Valentine's Day Treats!





 For Valentine's Day I made some filled chocolates for someone special. They are Semi-sweet chocolate on the outside, and creamed fondant filling inside. I made four different flavors: Peppermint, Raspberry, Orange, and Maple. Extremely happy with how they came out; they tasted as good as they looked.

Inside of a Peppermint-filled Chocolate

Packaging for the Homemade Chocolates

I had some leftover semi-sweet chocolate chips, so I decided to dip some strawberries in it and add some decoration to the outside. I used three different kinds of sprinkles: red sugar crystals, X's & O's, and non-pariels. For the last pair of berries, I added fresh ground sea salt to compliment the sweetness of the chocolate and fruit.

Bagels Bagels Bagels

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Naturally, I've made a few goodies for today. However, as they are a suprise, I cannot post them quite yet. For now, I'm posting stuff that I made a while ago and haven't gotten around to blogging about.

Bagels. They're delicious. I've been playing around a lot with yeast based breads lately, so I thought I'd make some bagels. I've made them once before, and I've found the process to be a bit challenging; boiling a bread product before baking adds a new step to the process. But I'm happy with the end result. I made these with whole wheat flour, sea salt, and sesame seeds. Theyre not quite as pretty as the ones you'd buy at a bakery, but they were quite tasty.

Birthday Carrot Cake

I'm a horrible blogger. I really am. I've gotten caught up in so many other things (wedding planning, work, the holidays, etc) that I've completely neglected blogging. For that, I apologize. I may have neglected my blog; however, I am still baking semi-regularly. Most recently, I've been doing a lot of things with bread products and yeast. For now, though, let's back track to November.

SOMEbody requested a carrot cake for his birthday. Naturally, as most people would, he asked that it have cream cheese frosting.

Two layers of incredibly moist carrot cake sandwiched between, and covered in, cream cheese icing. I finished it with crushed walnuts on the outer edge. I'm incredibly happy with the end result, and so was he. It looked fantasic and tasted even better.

Apple Pies

It's been a while since I've updated. Summer weather doesn't exactly make me feel like I want to bake. However, now that Fall is upon us, I have a feeling I'll be baking a little more often. First project(s) of the season? Apple pie made from freshly picked apples.

Above: Dutch Oatmeal Apple pie. Made with Courtland apples, this pie has an oatmeal crumb topping and hand-formed crust.

Right: Caramel Apple pie. Made with a combination of Courtland and some kind of green apple (I can't remember the name, not Granny Smith though). The apples were tossed with cinnamon before being put in the store-bought crust and covered in a lattice. Then I made a caramel sauce and (carefully) poured it over the pie before baking.

Minion Cupcakes

Technically, I didn't bake these, just assembled. With 100+ degree weather and humidity, I wasn't about to turn on the oven. The picture quality is poor; I didn't have my good camera with me, so I snapped these pics with my phone. Anyone who has seen the movie Despicable Me will recognize these cute little Minions, in cupcake form. They were made from bought cupcakes, snack cakes, candy and frosting, and were a huge hit at my family reunion.

S'mores Cupcakes

I haven't been baking as often lately. It's been too hot, and I haven't really had occasions to bake for. However, I did make these cupcakes a couple weeks ago for a friend's going-away party.

Summer wouldn't be summer without s'mores, and this is my cupcake version of the classic summer treat. Graham cracker flavored cupcakes with bits of chocolate bars in the center and topped with marshmallow frosting.

 I had originally planned on finishing these cupcakes off with a butane torch, but it wasn't cooperating with me. So, instead, I broiled them a little bit in the toaster to get the toasted marshmallow look.

Father's Day Macaroons

For Father's day, I made my dad one of his favorite cookies: coconut macaroons. They're a relatively simple cookie to make, and incredibly delicious. It's hard to tell size in these photos, but they're a little bit bigger than a golf ball. The papers the cookies are sitting in are cupcake wrappers. I dressed half of them up by dipping the bottoms in chocolate and then drizzling chocolate over the tops.