devil's food cake

I was asked to make the groom's cake for Emily & Justin's wedding

besides a detailed drawing of how he wanted the cake to look,

the only direction I received on flavor was he likes chocolate cake and raspberry filling

so for the bottom tier I tried a devil's food recipe from David Lebovitz

must not have greased the pans well enough, because they would not come out

so I just cut it down the middle - which explains the crater

the flavor of the cake was great, regardless of what it looked like

and in between the two layers was a raspberry filling

Chelle was coming up for her birthday, so I made it into a bingo b-day cake

chocolate cakeballs w/vanilla coating and edible black pen

 B3 and B13 because her birthday is March 13

I23 since she was turning 23 years old

still need to find the right frosting for tier one of the groom's cake

tier one cake and filling recipes were a success though - now on to the next two

happy birthday chelle!

st. patrick's day

st. paddy's day desserts...yum

cakeballs w/green-colored yellow cake inside

shamrock-shaped gingerbread and sugar cookies w/green vanilla frosting

 

used decorative bags filled with cakepops, cakeballs, and cookies as gifts

nothin' better than washing down tasty treats with

whiskey gingers, whiskey diets, and whiskey shots

starbucks petites

starbucks introduced three cakepops to their menu in March

I refused to purchase one cakepop at $1.50, but was curious to try them

turns out they gave out free petites the first few days they came out

so I tried all three cakepops and here's what I discovered

birthday cakepop

Vanilla cake and icing, dipped in a pink chocolaty coating with white sprinkles.

first thought was these pops are nearly double the size of my cakepops

the coating is softer, so it doesn't crack or break when you bite it

cake is very dense and the flavor is so so

rocky road cakepop

Chocolate cake and icing dipped in a dark chocolaty coating, with mini marshmallows and roasted almonds.

enjoyed finding marshmallows mixed into the cake

though the pop as a whole was way to rich

I liked the nut sprinkles, but the marshmallow sprinkled on was unnecessary

tiramisu cakepop

Vanilla cake and Starbucks® coffee with vanilla icing, dipped in mocha flavored chocolaty coating, with a chocolate coffee bean.

enjoyed the coffee flavor of this pop, however the soft texture of the coating turned me off

this cake was the most dense of the three

I was excited for the chocolate-covered espresso bean

only to find out that it was just chocolate in the shape of a coffee bean...boo!

 I did love the little box the individual pops came in
with the clever little slot for the stick to rest in

my recommendation:  try making your own at home
you'll have a fun time doing it and they will likely taste better
or just ask me - I always like an excuse to make cakeballs

homemade mcgriddle

I threw together my own version of a mcdonalds mcgriddle

scrambled egg, corn, ham and cheese sandwiched between two pancakes

made the pancakes fairly thick to hold everything together

pancakes were slightly larger in diameter than an english muffin

hearty, a bit sweet, yet savory...a great breakfast

after making these I found out that the mcgriddle comes with maple syrup nuggets

so I'll work on that for next homemade mcgriddle session

national sweet potato day

Feb. 22 is national cook a sweet potato day

so do it...they are delicious!

valentine's day

chocolate chip cookies are Peter's favorite

so I made him a giant chocolate chip cookie for valentine's day

made an array of sweets including heart-shaped gingerbread cookies from Betty Crocker

with almond flavored frosting

along with some of my favorite sugar cookies from joy of baking

red velvet cakeballs covered in dark cocoa and white melts

pink strawberry flavored marshmallows dipped in chocolate and sprinkles

 

 

used some of the leftover melts for dipped pretzel sticks

put together some boxes as valentine's gifts

also made up some mason jars full of treats

cupcakes in a jar

 

after the success of the jar cookies as gifts over the holiday

I wanted to try packaging other desserts in mason jars

and so I give you lemon poppy seed cupcakes with vanilla frosting - in a jar

baked the cupcakes in silicone liners for easy removal

had to cut off some outer edge of the cupcakes to make them fit into these smaller jars

piped out a thick layer of frosting, then added the second cupcake

piped out some more frosting on the top and added sprinkles

tied a plastic spoon to the jar with ribbon for immediate cupcake consumption
gave some of these as a get well gift
I like the idea that the jar can be used for other things
after the contents have been eaten

pecan tassies

Tim made a wonderful pecan pie for Christmas

so in return I made him some mini pecan pies for his birthday

the recipe came from the gourmet cookie book

used pre-made pie dough and divided it into 24 equal parts

pressed each one to cover the inside of the silicone mini liners

used my TBSP cookie scoop fill each with the pecan pie filling

removed each pecan tassie from the liner after they cooled
brown sugary - walnut - flaky pie crust goodness in a bite-sized morsel

they fit nicely into the treat boxes I had
happy birthday Tim!

chocolate-covered cherry stuffed cakeballs

Doug suggested that I put a Queen Anne chocolate-covered cherry into a cakeball

and that's just what I did for his birthday

it took more effort to cover the cherry with cake and the cake with chocolate

they didn't turn out very attractive, but I'm told they tasted good

vegetables

 

after roasting some beets I discovered that you can also cook with the stems and leaves

I steamed the beet stems to soften them up

threw the steamed stems onto some brown rice w/other veggies and a salad

I have heard the stems are supposed to be a bit sweeter than the beet

but I couldn't get past the fibrous texture of the stems to notice

next time I'll need to cook them longer to soften them up some more

in the spirit of trying new things, I made some baked radish chips

steamed the slices for 5min in the microwave, then stirred in some spices

baked on 350 degrees, 10min on each side

these didn't turn out as chip-like as I was hoping, but they made for a light, flavorful snack

bacon maple doughnuts

 

Erin gave me a mini doughnut pan for Christmas

and having just made some chocolate-covered bacon

I figured this was a perfect time to test out the new pan with some bacon maple doughnuts

made a spiced maple batter for the doughnuts

you can pretty much use any type of cake or muffin batter with this pan

because these are baked, they come out with a cake/muffin consistency

for most folks these probably wouldn't satisfy a doughnut craving

but they are still a fun and tasty treat

whisked together a simple maple glaze

dipped the top half of the doughnuts in the glaze

then garnished with pieces of chocolate-covered bacon

did a few with chocolate sprinkles instead of the bacon

these guys don't even compare to a voodoo bacon maple bar

or any other deep fried doughnut w/bacon on it, but they did satisfy my sweet tooth

I would say this doughnut is more similar to a dense cupcake than a doughnut