The Domestic Sugar Bake Shop

General Grievous: The Cake

2012-01-22T20:28:00.003-06:00

This was quite an ambitious cake to make. I sat for a while with my friend Penny, trying to figure out a way to accommodate her son's party theme: Lego Star Wars. The big request came from her son's favorite Character: General Grievous...

Last year, I made a Pablo Backyardigans cake for her son, but this year, since he's growing up so fast, he wanted something a little more boyish and a little less childish. We settled on making something with General Grivous.... like this:

This was a cool cake to make, but had all sorts of little problems to overcome. Since they wanted Chocolate cake, I had to work through using chocolate cake and icing with WHITE MMF. That is no easy task! There was CHOCOLATE EVERYWHERE! I was battling to keep the fondant nice and pristine. Then there was the issue with the light sabres, and keeping them round. Oh boy, let me tell you: Think about the structure and have a strong idea. Even though I had doling in the swords, they still flopped a little, and the fondant did not keep its shape all that well. (╧__╧;)

The final product, while a little awkward in places, was actually okay to make. This is my first cake since my back injury, so I was pleased to make it. Sadly, my back began to act up, but luckily, I got everything done. The biggest challenge was making all the 'gears' and 'mechanisms' in his legs and arms. I knew that it would be difficult, and wanted to fit the most cake into this cake as possible, so I ended up with solid pieces with piped and fondant-covered details. Not bad.

I was planning a how-to, but when you get into the grove, you really move. It was mostly well-placed cake pieces and covered in chocolate buttercream and fondant. Ah well. It was a neat little project, which was well enjoyed!
Happy Birthday Zander!

BEST MUFFIN EVER: Snickerdoodle with Caramel-Apple filling

2012-01-17T19:06:00.002-06:00

Hey All.

This is my new favorite Muffin recipe of all time. It had been making its way around Pintrest, and I just had to give it a try. I did not regret my decision!

This muffin is called the Snickerdoodle, not to be confused with the cookie version of the same name. The absolute best part about this muffin is how moist it is. I have seen so many recipes where the muffins were like bricks, thick and chewy. This muffin is moist and spongy. PERFECT.

As it stands, the recipe is perfect, but can you imagine what would make cinnamon and sugar better... APPLES AND CARAMEL! No really, my Hubbie fell over backwards over these muffins. I had to give up a little on my not-so-resolute-resolution, but it was totally worth it.

♥ Snickerdoodle Muffins ♥
Adapted from eat me, delicious

2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon cream of tartar
¾ teaspoon nutmeg
2 sticks butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ¼ cup sour cream

Topping:
½ cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking pan (cuppies) with wrappers if desired, or spray.

Mix Flour, Tartar, baking powder, baking soda, and nutmeg.

Cream butter and sugar, add egg and vanilla. Slowly incorporate dry ingredients and sour cream until smooth (use spatula on the sides and bottom of the bowl to be sure).

Mix 'topping' (cinnamon and sugar) in a small bowl.
Using an ice-cream scoop, and scoop an amount and place in the 'topping' bowl. Roll batter around to coat (or simply place cinnamon/sugar in the bottom of the cuppie tin and sprinkle liberally on top).

Bake for 20-25 minutes (or until light brown on sides/top). Cool.

Yield: 24 Muffins.

Want to step it up a notch? Keep reading!

At about the point that the muffins were cooking was when Hubbie suggested a dessert with apples and caramel. That got my brain in a tizzy. I thought... CINNAMON, SUGAR, APPLES AND CARAMEL... IT'S A PIE IN A MUFFIN'S FORM!

So, I began to make up the caramel. It's super simple!

Caramel/Apple filling

1/2 c BUTTER (Must be butter)
1c brown sugar
1 large apple ( granny smith (best) or Macintosh).
1 tsp vanilla

Cut apple into small cubes. Place butter and brown sugar, vanilla and apples in a thick-bottomed saucepan. On Low-Medium heat, melt butter and sugar until the sugar begins to boil lightly. Stir often! Continue to bubble on low for 5 minutes, or until much of the water from the apples has been cooked off and the mixture is smooth. Let cool (not completely) until warm.

Core the muffins (take the centers out with a knife... eat them! EAT THEM!) Pour apple/caramel mix into the centers of your muffins. If you wish, garnish with walnuts or Pecans for a nice contrast in texture/flavor.

EAT THEM! \(휴﹃휴) /

You will seriously not regret making these muffins. I have never seen a muffin so wonderful, so moist and so scrumptious. The apples and caramel are DIVINE! The thing I liked the most was the simplicity. As you can tell, things have been pretty busy, and I've not had a lot of time to bake. From start to finish, this recipe took one hour. That's all! When time is precious, you need to make something that will be amazing as well as time efficient.

Hope you all enjoy!!

Hooo Will Always Love you ?

2012-01-06T15:20:00.003-06:00

YAY! I'm back to baking. I have to admit that this break was lacking greatly in this way... I really, REALLY wanted to do some baking, but had no way to, which was sad.

So, now to start this year off right! My first real post of the year (Minus the 10 for 2011 post I did just after the New Year). Owls are awesome, and I am cheesy enough that I like playing with their name.

Yeah, That's right! Silly sayings make everything better. I told you all on my Last Owl Cookie Post that I like to say silly things like Owl Always Love you. This time, however, I did not offer to do the dishes and instead spent the entire time creating a large sink full of piping bags, tips, spatulas, and bowls filled with rock-hard royal icing (which washes away with water... after soaking). One of the best things about cookies is the colours. I love adding different colours, but the problem will always be my reluctance to do the dishes afterwards.

Looking up above, you will see the owls I created, one looks a little angry, but I like his crest. I keep thinking he is the daddy owl, and that those two beside him are the baby owls looking cute. I wanted to do a different kind of cookie this time, a round picture cookie, but I wanted to play with the owls as well, so I took a look through Google Images to see the different looks, and I didn't find anything of what I imagined. I instead took out a sheet of paper, and sketched out a design... then piped it together:

Of course the last thing I do is sketch in the details. Not a huge thing, but I got lazy and stopped taking pictures. You can fill in the blanks as to what came next.

How, I have had so many people asking me about my royal icing recipe, and I never know how to tell them that I don't have one, not written down anyway. I have tried to fill in recipes for this in the past, but now I just eye-ball it. I do have a formula for it, but it is loose.

Royal Icing a-la-Domestic Sugar
(Yeild... lots, enough for a few piping bags at least)

5 tbsp Meringue Powder
1/3th c water

Dissolve Meringue Powder in the water, using a blender to froth it a little. Make sure that there are no 'crystals' of the powder left... some brands are granular in texture, try to use something like Wilton - though I hate to say it - as it is a better brand). Once it is dissolved...

1tbsp flavor (or equiv. I sometimes use flavor oils as they have a wonderful full, unique flavor... in those cases, use a drop or two).
3-5 c powdered sugar/Icing sugar
extra water (1/2c ?)

This is where things become different. Because icing can have different textures, you will need to eye-ball it to make it the way you want it. I use the 3 second test. If you add and mix up your icing, and you want it to be like the owls above (thick without boarders), then mix it up and run a spatula through it; count to three or five, or give it a little shake. If the icing has flattened out and you cannot see any lines sticking up, you are golden. If you can see lines, add a few drops extra water... and if it runs flat right away, add more Powdered Sugar.

What I suggest is that you find what works for you. Many people out there who try flood cookies make very thin flood, trying to extend the life of what they have, and in truth, you will get a cookie with a boarder that is higher than the middle design. That is less attractive. Try to use a thicker flood whenever possible, that way the flood actually balances on top of the boarder line. Looking below, at the old owls, you can see that I piped a line around the cookie shape, then flooded it (rather than above where I didn't use a line at all to outline). You can see that the flood is thick, and above the line; you want that! The flood is thick and rich, it is not thin at all. Thinner Floods will dry and cave in.

Well, in truth, I am not actually sure if my recipe helps in the least. I am not scientific about the flood. I just go with whatever I like. For example, below, on the cards, I used a thick flood (No lines necessary) and a thick, stiff icing (less , way less water) to pipe the words. Icing is not an exact science, and wherever you live, be it humid or cold like here, affects the icing. Just play around with the water/sugar ratio and see what happens. If you look at one of my first cookies, you can see that they are also not well filled with icing.

Okay, this post is wordy. Maybe some of you read it though and found it helpful maybe some of you didn't. I just home that you enjoyed the pictures at very least.

I wonder what I am going to do next... hmm? Any suggestions \(°˛° ) ?

Top 10 for 2011

2012-01-01T14:07:00.003-06:00

Hey Everyone!

Been having a ball this break, but I am super exhausted now. Instead of baking (of which I still have tonnes), I am doing my yearly 10 for the year.

Coming in at Number one is my first Rapunzel/Tangled Cake. I love this cake. It was my first big project of the year and it was absolutely fun. I am surprised at how popular it is, and am super glad that people like it.

My Little Lambs made quite the stir. I love the effect of the bubbles for fluffy wool.

And Who does not like these little Chickies, all snuggly warm in their carton.

My personal favorite was actually my Birthday cake for this year past: The Slice of Cake Cake.

My Car Crash Cupcakes told the wonderful story about how we need to get a new car :)

Owl cookies are super popular, and apparently, so were the Owls I made for my School's pot-luck.

And this year, being the year of Tutorials, was a great one for my small Cupcake Cake Tutorial.

This post is a favorite: The Cuppy Bear I made for a guest tutorial. Super cute!

And this Year's painted Grinch Cookies was pretty awesome as well.

And finally, let's not forget the Uncanny Valley Head Cake, which freaked out my kids and coworkers alike.

Well, those are my 10 for 2011. What did you do this past year?

Max, the Grinch's Dog - is that his name?

2011-12-23T06:54:00.003-06:00

No really, most people forget that the dog's name in the Grinch is Max. May be it is because I am a little silly, but I can't forget that kind of important information.

Anyway, ::
DOES A HAPPY DANCE ::
♪♪Tomorrow is Christmas Eve! ♪♪

For my Family, the eve is the most important day of the year. I am super excited! And now that our school's Christmas Concert is over, I can finally take a deep breath and enjoy it.

I was supposed to post these cookies up a few days ago, but found that I had NO time. I had a lot of those kinds of plans. So, here is the final cookie. Only two pictures of the process, but by now, you should be able to understand how I did it:

I may not have time to post over the Holiday season (But I have more cookies to post), so I am wishing you all a very Happy Christmas, Hanukkah or just the best for the season.

Sleigh Riding Max

2011-12-20T19:30:00.003-06:00

Well, apparently SANTA exists here in Fort Fabulous! A little fairy dropped a gift at my door to reveal a brand new PlayBook! HURRAH! An E-reader Has I! Totally having a blast playing with it and almost forgot to update today. Sorry!

This scene comes from Max riding on the back of the Grinch's sleigh. I love this scene, poor Max, just wants to go for a ride, like all puppies do!

Anyway, fewer pictures on this one, sorry! Even less for the last post tomorrow.

For this one, I followed the same technique.

Again, outline using the foodcolour (mixed with white), then dark line (with foodcolour - I am not sure if the food doodlers are the best quality, but you could try them), then fill in the detail.

Okay, that's enough for today! I am going back to play with my new toy!
THANKS SANTA!

Cindy Loo Hoo w Wreath Painted Tutorial

2011-12-19T18:44:00.003-06:00

Breaking down the cookies now! This is tutorial Number THREE!

For tutorials Number One and Two, just click on the numbers.

Let us continue, shall we?

The last Cindy Loo Hoo cookie was sort of sad. I didn't want to leave her looking like that, so I had to make one of her happy after Christmas comes back. So, I decided to do a cookie with her holding the Christmas Wreath.

I start by using a 'pale peach' foodcolour (mix a small bit of pink, yellow brown, and quite a bit of white). I use this for her face shape, just to give me an idea of where everything will go in the end.

Next, I ink in the black lines. In the below picture, I forgot to stop, and I had actually drawn in her hair. You can choose to do that before or after the black. I caution you to make sure each colour is dry before continuing: it will take about 3 minutes for the 'paint' to dry.

It really helps to have a good reference picture!

Next, after the black is all dry, I start to add in the colours. I dabbed on the green to give the illusion of a fluffy wreath (thicker paints will help with shading.

Finally, I add in shines and small details.
FINITO!

I took these pictures while the cookies were still wet. As they dry, the food color gets more glossy and less shiny. Sorry about the bad photo conditions.

I had my students vote on which cookie they liked the most. They all liked MAX best. I'm going to save that one for last. I have two more days to cover.

Until Tomorrow!

Cindy Loo Hoo Cookie, Painted Tutorial

2011-12-18T19:19:00.004-06:00

Hey All!
One week to go! For today's cookie tutorial, I planned to post up the Cindy step-by-step. The original picture has Cindy Loo holding a tree ornament and looking sadly at the Grinch. I love the look in her eye, it is so sad and she look so cute. I just want to HUG her.

Before I start, Trish from Sweetology101 asked a good question about what I use to paint on cookies. Simply put, a very fine-tipped paintbrush. The one below is the one I use, and it is OLD! I got it from Walmart, but truthfully, I need to invest in one from a craft store, since it will probably hold together better than this one. Either way, this one is great, if not a little weather-beaten. Hope that helps.

Now, on to Cindy Loo.

I started by combining some colours into a light peach: Lots of White, red, yellow and a touch of brown. I used that to paint the face in the background. Then, using a bright yellow, I painted in the hair. In this picture, you can see the between stages; I've put in the yellow hair, and the face colour, and I'm just beginning to line the black around the head. I had a picture taken before this, but it did not turn out well.

There, now I've got the face, hair and body all outlined.

Now I start adding in the details. Again, using a thicker colour, or a darker shade, you can shade around the edges to simulate shadows. For the Eyes, I used a blue mixed with white to thicken, this way, you can cover over any colours underneath.

Final Details, and DONE!

Below, you can see the difference in using the white to thicken the paint colour. In the Grinch's face, I used just green food colour; you can see that the colours are not as pronounced or cartoonish. After making that particular cookie, I realized that I needed the white, so I switched my tactic. White is important, but not essential.

Hope you all enjoy this last week. Hope it passes quickly. Until Tomorrow!

The Grinch - Painted Cookie Tutorial

2011-12-17T22:31:00.003-06:00

Hey All! Coming down to the crunch! Christmas is here soon!

These are my latest creation. I figured I should try something a little different, since I have very little time. While making a batch of cookies for a friends, I made 5 round cookies and decided to paint them rather than pipe them. Here's what I did:

Painting cookies is super easy. Many people would have heard of "Food Doodle" food grade markers. I like them, but they are nowhere as nice as the colours you can get out of the gel food colours (Specifically Americolor). To Paint on cookies, all you need is a good work surface, a pre-flooded cookie (Royal Icing that has hardened to create a canvas surface on the cookie), water, food gels (best is Americolor because the bottles are easier than Wilton's pots), and a very fine-tipped paintbrush.

You can put a small amount of gel-colour on a plate or on a pallet, it is up to you. I use a little bit of water to dilute the 'paint' and make it easier to draw with, but be careful, too much water will be hard to work with. If you put too much water, you also run the risk of it eating through the sugar in the flood. That means that you'll get a small hole in the cookie where the sugar was. That is not something that you can fix easily.

For today, I'm going to show you the Grinch cookie. Each day I'll post a new cookie with a quick look at how it came together.

Start by painting the green background. This may require a picture or a very good eye for what you want to do. Be creative! I used darker shades on the edges (thicker, undiluted paint colours) to map out the parts I will black/outline.

Next, I clean off my brush, then paint in the details/outlines. This part, again, takes some creativity.
To get the best colour, I like to mix the colour of paint with a white base of foodcolour. Again, Ameicolour white is essential to get good colours. You don't need it, but you will find that it will give a clearer look to the painting.
Mistakes can be fixed by dipping the paintbrush in water (pure water) and dabbing at the area. You can paint over it again with the green if you wish. I used a picture as a reference, but, again, you don't have to. If you are doing a different picture or just playing around, that's great!

LET THE BLACK DRY!
(Otherwise you may smear it with a top colour)

Now, I add in the other colours. For this, again, using white is great. As you can see, I added SOME white into the hat, it gives a little contrast. If you paint out of the lines, whatever. You can use the water trick and dab it away, or leave it like I did!

Finally, I touch up and adjust; using a little white, I add some shines in the lips and face. This gives a little more depth to the cookie and makes the painting pop.

And there you have it! Not too shabby. Painting on cookies is a nice way to make a simple cookie, and it takes less time to get a detailed product. Often, when I'm piping a cookie, I have to wait a day to see the project through to the end. This cookie took about 10 minutes to finish. Obviously you'll not want to make 100 of them, but for a quick dozen, or for a fun way to pass the time (maybe with kids) painting on cookies is great!

See you tomorrow with a Cindy-Loo Hoo cookie.

Spicy Orange Gingerbread Cookies (Recipe)

2011-12-14T21:13:00.002-06:00

I love the colours of Christmas! They are the best! Rich greens, reds, and silvers are a wonderful addition to any home.
Along with all those rich colours are the rich smells: Cookies freshly baked, Turkey piping hot, delicious sweet yams or fresh soups. It is a wonderful season indeed.

As promised, I am sharing yet another recipe from my yearly Christmas Box. These cookies are a staple in any home in the festive season: Gingerbread. Be it in cookie or in house form, I love the smell they give, and how sweet they are!

This recipe is one I've used forever. It is a rich, orange, spicy gingerbread that is quite unlike any other I've ever had. It also hold up to its shape. You can see above my snowflakes kept their shape, which is key for making houses etc.

Orange Spicy Gingerbread

1/2 c margerine
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c molasses (I use fancy type, but whatever works)
1 egg yolk (Save the white for the icing)
2 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp grated orange zest

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Put parchment on the cookie sheet.

1. Combine margerine and sugar, add in molasses, zest and egg yolk. Set aside.

2. Combine dry ingredients (Spices, flour, and salt).

3. Incorporate slowly the dry mix into the wet. Stir until all ingredients are well mixed.

4. Take mixture, and chill for at least one hour (or overnight). Remove from fridge and roll half the dough on a lightly flowered surface. Use cutters to cut shapes and bake for 8-10 minutes until firm. Remove from oven and cool. Do the same for the second half of the mix.

Yield: 30 cookies?

ENHANCE, ENHANCE, ZOOM, ENHANCE!

The above photo is super Photoshopped so that you can see the detail. The problem with my camera is that it is horrid in low light (a constant problem in my small apartment).

I hope you give the recipe a shot! If you do, tell me what you think.
Until then!

A very Sweet Christmas (With Recipes)

2011-12-12T19:09:00.007-06:00

Happy Christmas all!

I can finally take a breather, all my Christmas baking is finally complete. Three days of solid baking made me so very sleepy, but the responses are always worth it.

What did I bake? From Left to Right:

1. (Not pictured) Caramel Butter Bars
2. Spicy Gingerbread
3. Chocolate Crinkles
4. Snickerdoodles
5. Baileys Cake Balls
6. Turtles
7. Peppermint Patties
9. Scottish Shortbread
10. (Not Pictured - see below) Gluten Free fudge Cookies

Over the next couple of days I'd like to get my recipes up so you can enjoy them. Please be patient with me for the time being. I'll try to get one up every couple of days.

Some of the articles are missing because a lazy-bum decided to take a picture before they were boxed up. If you scroll down, you'll see the Gluten Free cookies.

Making gift-baking-boxes is the most wonderful thing, and the most stressful. I love baking delicious treats, but find that three days of baking straight is totally exhausting. Yesterday, I was practically a zombie (which those who know me will think is awesome) trying to get everything packaged and ready for delivery. Today, I played Santa with my wonderful Blue Recycle bag delivering boxes of treats to all my close friends. I believe that between the 25 small boxes and the two large, I baked somewhere between 20-30 dozen cookies. I kept telling myself that I was totally running low on baked goodies, and that I needed more. That was a joke! I have tones of leftovers.

The best part of baking this year was making something new. This recipe I found on Pinterest: Gluten-Free Chocolate Fudge Cookies (also pictured in the box are the Peppermint Patties, which are also gluten-free).

This is a recipe I just had to Share! Even though they are gluten free, they are more like Brownie Cookies, very chewy and sweet.

Flourless Chocolate Cookies
Originally posted from Chocolate and Carrots

3 c Powdered Sugar (Beware of additives in this! Cornstarch is okay)
2/3c dark cocoa powder (unsweetened)
1/8 tsp salt
2 to 4 large egg whites
1 tbsp vanilla
1c chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment, and spray parchment with non-stick coating (this is necessary)

2. In a large bowl, mix powdered sugar and cocoa. Whisk in vanilla, salt and egg-whites, starting with just two, you can add more if necessary.
IMPORTANT: The batter should be just moist, and thick like brownie batter. It should not flow like water, but should be thick but a little runny. If it is not this way, add another egg white or two if necessary.

3. Add in chocolate Chips. Stir, and use a teaspoon to place batter on the cookie sheet. Space them well, as they spread.

Bake 9-12 minutes, remove and let cool completely. (Yield 30 cookies).

THESE ARE AMAZING. Seriously, you do not need to have a gluten problem to enjoy them.

Now, here's my favorite part. I promised a while back that I would post up a picture of my tree. It is finally done. I had to pick up some new bulbs and a few extra flowers to fill it in, but I finally feel comfortable showing it off.

Here's wishing you all the very best of the season. It may seem trivial, but it gives me great joy to know that this blog has people who read it; to me, the greatest gift is your patronage. Thank you all so much for making Domestic Sugar what it is.

Cheers!

Simple Christmas Cookies and Flying in the North

2011-12-08T20:02:00.004-06:00

Hey everyone. Around this time, people are super super busy getting ready for Christmas, and even I can lose track of time. Fear not, I have not negated my baking duties. Actually, this past weekend I took a trip down to Toronto, Ontario == THE BIG CITY == for some curriculum development (OH WHAT FUN). Anyway, since I was meeting a friend down there, I decided to bring down some Christmas baking. While the cookies are not super fancy, they were very beautiful.

I like the way the trees were done. I love the look of non-lined cookies. Sometimes, you can choose to do a flood icing that has a border to keep the icing in as it dries. I find that this is a stylistic feature. Some cookies really look great with this technique, other times I find that having no border at all is better. This look (the one above) uses a flood icing that is a little bit thicker than a normal flood, but not as thick as a border icing. The difference is that when you pipe or flood it, the Icing will settle in about 2 seconds (flowing outward) then will begin to dry immediately. It's a little more tricky to use, but the look, as I said, makes the difference.

To make the trees, I simply made a the top and middle layers of the trees, let them dry an hour, then added the second middle and bottom layers. It makes the tree look like it's fluffy and thick.

I bought these Christmas bulb cutters two years ago and have been too afraid to use it because they are so tiny. I enjoyed the fine-art piping! I think that it looks so elegant.

And Finally, these are my yearly tradition. These snowflakes look beautiful and are super easy to make. When I make my Christmas boxes (of baking), I find that the cookies are the part people love the most. Each cookie takes no time at all, and depending on the creativity, can be quite elegant. Since I made chocolate cookies this year, I thought I'd play with the colours a little.

Now, as I said before, I was in Toronto. I had a blast! There were so many things to look at that I found myself a little overwhelmed. I am like a fish or a raven: If it shines, I want to touch it. You can only imagine my glee at seeing the Eaton Center's gorgeous Christmas displays. In addition to sparkling snowflakes and bright lights, the mall was peppered with giant, 30 feet tall reindeer. It was super exciting to get photos!

And of course, they they had to have an amazing tree as well. The tree in the background (BEHIND MY BELOVED CHAPTERS STORE) was COVERED in Swarovski crystal snowflakes and gems. It was so stunning. Beside me is my friend Neil. He was busy arranging dinner plans... I was busy chasing shinies!

Well, I guess the best way to sum up my trip is the below picture. How did I get from my small town to the big city... Well, flying in an airplane is very dangerous, so our school board proposed another means of transportation:

Nah, I'm just kidding! I flew on a big airplane. It was both fun and scary. In Fort, our airlines are amazing, but small. It was bad enough flying Porter air from T.O and having the crazy turbulence that kept our belts on the whole ride, it is quite another thing to take that same type of turbulence and fly in a plane that has 20 seats total. Luckily, my trip to chapters in T.O kept me busy; I love that I can read books! You don't know how much you miss them until you no longer have access to a good book store. :: swoon ::

Christmas Baking starts this weekend. I'm going to get ready now! WHOOHOO!

Homemade Mint Patties 2011

2011-12-01T20:32:00.004-06:00

I love this recipe. Yes, it has been described as delicious diabetes, but there is something magical about how they melt in your mouth, and how that delicious mint flavor is beautifully coloured! Honestly, of all the things I make at Christmas, this one has to be my weakness!

GO TO TUTORIAL HERE

This year, I was asked to make these treats as a tutorial for our local newspaper. While the issue has yet to come out, I just could not stand but to post them up. Since the majority of my readers actually live outside of my small town, I figured a sneak-peak was in order. The newspaper found me through the blog some years back and did a little article on me. They saw the tutorial I made last year for this and decided to ask if I would not do one for them. Since my focus has been on photography, I am trying to make my shots a little more interesting. I also added more colour to my mints by adding a third layer (red, white and green).

Now, I had put up my tree on the weekend, but I've been dragging my heels on taking photos. I am missing some of my ornaments, and really want to wait until I have them up.

To me. the tree is the most exciting part of Chirtmas. Everyone has their traditions. For hubbie and I, the traditions for us are putting up the tree star together (me decorating because everyone knows that wives have some magical tree-decorating powers), taking a photo of me sleeping under the tree (It always happens after the tree goes up! I can't help myself, the ligthts are so twinkly), and having X-Mas Eve breakfast together (because The EVE is the best part of the season). SO far, we've hit two out of the three traditions... It did not take long before a lazy and sick wife found her way under a tree. Either way, I welcome the traditions. As I move through my life, I find myself making more and more of them. And the funny thing is that I look forward to the silly little things.

Looking back at my life, I find there are many things I wish I could change growing up. The truth is, looking at where I am now gives me perspective; I'm a lot further in my life than I thought. Seeing my tree, and looking at my house, I feel blessed to have come this far, especially knowing there were two times when I was not sure I'd make it. My treasured traditions will go on, and so will I. I guess at this time of the year, I am reflective. I apologize. I just really feel happy looking at my tree - which I will post!

Lemon Shortbread Bar

2011-11-23T17:47:00.002-06:00

I think I've made it known that I LOVE PIE!

That's why I decided to combine two of my favorite things, Cookies and PIE into one delicious bar. This elegant treat comes without the crust, and is has a wonderful texture. The end result is lemony heaven!

So, how does one make these delicious treats. Actually, it's very easy!

Lemon Shortbread Bars

For the Crust:
1/2 lb. salted butter room temp
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cups powdered sugar
1 Tbs vanilla
2 cups AP flour

Preheat oven to 325. Cream butter, sugar and powder sugar. Add vanilla and flour until smooth.

Press crust into a lightly greased 9X13 pan. Bake for 20 minutes (or until edges are brown).
Set to cool.

Filling

**if you want to use box, I hear that works too, make to directions and pour over crust.

Home-Made filling YAY!

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups water
5 tablespoons cornstarch
5 large egg yolks
dash salt
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

For filling, whisk sugar, water, and cornstarch in a pot. Whisk in egg yolks and salt and cook over low heat for about 5 minutes, whisking constantly.
Increase heat to medium and, still whisking, cook filling until it begins to bubble just a touch - when it does, remove.
Remove and strain. Stir in lemon zest, lemon juice and dissolve in butter .
Pour mix into cooled shell, let cool before sticking it into the fridge to set (or it will crack).

This elegant bar holds its own on the table, and is quite delicious. No really, it is!
And it's simple too. I say this having made it two days ago before my cold set in. I am currently typing while having two nice kleenex balls shoved up my horribly red nose! Paints a nice picture doesn't it? But really, being sick is the worst. These, are the best!

I love the contrasting ideas of my sickness with these lovely photos. As a blogger, I feel that interesting photography is super important, but living inside a building with very little light (most of which is yellow light) makes photography very difficult. I am always looking for interesting ways to take photos (using whatever props I have). I have found that the best photos are taken at night when I can control the flash on my camera (rather than the indirect sunlight of an afternoon shoot on a north-east facing building). Do I use enough parenthesis (yes)?

Okay, when the typing is bad, it is time for bed. Night everyone. ENJOY!

Movember Moustachioed Macarons

2011-11-20T15:09:00.002-06:00

I have been dieing to do something for Movember. I hate when you don't have as much time as you want. But, c'est la vie! It is especially true considering I don't have kids. Most of my friends who do laugh that I get time at all to bake, so I guess I need to have more compassion and patience.

So, this week given my recent baking trend for co-workers, I decided to do something Gluten Free for the two on staff who never get to taste anything I make. The thing is, I wanted it to have a moustache. What is cuter than a Macaron with a Moustache? (maybe one on a stick!)

I have to admit, Macarons are still a struggle for me. The delectable treat tends to get all finicky in my oven. I love how they look and am still trying to perfect them. These Lemon ones, for example, slid a little in their dome. You can JUST make out the crusty bottom of the Macaron, and there are a few pock-marks on the tops. ZUT!
It is my challenge to eventually get it right!

So, I made several Macarons with Moustaches. These were my favorite: The trucker (aka. handlebars), the Undercover Brother and the Connoisseur. Hubbie can't exactly grow a mustache, but beards are his thing... go figure? My friends and I were all sitting around at a Mexican restaurant in town looking at all the moustaches. It is awesome to see, and yet part of me screams in terror at their mere presence. Our server in particular had an amazing 'stache!

Recently we've begun watching old 70s movies, and I don't know how they did it back then... how was that a trend?!

Well, combining two trends: Moustaches for Movember and Macarons for baking, I believe that I'm getting closer to my goal of making a delicious and perfect Macaron. Maybe in time! Until then, I'm going to serve these up and laugh. Maybe I need some more chocolate moustaches too!

IT'S A DINOSAUR! (cake) RAWR!

2011-11-11T16:00:00.002-06:00

It's been a long week! But a good one! This is probably going to be my last cake for some time. My health is kinda crappy, and I'm finding it too hard to sit for long. Too bad too. But, I must say, it's a cute way to take a break!

This Dinosaur was made for a fellow teacher. Her son is having his first birthday party, and asked for a dinosaur cake based on some plates that she had purchased. He's so cute!

This was my first cake using Rice Crispy treats to mold a shape. Although the head/feet are not that superbly detailed, I think I have a better sense on how to shape with the materials. Super excited about that! But... ITSADINOSAUR \(♥◒♥)/

I mean, really, how can you resist this face?

Dies of sugary cuteness! For this cake, I used my vanilla butter combined with a white-chocolate cake recipe. It is white through and through, except for his MMF-covered body. The cake on the side was a cute touch. It's the smoosh cake for her child. He's gonna mess that little guy up. I devised a way of adding it to the cake board as a decoration, but it pulls off easily so that when the time comes, he can eat it all up.. Smart right? (ﾉ◉ヮ◉)ﾉ<(YAY)

So, that's it for cakes for a while I think. The problem is that I love making them so much, that it is actually hard to turn down friends who want cakes. It actually makes me sad, like in my heart. At least I get to make cookies (maybe not super decorated ones though...) SIGH (= o=)/

Hope everyone has a super weekend!

Halloween Shadow Cookies

2011-11-05T17:45:00.003-05:00

Okay, I am well aware that Halloween is officially over, but I thought I'd give it one last post.

Last year I made Bat Cookies on a Stick, so this year, I decided to make something different:
Enter The Shadow Cookie!

You see, I live in a sad apartment in the middle of nowhere. The thing about Halloween is that the only children we see are those who live in the apartment; generally they come by to show their costumes before they go to the busier streets. Anyway, long story short, I don't buy candy. Instead, I make and give out cookies. I usually write my address on the bag anyway, but people know who I am here. :)

Thanks Arty McGoo for the great inspiration!
These cookies are really easy! I simply used food a white flood for the back, then dry-brushed on some food colouring for the background colour. Finally, I used diluted black colour to paint on the front picture.

Honestly, I like the witchy-moons the best.

Hubbie found the scary yellow the best.

When I look at these, I always think of "Scary Stories to tell in the Dark", You know, those spooky books with the great art that everyone read when they were young?

Okay, Halloween is over. Now it's time to get into the Christmas spirit. Hubbie has a rule; no Christmas in the house until November is over... luckily, a friend of mine brought some Christmas in when she bought me some beautiful snowflakes for my window! LOVELY!

Until next time!

The Uncanny Valley - Head Cake

2011-10-31T17:30:00.004-05:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

This cake was my fun!

For years now, I've wanted to make a head cake, or a zombie cake; this year, I followed my dreams! My husband took one look at this and judged it! His response: It is horrid! Not in the bad way, but in the Uncanny Valley way.
The uncanny valley is a theory of robotics where things look so real that they are disturbing, rather than interesting.
Hubbie was disgusted, as were my coworkers!

I wanted originally to do a step-by-step, but I didn't. Sorry! Instead, I took a few photos, well, my husband did, and I can show you the parts.

I started out with three 6-inch cakes, stacked them in a slanty way, and began to carve them into the shape of a face.

Next, and this is where I could not take photos, I used my 'mastery' of sculpting (not really), and covered the cake in modeling chocolate. This is a sculpting part, I am sure you can buy face molds if you look hard enough, but if you want it to be personal, use your creativity, explore pictures of faces, then try to re-create your own design. I used bits and pieces to piece together the face (working on muscle groups etc), making it look dead, and a little upset about it.

LOOK! IT'S THE SAME SIZE AS MY FACE!

Finally, using cocoa powder, I brushed on some shade into the face. Then I used some luster dust (purple, pink and blue) to make cuts look like they are bruised. I scored the face with wonderful cuts, and added some corn syrup (dyed red and brown) to make it look like shiny blood.

LETS CUT 'ER OPEN!

This head looks a little upset about the whole thing.

There you have it! My head cake. I had a blast doing this. Modeling chocolate is so easy to work with, I'll post up a nice tutorial later on! But for tonight, scary movies and pizza.

Happy Halloween All!

I guess I SHOULD share my costume:

Victorian Lady, holding a head:

The costume dragged on the ground all day... I was amazed that only one kid tried to climb under the dress. Good thing I was wearing pants under it!

Something Evil this way Comes!

2011-10-26T19:10:00.002-05:00

5 MORE DAYS!

Tomorrow for school, I get my first crack at dress-up; the kindergarten kids who only come on Tuesdays and Thursdays are having their party. I guess I need to get a makeup-check before the big day!

The ghoulies are already stealing my cookies. No, that is not my hand all yuckie with dirt.

Actually, those digits belong to the time-honored traditional Halloween baking known as:

Witchy fingers!

I've always loved the way these simple cookies make Halloween tables look. Honestly, all lined up, or piled into a jar, they look absolutely creepy! That is why I was so excited to make them! They are the simplest cookie too. Simply roll out some sugar-cookie dough into a thin line (and hes, mine are a little thick, make your cookies thin because they spread), apply an almond shard, then bake as directed. I like to brush mine with a little cocoa-powder to make the hands look dirty and contrast-like.

Honestly, this is a no-fail treat (unless there are allergies involved). I've got a super awesome treat lined up for Halloween, and it's time to start the pre-baking. It will be awesome. I can't wait!

See you all in a few days!

Spooky Webs and Brains

2011-10-23T17:56:00.004-05:00

Hurray! No more sickness!

It's almost Halloween time, and the thing I find the most scary is not the ghosts and goblins, but rather .... well, let me tell you a little story:

You are sitting at table time, or in a circle, talking to a child in your class about something or another. They are nodding, smiling, or sharing their ideas. You feel great because being a teacher is the most rewarding thing in the world. Then... IT HAPPENS! The child gets this face, all peppery, turns to you, and you think they may ask something important... but no.

THEY SNEEZE ON YOU, right in the face!

You cringe in fear! You think to your self NO, NOT THIS, ANYTHING BUT THIS! You wonder when you can get to the bathroom to wash your face and hands, but you realize it has gotten on your shirt as well, and you cannot simply leave the classroom, so you go to the sanitizing station, but that is not enough. You know in your heart of hearts, you are going to get sick too!

Well, that's how it happened anyway. One week of sickness, and I feel great... lets' see if they do it again!

But, on to cookies!

It has been a while since I've made any great fall cookies. I've not done many themed, that's for sure. So when I decided to make some Gothic looking cookies, I was very excited (not to mention the fact that there have been no sweets in my house in a week!) I decided to make some gorgeous Gothic Cookies:

(Can you spot the smudge on my camera lens?)
How could I resist not putting a spider on them. It is almost Halloween anyway?
Black and Red remind me of blood. Orange is too pumpkin, so when I was thinking of my cookies, I was thinking, dark and spooky night! The contrast of a blood red moon against the shadows.
How can you tell I'm an English major?

But, I am also part zombie. I had to do something else, so I decided to do Brains as well!

I actually wrote Brains because I was afraid no one would know what they were. It was a second guess, but I think they look rather sweet! This year, I can't be my usual Zombie self, so I get to play with a new costume... any guesses? I'll save that until Halloween! I'd love to know what you all plan on being!

This time of year certainly is awesome. There is so much beauty, so much clean, fresh air. I love that I can open my windows and let the cool breeze in! Not only that, but it is the haunting season! OH! WHAT FUN!

This year, our school is throwing a primary party, and the kids are going to do centers in costumes: I get to do the Drama/Singing center! YAY! I love seeing all the kids in their gear! I am super excited. Only 8 more days!

HAPPY HAUNTINGS!

Rainbows, Butterflies, and a girl's dream!

2011-10-15T17:58:00.002-05:00

If you were asked to create a colourful cake that included the theme of rainbows for a 4 year-old girls' birthday, what would you say?

Could you say no?

No, really, Could you?

I could not! This project was just too fun to avoid!! All week I've been making sugar flowers and sugar butterflies for the perfect birthday cake.

The party was an oasis of colour, big rainbow balloon archways, rainbow balloons everywhere, rainbow parachute, rainbow building blocks and streamers, rainbow tutus... :: dies :: The colours were spectacular. As a centerpiece on the dessert table was my cake.

No, this time I did not make the dessert table, nor did I eat all the fruit off of it (as some who know me might have suspected). I simply brought the cake... enjoyed the company, and took photos. Had I forethought, I would have removed the napkin from the center of the table before the photo was taken!

Now of course you can guess that the cake is a rainbow cake. Since the party is still going on, I have yet to acquire a photo of the cake being cut, something I am quite anxious for.

Again, for sugar flowers I choose anemone flowers (tutorial here), cherry-blossoms (tutorial here) blue bells (which use the same technique as the cherry-blossoms), leaves and of course, calla lilies. The display was mounted on an un-flattened cake top that I allowed to dome to give the whole set a little more volume. Over the edges of the cake I attempted to drape blue-bells and sugar blossoms (both open and not) to give some motion to the cake.

Flying up the sides, I used gumpaste-butterflies which I cut out in rainbow colours. I adhered them to the cake using crusted buttercream, which acts as a glue. Since the wings were worked to be nice and thin, they were very light on the side.

In total, a complete success!

For now, I am thinking Halloween. I've got my costume and some great cookie ideas. I cannot wait to show all of you! Hubbie has been chastising me for wearing my costume around the house (it is decent I swear). I just ABSOLUTLY freaked out when I got it. It's so fun! You'll see :)

Now, I have some work to do! Have a great weekend!

Youth Leadership Conference cookies

2011-10-06T18:46:00.002-05:00

HURRAY FOR YOUTH LEADERS! This post come a little late, as these cookies were made for Monday, but given the AWESOME weather we've had, I simply delayed posting them.

At our school, we have a group of students known as "Peer Mediators," whose job it is to help their fellow students resolve conflicts and provide a positive role-model to the younger students. As a reward for their efforts, our school requested some special cookies. Who could say no to that?

Each cookie was made as unique as the children; no cookie is the same. I made them in the same way I made my Cheerleader Cookies but I feel I've refined the process a little more.

But... there were quite a few kids. I was asked to do two dozen cookies (Some Earth cookies, some kids). Here are the kids; each one is unique (My apologies for the bad photography)!

Of all the cookies, this one was my favorite:

So, this weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving (Le Jour de Grace). My parents are driving down here to celebrate. So far, the cabbage rolls are done, I'm thawing my turkey. My soup is ready. Bruschetta is stewing... so much preparation! Happy celebrations to all!

Feta-Squash Ravioli Tutorial(Recipe)

2011-10-01T17:40:00.008-05:00

Have you ever wanted to make your own Pasta? It's not hard, but it does take some work. The reward is something tailored to your taste, and something without preservatives! In my books, that's worth it!

This week, because of all my squash/pumpkin cook-downs, I decided that I should make some delicious Squash Ravioli!

Start with your pasta. I mix 3 eggs, 3 tbsp water (maybe more), 3 tbsp oil, and 3 cups of flour. I make a well in the center of the flour, lightly beat eggs in a separate bowl with the oil and water, and slowely whisk the eggs to the outside of the well. In my pasta, I also like to add some flavor. Should you choose, you could add some great spices (Sage, Rosemary, and Garlic are my pasta triad). Once the mix is balled, work it together so there is no lumps/flour pieces. Let rest 1 hour in a plastic sandwich bag.

While that is resting, mix your filling. Since we are making the Squash Ravioli, that's the recipe I'll give:

Squash Ravioli filling:
1 c of squash puree
1 pinch cinnamon
1 pinch nutmeg
1 tsp brown sugar
1 pinch salt
1/4 c feta, crumbled.

Mix contents together, set aside and wait for the pasta.

Now, take half of the ball, and roll it out either with your pasta maker, or if you are Hobo like me, grab your rolling pin and start sweating it out! Roll it flat, about 1/2 an inch thick.

Keep your pasta from drying out. Make sure to grease up your hands, and keep it moist so it does not get all icky. Mine above is starting to dry.

Now, using a small crimped circle/square cookie cutter, cut out circles for the ravioli. Place on a baking sheet. Spray them with Pam.

Once that is done, take a little water, and dab around the sides of the ravioli circles. Now you need your filling. Spoon 1/2 a tsp into the center of the circle...

Using a fork, press down around the pre-wetted edges of the ravioli to secure them down. Spray again with Pam and place on a cookie sheet. Cover with a damp cloth or plastic-wrap until you have them all completed.

BOIL SOME WATER... this part is hard!
Dump your ravioli into the water and stir to prevent sticking. After about 6-8 minutes, remove pasta from the water, place into sauce.

Beautiful! This is the inside of the ravioli! (Below)

This is a slightly sweetened supper dish. It makes about 24 ravioli, so you may want to double it for a family. It is also simple enough to get the kids involved! They can cut the pasta or even help roll it (thought it must be extreme rolled!). Nothing like a special home-cooked meal.

Other fillings I enjoy:

Rosted-Red-Pepper, feta and spinache puree

Ground-Turkey/ricotta

Ricotta/Spinach/Feta

Now, again, I just feel like sharing the beauty of NWO, because honestly, it is like someone just took their paint bucket and dumped their warm colours all over the ground! IT'S STUNNING!

Notre tour en Canot

Les arbres qui sont très jolie!

Et, sur l'eau, nous (moi et mon mari) avons vu ces arbre près du garer; c'était un très belle jour pour être sur le lac!

Now, to bake cookies!

Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes and a Surprise!

2011-09-24T19:58:00.005-05:00

Are we sensing a theme? Another pumpkin post. I have quite a few in store. This one in particular has me all tingly. It has been a year in the making, and comes with some special extras after the show.

The Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes that I made last year have been one of my most popular posts to date (second to my first Tangled Cake). The recipe is flawless... so good are the cupcakes, so moist that I always get requests for these from friends! Plus, they look so cute! I realize that they are easy to make too, but I decided to put up a detailed tutorial to show just how easy they are.

You will need the Pumpkin Pie Cupcake recipe as well as the Creme Cheese Frosting (or any basic icing recipe that you choose). You just dye the icing into three different colors, a small bit of white for the 'whipped cream, one a VERY pale orange (or yellow) and one a darker shade of orange.

There are two ways to make them. This is the simpler of the two:

Start by spreading the dark orange icing across the cooled cupcakes. I use a butter knife.. nothing special there (o__-);

After that, grab a piping bag or even just a zip-lock bag with a small hole in it. I use a Wilton piping tip 7 for this (which you can get at Walmart) and fill the bag with the lighter yellow/orange frosting. I pipe a bunch of dots around the outside of the cupcake to cover any area uncovered by the orange frosting.

Like So!

Now to make it look like a pie: It's simple; you can either do a small rounded dot of 'whipped cream' (also of frosting, this time white), or you cause the Wilton #8 star tip which gives nice edges, like the top of whipped cream can. Pipe that with a swirl....

and Voilà!

Now, option two is a lattice-work pie top. For this, you will need a good tip for the cross-lattice work. I use a Wilton tip #46 (I use a lot of Wilton tips, even though I actually don't really like Wilton products). This tip has a flat side and a ridged side that makes a nice pattern across the tops of the cupcakes:

(See the detail in the lines?)

Normally on pies it's layered, but for this, I keep it simple and simply make lines across the cupcake, then cross over them. It's not a perfect system, but it is much simpler than fussing on 'correctness'.

Do the borders the same as above, and give this cuppie a dollop of the white 'whipped cream" and you have it!

I had some extra batter, and being rather unprepared, I actually ran out of cuppie wrappers. So, below is a giant 'pie' cuppie I used a 4-inch cake pan to make. I thought that was a smart idea. A Pumpkin Pie Cupcake/Cake for two!

Now, for the BONUS MATERIAL!

I thought it would be a good idea to show you what has inspired me to bake so much pumpkin stuff. I love photography, but living in a small apartment with horrid light makes it difficult to get nice shots of things, especially since I bake mostly at night. I thought I would show off some of my home town, Fort Frances, the way I see it. I went on a little photographing excursion this week. I hope you see how beautiful the region of North Western Ontario is. Most people are afraid of the cold, and generalize it. It is such a beautiful area to live. Very peaceful!

This is what I captured:

These pumpkins are from our local Farmer's market, grown out of EMO. The kind lady at the stand let me photograph hers, since the ones I bought from her last week were processed before I snapped some photos!

Below the ride I take To and From work, as well as some beautiful shots of items of interest:

ITCHY WORM!
That's what we used to call them as kids.

Now, I'm not big on photography, but the area was so beautiful, my friend asked to take a couple of shots of me. So, me posing on one of the trees (by the stop sign) Note the sexy pink socks that so do not match my outfit. I love wearing knee-high socks, the more colourful, the better!!

Thank you so much everyone for following and reading. I get such pleasure in taking photos and baking. It makes it so rewarding to see that people actually care about my rants and ideas. It's a wonderful feeling to see new followers and try some of your recipes and ideas.

Next up, a supper dish!
Until then!

BLOG LOVE! Lollypop Cookies

2011-09-20T20:02:00.005-05:00

Of all the blogs on the interwebs, Kara's blog, Butter Hearts Sugar is my absolute favorite! Maybe it is the general aesthetic, maybe it is the fact that she has a wicked tattoo! Either way, many of her ideas scream to me! So, with her recent post on these cute lollypop cookies, I freaked. It has been years since I've seen them made (my mom used to make these for us). I just had to borrow the idea!

For a great tutorial, head on down to Kara's blog and check her step-by-step. For mine, I used my sugar cookie recipe and three colors of dough to make lollies. I decided that since my classic sugar cookie recipe is great with icing, but I needed a new flavor for the perfect lolly. So, I pulled out my LorAnn candy oils and added a few drops of the Key Lime into the dough. SO AMAZING! Key-Lime Lolly Cookies!

Of course, these cookies are a dream, and made my students super happy when they got them as a prize! I am very happy that I could be reminded of this great treat, and I can't wait to get back to creating. This is a wonderfully simple design that is great for kids! Or me :)

Thanks Butter Hearts Sugar, for inspiration, icing, and awesomeness~!

IT'S FALL! PUMPKIN TIME! (RECIPE)

2011-09-17T10:18:00.004-05:00

Ah Fall! The area around here has already begun to change. The gourds are coming out. We just got back from the farmer's market here. I got some great gourds (Buttercup, Pumpkin, Acorn) and am getting ready to cook it all down for pies, soups, and more! But, I could not wait to cook it... I just had to make myself a favorite recipe: PUMPKIN COOKIES!

These cake-like cookies are the best I've ever had. I love my old pumpkin-white-chocolate cookies, but these cookies are must more subtle, less sweet, and are so scrumptious.
They are not at all dry, and not wet either. Think of a puffy cupcake or a moist muffin; that is the consistency of these cookies!

So, the recipe.... it's not actually mine. I have to give credit where it is due. I found this recipe originally on Allrecipies.com; these cookies on the site are called Iced Pumpkin Cookies (By 'Gina'). I've made a few alterations for me.

So, this would make it a re-post, but I really want to share it because it always gets rave reviews.

ICED PUMPKIN COOKIES
(originally by GINA) - Edited by me :)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Icing:
2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and salt.
In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and vanilla; Beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly; I used a spoon dipped in water.
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Cool cookies.
To Make Glaze: Combine confectioners' sugar, milk, and vanilla. Add EXTRA milk as needed, to achieve drizzling consistency, or leave thick to pipe onto cookies as I like (not so sweet). Let icing set.

Seriously, this recipe is a HUGE hit at any time of the year, but something about warm pumpkin on a cool fall day makes life wonderful! I hope you are all enjoying the season and are keeping warm.

[Recipe] Granola Bars - Homemade and Peanut-Free!

2011-09-11T21:23:00.001-05:00

Finding good food for your kids (or husbands) to eat at school is becoming more and more expensive. Compounding the costs is the idea that many schools are 'peanut-free' due to severe allergies by staff and students. Limiting options have parents purchasing expensive lunch-treats that are not so healthy but fit the new standards. Since each day you need new treats, each day is a new bit of money thrown down the 'treat' drain.

Not anymore!

I offer to you my recipe for healthy granola bars that (if you so choose) are peanut-free and at a little healthier than other options. You customize what goes into them, and you choose what they taste like. This is a highly customizable recipe, and I LOVE IT. I make it every Sunday night for my school week; now you can too!

Recipe: Kitchen-Sink Granola Bars

1c quick oats (instant oatmeal stuff)
1/2 c corn syrup
1/2 c honey
3 tsp brown sugar
1 1/2 c rice crispy cereal
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cups of anything (Marshmallows, seeds (sesame, pumpkin, flax), granola (strawberry/raspberry etc), cookie crumbs, chocolate chips, melted chocolate (1/2 c)...

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Mix all dry ingredients together, then add in the wet ingredients, stirring until everything is coated.

Place wet mix into 9X9 pan lined with parchment paper. Wet fingers with water and press down the granola bar mix into the pan; make sure all edges are pushed in and it is nicely packed. Keep fingers as wet as possible to reduce sticking and moving.

Bake at 325 for 15 minutes. Remove and cool:

Once the mix has cooled, but is still a little warm, cut it up into bars. Each mix makes 10 large bars which can be made smaller for smaller people. I find that two small bars is great for the 'balanced day' we have in our school board.

Not only is this a great recipe, but I love to personalize the bars, wrapping them in plastic wrap and putting a little note on the bar:

The last one is for myself... I always forget.

So, what do I like in MY Granola bars?
-1/2c melted chocolate
-1 c strawberry-banana granola
-1/2 c pumpkin seeds
-1/4 c sesame seeds
-1/4 c flax seeds
-1/2 c regular oats (I like em' hearty)

Give them a whirl. They are easy to make with the kids, and a staple in my house!

Happy Schoolin'

Owls... they are looking at me!!

2011-09-08T17:45:00.003-05:00

Our local teachers had a wonderful fish-fry get together this week. Each department was asked to bring some type of food (salad, buns, desserts etc). Not surprisingly, my department was asked to provide desserts. I figured, since we're a bunch of teachers, I should bake something that represents us... Like Owls... they represent wisdom.

I made three colored owls, well, owls with three different wing colours. Pink, Orange and Green. The best part of a cookie is seeing it come together. First, each cookie consists of two cookie cutters pasted together. I took an Owl head cookie cutter and fitted it to a circle body. I wanted Fat owls, and all I have is small thin Owl cutters. Fat owls are happy.... and fat :)

The best part was my husband's reaction. He loved how they looked and snickered at how the eyes seemed to stare at you. Then we started walking around the house saying "Owl-always love you" and "Owl do the dishes for you" etc. At this point, we devolved into sugary-cute married people. Lame as it was, the Owl Cookie seemed to really be a catalyst for silly love banter ♥.

At the fry, the cookies were a huge it. So, I was pleasantly please. I like it when people pick them off a table as the dessert that most appeals to them. It makes me feel special. Some people ask if I get sad, seeing a cookie or cake get eaten after you've worked for so many hours to make it beautiful and perfect. The answer is, I do not; when people enjoy the work of art by eating and enjoying it, I get a special feeling: Pride!

The Owl is watching you!

Marshmallow Mishaps!

2011-09-05T21:43:00.003-05:00

For the longest time I've wanted to make Homemade Marshmallows! It has been at the top of my daring baker checklist forever. So, when this past weekend I decided to make my own, and they turned out amazing, I was super excited to get out and roast them over a fire.

FINALLY, I GET TO MEET MY GOAL!

I used a recipe I found in Gourmet a while back. So, with a nice fluffy batch of marshmallows, a stick, some good company and a lot of laughs, I began to sense the anticipation of a fresh, warm marshmallow...

Hmmm.. the above marshmallow looks a little wet... hmm...

Wait... WHAT! It is melting!

Me sensing all is not as it should be....

Nope! These marshmallows are great to eat from the container, but are none too good for fires. I went through 3 Marshmallows trying to find a way to roast them that would not produce melting, but was ultimately defeated by the mighty Marshmallow Mishap.

My friends and I had a good laugh at the whole thing. It was so awesome when they saw the marshmallows, but when it started to melt away, we all laughed quite a bit. With the cool fall weather, we all enjoyed the fire and the fun, and at least each other's company.

Oh, and the swimming! Hubbie and I got into the water, which was surprisingly nice once you stayed in for a minute or so.

I hope you all had a great long-weekend, and good luck to all those who are back in school... like me. CHEERS TO MY CLASSROOM!

Guest Post @ Snips and Spice

2011-08-23T19:12:00.004-05:00

Posted on August 23rd 2011 at the

Snips & Spice Blog

Hello Everyone
Meghan from Domestic Sugar here!

I love creating special treats that are both beautiful and edible. I am super excited to be able to participate in Cupcake Month with all these crazy good cuppy artists! Cupcakes (hereafter known as Cuppies) are the most adorable dessert. What privileged child does not have a great memory of eating a cuppy that was super crazy delicious. I remember going to a party once, to see these MONSTER cuppies with a ring of chocolate sprinkles and a crazy beautiful sugar flower in the center.

Anyway, this is my little addition to the party. I made these cuppies for my niece and nephew whom I love super lots!
ENTER THE CUPPY-BEAR!

So, what will you need to make these cuties?
You will need to make some cuppies. Since these are cuppy-bears and they are blue, and it is raining (three reasons), I made some rainy insides:

To make the rain puddle insides, follow these directions, or just skip ahead to the Cuppy-bear part.

First, make a batch of your favorite Vanilla / White cake. It does not matter if it is from a box or from scratch. Take about One Cup of the mix out and dye it blue, leave the rest white. You will also need some Blue Jimmies (sprinkles) but I'll show you why in a bit.

In your cuppy liners, fill the bottom 1/4 with the blue and spread it all about the bottom so as to cover it.

Now, go back to the white mix, and take about 1/3c of Jimmies and add it in. Stir lightly. Jimmies can bleed a little if over-mixed, so make sure you only stir enough to mix in.

Like so:

Now, fill the wrappers on top of the blue (3/4 to the top), and bake 'em as usual.

While those are baking, go to the decorating phase.
Take some gum-paste (any colour) and roll them into small balls. Try to keep them about the same size and not too big. These will make the ears of the bear.

To make good ears, poke toothpicks into the bottom of the cuppy and then squash the center of the ear down with your finger. This will indent the ear, flatten it, and set the toothpick in.

Sets of Ears? CHECK!
Let those dry while the cuppies bake/while you get fondant and icing ready.

When the cuppies are done, and cool. Take your icing (whatever you choose), and using a butterknife, create a dome on the top! Make it as smooth as possible.

Now, roll out your fondant, and using a large circle-cookie-cutter, cut a circle of fondant. Lay the fondant on the the cuppy and begin to smooth it out.

I like to use a fondant smoother. Get them as smooth as possible and then fold down the edges (not shown).

Now, pick in the ears:

Then using bits of gumpaste or fondant, roll out a middle oval for the nose. Secure it with a little water:

Next, with extra fondant or gumpaste, add on eyes. You could also just draw on the eyes.

Finally, add on the smile with a little foodcolor and water. I paint it on with a paint brush. If you have food-grade luster dust, you can even give the bear rosy cheeks and shade in the ears.

SHE'S ALL DONE. Man, that was easy right?

This idea could be used for other things, like a GLOOMY-BEAR FOR EXAMPLE:

I know, Gloomy Bear is supposed to be Pink.... Oh well! I just wanted to play.
If you wish to add in arms, just roll out some extra fondant or gumpaste and glue it down with dabs of water.

And now you know how to make an awesome Cuppy-Bear (or an even more rocking GLOOMY CUPPY-BEAR).

I hoped you all enjoyed the Tutorial. To see more, check out the blog:
Http://domesticsugar.blogspot.com
or
Google: DOMESTIC SUGAR BAKE SHOP

I hope you all enjoyed the LONG tutorial as much as I did making it.
Until then!

Orange Flower Cupcakes

2011-08-17T18:05:00.002-05:00

Just a small peak at some playing in the kitchen.

I'm getting ready for a guest post another blogger, Malory @ Snips & Spice.It's going to rock, so stay tuned.
In the mean time, I used some of the scraps from the project to make a simple Orange-Flower cupcake.

This is an white-chocolate almond cake with orange-essence buttercream. I decided to use the orange flowers to contrast the cuppie's blue background. I like swirls, but need to work on them a little more. Still, it has been a long time since I've done a domed-fondant-covered cupcake. I like the look (you can't really see it in the photos). It's very classy.

Now, I've got some family issues to deal with that make me sad. I hope you all enjoy this little tidbit until I can actually show you my project. Big tutorial, coming up!

Tutorial: Sugarpaste Anemone

2011-08-14T21:37:00.007-05:00

Okay! TIME FOR TUTORIALS!

As promised, I am posting up a step-by-step for a Sugarpaste/Gumpaste Anemone. This is a very simple flower to make for cakes and goodies. I kept a couple if a vase for a while because they simply look that nice, but it's up to you what you do with them. Cakes is the more conventional sugarpaste use though.

As a little note, Sugarpaste is really Gum Paste (gumpaste). It's a mixture of glucose, sugar and gum-tex. I use the Wilton brand powder and mix generic glucose in. Your choice. Just note, this can only work with a type of dough that hardens, so Fondant will NOT WORK on these flowers.

On to the tutorial!!

To start you will need a few things. I try to re-use tools and items whenever possible so I don't have to buy a lot of tools, but some things are quite necessary:

1. You will need pre-made sugarpaste (has to be made 8 hours in advance and let rest). You can colour it whatever colour. You will need the flower colour and a black piece for the middle.

2. You will need two sized circle/oval cutters (small and medium) for petals.

3. You should have a foam square for shaping and ruffling flowers (and gumpaste). This is again, a 5 dollar Wilton purchase.

4. You will need a bowl or a flat surface. I have made them on a plate or a bowl; the bowl rounds the flower nicely, so I prefer it. Your choice. It should be pre-dusted with powdered sugar to prevent sticking.

5. A ball-tool (seen two pictures down) to ruffle the flower.

6. (not pictured) something to roll out the sugarpaste... a cup, a rolling pin, whatever works.

7. (not pictured) a small bit of water in a bowl and a paintbrush to apply the flower petals together.

8. (not pictured, (-ι_- )<{sorry}) floral pistils (black is best, but I like the look of white).

READY?!

So, roll out the sugarpaste (quite thin) and cut out an oval/circle to make a 'petal'.
Place on the foam.

Using the ball-tool, drag the ball around the edges of the 'petal'. I like to have half the ball tool off the sugarpaste form. Apply pressure, but not too much. Dragging and applying pressure thins the paste and causes the ruffled bulges. Do this for all but one 'side' of the flower (like in a U shape).

Now, if you don't have a paint pallet, that's okay, you can use large spoons, but place the petal in the spoon or pallet so that the petals are forced to curl a little more. I drape the back end of the flower petal over the edge of the pallet so that it remains flat.

For my Anemone flowers, I use 9 large petals and 3-4 small ones, so, repeat until you get the desired petal amount. You'll see why in a second...
LET DRY FOR 20-30 MINUTES!!!
... OR until the ruffles are hard but the opposite end is still a little soft.

Now, going to your bowl/rounded/flat plate, place a piece of sugar paste on the bottom (flattened like the other pieces, but not ruffled). This is going to be the part that hold all the petals together. Make sure the bowl/rounded/flat plate is well dusted.
I used orange to show you, but normally I would use the same colour.

Now, with your hardened-ruffled petals, take 5 (one at a time), and apply them to the center using water to 'stick' them to the center piece. Do the same for the 4 other petals (or however many you want).

ONE LAYER DONE!!!

Now, do the same for the 2nd layer. Wet the bottom layer ever so much, (remember, more water = longer dry time) to stick the petals to the base. If you find the petals are drooping, wait 10 minutes more, then don't add more, and apply a little tissue under the already-placed petal to prevent further drooping. Once dry, you can continue to add the four center petals.

Finally, add the 3-4 smaller petals to the inner 3rd layer to complete the petal part! Almost there!

While you allow your flower to chill, grab that small piece of black sugarpaste I told you about earlier. Roll a small portion into a ball (big enough to fit into the flower) you can use a fork or a needle or anything to do this next part; here I have another sugar-tool... I call him 'Stabby'!

Proceed to use 'Stabby' to punch some texture into the ball. This will simulate the real look of an Anemone. Now, take the pilstils, cut them in half in various sizes, and shove them into the black center, like so:

Okay, not take all that and apply it to the center of the flower.

TA-DA! DONE!

Before I add it to a cake, I like to take a little shortening and shine it up. Water will not work here... but this is a personal choice, not a necessary step.

Let your sugar flower dry overnight or until you can pick it up. Be careful when moving it, as they crack very easily. I use a small baking-grade pair of scissors to coax it out of the dish. Whatever you do, be gentil. It's hearbreaking to have broken sugar-flowers.

And now you know how I make my sugar-flowers. Not magic, just patience (which most who know me are shocked to see me have) ヽ(*｀ヮ´*)ﾉ <{ENERGY}.

If you have any other things you are interested in, feel free to ask. I'm still thinking of a sugarpaste rose tutorial... Just got to find some time to snap the shots! Hubbie helped me take these ones, but I he's going away on a business meeting, so I'm all alone ;(-__-);<{so lonely}. At least baking gives me something to do!

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial!

Sugar Flowers!

2011-08-11T12:34:00.002-05:00

Back from vacation #2! Now I can stay at home and not worry about anything.
You would truly think that vacations are easy and care-free, but you are WRONG! I hate being away from home for long periods of time... it drives me nuts. So, you can imagine that day 3 of being home (day one and two dedicated to laundry cleaning up the house), I would jump right into baking. Hubbie complained that he had no sweets (or food in the house at all for that matter... grocery shopping is number four on my list), and that I should get right to work creating something delicious. So, I whipped up some cake and decided to play with sugar flowers!

Here's the resulting Hubbie-Cake:

This was a late-night version of a brush embroidery on cake. It can be done with buttercream! HURRAY!

The sugar flowers themselves are ruffled Anemone flowers. I tried to pick fun and bright colors to off-set the black/white cake. Pink, orange, white and yellow with green leaves just looked so pretty.

A butterfly that was hand-painted!

Now, the cross-section of the cake. I love showing the cut cake whenever possible. Most people forget to show the insides... I think it's the most interesting part. Like a surprise. I find myself asking of others...
WHAT TYPE OF CAKE IS IT... ९(ेД॔)७
Rainbow? Strawberry? Chocolate? Vanilla? Marble?

So, what type is my cake?

Vanilla-almond sandwiched between Marble cake with Chocolate buttercream filling. YUM!

My whole plot for this post was actually to do a tutorial on how to make the sugar anemone. I had a post a while back about a black/white cake with a beautiful anemone on top where people asked for tutorials... I forgot to take good pictures *\(°˛° )/* . Since I don't work with a lot of fancy tools (you do need gumpaste tools though), my flowers are super easy!

Anywhoo, to post it I have to shrink and crop some photos... that takes a long time.
Come back in a couple of days to see what it all looks like.

:: JUMPS INTO HER OWN BED AND CUDDLES THE PILLOW ::

Brush Embroidery Tutorial

2011-08-01T08:01:00.003-05:00

Good Morning (depending on where you are... someone must just be getting up).

I am still a live, although some might have noticed a conspicuous absence (especially since I usually post at least twice a week on normal weeks). But, as I get deeper into the house thing, I am getting further from the kitchen. This week, I moved back into it to make these fabulous Brush Embroidery Flower cookies.

This technique it super easy, and while some may have seen it, others may not have. I figured I would post a quick tutorial on brush embroidery and let you decide how you like it. This technique has also been used on my cakes (I used it on my Cheerleading Cake a while back).

So, all you really need is pre-baked cookies, royal icing (that's the kind that hardens), and a flat-sided paintbrush.

Okay, into the tutorial we go... you get to see more of my ugly picnic-indoor-eat-off-of-it table.

Step one. Using your royal icing in a piping bag, line the outside of the cookie... like this:

Let the outline dry for 10 minutes. Next, using a thinned royal icing called a 'flood', fill the circle so you will have a smooth cookie surface. I actually tap my cookies on the table to bring up air bubbles and pop them with a pin.

Once you have let that fill dry for at least 1 hour (depends on humidity etc), you can start painting. Mix a counter-color icing for the flower pattern... now we have fun!

In a piping bag with a #1 or #2 tip Place begin piping the design on the flower. I used the broken petal method. Be careful not to have the icing too thin, if it is, it will be hard to get detail. I actually made my a little thin, but it came out nice all the same. It just needed more love ♥.

Now grab the brush and drag it downwards into the icing, moving towards the center of the cookie (or wherever you placed the flower. It does not necessarily need to be the center). I like to push up ever so slightly on the icing before brushing down, which gives it a little more ruffle int he petal, but it's your choice.

Continue to add petals moving into the center using the same technique.

Keep going, then to finish, add lines (now you can see the thin-ness of the icing), and center it off with some kind of embellishment. I like using silver or white degrees, but there are other things you can use too.

Like I said, you do not need to do a center flower each time. I like to add other flowers on the sides or off-center. I also thought it looked nice to add leaves to the sides of the flowers, a little green to contrast the blue and white.

And that's how it's done. These cookies made their way to a lovely birthday party, though I got no photos. PHOOEY! I think I need a new camera... that way I have something to post good photos with, rather than these gloomy, grainy ones. You know you need a new camera when.

If you are feeling generous, and wish to send me one, please e-mail me :)

Until I get your e-mail, O mysteriously kind person, wherever you may be, I shall continue to post cookies and cakes.

Hope you are enjoying nice weather!

Gluten Free Almond-Orange Cake

2011-07-24T21:55:00.002-05:00

Lately, I've been feeling adventurous. I guess not enough to burn my house down, but enough to make things interesting. I've taken to going online, finding a random recipe, and trying it out. Now, normally, people will try a recipe first before they adapt it. Me, I tend to adapt things, then try the original. This cake is another one of those cases. And, don't worry, it turned out great!

Gluten Free Almond-Orange Cake
Adapted from The Cooking Nook

1 cup almond flour (finely ground almonds)
8 tablespoons granulated sugar (DIVIDED)
4 large eggs, separated
the zest of one orange (large)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 pinch salt
Powdered 'sugar for dusting
fresh berries and whipped cream for garnish (OH YEAH!)

Preheat the oven to 325°F.

1. Line the bottom of a 9-inch cake pan with parchment, grease sides, and set aside.

2. In a small bowl, mix almond flour and 2 tbsp sugar, if needed place in food processor to ensure the almond flour is fine. Set aside.

3. In a food processor, process egg yolks (4) and 2 tbsp sugar with the orange zest, salt and cinnamon. Process for 1 minute (or until egg yolks are a light yellow). Add to almond mixture (well mixed, but not over played with).

4. In another clean bowl, foam egg yolks, then add 2 tbsp sugar and whip on high until they glossy peaks form. Gently fold in egg white mix to egg yolk mix (until just incorporated. DO NOT OVERMIX). Place mix into the cake pan, and place in oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

5. Cool completely on a wire rack (any extra time in the pan will continue to cook it). Dust with powdered sugar and serve with whipped cream and berries.

This cake is a nice light cake, VERY LIGHT, due to it's ingredients. It is also very good for people who are diabetic (that was the reason I made the cake in the first place). I liked this cake more than the other one I tried a week back (it was too moist, almost like a wet sponge). The cake itself tends to be a little dry and has a gritty texture due to the almonds, so I would recommend the whipped cream just to soften. Another option is to spritz it after it's cooled with some coconut rum and water, then cover it overnight to let it soak in. I like that option very much.

Well, since tomorrow is my challenge run (I'm running from my place to a resort!), I need to get to bed and get some rest. I hope you are all enjoying a great summer!
CHEERS!

ლ(இ◒இლ) DONUTS!

2011-07-18T20:39:00.004-05:00

No really, EVERYBODY LOVES DONUTS! Especially me. Maybe that's why I decided to try my hand at making them. I've honestly been wanting to try it for a while. I am certainly no daring baker, but this would have been my challenge.

Before I go on a rant, and show you how I made my donuts, here's some music to get you into the mood!

And, because my hubbie looked at my pink donuts and wanted me to post the donut, here's another image:

Okay, now we are sufficiently ready to talk about the donuts and the making!
♥ ^_______^ ♥

I've never actually been able to eat donuts. I love them, but cannot digest them well, they cause bad sadness. Still, they are adorable. I think of Donuts as on par with a Macaron in the realm of cuteness! No less, white donuts are amazingly cute with pink icing. I love pink!

Where's my recipe? Super easy!

Everybody loves Donuts!

2 1/2 tsp yeast
2 1/2 tbsp warm water
1 tbsp sugar

3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (plus extra for dusting)
1 cup whole milk (homo milk) warmed (not hot)
1/4 cup butter/margerine
3 large egg yolks (save one egg white for icing)
2 tbsp sugar

About 8 cups vegetable oil for deep frying - you will need to fill a pan 2 inches full from the bottom.

Directions:

1. mix yeast, water and 1 tbsp sugar into a small bowl. Mix a little by swirling, then let yeast froth until doubled.

2. Mix flour, milk, butter, eggs and sugar into a bowl. Beat together and add yeast mix. Mix low until incorporated, then turn up the speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes, or until mix starts to stick to the sides of the bowl.

3. Scrape the dough into a ball, and place in a clean container. Grease the top with cooking spray and let rise in a warm, draft-free spot for about an hour to an hour and ten.

4. When the dough is ready, take it and put it on a lightly floured surface. Roll out 1 inch thick.

5. Using any size cookie cutter, (round), cut a circle of dough out.

and then using a smaller cutter, or piping tip, cut a smaller circle into the dough.

TA-DA!
Sine you can't re-roll the dough (as it gets tough and chewy), I save the donut holes to eat!

Now, let the dough rest for 15 minutes to rise a little, but mostly to soften it.

6. Warm up the oil SLOWLY on medium-low heat. The best way to test if the oil is ready is to take drop (literally a drop) of water and flick it into the oil (stand back). If the oil begins to pop the water, it's ready! DO NOT BOIL THE OIL. Put your donuts into the oil and fry until golden brown. If you look above, the two bottom donuts are ready to be taken out, and the tops need to be turned. The dough puffs up nicely and becomes really fluffy!

Once the donut is pulled, place on a paper towel to take any excess oil off.

YUMMY!
Now for icing, glaze or topping!

You could simply go for the cinnamon sugar option by rolling the donut in a cinnamon sugar mix, or you can glaze... or ice. Here's what I used:

Donut Icing:

5 tbsp icing sugar
1 tsp flavor (I used cotton candy)
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp light corn syrup
1 egg white (frothed)
color (optional)

Mix ingredients together until you can see the icing integrate into itself in 3 seconds (without tapping). It should be thin enough to run, but not run all the way off the donut. Load into a piping bag and pipe onto donuts. Add sprinkles if desired. Let dry 1 hour.

Maple Donut Glaze:

5 tbsp icing sugar
2 tbsp maple syrup (real is best)
3 tbsp water
1 tsp maple extract
maple syrup flakes (optional)

Mix ingredients until very thin and runny. Dip donuts into glaze, cover all of the donut, then place on a wire rack to drip dry. While still wet, sprinkle maple syrup flakes onto donut for decoration.

SO PRETTY!

Well, hopefully you've all been enjoying some great weather. We're still pushing 100F here, which is killing me! Thank goodness for water and swimming! Hopefully you've all been enjoying good weather and are staying safe. Boiling oil is a little hot for this weather, but that's okay... at least I can eat one donut. My rare treat!

Goes off singing the "Doughnut Song"

Summery Ladybug Cookies

2011-07-15T18:54:00.004-05:00

It is a hot summer!

I mean really hot! My running's been down, even though I'm training for my silly fall marathon... all I can feel is the humidity. The best part of living on the lake is the idea that at the end of a run, or of a long day, you can jump in the lake! It's perfect weather for swimming! Next year's Triathlon should be easy, right?

I hope everyone is beating the heat and staying healthy. When the heat gets bad, I pull out some cookie dough, cut a few shapes (7 min in the oven), then I decorate. Here's my latest, Ladybugs! (with tiny butterflies).

It's funny, I bought a mold for a ladybug a while back to make ladybug cookies for a then order, but I never much cared for the cutter. The cutter in question had legs. I don't know why, but I never cared for the legs on the bug, and no matter how I used the cutter, I never liked the outcome. Since I like to experiment with my cutters, I made a new ladybug shape using a round cookie cutter (for the body) and a Hershey kiss cutter (for the antenna). I like this design a olot more!< I guess the moral is that you don't always need a cutter. Many of the food bloggers out there seem to be doing this 'make a new design from an old cutter' trick. Basically, you have to look outside of the box. And while the lady bugs are not exactly 'outside of the box' or revolutionary, they still look adorable!

For the little butterflies, I wanted to use the small bit of dough I had left over. I just piped on white icing and then drew on the butterflies quickly with a food marker. Bite-sized fun! (Why do they call food fun?).

So, now I'm off to take a nap. That is the other great thing about summer... napping! I've got a lot of work ahead in the coming weeks, and I really should start planning for the new school year.
I guess I'm going to have to think about work soon... sigh!

Stay cool!

Sugarbelle's Flower Pot Cookies

2011-07-11T16:55:00.003-05:00

I absoolutely adore Sugarbelle. She has talent, enthusiasm, and is very creative! So, when I saw her flowerpot creation this past May, I just had to try it out.
The best thing about her creations, is that they are all very unique. I love that at any given time, going to visit her site, you'll find something quite inspiring, with great colour and beauty.

I realize my little flower pots are nothing like hers, but I think given my intention (to give away) and my love of decorating, I am quite happy with the result.

These "May" flowers are super easy to make. Actually, I didn't do a tutorial on them because Sugarbelle already did, but you simply stack round cookies and stick a cookie-on-a-stick in the middle. For my creation, I used cookie-crumbs for dirt.

(Mandatory Top View)

Well, my camping trip this year got cancelled. CRY! But that means I have more time to get cookies done. I have about 3 unposted things to go up... if only I weren't lazy. The truth is, getting the house done is a lot of work. I've not said much about it recently because there's been little to talk about. A lot of decisions, but no real work has gone up. I guess my contractor is a little behind already! That's okay... it gives us more time to pick out fixtures and colours.

Ah well... I'm off to go swimming again (gone every day this week)

Splish, Splosh!

Perfect Summer Pie: Peach Blackberry (Recipe)

2011-07-06T21:15:00.003-05:00

Happy summer tidings to you all!

I've been enjoying daily swimming, canoeing and baking. Hopefully you all get the same types of summer loving, enjoying all the best (and keeping safe).

This week, before I head off on my week-long canoe trip, I decided to blend summer flavors into a pie. When I think summer, I think stawberries, peaches, and blueberries. Since Peach is a nice fruit, and is a little different from the traditional pie flavor, I whipped up a delicious Peach-Blackberry pie. It is tangy, sweet, and deeeelicious!

Here's what you do:

Skin 6-8 peaches (medium sized, some overripe are okay). Cut into slices. Mix with blackberries (I used frozen BBerries today because we didn't have fresh). Place into a pot over medium heat.

Add in 3/4-1c sugar (depending on how sweet you like it). Add 1 tbsp ginger, 1 tsp coriander (LOVE IT!), and 1 tsp cinnamon. Stir. In a separate cup, measure 1/3 c water with 3 tbsp cornstarch... when it mixes, add to peach mix.

Once the whole thing bubbles, and the 'sauce' is clear-ish, strain some of the fluid (great on ice cream or yoghurt) place remaining fruit and sauce in an uncooked pie crust. Decorate the top as you wish...

Bake pie @ 400 degrees for 11 minutes (or until crust is light brown and flaky). Cool to room temperature. Serve with Ice Cream! (CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA! OR BOTH!)

Full recipe: Summery Peach-Blackberry Pie

6-8 medium peaches, skinned and cored, sliced in wedges.
1 c blackberries
3/4-1 c sugar (depends on your personal tastes... I like less, but it is more tart)
3 tbsp corn starch
1/3 c water
1 tbsp ginger
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cinnamon

Uncooked Pie Crust (or use my recipe).

Directions:
Mix peach slices, blackberries, ginger, coriander, sugar and cinnamon in a pot. Heat over medium heat. As that heats, mix the corn starch and water (until dissolved), add to peach mix. Allow the mix to bubble, stirring constantly. Once the mix liquid looks clear, it should be done.

Strain some of the fluid (there will be lots). I take out about a cup of it and leave the rest as the pie fruit is exceptionally wet. Place the remaining fruit and some 'sauce' into the crust. Bake the unbaked crust and pie mix at 400 degrees for 11 minutes, or until the pie is browned on the sides/top. ENJOY!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

♥ PIE IS MESSY ♥

PIE IS VERY MESSY.. YUM!

Vacation Cookies

2011-07-03T19:59:00.004-05:00

Okay, so I have just come back from an awesome vacation! Super awesome in fact. The thing is, I baked cookies for my family, thinking I'd be able to get some photos of my niece and nephew eating them (they are adorable!), but the problem is that the cookies were so good (to them at least) that they ate them all before I could snap a photo! Generally speaking, this would be a bad thing for food blogging, but I did snap a few pics before I left, so I did get a photo of each cookie, they are just not very interesting photos (they were backups just in case). Good thing too!

This one came out glossy (on top) so I have a similar picture with less gloss so you can see the "RAWR" which the kids love!

The design is originally from the talented and awesome SugarBelle, but I couldn't find the post... I just remember the design. Anyway, I decided it was perfect for the two wonderful peanuts I love (and my mom too!).

I had the most amazing weekend (Canoeing on Lake Superior in a thunderstorm!, Swimming with Hubbie, Swimming with family, Playing at the park with peanuts, shopping). I hope you all have a great 4th of July, (or like me, had a great Canada Day!)

Veggie Garden Cake

2011-06-25T22:18:00.005-05:00

HURRAY FOR SUMMER!

I am officially on summer break. Tests, reports, and all that other jazz are done for the season. Now, it is time to kick back and relax, and celebrate a great year. For some of us teachers, the end is nigh... one of our dear friends has retired (he did not die). Now, his big plans are to garden, and what better to do than to celebrate with a cake.

This is just a regular slab cake, decorated with chocolate buttercream (regular for the grass) and decorated with chocolate veggies and cookie crumble dirt. I think that smooshing cookies to make dirt was one of the many tricks my mom taught me that I use over and again! Totally great for cakes!
The posts are made of MMF cut to look like picket-fence posts. The lines in between are white piped buttercream.

I made modeling chocolate veggies, then added some flare with regular buttercream. For lettuce, I used the regular Rose technique, adding 'pettles' or 'leaves' on through overlapping layers. For the tomatoes, I stuck them into a toothpic tripod then piped some green leaves and vines for effect.

Add carrots (a favorite) and watermelons and we are good to go!

All in all, the effect was great. Said unnamed teacher requested no photos (he's shy), but that's all right! It was a great party, and a great cake, and he's a great teacher. We had a blast.

Well, I'm off for a few days vacation. I hope everyone stays safe. Play safe!

Baby Duck Shower Cake

2011-06-23T22:45:00.003-05:00

Well, I'm still alive. One more day of work for me and I'm out for the summer. Hurrah!

This time of year is the most busy. Not only am I calculating tests, writing reports and cleaning house, but I am also baking for all my students and co-workers. What a lot of cake I've made! My most ambitious project, a cake in the shape of the school I work at (which had to travel one hour down a dirt road in order to arrive) was non-photographed by me as I forgot my camera going out the door. Sill waiting on those photos... :( The other project I did was this cake here:

One of my coworkers recently had a baby boy. To celebrate the end of the year, and her darling bundle of joy, this small cake is making an appearance at the baby shower.... it too must travel an hour, so I am taking photos before I leave! Hopefully it will arrive in this condition later!

It had to be something simple. Honestly, there is nothing more awful to me than a 'baby cake'. I mean, just take a look at the best example from Cake Wrecks (LOVE!). Great cake, creepy idea. I can't imagine what would go through a mother's head when they asked for that cake. "Oh, Mrs. Sugar, could you please design me a cake in the likeness of my baby. It would be ever so wonderful to cut it up with a sharp knife... like practice... for.... " You can just guess that my jaw would be on the ground. Luckily, this particular parent does not know I'm bringing the cake, so no baby-cakes for me!

It is far better to see a nice cuddly fluffy baby duckling snuggling mommie than to have a knife cutting into a baby's behind, body, or even the mommie's big belly. All those cakes look great, but for some reason, give me the willies! What an awful idea. Well... now that it is late, and I am sufficiently ranted-emptied, I am off to bed. I have more cakes to show in the coming days... Hopefully somewhere in here I will be able to sleep... or nap... or just close my eyes for a minute or two.

Sleep well!

Oh, I forgot... this is an edit. I'm trying out a Facebook page. I've never owned an account, but I'm giving it a shot: Tell me what you think, or even, how this FootBook stuff works.

Grad Party Hats and Cuppies

2011-06-16T20:00:00.002-05:00

I'M ALIVE! YAY!

Okay, so most people would call party hats something a little different. But when I look at a Grad Cap, I think of huge parties for a successful completion of a major part of your life where you grow into an adult or if you are already an adult you celebrate the job possibilities which open before your eyes... breath!

These caps and cuppies go to celebrate the achievement of someone whom I am very proud of. It has been a difficult time in their life, and this marks the beginning of a new chapter and a new future!

For these cuppies, I tried a new design idea. I went with swirly icing highlighted blue (to mark the colours of the school). The wrappers are supposed to be those designer ones you see made by expensive companies, but they bled... so they look a little less expensive.

The party hats (yes, I'm going to call them that) are boring, but are symbolically necessary.

The only problem is the humidity. You cannot complain at this time of year about the heat, but it does play troubles with the cookies. Too bad too!

I'm sure my pointing out the problem is unnecessary. Many of us cookiers have discussed the problem... it's just a pain!

Okay, movie time!

New Tangled Cake! now with 50% more Diego

2011-06-04T19:57:00.003-05:00

Hello all. I am still alive! Even after creating this beast of a cake. Three tiers of crazy characters. When I was first presented with the idea for this cake, my friend just wanted a Tangled cake, but the more she discussed the party with her daughters the more they disagreed on the design. She then asked me to do two cakes, but that would be too many (at least that's what I though)! What did I suggest, well, how about we amalgamate the two ideas into one monster cake. Like this:

I should have stuck with two small cakes. This beast was a blast to make and decorate, but a beast to create! The tower is modeling chocolate with an ice-cream cone topper (decorated to look tower-e). The top two cakes are chocolate and the bottom is vanilla.

For the Tangled themed top, I went with a simple design of flowers and tower with a modeling chocolate Rapunzel. I liked the gum-paste version, but with report cards looming, I did not have the time to make it. Modelling chocolate still looks and tastes great though!

Rapunzel looks too demure. I need to master her rebellious look.
(above you can see the waterfall shimmer.. ohhh... ahh!)

The best part of the cake was the pillars. I've wanted to do a pillar cake for a while. These pillars simple Wilton square pillars decorated with modeling chocolate and made to look like beautiful trees. I love them a lot!

This is just a preview, tomorrow, hopefully, I will have wonderful set-up pictures on site at the party!

Ciao!

See me at 733

VOTE FOR ME!

2011-05-31T16:33:00.003-05:00

I hate shameless self-promotions, but I was chosen as one of Sweetopia's Sweets of the Week. Please, go vote for my Dorothy Cookie! I will be your friend!

Adam's 1st birthday, My first dessert table

2011-05-28T19:40:00.005-05:00

Today was my friend's son's 1st Birthday Party. The theme was A day at the Circus. TOO CUTE! So of course I had planned his dessert table four months ago! I told, not asked, my friend Deneine that I was making the display/dessert table for Adam's party, and whatever she had planned, we would work through it. So, when she told me that the theme was a circus, I was all too thrilled. The whole shebang was big! She had a bouncie castle, fish pond, prizes, tickets, games, SNOWCONES, cotton candy, hot dogs, it was HUGE! Deneine never does anything small, and I was totally excited to meet her expectations.

This was my first dessert table. I've been following so many different blogs where super-moms make awesome tables, and felt totally inadequate. I mean, I'm not a mom (yet), nor do I often get the chance to throw big parties. I used this chance, and this baby as my fake-super-mom-awesome-party-of-awesomeness dessert table. The result:

I don't think I did quite bad. I wish I had had more time to bake, but I knew there was too much candy/food as it was, so I tried not to bake too much, knowing full well that it probably would not get all eaten (most of it did!).

On the table I had (center) Chocolate dipped Oreos, peanut-free peanut cookies (sugar cookies decorted to look like peanuts - below, jelly-beans, jujubes), chocolate mustaches (not pictured here), and of course, cake: big one for the party, small one for Adam to squash!

My favorite part were the cookies. I took so long decorating those bad-boys to look like peanuts. I did a base coat, then a few lines on top to make them look like peanuts. Sadly, I didn't get a good picture of them! ARGH! They looked so cute wrapped up in the home-made wrappers!

Of course, everyone loved the cake, that is nothing to be surprised about. I did, however, underestimate the number of people who planned on eating it, and we came up a bit short... kids eat a lot of cake! I planned for 30 people, but we had so many more. It was truly an awesome day!

Until next time!

Teacup cake

2011-05-23T12:42:00.004-05:00

I was playing around in the kitchen last night because it was raining all day, and it was cool outside, and I thought I'd make something a little fun. I made, the Teacup cake! Perfect for tea parties!

The idea behind this little dessert is that it is a black-forest cupcake wrapped in white fondant, then, filled with chocolate ganache to give it the appearance of a cup of hot-cocoa in a teacup.

♥♥♥ SO CUTE! ♥♥♥

Hubbie was feeling deprived of sweets, and Black Forest cake is his favorite, so this was a cute and creative way to play.

Recipes used:

Chocolate Cake (for the black-forest base) + cherry pie filling (any will do)
Marshmallow Fondant (for the cup)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Bake your cupcakes in wrappers, remove wrappers when cool.

2. Cut out the center and fill with cherry pie filing.

3.Cut a strip of fondant, let harden slightly, wrap around the cupcake using a little white icing to stick it to the cuppie.

4. Using cooled (not too hot) ganache, fill the 'cup' with a little chocolate so as to cover the top of the cuppie. Add a marshmallow.

5. Using a bit of fondant, make a little handle in the shape of a 'C' and adhere to cupie with a little piping gel.

Voilà!
Serve on a saucer for best effect.

HELLO SUNSHINE!

2011-05-21T23:18:00.003-05:00

Well, I'm back! After a few weeks of being sick, I seem to be on the upswing! HURRAY! I've been unable to bake due to a crazy eye infection, so I've been fantasizing non-stop about all the wonderful things I'm going to bake when I get better... dreams! Oh what dreams!

Today, being the first day I'm better I jumped right into it... I decided to make some pretty sunflower cookies.

Flood cookies can be very pretty, or even very simple. The key is to put in details. Here, I'll show you. Take this simple flood sugar cookie. I've done the base work on it already... I've given it a yellow bottom layer, and even started to put in the center of the flower. But something is still missing.

This cookie is what I call an in-transit cookie, on it's way to being finished. The key is to add just a touch more detail to make it pop. What makes a flower pop better than its petals?

To bring this cookie to the next level, I began to pipe in the detail: a little definition into the body:

You can get the idea of how this works, by adding the outline to the cookie, the petals are no longer just a blob, but now, they become defined! All cookies are like this, finding the right touch to make a cookie pop!

So pretty. So, onto my next project, it's sure to be amazing!!!

Until then!

How To: Dorothy Cookie step-by-step

2011-05-10T12:11:00.005-05:00

Hi all!

Just getting over an awful cold. It has been hanging around for at least a week now and I am totally exhausted. Truth-be-told I had to take the day off work today for it (and a doctor's apt), so I thought a post would be perfect!

I promised last week to post up a step-by-step instruction on how to make this cookie freehand:

I freehand all my cookies, lacking a KopyKake projector. But it is not as hard as you think, all you need to do is plan it out in your mind.

What you will need:

CUT AND BAKED COOKIES!

Flood Colors (Thinned royal icing) :
White (background and clothing)
Peach (skin)
red (shoes)

Thick colours (For Piping):
Blue (plus blue colour for painting)
Brown (for hair)

Painting Colours (gel colours):
Blue (dress pattern)
Black (eyes, nose)
Pink (smile)

SANDING SUGAR (OPTIONAL FOR SHOES)

___________♥♥♥♥___________

I start by cutting out the shape of the cookie I plan on making. I flood the base layer with a generic colour - white!

Next, I eyeball out where the base-layer items will be. In this case, Dorothy's Skin. Using a thicker flood icing, I rough out the shape, and then use a toothpick to put in the ears and fingers. For the legs, I leave room for socks and shoes. (let dry)

Next, I add in the beginnings of her dress - puffy sleeves and the center Dickie part of the dress.
Let dry again - 20 minutes? it must be hard since you are painting next.

Now, I deleted the middle scene here, but let me explain how to do it. First, I dilute some regular foodcolor (americolor gel - sky blue) with water. On a plate, I take a super fine brush, and begin to paint on the dress pattern (lines down, then across). Once the lines have been painted in, I take a small bit of royal icing (thicker than the flood) in the same blue tint as the pattern, then I outline the dress and the folds. I also pipe the socks and small detail of her neck area. This part takes some steady hand work, but painting on a cookie is actually quite simple, and fun too!
Guess what happens next... let it dry :)

Next, I take the brown colour gel (thick again) to start the hair and basket. The hair is simple. I make a line down one side, then the other. Then go back to the first side, line, other side line, etc until the hair is full. Each line, if the icing is thick enough, should not bleed together like a flood will. Make sure to take your time though.

For the basket, I did a basket weave patter (line down, staggered lines across.... line down, opposite stagger across etc.) The basket took the most time of it all, and can be omitted.

After all of that dries, I wanted to see her beautiful face. Using gel colours again (black and white americolor gel - WHITE IS ESSENTIAL FOR ALL THINGS), I used my paint brush and painted on her face. A pink smile give it the perfect touch. I used white to add shines to the eyes and lips, which I believe gives it a more 3-d look.

Finally, the red slippers. I just put some red icing on the area, and sprinkled red sanding sugar to give the sparkly look. For those that read the books

And there you have it :) I hope you enjoyed the tutorial. I want to do another sometime soon. Until then!

Anemone Cake (Recipe)

2011-05-08T12:22:00.002-05:00

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope you all have great weather. Here in the Fort, or in N.W.O, we generally get rain on Mother's day. I'm not sure if it is an indication that we should stay inside and enjoy our families, or whether it is something else. Either way, I had lots of time to bake my Mother's Day cake this weekend, so to you, I present the Anemone Cake:

I have wanted to make this Black and White cake for a while. The trouble is that I love colour so very much (see the decorations on the blog to get the just of it). It was nice to have to bake a cake that didn't include a lot of colors and was simple to make. I was very pleased with the result.
I just think that the Anemone is such an elegant flower. It makes for a simple decoration. Now, on this cake, I did not abandon all color. The cake itself is a White Chocolate Raspberry cake with Almond buttercream. This recipe is actually one which comes from Wilton. I found it years ago and have stuck with it! I truly think it is a simple and delicious recipe, tasting better than a boxed recipe!

White-Chocolate Raspberry Cake with Almond Buttercream:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups milk
4 ounces (2/3 pkg baker's white chocolate) GET THE GOOD STUFF
1 tbsp vanilla
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter , softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup raspberry Jam (Best stuff!)
1 c unsalted butter (room temp)
2 1/2 c powdered sugar (icing sugar)
5 oz heavy cream (whipping cream)
1 tbsp vanilla
t tbsp almond extract
pinch salt

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. prepare two 6 inch pans (lined and sprayed).

In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt.

In small microwave-safe bowl, heat milk until hot, but not boiling. Stir in the vanilla and white chocolate until melted.

In a third large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time.

Slowly incorporate flour and chocolate mix alternately, mixing until just combined. Whip for 1 minute at high speed, pour into pans.

Bake 20-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool and prepare frosting.

Almond Buttercream:

Beat butter until fluffy, add in the vanilla, salt and almond extract.

On high whip in the heavy cream until mixture is fluffy.

Slowly add in the powdered sugar. Once mixed set aside.

NOW PUT IT ALL TOGETHER~!

Cut off the tops of the cakes. In the center of the cake, fill a layer of raspberry jam, then a thicker layer of the Almond Buttercream. Place two halves of the cake together. Press firmly but do not squish (gets rid of air in between).

Dirty ice the cake and let it sit for 1 hour.

Now, spread icing over top of the whole cake and decorate as you see fit. ENJOY!

I hope you all enjoy your Mother's day! Until next time.

Elections Canada: Vote for Cookies!

2011-05-01T10:36:00.005-05:00

It's that time again for all Canadians. Tomorrow, May 2nd, 2011 we are going to the polls again. For those of you who have not yet voted, I urge you to get out and to vote. Generally, I do not get political or preachy on my blog, but I truly feel that this is an important part of a democratic society, especially considering the fact that many Arab nations right now are FIGHTING for this right.

To honor the tradition of voting, I made these cookies... after-which my husband pointed out I had left off the Green Party (Sorry Elizabeth May). I also did not include the Block (I'm in Ontario... so it never crossed my mind... sorry Gilles Duceppe. Also, independent... for those that wish to try to make a difference, I salute you too! No matter who you are voting for, just VOTE!

To encourage my friends to vote, I'm holding a voting dinner party tomorrow. The idea is we get together, eat, chat, have fun, go vote, then reconvene to see the results. I am super excited. Any excuse to have a party I guess.

To all you Canadians out there, we'll see you at the polls!
Okay, next up, the Dorothy Cookie Tutorial!

Wizard of Oz: Dorothy Cookie and my Cookie Recipe!

2011-04-30T19:56:00.003-05:00

EXCITED! Fort Frances High School is doing a production of THE WIZARD OF OZ for this year's musical. To celebrate, I've made a Dorothy Cookie! This cookie not only highlights the event (for those in the Fort that read this), but it also goes to celebrate the birthday of the director! This cookies are my gift to her for all her hard work!

I was super excited to make these cookies, they literally took all day to do. Each part must dry before the next can be made. For this cookie, I had about 9 steps, each one coming together to make the final product. I love the basket, I think that was my favorite part. Either way, the end product of one day's decorating was TWO Dorothy cookies and THREE Ruby Slippers. How sad? So much work! Such a great product!

Now, many people have asked me about my own recipe. And, truth be told, I've intentionally never placed it up. Maybe I was being sentimental, but it was something that I wanted to keep to myself. How selfish am I?

Anyway, I've finally decided to share my recipe with all of you. I hope that you will enjoy it. Try it out for yourselves. It is a pretty traditional recipe, except the spices, which I believe really add a lot! Tell me what you think, okay?

Domestic Sugar Cookies:

1 c sugar
1 c butter/margarine
1 lg egg
1 tbsp vanilla extract (real is best!)... beans are even better!
1/2 tsp cardamom
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
3 1/2-4 c flour (Depends on humidity) + 1/3 c for dusting

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cream butter and sugar (whip until fluffy). Add egg, vanilla, cardamom and cinnamon. Mix slightly.

2. Add in baking powder and flour, mix until the dough is just JUST not-tacky to the touch (should not stick to your fingers, but should be sticky.

3. Place dough in fridge for 1 hour. Take out a small ball (1/3 of the dough), and roll it out on a lightly dusted surface, roll to 1 inch thickness. You may need to lift dough and dust underneath. I use a pie-scraper for this, works great!

4. Cut out desired shape, place on a cookie sheet (I use parchment to prevent sticking). Place in the freezer to chill for 3 minutes. In the mean time, pre-heat oven to 325 degrees F. When the oven is good and ready, place cookies in the oven and cook for 7-12 minutes. This will depend on the cookie shape/size. Smaller cookies cook faster. Cook until the edges are JUST brown.

Remove and cool. DECORATE! OH-YEAH! :: does vector hip-thrust ::

Coming Up: How-to? Dorothy Tutorial!

Princess and Pirate Party

2011-04-25T17:16:00.004-05:00

I hope everyone had a great little vacation. I know I did! I think it's been a week since I did any baking! I did do a lot of cooking, making Red-Pepper Squash soup, and Cinnamon Buns. Last week, I made cookies for a very special little girl named Piper. For her special birthday, she decided she wanted to be a princess, but the problem is that she is quite the tom-boy, and had a lot of boys (who are friends) attending. What to do? Well, as inspired by many Party Moms out there, her mom decided that the best way to approach the problem would be to amalgamate the boyish and girlish into one great party! Princess-Pirate Party ahoy!

On a whim, she had asked me if I would be willing to make some cookies-on-a-stick for the party bags. How could I say no, especially when she and her husband have been so kind as to invite me to watch UFC - Ultimate Fighter Championships - at their house on various occasions. (Yes, I actually got a taste of MMA - mixed martial arts - and have become a fan. It's like a dirty secret!)

The colours of the crowns are exactly similar to the party invites she had - safe for the heart being at the bottom rather than the middle. If you'll remember my last crown pos t, you'll remember that these cookies (the crowns at least) were made using a cottage cut out and I just sliced and diced to get the right shape. I like the unique shape, and owning one less cookie cutter is always a bonus in my home!

Now, wrap these babies up in a little cello and they are good as gold! A sweet and cheery way to enjoy a party's end.

Now, I have to go laugh my buns off while Tony Horton helps me to work out. For anyone who has ever done the P90X or the 10-Minute Solutions videos, you'll know what I mean. Lets just say, he was not that great of a comedian, but he's pretty.

Until Next Time!

More Easter Cookies

2011-04-14T21:20:00.002-05:00

There used to be a silly cartoon called "Bumb Bunnies" that some kids I looked after used to watch. The premise was that the bunnies were socially inept, they did not read social cues or even understand how to dress themselves properly. When I made these bunny cookies, that show came to mind. The simple look of the bunny, in comparison to other types of cookies or animals, gave me the impression that these bunnies did not know social cues (if that were even possible for a cookie).

But, I suppose that is what makes these cookies so adorable. First, you get the impression they are clueless, maybe they don't quite understand their place on the food chain. Then, it slowly becomes evident, as I continued to pipe away, that these particular bunnies were truly, not too bright...

I guess it goes to show you that something that is delicious does not need to be particularly smart, or good for you... or :: insert moral here ::

Instead, I figured that my Easter cookies this year should keep with the cute design rather than the classic. More chickies please! But there is an issue, which came first?

Okay, that's my rant for now. Happy Easter Everyone! I can't wait to see what you've all whipped up!

Check out what just hatched!

2011-04-10T21:05:00.002-05:00

YAY for Spring! My little chicks just hatched! No really, here's what I found when I woke up this morning:

DIES! SO CUTE!

>_> ........ <_< ....... ^____^;

What, you don't believe me? Well, okay, so maybe it's not the case, but these cute little chicks are so amazingly adorable! And super easy to make. I am in such a spring kick this week, maybe it's the weather. This weekend, the temperatures in the Fort went as high as 16 degrees (Celsius). Which, for North Western Ontario, is actually quite amazing! I love the feel of the sun. It is almost time to crack out the heavy-duty sunscreen moisturizer (you should wear it daily!) Now, we've got lots of rain, which is washing away all the dirty snow. HURRAY! Perfect weather for baking!

Anyway, on my run, I picked up a dozen eggs. Strange thing about the inside...

HAHAHA!
Okay, so at this point I'm not fooling anyone hun? But still, look at the cute little chickies!

While I may not be fooling anyone, I certainly am having fun. I love spring because of the renew of energy people get. I am certainly looking forward to the coming summer.

On the house note (and summer note) gone and seen quite a few houses that our contractor has built (many in the same general design of our home-to-be) and I must say, I am so very excited to get this party started. I love my property so! I am bursting with excitement at my new, large, fancy kitchen! Oh well, I'll make due with my picnic table dining table for now (yeah, we use outdoor furniture inside... to save... our..... *mumbles*).

HURRAY FOR COOKIES AND SPRING!

How To? Barbie Catwalk-Cake Tutorial

2011-04-03T20:38:00.006-05:00

I trust everyone had a great weekend! Despite getting sick today, I've had a wonderful weekend! Allow me to show you my second cake this week. The Barbie Catwalk Cake!
This cake was super fun to make. Despite my reservations about making it, and despite the fact that it took oodles of cake to actually produce, I had a blast making it.

Wonder how it all came together, or want to know how to make a Barbie Cake yourself? Here's a sneak-peak on the making-of Barbie Cakes (Made in buttercream).

First thing to do is to stack your cakes. For the height of a regular Barbie-doll, I used three 9 inch cakes and one 6 inch cake for the top (which I let slightly dome in the center). Ice the in-betweens of each cake and stack. WARNING! MAKE SURE TO CUT OUT THE HOLES IN THE CAKE FOR BARBIE'S BODY. YOU CANNOT SIMPLY STICK HER IN AS IT WILL CRACK THE CAKE. To do this, simply use a round cookie cutter and cut out holes in the direct center of each cake progressing up to the top layer. (not shown)

Allow them time to settle a little, about 1 hour.Carve into the shape of the dress. For this particular cake, I decided to do a ball-gown style with a RECESSED center panel. To do that I cut into the cake and then slowly carved out each cake block until I had a nice little pocket in the dress. You can't see it well until the next picture...

There we go! Now, Dirty ice the cake (making sure the icing is as smooth as possible and place in the fridge. The cake will continue to set and it will also harden the icing on the outside.

While waiting for the cake to chill and relax, you can go on to your Barbie doll. For this part, I used a little bit of Fondant. I just cut out the shape of a top (front and back) and designed a simple design. Since this cake was made to match Barbie's lipstick (Pink/Black/White), I colour matched the fondant to compliment her face. So pretty!

Once you've got her all prettied up, it's time to actually ice the cake. To do this, make sure you have very smooth butter cream (do this by using whole milk or cream that is whipped). Choose your colours and begin the apply the buttercream. For this part, I used black on the outside of the dress. As you can see, the initial application is a little bit rough. That's okay! We'll work on that!

Now, Place Barbie into the center of the cake and smooth the black icing around her, then decorate.

TIP: To smooth buttercream on a cake. Apply a coat of buttercream as smoothly as you can, then allow time for the buttercream to crust (10-20 minutes). When you can touch the buttercream without it sticking to your finger is when it should be about right to smooth. The easiest way to smooth the icing is to take a piece of parchment (about 20 centimeters in length and width) and apply it lightly to crusted buttercream. Then, taking your hand, lightly rub it over the buttercream. Do this all over the cake. This will push down and bumps into the soft buttercream underneath and give a nice smooth coat. If you have a fondant-smoother, all the better!

Before....

AND AFTER!

Now, for this cake, I wanted Barbie to be walking down the catwalk, so I simply took 10 inch square pans and baked two cakes, cut them and filled them. Then, placing them side-by-side, I dirty iced, then iced them into a long rectangle. Next, I traced out the cat-walk on top, and placed the birthday girl's name and age on the end.

A catwalk is never complete until is has spotlights, and while they do not shine well in these photos, the two brown things sticking up from the cake are shining spot-lights on Barbie's walk down the walk. For this I used two key-chain lights and covered their casings with little fondant wrappers. You turn them on then cover them up! VOILÀ!

I hope that gives you some ideas on how to make the cake. Super fun! I hope you all had a great weekend like I did.

Until next time!

Spring Cakes

2011-04-01T17:28:00.005-05:00

C'est le printemps! YOUPI! Je suis très contente!

The closer summer gets, the more I dream about going swimming off the dock, or running in the cool summer air. There is so much about summer I love. But the best part (other than my soon-to-be-built-home!) is having friends over. My friends are so important to me. To celebrate a new-found-friend, I made this spring-themed cake.

This is a borrowed design I suppose, coming from PetalSweet's blog. Check the original. But, mine, unlike hers, has a flat top. The birds represent the spring's arrival, and the love in the air. This is the time of renewal. I am super happy with the way this cake turned out, and so was the recipient.

If you were wondering, I actually got to post the inside of the cake FOR ONCE! There have been so many parties where I've been too busy or distracted to take pictures. It is also quite distasteful to take pictures of food when people are trying to eat. Anyway, the inside of this particular cake is a Vanilla-Spice cake with Raspberry icing filled with cherries and raspberries. It was an amazing combo! Super yummy.

Well, that's enough of the story-telling, I'm currently in the process of making one fabulous Barbie Cake. I have never made one, and it is especially difficult considering the request was NO FONDANT ON THE CAKE (DIES). Wish me luck. I'll chart my progress for next post.

Abby Cadabby Birthday!!!

2011-03-26T11:46:00.005-05:00

It is Lilianna's 1st birthday! YAY! First birthday parties are always more about the parents than the children. Seriously, will a 1-year-old remember their cake? Probably not, but that won't stop the parents from trying to get a sublime cake. Today's 'Sublime Cake' takes the form of Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street.

I truly enjoy making little gum-paste characters. Unfortunately, the first one I made for this cake had a little fall, and is currently warming a dumpster :( That's okay, that just means more work ... or play, depending on how you look at it.

Anyway, this two tier Chocolate cake had just the right amount of magic and sparkle to it to make it special. Now, off to get my party-mama on! (I hate that show). Here's to cake, ice-cream, children, and very proud parents!

Baby Face Cupcakes

2011-03-23T21:05:00.003-05:00

Babies are awesome right? Cute, cuddly, sweet. Sure, they have their moments, but what child does not?

When I think of babies, all I think about is:

But seriously it's not all that bad right?
A co-worker of mine is going away on a Maternity leave soon. She's done, tired, and surprisingly small given how close she is to the 'end'. This will be her second child, yet she's not forgotten the pain, or so she assures me. Since tomorrow is her last day (Thursday), I'm sending her off with a little gift. The screaming baby, is really a cupcake!

But wait, if the screaming baby was not your type, there are more.This cliche little design is darling! I've wanted to do a cuppie like this for a while now, but given my non-baby state, and the fact that my baby-having friends have moved away from Fort Fabulous, I've not had the chance. Yeah, that's right, Fort Fabulous!

Babies, cry, scream, and drool. But they also laugh, smile, love and are cute. So, good luck Madam! Tu vas être une maman fantastique! Bonne Chance!

Roses for Rose

2011-03-21T13:39:00.005-05:00

It is finally spring, the first day in fact. Time to celebrate. These cookies were a quick project to honor the passing of a dear friend. These cookies made me hopeful, for all the things I will accomplish in the coming spring.

Hurray for the first day of spring. We've got about another month before the snow here is gone and I can start planting my spices. I am truly looking forward to getting out and hitting the pavement as well (running).

But, until I can get out and enjoy the magic of spring as it was intended to be enjoyed, I shall take a step back, and think of Rose's warm smile.

Now, on to other fun stuff. I've gotten this award from 3 people, and I've never seemed to have found the time to accept. So, to start, let me thank the three lovely people who nominated me:
Little Eme, It's a Priceless Life, and D'Lea Designs, THANK YOU!

To Accept the award, and promote others, there are rules:

1. Thank and Link back to the person who gave you the award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Award 7 recently discovered great bloggers.

4. Contact the bloggers and tell them about the award.

Okay, so here we go.
SEVEN THINGS ABOUT MEGHAN!

1. My favorite colours are Pink and Teal. I've actually decorated my house in pink and my hubbie calls it the 'pink princess palace,' even though he admits I am a good designer :)

2. I live in Canada (already stated), and was the First Girl Scout in my home town (along with a friend of course!). Not Girl-Scout, but like the American BSA, I was a Scout in Scout's Canada, and it was not for the boys! I loved the fact that they did more than knit and bake (which in the early 80s was all my Brownie troupe did).

3. I wear aprons around my home in the 1950s housewife-way. For some reason, I feel that is a tradition that should never end... and I have MANY MANY aprons.

4. I love to draw, A LOT! I've been drawing since I was very young. Crayons are amazingly effective for shading :)

5. I used to Cantor at my church. I never claimed that I had a good voice, but for some strange reason, I got to sing lead. YAY! In my choir I also played flute :)

6. Starbucks in a Chapters is the one place on this earth that I could spend an entire day! Seriously, I love to sit, drink my coffee and read... READ!

7. My dream is to be the perfect hostess and wife and mother (the last part is going to be tough!). The 1950s were a glorious time of entertaining and having fun with friends. I hope that I can throw many dinner parties and gatherings.

Now to pass it on:
These blogs are awesome! Check them out and be inspired!

1. Manni @ iBake Cakes
2. Lialoa
3. Butter Hearts Sugar
4. Sweet Creations by Stephanie
5. Rollin' in Dough
6. 148 Cookie Street
7. Fresh Cut Flours

Hope you enjoy the blog-hop! And thanks for the award :)

Last bit of Irish Green

2011-03-17T19:08:00.003-05:00

Before we all go off to forget the awful holiday of St. Pats day (no, it's really not that bad... except when it's on a Thursday), I thought I would have one little pots on my morning snack!

I am a sucker for cinnamon buns any season of the year. Really, you could give me a whole plate of them and I would die happy! So, Here's my recipe for a quick batch! (Makes about 24 medium buns or 18 large).

Basic Sweet Dough
(adapted from the Kitchen Aid Cookbook)

3/4 cup 1% milk (we have to be healthy here!)
1/2 c sugar
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c butter
2 tbsp yeast
1/3c warm water
3 eggs room temp
5 1/2-6 1/2 c flour

1. Warm milk, salt, sugar and butter in a small saucepan. Stir until sugar is melted and so is the butter. Cool to Lukewarm.

2. Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add lukewarm milk and eggs. Add flour and kneed for about 2 minutes. Add flour in 1/2 c increments until it is just a little sticky.

3. Place dough in greased bowl, turning to crease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place (1h).

Filling

1c firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1/2 c butter
1/4 c flour
1 1/2 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 c walnuts (if desired)

Cream sugars and butter, flour and cinnamon (and walnuts if chosen).

PUT IT ALL TOGETHER!

1. Roll out your dough and spread the mix on one side. Roll the thing up and cut into rolls (large or small). Place cut cinnamon rolls in a baking pan or dish (like below). And Let rise (40 min).

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes (mine were 20 and were a little dark... my oven is on the fritz).

Green for St. Pats day! HURRAY!

I put a glaze on mine:

Caramel Glaze

1/3c evaporated milk
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 1/2 c powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

In a saucepan, melt brown sugar with the milk. Add warm milk mix to the powdered sugar and vanilla. Blend with a mixer until the mix is slightly cool and creamy (about 2 minutes). Pour over buns. YUMMY!

Honestly, nothing is better than a warm cinnamon bun... except someone to share it with :)

Little Lamb, Who Made Thee?

2011-03-16T19:57:00.003-05:00

Hurray! SPRINGTIME!
No really!

The snow is melting, there is a light rain in the air...
I CAN RUN OUTSIDE AGAIN AND NOT WEAR ONE THOUSAND LAYERS!

It is so amazing to finally be able to go outside and see everything melting. Sure, there is dog poop everywhere, and it's hard to go for walks for fear of being splashed by cars, but the final result of glorious sunshine makes it all worthwhile.

I love Summertime in the Fort! We're so close!

Anyway, I have spring fever. My windows are all open and I'm cleaning up, getting ready for summer. To celebrate, I decided to do a cookie. It has been a long time since I've actually taken my time on a nice looking decorated cookie! To honor spring, I made cute little spring lambs. Yes, yes, they look like sheep to me too, but let us use our imagination for a while. Look, all bubbly-cute!

I made a few types of lambs to figure out how I wanted to decorate them, in the end, these lambs were the nicest (other than flat coats and non-peril topped coats). Each bubble is put on, then let to dry (10 minutes or so) then another layer, then another until finally you get this cute bubbly/puffy look. Makes for a great coat!

I'm the black sheep in my family :) But I could just as easily be the one below (Scary Lamb).

Personal Happy News, kinda boring. BE WARNED:
This summer, hubbie and I are building a home on the lake. We are super excited to see all this snow melt so we can get started... TIME IS TAKING FOREVER! Honestly! But, I am confident that it will all go down without a hitch. We just got the blue-prints back from the engineer. HURRAY! I cannot wait to get out there. Hubbie and I went out to the property last month to take photos; there was snow up to our waists! Only one more month I'm sure, then all of this will be almost gone!

Anyway, rant done. I'll post more more fun ideas soon! Ta-Taa!

Cheerleading Competition

2011-03-12T08:43:00.003-06:00

Way-To-Go Muskie Cheerleaders on your win at the Ontario Cheer Federation Competition. We are proud of you!

Sorry for the shortened post, I've got to go back to being sick :)

Giant Cupcake Cake Tutorial

2011-03-08T16:24:00.003-06:00

New blog design. I can't wait for spring any longer! It's too close. This cute little theme has been in the back of my head for a while now. I've been wanting to create something a little more shiny and bright. What else is shiny? Well....

Who likes Cupcakes?

How about a giant cupcake?

Like This One:

Well, I know I do! Would you like to learn how to make one? It is easier than you think. Carved cakes simply require a little bit of creativity... and a sharp knife!

What will you need:

Cakes (at least three 6-inch or five 9-inch cakes) I used a 6" pan, so three cakes here.
Icing (whatever type you like).
Marshmallow Fondant
Americolor Gel color
Gumpaste decorations

Step One:
Stack your cakes and allow to settle. Once they have rested about 8 hours you can begin to cut them. I shaved the bottom inward and the top inward. You'll see the bulge in the middle making the cupcake shape. Be careful when cutting so as not to destroy the cake.

Step 2:
Using the cake carvings (the leftovers from shaping) add some height onto the top of the cake.

Step 3:
Dirty-ice the cake. Allow time to crust.

Step 4:
Once the cake has settled and the icing has crusted, apply another layer of icing. Now for the fondant. Using a flat band of fondant, wrap it around in a swirling pattern at the top of the cake. This will be the icing on the cupcake.

Step 5:
Cut small strips of fondant (any color) to use as the wrapper. These rectangles give the cupcake a little more definition. Make sure to smooth the fondant with your smoothing tool.

Step 6:
Cupcakes need toppings. I used a small bit of chocolate fondant, and a small bit of pink fondant to make a type of sauce for the top.

Then, once that was placed on, I made jimmies and a cherry out of gum paste and let them dry.

Apply each layer of with a little bit of water to hold down the item. This part is where you can get creative. It will depend on your own design. I like cherries. This looks like a delicious sundae!

It's that simple!This cuppie is going to a friend of mine that gave up sugar. Maybe I can tempt her to the dark side >:)

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial!

Fondant Cookie Tutorial

2011-03-03T13:12:00.006-06:00

Decorated Cookies take a lot of time, which sometimes we don't have. I had spoken of Fondant-covered cookies in this post, and thought it would be wonderful to share some ideas on how to make beautiful cookies on a limited time frame.

What Will you need?

1 wad of Marshmallow Fondant (you can even half your recipe)
20 undecorated cut-out-cookies (any recipe will do)
Food Dye (to color fondant)
the cookie cutter used to make the shape.
Flower cutters, butterfly cutters, whatever works!
A small bit of icing.

First, take one colour of fondant and roll it flat. I chose a circle for the cookie, so I am using the same cutter below...

Cut out a shape of the same type as the cookie you baked.

Using a little regular icing (tub stuff works for this), spread a light layer to stick the fondant to the cookie.

Smooth out your fondant.

Hopefully by now, you'll have some good ideas on how to decorate. Here, I made flowers out of different colour fondants, and cut them out. I also have lines which I cut.

You can STICK the shapes to the fondant-cookie with a little dab of water. I use a paint-brush to wet the cookie....

Place your design on and VOILA!

You can make any design, or you can paint on the fondant-cookie with food color gels. Whatever you want! Options are endless and easy.

Until next time!

Puppy Party Cupcake Tower

2011-02-27T17:01:00.003-06:00

Super awesome weekend! I hope everyone else had a great one too! This week's project: a Puppy Party themed Cake/Cupcake tower! This super cute little colored cake matched the colors outlined in the Puppy Party pack; the cake was for a teacher friend's youngster!

So, what's on the inside? This Vanilla-Spice cake featured an Orange icing with Cookies n' Cream center. The Cuppies are also Vanilla-Spice and are topped with a whipped orange cream icing.

I love playing with new ideas but this cake was so simple, it looked so elegant, I guess I just forgot that simplicity can sometimes be the best bet!

Coming up next, a demo of Fondant Cookies: Super simple to make and delicious to eat!

Easy Lizard Cookies

2011-02-25T20:41:00.004-06:00

I have to admit, sometimes the pressure is high to create something special. Let's face it, no one has all the time in the world! I'm lucky to have time now, but in a few months, kiss that all goodbye. Hubbie and I are building a house on the lake :)

Anyway, this idea is one I've been wanting to try for a while, and it is super easy. Painted, Royal Icing cookies take a long time. Each layer dries, and you start again.... not good for the rushed-treat thing. These Marshmallow Fondant lizards are the perfect compromise: easy to make, and quick to do, delicious too!

If you've not already tried out this MMF recipe, then you are going to love it! IT is really made of two ingredients (plus color). Microwave marshmallows and water, add powdered sugar and mix. VOILA!

I used the same cutter to cut out the cookies as I did to cut the fondant (just wash in between). It is super easy to make a base coat for the cookie, then decorate with other shapes and colours to make that cookie pop! Best of all, it's easy! Anyone can do it! No more fuss with drippy icing or piping bags. It's a perfect idea for any family.

These lizards went to a great bunch of kids at my school. Super awesome treat for a super awesome bunch! Try it out. I'm going to! Let's see what kinds of toppings and colors I can make!

HEY! Looking for great ideas? Try TidyMom! I know I'm lovin' it!

Book Club Cuppies

2011-02-21T17:31:00.002-06:00

When it comes to teens reading, I always say, whatever gets the job done! Be it the Twilight series or the Harry Potter series, or a bunch of cupcakes, getting children interested in reading is awesome! Each year, our school participates in the Forest of Reading's White Pine Book Club, where students get a sample of 10 books written for teens, and vote on which is the best! I love the club. This year the books have been flying off the shelf; we have a 5 copies of each of the books, and most of the time there are none on the shelf. That means all 50 books are taken out and enjoyed! YAY!
This past week, the school hosted a meeting to discuss the book, and to get the kids out, I made "White Pine Book Club Cuppies."

Each of the books and trees are made of MMF, rolled out, shaped, cut, and custom painted to look like the books which make up this year's selection; I also made trees to symbolize the club itself!

I thought the books looked pretty snappy! I've finally had a chance to read all 10 books. YAY! I have to say, they always have a great selection. I'd say my favorite is "Some Girls Are," it elicited so much emotion from me... SO MUCH ANGER AND FRUSTRATION (which of course was Courtney Summer's intention)! It was a great read!

Book clubs are awesome! I hope everyone at the meeting enjoyed the cuppies! Do you book club? If so, where do you find your books, and what do you read?!

Until next time!

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

2011-02-14T06:48:00.001-06:00

My Valentine to you all!

Hope you all spend it with the ones you love!

Valentine Icicle Candy

2011-02-13T14:45:00.002-06:00

This idea has been on my list of to-bake for a while now. I love swizzle sticks, or icicle candy. I think it is so elegant to add to any table. I've never tried to make my own candy, and learned a lot from it! It is not as hard as one might think either. This icicle candy is perfect for valentine's day. A nice raspberry hard candy that you can make in under 1/2 an hour.

Wanna make some for your own table?

Icicle Candy
Recipe courtesy of Sprinkle Bakes
Makes 12-15 pieces

1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 dram flavoring oil (Rasberry, cherry, blueberry) USE THE WHOLE DRAM!
Any Colour food coloring
White food coloring *optional (I would recommend)
Disco dust *optional

Directions:

Preheat oven to 185 degrees.

Spray a cookie sheet and large knife or pizza cutter with cooking spray.

In a large, 4 cup measuring class, mix sugar and corn syrup until it forms a thick paste. Cover with plastic wrap (top only) and microwave on high for 3 min 15 seconds.

Quickly stir mixture and cover with new plastic wrap. Microwave for another 3 min and 15 seconds.

Remove from microwave and with a clean spoon, stir mix.

When the mix stops boiling, add the colour and the flavor.

Spread onto baking sheet and spread by tilting the sheet. As the sugar starts to set, (very quickly) cut candy into strips (1/2 inch).Take cut strips and twist gently. Cool on a wire rack or clean paper towel.

I worked out of my oven, cutting on the wire tray while the oven kept the candy warm. If you take it out, it could harden quick.

*This recipe is meant to be prepared in a standard household microwave (600-700 watts). Mini microwaves and commercial microwaves are not recommended.

*Please use caution when making this recipe. Candy mixture is extremely hot when in liquid state.

Not a bad first try. I'm going to do this again once I get my white food gel. White food gel will stop the clear look and give it a nicer look I think. The kids loved these... tasted like cotton-candy! YUM!

Valentine Oreos

2011-02-12T10:37:00.004-06:00

We're getting closer to the day! Valentine's day is so wonderful, for baking at least. The most cute desserts come out now. One of my favorite is the Valentine Oreo! Here's how you can make them!

Make one batch of Chocolate cut-out cookies (no espresso powder):

Cream 1 cup sugar, and 1 c butter together. Add in the egg.

Next, add in 1/2 c cocoa and 1 tsp vanilla.

Incorporate the 2 c flour so that it sticks together in a thick dough.

Knead in the other 1/2 cup flour on a kneading surface. I love my glass cutting board. It will be a thick dough.

Take 1/3 of the dough to roll out and place the other 2/3 in the fridge. Since this is a sandwich cookie, make sure you roll your dough to 1/2 and inch thick (not very thick at all). Make sure the surface is well dusted with flour.

Use a round cutter to cut out the circles.

Next, using a small heart-shaped cutter, (one smaller than your circle) dent, not all the way though, the heart onto the round. You should get about half-way through the cookie, but not all the way!

Put the cookies in the freezer for 5 min or so while your oven is heated to 350 degrees.

While they are baking, prepare the icing. I like to use cream-cheese buttercream, but if you follow Bridget from Bake at 350's idea, you can make them more like Oreos.

Once they are baked and cooled, turn over the cookie and add in your filling. I am piping in mine, a thin layer of the cream-cheese icing :: dies ::

Be careful when putting them together not to crack the cookie. Movie it side to side to squish them together.

ENJOY! They are so lovely!

I'll be back with one more Valentine's day craft this week! Until then!

Small Sewing Cake

2011-02-10T09:41:00.002-06:00

Two cakes this week. I try to space things out as best I can, but when the cake is for a very special friend, you want to make sure it is perfect. Enter my Small Sewing Cake, inspired by the lovely lady's hobbies. Her hubby approached me to ask for something special. I hope this is it!

This cake featured the creative talent that my friend possesses. She is an amazing person with a wonderful talent for sewing. She made me a lovely apron which I love, so I made her something using my talent.

Her favorite colour is purple, so not only is the 'fabric' purple, but the inside of the cake is also purple. Little details like the sewing pattern on the top and the needles and thread make this cake special. It took forever to hand-paint the detail on the fabric. I can imagine exactly the kind of thing she'd make with the hearts! Darling!

We love you Wendy!

Backyardigans Birthday Cake

2011-02-06T19:23:00.007-06:00

It has been one heck of a week with this surprise cake! The surprise was in the timing - I wasn't given much notice :) But that was okay! I am super super excited by it, and how it turned out.

When first approached about this cake, my friend said she wanted something from the Backyardigans series. Her suggestion was something 3-d, and something with a soccer ball (from the Soccer Monster episode). I was like... you mean Paco, the penguin (no, it is Pablo). Shows what I know!

I think the real challenge was in the little figures, I mean, getting them to look right was hard! Especially the pink... lizard? Don't know what that thing is. I won't show a close-up because the head was way too narrow, but I think the others are fine.

Of course, putting it all together is the real surprise, even for me. After having each individual piece on my table drying, thinking, HOW IS THIS GOING TO WORK?! it was amazing to see it come together. I think I freaked out the most when I put the moose on... I mean, COME ON! Look how cute he is?! Totally my favourite part of the cake!

So Penny, what do you think! I hope you had a great party, and I hope your little Soccer Monster ended up cheering up a little.

Until next time, I've got a special project lined up!

Hey, Why Not SHOW OFF your DIY own projects?