different from cakes, so I welcomed the change.

If you've never heard of Etsy, let me just take a minute to explain what it is.
First, let me just say it's my favorite website EVER. E-V-E-R!!!
Second, it's similar to Ebay: where anyone can have a "store" and sell things... But the difference with Etsy is that everything must be handmade by you OR be vintage.

So you can't just go out and buy someone else's something and sell it. You have to make it yourself. Which I think is ingenious. I love the idea.

There are so many creative people out there doing things.... and having Etsy, available to all those people just allows the world access to that. Not to mention some of the things you'll get on there are one of a kind, that person or shop will never duplicate it again, so having something that some wonderful, creative person made and it's the only one like it... is pretty damn cool if you ask me!

Also the community on Etsy is so friendly, it's just a big community of artists (all over the world) helping people out by buying and selling. I really can't say enough great things about Etsy.

I could literally sit on that site for hours and hours and look at everyone's things. Which, lets be honest... I've done it more than once. Go there, you'll see what I am talking about.

Anyway.... here's some bread.

I have two kinds (right now) that I make:

Whole Wheat Potato Bread with Cracked Pepper

This bread it quite peppery. But that's the point, it's a cracked pepper bread. It's the star of the show. The potato in my bread is also quite nice I mash the potato's but save some nice big chunks to put inside. I think it's a nice little surprise.

The other kind is also a Whole Wheat Potato bread, but this one is infused with Rosemary.

They're both so yummy and moist. I might just have to go out and make some more right now....

Early Mardi Gras

2010-01-13T12:01:00.003-07:00

This cake was for my cousin, Katie's 22nd Birthday. Her sister Meagan and Dad asked me to do this cake for her. They came up with the Mardi Gras theme. One of Katie's favorite things is New Orleans and Mardi Gras.

I was a little short on time for this one so I made it a bit smaller than I normally would have made a birthday cake for a party of about 25 people.

So someone brought brownies too, which worked out nice.

I decided to make a chocolate coffee flavored cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. I must have been having an awesome lucky day or was in the zone while I made the cake and frosting because it was SO yummy. A lot better tasting than some of my other cakes have been.

I was really proud of the flavor of this cake.

As I said before I was short on time so I didn't get the chance to make the Mardi Gras mask out of gum-paste like I wanted to. So I went to the local party store down the street and bought one. And what do you know, becuase Mardi Gras is right around the corner they had a plethora of choices. What great timing.

So for the design I decided to do purple fondant over the whole cake, with green fondant diamond shapes. I added gold sugar pearls to put between the green diamonds. The gold bead around the bottom and on top of the cake (by the mask) is a beaded necklace from the party store. Although it wasn't totally edible (like I'd prefer) I still think it turned out quite nice.

This is Katie, showing off her Mardi Gras cake, isn't she cute? I just love her!

Animals

2010-01-09T01:55:00.003-07:00

My cousin Morgan is adorable. She reminds me so much of myself when I was her age. Except from the hair color difference we look a lot alike, some (including Morgan) call her my twin.
If you look at a picture of me when I was her age, and a current picture of her, it's difficult to tell us apart.
She's my favorite cousin named Morgan (If you're a member of my family, you'll get that joke) anyway, ever since I started this blog and made my first custom cake, she's asked me "will you make me a cake for my birthday?" And my response is always, YES!

And every time I've seen her since then she reminds me that I am making her birthday cake, and she wants "a red heart shaped cake with animals on it, but please don't make it chocolate cake, I don't like chocolate."

Morgan has to be the only kid I know who doesn't love sweets. She loves fruit & veggies, she'll happily choose a piece of watermelon or cucumber over any kind of sweet treat.

So yesterday was her birthday, she turned 9.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MORGAN!!!

I bet you can't guess what kind of cake I made for her.

Yeah, you guessed right. A red heart shaped cake with animals on it.

I used the cutest little heart shaped sprinkles for the outside of the cake... and I had so many, I decided to throw a few inside the cake too.

So this was my very first time using gum-paste. HELLO, gum-paste, where have you been all my life!?

This stuff is Amazing, yeah that's right, Amazing with a capitol 'A'.

For me, the texture felt very similar to play-dough, only I am sure tastes much, much better. For sculpting it is much more pliable and easy to shape.

I used fondant to cover the heart. And a vanilla butter-cream frosting, colored pink, for the rest of the cake. Then I took those cute little heart shaped sprinkles and stuck 'em to the side of the cake.

Cute right?

The actual cake was just your basic yellow cake, but don't forget about those cute heart shaped sprinkles I put inside too. Yum!

Wait, what about those animals, what kind were they, you ask?

Well lets take a gander....

First there was the Elephant.
He's probably my favorite (not because I made him) but because he just has this expression that makes me smile. Hi Buddy!!

Then the Panda Bear. Hello!

And the Monkey. My second favorite. His little head is tilted to the side, and he just looks so curious.

Hi there fella!

And a Giraffe, Hello pal!

The Alligator. Oh, he just looks so happy. Hi!

And a Turtle, so tiny.

And a Dog.

So maybe I shouldn't tell you this... or maybe I should.

Ok, I will.

So this little guy was suppose to be a Lion... can you see it? Yeah, I couldn't either, so he became a dog. His little furry mane just wasn't working. But I think he's cuter as a dog anyway!

I have to give props to my dear Mother, and my cousin Kierra, they helped sculpt some of the animals. Without their help, I wouldn't have been able to make as many.

So THANK YOU both, I sure appreciated it and I know Morgan did too!

Not to mention is was a super fun night sculpting the little guys with you both.

I had to add this picture in there too.... it's pretty damn cute! The Monkey and Alligator just look like the best of buds. Only in a gum-paste world.

Here's the whole gang.

I had to throw these in too.

SURPRISE!!!

The cuteness levels of this cake were out of this world. Really, I mean how can these little guys not make you smile?

This is the most fun I've had making a cake. And this probably sounds totally cliche, but there's really nothing like giving a child something you've put so much love & energy into and then getting to see their sweet little smiling face. Yeah, it made my day.

Oh not to mention she's family (and my twin too, ha ha), so I already love her to death... um yeah, that made it a little easier to be super happy about it.

I sure hope to do a lot more cakes for kiddies in the near future!

East Coast Baking!

2010-01-06T22:40:00.006-07:00

Just got back from the East Coast. Tri-State area, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
WOW, there are some amazing bakeries there. I had a wonderful opportunity to bake bread with the head baker, Rachel, at my favorite East Coast bakery; The Patisserie Fauchere in Milford, Pennsylvania.

My boyfriend suprised me with a cookie baking class there and after talking with Rachel during the class she offered to let me stay after and bake bread with her. How could I pass that up?!?
We were there until 2:30 in the morning making all kinds of bread, ciabatta, foccocia, rosemary, olive bread, ginger-bread shaped into Christmas tree's, rolls, baugettes and much more. I learned how to use a starter, and how to fold and shape bread using different techniques. It was an amazing experience and certainly the highlight of my trip, I'll never forget it.

The cookie class was a blast too. We were put into groups of two and each group made at least 2 different types of cookies. Linda (Jesse's sister) and I made chocolate dipped macaroon's, checkerboard cookies, and chocolate-chip cookies. Each person was sent home with about 6 dozen different types of cookies. We had everything from ginger-bread men, sable's (a french cookie made with almond flour), to checkerboards and pepermint meringue's. We were also sent home with about 20 recipes. I can't wait to try them all out.

My favorite part of the cookie class had to be making the checkerboard cookies. I saw that recipe and knew that I had to be the one to make it. The technique for that cookie produces a perfect 1 inch square cookie that looks just like a real checkerboard. AND it tasted amazing. I plan on making this cookie every year for the holiday's to give to family and friends, from now on.

Here are some photo's

Rachel showing me how to cut out the dough for the checkerboard cookies

Linda placing the cookies on a sheet for baking.

It's bread time baby!!!!
Here I am folding some bread dough, ever so gently.
With Rachel in the background measuring.

Focaccia. Yum!

Olive Bread. Aren't these gorgeous?!

Lets go fishing...

2009-12-11T13:59:00.002-07:00

Ice Fishing that is, brrrrr.
This is a cake for my Step-Father. He's an outdoorsy kind of guy who loves hunting & fishing. Since his Birthday is in December and he's an avid Ice Fisherman, I thought an ice fishing cake would be perfect for his birthday. I made a chocolate/vanilla marble cake, which is what gave the roof of the shack & log their distinct design. The weeds on the bank of the cake are real & are from my yard. I did have some help with this cake, which I am very thankful for. My wonderful boyfriend assisted me with the shack and part of the fondant man, with out his artistic eye it wouldn't have turned out so nicely. I hope you enjoy.