Christmas Cookies

Emma and I made Christmas Cookies last night until 10 o'clock. She had so much fun. I brought some that I decorated to work with me. Emma will be bringing her masterpieces to school.

Chocolate Mint Wish

This one needs some work. I made a peppermint nougat and put a small piece on the inside before I baked them. The nougat pieces were frozen so I was hoping that this would help keep them from melting too much. No such luck. They taste incredible. The frosting is a white chocolate cream cheese peppermint butter cream. It sounds like a lot but it's smooth and creamy and rich and delicious. I think I might try the new butter cream technique on this one as well. They really look beautiful.

Turned Up Pineapple

This is not my recipe, I cannot take credit. I wouldn't change a thing. It's delicious!

Malted Milkshake...I mean cake...

I love this one. I got the idea from a recipe book I have at home but it called for chocolate chips and other stuff in the batter that I didn't like. It also called for alot more sugar than I wanted and no malt in the batter. So anyway, I vamped it up and put malt in the batter, less sugar and no chocolate chips. The cake baked up beautifully and tastes very malty. I also made a malted buttercream. This was just a basic buttercream frosting and I added malt to the mixture. This also came out tasting great but I'm not crazy out the grittiness of the powdered sugar. I think I'll try another buttercream method and see how that works. The flavor is great though. And it looks cute too. It was suggested to me that maybe some chocolate on the inside might be yummy. We'll see...

S'more Revisions

I revised the S'more cupcake and boy did it turn out beautiful. I made a milk chocolate ganache and let it harden in the fridge. Then I scooped out teaspoon sized balls, put them on a baking sheet and stored them in the freezer to set. I made a graham cracker crust with butter and sugar and baked it for 8 minutes before I put in the remaining ingredients. Once the crusts were cooled, I put 1 ganache ball and piped the batter on top. When the cupcakes were cooled, I made the marshmallow meringue. Each one got a dollop and then under the broiler for some brownage. My recipe is complete. This is definitely my favorite cupcake!

Elmo x 30

My Elmo cupcakes turned out really cute. I went to deliver them to the party at 3:00PM today and I found out when I got there that the party is not today but on the 21st. So, I was a little early. I'll have to remake them, but at least it'll give me time to perfect my Elmo Hair making technique!

Campfire Cupcakes

Ok so I got creative in the kitchen again today. I had an order of 26 cupcakes and at the last minute was upped to 30. There isn't a recipe in the whole world that will make only 4 cupcakes so I made a batch and got frisky with the leftover batter. I took some crumbled graham cracker crumbs and put about a tablespoon in the bottom. Then, I nestled a chocolate wafer in the crumbs put half of a large marshmallow on top and then topped the marshmallow with another chocolate wafer. I piped the batter on top and baked for 22 minutes in the oven. They looked great when I took them out and as they cooled they sank in the center like a lava cake. I wanted to frost them, but with what? I thought of topping them with toasted marshmallows but then it came to me. Marshmallow Meringue. YUM! It turned out perfect. After topping each one with a dollop of the ooey gooey meringue, I popped them under the broiler until the were browned and looked like toasted marshmallows. These have to be my most successful experiment ever! I was a little worried about the messy factor but this also turned out to be perfect.