21st Birthday Cake

Category: Cakes > Butter Cakes > 21st Birthday Cake

The Halloween birthday cake was such a hit that I was requested to make another birthday cake. This one is devil's food cake with strawberry filling. It is covered with vanilla/butter buttercream icing. The blue star are fondant.

Halloween Treats

Category: Cakes > Butter Cakes > Halloween 3D Pumpkins

These are spice cake with cream cheese frosting. Just a note that cream cheese frosting isn't good for decorating. So other than frosting a cake, it doesn't work too well. Too bad it is so yummy.

Grandma Birthday Cake

Category: Cakes > Butter Cake > Grandma Birthday Cake

This is a yellow cake with strawberry filling. I made it for my Grandmother's birthday.

Halloween Birthday Cake

Category: Cakes > Butter Cakes > Halloween Birthday Cake

Well, as you can see, it has been a while since I have posted anything. After a lot of thought, I decided I didn't want to pursue a career in baking. I see it as a bit like an alcoholic working for a brewery. I don't want to have a job where I am surrounded but unhealthy food day in and day out. You are forced to sample the food to make sure it tastes okay and I just don't want to constantly be consuming an extra 300-400 calories a day because of it.

However, I will still continue baking as a hobby. This is a dark chocolate fudge cake with chocolate mousse filling which I made for a Birthday. It is a Halloween design by request.

Fall Decorations

On a note unrelated to baking, I just wanted to show off some nice little Fall decorations I picked up at Michaels.

I really liked this wooden door wreath. It is sparkly (always a plus with me) and it works well for the whole Autumn season.



I received this light up house as a present from my father. I liked this one because it can be used for Halloween and Thanksgiving. Michaels has a large selection of different houses and figures that can be combined to build your own Halloween/Fall city.

Bake Yummy - Eat Healthy

Well, you would never know it to look at me, but I'm pretty health conscious. I'm really trying hard to eat right and lose weight. When I'm baking so much, it becomes a hard task not to over eat your treats. I also feel pretty bad posting all these recipes for people to try out without any type of warning that sweets should be eaten in moderation. They might taste yummy but they really are not that great for you.

So, I just wanted to remind people to eat sweets wisely and don't forget that eating healthy is important.

And when you are taste testing - watch how much you are really "testing". =)

Aprons

Category: Misc.

Baking and cooking can get messy. When you're washing dishes, water can splash everywhere including onto you. When you are cooking, food can splash onto you. When you are baking, food can, well, splash onto you. Especially with baking, you could be using ingredients that will stain clothes like food coloring and shortenings.

It's taken me a while to get into the habit, and still even now and then I forget, but you really should be using an apron when cooking or baking. Plus they are just so darn cute!

You can purchase aprons at cooking supply stores and you can usually find a few in the kitchen departments at stores. If you can sew, you can always find super cute apron patterns. Also, you can sometimes find aprons where you would least expect to if you keep an eye out.

My mom just purchased two Halloween aprons from Ross. Aren't they cute!





Plus, my mom, who is awesome, made me this black and white frilly apron.

Fall Cup Cakes

Category: Cakes > Butter > Cup Cakes > Fall Cup Cakes

I'm really surprised that this is my first time posting about cupcakes - especially given the current popularity of cup cakes. I like cakes because you are given a bigger canvas to work with but you can do some pretty darn fancy things with cupcakes too.

I'm actually becoming more and more of a cup cake fan these days just because I love the portion control in them. I think health is very important and as someone who loves to bake, you have to be really careful about how many of your sweets you eat. I've been thinking about posting about this topic for some time and I just might. Hehe, but today's post is about cup cakes - Fall Cup Cakes.

Anyways, the real reason I made these up was just as I stated a few posts back. I had left over buttercream icing and fondant I wanted to use up. So I baked up a batch of plain yellow cup cakes.

I had almond flavor red, orange, and brown left over from the Fall Cake so it was a no brainer that these would be Fall themed cup cakes. I even threw in a few Halloween ones.

These are plain star tipped orange, red, and brown cup cakes. The one in the upper corner is a Halloween one. I have a close up of it below.



This is a mixed group. Yes, those are suppose to be pumpkin faces but I wasn't too pleased with them. One has a red leaf on it and the other two are multiple colored star tipped cup cakes.



After I ran out of all the almond flavored red, orange and brown, I pulled out the little bit of remaining mint chocolate icing I had. I also used some new mini fall cut outs to cut out some fondant acorns and leaves.



This is the close up of the Halloween spider web cup cake. I think it turned out pretty cute and I could see myself makes a whole batch of just these for Halloween!



Oh and while I'm thinking about it - tip when using mint extract. Use less of it than you would of other flavors. I used 1 tsp. and it made the icing a bit too minty. 1/2 to 3/4 tsp. would have been much better.

Fall Brownie Tree - From a Mix

Category: Cookies > Bar > Brownie > Fall Brownie Tree

Looking through the pantry and organizing things a bit (the pantry tends to get more and more shuffled as time passes and every once in a while I need to go in there and straighten things out) I noticed that we had three boxes of brownie mix. Don't ask me why. I know my brother loves brownies but, really, three boxes?

So I decided to be a nice sister and bake up one of the boxes of brownies for my little bubby. It was my mom who suggested using the Christmas Tree pan to see if we could find alternative uses for it. So, this was my attempt at creating a Fall Brownie Tree.

One thing you might noticed from the picture was how much the brownie rose in the pan. I was really surprised to see that the brownie from a mix rose so much. I'm curious if other brands also rise so much. But, it's just something to be aware of that brownie mixes will rise as much as a cake will.

Fall Cake

Category: Cakes > Butter > Decorated > Fall Cake

Last week there was a pot luck lunch at church which my grandmother was going to attend. My mom asked me to make a cake for the event. I decided "Fall" was going to be my theme. I sat around for a little while before brainstorming this idea. I was really pleased with how it came out.

Everyone suggested leaves and stuff to decorate the cake but I really didn't want to bust out the gumpaste and do anything that fancy. I just wanted to make a pretty plain old buttercream icing cake. This cake was Triple Chocolate Fudge with chocolate pudding filling. It was covered with almond buttercream icing (pretty much because I already had some made up that I wanted to use ><)

Cookie Craft

Category: Cookies > Rolled Cookies > Sugar Cookies

If you are very interested in learning how to make fancy sugar cookies, the following book is a pretty good one. It covers all your basics and has a ton of pretty pictures to give you lots of ideas for your own cookies.



Cookie Craft by Valerie Peterson and Janice Fryer

If you like the book, there is also a special Christmas edition. I don't own this one so I don't have much to comment about on it.

Scratch Yellow Cake

Category: Cake > Butter > Yellow Cake

Store cake mix versus scratch. To be honest, I haven't yet found a cake recipe from scratch that I think is great. If you know one that is wonderful, please leave a comment with the recipe. I'd love to try it. The following one is decent but nothing superior to a cake mix.

Note that it uses cake flour not regular flour. This makes a big difference. Scratch cakes made with regular flour tend to be denser. If you are looking for a scratch cake that tastes similar to a cake mix, look for a recipe using cake flour.

Cake mixes use dyes which scratch cakes do not. So even though this cake is a yellow cake, it will be much lighter in color than a yellow cake mix. Coloring will resemble more of a white cake. This cake is also a bit more crumbly than a cake mix cake.

Recipe:

• 2 cups Cake Flour
  
• 2 tsp. Baking Powder
  
• 1/2 tsp. Salt
  
• 1/2 cup Butter, softened
  
• 1 cup Sugar
  
• 3 Eggs
  
• 2 tsp. Vanilla
  
• 3/4 cup Milk
  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9" cake pans.

In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla and mix until completely combined. Slowly add flour alternately with milk. At end of addition batter should be smooth. Divide between 2 pans.

Bake Yellow Cake Recipe for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool 5 minutes in pan, then invert onto a rack and cool completely before frosting.

For a 9 x 13 pan - Baked at 350 degrees. for 30 to 38 minutes.

Marble Cake

Category: Cakes > Butter > Marble Cake

So, what is a marble cake? A marble cake is a yellow/white cake mixed with a chocolate cake. They are mixed together in a swirling fashion that makes the cake resemble marble. Hence the name.

It is similar to a checkerboard cake in that it is a good choice for people who love both yellow and chocolate cake and can't make up their mind. Plus, it looks really cool with you cut into it.

Baked Marble Cake:





If you purchase a Marble Cake cake mix, you will get a packet of yellow cake mix and a smaller packet of chocolate cocoa. You make the yellow cake up like normal. Then you take a cup of the yellow cake and put it into a smaller bowl and mix the cocoa with it. You pour the yellow cake into your cake pan, spoon the chocolate batter on top of the yellow cake and then use a knife to swirl/cut/mix the two.

If you didn't have a marble cake mix, but are just dieing for a marble cake, you can mix a regular yellow cake up and just mix a cup of the batter with about 1 cup cocoa powder. Basically the same thing!

These are marble cupcakes that I covered with almond buttercream, followed by almond fondant and topped with little royal icing flowers.

Kugalhopf

Category: Cakes > Yeast > Kugalhopf

I do have a picture of my Kugalhopf but it looks a little sad so I'll forgo posting it. >< Kugalhopf is supposed to be made in a Kugalhopf pan which is a little like a bundt pan but taller and smaller in diameter. In lieu of a kugalhopf pan you can use a regular bundt pan, which I did.

I classified Kugalhopf as a cake but it could also be considered a bread.

Kugalhopf uses yeast but my kugalhopf never really rose. Either the yeast was bad or I did something wrong, I don't know which. But, the Kugalhopf still tasted good. It tastes similar to a raisen bread, not very sweet.

It is said Kugalhopf is supposed to be eaten the same day it is made. Well, we couldn't possible eat all that Kugalhopf in one day, but toasting it the next - it still tasted good.

Before I post the recipe I used, I just want to say, that to my knowledge, Kugalhopf has yeast in it. I saw many Kugalhopf recipes with no yeast! I don't think these are true Kugalhopf recipes.

Recipe:

• 1-1/2 tsp. Active Dry Yeast
  
• 2 tbsp. Warm Water (105–115°F)
  
• 1 cup Milk
  
• 7 tbsp. Unsalted Butter; cut into tablespoon pieces and softened
  
• 6 tbsp. Sugar
  
• 3-3/4 cups Flour
  
• 1 tsp. Salt
  
• 2 Eggs
  
• 1-1/2 cups Raisins
  
• 1 tsp. Lemon Zest
  
• 20 Whole Blanched Almonds
  
• 1 tbsp. Powdered Sugar
  

Stir together yeast and water in a small bowl and let stand until foamy, 5 to 10 minutes. (If mixture doesn't foam, discard and start over with new yeast.)

Butter Kugelhopf mold or bundt pan with 1 tablespoon of the butter. Put 1 almond in each depression in bottom of mold (the almonds are only decorative; you can skip them altogether if your mold has no depressions). I admit, I left the almonds out of my Kugelhopf but we all know how I feel about nuts.

Heat milk with the remaining butter and sugar over low heat, stirring, until mixture is warm (105 to 115°F), butter is melted, and sugar is dissolved.

Sift together flour and salt into bowl of standing mixer with paddle attachment. Make a well in flour and add yeast mixture. Add the warm milk mixture in a slow stream, mixing at low speed. Increase speed to medium and beat in eggs 1 at a time, then beat in raisins and zest. Continue to beat until dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. (Dough will be very sticky.)

Scrape spoonfuls of dough evenly into mold. Cover top of mold with oiled plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and let dough rise in a warm place until it fills pan, about 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Remove towel from Kugelhopf and gently peel off plastic wrap. Bake Kugelhopf in middle of oven 15 minutes, then loosely cover mold with foil and continue to bake until golden and a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes more. Cool in pan 2 minutes, then invert cake onto a rack to cool completely, about 1 hour. Dust with confectioners sugar.

Baking Tips:

• "Plump" your raisins before adding them to the mixture by placing them in a bowl with some water added. Cover the bowl and place in microwave for about 45 seconds until raisins are soft and puffy.
  
• If you don't have a warm place to allow your Kugalhopf to rise, you can heat your oven to 200 degrees, turn it off, and let your batter sit in the oven with the door ajar.
  

Halloween Cake

Category: Cakes > Butter > Decorated > Halloween Cake

I had left over fondant from the pillow cake that I wanted to use up. I decided to add some orange to the "ivory" to make a nicer orange and use it with the purple for a Halloween Cake.

I used closed cookie cutters for the cut outs on the cake. The reason they are as thick as they are is because if the fondant wasn't that thick the imprint didn't appear.

The cake itself is a devil's food cake with chocolate mint buttercream icing. The cake tastes like a Girl Scout "Thin Mint" cookie.





I still have a little purple fondant left that I'll need to find something to do with. Hmm, I also have left over almond and chocolate mint buttercream icing. Maybe I'll make up a batch of cupcakes to use all the icings up.

Pillow Cake

Category: Cakes > Butter > Decorated > Pillow Cake

I received a free copy of the 2010 Wilton's Yearbook because I signed up for their new cake decorating class. One of the cakes pictured was this three tiered pillow cake. It was amazingly cool. I purchased a set of the pillow pans and wanted to try my hand at making the cake. I decided to only make the smallest tier because who needs all that cake.

I have to admit, it was an ambitious cake to set out to make. It wasn't as easy as the instructions led you to believe. The seams wouldn't stay on the cake despite using a ton of toothpicks to hold it in place. The tassels wouldn't form correctly and I had problems getting them to stick as well.

I was disappointed in the shade my "ivory" fondant come out. It was more orange than ivory. I must have used too much food coloring. And the dusting powder they suggested we use to give stuff a golden shine didn't work as well as I thought it would.

Of course, having made this cake once, I learned a bunch of stuff that I should do different to make the cake look better. I also have a better idea of how the dusting powder really works, as this was my first time using it.

So, this is how it turned out. Not great, but not terrible. The fondant is an almond flavor. The buttercream underneath is also an almond flavor. The cake itself is a marble cake.



Some Tips:

• If you purchase the pillow cake pan set, the smallest pan holds half a cake mix.
  
• When you place the fondant on the top half of the pillow, make it so it over laps and covers the seam. That way, when you put your seam on the side of the cake it doesn't matter if it slips down a little bit.
  
• If you mix some gumpaste with your fondant for the seams and tassels, they will hold their shape better.
  

I want to make this cake again but with only buttercream instead. I am curious how it would turn out!

Autumn / Halloween Sugar Cookies

Category: Cookies > Rolled Cookies > Sugar Cookies

Fall is coming, fall is coming - my favorite season of all! So... I decided to make some Autumn and Halloween theme sugar cookies to celebrate. The craft stores has just put out all their Halloween/Fall cooking stuff so if you are interested now is the time to pick the cute stuff up before it's all gone.

I ended up picking up some cute cookie cutters! I couldn't help myself.

Here are my cookies after I baked them but before they have been decorated:



Here are my cookies after I have glazed them. Glazing cookies is really simple and they look good just like this. If you don't want to go through all the trouble of doing the detail work, something simple like this is still really eye popping.



And here are my cookies after I put the details on them with royal icing:







Glaze Recipe:

• 1 cup Powdered Sugar
  
• 1 tbsp. Light Corn Syrup
  
• 1 tbsp. Water
  
• Few drops Flavoring
  

Mix everything up in a small bowl with a spoon. Taste your icing and add more flavoring if you want. I never add more than 1/8 tsp. of my flavoring. Your glaze should be thick so you can control it when you put it on your cookie. If your glaze is running on your cookie, it is too thin. If you let the glaze sit for a little bit, it will thicken up.

Add food coloring to the glaze for different colors.

To apply glaze to a cookie, take a spatula and place a little bit of glaze on the middle of the cookie. Use the spatula to spread the glaze around cookie. Add more glaze to the cookie as needed. Glaze will dry with a smooth shiny look in a few hours.

Royal Icing Recipe:

• 2 cups Powdered Sugar
  
• 1-1/2 tbsp. Meringue Powder
  
• 3 tbsp. Water
  
• 1/2 tsp. Flavoring
  
  

Make sure your mixing bowl and beaters are oil free. Place everything in your mixing bowl and beat together for 7 to 10 minutes until thick and fluffy.

You should mix in about 1 tsp. of piping gel to help the royal icing flow when you are using it for details on cookies. Add food coloring as desired for different colors.

Royal icing starts to dry out quickly so your icing should always be covered in an air tight container. Don't let it sit out.

Cookies with royal icing should be allowed to dry overnight.

Chocolate Chip Pound Cake

Category: Cakes > Butter > Pound Cake > Chocolate Chip Pound Cake

My mother found this recipe in a magazine and wanted me to make it for her. It's not quite a true pound cake since a real pound cake is a pound of egg, butter, flour, and sugar. As such, it isn't quite as dense and a little more crumbly. It tastes like a chocolate chip cookie with the texture of a cake.

It's good, but personally, I think I rather just make a real pound cake and add chocolate chips to it =)



Recipe:

• 1-3/4 cups Flour
  
• 1/4 tsp. Salt
  
• 2 Eggs
  
• 2 Egg Yolks
  
• 1-1/2 tsp. Vanilla
  
• 1-1/2 sticks Unsalted Butter
  
• 1 cup Sugar
  
• 3/4 cup Chocolate Chips
  

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x5x3" loaf pan.

Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 6 minutes). Add eggs and egg yolks one at a time and mix well between each egg. Add vanilla. Mix until about 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Slowly add the flour and salt. Mix just until just blended. Stir in chocolate chips.

Pour into pan and bake for 1 hour 12 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 30 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely on the wire rack.

August Birthday Cake

Category: Cakes > Butter > Decorated

A while back when I was talking about some cakes I made I mentioned making another cake for my father's colleague. The cake I made for my father was the chocolate covered one.

The white cake was made for a neighbor. She came by and asked if I could have a cake ready for her that evening. >< I decided to mirror this design since I didn't really have time to come up with something new at the last minute. I was working the whole day and finished just as she came by to pick the cake up! But it turned out really cute.

Both cakes are dark chocolate fudge with a chocolate mousse filling. It is a really really yummy cake. It is iced with buttercream and the covered with gumpaste flowers. The cakes are exactly the same except the colors are reversed.

Blueberry Pie

Category: Pies > Sweet > Blueberry Pie

Baking this pie, there was nothing special. It was some store brought pie crust dough and canned blueberries. I was a little worried about how the blueberries would taste, but they turned out quite good. The only problem was, the pie didn't set. When I cut into it, blueberries went everywhere. Anyone have any tips on how to get a blueberry pie to set so you can cut it nice? Maybe partially freezing it before cutting it?

I really like the pie crust lattice cutter designs. So I purchases a double sided one that has leaves on one side and apples on the other. I was really disappointed in how it worked. Of course, I think I'll get better with time. You can't see through the cutter so it is hard to tell if you have cut all the way through the dough or not. Turns out I didn't. And, since you can't see through the cutter, there was no way for me to press it down to cut again.

I ended up cutting the cut outs with a toothpick. Then, the dough was really flimsy went I put it on the pie and hard to center. So, it turned out distorted as you can see in the picture.



I wanted to cut the pie up and put them in individual boxes for my father to take to work. But that would have been impossible with the way the pie cut. I would have given him the pie to take in in the pan, but I cut out a piece to try (I always test new things to make sure they taste okay). I didn't want to send a pie with a piece missing. So, the pie stayed home.

My mini-tart pans came the other day in the mail. I am thinking about making mini blueberry tarts for him to take in instead.

Gelatin Rolled Fondant

Category: Filling > Gelatin Rolled Fondant

In my last post, I mentioned that I made my own gelatin fondant for the carnation cake. The Wilton's fondant tastes pretty bad. Other pre-made fondant tends to be a bit better than Wilton's. Duffs, for example, is better. However, to give Wilton's their due, their fondant is very pliant. If you are looking to make special designs with your fondant, like a bow, Wilton's works much better than a homemade fondant will. But if you just need to cover a cake, I would make your own. Not to mention that pre-made fondant is ridiculously expensive.

Many people shy away from making their own fondant because they think it is hard or messy. It can be a little messy if you are kneading and mixing it by hand. However, I found the following recipe, mixed with the bread hook attachment for the mixer, works well and isn't messy at all.

Recipe:

• 1 (.25 oz) Package Unflavored Gelatin
  
• 3 tbsp. Cold Water
  
• 1/2 cup Corn Syrup
  
• 1 tbsp. Glycerin
  
• 3 tbsp. Shortening
  
• 1/2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
  
• 1/2 tsp. Butter Flavor
  
• 8 cups Powdered Sugar (2 pounds)
  
• Food Coloring
  

Combined gelatin and water and let sit until the gelatin thickens. It shouldn't take too long. In a double boiler, heat gelatin over medium heat until dissolved and turns into a clear liquid. Add the corn syrup and glycerin and mix. Stir in the shortening. Just before the shortening as completely melted, remove from the heat and add the vanilla and butter flavor. If you want to add a color, add it now.

Place 4 cups (1 pound) of the powdered sugar in your mixing bowl. Create a well in the middle of the sugar. Allow the rest of the shortening to melt in the gelatin mixture and for the mixture to cool to almost room temperature. Once cool, pour it into the well in the middle of the powdered sugar.

Using the bread hook attachment, mix the sugar and gelatin mixture together until it is a liquidy consistency. Scrap the sides of the bowl as needed. Once it is all mixed, slowly add the remaining powdered sugar. Hold back about 1/2 cup of powdered sugar. Remove fondant from bowl, onto a clean surface and knead remain powdered sugar in by hand.

Once done, store fondant in a zip lock bag. You can use immediately but it is best if you let it sit for a few hours before you use it.

Baking Tips:

• You can use any flavoring you like, you don't have to use the vanilla/butter combination.
  
• You don't have to add food coloring. If you want white fondant, don't add any food color. If you want your fondant many different colors, create white. Once your fondant is done, you can break off as much as you need and knead the food color into it.
  
• You can find glycerin at Micheal's or Hobby Lobby in the cake decorating section.
  

Carnation Cake - Wilton's Cake Decorating Class Review

Category: Cakes > Butter > Decorated > Carnation Cake

So here it is, my final project cake for the last of the three Wilton's Cake Decorating Classes. Happily, it is also the only one of the three final project cakes that I was actually happy with! Psssh, it also happens to be the first fondant cake I've done.

The fondant was a home made gelatin fondant because the Wilton's fondant tastes pretty bad. The carnations are made with gum paste, the yellow ribbon border is fondant, the brown shells is buttercream icing, and cake board is covered with fondant.

Honestly, I don't like cake board covered with fondant. No matter what your cake looks like, it always seems to make the cake look like a hat.





So, now that I finished all of the new Wilton's Cake Decorating Classes, what do I think? I think meh. I would recommend the classes but they could be so much better. I think the curriculum is flawed and error filled. It's like they didn't proof or trouble to check it once it was written.

Some sessions were jam packed with almost too much information while others seemed a bit on the skimpy side. The new courses removed a lot of information that I was sad to see left out like color flow and tiered cake construction.

The first, basic class, was the best. The other too classes just seemed to focus on how to make different types of flowers. Fondant was barely covered at all. Don't get me wrong, flowers are nice, but there was a lot of overlap between the last two courses. I think that was because they wanted to design the last two courses so you could take them in any order. But, if they removed that and tightened up the curriculum, they could have added a few more flowers to the course ware.

Another huge problem I had was that it is painfully obvious that the main goal behind these courses is to sell more Wilton's products and to get you to buy as much as possible. I don't mind Wilton's wanting to sell their stuff, but towards the end it was insulting and rude. In the final course, it got so bad that they were telling you to buy things that you never used during any of the courses! Wilton's would do a much better job getting me to be a loyal Wilton's customer by providing a good curriculum and proving themselves to be an honest company rather than playing these little games. As it stands right now, I'm just as likely to buy some other brand than Wilton's because they have proven to be just another corporate-greedy company. But perhaps doing business with a smaller company with integrity, and maybe paying a little more, is more important to me than some other people.

All that being said, I did learn a lot and if you are interested in learning about cake decorating, the Wilton's classes are not terrible. I would recommend them to someone who was interested.

I ended up shelling out quite a bit of money for all three courses (at least $400). So beware it isn't cheap, but I did end up with one really nice cake decorating kit for all my future endeavors.

Spookay Bouquet

Category: Rolled Cookies > Sugar Cookies > Cookie Bouquets

A while back I signed up for a cookie bouquet making class. Autumn is my favorite season so I really wanted to do a bouquet with a Halloween theme. My brother dubbed my idea the "Spookay Bouquet". Isn't that cute? So I stuck with it.

The Spookay Bouquet:



This is the bouquet my mother made.

Flower Bouquet:


We used crumbed up chocolate cake for dirt and put little gummy worms in it.

Flower Bouquet's "Dirt":


Theses are other bouquets that were made by other people in the class.

Floral Bouquet:


Ghost/Halloween:




Shoes:


We decorated the cookies with a glaze, fondant, and royal icing.

Sugar Cookie Recipe:

• 1 cup Butter; softened
  
• 1 cup Sugar
  
• 1 Egg
  
• 1 tsp. Vanilla (or flavoring of choice)
  
• 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
  
• 1/2 tsp. Salt
  
• 3 cups Flour
  

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla. Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. Add flour slowly mixing well. Blend the last of the flour by hand.

You don't need to chill the dough. When ready, roll out dough 1/4" thick and cut out desired shapes with cookie cutters. A trick is to roll out your dough between two pieces of parchment paper. It keeps things cleaner. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place cookie cut outs on parchment lined cookie sheets. If making a cookie bouquet, place cookies upside down on the cookie sheet. Press a stick, like a skewer, into the cookie. Make sure you place the stick high enough to cover about 3/4 of the cookie. Cover stick with a little bit of cookie dough, pressing the cookie and the little piece of cookie dough firmly together. Place cookie sheet in freezer for about 5 minutes. Flip cookies over so they are right side up. Bake 8 to 10 minutes until done. Let chill on wire rack.

Once cookies are cool, you can decorate as desired.

Baking Tips:

• If you decide to make a cookie bouquet after you baked the cookies, you can add sticks to the cookies by using royal icing to "glue" the stick to the cookies.
  

Pumpkin Fudge

Category: Candy > Fudge > Pumpkin Fudge

Continuing on with the pumpkin theme, I made some pumpkin fudge. Again, it you are not a fan of pumpkin, you might want to skip this recipe. Otherwise, you'll probably like it.



Recipe:

• 3 cups Sugar
  
• 1 cup Milk
  
• 3 tbsp. Light Corn Syrup
  
• 1/2 cup Pumpkin Puree
  
• 1/4 tsp. Salt
  
• 3/4 tsp. Cinnamon
  
• 1/4 tsp. Ginger
  
• 1/4 tsp. Nutmeg
  
• 1-1/2 tsp. Vanilla
  
• 1/2 cup Butter
  

Butter a 8x8" pan and set aside.

In a 3 quart saucepan, mix together sugar, milk, corn syrup, pumpkin and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium and continue boiling. Do not stir.

When mixture registers 232 degrees on candy thermometer remove pan from heat. Allow to cool to 150 degrees and stir in spices, vanilla, and butter.

Beat mixture until it is very thick and loses some of its gloss. Quickly pour into a greased pan. When firm, cut into pieces and serve.

Baking Tips:

• Remember to use a wooden spoon so it doesn't melt.
  

Pumpkin Mousse

Category: Fillings > Mousse > Pumpkin Mousse

I like pumpkin so when I came across a recipe for pumpkin mousse, I really wanted to try it. It tasted alright, a little like pumpkin pie. However, it wasn't as firm as I thought a mousse should be. It actually tasted a little like a pumpkin flavored whipped cream.



After serving it by itself, I ended up making a ginger snap pie crust and using the left over pumpkin mousse as a pie filling. Overall, if you are a fan of pumpkin, I'd suggest trying this recipe. If not, I was pass.



Recipe:

• 1 (15-ounce) can Pumpkin
  
• 3 cups Heavy Cream
  
• 3/4 cup Sugar
  
• 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
  
• 1/4 tsp. Ginger
  
• 1/4 tsp. Nutmeg
  
• 1 tbsp. Vanilla
  

Combine pumpkin, 1 cup cream, sugar and spices in a medium saucepan. Simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes. Cool fully.

Whip remaining heavy cream and vanilla to soft peaks and fold into cooled pumpkin mixture. Pour into a serving dish and chill for at least 1 hour before serving.

Zucchini Bread

Category: Breads > Quick Breads > Zucchini Bread

The first time I heard of zucchini bread, it sounded gross to me. My mother said it was good and promised to make me some to try. I was willing to give it a shot and I am glad I did. It was delicious. I ended up freezing some of it, so it wouldn't go bad, and pulling it out and toasting it when I wanted some. Very yummy!



Recipe:

• 1-1/2 cups Flour
  
• 3/4 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
  
• 1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
  
• 1/4 tsp. Salt
  
• 1/4 tsp. Baking Powder
  
• 1 cup Sugar
  
• 1 cup shredded unpeeled Zucchini
  
• 1/4 cup Cooking Oil
  
• 1 Egg
  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 8x4x2" loaf pan.

In a mixing bowl combine, sugar, zucchini, cooking oil, and egg. Mix well. Sift flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and baking powder over the mixing bowl. Stir just until combined.

Pour batter into greased pan and bake for 55 to 60 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack and then remove from pan.

Baking Tips:

• Remember, as with all quick breads, don't over mix. It will cause the bread not to rise or be tough.
  

Pizza

Category: Breads > Yeast > Pizza

It is always pretty cool when you make your own pizza from scratch. It's not hard to do but takes a little time to allow the dough to rise. If you are planning on making pizza from scratch, make sure to leave yourself plenty of time. Or, you can make your crust up ahead of time, freeze it, and pull it out when you are ready to use.



Recipe:

• 2 tsp. Yeast
  
• 7/8 cup Lukewarm Water
  
• 2 tbsp. Olive Oil
  
• 3 cups Flour
  
• 1-1/4 tsp. Salt
  

Dissolve yeast with a pinch of sugar, in 2 tablespoons of the lukewarm water (about 105 degrees). Let the yeast and water sit at room temperature for 15 minutes, until the mixture has bubbled and expanded. If yeast doesn't bubble discard it and start over with different yeast.

Combine the dissolved yeast with the remainder of the ingredients. Mix and knead everything together using the bread hook attachment until you've made a soft, smooth dough. It should take 4 to 5 minutes at second speed, and the dough should barely clean the sides of the bowl, perhaps sticking a bit at the bottom. Don't over-knead the dough; it should hold together, but can still look fairly rough on the surface.

Place dough in a grease bowl and cover. Let sit 90 minutes until puffy. Use dough for one large pizza or divide dough in half for two smaller pizzas.

In pan, spray with non-stick cooking spray and drizzle with olive oil. Place the dough in the prepared pan(s). Press it over the bottom of the pan, stretching it towards the edges. You'll probably get about two-thirds of the way there before the dough starts shrinking back; walk away for 15 minutes. Cover the dough while you're away, so it doesn't dry out.

When you come back, you should be able to pat the dough closer to the corners of the pan. Repeat the rest and dough-stretch one more time, if necessary; your goal is to get the dough to fill the pan as fully as possible.

Allow the dough to rise, covered, till it's noticeably puffy, about 90 minutes Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Bake the pizza on the lower oven rack till it looks and feels set on top and is just beginning to brown around the edge of the crust, but is still pale on top. This will take about about 10 to 12 minutes.

Top pizza how you like and then place it back in the oven, on the top rack, for an additional 10 to 15 minutes until dough is browned and cheese is melted. Let cool on metal rack and serve.

Baking Tips:

• Store brought spaghetti sauce makes a good tomato base for your pizza.
  
• If you want to freeze the crust for later use, after you bake the crust for the first time (before you put the toppings on) cool, wrap well, and freeze.
  

Marzipan

Category: Fillings > Marzipan

Marzipan has been around for a long time. It is a sweetened almond paste. Marzipan can be used to cover a cake, like fondant. If can be covered in chocolate and eaten as a candy or it can be a cake filling. However, probably the best known usage of marzipan is shaping and coloring it into little fruits and other sculptures which are then eaten.

Many people wonder what the difference between almond paste and marzipan is. Almond paste is just a paste made of almonds. Marzipan is almond paste which has had sugar and egg whites added to it. The only flavoring that is allowed in traditional marzipan is maybe a little rose water but a lot of modern marzipan has almond extract added to increase the flavor.

After you make marzipan, it will look and fill kind of like play dough.



You can add food coloring to make different colors. If you knead marzipan too much, it will become oily. This almost always happens as you mix the coloring into it. If it gets too oily, you can wipe off the oil with a paper towel. I suggest letting your marzipan sit in the refrigerator a little bit after you add the color before you shape it to help with the oil.

Marzipan sticks together well, so you don't need any adhesive when sculpting.







Recipe:

• 2/3 cup Water
  
• 2 cups Sugar
  
• 1/8 tsp. Cream of Tartar
  
• 4 cups Almond Meal
  
• 2 Egg Whites
  
• Powdered sugar for dusting
  

Sprinkle powdered sugar over a clean counter or work area where you will be kneading the marzipan. Fill a large pan with cold water. Make sure your pan is large enough that the pan you are cooking your marzipan in can fix it.

Place water and sugar is a large saucepan and heat on low until the sugar dissolves.
Add the cream of tartar and increase heat to medium. Bring to a boil and cover for 3 minutes. Uncover and boil until the temperature reaches 240 degrees on a candy thermometer.

Place the bottom of the saucepan in the cold water you’ve prepared, stirring the sugar mixture constantly until it becomes thick and creamy. Stir in the ground almonds and the egg whites, the place back over low heat and stir for 2 minutes more until the mixture is thick.

Place the marzipan onto your prepared work surface, and turn it with a metal spatula until it cools down enough to touch. Coat your hands in powdered sugar and begin to knead the marzipan, working it until it is smooth and pliant.

Your marzipan can now be used immediately or stored by wrapping it in plastic wrap and keeping it in an airtight container.