Will be making

I will be making a couple of deserts for the Christmas

holidays which include "The Cover cake" again.. I told

you I was not gonna give up on it. I plan to make it 

again and definitely expect way better results than the

last time. I also have a Banana Cream pie that I saw on 

Dorie Greenspan's book From my home to yours. This 

pie looks super delicious and I think its gonna be a total

hit! Again.. I plan to make the pie in advance as a trial 

pie just to see what its gonna taste like and to see if it 

comes out right. Wish me the best! I will be posting pics

as soon as I can so you can see how it all turned out. 

Choco-Peppermint Cupcakes

...'Its the season to be jolly.... For some reason

this year the Christmas spirit is ever so present

everywhere you turn which is awesome. 

   I wanted to make something special for my co-workers

before we left for vacations today and I thought some

cute looking cupcakes would be a nice, small, and 

simple gift to show appreciation. These are very simple

cupcakes to make and delicious too! I basically bought

some chocolate cake flour to avoid the hassle of making 

them from scratch since it was late at night. It took me 

little time to get them done and the frosting was also 

easy to make. I made a marshmallow frosting that 

consists of egg whites and sugar candy. I added a bit 

of peppermint flavor to brighten up the flavor and also

topped them with candy cane pieces to give them the

final touch. The candy cane gave them that pretty 

look that I was looking for. 

PIZZA MIA!

It had been a while since I had been craving a home made pizza and on Sunday evening I decided to take up on the challenge. It had been several years since I had made a pizza. The last time I actually attempted with some help was while I was still in high school in my home economics class. Yeah... its been quite a while since then. So anyways... the dough is so easy to prepare being that it requires basic ingredients which most of us have handy. The ingredients are the following: flour, yeast, salt, water, and olive oil. TADA! That's about it so it doesn't take much time or effort. The only thing most hate about making any type of bread is that you have to wait such a long time to be able to make it. Don't take me wrong its worth the wait but Ohh boy do I hate waiting. So after the hour and a half of waiting, my dough was about ready... I know I should have maybe waited a bit longer to get a better rise but I was anxious to start. I had a bit of trouble forming the pizza shape since the dough would return to its original size but after working with it for a bit I finally got it to where I wanted it. 

 The ingredients on my pizza were pepperoni, mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, cheese of course, and just to add an extra flavor I added some VERY sweet pineapple. Let me just tell you that this pizza was amazing. I'm usually my worst critic and always have a comment about what I could have done better but this pizza blew me away. I honestly think that it was real good. I'm guessing I could use a lot more practice in the dough shaping department but it still came out real good. If you're interested in the recipe please let me know. For those of you who will give this a try, Good Luck to you! 

The COVER cake!

Well... I was wondering what I should bake next, and decided 

that the cover cake from Dorie Greenspan's book: 

From My Home to Yours looked absolutely delicious. I really 

didn't know how much trouble I would be getting myself 

into. I started off with the cake.. which was pretty easy 

I just needed to gather up a few missing ingredients but 

that was ok. So.. my cake was baking and about 8 min. till 

it was done I started making the frosting. NOW that's 

where the adventure starts. 

         

      

So I started with the sugars and water and I got them

to the boiling point so I started with the egg whites. 

To be totally honest I didn't have a candy thermometer, 

I had a meat thermometer so I was guiding myself with 

that but some how the candy didn't reach the desired 

temperature and only reached about 216 degrees F. I 

was like.. wellI'm sure it will still work so I added to my 

already at the moment whisking egg whites andwished 

for the best of the best of the best. Well.. bad decision. 

I whisked and whisked or maybe needed to whisk some 

more but it came out very frothy and I just didn't know 

what to do after that point so I just decided  to use the 

"frosting" as is. So I began to assemble my cake and 

frosting it. It just didn't hold the shape that I wanted 

for it but I guess it tasted pretty good. It is totally 

chocolaty and let me tell you chocolate isn't my favorite 

on the list.. but I'll eat it whenever I have a craving for it. 

The cake is super delicious and although unfortunately 

the frosting didn't get to the desired point its still ok. 

   

   

After I was done with the cake I had a lot of left over frosting... 

frothy frosting so I started to figure out what to do to make it 

better. I decided to add a few table spoonsof Light Corn Syrup. 

CHA CHING!! I started whisking again for about 3 min and it 

totallychanged the consistency of it. It became the marshmallow 

frosting that I should have ended up with in the first place.. 

but unfortunately was too late to add to the cake. 

LIVE AND LEARN right! 

 

Well.. that's why I'm here and that's why baking is an 

adventure. It not only creates delicious recipes but also

 lets you grow in the process. For next time... this cake 

will be the best of the best. I still have other cakes in mind

that are in the book... but I think I'll rest for a bit. My next 

adventure I think will be the LINZER Sable cookies with 

the jam in the middle. I don't think they'll be too hard

to make.. but HEY... one never knows how its gonna go till its goin'. 

 

Feel free to ask any questions! 

Snowball Cookies

OK ok.. I just HAD to bake something! I just couldn't wait to for 

my first post along with pictures. I got this recipe from 

Vanilla Bean from TWD. Hers look really good. These that I made 

came out kinda crunchy but they have a realgood flavor. If you need 

the recipe, visit her blog which you can find in Dorie's website 

tuesdayswithdorie.com. Hope you enjoy the pics and will post another

great recipe SOON! 

BTW, excuse the date on the pics...I forgot to configure the date.

                                

                                

                                   

                                      

                                 

You can find this recipe in Vanilla Bean's blog. Thanks for the great recipe!! 

Coming Soon!

 

I plan to make some of my own recipes and some recipies that

 I have been collecting for quite a while and have never gotten 

around to baking or cooking. I will also be using TWD's book, 

Food Network, and some other sources to create recipes. 

Don't take me wrong if I sound like if I know what I'm doing.. 

I honestly have no idea. I just know that I love cooking and 

baking and even though I will probably mess up some recipes, 

my consolation will be knowing that I'm doing this to learn and 

have fun! I would love to become a pro at baking and learn 

secrets while doing so. If you have any questions or 

would like to accompany me on my journey let me know.

With that said, let the journey/learning begin!