Bread Pudding

Easiest recipe ever right here: bread pudding. And apparently, it's super versatile too. I never actually ate bread pudding before today, and I was clearly missing out. It's really good.

Like, really really really really good.

Plus, I added chocolate chips and a banana to it. Ugh. I'm drooling just thinking about it.

Apparently, you can also make bread pudding with cake. You can pretty much make it with any bread: challah, crunchy french bread, potato bread, wheat bread, wonderbread, etc etc.

I would like to try every single one of those versions that I just listed. Plus, you can make savory bread pudding dishes too.

Anyway. I'm glad that I've expanded my culinary skills again. :)

Back to Baking: Red Velvet

Gotta love those camera phone pictures!

It's been a long two weeks, guys. Right before I moved back down to school, I made a cookie cake, a dozen cupcakes, and a 50th birthday cake. (The pictures of which are all back in Georgia on my dad's camera. So hopefully he can e-mail them to me at some point, and I can share those mouth-watering photos with you!) And then... nothing.

I'd been so busy preparing for school and working with the campus ministry program that the oven stayed empty and the mixer silent.

But no longer!

I'm not sure if it was because everyone I saw on campus kept asking me when I was going make them a cake, or just because I was going through withdrawals after spending the entire summer eating, sleeping, and breathing cake, but I was going crazy. So yesterday I went grocery shopping and made my favorite red velvet recipe.

(Insert sigh of contentment.)

So I think the world is right again. I might not be up to my elbows in cupcakes and fondant and gumpaste 40 hours a week anymore (sad day!) but as long as I've got time to make some goodies for my friends and coworkers (and hellooooo, bake sales, anyone?!) I think I can survive the semester.

And on a side note, I freaking love these cupcake liners. They are too stinkin' cute!!

Marching Band Cookies & Cake

One of the band directors at my sister's school is leaving, and I was volunteered to make the going-away cake. It's a yellow cake with Italian buttercream frosting (seriously one of the best things ever), decorated with rosebuds (which I learned in my Wilton class!) swags and shells. There's also some cornelli lace going on, which makes the cake a little more interesting

It's not the Chris Brown you're thinking of...

And I also made 108 cookies for all of the band members, which took a lot of work, but they look nice. I designed them after the band's uniforms. Thankfully it was only 3 colors and I got them all done in one night.

Sometimes, I think I work too hard.