Holiday Party 2012

Saturday was our 2nd annual Ugly Christmas Sweater and White Elephant Party. The house was filled with delicious desserts and horrendous fashion. It was a great time. I made classic gingerbread cookie, my pumpkin pie spice cookies, sugar cookies, stained glass cookies, and delicious glitter cookies. I was particularly excited to use my brand new 'A Christmas Story' leg lamp cookie cutter. This is my favorite holiday film and thought this was such a fun shape to make. Everyone had a great time. Little did I know that I'd be making chocolate cupcakes with peppermint buttercream a couple days later for another holiday get together.

This will be my last post for a little while. We're going out of town all next week for my birthday and Christmas. I'll have updates on all the delicious food we eat while we're in St. Louis. I'm excited to try some new restaurants. In the meantime here are some pictures from the party. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! 

Happy Halloween!

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. I would go door-to-door every year until, well, let's just say I was probably way too old to go trick-or-treating. I don't even really like candy that much. Don't get me wrong, I love certain types of candy (mainly anything with chocolate and peanut butter) but for me trick-or-treating was always about the hunt. I'd grab a pillowcase from the linen closet and throw on my walking shoes and head out for a long and adventurous night. I didn't want to return home until that bag was full (or as close to it as I could get). When I returned home I would pour the contents onto the living room floor and take inventory of what I had received. I loved to see what the popular choices were that year and try and figure out why people still handed out those creepy plain orange wrapped "candies". What were those? I'm not really sure because I was too afraid to try. I would snack on a few of my favorite treats throughout the next couple of days, but I would inevitably hand over the collection to my dad (who has a real sweet tooth).

Now that I'm older and have left my trick-or-treating years behind me I bake my treats to share with my friends. And just as when I was a kid, one type of confection is never enough. So for the Halloween party this year I baked cookies, cupcakes, and cake pops in different flavors and many different decorations. For all of those who tried them at the party, I hoped you liked them! To those of you who didn't I hope you get some delicious treats tonight. Even if you have to sneak some from that giant bowl you left out for trick-or-treaters.

Clumsiness Strikes Again

Clumsy me dropped my camera the other day. It was in its case so I was hoping that it would be okay, but no. When I went to use it the images came out extremely blurry. Thankfully the camera was older, well used, and was not outrageously expensive. Plus, I've been on the look out for a new camera with higher resolution and zoom anyways. I think this is a sign. I'll be heading to Atlanta this weekend anyways so there won't be too much to post. I leave you with some random dessert decorations that I have yet to post. Hopefully, I will be able to get a new camera soon. Please send me your suggestions for cameras. I am clueless in the realm of technology.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Pink Rosettes

Royal Icing Eyes!

Royal Icing Carrots

White Blossom Trees

Brightly Colored Flower Cake

Belated St. Patrick's Post

It was a fun St. Patrick's weekend for us. Friday night our friends hosted a party so I brought with me cookies and cupcakes. The party was a lot of fun. It was a beautiful night and we spend it on the balcony playing games and enjoying each others company. Saturday was spent running errands and trying to avoid more storms that came through. Luckily they passed fairly quick and we were able to spend the late afternoon watching the NCAA basketball tournament and even got to grill some steaks and hot dogs. We had plans to go to a couple parties that night, but we stopped by home after grilling and I basically fell asleep on the couch. One night out a week is more than enough for me, I guess I'm getting older. Oh well. 

Here are some pics of the themed desserts I made. There were Shamrock cookies, as well as Rainbow cookies. The tutorial for the rainbow cookies can be found here at The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle. I made mini chocolate cupcakes and while they were still hot I brushed them with whiskey then after they cooled topped them with a Bailey's buttercream and a little royal icing shamrock. Hope everyone had a happy holiday!

Valentine's Day Cookies

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope everyone is enjoying this day and consuming a copious amount of chocolate. I woke up to the intoxicating aroma of bacon. Delicious bacon. I have no idea how I was a vegetarian for as long as I was. My boyfriend made me breakfast. Which of course included bacon as well as Belgian waffles cooked in a brand new waffle maker! He knows the way to my heart is through my stomach.

I decided to bake a whole bunch of cookies for Valentine's day. I love holidays like this because they are an excuse to bake and decorate cookies. I couldn't decide which kind to make so I made a variety of cookies. I thought I would have fun with it. And did I. Activities like this really get my creative juices flowing. I searched the internet for inspiration, but in the end most of the decorations I made up as I went along. I am very happy with the results!

Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies

Making the same old cookie dough was getting pretty redundant for me. So I decided to spruce up my usual Sugar Cookie Dough and add a little zest to it. Lemon zest... and poppy seed. The poppy seeds give a little crunch to the cookies and I love the way these classic flavors are re-purposed into a sugar cookie form. I decided to make them into little heart shapes because of all of the Valentine's inspiration circling around. These make perfect snacking cookies. Enjoy!


Use the Basic Sugar Cookie Dough recipe and:
Add the zest of 1 lemon
Add a tbsp of poppy seeds

Pistachio Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Baking cookies is one of my favorite things to do. Well, besides eat them. Especially anything with chocolate in them. You add pistachios and I can't really ask for much more. Luckily, I had a giant bag of pistachios in the kitchen and was in a baking mood. So I decided to experiment with a cookie recipe.

If you are a chocolate and pistachio fan you are going to love these cookies. This is an adaptation of your regular chocolate chip cookies, but for the chocoholic. Delicious chocolatey cookie with rich chunks of chocolate and the added salty crunch of pistachios. YUM!  This recipe is really adaptable and would be great with any nut, or say dried cranberries. I love recipes like this because they are constantly being adapted and made even better!

Pistachio Chocolate Chunk Cookies

1 1/4 cup flour
1 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 sticks butter, room temp
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 (11.5 oz) bag of chocolate chunks or chips
1 1/2 cup chopped pistachios

1) Preheat oven to 350 F
2) Cream butter and sugars, then add in vanilla and eggs

3) Mix in dry ingredients then fold in chocolate and pistachios
4) Drop desired size of cookie dough onto baking sheets and bake for 8-11 minutes

5) Let cool and enjoy!

Robot, Star, and Football Cookies

I've been making a lot of cookies lately. They're easy to make and fun to decorate. Plus, who doesn't love cookies? It's a win win for everyone involved. I found these fun craft stencils the other day which must have been made with me in mind. They came in a pack of 5, which included robots and dinosaurs. Awesome! So I decided to make my usual sugar cookies and stencil on some cocoa powder to give them some character. You can use any stencil you have laying around or even make your own using a decorative whole punch or cut out your own design. You just place the stencil over the pre-baked cookie (if using cocoa powder, already baked if using powdered sugar) and sift cocoa powder and fill in the stencil. They make cookies that look time intensive, but are really easy.



I also made some star cookies with brightly colored icing. You just need to mix confectioners sugar with some almost boiling water. The measurements really depend on the thickness of the icing you want. Just add a little water at a time. I made the same frosting for the football cookies. They were for the National Championship game. A slow and bummer of a game, but at least there was plenty of food to keep me happy.

Cowboy Boot Cookies

I decided to have some fun with my new cookie cutter set. It included some cowboy boot shapes and since I'm in Nashville, I couldn't resist making a few. And so continues my adventure with royal icing. I am getting better, although I need to steady my hand a bit and practice technique. But practice makes perfect! I used Martha Stewart's basic sugar cookie dough. I've posted the recipe before, but here it is again. This is the best sugar cookie dough recipe I have found. It is easy to work with and tastes like butter.



Basic Sugar Cookie Dough
Adapted from Martha Stewart Living Annual Recipes 2004

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups flour

1) Cream butter and sugar together, then add eggs, vanilla, and salt. Add flour mixture a cup at a time until incorporated
2) Divide dough into disks and wrap in plastic wrap and place in fridge for at least 2 hours
3) Save until ready to use

Chocolate French Macarons

My first time eating French Macarons was fairly recent: about a year ago. And I couldn't get the taste out of my head. I couldn't believe I had gone without these delicious, tiny, scrumptious treats for so long. As I gained experience baking I thought to myself, if only I could make a French Macaron. I read recipes that indicated it was a difficult process, one that I wasn't sure I could handle. But as long as you follow the recipe and read a little bit on the technique they can be replicated in your own kitchen. A dangerous discovery for me to make.

I decided to start off easy and go with a more simple Chocolate Macaron and save the more fanciful recipes until I was sure I was doing it right. Next time I'll be making Pistachio. I found almond meal at Trader Joe's and ground it up a little more fine with powdered sugar and cocoa in the food processor. You can also grind your own, just make sure you don't turn it into almond butter, which I read can be a problem. Make sure to sift the ground mixture really well. You don't want heavy macarons.

Chocolate French Macarons
Adapted from "Chocolate Macaroons" in "Macaroons"

1/4 cup ground almonds
Scant cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp cocoa
2 large egg whites
1/4 cup superfine sugar (you can make your own in the food processor)

Filling:
100 grams semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
2/3 cup heavy cream

1) Put ground almonds, powdered sugar, and cocoa into the food processor and blend for about 15 seconds then sift into a large bowl
2) Whip egg whites (you can add a pinch of cream of tartar if you want) until they hold soft peaks, then gradually beat in superfine sugar to make a firm, glossy meringue
3) Gently fold almond mixture into the meringue, a little at a time until incorporated
4) Pour the batter into a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch plain tip attached. Pipe 32 small circles onto parchment paper lined baking sheets. When finished, gently tap the baking sheets to release any air bubbles. Then let the macarons sit at room temperature for 30 minutes to let the macarons outer shell harden to prevent cracking

5) Preheat oven to 325 F and bake macarons for 10-15 minutes, rotating pans after 5 minutes, check after 8 minutes. Macarons will be ready when they no longer stick to parchment paper. Let cool slightly on pans then let cool completely on cooling racks

6) To make the ganache filling heat the heavy cream then pour over chopped chocolate stirring until melted. Place in refrigerator and let harden until firm, about 1 hour, but check every once in a while, you don't want it too firm
7) Sandwich macarons together with ganache filling and enjoy!

Christmas Party Cookies

We had an Ugly Sweater/White Elephant Christmas party on Friday night. It was a great way to spend some time with all of our friends after the hectic week of finals and before people left to visit their families. I took this opportunity to bake up a storm. I don't think I have ever baked so much in such a short amount of time before. There were cookies covering the house with icing decorated and drying. I was so happy to know that they dried in time and that I actually finished! Below are some pictures of the results of the tasty treats. I made gingerbread, sugar cookies, and spritz cookies. It was a lot of fun and a great way to celebrate with my friends!