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!

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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!

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The first pie of autumn

Apple pie!!! JP and I went apple/pear picking in his friend's Buffalo backyard a few weekends ago. I wanted to get some pie making practice under my belt before the holidays, so I whipped up this delightful apple pie to give to his friend.

I never really dived into the pie making realm until I took classes earlier this year. Now, I'm pretty sure I could make pie dough all day, day after day! It's the only thing I prefer to make without my mixer- I love kneading the cubes of chilled butter into the flour- it's practically therapeutic!

Also, I love making the lattice crust. I'd like to get fancy and make pretty designs on the top crust. However, maybe I shouldn't make it too pretty looking though....who would want to eat it?! 

One the other hand, I soon discovered that peeling, coring and slicing apples isn't my most favorite thing in the world, ha! But I'm excited to try more pies in the near future. =o)

Tomorrow should be exciting- I'm planning on checking out a brand new Barnes and Nobles culinary store in Niagara Falls, which is part of the NCCC Culinary Arts program. I'm hoping I don't come home with half the store! Maybe I'll just pick up a fun cake book or two. Yay!

Feel free to ask me to practice my pie making skills for you! ;-) In the meantime, go eat something delicious!

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National Homemade Cookie Day!

I love made up days like these. Who claims this day as National Homemade Cookie Day? And why wasn't it me? And why October 1st? Who has all of these answers? 

I am unpacking from moving, and procrastinating in a big way. My mother supported my move to make cookies though, despite my baking stuff being all over the place. Perhaps she just wanted to reap the benefits of the end product....? We went with oatmeal, which ended up being a wise choice. 

While in line at Salsaritas last winter, a father and his little girl were in a heated discussion about her choice of cookie for dessert- oatmeal or chocolate chip. He made the final decision of oatmeal, and his reason being was- because it has oatmeal in it, it is healthier for you. Seriously, dude? Did he have any concept of how much salt he was about to consume in the tacos he was about to eat? 

That was not the reason I went with oatmeal today. But they sure were yummy! Still some blogging to catch up on, in addition to baking an apple pie I've been meaning to make. I picked apples a couple weeks ago.....if they have been in the fridge, how long do they last?

There is still time to celebrate homemade cookies today! Have some for dinner! That's what I did! ;-)

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Business cards!!

Good news! I'm going to start blogging more again! Aaannnnddd....I've finally got business cards! =o)

Aren't they so cute?! Just as cute as all of my muffin loves out there!!! <3

I just realized there is a Blogger app for my smartphone. Perhaps that will help me post more regularly, as it should be much easier to snap a picture of something yummy I make and upload it to my blog right away. At least in theory it should be easier....  ;-) 

Also started a facebook page for the baked goods. Planning on uploading everything I've baked thus far, and beyond, soon. 

Excited about fall weather and being able to bake more without it being 100+ degrees in the kitchen. Got a few exciting projects on the way, but keeping it hush hush for the time being....wouldn't want to spoil any surprises for any readers expecting my baked goods soon..  ;-)

Fall starts this week. Gotta find a bunch of pumpkin recipes to bake IMMEDIATELY!!!

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Mini Blueberry Muffins

As you might imagine, I have a lot to catch up on. In the meantime, let us talk about this incredible blueberry muffin recipe I came across, and the results it produced.

Tonight I was pondering how timing of eating a baked good really makes a difference. These muffins were one of those things where, all though I'm positive they will still taste heavenly tomorrow, just nothing can beat one of these little jobbers coming warm out of the oven and right into my tummy! I'm pretty obsessed with all things chocolate that are warm out of the oven, but I don't think I do enough with blueberries- the explosive taste they have, warm out of the oven, when you bite into it and it pops in your mouth, is spectacular!  

Also on AllRecipes.com, I originally found this recipe at another site I like, Simply Sifted. Only now am I reading all of the reviews on allrecipes.com. Since this is the first time I've seriously made blueberry muffins, I'm feeling kind of guilty that it took a lot of people that wrote reviews here such a long time to find the perfect muffin recipe. Still, helpful to read reviews sometimes for fun substitutions and tips! 

I actually halved this recipe and made mini muffins instead of the full. I still baked at 400 degrees, for about 14 minutes (make sure to do the toothpick test), and got about 9 muffins. Which was awesome because I got to try the recipe out without having too many muffins lying around, not knowing what to do with them. **wink, wink** I'm beginning to like mini muffins way more than regular sized muffins, I like the way you can just pop them right into your mouth!

Lemon Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients:

For Muffin Batter

• 1.5 cups all-purpose flour + 1 tablespoon to toss with blueberries
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• zest from 1 lemon (do not skip this step!)
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg (if you're halving the recipe, crack the egg, lightly beat, and then pour in half the liquid)
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup FRESH blueberries (and a few extra, for good measure ;-)) 

 For crumb topping  

• 1/2 cup white sugar (or brown if you wish)
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed
• 1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
2. Make muffin batter. Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and zest. Separately, combine vegetable oil, egg and milk. Mix in with dry ingredients. In another separate bowl, toss blueberries in 1 T flour and then fold in blueberries (Simply Sifted says this will help stop them from sinking in the batter, and my berries mixed quite nicely!). Fill muffin cups right to the top. (For mini muffins, I find that filling a cookie scoop with batter and pouring it into the muffin tin works perfectly).
3. Make crumb topping. Mix together sugar, flour, cubed butter and cinnamon. Mixing with a fork works just fine, then sprinkle over muffins before baking.
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until poking with a toothpick comes out clean. Again, ~14 minutes for mini muffins, but set your timer for sooner than that so you can check them out in the process. 
5. Remove from oven. Make sure they cool at least a little before you nibble on them. Otherwise, the roof of your mouth may have a bone to pick with you. Not that I know anything about that right now... ;-)

I still can't get over how good these were. The lemon zest is really a big deal. I hope they are just as good tomorrow! 

I've been baking, just not posting. Hopefully things will pick up soon! Someone really needs to try baking these and tell me that I'm not crazy and that they are as delicious as I believe them to be! 

Muffins! <3

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My first tiered cake!!

A semester of classes has paid off! Got the chance to make my first tiered cake for my grandparent's 60th anniversary party! Made a white cake with cassata filling and a swiss meringue buttercream.

Proud of my first cake go around! =o)

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