March is off to a good start.....

March is shaping up to be one of my favorite months.  First off- it is National Social Work Month.   I am proud to be a social worker and am thrilled to participate in the events planned at my employment.   I wish there were more ways that we could recognize and acknowledge the difficult and fulfilling job that social workers have.   I regret not taking the time to write Oprah and ask her to dedicate one of her "favorite things episodes" to social workers.  I love that she shared one episode with teachers- another difficult job that is often under-recognized.    But, trust me, social workers take the cake.....

Speaking of cake, I made some oreo cupcakes.  They were delicious.  I placed an oreo at the bottom of a cupcake liner, mixed up a white cake mix and topped it off with some homemade buttercream and some more oreos.   And let me tell you.  This butterceam was soooooo good.   I will share more one it later, because I may have fulfilled my-quest-to-find-the-perfect--frosting.   It was that good.

Here is a close up.  And yes my iphone pictures are lacking.   I would love a fancy schmancy camera so I could take pictures that would truly show how good these bad boys are.   So, tooth fairy if you are reading my blog- take note.   And I definitely think a root canal justifies a visit from the tooth fairy... Yep... It does.

Here are some goodies my friend and I baked up the other weekend for a cutie's first birthday.

The favor bags were adorable.  Between my sister, me and my BFF I know we could take on the baking and decorating world.

Next up is my adorable nephew's birthday party.  I will be baking up some more fun goodies for that party.  And my favorite twins in the world will be in town and I cannot wait for their smiles and giggles to fill up my heart.

But the best part of March- it means the end of winter and the beginning of spring.  Bring on the sunshine!

Smiles,
Marci

Birthdays Galore Ahead...

I had a busy weekend and even managed to squeeze in some baking for a party.   I made oreo cupcakes.  They were tasty but not so photogenic.   I want to make some adjustments and will post pictures and a recipe soon.   

In the weeks ahead I will be busy with cookies.  I may have to table the quest-to-find-the-perfect-frosting for a couple of weeks as I work on decorating and baking some cookies.   Besides I don't think my hips can handle cookies and frosting at the same time.   

I am planning on helping a dear friend with some cookies for her son's first birthday and my nephew's third birthday is fast approaching.   Here is a hint below of the template I am working on for his themed cookies.   I need to find a thick cardstock that will hold up well because I will need to hand cut these cookies.   

I hope to have some fun pictures up soon. 

Smiles,

Marci

The Quest

I am on a quest. A very very important quest. This quest is big- it could impact thousands of lives. I know that when I complete it- I will be changed forever. What is this quest? THE Quest to find the perfect frosting of course....

I am a frosting girl. I love it. But, I am kinda particular. Gone are my days of buying a tub of chocolate frosting and eating it with a spoon. Okay- not really- but for the sake of science I am willing to give that secret habit up. So I figure that in my quest to find "my" perfect frosting I may find yours. I am willing to sacrifice my hips to all of you in my quest. And also my poor coworkers who will probably be eating a lot of cupcakes in the meantime.

Now let me clarify- I am testing cake frosting here. I love cookies and do agree that there are quite a few variations of cookie frosting out there, but I tend to stick to two types for my cookies.

Instead I want to find a perfect cake frosting- preferably a version in chocolate and one in vanilla.

I started out this quest with a simple recipe for cream cheese frosting. This recipe is from Annie's Eats. I loved how simple it was and also how she explained her secret to the frosting. I also love her beautiful photographs. Food photography=Love.

Here are the ingredients:

I wanted to tell you about some of the mistakes I make along the way and this is one of them. If you did not already know (because I know you all have read my blog from the exciting beginning to now....lol), but I have a new oven and with a new oven you are always experimenting and figuring out how things are going to "bake" in it. In my old oven I was able to pop two pans of cupcakes in one on top of the other and they would bake up fine. But, as I learned- not in my new oven. Here is why:

The cupcake on top was baked on the middle rack and the cupcake below was baked on a lower rack, but it was not at the bottom of the oven either. Which was why I assumed that it would bake up fine. In my old oven I could not bake two pans side by side on the same rack because it was too hot in the back of my oven and the cupcakes closest to the back would bake more quickly than the ones in the front despite pan rotations. Anyway, the cupcake on top is how I prefer my cakes to turn out- evenly baked with a slight crust on top. The cupcake on the bottom had some funky air pockets on it and remained "gooey" to the touch even after adequate cooling time.

So below are the lovelies that turned out well. Luckily the "special bottom row cupcakes" tasted just as good as the others and you would never know the difference unless you had seen them pre-icing.

Here is me mixing up the frosting. This frosting is also great because it does not require a fancy stand mixer. Your standard hand mixer will work just fine. And if you have arms of steel and titanium fingers you may be able to mix this by hand. Not me.

And here is the frosting on some simple Devil's Food Cupcakes. And for the record- the cupcakes are not homemade. They are from a box. After all I was busy saving the world that day and did not have time to add "made from scratch cupcakes" to my to do list.

I enjoyed this frosting. I enjoyed it a great deal. I enjoyed it on many cupcakes. I am far too polite to tell you how many were eaten. by me. alone.

I liked this frosting because it was sweet, but not too sweet. I also love the tang and creamy(ness) that you get with cream cheese. I also loved that this frosting paired really well with the deep chocolate of the cupcake. It truly was one of the best cream cheese frosting that I have had. Most of the time, cream cheese frosting's are too sweet or too thick. All in all a very very nice try for my first attempt on my life-altering-quest-to-find-the-perfect-frosting.

My only side note to this recipe is that it did not cover two dozen cupcakes. It covered more like 18-20 cupcakes depending on the size of your cupcake and how generously you frost them. Personally, I say double the recipe and eat whatever is left with a spoon. Better yet, put it in a red tub with a lid and sneak bits of it on a spoon all day long... Yum!!

Here is the recipe from Annie's Eats if you want to try it for yourself.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

Ingredients:

10 oz. cream cheese, chilled
6½ tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
3¼ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
4 tsp. clear vanilla extract

Directions:

Combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add in the confectioners’ sugar and mix on low speed just until incorporated. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat 2-3 minutes more. Blend in the vanilla.

Smiles,

Marci

It's all in the tools...

LilaLoa is a blog that I follow and love. She makes amazing cookies and cakes and I see her work and dream of being so talented. Recently, she posted a picture of her icing colors and how she stores them. And she challenged us to show her our icing colors and how we store them.

So here is a peek at my cookie (and sometimes cake) supplies.

And here are my Americolor icing colors. I really do like these gel colors. The small bottles are my favorite to buy as I always am convinced that I just "need a teeny bit". Until you make something red, or blue or black... and then I feel like I use the whole small bottle.

So I have invested in some large bottles of color. So if you need some black food color just call me cause I am your gal.

Does anyone else have a hobby that requires a bin of supplies? I feel like so many of my interests require bins of tools. Someday I will find a hobby that requires nothing... Like tv watching...just kidding....well maybe.... (and if you haven't noticed yet- I like to use my punctuation incorrectly. I know English majors out there are cringing. But, I like it because I feel like pauses look like periods in my head- so hence many periods and many exclamation marks).

My nephew has been asking about cookies so I think I am going to plan another "Cookie Decorating- but really just need the sprinkles" Day with him. I CAN'T WAIT!

Smiles,

Marci

Blueberry French Toast Bake

My BFF- hee hee- I just had to sneak this in-Lory introduced me to this french toast bake and I LOVE IT!! It is just sweet enough and the addition of blueberries pushes it over the top. I made this french toast bake for Christmas morning and it was a huge hit.

Some of my best memories involve brunch with family and friends. You can be so flexible with brunch time- you can include lite lunch items, the classic breakfast trio- bacon, eggs and potatoes and even include sweet items. This french toast bake is one of those sweeter items. I especially love brunch items where you can make it up and set it aside and throw it in the oven in the morning to bake.

Here are the cast of characters for this breakfast bake. BTW- these blueberries I bought from Wal-mart (yes I know that they are evil....) were so good. They were so plump and were some of the biggest blueberries that I had ever seen. You can find them in the freezer section and they were a lot (cheaper) than some of the other supermarket frozen blueberries.

The night before you want to bake the french toast, you will cut your loaf of bread into small chunks, whip your eggs and sugar till light and fluffy, add in the half and half and then soak the bread cubes overnight in the mix.

The next morning you will add your blueberries to the soaked bread chunks. See how plump those blueberries look. I think I just want to see how many more times I can use the word plump.....

On your stove top you will melt a half cup f butter and half cup of brown sugar. You will cook both until the mix is bubbling gently.

Pour your bread mix in a lightly greased casserole dish and then drizzle this buttery, sugary mix on top.

Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour or until top if puffed and lightly browned.

Here is what the finished french toast bake looks like. You can serve this french toast with maple syrup, but personally I enjoy it just the way it is. But if you do make this and serve it with maple syrup- let me know how you like it.

Again- check out those blueberries...plump....

Here is the recipe in case you want to bake this bad boy on up for your next brunch. Hey- invite me too!!

Blueberry French Toast

8 cups French bread (one loaf) 1" cubed
5 eggs
1 cup sugar
3 cups milk or half&half
1 1/2 cups Frozen blueberries
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar

Place bread cubes in large bowl
Whip eggs and sugar until light in color and thick. Add half and half.
Pour mixture over bread cubes
Cover and refrigerate overnight

In the morning, preheat oven to 325
Mix 1 cup blueberries into bread and put into greased 9X13 pan
Sprinkle remaining berries on top

On stove in a saucepan, melt butter and brown sugar until bubbly
Pour mixture over bread and berries
Bake at 325 for 1 hour or until puffed
Serve with syrup

Enjoy!!

Marci

My First Official Cookie Order

I was asked to create some baby shower cookies for a friend of a friend whom I knew casually. I was thrilled and nervous. All of my baking has always been for family and close friends- people who would always love my cookies and cake wrecks no matter what. But making cookies for someone I didn't know well was a different story. So with some trepidation- I agreed.

The theme of the shower was "Good things come in twos" because the mom to be was expecting twins. I know a "little" something about twins. Good luck on that one... just kidding!! Twins are double the amount of work and heartaches, but also double the amount of love, kisses, cuddles and joy! I love my twin nephews and although they can run hurdles around me- I can't help but love all of the trouble they get into. Even as I type about them I am picturing cake butt shaking his finger at me going "no no no no"....

From what I understand the guests wold be decorating onesies for the mom to be to take home with her. So I created onesie cookies in the colors of the shower- pale orange, pale green and pale yellow. I actually loved this color combination. Although I do admit my orange is slightly more "peachy" than orange.

I had a lot of fun making these cookies, some minor hand cramps and a slight incident that involved royal icing being squeezed- or more like- popped all over my head and body. That was fun. I was too busy to actually address the scary state of my face and hair so later that night I tried to hose myself down and boy does royal icing dry well in hair and on skin. I had a mini sugar and meringue facial that night and a funny white streak in my hair. At least I have a good memory to help me recall my "first-ever-official-cookie-order"!!!

Smiles,

Marci

A Theme Party for Two Cuties

I had an eventful New Years Eve as it was the day of my twin nephews birthday party. And what a party it was. Yo Gabba Gabba was the theme and I made cookies for the party.

Here is one snapshot of one of the tables that was decorated for the party.

I started on the cookies a couple of weeks before the big day. I cut out and baked circle cookies a couple of weeks before and froze the cookies so that they would stay fresh. The week of the festivities I broke out the decorating tips and royal icing and got to work. I decided that I wanted to make the main characters into cookies.

As I started decorating the cookies- I realized that the tips that I had were not quite small enough so I had to run and buy some more tips. I have a few Wilton round tips, but only had one-#1 tip and a couple #2 tips. I did end up investing in some PME tips in size 1 and 00. I do think that I prefer the size #1 tip for decorating finer details.

Here is how Muno turned out. He was by far the easiest to pipe and outline and in all honesty- he really was the most fun to make.

Here is Toodee- I did not realize that Toodee was a female until I noted the "eyelashes" on her character. Again the finer tips came in handy for things like eyelashes and I think I could have gone even finer with the detail. So I may need to invest in a few more PME tips in #00 and maybe even a couple in #000.

Brobee was kinda fun as well because I liked doing the "squiggle" piping on him. :)

I thought that Plex would be the easiest to make since he was all squares, but for some reason I could not pipe a straight square to save my life that day. Even though he is not perfect, I still like him.

And here are all four characters. They are not perfect- they have many flaws. They are not perfectly shaped and they do not look exactly like the characters on the show. But, I am happy with my first attempt at making character cookies!

And if you notice- I did leave two characters out. I tried to make Foofa cookies, but she was one of my first attempts without a finer "tip" and she was a mess. She looked like a pink Tammy Faye- so I ended up scrapping that cookie entirely.

I also decided not to do DJ Lance as I was a little nervous about creating a "skin tone" cookie color and frankly time really did not permit me to experiment that much more.

Overall, I am very happy with my cookie attempt and hope to have some more fun baking for my other nephew's birthday in the spring!!

Smiles,

Marci