Long Live February

This month has been an incredible wirlwind. It being so, has led me to lose track of time and my responsibilities. I'm sorry.   So, lets start from where we left off!

Around the first week of February I had my 'Practical Interview' at Palomino Ballroom.

My Menu:

Chopped Salad w/ Green Goddess Dressing

Soft Dinner Rolls

Chicken Marsala

Fried Polenta

Glazed Baby Carrots

Warm Chocolate Melting Cake w/ Vanilla Ice Cream

Well, needless to say; it was a HIT! They loved everything about it and me and I...

Got the Job!!

So, I gave 1 1/2 weeks notice to my boss at the University and I was off to start my new adventure.

My new job title?--

Kitchen Manager/Head Chef and Pastry Chef!

Fantastic! Can life get any better than this?

So, after my last day of work it was time to celebrate my 23rd birthday!

We went out with Brad's parents and sister to McAllister's Deli--Delish! I highly recommend it!

Then on Friday night Ashley took me out to Dinner at 5guys and a burger--again, Delish!! And we went and saw the new movie 'Just Go With It'

**Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler have incredible chemistry and by the end of the movie I truely wanted them to be together forever!!

After that, we took a fun trip to BroadRipple!

I was extremely surprised by how old I felt! BRipple is filled with a TON of college kids getting wasted and by 2am we had had enough of the 'scene' and after only 2 drinks each we decided to call it a night.

So ,I started my new job- I have a desk,email,voicemail..etc.. I feel like I finally have a "Big Girl Job"!!

I haven't baked a lot recently..I've made a few chocolate chip cookies here and there, and finished my February Daring baker's challange.

My next great baking challange this month is Brianna's 23rd Birthday on the 27th.

She has requested an Ice Cream Cake but not a plain-old-same-old..

So I have come up with a Banana Split Cake!

banana cake, strawberry ice cream, fudge filling with chopped peanuts,vanilla ice cream and another banana cake layer. 

That party is in 2 days and I will post pictures of that soon after :) It should be delicious!!

Cake Truffles!

 I had a leftover 6" white cake..not quite sure what I wanted to do with it..

So I thought I would try a few different cake truffle flavors.

The first one is a Vanilla cake with Vanilla Icing and I added colored sprinkles into it to make a

"Birthday Cake" or "Confetti Cake"  Dipped in a White Chocolate.

Then I wanted to try something peanut buttery/chocolatey...

So I took the white cake and made a Peanut Butter Icing. But I didn't want a taste like a straight buckeye...so I added crushed pretzels into the balls to add a salty-ness to it.

So We have the Peanut Butter/ Pretzel Ball and Dipped them into a Chocolate Truffle. YUM!

Brioche and Cookies!

FINALLY! I got away from the cupcakes!!
Today I decided to NOT bake cupcakes..but instead to make my favorite...
                                                      Parisian Brioche!

Amazing.  Buttery/Eggy Good-ness....

Tomorrow morning is going to be DELISH French Toast!! Perfect.

Also--in getting ready for the Big Game tomorrow I wanted to make some cookies.

But, I was torn..

Make Steelers Cookies?..

Or Packers Cookies?

Personally, I'm cheering for the Packers! C'mon Aaron Rogers!!!

But in all fairness, I decided to stick with regular Football Cookies..

This is the BEST sugar cookie recipe you can find--and Icing the dries nice and shiney...

Best Sugar Cookies::

1 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar

1 cup Butter-room temp.

1  Egg

1 tsp. Vanilla

1/2 tsp. Almond Extract

2 1/2 All Purpose Flour

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1 tsp. Cream of Tartar

Beat the powdered sugar and butter. Scrape down the bowl and add the egg.  Beat and scrape down the bowl again. Add the vanilla and almond extracts.  In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Then add to the wet mixture.

Once combined,  sprinkle/dust counter with  more powdered sugar. Roll out cookie dough but keep about 1/2" thickness. Cut out in whatever shape you like.   Continue until all the dough is used.

Bake at 350 degrees for 6-10 mins (depending on your oven).

Icing recipe::

  (this only make enough to coat 5 cookies..)

1 cup Powdered Sugar

2 tsp. Milk

2 tsp. Corn Syrup

1/4 tsp. Almond Extract

Combine.. add food coloring if you would like to decorate. But if you are adding colors on top of colors, make sure you let the first color dry till you can touch it.

Anyway-- I hope you all enjoy Super Bowl Sunday!! Let me know if you try the cookies! Delish!

Cupcakes coming for my ears!

Ok-- So this is day 3 of snow days off of work...and cupcakes seem to be littering my kitchen...

And lucky me, I just found out we have another snow day tomorrow..

I made a white box mix cake mix...and added different ingredients to create some fun flavors :)

I had::

Banana Cake w/ Chocolate Filling and Peanut Butter Icing

Banana Cake with Peanut Butter Icing

Peanut Butter Cake w/ Chocolate Filling and Peanut Butter Icing

Peanut Butter Cake w/ Grape Jelly Filling and Peanut Butter Icing

Lemonade Cake with Strawberry Icing

Vanilla Caramel Cream Cake with Caramel Filling and Caramel Icing

White Cake wtih White Icing dunked in Chocolate Ganache (High Hat)

So, I think for my day off tomorrow, I will NOT be making cupcakes (although I do have more ideas from a chocolate base).
I'm thinking Sugar Cookies decorated with royal icing....or maybe something more savory...homemade pot pies? Or Chicago Deep Dish Pizza and breadsticks...YUM.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough....in a Cupcake??

That's right! Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes--how amazing does that sound?? I'm obsessed with chocolate chip cookies and now with cupcakes. So, imagine my surprise when I found a recipe for a combination of the two!

This only problem with my version of them today, is that I used all of my chocolate chips in the cookie dough,and the cupcake batter calls for more chocolate chips in it also- so I had to do without the extra amount of chocolate--which i'm sure only makes these better!

So basically I took regular white cake batter (which should have had chocolate chips stirred into it) and added a small scoop of chocolate chip cookie dough when the cupcake was 1/2 way through baking.

I topped off these delicious cupcakes with a brown sugar icing--which at first I was sceptical..but WOW.  Who would have thought that a Brown Sugar Icing could be sooo AMAZING!

Voila!

Cupcakes, Cupcakes, Cupcakes!!

I'm loving trying new cupcakes and cupcake techniques and cupcake flavors!
Now that I have found an icing that I LOVE (Melts in your Mouth!!!), I need to find amazing cupcake flavors that compliment this amazing icing!

So here are my most recent tests..pretty good findings :)

TIRAMISU CUPCAKE::

SNICKERDOODLE CUPCAKE::

LEMON CUPCAKES::

After trying all 3 and having the hubby try all 3 I (we) decided that...

*Tiramisu needed more of a coffee flavor--just wasn't strong enough for me when I think about Tiramisu..

*Lemon needed more of a lemon flavor in the icing and a little less of the lemon curd in the center..the lemon taste was just too off-center for me..

*Snickerdoodle was PERFECT. For anyone that has had or loves snickerdoodle cookies...these were just like them! But with a creamy icing that just added to them! YUUMM!

Well- Tomorrow is a no-work day due to the horrible Ice Storm we are getting and Wednesday school was already canceled for a staff development day--so having 2 days off in a row means lots of baking for me!

Yay!

Daring Baker's Challange- January

Here it is! My very first Daring Baker's Challange!!  from the Daring Kitchen::

The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe of the blog accro.
She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremets dessert.

Joconde Sponge

YIELD: Two ½ size sheet pans or a 13” x 18” (33 x 46 cm) jelly roll pan
Ingredients:
¾ cup/ 180 ml/ 3oz/ 85g almond flour/meal - *You can also use hazelnut flour, just omit the butter
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons/ 150 ml/ 2⅔ oz/ 75g confectioners' (icing) sugar
¼ cup/ 60 ml/ 1 oz/ 25g cake flour *See note below
3 large eggs - about 5⅓ oz/ 150g
3 large egg whites - about 3 oz/ 90g
2½ teaspoons/ 12½ ml/ ⅓ oz/ 10g white granulated sugar or superfine (caster) sugar
2 tablespoons/ 30 ml/ 1oz / 30g unsalted butter, melted
*Note: How to make cake flour: http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2009/09/how-to-make-cake-flour/
Directions:

1. In a clean mixing bowl whip the egg whites and white granulated sugar to firm, glossy peeks. Reserve in a separate clean bowl to use later.
2. Sift almond flour, confectioner’s sugar, cake flour. (This can be done into your dirty egg white bowl)
3. On medium speed, add the eggs a little at a time. Mix well after each addition. Mix until smooth and light. (If using a stand mixer use blade attachment. If hand held a whisk attachment is fine, or by hand. )
4. Fold in one third reserved whipped egg whites to almond mixture to lighten the batter. Fold in remaining whipped egg whites. Do not over mix.
5. Fold in melted butter.
6. Reserve batter to be used later.

Patterned Joconde-Décor Paste

YIELD: Two ½ size sheet pans or a 13” x 18” (33 x 46 cm) jelly roll pan
Ingredients
14 tablespoons/ 210ml/ 7oz/ 200g unsalted butter, softened
1½ cups plus1½ tablespoons/ 385ml/ 7oz/ 200g Confectioners' (icing) sugar
7 large egg whites - about 7 oz / 200g
1¾ cup/ 420ml/ 7¾ oz/ 220g cake flour
Food coloring gel, paste or liquid
COCOA Décor Paste Variation: Reduce cake flour to 6 oz / 170g. Add 2 oz/ 60 g cocoa powder. Sift the flour and cocoa powder together before adding to creamed mixture.

Directions:

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy (use stand mixer with blade, hand held mixer, or by hand)
2. Gradually add egg whites. Beat continuously.
3. Fold in sifted flour.
4. Tint batter with coloring to desired color, if not making cocoa variation.

How much fun was this challange! I haven't made this dessert since Pastry school, and it has been amazing getting back to this technique !   I made a cocoa patterned joconde and I filled it with chocolate mousse on the bottom and a Strawberry mousse on the top!   DELICIOUS! *And when you freeze it, the mousse tastes like ice cream!*

Thanks again Astheroshe for this amazing challange!