distractions.

Did you know that having your basement flood right before Thanksgiving causes one to go berserk?

I went berserk.

I literally just finished an order, and the next morning, we’ve got water in our finished basement like we’re trying to fill up a new indoor swimming pool. That we didn’t want.

Luckily, the hubs and I were home at the time and discovered it rather quickly. So I’m grateful for that. Because it could’ve been much worse had we been at work and found it when we got home. We got a plumber and the insurance guys to come and work everything out, from getting assessed to having our damaged floors ripped out. It all eventually was taken care of.

But it definitely put a damper on my holiday baking.

Well, that and just being a new homeowner period. In addition to our "basement remodel", our house had to be readied for the upcoming holidays…including our first time hosting Christmas. With my parents coming to visit and staying with us.

And in that time between having random men coming in and out of my home (for various flooring visits), I was finally invited to Pinterest. Which for those of you who don’t know already…it’s a time sucker, just like your favorite social networking sites. Only more interesting.

It is quite addicting – finding things that you like, or new things that you never knew you can’t live without, or ideas that you hope to execute someday…and all these things that you want to remember you can pin to virtual boards for you to refer back to at your convenience. Any interest you have, you’re covered. There are recipes, educational tips, vintage cars, fitness routines, hot vacation spots…I mean, I could keep going.

My time had been spent scouring the DIY and holiday boards so I could decorate our humble abode. So wreaths and bows took the place of cookies and cupcakes. It was fun until I realized I hadn’t really baked anything. And then it was the holidays and everyone was at our house, so I couldn’t dwell on it anymore. It’s a new year, and I’ve got new things baking up. After I finish a couple more Pinterest-inspired projects. ;)

And to thank you for listening to my Pinterest babble, let me catch you up on goodies since October. These were the happenings from my kitchen:


Engagement party & Tailgate (with a chili cook-off)
     Sugar cookies decorated with butter cream frosting.

Many guests were Michigan State alum and/or fans.

The happy couple sharing some sugar.

 Thirteenth Birthday 

Sugar cookies decorated with butter cream frosting. I studied his football jersey to make sure I got it right!

Chocolate cake, filled with Oreo butter cream, covered with dark chocolate butter cream.

Sent from my sister: The cake decorated with the sugar cookies.

Thanksgiving Family Get-Together
Pump'kin Patch cupcakes (pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting)
Just Like Heaven cupcakes (chocolate cake, nutella ganache, caramel frosting, toffee bits garnish)

The branches and paper flowers posing with the cupcakes was my first Pinterest project. ;)

Christmas Family Get-Together
Red velvet and chocolate cake pops 

Santa's belt, snowflakes, and holly & berry wreaths for a festive holiday celebration.

How to decorate these cake pops:
I go back and forth with using decorating bags and tips when I'm decorating with candy melts. I feel like I spend more time going back and forth between the table and the microwave because the melts harden more quickly in the tip, even if the rest is still warm/usable. I often just use toothpicks instead.

Santa's belt:

• Use black candy melts, black sanding sugar, and silver sanding sugar
• Dip a toothpick in your smooth black candy melt and "paint" on a line in the middle of the cake pop, about 1 cm thick. Coat with black sanding sugar.  Note 1: I usually would do half of the belt and then sugar, then finish the other half of the belt and sugar. This is to prevent the candy melt from hardening before you sugar it. Note 2: It's best to have parchment paper beneath your workspace, making it easier to save your sugar and pour it back into its container. I also do one color at a time to avoid mixing colors.
• Repeat for remaining cake pops.
• Dip your toothpick in the candy melt again. Paint on a small rectangle for the belt buckle. I made the rectangles thin to prevent them from turning out more square, since it turns out 'thicker' once you add the sugar.
• Coat with silver sanding sugar. (Some people like yellow or gold for the buckle, but I like silver...so your choice!).

Snowflakes:

• Use white candy melts, white sanding sugar, and white snowflake sprinkles.  Note: I used two different types of sprinkles to differentiate cake flavors; i.e. sanding sugar = red velvet, snowflakes = chocolate
• For sanding sugar snowflake. 
• Dip a toothpick in your smooth white candy melts. 
• Draw two lines like a + sign. 
• Add small slanted lines like \/ at the end of each line (it should look like kind of like an arrow's end). 
• Coat with white sanding sugar.
• Add four more smaller lines in between the open spaces in your + and small slanted lines at the ends of these lines.
• Coat with white sanding sugar. 

• For snowflake sprinkles.
• Lay out your sprinkles in the design that you want.
• I made one long line of 5 snowflake sprinkles, then branched out four short lines of 2 sprinkles each (the cake pop gets crowded real quick!) Think of an asterisk shape *
• Dip a toothpick in your smooth white candy melts.
• Dot in the center and place your first snowflake. Note: I used dots versus lines so you can see the snowflakes clearly.
• Repeat with remaining snowflakes. 

Holly & berry wreaths 

• Use green candy melts and holly berry sprinkle mix (in a small shallow bowl).
• Instead of a toothpick, use a small tool to create your circle for the wreath. I used the screw cap from one of my small plastic decorating bottles. 
• Dip the cap (or whatever circular tool you chose) in your smooth green candy melts.  
• Carefully place cap on your cake pop. Be sure that your circle is complete. Repeat dip if necessary.
• Dip cake pop in holly & berry mix, or sprinkle them over your circle. Note: Dipping the cake pop can spread the candy melt out a little bit, making your wreath a little wider. I used both methods to see what worked best -- dipping is obviously not as messy, but sprinkling creates a more defined wreath (If you look at my second picture with all of the pops together, see the front two wreaths? The one on the left was dipped, and the one of the right was sprinkled).

Despite the fact that the winter holidays are now over, I hope you will "pin" my short  tute so you can reference it for 2012's holidays. ;)  And, I wish I could provide images to show each step, but 1, I was still in berserk-dom, and 2, I'm just not that organized when I bake. And 3, I'm terrible at doing a visual step-by-step on my own, and I couldn't dare bother the hubs while he's playing a video game...gasp! 

 

I hope you've enjoyed my 'recent' happenings. Now I'm off to Pinterest to find some more inspiration :D

 

baking baby.

If you follow me on Facebook, then you may (or may not) know that the hubs and I just moved a couple months ago. As I packed up my old kitchen, I dreamt about the cake plates and platters and such that have been stored in the garage over the years. And then I organized my baking supplies into gigantic storage containers, dreaming of using it all, and having it all easily accessible to me, now that they would have a dedicated place in our finished basement.

For a couple weeks after we had finally moved in, I was still in denial about having to cook again...I was under the impression we could get take out for dinner every night, despite the fact that our entire kitchen was unpacked, organized, and clean (oh yah, and that we now had a mortgage to pay).

Slowly but surely, though, I began getting to know my new oven. I started by acquainting myself with her friend, the stove. Then I worked up the courage to start courting her, with easy things, like frozen french fries (seriously people...the hubs and I have been eating out since May...I've kinda forgotten what real veggies are). 

Rather quickly, things got a little more serious. We spent more and more time together, as I worked my way up to a casserole and meals of the sort. And then...we decided...it was time. Our first time together was magical, and we made beautiful chocolate chip whoopie pies. 
So. Good. 
It almost made me forget about the past four years that I spent with my old oven. And what makes this relationship more exciting is the fact that I get to use all the things I had been longing to break out.

We've been baking together as much as my schedule allows, and I got my first official order based out of our new location. Baking with my new baby for a new baby. 

One little buggy adorned the sweet invitation, so naturally buggy cookies had to be made.

And of course some onesies.

Stripes, houndstooth, and polka dots. Perfect patterns for baby boys.

S'mores cupcakes: graham cracker crust, graham cracker and chocolate chip cake, marshmallow frosting .

Caramel Mocha cupcake: vanilla cake, caramel filling, mocha butter cream, chocolate covered espresso beans garnish.

Cupcake toppers to display a sweet message for the shower guests.

I must say, it was nice getting prepped to bake, since everything was organized much better than I had it in our other place. All of my icing bottles were in one place. My treat bags and boxes were all together. It was lovely. I could definitely get used to this.

 

It's nice to finally feel settled. Perhaps I'll go make s'more whoopie with the hubs my oven. hee hee ;)

my belated valentine post.

One of my guilty pleasures: the prepackaged sugar cookies with cake frosting and sprinkles that you can get at the supermarket. They're convenient when I don't have time to bake and I want cookies right then and there. But I know I should stick to baking them on my own. I've made my fair share of sugar cookies, but usually I make them with royal icing, like these. However, since I had about 20 valentines this past February 14th, I wanted to do something a little more special. And after seeing my aforementioned guilty pleasures at the store, I had the perfect idea.

I'm sure most of you remember having classroom valentines in grade school and getting the conversation hearts in your milk carton mailbox. I remember loving the sayings, but not caring too much for the actual candy.  But these, I would gladly welcome these in my milk carton mailbox. [Or my hot pink mailbox from a superstore's dollar section.]

 

With music being one of my first loves, I couldn't help but choose some of my favorite songs and use them for my cookie sayings. Naturally, they would be called "song-versation" hearts, right? ;) And when I brought them in to my students, some of the titles sparked some conversation, such as, Student: "What does emm-fey-oh mean?" Me: "Do you mean MFEO?" or Student: "What's P.Y.T.? Is that like 'peace to you'? I think you did it wrong." hahaha...these kids crack me up!

The kiddies thoroughly enjoyed the cookies -- and one of the teachers I work with promptly told me that I spoil them. True story. I love baking for my students, and since I have the time, I might as well, right? Plus, they think I'm extra-amazing because I bake...hehehe.

I made everything from scratch, but I know this can be a daunting task for some. Wanna make these too?

quick version of songversation hearts

You'll need:

Sugar cookie mix -- prepared to make cut-out cookies

Heart shaped cookie cutters

Vanilla frosting

Food coloring (to make pink, red, light purple, yellow, green)

Small spatula

Directions:

Make cookies according to package directions. While baking, begin preparing the frosting. Use food coloring to make your desired colors. I began with vanilla (white frosting). Take about a spoonful of frosting and place on the cookie. Using your small spatula, spread out the frosting evenly to the edge of your cookie. Take the side of your spatula (perpendicular to the cookie) and run it around the edge to clean up the sides of your cookie. 

After frosting a few cookies with white frosting, divide the remainder into two bowls: one bowl should have twice the frosting than the other. The bowl with more frosting will start with a couple drops of red coloring to make a light pink.  Frost a few cookies. Add a little blue coloring to make a light purple. Frost a few cookies. For the remainder of the light purple frosting, add more red coloring until the frosting is red (if you let this sit for a few hours or overnight, the red will be more pronounced). Transfer the red frosting into a pastry bag that is fitted with a writing tip (this is to write on the cookies). Alternatively, you could buy a red frosting cookie writer as it may be a simpler option. 

With the second bowl of white frosting, start with a couple drops of yellow coloring to make a light yellow. Frost a few cookies. Add a little blue coloring to make a light green. After all of your cookies are frosted, use the red frosting to write your message.

Another true story: I love this new plate that I bought. love and songversation cookie hearts. Sounds like a perfectly complete valentine to me.

And as a belated celebration, my niece and nephew came over, and I sent them home with valentines of their own. As the trade off, they snapped a couple pictures for me -- this was the best shot I could get where they weren't laughing their heads off. They may be grown now, but it's like they're still little! :D I love them to pieces! <3

P.S. Don't fret friends...The hubs, my numero uno valentine, received the first of the cookies, with song titles for him too. My fave? MLWSW You [My Life Would Suck Without You...hehehe]