Cookies and Stuff

(Spot the pineapple!)

I'm working backstage at my school's production of Hairspray, because my talents do not extend to the acting/singing/dancing departments. I'm strictly a cakes-and-sugar kind of artist, although if somebody's gonna let me paint set designs for a musical, I'll be there.

I'll also bring cookies. So that's probably the real reason they trust me not to screw everything up. ;)

Speaking of my lack of artisticness, I thought, wouldn't it be cool if I took a picture of the cooke racks...from the bottom?!

Yeah... Not so cool. :/ So I can just cross "photographer" off of my list of things to become, right?

Oh! And I got a tattoo:

Just kidding! It's a temporary tattoo that I found at the checkout line in Wal-Mart, so obviously I bought it. There's a whole bunch of them, actually, and they're as close as I'm going to get to a real tattoo. But it's cute right?!

Peach Cake Balls

And so the saga of peach-flavored desserts continues.

This time we have cake balls. I just used up the leftover cupcakes that I had frozen (they were the cupcakes that were falling apart and I didn't want to deal with the hassle of trying to decorate them) and the cream cheese frosting in the fridge.

I did have to buy white chocolate, though. Blegh. I'm not a fan of white chocolate, but it was, as they say in Applied Decision Making Methods class (aka the math class that isn't advertised as a math class so you sign up for it oh-so-naively [plus they expect you to remember everything from stat, but you don't and you need this stupid class to graduate]), the "best alternative."

For half of the cake balls, I sprinkled them with orange sprinkles, and the other half with cinnamon. I like the sprinkles better, but since there was actually cinnamon in the cake, it would make sense to use it as a garnish too. Also, my roommate doesn't like sprinkles. (Weird, right?)

I really, really think that these cake balls would also be superbly amazing if I had used pumpkin cake instead of peach. Since fall is coming up, that would be a great recipe to try. Although I'll make pumpkin cake for any occasion year-round.

Cupcakes for a Cause

Hello, lovelies! I have a new cake ball post coming up shortly, and then a super awesome (but currently secret) project to reveal next week.

But in the mean time, I just wanted to share with you yet another awesome baking-relating piece of jewelry. And this time, it's supporting a charity. Oh, yeeeeaaah.

Pink Sugar Bakery is selling these little cupcake gems for about $15 each, and $5 of that goes to the Wildlife Conservation Society. Did you know that tigers are really, super endangered species? They are, but with your help, they don't have to be.

Plus, the necklaces are really, really cute (and you know how I feel about helping others AND cute things, right?!)

I'm sure you've probably seen these before, since they're making their way around the cake/cupcake/food blogs, but just in case, you should consider this worthy investment in your cupcake accessory collection! :)

Professional Procrastinator

Things are seriously getting hectic at school with the semester only being a quarter of the way through, and as much as I want to make peach flavored cake balls or strawberry kiwi cupcakes, I just don't have time right yet.

But I will. You know I can't go too long without baking or I'll go crazy. :) In the meantime, I'm taking breaks between assignments (read: procrastinating!) to look for wedding cake inspirations.

No, I'm not getting married. I'm just entering a cake competition in March. Hopefully. It really depends on whether or not I can find a design I like.

I've found a few interesting and unique dresses online, but I don't think any of them are "the one." For your viewing pleasure, though, here they are!

This first dress is an Elizabeth Fillmore design. I like how eclectic and different it is. Plus the black/white combo is super classy.

This gorgeous Justin Alexander dress is probably my favorite wedding dress ever. I don't know if that's enough for me to use it as a cake inspiration, but if I was getting married soon and had a couple thousand dollars to throw around, I'd wear something like this. I found it on Bridal Snob first.

And finally, we have a green gown from Vera Wang. Who says wedding dresses have to be white? She looks stunning anyway. And a green wedding cake would be cool and unique too, but how would I translate that gorgeous flowing skirt into fondant and sugar??

I'm still keeping my eye out for the perfect inspiration, and any Floridian cake decorators who are interested in competing, check out the website for info!

One more thing: Check out All Things Cupcakes for this awesome post about Harry Potter cupcakes! ;)

(Mis)Adventures in Cookies

Remember that awesome mixing bowl set I bought Adam for his birthday?

It becomes a lot less awesome if you're out of parchment paper, flour, and all of the staples that you normally have at your disposal while making cookies.

Adam and I made the Toy Story 3 cookies at the beach condo where my family's spending vacation. I spent Sunday night with them, then my dad drove me back to school the next morning. I forgot how much I love going to the beach with my crazy, chaotic, lovable family.

But I digress! The cookies turned out to be a semi-disaster. Since we didn't have flour, and the cookie dough stuck to everything (including my Sil-Pin. Sigh), I thought, "maybe we'll just bake some round cookies, and then right after we take the cookies out of the oven, then I'll use the cutters on them."

I seriously appreciate Adam putting up with me. He would eat the raw cookie dough, though, because it said not to on the package. Well, more for me.

After I cut out the cookies, and everyone ate all the scraps (and I mean ALL), I gave Adam the little tubes of icing so he could decorate.

Please ignore my awful beach hair in the background... Look! A cute kid holding a tube of icing!

And that's why I love this particular gift, because he had fun squirting icing all over the cookies (except for Slinky, but none of those cookies turned out) and then eating them.

I'm sure if I was in my own home kitchen surrounded by familiar pots and pans, the cookies would've been perfect. But as it was, the memories will still be perfect. ;o)

Awesome Cream Cheese Icing Recipe

Remember those fugly peach cupcakes that I made?

And how delicious they tasted?

Well, I guess you remember how I told you they were delicious, since I couldn't actually hand you a cupcake through the computer screen. (Which is a shame, because think of how much money we'd all save on shipping!)

Anyway, part of the deliciousness was attributed to the icing I used on top. It's a combination of whipped topping and cream cheese icing, in the best way possible.

I found the recipe on Allrecipes.com and I think the only thing I did differently was whipping the cream in a blender, since I used my stand mixer to mix the sugar & cream cheese. Also, I used plain ol' regular granulated sugar (extra fine granulated sugar, to be exact!) not confectionary/powdered sugar. I thought the recipe was a little ambiguous about that, since granulated and powdered sugar are both white.

Whipped Cream/Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

• 5 ounces cream cheese
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions

1. In a small bowl (or blender) beat whipping cream until stiff peaks form; set aside.
2. In a large bowl combine cream cheese, sugar, salt and vanilla. Beat until smooth, then fold in whipped cream.

When you're using the blender, just make sure you leave the center part of the lid off, so that air can be incorporated into the cream, don't overbeat (just pulse it for a few seconds at a time), and you'll know it's done when there are stiff peaks.

Finally, instead of folding in the whipped cream, I switched out my mixer's beater for the whisk and whisked it all together on a higher speed. The frosting was a terrible consistency if you were piping, but considering that I was just slapping it on with a spatula, it worked out perfectly. Don't forget it needs to be refrigerated!

The icing was an amazing complement for the fruity/cinnamony cupcakes I made, and I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that if you need a light, not-too-sweet-or-overpowering frosting, this is the one to try! :)

Oh, and the recipe made enough for about 2 dozen cupcakes.

Captain Rex on Deck!

The cake I made for my little brother's 7 birthday was definitely a labor of love. I think the amount of time that I put into it more than makes up for the cake I didn't make for him last year.

He wanted a Captain Rex cake, and I've known for years it was only a matter of time before he asked for a Star Wars themed cake. This kid knows more about Star Wars in his 7 years of life than I do in my 19 years, 1 month, and 2 days of living. Thankfully, though, he didn't say anything about the realistic-ness of the gumpaste Lego figure on top. James, however, was not so kind. But hey, I think it looks a lot like this photo, soooo whatevs.

One big problem with the cake was the humidity. The fondant was so sticky and so hard to work with, and the gumpaste never dried properly (as you'll be able to see in the following photos). Plus, I ran out of powdered sugar half way through decorating, I didn't have a turn table or toothpicks (but I definitely bought some of those), and then there was that awful crater in the center of the top tier. You can't see it because I filled it up with another cupcake!

 I did the lettering out of a gumpaste/fondant mix. It took an hour to cut them all out, using a pattern I printed off the computer (I downloaded a free Star Wars font, and cut the letters out individually). A word to the wise, don't roll out the letters too thin or they will tear.

Do you see the trouble this cake gave me?! I didn't even notice that the "Birthday" was drooping down the side of the cake. You can't tell in this picture, but the H also cracked and tore a lot. It was a sad moment . :( I thought about re-doing it, but the cake was due in 20 minutes, and I figured no one was going to notice, except self-deprecating lil ol' me. (And now all of y'all because I pointed it out to you.)

And here we have another photo of the headless Rex Lego dude. The little black thing next to the cake is his blaster, which, if properly dried and hardened, would've been in Rex's hand, pointed down like a #7. You won't see the blaster in any other photo because Adam ate it.

 But we got a nice sparkly #7 candle at the ghetto Walmart, and the star candles, because they didn't have any birthday candles.


It was my mom's idea to prop Rex up against the cake. She's brilliant. However, she did think the pattern was margarita glasses, and not Rex's helmet, so.... yeah.

This is the other present I got Adam (the cake being the first). It's a Toy Story mixing bowl set with a spatula and cookie cutters. He can't wait to make cookies with me! :)

Despite the many, many problems this cake gave me over the last 24 hours, it was totally worth it to present it to Adam and to be able to see him (and my entire crazy, lovable family) on his birthday!

Career Goals

Have you ever had "one of those days?" Where you're just freaking out about everything and nothing seems to go your way?

Feels like I've been having one of those weeks, at least as far as baking goes.

It started out with those peach cupcakes, which I really shouldn't complain about, because they are so delicious, but they're also terribly ugly.

Then I baked my brother's birthday cake, and the bottom tier is too short (so I'll have to bake another layer, which is more work for me) and the top tier sunk in the middle. (WHYYYY?!)

And if that weren't discouraging enough (seriously? Two sunken cakes!), I've been freaking out about bakeries. I know it's a little early to start thinking about it, since I'm still in school and not really in a position to run my own business right at this moment, but with all the business classes I'm taking, the enormity of being an entrepreneur is staring me right in the face.

I know, I know. I'm seriously whining right now, so feel free to just skip to the video at the bottom of this post and ignore my ridiculous ramblings.

I do wonder if my passion for baking is enough to carry over into a career. I'm talking "this is what I want to do for the rest of my life." That's big. I'm not aspiring to be the next  Nicholas Lodge, or Colette Peters, or Lori Hutchinson but I want to be successful.

And what is success? Obviously, making money, turning over a profit; that's a pretty good indication of success. I can't keep running a bakery if I don't have the funds to support it. More than that, though, I want to sell delicious, beautiful cakes that make people smile.

That's what it comes down to. I think hand-crafted, from-scratch, perfect detailed cakes makes people happy. And that, in turn, makes me happy. And then the whole world can be happy. And that, my friends, is success. :)
I just hope and pray that I can put my whole heart and soul, love and passion, into being a professional cake decorator/baker/business owner, and not let the statistics of failure or my own fears hold me back... that all these stupid business classes that have my head spinning will pay off in the end, and that (eventually) I'll come up with a name for the bakery too!

Oatmeal Cookies & No Bake Cookies

Yesterday, my roommate and I had oatmeal for breakfast.

When you have oatmeal for breakfast, what does that make you think about?

Making cookies?

Because that's exactly what Joy and I decided!

First up is the oatmeal chocolate chip cookie (as much as I love oatmeal, I can't stand oatmeal raisin cookies. Bleh! But chocolate chip? That's where it's at!)

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup boiling water
• 2 cups quick cooking oats
• 1/2 cup raisins (optional)
• 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Beat butter or margarine, sugars and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add flour and salt, mix well.
2. Dissolve baking soda in boiling water and add to mixture. Stir in rolled oats, raisins and chocolate chips.
3. Drop by teaspoonful onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 10-12 minutes. Don't over cook. (There are no eggs in this recipe, I didn't forget to type it down).

Ta-Da! I think if I make these again, I'll find a way to use leavening that doesn't involve boiling water, because it's hardly worth it to boil 1/4 cup of water (or 2 tablespoons if you half'd the recipe like I did).

And next up are the no-bake cookies that Joy suggested. The only change we made this time was used dark cocoa powder, since it's all we got.

No Bake Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups white sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter
• 4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
• 3 cups quick-cooking oats
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, milk, butter, and cocoa. Bring to a boil, and cook for 1 1/2 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in peanut butter, oats, and vanilla. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto wax paper. Let cool until hardened.

Peachy Keen

Remember those tragically ugly and sunken cupcakes I made that tasted like muffins?

I went ahead and decorated some of them. I used the term "decorated" very loosely, because to me, decorated means piping and cute colors and sprinkles or fondant, but I literally just slapped some whipping cream icing on them and garnished with a peach.

They might be ugly(ish), and taste like muffins, but these are some pretty awesome cupcakes, and I plan on putting this flavor in my bakery one day for sure. I might just wanna tweak the recipe some more. :)

P.S. You CAN whip cream in the blender!

Did you ever wonder what would happen if Cake Balls and Oreos had babies together?

Awesomeness.

That's what would happen.

Sunk!

So attempt #1 at Peach Cupcakes was kinda sorta a delicious failure.

I say failure because a) I added too much leavening (baking powder) because the recipe told me. I was outsmarted by a recipe. Gah!

And b) I sorta burned the top of them. So not only is the middle sunken (thanks to the overleavening), but the outside is really crunchy.

They might have fallen because I kept opening the oven to check on them too. But either way, they taste very yummy and the fresh peaches in them are amazing (I think if the peaches had been a little bit overripe--just a little!--they would be perfect. Also, I cut them up into little cubes, but I think big peach chunks would taste good too).

This is not my last attempt at making peach cupcakes, and I plan on finding a creamy, summery frosting to top them off with, so stay tuned for more!