Desserts coming out of my ears!

So you have probably wondered what I have been up to lately. Well just your regular baking. Cookies and the like. But lately we have had a birthday in our family. My son turned 7! So we had planned a camping party. So I went to work on making a camping cake. Look at many designs on line and came up with my own. Here is what it looked like. It turned out really good.

 Then today I made a Black Forest Trifle. If you have never had one you must. If you like black forest cake that is. I made my trifle with chocolate Guinness cake, whipped cream, vanilla pudding, cherry pie filling and dark chocolate shavings. I did my layers in this order. Chocolate cake, pudding, cherry pie filling, then whipped cream. Ended with whipped cream and chocolate shavings on top. I can't wait to eat it. I also made my vanilla pudding from scratch. I think it tastes better then instant and is so easy to make. Any one can do it. Here is the recipe I used.
Vanilla Pudding
1/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/8 tsp salt
2 cups milk
2 large egg yolks, slightly beaten
2 tbsp butter
2 tsp vanilla
1. Mix sugar, cornstarch and salt in 2 quart saucepan. Gradually stir in milk. Cook over mdeium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils Boil and stir 1 minute.
2. Gradually stir at least half of the hot mixture into the egg yolk; stir back into hot mixture in saucepan. Boil and stir 1 minute; remove from heat. stir in butter and vanilla.
3. Pour pudding into dessert dishes or bowl. Cover and refrigerate until serving. Refrigerate any remaining dessert. Like there is going to be. LOL
Tip: take plastic wrap and lay it on the pudding sealing it completely to cover. That way you wont get an icky film developing on the pudding.

 Then when checking out the blogs that I follow I found this yummy sounding dessert I have not tried before and just had to. So when my husband got back from work yesterday he went off to the store for me and bought ice cream. How can Ben say no to more dessert. Here is the link to the original idea. Found at joy the baker Ice cream cupcakes. Does that not sound sooo good! I am in the process of making them. I can't wait to try one. But tomorrow as I am eating trifle today. What I did was bake brownie bottom and put drumstick ice cream in the middle I did not know they made drumstick ice cream. Its vanilla ice cream with waffle cone bits covered in chocolate. Then I made a ganache to put on top. Here they are in stages. You must try this. Again so easy your kids will love you. Or that special someone. I think its the kind of dessert that gets you anything  you  want. Well maybe its not that good. But give it a try and find out.

 Oh and after all this dessert crazyness it does not stop. I am having my 40th birthday party on Saturday! So more cake making and eating. Oi! Stay tuned for what I make next.

Rainbow Cake

So I can't get this to post in the proper blog post. But here is the rainbow cake pic. I just love how this turned out. My niece Brianna took the shot. She is a great photographer. Thanks for this Bri!

Rainbow Cake

My mom was watching Martha Stewart the other day and saw her guest Whisk Kid  make this rainbow cake. I went on line to watch the show and find Whisk Kids blog. I was so impressed. It looked amazing. I had to make it. So I thought mothers day would be a great day to do it. As my whole family was coming down to dinner. It turned out great. I would definitely make this again. Baking is so much fun! Pics are not working to up load. But I will get one on here as soon as I can.

Biscotti

So I have never made biscotti before today. I had a friend request I make some. So I did. I don't know why I didn't make it before. But I sure will be trying other recipes. The one I made was so easy. But the recipe did not make nearly as much as it said it would. It claimed that it made 2 + 1/2 dozen. I thought great some for my friend and some for us. But no such luck. One recipe only made 6 pieces. That sucked. I hate small recipes. I want one that makes lots of stuff. Oh well. Tasted all right. I am not much of a fan of biscotti. I find it too hard. But I read recently that biscotti does not have to be hard. You can make it soft medium or hard. Mine today turned out medium. I would have liked them softer. Ben thought they should have been hard. Cause that is what people are use to. But I disagree. I don't like my cookies to taste like rocks and chip a tooth each time I eat one. But hey that may just be me. I would love to share a pic with you but I forgot to take one before my friend took the cookies home. If you don't know what biscotti is google search for it and you will find lots of pics and stuff. So what are you baking these days? I pray I inspire you to go and try something new. Something you have never done before. You may surprise yourself with how easy it actually is. Like I did today.

Cookie Decorating

Hello all!Yes it has been a while since I wrote anything. I have been so busy with life and stuff that I have not had time to blog lately. So I wanted to tell you about some cookie fun I have been having. I love making cookie. That is one of my favourite things to bake. I love making cut out cookies in different shapes and icing them. I have recently discovered royal icing. As a way to decorate your cookies. So I have been having fun practicing. I have been inspired by this blog that I have been following. sweetopia This blog rocks. If you want to see some amazing cookies you check it out. I have really gotten into this whole cookie decorating thing. There is a local bakery in my area that specializes in decorated cookies. The work they do is great. I have learned that they offer decorating classes. So I plan on signing up. The place is called Sweet Impressions. Check them out. Here are some of the cookies I have made.

Cookie Pizza

Hey sorry I have not been around much. I have been busy. Life tends to get in the way of doing fun things. Or am I taking a break from challenges in the kitchen to do easy things. I can get so overwhelmed by trying something new that it hinders me from moving forward. Any ways not to keep you from stopping by and checking out what I am up to I want to show you what I have been doing. Today I made cookie pizzas. They were so much fun. I made one with brownie base and the other with a chocolate chip base then loaded on the ganache and toppings. Looks so good. They are going to Ben's work. I like to send stuff over there every now and then. Also this weekend they all have to work overtime. So this should brighten there days. If they make it to the second day and if I know these guys it will be gone on Saturday.

 This is the chocolate chip pizza cookie.

This is the brownie pizza cookie. Yum I say.

St. Patricks Day Cupcakes

So I was bumming around on the internet this am and stumbled upon Chocolate Guinness cupcakes. I had made once before a Chocolate Guinness Cake. Loved it! It was the best chocolate cake I had ever made and eaten. So these cupcakes looked like they would be really good. They would be if they were anything like the cake. So off to the LC (Liquor Commission) for my Guinness Extra Stout. Which I did not have on hand. We should stock it more often as it makes for a very delicious and moist chocolate cake. Went to the LC and they were out of Guinness Extra Stout. Oh no now what? Well the guy recommend another brand that would be as good he said. It was O'Hara's Irish Stout. O.K. lets try that then. Will you really be able to tell the difference? So now on to the cake making. Turned out great. The recipe was huge so cakes all around for many people. Ben will bring a bunch to work. We will have some for bible study and just some to snack on. How is a girl to lose weight when she keeps making all this good stuff to eat. I don't know. But boy those Chocolate cupcakes with ganache spread on top and then Bailey's Buttercream icing on top of that. Yummy goodness!! I can't stand beer just on its own but in cake it is heavenly. You can't even taste it. Well that was the extent of my celebrating St. Paddy's day. But I think that was a good way. The guys at Ben's work will agree I think. Hey Curtis?

 This is only some of the cupcakes it made like 42. When a recipe makes that many you have got to share.

Gone So Long

Hey sorry I have been gone so long. I have a lot on my mind these days. Working out some major life stuff. I will be back at this baking thing again. I promise. I realized the other day that I have never made cinnamon buns. I really need to. They are soooo tasty. So maybe that will be next on my list.

Fear Be Gone!

I keep discovering as I tackle another fear how they are not as difficult as I thought. I get this idea in my head that oh I can't make that. Or I made that once and it did not turn out so I won't try again. So yesterday I decided to make angel food cake from scratch. I have made it 3 times before with 2 successes and one failure. Each time I tried I used a cake mix. That I ever used a cake mix is hard for me to believe. I always bake from scratch. Well my mom who is an amazing baker told me once that she made her angel food cakes from a box. So I thought that that was the thing to do. My mother since informed me that she does not do that any more cause of all the unhealthy stuff in a cake mix. She also told me how healthy angel food cake is. There is no fat, very little flour, a bit of sugar and mostly egg whites. So go and slice your self a big piece. Unless you did as I did filled it with pudding and slathered on the whip cream. Oh so good! I have this great cookbook that I love called Better Homes and Gardens Old-Fashioned Home Baking. They have this recipe in there for lemon angel food cake. What they did was once the cake is made you cut off the top of the cake about an inch of the way down. Put to the side.Then cut an inch from the edge and an inch from the middle and cut all around pulling out this middle part making a well in the cake. Which you fill with lemon filling. Then put the cake top on and cover with whipping cream. I then shaved some lemon rind on top. Turned out great! I was so pleased. I will definately make again.

 

  

This bottom picture is suppose to show you the lemon filling in it. But my recipe for the filling said adding food dye was optional. Well I see now that to get the nice yellow colour they had in their photo I needed to add the food dye or found some natural way to do it. Any suggestions how to yellow this more with out food dye? 

Cupcake Craziness!

So valentines is here and that means time to make valentines treats. So I asked my kids what would you like to make as a treat to give friends for valentines. They both said cupcakes. As my daughter got a recipe box filled with only cupcake recipes for Christmas, I knew we would be making ones from there. So we picked to make Boston Cream cupcakes and Sweetheart cupcakes. Both I was a little nervous with  as parts of the recipe I was not sure how it would work. The Boston Cream ones required a yellow cake to be made. Also it needed a vanilla pudding and chocolate frosting. So once all the components were assembled I got to work putting them together. The recipe said to stick a hole in the bottom of the cupcake and put your pipping bag with pudding in it into the cupcake and fill. Fill? How much? Could I fill it too much and have it burst? Would I know when it was filled? Do you know a cupcake can hold a lot of pudding? You may be wondering, but with a hole in it won't the filling come out? No very little did come out. A drop or two out of a few of them. But they turned out good. Kids tried them today and said they were great! I wondered if I had over baked the cupcakes but the kids did not notice. I am more picky about these things. Then we also made Sweetheart cupcakes and they turned out nothing like the picture. What you were to do was bake a chocolate cake and make a white icing that you added some raspberry jam to to turn it pink. Again I think I baked the cupcakes too long. Oh well what can I do now? So once the cupcakes were cooled you slice off the top and cut a heart shape out of the middle of it. Put a heaping of icing on top of the bottom of the cupcake and place the top on. The icing will fill the heart up and it looks really pretty. According to the picture. Well I could not get the cookie cutter part to work. Either my cookie cutter was to small or too big. The tops just fell apart or did not look right. Oi! Well I said forget that. I just iced the tops and they turned out fine. Just different. Tasted great. I really liked the icing with the raspberry jam in it. I would do that again. So do you celebrate valentines day? What a great time to tell the special people in your life what they mean to you. Yeah over here in North America we have commercialized it. But despite all that I think its a day to remind us to tell the people in our lives we love them. Sometimes we forget to do that and this just reminds us.

Another New Look

So I am at it again. Changing the look of my blog. The last one I really liked but there were glitches with it. I could not figure out how to fix them. One being the date would not show up and in its place would be the words undefined. Drove me crazy. So I went to Leelou where I got blogger templates before. I added it to my other blog and it worked great. So I tried Leelou again. She has so many FREE templates and other goodies for your blog. Did you catch the word free? She makes great stuff. Anyways hours spent on the computer trying different sites out settled on Leelou added the template and Voila! New templated but wait what is that I see? No date agian and undefined in its place. Ah!! Not again. So bare with me as I figure out all these things. Also let me know what  you think of the new look. How important is it for you to have a date? Well have a great day all. Thanks for stopping by!

Mini Pies

Check out my Mini Pies I made aren't they just the cutest things? I love them. I hope everyone I give them to loves them. They are so fun to make. Check out my previous blog to know how. What great gifts these are. I forgot to take a picture of the pie with filling in it. But I made a  cherry filling. Yum!

This is what I am up too

Hello All,

So sickness is gone from our home. I pray. Kids never got it and I hope they don't. So now I can focus better on others. We have a friend who is really sick right now and I want to bring him some stuff. So I have been baking today. One of the things I want to give is this really cute pie. I have never made it before but it looks great. I use to be afraid of pies but now I love them. My sister had thought of getting me this pie bible cookbook for Christmas but she thought that it would be too much of a challenge for me. But I wish she had. It looks great. Pie is so fun oh and so tasty. What are you afraid of that you have not tackled yet? The year is young and its never to late to overcome a fear. What ever that is. So tell someone what you are afraid of and ask them to hold you accountable to overcome it. It is such a freeing feeling to overcome  something. I am so excited that I can make pie now. I love it! Know that you are not alone in your fears. There is someone out there with the same fear as you. We all are afraid of something. But you can overcome your fears. If  I can I know you can. I have had some of my baking fears for years. But slowly I am overcoming them. Well back to my pie making.

Sick :o(

So I have been out of commission this week. I got the flu. I started the week by trying to plan a baking challenge for this week but it has not happened. Oi! I hate being sick. Just like everyone else. I do have a baking challenge planned for Monday though. If all goes well here and no one else gets sick. More details on that to follow. But it should be good. Have a great weekend!

Things that would make me happier!

Well I am pretty happy already. But I was checking out Doughmesstic's blog today and she was featuring things she wanted. Things that was in her Drooler box. I thought it was a cool idea and as I am not baking today I thought I still wanted to write something. I do want to bake something this week but what? It has to be a challenge for me. I may tackle the dreaded angle food cake. As I bought my self a pan at Christmas. But in the mean time while I figure that out I thought I would feature some things that I want big time. One of which I am going to buy can you guess which one? Ha bet you can't Hey how about if I give a prize to the one who can guess it. Also if you have any suggestions as to what my baking challenge should be let me know.
The cupcake apron I just love. Check it  and others out here .  carolyns kitchen online Then the cookbook Intercourses. I saw it one day at the bookstore and got to look inside. Great pics very tastefully done. The recipes look wonderful too. Would be great for Valentines. Take a look at the authors website. Intercourses
Oh and I just recently discovered Cupcake wrappers. They are adorable. I just love them. I want them all. What a great gift for a friend. To make them a cupcake and put it in a wrapper. You can check more out at these two sites. Cupcake Wrapture Shop  Accent the Party Blessings All!

New Blog!

Hey I just wanted to let you all know I have started a new blog. Its all about cookbooks and I am really excited about it. So stop on by and check it out. from here go to my profile and you will find it under blogs. Have an awesome day. Hmm maybe today will be a baking day?

Chocolate Dipped Chips!

Yum! Don't these look good! I would like to say I made them but I didn't. Ben did though and they were so good I just had to share the recipe.  We have had purchased potato chips dipped in chocolate and they were good. Ben thought why not make our own. So he did. First he bought rippled chips and spicy ones called Piri Piri. They are good and hot. You can buy them at Superstore. Then he bought really good chocolate which is the key ingredient. Lindt bars. Big honkin ones. One 70% dark as Ben loves dark. I can't stand the dark at all. I know they say to be a real chocolate connoisseure  you have to like dark chocolate but I disagree. Then of course he bought a milk chocolate bar. Then 6 bags of chips later Ben finally made them. We ate the first 4 bags of chips before they ever got to touch the chocolate. What Ben dipped the chocolate in was Butter Ganache. Ganache for those of you who don't know is " Indispensable in much of confectionery, ganache-a chocolate cream filing for cakes, cookies and other gourmet delights-is in many ways the pinnacle of the chocolate-maker's art. The basic recipe is very simple, only the chocolate and cream are essential. Once mastered, this recipe can be varied infinitely." Quote taken from Chocolate. Ben got this cookbook for Christmas last year. Great recipes inside. When he opened it he thought he had recieved a giant chocolate bar. I did too. It looks just like one. After dipping the chips in the ganache he layed them on a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper. Then stuck them in the freezer. They were so good. The milk ones that is. Enjoy making these. They are so easy to do the kids could even help.

Butter Ganache

7 oz chocolate (dark, milk, white, or a mixture)
Scant 1/2 cup creme fraiche
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
 Makes about 12oz (serves 4-6) - Prepartion time 15 minutes

1. Using a large knife, flake the chocolates into more or less regular small pieces. You could also grate them coarsely with a vegetable grater, or use ready-made chocolate buttons or drops.
2. Bring the creme fraiche to just boiling point in a pan, then remove from the heat. Add the chocolate and butter blend away from the heat.
3. When fully blended and shiny, pour the mixture into a bowl. Depending on the recipe, use it immediately or let it cool, then refrigerate.

Ben's alterations:
Instead of making creme fraiche he used 2 tbsp sour cream and about 1 cup whipped cream. Also did less butter, 1 tbsp and did not use unsalted.

New Look!

Hello Everyone! I have been playing around in blogger and creating a new look. The old one was to boring for me. So please bare with me as I am making changes. Blessings.

http://doughmesstic.blogspot.com/

So I was bumming around on the internet tonight and came across this blog. The title really caught me. Shes Becoming Doughmesstic. I had to check it out. I wanted to know more about the person who started the blog. So I went to the about section and read all about her. She is a female who is married and has a toddler. She chose to be a stay at home mom and decided if she was to do that she would make it her job. So one of the things she did was learn to cook. She did not know how to do that. She said that she does not let food scare her. That what is the worst that could happen if she tried something new? So since she has started cooking she has entered all kinds of baking contests and won. I was just so inspired by her story. I encourage you to go check out her blog. I don't think you will be dissappointed. May you in this new year tackle something that scares you and overcome that fear and realize that it was not as scary as you thought. You can do anything if you put your mind too it. :o) Bless you all.