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!