Holiday Baking Ideas

It's 3 days before Christmas (!!!!) and aside from the Christmas cookie tins that I made with my roomie, I haven't made any of my standard Christmas desserts. No sugar cookies, no gingerbread house, no Advent cake, no cute cupcakes!

I'm falling behind!!

So today I'm making some sugar cookies, which I'll more than likely take to a Christmas party tonight, if I have time to decorate them this afternoon. At some point, I'd like to go to the grocery store to get gingerbread house and red velvet cupcake ingredients. I don't know how I'll have time for all this before Christmas, so maybe I'll just wait until after, if I must.

Wish me luck with all my last-minute baking plans!! :)

And I HAVE to show you the Christmas ornament my aunt Jessica made for me. It is the cutest thing ever!

DC Cupcakes

No, I'm not talking about the TV show. Although I guess I sort of am. OK let me rephrase that: I'm not talking about just the TV show. The DC area does have more than one bakery/cupcakery.

The first full day I had in DC, my cousin took us (me and her two adorable kids) to Cakelove at the mall. I tried the peppermint chocolate cupcake there and it was yummy. Cousin Hartley had the vanilla with chocolate icing, and if the icing smeared all over her face was any indication, she loved hers too.

Then, we all went to Georgetown Cupcakes the next day. Yup, the Georgetown Cupcakes of DC Cupcakes fame. And you know what? They were filming when we went, and the guy holding the release forms thought my baby cousin was so cute, they might put her in the show! :) How cute is that? So if you see a sweet little blonde girl on the show, that's my baby cousin! And I'm wearing a Gryffindor scarf, so I might be in the background somewhere too.

Let me tell you about their cupcakes though! The Key Lime was great...I wasn't expecting too much since KL can either be done really, really well or really, really badly. And I've had amazing KL cupcakes before, so I know what I'm talking about. I guess I was just expecting the cupcakes to be over-hyped, but trust me, they are so worth the hype. The chocolate squared cupcake was awesome too, I LOVED the icing on that one. I also tried vanilla birthday cake, gingerbread, red velvet, and white chocolate peppermint. The WCP was really good too, and even had white chocolate chips baked into the cupcake.

The whole shop was cute and definitely matched the cupcakes as far as impressiveness goes. The liners and boxes and stickers and bags all had Georgetown logos or colors on them, and everything was either shiny chrome or pink. The white Christmas tree with pink ornaments (and yes, even some cupcake ornaments) was cute too!

So if you happen to get to Georgetown Cupcakes and you get there early enough in the day so that there's not a line (they open at 10 on Saturdays), definitely pick up some cupcakes.

And for the record, I didn't eat 6 whole cupcakes...I just had a bite or two from each one. And I know you're expecting me to say this, so I will: Don't forget to vote! :)

New York Cupcakes

This past week, my roommate and I had the amazing opportunity to visit New York City. And no vacation is complete without eating some delicious cupcakes!

In this case, we checked out the bakery Crumbs, which is so popular, that they have multiple locations, including the Newark airport, and are even expanding to DC. Joy and I happened to go to the store by the New York Public Library (which was also amazing, but I'm also a book nerd, not just a cupcake nerd!)

It was difficult to decide which cupcake to buy, because they all looked amazing (and huge!!) but we picked Gingerbread because it was festive and not minty (*somebody* doesn't like mint. Weird).

Let me tell you. That gingerbread cupcake was fabulous. It was so rich and decedent with the fluffiest icing, which was sweet but not too sweet. And the cake part? Oh. My. God. So moist. So flavorful. So spicy and gingerbread-y. The only problem was that there was no way I'd be able to eat a whole cupcake all by myself. So it's good that Joy and I split it. They're really messy and crumby too, which is kinda funny, considering the name of the bakery is Crumbs and all! :-)

And Joy's cousin Beth also bought us gingerbread cupcakes from Bella's Bakery in NJ, which were more reasonably sized and had cream cheese icing (Mmm mm!) The cool thing about Bella's, though, is that they  have nut-free cupcakes for kids with allergies and also make gluten free, vegan, and organic treats as well. I love the idea. The bakery was started because the owner's daughter is allergic to nuts and couldn't eat the cupcakes that the other kids would bring to class.

Anyway, if you're in New York or New Jersey, I would gladly recommend both Crumbs and Bella's to you if you're in a cupcake-y mood. As far as any of the other bakeries that are around, I have no doubt that they're delicious, but I just haven't tried them yet. Guess that means I have to go back!

P.S. Please don't forget to vote for me! <3

Christmas Cookies

As you can tell, I made a lot of cookies this year for Christmas. Joy and I estimate that we baked over 300. And by we baked, I mean, I baked. Although, don't get me wrong, she totally helped. She just didn't actually put anything in the oven. =P

We make all these cookies (and cake balls) solely to give away to people as Christmas gifts. I think it's a brilliant idea because 1) I love baking and 2) I love giving gifts. I love how excited and happy people are when they receive a tin of homemade goodies. Delivering them is seriously the best part (and eating the extras is pretty awesome too).

We ran out of room to put them all, too. Our apartment has been a little crowded (messy) lately, because we've all been stressed and busy with exams...some things (like doing laundry), get pushed to the side. Oh, the life of college students.

Nifty trick: the sugar cookies are just dipped in canned icing. I melted it in the microwave so it would get runny and added regular ol' food coloring (all my awesome gel pastes are at home) to make it redish and greenish. After you let them sit for a couple of hours (or over night), they get hard enough to package, but the icing is still soft when you bit into it. So simple, so brilliant. :)

The cake balls are strawberry/chocolate and carrot cake/white chocolate. I LOVE the strawberry. Once again, I went with the convenience of box mixes and canned icing. But with all the hard work that went into them, I'm sure nobody minded.

All in all, it was about a 3 day process. Joy and I did this last year too, and I love that we make a yearly tradition out of it (although she's been doing this for years before she even met me). One of our friends said our apartment looked like a bakery and our roommates and everyone who came by loved that we had extra cookies sitting around to snack on. Merry Christmas everyone!

(Just a quick reminder to let you know that you can vote every 24 hours for the "Show Your Duff" contest, so if you voted yesterday, don't forget to do it again today! I noticed that my entry is on the 2nd page-- there are 10 pages right now-- of cakes with the most votes, so let's see if we can move on up to page #1! And to everyone who's already voted: Thank you! You have no idea how much this means to me! I wish I could give a Christmas tin full of cookies to every one of you, for voting, for telling your friends to vote, for liking me on Facebook, for reading my blog, for encouraging me to go after my dreams. I love you all! <3)

The Grill Cake: Revisited

Remember this beauty?

Well, I've entered it into a contest. Why? Because I want to win sign memorabilia from Duff Goldman (aka Mr. Ace of Cakes) and his awesome baking products.

I would be very much obliged if you could vote for me, and it would mean a lot. It was really hard to choose just one cake design that was the best. One of the reasons this is my favorite cake is because of the amazing reactions people have when they see it. My dad, for one, loved it. And whenever I show off the pictures, everyone is so excited and impressed. I love that about cake decorating-- surprising and delighting people.

So head on over to this webpage and vote!

Thank you kindly!

Love,

Kelsie

Happy December!

Not much time for baking lately...I did make cake balls for Thanksgiving, but I don't think I got any pictures. They were really cute, though, so you'll just have to take my word for it. Once I got back to school, though, all the projects and finals have kept me busy.

But now it's Christmas cookies time, so my roomie and I are making cake balls and cookies for a billion of our closest friends. Carrot cake & strawberry cake balls, sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies...who knows what crazy confections we'll create!

And we're also making a secret birthday cake...I'll be sure to take a couple pictures of all the fun!

In the meantime, everyone try and stay warm! I, for one, am going to avoid the outdoors as much as possible during Florida's unfortunate cold spell. :)