Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cakes

Hi Everyone,

It's been awhile since I've posted on here. I must do better.  I've been taking Wilton's Cake Decorating classes and have been having a blast.  I've completed Course 1 and am about to complete Course 2 this Monday (3/25/13).

I love decorating and baking and am getting very comfortable with my skills.  Here is a picture of a cup cake I made for my daughter's 32nd birthday.  I made 9 regular sized cup cakes and 24 mini cup cakes (2 bites).

I've been practicing my Photoshop skills as well.  This is a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cake with Caramel filling and a peanut butter, butter cream drizzled with chocolate and caramel sauce and a mini Reese's on top.

Reese's Cup Cake Recipe:

Duncan Hines Devil's Food Cake Mix (follow baking directions with these changes).  For a more homemade taste use melted butter in place of oil, add one extra egg and use milk in place of water.  It will have the consistancy of pudding, but that's okay. Use an ice cream scoop to fill your cupcake cups for even proportions.

Bake according to directions, but watch them. Mine were ready about 4 minutes before time was up.

Peanut Butter Frosting Recipe:

4 Cups Sifted Powdered Sugar
1/2 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter
1 Stick Softened SALTED Butter
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1/2 tsp. Almond Extract
4 tbsp Milk

Sift powdered sugar into your bowl add 1/2 cup of peanut butter and salted butter to bowl, turn mixer on slowly until sugar and butters are mixed. Add vanilla and almond extracts and blend some more.  Add milk slowly until frosting is smooth. Turn mixer on medium and mix for about 3 to 4 minutes until fluffy.

After cup cakes have cooled squeeze some Caramel Sauce (I used Hershey's Caramel) into the center of your cup cakes using a bottle with a tip. I used the Wilton Squeeze Bottles:
Use piping bag and star tip 1M to create top then drizzle some Caramel Sauce and Hot Fudge Sauce (I used Hershey's Brand) on top. Place a Mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cup on top for a nice presentation.

With the peanut butter frosting and chocolate cake the whole thing taste like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Yummy!

If you try this please comment and let me know how you like it.
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Trying my hand at Cake Pops

Well this past Saturday I decided to break out the little BabyCakes CakePop Maker I bought a couple weeks ago.  I tell you I love this little thing.  Of course you have to do your research on what recipes are successful and which ones aren't, but I did find through reading a formula that works out quite nicely.

If you are using regular cake mix and not making from scratch the formula is as follows:

2 C of cake mix (any brand)

4 Tbsp of melted butter

1/2 C of water or milk (depending on box instructions on which liquid to choose)

1 egg

Please be aware that the "batter" will be quite thick, when you see it you might think it can't be right, but trust me it is.  It is very hard to stir so if you are using your hands you will feel quite a bit resistance.  If you have a hand mixer it works well at low speed because as I said before it is very thick.  I actually added a couple more tablespoons of water to help "loosen" up the batter a bit so I could get the remaining "powder" to blend.

The directions suggest adding 1 tablespoon of batter into each well.  I found with the thickness of the formula above, you don't need that much, if you add just under one tablespoon you should be good to go.  The 1st batch I did started to bake before I had a chance to finish filling all 12 wells, but it was fine. Once you have all your batter in the wells, close and lock your CakePop Maker and in 4 minutes you will have some delicious little bites of cake ready for decorating.

The coating of chocolate is a whole other story I, burned about 1 1/2 lbs of melting chocolate because I didn't follow the directions. Note to self: READ DIRECTIONS.  I tried to melt at full power in the microwave for 1 minute and all that got me was some disgusting looking curdled chocolate. Yuck!!!  So my tip to you. if using the microwave use 50% power for 1 minute then 15 second intervals until chocolate fully melted.  I still found the chocolate to be too thick to dip so I would up swirling the cakepops in which came out okay, but I wanted the smooth look I see picture of on the internet.  They suggest adding a couple teaspoons of Crisco Shortening to help smooth it out, but I didn't have any of that so I had to wing it until I go shopping.

I tell you what these little things can be very addicting, even if you are like me and don't bake.  I will be baking from now on especially with the holidays right around the corner. My co-workers are going to love me :-).

Okay back to why I made them...one of my co-worker's birthday was coming up and I wanted to do something really nice for him because he's had a rough few months with illness and death in his family. He likes to eat and loves to fish (he has brought me the freshest red fish ever) so to return the favor, I made him some cakepops & a fish themed birthday card.

The cakepops were displayed in a box I created in Make-The-Cut Software using the text to path and new node editing tools and the card was created using fonts and some Lettering Delights Cut-It sets.

Until next time...

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Girl Onesie Cookies for Baby Shower

Well it's been quite awhile since I wrote something on this blog, but being out of work has had me in a funk.  What better way to get myself out of it is to keep busy and get the creative juices flowing. Plus this gives me a chance to better my decorating skills. So...my niece is having a baby shower on Saturday in New Orleans and since I live in Florida I can't be there.  I wanted to send her something special so I made 40 Baby Onesie Cookies to help her celebrate given the fact that they are pink I'm sure you can guess IT'S A GIRL!!  I started out with my favorite sugar cookie recipe and used a glaze instead of the normal Royal Icing.

On my work table drying.

Packaged

More to come since Christmas is coming :-)

Adventures in Baking my 1st Cake

So this is my 1st cake that I decorated and I was a little nervous because I had never decorated a cake before other than buying some icing from the store and slapping it on (tragic I know).  I had found this cake tagged on Pinterest (my favorite place), someone had done a ombre cake and I loved the way it looked so I decided to take a play on that style and create something similar, but not so elaborate for my co-worker who celebrated her birthday over the weekend.

I'm pretty pleased with the way it came out considering it was my 1st.  It is a Triple-Chocolate Cake with Cheesecake center. I made a fresh buttercreme icing and sprayed it with some Wilton Food Color Spray. I was hoping she would cut it at work so I could take a picture of the middle, but alas she wanted to savor it all for herself (which is totally her right, it is her cake after-all).  She has promised to take a picture of the inside for me so I can add it to this post.  So without further ado here is at least the outside of the cake...

Update 12/20/11

Cake has been cut and it looks quite nice.

Until Next Time...

My New Adventures in Baking!

So since I've just hit the milestone birthday (12/5). Turning 50 has got me thinking of things I want to do while I can still enjoy doing them, a bucket list of some sort.  Baking happens to be top on my list so I bought myself a KitchenAid Mixer for my birthday I pimped it out a little using Make the Cut software and some outdoor vinyl .  My mom was a terrific cook and I wasn't sure if I had any of her talent.  Last night I dabbled in a recipe I found for Pecan Praline Cookies, when I told my daughter I was going to try the recipe she looked at me funny and said "Ma, I know we're from New Orleans and all, but REALLY!!???". I just smiled and said, well if it doesn't work out all I've lost is a couple hours and some pantry supplies.

Roll in 9:32PM, I took the last batch out of the oven and I gave her the first cookie from my newest batch of cookies, I thought she was going to fall on the floor.  She squealed "Ma, this is the best cookie I ever tasted", I just smiled and said "good because I am bringing them to work tomorrow to go with our Holiday Luncheon".  Her entire face dropped and with doe eyes she asked if I could make her some too.  I gently reminded her that she thought I was crazy to bake them in the 1st place, but she truly is eating her words now. I didn't tell her, but I made a couple dozen for home too.

Took them to work today (12/7) and OMG! they went nuts over them.  Several people said it was by far the best cookie they had ever eaten.  I just smiled and whispered "Thanks Mom".  The cute little box I made to package them in came from instructions found here:
 http://thecreativeitchboutique.blogspot.com/2010/12/cookie-box.html

Until Next time...