One Big Cookie

I baked the chocolate chip cookies that I was debating making, but a day later.
I used the large cookie scoop and experimented with the baking times and temperatures.
These are BIG cookies and I think I prefer the lower temperature for a longer time, since I ended up baking the higher temperature ones for about the same time and they were a little too done.  I also used some dark brown sugar as I didn't quite have enough light brown sugar.  So, there were a few differences.
I froze more than half the dough, already shaped, so I can bake a few cookies at a time, as needed for CCC cravings. :)  I may experiment with times and temperatures a little more.

With these cookies, I think I need to stick with the medium size cookie scoop and the higher temperature for the best results.  Plus, you (I) tend to eat the same number of cookies, so it's better to make them a little smaller. :)

Large Chocolate Chip Cookies

Bake Me A Picnic Cake As Fast As You Can

I think this will catch me up with my baking and posting, maybe.

I made picnic cakes again last week and they turned out better than ever!!!!
The chocolate cake was super moist and the cream cheese filling was the perfect consistency.
I know what made the difference, but I'll never tell! ;)

I had gotten the brown with white polka dot cupcake liners, specifically for making these.  I figured they would match the cream cheese/chocolate chip filling.  I also used up all the random cupcake papers that I had from recent parties, hence the plain brown ones in the picture.  Now I am thinking I need to get some that look like a classic red checked picnic table cloth; although, I am kind of partial to the plain brown cupcake papers.

Picnic Cakes

Pretty Party Invitations

Here are the party invitations I made for Little C's Birthday.
The text is on a very pale pink cardstock, and everything else goes with the pink and brown theme.
She loved them!

Pink & Brown Party Invitations

Pink & Brown Party Invitations - Angle

What Did The Cookie Say To The Chef?

I have to make chocolate chip cookies on a semi regular basis because, well, they are chocolate chip cookies!  Sometimes nothing hits the spot like a perfect CCC!  In fact, I am debating making some today.  I recently made them as party favors for my Book Club.

The other night Little C said she was going to draw a picture of me cooking.  Well, she captured perfectly me making the CCC winning recipe.  I love the picture, so I had to share.  And, no, I don't typically wear pink heels when I am baking, but I may start!   If you can't read what the joke says......."what did the cookie say to the chef?"...."what?"....."what's cooking?"...."ha ha ha"
So cute!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Party Favors

Little C's Drawing of Me Baking

Cupcakes, Cookies & Crackers

Recently, we hosted a 50th Birthday Party for a friend of ours.

It was a picnic style party with hamburgers, hot dogs, and enough baked beans and potato chips to feed a small army.  (I didn't want to risk running out of anything)

Since it was more casual, I made chocolate cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies for dessert.  They both turned out really well.

For an appetizer, I made a Southern Living recipe (from the issue that kept me up half the night a few weeks back).  Pimento Cheese Cracker Spoons!  A fun and novel idea.  Teaspoon shaped crackers, which I made out of pie crust and teaspoon cookie cutters, with homemade pimento cheese spread piped on to the spoon part.  I made at least 40 and they all disappeared!

I had never made anything like that and it was fun.  The pimento cheese recipe is really tasty too!  I will use that one again.  It made quite a bit of pimento cheese spread, so I used the extra to make grilled cheese sandwiches - wow - delicious!

I wanted to have some sort of "Happy 50th" decorations without going crazy with black.  I found some napkins that had "50" all over them in red, lime, blue, purple....  They were black, so I picked lime colored napkins to alternate with them.  I had lime colored dessert/beverage napkins, and the dessert plates were a stack of black alternated with lime.  I put a lime and white flower arrangement on the counter with these items and it all flowed nicely.  The cupcake wrappers are brown, not black, and matched the cupcakes perfectly.  We did have some black candles on hand, so I used one for the guest of honor's cupcake.

The party was fun and everyone had a good dose of chocolate for dessert!

Chocolate Frosted Chocolate Cupcakes

Party Set-up

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Pimento Cheese Cracker Spoons

Easter Breakfast

French Breakfast Puffs for Easter Breakfast!

The Easter and Christmas breakfast traditions are the same.  Muffins with a light nutmeg flavor, dipped in butter and then cinnamon and sugar.

Since we had a birthday and Easter to celebrate on the same day, the morning was dedicated to Easter with baskets, breakfast and church.   My table decorations were very simple - Easter Bunny napkins and the eggs we colored.

I usually make an Easter Egg or Bunny cake, but that wasn't possible this year.    According to my Google research, we will have a week between Easter and the birthday next year, so I can make even more cakes! :)

Easter Breakfast Table

French Breakfast Puffs

Happy Birthday Little C

I never claimed to be a cake decorating pro, let me start with that.
Little C wanted a cake with 2 sizes of round layers.  Being the resourceful person I sometimes am, I made the rounds with the extra batter from the party cupcakes.  I was very glad I did because I needed a break from mixing up another cake in such a short period of time.  Plus, it was Easter!
She knew she was getting a layer cake with chocolate frosting, but the rest was a surprise.
I had three layers of the larger circles, two chocolate and one white; and one white smaller circle.
The frosting between the layers was pink buttercream.  Then, I frosted the entire cake with chocolate frosting.
I had problems with that top small layer.  I wanted to have pink frosting between it and the larger layers, and didn't have anything to anchor it in place.  So, of course, it decided to move a little.  This was the first time I did this with a cake and next time I will do it a little differently.  Once the pink decorations and candles were added, it looked pretty good.  Little C loved it and said she liked that it was leaning!  :)  She was surprised with the inside and it tasted great - so, that's really all that matters!

Birthday Cake

Birthday Cake and Presents

Birthday Cake Slice

Birthday Cake

Pink Cupcakes Go To School

For Little C's birthday celebration at school last week, I made white cupcakes with pink frosting.
The cupcakes were in pretty hot pink wrappers.  I was told that even kids that didn't like white cake liked them!  I have the approval of second graders! :)

Not pictured, at the pink napkins that I bought to send to school and they happen to match my cake boxes and the icing!  Yay!  I love it when things match!

Pink Iced White Cupcakes

Boxed Cupcakes for School

Birthday Party Fun

Saturday was Little C's Birthday Party.  What fun it was!

We had decided on a pink and brown theme, based on the cupcake liners she chose for her party.
The cupcake liners were pink with brown polka dots.  The invitations, which I have been waiting until after the party to post, were also pink and brown. (separate post to come)

I made 24 white cupcakes and 24 chocolate cupcakes.  I made a double batch of pink buttercream frosting and frosted half of the cupcakes.   The other half were left plain so the children could decorate their own cupcakes.  I used 2 ounce plastic to-go condiment containers and gave each child containers of pink frosting, brown jimmies, and pink M&M's.  They were able to pick white or chocolate cupcakes and decorate them as they chose.  Of course I had pink plastic knives for them.  It was interesting seeing them get to work, and a lot of fun!

The party favors were homemade marshmallows, coated in a mix of light pink and hot pink sugar.  I tied each one with a pink and brown ribbon.  This is only the second time I made the marshmallows and this batch turned out even better than the first.  This time I had a candy thermometer and didn't whip the batter quite as long.  They were so soft and fluffy!

This was the 2nd of the 3 birthday celebrations - so, lots more to come!

Pink Marshmallow Party Favors

Marshmallows

Pink Frosted Chocolate Cupcakes

Boxed Pink Frosted Chocolate Cupcakes

Birthday Party Table

One Thing Leads To Another

It all started with a container of ricotta cheese that I realized was about to expire, then I was browsing food blogs and happened on to this recipe, and then blackberries were on sale.   Next thing you know, we had delicious muffins for breakfast!

The muffin has lemon zest and some lemon juice in it which gives a nice, light lemon flavor.  The ricotta cheese adds to the moistness, and the blackberries inside are almost like a jelly filling - in a good way.  I am very pleased with this one!

The rest of the ricotta cheese was added to tomato basil pasta sauce and was a nice change for pasta night.  Recently I have become diligent about not wasting food, and it has led to some flavorful creations.

Lemon Ricotta Blackberry Muffins

Making the Most of Strawberry Season

When you buy 8 quarts of strawberries at once, and jelly only takes up 5, it's time to go searching for recipes.  Since the strawberry frosting tasted like ice cream, I wanted to make some strawberry ice cream.  After some searching and reviewing, I found a Strawberry Gelato recipe that was simple and looked good.  Below is the result.  Success!!!  My taste testers were very happy and we ate the gelato outside, enjoying the beautiful weather!

I used heavy cream as per the recipe, but I am going to try it with at least part skim milk next time.
I am amazed at how easy it is to make ice cream - thank you Cuisinart!   No rock salt and churning for me!

Strawberry Gelato

Strawberry Gelato

Jelly Marathon

Remember how I was going to make 3 more batches of jelly to hold us over until next year?  Well, that got doubled and my freezer now looks like a jelly showcase!   I showed the first batches of Strawberry Jelly to a friend, and she ended up ordering some!

So two weeks ago I made 6 batches of jelly to stock up our freezer and for my friend's order.  I am surprised I didn't dream about measuring sugar and berries!  I don't think I ever made 9 batches of jelly in one strawberry season.   I am thinking about trying out some other jellies that I have never made before.  Oh the possibilities!

Strawberry Jelly

White Cake Test Recipe 2 + Strawberry Frosting

I think I found my white cake!

It all started with the most recent issue of Southern Living, which I unfortunately looked at before I went to sleep one night.  It got my brain going with so many ideas that I had trouble sleeping.
There was this beautiful Strawberry Mousse Cake and I just HAD to make it.  The next day I was trying to figure out how to make the cake for dinner - the cake consists of 4 layers of white cake, strawberry mousse filling, and strawberry icing; and it had to chill for 3 hours after the mousse filling was added between the layers of cake.  I did not have that much time, still needed several of the ingredients and wanted to surprise my family with the cake for dinner.  Thankfully, the idea struck me just to make cupcakes out of the white cake recipe and to frost them with the strawberry icing.

I needed to try out another white cake recipe anyway.  I made the cupcakes, broke one open, and was so excited about the cake!  It gets an A+ for texture, flavor and good looks!  The strawberry frosting tastes like strawberry ice cream.  The two together were incredible!

I made a 5" cake with the extra batter; below is a picture of a piece of cake to show the texture.

I am sure I will try out a few more white cake recipes, but this one is excellent!   I still need to make the Strawberry Mousse Cake before strawberry season is over, but that will have to wait for another week.  Little C's birthday is coming up and I am just happy I have a great white cake recipe for the million cupcakes I need to make for her parties. :)

White Cupcake with Strawberry Icing

White Cake Piece with Strawberry Icing