Happy Birthday to you...

I made these little cheesecakes for my friend's birthday (Happy Birthday!). I used the same recipe that I used for Valentine's Day however, I altered them by making different flavors. In my opinion (and the boyfriends) they were to die for delicious! Hopefully my friend will enjoy them just as much! :)

Left to Right: Strawberry (swirled with jam and topped with a strawberry), Chocolate (Oreo crust and swirled with chocolate sauce), Plain cheesecake (topped with fresh fruit), Oreo (Oreo crust and Oreo crumbs mixed in).

-amanda

Mother's Day Cupcakes

Yes, I know this is late. Mother's Day was very busy with work, baking, cleaning, and other mom projects. Since then I have been busy with my new fast paced pastry class. Anywho....on with the Mother's Day Cupcakes!!!

Ta-Da! So pretty on the outside :)

Not so pretty on the inside :( Boooo!

They were supposed to be bright pink and purple on the inside.
However, I decided to make the white cake batter from scratch,
which ended up being yellowish cake instead...grrrr!

But don't they look cute in their to-go container?! I love it :)

So even though I was pleased with the outer appearance, and the inner faded pink and purple were good enough this time around, I wasn't loving the recipes I used. They were decent tasting but I have yet to find a buttercream icing that I LOVE. Although both recipes were VERY easy and fast, so that was nice. If I make the icing again I will use less cream.

Quick Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
Simple White Cake (remember this is not like the white you will get from a store bought mix. it's yellowish)


-amanda

Strawberry Shortcake Cookies

I found this recipe in my Martha Stewart Living magazine and I had a lot of strawberries in the fridge so I figured I should make these cookies. :)

(Batch 2)

2 cups strawberries (hulled and cut into 1/4 inch dice)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
9 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking power
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
6 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter (cut into small pieces)
2/3 cup heavy cream
Sanding sugar, for sprinkling

1. Preheat oven to 375. Combine strawberries, lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons granulated sugar. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and remaining 7 tablespoons granulated sugar in a large bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter, or rub in with your fingers, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in cream until dough starts to come together, then stir in strawberry mixture.
2. Using a tablespoon drop dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment, spacing evenly apart. Sprinkle with sanding sugar, and bake until golden brown, 24 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool. Cookies are best served immediately, but can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 day.

(Batch 1)

My take on this recipe: My cookies didn't spread like I thought they would so for the second batch I flattened them out a little and that helped. I also think that 24 minutes is too long as the first batch burnt on the bottom, especially if there was a berry on the bottom. So for the second batch I did 10 minutes and then let the cookies continue cooking on the baking sheet. They didn't burn and they were nice and soft (and edible). Overall I was disappointed, but perhaps it was just operator error. :)

As for the family, everyone seemed to like the round burnt batch better, so maybe I did do it right? The boyfriend suggest 23 minutes would be perfect. Either way I don't know if I will ever make these again. lol

-amanda

Strawberry Cream Cheese Cupcakes

I had purchased a box of strawberry cake mix to make some Easter cake pops but that never happened, so I decided just to make some cupcakes. You can find the Duncan Hines strawberry cake mix at your local grocery store. :)

Cream Cheese Frosting from Bunny's Warm Oven

• 1 pkg ( 8 oz) cream cheese
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup confectioners sugar

Let cream cheese and butter warm to room temperature. Beat them together and add vanilla. Gradually beat in sugar.

I also made some hearts using Wilton's Candy Melts and added them to some of the cupcakes:

-amanda

Lemon Cheesecake Pots

I found this great recipe for a cheesecake dessert that takes much less time than a traditional cheesecake. It was very easy to make and very tasty!

Here is the recipe from Hungry Girl that I used:

(This ended up making 4 ramekins for me)

• 1 bar of cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 3 tbsp. half and half (she used 2tbsp. but i added another)
  
• 1/4 cup sugar
• zest of one lemon
• 1 egg

preheat oven to 350 F.

beat cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment with lemon zest until creamy. add sour cream, half and half and sugar. blend well. add the egg and combine, scraping down bowl as needed.

pour mixture into ramekins and bake in a water bath for 30 minutes, until centers only wiggle slightly. cool completely and chill for at least 1 hour before serving.

These were so good! However, next time I don't think I would do the lemon zest, because the boyfriend didn't care for the lemon taste. So I will probably just put some fresh fruit on top.

-amanda

Box of Cheesecakes...yum!

I made these delicious little cheesecakes for my boyfriend for Valentine's day since he is not a fan of chocolate, he loved them! (and so did i :)

The recipe that I used can be found here.

The only thing I did different was made a graham cracker crust instead of using vanilla wafers. Once the cheesecakes were done and cooled, I piped designs using blueberry and cherry pie filling.

Yum! I look forward to making these again.

-amanda

All Kinds of Sugar Cookies...

My friend and I have been baking cookies together for about a year now and here are some of our creations. The recipes can be found at Cake Central, which is a very fun website full of cake decorators. You can find lots of inspiration in all of the photos, plus lots of recipes, how-to articles and discussion forums for any questions you might have!

No-Fail Sugar Cookies
Antonia74's Royal Icing

Enjoy!

-amanda

Cakes!

My first post! I thought I would share some old things that I have created. So here are a few cakes that I have made...

Rainbow Sherbet Cake - A nice light summery dessert made with rainbow sherbet, angel food cake and cool whip. The recipe that I used can be found here: Rainbow Sherbet Cake


This cake was made using the Wilton Little Graduate Pan.


And my favorite cake that I have made so far is this snowboard cake made out of fondant. My very first fondant cake (besides the one from the Michael's class that the instructor pretty much did for me. lol.)

So that's all for now, I plan to post the cookies that I have done next. And then we can get on to the new stuff. I have lots of baking projects I want to do soon...so check back! :)

-amanda