My New Caddy! (No, I Don't Golf)

 I hate having all of my baking stuff just tossed in a random kitchen drawer (always a pain when looking for something, especially my frosting tips) so I picked up the Wilton Tool Caddy.  It's perfect! Holds up to 48 tips, and 12 jars (icing colors, luster dusts, etc.) and all of my miscellaneous items.  Best part is, as everyone knows, I never pay full price for anything at Michael's.  I picked this baby up with a coupon and ended up paying $15 for it! (reg. price $25.99).

Here is it, filled with most of my stuff.  I'm still "stocking up" and buying things little by little (hey, it can get pricey). So far it's the perfect size and I LOVE how it's all in one place now!  Side note - It's too plain,  I need to personalize it somehow.

Pretty in Pink - Chocolate Fudge w/ Raspberry Buttercream

Last night Mr. Sweet Toof asked about raspberry buttercream frosting.  I have yet to work with fresh fruit in my icing so I thought, what the heck, let's give it a shot.

I made chocolate cupcakes with a raspberry buttercream and it can't out pretty good.  ( He said these were better than my Snickerdoodle cupcakes! )

They came out ok. Reason I said "ok" is the cake was yummy, very chocolate-y, but I wasn't completely satisfied with the raspberry buttercream HOWEVER, I found my mistake. I used frozen raspberries instead of "fresh".  The consistency wasn't as "thick" and it should've been, but that explains it since using frozen berries contains more water.  So here are my recipes for both the cupcakes and buttercream.  Remember use FRESH (not frozen) and you should be fine.  The taste was still fab :)

Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes (makes 12)

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup all-purpose
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cups (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter room temp
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream

Raspberry Buttercream Frosting (makes about 2 cups)

1/2 cup butter softened
1/2 cup FRESH (not frozen) raspberries
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
16 oz powdered sugar

Fresh out of the oven.....mmm can you smell it?

Tadah!!! So Pink!

Toy Story Fun!

So when I realized my nephew's 4th birthday was coming up, I knew I wanted to make a fun cake for him.
His party theme was Toy Story! (seems to be a popular choice this summer).  I was so excited to make this and couldn't wait to get started.  I decided on my nephew's favorite flavor, chocolate! or as he calls it "choc-lick" haha (what kid doesn't want a chocolate cake right?) I used a vanilla buttercream filling and covered it in marshmallow fondant. First tier was 3 layers, second tier was 2.  All chocolate goodness.

Here's the final product!

I bought little Toy Story figurines and placed them around the cake (the little army men climbing the cake are my fav!) I found candy icings,  placed a couple on the cake,  added a Buzz Lightyear candle and tadahhhh.....all done!

We also had cupcakes for the kiddos.  I topped them with buttercream, added sprinkles and topped it with candy icing. So cute!

Sugar Cookie Time!

Made some cookies with the kids today with the new cut outs I bought.
Fun!

The kids had fun frosting the sugar cookies.  These cut outs are super easy to use! Can't wait to try them out on my fondant.

My New Apron!

Checking my mail I found a little package addressed to me.  Hmmmm...what could it be? I didn't order anything recently?

I opened it up and it was the cutest gift!!!

The apron came with a little note "Happy Baking" from my friend Wendi.  I absolutely love this pattern, in fact I mentioned it in a recent post about fancy baking cups. 

I also recently realized that I didn't have an apron (my clothes will thank you Wendi haha). I LOVE damask!!

It's so cute, I don't want to get it dirty :)  

Red Velvet Love

Tonight I made a cake simply "for the sake of eating" as  sweet tooF put it.  He said "this one doesn't have all that crazy fondant on it, it's just to eat" haha.

Well he is right.  As he reminded me yesterday, he ate the last cupcake (aka we ran out of baked goods) and it was his way of saying "more please".

So tonight I made a Red Velvet cake, Buttercream filling, and Whipped Cream icing.  This was the first time I made homemade whipped cream.  It was SO easy! (and yummmmm-o)  I know the "classic" red velvet is covered with cream cheese frosting but I really wasn't in the mood for anything heavy.  The whipped cream was so light and fluffy and best part, it was so easy to make!

Here's the recipe:

2 Cups Heavy Whipping Cream
1/2 Cup Powder Sugar
2 Tbsp Vanilla

That's it! Oh and here's a secret - for good consistency, chill your mixing bowl and your beater in the freezer or 10 minutes before making it.  Something about the cold helps.

Anyway, enough of the blah blah blah... here it the cake!

Mixing up the whipped cream

All done! Nothing fancy. Just a "cake for eating" LOL

Cookie Cutters Galore!

I picked these up today! Wilton's 101 Cookie Cutters.  Shapes for every occasion (and popular shapes).  This will come in handy when making fondant cut outs. Best part? It was less than $10 :) Can you say bargain?

Retro Birdie

How cute is this?

I want to make a cake just so I can slap one of these lil' guys on it.

The Many Faces of Buttercream

Growing up our family got ALL of our cakes from these Japanese bakery, Ishigo Bakery.  Their buttercream was TO DIE FOR.  It wasn't too sweet (I actually don't have much of a sweet tooF believe it or not) creamy, buttery, aaaaahhhh pure heaven.  Sadly, the bakery closed in the early 2000's and heaven buttercream is no more. Even after I moved out to Orange County, I would drive the 30 mins down to the South Bay to pick up a cake from this place.  It brings back sweet childhood memories of my dad taking us to pick up a cupcake or a little "cake square" as a treat.

Ok so anyway, I'm on the hunt for the perfect buttercream.  Now, what I consider perfect and what people like Mr. Sweet TooF finds perfect is obviously different. He loves frosting that tastes like pure sugar, I on the other hand, well not so much.  So I'm trying to find a happy medium.  I've tried about 3 different recipes so far and I have yet to find one I can say "this is the recipe I will always use!" There are SO many types of buttercream, different recipes and everyone swears theirs is the best.  Well prove it people!

I'd love to find one that doesn't use shortening as those tend to taste "greasy" to me and the fact that I know I'm eating a huge wad of lard (ok I know it's not lard but you know what I mean) just doesn't sound appealing to me.  The search continues....oh and if you know of a good one, feel free to send it over!

Baking Cups Oh La La!

I think I have a flourish and a damask fetish. I LOVE anything with those designs.
So guess what I ran into the other day??? These beauties!

Can you say A-DORABLE!!

I can totally imagine using those to "dress up" my cupcakes!  No need for fancy sprinkles, pearls or any of those things when your cupcake has it's pretty little dress on :)

I've also seen these which I think are pretty fancy schmancy. These would be good for something like a wedding, or a nice shower.

and these if you like to take a walk on the wild side grrrrroowwl (yes that was my impression of a tiger)

                                          

The Swirl or The "Poop"?

Topping a cupcake can be fun.  You have SO many options - flavors/types of icing, sprinkles, sugar, candy hearts, coconut, chocolate shavings, etc... the list goes on and on.  The one option that is my favorite is the type of tip you use to ice the cupcake.  There are several different tips that you can use that will create tons of different styles.  Here are some examples:

To get the smooth look of the green cupcake above, you need to use a large round frosting tip (try a number 1A or 2A).
To get the swirled looks of the purple and pink cupcakes above, you need to use a large closed or open star tip (try a number 1M or 1C).
One thing to note - if you're using sprinkles they often adhere better to the swirled frosting as they can settle between the swirls. If you're using cupcake toppers then I like the smooth frosting look.

I think my fav overall so far is using the 1M (like the purple cupcake). 
One thing I have noticed is a lot of bakers I see on TV and cupcake shops that carry "fancier" cakes use the 1A (like the green cupcake), but for some reason it looks like poop to me! haha. 

Another method I've seen a lot lately (which someone recently called "couture style") is not frosting all the way to the corners of the cake like this:

I don't think I really like that, not sure. Looks kinda naked dontcha think?

Playing with the different tips is certainly fun and you can create some neat designs (if you have the patience) so have at it!

Again, how does this NOT look like poop? heehee....

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes? Done! Banana Bread? Done!

So I couldn't decide which to make, so what did I do? I made both (are you surprised haha).

First I made the banana bread.  This was fun to make.  We usually use a bread maker to make our breads so this was the first time I was baking one from scratch using the oven.

Here is the recipe:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas

Here's the batter at work in the mixer

Ready to go in the oven!

and the final product

It's delicious!!! It came out just a tad darker than I'd like so next time I'll probably tweak the temp/cooking time but regardless, it's yum!! I'm sticking to this recipe.  I would've added walnuts but hubby hates walnuts...boooo..

Ok on so the Snickerdoodle Cupcakes! These are a take off the famous Snickerdoodle cookies which are sugar buttery cookies rolled in cinnamon. YUM!

Here's the recipe:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cake flour (not self- rising), sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon, plus 1/2 teaspoon for dusting
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar, plus 2 tablespoons for dusting
4 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups milk

They filled the cups nicely

All done!!!

I iced them with a new buttercream recipe I found and sprinkled them with the Sugar N' Cinnamon I found today.  The cake was so deelish! Love the cinnamon kick.  Mr. Sweet TooF ate 3, YES THREE, in a row. I guess they're good haha.

I'm freaking EXHAUSTED.  I'm done baking for the week....or am I? haha. 

I Love the Dollar Tree!

I headed over to the Dollar Tree today (one of my fav stores ever) and I picked up some goodies.
I love these polka dot pot holders! and as I was browsing the spices aisle, I ran into THIS gem! C&H Sugar N' Cinnamon. SCORE. This will be perfect for my Snickerdoodle cupcakes!!  Little things like this makes Sweet B a happy little girl :)

Sweet TooF Baked!

This morning our house was filled with a yummy breakfast aroma.
Hubs decided to bake us breakfast! (He's an awesome cook).

This morning was his Bacon & Egg Quiche.
Recipe:

8 strips bacon, cooked & crumbled
1 1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. Bisquick
3 eggs, beaten
1/4 c. butter, melted
1 c. Cheddar cheese

It was super yummy, light and fluffy!

Yummy breakfast hun!!

Project 52?

If you're a photographer, you probably know about "Project 365".  Every single day for a year, a photographer takes a picture and adds it to his/her project list.... for a entire year, that's a commitment.  So this inspired me. Of course there is NO way I'm going to bake every single day a year (and that Julie and Julia chic was absolutely crazy).  What I will try is my own project, "Project 52".

I will attempt to bake something different every weekend, that's only once a week..not bad right? (let's see how long this lasts ha)

I'll start this weekend and I'll be sure to post recipes and pics of all the goodies I make!

   

Bake Crazy

I've been going nutso looking up tons of recipes and want to make EVERYTHING. Is this bad? haha I still have leftover cupcakes.  Hubby is not complaining but I think I need to start giving some of this stuff away.

I've been looking forward to making another fondant cake.  My nephew's birthday is in a couple of weeks and his these is Toy Story! I'm going to attempt a Toy Story cake, I'm so excited to make it.

Ok, so what do I want to make now? I've got some great recipes for banana bread, snickerdoodle cupcakes (these look YUM) and red velvet cake. Not sure which I want to make, and if it were up to the hubs, he'd say all 3 ha!

I'm also looking into picking up some more supplies this weekend at Michael's with my awesome 50% off an item coupon. I never pay full price at that place. They always have coupons. Sometimes I'll make sweet tooF go with me so we can use TWO coupons.  It's awesome.

So here is one items I need to pick up:

2 tiered cupcake carrier!

I have the cake carrier which is great for storing and taking your cake places.  I make a lot of cupcakes so this will def come in handy.

So back to the baking. What should I make??? Banana bread sounds so yummy, but I love decorating cakes/cupcakes.  Hmmm, dare I make all 3?  Stay tuned...

Damn You Cookie Sheet!

I was on a baking roll and decided to make homemade chocolate chip cookies today.
Here's the recipe I made:

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons hot water
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

For the most part they came out yummy, EXCEPT, I bought a new cookie sheet and the cookies I made on that sheet (I was using 2 different sheets) burned on the bottom! hmmmph! Initially I thought I had put them in too long, but then realized that they were still black on the bottom. WTH? The others were fine, yet the batches on the new sheet were caca.  I think the new sheet I bought is a piece of crap. Too thin maybe?
I wonder if next time I layer it with foil if it will help.

I didn't get a chance to take any pics because I was so disappointed. The ones that were not burnt came out pretty yummy and the hubs has no problem eating about 6 cookies in 1 minute....so is that a compliment? ha.

I'm going to have to bake these again and see if covering the pan makes a difference.
Anyone have good advice for this (aside from "just throw the sheet away"), I'll take it :)