Come Fly with Me

I had a cake to make for For Goodness Cakes for 1 year old twins.  I was just going to do something simple, like blue polka dots or something, since they were babies.  When I started getting things together, I remembered my odd obsession with cookie cutters.  Collecting cookie cutters is not weird, unless you've noticed the lack of cookie posts I've made.  That's right, I don't really bake cookies, but I am always getting new cutters!!  Well, they're not just for cutting cookie dough.  I like to use them with fondant.... So that's when I started to piece together my idea for this cake.  I'm really happy with it!

The fluffy clouds make me smile. :)

Sarah

Woo Pig Sooie!

Woooooooooooooooooo Pig! Sooie!

I LOVE football season!  It is my favorite season of the year!  To celebrate the first game, I made these cute razorback cupcakes.  They were so much fun! (and quite tasty, if I'm allowed to say...)  I am now obsessed with my new buttercream frosting, so this was a good one to load it on!

GO HOGS!

Sarah

Pop!

I just finished an order for 45 cake pops... Phew!  It was actually a lot of fun, and I learned a lot. :)  That seems to be a reoccuring theme with my cooking/baking.  But that's what keeps it interesting, huh?  Not only did I make the cake pops, but I made the display box, as well. 

And there just happened to be a couple extras.... ;)

Funfetti :)

I like to call it "quality control".  I mean, you gotta do what you gotta do!

Sarah

Oh My Ganache!

I just had a delicious lunch....

I have found a new favorite chocolate cake recipe!!  It's sooo yummy!  It is double chocolate; I used Ghiradelli chocolate chips in it.  This is also my very first bundt cake.  I made a Ghiradelli chocolate ganache to pour over the chocolate cake and added chocolate covered strawberries for a fancy touch.  

I guess to be a nice blogger, I should share my recipes, huh? :)


The Best Chocolate Cake Ever
Check out Kevin and Amanda's Blog

1 box devil’s food cake mix
1 small pkg Jello instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a very large bowl, mix together everything except chocolate chips. Batter will be thick. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour batter into cake pan of choice.

For cooking time, I use the cooking times on the back of the devil’s food cake box as a guide and usually add 10 mins to whatever it says. Then I do the toothpick check, and if it’s not done, I check on it every 5 mins after that. 

Chocolate Ganache
I randomly found this while google-ing. :)

3 oz  bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 tablespoon corn syrup
1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter

In a small saucepan, bring the cream to a boil. In a heatproof bowl, combine the remaining 3 ounces of chopped chocolate with the corn syrup and butter. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let stand until melted, about 5 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Let the ganache glaze cool until thick but still pourable, about 5 minutes.

Pour the ganache over the cooled cake.Let the cake stand until the glaze is set, at least 30 minutes, before serving.


You will not regret making this.  It's actually very easy, so impress somebody!  I did the strawberries the simple way... melted chocolate bark and dipped.  That's it!

Enjoy!

Sarah

Happy Birthday, Dixie!

My Grandparent's puppy, Dixie, had a birthday last week.  Since my Mom was on her way to visit them, Grey (my puppy) and I decided to send her a cake. :)  I have made Grey puppy-friendly sweets before, but this one was for humans only... but we decorated it for her.

Mom helped me design it.  We made the border a leash.  I was so excited to use my new luster dust!  Coolest. Stuff. Ever.  That's how we got the buckle of the leash to look like metal.

I have a fabulous Mom who traveled all morning with this cake box.  The cake was able to have it's own seat on the first leg of the flight. haha

The cake under the seat during take-off and landing for safety.  :) :)

And finally, the best Mom ever, letting the cake sit on her lap for the last part of the trip.

I haven't seen a picture of it since it made it to Grandma and Granddad's, so hopefully it made it without much turbulence damage. ;)  Thank you, Mom, for agreeing to take the cake all the way to Indiana!!  You're the Best!

I hope you enjoyed the adventure of my furthest delivery!

Sarah

Hippity Hop Hop

Easter's... already past, but I'm still eating my candy, so I'm still allowed to post about Easter, right? :)

I made a few Easter cakes and cookies, and I wanted to share them with you.  We were headed to my parents' house, so I was able to do some "long distance" deliveries. :)  It was very nice of our friends from home to think of me.

The first was an order for Peep cupcakes; pretty straight forward, but I loved the colors with the Peeps on top!

I made a fondant-covered cake with glittery Easter eggs around the edge for our friend's first grandbaby.

I also made a strawberry Easter cake with fresh strawberries between the layers... B and I almost ate this one before delivering it. :/

I also enjoyed making treats for our family and my brother-in-law's family.  I made bunny cookies for the Easter Bunny to put in our baskets ;), egg cookies to be used as place cards at lunch, and flower cookie cupcake toppers.  Sugar overload?  I'll let the family answer that one.

This was my first try at decorating with royal icing, so I know I have a long way to go, but I really enjoyed it.  I'll definitely be trying it out again.

I hope you all had a great Easter!  We had a lot of fun hanging out with our family, going to church together, and having a wonderful lunch... and desserts. :)  Oh, and of course we had an Easter egg hunt, too!  

Have a great week, everybody!

Sarah

Baking Bucket List

Before I get started, I need to tell you how excited I am about my first blog shout-out!  Elizabeth, from Many Faithful Journeys, shared my blog with her readers.  You should check her out!  I love her humor, her take on life, and her pugs are just the cutest. :)

Ok, so this is a work in progress, but I figured I should put it in writing (or at least virtual writing) so I'll get started.  The following is a "bucket list" of things I want to bake/cook.  I know the best goals have a deadline, but for now, I don't.  I want this to be something I enjoy and not something I stress over.  So here's what I've got for now.  Please comment any suggestions for additions to the list.  Thanks! :)

* Macarons

* Woven pie crust

* Wedding Cake

* Petits Fours

* Granny's Rolls

* Pizza Dough

I know this is short... I want to hear your ideas.  What's on your list?  Or what is something you are proud of for making?

I couldn't post without a pictures, so I guess I chose this one because I was excited to learn how to make calla lilies, our wedding flower. :)
Looking forward to hearing from YOU!

Sarah

Swimming in Frosting!

No how-to's this week!  I will give you a photo-filled post with all the cakes I've been working on lately. :)

First, I had my niece's birthday.  She wanted a guitar cake that matched her own guitar for her 50's themed party.

Then, I made a fun zebra cake for a girl at work to surprise her daughter on her birthday.

Then my other niece picked out a cake in a magazine for me to use for her candy themed birthday party.





Sunday I helped host a baby shower with the girls from our Life Group at church.  This cake matches the bedding she picked out.

So, I guess you could say I've stayed a little busy lately.  I'm excited about the cakes I have coming up.  I'll keep you posted.

Side note: I went to see Hairspray with Jenny Saturday night at The Rep.  It was soooo fun!!!  If you are in the area over the next few weeks, you should go!

I hope you all have a great week!

Sarah



Breakfast? Snack? Both...

I have really enjoyed using my KitchenAid mixer I got for Christmas.  I'm always looking for an excuse to make something with it.  I found a really simple quick bread recipe that is so yummy! 

Marbled Cinnamon Sugar Quick Bread
(adapted from food.com)

I doubled the recipe and made one regular size loaf and four mini loaves.  I'm leaving it as a single recipe on this post to make it easy. :)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 cups flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° and grease and flour a 9x5x3" loaf pan.

Mix 1/3 cup sugar and cinnamon together and set aside.

Combine flour, baking powder, salt and remaining 1 cup sugar in a large bowl.

Combine egg, milk and oil and add to flour mixture.

Stir until moistened.

Pour half the batter into prepared loaf pan.

Sprinkle with half the cinnamon sugar mixture.

Repeat with remaining batter and cinnamon mixture, then draw a knife through batter to marble.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove and cool on a wire rack.

Wrap and store bread overnight before slicing.

Breakfast is served... Enjoy! :)

Sarah

Jackpot!

I found it.  The. Best. Chocolate Chip Cookie. Ever.  I loooove chocolate chip cookies!  I've never been too picky about them... Chips Ahoy, refridgerated Pillsbury, home-made Toll House... I love them all.  But this is it!  This one tops them all.  Here we go.  Are you ready to try a cookie that will change your life? 


Yummmmmmmmm

This recipe was adapted from Savory Sweet Life.  I was blog stalking, as I've already admitted to doing often, and somehow came across Alice's blog.  She has amazing recipes and very good pictures and writing skills.  I've enjoyed picking out many things that will most likely show up on my blog before too long.  You should check her out... and then make these cookies! :) 

I was excited all day looking forward to baking these cookies.  But right before I got started, I got scared that I had bought into all the hype and would end up disappointed.  On the contrary.  They met and exceded all my expectations.  Enough with the talking.  Here's how you can get in on this crunchy, yet chewy, chocolatey... sweet and salty... ooey, gooey goodness.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 3/4 cups (12 oz) all-purpose flour *Highly recommended weighing the flour

3/4 tsp. coarse sea salt *NOT table salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

2 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips *This is about 18oz, so go with the big bag or two regular sized bags (There will be leftover if using 2 small bags... Too bad, huh? ;) )

 Did I mention this is a lot of chocolate??

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to 360 degrees.  (Not a type-o.  360.)  Cream butter, sugar, and dark brown sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes on med-high speed.

Add both eggs and vanilla and beat for an additional 2 minutes.

Add baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour until all mixed.  It's getting pretty thick!  Now add the mountain of chocolate chips.


I dare you not to taste the dough.

Drop scoops of cookie dough on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.  (How have I lived without parchment paper until now?!)  Bake 10-12 minutes, until edges are brown.

Place cookie sheet on a cooling rack for 2 minutes.  Then slide entire parchment paper onto counter top to continue cooling.  I know you'll want to eat one of these things while they're hot out of the oven.  I won't tell you not to because I did, and it was wonderful.  But I will tell you that they are even better (if you can believe that, at this point) when they are a bit more cooled and have become slightly chewy in the middle. 

Now stop whatever you are doing, and go to your kitchen.  You probably already have all of these ingredients.  If you don't have 2 cabinets and 1 side of your pantry dedicated to baking, like I do, then run to Kroger real quickly, and grab what you need.  Bake up some goodies, and let me know what you think.  I can't wait to hear from you all!!

Sarah

Waste Not, Want Not

I was voicing my concern of the "wasted" cake when I level them to make layered cakes, when my brilliant friend suggested cake balls.  Of course!

There was A LOT of extra cake after making this!

So, here is my first tutorial. :)  BTW, you don't have to use "extra" cake; you can actually bake a cake just to make the cake balls. 

First, crumble up the cake in a bowl, and scoop in whatever flavor icing you want.  (The best part of this recipe is there are no measurements.)

Then mix it up till it's not cakey any more.  You won't want it too creamy, though, just because it will be hard to shape.

Since I had two different kinds of leftover cake, I made two different kinds of cake balls.  I just used whatever I had in my cabinet, so I made yellow cake with chocolate icing and chocolate cake with cream cheese icing.

I save my sprinkles from the Funfetti icing cans to use whenever I want. :)

Next, roll the dough into little balls and place on a platter or cookie sheet and refrigerate to harden a bit.

If you skip this step they'll fall apart when you dip them.

After you can touch them without them easily losing shape or getting all over your fingers, melt your chocolate and begin dipping... Here's where I forgot to take pictures. :/  You pretty much just drop them in the chocolate and use a fork to make sure they get completely covered.  Then place them on wax paper to harden. 

I used brown almond bark on my yellow cake/chocolate frosting balls and white almond bark on my chocolate cake/cream cheese frosting balls.

I put a few sprinkles on top to jazz them up a bit.  Yum-O!  Try them out.  So easy and makes you look so good! :)

Let me know if you make them!  I'd love to hear how impressed all your friends are. :)

Sarah



Delivery!

I have a cake to deliver for FGC tomorrow.  I'm excited about this one because I was able to incorporate fondant decorations for the first time.  The only direction I had was the age of the boy... 12!  What a tough age.  I didn't want to pick a sport and choose the wrong one.  I didn't want to do something I thought was "cool" and he think it's "lame", so I went with blue and simple.

I guess I got a little bake-happy and decided to do 3 layers, 2 cake flavors, and 2 frosting flavors... I wish I was invited to the party now.

yellow, chocolate fudge, yellow

I leveled them and stacked them with chocolate frosting in between each layer.  Later, I'll show you what a did with all most of the leftover cake!  Then I frosted the outside with my homemade vanilla buttercream icing and smoothed it out with a magical Viva papertowel... They have a special spot in the pantry, and no one is to use them for anything but smoothing icing. :)  Yes, THAT magical.

Then the fun part: playing "play-doh".

 

Then toss them on the cake wherever they land, add a name and border.  I hope he likes it!

Happy Birthday, Kevin!