It's Almost Time For Baking Weekend!

Just a few more days and my girls (minus Staci, who is living the life on her boat with her family) will be joining me for baking weekend!  We are a cookie baking factory over the weekend and I can't wait.

However, there is one thing I can guarantee I won't be baking this year and it's these puppies (or should I say cubs?).

(Reposted from 12/11/11)

My girls came!

Robs, Sue, Staci, Me :)
I love my girls.

They did lots of this...

This is Robs' double batch in a single batch bowl -
I was super impressed she managed.

And this...

Which resulted in these...

They were baking machines.
(Yes, SGG, there was alcohol involved)

I did zero cookie baking.  Zero.  I kinda felt bad about it, but I was focused on a project I've been contemplating for two years now.  I don't even know where I first saw these Snow Globe Coca-Cola Cupcakes, but ever since I saw them, I've been wondering if I could pull something like that off.


I mean, look at them...

Photo cred: Bakerella

In fact, I was pretty sure I couldn't pull them off, but I've been getting braver in the kitchen.  Last year, we had success with the bococcini.


So I gathered up my courage and hit the stores looking for what I would need: Coke in the "ornament" plastic bottles, rolled fondant, an edible pen, and a red sugar sheet. I followed the directions that I found on Bakerella.

I used the bears on the wrappers as inspiration.

Beel even got in on the act...

See the bandaid on the back of his hand?
Yeah, I wasn't sure that I should allow him to use a knife.
I'm happy to report that he still has all of his fingers.

I even tried the Cola Cake recipe that Bakerella linked to.  It was one jacked up recipe.  I've never baked cupcakes from scratch, but I'm a direction following fool.  I read the recipe a couple of times, and then obsessively referred to it while I was making the cake stuff.

Butter, veggie oil, cocoa, and Coke.
It's not quite as gross as it sounds.

I brought that crazy concoction to a boil and added it to the dry ingredients, which included a cup and a half of marshmallows...

It didn't taste too bad,
for a diabetic coma in a bowl.

I then baked up a batch of the cupcakes.  They were awful.  They fell, which was a bummer.  But they didn't taste so wonderful either.  Plan B - store-bought Devil's Food cake mix.  Win!!


While I was waiting for Nebalee to come up to the lodge with my Plan B, I worked on the fondant.  Oh God, what a disaster that was.  The store must have put out last year's fondant, because it was a brick.  I had to break it open and scoop out the inside just to have any to work with.

I lost easily half of the fondant I bought - the outside was unuseable.

Staci and Little Miss 'Mantha helped make the fondant bears.

Staci was a bear making fiend!  I made two.  She whipped out the rest.  Wait...Nebalee made the little cub.  Aren't they cute?

I used the red sugar sheet to cut out their scarves,
instead of the fondant recommended by Bakerella.

Auto Bot and Kyzzer helped me prep the snow globes...

We sprayed the inside of the bottles with sugar water
and then the kids sprinkled them with sugary thingies.

Mom and Nebalee put snow on the cupcakes after I frosted them...

And then I got to assemble...

Oh. My. God.
I can't tell you how thrilled I am with them!

They're not quite as polished as the ones at Bakerella, but then, neither am I.  I'm so not a professional baker - I'm pretty sure that once-a-year baking doesn't count - but I am beside-myself-excited about these cupcakes!

I'll post about the rest of Baking Weekend when I come down from my cupcake success high.

Adventures in Baking #87930

I was almost afraid to try a new recipe after the disaster that was the Royal Blue Velvet Cupcakes.

By and large, I'm not a fan of "flour-less" anything, but this recipe for Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies from Cooking Classy caught my eye.  Even if the recipe wasn't any good, how bad could peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies be?  And with only six ingredients, not even I could screw it up.

So far, so good.

They look pretty good right out of the oven.

I got cocky with the second batch in the oven.  The directions say to let the cookies sit for five minutes before moving them to the cooling rack.  With the first batch, I only let them sit for about a minute and a half and them moved them and didn't have any problems.  When the second batch came out of the oven, I just tried to slip them onto the cooling rack.

It was a very bad idea.  They're not pretty, but they are tasty and only took a few minutes to make.  The longest part of the whole process was the ten minutes in the oven. 

More Adventures in Baking

It's been a while since I've been "moved" by a recipe that I just had to try.  I stumbled across a recipe for Royal Blue Velvet Cake.  It screamed at me to try it.  I mean, look at how beautiful it is!

From Google images

And who doesn't love Red Velvet cake?  So why wouldn't blue, which is the exact same thing with blue food coloring (and a touch of violet) instead of red, be fabulous too?  I had to try it.

Then I ran into a little issue with no cake pans.  We have eight million cooking implements - some that I don't even know how to use - but no cake pans?  How does that happen?

So I decided to make cupcakes instead.  I'm a problem solver, if nothing else.

They're more Cookie Monster colored than Royal Blue, but they're okay.

They even taste okay, but that's about it.  Just okay.

I was going to attempt the amazing marshmallow creme frosting, but since I didn't get started baking until time for The Walking Dead, guess what's not happening.  I'll buy a jar of pre-made frosting on my way into work tomorrow and my co-workers can frost their own damn cupcakes.

Well, they were worth a try, but I don't think I'll be attempting them again.  I'll stick with my rainbow cupcakes - they're prettier and taste better.

Baking Weekend

I'm a little late posting this, as Baking Weekend is always the second weekend in December and here it is, just two days before December ends.  Yikes.  I always have grand plans for getting my blogging done and then it just doesn't happen. I've been off from work for a week now and I'm just now feeling like turning on the computer.  I guess it just goes to show how badly I needed a "brain break".

Before we could head up to the Lodge to start baking, we had to celebrate Ashinator's 21st birthday (how did that happen?!) at the Rio so she could have her first (legal) marg.  Rumor has it that the Rio margs are the most potent in town.  I'm not certain about it, but they do have a 3 marg limit, so maybe.

Happy Birthday, Ashinator!

Staci is still on her boat with her family, so we missed her again this year.  It did work out, though, that she was some place with WiFi and we could FaceTime with her.  It was so good to see her and the kids and have them join us for a bit, even if it was via computer.  Robs was even kind enough to sample all of the cookie dough for her.

Sue and Robs with Staci

It's actually kind of hard to bake and hold a phone at the same time.

While I didn't have any big new recipes planned for the day, Robs did.  It's a chocolate cookie sandwich with a peppermint filling, rolled in crushed candy canes.  It's essentially a diabetic coma in cookie form.

Spreading the peppermint filling

Don't they look amazing?

But, seriously, check your blood sugar after eating one.

My girls.  Don't know what I'd do without them.

Some of the fruits of our labor.

Mom's "pretty" Christmas tree

Nebalee's family went Christmas tree hunting in the morning, so they were a little late getting up to join us.  Mrs. Junior and her son also joined us later in the day. That way, we can work in "shifts" in the kitchen.

The Lodge is so beautiful in the winter.

Robs and me

Jay and me.  He's such a goober :)

We had planned on having the triplets with us, but Robs let them stay home with her wife, which freed us up to do more baking.  Let's be honest, if we'd had the babies with us, there wouldn't have been much baking going on.  The "aunties" would be too busy playing with the girls.

It seemed like we really scaled back on what we baked, but we still ended up with a ton and a half of cookies.  Our final cookie count for the weekend was:

Magic Window Cookies: 106
Gingerbread Cookies (Mom's recipe): 47
Peanut butter Cookies: 37
Aztec Cookies: 180
Oatmeal-mint chip Cookies: 130
Chocolate peppermint sandwich cookies: 38
M&M Cookies: 90
Peanut Butter Kisses cookies: 50
Mini-gingerbread cookies (mix): 50
Medium gingerbread cookies (mix): 12
Butterballs: 152
Chocolate-dipped Coffee Cup Cookies: 40
Fudge: 10#
Magic cookie bars: 72
Plus some toffee and a couple hundred pretzel/kisses/M&M thingies.

Ashinator did the math, it's something like 1004 cookies (okay, maybe it's only half a ton).  Since we still have some left, I'm guessing we over-did it a tad (we didn't mail as many out this year - mailing has gotten expensive!).  But, as usual, it was a blast and I can't wait to do it again next year.

I Might Be In Trouble

I swore, swore, swore I'd never play around on Pintrest.

Really, I did.

I haven't quite gone to the dark side and joined up yet, but I have found two recipes that I *have* to try.

Tonight.

Admit it...you want to make these too.


I've totally followed this blog,
because what I need is yet another blog to follow.

And I followed this one, too.
Photo cred: Cooking Classy
 

This is the last thing I need - something else to suck up my time on the computer.

I've managed to resist the siren song so far - I haven't joined.  But damn, I'm having a good time looking at all of the recipes.

Lord help us all, I'm on my way to the grocery store.

More Baking

I saw another recipe I just *had* to try.

All I can say is damn that Reese's Peanut Butter Cups facebook page.  No, really.  I've got to unlike that page - it's going to be the death of me.  Today's recipe was Peanut Butter Cup Banana Bread courtesy of Ambitious Kitchen.

I've never actually mashed bananas before.  And I'm pretty sure I chose the wrong tools for the job.  A wooden spoon and plastic bowl were probably not the best choice, but I eventually got the job done.

Thank goodness it tastes better than it looks.

We made a couple of changes to the directions.  Rather than make a big loaf, we made mini-loaves.  Mom makes an amazing banana chocolate chip mini-muffin and I thought these would be good in smaller portions.

Mini-loaf pans rock!

The recipe also called for sprinkling the top of the loaf with chopped up peanut butter cups before putting them in the oven to bake, but I didn't want to do that so we quartered a mini peanut butter cup and stuck them in each loaf after they came out of the oven.

All melty and yummy looking.

Because we altered how we baked them, we also had to alter the cooking time.  Jay suggested that we cut the baking time down a lot.  The original recipe called for baking the loaf for 55 minutes, but since we did mini-loaves, we baked them for only 17 minutes.

They're pretty good.  Maybe not quite as good as Mom's mini-muffins, but still pretty good.  I bet they're going to be even better cold, just like Mom's muffins are.

I'll send some to work with Jay tomorrow, because Lord knows we don't need two dozen of these things hanging around the house (or my ass, which is where the extra fat is going to go).

If you want to try the recipe yourself, you can click on over to Ambitious Kitchen.

Bake Sale, Wedding, and RAIN!

Saturday was the Bake Sale to benefit the American Red Cross.  I have no idea how much money was raised, but I *do* have an idea of what the term "Bake Sale" means to me.  Apparently, it does not mean the same thing to other people.

To me, a Bake Sale means you slave for hours in the kitchen, you know, baking stuff to sell.  It's all right there in the name.  You bake shit, you sell it: Bake Sale.  Easy peasy.

Apparently, to some people it means go to the store buy some shit that the people in the bakery baked, repackage it and sell it.  Really?  You couldn't even buy some pre-made cookie stuff, cut it into slices, throw it on a pan and bake it?

The most surprising thing about the Shit You Didn't Bake Yourself Sale is that people bought it.  I'm not kidding.  People actually paid money at a Bake Sale for things they could have walked across the parking lot to King Soopers to buy.  I'm still shaking my head in confusion.

Also, in other news, my brother, Junior, got married on Saturday.  Only, family wasn't invited.  But that's okay, we like Mrs. Junior.  But Mrs. Junior's mother is a certifiable crazy-ass bitch and the wedding planning wasn't going so well, what with her meddling and whatnot.  According to Mrs. Junior's mother, Mrs. Junior has been disowned.  Whatever.  We'll keep her.  Junior and Mrs. Junior solved the problem by not inviting *anyone* except Mrs. Junior's best friend to the wedding.

Nebalee and I had a home party planned for yesterday and both Deejo and Junior had RSVP'd that they were attending with their families, so we decided to surprise the newlyweds with a wedding cake.  I bought the cake mix, handed it off to Nebalee and she let loose her inner Betty Crocker to bake them a cute wedding cake.

Nebalee's fairly certain she's not going into
cake decorating as a second career.

Since it was a surprise, I texted Junior to remind him that he said he'd be attending.  Imagine my surprise when he told me that there had been a scheduling conflict and that they weren't going to be able to make it.  No problem, I said, we'll eat it without you.  So we did.

Yummm...
Deejo enjoyed the wedding cake

Don't worry - we saved the top for them.

When RCC and I finally made it home from Nebalee's, we sat outside and watched a storm move it.  But we weren't holding our breath that anything would come of it.  However...

Pretty certain the neighbors were locking their doors
when the crazy family was standing out in the rain.

Sadly, when I woke up this morning, it was so dry, you'd never know that we had a good-sized rain last night.  The ground was so parched that there was no evidence in the yard of *any* rainfall.  If it wasn't for the puddles in the middle of the street, I might have thought I'd imagined the whole thing.

And that was my weekend...how was yours?

Betty Crocker's Rampage

Oh hell, the school's having a Bake Sale.

And my inner Betty Crocker said, "Yes! Yes! Yes!"

And my inner Betty Crocker said, "I'll bring stuff!"

And then my mouth opened, and the words came out, "sure, I'll donate".  Then I planned my mini-baking day with Nebalee.

We were asked to donate a dozen or two to the Bake Sale. But my inner Betty Crocker didn't care. Nope. Why even bother to warm up the ovens for just a couple dozen cookies?

This morning, bright and early, I picked Nebalee up, we hit the grocery store and loaded up on supplies then zoomed up the mountain to the lodge.  Because when we need serious baking done, only the Lodge kitchen will do.

I planned a couple of batches of magic window cookies and some chocolate Aztec cookies.  We got up there and dove right in.  The cookies kept coming and coming.  So much for a "mini" baking day.  Two double batches of magic window cookies and two double batches of chocolate Aztec cookies.

Compared to our usual baking weekend, our yield wasn't enormous, but we still cranked out dozens and dozens of cookies.  Something like fifteen dozen magic window cookies and twelve dozen Aztec cookies.

Those sonsabitches better sell.  That's all I've got to say.

(Huge thanks to Mom, Bill, and Nebalee for bailing my butt out.)

Betty Crocker's Chocolate Flavored Boogs

The other day I wrote about my brown boogers and how it meant that I'd been outside "doing stuff" and brown boogs are a good thing.

Wednesday's brown boogs are a little different.  Yes, I went out on a ride with Mom and, yes, I might have gotten a few brown boogs from the trail, but they couldn't compare to the ones I got from making cookies.

Yes, you read that right.  I got me some brown boogers from making cookies.

I made three double batches of Chocolate Aztec cookies and while standing over the KitchenAid, slowly adding the dry ingredients to the wet I realized I was inhaling the cocoa dust.  Bill and I were joking about it, and as often happens when we're bantering, it got out-of-hand, which is how we came up with chocolate-flavored boogs.

No, I did not take a picture.  Nor did I attempt to get a sample to taste to see if they were actually chocolate-flavored, but one could reasonably assume that they would be.

The plus side is that we ended up with a whole shit-ton of cookies (we made extra just in case, 'cause no one wants to run out of those babies).

The down side? Allie-bird, my step-dog, found them on the table while RCC and I were out and ate an entire gallon-sized zip-lock bag of them.  There were three dozen in the bag that I'd saved just for us, since the rest were already spoken for.  We found a two-inch square of the zip-lock.  That's all that was left.  I guess we were lucky Allie hasn't gotten sick from eating all of that cocoa and cayenne, but we were not counting ourselves lucky Wednesday night when we wanted some.

Baking Weekend, Day 1: My Super Secret Baking Project

My girls came!

Robs, Sue, Staci, Me :)
I love my girls.

They did lots of this...

This is Robs' double batch in a single batch bowl -
I was super impressed she managed.

And this...

Which resulted in these...

They were baking machines.
(Yes, SGG, there was alcohol involved)

I did zero cookie baking.  Zero.  I kinda felt bad about it, but I was focused on a project I've been contemplating for two years now.  I don't even know where I first saw these Snow Globe Coca-Cola Cupcakes, but ever since I saw them, I've been wondering if I could pull something like that off.


I mean, look at them...

Photo cred: Bakerella

In fact, I was pretty sure I couldn't pull them off, but I've been getting braver in the kitchen.  Last year, we had success with the bococcini.


So I gathered up my courage and hit the stores looking for what I would need: Coke in the "ornament" plastic bottles, rolled fondant, an edible pen, and a red sugar sheet. I followed the directions that I found on Bakerella.

I used the bears on the wrappers as inspiration.

Beel even got in on the act...

See the bandaid on the back of his hand?
Yeah, I wasn't sure that I should allow him to use a knife.
I'm happy to report that he still has all of his fingers.

I even tried the Cola Cake recipe that Bakerella linked to.  It was one jacked up recipe.  I've never baked cupcakes from scratch, but I'm a direction following fool.  I read the recipe a couple of times, and then obsessively referred to it while I was making the cake stuff.

Butter, veggie oil, cocoa, and Coke.
It's not quite as gross as it sounds.

I brought that crazy concoction to a boil and added it to the dry ingredients, which included a cup and a half of marshmallows...

It didn't taste too bad,
for a diabetic coma in a bowl.

I then baked up a batch of the cupcakes.  They were awful.  They fell, which was a bummer.  But they didn't taste so wonderful either.  Plan B - store-bought Devil's Food cake mix.  Win!!


While I was waiting for Nebalee to come up to the lodge with my Plan B, I worked on the fondant.  Oh God, what a disaster that was.  The store must have put out last year's fondant, because it was a brick.  I had to break it open and scoop out the inside just to have any to work with.

I lost easily half of the fondant I bought - the outside was unuseable.

Staci and Little Miss 'Mantha helped make the fondant bears.

Staci was a bear making fiend!  I made two.  She whipped out the rest.  Wait...Nebalee made the little cub.  Aren't they cute?

I used the red sugar sheet to cut out their scarves,
instead of the fondant recommended by Bakerella.

Auto Bot and Kyzzer helped me prep the snow globes...

We sprayed the inside of the bottles with sugar water
and then the kids sprinkled them with sugary thingies.

Mom and Nebalee put snow on the cupcakes after I frosted them...

And then I got to assemble...

Oh. My. God.
I can't tell you how thrilled I am with them!

They're not quite as polished as the ones at Bakerella, but then, neither am I.  I'm so not a professional baker - I'm pretty sure that once-a-year baking doesn't count - but I am beside-myself-excited about these cupcakes!

I'll post about the rest of Baking Weekend when I come down from my cupcake success high.