Birthday Cake!

So, I had great intentions this week of going all out with a final dessert for my baking blog since this is our last week of blogging. Like I said, I had good intentions.

However, Thursday came around and Lindsey's boyfriend called saying his best friend's birthday was tomorrow and we needed to bake him a cake. A cake and cupcakes are very similar, especially when both coming from the box, but, a birthday cake needed to be made and I needed to focus on my recently purchased organs. Yes, I said organs.

On Thursday, I went home for a doctor's appointment and used the opportunity to go to a Chinese market in hopes of buying some organs. I am creating a campaign for Creative Communications for organ donation.

My whole concept is about a very strong visual that might be a bit repulsive, and then using emotional body copy. I wanted images of realistic organs in leftover containers (headline: we want your leftovers), in a brown packing box (headline: give us your hand-me-downs) and in a recycling container (the ultimate form of recycling).

I spent countless hours looking creepy and searching for pictures of realistic organs on stock photo websites, but none were what I wanted.

I decided to try and make the photos myself, so while in Plano, I searched a Chinese market in hopes of creepy looking meat. I wasn't even prepared for all the creepy meat I found. Pork intestines, pork stomach, chicken livers, pork hearts, pork lungs, cow spleens, and so much more. I was so excited while standing in the check out line, and I was aware that I was definitely being judged. Who could blame them though? The good news for anyone who wants to buy animal organs is that they are extremely cheap! And they have labels on them titled "appetizing!" which I definitely disagree with.

When I got back to my apartment, I knew I needed to start taking the photographs of the organs before they started...expire. I knew I didn't like the idea of them hanging out in my fridge so it was now or never. Lindsey began the baking for once while I started working up my courage to open the packages.

After a beer, I decided to just get it behind me. I opened up the packages and it hit me that I actually had to hold the organs and position them. I will spare the details but it wasn't pretty or fun. The pictures got taken but I couldn't eat the rest of the night.

Because of the picture taking, I didn't get to be too involved in the baking process but I did get to enjoy the decorating process. I got to use my Halloween sprinkles for the 2nd week in a row! I think I got a bit carried away with the amount of sprinkles I used, but the cake looked awesome.

My last week of baking was a little weak, being that all I did was decorate, and it ended up being the same type thing I made last week but this just means I will have to continue my baking blog so I don't end on a bad note.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

In the spirit of Halloween, and pumpkins, and orange and black, and spookiness, I have dedicated this blog post to Halloween. Yes, I know that next week would be a much more appropriate time for a Halloween post but I couldn't wait any longer. Deal with it.

It all started when I went to Target to buy a beach ball. Do you know how hard it is to find a beach ball, in October? I needed one of the activities we are doing for an event I am planning for my internship. I looked online and Target had packs of 12 beach balls that they could send to me, but I only needed one. Just the one. The website said that they sold individual beach balls at Target locations only so off to Target I went. When the store employees quickly told me that they had no beach balls, I decided to not make my trip a waste. It was a quiet afternoon in Target with no screaming babies, or hyper kids running wild with their moms baskets. Perfect. I roamed aisle after aisle of random things I didn't need but impulsively wanted, and then, out of no where came....THE HALLOWEEN SECTION. There was lights, and buckets, and candy, and creepy battery operated walking hands, and the best of all, HALLOWEEN WREATHS!

My roommates could probably tell you that I love wreaths. Sadly, being the poor college kid I am, I can never afford them. We have one wreath that we have up all year round. If I had money, I would have a Valentines Day wreath, a St. Patrick's Day wreath, a Halloween wreath, a Thanksgiving wreath, a Christmas wreath, a New Years wreath, and a Birthday wreath. Basically, anything besides a Fourth of July wreath. Don't get me wrong, I love our country. But I hate it's colors. Red, white and blue just make me want to punch things...like Tommy Hilfiger.

Anyways, so I'm at Target, and I see an isle dedicated to Halloween wreaths and of course I want all of them. But I can't justify spending my pathetic amount of money on a wreath that can only be used for a month at most. So what did I do? I buy cupcake stuff. Pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese frosting and, the best part, (drum role please!!) HALLOWEEN SPRINKLES! AHHHHHH!!! HALLOWEEN SPRINKLES!

The best part was that the big daddy of sprinkles, a container that has 7 or 8 different kinds of Halloween sprinkles within the one container, was ON SALE!! THANK YOU TARGET!

The cupcakes are wonderful. Sure, they aren't as good as cupcakes made from scratch but at least they look cute!! Lindsey and I had to test them before we made dinner because we were starving and they definitely hit the spot.

The other thing I have to mention is that last night, not only we cupcakes made but also Italian Pasta. Lindsey and I are thinking of coming up with a more creative name for it but as of now, Italian Pasta it is. I even had to put a picture of it up. It was just so dang good. Last week, Kroger was giving away free samples of this pasta and Lindsey and I tried it and loved it, so she grabbed the recipe and we made it. It had penne noodles, italian sausage, tomatoes, mushrooms, fresh mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese and more! The best part was that it was baked so the cheese was melted on top. I'm pretty pumped about having the left overs tomorrow. It was so good I took a picture and am putting it on my baking blog. That's right. There will be an image of cooking on my baking blog. Things are getting crazy!!!

I encourage everyone to get into the Halloween spirit and make a Halloween themed dessert! OH! You could have fun and put icing in a baggy, cut the tip, and make spiders on the top of cupcakes!!! Do it! Please! Okay, I'm done.

Cake Balls...

What an elegant name. I mean the term 'cake balls' just sounds super classy.

Okay, so I'll admit it. The past few weeks I might have been a bit lazy with my baking. I'll admit to thinking to the years of my childhood and remembering what I made then so that I could make it now very easily. Rice Krispies. Check. Break and Bake cookies. Check. I decided this week I would step it up and make something a bit more complicated. You know, something with more than one step. I'll let you know when I finish this last step...

I started making the cake balls on Thursday night. It was my only night at home with a lot of nights being spent doing things for my sorority philanthropy. Lindsey and I decided to go to the store for the first time in who knows how long. We came home and she once again cooked dinner while I started dessert.

The concept of cake balls is pretty easy. You buy a box of cake, a tub of icing, and then baker's chocolate. Lindsey liked the concept of yellow cake, chocolate icing and then baker's chocolate. I had never done this combination although it did sound delicious. In the past, I had always done red velvet.

The first thing you do is bake the cake. You can bake it in whatever size pan you want, including as cupcakes. Once the cake is baked and cooled, you crumble the cake up into a bowl. You then add the entire tub of icing you have to the bowl of crumbled cake. Stir it until the cake is completely mixed in with the icing.

The next part is the fun part. Use your hands and begin making the mixture into balls. I usually do golf ball sized cake balls. The balls won't look perfect since they are at room temperature but just as long as you separate them it should be fine. Put all of them on a tray covered with foil and once done with the whole mixture you can put them in the fridge. To be honest, I usually put them in the freezer just to speed up the process. After being in the fridge/freezer for a while, you re-roll the balls into more smoother circles. Having them chilled makes the consistency easier to do that. After you are done, you can begin melting the baker's chocolate either by microwave or stove. Either way, only do a few pieces of the baker's chocolate at a time because once it is cooled, it is harder to work with. You melt the chocolate and then cover the cake balls with the melted chocolate. Put them back on a piece of foil or wax paper and let them cool and harden. Ta da! You are done.

I would say that cake balls are easy and don't take a lot of time but it is currently Sunday and I am still working on mine. But we can blame that on my microwave that likes to stop working completely after 2 minutes. I guess this could be a good thing because only a few cake balls get covered with chocolate at a time leaving less for me to eat at one time.

Cake balls are typically a big hit. They look more complicated than a real cake but only involve one more ingredient. People love the hardened chocolate element too and then biting into it to have a gooey cake mixture inside.

Mmmm, Chocolate Chip Cookies

Okay. So here's the deal. It's the week before fall break and it is filled with midterms and projects. Especially Flash projects that I am apparently cursed with and that hate me. I have officially started over three times on my project and it is still not working. Fantastic.

It's Thursday night and I leave for Boston (EEEEEK!) tomorrow afternoon and don't get back until Tuesday afternoon. I needed something to bake tonight. But I needed to get my Flash project done, a reaction paper, a weekly report, and other stuff. I didn't have time for some really intense baking, which I normally love to do. This sadly, would not be a cooking dinner, baking and wine night.

I needed to go to the store to grab something for dinner so I decided to the simplest baking there is and that is break and bake cookies. They can't make baking cookies any easier. You open the bag. Break the cookies apart and put them in the oven. Seriously, it could not get any easier to make cookies.

I grabbed the mini's because I feel like you can have more that way. Kendall and her boyfriend were over so I broke and baked and 10 minutes later there was a heavenly smell in the kitchen. They were delicious. Perfect actually.

The sad thing was that they tasted so much better than the cookies I made this summer by scratch. I used the Nestle Tollhouse recipe for cookies and they were initially good, but once they cooled down they were just bad. Just really really bad. But these Nestle Tollhouse Break n Bake cookies were perfect. Delicious warm with some cold milk. They were still good once they had cooled too. And so much easier!

I'll admit this was a pretty weak baking job this week. But it was still good compared to my original idea of just buying something from McKinley's (coconut cream pie) and eating it and talking about it. I mean, sure it's not baking but I figured it was still bakery related. Luckily for all you followers I devoured my McKinley's treat before I remembered the whole taking pictures thing so I decided to be a little more dedicated and make the easiest dessert in the world.

The exciting news is that tomorrow I catch a flight to Boston and will get to spend my fall break touring Boston and driving the coast of Maine. I'm pretty pumped. The saddest part is that what I am most excited about is that I am not going to have my school stuff with me. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday will be THREE WHOLE DAYS with no school stuff to look at and work on. That is the longest it has been since I have started school this semester! Ok, at the word limit, totally on to the next assignment so I be on FALL BREAK!!!!!

Rice Krispie Treats...a Childhood Favorite

It seems like these weeks are busier and busier. I'm not sure if I can say they actually go by faster, but I guess it seems that way since I am never bored. With taking 18 hours, I have had to get strategic with making homework fun, since it's all I ever seem to do. I now bake and have an excuse and call it homework. Yesterday I even went to Gloria's for happy hour and used it for my observational research project.

I wish I could say I was joking. My teacher told us to go somewhere and do observational research and gain some insights. Well, Gloria's ended up working out and I just HAD to have a strawberry margarita so I would fit in with everyone else and not look so suspicious as I wrote notes down about each table and what they were wearing and what they ordered. I even kept my super tacky sunglasses on (which I usually only wear in the car) so that I wouldn't look so creepy staring at people for so long. An hour was as long as I could stay for though because every time the waitress came over she would stare longer and longer at my notes that I was taking about all her other tables.

After the margarita, it was time to think about how I would be spending the rest of my night. Homework didn't sound very appealing. Plus, the Britney Spears episode of Glee was on. I really wanted to just make it an entire tv night and just lay on the couch but my conscious was being a pest so I decided it would be my baking night. Lindsey was craving Rice Krispie Treats which worked for me because it's quick and easy to make. Plus, combining two childhood favorites (Rice Krispie treats AND Britney Spears) was just awesome.

I wish there was a lot to say on the actually baking process but it was over so fast. The dishes literally took longer than the actual baking. You pour the Rice Kripsies, melt the butter and marsh mellows and then combine them together. For being so easy though, they were so delicious. I even made an improvement from high school and actually let them set into bars. Usually my friends and I would just use spoons and eat them out of the bowl we stirred them in. Yep, I know...super classy.

They ended up being so delicious and paired with the "Hit Me Baby One More Time" dance, I was a very happy camper. Plus, with having something so gooey and yummy like Rice Krispie treats, I was in less of a bad mood when it came time for me to actually do my homework. AND, I now have half a box of cereal to eat for breakfast. That's what I can a win win situation.

Sand Art Brownies

This weekend was my Dad's birthday so I drove the long way home to Plano to spend the weekend with my family. It's pretty easy to persuade me to go home when there is free food and potential shopping with the mom involved.

My family is pretty big believes in birthday weekends rather than a birth-day so Friday night my parents and I went out to eat at a small, cozy italian food restaurant for dinner. They have one of my dads favorite italian dishes, baked ziti. His favorite dessert, however, is at a restaurant called Red's where they have the best coconut cream pie. So after dinner, we drove to Red's to pick up dessert and head home. The rest of the night was spent in our pajamas watching multiple episodes of Grey's Anatomy. I got my Mom into the show this summer and we managed to get through 5 seasons and she is still trying to catch up so she can watch the current season. Whenever my brother is not around, my mom and I usually get our way and get to watch Grey's. My dad probably won't admit the amount he likes it, but never complains when we watch it...that is, until my brother comes over and then he will say the occasional "turn that crap off".

Saturday was a day filled with errands (and shopping!!) which ended with the grocery store. I had decided that I was going to make sand art brownies, another one of my dad's favorite desserts. They are easy to make and sounded good with steaks and baked potatoes. It was lucky that I had the ingredients memorized from making the brownies so many times.

When I got home, I put on the iPod, my mom poured us each a glass of wine and she got cooking and I got baking. I have been making this recipe since I was probably in 8th grade so it is pretty hard to screw up. What is cool about this recipe is that I initially got it from one of the students in my mom's class. One year, at Christmas, she brought home a glass jar that had a bunch of different colorful layers of ingredients. It consisted of all the dry ingredients for Sand Art Brownies so all you had to do was add eggs, vanilla and vegetable oil to make the brownies.

After a delicious dinner, we had the brownies (that were still warm) with some ice cream. What a perfect combination. My grandparents, brother, Callie (his girlfriend), and parents all ate while we watched my dad open up his birthday gifts.

I'm happy to say the brownies turned out MUCH better than my caramel apples turned out last week. Sadly, my roommates weren't there to try them so I will still get another week of grief about the stupid caramel apples until I bake something else here.

Caramel Apple Disaster

Well, I successfully made something that didn't involve chocolate. The bad news was that it turned out horribly. As in, uneatable.

I had never had any kind of candy apple but they were highly talked about by my roomies, so I decided to make them. I found what seemed like a good recipe and had fun at the store picking out different toppings for the apples like nuts, sprinkles and coconut.

Lindsey and I did our usual ritual of her starting to prepare dinner and I started adding all the ingredients to the sauce pan. The recipe called for all the ingredients to boil on medium-high heat for 40 minutes which I thought was way too much. Being worried about them turning out right, I typically follow directions religiously. However, the caramel seemed to be getting worse, and I still had 15 minutes left. I decided to go ahead and turn the burner off and start covering the apples.

It was a super stressful process. I had Lindsey put all the toppings in bowls and I tried to cover the apples with the caramel while stirring the caramel constantly so it wouldn't burn to the pot. The caramel was being stubborn and not sticking, and when I finally would get the caramel on the sprinkles were caramel resistant. The coconut and nuts were a little more cooperative but it was all way too stressful. The caramel dried way too quickly. The caramel ended up burning so I only ended up making 4 apples instead of 8.

Lindsey and I ate our dinner, and I definitely enjoyed a glass of wine from all the stress the baking was causing. The whole point of me baking is to relax, and enjoy the smells coming from the kitchen. Not this week.

We go check the caramel apples after dinner and they were rock hard. As in, impossible to take a bite out of. We tried to cut the apples and the caramel and toppings completely fell off the apples. Complete failure.

The worst part was that after the completely horrible disaster, the pan from the caramel cooking was the most horrible thing I have ever dried to clean. EVER. I had it soak for hours and some of the caramel came off. I ended up having to do this hot water soaking and scrubbing process for days. Literally, for days.

Basically, I do not ever suggest trying to make your own caramel apples. Leave it to the state fair, guys. Not only will you be sad to waste time and money but the process and clean up is stressful and annoying.

Maybe I should go back to my chocolate recipes. I was definitely more successful with those. This recipe will definitely not be going in my cookbook. Maybe next week I should go back to my cookbook where I just need 4 ingredients, that was working pretty well for me.

At least the pictures of the candy apples turned out well!

Chocolate Banana Bread

While writing this I'm noticing a trend of a lot of chocolate. I am quite a big fan of chocolate...but this blog isn't about baking chocolate but baking in general. Hopefully next week I will find a chocolate-less (GASP!) recipe.

This past Wednesday was a very rainy day. I think very rainy is actually an understatement. It was more like, this past Wednesday was a hurricane day. Although it was a long day filled with 6 classes, I tried to remain positive. The rain stopped and the sun came out and I was still in my hot obnoxious rain boots. Once I got home, I immediately flung my rain boots across my bedroom and laid down on the couch. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I had made it. My school day was over and ahead of me now was a relaxing night of making dinner and dessert.

I had called Lindsey on my way home from school and told her to find something for me to bake. When I got home, she set her computer in front of me and showed me a picture of a delicious loaf of chocolate banana bread. I immediately needed a glass of milk just from the picture. I loved this recipe because I already had overly ripe bananas and all we needed from the store was chocolate cocoa and chocolate chips. It was a pretty pain free trip to the store and Lindsey and I even splurged and bought a zucchini to add to our stir fry veggies.

We went through the now routine pre-baking events of cleaning the kitchen (it's so silly that we clean before we make it dirty), and making dinner. Our newest tradition was also adding a glass of wine to the cooking dinner process. I never knew why my mom was so much nicer when cooking dinner after a long day at work when she had a glass of red wine, but now I totally understand.

The meal was delicious, as always. Our sweet chili chicken, rice and veggies is now becoming a weekly meal which is totally fine with me. Lindsey cooked while I baked and by the time dinner was ready the banana bread was going in to oven to bake for an hour.

After doing the dishes, time passed slow as the bread baked. Kendall came home from night class and we all played cards on the floor trying to get our minds off the deliciousness in the oven.

The timer went off but I feared the bread was still too gooey. I always hate taking things out too early because the outside of it looks ready but the inside isn't. But I equally hate baking things until the inside is ready only to burn the outside. I found a middle ground and the bread turned out great.

The chocolate in it was a great combo with the banana and the warm bread paired great with the rain. Lindsey picked out a great recipe that was simple and made all the roomies happy.

I've really grown to love this blog. It's an excuse to spend a night relaxing and cooking and baking and it's still counted as homework.

Chocolate Raspberry Tart

Maybe I started off this week being too cocky of a baker. I totally kicked that Chocolate Gooey Pudding's butt. I mean, I don't want to brag but I could totally give Betty Crocker a run for her money. However, the baking spirits paid me back for my pride by sending me on an emotional roller coaster, over a freaking tart.

I decided on the tart since it was in the same cookbook which had so far treated me well. Lindsey and I decided that since the whole cooking AND baking that had gone so well last week, we should definitely do it again. This week we made chicken with an asian sweet chili sauce along with some rice and stir fry vegetables. I'm not going to even try to explain how good it was...all I'm going to say is that it was good last night that we are making it again tonight.

We were so proud of ourselves and the delicious dinner that we made. Well, to be honest, Lindsey really made the dinner while I was focusing on our dessert. Everything was going great. The tart was in the oven and we were relaxing and mentally preparing for another amazing dessert. I had told Lindsey to tell her sister about having some and also Kendall's boyfriend. And seriously, the baking spirits were totally having a good time messing with me and talking to each other saying "Oh, haha, that Becca, wanting to be nice and share her dessert. Let's mess it up so she will be totally embarrassed and everyone will think she's a crappy baker. That will teach her for making a baking blog".

The buzzer on the oven went off and I was hesitant to take the tart out. It just didn't look like it had...settled. It was too liquidy. I kept adding three minutes and then three more and then more and more. Eventually, I got worried and just decided to take it out and hope that once it had cooled, it might settle.

However, my lack of patience kicked in and I grabbed a knife and cut into the tart dying to know if it had turned out okay. Once the knife hit, I knew the answer. It was if it was chocolate soup with raspberry pieces. The filling tasted good, but it wasn't pretty, and not what it was supposed to be like. Of course my roommates tried to cheer me up by saying it still tasted good. But still. I sat on the couch and my roommates tried to get my mind off the matter by watching an episode of Grey's Anatomy but I constantly got up to check to see if the tart had magically settled. It hadn't.

After thinking about crying due to failing at my blog subject, I decided to try and put it in the fridge. When making chocolate cream pies out of chocolate Jello pudding, I had always put them in the fridge to help them become solid. After a few hours, I checked back and TA DA! The tart had settled! No longer was it a chocolate ocean with raspberry fish. It was a tart! A TART!

My mood changed instantly. No longer was I a failure. That stupid tart had made me doubt all of my self worth. How pathetic is that?

Kendall had saved her piece until after it had been in the fridge. As she sat and ate it, I tried to not gain too much confidence about my baking skills again. But I had a little when she said, "this is the best dessert I have ever had". I'm sure she was just trying to prevent me from crying and laying in a ball on the floor with my stuffed animal whining about being single, and lame, and a crappy baker. But her compliments still worked.

Although the tart didn't turn out to be my prettiest dessert, it was still a delicious one. Hopefully the baking spirits will take it easy on me next week.

Gooey Chocolate Pudding

Yesterday was a very lazy Saturday with lots of time spent on the couch catching up on "Tivoed" shows from the week. When 5:00 rolled around, it was time to decide how the night would be spent. I realized that a night with no plans was a great night to work on my first recipe for my blog.

My roommate Lindsey and I decided to go through one of our favorite and most useful (especially for college) cookbooks which only includes recipes with 5 ingredients or less. This cookbook has been so practical for a college kid who likes to bake but keep things simple. It also helps with keeping the price down when shopping at the grocery store. I always hate it when you want to bake some random dessert and it calls for something that you have to buy and never use again. I share a small pantry with 2 other girls...I don't have room for lots of random types of sugars, or spices.

As Lindsey and I flipped through the cookbook, we both made the same "ahhhh" noise as we flipped to the "Gooey Chocolate Pudding" page. Our mouths watered as we looked at the picture of the small piece of chocolate pudding with a baked outside and gooey inside. It looked like a chocolate volcano with hot, fudge like magma flowing inside it. We flipped through the rest of the dessert section already knowing that our minds were made up. We looked over the list of ingredients and skimmed over the recipe making sure everything it instructed we were capable of. It mentioned a term called "double boiler" which made us nervous. We knew we didn't have a double boiler so I "googled" the term to see how broke people like me created their own. We figured out that it was something we could improvise.

Our first stop was to Pier 1 Imports to buy some ramekins. The recipe called for four and after searching our kitchen we discovered that we had 1 lone ramekin. Being a dedicated baker, I decided that ramekins was a purchase that I wanted to make since I could use them for so many other recipes. At Pier 1 Imports, we walked the kitchen isles ooh-ing and ah-ing at all the neat kitchen gadgets that we desperately wanted. Mice salt and pepper shakers, cow creamers, and flower themed bowls called our names yet we remained strong and stayed focus on ramekins. While there were plenty to choose from, I decided on the simple, white classic ramekins that were not only the most heavy duty, but conveniently the cheapest.

After getting a set of 4, we headed to our next stop, Tom Thumb. Tom Thumb would have been a cheap trip if I had stuck to the handful of ingredients for the recipe, but soon my basket was filled with gorgeous sunflowers for the kitchen table along with all the ingredients to make a southern comfort, baked macaroni and cheese.

Once home, the first step was to clean the kitchen because this baker is only inspired and motivated by the smell of Fantastik sprayed counters. Lindsey decided to be my incredibly helpful assistant for making our Gooey Chocolate Pudding masterpiece.

We followed the directions religiously making sure not mess anything up. We chopped up chocolate, melted butter, and thickened milk on the stove. Eventually the ramekins were filled with gooey goodness and we played "SkipBo" for the long 10 minutes of baking. I was on the edge of my seat when the timer went off, already being tormented by the smells coming from the kitchen. Lindsey and her sister anxiously watched as I slowly, took the ramekins out of the stove trying with all my might not to mess any of the perfection up.

We let the ramekins cool for ten minutes as we filled our glasses of chilled milk. I purposely chose our smallest spoons so that we could get as many bites as possible out of the beautifully filled ramekins. I looked at the ramekins proudly, comparing the real finished product with the picture in the book seeing that they looked the exact same. Nothing is worse than when finishing baking and realizing that something isn't right, or it didn't come out as pretty as the picture shows.

After taking countless pictures of our pride and joy, we sat on the couch and slowly dug into the ramekins with a bit of hesitance to ruin the beauty. I was sad to ruin it until the chocolate hit my mouth. This was better than any lava cake at any bakery I have ever had. I wasn't sure if it was actually better or if it was all my hard work that made it taste better but I didn't honestly care.