You're a Mean One

This was my first official baking project that was inspired by Pinterest! Jason decided to throw a Christmas / housewarming party for some of his friends, and I couldn't let a good party go by without baking something. The party had a Mexican theme, "Feliz Navi House", and I debated for a while whether to make something that was more Mexican or more Christmas in nature. I found the recipe for Grinch Cookies on Pinterest and mulled it over for a while. I never found anything better, and I figured they would be relatively easy amid the chaos of getting the house ready for the party, so it was a go!

When buying the ingredients, I wasn't sure what creme de menthe baking chips were, and I didn't see any at the grocery store. All I saw in the minty category were mint chocolate chips from Hershey, so I went with those instead.

I didn't buy any food coloring, because I thought I had enough at home. I was wrong - I had no green! I thought about using the gel coloring that I use for icing (and in hindsight, I probably should have), but of course I was looking for the quickest solution. The recipe calls for 6 drops of green coloring. As I mentioned, I didn't have any green, but I did have yellow and blue. Thanks to the Ziplock commercials from my childhood, I figured that might work. I used 3 drops of yellow and 3 drops of blue. Once the dough was mixed thoroughly, it was in fact green. It wasn't as dark of a green as the picture in the recipe, but I thought it was green enough. However, after the cookies baked, they didn't look quite as green as the dough had. I do wish I had spent a little more time getting the proper color.

The other thing I was unsure of after I started mixing was the texture of the dough. It seemed very dry throughout the process of making the recipe. But the dough tasted good (quality control) so I went with it. In the end, it turned out not to be a problem.

After the cookies baked up, they tasted quite nice. Mint and chocolate are always a good combination. The recipe doesn't specify, but it made a good number of cookies - about 3 large cookie sheets worth. Quite a few cookies were eaten at the party, despite everyone asking, "Are those cookies GREEN?" And Jason and I enjoyed snacking on the leftovers.

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Pumpkin and Pie

For Thanksgiving this year, I decided to make a pumpkin roll to take to Jason's mom's. I also wanted to make a Run for the Roses (Derby) pie for Thanksgiving / my dad's birthday with my family.

I had made the pumpkin roll before, but it had been a few years. I gave Jason a list of possible desserts, and this one sounded best to him. I wasn't too worried about making it, since it was a repeat recipe. The instructions say to line the pan with wax paper before adding the cake batter. Since I was using my Wilton cake release, I decided to skip this step - big mistake!! This was the first thing that has ever stuck using the cake release! Unfortunately, my pumpin roll came out of the pan in 3 pieces; it was a lot harder to pry it out with it being such a long pan. Luckily for me, I was able to patch it back together with the icing. I hid the most torn piece by starting to roll the cake on that end. By the time I was done, it didn't look too bad. It must not have, because most of it was devoured before I could even get a picture (or a piece for myself - thankfully I snagged one of the last pieces left). Given its popularity - and Jason's fondness for cream cheese icing - it's probably on the make again list for future holidays.

The derby pie was also something I had made before, but it had been a long time. I had looked at a similar recipe online that made 2 pies, so I confused making mine. At first, I halved everything in the recipe, but it looked like it was going to make such a small pie! I studied and studied the recipe before finally concluding that my recipe only made 1 pie, so I added in the full amount of ingredients. The pie baked up beautifully. The best thing was when my dad, who is originally from Kentucky, said that it tasted like a proper derby pie. Since the name of the recipe is a little different, I had been worried, but he said that was probably due to copyright issues. The pie tasted wonderful and was even better as a leftover after the chocolate hardened up in the refrigerator. Again, I didn't get any photos, but it looked just like this one from Martha Stewart. That must mean I did something right!

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Baking 911

As I was anticipating a (somewhat) relaxing weekend working around my house, I received a frantic message Thursday night that my good friend Myra was in need of baking help. She was attempting to make a groom's cake for her stepson, who was getting married THAT Saturday! Her stepson is a firefighter and wanted a burning building groom's cake. So my Saturday evolved into driving over to her house early that morning and working frantically to complete the cake before they needed to be at the wedding for pictures.

Poor Myra worked on the cake all night Friday and into the wee hours of the morning. By the time I arrived, she had baked 2 tiers of chocolate cake and had coated them with a base of brick-colored peanut butter flavored icing.

We attempted to smooth the icing using my tried and true trick of waxed paper, but this icing was much softer than normal, and stuck to the waxed paper... So we re-iced the two tiers and tried to get it as smooth as possible with the spatula.

Next, we needed a brick pattern for the sides of the building. Myra had bought a brick imprint mat, but again because the icing was super soft, it didn't work as planned. Plan B involved her husband Ken carving a brick pattern into the icing by hand using the icing spatula and a knife.

Myra created the windows for the building out of sugar paper and edible markers. She drew the window grids and cut them out of the sugar paper. (Her dogs also discovered that sugar paper is very tasty during this process!)

While Myra and Ken worked on the bricks and windows, I set out to cut fire from fondant. Using a paring knife and red and yellow fondant, I made as many flames as I could in the time we had.

Then it came time to stack the cake tiers... which I had never done before. Myra was feeling a bit rusty on this step too, so we consulted a book that she had. Ken trimmed 5 cake dowels to length, and we inserted them into the bottom tier in an X pattern. Then Ken used an exacto knife to trim the cake board of the top tier so that it didn't stick out beyond the cake. They very carefully set the top tier on the bottom tier. There was still some space between the 2 tiers, so I piped 2 rows of icing using Wilton tip 12. (This building had some interesting architecture.)

We then completed the details around the building. We used silver, black, and gray sprinkles to create gravel on the roofs of both levels. I mixed some green icing and used Wilton tip 233 to make grass around the bottom of the building. Myra added her sugar paper windows, and I put on the fondant flames.

We then used some black Wilton spray color to create a charred appearance on the outside of the building. We had to be careful with this - not only the strong smell - but we couldn't get any on the windows. We made that mistake with one, and the ink ran. We had to do that one over again.

For the final touches, we added some decorations Myra had bought - firefighters, ladders, and trucks to complete the burning building scene.

We were very pleased with our finished product. If you look closely, I know you could spot some flaws. But considering the short timeline we had - I was only at her house for a little over 4 (frantic) hours to decorate - we finished well beyond my expectations. And those who were at the reception reported that the groom was very pleased - which was our biggest goal.

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Bake Sale Bonanza

The small church we've been attending recently announced it would be holding a fish fry / bake sale fundraiser... on the same day I'd already purchases Braves tickets for... Since I wasn't able to be there in person, I felt obligated to help out by baking. And bake, I did!

I figured that if I spread my baking out throughout the week, I should be able to tackle several recipes to contribute to the sale.

I skipped baking Monday and Tuesday nights, figuring that was just too early for a Saturday sale.

On Wednesday night, Jason helped me make not one, but two batches of Seven Layer Cookie Bars. I learned how to make this recipe way back in high school, and they are one of Jason's favorites, so he insisted on lots of them for the bake sale. In the past, I've always had trouble with this recipe sticking (although my mom makes them effortlessly). I've tried Pam, Cake Release, cutting them while hot, letting them cool, glass dishes, metal pans, everything... This time I finally figured out why! In the interest of time and all the baking I was doing, I bought a box of graham cracker crumbs. I usually make my own crumbs with graham crackers, a potato masher, and all my pent up frustrations. This is the first time I bought the pre-crumbled crumbs, and they made all the difference! I also switched up the recipe and used walnuts instead of the pecans I typically use. Walnuts were significantly cheaper, plus I thought they'd be better for some of the other recipes I was making. The switch didn't seem to make any difference in the yummy-ness of the cookie bars. With both batches, we were able to make 30 total bars.

I also mixed up a batch of my friend Meredith's grandmother's pineapple banana nut bread Wednesday night. The recipe is for 2 loaves of bread, but I only have 1 loaf pan, so I decided to do one loaf and muffins. After I put half of the batter in the loaf pan, the remaining half made 18 muffins. I used 12 silicone liners for the first pan of muffins, and poured the remaining 6 muffins directly in a pan sprayed with Pam. This was only my second time making this recipe, and when the ingredients list calls for 2 cups of mashed bananas, I wasn't sure just how mashed those bananas should be. I decided to attack them with a fork and mush them up really good. I think this resulted in a bit too much banana, so next time, I won't be as diligent with the mashing. The bread and muffins didn't rise as much as I thought they would (likely from all the banana) but they were very tasty. Because they didn't rise much, the muffins ended up being kind of small, so I bagged them 2 per bag for the sale. I also noticed that the muffins in the silicone liners didn't brown as well as the rest, but they tasted the same, and popping them out of the muffin tin was SO easy!

Thursday I was battling a migrane all day, so I kept the baking kind of light. I made Meredith's grandmother's chocolate pound cake recipe in my bundt pan. I was tired and not feeling well, so I MAY have slept through the timer going off for a few minutes when the cake was finished. It looked a bit well-done when I took it out of the oven, but the inside was still moist, and it still tasted good. I was surpised at just how many slices I was able to get out of one cake for the bake sale.

Friday night was my last night of baking, and I decided to round off my selections with some oatmeal chocolate chip walnut cookies. I think these might possibly be my favorite cookie! I made the first batch on my thick, professional grade cookie sheet and the rest on my airbake cookie pans. The first batch from the "better" pan turned out much thinner and stuck more to the pan than the others, so I abandoned that pan and continued with the airbake pans for the remaining batches. Jason was helping again and made sure to use one of the stuck cookies for a "quality control" taste testing. The recipe says that it makes 3.5 dozen cookies, and that's pretty close to how many I ended up with. The cookies weren't that large though, so I decided to bag them up 2 per bag for the sale. 

Jason worked the fundraiser for most of the day Saturday (while I was cleaning my kitchen !!!, getting my hair done, and at the Braves game...) and he took them 4 grocery bags full of baked goods. He said the cookie bars were a definite hit. The only thing that didn't sell very fast was the chocolate pound cake, which is what I figured. I didn't put any icing or glaze on it, but I thought some people might like something a little less sweet (plus I was tired from baking).

I've included Meredith's grandmother's recipes below. (Remember that sugar is considered a wet ingredient.)

PINEAPPLE BANANA BREAD

3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
2 cups mashed bananas
8 oz can crused pineapples (drained)
1 cup nuts (chopped)
2 tsp vanilla
3 eggs (beaten

Combine dry ingredients, stir in nuts, set aside. Combine remaining ingredients. Add to dry ingredients. Stir just until batter is moistened. Spoon batter into 2 greased and floured 9 x 5 x 3 loaf pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour or until done. Cool 10 minutes in pan.

This also makes 32 muffins. Bake muffins at 350 degrees until done 15 or 20 minutes. These freeze well.

CHOCOLATE POUND CAKE

2 1/2 cups sifted flour
3/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup shortening
1 cup milk
4 eggs
2 1/2 - 3 squares of melted unsweet chocolate (I used 3)
1 tsp vanilla

Add eggs, shortening, and sugar first, then add dry ingredients. Add remaining liquid ingredients. Beat 2 minutes on medium speed. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes.

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C is for Cookie

When my brother temporarily changed his Facebook profile picture to a shot of him and cookie monster a few months before his birthday, an idea was born! I scoured the internet for ideas and knew I HAD to make him cookie monster cupcakes.

My sister-in-law's birthday is just over a week before my brother's, and I knew there was no way we could eat 4 dozen cupcakes in a 2 week time period. So I decided to make one batch of chocolate cupcakes, bake half, and save the rest for the next weekend. We were preparing for a big Memorial Day cookout in the mountains the same weekend as my brother's birthday, so I was hoping this would be a time saver as well. I froze half the batter and kept the icing in the fridge for a week. The batter did take a while to thaw, submerging the container in bowls of hot water and switching out the water when it got cold, but after it thawed, it baked up just like always. I might have left them in the oven a couple of minutes longer, because the batter was still pretty cold. The refrigerated icing seemed to be just like normal as well.

I couldn't find any solid blue cupcake liners at the grocery store, so I went with some blue and white polka-dotted ones that I already had on hand. With the chocolate batter, the liners weren't too noticable anyway.

While the cupcakes cooled, I mixed up the icing. It took a lot of royal blue food coloring to get that perfect Cookie Monster blue! I used Wilton tip 233 to make the fur. It wasn't difficult at all, but it took a lot longer than the big icing swirls I usually do on my cupcakes. I hadn't planned to put that much time into it!!

For the mouths, I bought some Chips Ahoy cookies and cut them in half. (I found that a sawing motion worked best and broke the least amount of cookies.) I tried to stick the cookies in at an angle, to make it look like Cookie Monster was actively chowing down on them. By the next day, most of them were still in place, but there were a couple that were lying flat.

I knew we would be rushing out the door to try to get to the mountains (and were a lot later than planned, because of the thawing and "fur" icing) so I bought store made icing for the eyes. In order to save myself an extra trip to Michael's, I bought a tube of  Betty Crocker white icing and a small tube of black decorating gel. The Betty Crocker icing is convenient because I can buy it at Publix along with the rest of my supplies, but it doesn't fit any of my Wilton tips. I had been planning to use a large round tip, like the Wilton 10, for the whites of the eyes, but I didn't have a Betty Crocker tip that size. I had to use a large star tip to pipe the eyes and then flatten them out with a wet decorator brush. This worked pretty well, but again, more time!! The black decorator gell worked really well for the pupils of the eyes, giving them a nice shiny effect.

We surprised my brother with the cupcakes, and his face lit up when he saw them. I think I even got a "That's awesome!"

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There's No Wrong Way to Eat a Cupcake

I saw this recipe for peanut butter icing on Wilton's website some time ago, and have been wanting to try it ever since. With my mom's birthday approaching, I decided it was the perfect opportunity.

I made my go-to chocolate cupcakes, Pilsbury devils food, with my standard extra egg. The icing recipe wasn't difficult to follow. The only hitch was that I thought I had some creamy peanut butter on hand from another recipe, but after I started mixing the icing, I discovered I only had Jiff extra crunchy in the pantry - typically the only kind of peanut butter I buy. Next time, I would try the recipe with the creamy peanut butter instead.

With this recipe, I was very thankful for my KitchenAid mixer. Before adding the milk, the icing was very thick, like a dry cookie dough. My mixer made quick work of the icing, but I wouldn't want to attempt it with a hand mixer.

For decorating, I tried to pick decorations that would match the brown and tan colors of chocolate and peanut butter, but still be fitting for my mom. I found some brown and blue toile cupcake wrappers and Michael's and some fun blue pearl-like sprinkles (that just so happened to be the same color as March's birthstone).

When it came time to pipe, the crunchy peanut butter came back to haunt me. I knew from past experience that icing containing nuts wouldn't be the easiest to pipe. (Tip - ever wonder why all the piping on German chocolate cakes is done with plain chocolate icing??) I used my Wilton 1M tip because it had the largest tip for nuts to pass through. I still had to use a toothpick several times to dislodge a nut that had gotten stuck.

Usually when I make icing for cupcakes, I make a batch and a half. This recipe had lots of ingredients in 1/3 quantities, and my measuring cups don't have any 1/6 marks. So in the interest of saving brainpower and not having to do any complicated math, I only made a single batch. I tried to pipe conservatively and not use too much icing, but I still ran out of icing on the last 2 cupcakes. I spread a thin layer on with a spatula and used those as taste testers. I wasn't going to stack these in my cupcake tree, so having a full batch to display wasn't an issue.

I have to say that I was very pleased with the results. The peanut butter icing was so creamy and tasty, it was kind of like the inside of a candy bar. Of all the cupcakes I have made, these are definitely near the top!

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Whoopie!

When I saw this blog post, I couldn't resist making these cute treats for Valentine's Day. I wanted to try something different, and I had never made whoopie pies before. They are all the rage lately, so I thought I would give it a shot.

The recipe was easy enough - some flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, buttermilk, and red food coloring. The instructions said not to mix the batter too much. I tried not to overdo it, but it did take a good bit of mixing to get the red food coloring incorporated evenly. Maybe that's why my pies turned out a little flat. For whatever reason, they weren't as light and fluffy as I had imagined.

The cream cheese filling got rave reviews. It didn't call for too much sugar, so it had more of a rich, creamy taste to it. Everyone who tried it said it was really good. ("The bomb-diggety" was the exact quote I received.)

The instructions for piping the pies call for using a heart shaped cookie cutter as a template. After searching my kitchen thoroughly, I couldn't find mine. I've used it many times (including several Valentine's past) but it seems to have disappeared this year. So in the interest of time, I had to pipe my hearts by hand. Which ended up in them being a little wonky... but still recognizable as hearts... Sadly, mine didn't look as pretty as the picture in the original blog, but I guess that didn't affect the taste.

I wish I had a picture to share, but they were all gobbled up before I had a chance to snap a shot!

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