Busy Birthday Baking

I know it's been a long time since I posted anything, and except for a delicious batch of brownies I made from scratch, I went quite a while without baking. But with my dad's surprise 60th birthday party in the works, I knew my no-baking streak would come to an end. And I did enough baking in two days to make up for the couple of months I spent out of the kitchen!

I knew I had to make my dad a great cake, and I don't feel that I let myself down with this one. In fact, I think it's my best effort to date. I was a bit afraid of trying to make a stacked cake large enough to feed all the guests, so I decided to stick with a comfortable sized cake and add a batch of cupcakes to make sure there was enough to go around.

The cupcakes were pretty standard, except I cooked them on a rack that was too low down in my oven, and the bottoms got a little too done. Luckily, I didn't have that same problem with the cake.

Since my dad is a huge UK fan (and that was the theme of the party) I decided to make him a UK-themed basketball cake. I had never done a shaped pan before, and it scared me at first because the cake took way longer to bake than the instructions said. I used my bake even strips around the outside of the pan to make sure the edges didn't get too done, and after a little online reassurance, I baked the cake for around and hour, and it turned out fantastic. Thanks to the cake release, it came right out of the pan with no problems.

I decided to do the main body of the cake in buttercream stars, like the illustration on the pan shows. I couldn't find the terra-cotta icing color that it suggests, so I went with just plain orange and used the color sparingly. I liked the way it turned out. Piping all the stars wasn't too bad, but the icing does tend to get soft holding it in my hand for so long. I bought a large tip with 3 stars in it to make filling in the icing go faster. It worked well, except for trying to do detail work around the edges, so I ended up having to use a single star tip as well.

After piping the body of the cake, I cut the UK logo out of blue and white fondant. This was a little harder than I imagined, because the fondant wanted to move with the knife instead of holding its shape. But after a couple of tries, I got a result that I was pretty pleased with. I used my new alphabet cutter set to make matching UK's for the cupcakes. And my 8-9 hour baking spree was complete.

The birthday boy seemed to enjoy the cake, and it apparently it tasted so good that there was none left at the end of the party! I was nervous about taking all this on but very pleased with the results.

(PS: Stay tuned - my next post is in my kitchen drying right now!)

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Birthday Cake

I'm a bit late in posting this, but last weekend and this week have been pretty busy! Last Saturday, my old department from John Wieland got together, and I was asked to make a birthday cake for a former coworker's wife, whose actual birthday was that day. This was the first cake I've made for anyone outside the family, so I was pretty nervous.

Last week's practice cake turned out so well, that I decided to stick with that basic design. I only made a few changes - yellow cake and buttercream icing instead of chocolate. (I wasn't sure what flavors the birthday girl preferred, so I played it safe.) I used up a lot of my pink and purple fondant on the practice cake, so I had to throw some yellow in too. And lastly, I had to write "happy birthday" on the cake.

Overall, I was pleased with the results again. My handwriting needs a little practice, but I didn't think it was too bad for freehanding it. (I didn't want to pay the extra $10 for the lettering kit at Michael's.) And I still need some work on getting the icing smooth, but I suppose that will come in time. I was in a hurry on this cake, so I didn't get to spend quite as much time on smoothing things out as I wanted. Time was running a little short on me, so I was glad I'd practiced the week before. I knew exactly what I needed to do and cranked it out pretty quickly.

The cake was well received. I was nervous that the birthday girl might not like the design and colors that I had chosen, but they fit with the overall party decor, and everyone seemed okay with them. It tasted great! :) By the time I left, the cake was almost gone.

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Fun with Fondant

It's been a while since I baked, and I've been wanting to get back in the kitchen lately. I have a request in for a birthday cake next week, and I've been nervous about making the cake, so I wanted to practice. I also really love the look of fondant and even though I haven't made it to the fondant class yet, I've been wanting to play with it. All those reasons coupled with the box of cake mix in my pantry calling out for attention meant one thing - I was going to bake today.

I decided to make a cake just for practice, so I could play around with a few things I've been wanting to try. First of all, I made chocolate buttercream for the first time. Boy is it ever rich!! I didn't even put as much cocoa powder as the recipe called for, but it ended up very sweet and chocolatey. I might use a little less next time. It probably could have used a dab more water too, but I was afraid to make the icing too thin and have it fall off the sides of the cake again!

I also wanted more practice icing the cake. I have to say that I was actually pleased with my progress this time. It still could have been a little smoother, but it was leaps and bounds above my last 2 attempts. I'm not sure if it was easier because the cocoa made the icing a little more firm, or if I'm truly getting better at this...

Next came the fondant, which I can only describe as a cross somewhere between cookie dough and playdough for cakes. I really enjoyed the fondant! Although it took longer to roll out and cut the fondant, I felt like I had more control over the design and the results than with piping. I really like the look of fondant too, so I'm starting to think I'm more of a fondant type of girl. I even pinched off a little bit to taste, since some people aren't crazy about the flavor, but I didn't mind it. Especially in this application, on top of buttercream, I think it will be fine. I've really got to sign up for the fondant class!!

Overall, this is the most pleased I've ever been with a cake, and especially one where I was trying so many things for the first time. It turned out pretty much how I wanted. Now I can't wait to take it to work tomorrow and dig in! :)

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To: Me, From: Me

Okay, so I don't have any baking to share with you this time. But I just had to post the really cool present I bought for myself! It's impossible for me to bake without making a complete mess, and there are so many cute apron designs out there, I decided I needed one for myself. I was browsing etsy.com one morning and ran across an apron I HAD to have, so I bought it! It just arrived this week, and while the fabric is a little greener and not as blue as I expected from the online picture, I totally love it. (I'm not sure the ruffles do anything for my hip region, but it's so cute that I really don't care...) The best part is that because it's so gosh darn adorable, I can leave it on display in my kitchen when it's not in use.

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Wilton Final Class

This week, I took the final class in the Decorating Basics course. For class, I had to bring in an assembled and iced cake. This time, I went back to my tried and true Pilsbury box mix and was pleased with the results. Baking and filling the cake went well. For the filling, I used a lemon pudding mixed with icing to thicken it up. Then cake time to ice the cake. After my last disaster, I made sure to buy the Wilton cake icer tip and some 16" disposable bags. It made things a lot easier! I was able to get the top perfectly smooth with no crumbs! I still need practice on the sides though - I tried and tried, but could not make it so that the cake did not show through. Before taking the cake to class, I decided to pipe a pink shell border - pink because I made too much icing for Ginger's cupcakes - around the top and bottom, and I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. (Except that some of my shells wanted to fall off the next day - guess I need to work on getting them more on the top than the side.)

In class, we practiced writing, which seems easy enough, and then came time for the ribbon rose. I am not too good at roses!! I think I'm making the base okay, but I just can't figure out the angles for the petal tip. Mine all came out looking more like buds than open flowers... It also didn't help that the room was incredibly hot, and the icing started to soften up. But at the end of class, between me and the instructor, I ended up with some flowers that were good enough to stack on my cake, and then I filled in with some leaves. Overall, not too bad...

My instructor is teaching this class again in July, and she said that we were welcome to audit any of the sessions that we needed more practice on for free. I'm not sure yet if I will do that, but I do need more practice.

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Wilton Class 3 - Cupcakes (And More Cupcakes!)

This Tuesday, I had my third session in the Wilton Decorating Basics class. We were concentrating on cupcakes, so I felt much more in my comfort zone this time. I had baked and frozen a dozen cupcakes the week before out of the same Duncan Hines cake mix that I wasn't so crazy about. Freezing made them a little on the dry side, but the class was mostly about decorating, so they were fine for the purpose they were serving.

We packed a lot of techniques into this one class! We learned drop flowers, which I really like, swirl flowers, which I wasn't as good at, shells, which I need some practice in, leaves, which are super easy, and a few other flowers. The new Wilton class supplies include a cupcake nail, which is supposed to make it easier to swirl icing on top of the cupcake, but I didn't like it! I think it's quicker and easier to freehand the swirl, maybe because that's how I've been doing it for a while now - not sure, but the cupcake nail wasn't my favorite. I do see how it could come in handy for making flowers directly onto the cupcake, though.

cupcake decorated with drop flowers and leaves

The two other flowers we learned were the shaggy mum and the pom-pom flower. I really like the shaggy mum! It looks kind of like Cookie Monster from the back. I need to think of a fun way to use it. I had a little more trouble with the pom-pom flower, but I think I could get it with more practice. I'm not sure what I would use it for though.

cupcake with shaggy mum on top

(I kind of went crazy with the leaves.)

pom-pom flowers

(my instructor's on the left and my more crooked version on the right)

As if I hadn't had enough cupcakes already, Ginger's birthday was on Thursday, and I'd promised that I'd bake her something. She requested strawberry cupcakes with buttercream icing, so I whipped up yet another batch of icing. (This week, I did NOT use the awful butter, and the results were SO much better!) I'd never tasted, much less made strawberry cake before, so I didn't really know what I was getting myself into. Ginger had said the strawberry boxed cake mixes were good, but I really didn't want to overwhelm her with 2 dozen cupcakes, so I found a homemade recipe for 12 in my cupcake cookbook. It used fresh strawberries and buttermilk, so it sounded like it would be good. I decided to color the icing in a light, pretty pink in honor of the name of the recipe (Pretty in Pink Cupcakes) and picked up some white sprinkles and store-bought daisies to complete the look. (I haven't learned how to make daisies yet, so I figured I deserved a break!)

I was definitely pleased with the look of the cupcakes! But I was a little unsure how they would taste. It's always nerve wracking to try a new recipe, and this one didn't yield any extra to taste ahead of time! Everyone said the cupcakes were good. My only complaint was that the cake seemed a little dense - since I only used egg whites instead of the whole egg, I thought they'd be a little fluffier.

Ginger's birthday cupcakes

While I do enjoy baking, I'm glad this marathon week is over. It was a success, but 3 nights of baking in 1 week is something I won't try again for a LOOONG time! :)

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Wilton Class 2 - Icing Fiasco

I had my second Wilton class on Tuesday. We were supposed to bake a one layer (one cake pan) cake to take to class. I bought a Duncan Hines cake mix because they were on sale (I don't have time to bake from scratch AND make icing on a work night!). I have to say, I don't think I'll be using that again! I'll probably stick to Pilsbury from now on. The box instructions said to mix the batter for 4 minutes. I thought that sounded unusually long, but I did as I was told. The batter ended up thick, more like a bread dough than cake batter. It also rose a lot more in the middle, giving me a big dome shape. Luckily, I bought a cake leveler tool to deal with that. (But the cake did at least taste good.)

After baking the cake, I moved on to making the 2 batches of icing for class - 1 thin and 1 medium. I started with the thin. The class icing recipe is a little different than I'm used to, but I've made icing quite a few times, so I figured I wouldn't have any problems with it. I was WRONG!! The class recipe calls for 1 cup of Crisco. I usually use 1/2 cup of Crisco and 1/2 cup of butter. My instructor said that this would be fine and would give the icing a better taste. She said to just be sure and use real butter instead of margarine (which is what I have been using.) So I thought I'd give the butter a try and used a stick of Publix brand real cream butter. The thin icing came out very oily. I'm still not sure why. At first I thought it was becuase I'd forgotten the meringue powder, so I mixed that in, but it didn't help. Maybe it was the butter that I've never used before, maybe it was because I softened the butter 10 seconds in the microwave, who knows... Not being very experienced with thin icing, I figured maybe that's how it was supposed to be. I moved on to make the medium with no problems. I didn't have any more real butter, so I used the 1 cup of Crisco for the medium, and it seemed to turn out just fine.

In class, we began by leveling and torting our cakes. Even though I had never done it before, I found this process to be relatively easy. So glad I bought the cake leveler! I made a dam with my thin icing and used 2 chocolate pudding cups for the filling. My instructor had recommended pudding as a filling, and I thought I'd try the chocolate to be a little different. It did give the cake a good taste, but next time I think I'd thicken it with a bit of icing to have a better consistency when eating the cake.

Then it was time to ice the cakes. My instructor had recommended that we buy Wilton's cake icer tip, but my budget had to cave somewhere, and I figured I would try this class without it. The next time I ice a cake, I will have it though!! I was able to spread my icing very nicely on the top with no crumbs, and my instructor even said that it looked really pretty. The cheap turntable I bought really helped. Then it came to icing the sides, and disaster set in. My oily icing wouldn't stick to the sides of my cake - it kept falling off! No matter how much extra powdered sugar I tried mixing in, I couldn't get it to thicken up. I played with it for about 10 minutes and was getting very frustrated. My instructor could tell I was having trouble at this point. She removed all the icing from my cake, mixed it with my medium icing (which she said looked correct), and re-iced the cake for me. Plus, I'd played with the icing so much by this point that there were crumbs all in it. I felt completely defeated.

Despite losing the icing battle, I moved on to decorate my cake. We learned how to transfer a pattern using piping gel and fill it in with icing. I think it's a bit ironic that the design we used in class was a cupcake, since I enjoy baking cupcakes so much. My cupcake design turned out beautiful, and I hastily added a few sloppy borders around the edge of my poor cake before class was over.

The icing decorations got a little beat up in the car, but everyone at work the next day thought the cake was cute and tasted really good. But I'm hoping for a better experience next time.

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Wilton Class

I finally decided to go for it and sign up for the Wilton cake decorating classes. I've been envious of Ginger and the fun she's had in her classes. Still, cakes intimidate me. That's why I usually stick to cupcakes - they're easier and way fun! After my first Wilton class this past Tuesday, I'm wondering if I could possibly feel the same about cakes at some point in the future...

There were a couple of things that convinced me to finally sign up. Having a job certainly helps! After seeing how quickly the guys in the plant could devour a plate of sweets, I was no longer worried about the effects a class would have on my waistline. Lastly, I heard that Wilton had redesigned their curriculum to include more cupcakes and cookies. The sale on course tuition and materials didn't hurt either!

I'm taking my classes at Michael's on Tuesday nights. There will be 4 sessions, each lasting 2 hours. I just completed the first class. I think I'm probably a tad bit more advanced than the typical beginner student, so a lot of the first class was a review of tools and tricks I've already tried. Still, it's good to have professional input and learn the "right" way to do things. For instance, I found a new way to grip the icing bag that I like better.

My instructor demonstrating torting, filling, icing, and decorating a cake - our tasks for the 2nd class. She made it look so easy! Like I said, cakes have always scared me. However, after seeing what a little experience and the right tools and techniques can do, I'm excited (and a little nervous) to try it next week.

Our project for the first class was cookies. We were supposed to bake them and bring them in ahead of time. Because I signed up for class at the last minute and because I had to do my baking on a work night, I decided to go the easy route - I bought a roll of Pilsbury sugar dough cookies, sliced them, and baked them. Overall, I thought they turned out okay - they baked up a little thinner than I would have liked - but they were fine for the purposes of the class. After being shown the proper way to prepare and fill an icing bag, we were off to decorate our cookies using the star tip. I didn't have too much time in class to give attention to very many cookies, but I thought the ones I did decorate turned out nice. I can tell my skills are improving, and that definitely makes me happy!

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Stars and Stripes

I know it's been a while since I've posted. Minus a batch of cookies I made for some very over-stressed co-workers of mine, it's been equally long since I've baked. But a holiday weekend with a cookout extravaganza was enough to bring me out of culinary hiding!

For the second year in a row, my brother and Bryan planned a colossal Memorial Day cookout at my parents' cabin in the mountains. The final guest count numbered somewhere in the low to mid 40's, and the smoker was fired up 24 hours in advance. We certainly take our BBQ seriously! With Kevin and Bryan outdoing themselves on an 18 lb. brisket, 2 turkeys, and 9 racks of ribs, I couldn't sit by and not make a contribution. So, naturally, I decided to make Memorial Day cupcakes.

I pondered several more complicated designs, including a flag and a watermelon, but the traveling and the amount of preparation involved in the event pursuaded me to do something a little faster and simpler. I made the icing at home Thursday night so I wouldn't have to travel with my mixer but decided to bake the cupcakes Saturday morning so they would be fresh for the cookout that evening. The cake was my standard box mix with an extra egg taken from the oven and put immediately in the freezer for a few minutes to stop the cooking process. It didn't let me down - the cake was moist and tasty. I piped the buttercream with the 1M tip, my favorite for cupcakes. I used the Wilton color mist and sprayed half of the cupcakes blue and the other half red. My initial plan was to sprinkle blue sprinkles on the red-sprayed cupcakes and red sprinkles on the blue-sprayed cupcakes. However, when I'd done that, they still looked like something was missing, so all the cupcakes got both red and blue sprinkles. Stars and stripes cupcake wrappers and flag toppers from Wilton completed the look.

Even though decorating couldn't have taken me more than 15 minutes total, I would deem the cupcakes a success! Guests were afraid to grab them at first because they didn't want to mess up the display. (Of course, once the first one was gone, the other cupcakes followed very quickly.) I got a lot of compliments and even a few comments that people thought they were professional. I thank the 1M tip for that! :) 

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My Goodness, My Guinness

A few days before St. Patty's Day, I saw this recipe on the food network website. I knew I would be out of town the weekend after St. Patty's so I probably wouldn't have a chance to bake. We were planning to celebrate Bryan's brother-in-law Robbie's birthday the following weekend (this weekend!), and Bryan thought this would be the perfect recipe to try. Besides an X Box cake (which sounds far beyond my experience level) I didn't have any other ideas for Robbie, and this one sounded easy enough, so I decided to go with it.

The recipe was fairly easy to make, and Bryan enjoyed the fact that it contains a bottle of Guinness. (Although, once baked, I really couldn't taste the Guinness and wouldn't have known it was in there if I hadn't made them.) I'd never made chocolate cake from scratch, but this turned out well. And I got to use cocoa powder for the first time! :)

The cream cheese icing was very creamy, so it was a little messy spreading it on the cupcakes. There's no way it could have been piped! I only used 3/4 cup of cream - the minimum called for by the recipe - and I definitely wouldn't have used any more than that. The dusting of cocoa powder on top of the icing gave it another hint of chocolate flavor - and gave me and Bryan a good excuse to make a mess of my kitchen - we were flinging cocoa powder everywhere!

Overall, I was very pleased with the result and would make these again. They were chocolatey but not too sweet, and the cream cheese icing (which is supposed to resemble the head on a pint of Guinness) was  unexpected but very tasty.

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When everything sucks except the vacuum cleaner...

Okay, so it's really my washing machine that I was having problems with, not the vacuum. Even so, Thursday night was just one of those nights - the kind of evening when nothing goes as planned.

My washing machine had been broken for over a week, and I desperately needed to do laundry before going out of town for the weekend. Bryan had met the appliance repair guy earlier in the day, so I thought I was all set to go. After I got home from work, I threw a load of laundry in the washer and turned it on. Later, I noticed that it was being awfully quiet - in fact it wasn't spinning at all! Not only that, but it wouldn't drain either! I tried every combination of settings and cycles that I could, and nothing would get rid of the water in my washing machine. I was left with a load of wet, soggy clothes and nothing to wear for my weekend in the mountains.

In the midst of all this frustration, I was also attempting to make cupcakes for my mom's birthday. I now realize that baking while frustrated and in a bad mood is not such a good idea, but I really didn't have any other time to make the cupcakes. There were only going to be 6 of us there over the weekend, so I didn't want to use a boxed mix and end up with 2 dozen cupcakes - we'd never be able to eat them all. So I found a recipe in one of my cookbooks to make 12 white cupcakes from scratch.

I mixed the batter and filled the cups 2/3 full, as always. I noticed that I had a good bit of batter left over, but I didn't want to take my chances on overflowing cupcakes, so I made a few extras to taste and rinsed the remaining batter down the drain. Big mistake!! About 20 minutes later, I noticed that my cupcakes hadn't risen, like at all! (It was about this moment that I tried yet one more setting on the washer, it also didn't work, and I broke down in tears...)

One thing that did work well - I used my silicone cupcake liners. One, because I have 12 liners and was making 12 cupcakes and two, because they were the only pastel liners I had on hand.

Because there was a good bit of space between the cupcakes and the tops of the liners, I ended up needing a lot more icing than normal to fill them up. This led me to run out of icing when piping the designs on top, and the last 2 didn't get flowers, just some improvised polka-dots.

My mood had rapidly deteriorated by the time I got to piping, and I think it showed. I thought the flowers were just so-so, and overall I was just okay with how the project turned out. I even procrastinated posting the picture here because I wasn't thrilled with them. They did taste good though! The homemade cake batter did seem to dry out quicker than the mix, so they didn't keep quite as well, but I was very pleased with the taste when they were freshly baked.

Overall, I'd say that I learned my lesson. My treats look happier and more cheerful when I am as well. I'll try to avoid baking when I'm frustrated and crabby, if I can.

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A Baking Weekend!

I knew this weekend would be busy - a long-awaited BFF baking day plus a birthday. But baking is fun, right? And I'm all about the fun!

Bryan's mom's birthday is tomorrow, but we decided to celebrate a little early and get together on Sunday. I knew I needed to bake something fun for her birthday, and when I saw this design on Betty Crocker's website, I was hooked. I was really scared, though, because I've never made a cake before. I have assisted and/or observed cake-making a handful of times, but I've never been in charge completing a cake from start to finish. (That's why I usually stick to cupcakes - cakes scare me!) Bryan and I both knew what a perfect design this would be for his mom, and he talked me into tackling the project with his help.

Baking the cake was pretty easy - no surprises there. I used the Wilton cake release on the pan, and I have to say, I was pretty impressed with how cleanly it came out of the pan. (I listened to Ginger and shook well before I squirted it in.) The cake release is so much less messier than flouring that I think I'll use it from now on. All you have to do is squirt a little bit in the middle of the pan and use a basting brush to spread it around evenly - no mess whatsoever!

Next, I printed a template from the internet and cut the flip flop shapes from the cooled cake. That part wasn't too difficult either. I put the cake in the freezer to let it firm up before icing. We were a little rushed for time, and I probably should have left it in the freezer longer than I did. It did firm up some, but it still was a little crumbly on the sides. We did get some crumbs in the icing, but luckily the icing color and the decorations helped to hide that.

If anyone has any good tips for icing a cake, I'm all ears! I didn't have too much trouble with the top, but getting the sides neat and making a clean line between the sides and the top were hard! I don't know if it's because the sides were only a little over an inch tall or what, but I had a lot of trouble getting the icing to stick to the side of the cake and to look neat. Even though I followed the recipe for thin icing, it was a bit thinner than I would have preferred - I won't add quite as much milk next time. I don't think it made too much of a difference on the cake itself, but the lines I piped (which I thought were supposed to be done with thin) didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped.

I wish I would have had the time (and courage!) to make the flip flop straps out of fondant. I used fruit roll-ups, like the directions said, but expected from experience that they wouldn't hold up too well. They lived up to their reputation - by the time we delivered the cake, the straps had fallen flat, but you could still tell what they were supposed to be.

Overall, the cake was cute but definitely had a homemade look to it. I definitely have some room to improve, but I'm pretty happy with my first attempt. The birthday girl seemed to enjoy it, so that made me happy!

In other news, I got to use a culinary torch for the first time! I mentioned that Ginger and I got together for a BFF baking day also. It was long overdue - I think our last one might have been right before Christmas, 2008! Ginger found a rocky road brownie cupcake recipe on the Paula Deen website, and it was super delicious. She covered most of the details on her facebook page, but they were fun, tasty, and something I'd definitely try again. Even better, we got to play with fire!

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Better Late than Never

This weekend, I baked Valentine's cupcakes. I know Valentine's was last week, but these weren't baked for Valentine's; they were received for Valentine's. As one of my Valentine's Day presents, Bryan got me a Pillsbury funfetti cake mix and icing set. And since my family was coming over this weekend to celebrate Bryan's birthday a little late, I figured it was the best occasion to bake I was going to get. We ended up with a mixture of celebrations that was quite tasty!

I was very pleased with how the cupcakes turned out. That's because this time I took Ginger's advice and bought the Wilton cupcake decorating kit and...

... I piped for the first time! Up until now, I've been so afraid of pastry bags, I've been using my Pampered Chef dessert decorator (Wilton also makes one that is very similar) to pipe the icing. After having trouble on Bryan's Sponge Bob cupcakes, I was resolved to try it the "real" way. And Ginger was right - it was easier! Yes, I should have listened to her sooner. (I also took her advice and added an extra tablespoon of milk to the icing.) I absolutely LOVE the way the Wilton 1M tip looks when it's piped on a cupcake - very professional. And now I finally have a 1M tip of my own! Katy was right - it did use a lot of icing. One other thing I learned the hard way - the 1M will only fit on the really large coupler. At this point, I don't really see the point in buying the large coupler though, because I don't have any other tips that will fit on it - so what's the point in making it easier to switch out!?

As I mentioned, Bryan had bought me a Pillsbury funfetti tub of pink icing with white and red Valentine's sprinkles. I had a feeling it wouldn't be enough for 24 cupcakes using the 1M tip. In fact, it iced 9. So I made a batch of homemade buttercream to go with it. I was accidentally too generous with the pink coloring and ended up with a hot pink instead of pastel. But by fate (and certainly not by planning or thought in any way), I had just enough of each color to alternate rows on my cupcake stand. Before my family chowed down on cupcakes, I told them that one of the icings was store-bought and one was homemade, but I wasn't going to tell them which was which until they had tried them both. Bryan said he preferred the store-bought icing because it was sweeter, but everyone else preferred mine. I'll consider that a resounding success. Coupled with the fact that they were way cute, and I'm happy!

(PS - Stay tuned for next week. I've got a pretty ambitious - for me - project planned!)

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Snow Day Means Valentine's Cookies

I woke up this morning to an icy winter wonderland. I figured what better way to warm up both myself and my house than to turn on the oven and bake! Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, so that provided the perfect theme for a batch of tasty treats. Because the roads were iced over, I was limited to ingredients I had on hand in my pantry.

I found a good recipe for sugar cookies on joyofbaking.com that I could make with the ingredients I already had. I'd planned on baking sugar cookies and icing them with royal icing. However, after 30 minutes of cleaning out all my cabinets and looking through every item in my pantry, I discovered that my meringue powder had disappeared! I suppose I could have attempted to make the icing with egg whites, but I've tried that before and wasn't happy with the drippy, messy outcome. The meringue powder works much better for me.

So, out of necessity, I came up with plan B. I tinted the cookie dough with red food coloring and used red sprinkles on top. Still very cute and Valentine's appropriate! I'm out of vanilla extract (thanks to all the baking I've done lately) so I decided to substitute mint instead. I had to use liquid food coloring because I don't have any red gel color (yet!) so I cut back on the extract a little to compensate for the added liquid.

I've had some trouble with using cookie cutters in the past, but I'd done some studying, and this time I had a lot more success. Rolling the dough a little thicker and coating both my cookie cutter and my cookie-moving spatula with generous amounts of flour were the key. Refrigerating the dough for an hour before rolling it out also helped.

I'm pretty happy with the outcome, especially since these were a spur-of-the-moment idea. I think they would taste a little sweeter if I'd had the vanilla, but the mint leaves a nice, fresh taste in my mouth. (Bryan helped with the official taste test and gave his seal of approval.) Most importantly, I feel more festive for the upcoming holiday, and I cured my "itch to bake", at least for now.

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A Bikini Bottom Birthday

For Bryan's birthday, I had known for a while that I wanted to make him Sponge Bob cupcakes. The week before, I decided that instead of tinting the icing blue, I would use spray coloring instead to make it look more like water. The cupcakes were just a yellow cake mix. The icing was Wilton buttercream with Wilton blue color spray and blue sugar sprinkles. I also found Wilton icing decorations that look like Sponge Bob and Patrick to use as cupcake toppers.

Overall, I was very pleased with the way they turned out. When I was making the icing, I didn't have quite enough vanilla, so I used a small bit of almond extract as well, and it was very tasty. The spray was easy to use, but it is important to have good ventilation when using the spray color! I do wish the Wilton cupcake liners didn't turn so transparent after they bake. The icing was a little too stiff to pipe well - I should have used one more tablespoon of milk. But I was able to hide most of the piping with the color spray!

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Silicone Liners - A Sucess!

For Christmas, Bryan gave me a set of Calphalon silicone cupcake liners. This morning, I put them to the test. I decided to make apple cinnamon muffins for breakfast. (From a mix... I know...)

Whenever I use my muffin pan without any cupcake liners (usually for muffins), the Pam spray leaves a sticky residue on the pan, even after sending it through the heavy cycle in the dishwasher. I was getting ready to spray the pan this morning and dreading the outcome when I remembered I had the silicone liners in the cabinet. The directions on the box of liners did say to spray them with Pam, but at least they protected my pan. The muffins baked up beautifully and quickly, and they slid right out of the liners! (Although I left mine in the liner until I ate them because I thought they were pretty cute..) Overall, I would say they're a hit. The silicone is dishwasher safe, oven safe, and refrigerator safe. The only thing left to see is how they will clean up in the dishwasher.

Oh yeah, the muffins were pretty delicious too! :)

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Holly Hobby?

A few days ago, I came to the realization that I do, in fact, have a hobby. For as long as I can remember, I would get interested in a new activity, buy all the fun equipment, and passionately pursue said activity for, oh, a couple of months at best. Then I would lose interest. Tennis, step aerobics, scrapbooking... While I have enjoyed all of these, none of them held my interest for the long term. I've been searching for the one thing that I will continue to enjoy year after year, something that would be part of me. Then I realized the other day that I had found that activity.... several years ago.... and just never realized it.

I've enjoyed baking ever since I moved out of my parents' house and had my own kitchen. It started off with a love of making cookies. Over the years, I have amassed quite a collection of kitchen tools and utensils. And I've branched out beyond just baking cookies. Muffins, cupcakes, breads, and cookies all excite me these days. (Cakes, however, are still a bit frightening.) Some people bake because they have to, but not me - I bake because I want to.

I enjoy sharing my tasty treats just as much as I enjoy making them. I like watching people enjoy eating my creations, and lately I've had fun posting them online for others to see. Thus the creation of this blog - a place for me to keep track of all my fun baking endeavors. I hope people out there will get just as much enjoyment out of following my baking journey as I will in the undertaking.

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