Chocolate Vanilla Spiral Cookies

I made these cookies last week with my mom in mind. Among other types of cookies, these spiral cookies are a trade mark of growing up (and they still make an appearance when we go home to visit). The cookies that I made aren't her recipe. Hers come out nice and fluffy and these ones came out crunchy. The fluffy ones sound better but these were actually quite good, just a different type of cookie.

The recipe that I used came from Robinhood.ca.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups flour
3 tbsp coca powder
1 egg beaten with 1 tsp of water

STEP ONE

Beat butter and sugar until well blended and light in colour; add vanilla and salt (I left the salt out as my butter was salted); add flour and mix until crumbly

STEP TWO

Knead dough together and split into two

STEP THREE

Return one of the pieces back to the mixer and add in the cocoa

STEP FOUR

On pieces of wax paper, roll the two doughs out to near equal sizes and shapes

STEP FIVE

Lightly spread the egg mixture onto the top of one of the two doughs (this will help the two doughs stick together)

STEP SIX

Stack the other dough directly on top of the egged dough, trying to match the placement up as best as possible (it is easiest to keep the wax paper on as you flip the second dough on top of the first one)

STEP SEVEN

Press the edges down along the outside of the doughs to connect the two doughs

STEP EIGHT

Using the wax paper that is under the bottom dough, roll the dough from the long way into a tight cylinder; seal the ends by pushing the tips inward as you create the cylinder

STEP NINE

Wrap tightly and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes

STEP TEN

Preheat oven to 325 F; cut rolls into 1/4 inch slices and bake 14-16 minutes

*This makes so many cookies - before slicing all of the dough, I cut it in half and froze the remaining dough for next time. 

Hope you try it out!

Gummy Bear Sticks

I made these candy sticks - Gummy Bear Sticks - over the weekend with Thanksgiving in mind.

They are so cute. After I made them I realized that they reminded me of the multi-coloured corn that comes around during Thanksgiving - this stuff:

The Gummy Bear Sticks were really easy to make. 

Per stick, all you will need is:

1 1/2 dozen candy pieces - I used real fruit gummy bears

A stick with a point - You could buy these at the craft store, but I just used shish kabob skewers that I had in my kitchen

A bag to cover the stick - These are from the craft store and were packaged for pretzels but they worked perfect for this

Something to tie it all together - I was looking for twine in my wrapping paper box but didn't have any but untwisted the handle of a paper Levi's bag instead

I originally wanted to stack the gummy bears vertically but once it was pricked, the sticky part was exposed and it made it difficult to slide down. So I opted to put them on vertically and it made it less of a challenge and I think probably looks better then up and down.

KitchenAid

Yikes! It has really been too long - again.

My and Josh's schedules have been completely opposite for about a month. You would think that I would have been able to find some time to post items but nope...it didn't seem to work that way. But here I am with a ton to post! I have been cooking and baking like crazy. A post a day for the next while is my plan.

Before I go back into the past with foods that I have been making over the last month I have to comment on a current event. I FINALLY!! cracked and bought a KitchenAid mixer. Way too expensive but very much worth it and I found it for a great price - I've been monitoring the flyers like crazy.

Besides Czar (our dog baby), this is my new baby. I love it so much. It sure beats a hand-held mixer - although I do see the advantages of just the hand-held.

I really wanted the Pistachio coloured mixer but I found out that it takes 4-6 weeks to get many of the coloured ones in.... there was no way I was waiting any longer so I went with the white which looks great in our kitchen - crisp and clean.

The Pistachio would have been cool though because it has a 50s feel and our place is a strange mix of super modern and touches of old fashion pieces. We put some cool art work up on our walls that incorporated Josh's old comics from when he was a kid that aren't 50s but have the same flavour. I'll take some pictures and post it up sometime this week - I'm surprised that I like them as much as I do. It was a good idea (way to go Josh!! Whoowhoo!).

Anyways - this is my mixer:

 What to make next....hmmm.

Seven Minute Frosting

More like Fifteen Minute Frosting - but regardless, it is the BEST frosting ever. 

This was my first time making this frosting and I must say it will definitely become one of my staples. It was so easy to make, it was stiff enough to pipe and it held it's shape really well. 

Anyway who knows me knows that I don't actually like Butter Cream Icing - I'm just not a huge fan of the taste but use it because it pipes so well and other people seem to like it. I'm not sure if it's a good idea to start using this frosting more since I could literally eat it by the spoonful.

It is so glossy and smooth! Just looking at it makes me want to eat it!!

INGREDIENTS:

1/3 cup water

1 cup plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar

3 large egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1 tbsp vanilla extract

The recipe also called for 1/8 tsp of salt which I omitted (I usually always omit salt - just don't need the extra sodium and it doesn't seem to make a difference to any recipe). You could follow the recipe exactly if you wish of course. 

The next time I make this frosting, I will probably add a bit more sugar. It was sweet tasting but there is a hint of the eggs so I would prefer to mask that. 

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Whisk together all ingredients except vanilla in a large metal or glass bowl.
• With the same bowl, create a double boiler.
• Set bowl over a pan of barely simmering water and mix with an electric beater at low speeds.
• Gradually increase speed to high - beating until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
• Remove bowl from pan and continue beating until frosting is cool and fluffy.
• Beat in vanilla.

**Getting to the stiff peaks takes some time. It will feel like it isn't going to thicken and just stay as liquid. Be patient and it will come together.

Pipe or knife the frosting onto your cupcakes or cake and you are ready to go!

Ombre Cake

I've been wanting to try icing a cake using an ombre technique but I haven't had an occasion until last night when I decided that I didn't need one. So off I went to make a mess in the kitchen to create 3 different shades of purple icing.

It didn't turn out exactly as planned because the bottom colour isn't quite distinct from the middle colour but it was fun playing around with the colourings. I'm still amazed with the black colouring - I never would have thought it could be used but it really does take out the Easter colouring in icing which is great.

An issue I always have is thinking I don't need as much icing as I actually do. From now on, I am just going to make a huge batch and if I have extra I'm sure I'll be able to find a use for it (most likely freeze it for the time being). Lately I have been having to make extra along the way and that really puts a damper on the fun decorating part.

Since I was just making the cake for the heck of it I wasn't too concerned about the doming effect that was going on with the cake. Normally I flip over the top layer so the curved part is in the middle which will give you a straight top surface if you fill the instead with enough icing around the outside portion to keep it from settling down (and curving the top) but I cut each layer into two more making it a four layer cake which resulted in it still somehow curving - which I guess was fine for the purpose. I think I am going to buy one of those cake cutters that will slice off the dome that ALWAYS happens when I bake cakes and I will be able to avoid the layers from leaning if they aren't even.

Anyway....this is the result.

Engagement Party Cake

Last Saturday was finally the day to make the cake for a bride-to-be at her engagement party (the reason for the sample cupcakes). The day was beautiful and probably the hottest day of the summer. The weather made for a great engagement party, I'd imagine but not so much for a day of baking - it was HOT in the house. 

Luckily, the cake turned out fairly decent however, the process was the worst. It was a great experience of learning to think quickly and improvise. I wasn't going to allow the cake to leave my house unless it looked presentable but I also had to remind myself that I didn't have a choice and I had to make it work as there was a specific reason as to why I was making this cake and the bride-to-be was relying on me.

I knew it would be warm so I did all of the baking the night before to keep the place cool. I can only imagine what it would have been like if I baked the cakes the same day.

The day of I literally could not keep the cake out of the fridge for more than a few minutes. My place was just too warm that the icing would soften instantly and start to droop down the cake. There was a lot of swiping and re-doing.

I also had to make two extra trips to the store to buy more ingredients as the icing just wasn't coming out right. And my hand held blender broke - again! - So now I'm onto my third in the past several months. I REALLY want a proper stand blender/mixer like the KitchenAid ones but they are sooooo expensive. 

The bride-to-be decided on the colour scheme. I wasn't too sure about the colour blocking but I think it looks quite nice after all. I think for next time I will add a bit of white colouring to the cream colour - the colour of the butter stands out a bit too much for my liking....a little on the yellow side.

The cake is a two-tiered chocolate cake with cream cheese icing. To go along with the cake, I also made a dozen cupcakes to match but I unfortunately do not have a proper photo of them.

I am very thankful to the bride-to-be to give me this opportunity - she was great! 

I do really like the outcome of the cake and this was my first two-tiered cake so I think even with that it is pretty good but I do wish I could have provider her with crisper icing and not so soft looking. But it is what it is - can't control the weather.

Hope she liked it.

 

Cupcake Samples

This is completely OVERDUE!! Sorry everyone! Over the last month Josh and I both started new jobs so we have been completely occupied with that and getting use to our new positions and commute and lack of time together (i.e no overlapping days off) BUT we both have settled in nicely and it's time to get back on track with everything else.

This includes making a cake for a girls engagement party coming up in a couple of days. She saw my blog and lives locally so she asked if I could put together a cake for her. I brought her some sample cupcakes and these are them:

Both types are chocolate cake. The pink are iced with an almond flavoured buttercream. And the cream are iced with cream cheese buttercream.

There are obviously many more cupcakes than the four packaged for her so we were forced to eat cupcakes for a couple of days. Josh doesn't like cream cheese icing (crazy guy!) so I had to eat of all of those ones....too bad for me. 

The pink icing was interesting to experiment with because I wanted the furthest from baby pink. The trick seemed to be adding a tiny little bit of black or brown colouring (honestly, a tiny tiny bit). When I do the cake I will add a touch more just so the pink is a real antiquey dusty rose colour. 

I'm looking forward to it. I hope the weather isn't too warm so the icing can withstand the heat. 

On a side note: I have been baking and cooking a ton, I just haven't had the time to post any of them - hopefully that means I will be able to pump them out when I have a bit of time and post a bit more consistently.

Be back soon! (HOPEFULLY!!!!).