Are you familiar with the Crazy Cookies at Perkins?  They're half sugar cookie half chocolate chip cookie.  Each time Noah gets one of those Crazy Cookies I can't help but eye up the sugar cookie half, secretly hoping that he won't be able to finish it and he'll offer it to me.  I love sugar cookies.  They have been my favorite cookie since my very first bite of my Grandma B's amazing homemade sugar cookies.  It was definitely a case of love at first bite!  I was cravin' those melt-in-your-mouth cookies today so I pulled Grandma B's sugar cookie recipe out of the safety of my super secret recipe vault for the first time in years.  Ok, so I don't really have a super secret recipe vault but it sounded cool.  Right!?  Anyway, back to the Crazy Cookies...I asked Noah if he would like to help me bake some sugar cookies.  He agreed but thought it would be better if we made the sugar cookie/chocolate chip cookie combo like at Perkins.  Hmm...Challenge accepted!

Grandma B's recipe makes a sugar cookie that literally melts in your mouth.  That's part of what I love about them.  But, I didn't think they would work well paired with chocolate chip cookie dough as the sugar cookie side would probably break right off.  The ones at Perkins are more of a chewy sugar cookie.  I still used Grandma B's recipe but adapted it to what I hoped would work well and achieve the end result I was looking for.

First, I mixed up the chocolate chip cookie dough and threw it in the frig.  I will include the recipes at the bottom of the post so read on!

 
Next, I mixed up the sugar cookie dough.  I'm pretty sure my sweet Grandma B was rolling in her grave as not only did I completely alter her recipe but I ran out of flour...Eek!  How does a baker run out of flour!?  Such an amateur move!  I had roughly 1 1/4 C all purpose flour.  I peeked in the pantry and found bread flour and cake flour.  Oh, what do I do!?  I chose the cake flour, dumped some in with the all purpose flour, said a little apology to my Grandma and crossed my fingers! 

Sugar cookie dough is notoriously sticky.  Turns out my crazy concoction is no exception.  When I was done mixing up the dough I threw it in the freezer.

Let the two doughs cool/freeze for a while.  If you're like me and can't wait hours for fresh baked cookies, at least leave the doughs in the frig/freezer for as long as it takes to clean up the kitchen (no sense in denying that you make a giant mess while baking) and fully preheat the oven (350 degrees).  Also keep them in the frig/freezer while waiting for each batch to bake.

I made roughly teaspoon size balls out of the doughs and sort of just smooshed them together.  Line them up on a parchment lined cookie sheet (don't skip the parchment as sugar cookie dough really is quite fussy and will stick to your cookie sheet).  Here's how they looked before I press them.

Use the bottom of a glass, pressed in sugar, to flatten the dough balls.  Coincidentally, I still use the dishes that I inherited from Grandma B (see bowl of sugar).  I hope this makes up for butchering her sugar cookie recipe...Sorry Grandma!

Here they are ready for the oven.  They're not perfectly round but with a name like "Crazy Cookie" they can be, well, crazy!  Bake them in the oven for roughly 11 minutes.  Just keep a close eye on them and don't over cook them.  Over cooking sugar cookies is pretty much a major crime.  Just so you know.

And here they are directly out of the oven.  Not too bad, huh?

I'm pretty happy with how the sugar cookie turned out.  I did end up with a more chewy, less melt-in-your-mouthy cookie which is exactly what I was hoping for.  Hopefully Grandma B can rest a little easier now...

Crazy Cookie, anyone?

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough:

1/2 C Butter (1 stick)

1/2 C Light Brown Sugar

1/4 C Granulated Sugar

1 Egg

1 TSP Vanilla

1 C plus heaping 1/4 Cup Flour

1/2 TSP Salt

1/4 TSP Baking Powder

1 C Chocolate Chips

{Not My Grandma's} Sugar Cookie Dough:

1/2 C Butter

1/2 C Sugar

1/4 C Oil

1/2 C Powdered Sugar

2 Eggs

1/4 TSP Cream of Tartar

1/2 TSP Baking Soda

1 1/2 TSP Vanilla

1/8 TSP Salt

2 C Sifted Flour (Don't skip the sifting, my Grandma swore by it and goodness knows we shouldn't mess with her recipe any more than I already have!)

I recently saw this idea on Pinterest.  I was intrigued by the Nerds in the cupcakes.  I have no idea why.  I don't like Nerds or any other sour candy for that matter.  But, I thought I should give it a chance.  I'm pretty sure all great bakers have come up with some pretty crazy ideas.  Some of them turn out amazing and others...not so much.  I settled on baking a Nerds cake and asked for Noah's help in picking out the frosting.  He chose cotton candy.  Cotton candy and Nerds.  Huh.  We're going all in on this one I guess!

Have you seen these?  I normally make my own frosting but Noah saw these little packets and just had to mix up his own frosting.  There were many flavors to choose from, in case you're interested in checking them out too.  I still much prefer to make my own frosting but in a pinch the canned stuff will work.

I folded about half of the box of Nerds into my vanilla cake batter and poured it into a bundt pan.  If nothing else, the cake LOOKED wonderful when I pulled it out of the oven.  (Can you tell I'm still a little skeptical about adding sour candy to my cake batter???)

After the cake cooled I mixed up the cotton candy frosting and popped it into the microwave for a bit.  My mom was here to watch this step and was pretty impressed as she had never thought to melt frosting to make a drizzle.  I'm glad I could teach her something.  : )

After drizzling the frosting on the cake it was Noah's job to add the final touch.  He took his job very seriously...

Or, maybe not so much...



The verdict?  Mom and I didn't mind the tangy cake at all but Noah didn't care to take a second bite.  The frosting is, well, canned frosting.  'Nough said.  I would never bake with Nerds again but I'm glad I tried it because you just don't know if you never try!

It does look all cute and happy though.  : )

Happy Birthday Harry

I have a teeny bit of catching up to do so today I'm going to double post!

Last weekend was a pretty busy weekend but I still wanted to get my cake baked and decorated for Mugglenet's birthday cake contest.  So, over the course of three days, I managed to throw something together.

The first thing that popped into my head when I starting planning was the birthday cake that Hagrid made for Harry's 11th birthday.  As this was probably the single nicest thing anyone had done for Harry in ten years, I felt it was really important to include it but I didn't want my contest cake to just be a replica of it.  So I decided to make a mini version of Hagrid's cake as my cake topper.  With the design mostly figured out it was time to get to the baking.

Now, I know that this is a cake that is supposed to honor Harry Potter (and it will!) but the Hufflepuff in me couldn't resist using my own house colors in the cake.  Here are the yellow and black cake layers fresh out of the oven.  You can find the tutorial for the zebra effect here.

After the layers were cooled, crumb coated and cooled again I was ready to decorate.  This time I used Harry's house colors to create colored ribbons around the cake.

Next, the mini replica of Hagrid's cake.  I paused to take a photo here mostly because I was scared to try to toss that baby cake on top of the main cake without completely destroying something...

Whew.  Made it.

The contest rules were specific.  You had to supply a photo of the cake, a photo of the cake cut open and a photo of you with the cake.  This last one was a little tricky as I was home alone at the time.  Eventually I got myself in the shot a little better than this...LOL!

I ate that big chunk of cake when I was finally done photographing.  I totally earned it.  : )

My coworker, Jolene, is finally catching up to the rest of us...It's her *cough* 21st *cough, cough* birthday today!  I promised her that I would bring some Red Velvet cupcakes to work to celebrate.  I had never made Red Velvet cupcakes from scratch before (gasp!) but felt Jolene's birthday deserved the effort.  I did some Internet searching and found this recipe.  Like this blogger, I've never really bought into the Red Velvet hype so I felt her recipe was quite trustworthy.


Here's what the batter looks like.  So far so good!









Ooh, they baked nicely too!















This is the end result.  I used the frosting recipe from the same sight and it's rather quite yummy.  I may even be guilty of licking the spatula...

Since Red Velvet isn't my usual flavor of choice I had to seek out an impartial taste-tester.  My six year old son ensures me that these cupcakes are delicious.  Whew!  Happy birthday, Jolene!

One of my besties, Maura, bakes THE BEST apple pie. Her recipe is top secret, so don’t even bother asking her for it. However, when she left the comfort of my back yard (seriously, she lived right behind me) to move across the country, she left me her super secret recipe. She made me swear on my life that I would never share it with anyone EXCEPT Noah’s wife (he’s only six so the recipe won’t be shared any time soon…) and then ONLY if I have deemed said wife worthy. Yep, it’s that good. Excited to bake something that would make others swoon, I had a go at the apple pie recipe.

Who knows what’s coming next?! You’re right. I failed. Miserably. At that point the pie recipe got locked in the super secret recipe vault and hasn’t been touched again. I’m really hoping Maura will come visit soon so she can bake me a pie…

I had pretty much given up hope of baking a not only passable, but tasty, apple pie until I arrived at Jody’s last Sunday to watch an episode of A Game of Thrones (does anyone else think Tyrion is the best character ever?!). She offered me a slice of apple pie and vanilla ice cream. Yes, not only does she invite me over to watch A Game of Thrones but she also feeds me! Anyway, the pie was super tasty (don’t worry Maura, yours is still THE BEST) and she assured me that it was also super easy to make.

I felt compelled to share with all of you. Please note that this is Jody’s recipe NOT Maura’s super top secret recipe (she’d kill me if I put that one on the internet!).

So…Here it is….

Start by slicing 5 Granny Smith apples (I used 6 because that’s what I had) directly into an un-greased pie plate.

Sprinkle with a cinnamon/sugar blend. And when I say sprinkle, I really mean evenly coat. I used about 2 tablespoons of each.

In a mixing bowl, mix 1 egg with one cup of sugar.

Add 1 cup of flour. Mix. This part gets a little messy...

Lastly, mix in ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) butter.

Spread the mixture over the apples. I wanted to be sure that I covered all of the apples so I used the back of my spoon to spread the mixture out a bit.  Pop the pie into the oven set at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

While the pie is baking, brew yourself a cup of coffee and go catch up on your DVR’s. *Note: This step is optional but obviously (best Snape voice) enhances the whole pie baking experience. Trust me.



When you pull the pie out of the oven, be sure to check for doneness. Give it a poke with a toothpick or something. I did not do this as I was too anxious for the pie to cool down so I could have a slice with a scoop of the vanilla bean ice cream waiting for me in the freezer. And, of course, my apples ended up being slightly on the crisp side yet. Oops. I’m learning.

Although this pie won’t win you an award in the prettiest pie contest, it still tastes quite yummy. Thanks, Jody!











Bingo!  I'm going to go ahead and throw modesty aside for a minute and say that today's cake, well, it rocks.  Not only does it look super cute (my 5 year old son said it looked like the cake was wearing a ruffly skirt) but when we dug in we found it to taste delicious too!

As much as I love chocolate, I typically shy away from chocolate cake.  It's a bit fussy and can turn out crumbly, dry, bland, you name it.  I know that I've been all about finding great "from scratch" recipes lately but I recently found this recipe for a doctored cake mix and decided to give it a try.  I was a bit skeptical but that started melting away as soon as I pulled the cake layers out of the oven.  They baked up so nice and even.  Plus, I totally made up for using a box mix by making homemade whipped chocolate ganache for the filling and homemade buttercream.







Stacked, filled and ready for crumb coat.

The crumb coat is so important when working with decorated cakes.  It really holds everything together nicely.

And here it is finished.  Cute, huh?  I rather like the sweet little ruffles. 

Next time I'll try it with some color.  Maybe ombre style.  Yep, definitely.

Valentine's Day is only two days away.  In the spirit of the holiday, I had to bust out the pink food coloring.  I just couldn't help myself.  I whipped up a batch of vanilla cupcakes (tinted half of the batter pink) and topped them off with pink vanilla bean buttercream (say that five times, fast!) roses.

I'm not expecting real flowers on Valentine's Day.  That's ok, though.  No, really...I rather prefer the edible kind. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

A couple of weeks ago, my brother asked me to make the cake for my niece's birthday party.  I immediately panicked.  I mean, it's one thing to make a cake for myself but a whole other thing to make one for someone else.  For their birthday.  Eep.  I almost said no but this is my brother and, equally importantly, my niece we're talking about. 

His request was for a white cake (the quest for the perfect recipe continues!) with not-too-sweet white and red frosting flowers.  I ordered the best red food coloring I could find (red is such a hard color to create in frosting), bought some bakery whipped cream frosting and baked up a vanilla cake based on a much raved vanilla cupcake recipe.  I didn't get a chance to make a test cake but I will keep my fingers crossed all the way to the party that it will be delicious!

Here's the end product...

It's sort of a hot mess.  Oops.  But, hopefully that can be overlooked. 

Happy birthday, Quinn!

After last weekend, I felt like I needed a "yellow cake re-do". Why, you ask? Well, after digging into that first bite I quickly discovered that it just wasn't THE one. You know, the one that makes you forget about all others. Its flavor was actually pretty ok but the texture was not at all what I like. In fact, I often find homemade cakes to be a bit dry and crumbly which is what lead me to turn to box mixes in the first place. I'm determined to find a recipe that combines superior flavor and texture though. I suppose that I should also add that although I find the so-sweet-it-hurts-your-teeth Coborn's buttercream to die for, my husband does not. So, my re-do consists of a completely different yellow cake recipe and my homemade buttercream (that my husband does approve of).

Ok, so it's already not lookin' good. As you can see, when I flipped the cake layers out of the pans they sort of started to crumble. Noah and I did rather enjoy popping the crumbs in our mouths. Leave no cake behind, you know? Anyway, I decided to go with it. After the layers cooled I popped them in the freezer before applying the crumb coat in order to, hopefully, avoid any more cake damage. Worked like a charm.

I began frosting the cake with a ribbon or ruffle technique.  This is my first attempt.  Ever.  So don't judge too harshly...

I got half way around the cake and had to take a break. My piping hand was cramping up. Apparently I need to focus less on jump squats and more on hand strengthening exercises. Who knew? I popped the half finished cake in the freezer for safe keeping and dug this out of the frig for lunch...One last slice of Domino's pepperoni and onion pizza. Yumm-o!

My hand felt much better after my brief lunch break (coincidentally, so did my stomach) and I was able to finish putting the ruffles on the cake.  The top is not as neat as I would like it to be but, remember, this was my very first attempt. Ever.

Piping bag aside, it was time to get down to the real business; taste testing.

The verdict? I actually really liked the cake. The texture was far more pleasing to my mouth than last week's yellow cake. It was especially yummy with vanilla ice cream. But, although my homemade buttercream is delish, I didn't care for this particular paring. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad by any stretch of the imagination, it's just not quite THE one. I get the feeling that this cake with either a rich chocolate frosting or a smooth whipped cream frosting would be the ticket.


So, until next time...

My dear friend, Jody, was kind enough to invite me over for a glass of wine and good conversation.  The least I can do is bring cake, right?!  Now, I confess, I usually use a boxed mix for my cakes and cupcakes (gasp, I know) but not this time (and maybe never again!).  I found this recipe online for a delicious golden butter cake and it's just what I've been waiting for.  Here are my 9 inch cake layers, straight from the oven.

Now, when all you really want to do is sink your teeth into a big slice of cake, waiting for it to cool can feel quite like forever.  But, I made it.  Layers are cooled, leveled and getting ready to be stacked.  Adding an icing dam around the edge of the bottom cake layer stops the filling from oozing out the sides when you stack on the second layer.

Here, I applied a thin layer of crumb coat (icing).  This doesn't have to be perfect and certainly doesn't have to look nice but it will lock those crumbly little crumbles in when you're ready to add the "nice" layer of icing.  Pop the crumb-coated cake into the freezer for a bit to set.

Lately, I've been making a lot of cookies and cupcakes.  I can't remember the last time I made a cake.  So, naturally, I've been craving a big slice.  Not just any cake either, it had to be cake smothered in frosting.  The make-your-teeth-hurt kind of frosting.  I know a lot of people that don't care for the uber sweet, bakery frosting but I love it so I ran to my local Coborn's bakery and picked up four pounds.  Not all four pounds made it on/in the cake but it was pretty close.  This is the end result.  Try not to push the icing aside on your plate while you're eating, I dare you.  A slice or two may be missing before it gets to your house, Jody.  Sorry 'bout that. 

 

This girl loves buttercream.