Chocolate, Peppermint Cupcakes

Can you tell I like peppermint? Lol, well I love it! Mint anything is just delicious! I made some regular sized cupcakes and some mini ones! I was very excited to use the pretty cake plate my sister got me for my birthday!

Bridal Shower Cookie

One of my best friends, Shelley, is getting married in March and this past Saturday was her bridal shower. I made her a cookie that matched her wedding invitation and attached it to her present as the tag! (The purple ribbon came out fine, but the coloring on the cookie looks blue, it is actually purple).

Vegas Cookies!

I made 4 dozen cookies, 4 of each card suit for a birthday party for Husband's grandpa. He just turned 80 and his mom planned a surprise birthday party and requested that I make him some cookies to match her Vegas theme!

Rolos, Pecans, Pretzels, oh my!

My friend was having a girls movie night and I just cannot show up empty handed, so I needed something quick and easy! I remembered what I saw on a blog I read a few months ago and opted to make that!!

Pecan Pretzel Bites

Pretzals

Rolos

Pecan Halves

Yup, that's it! I'm telling you, this is very quick, very easy and very delicious!

1. Pre-heat oven to 250*

2. line all the pretzels on a cookie sheet (with parchment paper, but i was out) and top each one with an unwrapped rolo candy

3. Bake in oven for 5 minutes and no longer! They will not melt down as expected, but will hold their same shape

4. Top each rolo with a pecan half

5. Put the entire tray in your freezer to let the chocolate harden, for about 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

I now have a bag of pecan halves in my freezer, unopened pretzels and a bag of rolos just waiting until I need a quick snack again! OR, if you are just in the mood for something sweet, but do not want to make an entire cake, 28 cupcakes or or at least 36 cookies, you can make just as many bites of these as you want! =)

Coconut Cupcakes

I am back to the mixer for a quick batch of cupcakes! I wanted to try something new and found this recipe online.

Coconut Cupcakes

• 3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 5 extra-large eggs at room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure almond extract
• 3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 14 ounces sweetened, shredded coconut

For the frosting:

• 1 pound cream cheese at room temperature
• 3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
• 1 1/2 pounds confectioners' sugar, sifted

1. Line muffin pan with paper liners. Pre-heat oven to 325*

2. In an electric mixer cream the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy, on high for about 5 minutes

3. With the mixer on a low speed, add the eggs in one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition

4. Add the extracts and mix well

5. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt

6. in three parts, alternately add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk to the batter, beginning and ending with the dry.

7. Mix until just combined and then fold in the coconut. (If you have someone that doesn't like coconut (ahem, my husband) then scoop a few spoonfuls in muffin pan before you add it).

8. Fill each muffin cup to the top (or 3/4 full without the coconut) and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the tops are brown and a tooth pick comes out clean.

1. In the same (clean) mixer on a low speed, cream the cream cheese, butter, vanilla and almond extracts. Add the powdered sugar until smooth.

2. Frost the cupcakes and sprinkle with coconut. (I dyed my coconut by mixing it with a few drops of pink dye in a bowl.)

I left 6 for our neighbor dinner and the rest went to work with Michael! =)

50th Birthday Cake

Again, I baked all day long on the 31st for my mom's 50th birthday party later than night. The main thing I was baking was a two tier cake. The top tier was a chocolate cake and the bottom was vanilla. I hand-piped the design on all 4 sides of the cake. The bow and the fifty are made of fondant and then covered in glitter! The cake was a huge hit!

50th Birthday Cookies

I made a ton of cookies for my mom's dessert table, for her birthday. They were all 5's and 0's. The cookies are all silver and then decorated with blue and black. You cannot tell in any of the pictures, but they are all covered in glitter as well, so they have a light shimmer!

Ringing in 2011!!

Friday, December 31st was my mother's 50th birthday so she had a birthday party/New Year's Eve party! I was in charge of desserts and I decided to do an entire dessert buffet. I made cupcakes with whipped chocolate ganache, a two-tier chocolate and vanilla cake, brownies, sugar cookies, chocolate covered strawberries, M&Ms, white chocolate covered pretzels, and my sister made the while oreo balls. I added two pictures of her when she was little and another as a teen, she was not too thrilled about that! lol. It was a total success, almost everything was gone by the end of the night!

My sister and I decorated the house with 50 balloons and I also made her a birthday sign to hang on their fireplace mantle.

Happy Birthday Mom! I hope everyone has a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Peppermint Bark

Every Christmas, for as long as I can remember, my family (mom, sister and dad) made cookies and treats every year: press cookies, sugar cookies, butter cookies, molasses cookies, dipped pretzels, pecan balls, etc. My sister, Katie, and I would stand on chairs next to my mom and help her make the dough, lay the cookies on the sheet and then later frost them or cover them in copious amounts of sprinkles.

Well the tradition continues, my mom still makes all the cookies each year. I had to start making new cookies because no one really needs two batches of press cookies, molasses cookies, and sugar cookies, right? This year I decided I would try to make peppermint bark! I always loved Lammes Candies' version, but I wanted to add chocolate! I made this last night with the fudge! I think it's a winner and maybe a new Christmas tradition - for me!

Love my Christmas plates!

I hope you and yours have a very safe and Merry Christmas!!

Fantasy Fudge

My Dad always makes the most delicious fudge! Honestly, everyone loved it and no matter where I had fudge it just wasn't as good as my dad's. =) I am not sure if that was a younger mentality of "everything my dad does is better than your dad" or if his really was better. When I got married and moved into our house I decided I wanted all the recipes my parents made and that fudge recipe was the first one I wanted. So I copied it down and went home to make it. Guess what I noticed! That delicious fudge recipe is on the back of the jar of marshmallow creme! I guess it really was in my head, or Kraft has the best recipe!

Fantasy Fudge

3 cups Sugar

a 5oz can of evaporated milk

3/4 cup of butter

1 jar of Kraft Jet Puffed- marshmallow creme

1.5 boxes of Bakers Semi Sweet chocolate - chopped (12 squares)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup chopped nuts of your choice (i, personally, leave out the nuts)

1. prepare a 9x13 pan (if you like it thin) or a 9x9 (if you like it thick). My dad never lined the pan with anything, but I decided to use foil this time

2. chop all the chocolate into pieces, so it melts faster

3. Melt the butter, sugar, and milk in a saucepan stirring constantly

4. Bring it to a full boil for 4 minutes or until your candy thermometer says 234* and remove from heat

5. Stir in the marshmallow creme and the chocolate pieces. (Be VERY careful not to splatter because it is HOT!)

6. Pour mix into your prepared pan and spread it out evenly

7. After letting it cool for about 10-15 minutes (maybe longer, i didn't time this) cut the fudge; it makes it easier to cut it again once it's hardened. (I did not do this last year and I had to give everyone crumbles and broken fudge)

8. let is cool and you are ready to serve! mmmm...enjoy!

I didn't take a picture of it ready to go, maybe I will add that in later!

Google Challenge

Challenge: On Dec 16th send us (Google Nexus) a pic of your best gingerbread creation.

12/21/10 Update: We didn't win. =(

Here are the winners:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kayluhb/5260911717/sizes/l/in/photostream/

http://twitpic.com/3gjc3k

http://twitpic.com/3gd9q3

Husband wanted to do this challenge and tweet a pic to them of our "gingerbread creation." He wanted to do something original and settled on re-creating the Android sculptures on the Google campus, out of gingerbread. He drew out all of the shapes by hand and then cut them. Sunday night, Husband and I both made the dough and stuck it in the fridge for the next day! I cut the dough with the shapes he made and baked the cookies Monday night and frosted some of them and finished Tuesday evening! Below are the actual sculptures in the display we sent in! Yes, he's a geek and yes, I am a geek's wife who is willing to make these for him! =D

The real thing... We tried to proportion everything, but the gingerbread man is never in the same pic with the others, so we don't know just how big he actually is .

Our printed background and strategically placed gingerbread cookies! ;-)

Donut...Andy the Android (with his Nexus One)... Cupcake...Eclair...Froyo...Gingerbread

Hi Everyone!

I have decided to change my blog name! I have no real reason, but I just wasn't satisfied with my old name! I thought of something I like better! So, please follow this blogspot!

Thanks, Christine

Christmas Cookies

I was not able to make my (re-vamped) turkey cookies this year because I ended up getting sick. The next week Michael and I went on vacation, so I will just have to wait until next year. That being said, I was very excited to do my Christmas cookies. I decided to make a few different kinds and shapes. I made an android ornament for Michael, lol! I think my favorites are either the zebra with holly, the poinsettia or the little Santa belts (which turned out cuter than I thought they would be).

Nursing Scrub Cookies

Katie is finishing up her first semester at UT nursing school; hopefully these cookies were able to provide her with a yummy studying break! =D