Sunday, December 16, 2012

Christmas Cake Pops!


These were an absolute blast! These Christmas pops were my first shipped order. I'm still waiting to hear if they made it there in one piece.....


  
 
 

 
 



The whole gang finally together! =)

Here's to hoping that your holidays are as cute and yummy as these little dudes are!

Now, on to the Christmas cookies! <3 

@--,--

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Lemon Poppyseed Cookies

If I could bake a batch of cookies every single day, for the rest of my life, for the sole reason of being able to watch people's reaction as they bit into said cookies, I would be the happiest girl that baked cookies in the world. There is a simple kind of joy I can't express that comes along with knowing that something you created is being enjoyed by others.

And I would definitely start with this cookie here. 


Lemon. Poppyseed. Cookies. 

Holy smokes, people. 

I never really thought of myself as a picky eater, but the person I eat food with the most would beg to differ. (For starters, I don't like mint or onions- seriously, what's a girl's tastebuds to do?!) Anywho, I have all sorts of exceptions and rules for all things lemon. Lemon in water- no way. Lemonade- sign me up! Lemon meringue pie- not so much.

Which is why I was skeptical of my recent desire to make these lemon poppyseed cookies. I think subconsciously for the last year, I've been randomly daydreaming about these lemon poppyseed muffins I made in baking class. They seriously were the best muffins I had ever tasted in my life.

See? I'm salivating right now!

Anyways, a super simple cookie. The hardest part about making these cookies was locating poppy seeds in Wegmans, due to the very kind customer who bought out all of the poppy seeds the day before, in a quest to make poppy seed bagels. Which I'm all for, but just not when I'm on a mission for poppy seeds, you know what I'm saying?

Definitely glad I tried these out- would be a nice change up on a Christmas cookie platter, but definitely looking forward to a summer picnic to bring these little jobbers too! =)


Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies

Recipe adapted from Bakerita 

Ingredients
  • 1½ cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1-1.5 tablespoon poppy seeds
  • 8 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 2 tablespoon lemon zest
  • 1 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1 large egg
Glaze
  • ½-1 cup confectioners’ sugar
  • 1-2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • ½ teaspoon almond extract
1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and poppy seeds. Set aside. In a separate bowl, use a mixer to cream together the butter, sugar and lemon zest on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in the almond extract and egg until blended. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed just until incorporated.

2. Drop balls of dough onto baking sheets about 2 inches apart (these cookies worked well using a cookie scoop). Bake for 9-11 minutes (mine were good between 11-12 minutes with an air bake baking sheet) or until cookies are set and just beginning to brown at the edges (do not let the tops brown). Allow to cool on the baking sheet for a minute, then transfer to a wire rack set over wax paper to cool a bit before glazing.

3. To make the glaze, whisk together the confectioners’ sugar, almond extract and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice.  Add lemon juice or more confectioners' sugar to your liking, and to get a good consistency to drizzle over cookies. Glaze the cookies and let the glaze set before serving.  Store in an airtight container.


Yields 18-24 cookies

Positively refreshing! Lemon lovers everywhere will enjoy! And maybe even some on the fence about lemon! *wink wink!*

Now go! Eat, drink, and be merry!

@--,--


Thursday, November 29, 2012

A week later and still giving thanks....


Thanksgiving was relatively quite, baking wise. Just whipped up some things I have been practicing- apple pie and a pumpkin roll, along with the usual Thanksgiving suspects, my cute little turkey pop dudes! They are one of my favorite pops to make!

I used chocolate candy wafers this time around from the bulk section of Wegmans, and it was seriously perfect. Covered the cake pops and hardened so much nicer than any Merkens or Wilton brand I usually used. Wish Wegmans carried a larger variety of colors- may need to inquire where they get them from!

I hope everyone is continuing to give thanks for all the wonderful things in their lives, especially in lieu of the holiday season! So much to be thankful for (and a good reason to celebrate with sweets)!

Christmas cookie baking, here I come! 

@--,--

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Pumpkin Time!

Pumpkin + Autumn = Easily my most favorite time of year!

For quite awhile now, I've been wanting to try out making a pumpkin roll. I was really surprised at how easy it was!



Less of a surprise was how delicious it turned out. =) I went with the Taste of Home Pumpkin Cake Roll recipe, and was not disappointed.


Swirly looking desserts are so fun. <3

Also used a new recipe this year to make some pumpkin bread. It was pretty much pumpkin pie, in bread form. Major yum attack!


I really can't believe Thanksgiving is next week! Looking forward to my favorite pumpkin dessert, pumpkin pie, then on to Christmas COOKIES!!!! Can't wait!

Hope everyone's Thanksgiving is filled with wonderful, pumpkiny sweets!

@--,--



Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Mommy Cookies!

Two years ago (to yesterday's date) was my first major cookie making extravaganza, making wedding cookies for a couple of muffins very near and dear to my heart! It was a very exciting time for me, as this was the first time I was really using my brand new PINK KitchenAid mixer, which, at the time, I had no idea how much would completely change my life.


As this year approached, I am happy to be able to make what I'm calling "Mommy Cookies" in this blog post (as opposed to the Lactation Cookies they are being referred to here), for my same special muffins, for the sake of their new baby girl "mini muffin" addition in the family! 



Here's the story with these cookies- they are basically packed with all sorts of nutritional goodness, along with some sweet yummy touches, that helps a breastfeeding momma with milk production. Testimonies on the internet say it really makes a difference, in addition to some first hand stories I get to hear myself! And it makes for a full, well fed baby!

The best part is, these cookies just ain't for mommies! Which is totally awesome, because they taste super yummy and are a fun alternative to a regular chocolate chip, peanut butter, or oatmeal cookie.......because it's everything rolled into one! Everyone else just doesn't reap the benefits that momma and baby get....  ;-)

If you've got a new mom in your life, whip up a batch of these cookies for her! She will be sure to be super appreciative! No time to get these in the oven? I'd be happy to package these up for you myself!

Enjoy!
@--,---

Sunday, November 4, 2012

25th Anniversary Cassata Cake

Today was a whirl wind of a day. Even with the extra hour, I have no idea where the time went. Lucky, it ended on a good note....


....with this cassata cake I made for a 25th anniversary party!

Simple and sweet!

Luckily, I have a bunch of buttercream left over to practice some cake pipping with. Just one of the many things on the baking to-do list....

Now on to Thanksgiving preparations. Many exciting things on the back burner beyond that! Looking forward to an abundance of sweet, sweet baked goods!

@--,--

Friday, November 2, 2012

Pool Party & Watermelon Cake Pops

I've been in denial about the weather getting colder. I'm pretty much feeling like I could use some Teddy Graham friends on the beach right now...


I did these cake pops for a summer work picnic this year. I'm trying to warm up while remembering the good times I had putting these together...




 Also tossed these watermelons into the mix. I made a white cake, dyed red, and added chocolate chips in there for the "seeds". I dipped them first in white (for the rind, or course!), then in green candy melts. 




 Next time I'm definitely adding watermelon flavoring to the candy melts. 

I'm really reaching for warm thoughts, aren't I? I'm looking for my gloves this weekend. Sigh. No matter what the season though, it all still tastes yummy!

Good luck staying warm!

@--,--

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Happy November!

Happy November! 
 
If you are visiting my page for the first time, welcome, and thanks for checking out my sweet, yummy baked goods! 

Feel free to read through old posts, but most definitely check out all of my cake pop designs on the left side of this page or by clicking on the Cake Pops Design tab at the top of this page. In case you are very new to cake pops, a cake pop is crumbled up baked cake, mixed with frosting, rolled into shapes and dipped into melted candy. They are a perfect bite sized alternative to cakes or cupcakes, and better yet, they are usually a lot cuter! I'm constantly coming up with new ideas for events and holidays, so if there is something you would like to see, feel free to ask me about it! With the holidays approaching, a lot of new ideas and designs are coming that you may want to be a part of!

Please give at least a week's notice for holidays, and order soon, as I may fill up before the holidays are here!

Have fun picking out some sweet treats to try! Thanks again for reading my blog!

@--,--

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Halloween Cake Pops

Happy Halloween!

 
All mummied up!
 
Spooky Friends!
 
Ghosts, Draculas, Frankensteins and Mummy Funfetti Cake Pops
 
Causin' spooky trouble...

Pumpkin Patch!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Winnie the Pooh....and baby (showers) too!


A few weekends ago, a couple of my co-workers and I put together a baby shower for a sweet little bundle of joy on the way! We realized quite too late that we got a tad bit carried away with things, but when there are sweets and babies involved, how can one seriously put limits on the cuteness you can create?!


Let me also mention that it was Winnie the Pooh themed, and for a baby girl. Let me also go ahead and answer the question that must be lingering in your mind right now- why yes, it was a pink, cutie pie explosion! 


So, of course, you know I went there. 




Yep, that definitely happened.  The best part about making these is that I had help, ha! In all seriousness, it is so much more fun cake popping when there is some one else to squeal in excitement with over what you have created. Although you best be believing I gladly do that out loud to an empty room while cake popping by my lonesome.




This was the first one we made. It was perfect- we could not recreated him in his perfection, but we came darn near close! 


I seem to be on a cassata cake kick lately (making one for an anniversary party next weekend!), and knowing how the momma-to-be feels about cannoli filling, I decided to make a tiered cassata cake for the Khloester.



It is simply just a dense white cake with a chocolate chip cannoli filling in the middle. And it's becoming quite a big hit when taking cake orders lately!

All in all, it was loads of fun! The favors were colored honey pots (we had mums as the centerpieces), 




and then we did a candy bar so everyone had something yummy to take home in the pots! 


I'm pretty positive those smiling Pooh bears were pretty happy to be a part of it all. 


 Khloe built an extensive wardrobe, thanks to family and friends,



 
and she tells me frequently how grateful she is to all who came to celebrate her that day!



 After fleeting thoughts of party planning, our day was over and we had one happy momma-to-beeee! I'll stick to the sweets in the meantime, but if you had an idea for a party you'd like to have, I wouldn't think twice about planning a whole party all over again! Such fun!





Even Pooh bear thinks so!

@--,--



Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Funfetti Bake Off!



There is something to be said about practicing a baked good before show time. 

Lucky for me, I have fantastically wonderful, hungry co-workers that like to eat cake. 

So, here’s the backstory- I’m making a tiered funfetti wedding cake this weekend (what could possibly be better than a lifetime of love and sprinkles?!). Anywho, as a fellow lover of all things funfetti, this job lead me into some deep thought. If you want funfetti cake, you want it the way you have always had it, right, with the assumption that we are talking box mix. But now that this whole baking thing has spiraled my life out of control, I realize there are substitutes to box cake mixes. I thought that perhaps a white cake recipe with sprinkles thrown in might be a refreshing change to the funfetti box, and taste a little yummier, due to the homemadeness (I just made that word up, right?) of it all. So, I had to do it. Funfetti Bake Off 2012. Box versus scratch. 

This activity wasn’t merely to see which cake would taste better. I wanted to see if you could taste a difference, if people could determine which was the box mix and which was the scratch recipe, and why they preferred their respective favorite cake.

White cake + sprinkles
Funfetti box cake
 
Before I go any further, I will admit that I incorrectly guessed which cake was mine (ha!). Feeding cake to a bunch of scientists brought up flaws in my research design (I did not randomize which cake would be feed first to each person- eek!) but we muddled through in the name of sweets!

Drum roll!!!!

Along with a few outside sources, the funfetti box cake mix was overwhelmingly chosen, 5-3! While both cakes were good (at least this is what my sources claimed….), the box mix was favored for its lighter and fluffier texture. The white cake mix I was using was from one of my baking classes, a recipe typically used in a professional setting, which was a little denser and richer (which was favored by a couple for that reason), and since people more often are eating box mix than professional cakes of this manner, I think that is ultimately why it was picked over the scratch recipe- people are just used to eating those box mixes. My mother had a few choice words to say about people growing up on box cake mixes, but I will omit her comments. = )  

I would be interested to try this again, with a different, lighter white cake mix. That would be truer to the box mix and possibly taste a little fresher. In the meantime, I adamantly support giving people exactly what they want, so I’ll be going with the box mix for the bride this weekend! I can’t handle the thought of choosing the tub frosting over homemade buttercream though, so that’ll be the choice of frosting. I can’t wait to place the cute cake topper on the top tier, that the bride made! A full report will be up this weekend! 

Today’s events made me anxious to collect more recipes and learn more about different cakes and their textures. I’ve been meaning to collect all of my recipes and organize them into an app on my phone, so I’m making that my new priority, and then collecting more recipes from there. 

In the meantime, let me know if you have any other baking experiments for me! My co-workers would love you for it! ;-)

Now go throw some sprinkles around your kitchen!
@--,--


A cookie report



Lots of random things going on, and little blogging about it! Mostly cookie related things though.... 



A few weeks ago I whipped up these little peanut butter chocolate ganache sandwich cookies. They tasted exactly like a peanut butter blossom (the peanut butter balls with the Hershey kisses in the middle). Which are a personal favorite of mine. So this worked out in my favor!

This could potentially be a cookie I make again. It would make a nice addition to a lovely Christmas cookie platter. If nothing else, I will definitely be using the peanut butter cookie recipe I found here for this recipe, in the future. A major peanut butter cookie recipe keeper! 

More recently, I decided it was time for some more pumpkin desserts. Whipped up a moist, wonderfully delicious pumpkin cookie recipe that my momma has, and that we usually make every fall. I'm not a big fan of nuts in my desserts, so I usually omit them, but I ALWAYS put raisins in this cookie, which makes them extra yum! I left the raisins out of some of them though, to try and please all of the people, all of the time...I left some plain, some with raisins, some with chocolate chips, and then frosting on the rest.



Personally, they also need cream cheese frosting. 

  

Cute and yummy! This delectable pumpkin tasting left me with an extensive list of which pumpkin dessert to try next, which is becoming quite the dilemma, because there is only so much time in a day. I HAVE decided though that I will be trying a pumpkin roll for Thanksgiving, which I've been wanting to do for a while, but haven't yet! But what else in the meantime? Pumpkin pie squares? Pumpkin cheese danishes? Pumpkin biscotti?  

Then, while in Wegmans today, I completely forgot about pumpkin bread. I nearly went home and made it right that second. 

Yesterday was a spontaneous chocolate chip cookie day. 


I love taking orders and planning days on which I will bake, but as far as I am concerned, the best days are the ones on which you wake up in the morning and have no idea that you will be baking and enjoying cookies by the end of the day.

Sigh. I love cookies.

Tonight ends with multiple brushings of my teeth. There was a sprinkle explosion in my kitchen, which you will learn all about tomorrow!

Sweet dreams!
@--,--