Blog Love - Part Deux!

And in other news...

Some friends and I were baking around the holidays, got a little high off the sugar, and started using a cookie press to ice cupcakes. It started out as a joke... but got picked up by Cupcakes Take the Cake.



Check out Sarah's Cuppitycakes Cupcakery blog. She's a bonefide professional cupcake maker. Jealous? I am!



Also, some of my wedding photos got picked up over at Bride Tide. Apparently, I was on to something with the plaid wedding dress. Who would have known? I'd like to take credit for being a trendy bride, but really my dress designer found the fabric on the clearance table for $2 a yard. We both liked it and went for it since she needed a bazillion yards to make the skirt.

Girl's Night Skinny Dip

I went to a "girl's night" slumber party at my gay boyfriend & his husband's house on Saturday. Matt asked me what we do on these girl's nights. I told him, "Stereotypical stuff. Drink margaritas, eat a ton of garbage that we shouldn't eat, talk smack (kidding), watch chick flicks, etc."

And we did. They made margarita's with sherbet (YUMM!) and some crazy good stuffed jalapenos. We sat outside and talked for four hours. Then, we watched First Wives Club, possibly the best grown-up chick movie ever. I love it so much that I forgive Diane Keaton for her inability to be anyone besides Annie Hall in it.

My contribution to girl's night was a bean dip that I made up, sort of a four layer bean dip. The boys are dieting in preparation for a trip to Miami so I tried to bring something half-way slimming to the fatty-fat-fat buffet table. Ignore the fact that is was eaten on chips...

Four Layer Skinny Dip
*no picture exists because it was devoured like crack*

1 can of fat free refried beans (I think I used Ortega)
1 to 1 1/2 cups of low fat or fat free sour cream
1 packet of taco seasoning
1 cup pico de gallo (1 large tomato, 1/4 white onion, fresh cilantro, lime, jalapeno, salt)
1 avocado

Spread the can of refried beans into the bottom of a dish. (I used an 8x8 dish.) Mix the sour cream and 1/2 of the pack of taco seasoning together, spread over the beans. Next spread the pico de gallo over the sour cream - be sure to leave out about 2 tbsp. Mash up the avocado with the leftover pico de gallo to make guacamole. Drop the glob of guacamole in the middle of the dish and you're done! (Instead of regular chips, you could serve it with baked tortilla chip or pita bread.)

Then, I negated my efforts by making dark chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter filling.



It was so very worth it though. I planned on doing a three mile run on Sunday so I made sure to eat one for every mile.

Holy Cakes

I saw these cakes on a commercial for Cake Boss and I about freaked. I thought they were so cute. I wanted to show them to Jen since we're new cake decorating (mess making) buddies. I saw them again the other night on an episode that I DVRed so I paused it, rewound it, went forwards because I rewound too far, slow-moed until just the right second, paused it, and then took a picture.



That took about ten minutes longer than it should have. But I got that highly technical picture out of the deal so it was a success.

Fondant - Round 1

Jen and my first attempt at fondant:





Not too bad. Right? It turned out cute. The shape is a little wacky. The layers didn't bake up as high as I thought they would, so the cake is a little bit dome shaped. It got sent to a daycare with Jen's sister. Word is that the daycare ladies really liked it and shock of all shocks, asked if we can do birthday cakes.

I'm seeing a business opportunity here... I mean, how much would you pay for that cake?

$40?

$80?

$3.99?

Not so Lazy Tuesday

I think if the range could go on strike if would have last night. I made baked mac and cheese, boiled some eggs, baked a couple layers of chocolate cake and monkey bread. I cooked from 6:00-9:45, only taking a break to go to my parents' house to pick up a spring-form pan.

A little aside here... I understand that when you buy a package of spring-form pans, you get three different sizes. That makes sense. But it's also inconvenient when trying to make a layer cake because the layers won't match. You either have to cut the extra inch off the bigger layer OR buy two sets of the same size pans. Instead of packages of three they should be sold in packages of six.

Ok. Moving on.

Tonight Jen and I are going to use the cake to practice our fondant skills. My big mouth got me stuck making an "Ace of Cakes" style birthday cake for my friend in July. Needless to say, that is something that I am in no way qualified to do. It's going to take a little bit of practice.

Step One - Learn how to use fondant.

Step Two - Learn how to make fondant because OMG, that garbage is expensive.

Monday Recipe: Fake Baking!

As far as I know, I created this recipe. It tasted a little familiar though. So, unless someone comes forth to claim it, I'm saying I made it up. Complete bonus for it being easy peasy.

No-bake Peanut Butter Cheesecake



Beat 2 tbsp (room temp) unsalted butter until fluffy. Then add 1 cup peanut butter. Then beat in about 2 tbsp powdered sugar. Once that's mixed and creamy, beat in an 8 oz. package of cream cheese.

If you're like me, you could just eat that straight out of the bowl. But, it gets better.

Fold in half a tub of Cool Whip. Pour cheesecake mix into a pre-made graham cracker crust. Voila! Cheesecake.

I then topped mine with the chocolate ganache from this recipe.



You might want to spread your cheesecake out a little more evenly than I did...

Word of advice for this recipe! It's almost easier to make two pies with this. Just double the peanut butter, butter and powdered sugar ingredients. (And obviously buy a second crust.) Otherwise, you'll end up with half a tub of Cool Whip and about a cup of ganache left over. I don't know about you, but I'd rather have two pies than a fridge full of halves.

Enjoy!

Chocolatey Chippy Goodness

I finally found a reason to make the chocolate chip cookie brownies I found on Bakerella's blog. I took them to a work luncheon thing, a place where they were guaranteed to get eaten. (Not all by me.)



Notice how my cookies are suspiciously square shaped? I went the easiest route possible and used the ready-made dough from the store. They worked just fine. Seriously, these things are so good, I could have stuck an old shoe in there and no one would have noticed.



I meant to top it off with a batch of the chocolate icing I put on the tasty cakes, but I was kind of frazzled that night and forgot the ingredients for it while I was at the grocery store. I did however buy a six pack of beer while I was there and had to stop myself from cracking it open in the parking lot. (I slammed two when I got home and ended up making brownies drunk. Oops.)

Luckily, I had a container of Betty Crocker whipped vanilla frosting at home so I just used that. Oh. Damn. Was that the best mistake ever or what. That stuff tastes like the frosting in Oatmeal Creme Pies. I highly recommend it for anything. Cookies, cakes, straight out of the tub with a spoon.

Happy Cupcake Day

Happy day after Valentine's!



I celebrated my Sunday by shopping the clearance V-Day rack at Target (I bought a pair of cupcake pj pants for $3.49!) and buying some of the new Orla Kiely collection. (Including that table cloth.)

Sunday is family day around these parts. It was our turn to host, so we had some of Matt's family/people-who-are-essentially-family over for brunch today. I've figured out that the best time to bake something is when company is coming over. Then, I can send all the leftovers home with other people and avoid eating them myself at 11:00 at night when I'm bored and watching the DVR, thus slowing down the amount of time its going to take for my ass to inevitably get fat from baked goods.

Today I baked what is known as a tasty cake. Real "Tasty Kakes" are these gross little packaged cupcakes that Matt used to eat as a kid when he lived in Delaware. I've tried one and they're bad. Really bad. The idea is good - a piece of cake covered in peanut butter and chocolate - but the execution fails terribly. Over the last few years I've created my own tasty cakes. They started out as a boxed cake mix slathered with peanut butter and dropped into chocolate bark.

I've upped the ante since then.



Here's the most recent incarnation:

The cake is from Bakerella's yellow cake recipe. I piped in a peanut butter cream filling made of:

1 cup peanut butter
3 tbsp unsalted butter
2/3 cup powdered sugar

(Mix together peanut butter and room temperature butter. Sift in powdered sugar and mix until creamy.)

And topped it with a chocolate icing made with 1 cup of heavy cream and 8 oz. of chopped up Ghirardelli's semi-sweet chocolate.

(Bring cream to a simmer. Remove from heat and drop in chocolate. Let sit for 5 minutes then stir with a whisk until blended. You can let it sit for a few minutes if you want it to thicken up.)

I only bought the Ghirardelli's because the store was sold out of the cheap stuff. It ended up being delicious though.



I'm still not great at making my baked goods look pretty. I put too much batter into each cupcake liner, so they sort of exploded all over the place when they baked. All the tops broke off when I took them out of the pan. Plus, I'm doing something wrong when I make Bakerella's yellow cake. Mine always ends up sunken in instead of puffed out.

And then the chocolate was a complete mess.

Guess I shouldn't have stopped taking those pastry classes.

Bargain!

Obviously they were on sale and I couldn't pass them up.



79 cents a package! I couldn't believe it! I'm all stocked up now in case there's some sort of worldwide almond bark shortage.

Five Alarm Lessons

I was getting my bake on Wednesday night and I found out the hard way that the recommendation to put a cookie sheet under a spring form pan is really more than a recommendation. It's a necessity. Never before have I had a spring form leak before, but it did just that. I'd also never set the fire alarm off from baking before that night.

Getting My Bake On

My sister's baby shower was yesterday. I volunteered to bake for the occasion, and when I volunteer for such a task I deliver. And the only other person I know who likes to bake with the same ferocity as me is my mom, so I called her in to help. Cat's only request was a pumpkin cheesecake. Pumpkin cheesecake is possibly the most delicious thing on the planet, but some people don't get down with pumpkin. So, I also baked a yellow cake and made some little cupcake bites.

The yellow cake was freaking delicious. I think I ate half of it in batter form before it found it's way to the pan. I used Bakeralla's moist yellow cake recipe. Ugh. It was so good. However... There was one major problem with it. I made three layers but only had two layer cake pans. I put the third layer in a spring form pan. When I tried to take the two layers out of the laying pans, they fell apart into a huge, delicious, crumbly mess. The spring form layer came out perfectly. So, if you're like me and you're not exactly skilled at removing things from tricky pans without wrecking them, you might want to opt for spring forms if you try out that recipe. I'm definitely investing in a couple more so I have them on hand.

When I got around to the cheesecake, my arm was so tired from making the yellow cake (lots of holding up a hand mixer) that I finally felt compelled to pull out the stand mixer we got for a wedding gift. I don't know what is wrong with me. I should have pulled out that baby months ago because it makes baking soooo much easier. It takes care of all the hard work!

I am in love.



I've made lots of pumpkin cheesecakes in the last few years, and I've never been 100% satisfied with them. They're always good, but never as good as I'd hoped. They're not "Cheesecake Factory" good. (I would murder for a slice of their carrot cake cheesecake.) I switched it up and tried this recipe. It. Was. Yummy. Much recommended. Next time I make it though, I'm doubling the recipe because I like my cheesecake really thick. This one was a little thin.

Last was making the cupcake bites. Again, I used a Bakerella post for these. Take a look at hers, and then check out mine.



Looks aside, they were really yummy.

In total, we spent five hours baking and had a cheesecake, 1/3 of a layer cake and sort of jacked looking cake bites to show for it.



Not exactly time well spent. I had to stop at the grocery store on the way to the shower and pick up a cake to stand in for the one that fell apart. I grabbed a German chocolate cake since white grocery store bakery cakes are horrible, horrible things. At the end of the shower only one piece had been eaten out of it and the cheesecake was completely gone. Cat's husband loves German choco though so she gladly took it home to him.

I didn't want the yellow cake to go to waste since it was so good, so I repurposed it into more cake bites for a birthday party last night. I mashed it up with cream cheese frosting and graham crackers then dipped it into chocolate bark. They were soooo tasty.

Thursday. Too bad you're not Friday.

Something cool happened today. Elisabeth of the Pink Owl Scarf asked me today if I wanted to make a bunch of scarves for a small retail space for handmade/rockin goods. Who's going to say no to that? Not this girl.

So that's on the agenda. Also, my 21 day process notecards have already shipped. Bastards. I knew the rush charges were a scam. I ordered some awesome bright yellow envelopes for them so hopefully I can put those in the store soon so I can become a millionaire, $1.99 at a time.

Moses Prey had a rehearsal at the house tonight. I'm thinking it might be worth the money to invest in some sound proofing for the basement. Lots of folks came over so I played Hostess for the night and provided lots of snack food - including the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever made. Unfortunately, I'm now suffering post pig-out. I swear I will never break a bone even when I'm 90 because of all the Tums I consume. Horrible, awful acid problems? Yes. Broken hip? No.

Oh yeah, and our wedding photos are done and online but the login code they gave me doesn't work so I still can't see them.

Sweet.

Don't forget to see this on Saturday if you're not busy:

Monday Morning

Monday mornings are nearly unbearable these days. The excitement of the wedding and honeymoon have passed and there's little to look forward to to help pass the time. So, I am now blogging aimlessly to waste time until lunch.

I got quite a bit of stuff done on my list this weekend, considering I couldn't walk on Sunday. Running a half marathon without training equals massive, massive pain. But oh the glory...

Left to do:

01. Call Cox and get a new cable box, cancel crazy expensive Stars channels
02. Get Matt new tires (awesome car-savvy bro-in-law is helping us with this)
03. Finish hanging the pile of curtains I bought (Involves power tools, a job for my manly husband)
04. Mop the whole house
05. Finish unboxing wedding gifts, find everything a home in the kitchen

I've found that staying in on Friday night is a good way to get things done off of my list, and it frees up Saturday and Sunday for slacking. Bonus points for still getting to drink at home while I do house work! I got laundry done and cleaned up the kitchen. I also baked some awesome cookies and cooked myself some terrible tacos. Even Taco Bell would have been a tastier and more authentic Mexican meal.



I also wanted to stay home Friday night to watch the presidential debate. Then, Matt got off work and we went for a quick drink later on. One thing I don't miss about San Francisco is how expensive drinks are. I think I paid $10 for an Absolute and cranberry in SF. I'm more than happy to be back at our neighborhood bar where a Boulevard and a Grey Goose costs $7.75.