Summer Days

Well, it looks like summer is really over. Fall started officially last week, and we woke up this morning to gloomy skies and plenty of rain. So, to remind me that is really was sunny and warm, here are some cookies I made back in the spring:

It was my first time trying cookies on a stick, and I ended up making them huuuge in order to get the stick to stay in. Oh well, I don't think anyone complained... :-)

Chocolate and Vanilla

When I bake, I generally try to make sure it's for an occasion that means I have to either take the goods elsewhere, or have people come by who will help eat it. If I didn't do that, well, there'd be all this cake around waiting to be eaten. I'm not one to ignore baked goods...

The only thing is, it means I don't usually bake just for the family. A couple of months ago I decided that was kind of unfair on the family! So I checked with them, and they came up with a request for "a chocolate cake with vanilla and chocolate frosting." I was happy to oblige :-)

I also got to use the cool glass cake stand that I found on eBay--I never realized how many cool cake stands are out there!

Frosting in my Hair, Chocolate on the Floor.

I finished making a couple of small cakes to today, and when I was done there was blue frosting in my hair and chocolate splattered on the kitchen floor :-)

This is the cake that required the blue frosting:

It was my first attempt at gumpaste flowers, so I was pretty happy with the result. I definitely had the shakes for piping the blue lines--I think next time I try something similar I'll mark out the start and end-points instead of free-handing, and also maybe thin the buttercream a little more (the thin lines kept breaking). And trying other flowers is on my list of things to do!

The chocolate came from this cake:

I had to melt the chocolate, spread it really thinly and shave off pieces just as it hardened.  I managed these rustic looking "cigars" after three attempts. The first one the chocolate seized after I heated it at too high a setting, the second one I spread too thickly and the chocolate took ages to harden and then wouldn't curl nicely. Third time was lucky though, and it was both fascinating and satisfying to see the shavings shape up. I stuck them onto a fresh layer of buttercream, and then tied the ribbon on just to be sure nothing collapsed. The fruit was a nice contrast to the richness of the cake and chocolate.

Animal Cookies

When my daughter turned six, she asked for an animal-themed party, and these were the cookies we had as part of the snack. It was my first real attempt at royal-icing decorated cookies, and it was so much fun! 

I mixed the colors by hand, except for the black on the zebra stripes which are drawn in with edible marker. I wish I'd known the tip I learned when making the sun cookies: roll out the dough as soon as you've made it between two sheets of parchment paper before refrigerating. It stiffens much quicker, and it's much easier to cut out crisp shapes from the thin, cold dough. Oh yes, and if you freeze the cookies for about ten minutes before you pop them in the oven, they also keep their shape much better.

Sun Cookies!

Yesterday marked the summer solstice here in the Pacific Northwest, and we were graced with a spectacular, dare I say hot, day. Fabulous! I celebrated by making sun cookies for my daughter's Daisy Troop end-of-year gathering.

I got to try out a new technique that I've always wanted to, using a toothpick to drag multiple colors across a white surface. You basically flood the surface of the cookie with white royal icing, and then do a few concentric circles. You then drag the toothpick from the center outward, and you end up with something sun-like:

Cupcakes for the Homeless

There's a local charity that, once a year, provides thousands of cupcakes for the homeless in the area. I was surprised to learn there are apparently around 10K homeless in King County alone. The organization provides necessities throughout the rest of the year, and the cupcakes as something special.

I pledged two dozen, and put together these chocolate ones with buttercream frosting I had left over from making my daughter's birthday cake. (The stars are fondant).

Cupcakes for the Teachers

Once a month, during the school year, the parents provide a lunch for the teachers and I always race to sign up for a dessert. These were the chocolate cupcakes, iced in vanilla and chocolate store-bought frosting (pics taken with my iphone, so not the best quality):

The verdict: I enjoy working with the two colors of frosting, and I reeeally prefer homemade frosting, though store-bought will do at a pinch.

Welcome!

Beautiful baking seems to be a growing obsession interest of mine, so here's the blog where I can keep track of what comes out of the oven. I plan on putting up some older pictures, and then updating with current projects as they come along. Thanks for stopping by!