Thursday, November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!

We were so blessed and got to spend Thanksgiving with some dear friends in Lexington. The dinner was awesome thanks to Carly. It was a Thanksgiving I will never forget. I love this family and their goodness.

We had fun with the place settings. The kids and I decorated the turkey cookies.

We stuck candy corn in a double stuffed Oreo, wrote the names with frosting, then stuck this in a open faced Oreo. We used Whoppers for the head, cut orange Starbursts for the beak (used white chocolate to glue on head), and white chocolate for the eyes. We also used the white chocolate to help some of these little guys stay together if the backs of the Oreo came lose after stuffing with candy corn.

I want to remember this cute thankful tree idea. I loved it. Carly used a branch from outside and then cut out leaves from paper. All month they put things on the leaves they were thankful for (she even let us do some) and hung them on the tree. Then we read them over dinner. They were some really creative ones like I'm thankful for bugs and hats.

Thanks for the fun memories!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Pumpkin Roll


Liz this is for you. Sorry it isn't the prettiest looking roll but hey looks aren't everything. =)
Here's the recipe:
3 Eggs
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup pumpkin
3/4 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt

Combine all dry ingredients, stir well then set aside.
Grease and flour 15x10 jelly roll pan (I love the Baking Joy spray that has it combined.)
Beat eggs for 3 minutes on high then gradually add sugar. Beat until fluffy. Stir in pumpkin. Fold in all dry ingredients. Pour in greased pan.
Bake at 375 for 15 minutes. Let sit for couple minutes then run spatula along edges of pan and turn pan onto towel that is sprinkled liberally with powdered sugar. Roll lengthwise until cooled.
Unroll spread with icing:
8 oz. cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar (little less)
4 Tbsp. butter
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Reroll and cover in saran.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Gobble Gobble!


Jill and I made these for Courtney's baby shower. They did a mini Thanksgiving feast. It was so cute. These were fun to do but they were a little fragile so be careful not to trace the chocolate on to thin.

Thanks Cassie for sending me the link to make these. Here it is for you if you want to do it. They are simple just take time.
http://www.thepartyanimal-blog.org/nutter-butter-turkey-cookie-pops/
I got my edible eyes from Sweets.com.

My little gobbler Ethan thought these were so cool. They would be cute to have on the table at Thanksgiving displayed like this or you could write names on them with the chocolate and use as place cards. I wouldn't suggest traveling too far with these little guys though because they are so fragile.


Happy Thanksgiving!!

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Fall cookie cake


I made this for a Linger Longer activity after church today per Ethan's request. It was fun to do the fall theme. I will never get sick of these colors.

I found the acorn idea on line. They were super easy to make. Just take a Hershey's kiss with a little frosting on the flat end and put a mini Nilla Wafer on top of it. Then with chocolate frosting pipe a stem on the top. I put mine in the freezer for a few minutes to set up and then frosted it to the cake. To make the leaves I went outside and gathered some fallen leaves and then used that as a pattern to trace onto the cake.

Still need practice with my writing. I feel like the pictures make it look worse. Oh well I think I will be getting more practice with as much as I want to make these.
Happy Fall!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

More Caramel Apples


I was happy to do more caramel apples only this time using fall colors. I love the sprinkles on these. I still haven't perfected the caramel here in this crazy humidity but I think I'm also there. Next time I am going to try cooking to 252 degrees.

My friend Natalie who helped with the apples came up with this new one-mini chocolate chips. They kind of melted on the warm caramel so next time I may wait to add these to the last of the batch. I love the mini Reeses pieces (I took the brown ones out for the apple shower.) They look cute and it's less chopping which is always a plus.

The final presentation. I took some to my doctor's office and the receptionist called saying they were fighting over the apple pie ale mode one. Even with all the new fun flavors its good to know that the favorite is still that one. I think it will always be me and Ethan's favorite as well. Too bad it is the hardest one to do (I hate working with white chocolate especially in the South.) Oh well some good things come at a price! Happy Fall!

Friday, November 5, 2010

Happy Birthday Drew!


I felt so privileged to make these cakes for Ethan's best friend in first grade. He is the sweetest little boy and we feel so blessed that him and Ethan have hit it off so well.
Drew wanted a cookie cake for his birthday party which I have never done so I was up for the challenge. I was so happy his mom trusted me to try it out. I was pleased with the outcome and will be making more of these. I got the sport design idea online. Jared helped make a pattern of a football and baseball (traced half of a bowl) out of paper then I placed the patterns around the edge of the cookie and traced them with frosting. I drew on the stitching of each ball then filled it in with stars. It was so fun to see it come together. The final touch was the wording which I need practice doing. It's funny that I feel more comfortable writing on the smallest of spaces but give me a bunch of room to write and I get all nervous.

Here is the recipe that I used for the cookie cake:
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour maybe less
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 ½ cups chocolate chips (I like ½ white and rest milk)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Directions
1. In large bowl, beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well.
2. Gradually add flour, salt, and baking soda, beating until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.
3. Spread in greased 16 inch round pizza pan. Leave 1 ½ inch border to allow for spreading. Bake at 350 degrees maybe a little less for 15 to 20 minutes. Cool cookie in pan on a cooling rack. Decorate as desired.



This is the second cake I got to do for sweet little Drew. It was to take and share with the 1st grade class.

I used my 10 & 4 football pan and decorated it just like my last one. The baseball was baked in the Wilton 3D ball pan. I used an actual baseball to figure out the stitching and then filled in the rest with stars (tip 21.) I had a great plan to make the chocolate letters that say Happy BDay Drew to stand up in the frosting grass that I piped on. After spending forever piping on the grass (my hand hurt too bad to pipe around the back in case your wondering why it looks funny back there) I found out that the grass wasn't deep enough for the words to stay so they ended up laying down. Oh well I think he was pleased with the turn out. I know Ethan loved this theme and he is already planning out his birthday in April. He wants me to make a cookie cake for sure.

The ball looks a little furry. It probably would have looked better to use tip 16 but that would have taken me another 2 hours to do.

Happy Birthday Drew!!