Baking For A Cause

On Friday March 11, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit Japan unleashing a tsunami which crashed through Japan's eastern coastline sweeping buildings, cars, homes, boats, and people for miles inland.  In efforts to support the recent tragedy, I have donated my baked goods to a Japan Disaster Relief Fundraiser.  All proceeds will go to the American Red Cross . 

I baked up Red Velvet cupcakes, Cookies n Cream cupcakes, and brownies.  There were some yummy Snickerdoodle cookies and Peanut Butter cookies too!

Take a peek (sorry for the bad quality = cell phone pics).

You too can donate!  Please visit http://www.redcross.org/ to make a donation that will help those that have lost their homes, family members, and are living in shelters without basic living needs.

L.O.V.E.

Ahhh yes Valentine's Day.  The day when you shower your loved one with goodies.  Some say it's a "Hallmark" holiday, I say it's another reason to bake (as if I really needed one).  It's also a day to get flowers delivered to your work so that you can make your co-workers jealous.  haha what? did I say that? :)

Valentine's Day is just around the corner and while millions of men run out last minute to buy their sweetheart something special, I'll be in the kitchen baking up some yummy treats. There are endless goodies one can make and I know these days most people are looking for the most economical (aka cheapest) and easiest treats to whip up. In fact, ATTENTION MEN! You can bake this stuff too!! AND homemade is MUCH more romantic than picking up a cake at the good ol' grocery store (plus their frosting/icing is usually g.r.o.s.s.). Wow her with your baking skills! or if you have kiddos, you guys can make these together.

Check out these fun/easy (and of course yummy) ideas for treats!

ahhh yes the simple red velvet cupcake. This is the most popular cake requested on Valentine's day (duh, it's red!). Slap some cream cheese frosting on this puppy, sprinkle some red sugar and done! Make anyone's heart (and mouth) melt.

Cookies! Anyone can make these, from the little kiddos to the big guys.  The funnest part? Decorating them of course. The possibilties are endless!! Serve them on a pretty platter or wrap them up with a nice ribbon.  Everyone loves cooooookies!

These are similar to the whoopie pies I just made. VERY easy to make. Buy a kit, follow directions and BAM, red whoopie pies (they are deelish!)

These are America's favorite treat (ok maybe I made that up but it sounds true right? Just go with it). People have been making Rice Krispie Treats for decades and this is a good one if you want the little boogars to participate. They are sticky and fun...and what kid doesn't like a sticky mess.

and last, if you have zero baking skills but have the ability to buy a cute little jar like this one (find one at your local Michael's, WalMart, JoAnn's) buy some brownie bites (although they are seriously easy to make but buy if you must) fill them up in a jar and wrap some decorative ribbon around it for a homemade (almost) treat like this!

Ok don't say I didn't try to help out.  These are fab ideas that would make anyone's day, wife, mom, sister, grandma, aunt, girlfriend, co-worker, secret admirer, stalker (well it may piss your stalker off but you get my point).

Hurry up you've got 5 days left!

Laces OUT!

In honor of the Super Bowl I whipped up some goodies.  Nothing too fancy but I had an idea to make these little guys and look how cute they turned out!  I made chocolate fudge cupcakes and snickerdoodle cupcakes.

I used the "grass tip" with green buttercream for the grass, mini pretzels for the field goal posts, and Milk Duds for the footballs (painted the laces with white gel icing). I made little toppers with the Green Bay and Steelers logos.

I had the itch to make a cake too so I made a 3 layered cinnamon buttercream cake.  I dusted the top with cinnamon sugar and made the football out of gum paste.  Not sure why I used yellow icing, it was the first color I grabbed.

Congrats to the Green Bay Packers! (glad football is over, I'm not a fan lol) 

Makin' Whoopie

The other night I wanted to make something quick and different.  For Christmas I was given some yummy baking goods and I wanted to put some to use.  One of the fab gifts I received was a kit that included a Whoopie Pie kit!  Now, I've never made Whoopie Pie so I was looking forward to this new adventure (oh that and sweet tooF kept dropping hints about me makin' them).

I threw the damn box away so I don't remember the brand of the kit (and yes it was a kit. Sometimes I take the quick and dirty route, a box kit "GASP" I know).

Needless to say they came out yummy!

I used a regular baking sheet to get them started:

bake for approx 7 minutes and done!

while cooling, I whipped up the filling which is a typical buttercream frosting
and all done!!

The ingredients were easy, just add water, oil, butter, and eggs to the batter mix.  Then milk and powdered sugar to the frosting mix.

If you're ever in the mood to make whoopie, and who isn't right?!, these puppies took a total of 15-20 minutes to make! Easy peasy. Oh and apparently sweet tooF liked them as he ate THREE in a row.  I promise you folks, he does not weight 300lbs.

Cake Pops Super Bowl Style

The Super Bowl is this weekend and I've been itching to make some goodies.  While doing some research I ran across these little guys, how freakin' adorable!!!

Cute right?  I'm thinking maybe these or football cupcakes. Something easy peasy. We'll see! ...and of course I'll post pics :)

Holy Cannoli!

If there's one dessert that sweet tooF absolutely loves it's the cannoli.  Cannoli are Sicilian pastry desserts, tube-shaped shells of fried pastry dough filled with sweet creamy filling usually containing ricotta cheese and chopped succade.  YUM!!!  Check out these beauties:

Serious sugar coma (ha!)  I'd love to make my own one day so I'm on the hunt for a good recipe.  If you have one please share!!! sweet tooF will thank you!  :)
As they said in The Godfather "Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli"