Bringing in the new year with load of desserts!

Hello everyone! Here is an overload of desserts for you tonight! Why you ask? Well, my parents, who are spending a few weeks with us, went to eat without us, I had a load of time, and I really wanted to make some fondant decorations-I hadn't in such a long time. So that's how it started... I decided to make 3 big cupcakes for fondant (I mean, no one will eat them so might as well not make any more than that!), just enough mini cupcakes for us all to eat at least 2, and then had leftover dough, so I baked a cake to make cakepops. Taking a few supplies out of my new kitchen cupboards, I saw the chocolate moulds Katie bought for me in Canada, and decided to make cakebites instead of pops. So I spent a few hours in the kitchen-and honestly, I think every single thing was a success! I am so excited! This was a great evening and a wonderful way to finish the year. Tomorrow we will have a dessert, my mom will make tourtières and we'll just have a great start to 2012! Yay! I feel quite happy about 2012! What are you guys doing for new years? Any resolutions? Mine? Try my very best at everything I do. The rest will fall into place I hope! Happy New year everyone!!

Just your average meltdown...

So, it's after Christmas, everyone is happy, well fed, have slept in...and I thought I would go and brighten my day with cakepops. I don't know what I was thinking... I have got to get my act together! I am always having some kind of meltdown when I make these, things never go the way I want it to... I really don't know guys. I don't know why my grinch cakepops-the most complicated I have made, turned out perfect, and the easy ones still cause me this much annoyance... In general, the chocolate is always a problem-and well, I am still using leftover Wiltons, so once I run out, I am hoping this problem stops, and I tried using a different technique to pipe onto the cakepops, but that didn't work out and my eternal battle with getting a perfectly round ball isn't about to be won...thank god for sprinkles and sugars though, they save every wonky cakepop. I hope all of you had a happy Christmas! I am starting to think about my new years resolutions....one will definitely have something to do with cakepops...

Merry Christmas everyone! And here are my table setting cookies!

Yay everyone! It's finally Christmas! Lily's very first! Ok, not that she will know what's going on at all, but still, we'll be taking lot's of pictures. I haven't been able to do much in the last few days, but I made these-to know where everyone will sit at the Christmas table-and two cuter ones for the only kids joining us! I am not certain of the result. I think they are quite cute, and they worked out well, but they are a bit on the overly colourful side of the holidays! Anyway, what do you guys think? Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

A small present for my husband, and my first gingerbread cookies of the season!

Everyone who knows my husband, knows what a big fan of the Montreal Canadiens he is. I think he has gotten every Canadiens memorabilia there is on the market as birthday and christmas presents. So I decided to give him something no one else could...food and Habs combined! The result, hmm, so-so...because I had to pipe the sign by eye, the proportions aren't quite right and this especially shows on the left where the red always had to be made thinner than it should-and because I had such little space left, the white was hard to pipe there too... but soon I will have my kopykake machine and will be able to make perfect reproductions! Ok, it'll still be me and my shaking hand, but at least I will be following a made line... Let's start with the cookie itself. This is my favorite recipe ever. It is just perfect and barely spreads. It's not super flat, but I can live with that, 'cause I just want them to taste great! I printed out a canadiens logo on picture paper (took like 15 tries till my stupid printer finally centered the logo on the paper!!) and cut it out. Placed the paper on the dough and cut around. As for the rest-like I said, I had to do it by eye. My very first finished ones, I had filled in the gingerbread spaces with white as well, and my husband just totally insulted the result, what was his wording...something along the lines of, the cookie looks like how the canadiens are playing at the moment...you can recognize them but they aren't quite right? Bastard... ah whatever, he was right, I just didn't want to hear it from him. Anyways, this is the result...what do you guys think?

Watermelon cakepops that taste like banana!!!

 

 Ok...have I ever made two desserts in a day? It's possible, I mean, I am a bit of a dessert ogre... but really, there was a reason. When I made the extra batter this morning, I really wanted to try out these watermelon pops, and was very curious as to whether they would work...and my day was going so well, and it was still early so I made the balls, then we had supper, and somehow it was still quite early, so I decided to make the most of the baby free hours (weekends are daddy time!) and start. As usual, the white coating didn't look very good-I really don't know how anyone makes a nice white coating-it seeps into every single cake pore and  looks like craters... anyway, I didn't panic as the plan was to coat them in green afterwards. That worked out well despite the candy coating having little pieces in it...I don't know if it was the shortening or the chocolate that didn't melt in properly. I, who knows why, PATIENTLY took them out with a toothpick everytime they appeared on the pop and they dried really nicely! The yellow food colouring to make the melon look real didn't work out well either, so I brushed it on with a finger, and that made them look even more life-like! Lastly, when I took a bite out, the chocolates were mixed in too well and didn't show at the surface. So I added a few chocolate chips for the picture. The colour is also a bit too dark, but like I mentionned in my other post, the banana batter made it darker than if it would have been a vanilla cake. I find it quite amusing to bite into a watermelon and have a banana taste...but next time I may buy some watermelon aroma and make a watermelon buttercream, just to see. I get the feeling it could be almost sickly sweet tasting...which tends to give me headaches, so it may not happen. Anyway, tonight was not only a successful result, but a total self-control success! What do you guys think?

Banana with chocolate buttercream...revisited

Now, it's not that I like to repeat myself-really, once I have a recipe down pat, I tend to forget it until it is requested by someone... but we were having a brunch at ours today, and I decided, of all the possible flavours, a banana cupcake is the most brunchy like one. This time I left out the nuts in and on the muffin and put some white chocolate shavings on the chocolate buttercream. And this time I perfectly timed my chocolate melting-so the buttercream turned out perfect. Had a few sweaty minutes when the cream turned (as it usually does), and took way longer than usual to come back to the right consistency... but powered on and got a perfect result (I didn't sweat into the buttercream for those who are a tad disgusted...). Anyway, I liked them... And since I made way too much batter, tomorrow there will be some new cakepop pictures on the blog! My initial idea will possibly have to be forgotten as the colour of the banana cupcake has falsified the pink food colouring I put in...but we will see. Maybe I will do one or two of my originals and change the colours on photoshop! Ooooh, cheat!!!! Ha! No one will ever really know...anyway, hope you all had a nice sunday!

My second batch of Christmas Cookies

Yesterday I got my Ultimate Cookies book by Julia Usher, and decided to test the most important part for me...the consistency of the royal icing. It was the first time I saw
such a perfect description, with pictures, of how it should look like
for which technique. I had lots of leftover cookie dough in the freezer, so I only had to bake the cookies, and then I made a batch of icing. And went crazy with the colours! When I went to bed last night-before attaching the little figures to the cookies (had to make both dry up first), I started thinking how overly colourful they probably would be. That I am learning a lot, but I have to practice making classic understated cookies, not just crazy childish ones, you know? This morning, I woke up to make Lily's bottle and saw that my cat, despite the barrier I had made around the figures, destroyed one of my reindeers, a bauble and a penguin. I was so mad. I just felt like these cats are slowly destroying me! Too frustrated to get back to sleep after Lily's feeding, I decided to finish the cookies and was quite taken aback with the result...I think they came out really really cute, despite them being really flashy! All of the remaining figures were stable, the cookies had dried well, and the addition of a few snowflake sprinkles made everything look really cute! I am really happy with the result! Credit has to be made to Doodlebug Design Inc and Best Creation Inc... I used their cute designs as my figures... Just put a piece of acetate on top of the drawings which I had made smaller and copied with black icing! What do you guys think?

The cat barrier

How many things can go wrong with a cake pop recipe?

It started out so well, but I feel that with cakepops, most of my posts end up being about how annoying they are to make! The worst part is, I really like them! But something always goes wrong! Today started well, made the cake at 11, made the balls at 1. I thought we would be home earlier from an evening out, but we got home at about 9 and I decided I wanted to make the planned cakepos. The icing had sort of leaked out and there was lots of water pooling in the plate...but I wiped them off and started dipping. I made bees and lego men to start with...then the chickens and the hearts. I had to double dip every single one because I used Wilton's candy melts and they just melt so badly and sort of hang in every little pore of the cake balls, I don't know...anyway. Because one of the chickens fell off the stick, I left the others in the freezer-so obviously by the time I made the hearts-well they cracked! Even when I double dipped the hearts, you still see the crack from the first layer... Then I made faces with the stupid edible ink pen. Well, as you can see, there are no lego men on this picture. That's because the pen worked so badly, and I got so frustrated that I took the lego men in my hand and squeezed the cake right out of them...it was my way of not screaming. The bees look cute from afar, but making their lines was also almost impossible. I made Andy eat one to hide the evidence, and threw out a second one in another fit of frustration. All in all, I really don't know why everything always goes wrong with these. I start out so positively. I always think, oh yes, I am getting better at this, but I am not! I am not used to being so bad at something. My ego is taking quite a blow! Anyway, I am sure that the use of Merckens melts next time, and me being able to make them right after rolling them will help... and if they don't, well whatever, I just can't give up on these stupid things! I have to get them right once and for all!!!!!!!!!

Christmas Cookies-Ok, I admit, I stole the idea!!

Sometimes, I just need a bit of baking therapy. This is what this project was about...because let's face it, who would eat cookies like this? Not that I find them too pretty to eat, but basically, for them to not spread too much, I had to use a very dry recipe, so I don't know how good these even taste! And so much royal icing is bound to give anyone a toothache. But as the title suggests, I saw this in Julia Usher's Ultimate Cookie book-I have ordered it, but not yet recieved, so basically, I just did what I thought is how she did hers...we'll see when I get the book! I keep learning from my royal icing mistakes though...this time, it was just always too leaky-which is why the snowman and the polar bear look a bit off...but all in all, and from afar, they look pretty cool! As usual, I put my favorite in the forefront...putting the best foot forward, is my motto!!! Expect more unusual cookies in the future, I really like decorating them! Hope you like looking at them!!

A bit down...

I'm tired.... I have been really trying with this finding a kitchen thing, and I just don't know where to look anymore... EVERYONE is saying no, or not answering. Even the places that are officially there to be rented are saying it's beyond their capacity. Why can't this dreamer get a break? I can't really be doomed to only dream for the rest of my life can I? I have had a whiff of the baking doer, the baking go getter, the baking achiever! I don't want to go back to the baking dreamer. Only if it's to dream about winning the lottery or dreaming of how Lily will turn out later on or how our next vacation is going to be... feeling a bit down today...

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas Cakepops!

My Favorite, Grinch's Dog

Hello! I wanted to cheer myself up today seeing as I still haven't gotten any good news regarding my miracle and since I finally got my chocolate order in today, I went ahead and did Grinch, Grinch's Dog and Cindy Lou Who cake pops, with a few Christmasy cupcake pops to add a bit of fun to it all. Took me quite awhile to do, even though I seperated my tasks really well, but stuff kept going wrong. Especially Cindy. When she was done, I did the grinch and only then realized I should have added paler chocolates to get the right shade of green, and then at the end I did the dog, thinking it would be the toughest, and oddly enough, it was the easiest, most fun to do, and it came out the best! So there you go, my Christmas cake pops. Hope you like them!

Heidi is in need of a Miracle

This time last year, I was in a totally different place. I was pregnant, we were in a new appartment, I had just come back from a wonderful trip to Canada and I was full of fun dreams... you know, like winning the lottery? This year, I have even more going for me, I have a beautiful daughter (my first miracle sleeping in the picture below), a more filled life, and I have found out what it is I want to do with my life! This is my second miracle... I have been floundering around for years (YEARS!!!), wondering what it is that I should do with my life. I thought having a child would sort of make me just want to be a mommy and I wouldn't care what job I have to earn a living. But it got worse, I want to be a good role model for my little girl, I want her to know that despite anything that life throws at you, if you try hard enough, you just may make your dreams come true. And now, this dreamer is just sooooooo close it almost hurts! I have exactly the right people around me to help me fulfill my dreams and reach my goals, but I have one obstacle that it just blocking the entire light at the end of the tunnel, so I am putting it out there again, I wanted a mixer, I asked and I got, now I need my third miracle. I need for someone to let me share their health department approved kitchen and I need to know that they will let me share it pretty much now! And to top it, I need for them to not ask too much money for it! So my wish is out there to be read, heard, taken in... please someone help me, please let this dreamer live the dream for once!!

This year's first Miracle

My First real Cake Pop Success!!!

The Cupcake Cake Pops

The Fun Cake Pops

The Chicks

 Hello dear readers. Today was my most successful cakepop making day ever! Thank goodness for that. I learned yesterday that my dream of selling my goodies online is on the verge of failing, am looking frantically for a restaurant or someone with a professional kitchen to use when I get orders, but still no answer... So to get morale up-and yes, with cakepops, it could have gone both ways (!), I planned a few pops with different looks. Lo and behold, they came out great! Despite that the size of cookie cutter I needed to make the cupcake pops wasn't the one I had and that I had only Wilton Candy Melts. I am not a fan of their melts. It's Merckens all the way for me! Also had to improvise with the chicks as I didn't have all the proper candy to make them, but look at them, aren't they cute? As for the fun pops-I took a few sprinkles for the first two, and the last (the one that is higher), I looked at the plate over which I had been sprinkling my pops and decided to do a mishmash! So it has everything!!! I am all in all happy with the results, no cracks!! Got a great tip in my comments from the last post and kept them out of the fridge! By the way, they really taste GREAT!!!! Yay!!

My Second Attempt at making Cake Bites

Today I got one of my orders : 1 package of dark chocolate melts, 2 packages of white chocolate melts, various sprinkles, parchement triangles, and a product that makes it possible to use food colouring on chocolate. So I pretty much went and used everything I got (not all of it in quantity-all of it in possibilities!)
I encountered a few problems that I will have to solve in the near future. One-how do you get these cake balls to be perfectly round? I am thinking slightly more frosting-we'll see. Two : how do you get them not to crack : the chocolate ones were in the fridge till the last moment-some cracked, for the other colours, I got them out way earlier, but they still cracked. Three : how do you get the cake off the fork without messing up the bottom? Four : I need to control my parchement flow better.
I think once again, although I trashed my entire kitchen doing these, they came out quite cute. But definitely room for improvement! I think of my whole menu, cake pops and cake bites are definitely the ones I will have to practice most in the next month, wish me luck!!

Vanilla Whoopie Pies with Raspberry and White Chocolate Meringue Buttercream

Just for Ro...

I had one last whoppie pie recipe to try-the vanilla...I do believe I only need to do chocolate and vanilla, 'cause it's really the filling that makes these cupcookies so heavenly. And today's recipe not only went delightfully well, but also sent me floating in the clouds...I decided I had to be a bit more organized and seperated my tasks evenly. Fist the cookie. Noticed right away that the batter is totally different than the chocolate and wouldn't spread out, so I piped out pretty much the size I wanted and they came out a tad bigger. Then I did the raspberry "sauce"so that it would have sufficient time to cool off. Then, the white chocolate buttercream. This time I didn't listen to Martha. I prepared all my ingredients in advance, warmed up the sugar and the egg whites and by the time they were in my mixer, I could concentrate on the chocolate. I melted it the same way I would to use as decoration-up to a certain heat, then add whole chocolate bits, and then I didn't stir occasionally, I stirred like every two minutes, and watched it like a hawk! By the time I could put it in the buttercream, it was perfect! The only unfortunate thing is, I think it's better to make the entire recipe, instead of half, so I have all this leftover cream, and where can I put it? There is only the fridge...so yeah, I am pretty certain all of the chocolate will get rock solid...and my last fridge buttercream experiment had me rewisk it into a sweet butter mass. Ugh. We'll see, I have an idea...if it works out, I will tell you! Now, I'm off to enjoy my whoopie pies...and then have to go jog a marathon to burn them off!! Whoopie!!!!

Red Velvet Cupcakes...again! But went for a new decoration at least!

First a comment about the photos...I know they are really similar, but I wanted to show the flower 1st, and then the cupcake...then I would like to add the following...this blog is a story about disaster, cursing, complete annoyance and somehow, somehow, an ok finish! I am starting to think that's just me-I will always destroy my kitchen entirely in the baking process, want to kill Martha Stewart, have a nervous breakdown, and still something pretty may come out of it!
Andy took Lily out tonight, which gave me the evening to myself...considering the amount of yelling, cursing and foot stomping, and well general baby whining I did, it's a good thing he did. First, the red velvet-well, I still think it just tastes like chocolate. Could someone in America go out and buy a red velvet cupcake, wipe the frosting off and just tell me what it tastes like? If it just tastes like chocolate, than I will stop killing myself, just add LOADS of red colouring and be done with it! Anyway, this cupcake at least tastes good-but although the batter was red red, it just came out cocoa brown. No one could possibly recognize this as a red velvet.
Because I was tired of making cream cheese frosting-and honestly people, it just tastes like powdered sugar anyway, not like cream cheese...I made swiss meringue white chocolate buttercream. Again following Martha's instructions. Well she is starting to lose her appeal I say...she said to leave the chocolate to cool for 30 minutes while stirring once in awhile, and although that is what I did, in the last few minutes, it got hard. I tried to pick out the big pieces, but you guessed it, while piping, all the chocolate got stuck in the tip. *********************************************** that was a long explicit as I tried to squeeze it out to use another tip (didn't have a coupler for the big tip-so had to empty the bag to change it-you ask why not get rid of the cream by the top of the bag? Well, I didn't want to have big piece getting clogged in the second tip, did I now.
The only thing that worked out surprisingly good was the flowers. So there you go-hands full of butter, yelling, cursing, decorating and tadaaaaaa! My lovely flower red velvet white chocolate buttercream cupcakes! What do you say, eh? By the way, thank god for Bailey's...

Peanut Butter Chocolate Whoopie Pies, YUMMY!!!

On the left, the recipe's suggested size, on the right, my immediate correction! I don't want a sandwich! I want a dessert!!!

This is the whoopie pie I really wanted to try (to eat it afterwards of course!!). It is rich, and just so fatening!! I was trying to find a better word, but if there is ever one that works as a description, than it is that!!! I was plagued by recipe errors again today though, and had LOTS of chaos in the kitchen by the time I was done. First : as the second picture shows, the recipe spread too much, and the amount suggested to put on your baking sheets came out way too big. I corrected it on the second sheet, but unfortunately, this recipe does not rise enough in my opinion...so next time, more baking powder. Then, I knew the peanut butter filling would be easy, and didn't have to be practiced as a recipe-I knew exactly how it would come out (super sweet and HEAVENLY!!!), so I decided to try a caramel buttercream. That recipe failed me entirely. My first batch of caramel didn't work because there was too much crust forming on the side. Wasn't usable. So I corrected the second batch-came out looking like beautiful dark caramel-but tasted burnt. I have never made caramel, so I followed the recipe, and it called to take it off the heat once the syrup reached a Very Dark amber. That's what I did. Unfortunately, I should have taken it off as soon as it turned amber and that's it. I didn't have the courage to try a third time (didn't have a clean saucepan left), especially as the meringue buttercream didn't work either. Thank goodness for the peanut butter, this recipe took way longer than I thought, and on my website, I will never offer it with a meringue buttercream, rather with an american one-failproof icing. I mean, this is the type of cookie that is meant to be served with super duper sweet icing right? What do you guys think? Should I try the stupid caramel again?

Because of Ro's and Nancy's complaints, voilà!

My ongoing battle with the red velvet...

On the left-Martha Stewart Recipe, on the right-my changes...

Ok, so I have coerced myself into putting the red velvet cupcake on my future site's menu...why? Not because the red velvet is known here, it isn't, but because lots of rich americans live here, and maybe they want to get the red velvet cupcake...you know? But can I tell you something in secret? I HATE THE RED VELVET CUPCAKE!!!!!! I think it's not chocolatey enough to be a good devil's food, and it doesn't have a distinct enough taste for it to be special. Apart from it being red and requiring a cream cheese topping, I don't see the point of it. So I am in a battle right now, to find the proper recipe. I have all of my other cc recipes ready, this is the only one, and what do you do when you don't even like something and you have to make the best version of it??? Tomorrow a friend will be taste testing them. My husband will as well-but as soon as there is a sweet topping, he doesn't care about the cake! But I say, cake is the make or break of my future site-that's where I can get the customers!!! My own opinion is that the Martha Stewart recipe tastes like nothing, and is too weak in colour. Mine tastes better, but does it taste like a red velvet???? I don't know!!!! By the way, for those of you wondering why I always make the same flowers : it's my way of testing frosting consistencies. Finally this cream cheese frosting works-but is very very sweet-so I still don't know...Anyway, any thoughts? By the way, have used vinegar in both-so I am fearless about the ingredients now!!! So any suggestion would be nice! Thank you!!!

Peanut Butter Cookies...8 Variations on one recipe!

Anything better than milk and cookies?

Ok, so really, the king of all cookies is the chocolate chip cookie, no question...but if we were to crown a queen, than the peanut butter cookie would be the obvious choice. Now I haven't made one in years I would say, but I stumbled upon a recipe and decided to have fun with it! 8 variations!! They go as such : plain, chocolate chip, pecan nut, chocolate chip and pecan nut, and all of the above with cocoa powder. And really, if I had different types of chocolate chips, or nuts at home, the possibilities would be almost endless! And can I say something else? THEY ARE ALL GREAT!!!!!!!!!! I have rediscovered the joy of peanut butter cookies! Hopefully Switzerland will jump on the bandwagon and order some once my website is on the go!! If ever there was a gourmet cookie...

Banana Pecan with Chocolate Buttercream and Chopped Pecan Topping...just for us!!!

This morning, I got up really late, and then started doing stuff, like vaccuming, cleaning the kitchen, etc...and then I looked at my leftover buttercream from yesterday's birthday cupcakes, and my old bananas and thought, ooooh, this could be very tasty. And since I hadn't tried a banana cupcake recipe in a while, I thought, I better, because there is just nothing like a good banana nut cupcake...makes you even feel like you're eating something nutritious!!! (Just for you Ro). But it was already 10 o'clock and the little one was still asleep, but for how long?? Then I thought, if I wait, it'll be much harder to do the entire recipe with her screaming next to me right? So I made the cupcakes, she slept, cleaned up after myself, she slept! So all I had to do was add the buttercream!!! Well, I followed the instructions about using buttercream that had been in the fridge overnight, and all I got was sweet butter. Grosssssssss!!!!! So I had to wait till the husband got home to eat, and then remade the buttercream-and added dark chocolate! For those who wonder about the colour-yeah, it seems that the chocolate isn't enough to make the cream go dark-but I think it goes well with these particular cupcakes, I will know for the future that if I want a dark chocolate topping, I will make a ganache! So I learned a few things today-always make the buttercream fresh and even nutritious can be turned into a real dessert! Thanks for looking in!!!

My Mother-in-law's 77th Birthday Cupcakes

So I don't know how my mother-in-law or her guests will react, but one thing I know is this : these raspberry-chocolate cupcakes with Swiss Meringue vanilla Buttercream are so yummy, I could die. I made half without the raspberry because I didn't have enough left at home to make more, but it doesn't matter, because these chocolate chip chewy mini cupcakes are fantastic alone as well. The topper is a royal icing transfer, and I figured every woman like a little rose, so there you go. I think my practicing is going well, so when my website hits the internet, come valentine's day 2012, I should know what I am doing!!! Hope you like these!!!

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies Challenge...Check!

Today, I tackled the Whoopie Pie phenomenon. Ok, maybe that's a big word, a slight exaggeration perhaps...but then, I live in Switzerland, I have never seen one anywhere, only heard about it from Martha Stewart, so I am thinking it's possible that it's a phenomenon in America. Over here? Well, just something perfect to add to my website in the making, because I have never seen a whoopie pie ever in Switzerland. What can I say, this challenge was a breeze. Don't take that as an insult Nancy, I really enjoyed making them! The challenge will be more like finding really good recipes for them. These cakey cookies have the strangest dough when they aren't baked, elastic almost. Not like a cookie and no where near a cupcake, but they are absolutely perfect! And I tried out a new cream cheese frosting-with cream-like a whipped cream frosting really. But I was so scared it would turn that I think I didn't beat long enough. Still practiced piping some flowers with it though, and they weren't too horrible. Anyway, these whoopie pies taste fantastic! And I can't wait for the husband to try them! Any other challenges anyone? And before someone tries : no cakes, and new rules, no brownies (I hate making them, and I can never eat more than one) and please, nothing nutritious!!!