Cake Show 2011

I am on Cloud Nine...I placed at the cake show!

It's all about the glory and the medal!

This weekend I competed in the 7th Annual That Takes the Cake contest here in town.  I started competing in it last year at the beginner level and this year I competed in the intermediate level, confections category and I took home the third place medal.  I am so pumped about it.  I've been baking ever since I was a kid, and it wasn't until Billa was born that I really took it seriously as a hobby.

Out of all the cookies I made for the competition, these two were my favorite!

Last year I felt like my category and skill level was over saturated with entries, so I chose confections this year, especially since I've been on sugar cookie kick for awhile.  I toyed with all sorts of ideas in my head and even debated NOT entering when at the last minute, I saw some Dia de los Muertos cookies on a baking blog I follow.  It had been one of my original ideas and seeing Sugar Belle's cookies inspired me to jump on that train.  Apparently, I wasn't the only one as there were several Day of the Dead themed entries in the entire contest!  That and peacocks, which was also another one of my ideas.

This was a real challenge for me as a baker, because I'm usually known for the flavor and design of my cakes and not my piping skills, which are seriously lacking.  It was a huge trial in patience to pipe the different colors and then wait for them to dry before going back over some of them.  I'm so glad I did, though, because that hard work paid off!  I've decided that I really should take some time this year to improve my piping and finally take a Wilton class.  I also want to do gumpaste flowers, but that's a whole 'nother can of worms!

My college buddy and fellow baking aficionado, Brianna, joined me in the contest this year and she came home with a first prize again.  Brianna, aka Twinkie, is AMAZING when it comes to piping.  Sometimes I wish I could hate her for it, but she is one of the sweetest people I know and she's incredibly humble, so it makes it really hard.  Seriously though, she's got skills, and I am always amazed at what she can do with buttercream icing.  We certainly set the bar for one another!

Brianna used stringwork and the Lambeth method to score her win!  Her piping is so neat and mine is usually, well, NOT.

All in all, I had fun looking at all the cakes and decorating my cookies and getting some super ideas for stuff I want to try.  Brianna's convinced me to compete in October at the Oklahoma show, OSSAS and I'm getting pumped up for that one.  We'll see what happens!

Winningly yours,
Kelly

Valetine Cookie Pops

I am becoming my mother.

Being redheaded just like my mom, and outspoken just like my mom, and creative...just. like. my. mom, I always hated being compared to her.  People always thought they were being complimentary when they'd tell me, "You're just like your mom!"  But to a rebellious teenager who wanted to be recognized for her own accomplishments, sense of style, and attitude, they were a death knell.  Now that I'm older and a mother myself, I look back on those years and understand why people would say it: they genuinely admired and loved my mom for who she was, and they thought that I was shaping up to be just as wonderful as they thought she was (which BTW, she's still pretty awesome...even if she does still drive me batty sometimes!)

My mom is a character.  She's always thinking outside the box and always bucking trends and traditions.  She dances to her own tune.  So while most moms were content to purchase a box of Scooby Doo valentines for their child to deliver to all of their class chums on Valentine's Day, my mom pooh poohed that idea and would instead stay up all night (because nothing is as motivating as a looming deadline) and sew stuffed hearts for each of my classmates.  And my brother Philip's.  And my brother David's.  And if that wasn't impressive enough, she would use puff paint to write each and every kid's name on that darn things.  We're talking about 90 hearts.  IN ONE NIGHT.  I told you she was awesome!

Well, I may not have a sewing machine anymore, but I have my very own KitchenAid stand mixer and one helluva recipe for sugar cookies.  At Christmas I made cookie pops (cookies on a stick) for my daughter's class Christmas party and they were so wildly popular that I decided to make them again for Valentine's Day.  In fact, our day care provider asked if I could make a couple extra for any parents that attended the party!   And just like my mom, I found myself working on them the night before they were due.  What can I say?  The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree sometimes.

Sybilla's class was so excited about their cookie pops.  Mary Ann told me when I picked up Sybilla that she told the kids they could have ONE treat from their boxes, and when they saw the cookie pops, that was it.  They didn't want anything else (at least until the cookie pop was consumed, lol) and I just about burst with pride upon hearing that.  There's nothing wrong with valentines that come from a box, but sometimes it's worth it to put a little extra effort in the mix.   These things are what memories are made of.  My daughter and her friends may not be old enough to remember them, but make something a tradition, make your mark on the world and that's what will happen.  In high school I had plenty of classmates who remembered the stuff hearts my mom made and some of them even still had them!

So being just like your mom isn't always such a bad thing.  My mom is known for her generous spirit, her sense of humor, her love of really bad sci fi/fantasy movies, her creativity, for thinking outside the box, and her disdain for being a follower.  If I had to be just like my mom, those aren't bad things to be known for.

Except maybe the bad movies bit...

Thoughtfully yours,
Kelly

PS And just because I think it's a funny picture...here is a picture of Sybilla and her"boyfriend" Jack...

Hey!  I thought I was your boyfriend!

Recipe thuRsday: Cherry Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Happy Thursday everyone!

I've been hankering for cookies a lot this past week so after my husband took the remaining Cherry Almond Wedding Cookies to work, I needed a different baked good fix.  I decided I needed chocolate!  And of course, I still had dried cherries.  I can't think of anything better than the two combined.  I took two different recipes and mashed them together to create this one.  In a nutshell, this is an altered chocolate chip cookie recipe, which I have made chewy and very chocolatey.  Alton Brown has a great episode on three different types of chocolate chip cookies, all of which were adapted from the Nestle Tollhouse cookie recipe. My favorite of course, is The Chewy, so I melted the butter which I think makes a HUGE difference in creating a soft, chewy cookie.  I wanted the cookies to be double chocolate, so I subbed out some flour for cocoa powder based off another recipe (again, a Tollhouse one--really, if you're going to mess with a good thing, go with the best).

These cookies came out rich, chewy, and super sinful delicious.  The cherry was very subtle, I think next time I might add more chopped cherries in there, or perhaps a swirl of cherry preserves.

Cherry Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 sticks of butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup of white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla (or cherry liquor if you have it on hand!)
2 cups of AP flour
1/2 cup of cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp of kosher salt
1 bag of semi sweet chocolate chips (about 12 oz)
1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped finely

1.  Preheat oven to 350F and line your baking sheets with parchment paper.
2.  In a large bowl, combine the melted butter and sugars and mix for about 1 minute.
3.  Add in the eggs and the vanilla, mix to combine.
4.  Add in the cocoa and salt until incorpaorated.  Scrape down the bowl as needed!
5.  Add in the flour and baking soda until flour is mixed in.  Fold in the chocolate chips and dried cherries.
6.  Roll into 1" balls, chill for about minutes in the fridge and then bake for 12-14 minutes.  Allow to cool on pan for about one minute and then remove to racks.

Enjoy with a tall glass of milk, or for an even more sinful treat, ice cream on top.  We had a Culver's Turtle ice cream cake with ours as well, and it was sooooo super delicious!

Some tips and notes for baking:
Dried cherries can be expensive so to make them stretch a bit more and get more cherry in every bite, chop them finely.  I recommend tossing them in a pinch of flour first though to keep them from sticking as you chop.  Repeat as needed!

The batter will be very soft and almost like thick brownie batter.  Allow it to chill for about 15 to 20 minutes before rolling it to ensure that you don't have too many problems with it.  Or you can roll the balls, place them on the cookie sheets, and then chill them for about five minutes before placing in the oven.  You might need to flatten them just a tad before baking!

And of course, cookie dough always freezes well, so you can pre-roll the balls and place them on a cookie sheet, freeze them, and then put them in a bag for single baking as you desire.  If you're trying to cut out some of the calories, you might be able to get away with cutting out half a stick of butter and not adding the entire bag of chocolate chips, but these are so rich, that you probably will feel satisfied after eating just one of them!

Buen provecho,
Kelly

Recipe thuRsday: Cherry Almond Wedding Cookies

Good news...Recipe thuRsday is back on!  I took a hiatus for the holidays mostly because I was ridiculously busy on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.  Last week was just plain laziness.  But hey, good things come to those who wait and lemme tell ya, have I got a doozy for you!

This recipe is a slight adaptation of one I gleaned from CookingLight.com and originally called for pistachios.  I'm not a fan of pistachios and they're a little expensive, so I used the next best thing: almonds!  And seriously, dried cherries are so great, they're like the original fruit snack.  I have to hide them from myself, they're so addictive and yummy.  I really hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do; it was delightful and weighing in at a mere 86 (roughly) calories per cookie, you don't feel so bad for eating more than just one!

Cherry Almond Wedding Cookies
1 1/2 cups cake flour (about 6 ounces)
2/3 cup all-purpose flour (about 3 ounces)
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar, divided
2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 cup chilled butter, cut into small pieces
1 TBSP ice water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup dried tart cherries, chopped
1/4 cup finely chopped almonds
Parchment paper

1. Preheat oven to 350F and lay down some parchment paper on your cookie sheet.
2. Combine flours, 3/4 cup powdered sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a large bowl and whisk together.
3. Add in the butter and mash the flour mixture with the butter until the mixture closely resembles sand.
4. Combine 1 TBSP ice water, almond extract and vanilla in a small bowl.  Slowly add the ice water mixture until thoroughly combined. The mixture will remain crumbly.
5.  Add in the cherries and almonds and mix until combined.  Gently press mixture into a level tablespoon; pack lightly with the heel of your hand. Turn out onto the prepped baking sheet.
Repeat with remaining dough to form roughly 32 cookies.
4. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes or just until bottoms are golden. Remove from oven and cool 10
minutes on the baking sheet. 
5. Place remaining 1/2 cup powdered sugar in a large bowl. Add cooled cookies; toss gently to
coat with powdered sugar. Transfer cookies to wax paper or rack to cool completely.

TIPS:
Cutting the cherries into smaller bits is highly advised for two reasons: 1) it disperses them more throughout the cookies and 2) it stretches them further since dried cherries can be expensive ($8.99 a pound!).  But they can get sticky and difficult to cut.  Take a pinch of flour and thoroughly mix the cherries with the flour as you go through the cutting process.  It will make them less sticky and easier to work with!
This recipe was originally performed in a  food processor.  I don't have a large one, so my instructions are for mixing by hand.  I started by using a mixer, but it didn't really help, so I continued on by hand.  You may think you're not getting anywhere, but I promise, it really does come together in the end!
Because these cookies do not spread at all on the cookie sheet, you can put them very close together on the cookie sheet so as to bake with one sheet.  You may need to rotate the pan or extend your cooking time slightly though to ensure they are all cooked, though.

Bon appétit,
Kelly