Blessings-
LC
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
PB Pie
As I've said on here several times, I'm not really a pie kinda gal... or a peanut butter and chocolate kinda gal. However, I do aim to please my clients and friends for whom I bake! : ) Thus, I present to you a tasty (to most people) peanut butter pie. This is a perfect summer treat - you only bake the crust for 5 minutes or so and then no more oven! The filling is kind of like a no-bake peanut butter cheesecake, but not quite as rich. And because you store this pie in the refrigerator, it's the perfect cool ending to a sizzling backyard BBQ. I know we're heading into fall now, but I'm still hoping for a few more hot days before it's cold for good!
Blessings-
LC
Blessings-
LC
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Quake Cookies
As you probably heard, we had an earthquake here on the East Coast a couple weeks ago. Because of that, and potential damage to my office building, we were released about 2pm and told not to come back until they cleared the building - which happened to be the next day. The city was in chaos, and thankfully I live close enough to work that I was able to just walk home. But everything else was closed, and traffic was awful, so I was pretty much forced to stay at my house the rest of the day.
So what do you do when you're trapped at home? Bake cookies of course! I had been wanting to make cookies with Rolo's for a while (my favorite childhood candy), and I had also been wanting to try baking pretzel pieces into cookies (you know how much I love salty and sweet together!). So I started with my basic chocolate chip cookie recipe, but instead of chocolate chips, I added chopped Rolo's. After I had all the cookies ready to go on the sheet, I added some crushed pretzels to the top and then put them in the oven to bake into delicious morsels.
These are FAN-tastic. I can't tell you what a hit these were at the office the next day. There is something so nostalgic for me about Rolo's, and the pretzels were perfect to help offset all that sugar. I think I'll try adding pretzels to some of my other cookies and see how the flavor combination works. While I initially called these "quake cookies" because they were the result of being sent home early and bored from the earthquake, what I realized is that because of the chopped candies and crushed pretzels, these cookies actually kind of look like they were in an earthquake too! Clever I know... I made some cookies with pretzels, and some without. But the cookies with pretzels were by far my favorite!
Blessings-
LC
So what do you do when you're trapped at home? Bake cookies of course! I had been wanting to make cookies with Rolo's for a while (my favorite childhood candy), and I had also been wanting to try baking pretzel pieces into cookies (you know how much I love salty and sweet together!). So I started with my basic chocolate chip cookie recipe, but instead of chocolate chips, I added chopped Rolo's. After I had all the cookies ready to go on the sheet, I added some crushed pretzels to the top and then put them in the oven to bake into delicious morsels.
These are FAN-tastic. I can't tell you what a hit these were at the office the next day. There is something so nostalgic for me about Rolo's, and the pretzels were perfect to help offset all that sugar. I think I'll try adding pretzels to some of my other cookies and see how the flavor combination works. While I initially called these "quake cookies" because they were the result of being sent home early and bored from the earthquake, what I realized is that because of the chopped candies and crushed pretzels, these cookies actually kind of look like they were in an earthquake too! Clever I know... I made some cookies with pretzels, and some without. But the cookies with pretzels were by far my favorite!
Blessings-
LC
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Fun Fun
Since I started getting into baking a few years ago, I must admit I've become a little bit of a snob when it comes to prepackaged mixes or store-bought goodies. I've just learned to tell the difference between homemade goodness and that artificial stuff, and it's ruined me forever from convenience desserts!
Much to my chagrin, many of my girlfriends LOVE funfetti... for what reason I cannot tell you. I find the funfetti cake mixes sold at the store to be sickeningly artificially sweet. But, as a baker, I do aim to please.
So when one of my funfetti loving friends had a birthday, I decided to make my own - from scratch! My friend is also lactose intolerant so they are also dairy free (thanks to some Crisco and Lactaid "milk"). So if I'm gonna do funfetti, I'm gonna do it right, and I'm gonna do it like this.
Blessings-
LC
Much to my chagrin, many of my girlfriends LOVE funfetti... for what reason I cannot tell you. I find the funfetti cake mixes sold at the store to be sickeningly artificially sweet. But, as a baker, I do aim to please.
So when one of my funfetti loving friends had a birthday, I decided to make my own - from scratch! My friend is also lactose intolerant so they are also dairy free (thanks to some Crisco and Lactaid "milk"). So if I'm gonna do funfetti, I'm gonna do it right, and I'm gonna do it like this.
Blessings-
LC
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Gimme S'more
After all the fancy wedding cakes I've posted lately, I decided to bring it down a notch and give you something a little more down-home. A lot of the blogs I follow had all kinds of interesting s'mores recipes a few weeks back, so I decided to try my hand at some s'mores cookie bars.
I used cinnamon-flavored graham crackers for the bottom, and then made my special chocolate chip cookie recipe... added a little cinnamon to the batter... and stirred in lots of marshmallows and chocolate chips. Then I covered all the graham crackers with the cookie batter, and halfway through the baking, I added some more marshmallows and chopped Hershey bars on top - YUM.
To be honest, I like these a lot better than campfire s'mores! There's something about the cookie batter that just makes them sooooooooooooo much better! The graham crackers stay crunchy fresh out of the oven, but after a day or so, they soften up and add a different texture to the cookies. I've made these a couple times in the last few weeks, and they've been such a hit that I'm already getting requests to make them for parties and such! Plus, they just remind me of summer bonfires, and that's always a great feeling. : )
Blessings-
LC
I used cinnamon-flavored graham crackers for the bottom, and then made my special chocolate chip cookie recipe... added a little cinnamon to the batter... and stirred in lots of marshmallows and chocolate chips. Then I covered all the graham crackers with the cookie batter, and halfway through the baking, I added some more marshmallows and chopped Hershey bars on top - YUM.
To be honest, I like these a lot better than campfire s'mores! There's something about the cookie batter that just makes them sooooooooooooo much better! The graham crackers stay crunchy fresh out of the oven, but after a day or so, they soften up and add a different texture to the cookies. I've made these a couple times in the last few weeks, and they've been such a hit that I'm already getting requests to make them for parties and such! Plus, they just remind me of summer bonfires, and that's always a great feeling. : )
Blessings-
LC
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
4 of 4
It's here!!! At long last, the fourth and final wedding cake order I had this summer. If you'll remember, I had two wedding cakes in the same weekend a few weeks back, so my life was incredibly hectic. But everything turned out really great and I thought it was so beautiful.
The bottom and top layers of the cake were chocolate, and the middle layer was lemon. Because I'm friends with the bride and groom, I got to attend their beautiful wedding and actually eat the wedding cake that I had made - which is a rare occurrence. (And if I do say so myself, it was delicious - of course) The cake was so beautiful and classic and fit the decor of the wedding reception so well. I just loved it!
I don't have any other wedding cakes on the docket right now, so it'll be back to baking-as-usual for a while.
Blessings-
LC
The bottom and top layers of the cake were chocolate, and the middle layer was lemon. Because I'm friends with the bride and groom, I got to attend their beautiful wedding and actually eat the wedding cake that I had made - which is a rare occurrence. (And if I do say so myself, it was delicious - of course) The cake was so beautiful and classic and fit the decor of the wedding reception so well. I just loved it!
I don't have any other wedding cakes on the docket right now, so it'll be back to baking-as-usual for a while.
LC
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
3 of 4
So remember this and this? Well, I have now completed all my wedding cake orders for the summer, and I've still got one more to share after the post today. Wedding cakes 3 and 4 were both for the same weekend, so it was a little stressful for this gal who also has a full-time job on top of my little hobby. But they both went off splendidly and I was so pleased with both cakes!
This was a three tier lemon cake for about 100 guests. The wedding colors were yellow and blue, so the cake went really well with the colors. What I loved the most was the venue! When I delivered the cake, there were large white pillars outside the reception hall, and the room itself had golden yellow walls with beautiful white molding. So the cake looked even better in the room than I had thought... the pillars between the layers matched the architecture of the building, and the blueberries and lemons matched the walls and table decorations. I was really happy with how everything turned out! Cake 4 of 4 is coming soon.... : )
Blessings-
LC
This was a three tier lemon cake for about 100 guests. The wedding colors were yellow and blue, so the cake went really well with the colors. What I loved the most was the venue! When I delivered the cake, there were large white pillars outside the reception hall, and the room itself had golden yellow walls with beautiful white molding. So the cake looked even better in the room than I had thought... the pillars between the layers matched the architecture of the building, and the blueberries and lemons matched the walls and table decorations. I was really happy with how everything turned out! Cake 4 of 4 is coming soon.... : )
LC
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Baby Boy Brewer
Remember this wedding cake I made last summer? Well it's hard to believe, but my sweet former roommate is pregnant! She and her wonderful husband are expecting their first little boy in a few weeks, just over a year after they were married.
So naturally, some of our lady friends had to throw a baby shower for Baby Boy Brewer. I made "blue velvet" cupcakes in cute little ducky wrappers. What is blue velvet you might ask? Well... it's a traditional red velvet cake - except I used blue food coloring instead of red! I thought it was pretty clever and they were a hit with all the ladies at the shower. Now we just have to wait a few more weeks to meet the little fellow.
Blessings-
LC
So naturally, some of our lady friends had to throw a baby shower for Baby Boy Brewer. I made "blue velvet" cupcakes in cute little ducky wrappers. What is blue velvet you might ask? Well... it's a traditional red velvet cake - except I used blue food coloring instead of red! I thought it was pretty clever and they were a hit with all the ladies at the shower. Now we just have to wait a few more weeks to meet the little fellow.
Blessings-
LC
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