Tuesday, December 21st
I am writing this post while this project is still in progress so as to not forget any details; though it wont be posted until a few days later to keep things a surprise. I took on a project to make baked goods/sweets for a large chunk of my extended family for the upcoming holiday. Enough for approximately 20 households. This project was, in fact, self-inflicted. Why would I choose to do this, you might ask. It may be because I love the holidays; could be because I like a challenge; or perhaps it's because I'm insane. I think it may be a combination of the three. It also makes for an entertaining blog post.

I am making whoopie pies. Chocolate with peppermint icing, rolled in crushed candy canes. Found a really awesome recipe and doubled it. Had several cookies scooped out, one pan was on it's way in the oven when I realized I had forgotten to add the baking soda. No good. Those cookies wouldn't have risen. Thankful to have caught myself just in time. Threw all of the cookies back into the bowl; add baking soda and hot water solution (as directed), re-mix. Wonder why I didn't pick up on the fact that the batter was a little thick. Re-scoop cookies and put in oven. There's batter smeared into the kitchen floor, thankfully it's linoleum. I pause every so often to stir the simmering crock pot with tonight's dinner in it. Dropped a cookie on the floor. Forget to set the timer multiple times, and don't manage to burn any of them until the time I used a timer but had a dark, non-stick pan. Vowed never to use that pan again and continue. All the while, I'm using a kitchen towel to take pans out of the 400 degree gas stove (being careful not to catch the towel on fire) because I threw out my slightly burnt pot holders when I moved out of Pennsylvania and never replaced them.

All of the cookies are out of the oven now, cooling until they can be stored. The ones that came out first are stacked between layers of wax paper, inside my (upside down) cake carrier. There are enough cookies, minus the burnt ones and the one that fell on the floor, for 56 whoopie pies. (That's 112 cookies....) The recipe said it made 18, so i doubled it. Apparently the recipe was wrong, oh well. I only needed 40-ish. They're going in boxes in pairs, along with homemade marshmallows (which are my project for tomorrow)

I'm waiting until Thursday to frost and candy-cane them; they'll hang out in the fridge to keep them fresh until then. Pictures to follow. Now onto cleaning the floor and getting to my other project for the day (Needhams for my dad)

The last of the birthday cakes for a while (hopefully)

I am relocating to Boston soon, and this will be my last post until after I move. I've got some great things planned for December, specifically for Christmas, and am looking forward to working on them in my new kitchen.

For now though, I will finish playing catch-up with this post about my boyfriend's birthday cake. He requested a Black Forest cake, which is something I've never done before. But I like a challenge. After doing some research and looking around online, I found a recipe that reviewers claimed to be very similar to an authentic German Black Forest cake.

The outside is whipped cream, hand-shaved chocolate and maraschino cherries; the inside is frosting and cherry filling, sandwiched between four layers of a not-too-sweet chocolate cake. I wish I had gotten a picture of the inside. Everyone said it was really good too :)

Trying to catch up a bit...



 I've been really bad about updating regularly, so I'm going to try to get caught up this week. Happy belated Thanksgiving. Did some cooking and baking this year, but in the midst of doing so, forgot to take pictures of what I made. I guess that saves me from having to do a separate blog post about it?

Today's post is of a cake I did about a month ago. (Clearly around the same time as Halloween). As a final project for my Wilton cake decorating class, we had to make a cake and flowers to go on said cake. We then brought the cake in to class and decorated it with said flowers and a basket weave on the side of the cake.



The cake itself is marbled orange, in both color and flavor. Buttercream icing on the outside, with grey royal icing roses. Making this cake happened to coincide with a friend's birthday, so it was consumed in celebration.

Fondant Flowers

I've got other birthday cakes to blog about, but I thought I would try and break it up a little bit so you don't have to scroll through and be like "cake... cake... cake... cake...".

During the month of October, I decided to take a Wilton cake decorating class to improve my skills and occupy my time a little bit. The class focused on flowers and decorating. We learned how to make flowers using fondant/gum paste and icing/frosting.









Pansy



I made these flowers while in class by combining gum paste and fondant. The two flowers above were made by cutting the fondant/gum paste material out using a special cutter and using gum paste glue to hold the pieces together. The pansy used a similar technique, but involved a bit more work and sculpting.   



Birthdays, Birthdays, Birthdays!

It seems like half the world has a birthday in late October/early November, including multiple people I know. This, of course, means one thing: birthday cake. And I'm more than happy to make cakes for family and friends when asked; I shudder at the words 'store bought cake'.

This particular birthday cake was made for one of my aunts. The 3 layer cake is chocolate, the frosting is peanut butter buttercream, as requested. I was really excited about getting to try out some of my recently acquired flower-making skills (I took a Wilton cake decorating class series last month). The flowers (also PB buttercream)were supposed to be roses, but look kind of like carnations, which was a little bit of a happy accident. Everybody liked how pretty the cake looked, and were even more impressed with how great it tasted.

Happy Halloween!

With an exciting weekend of costumes, corn maze, scary movies, etc. planned, I've decided to do my Halloween post a couple days early. So here you have it.

Simple sugar cookies in pumpkin shapes. I used food color gels like watercolors and brushed the orange, green and black onto the cookies with a paint brush prior to baking.

Still Thinking Pink!

Having just finished part of my next project (which will hopefully be posted sometime in the next week or two), I feel as if I'm coated in royal icing. Each and every one of my fingers is dyed at least one color; thanks food color gels! Oh well, I suppose one must suffer for their art.

Like my last post, this cake was inspired by the color pink and Breast Cancer Awareness month. Specifically inspired by the shirts worn on this years Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk, which took place October 17th in Portland.

This incredibly moist chocolate cake has 4 layers, two on each tier. It's frosted with chocolate butter cream and decorated with pink sugar roses and icing. This was my first attempt at frosting roses; I've gotten even better at making them since.

Think Pink!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, so I decided to do some pink themed things for this blog. I’m currently working on my next creation and thought I’d update while I’m waiting for it to cool.

These are chocolate lollipops with pink accents. The pink/brown combination was inspired by this years shirts for the Making Strides walk. The walk is this Sunday and it will be my 8^th year participating.

It’s a jungle out there!

This cake was a collaborative effort between me, a friend, and my boyfriend. Two friends from college were having a joint birthday party with a jungle theme. As their gift, we made them this cake.

The inside of this cake is just as fancy as the outside. The cake was made from a box mix, which we modified. We also used food color gels to make the inside rainbow colored. I cut the cake to be topsy-turvy in style, but structurally it’s quite stable.

The cake was frosted with homemade vanilla butter cream frosting, then covered in marshmallow fondant and decorated. I did both the zebra and giraffe prints, but cannot take credit for the super cute lion, monkey and elephant. The cake was a huge hit at the party. Everyone couldn’t get over how great it looked and tasted.

The wonderful things about Fall

In honor of Fall and all of the glorious things that the season brings, I decided to write a "song". Here it is: (to the tune of ‘My Favorite Things’ from the Sound of Music)

Picking ripe apples, Food flavored like pumpkin,
Giant corn mazes, And leaf piles to jump in
Wearing wool sweaters to not be freezing
Fall is about all these wonderful things

Witches and goblins and cobwebs from spiders
Knitting while drinking some hot apple cider
Giving kids candy with each doorbell ring
Fall is about all these wonderful things

Haunted hay rides, donning masks on Halloween,
Trees ranging in shades of red, orange and green
Warm roasted turkey with drumsticks and wings
Fall is about all these wonderful things

Jack-o-Lanterns
Trick-or-Treating
And the Fryeburg Fair
There are so many wonderful Fall things
I might have a love affair

My apologies for getting that tune stuck in your head. At least I spared you from actually having to hear me sing it. You’re welcome.

And now, to the food:

Mini Pumpkin-Chocolate chip whoopie pies with Maple butter cream icing

Pumpkin is one of the best flavors of Fall. In fact, so many people love it that, during the time I wanted to buy canned pumpkin, there was a pumpkin shortage. This may or may not have resulted in my driving to three different grocery stores in order to find the stuff. Because I was THAT determined to make something pumpkin flavored. Determined… stubborn….

Whatever.

The savory flavor of the cake-like cookie of the whoopie pie is balanced with the sweetness of the maple icing. The chocolate chips added a twist to the pumpkin cookie, both in texture and in flavor. Though they are small in size, these whoopie pies are so decadent that one is enough to satisfy. Eating more may put you at risk of slipping into a sugar coma or completely rotting your teeth. Just kidding. Kind of.

I love whales!





Front



Recently went whale watching and it was amazing. I was so inspired that I made this teeny tiny whale cake. It doesn’t look small in pictures, but it’s actually about 4 inches in diameter. Perfect for two people.



Back



The inside is orange in color and flavor, with vanilla butter cream icing. The outside is homemade marshmallow fondant with a hand-cut whale, waves, and blue and teal polka dots.

For your enjoyment, a few photos from my whale watching adventures

 in July off the coast of Gloucester, MA:

These are not cakes. Or baked goods.

I love sushi. I also love marshmallows. One would think that there’s no way to combine the two; but you’d be wrong to think that. Seriously. Standard sushi is made from fish/veggies, seaweed, and sticky rice. My dessert version is made from candy fish/gummies, fruit rollup snacks, and the stickiest rice of all: rice krispie treats. I’ve made dessert sushi more than once for sushi-loving friends’ birthdays, but I think this kind of sushi is something that even the pickiest eater would enjoy.

Having made dessert sushi a couple times, it was time to give real sushi a try. My boyfriend and I made sushi for lunch not too long ago. We opted for cooked shrimp and veggies, because the thought of preparing raw fish was a little intimidating. Incredibly happy with the results, both in taste and in appearance.

A look back: My very first fondant cake

After watching too many cake shows on tv and saying to myself "I could totally do that," I decided to actually go ahead and give it a try. The cake, buttercream frosting, and marshmallow fondant were all made from scratch, with help from a friend.

We quickly discovered that making fondant can be a little messy if you're not careful, which resulted in the following:

Yes, that is half-mixed, sticky fondant on the dog's back. To be fair though, she was standing right underneath us. Perhaps she was hoping some food might fall on the floor? Well, I suppose she was right.

The theme of this cake combined my mother's love of baskets with Breast Cancer Awareness Month (October, in case you didnt know). I'm quite pleased with overall result, especially since this was my first time decorating with fondant. I plan on making another cake this coming October with a pink theme and will be sure to post the results. :)

Hello and Welcome!

cre·a·tive adj \krē-'ā-tiv\
: marked by the ability or power to create : given to creating
: having the quality of something created rather than imitated : imaginative

I am creative. This I know for sure. Since childhood, I have been described as such. Perhaps this was used by grown-ups as a way of saying I was a weird kid, an out-of-the-box kind of thinker… but you know what, I was. I am. I was the kid you’d find sewing clothes for her dolls- sans pattern. I was also the kid who decided to be unconventional about how to use a slide on the playground at summer camp when I was 6. Said decision resulted in the fracturing of my left wrist, and ending my days of ambidexterity; but that’s another story for another day. My point is this: I have a hard time following patterns. The same goes for recipes. I always end up adding something or tweaking it to make it my own. Because apparently I don’t want to do everything the way everyone else does. Normal is boring.

This blog is a way for me to document and showcase some of the creative things I’ve been doing in the kitchen. I don’t claim to be perfect; I don’t have any formal training in cooking or baking. My talent comes mostly from reading things online, watching too much Food Network, while thinking ‘I can do that’, and practice. Perhaps a bit of luck too.