Photo Overload!

No recipes today, but sometimes decorating is just as fun as baking. Here's what I've been up to.


These are some sugar cookies with a hint of orange flavoring. I sculpted and decorated with vanilla buttercream and dusted them with sugar. All of the buttercream was piped with a ziploc bag, because I'm just a bit too poor to buy a real decorating kit!


Do you know how hard it is to make a good from-scratch yellow cake? VERY. So far the only good yellow cake I have tasted is the one from the box. This one, however, cake pretty close! It was moist with a delicate flavor. However, the texture wasn't my favorite. My family enjoyed it though! I dyed these to match the pretty fall leaves!


I took my autumn-inspired cupcakes and mashed them up with chocolate buttercream. I rolled them into a ball and dipped them in chocolate. The end result was then dusted with sanding sugar. It was deceptively delicious! Like a super moist chocolate cake.


And we'll end this post with my adorable birdy enjoying a mouthful of birdy bread.

Ginger-Molasses Cookies

Yesterday marked a very sad day in my family. My great aunt Evy passed away in the evening. She was in her 80s and had been ailed with Alzheimer's disease. Come last Saturday, she had suffered from a series of mini-strokes and was rushed to the hospital. She passed peacefully in her home. Many tears have been shed for her. But... I believe her life should be celebrated as well.

My Aunt Evy was quite the baker. She always made terrific fudges and cookies. One such cookie that always sticks out in my memory when I think of my great aunts is the molasses cookie. The intoxicatingly sweet and spicy smell of the ginger and molasses still lingers vividly in my memories. Many people don't like the taste of molasses. It's strong and sweet and leaves a taste on the tongue. I've always loved it. So I brought it upon myself to relive this memory as best as I could.

Edible Ingredients

2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon of ground ginger
2 teaspoons of baking soda
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of salt
3/4 cup of shortening
1 cup of white sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup of dark, mild molasses
1/2 cup of cinnamon sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and set cookie sheets aside. Do not grease the cookie sheets.
2. Sift together flour, ginger, cinnamon, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl.
3. In another bowl, cream your shortening. Then beat in the sugar gradually. Add in the egg and molasses.
4. Add the flour mixture in parts until the dough becomes soft.
5. Roll the dough into small, 1 inch balls(bigger balls work as well, if you'd like that). Roll the balls into the cinnamon sugar and place on the cookie sheets.
7. Bake for 10 minutes until the tops are slightly domed and cracked.
8. Cool for a couple minutes before eating with a nice glass of tea or milk.

R.I.P. Aunt Eveline
You will never be forgotten.

Stuffed Strawberries

This summer, my cousin and I celebrated 4th of July by the lake! We fished, talked about sports, watched the sun set and ended the day by toasting marshmallows and watching movies. I was in charge of snacks that day! Strawberries were in season, so I picked up a bunch, got some cream cheese and this recipe was formed! I decided cream cheese filling would be too boring, so I decided to spice it up. I mashed some peaches into it and fixed it according to taste.

Months later, and my cousin still craves them! So the other day, we picked up some ingredients and went home to experiment. I had bought some orange extract to bake cupcakes with and decided to incorporate it. In the end, they were gone in a matter of 10 minutes...!

Non-edible Ingredients

1 large ziploc bag.

Edible Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of Cool Whip.
4 oz of cream cheese. (or half of the stick)
2 teaspoons of orange extract.
1/4 cup of sugar.
1 teaspoon of orange juice.
A package of strawberries.

1. Clean the package of strawberries thouroughly.
2. Cut off the tops and hull out the berries. Set them aside.
3. In a medium-sized bowl, beat together the cream cheese, Cool Whip and sugar.
4. Add the orange juice and extract.
5. Cream together until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is smooth.
6. Spoon the cream into a large Ziploc bag. Snip off one of the edges of the bag.
7. Pipe the mixture into your hollowed out strawberries!
8. Nomnomnomnomnomnom.

Blue Velvet Cake

Well, my cousin is in town! She didn't just bring her husband and her bags this time though. She brought some good news! She's going to be a mother! I'm incredibly excited to be an "aunt." And just between you and me, I'm excited that she is one, hungry pregnant woman! So I have promised to make her a bunch of sweets over the next week. The first of these sweets?

Blue velvet cake!

It's moist, flavorful and just plain fun to eat. So we ran out to the store to buy buttermilk, and here we are...! The recipe is adapted off of a red velvet cupcake recipe by Paula Deen!

Are you ready to get messy?
You should be by now.

Non-edible Materials:

Two 9-inch round cake pans.
Non-stick cooking spray.

Edible Materials:

2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour.
1 1/2 cup of sugar.
1 teaspoon of baking soda.
1 teaspoon of salt.
1 tablespoon of cocoa powder.
1 1/2 cups of vegetable oil.
1 cup of room-temperature buttermilk.
2 large, room-temperature eggs.
2 tablespoons of blue food coloring(or red if you wanna be like that...)
1 teaspoon of white distilled vinegar.
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Let's get started.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease both of your cake pans with the cooking spray and dust them with flour. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, carefully sift together sugar, flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder.
4. In a large bowl, mix the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar and vanilla. Avoid smelling it, you will regret it!
5. Add the flour mixture in parts until the batter is thick and smooth. Be sure not to mix it more than it needs.
6. Fill the cakepans about half way with the batter and baker for about 28-30 minutes.
7. Test with a toothpick before removing from heat. Let them cool on the stovetop for about 10 minutes. Then flip them over onto a cooling rack and let them sit for an hour.

8. Let's take a break to make some cream cheese frosting!

8 ounces of softened cream cheese.
1 stick of softened butter.
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
2 cups of confectioner's sugar.

Cream together butter, vanilla and cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar carefully on a slow speed. The end result should be creamy and smooth.

9. Transfer one of the cakes onto a plate and begin icing!
10. Carefully place the other cake on top and ice the rest. Don't miss the sides...!
11. Garnish with a lovely strawberry and eat with a glass of milk. <3

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

I don't think there's anything more classic than the chocolate chip cookie. There's so many different variations. Some like them crunchy, some like them chewy. Some like them all. My mom is one of those people. Whenever I pull back my hair and get my trusty mixing bowl, she comes up to me and asks "Chocolate chip?" And sometimes, I say no. But other times, I conjure up some kind of CCC concoction for her.

Today, it was chocolate chip cookie bars. They're all the fun of a cookie in a cakey bar form. Does it get much better than that? Probably, but let's just pretend these are the best things ever right now.

Because they are.

Get ready to get messy.

Non-edible Materials:

9x13 inch cake pan.

Edible Materials:

1 cup of softened butter.
3/4 cup of white sugar.
3/4 cup of packed brown sugar.
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
2 large eggs.
2 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour.
1 teaspoon of salt.
1 teaspoon of baking soda.
2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Time to get messy!

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease the cake pan and set it aside.
2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, sift together the flour, salt and baking soda.
3. In another, larger mixing bowl, beat together your butter, both sugars and vanilla until they become light and fluffy. Add in one egg at a time, making sure that the first egg is mixed well before adding the second.
4. Add the flour mixture in parts.
5. Stir in your chocolate chips.
6. Scoop all of the dough into the cake pan, spreading it evenly.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.
8. Remove from oven and let cool before cutting it into squares.

OR...

Now, I've been experimental lately. So here's an alternate idea to the bars.
1. Line a muffin pan with cupcake papers.
2. Fill the cupcake papers half-way with cookie dough.
3. Sprinkle cocoa powder over the top, using a spoon to swirl it into the batter.
4. Bake for about 20 minutes at 375 degrees.
5. Top with chocolate buttercream!

The resulting cookie cupcake is crunchy and perfect with a glass of milk.