Who Doesn't Love Presents You Can Eat?

I love the idea of holiday baking - pouring all of my heart and soul into something delicious to be enjoyed by my family and friends as they gather to celebrate. Notice I said the IDEA of baking. In reality, recipes that have more than 6 ingredients make me all nervous and twitchy and then I run screaming from the kitchen. To overcome this I have collected several stupidly simple recipes over the years. I prefer things that are off the beaten path, a breath of fresh air amid a sea of cookies and cupcakes. Here's a few of the staples that get me, sanely, through the holidays.

SEASONED OYSTER CRACKERS

Ingredients:

1 bag (12-16 ounces) oyster crackers

1 pack Ranch Dressing Powder

1/4 t lemon pepper

1/4 t garlic powder

3/4 t dill weed

3/4 C oil

Steps:

- Mix ranch and oil, then add other spices.

- Pour over crackers, stir and spread in a casserole dish.

- Bake at 250 degrees for 15-20 minutes, stirring periodically.

- If you choose to double this recipe, just bake for 10-15 extra minutes.

WINTER BARK

Ingredients:
3/4 C dried cranberries or cherries
3/4 C natural almonds, broken into pieces*
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate (2 C)
8 ounces white chocolate (1 1/3 C)
*I prefer sliced almonds because they don't require breaking, and they're easier to bite into

Steps:
- In small bowl combine almonds and fruit, set aside.
- Melt semi-sweet chocolate and white chocolate separately, according to package directions.
- Stir slightly more than half of almond mixture into semi-sweet chocolate. Spread chocolate mixture to about 1/4 thick on a large ungreased cookie sheet.
- Drop white chocolate by tablespoons onto chocolate mixture. With tip of a knife, swirl chocolates for a marbled look.
- Sprinkle with remaining almond mixture.

Bon Appetit!

Cupcakes

cupcakes

What's one of the best things about being unemployed? You can make cupcakes on a Tuesday afternoon. Don't worry, I'm still looking for a job, I just like to point out the bright side. Silver linings, people.

Can I just say how much I love this cake stand. Love. It.

They're just yellow cake (from a box) and butter cream frosting (from a can) but they are very tasty. It doesn't matter whether or not I made them from scratch, my kitchen still smells amazing, i.e. like cake. You know how candle companies make candles that smell like pie or frosting? They're for fatties like me.

CUPCAKES!

Also, how precious are these cupcake liners? I snagged them during a random trip to Michael's and they were $2 for 75 liners. Not too shabby for something as cute as that. Confession: the only reason I bought a cake mix on Monday was because I wanted to use the liners as soon as possible. But also, cupcakes = yum.

The bottom is even cuter.

That's what he said.

The cupcakes looked fine on their own, but I couldn't resist adding some sprinkles. Because apparently I am an overgrown eight-year-old.

CUUPCAAAKES!!!

P.S. Here's my secret for putting sprinkles on cookies or cupcakes. Hold the dessert over a bowl or dish, something slightly larger than what you're sprinkling - and shake the sprinkles onto the dessert.

The bowl catches all of the stray sprinkles so you don't A) waste sprinkles and B) make a huge mess. Then just pour them back into your sprinkle jar for later.

Looks, Personality, and She's Great In the Kitchen!

OK, that's a lie. I'm lousy in the kitchen.

It's no secret that I'm not much of a cook. I don't enjoy planning meals and if it were up to me we'd probably eat macaroni and cheese or peanut butter sandwiches every night. Luckily, the hubby is a good cook and prepares most of our meals. Every now and then I'll make dinner, or I'll chip in if we're cooking a large family meal, but those occasions are rare.

If I do wander into the kitchen, I like to bake. I think I get it from my mom. She can make magic in the kitchen but she's famous for her sweets, particularly her cheesecakes.

When I chose to make a cheesecake for Thanksgiving I knew I had some mighty big shoes oven mitts to fill. I kept it simple and stuck to a plain New York cheesecake, using Mom's recipe. But then I decided that wasn't Thanksgiving-y enough, so I improvised a fresh cranberry topping. Having sampled Mom's baking through the years, I'm kind of an expert on cheesecake, and I thought mine tasted as good as hers.

I would share the recipe with you, but I'm pretty sure my mom would kill me. Seriously. She gave me strict instructions not to give the recipe to anyone, and I think it's safe to assume that includes the internet.

What did you make for Thanksgiving?

Fabric Inspired Wedding Cakes

This definitely isn't a wedding blog, but I couldn't help but share these gorgeous wedding cakes.

If you remember my wedding cake, you'll know I love all white, super textured cakes.

my wedding cake, by Edible Art in Raleigh

How about a cake inspired by eyelet or lace for your upcoming wedding?

All cakes by Martha Stewart Weddings.

Making: Going Away Cookbook

Yesterday I wrote about my best friend moving away. Well, tonight is her impromptu going away party. Cydney and I wanted to give her a going away gift but we didn't want to give her something useless that would just take up space on the moving truck. Since my friend loves to bake Cydney had the idea of making her a blank cookbook for her cake recipes.

The book itself if the simple part: tiny binder + tiny page sleeves + blank index cards = cookbook. The adornment is where the genius comes in. Cydney, being the better seamstress, whipped together a book cover with green and white striped fabric. On the inside cover she whip stitched a short but sweet inscription. I took on the task of embroidering a cupcake with an orange fabric base and button icing. Without directly intending to, Cydney and I put our signature elements into this project: I frequently craft with buttons and Cydney loves anything orange.

Having only a few hours to put together a going away gift, Cydney and I did a great job, if I do say so myself. This proves it doesn't always take lots of time or money to make something meaningful and memorable.

Baking: Cookie Icing Technique

Last night I decided to make some cookies. I used my Granny's Christmas Cookie recipe (a family secret) but the technique works with any type of rolled cookie.

TIP #1: Make your dough ahead of time. I made a huge batch at Christmas, divided the dough into smaller portions (using our awesome FoodSaver) and froze the leftover dough. Each batch makes 16-24 cookies, depending on the size of the cookie cutter. With smaller batches and less prep work, this allows me to bake on a whim - which I love to do.

Since I haven't yet bought any cookie cutters of my own, all the ones I have are hand-me-downs (thanks Mom!) which means I only have Christmas shapes, a heart and round (which isn't much fun) - so I made hearts. But I figured a fancy shape deserved fancy icing, so I did some experimenting and came up with an easy soultion!



1- I rolled and cut out my dough - even if you didn't pre-make your dough, it always helps to chill it for 10 minutes to make handling easier.

2- I whipped up a batch of Super-Simple Cookie Icing (see recipe below) and made it thicker than normal. I colored it pink and used and sandwich bag to pipe a dam of icing onto the cookies. NOTE: I first attempted to do this with actual decorating supplies (a piping bag, coupler and tip) but the icing was so runny it just oozed out around the coupler and made a huge mess. The ziplock bag made everything so much simpler!

3- Once the dam had dried, I thinned the icing a bit and filled in the rest of the cookie. I didn't want to be too messy so I cut a bigger hole in my ziplock bag, piped a pile of icing inside the dam and used a butter knife to smooth it out, making sure the icing touched the dam all around.

This is such a simple method! No fancy tools needed. This is also a great way to get detail on your holiday cookies - stars and stripes for July 4th, trees with ornaments and garland for Christmas - you get the idea!

Go experiment with your own cookies and let me see your results!

my recipe for:
Super-Simple Cookie Icing

ingredients:*
confectioners sugar
milk
food coloring
*It's impossible to give exact quantities for this recipe because it's all based on feel.

directions:
-In a small mixing bowl pour a very small amount of milk (approx 1 T) and a large amount of confectioners sugar (approx 2 C). Stir ingredients together. The consistency is right when you feel some resistance when stirring, but the icing is still runny enough to drizzle quickly - you really can't mess this up. Just add milk or sugar accordingly until it feels right to you. If the icing starts to crust, just stir it and add a tiny bit of milk if needed.
TIP #2: Always start with the milk then add the sugar. It's easier to get a feel for how much liquid you are adding to the mix. And always remember: a little milk goes a long way.
TIP #3: Make your icing in small batches. It's much easier to control the consistency this way.

-Color the icing as desired and apply to cookies.

Enjoy!

Baking: Shower Cupcakes

As you know my step-sister Chelsea is getting married this June. I co-hosted a shower for her yesterday and my contribution was cupcakes, with help from my baking partner Brettany. We made vanilla mini-cupcakes frosted with vanilla buttercream in bright, fresh colors for spring. As a surprise for the bride we made 2 full-sized cupcakes decorated as a bride and groom - complete with veil and boutonniere. They turned out too cute to eat!

Baking: Course 2

Last night was the final class of Wilton Course 2. We have been preparing for this cake for 3 weeks. We made royal icing flowers and color flow birds, which were allowed to dry for 2 weeks. Last night we learned the basket weave technique and arranged our pre-made flowers on the cake.

Baking: Course 1 - Cake 3

Here is our grand finale cake from Course 1. We prepared a chocolate cake with chocolate raspberry frosting, decorated with dots and 7 Wilton roses. Brettany and I both practiced making the roses, but hers were better so only one of mine ended up on the cake. But, to my credit, mine was the biggest so we put it in the center.

The class seemed to fly by, but I feel like I learned a lot. Course 2, also lasting a month, starts next week and we hit the ground running.

Baking: Course 1 - Cake 2

Tonight at cake decorating class we learned how to do a shell border and drop flowers. Luckily this cake looks a little more elegant than last week's. During our practice session we learned how to make 3-d clowns, which Brettany enjoyed posing with.

Baking: Course 1 - Cake 1

Last night was Cake Decorating Lesson 2, but it was the first time we got to practice our techniques and practice handling the icing bags. Brettany and I prepared and decorated the cake together so we wouldn't have so much cake leftover.

For this cake we used standard piping and we used stars for infil and borders. I know, I know, it looks like our cake was sponsored by Limited Too, but the focus was technique not design. Our teacher was impressed - she said we looked very professional. Who know all the tedious drafting and model-building would help me decorate cakes? I can't wait for next week's class!

Baking: Sugar Cookies

Even though I don't get to start my cake decorating techniques until next week, I was inspired to do some light baking. I decided on sugar cookies, using my great-grandmother's recipe. The sprinkles bring out the kid in me!

Learning: Cake Decorating + Photography

I am setting out to broaden my skill set. During the month of February I am taking a weekly cake decorating class with my friend Brettany. This is just a beginner's class, but there are other classes available if I have the skills or interest. Once I figure out what I'm doing, I hope to post my progress.




Then, during the month of March I am taking a weekly photography workshop. I have dabbled in taking pictures, and I have a nice camera, but I need to learn alot more about the settings and other finer aspects of picture taking. Again, I will post my progress.

Making: Fall

Since it is Halloween, I thought I would post a few pictures to show what I have been up to lately, creatively speaking.

This is my birthday cake, created by my best friend Brettany. I suggested an owl and she ran with the idea. For more of her cakes visit her blog.



These are my two cats Yo-Yo (left) and Pop-Tart. I take way too many pictures of them, and I usually try to spare people of that, but this one was too cute - they look like yin and yang - I had to include it!



This is my attempt at a non-traditional pumpkin carving. During the day...



... and lit up in the dark.