Whole Lot of Bakin' Going On!

So I decided to become a baker...of things I saw on Pinterest!

and my interpretation:

Then there were these cookies...

and my interpretation: 

Then there were these little lovelies...

 

that inspired me to make these little lovelies:

Everything was going pretty well until I decided to try this guy...

 I guess you can't win 'em all.

See...this is what I love about Pinterest.  You see something that someone else has done and you think, "Maybe I can do that, too!"  

And sometimes you can :)

Mickey & Minnie Mouse Cupcakes

So I decided to make Mickey and Minnie Mouse cupcakes...because I saw it on Pinterest.

The original pin is just a picture in cyberspace found at this link.  The link looks sort of shady...and all you will find there is the exact picture I posted.  Maybe don't click it?

Computer-virus-paranoia be gone.

Ok.  Aren't those cupcakes adorable?  Miss P is a huge fan of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (and the hot dog dance)!  So when I saw these cupcakes, I knew I had to make them for her.  Or with her, as it turned out.

Let's get started. 

This is what you will need:

Cake mix (and everything needed for that), Mini Oreos, Oreos, two sticks of butter, 7-8 cups powdered sugar (2lbs), and some milk. 

Oh and a sweet little pair of hands, eager for an opportunity to help (or sneak frosting).

You could just use tub frosting...but buttercream is tres delicious.  

And I guess the kind of liner you use is up to you, but I really wanted to be authentic Mickey/Minnie Mouse, so I bought red and white polka dot liners.  You can find them here on Amazon for $3.94 with free shipping. There are 50 in a pack and they held their color really well during baking.  

While I mixed the cake, my sous chef lined the cupcake pans...

Look at that little hand!!!  Love.

While the cupcakes were baking, we started working on the buttercream.  I don't strictly follow any particular recipe.  I always start with two sticks of butter and the rest varies each time depending on what the bc looks like in the bowl.  

If you want to make some delicious buttercream, start by cutting up two sticks of butter (I do this with butter straight from the fridge):

Hahahahaha!  Can you tell I had some help here?

Add about 1/3 cup of milk and 1 cup of powdered sugar.  Start the mixer on low.  Then gradually add in more and more powdered sugar and milk (no more than another 1/3 cup of milk) until you reach a smooth but sturdy consistency.  

The buttercream will taste better if you have some sweet little hands directing the stand mixer.  Trust me.

If you are frosting a cake you will want the bc to be more firm, but if you are piping cupcakes it needs to be a little less firm. 

I used almost all of the 2lb bag of sugar.  There is probably about 1 cup left so I that means I used about 7 cups. 

Now that's a lot of sugar!

I don't know about you, but these look perfect to me.  Just cake...

Miss P and I are a perfect team.  She only likes the frosting and I only like the cake.  

Even though I don't care about eating the buttercream, I do love to decorate with it!

I used my favorite Wilton 1M tip.  Pretty swirls of yummy goodness:

So perfect.

This was the point in the project where I wished there had been an actual site linked to the original pin.  Because I had no idea how to make bows for the Minnie cupcakes.  

I just winged it (where did that saying even come from?)...

I thought I would tint some candy melts red and pipe them into the shape of a bow.  

Have you ever worked with candy melts?  They don't like to be tinted.  I think the only reason it worked for me this time is because I used a gel color and not a liquid.  And I only used a very tiny amount.  You can't add liquid to candy melts because it will turn them into a clump of shame. 

Another thing I don't like about candy melts is that they harden back up extremely fast.  Like literally by the time I had transferred them from the bowl I melted them in to the bottle, they were too cool to pipe.  That's why I keep this handy:

That's a mug full of steamy hot water.  

I piped some bows onto a sheet of wax paper and let them dry for about 10 minutes.  

Meanwhile, I assembled the mice.  And I figured out that they play much nicer if you only use one side of the Oreo.  The cookies were a little too bulky for the cupcake when they were whole.

Also, OCD induced tantrums can be avoided if you make sure your 'OREO' imprints are all facing the same way.

Not that I had to redo any...

Hi there, Minnie!  What a lovely bow you have!

You're lonely?

How about a friend?

Don't they look happy together?

You can literally see how fast those sweet hands removed the bow! 

"Nom, nom, nom..."

This project was easy peasy and made my little one super happy.  I only wish I could have done a better job on the bows!  If I did this for a birthday party, I would definitely try to order candy bows from somewhere because piping them out of candy melts was not the way to go.  Overall, a solid B+.  Can you really go wrong with cupcakes? 

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cake!

So I decided to make a Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cake...and put it on Pinterest.

I made this cake over Thanksgiving and I wanted to share the recipe with everyone because it is truly de-licious!!  

I mean...the word 'chocolate' appears in the name twice so you know it has to be good!

So here you go:

1-box yellow cake mix

2-small boxes chocolate Jello instant pudding (3.5oz)

4-eggs

1/2-cup oil

8-oz sour cream

1-cup water

as many chocolate chips as you want!

All you do is add the pudding mix to the cake mix and whisk together (now y'all know I am lazy and I did not do that step). Then add the eggs, oil, water, & sour cream and blend with a mixer for about a minute.  Now, it is really thick.  That's because of all the yummy goodness.  Just be strong and tell your mixer to power through. 

When it's all blended, add your chocolate chips (I use half a bag of Nestle milk chocolate) and stir in with a spoon.  

Now, Ina would tell me to roll my chocolate chips in flour first so that they don't sink to the bottom of the cake.  And I would tell her that she needs to stop popping her collar.  Who does she think she is? A thirteen year old boy?

No worries.  This cake batter is so thick, the chocolate chips couldn't sink if they tried!

I usually make this cake in a Bundt pan, but I wanted to do something different for Thanksgiving.  I made it in two 8" round pans instead.  If you use a Bundt pan, bake for about an hour at 325.  If you use layering pans, bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.  You'll know they're done when you can stick a toothpick in and it comes out clean.  And don't forget to grease the pans really well.

Now, I think the hardest part of making this cake is deciding whether or not to frost it :)

Doesn't that look amazing?

It is.

Make yourself one and you will see!

Happy Sunday! Have a Sundae!

So I decided to make chocolate chip cookie sundae cups...because I saw it on Pinterest.

"Sugar Cookie Bowls" - Original pin from Wilton.

We are definitely in the holiday spirit at my house.  This year, Miss Precocious and I tricked Jake into putting our Christmas tree up the first week of October.  How did we do it?  We told him it was going to be a "Holiday Tree".  

We decorated it for Halloween during the month of Octorber.  This month it has a Thanksgiving theme.  And next month it will be a Christmas Tree again.  (I think Jake secretly likes having it up, but he won't admit it. Men!) 

Anyway, to me it just feels wrong to decorate a tree without cookies baking and some sort of holiday music playing (Bing Crosby Holiday on Pandora!!).  So when it was time to switch the Halloween decorations for the Thanksgiving decorations this weekend, I decided to make us a special cookie treat!  

I pinned those Wilton cookie bowls a while back and decided to make them as soon as I got some Pillsbury.  I have to be honest, I didn't read a single instruction off the Wilton site.  Not one.  Lazy.  But how hard can it be?  Squish some dough, bake, eat... 

One day I will learn.  

We'll get to that. 

So here is what you need to make this happen:

I just molded the dough thinly (I swear it felt thin) around the bottom of the ungreased muffin pan.  Like so.

I was only brave enough to try one. (Can you blame me for not wanting to waste Pillsbury cookie dough??)

And since I bake cookies all the time, I know a little trick.  If you want the cookies to hold their shape, stick them in the freezer for 5 minutes before you bake.  Now I know this works for cut-outs so I figured it would work for Pillsbury too.  

Umm...no.

Wilton can kiss it.  Maybe I should have read the instructions?

I am a cheater.

Tada!

Well at least it tastes awesome!  

I give this project a big E-F for Epic Fail!  Hope you have better luck :)

Happy Sunday!

Happy Birthday Mom! Have Some Cake.

So I decided to make my mom a very special birthday cake...because I saw it on Pinterest.

 This is a two-for-one post ;)

"White Wedding Cake Cupcakes"-Original pin from Lori at RecipeGirl.

and...

"Rose Cake Tutorial"-Original pin from Amanda at I Am Baker.

I bake all the time!  Its my favorite hobby.  And I absolutely adore I Am Baker! Amanda is so clever. She is always hiding things inside her cakes (no, not like keys or money!).  Seriously.  Read her blog.  It's amazing. 

I saw that amazing rose cake a few months ago and I actually pinned it myself! I keep getting emails (like 3 a day) telling me that someone else has pinned it too.  It's a pretty awesome cake, and I guess I'm not the only one who thinks so!  

I bought the special tip for making those roses (Wilton 1M) the same week I found this cake post.  I haven't tried to make the rose cake but I did make some rose cupcakes that were pretty cute. Want to see?

I made this cake, the cookies and cupcakes for a little friend's third birthday party. I had so much fun making these!  Pink...it's my favorite color.  Anyway, those are the little rose cupcakes.

Where was I?  Oh!  Ok so why two pins in one post?  Well, I am using the recipe from RecipeGirl and the decorating idea from I Am Baker.

You see, I've been decorating birthday cakes for a while and I always use boxed cake mix.  Remember, I am the epitome of lazy.   And this has worked pretty well...so far.  But the last cake I made was a monster and the cake wasn't as dense as it should have been which caused some stability issues.  Cakes from a box tend to be a little on the fluffy side so I am hoping that this recipe from RecipeGirl will create a more dense cake with minimal extra effort on my part!

"What is the occasion for this cake?" you ask.  My amazing mommy's birthday is this week and she is coming to visit so I wanted to make her a very special cake. 

This is my sweet little mama when she was a youngster.  Isn't she the cutest thing ever? I just want to pinch those cheeks!!!  Love her!

Alright, so this is the recipe for the cake:

1 (18.25 ounce) box white cake mix
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated white sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups water
2 Tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream (I used light)
4 large egg whites

Need a visual?

Now, nowhere in her post does RecipeGirl say that this cake will be dense.  I am just using my reasoning skills (which have been wrong before)...but it seems that adding an entire cup of flour and a cup of sour cream should weigh things down a bit.  

Anyway, I am making two 8" round cakes and a few cupcakes for mom to take back home to my dad (because he's pretty awesome, too!). I am a fan of the grease-and-flour method of prepping baking pans.  This is the only way I've found to ensure my cakes don't stick. I get a lot of Crisco on a paper towel and run it around the pan a few times.  Then I dump flour in and wiggle it around until everything is coated.  Ah-like-so:

You know how I mentioned that my mom was pretty awesome?  Well to illustrate that point, look what she brought me!

Yes.  Every baker's dream.  A STAND MIXER!  Wooohoooo!!!  If I could do a cartwheel, I totally would.  (Mom, you are freaking awesome!)

Ok so first you need to wisk together all the dry ingredients.  

Now I'm just showing off my fancy mixer.

Then blend in all the other ingredients.  Since it's my mom's birthday (and for no other reason) I even removed the little white squishy yuckness from the eggs.  She can't stand the thought of eating those, no matter what.  Happy Birthday!

Can you see how amazingly smooth that cake batter is??  Gratuitous mixer footage.

I filled two 8" pans a little more than halfway and I still had enough batter for 9 cupcakes.  The oven was preheated to 325 and I should have set a timer but...I am a lazyface.  

After they started to smell really good (who needs a timer when you have a nose?), I tested them with a knife and tada! Perfection. 

While the cakes were cooling, I started working on the buttercream.  I mixed 2 sticks of salted butter, 2 tablespoons of milk, and 4 cups of powdered sugar in the separate bowl that came with the mixer (it has TWO bowls!).  Then I added  a little bit more powdered sugar...and a little bit more milk...and I did that a few times.  I just work with it until it is the consistency I think I want for the tip I'm going to use (you'll meet the tip in a minute).  

When I had it the way I wanted, I put the smidgeniest amount of Wilton Rose and Sky gel food colorings and stirred by hand.  I was going for a lavender color.  I actually tinted properly! Can you tell? Whoop!

Since I've used this tip before I know that it can be a real buttercream hog!  And I knew I wanted to give the cake a little flavor (I didn't add any flavoring to this lovely buttercream).  So I made a separate, smaller batch of strawberry buttercream to crumb coat the cake with.  

I used 1 stick of butter, 1 tablespoon of milk, 1/4 cup of Duncan Hines strawberry frosting and enough powdered sugar to thicken it up a bit.  Adding the tub frosting is so much fun!  It's totally cheating, but it adds just enough flavor to the buttercream and it makes it extra smooth.  

Yep.  I forgot to tint the crumb coat buttercream lavender.  I hate that my brain never recovered from being pregnant.  I wonder how much mental capacity I lost...  Can't even think about it!

Want to meet the beast?

That's the Wilton 1M.  My very favorite tip.  LOVE!  Get one.  You can make pretty cakes too!

Ok the first roses should go on the side of the cake.  Start in the middle and loop around until the entire side is covered.

Adding roses to the top is tricky.  I started with one square in the middle and had to scrape it off.  It didn't leave me enough room for the roses on the outside. They would have been like...half roses or something really awkward.  

So I started at the edge and did the entire circumference of the cake and then filled in from there.  There are going to be holes and gaps between the roses.  Just make some swoops with your tip to fill them in.  (This is where tinting the crumb coat the same color as the roses would have been helpful.)

I just kept swooping and before I knew it, I had a fancy rose cake!  That was easy!

And goodness, this cake was divine!  It truly is wedding cake!!!  

Way to go RecipeGirl!  I give this an A+!  The cakes were dense (in a good way) and I barely had to level them at at all.  And the decorating was easy to do, thanks to I Am Baker's tutorial.  

Oh I wish I could share a piece with every single one of you!  But now you know you can make one yourself.  So get to it!

Scream Cheese Brownies

Hey Everyone!  This is a special guest post from The Good Girl over at GoodGirlsInc!  I'm so excited that she decided to share this sweet treat with us.  Be sure to check out her clever blog ASAP! 

So I decided to try this whole create-something-you-saw-on-Pinterest thing. I am not very crafty but I do like to eat. Especially chocolate. So I made some super cool Halloween brownies...because I saw it on Pinterset!

"Scream Cheese Brownies" - This pin originally came from Christy at The Girl Who Ate Everything.

We love sweets in my house. Probably more than we should. But it's Halloween, and everyone's allowed a little extra chocolate, right? So when I was looking around for some Halloween treats to make on Pinterest and saw these brownies, I just had to make them.

This recipe calls for a box of brownie mix, and I decided to use the Pillsbury Halloween Funfetti kind, which is basically regular brownies but with little black, orange and white candy sprinkles on top. It just seemed extra festive! Here's what I started with:

First I mixed the cream cheese filling. Now I will be honest here; when I heard the words "cream cheese" and "brownies" I was a little skeptical. That doesn't sound like the best combination. But I was willing to give it a shot. If it's got chocolate in it then it has to be good. So I got the filling ready to mix:


I used my nifty hand mixer my mother-in-law gave me (I guess she knew that would come in handy at some point) and got it to a smooth consistency like so (it looked pink to me when it was supposed to be orange so I was starting to get a little concerned):

Next I mixed the brownie mix according to the box instructions and filled a greased baking pan with 3/4 of the brownie mixture:


Now it's time to spoon the "orange" filling mixture into the brownie mix. Then put the remaining brownie mix on top and use a knife to pull the filling through the batter to create a marbling effect:


This is the point where I add my Funfetti sprinkles to the top of the brownies (note: the original Pin for Scream Cheese Brownies didn't have this). Then I pop them in the oven for 40 minutes at 350 degrees:


And now I wait. And smell the yummy goodness of brownies coming from my oven. But I've got a sink full of dirty dishes to do and that will help pass some of the time.



You know what else helps pass the time? Starship, lots of wine and some of my favorite websites (Because I Saw It On Pinterest and Good Girls Inc, of course!):


They're finally done! Take a look at how they turned out:



They need to cool completely at room temperature for about an hour and a half, then have to be refrigerated for at least an hour. Then they're ready to be cut and eaten!



Overall I give the Scream Cheese Brownies an A because they taste really good, are pretty easy to make, and are a festive holiday treat!

Happy Halloween!

-The Good Girl