Ingredients of a 20something

Baked Alaska, penuche and cat treats

2012-01-19T08:00:00.000-06:00

It's a little surprising how peaceful the lake can be even during the winter. Last weekend I went to my dad's place out at a lake about two hours from where I live. Despite it being pretty chilly (and we certainly stayed away from the water), the air was clear and the water beautiful.

I got some reading done, I enlisted my dad to help me with some baking (which I'll share with you next week), I cooked kebabs for lunch one day, and generally hung out with my dad and stepmom. Also, it was an excellent place to watch the second episode of Sherlock, which was scary enough in broad daylight! If you haven't watched this show yet, go find the first season on Netflix. Excellent British television, and each episode is a like a mini movie.

Baked Alaska is one of those things that's always seemed a little weird and intriguing to me. After all, you're baking ice cream, and that's not totally normal. So on a recent trip to Aunt Betty's, we made it.

Courtesy of Joy of Cooking, we made the chocolate genoise cake bottom, molded the cookies and cream fro-yo and piped on the meringue, which insulates the ice cream so it doesn't melt like you think it would. And actually, as far as desserts go, it's not that terrible for you. I think next time, though, I'll make it for a dinner party or something. Definitely a dessert for many.

Back when I visited Keane in Salt Lake City, we went to a chocolate and candy shop where I met my new favorite candy: penuche. Basically, it's brown sugar fudge. I was definitely one of those kids who tried to sneak tastes of brown sugar when my mom made cookies when I was little. So having a brown sugar-flavored fudge is like heaven. This is also a Joy of Cooking recipe that includes pecans mixed in. And I will definitely make it again.

Aunt Betty suggested we try making cat treats because, you know, we're cat people. Well, animal people. Anyway, this is Archie, her black kitty, investigating the treats. We made tuna treats and modified the recipe a bit so it wasn't too runny and would actually form treats. Basically, they're tuna-flavored patties that you bake to dry them out. Honestly, they weren't much of a hit with both Archie and my cat, Melvin. Oh well. Worth a shot!

Happy 2012: NYE & birthday margarita cupcakes, chocolate chip cookies and baguettes

2012-01-11T08:14:00.000-06:00

A professor from my journalism school posted a link on Twitter the other day that was really thought-provoking. It was a blog post about questions to ask for yourself about the last year. Yes, perhaps it is something that's written in some form or another every year, but honestly, it made me realize what a wonderful year I've had. The most amazing thing I did in 2011? Get a new job and move to a new city. Am I happy about where I am in life? Completely. I have some amazing friends, many of whom I got to see during the holidays even though they live far, far away. I got to make plans to visit them in 2012. I got to see both of my stepsiblings for Christmas, even though they live in Canada. And as a whole, I'm really happy where I am emotionally and mentally. So 2012, bring it on. Let's make it even better. /end typical year-beginning/year-end post.

I'm not the type of person to really go for the whole big New Year's Eve out sort of thing. But one of my best friends, Tara, has her birthday on NYE, so I celebrated at her house with her family. That included bringing my customary bday gift of cupcakes, which this time was a margarita cupcake. And despite not being kid-friendly for all the little ones running around, I'd say these were definitely a hit. They're basically a lime cake brushed with tequila and then topped with a lime-tequila icing. Pretty good alcoholic treat for NYE!

I've been a little low on energy since the holidays ending. I was busy with family and friends for basically two weeks straight, so my baking was relatively basic, including these brown sugar chocolate chip cookies. Simple, yet always a hit. They always seem to disappear rather quickly at work.

Among the kitchen items I asked for for Christmas (how great is an immersion blender, seriously? Or is that just me being a dork?), I found something awesome on a sort of scavenger hunt Cathie sponsored. She loves to thrift, so on Christmas Eve, she gave each of us kids a $5 and told us to thrift and find something awesome. One of my finds? A baguette pan for $2.75. Not too shabby, especially for something I assume was given to the thrift store because whoever donated had no idea what it was. So on a recent trip to Aunt Betty's, we made a couple baguettes from one of her old bread cookbooks that came out perfectly, even with those little dots on the bottom, which are from the perforations on the pan. What a great find!

End of holiday baking: Eggnog fudge, buttered rum cookies and marshmallows

2011-12-29T08:00:00.000-06:00

Christmas may be gone for the year, but looking back, I realize how much better it was than last year's. This year, I got to spend Christmas with family members absent of some pretty tough times. Last year, on the same day, my maternal grandmother died after living with Alzheimer's for years, and my paternal grandmother went to the hospital the same day. This year, I got to spend the holiday at my parents' house, not the hospital, with my stepsiblings in from Canada and my mom just visiting, not here for a funeral. And you know what? That makes Christmas pretty darn good.

I'm pretty much a holiday eggnog fanatic (see: eggnog cupcakes), so when it hits the shelves, I immediately buy some. This year has been a little different, though. I'm eating a lot healthier right now, and frankly, eggnog is terrible for you. So my compromise was this: make an eggnog dessert that tastes so much like the drink that I kill two birds with one stone. Enter eggnog fudge by Brown Eyed Baker. This will 100% become a new holiday tradition for me, because it tastes exactly how it should. It is so decadent, and as an added bonus, they made my apartment smell like yummy eggnog for hours.

My dad loves buttered rum, so I decided to try these buttered rum meltaways from Martha Stewart's Cookies book for his and my stepmom's holiday party a few days before Christmas. I made them far ahead of time and froze them into a roll of dough until just a few days before heading to Salina, so they were convenient in that sense. The jury's still out, though, on whether or not I'll make these again. They didn't taste too rummy or buttery, which I think they should considering their name. Hmm. Can't win them all, I guess.

Pretty sure I've inadvertently started a new holiday tradition for myself. Last year I gave my grandma's signature hot chocolate and homemade marshmallows to a few coworkers at my paper. This year, I did the same, only upping the ante to two flavors of marshmallows — vanilla (the green ones) and peppermint (the red ones) — and giving it to everyone at my office. So far, it seems to be a hit. That old Joy of Cooking marshmallow recipe sure is good. We'll see if I give the same gift next year!

Holiday cake pops, chocolate mint roll cake and madeleines

2011-12-22T08:00:00.000-06:00

I pack up and head west today for my holidays with family. This year, both of my step-siblings will be in town from Canada, which makes our holiday feel a little more full. Actually, my family is fairly small on my dad's side. Usually it's just me, Dad, Cathie and Grandma. So it will be nice to have a few more family members around Christmas morning. Naturally, I'll be carting some baked goods home, along with a boatload of presents and a certain black cat. Can't wait to have him in the car...or not.

The last time Aunt Betty and I made madeleines together, it didn't go. As in, they tasted like lotion or something because of how much rose water the recipe called for. Martha, you failed me on that one. But these were ultimately supposed to be decorated as Santas, and we ran out of time and energy, so we ended up with very lightly flavored orange madeleines. And my opinion of that cookie is redeemed!

Chocolate Andes mint roll cake. Enough said? A goofy Christmas tradition I have is that my mom gives me a box of Andes mints ever year for the holidays no matter what. Roll cakes have kind of eluded me thus far (they seem to crack on me all the time) so Aunt Betty and I decided to try this Andes chocolate roll cake. And boy, was it heavenly. The frosting inside had Andes mints in it as well as the cake having them on top, and it was super rich. And super wonderful.

I feel like Christmas cake pops are going to become a tradition for me (last year's were sparkly!). That, and my friends, Nick and Eric, and their roommates adore these things (I made a batch for Nick's brother for his birthday). So for our viewing of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" this year, I made two flavors of cake pops: the green were chocolate and the white were yellow cake. I hear tell they were gone rather quickly!

Christmas Nutcracker cupcakes

2011-12-19T08:25:00.000-06:00

It's less than a week till Christmas, but it still feels forever away; probably because it was in the 50s today. But this weekend, I got to do my perennial Christmas tradition: go to the Kansas City Ballet's production of the Nutcracker.

I've been going to this ballet since I was a kid and go every year. I've seen it so many times, when I hear the music, I can see the ballet's choreography in my head. Yup, that many times.

This year was the first time the production was at the new Kauffman Center downtown, and my friends Brianne and Lauren came to town to go to the ballet with me.

So to celebrate this tradition, I made Nutcracker cupcakes! Because honestly, when I saw these wrappers and toppers, who could pass them up? Well, I couldn't. I took these into work for our holiday dessert bar.

By the way, I have the BEST coworkers. My cupcake carrier has been broken for a long time, and my newsroom came together to buy me a new one because I bring them sweets all the time. Yeah, I love my job.

These are chai tea cupcakes with honey cinnamon buttercream. I have to admit, I didn't quite follow the frosting recipe. I made my favorite swiss meringue buttercream recipe and then just put honey and cinnamon in till it tasted good, which ended up being one of my favorite icings ever. And combined with the cupcakes, they really did taste like a chai latte. Definitely recommend them!

(Posting to Hoosier Homemade's Cupcake Tuesday.)

Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap: Pizzelles

2011-12-12T08:09:00.000-06:00

I've never taken part in a cookie swap before. I'm thinking maybe I should put one together next year between me and my friends, because this one was so much fun. This month, with hundreds of other bloggers, I participated in:

Basically, a bunch of bloggers baked three dozen cookies and sent a dozen each to three different bloggers, none of whom knew who was sending to them. A Secret Santa of cookies, I suppose. Lindsay at Love and Olive Oil and Julie at The Little Kitchen put the swap together and are doing next year's as well, which I will gladly take part in.

It's hard for me to pick out a favorite cookie. But these cookies, pizzelles, are quintessential holiday cookies for me. My pseudo-grandma (she's the mother of my aunt through marriage who has been a grandmother to me) Mildred makes these every Christmas, and it was always super exciting when my uncle showed up with the old ice cream tub filled with these thin cookies. We don't get to see Mildred and that side of the family as often as I'd like anymore, and when I came across a pizzelle iron, I knew it would need to become my own cookie tradition.

As for the cookies I received, they were scrumptious. I got peanut butter cup cookie bars from Raenell at Raevyn's Nest; coconut chocolate chip cookies from Aaron at the Hungry Hutch; and cream cheese walnut cookies from Liz in Colorado (whose blog I have yet to find). All were amazing, and I'm trying my hardest not to eat them all at once!

I sent my cookies to three lovely ladies: Amanda over at MarocMama; Rebecca over at Peace, Love and Bagels; and Nadia at Cooking My Way to Healthy. I could tell when they received my cookies, because I got notifications they were suddenly following me on Twitter, and then we talked about cookies. Not too shabby!

And you know what else is great? I instantly connected with these people. Amanda also has a family tradition of pizzelles, which I can best describe as waffle cone cookies, only SO much better. Mildred used to make them with anise, which is licorice flavoring. I hate licorice but always liked her cookies. Somehow, though, when I tried making them with anise once, they weren't as good. So I make mine vanilla or lemon. These were classic vanilla, and they're one of my favorites.

Mildred's Pizzelles

1 cup margerine (2 sticks) Use Fleishman's or any "nowater added" brand (I actually used unsalted butter and they turned out fine)
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3 1/2 cups flour
2 Tbsp. baking powder
2 Tbsp. extract (Lemon or Anise work well) OR2 Tbsp. vanilla extract

Instructions:
1. Melt margerine and let cool
2. Beat eggs thououghly until frothy
3. Add sugar gradually to eggs-beat well
4. SLOWLY add cooled margerine, beat well as you do so
5. Add extract or vanilla
6. Add flour---a little at a time and mix well aftereach addition
7. Chill dough---minimum of 2 hours, overnight or asmuch as several days to enrich flavors
8. Using a small cookie scoop bake cookies followingPizzelle maker directions--dough will be sticky.Cookies will be soft and flexible right off the baker.
9. Use cooling racks and let cool completely. Store in anairtight container. These are best crispy, in my opinion, so it's not the end of the world if you leave them out for a while.

Cherry cola cupcakes, coconut macaroons and ginger snaps

2011-12-06T08:02:00.000-06:00

I know everyone talks about the weather, but seriously, it was 18 degrees when I woke up yesterday. Sometimes I forget how bipolar Kansas/Missouri can be. A few days ago it was in the 40s and a light jacket was enough. Yesterday I was forced to tear apart my apartment to find my winter hat(s) that had been stashed away in some dark corner after I moved in summer...in temperatures in the 90s. Sigh. I guess having no seasons would be boring, right? And cold temperatures mean holiday activities, too! I saw the Messiah for the first time ever this weekend and it was fantastic. Next up? The Nutcracker ballet. I LOVE it. You know what else is good about the cold?

Husky puppies. They like the cold, right? Meet Lois, my friends Joe and Brianne's new puppy. Isn't she SO DAMN CUTE?! Yeah, I got to look at that cute little face last weekend. I felt lucky.

I think we've probably established how much I HATE coconut. Can't really explain it, just don't like the stuff. So the only time it appears on this blog is when it's for someone besides me who will be eating it (see Kelly's birthday or special requests). These basic coconut macaroons were neither. You see, my computer at work almost crashed last week. As in, left for a few more days, I think it would have been totally gone rather than freezing every couple of hours. And my friend, Brad, happens to be the guy who sets up the computers at work. And my new computer happened to take a really, really long time to set up. And he happens to like coconut. And I happened to have a lot of coconut in my cabinet. So I made coconut macaroons. I did not sample them, so I cannot tell you if they were good or bad. They look pretty though!

Currently playing on my TV is a DVRed episode of "Good Eats." I can honestly say I'd never really watched it before seeing Alton Brown in person recently, but I'm pretty fascinated by what he's already taught me (i.e. don't put avocados you're wanting to ripen in the fridge because it will stop the process). Part of seeing him live was getting his latest cookbook, "Good Eats 3: The Later Years."Aunt Betty loves ginger, so we decided to make his candied ginger recipe (which will definitely clear out your sinuses) and then put some in these ginger snaps. The candied ginger came out perfectly. These cookies, not so much. Lesson learned: when weights are given, use an accurate kitchen scale to get the right amount. I'm putting one on my Christmas list. This picture is the edited recipe. Our first batch was....rather flat and thin. But the edited versions were incredibly good and packed a triple ginger punch: ground, candied and fresh.

And really, these cupcakes have no holiday theme whatsoever. I just had an itch to make cherry cola cupcakes again after making them in May. It's a recipe from Cupcake Project and is kind of baffling because it's super runny. It also takes cola extract, which isn't around at regular grocery stores (I got mine at Sweet! Baking and Candy-Making Supply). They're cola-flavored cakes with maraschino cherries in them, a cola-flavored cream cheese icing and the nice little cherry on top. They were a hit at work. I just love recipes that go well! (Posting these to Hoosier Homemade's Cupcake Tuesday.)

Daring Bakers' challenge: Filipino dessert Sans Rival

2011-11-27T08:00:00.000-06:00

Catherine of Munchie Musings was our November Daring Bakers’ host and she challenged us to make a traditional Filipino dessert – the delicious Sans Rival cake! And for those of us who wanted to try an additional Filipino dessert, Catherine also gave us a bonus recipe for Bibingka which comes from her friend Jun of Jun-blog.

Now, I wasn't quite daring enough to try the second recipe, Bibingka, which included things like salted eggs and glutinous rice flour. Not quite up my alley. But sans rival? Which apparently means "without rival?" Oh yeah. That's definitely true.

It's no secret that I love me some meringue. This is like a giant meringue cake that Aunt Betty and I made. We piped giant meringue discs, then layered them with French buttercream and layers of cashews. Seriously, it's as good as it sounds. The meringue melts into the buttercream and it's one of the tastiest desserts I've ever had. I am 100% making this again. Possibly very, very soon.

I don't often repost these recipes, but I'm definitely sharing this one, with the modifications we made (which are quite a few).

Sans Rival (12 servings)

Ingredients:

Meringues
10 large egg whites, room temperature
1 cup white granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 cups chopped, toasted cashews

French buttercream
5 large egg yolks, room temperature
1 cup white granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
1¼ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1½ teaspoon almond extract

Directions:
1. For meringues: Preheat oven to moderate 325°F.
2. Trace bottom of cake pan on parchment paper to get four circles. Lay parchment on flat baking sheets (will likely take at least two sheets).
3. In a large clean, dry glass or metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites on medium until foamy. Sprinkle with cream of tartar. Gradually add sugar, a couple of tablespoons at a time, continuing to beat now at high speed until stiff shiny peaks form.
4. Move meringue to piping bag with large open tip. Pipe meringue into the circles until completely used.
5. Bake in preheated oven until golden brown, checking after 30 minutes. (At this point, we actually shut off the oven and left the door closed, letting the meringues dry out. Your meringues should be as dry as possible without breaking.) Peel off parchment paper before completely cooling.
6. For French buttercream: Put the egg yolks in a mixing bowl. Beat at high speed until the yolks have doubled in volume and are a lemon yellow.
7. Put the sugar and water in a heavy pan and cook over medium heat, stirring the sides down only until all the sugar is dissolved and the syrup reaches 235° F.
8. With the mixer on high, very slowly pour the syrup down the sides of the bowl, until all has been added. Be careful as the very hot syrup could burn you if it splashes from the beaters. Continue beating on high until the mixture is room temperature, about 15 mins.
9. Still on high, beat in the soft, room temperature butter a tablespoon at a time. Add flavoring after you beat in the butter. Refrigerate the buttercream for at least an hour, and whip it smooth just before you use it.
10. Assembly: Set bottom meringue on cake board with a dab of butter cream to hold it in place. Spread a thin layer of buttercream, then spread a layer of the crushed cashews. Then place another meringue on top. Repeat with a thin layer of buttercream, cashews, meringue, thin layer of buttercream, cashews, meringue, and finally buttercream the top and cover with a layer of cashews.

Sweet potato cupcakes, cinnamon roll cupcakes and double chocolate cookies

2011-11-22T07:49:00.000-06:00

Yes, it is still November. And yes, we haven't (quite) hit Thanksgiving yet. And yes, I put up my Christmas tree the other night. I know it seems too early, but I couldn't resist. After all, it was my last free time before getting busy with work and the Thanksgiving holiday, and I didn't know if I'd have time to put it up before work next week. That, and I just wanted to! I have a tradition with putting up the tree: unpack all the decorations, put the movie "White Christmas" on and watch my cat get into whatever mischief he can. This year, it was just getting into the box the Christmas tree was in and supervising my progress. Now my tree is up with all my childhood ornaments, and some new ones, with multicolored lights, multicolored garlands and sparkly snowflakes. Yes, my Christmas tree definitely fits my personality.

Last weekend I had dinner with some girlfriends, and two of them requested cupcake flavors. First was Brianne, who is a big fan of cinnamon rolls, so I made her these cinnamon roll cupcakes. They're a weird combination of what you think of as a cinnamon roll, and a much cakier, lighter crumb. It's a cake batter mixed with a cinnamon syrup. I topped it with Martha's cream cheese frosting.

The second request was from my friend Lauren, who wanted sweet potato cupcakes. I'm not a huge fan of sweet potato, to be honest, which was a good reason to give them all to her! She said they turned out sort of like a spice cake, and I used Martha's recipe. What really intrigued me was the frosting, which was marshmallow-flavored. I used a recipe from Annie's Eats and then toasted it with my kitchen torch. It turned out very pretty, I think (and I'm posting them to Hoosier Homemade's Cupcake Tuesday).

And finally, I made some cookies just for the heck of it Sunday. I saw this recipe on Bakerella's site: double chocolate cookies. The trick, though, is they have a little bit of peanut butter in them, which elevates them to another level. They're super tasty and very easy. I will make them again soon!

Candy galore: Maple cashew fudge, buckeyes and candy Thanksgiving pilgrim hats

2011-11-17T08:04:00.000-06:00

I think we've talked about how I'm a Food Network junkie before. I'm sure I have. And I've been lucky enough to meet a few of my favorites in the last couple months. I told you I saw Bobby Flay a while ago, but a few weeks ago, I got to see Alton Brown speak as well. And he is way funnier and more personable than I thought he would be. Plus, besides being super informative, he dropped a few sci-fi restaurants, working Yoda into the presentation, and the Matrix as well. So naturally, when I got up to him to have him sign my book, I asked what his favorite sci-fi movie was. "2001: A Space Odyssey." Whodathunk?

My third Food Network star? Aarón Sánchez. He just opened a restaurant in, of all places, Leawood. First place outside of NYC and he picks KC. And I got an exclusive interview with him! He was super friendly and down-to-earth. My stories (I wrote two: one for web and one for print) about him are online at the Kansas City Business Journal.

I seem to have a thing for making these little bites once a year, but they're SO good. They're buckeyes, and it's Smitten Kitchen's recipe. Imagine the wonderfulness of the inside of a peanut butter cup, rolled in a ball, then with just a thin layer of chocolate. I tell you, they're to die for.

So these don't technically count as baking as much as creating, I suppose. But they're Thanksgiving hats! I found them just browsing around Thanksgiving recipes, and they're so easy: fudge cookies, miniature peanut butter cups, some frosting and a sprinkle. Cute little desserts for not much work. Not a bad change of pace!

And what is the fall/moving into winter without some maple? Remember my love affair with the flavor? Well, this maple fudge from Joy of Cooking just reinforces it. Aunt Betty actually made most of this while I put together the hat treats, but this is better than the batch we made last year. This batch has cashews mixed in...and I may hoard it for myself!

Happy Veterans Day! Plus a chocolate pistachio tart, blueberry yogurt granola pie and homemade Oreos

2011-11-11T08:03:00.000-06:00

I know I start every post with a food picture, and I suppose that's fitting since it's a food blog. But even more important is that today's Veterans Day. In honor of that, some very special photos:

To my Grandpa Hawley, who was in the Army Air Corps during World War II and based in Utah. I got to visit his base just a month ago. He was the next in line to be shipped out to Europe, but luckily wasn't. He mostly flew B-24s and A-25s but also flew some other planes, like the Memphis Belle.

And to my Grandpa Hofmeister, who was already in his 30s when he went to Germany and France under Gen. Patton in World War II. I always remember him as a quiet man, but he saw some crazy stuff when he was overseas. I'm so grateful to have a few records of it. This is my post from last year, that has more photos of both of them.

And finally, to my cousin Jon, who went to Iraq very soon after the U.S. went in there. Sometimes it doesn't cross my mind, but I'm lucky to be able to see him fairly easily now, especially when Aunt Betty, Uncle David and I drop sweets by at his and his fiance's house. For the longest time, we couldn't see him. So happy Veterans Day to all of them.

All right, back to the food. This is one of my most favorite desserts I've ever made. Seriously. Salty+sweet is one of my favorite things, and this chocolate pistachio tart fit the bill. Thank Martha, yet again. The crust is chocolate with chopped pistachios, and then you make the pistachio paste layer (I made a lot more than the recipe called for because it made it a lot easier to spread). Then the top layer is a basic chocolate custard. I think this might be my birthday cake (tart?) next year!

I made that tart at Aunt Betty's, and this second pie we made at her house as well. This one is a yogurt blueberry pie with granola crust. Yet another Martha recipe. The granola we used was from the Merc and it was a maple pecan one, which I think I might use in a future crust. It made for a nice crunch and some good flavor. I think this looks like breakfast, no?

And for my only non-pie-style dessert this week, homemade Oreos. I made these once but was a little too impatient with the dough, I think, and didn't roll it out as well. But I'd forgotten how good these are, and so much better than the commercial versions. The cookies themselves are almost salty, but with the filling, it works out perfectly. I don't have the patience to follow the recipe and let the filling sit for six hours (!) so I let it go for a while and then add in sifted powdered sugar, which makes a more frosting-y texture rather than the ganache, which the recipe wants. I prefer it that way. And so does everyone at work, because I'm at three requests for the recipe. Always good to know people are satisfied.

Paul Simon in Kansas City

2011-11-09T08:08:00.000-06:00

I know this isn't about food (at all), but I couldn't pass on writing about what I did last night. Paul Simon might be 70 years old, but the man knows how to perform in a concert! I went to see him last night, and he played for two hours without ever really stopping. Plus, we got two encores! The ticket was more than I usually pay, but I don't know if I'll ever get the chance to see him again. He played a lot of new songs, a lot of classics, and even through in a cover of the Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun."

I took a few videos. The visuals aren't the greatest, but really I took them for the audio. Actually, some of them might make you seasick. And a couple cut in after the song started...but hey, I'm not doing these professionally or anything, so excuse the camera phone :) Enjoy!

"Kodachrome"

"50 Ways to Leave Your Lover"

"Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes"

Boulevard Brewery tour

2011-11-08T08:01:00.000-06:00

To anyone not in the Midwest, it may be hard to come by Boulevard beer. And to you I say, I'm sorry.

Boulevard is the 10th largest craft brewer in the U.S. and happens to be approximately 10 minutes away from me. Darn.

I've actually been lucky enough to tour Boulevard three times now, most recently this weekend with Dad and Cathie. To anyone in the area or even visiting, I highly recommend it (and recommend planning far ahead because it tends to be booked months in advance).

It's pretty fascinating to see what it takes to make this beer. The barrels a few pictures above are for their specialty smokestack beers. This bottling line is fun to watch and bottles something like eight beers per second.

The whole tour is filled with lots of metal, lots of pipes, and obviously huge tanks of beer. One of my tours I went on was for work, when I interviewed the brewery's brewmaster, who's from Belgium. He gave an interesting insight into how to stay relevant as a craft brewery when they're popping up all over the country, and now breweries here differ from his home country's.

The brewery opened a new addition in 2006 that was way bigger than the old portion of the brewery, which they still use. This awesome floor is in the new building.

Naturally, at the end of the tour is a tasting. Meet my stepmom and nutty father.

And now a normal photo. It's definitely a fun trip and a good way to spend an hour. The beer ain't bad either :)

Halloween 7: Pumpkin spice cupcakes and a Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T08:02:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween! I didn't celebrate with a costume or anything this year, but I have been watching Halloween-y movies this year. Friday night I was introduced me to John Carpenter's "The Thing," which is truly gross. Reminded me of high school, when one of me and my friends' favorite movies to watch was John Carpenter's "Vampires." Then Saturday night was "Young Frankenstein."

"Werewolf." "There." "What?" "There, wolf. There, castle." Gosh I love that movie. My dad introduced it to me as a kid. Last night I watched "Space Jam." I think it counts as a Halloween movie because it's got aliens, right? I'm going with that. I don't know what I'll watch tonight, but these cupcakes would go perfectly with it, especially with their black cat sprinkles!

For my final Halloween dessert, I went to Martha, and she came through. I made pumpkin spice cupcakes with a pumpkin spice icing. The cupcakes were nice and moist, and although this isn't the exact recipe I used from her cupcake cookbook, it will probably do. I know the one I used didn't use melted butter. The frosting is her swiss meringue buttercream recipe with some pumpkin pie spices mixed in, and it was awesome. I believe the term that was used was "cloud in my mouth." And naturally, I had to make black cat-themed cupcakes just like last year, when I made some with black cat toppers. This year, I went with sprinkles.

Now, for my favorite costume picture. This was when my whole family went as the Wizard of Oz, obviously. I was originally going to be the Scarecrow, but once I saw the Dorothy costume, I had to be her. Our dog, Nellie, was the Cowardly Lion, as evidenced by her fur collar. And my dad's costume? Yes, he made that out of ductwork. It was way cool. And it's a very special picture for me for another reason: It was the last Halloween my parents were still together, so the last time we went out as a family. So that's kind of cool.

Now here's a quick roundup of the other Halloween treats I made for the holiday.

1. Halloween Oreo cheesecakes

2. Fall Brenna brownies

3. Pumpkin chocolate tart

4. Candy corn cupcakes

5. Spooky Rice Krispies

6. Pumpkin spice cookies

(Posting cupcakes in Hoosier Homemade's Cupcake Tuesday!)

Halloween 6: Pumpkin spice cookies

2011-10-30T08:06:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, I forget I have a cookie press. But it seems so perfect to use for the holidays, starting with Halloween. I mean, who can resist these pumpkin cookies? I made them once last year, but I like them a lot better in orange. Especially with these fall sprinkles.

I just used a basic spritz cookie recipe that came with the press, which is pretty simple and makes a gazillion cookies. I added orange gel coloring and some pumpkin pie spice, which gave these nice undertones of fall flavors but didn't overwhelm. Plus, they're basically two-bite cookies, so a perfect size.

Today's costume is another dance one from my last year at All That Jazz. Obviously, we did the can can, and it was for troupe, our competitive dance team. This was a picture my mom forced me to take in the driveway.

This is us actually doing the dance, I think at our dance recital in May. This would have made a pretty sweet costume, though. I know I still have the skirt somewhere!

Daring Bakers' challenge: Povitica

2011-10-27T08:05:00.000-05:00

The Daring Baker’s October 2011 challenge was Povitica, hosted by Jenni of The Gingered Whisk. Povitica is a traditional Eastern European Dessert Bread that is as lovely to look at as it is to eat!

Looks like a basic bread, right? I can honestly say I'd seen this stuff before but never knew its name. It's pronounced po-va-teet-sa, and the Internet tells me it's Croatian. Let's just go with the general Eastern European. Basically, it's bread dough rolled out with a walnut-cinnamon mixture spread out on top, rolled up and then wound around in a pan to get the snazzy pattern.

See snazzy pattern, Exhibit C. I have to admit, Aunt Betty did more of this than I did. I have yet to find a true love for bread, but she makes it all the time, and it's always perfect. I did help with the rolling though, so that counts, right? I was busy making some other treats I will show you later. But, with how good this filling was, I am definitely considering making it again, especially around the holidays. Christmas morning breakfast, perhaps?

Halloween 5: Spooky Rice Krispie treats

2011-10-26T08:33:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, a Rice Krispie treat just hits the spot. I haven't made them in a long time, and it's not like they're hard, but I never think to make them. They seemed like the perfect easy Halloween treat, though. These are basic Rice Krispies with chocolate-covered sunflower seeds and chocolate chips mixed in. And obviously some orange.

Okay, once again, not Halloween. But still, I was a pretty resourceful cowgirl, what with my paper bag vest. Right? I wish I knew what year in school this was, but I really have no idea. Maybe I'll just do this for a costume this year. At least it would be cheap!

Halloween 4: Candy corn cupcakes

2011-10-24T08:07:00.000-05:00

First off, I missed an anniversary a few weeks ago. Two years ago on October 8, I wrote an entry about snickerdoodles (which, incidentally, are not even in my top five favorite cookies). Thus started Ingredients of a 20something, which has now been going for two years and has (including this one) 121 posts. So happy belated birthday to this blog, which sometimes saves me from going insane with boredom in the absence of school, challenges me to new things and lets me keep up my writing in a non-journalistic style.

I knew I wanted to make candy corn cupcakes as soon as I saw Halloween cupcakes popping up around the internet. They're simple: my favorite yellow cake with some Halloween sprinkles mixed into the batter (which made them kind of orange) and then Swiss meringue buttercream piped in three different colors on top. Simple, but so, so good.

And for today's costume, I cheat a little bit. This wasn't technically for Halloween, but rather for a dance routine. We danced to "Walk Like an Egyptian" for my jazz routine that year. Nice and sparkly!

(Posting these to Hoosier Homemade's Cupcake Tuesday!)

Halloween 3: Pumpkin chocolate tart

2011-10-20T08:06:00.000-05:00

I'll admit it: I hate pumpkin. Or at least, I have for a long time. I think it has something to do with handing out slice after slice of it at our church's Thanksgiving dinner. That, and the texture grosses me out. So why I decided to make this chocolate pumpkin tart, I don't know.

Maybe because it's pretty. And had a Halloween-y spiderweb. And wasn't that much pumpkin related to the crust and chocolate. That last part was probably it. Plus, does Martha Stewart ever screw up with her recipes? Actually, this crust was really finicky and super sticky. So maybe every once in a while she does.

You know what doesn't screw up? A Disney princess Halloween costume. So a couple days ago you saw Jasmine from Aladdin and this one is Esmerelda from Hunchback of Notre Dame (here's what she looks like in the movie). What's funny is that movie has had very little staying power in the grand scheme of Disney movies, but at the time I obviously loved it. I remember even having an Esmerelda Barbie (oh yes, I was totally a Barbie girl).

Despite my aversion to pumpkin, I actually enjoyed this tart. Maybe I'm getting over my hatred of it! That, or the recipe just used the right amount of it in relation to the rest. We'll see if I make any more pumpkin recipes! I better, I bought another can of it.

Halloween 2: Fall Brenna brownies

2011-10-18T08:20:00.000-05:00

Back when I was on the Kansan, these babies were known as Brenna Brownies. They're a Martha Stewart recipe, a pretty easy one at that, and one with two kinds of chocolate baked in initially. What's fun about them (besides the fact that they're amazing) is that every time you make them, you can customize them. Like these, with the fall peanut M&Ms. And chocolate chips. And yumminess. So even though there aren't any distinctive fall flavors in them, I still count them as a Halloween dessert. After all, the colors are right!

And for today's Halloween costume of yesteryear, princess Jasmine in a particularly cold year, hence the turtleneck. We've established I'm a Disney fan, right? And if you couldn't guess, Mom was a witch.

Last, my blog turned two years old last week! But I'm busy making Halloween desserts. So more about that later.

Salt Lake City vacation

2011-10-12T22:58:00.002-05:00

I just got back from vacation in Salt Lake City. Beautiful, no? One of my best friends, Keane, lives there, so I took some time off to go hang out.

See? Keane. (Disclaimer: lots of pictures in this post, both of yummy food and beautiful sites, like mountains and such.)

We had some awesome doughnuts at Beyond Glaze. We got: cherry limeade, peach cobbler, cookies and cream and chocolate peanut butter.

Went to two different places on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives: Lone Star Taqueria, and...

Blue Plate Diner, which had the best breakfast ever. And an old fashioned soda fountain.

Raspberry soda.

We went to Park City, where we toured High West Distillery and tried some whiskey, and...

saw some Banksy.

We saw the Mormon Salt Lake Temple. It's very pretty lit up at night.

And walked around the Capitol.

We visited Hatch Family Chocolates, which was on TLC.

We drove up to Ogden to Hill Air Force Base Museum, where my grandpa was stationed during WWII. It was incredible to see where he spent so much time.

There was a display about the Doolittle Raiders there. That tall one? That's Jacob Manch, aka Shorty, one of my grandpa's friends. One time my grandpa picked him up in LA in a bomber in the '40s.

And then there were the mountains.

In the snow...

and when it was clear. It was still sort of fall up there, but the first snow of the winter came the same day I did.

We hiked up into them a bit on one of the nicer days.

And just wandered around admiring them. It's a lot different than Kansas, that's for sure.

It was a great trip and a much-needed break. Here's to vacation!

Halloween 1: Halloween Oreo cheesecakes, plus funk cupcakes and beignets

2011-10-05T08:32:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, I just start itching for travel. Okay, not sometimes, often. I admit it, I'm a travel addict. I love going places to visit friends, sample food, just do whatever. In the last year, because I've transitioned jobs, I haven't traveled as much as I did during college. But I have been to Chicago and New York City in 2011 so far. But this week, I add another city, one I haven't been to since my sophomore year of high school: Salt Lake City. Apparently, there's a chance of snow in the area this week. It was like 87 here yesterday. But one of my best friends, Keane, lives there, so we're going to hang out for a few days. I can't wait! Plus, I know the area is beautiful, I bet especially right now when we're still in autumn.

My first journalism internship was at the Lawrence Journal-World, where I would end up working. I worked up on the features desk, writing stories like this one about all the animals in downtown Lawrence businesses and about the kids who grew up with Harry Potter. Later I would be hired full-time down in the news section, but I've always loved my features desk I started with. One of my editors from back then, Christy, left the JW a couple weeks ago, and Trevan, another editor who works with her, asked me to make her cupcakes. It seemed only natural to make funk cupcakes, which Christy had suggested once before. These are a little more wild and brightly colored than the last ones, but still the same concept: red velvet cupcakes (crushed velvet), rainbow frosting and some interesting wrappers. (Posting these funk cupcakes on Hoosier Homemade's Cupcake Tuesday.)

Something I wanted to try when I made my 2011 baking goals (which I've fallen miserably behind on) was beignets. I've never been to New Orleans, but that's supposedly the place to have the best beignets. They're basically doughnuts, only smothered in powdered sugar. What could be wrong with that? Absolutely nothing. I'm glad I made them with Aunt Betty, because they definitely take two people. You put them in the oil and flip them continuously (and they puff up!) for just a couple minutes before you take them out and douse them in sugar. They were amazing. Now I just need to go taste the real thing in NOLA.

I'm hoping to do a bunch of Halloween treats during the month of October. Here's my first: Halloween Oreo cheesecakes. I've made the cheesecakes before, and these are just made with Halloween Oreos. Definitely worth a try. Also, with each Halloween baked good, I've got a photo to post of a childhood costume that I found while visiting Mom last time. So here goes:

Pirate girl. I remember a lot of those pieces making appearances later on in dress-up games. So happy Halloween month!

24th birthday celebration

2011-10-03T08:08:00.000-05:00

Sunday was my 24th birthday, but I celebrated it (for the most part) on Saturday. It was an incredibly long day, but filled with great time with family and my wonderful friends.

During the day, Dad, Cathie and I went to the homecoming game at KU, and Kelly joined us there. Both my mom and dad went to KU (and both returned for graduate degrees), and I went to preschool on campus and grew up in Lawrence. KU is pretty much in my blood. My dad played in the homecoming band this weekend and had a blast (he plays sousaphone). We played — and lost to —Texas Tech, but it was a great day for football!

They even had a couple people parachute into the stadium! Very cool.

After the game was a cookout at my friends Joe and Brianne's house, full of burgers and kebabs. I had to make myself a birthday cake, which might be cheating, but I knew what I wanted: red velvet cake. I used a new recipe from my new Bobby Flay cookbook for the cake, then a classic cream cheese frosting. It was awesome and totally decadent, and I got to share it with some of my favorite people in the whole world.

And on my actual birthday, yesterday, my great server at Yard House gave me this: peach apple cobbler with caramel ice cream. Well, technically, I ordered it, but she put in the candle and the birthday part. So nice!

Thank you to my family and wonderful friends who made this birthday great!

Apple pie four ways

2011-09-29T08:14:00.000-05:00

I've been lucky enough to see two of my favorite TV personalities live in the last week. It's super cool to see people you watch on TV every week who are, in my case, incredibly personable in real life. First up: Donald Glover. If you haven't watched Community, go watch it, right now. This is a preview of Troy (Donald) and his BFF Abed, including Troy and Abed in the Morning. Anyway, Donald came to KU, and I went to see him with my friend Jon, who started me on the show. He was hysterical, and his standup act was incredible. And he came back to do an encore, which he said he'd never done before. That was the coolest, because he answered questions from the crowd, did the biblioteca rap and even told us he'd ask if he could wear a KU shirt on the show. He's my new favorite person.

And then on Monday, I saw Bobby Flay! He is easily my favorite celebrity chef. I've been to both his Mesa Grill restaurant in Vegas and Bar Americain in NYC, twice at each. And they're both amazing. Flay came to speak about his new Bar Americain cookbook, which has some pretty awesome-looking recipes in it (I plan to make his red velvet cake for my birthday this weekend!). He was also incredibly personable, which great. He talked about how he was a high school dropout, but still succeeded in the culinary world. He told some great stories, like how his wife, who is known for her role as a ADA in Law & Order: SVU, wakes up at least three days a week craving chicken. And how he learned so much in Jonathan Waxman's kitchen in one of his early jobs. I can't wait for more episodes of Throwdown with Bobby Flay to come on!

So for some reason, I had a huge desire to make apple pies this month. It started with this one. Apples are in season, but I've always sucked at crusts. I've made a few with Aunt Betty, but they always ended up less-than-round and falling apart. So I decided to challenge myself and make a basic Joy of Cooking apple pie, with Kelly's assistance. I made and rolled out the crust and used an apple cookie cutter, and actually got it round and flaky! Apparently all that practice helped. It was awesome. So I'm no longer afraid of pie. Which meant Aunt Betty and I decided to make three more.

This was the first of three pies I made with Aunt Betty last weekend on our most recent baking extravaganza. The original plan was to only do two, but hey, why not three? This is a cheddar-crusted apple pie courtesy of Martha, which I've always wanted to make. I'd never eaten cheddar with apple pie till Cathie, who always paired the two. They're actually a really great combo — the salty of the cheddar offsets the sweet of the apples. So in the crust, it's a perfect match. The cutout top was made with this awesome crust cutter I just got.

The second pie of the day, and third overall, was an apple crumb pie, another Martha recipe I've always wanted to make from her Baking Handbook I got for graduation. It's got an almond crumb crust and a whole bunch of apples underneath. You slice the apples so they look pretty, like you can see in the photo at the top. Interestingly enough, this sliced the nicest of all the pies. Definitely a different take on a classic.

The last pie we decided to make on a whim: apple cider pie. We used Louisburg Apple Cider, the local favorite from the mill I visited a couple weeks ago. This filling was actually my favorite, I think because the cider gave it a really tart, pronounced apple flavor. Pair this filling with the cheddar crust, and I think I'd have the perfect apple pie. I'm definitely trying it soon.

Daring Bakers' challenge: Croissants

2011-09-27T08:00:00.000-05:00

The Daring Bakers go retro this month! Thanks to one of our very talented non-blogging members, Sarah, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make Croissants using a recipe from the Queen of French Cooking, none other than Julia Child!

Man, just look at those layers. I am going to go ahead and say this is a once-in-thirty-years sort of recipe, similar to the puff pastry Aunt Betty and I made more than a year ago. It's for remarkably similar reasons, too: You have to roll out, then fold, then roll out, then fold, then chill dough over and over again. That's how you get those pretty layers. But everything's worth trying once, and they were pretty good with some nice melty butter and stew that Aunt Betty made. So I'm glad they were the challenge this month.

Another thing I'd do if I ever made these again (in 30 years) is make more than one batch. With the entire process of multiple rests of the dough and multiple risings, it's 12 hours. And it makes 12 croissants. One croissant per hour. Sheesh! But I'm definitely glad I've officially made these, especially because they're officially the second Julia Child recipe I've cooked, after her chocolate almond cake (which I've made twice!). I'm hoping to up that number this winter, probably starting with her classic boeuf bourguignon, or maybe an orange almond version of that cake. Yummmm.

First Fall flavors: Ginger molasses cupcakes, salted caramel brownies and monster cookies

2011-09-22T08:00:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, what was going to be a lazy Friday night turned into something way, way cooler. I'd spent my week writing coverage of the opening of Kansas City's new fancy schmancy Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Seriously, it's way cool. As the kid of a professional musician, I grew up listening to classical music, going to the ballet and learning composers' styles. For work, I'd gotten to do a tour of the place as well as talk to the companies that will be using it regularly. But 20 minutes before work ended Friday, my boss gave me the chance of a lifetime: a ticket to the grand opening. Lemme tell you, I was WAY out of my element at my first black tie affair, but it was very fun to people watch and see all those fabulous gowns. Inside the theater was just as fabulous, though. Broadway, opera, ballet...you name it, they did it. I'm so happy I went, and I've already got tickets to a few things at the center. I'm so excited it's open!

A number of my friends right now are transitioning from old jobs to new, and this brownie was for my friend Joe, who was my counterpart on the beloved overnight shift. It was his "real boy" party, as in he now has hours of a normal person and we can all see him outside of vampire hours. So exciting! These were salted caramel brownies, surprisingly enough from Cooking Light Magazine. That makes them healthy, right?

I've made a lot more cookies lately than I normally do. I guess I think they're boring sometimes, but other times they're just perfect and hit the spot. My love for monster cookies came from a high school job in a coffee shop/bakery. This recipe is courtesy of Paula Deen, full of peanut butter, oats, chocolate chips and M&Ms but absent of raisins (yuck!). They spread out a lot, and I was really disappointed with them when they came out of the oven. But I left them out overnight, and they were perfect the next day. Good things come to those who wait, I suppose.

On my trip to the Louisburg Cider Mill last weekend, I found some awesome Halloween stuff the mill was selling, including these awesome fall leaf sprinkles. Yes, I sometimes choose what cupcakes I bake on the sprinkles I buy. So I decided I definitely needed a fall-flavored cupcake, and went with a recipe from Martha I'd never tried before: ginger molasses cupcakes. Forget that Kansas/Missouri decided to ratchet the temperature back up to the 80s after some nice days in the 50s and 60s. But the cupcakes brought back fall for sure and had a great bite to them. Instead of topping them with whipped cream like the recipe calls for, I went with basic vanilla swiss meringue buttercream, which I thought would nicely offset the spicy, and it did. I almost thought I ruined the icing because it was super runny, but I just beat the crap out of it, and then it was fine. I like desserts that work out that way!!

(Posting to Hoosier Homemade's Cupcake Tuesday.)

Fall field trip: Louisburg Cider Mill

2011-09-20T08:04:00.000-05:00

It's fall. Well, officially, it's fall tomorrow. But we've already had fall weather around, with nice crisp days in the 50s and 60s. Naturally, the high today is in the 80s. Welcome to Kansas.

But this weekend, me and my friends Kelly, Brianne and Lauren decided to go with the fall mentality and visit Louisburg Cider Mill in Louisburg, KS. Famous for its apple cider doughnuts and, of course, apple cider.

They've got this sweet doughnut-making machine that even flips them. I want one! Or maybe not. Somehow I think that would be bad.

The doughnuts are amazing, though, and rolled in cinnamon sugar. Apparently the day-old doughnuts are pretty popular. I tried making apple cider doughnuts last year, but they definitely weren't this pretty.

Kelly is the only one I managed to force to take a picture with her doughnut. Doesn't she look happy?

Check out those apples. Unfortunately, all the machinery for making the cider wasn't running, because we were there on a Sunday. But it was still neat to see.

My friend Sarah wrote a story about the mill for my old paper and Lawrence.com. Apparently they have a cider fest coming up. Probably worth the trip there again. After the festival, stop by Miss B's Cafe in Louisburg, where we went for brunch. They had the best cinnamon rolls ever (and I don't even like cinnamon rolls!) and great food for really cheap. My breakfast plate was a grand total of $4.34.

We took the scenic route to the store, courtesy of my loopy GPS on my phone, which told me to enter onto a highway where there was no ramp. I guess it expected my car to be able to jump up to a bridge, sprout wings or something a la Back to the Future DeLorean.

It was a great day trip, and totally worth the drive, whether from Kansas City or Lawrence. Especially if you take the scenic route :)

My favorite flavors: Rhubarb crumble bars, maple creme brulee and peanut butter cup cookies

2011-09-13T00:08:00.000-05:00

The more blog posts I write, the more I realize I watch a lot of movies. And TV, but that happens in spurts. My latest TV obsession? Community. Seriously, if you haven't seen it, watch it now. Over the weekend, I watched the entire 25-episode first season in about 30 hours. The episodes are only 21 minutes or so, so that makes it a little less bad. The show is hysterical, and the second season just came out on DVD, so I wanted to rewatch the first. Also, Donald Glover, who plays Troy in the show, is coming to KU in a couple weeks and I've got tickets to go see him with my friend Jon. So that merits watching the whole season and being a lazy bum, right? I'm going with yes.

Trader Joe's came to town a couple months ago; I actually covered it for work. The last time I was there, I found these little tiny peanut butter cups, and I love my peanut butter. So I made some plain ol' cookies, brown sugar only, with the cups in it. I had to use them, you see, or I would have kept snacking on them!

I visited Grandma a couple weekends ago. We watched seven movies in three days, I believe. Lots of Jimmy Stewart and Humphrey Bogart. After all, she's 90 and is familiar with those movies, and I have some sort of love affair with old, innocent movies. I also try to bake something for her every time I go, even if she hasn't seen some of the desserts before. This time I went with maple creme brulee. In the process, I managed to shatter a glass bowl of hers. Go me! But the brulee ended up excellent. It's a Joy of Cooking recipe.

Oh hi, my name is Brenna, and I love rhubarb. But it's kind of an abusive relationship on my end. I am so happy to see it when it comes out in May-ish, but then after a few token desserts, I drop it. Like that. And don't appreciate it for the summer months it's around. I saw rhubarb in the store the other day and knew I had to make at least one more dessert before it was all gone again, so I made Martha Stewart's rhubarb crumb bars. I will definitely make these again — next year, when the rhubarb comes out again. Pretty soon it's out of season!

To Michigan and Mom: Chocolate cream pie, chocolate meringue kisses and raspberry lemonade cupcakes

2011-09-08T08:00:00.000-05:00

I swear, I'm bad luck on a plane. Or more like, in the terminal waiting for a plane. I went to Michigan to visit Mom this weekend...and ended up being in Wisconsin overnight with a hotel voucher that didn't work. A fan was broken in my plane from KC, and I'm pretty sure more than half our plane missed their connections. If I'd stayed in KC and flown out the next morning, I would have left the airport at 5:45 a.m. I don't know if this is well-known (it is to all my friends), but that time only exists to me if I'm still up from the night before. So Milwaukee it was. To their credit, Frontier was very, very helpful. The woman helping us, Cat, was incredibly chill. Go Cat! Anyway, around 11, I got to the hotel and spent the evening at the bar with my fellow travelers.

This is Lacey. She greeted me when I finally got to Grand Rapids. So did my childhood cat Ziggy and Mom's newer cat, Salem. During the weekend, we went shopping to my favorite food specialty stores up there, went to New Holland Brewpub and had a taster flight of beer (Ichabod Pumpkin Ale was my favorite!) and went to my favorite restaurant there, Graydon's Crossing, which is a combo of colonial English and Indian food and one massive beer list. All in all, a fun trip.

A few fun facts about my mom: she loves chocolate, she sucks at technology and she isn't a baker. So when I visit, she likes me to bake so she can have some and share some with her friends too. First on the list was chocolate cream pie, which I'd made once before at Aunt Betty's. It's from Martha Stewart's new Pies and Tarts book, and it actually holds its shape really well, courtesy of a lot of cornstarch and gelatin. Oh, and it's got lots of chocolate.

Then, naturally, I had some leftover egg whites, so I had to use them, right? In come the chocolate meringue kisses. I've never made chocolate ones before, but I have done some other flavored ones. These honestly tasted like hot chocolate to me, and they were divine. And more chocolate for mom.

And I didn't want to do just chocolate and of course had to make cupcakes, so I did raspberry lemonade ones. It's starting to get fall-like outside, so I'm trying to get in my last summery desserts. This is a lemon cupcake soaked with a raspberry lemonade syrup with raspberry lemonade icing. On top I put a fresh raspberry and a candied lemon peel. Apparently Mom's coworkers liked them.

It was a nice weekend, although cut short because of the darn airplane. Well, here's to hoping my next trip goes better. I'm officially less than a month from visiting Keane in Salt Lake City. Woo hoo!

(Posting to Hoosier Homemade's Cupcake Tuesday.)

For lovers of chocolate

2011-09-06T20:54:00.001-05:00

See all those candies? Yup. Tequila lime chocolates. Pâte de fruit. Passion fruit caramels. Did I mention I got to check all this out for my job?

Part of what I do at the Kansas City Business Journal is restaurant and retail reporting. I've started working on a series of chefs as entrepreneurs. First, I wrote about Kansas City chef Michael Smith, who has fine dining restaurant Michael Smith and tapas restaurant Extra Virgin.

Second in the series, though, was so perfect for the blog I had to share it with you. Those chocolates? They're Christopher Elbow's. He's got a chocolate shop here in KC, one in San Fran, and two ice cream shops here. And not only did I get to talk to him for my story, but I got to go back into his production area and watch them airbrush molds, create candy shells with tempered chocolate, mix all-fresh fillings and see the finished products. So, if you're interested, here's the story (there's a video of some of the candy-making there!). If only the candies I made a couple weeks ago looked as nice as his!

Eat a cupcake, you shall

2011-09-01T08:01:00.000-05:00

I still remember the first time I watched Star Wars. My dad introduced me to it when I was in third grade. I remember him pulling out the VHS with Darth Vader's face on it. And I remember really, really not wanting to watch it. For what reason, I dunno, but Dad was really into it, so I watched. And loved it. Pretty soon after, we watched the second and third, because that's all there was (no Jar Jar Binks yet).

Dad introduced me to a lot of movies I still love. The Indiana Jones movies were a couple — I say two because I only count Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade. Temple of Doom is stupid and annoying. Animal House is another. But Star Wars is where it all started. And I've always loved the movies since then.

No, the Empire Strikes Back is not my favorite, as it seems to be for everyone else. I understand that it moves along the plot more than the others, and Luke finds out about Darth Vader and all that, but whatever. Nothing happens. He stands on his head in a swamp. My favorite is Return of the Jedi. I imagine it has something to do with the Ewoks.

Speaking of Ewoks, in George Lucas' latest redux of the movies on Blu-Ray, apparently he makes Ewoks blink. Is that not creepy to anyone else? And he makes Vader yell "Noooooo" again, this time when throwing the Emperor down that shaft thingy at the end. I don't know why Lucas won't just leave the movies alone and let fans enjoy them as they originally were.

So Williams-Sonoma jumped on the Star Wars bandwagon a while ago. So when I saw these Rebel Alliance cupcake liners, I knew I had to get them (they have the empire's side too, but dammit, I wanted the good guys!). I've been saving them; for what I don't know. But last night seemed like a good time to use them.

Meet my baking assistant, Chewy. He's much more effective as decor, and the apron is much more effective on me so I don't get powdered sugar on myself (I got that at Williams-Sonoma the same day as I got the liners too).

So for these cupcakes, all I wanted was a light-colored cake so you could see the wrappers, which have "Star Wars" around the sides and these on the bottoms. I went with my favorite yellow cake recipe and fudge frosting, both from Smitten Kitchen. And voila! Star Wars cupcakes. Now, eat a cupcake you shall!

(Posting on Cupcake Tuesday)

Daring Bakers' challenge: Candy!

2011-08-27T07:00:00.004-05:00

The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks at http://www.chocoley.com offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy!

I have to admit, this is my most favorite challenge in the last few months. There are so many options with candy, and yet I don't make it often because it's pretty challenging with temperatures and stuff. This is citrus paté de fruit...you know how I love my citrus! Basically it's homemade gummy candy. I don't like picking just one citrus, so this is lemon-lime-orange. Basically, this uses pectin to set, which I've never used before. It also has applesauce, which naturally has pectin. When we were cooking it (which took forever), I was worried the apple flavor wouldn't cook out, but it did! I want to try this again, for sure. Maybe in winter, when I'm dreaming of warm weather.

And these are chocolate hazelnut truffles. No fresh hazelnuts that we could find at this time of year, but we followed a recipe Daring Bakers provided and made hazelnut praline, kind of like peanut brittle with hazelnuts. You crunch that up in the food processor, mix it with the ganache for the center. After that chills, roll it up and coat it with crushed hazelnut, and we have truffles. They were a-maz-ing. My only problem with the challenge was I didn't have time to try making everything I wanted to! There was a recipe for honeycomb candy and filled bon-bons. I want to do filled chocolates for sure, but need to come up with a good filling that's not caramel. Ideas?

Slice of summer: Peach galette, Mississippi mud pie and scones

2011-08-23T21:30:00.006-05:00

I'm not sure I've ever mentioned my love of Muppets. Disney movies, sure, but Muppets are right up there. I still remember seeing Muppets in Space in theaters with my mom as a kid, and seeing a friend from school. I think she was super sick, and I remember being really nervous I'd catch her cold. Anyway, I own all the Muppet movies on DVD, and I have always especially loved Muppet Treasure Island. A few years ago, they came out with Muppet Wizard of Oz, and honestly, it kind of sucked. So the November release of The Muppets, complete with Amy Adams, Jason Segal and a new soundtrack of covers of Muppet song, is pretty exciting. The music video for OK Go's cover of the Muppet Show theme song is outstanding. And the Fray's cover of Mahna Mahna is amazing too. So tonight, I start rewatching Muppet movies. So there, another facet of my dorkiness is revealed :)

Ever seen cinnamon chips at a grocery store? If you like them, and you do, I suggest picking up multiple bags of them, like I did this weekend. There's only one store in Lawrence I've seen that has them, and Aunt Betty and I went there for that and chocolate wafer cookies. It's worth it, though, for these cream scones. Cinnamon chips and pecans are perfect, and they aren't too heavy. Good thing I'm stocked up for future batches. This recipe was given to me by a local rep from the sheriff's office, and it's the best (and easiest) scone I've ever had.

I feel like I always want to make fruit desserts, but by the time I figure out what I want to make, the best fruit is out of season. So I was glad when Aunt Betty suggested we make this peach galette, a pretty easy dessert for how pretty it looks. Pastry is my least favorite thing in baking, I think, but luckily, with a galette, you're okay leaving it less-than-perfect. After all, a crooked crust doesn't affect the taste!

And continuing to make my way through Martha Stewart's Pies and Tarts book, we decided to make Mississippi mud pie. Apparently it collapses when you take a slice, but I guess it's based off mud, right? True to form, though, every pie out of that book has been excellent so far. I'm thinking of making the chocolate cream pie over Labor Day weekend for when I visit Mom up north. That, and some very chocolate-y cupcakes. Any ideas?

Happy birthday Julia! Chocolate almond cake, orange cream meringues and Hefeweizen cupcakes

2011-08-16T20:44:00.012-05:00

So Tuesday was a big day for me. I'm not one to talk too much about personal stuff online; I like to separate that stuff from the Internet. But I just hit a year of being single, and I have to say, I never thought it would happen. Neither did anyone in my family or friends, you can ask! See, I've been a serial long-term dater, and dated two different guys over a six-year period before this. But this year has been the greatest yet. I've put a lot more into this blog. I've spent more time with family. I've moved. I've started a new job, a wonderful job. I've decorated my apartment. And, as Cathie said, I've spent a lot of time discovering who I am. Cliched, maybe, but true. Here's to seeing what the next year brings!

Speaking of special days, Monday was a special day too. It was Julia Child's birthday! Well, it would have been at least. She would have been 99. Last year I made her chocolate almond cake to celebrate. I haven't made anything from Mastering the Art of French Cooking since then, although I officially have a Dutch oven and can make boeuf bourguignon when it gets cold again. But I figured the perfect way to celebrate her birthday this year was to make the same chocolate almond cake because it was SO good. And the Biz Journal staff thought so too!

I hadn't baked all week, actually, and then in the last few days I went on a binge. Meringues are something I love, for some reason. They're so darn simple and they melt in your mouth. I made this spiral style last year for Christmas because it was in the holiday version edition of Food Network Magazine. Then recently, Aunt Betty and I made flavored meringue kisses, and my favorite was the orange cream ones. So I combined them and made orange cream swirls the other day.

Then I ran across this recipe for Hefeweizen cupcakes. I love wheat and German beers, so it seemed perfect. It's a beer cupcake with a malt and beer glaze. To be honest, I thought they were a little weird, although I'm not sure what I was expecting. I might need to make them again without the glaze and with a real frosting, lemon-y maybe.

C is for...Canada? Cherry limeade cupcakes, citrus cake pops and cookies

2011-08-09T22:24:00.010-05:00

My stepsister Katie visited last weekend. Well, technically she visited all last week, but she stopped in KC on Sunday. It was fun to introduce her to my new city, and just see her in general. She lives in Ottawa, Ontario, which is pretty darn far away (and plane tickets are expensive!). Technically, I'm an only child. But when my dad remarried almost a decade ago, I inherited a step-sister and step-brother, Katie and Justin. Even though I hadn't seen Katie in more than a year, we had a great time that day, going to City Market and shopping for as long as we could stand what my phone told me felt like 111 degrees that day. Stupid Kansas. We also lounged around and watched wedding reality TV shoes. So even though she came into my life around my teenage years, it's pretty darn cool to have an older sister!

Katie requested a baked good for her visit, and Dad chimed in that he thought I should make cake pops (I think he just wanted me to make those so she could take some home to him!). With these, I tried something new: citrus flavors. I've only made basic flavors so far for cake pops, like yellow cake, chocolate and red velvet. For these, I did lemon cake with a frosting to which I added lemon and lime juices. Being a citrus fanatic myself, I loved them. Katie liked them too, and I heard reports from out West that Dad and Cathie enjoyed them. Mission accomplished!

So this picture kind of cheats. I actually made cookies twice, and this is a combo of both recipes. First (the smaller cookies) were my favorite all-brown sugar chocolate chip cookies. I actually found these really great semi-sweet and white chocolate swirl chips, which made for a great twist on the cookies. The other cookies were my favorite peanut butter cookies from Smitten Kitchen. Always a winner and always nice, soft cookies.

I've been making fewer cupcakes than normal. It may not seem that way on here, but Kelly's cupcakes I made weeks ago and hadn't gotten around to posting them. We've had crazy hot temperatures in Kansas lately, but it finally started cooling off lately. Cherry limeades are one of my favorite summer drinks...or anytime drinks. I made these last summer, but lemme tell you, this year's cherry limeade cupcakes were WAY better. If I remember correctly, I used grenadine in the frosting last year. This year, it was maraschino cherry-flavored. With the lime syrup brushed over the already lime-flavored cupcakes, they're flavor-packed. Someone at work even said they were the best treat yet. Success!

(Posted on Hoosier Homemade's Cupcake Tuesday.)

Birthday and bad TV: German chocolate cupcakes, cream puffs and ginger ale

2011-08-01T08:05:00.000-05:00

Confession of the week: I watch bad TV. Like, really, really bad TV. Ask my friends. One of the things I enjoy about coming home from work is turning on some Real Housewives show and turning off my brain. That's not to say I don't enjoy good TV too; I'm still working through the Wire, enjoy rewatching Firefly, etc. But sometimes, it's just nice to not have to think about my entertainment. Right now, I'm watching the Bachelorette, which all in all seems like such a terrible thing to put yourself through (being on the show, not watching it, although that's a close second). Who could ever possibly think that going from not knowing to being engaged to someone after like five dates in beautiful foreign locations is a good idea? Only to be followed by months of not seeing each other while the show airs? Terrible, terrible idea. But mindless entertainment.

One of my last times baking with Aunt Betty, we tried some nice desserts good for hot, hot weather. Which, by the way, it felt like 109 degrees one time when I checked today. One was cream puffs, which I've always wanted to make. To make them, we made Joy of Cooking's pâte à choux, which makes the outer shell thingy. Then you pull out its innards and fill it with vanilla whipped cream. They're a little messy, yes, but very tasty bites.

Another thing we made that day was homemade ginger ale. Granted, it's not baking, but you do cook down the ginger into a syrup, so I'm counting it. Aunt Betty LOVES ginger, so when I saw this recipe for the soda, I knew we had to make it. It was pretty simple, and the soda was great. It had quite a bite to it once you mixed it with soda water, but was a nice refreshing drink.

And for this week's cupcake, we have a very special kind that I hate. It was Kelly's 21st birthday a couple weeks ago, which was quite the event. She loves german chocolate, and I HATE coconut, but it was her birthday, so I made her german chocolate cupcakes. I used Martha Stewart's recipe but edited it a little. I made the cake as is, and the frosting as well, but used the frosting as a filling (I like pretty piped cupcakes so I wanted a prettier frosting). On top, I put Smitten Kitchen's easy fudge frosting. They were well-received, although I can't say I tried them. Nope, no coconut for me!

Daring Bakers' challenge: Fresh Frasiers

2011-07-27T00:01:00.000-05:00

Jana of Cherry Tea Cakes was our July Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges us to make Fresh Frasiers inspired by recipes written by Elisabeth M. Prueitt and Chad Robertson in the beautiful cookbook Tartine.

So technically, this was supposed to be a sponge cake with fresh berries in the pastry cream center (frasier is French for strawberries). But honestly, we all know I'm a citrus girl. And for some reason, I wasn't feeling the strawberries this challenge. So Aunt Betty and I, after visiting the City Market for the first time, made a lemon sponge cake in my new apartment's oven. Luckily, it worked perfectly, which I wasn't expecting, because the other cake we made that day failed miserably.

The pastry cream we flavored with lemon as well, and then on top is almond paste and more lemon-flavored pastry cream. Some lemon zest on top, and we had one tasty cake. The almond and lemon together was different, but super tasty. My biggest problem with cake challenges is no one to feed them to. They're hard to transport, and I have a harder time making them pretty than I do with cupcakes. So I'm hoping next month's challenge is something totally different than something I've made before. Like doughnuts. I really liked the doughnut challenge.

Butterbeer cupcakes, fruit pie and red velvet holiday cupcakes

2011-07-18T21:44:00.008-05:00

In the last few weeks, I've been to the lake for the Fourth of July, packed up my entire house and moved. I took a couple days off of work, and with the help of my dad, stepmom, aunt and uncle, moved to a city about an hour from where I lived. My mom and her boyfriend stayed behind to clean my old house while the rest of us loaded stuff into what looked like far too small an apartment. In fact, it is not. There's lots of nice nooks and crannies for my stuff. It's not quite put together yet, but apparently this stuff takes time. And now my commute has been cut down from one hour to about five minutes! So yes, I've been absent from here for a bit, but I promise it was for a good reason!

So that means a couple of my desserts this week were for Fourth of July celebrating, like this fruit pie. I've never made it before, but Aunt Betty suggested it. It was a basic sugar cookie dough with a topping made with cream cheese, whipped cream and sugar. Pretty basic, but very tasty, and an excellent way to use fresh fruit from the summer.

For the Fourth, I wanted to make red velvet cupcakes, but lemme tell you, these were not easy cupcakes. The thing about camp is that it's relaxed, and you don't stay there full time, so you don't have all the ingredients needed for things. We have a neighbor, Eddie Mae, who cooks a lot, and thank goodness for her. I think I went to her house three separate times for these cupcakes. I needed a cupcake tin, and then buttermilk and corn starch (to make my own cake flour!), and then more vegetable oil. Luckily, after all that, they turned out quite well!

These I made as my first cupcakes in my new apartment! I'm still learning the oven, so it's going to take lots of practice. They're butterbeer cupcakes, in honor of Harry Potter. No, I haven't seen the new movie yet. I'm rereading the whole series so I can remember the story better first, and I'm on book three. So just give me some time :) These cupcakes were wonderful, and even the non-butterscotch lovers liked them! The cake was a mix of cream soda (mmmmmm!) with vanilla and butter flavoring, and a nice butterscotch icing and butterscotch ganache.

(Posting these cupcakes on Cupcake Tuesday!)

Happy 100!

2011-07-14T22:44:00.003-05:00

So, this is my 100th blog post. I'm sorry it's anticlimactic. It's just that I've been busy. Very busy. For starters, I was at the lake. A nice camera delivers one hell of a firework picture, doesn't it? And I've been packing up my whole house and moving. Yeah, that's right, I'm no longer a Lawrence girl. Kansas City for me! I haven't baked in a while, because for a while I didn't have my stuff unpacked, and this whole week I've been adjusting to my new apartment.

Never fear. New sweets soon!

Celebration summer: cake pops, strawberry cupcakes and pineapple pie

2011-06-28T22:11:00.000-05:00

I've been feeling very grown up lately. There's a lot of really positive things going on that have led to that, but at the same time, I've had some harsh reminders of how quickly life changes. The nice thing is that with the bad, always comes good. And one of my latest pieces is really friggin' exciting: I'm going to be a maid of honor again! I told you a couple weeks ago that one of my best friends, Tara, got engaged, she asked me to be her maid of honor. I could NOT be more excited! She and her fiancé love each other very much, and I can't wait to see them get married. Luckily, I've got some time to prepare for it!

Most of the desserts on this post were for some sort of celebration, like Tara's wedding. Except, of course, this one. This one I just made because I'm a sucker for recipes that get tweeted, especially by a celebrity. I loved Michelle Branch as a kid, and still do. I follow her on Twitter, and she tweeted about this pineapple brown sugar pie. I love pineapple. But I will admit, this pie worried me at first. It was pretty runny when I took it out to put the crumble on top. I will also admit: I cheated on the crust. I bought it. Sue me. Anyway, it tasted great. I'm making this again. Maybe for the Fourth.

Celebration #1: Birthday cupcakes for a family member of someone at work. I've always wanted to make these strawberry cupcakes with strawberry meringue frosting from Martha Stewart. Geri at work asked me to make strawberry pink cupcakes, so I did! There are two packs of strawberries in the whole batch. Very, very tasty.

And the final celebration: birthday cake pops. My friend Nick was one of the first people I ever did a birthday sweet for. Last year I made him Fruity Pebbles cupcakes. Since last year, he has discovered cake pops and fallen in love. He requested two flavors, chocolate and yellow cake. That results in about 100 cake pops, so I took half to my new newsroom. They went over well there. And when I delivered these to Nick last night, he ate about four right away. I'd say they went over well with him, too!

(Posting this on Cupcake Tuesday!)

Daring Bakers' Challenge: Baklava

2011-06-27T06:21:00.001-05:00

Erica of Erica’s Edibles was our host for the Daring Baker’s June challenge. Erica challenged us to be truly daring by making homemade phyllo dough and then to use that homemade dough to make Baklava.

I can honestly say I've never had the desire to make baklava homemade. I guess Greek is just not a type of cuisine I often run across. But when challenged to make my own phyllo dough, I was definitely interested (I skipped last month's Daring Baker because it was crazy intricate and I didn't have the time).

Aunt Betty looked up a way to roll out phyllo dough on a pasta maker, which made it turn out perfectly: nice and thin. The recipe called for multiple layers of phyllo dough sandwiched around a couple layers of nuts (pistachios, walnuts and almonds, in our case) cooked in a simple syrup, then with a honey mixture drizzled over the top of it all.

It was definitely super rich, and to me tasted just an awful lot like honey. Lots of layers and stacking and lots of time. Not too difficult, though. Just time-consuming. Next time I make it, it will need to be for a picnic or something, because it's too darn messy to take to work and now I have lots of baklava left over in my fridge!

Summer sweets: margarita cupcakes, oatmeal scotchies and chocolate coconut no-bakes

2011-06-20T23:07:00.002-05:00

Wedding season has started! I've got three this summer, and already another for next year. Each one this year is someone my age getting hitched, which makes me feel strangely old, even though I'm only 23.

About a week ago, my friend Haley (Jones) Williams got married. We lived in the same dorm freshman year, took classes together and went through the journalism school together, ending up at the Kansan. Her wedding was so Haley, as my friend Lauren and I put it. Haley looked unbelievable in her dress, and she walked down to a song from "Pride and Prejudice," which I LOVED. Her main color was pale yellow, which was the theme in the candy bar on the right. The cake was simple and perfect. Such a lovely day.

What is not lovely (in my mind) is this cookie, for one reason and one reason only: coconut. I HATE coconut. It is one of my least favorite foods. However, if someone requests something specific, I will usually make it. Even if it's like this no-bake chocolate coconut cookie...which burnt my finger. Apparently these were pretty good...I wouldn't know, because I didn't try them.

So, to offset my dislike of coconut, I made these oatmeal scotchies to take to work as well. I've had issues with them in the past, becoming too crunchy and thin. So I added slightly more oats and slightly more flour, and they turned out perfectly. Except for, you know, that tray I overbaked to a crisp. The others were excellent though :)

Last weekend was a yearly party a photographer at the LJ throws every year, and that photog, Richard, loves tequila. So I had to make margarita cupcakes for his party. I made a couple of edits to this recipe: 1) I subbed a tablespoon of tequila for lime juice in the cupcake batter, 2) brushed a lot more than a tablespoon of tequila over the tops, 3) added quite a bit more powdered sugar to the icing to make it pipeable and 4) topped it with coarse salt. Lemme tell you, they tasted a lot like margaritas, and they were a hit at the party. They were gone pretty darn quick, and I had a few people ask for the recipe. I will put those on my to-make-again list (and they're going on Hoosier Homemade's Cupcake Tuesday and Tasty Tuesdays)!

Ad astra per aspera

2011-06-13T22:53:00.012-05:00

When people hear where a Kansan is from, they almost always ask how Dorothy is doing. Or where Toto is. One time, I was asked if we milk chickens in Kansas. If you don't know the answer to that, well, you need to back to a basic biology class. (Disclaimer: no food this entry, but some pretty pictures and the reason there is no food.)

But I love the state I'm from. Kansas is beautiful. It's hard to really see the state's beauty when many people stay in the eastern part, whether it be in Lawrence or KC or whatever. But western Kansas, for all its analogies about being flat as a pancake, is unbelievable.

My holiday every year isn't Christmas or Thanksgiving. No, it's Memorial Day (give or take a few weekends). My grandma was born in Lewis, down in southwest Kansas. My grandfather was from Belpre, a tiny town a few miles away. My great-great-grandfather is buried in Lewis. So is my great-grandfather. And my uncle. And my grandpa's brother. And my grandma's stepfather. And her parents. You get the picture.

So every year, my dad, grandma and I take a weekend trip down to the area to plant flowers at their graves. We also make a stop at my uncle's (mom's side) farm, to visit them and their animals and plant flowers at my maternal grandparents' graves and also my cousin's little girl's. It's hours and hours of driving for a weekend, but it's worth it.

We load up a vehicle with about 20 different flower arrangements, a shovel, a giant drum of water (it's hard to find down there) and a hose. Then we get my 90-year-old grandmother in the car and go, always early in the morning.

It's a very nostalgic trip. We go see the fencepost my great-grandfather put in the ground decades ago (above). We see the farm where my grandpa worked the land. We see my great-grandmother's gorgeous house in town. We go see "Lover's Lane," a road where shelter belts (rows of trees) were planted on either side and formed a canopy.

We also see what is happening to rural Kansas. People are leaving. Things are getting old. Farmsteads are being abandoned as farmers sell their land. Young people don't really stick around. And honestly, if I were from there, I couldn't say I would stay either. But it's a place I still love to visit.

Most of all, it's a time to remember. For me, it's mostly about my grandpa, who has now been gone for 13 years. It's also about knowing my grandmother won't be around all that much longer. She could live another 10 years, but at 90, it's something I need to come to terms with. It's about realizing this is the first year my Grandma Hofmeister is out there, and that she's finally next to my grandpa. And it's about appreciating what I have, and knowing that some people are taken away from us at far too young an age.

Don't get me wrong, though. It's a wonderfully happy day for me. I get to spend hours of uninterrupted time with my dad and grandma, and they're both happy too. I don't think I could ask for much more.

Except to visit Stripe, my uncle's donkey!

Chocolatey goodness: Peanut butter chocolate pie, chocolate-pistachio cookies and chocolate cake pops

2011-06-07T23:35:00.000-05:00

Getting a new job made me feel really grown up. I bought a couch a couple weeks ago; so did that. A brand new couch! But a few things have happened in the last couple weeks that I really feel are make me feel like an adult. First, one of my best friends, Tara, got engaged. I wasn't surprised about it, but instead super excited (ask Kelly, I squealed). Tara's fiance makes her happy, and that makes me happy. The other big thing actually hasn't happened yet. It's my first friend having a baby! Sarah, who I had a baby shower for, is due to have baby David in a week! I can't believe my friends have progressed to the age where they're planning families, but it's upon me. I'm still a ways away from that stage myself, but I'm so very happy for them all!

Speaking of being happy for friends, this is Guy, my friend Nick's brother. See how happy he is? That's because for Guy's birthday, Nick had me make him chocolate cake pops. The boys at that house LOVE cake pops. I'm pretty sure they ration them so they don't eat them too fast and get sick. Either way, I like knowing they love what they're eating.

My third pie I've made from Martha Stewart's Pies and Tarts is this chocolate peanut butter pie. I love me some peanut butter, but man was this puppy rich. I loved the crust, which you make with brown sugar rather than normal sugar. It helped offset the peanut butter a bit...except maybe it shouldn't be offset at all? Either way, it was tasty.

I know these look kind of weird, but honestly, they're one of the best cookies I've had. They're pistachio chocolate, so a great salty-sweet flavor. They end up looking like a truffle, I think. They're actually piped rounds sandwiched around a chocolate filling, then covered in chocolate. They take a lot of work, but for pistachio lovers, they're totally worth it!

Meringues and a birthday: Meringue cookies, meringue candied almonds and tiramisu cupcakes

2011-06-01T21:37:00.006-05:00

Last summer I remember how mild severe weather seemed. In Kansas, you can always expect some rockin' thunderstorms and a few tornadoes in the spring. Well, we are definitely getting paid back for it this year. I know everyone's heard about the tornadoes in Joplin, which are just a huge tragedy. We had tornado warnings around here about that time, which freaked me out a little bit, but they went south. The mark of a true Kansan: watching the storm coming (the lightning was cool!).

But the tornado experience I got this year I've never had before was having to go into shelter at work. I was in downtown KC when our publisher made us go down to the parking garage. Later, the whole building was told via loudspeaker to take shelter. There were multiple funnel clouds around and a couple actually touched down in the metro area. We were downstairs for more than an hour, and the long-time employees didn't remember that ever happening before. Naturally, it happens to me in my first week!

In my never-ending quest to find food I can munch on at work (so I don't spend a million dollars at the food quart), one of the options I came up with were these candied almonds. I've made something similar to them before, but this new recipe used meringue, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite things. Too bad it's a pain in the ass to make in rainy weather, which we seem to have an interminable supply of lately. Anyway, these almonds are super tasty and easy to make. Will probably do again.

Meringue No. 2 for this week: meringue kisses. I've also made a variation of these before, a peppermint sandwich version for Christmastime. I really like how cute the little cookies are, and I pipe them, which I like doing too. These are all three different flavors: the orange ones are orange creme, the green are lime and the pink are tutti fruiti. The basking recipe is from Joy of Cooking. To be honest, the only decent ones were the orange creme, which I want to make again. The other two tasted like cough syrup. Lesson learned: stick with sweeter flavors and less citrus with meringues.

Most of my friends know they all get a free pass — for your birthday I will bake you whatever you please (so if you didn't know this, here's your warning!). Last weekend was my friend Brianne's birthday. Back when my friends and I had the time (and the same days off) to do dinner parties, she requested a tiramisu cake. So it was only fitting that for her birthday I make her these tiramisu cupcakes. I've also made these before, but I remember them being significantly more difficult. Guess I wasn't as experienced then. Even Joe, who's anti-coffee flavor, ate at least part of one. Paired with some sake bombs, these were a fun birthday treat! (P.S. - Posting them on Hoosier Homemade's Cupcake Tuesday!)

Spring has sprung! Raspberry crumble bars, spring bridal shower cupcakes and fortune cookies

2011-05-24T08:07:00.002-05:00

It's been a year since I graduated college. It seems like so long ago Liz, Taylor and I were hanging out at his house with our families, celebrating four years, much of that time on the Kansan together. All parts of my family came together, a fairly rare occasion. Mostly, though, I was ready to be out of school. I do miss my college friends who have moved away, and the way the Kansan never failed to provide a few friends willing to go out to Louise's on a Thursday night for schooners. But that leaves room for wonderful reunions, whether they be in New York City with Mary, at the Sandbar with Erin and Jodi or during a baby shower at my house. I can't say I miss college, though. I might miss the occasional LNOP shenanigans, but the friends I made in college are still here, with none of the homework! I enjoy getting to go home and watch TV, bake, go to the gym, read or just be plain ol' lazy. So happy graduation, all, and enjoy the free time when you don't have to read a textbook by Judith Butler (circa my final poly sci class, Contemporary Feminist Political Theory).

The fortunes in these cookies come from people who could perhaps use a little extra schooling. I'm sure everyone has heard of Shit My Students Write, but just in case you haven't, go check it out. I've wanted to try fortune cookies for a while, but they're a bit intimidating. After all, you are taking a cookie right out of the oven and forming it with your bare hands. But they turned out tasty after a little trial-and-error. And they were nice reminders of what not to write in a high school term paper.

Between jobs, I had some time off to do nothing...which is pretty much what I did. I spent some time with Grandma, and then came back and baked with Aunt Betty. I'm excited that fruit is starting to come into season, especially berries. These raspberry crumble bars were a yummy way to taste summer. Pretty sure I could have just eaten the streusel by itself as dessert.

And in a final springy-summery dessert, I made these cupcakes for a bridal shower. I was to make vanilla cupcakes and key lime pie cupcakes, and the theme was spring, so these fit perfectly. I love how the wrappers look like petals, and I used a fondant cutter to make the flowers for the top. It was my first time with that thing, so I had to practice a bit, but I think they turned out well. I'd forgotten how much I love those key lime pie cupcakes...will have to make those again when it starts getting really hot! (Adding these to Hoosier Homemade's Cupcake Tuesday!)

Farewell to the LJ baking: Cake pops, brownie cups and birthday cupcakes

2011-05-16T09:02:00.001-05:00

Today marks my first Monday not as a Journal-World employee. It's quite strange, particularly because I'm hanging out with family on a night when I should be trying to fall asleep before work. I'm on to my next job, but have been sad to leave the people at my last one. I had a wonderful going away party last Friday, but I know it won't be the end of seeing them all. Excitement on the other side of this, though, is that I've found myself an apartment in Kansas City, which makes this new job (that starts Thursday!) all the more real. It's only a few minutes from my office, it's a one-bedroom and it's in a renovated warehouse/factory sort of building...way cool! Now I need to work on updating all my college-crappy stuff to slightly less crappy stuff. Wish me luck!

So last week I wrote about the first of my work going-away treats, my soda cupcake trio. My next treat was these chocolate cake pops. I've never done chocolate before, and as expected, they were rich and wonderful. They're my good friend Nick's favorite dessert, so I saved him all my rejects as my farewell from work. His going away present to me? A 1937 Tonganoxie community cookbook he got at the swap meet. I was a little terrified when he said he got me something at the swap meet, which could have meant a carburetor or some trashy t-shirt, but luckily he didn't do that. My favorite terrible old recipe in it: laxative fig and date bon bons. Ew. But there are plenty of good recipes in it too!

For Friday's going-away sweet, I went with my friend Whitney's request: peanut butter brownie cups. These made an appearance on her Friday blog, along with a farewell message to me (it was so sweet!). I had two bake sales to bake for: our Relay for Life team one and the Blogger's Bake Sale. These are super simple desserts (they're actually easier to make without a KitchenAid mixer!) and they are soooo good. And rich. Beware of that little detail.

And last, but not least, on Friday I also made some special cupcakes for my coworker Mark Fagan. Fagan has two children who have become a couple of my absolutely favorite dessert consumers. He always brings back reviews of what I've made, sometimes accompanied with photos or video. One time I even got a card! Well, Saturday was his daughter's birthday, and she wanted me to make cupcakes. The parameters: vanilla cupcakes, the creamsicle cupcake icing (marshmallow-flavored), favorite colors of green and purple, and a love of peace signs. I found these perfect peace sign barretts, then just went with a multi-colored frosting. My 9-year-old self was pleased. And from what I hear, she liked them too! (P.S. - Posting these to Hoosier Homemade's Cupcake Tuesday!)

Soda cupcake trio and some very big news!

2011-05-09T09:22:00.005-05:00

I know it's been a little bit of radio silence over here this week, but I promise, I have a darn good reason. I've had a busy couple of weeks...covered a Royal Wedding watch party, went to Salina with our photographer, Richard, to cover a Lawrence student going to military school — actually, that one has turned out to be my favorite story I've written at the LJ. But actually, the biggest news has to deal with the LJ: this Friday is my last day there. I've accepted a position at the Kansas City Business Journal, where I will be a reporter and copy editor, dealing with the web primarily. I'm pretty excited, but it's also my first move between jobs. So hopefully it goes well!

Part of my farewell this week will be a fair amount of baking. I'm actually really sad about about leaving my coworkers; they're great people. I think that's the hardest part of leaving, actually. It'd probably be easier if I hated them, but I don't. So because this is my last week working with them, I want to treat them to some Brenna sweets before I go. For today's cupcakes, I went with a soda theme. Option 1: cherry Coke cupcakes. They have a cola-flavored cake with four maraschino cherries baked in, then a cream cheese cola icing. I don't even really like straight cola flavor, but I liked these.

Option 2: Creamsicle cupcakes. Okay, so that's an ice cream treat sort of, but I've had an orange creme soda before too. I used this orange cake recipe, then sort of made my own frosting up. It's my basic vanilla frosting with marshmallow fluff mixed in. On top I made a candy melt topper that tastes like orange.

My last option is root beer cupcakes, which I've made once before. They're made with root beer extract, which is the weirdest thing. I actually found it at Walmart, of all places. I made my basic vanilla frosting and added some of that.

So, starting late next week, I have a new staff to bake for. I'm excited but nervous as well. Guess we'll see how it goes! P.S.: posted these over at Hoosier Homemade's Cupcake Tuesday!

Lake baking: Scones, chocolate cream pie and rhubarb upside down cake

2011-04-28T08:12:00.000-05:00

My first baking sign of spring: rhubarb! Other great things about this season include all the good stories I've got coming up, the National Food Bloggers Bake Sale (May 14, mark your calendars!), a few weddings, some shows at Starlight... I'm not sure there's anything not great about spring/summer. Except maybe allergies. Oh, yeah, and another great thing: the lake.

As you can see, Daisy enjoys a good jaunt on the boat at high speed. Despite some chilly weather, I went to the lake last weekend to spend time with dad, Cathie and grandma. I read a book, went out on the boat, watched some movies, fed my family desserts. Not sure it gets much better than that!

For breakfast, scones. I got this recipe from the public information officer for our local sheriff's, actually. It comes up fairly regularly that I like to bake a lot, and he gave me what he said was a foolproof recipe for scones. Turns out, it is perfect. I sometimes don't like scones, because they can be so heavy with all that butter, but these were made with cream and so much better. He also recommended cinnamon chips, which I'd never used before. One field trip to Checkers took care of that. These were great and easy. Definitely making again.

So, from reading this blog, you've probably gathered I love (most) Martha Stewart recipes. When her new pie cookbook was released, I bought it immediately. Chocolate cream pie was the first recipe in the book, and it looked like a darn good place to start. Lemme tell you, even as someone who's not a huge fan of chocolate, this was divine. I can't wait to make more recipes in there!

And last, but not least, rhubarb upside down cake. You know, that cake I set on fire last year? It was almost exactly a year ago! Well, no fire this time. The rhubarb was very red, so it made a beautiful cake. The cake itself has a hint of orange, and then there's a crumble base. I think rhubarb is kind of nature's sweet tart, and it makes awesome desserts. I've got some left over, so I might make strawberry-rhubarb ice cream, or something. All in all, I'd say my family was fed pretty well this weekend!

Daring Bakers' challenge: Maple mousse in an edible container

2011-04-27T00:37:00.000-05:00

The April 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blogCheap Ethnic Eatz. Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple mousse in an edible container. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 27th to May 27th at http://thedaringkitchen.com!

Anyone who knows me well, especially who's around me during the fall season, knows my love of all things maple. I blame my stepmom Cathie, who is Canadian and introduced me to the wonderfulness of maple candy. So, I was excited when I saw this challenge. I have to admit, it was a little bit strange, this mousse. It has gelatin in it, and I think Aunt Betty and I weren't paying enough attention to it, and it got weirdly chunky at times. We had to whisk frantically for a bit, then it was fine.

The edible container was made of walnuts, you know, for the maple-walnut flavor combo. Definitely interesting to take a bite of it. I think the mousse was definitely cute when it's piped inside. All in all, I want to try mousse again, and concentrate on it more.

Back to elementary school: Dirt 'n' worms cupcakes, plus vanilla bean pound cake and purple velvet cupcakes

2011-04-22T08:45:00.001-05:00

I'm sure I've talked before about how I love old movies. So many of them are wonderful stories without having to blow shit up, like so many new movies do. I especially love watching them with my Grandma, for which they're just normal and not old. Last weekend, I watched "It's a Wonderful Life" for the first time. Yes, I know it's past Christmas. And no, I don't care. I think that movie sealed the deal for me too — Jimmy Stewart could very well be my favorite actor. He's so down-home and lovable in every movie, whether he's talking to a 6-foot-tall imaginary rabbit or a reporter. Seriously, if you've never seen a movie with him in it, go get one. Now. I recommend "The Philadelphia Story" or "Harvey."

I'd been itching to make this vanilla bean pound cake for weeks, and had never gotten around to it. When I visited Grandma, I decided to make it there. It's always a little interesting finding what I need there, because she doesn't really cook any more. It never fails, though, that when she sits out in the kitchen with me, she brings up her mom's mile-high angel food cake. Mmmm. This pound cake was pretty good, especially the glaze with amaretto in it.

Remember being in elementary school and for special parties you'd get dirt 'n' worms? I wanted to make that into a cupcake. The anatomy of one of these is as follows: Oreo on the bottom + my favorite chocolate cupcake + instant chocolate pudding for filling + fudge frosting + Oreo crumbles (via food processor) + a couple gummy worms = dirt 'n' worms cupcakes. They definitely weren't lacking in chocolate, but they were incredibly messy to eat. Guess that's the point of being a kid, eh?

My web editor at work, Whitney, is putting together a bridal shower for her brother's fiance. She asked me to make cupcakes, and that's what I did! The bride's colors are black and purple (I will try to not think about what state school those go with). I got my favorite baking cups from Bake It Pretty and made purple velvet cupcakes. Pretty snazzy!

A cookie sort of week: Monster cookie cupcakes, thumbprint cookies and chocolate malt cookie sandwiches

2011-04-14T08:28:00.001-05:00

I'm jonesing for lake weather. To be able to go to camp, relax, read a book and go lounge on the boat. I think calling it "camp" is a Canadian thing, or something. It's definitely a small house on a small lake, but that's what Cathie called her old place up north, so I picked it up. I want to watch movies and hang out with the super friendly neighbors. My dad wants me to go tubing, but I think he'd specifically try to knock me off. Anyway, I can't wait for it to be time to go down there. I used to HATE going to the lake. But that was just going, with no boat to go out on it. And I've really started to appreciate the downtime it provides. Now if only it were May!

I didn't want to throw away the lemon and lime curd I had left over from last week's cake, so I decided to make thumbprint cookies. The first recipe I made was weirdly crumbly, and wouldn't even form balls to be formed into cookies. So I went to the old reliable, Martha. I used this recipe, with no hazelnuts. The cookies were the perfect complements to the super tart fillings.

Next, I was in the mood for cookies. Well, actually, I guess I was in the mood for cookies all week. This was a chocolate malt sandwich cookie from, you guessed it, Martha. Kelly chose them, and they were definitely tasty. SO RICH though. She took them to the Kansan, and I guess they were approved, because she said they were gone pretty quickly.

And, even though you can't tell immediately, this is totally a cookie. In cupcake form. I used to work at this coffe shop/bakery called Capers. Yes, I was a barista, and no, I don't like coffee. At all. But Capers did introduce me to the best cookie ever — the monster cookie. It's a peanut butter oatmeal cookie with chocolate chips and M&Ms. This Paula Deen recipe is the one I use when I make the cookies, minus the raisins (YUCK). So I felt like making them into a cupcake. These were peanut butter cupcakes (Martha again!) with chocolate chips and oats mixed in at the end. On top, at Kelly's suggestion, plain ol' vanilla swiss meringue buttercream, so not to conflict with the other flavors. And the crowning achievement: M&Ms. These are one of my more favorite cupcakes I've made lately. They will return! (Also, I posted these over at Hoosier Homemade's Cupcake Tuesday!)

Fruit + citrus: Lemon and lime curd cake, pineapple cookies and strawberry shortcake cookies

2011-04-07T08:51:00.002-05:00

So on Sunday, my useless ability to remember ridiculous lyrics came in handy, if only for a second or two. I played trivia for the first time in a while. I'm fully aware my use is fairly limited to Disney trivia, and I occasionally come through on some random other things. For one category on Sunday, the host asked who was on the sideline during Don McLean's "American Pie." Anyone? Anyone? Well, despite being unable to memorize geography for my Politics of Africa class or memorize works of art for art history in college, I can remember song lyrics like nobody's business.

Actually, in fourth grade, we learned our 6, 7, 8 and 9 multiplication tables to songs, and I still sing them in my head when I'm thinking about it. Grandma is always astounded when I know words to songs, ranging from Katy Perry to songs from "Singin' in the Rain." I'm glad this talent is so useful...but on Sunday, it gave me the Jester. We didn't win, but whatever. At least I got that question!

I guess the theme of this post is fruit. Because everything I made had some sort of fruit in it (and the cookies I have in the oven now are the same). I must be pining for spring and summer foods. Anyway, I used to hate pineapple, but it's grown on me as I've gotten older. I made pineapple cookies ones during Christmas, and then recently I ran across this recipe. As I'm sure you've all figured out, I'm a sucker for all things nostalgic, and the recipe obviously was for the author of the blog. So I made them at Aunt Betty's, and they were amazing. Pineapple makes a cookie so moist and awesome! Especially with a glaze.

My dad's a big fan of strawberry shortcake, so when I saw a recipe for strawberry shortcake cookies, I had to make them too. While they were tasty, they fell apart easily. I think we should have baked them longer (which would have meant following the recipe). But they were gone quick at the newsroom, so I suppose people liked them! I need to make real strawberry shortcake sometime soon.

My last fruit attempt was the cake at the top, which sliced into this. Recently, a local bakery that is closing had a sale, and I made away like a bandit with some great stuff, including a rotating cake decorating stand. I naturally wanted to make a cake, and I wanted some citrus in it, so Aunt Betty and I made my favorite three-layer white cake. Then Aunt Betty actually found a recipe for microwavable curd, which was waaaay easy. We made that lemon one, then adapted it to lime. I have to admit, the cake slid around a bit when we put it together, hence the curd coming out the middle in the picture at top. But it turned out pretty I think! I'm also fairly certain I don't have the patience to decorate cakes often. But I'm more than happy to make curd regularly. Bring on summer!

Pride and Prejudice and sweets: Cannolis, butterscotch cupcakes and lime pie

2011-03-30T09:38:00.004-05:00

My senior year of high school, I had to do a book report on a book on the AP list. I chose "Pride and Prejudice" because I'd always heard so much about it. I still have the copy I read; it looks like it's sprouted sticky notes. I marked all these different themes in it for my paper, but I remember I also had to read it with a dictionary in the other hand. I'd never seen the word condescend used as a verb, among many other older words. The other day, I found out my new phone has a Kindle on it, and decided to read the book again. I'd forgotten how wonderful the story is! Elizabeth kicks ass, Miss Bingley is truly despicable, Mr. Darcy grows on you, Mr. Wickham's favor recedes. It bears mentioning that "Pride and Prejudice" is one of my top 3 movies, too, and it's funny that I pick up when quotes were moved to different characters. But the feeling of the story stayed the same. But I'm proud of myself; this time I don't need a dictionary! I'd forgotten why I loved the story, but I'm happy to say it's a top 3 book as well. Very satisfying.

One of my baking goals was a cannoli. After having one with my mom in NYC, and having her say she'd never seen one before (totally not true, as proven by her friend Merilee), Aunt Betty and I decided to make them soon after I got back. For these, we used a cinnamon cannoli shell recipe that we made in my pizzelle maker. It was kind of assembly-line style, with me cooking the shells and Aunt Betty holding them in the circular shape. Inside we did a ricotta-sugar mixture, with chocolate chips and pecans. They were excellent. Also, this completed one of my baking goals for this year. Woo hoo!

Another NYC-inspired dessert, one of the best sweets I had up there was a butterscotch cupcake from Crumbs. The cake was vanilla but the icing itself was flavored with butterscotch. That can be a pretty overpowering flavor, but just in the icing was perfect. For this one I used my favorite yellow cake recipe with the butterscotch icing from this cupcake recipe. It meant making butterscotch from scratch, like browned butter plus brown sugar and cream and all that. I think I might have a new frosting! (P.S. - submitted this over at Hoosier Homemade's Cupcake Tuesday!)

Then a few days ago Aunt Betty sent me a recipe for this lime pie. It was a little different, because the crust had toasted pecans in it. The filling was super easy: lime juice, lime zest, cream cheese and sugar. Lemme tell you though, I found all my hangnails squeezing those limes. Ouch! It took a while for this to set, but it was a great citrus-y pie. Even though it's cold and rainy outside, I refuse to think it's almost spring!

Daring Bakers' challenge: Yeasted meringue coffee cake

2011-03-27T08:04:00.004-05:00

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

I must admit, I'm not much of a coffee cake person. Actually, I'm not much of a sweets-in-the-morning person. Surprising, I know, given my affinity for sweets at all other times of the day, but morning is just too damn early for something sweet. That's why Aunt Betty and I made this in the afternoon.

After making this, you know, I might just eat it in the morning some day. What made it so awesome? The meringue inside. This is made by rolling out the dough into a rectangle and then spreading a meringue filling, topping it with chocolate and pecans (or walnuts) and rolling it up like a jelly roll. Then into a ring, some slits and another rise. Look it that gooey filling in there. Yum.

My one problem was rolling it up into the ring and having filling squeeze out, but ultimately it ended up good. And really, how nice does it need to look when it tasted so good?!

Hopeful for spring: lemon whipping cream pound cake, homemade Tagalongs and my belated St. Patrick's Day cupcakes

2011-03-24T08:54:00.009-05:00

Sometimes, I can be ornery. I blame my dad, but mostly my grandparents for that. A few weeks ago, my dad and Cathie were in Washington, D.C. One of their many stops was to Arlington, where they found the grave of my grandpa's friend Shorty. That's Grandpa, in the middle of that picture. He was ridiculously ornery, but I think his friends were worse. Apparently one time, Shorty sent my grandpa a telegram that said "Help." This was during the war when Shorty was back in LA and my grandpa in Utah on a base. So what did my grandpa do? Loaded up one of their B-24s (think big fat bomber) and picked him up in Los Angeles. Didn't even shut down the airplane, he just ran to it while it was running and entered through the bomb bay. I can't even imagine what merited that sort of pickup, but I suppose I'll never know! I love hearing stories like that about my family. Not only does it show that my grandpa had a sense of humor, but he was fiercely loyal. I can admire that.

It's been a while since I've written a regular blog post. So I have a backup of stuff I've made. First, late I know, is my St. Patrick's Day cupcakes. I made green velvet cupcakes (simply edited with green food coloring) with a cream cheese icing. These were my first hi-hat cupcakes, even though I posted the baby shower ones first. The icing has to be chilly, and you dip them in candy melt. These were awesome. Best of all, they got glowing reviews from a coworker's son. He said they broke a record — the record for best cupcake ever. Previously held by the Thin Mint cupcakes. Adorable.

In anticipation of spring, I decided to make this lemon whipping cream pound cake at Aunt Betty's last week. When we were reading through the recipe, we realized there was no leavening. Now, I know a pound cake is generally heavy. But so heavy it doesn't rise at all? So we looked at comparable recipes and they said we needed baking powder. Well, we added some, and part of the cake fell anyway. Who the heck knows what happened. But, the nice thing about bundts is that they're baked upside-down. No mistakes to be seen here! With a nice, tart lemon glaze on top, this was a perfect hint of spring.

And everyone knows how awesome Girl Scout cookie season is. So I knew I had to make these homemade tagalongs when I saw them. They're a little difficult, in the sense that even when you get the cookie in the middle made, dipping them with peanut butter into the chocolate is hard. Peanut butter is sticky, in case everyone didn't know that :) And to be really tagalong-like, they need to be refrigerated so the chocolate doesn't stick to the parchment paper when they're done. What made these cookies extra special though? I got to give them to my cousin Jon on his birthday, which also happened to be the day he proposed to his wonderful girlfriend, Katie. Can't wait for her to be a part of the family! She's gonna fit right in.

It's a boy! Baby shower cupcakes

2011-03-21T08:41:00.001-05:00

One of my best friends Sarah is having a baby. She's my first close friend who's gotten married, gotten pregnant and is really starting a family. Sarah and I were close friends throughout college, when she was dating my friend Matt, who was on the newspaper with me.

This is my Kansan group. Well, really only one of them. There are different generations of the newspaper I'm close with, but I was really happy to get to see them Sunday. They're the kinds of friends I know I'll have forever, no matter how long we go without seeing each other.

Because Sarah (and baby David!) was the guest of honor, she chose the flavors for the night. Yellow cake with chocolate icing with a candy coating in baby boy colors — blue and green. That's Sarah enjoying one of them...love it! We all had a great time together, and it was a successful shower.

Even the part where Justin digs through a diaper to discover what kind of candy that is. Also, I've uploaded these cupcakes to Hoosier Homemade's Cupcake Tuesday. Just an FYI :)

100 cupcakes later...

2011-03-15T08:43:00.000-05:00

So this is what 100 cupcakes looks like. Well, 102, but who's counting? These are shark attack cupcakes, which I made for KZoo's shark week on campus.

I'd made shark attack cupcakes once before, when Erin and Jodi came to town. What is a shark attack, you ask? It's a berry-lemonadey drink from the Sandbar, which includes some grenadine in a plastic shark to mimic blood in a shark attack.

So these cupcakes are a lemon cake that is then brushed with a wildberry drink mixer (nonalcoholic of course!) topped with a grenadine swiss meringue buttercream.

I've never made this many cupcakes at once before, and lemme tell ya, it was hard to rotate them through my kitchen. Thank goodness Kelly was there to help! They used a LOT of egg whites, which left all these yolks. I'm thinking some sort of custard to use them up. I also felt like I had a thin layer of sugar all over me when I finished.

So here are the cupcakes, being sold on campus (thanks Debbie for the picture!). Debbie, from the Sandbar, wrote about the cupcakes on the Sandbar's blog too. I was so happy to do these!

Happy Selection Sunday

2011-03-13T01:21:00.001-06:00

I'm hoping for another 2008. How awesome would that be? Love me some Jayhawk basketball.

Five stores, three bags of candy melts, eight bags of eyes and a fair number of hours today were spent on these cake pops.

Figured they were perfect for March Madness. Plus, we're Big 12 tournament and conference champs. What better reason to celebrate?

I based this idea off of Bakerella's Big Bird cake pops. Dip a pop in red candy melts, then cover candy corn (with the ends cut off to make them shorter) in yellow melt. Attach the eyes and beaks with candy melt, and draw on the eyebrows with melt. Draw on nostrils and a smile with an edible marker. A blue bow and there you have it! Beak'em Hawks!

Als0, this was a baking goal of mine the last two times I set them. Finally succeeded! And probably not again for a very long time.

A New York minute

2011-03-07T22:18:00.000-06:00

Last week, I spent a few days in NYC with my mom. That is, after I got past my almost 5-hour delay on Frontier that was caused by weather but then airline error. Whatever. I got a voucher, so that's nice.

We had a couple days there, days we spent walking/cabbing all over the city seeing cool stuff. A lot of it was food-related, but a lot wasn't. Like this awesome Barbie foosball table at FAO Schwarz. Price tag? $25K. Supposedly because there were only 10 name. I think some scissors and glue could do relatively the same thing.

We just stumbled on a Crumbs Cupcakes on our way to Fifth Avenue. There were SO many choices, like cookie dough, Irish cream and the whopping blackbottom cheesecake brownie, complete with 1090 calories. Yikes! I got that butterscotch one right at the front, which was a vanilla cake with butterscotch frosting and chips. Definitely tasty, and not overwhelming.

I ate it in Bryant Park, where Fashion Week used to be. It had beautiful trees, a great juxtaposition to the skyscrapers behind it.

We spent a fair amount of time on Fifth Avenue, and like I said, spent some time in FAO Schwarz. If I were a child, I would be in heaven. Three floors of toys, ranging from Sesame Street stuffed animals dressed in New York outfits (I may or may not have gotten Cookie Monster dressed in an NYPD uniform) to Harry Potter toys to the giant piano from "Big." On my way out, I saw this wall of Muppets near a station where you can make your own Muppet. If only I had $100 to just waste on this sort of thing. It made me think of my friend Spencer, though, who does puppetry as a profession. So neat. I think I might go watch Muppet Treasure Island now...

We eventually made our way to Dylan's Candy Bar, which has the coolest stairs ever. It's kind of like a little slice of heaven. Every candy imaginable is in this store...I could spend a long time there.

Then we headed down to Serendipity 3 on Lauren's recommendation. The place was very hole-in-the-wall, with lots of Tiffany-style lamps hanging up. The place is famous for its frozen hot chocolate, but we went for the sundae, New York-style, instead: the Forbidden Broadway Sundae. Chocolate blackout cake, vanilla ice cream and yummy hot fudge. No, we did not finish it. Later that day we met Mary down in Soho for dinner and Asher for drinks. Great time seeing both.

We visited Jackie O the next day at the Met. I love me some Warhol.

Then we headed down to Little Italy per on my boss's suggestion. Dennis said to go to this place, Positano, in the heart of Little Italy. It was legitimately the best pasta I'd ever had. Vodka penne? Awesome. Finished the whole plate, and I NEVER do that when I eat.

Then on down the street, after a quick shop at a street vendor, to La Bella Ferrara, another place Dennis said to go. He said the cannoli was the best he'd ever tasted, but the whole spread was pretty darn impressive.

But I followed Dennis's suggestion and got the cannoli (which, I'd like to point out, is a dessert my mother had never heard of. Really). It was also amazing. Perfectly fried outer part, great pastry cream inside. Mmmmm.

Then we walked a few blocks north to Papabubble, a place I saw on Food Network's "Kid in a Candy Store." It was so worth the walk. Look at all those different kinds of candies!

They were making candy when we were there. They combine the different stripes into one big log, which they keep on the reddish table, which is warmed to keep the candy malleable. They were putting it through that machine to cut it, which if I remember correctly is the only machine they use for candy.

This is what they ended up with: strawberry-flavored candy. I got a container of various flavors, and it's already gone. Now if only they had one of these in Kansas.

While we were walking in Little Italy, we saw some observant kitties. Had to take a photo, of course.

We also made the trek to Mood Fabrics, which is a place "Project Runway" devotees know well. It's where designers on the show shop, and it was three floors of fabric goodness. Definitely amazing.

Last on the list was Broadway, and we went to see "Wicked." I'd seen it before in Chicago, but nothing beats Broadway, and this show held true to form. This is the stage before the show, which is easily one of the best I've ever seen. No one makes mistakes on Broadway.

All in all, it was a pretty fun trip. We covered a lot of ground in a couple days, and ended up with very sore feet at the end!

Week away

2011-03-03T15:18:00.006-06:00

Sorry I've been gone this week, but I've been in a wonderful place, seeing things like this:

And this:

And this:

And don't worry, plenty of treats too. I will be back next week with more pictures of my trip.

Funk cupcakes, double chocolate cupcakes, buckeyes and a baking fail

2011-02-23T08:33:00.003-06:00

Saturday was a day of basketball for me. The best kind — college basketball, in person. My friend Erin was in town from Colorado, and we went to the KU-Colorado game with some other friends. It was fun, as men's games always are. I always get chills when I see that pregame video, with the likes of Danny Manning, Wilt, Mario's shot. It's awesome. But the second game we went to was the women's basketball game, and I'd never been to one before. We sat with Malcolm, our Kansan news adviser. It was really fun, and we were only a couple rows up. One player scored 31 points. 31! And we were playing Mizzou. No matter what sport it is, I will always be happy when we beat Mizzou. Pretty sure I was raised to hate the Tigers, and I actually have to check myself from hating them too much. Whatever, it's a college rivalry. And I love it!

Well, it's kind of the opposite of that hatred, but for Valentine's Day, I made some really chocolate-y cupcakes. I'm not a chocolate person, really, but someone at work asked me to make cupcakes for his wife for the holiday and include lots of chocolate. So I made these. Nothing out of the norm, really: they're my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe and that fudge frosting I used for my Kansas Day cake. Super yummy.

My other cupcakes of the week were inspired by my friend Christy at work. She said I should make funk cupcakes, and these were born. They're red velvet (for crushed velvet, get it?!) with a cream cheese frosting. The frosting was originally based off George Clinton's hair...and if you don't know who that is, please go listen to "Give Up the Funk" right now. A little multi-colored edible glitter and we're good to go! I posted these over at Hoosier Homemade's Cupcake Tuesday. (Edit: I was asked how I got the frosting that way. I painted a piping bag with stripes of gel food coloring and put the icing in, and voila! rainbow-striped frosting.)

Then on Sunday I did another baking day at Aunt Betty's. We did buckeyes again. They're darn tasty. I took them to a city-wide trivia contest I did with Jonathan, Trevan and Nick. A few people came by to sample them...so I didn't have a whole lot to share. These are one treat, though, that I don't mind keeping to myself.

Last, and least, might be the worst dessert we've made. These are madeleines, a traditional French cake shaped like a sea shell. We got the recipe from a Martha Stewart cookbook, and they're rosewater madeleines. They look darn pretty, but they used SO much rosewater (two tablespoons PLUS two teaspoons) that when you tasted them, it was like gulping perfume. Or eating a bar of soap. YUCK. They sure looked nice though!

Chicago cupcake crawl

2011-02-15T08:30:00.000-06:00

This weekend was my trip to Chicago with Kelly to visit Megan. It was a great time, and actually the weather wasn't that bad. Unfortunately, Kansas had prepared me for freezing temperatures, and even snow flurries wasn't going to stop us from going on Michigan Ave. Also, we did a cupcake crawl, visiting five different cupcake bakeries. Originally we planned for eight, but after a certain point, they're too darn far apart! Here is my trip in pictures.

First, we went to Sprinkles Bakery, which was made famous in California (and whose founder is a judge on Cupcake Wars!). We got a black and white, which was a chocolate cake with white frosting (left), a chai latte cupcake (back) and chocolate marshmallow, which is also the first picture up top. The cupcakes were excellent! The chai one was very fall-y. The marshmallow filling in the chocolate marshmallow was great too.

Next we visited More Cupcakes, which Megan gets to her office all the time. We got a "flight" of these mini cupcakes, which were all alcohol-based. From the bottom, they were margarita, pina colada, pomegranate mojito, lemon drop, gin and juice and white russian.

They were very creative and tasty, although you couldn't really taste the alcohol in them. I think the pomegranate mojito one was my favorite, because it had a little bit of pomegranate filling.

Kelly also got a chocolate hazelnut one here, with a hazelnut bark. I'm not a huge fan of chocolate, but it was pretty good, especially with its filling.

The next day we went to Swirlz Cupcakes. They had a very pretty spread, as you can see.

There we got vanilla with chocolate icing, red velvet and the surprise cupcake (top), which was a chocolate cupcake with a raspberry icing. Megan got the gluten-free version, which was surprisingly good. The icing on the vanilla cake was unbelievable. I liked my red velvet, but I like my cream cheese icing colder.

Next was Molly's Cupcakes, which wins the award for most interesting bakery we visited. Inside, there were swings for sitting at the counter. Yes, swings. The tables were awesomely bright colors, and the music was Taylor Swift and Ke$ha. Needless to say, we liked it.

The variety of flavors was amazing too. They had basic flavors, but we went for the interesting stuff. Starting at top left and going clockwise, we got the "Ron Bennington," chocolate peanut butter Butterfinger, which had completely ganache-based frosting and a peanut butter filling. Next was the cake batter cupcake, which had a cake batter filling as well (picture above). Then the "Cookie Monster," the cookie dough cupcake, with cookie dough filling. Then the peanut butter Nutella, with a light frosting and Nutella filling.

I think this bakery was my favorite of the trip. The atmosphere was so fun, and the choices in cupcakes were just crazy. And everything tasted wonderful.

Our last bakery was Sweet Mandy B's, Megan's favorite bakery close to her place in Lincoln Park. I went there last time I was in town, but they didn't have a whole lot of variety that time. This time, they had a crazy amount of sweets, going way beyond cupcakes.

They had chocolate-covered pretzels, cookies, all kinds of sweets and various cupcakes, obviously. Kelly got a snickerdoodle cupcake. I got the lemon and white with purple frosting. Megan got chocolate.

This was my favorite basic cupcake. The cake was moist, and the frosting was unbelievable. I can see why it's so popular.

We definitely ate our fair share of cupcakes, but with the amount of walking we did around the city, I think it was fair to eat that many :) Now here's the rest of the trip in pictures, starting with this one, which was our view when landing in Chi-town.

Kelly and I went to the Art Institute of Chicago. These were some of our favorite pieces, which played on words. The one on the right is named 4 1/2 oxen. So cool.

We visited Shedd Aquarium, one of my favorite places in the city. The hour+ wait, however, was not fun. Worth it though.

They have a pretty awesome variety of animals.

My favorites, of course, are the otters, which are hard to get a decent picture of because they're always moving!

And of course, we definitely hit up Michigan Avenue, a must for Chicago shopping. We went twice. All in all, this was a great trip with great friends. Definitely a nice break from life in a gorgeous city.

Snowstorm baking: Thin Mint cupcakes, chocolate chip cookies, jelly roll cake

2011-02-10T08:29:00.001-06:00

So on Tuesday, I made my TV debut. I went on Jayni's Kitchen, our local station's cooking show. Let me tell you, it's completely and totally weird to see yourself on TV. I hear myself talk, watch how much butter goes into frosting (I think it's better people don't know that sort of thing), see myself awkwardly bite into a cupcake I've just frosted. Weird. Even weirder is when it gets turned on in the newsroom and a bunch of my coworkers watch it. Eeek! All weirdness/embarrassment aside, it was pretty awesome. I got to be on TV and do something I really love. I got a call yesterday while at work from a source from a story I wrote who had just seen me on TV. Not a lot beats that for improving a day. I'm hoping to get a video of my segment to post here. We'll see.

I was in part of that massive snow storm that hit the midwest last week. What that meant was my little car was not getting out of the house for a few days. I actually had to have my boss drive me to work one day. You know what else that meant? I ran out of white sugar because I couldn't get to the grocery story. I had no idea that was even possible. But it was, and I wanted to bake. So I searched for a cookie recipe that used only brown sugar, and found this one. Seriously, I think I found a new favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. SO GOOD. They stayed soft and awesome and so wonderful. Who knew the snowstorm could bring good?

Another snowy dessert were these Thin Mint cupcakes. Who doesn't love Girl Scout cookie season? I saw this recipe on Langes Fadchen, Faules Madchen, a blog I follow, and knew immediately I wanted to make them. So I went to my fellow reporter Mark, whose daughter was my cookie hookup. A box of Thin Mints later, these cupcakes were born. I got two votes in the newsroom of best cupcakes yet, and I get why. Thin Mint on bottom, Thin Mint on top, minty frosting, Thin Mint truffle in the middle of a chocolate cupcake. Thin Minty-goodness all around.

Even better than the cupcake? The thank you card I got from Mark's kids for the cupcakes, diagram included. That, and the video of his son enjoying them. Seriously, cutest kid video ever.

I went home last weekend to see Grandma for the first time since she got out of the hospital. We watched Fantasia 2000, which has a scene with "Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin. She started talking about how she remembered that song when she was young. I looked it up, and the song was released in 1924...my Grandma predates it by four years. Then we watched Fantasia, and she talked about how that came out while she was in college (1940). We also watched Bringing Up Baby with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant and a leopard. I love going home to watch old movies with her. I also made a jelly roll cake while I was there, with a chocolate genoise cake from my Joy of Cooking and a Swiss meringue buttercream. Darn tasty, and the picture was taken on one of Cathie's tablescapes.

And a neat picture of Grandma. This was one of her favorite toys as a kid: Olive Oyl. You press the button on the bottom and she kind of collapses. It was one of my favorites at her house as a kid too. I like seeing the two together. Also, this weekend: cupcake crawl in Chicago!! Can't wait!

First baking goal achieved: souffle, plus farmyard cake pops, Kansas day cake and potato chip cookies

2011-02-02T00:12:00.000-06:00

When I was in school, my friends would often poke fun at me for how often I traveled (among many other things). Fall break, winter break, spring break, summer break. I wouldn't go somewhere every break, but pretty darn close. Chicago multiple times, Vegas a couple, NYC, Arizona, California (attempted but derailed by the airlines), Texas, Memphis, etc. I know it sounds super expensive to do all that, but to me, it's incredibly important to take time away from work and spend money on things I know will make me relaxed and that I will enjoy.

After not really traveling since last July (and that was a bit of a train wreck of a trip), I'm itching to get away. First up: Chicago. In a couple weeks I will be strolling down Michigan Avenue, probably in freezing cold weather and a bit (I hope only a bit!) of snow, but I can't wait. On the list of things to do: a cupcake crawl. Kelly is going up there with me and we're hanging out with Megan the whole time. My mom is coming down to meet us for a day too. I'm so excited to get back up to one of my favorite cities!

So last Monday I was off because I switched a shift (and taped Jayni's Kitchen — it's on next Tuesday, Feb. 8 at 6:30 p.m.!), so I went to Aunt Betty's to bake. On the list was one of my baking goals, souffle. It was out of Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," only the second recipe I've made from there (after the chocolate almond cake that was so darn good). We made plain ol' vanilla, but it was darn good. It rose like it was supposed to and was an excellent dessert.

I was also jonesing to make some cake pops. I've made plenty of plain ol' round ones, but I was ready to branch out and start decorating them. I went with the barnyard animals of cows and pigs. The cows looked a little goofy I think, but the pigs were really cute. I just thought this picture was funny.

I wrote about this the other day, but a quick update: for Kansas Day I made a cake and a how-to video. Yellow cake with fudge icing and chocolate sunflower seeds. I will most definitely be using that icing recipe again...so good!

And last, another recipe I made for work for a story Sarah was writing. These are potato chip cookies, and they're just as weird as they sound. They're an interesting mix of salty and sweet and don't really spread, but they seemed to be a big hit in the newsroom.

Photo credits: cake photo taken by Richard Gwin, cookie photo taken by Mike Yoder

2011 baking goals

2011-01-31T08:34:00.000-06:00

Last week I wrote about the baking goals I set for myself in August. I didn't do too shabby; I completed seven of eight. Now it's time for my new baking goals for this year. I'm thinking I give myself until the end of May or so to do these. It's a very loose timeline.

1. Beignets — I won't lie, seeing these little New Orleans pastries in last year's Disney movie "The Princess and the Frog" really made me want to make them. Good thing I haven't gotten it into my head yet that I should make the whole dessert spread from the "Be Our Guest" scene from "Beauty and the Beast" (that's what I'm watching right now...seemed like a good comparison). Another inspiration for these? My friend Jonathan made them with one of his friends. I'd like to try my hand at them.

2. Souffle — Another thing I saw in a favorite movie, although this one goes much farther back than a 2009 release date. One of my favorite movies of all time is "Sabrina" with Audrey Hepburn. In that movie, there is a scene where her souffle goes terribly, but it's because she forgot to turn on the oven. Often, the biggest problem I hear with this dessert is that it doesn't rise appropriately. I'm hoping that's not a problem for me. Completed in February...click here.

3. Crepes — I had this tasty French dessert on a couple trips in the last year or so, most recent in Las Vegas and before that New York City. Both of those times I had sweet crepes, and now I'd like to try making them myself. I think the toughest part will be making the paper-thin crepe and getting it off the pan without breaking it!

4. Homemade pudding — I've made a number of custards and pudding-like things, but never plain ol' pudding. I appreciate the simplicity of instant pudding, but I want to try it the old way.

5. Cannolis — I really dislike frying things. Oil spitting freaks me out and I hate getting burnt by it, despite the fact that I got burned multiple times while working in food service. So cannoli shells are going to be an interesting feat for me. I'd like to try some traditional ones with a pastry cream and chocolate chips, but also some more interesting fillings. Suggestions are welcome! Completed in March...click here.

6. Truffles — I've made a few versions of truffles before, of the cookie dough and Oreo variety. But here I'm talking the more difficult stuff, tempering chocolate and the like. It involves a lot of temperature changes and very specific directions. But they just look too good not to try. Completed in August...click here.

7. Petit fours — These are yet another French dessert, little mini sweets for the end of a meal. I first saw them in a Martha Stewart cookbook my mom got me for graduation. There are a number of varieties, but they're often decorated and iced. It seems tedious work, but I will just have to hold my own interest I guess.

8. Jayhawk cake pops redux — This is the goal I did not achieve last time. So here's hoping I do it this time. I'm thinking March Madness... Completed in March...click here.

Happy Kansas Day!

2011-01-29T10:00:00.005-06:00

While working on a story about Kansas Day events the other day, I noticed on the Kansas sesquicentennial website that it was challenging Kansans to bake a cake for Kansas Day. So, I did. Of course. I made this how-to video to go with it and did a write-up for the LJWorld. The method and recipes are there, but basically this is a yellow cake with fudge frosting and a sunflower on top. It turned out great, and after a day of video editing, I made this. So, happy Kansas Day!

Daring Bakers' challenge: Biscuit Joconde Imprime around an Entremet

2011-01-27T00:58:00.005-06:00

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.

When I first heard of this challenge, I was pretty intimidated. I had never heard of such a thing. Turns out it's a pretty fun dessert that's incredibly customizable. The biscuit jaconde imprime was a flat almond cake that you poured the batter of over some designs made of pastry cream. That cake became the outer rim to hold a filling, or the entremets.

Aunt Betty and I had a few problems, mainly in that the pastry cream we made hardly turned out. We had to thicken it a LOT, which meant the cake baked a little funny and the pattern became less crisp. I decided to ignore the fact that there was lots of snow outside and make this a nice summery key lime entremets filling. So we had the almond cake around the edge, then made a nice graham crust for the bottom. Then a layer of key lime filling, a layer of more graham cracker crumbs, then more key lime. Our last problem was I was too impatient to wait for it to set completely. But it was so darn tasty I just wanted to try it!

I want to make this again when I'm more patient and work out the pastry cream recipe better. It's definitely provides limitless options for customization, and I think would make a pretty snazzy birthday sweet for a friend!

2010 baking goals recap

2011-01-24T00:11:00.000-06:00

So back in August, I gave myself some goals. I'm one of those kinds of people who really struggles without a constant in my life. For the last 17 years, I'd had school there to pace my life, with homework to come home to and breaks to plan vacations for. I knew that when I left school, I would get really bored really quickly without some goals. I wrote this post to give myself eight baking goals to complete before the end of the year. Granted, I'm a little late writing about it, but here, in pictures, are my seven of eight goals. I failed on one...whatever.

1. Macarons. I actually made these a couple times, once with Aunt Betty and once at Mom's in Michigan. I got reallllly tired of egg whites by the end of this goal. Maybe this year I will experiment more with flavors, but for now, I'm happy not beating egg whites.

2. Jayhawk cake pops. This is the goal I failed on. I only recently perfected just plain old cake pops, so shapes are coming soon.

3. Fondant-covered cake. Okay, so it's only a fondant bow, but it was still covered on top with the fondant bow. This cake was for Grandma's 90th birthday party, and she loved it. I will try more fondant work later, but this bow dyed my fingers pink for about a week, so I will go for a different color next time.

4. Maple leaf candies. While these aren't leaf-shaped, this maple fudge ended up tasting exactly like those leaf candies I love...like pure maple-y sugar.

5. Marshmallows. I've made these a couple times now. This first time was just for fun, and the second to give as gifts with Grandma's famous hot chocolate mix. Perhaps I should try some flavored ones soon.

6. Buche de noel. This tasty French tradition is something Aunt Betty and I tackled, and it was so worth it. It's my first jelly roll-style cake, and I know I will be making plenty more. Giant Swiss roll, anyone?

7. Doughnuts. I've actually made three styles now: apple cider, chocolate glazed and maple glazed. What I've learned? Oil is very temperamental.

8. Frosted sugar cookies. I gave this to myself as only a partial goal, but then it became a Daring Bakers' challenge, so that was perfect. Aunt Betty and I made the cookies and did the icing all in one day, and that took a LONG time. Not doing it again any time soon.

So seven of eight isn't too shabby. Coming in the next couple days: my new baking goals for this year.

Tiramisu cake, candied almonds and champagne cupcakes

2011-01-19T23:17:00.000-06:00

First, I have a few fairly exciting announcements. I'm going to be on TV, doing my baking thing. More on that later, though. Second exciting announcements: last week's Sour Patch Kids cupcakes were wildly successful online. They made Foodgawker and Tastespotting. They made the blog Cupcakes Take the Cake, which I've never been on. A Martha Stewart Twitter account retweeted my post. I got reblogged on Tumbler. A few other blogs reblogged it (TipJunkie and Ediblecrafts), and Bake It Pretty included it on a post. I'm pretty darn excited after that. Third exciting announcement: I'm a real person now. As in, I got moved to dayside. That means I get weekends off. I think only someone who's worked nightside at some point really realizes how monumental this is. Granted, I've never been (and probably never will be) a morning person, but it's amazing how much time I have to do other things after work. Like go to the gym. I have a new goal to go every day after work, except for today, of course, when there was a snowpacalypse. Still got my workout shoveling the driveway, though. I'm also starting to watch The Wire, about an episode per night. And I get to do stuff with friends at night after work. I'm pretty darn excited to have a life.

One of my night-time friend nights resulted in this tiramisu cake. I like taking requests for desserts because it presents me a challenge. Brianne requested tiramisu, and since I didn't feel like making homemade ladyfingers, I went with this cake I'd seen. Two layers of white cake soaked with a coffee syrup with a mascarpone-whipped cream filling and chocolate chips and we have a very tasty cake, even for someone like me, who doesn't like coffee.

Part of this going to the gym thing is also monitoring what I eat. I'm a snacker, and being at work during the day means I get pretty hungry. These candied almonds were the perfect portion-controlled sweet for work — that is, until the Girl Scout Cookies were delivered. Oh well, it worked for a couple days.

Finally, my exciting TV news. I'm going on Jayni's Kitchen, our local station's cooking show. Via some people at work, Jayni heard about this blog. She saw the champagne cupcakes I did for the holiday cupcake challenge and asked me to do those for the Valentine's Day episode. I had to test the recipe again, just because I improvise a lot and had to nail down amounts for the recipe she'll post. So I tape on Monday and then the episode will air the first time on Tuesday, Feb. 8 at 6:30 p.m. on Channel 6 here. I'm hoping to get a video of my segment to post on here. I'm pretty nervous; I'm sure I'll make a fool of myself. Here's hoping I don't!