Works For Me Wednesday – Curling Ribbon

I love all of the tips I’ve learned from other people’s WFMW, so I figured I would do one, too.

I am not what I would consider “crafty”. I am not very good at scrapbooking, redesigning furniture, making neat artwork. I don’t have fancy dowel ribbon holders. I just keep them in baskets. I do ok with cookies, but that’s about the extent of it.

So individually wrapping cookies, which should be easy, is somewhat of a challenge for me. Sometimes I think this step takes longer than decorating. Because of this, I’m always looking for things to make this step easier and faster. Now this may be common sense for most of you, but it was a total AHA moment for me (which is kind of sad if I really think about it).

So, what is this glorious time-saver that I have discovered? Well, let me start at the beginning.

We are redoing our kitchen. It was decorated in 1969 and has been trapped there ever since. We are slowly but surely bringing it into this century. A few weeks ago, I removed an old wooden paper towel holder (the kind that mounts to the bottom of the cabinet).

I was going to get rid of it, but I wondered if I could find some use for it. So I set it aside.

About a week later, I was getting ready to wrap some cookies, and I saw it laying in the corner. What about curling ribbon rolls? Would that fit around the rod?

Sure enough!

I placed it on a spot on the counter and pulled the ribbon to the end of the counter.

Then I would cut it, giving me ribbon pieces that were all the same size. No measuring required!

Now, let me explain to you my old method so you can fully appreciate this revelation.

I would set the ribbon upright. When I pulled it out, it would often times move the roll, which did not make for equal length ribbon pieces. Also, sometimes the ribbon would get tangled at the bottom of the roll, so I would have to stop and untangle it. This happened about every 5-6 pieces. Not very time efficient and extremely frustrating!

Anyways. Not rocket science, but I’ve done it twice now this way and it has been SO much faster and no tangling! So it now qualifies as my new method.

Have fun finding what works for you!

Let’s start at the very beginning…

Mar1

Two years ago today is when it all started.

What’s so special about March 1st that I would start baking? My husband’s birthday. And for some reason, two years ago, I decided that I wanted to make him a cake that was not out of a box and a tub. I don’t know why I wanted to do that. It wasn’t a monumental birthday. I just felt like it deserved something different. So to the internet I went.

I wanted to stick with his favorite – yellow cake with chocolate icing. I just wanted something with more pizazz than my traditional 9×13 pan. I had heard about this baking site called “Bakerella” (ever heard of her? ;-) I went digging through her site, and there it was. A fourteen-layer yellow cake with chocolate icing. Yes, you read that right. FOURTEEN layers. That’s 13 more than I’d ever made before. But I was feeling adventurous, so why not. I banned everyone from the kitchen and got started.

Since this was my first attempt at a “real” cake, I had to buy everything. I didn’t have a thing. I even had to buy a mixing bowl because I didn’t have one big enough to hold so much batter. Bakerella used 14 disposable aluminum cake pans, rather than using 3-4 regular pans and washing in between. Since I didn’t even own 9-inch cake pans, I went with that option, also. Plus, then I could just throw everything in the trash when I was done. So here they are. All 14, dressed and ready to go.

Thankfully, I have a double oven, so I was able to cook 6 at a time. Then they have to cool, of course. But since I had never made a cake that required being removed from the pan, I also didn’t own any cooling racks. Thankfully, my neighbors did.

Now for the fun part. The chocolate sauce. I could have buried my face in the pot.

Assembling the cake was the biggest challenge. Since the layers were almost like pancakes, leveling wasn’t an issue. (Thankfully, because I wouldn’t have had a clue how to do that). I just stacked a layer, then poured on the chocolate sauce.

Stacked another layer. Poured more chocolate.

Then even more layers!

The original recipe called for you to just leave the cake like this, just smoothed out a bit. But, I liked the way Bakerella’s final cake looked (iced) so I went that route, too. I used her recipe for the chocolate icing.

Now I know this is no work of art (and my photography skill are equally stunning). There were no decorations of any kind on the outside. Not even a trim at the bottom. (And yes, my oven is green. Don’t judge. I’m working on it). But the magic happened when you cut into it.

WOW!

This cake took me over 8 hours to make. And it weighed in at almost 9 pounds. But I was hooked. I caught the baking bug, and there was no turning back.

So today is his birthday again. I’m only making 2 layers this year (still yellow with chocolate icing) but I will actually decorate it with something other than a candle in the shape of some numbers.

Happy Birthday, my love. And thank you for continuing to inspire me in so many ways.

Brought me to tiers

Feb18

A good friend of mine was throwing a Sweet 16 party for her oldest of 5. Her daughter loved to play the piano, so she wanted a black/white/pink piano cake. And she wanted it big and bold. Now, I’m all for bold, but the “big” part was a new thing for me. For some reason, I have always stayed away from stacked/tiered cakes. The dowels, oh how they frightened me.

A year ago I made a 2-tiered castle cake for my 8-year-old daughter’s birthday.

And while it turned out cute, I didn’t support it correctly, and it ended up leaning. Tilting. Almost falling. It was not a pretty sight.

So when my friend said she wanted three (that’s 3) tiers, I said sure, then hung up the phone and proceeded to panic. And the party wasn’t for 2 months. That’s a long time to stress about a cake.

As it turned out, my family ended up being out of town during the party, so I came home early, which meant a quiet, child-free house for 2 days. (How’s that for a run-on sentence). It took me longer to do it than it probably should have, but I was trying to be careful since I didn’t have time to re-do anything. And the dowels – I won’t even tell you how many of those things I used. Can we say “overkill”?

I tried 2 new cake recipes for it (since mine were too soft to hold up tiers). A white cake from I Am Baker and a chocolate fudge groom’s cake from Wilton. They were yummy.

But it turned out fine. No leaning or tilting. And the birthday girl was thrilled.

My 5-year-old daughter has a birthday coming up. I think a good sheet cake would be perfect.

A friend I don’t even know

Jan29

So, this has nothing to do with sugar. Or food. Or anything even edible. And it’s about someone I don’t even know. And no one is really even reading this, but I just feel the need to share it, on the off chance that the one person that needs to read this, does.

Two weeks ago, I found out about a woman named Joanne Heim. She is 38-years-old. She is married with small children. I don’t even know where she lives. But I do know that on January 11, 2011, she had a massive stroke and was found on the basement floor by her young daughter. She is currently still in the hospital, and will be for a long time.

Her blog is The Simple Wife. It is being updated by her husband, Toben, of her progress and daily battles. Joanne’s sister, (who’s name I also don’t know) writes about it through her eyes and photos at KH Photography. (She is an amazing photography, btw).

I don’t even know this family, but God has really placed them on my heart. So if you have a moment, please click on the links above and read this family’s amazing and inspiring story. It will touch your heart. And if you pray, please add them to your daily prayers. You will be among many that are #PrayingForJoanne.

You can also follow Toben on Twitter for updates – @tobenheim .

Potato soup for people who don’t like potato soup

Jan28

Let me start by saying that I do not like potato soup.

This is coming from the lover of all things potato. Mashed potatoes. Baked potatoes. Potatoes Au Gratin. French Fries. Hash browns. Potato Chips. Fried potatoes. Skillet potatoes. (I think you get the point). There is no form of potato that I don’t like. Except for potato soup.

For some reason, there is just something off about potatoes in liquid form. In soup form, I will pass on the potato.

So, you can imagine my level of excitement when I went to a jewelry party where dinner was provided, and the main dish was, you guessed it, potato soup. But, my aunt (aka Betty Crocker) was the one who prepared it, so I decided out of courtesy, I’d give it a try. I could choke down a few bites then move on to the lemon cake and raspberry cheesecake bites, and all would be well with the world.

I scooped a very small cup and proceeded to take my first Squidward bite, looking around to make sure no one was paying any attention at the minescule amount of soup that was on my spoon. I smiled at the woman across the room, gripped my cup of apple cinnamon cider for a quick chaser, and took the bite.

Then, something odd happened. I didn’t gag. And more surprisingly, I almost enjoyed it. Surely not. I took another bite just to verify that my gag reflex was still in tact. I swallowed even more slowly, just to make sure. But low and behold, this soup was good. How could that be? It’s potato soup. “Good” and “potato soup” have never mixed in the same sentence from me before. But on this cold night, they did. I then proceeded to eat 2 more cups and asked for the recipe on the way out the door.

Since that night, I have made this soup 3 times in six weeks. And two of those times were in a 4 day period.

So, I feel the need to share this recipe with the world. If it can make me eat potato soup and actually enjoy it, maybe it can rescue someone else from the liquidly blandness previously known as potato soup. I hope this will set you free, as it did me.

Oh, and the recipe calls for 2lbs cubed potatoes. Feel free to cube your own, but I have 3 kids, a self-employed-work-from-home husband, 4 cats and a somewhat house-trained dog, so Ore-Ida was kind enough to cube mine for me. And freeze them. Aren’t they nice?

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter (I used salted)

1/4 cup AP flour

1 quart Half & Half

4 chicken bouillon cubes (confession: I had to go look in order to spell it correctly)

1/2 cup minced onions (confession: I used the dried kind)

2lbs cubed potatoes

Salt and pepper (to taste)

1/4 to 1/2 cup finely chopped ham (I bought a ham slice)

Milk or water (for thinning)

Directions:

In a dutch over (or equivalent), melt butter. Once melted, add the flour. Stir until mixed thoroughly, then cook lightly for several minutes to thicken. Stir occasionally to prevent scorching.

Add half & half. (You could use milk if you like a thinner soup, but I like the richness this adds). Mix, then add bouillon cubes. Cook on medium until cubes have dissolved. Stir as necessary. Add the onions. Season with salt and pepper to your taste. Mix well.

Add the potatoes. (You can also use the kind that have peppers and onions already in the package if you’d like, or you can add fresh. My kids don’t like any green pieces unless they have chocolate in the middle, so I stuck with just the regular kind). Stir. Add ham. Mix well. Cover and cook on low for a few hours.

You’ll need to check it periodically and add more liquid. You can use milk or water Just add a bit at a time to bring it back to the desired consistency. Taste occasionally to check seasoning. Add salt and pepper as needed.

Once the potatoes are soft and start to separate, it’s done!

Serve in a sour dough bread bowl for an extra touch of magic.

NOTE: My aunt recommended not making this in a crock pot. She said for some reason, it separates sometimes on her when she did. She said stove top does not do that. So, use a slow cooker at your own risk.

ANOTHER NOTE: I am not a photographer. I don’t even pretend to be one. I got a T1i for Christmas, but have yet to learn how to use it. I tried to take a picture for this, but I could not make the soup look appetizing. I tried a green bowl, a white bowl, a cup, a mug – it all just looked like white mush. So, no picture. You’ll just have to imagine how beautiful and tasty it’s going to look.

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I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we have. So go… live long, prosper, and eat potato soup.

Ghosts of Cookies Past

Jan21

So, I write 3 posts, then disappear. Great start for a blog, eh?

Since my health has been keeping me from playing in the kitchen, and since I didn’t have this blog when I started decorating cookies back in September, I decided to do a flash-back of my prior attempts at sugary art. (Plus, this will give me something else to look back and laugh at years from now. One can never have enough of those logged away).

It all started when I stumbled across a website – Bake at 350. There was a guest post by a woman named Marian (who I later learned is Sweetopia to the rest of the world) about marbeling sugar cookies. I had been making cakes, cupcakes, truffles – but never tried decorating sugar cookies. But with this post, I was intrigued. I could do that, right? As I looked through their sites further, I realized that it was something that had to be done. I had to decorate sugar cookies.

I used the recipes listed on these sites, grabbed my toothpicks and away I went. This was the result (please forgive the photo quality. iPhone camera):

Some of them look better than others (my friend said they look like fancy pop tarts), but I was hooked.

I made a ton of them, so I passed them out to friends and neighbors, one of which was an 86-year-old couple across the street. Then, a funny thing happened. This couple’s daughter came by that day and saw my cookies. She said she’d seen lots of decorated sugar cookies, but none like this before. She also, coincidentally enough, had a friend that was looking for a new cookie lady, as hers had just retired. The couple gave their daughter my name/phone number, the daughter gave the info to her friend, and 2 days later I had an order for 5 dozen cookies for a 4-year-old’s birthday party! (I didn’t even have any cookies cutters other than the squares.)

Not the greatest in the world, but she was really happy with them. And I was hooked!

I saw some butterflies on Sweetopia’s site, so naturally, I had to try those. So I bought more cutters.

How about some fish?

(Did I mention that when I get hooked on something, I get REALLY hooked on something?)

I posted all of my cookies on Facebook, and my girlfriend said that her daughter was turning 7 and would be having a small party at her school. She had seen my cookies on FB and wanted me to make some for her daughter’s party. Unicorns. Pink and Purple. (Of course) So, I bought more cutters.

And I had seen the cake idea, so I made a big one especially for the birthday girl. (Do my photography skills rock or what? {insert sarcasm here})

Then my aunt that lives next door heard about my cookies (ah, the joys of a small town) and asked me to donate some for a local fundraiser (“some” = 8 dozen decorated and 16 dozen drop cookies. Family can be so great sometimes):

Then, Halloween came a knockin’, and I ended up making a total of 26 dozen of these babies for various people. It was completely overwhelming for me, and it took F.O.R.E.V.E.R. And of course, I had to buy more cutters. (are you seeing a trend here…)

Here are the platters I took to my daughter’s kindergarten class. (I like the “Boo” ghosts better)

Next came Thanksgiving, which again – more cutters. I used this holiday as an excuse to play around with different cookie flavors. I used the chocolate and spice cutout recipes from Bake at 350. The spice was a nice addition to the regular ones for fall. But the chocolate ones stole the show. And the design for the turkey is also from Bake at 350. I saw a lot of different turkey cookies, but I thought hers were the perfect mix of fun and realistic.

Well, thank you if you’ve made it this far. I really do love decorating cookies. And I’m starting to think there is no longer a cookie cutter I don’t own. (It’s amazing how many you can acquire in such a short amount of time).

Now what to make for Valentine’s Day? I think I need a new cutter.

My first year Christmas baking

Dec22

As a new baker and REALLY new at decorating cookies (just 3 months), I was really happy with the way everything turned out. (It’s fun to see how everyone’s favorite is different). As a newbie at all this, I have had to seek out people who really know what they are doing, since I clearly do not fall into that category. So most of these have been inspired by the amazing talent that I have recently discovered, such as Bake at 350, Sweetopia, Bakerella, Tidy Mom, I am Baker and so many more! Thank you all so much for sharing your talents with those of us who are less…gifted. *raising hand*

For no reason other than curiosity, I decided to try a new icing recipe. The one I had been using was good, but after seeing other’s cookies, I decided to try something new. I used the recipe listed on Bake at 350. I have to admit, I like hers better. I like the shine, and it was smoother to work with. And it made a nicer flood icing. So Bridget, you’ve got a convert!

I had to try the ornaments. The marbling was such fun! Thank you for the inspiration, Bridget.

The Santas were a bit of a challenge for me. Somehow I ended up with no Santa-shaped cutter. Not clue how that happened. I tried a candy corn cutter, but he ended up looking like a gnome. Didn’t have an ice cream cone, so I just went with the circle. That meant I had to freehand the Santa face. Not one of my skills to date, but I think they turned out ok. A little extra for the “puff”.

I love the reindeer. I think they are one of my favorites. With a little added bling for the nose.

Played around with some Christmas tree designs. The lights are my favorite. They were inspired by a picture I saw on Twitter. I wish I could remember who it was, but her cookies were fabulous! If it’s you, please leave a comment (assuming anyone actually reads this, of course) so I can give proper credit.

I also really like the gingerbread people. They were fun.

And I can’t have Christmas stuff without candy canes! I was going to make the icing peppermint flavored, but alas. Maybe next year.

The snowmen are another favorite. I couldn’t decide whether to sanding sugar or not, so I did half and half. Somehow I had no green, so that guy got rainbow sparkles!

Then there are the snowflakes. While I think overall they look ok, they definitely show my lack-o-piping skills. I’m still working on the straight lines (thanks for the tip, THE Tough Cookie!). The sugar helps mask it a little, but I left the blue plain, so they show it the most.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far. I had a great time making them, and I look forward to getting better (and faster!).

Merry Christmas!

Let it snow!

Dec10

“Just a plain chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream icing” was my client’s request. Really? No peppermint? No dark chocolate shavings on top? Do people really want plain cakes any more?

Well, I just couldn’t go there. So, a few dots and a royal icing snowflake later, here it is:

Who’d know there are 3 layers of (plain) dark chocolate cake under all that white icing?

Now just to bring my client to the dark side when it comes to her design requests.

I’ve finally done it.

Dec8

So, here is my first post. I always read about everyone reminiscing about their first post. How they didn’t know what to write about, how lame it was, or how they didn’t know how to even get started. I always just thought that didn’t fit, considering how well they were writing now. Well, now I get it. So I’ll start it with the best thing I know to talk about: baking.

I started my holiday baking today. Finally. This was my first round – cupcakes. I was experimenting with baking them with Hershey’s kisses inside them. I used Candy Cane, Mint Truffle and Caramel. Found out that they sink. All the way to the bottom. And they leave holes in the bottom of the cupcake when you take them out of the wrapper because the kiss sticks to the bottom. I think next time I’ll bake them with the kiss upside down, see if that helps. But, at least they tasted good.

For the icing, I used peppermint buttercream for the candy cane swirled look. I also played around with marshmallow buttercream. I’ve never made it before, but it’s pretty magical, so I foresee myself making it again in the near future. Like next week, when I make these cupcakes for real for my girls’ school Christmas parties.