Tis The Season!

Yep, That picture of stacks of cookies and bowls of icing looks pretty intimidating!  But Tis the season for Christmas cookies!! I have been in desperate need for some Christmas spirit in my apartment and have no decorations :(  BUT of course I had ingredients for sugar cookies and icing! So I set to it!  

It was a lot of fun, but not the same as decorating with the ones you love!  The holiday movies on the television tried to keep me company though and here is the result! :D

Not the best decorating job, but there were just too many cookies!

How can I bake at school?

So, since I haven't been able to bake because of crazy schedules... and other problems with living situations, I needed a way to enjoy my baking while at school !  So here is how I did that!! :D

Do you recognize the cupcake?

Thanksgiving Treats~

Crisscross Apple Crowns!

So the latest baking experience was for the wonderful holiday of Thanksgiving!  My little brother came to visit me since I wasn't able to go anywhere (thanks to black friday).   Sooo I decided to try a new recipe for apple pies!   What I made were little versions of apple pie, Crisscross Apple Crowns!  They are very simple and delicious!  They are perfect, just the right size and not as messy as apple pie!!  I highly suggest you trying them out!

Long time no see!

Hello!!  So a lot has happened since I have posted last!  Had Katie's Baby Shower, then her beautiful baby girl, Aubrey Elizabeth was born on November 10th!  I'm so excited to meet the cutie!!  I have been super busy with school and work that I have not been able to bake or post at all :(   Here I will try and catch up real fast.  Prolly won't get recipes up super fast, but show you some of what has been happening.

Firstly I made a whole bunch of stuff for Katie's baby shower, I made brownie pops, little square cupcakes, and a square cake!  Lots of treats for everyone!

So basically the brownie pops were just cake pops, but with brownie mix instead, they were a big hit!  Good thing cuz there were a lot of them!  Then I made little square pieces of cake and put strawberry gel inbetween to make cute cakes... They were supposed to be decorated like little letter blocks, but that failed quickly so they were pretty plain and unimpressive.   Then I made a large letter block for the main cake!  That poor cake just didn't want to live.  First it got squished on the drive there, then kitty cats wanted to eat some.. well lots of the icing... it looked pretty terrible after a while.  O well, I tried, Live and you learn!

Our little cousin admiring the selection~

One tip to give everyone from these couple of baking experiences is how to keep cake pops or brownie pops standing up while you are making them!  The perfect solution isn't one of those stands they sell at Michaels (tried them, they are terrible).  It is floral foam!  My sister and I were trying to find ways to keep them all up to dry and that is what she had, and it worked wonderfully!  I have some right now for the next time I make cake pops! So keep that in mind for when you make them again, or for the first time! :D   You can even use them to display your cake pops as we did.  We just wrapped them in wrapping paper to make them match the baby spirit and there you go! :)

The Tiniest Cupcake!

Hello!

Ok.. so I know this isn't a baking project, but here is the tiniest cupcake I've ever seen!  I had a project in my Material Science and Engineering class, and had to make a tiny little something with special stuff (Yes I should know what it is called, but I don't. ) My bad I was more excited about creating a tiny cupcake!! The first version came out more of an ice cream cone, but try number two came out Awesome-ish!  So I had to share!  Enjoy this tiny little cupcake! :)  O the things you can do with technology :P

Original Cupcake Creation!

I finally did it!  I created my own cupcake.  Not just the decoration either like my red velvet cupcakes!  As I said in a past blog, I bought some small thin mints from a seller going door to door.  So today I got some ingredients went through some of my cookbooks and put together my own cupcake creation!

Mint Chocolate Cupcakes
Andes Mint Buttercream Frosting
Thin Mint on Top

It's pretty exciting to me, and thankfully my design project for school has to do with baking or I couldn't make excuses to use my time this way...   Anyway!   It's a mint chocolate cupcake that I found out of one of my cookbooks.  I then found a normal buttercream frosting recipe, but changed it.  I added Andes mint chips to the frosting to make it a little minty!   I then tried to color half of the frosting green, because I wanted to make them a swirl of green and white on top of the cupcake.  Well it didn't work out exactly.  I do not have a big enough tip for my frosting bags and so the mint chips got stuck and prevented the frosting to go on correctly.  So I used what I could find, it worked alright, but they are not that pretty looking.. next time I'll invest in something that will work better!   To top off the cupcakes I used the thin mints that I bought from the boy going door to door!    It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed how they tasted, and so did my roommate!! :)   I am now taking the rest to my classmates tomorrow morning and see what they think as well!

Recipes are Here!

Yes, I failed, This will be my last post for the day!!  It is an important one though!  I had the request to add the recipes I use in the blog to my blog, so I have!   On the ride side of my blog you will see them all listed underneath the heading Recipes!    I will put the recipes I use on there, plus some added things that I think will help you in your baking!  For instance, when wanting to color frosting or cupcakes, use food coloring Gel rather than the original food coloring.  You will get a better color with less!  Anyway check them out and see what you think! :)

Side note,  a boy just came buy selling stuff for some fundraiser (i confess I wasn't really listening).  Anyway, I bought Thin Mints and they are small and awesome.  The main reason I am telling you this, is because once I got them and saw their size, I instantly thought, "how can I add these to a cupcake??"  So! I am on a mission to find/invent a recipe for cupcakes and frosting that will do these Thin Mints justice!  Keep a look out for the post and the recipe! :)