Happy (after the holidays) Holidays!

It's a little late to be making a Christmas post, but I'm going to throw caution to the wind and do one anyway!! I had a wonderful Christmas and I hope all of you did, too. It was filled with presents, food, friends, food, love, and food. Did I mention FOOD?

I started out the holiday with a great friend of mine and her darling daughter teaching me their family cookie recipe. Though we ate most of the cookie dough before it even got into the oven, we did end up with some great cookies complete with icing and waaaaay too many sprinkles (courtesy of the cute little girl mentioned above and pictured below). It was a lot of fun!

Isn't that tiny rolling pin the cutest thing you've ever seen?

 

Yes, that is indeed a high heel cookie. Custom made!

The finished product. See what I meant about the sprinkles? :-P

The cookies ended up being adorable AND delicious!! Not to mention the cookies and frosting were made completely from scratch.

I then went on to take a crack at those 'made from scratch' cupcakes and frosting from the previous post again for a food party at work. They definitely turned out a lot better than the first batch.

LOOK! They aren't lopsided (well, a few still are) and they're all the same color!!!

Baking tip #5: Take a toothpick to the top of each batch of batter once poured into the cupcake pan to smooth them out. For some reason, and that reason I do not know, the batter is unevenly spread when just poured into the pan. Even when it looks like they're flat after pouring, they still bake lopsided. I poked the toothpick in the middle of the batter and spread it out in the liner. I was so pleasantly surprised that this worked.

Baking tip #6: This was definitely a "duh" moment for me but of course I didn't think of it during my first baking of these cupcakes. The instructions always say "12-14 minutes". I always put it on the lowest time just to be safe, but I guess my oven is SO different (old, crappy, other bad adjectives) that it bakes in less time than needed. I put them in for 10 minutes and then checked them. They weren't ready so I checked them every minute after that. They turned out to be perfect!!

 Then I added the frosting and sprinkles! YUM!

The frosting wasn't as runny as it was the first time I made it,

but it still wasn't the stiff, fluffy kind. Sigh, maybe someday. :(

Even though I was frustrated with my runny frosting, it was a great Christmas overall. What'd y'all bake for the holidays?!?

Until later,
Baker in Training

I'll leave you with this: the pups, waiting patiently for something to fall on the floor!

Made from scratch!

YAY!! I successfully created home-made cupcakes and frosting for the first time!! Now, when I say "successfully" I mean that I made some form of edible cupcakes and some form of edible frosting without a store bought mixture. I wish that by saying "successfully" I would mean that they were the most delicious things I've ever tasted, but sadly, I cannot. Don't get me wrong, they weren't the worst things I've ever tasted nor were they burnt or anything but they just weren't amazing like I hoped they would be. I had high hopes for my first time.... ;)

I also can't say that I mixed all of the ingredients without using a recipe. I don't think they would have turned out as okay as they did if I hadn't used one. I'm most certainly not at the "eye-ball it" stage. Before now, I didn't have a clue as to what even went into a cupcake or frosting mix. So, after some research, I found and used these two sites, Cupcakes and Frosting. Honestly, the only reason I chose them was because in each of those recipes I had all of the ingredients they called for. Some wanted canola oil, crisco, merengue powder (whatever the heck that is) or some other odd item that I would never in a lifetime have in my cabinet. Those recipes were simple and that's exactly what I needed for my first 'from scratch' baking experience.

So, though the cupcakes and frosting were okaaaay, (they passed the boyfriend test...although men will probably eat anything, right?), they were far from delicious. The cupcakes were dense and a little over baked, not to mention poured unevenly into the liners. I think my very old oven, hopefully my apartment gets an upgrade with the upcoming "renovations" they keep talking about, is hotter and bakes more unevenly than most because I put the cupcakes in for a minute less than what was recommended and a few came out more brown than the others. The cupcakes were also not as sweet as I would have liked...more sugar, please!! On the other hand, the frosting was TOO sweet and also runny. I put in all the right portions [plus about 5 more cups of powdered sugar to thicken up my frosting- bad idea?] and followed the recipes exactly and they still weren't that great.

Here are a few pics from my baking adventure-

First came the mixing (oohhhh, aahhhhh):

Taste test--Butter and sugar together is SO yummy! But, of course, I didn't taste the batter in the pic below with the raw egg (ewwwwww). 

Then came the finished product (yep, that quickly and without any mess, of course :-P):

See how uneven they are in both color and height?

See how runny it is?

One of these days, when I'm not a beginner anymore, I will try and post some baking How-To's. I know there are TONS of blogs out there (like this amazing one that I'm currently obsessed with: Bake at 350- her cookies are amazing and I will eventually tackle those) that have baking tips and tricks but I want to try it anyway. Right now I'm just trying to learn from my mistakes and trying not to repeat them the next time. Let's see how that goes.

Until later,

Baker in Training

Lucky Me!

Lady Luck must have been on my side because last night, I WON SOMETHING (two of my co-workers also won, yay)!! At a work raffle, I put two of my three tickets into a box labeled "cookie making set". Which, as you know is very appropriate for me with the whole learning to bake thing and all. Finally, after the other uninteresting prizes were claimed, the announcers brought up the box of tickets for the cookie set. I crossed my fingers, closed my eyes and chanted "oh please, oh please, oh please, oh please, oh please" under my breath. Something must have worked because they called out my ticket number and I couldn't help but shout with glee (making a pretty big fool of myself, of course)! I pretty much ran to the stage to claim my prize. I rarely win anything. It was awesome.

Here's what I won:

1. One cute green basket that currently sits under my kitchen sink helping to organize my cleaners.
2. Two Betty Crocker sugar cookie mixes and though I want to make my cookies from scratch eventually, I think I'll use a mix first and work on my Royal Icing. Yum-o (yep, a little Rachael Ray action)!
3. One Betty Crocker cookie recipe booklet. They all look delish!
4. Two silicone spatulas.
5. Two sets of Chrismas sprinkles.
6. One set of Christmas themed cookie cutters.
7. One set of measuring cups and spoons.
8. Two cookie cooling racks.
9. Two cookie baking sheets.



I didn't even own half of the things that were in that basket. The best part of it all, you ask? I got it FO' FREE! I really like free stuff. Who doesn't?

Until later,

Baker in Training

Happy Halloweeeeeeeeeen!!!!!

.....I prefer the treats, obviously!

So, after a long evening of making my halloween cupcakes and fondant shapes, I learned a few things:

• Cupcakes are small, thus the figures should be small. Mine were larger and that's a pretty big mouthful of fondant.
• The first bullet point leads to this one: I should flavor my fondant with just a little bit of vanilla, because it tastes kind of plain.
• Black fondant is the hardest thing to work with. It was stickier than the white fondant and I had to use a lot of powdered sugar. Then the powdered sugar wouldn't come off of it no matter how I tried. Annnnnd it stained my hands and the counter, gr.
• Regular grocery store frosting doesn't work very well in a piping bag. Not only was it runny and sloppy but there isn't enough to fully frost 20 cupcakes... I learned that the hard way and some only have a little bit on them just to hold the topper in place.
• It took about 3 hours to craft 11 pieces, so I need to speed up a little or my creations are going to take all day. 
• The edible glue is awesome!! It sticks perfectly the first time. I only had a little bit of trouble sticking the black eyes to the orange pumpkin. It slipped just the tiniest bit and the black leaked onto the orange.
• In fact, my new tools proved extremely useful. I haven't used them all but I will eventually.
• I haven't experimented with homemade cupcake batter or icing yet so they taste the same as the first ones. I'll work on that next! 

The ghost was nearly impossible to stand up on a cupcake so he didn't make it on top of any. :(:( Baking tip #4: Don't use toothpicks!!! I used them with small marshmallows to attempt to make the ghost sit up straight but it didn't work at all. The toothpick punctured the marshmallows and came through the top of the ghost's head. I struggled with the ghost for the longest time trying to get it to work but then just scrapped it altogether and stood it up on its own fondant body which worked better than I thought it would. I saw a few YouTube videos that used two large marshmallows isntead to drape the fondant over. I'll definitely try that next time. The only thing I've found that toothpicks are good for are testing the middle of your cupcakes to make sure they're done all the way. At least they're good for something!

I didn't have any good pictures of the witch hat on top of the cupcakes, so this one shows its good side!

Also, I loved the orange and black cupcake holders, they're too cute. Overall, they were a lot of fun to make and I can't wait until I can create some more!



Until later,

Baker in Training

Shop 'til you drop!

Well, I guess I didn't do that much shopping or even spend very much at all, but it was still productive (and fun)! I bought a few things that I needed in order to make different shapes for future creations and most certainly for the upcoming spooky holiday. The Halloween ones will actually be given to my coworkers so they have to be more presentable than my first creations. So, these new things will help:

• Different fondant colors- black, yellow and green. At the store, I was so frustrated because I couldn't find orange coloring. I couldn't believe they didn't have it. I came to find out later when I was watching a video on fondant pumpkins that you just mix the red and yellow to make orange. DUH!!!! Baking tip #3: Though you're not in art class anymore, buff up on your color wheel. It will come in handy when you're trying to figure out how to make specific colors. I can't believe I didn't realize you could mix them to make others. Can't a kindergartener do that without thinking too hard?? Sheesh! Granted, if I started mixing all willy nilly I'd end up with poop brown most of the time anyway, so I need to study my colors again!
• Edible glue- we'll see how much better that works than just plain water. Now I may want to think about a paint brush? I've seen plenty of videos where people use one to "paint" the glue onto the fondant.
• Circle shape cutters- I have three sizes to work with.
• Frosting tip- I can't even describe the shape of it, but it's a common design and it will be cool to see how it turns out on my cupcakes.
• Fondant roller- I really wanted a small plastic rolling pin, but all that Michael's had were the humongous ones which I do not have a need for. I was also too impatient to wait until I received one from Amazon. So, I settled for a "Duff" (Ace of Cakes is awesome anyway so supporting it is a good thing) brand rolling pin that looks like a paint roller. We'll see how that works out.
• Last, but definitely not least, a fondant cutter- I was, unsuccessfully, using a butter knife to cut the fondant before I got this neat tool. I can't wait to see what the two different blades are like and how easily they cut through the fondant. 

I'm so very excited to try out my new toys!! Hopefully the Halloween cupcakes will turn out beautifully.

Until later,

Baker in Training

And the results are in:

Thank goodness for these two fine videos that give step by step instructions on how to make a Fondant Rose and Fondant Pony because they helped me create these!! Yes, I know those sound a bit challenging, but I decided to try them anyway.

A few good things:

1. I can't believe I was able to make those things after only watching a video.
2. I'm better than I thought I would be, not to toot my own horn or anything ;).
3. It's so much fun!!!!!! 

A few bad things:

1. I need to buy different colors. I only had white fondant and red ink so I was very limited. 
2. I need to buy different tools. I molded/flattened/shaped/rolled it all by hand which resulted in several imperfections.
3. As seen in the horse picture, I put too much water on its face to get rid of the powered sugar left over from molding. I should have just brushed it off with my finger.
4. Water is not a very good glue agent for fondant. They say it works on the different websites I visited, but it's just not that great.
5. The chocolate frosting was a weird choice for the pony. She looks like she's sitting in her own........
6. The cupcakes were bland. They weren't very fluffy and they were just boring. I guess that's about all you can expect from a box cake mix, huh? 

Needless to say, I learned many different things after my first fondant session. Baking tip #2: Among needing a million other different tools, look into getting an actual fondant glue (yes they make them edible!). The pony looked horrible when it was all shiny on the nose area after dousing it in water to remove powdered sugar and to force it to stick to the head. It also makes the fondant bleed so I had spots of red on my white pony where I didn't want it. Hopefully, fondant glue will make it stick fast and strong. 

I'm so excited about my next fondant-fun session. Here are a few other things I created that didn't involve a video and weren't as complicated. (The pumpkin was my favorite but of course I didn't have the right colors so I just used what I had).

I can't wait to create more!!!! Stay tuned!

Until later,

Baker in Training

It's edible playdoh!

As I took the fondant out of the package and started kneading it, Ryan says, "Why didn't you just get playdoh to play with?" to which I replied, "I could've...but you can't EAT playdoh!!" [Insert blog post title here.] To give more background information about my random idea to start making and decorating baked goods, I attribute all of the fault to CutestFood.com. Well, part of the fault is also due to the fact that I don't have my creative/random gardening outlet any longer because of my new living situation. Either way, I was intrigued and excited about trying something new. We'll see how things turn out and if I end up any good to keep it up for a while. It'll be fun, I know for a fact!

Baking tip #1: Research fondant. What is it? How is it made? Is it easy to use? Does it taste good? Is it expensive? Buy it premade or make it yourself? etc., etc. After having watched about a million YouTube videos, searched websites and bugged my coworkers, I found that the Wilton brand fondant (pictured above) would suffice for now. Some websites suggested the "Satin Ice" brand, it even sounds expensive, doesn't it?, but I wasn't ready to spend a lot of money on something I had no idea how to use. I settled for the Wilton brand from the baking isle in Michaels and couldn't wait to open it up and use it!

So, now comes the baking part. Since I can make a somewhat decent cupcake, (out of the box, OF COURSE!), I decided to start there. I'm not about to start decorating whole cakes with fondant, just making small objects and placing them on top of frosting. Easy peasy...right?

WRONG!! Fondant is so fun, but a little hard to get used to. First of all, it's sticky. I went through so much powdered sugar, it basically coated my entire kitchen floor. That stuff is difficult to keep in a neat and clean area. Second of all, it dries out quickly. It got to the point where I had plastic wrap on stand-by so that I could stuff the fondant in as quickly as possible to avoid cracks. Third/last of all, my fingers hurt by the end of the molding process. I guess I don't use those fondant rolling-mushing-ball rolling-smashing-poking muscles in my hands too often.  Overall, it was a great learning experience and it's going to be so fun to learn to make different shapes and objects. What if one day I can cover an entire cake with fondant?! *GASP* Oh the possibilities!

In my next post, you'll find pictures of my first attempt fondant objects pics. They're pretty neat if I do say so myself!

Until later,
Baker in Training

Intro

Well, since I can't garden in my current living situation (apartment with rules against personal garden patches), I'll take a crack at baking!! Thus the creation of "Baker in Training". It will be similar to "Gardener in Training" in that I will post pics of my creations and describe what worked and what didn't. Hopefully I can throw some helpful hints in there somewhere, too! Hope you enjoy it! :):)

Until later,

Baker in Training