Cinderella Dress Cake

It's cakes like this that made me start this blog. One day I hope to be able to make something this beautiful! I've always loved this dress ever since I was a little girl, so the thought of it being a cake and serving it with tea in my Cinderella tea cups, makes my heart happy.

Ban Bakes has such an amazing talent, don't you think? You can check out more of these wonderful cakes and cupcakes here.

Maybe if I work really hard, I can figure out how to make something like this for my niece's 5th birthday!

Thanks to The Disney Princess for bringing this to my attention and for loving Disney as much, if not more than I do!

Halloween Cookies

The company that I work for just started a Social Committee. I love that stuff, so I signed up right away. One of the first orders of business was, of course, Halloween.

I wanted to have a Costume Contest, but since we only have limited funds, we really didn't have anything to give as prizes.

I had just gotten all sorts of baking goodies for my birthday and was dying to try them out, so I offered to make sugar cookies for the winners. This idea was met enthusiastically.

Birthday Goodies

Couplers (6 of them!)

A tip brush

a pack of 8 gel icing colours

Disposable/reusable decorating bags (12 pack)

a set of 28 decorating tips!!!!

All of it from Wilton! What a great score!

ooh, I also picked up a set of Betty Crocker 101 cookie cutters from Kitchen Stuff Plus

So I pulled out my faithful sugar cookie recipe and got started.

I decided half way through that it would be fun to tint some of the dough. So I grabbed out my colour gels and started mixing. It was messy and very hard work to get the colour all mixed into it evenly.

But in the end, I ended up with regular, black and orange dough. The colours were really bright, but lost a bit of their colour as they baked.

It was great having so many couplers, because it allowed me to have 5 colours of icing going at once.

I used all of the Halloween shaped cookie cutters.

Ghosts and Mummies

Perfect pumpkins

Moons and Witches

Bats and Cats

Finally, after I was done and all the icing had hardened, I packaged them up so I could take them to work with me as prizes!

And you know who won?

ME!

Yes, that right, I won my own Halloween Costume Contest and my own cookies. Don't worry, I shared them with the rest of the Social Committee.
You'll never guess my costume though...

well you might

Are you surprised?

 

Glee!!

I was stuck home sick all week, with little to do other than curl up on the couch and watch DVD's. Lucky for me, a friend of mine had just lent me the second half of season 1 of Glee.

Being sick sucks, but Glee makes it a little bit better, heck, it makes everything better. Had a bad day? Pop in some Glee and let the music take you away!

This show almost makes me wish that I had cable so I could watch it every week as it comes out.

Anyway, imagine my glee when I came across these aborable cookies the other day on EpiCute, one of my favorite websites for adorable foods. I have no idea who made them, but I wish I did so I could give them full props!

And for those not in the know:

Top row: Finn, Artie, Quinn

Second row: Will, Rachel, Sue.

Third row: Mercedes, Puck, Tina.

Last row: Terri, Kurt, Emma.

UPDATE: I found out who made these wonderul cookies, it's none other than Susan from Diamonds For Dessert! I should have known! She always has such great stuff!

She even has a tutorial about how to make them yourself! Check it out here!

I think I feel a baking project coming on!

To Boldly Cut Like No Man Has Cut Before



Space... the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new pizzas, to seek out new toppings and new cheeses, to boldy cut pizza where no man has cut before! Yes, this officially licensed Star Trek collectable is everything you hoped it would be. Laser etched stainless steel blade and solid metal construction make it perfect for battling Romulans in the neutral zone or precision pizza slicing.

You'll find that even though the prime mission of the Enterprise has now become very pizza centric, the chrome plated metal construction and padded gift box make the Enterprise pizza cutter a true Star Trek collectable. Plus it looks great on your desk even when not being used to cut your favorite cheese and sauce laden foods

Ehehehehehehe.... I want one of these so badly! How much fun would that be to have for pizza night? Heck, I'd probably start using it to cut things with all the time, or at least until they make me some geeky scissors.

 love the video for this as well. I need to get me one of those Imperial Officer hats and a remote control that lets me blow of the Death Star from whereever I happen to be. Man, I bet the Rebellion would pay a lot of money for that...

Everybody Loves Cupcakes, Even Cookie Monster

Everyone loves cupcakes! And how could you not? They're moist and sweet and make the perfect treat!

Plus, there are just so many different ways to make them and even more ways to decorate them.

You can take any idea you want and turn it into a cupcake.

I bet Cookie Monster would love these!

Cake and cookies together in perfect harmony!

I love the idea of Sesame Street cupcakes. They just look like so much fun to make and decorate.

Plus, with so many characters, you have no limits!

Heck, you can even take a page out of Bakerella's book and make them into cake pops if you like!

Aren't they cute and delicious looking?

Challenge #1: Heartbreak With A Strawberry On Top

In my last post I told you that I was reading a great book called The Icing On The Cupcake. Well, I'm finally finished reading it and it was fantastic! Pouring over each recipe at the end of each chapter was almost as much fun for me as reading the chapter.

So, to start my challange off, I decided to make the first recipe in the book;

~Heartbreak With A Strawberry On Top~

Sounds good doesn't it? It is.

I didn't manage to get as many pictures this time. I was trying to make dinner at the same time and taking pictures took a back burner as I tried not to burn everything.

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup unsalted butter, room tempurature

1 egg, room tempurature

6 oz vanilla yogurt

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tbsp potato starch (cornstarch)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp fine ground salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup diced fresh strawberries

Place baking stone in middle rack of oven. Place mixing bowl in freezer for 5 mins. Now, I'm pretty sure that this step can be skipped if a) you don't have a baking stone or b) your freezer is tiny like mine is. I did, however, go out and buy a baking stone for this. Apperently it helps activate the ingrediance quicker to give it a better flavour. I picked mine up at Kitchen Stuff Plus for about $10.

Preheat the oven to 400'. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.

Cream the sugar and butter together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 mins.

I thought it was strange that it all balled together, but then again, I'm not used to using a mixer for my sugar and butter. I usually stir by hand.

Add the egg and beat for 2 mins. This step deffinatly smoothed the batter out and made it look normal again.

Add yogurt and vanilla. Beat until smooth.

I would've never think to use yogurt, but it gave the batter a really nice flavour.

Whisk the flour, potato (corn) starch, baking powder, salt and baking soda together.

 

Add the flour mixture to the batter. Mix until blended.

Fold in the diced strawberries using a rubber spatula. I think that was the most fun part of the entire thing. I wish I had gotten pictures of it.

Pour the batter into paper-lined cupcake holders. Fill 3/4 of the way to the top.

Turn heat down to 350'. (The extra heat, like the baking stone, helps activate the ingrediance right away)

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean after it's placed in the middle of the cupcake.

Cool for 5 mins. Place on baking racks.

Now for the best frosting I've ever tasted!

2 tbsp butter, room tempurature

1 cup powdered sugar

2 fresh strawberries, about 2 tablespoons mashed

Cream butter, powdered sugar and mashed strawberries with an electric mixer until creamy and smooth, about 3 to 5 mins.

Chill frosting for 15 mins or until thick. (I probably should have let the icing set longer than I did.)

Frost cooled cupcakes

I know, I know, they don't look very nice, but at least the icing melted into a solid top, so they looked much nicer a few minutes later.

So far everyone who has tried them has loved them, including me! I will totally make this recipe again. I might even play round with it and use different fruits; blueberries, cherries, raspberries. Yum!

The Icing On The Cupcake Challange

In Ansley Waller’s world of Southern belles and gentlemen, getting a diamond ring isn’t just important—it’s the ultimate goal. So when her fiancé, Parish, unceremoniously kicks her to the curb and cancels their upcoming wedding, Ansley is so ashamed that she decides to leave Dallas and make a fresh start. In a surprise move, she heads to New York City to live with her recently widowed grandmother, Vivian, whom she’s never met. In turn, Vivian gives Ansley a no-nonsense ultimatum: Rather than wallow in misery, either get a job or go home.

The Waller women have a tradition of baking their way out of sorrow. So Ansley mixes batch after batch of creative cupcakes—Black Bottom Heartache, Moving Blues Banana Caramel, Tres Leches Made Small. Before long, she’s opening up her own cupcake shop and even trying her hand at dating. But the ways of Manhattan’s eligible bachelors are altogether different from their Southern counterparts, and Ansley’s nearly fail-safe tactics fall flat. And worse, someone’s got a half-baked scheme to sabotage Ansley’s new life. It’ll take a cup of courage and a dash of Southern charm, plus a few secret ingredients, if Ansley hopes to pull off her recipe for success.

I first came across The Icing On The Cupcake  when I was back in my hometown, in Shoppers Drug Mart, late at night, searching for the only item I had forgot to pack for a cottage trip that weekend, underwear. Who forgets to pack underwear? Well, apparently me. And why was I looking for it in Shoppers? It was almost 10 pm and I didn't know where else to look. I've seen 3 packs in the Toronto location, but alas, my hometown store doesn't carry them.

The trip however wasn't a complete loss. After giving up my search, the bf and I wandered over to where my mom was waiting in the book and magazine section. And there on the end of the display was The Icing On The Cupcake. After reading the back I knew that I had to read it.

So a month later, after finishing off another book series that I was reading, I finally got the change to pick it up. I'm not done reading it yet, but I am having a hard time putting it down and I'm already recommending it to other people who I think will like it. Not only is it funny, witty and charming, but it's extremely well written. But you know what the best part is?

It has a cupcake recipe at the end of every chapter!!

How awesome is that? Very awesome!

Seeing as though I haven't been updating Bake as much as Talk, I've decided to make a challenge for myself. I'm going to make all the recipes in the book and write about them for you! YAY!

So let the challenge begin!