Busy, Busy, Busy!

I can't believe it's already the end of December. It's been a crazy busy month, with my birthday and Christmas and all. I did bake a couple things for Christmas...posts to come. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures because A) my camera was almost dead, and B) I was rushing to get everything done and taking pictures were not high on the priority list. I'll also probably have to have a little sabbatical. I'm in the process of trying to find an apartment and hopefully moving in about a month, as well as possibly looking for a new job in a month or two. Plus I won't have a kick-ass stand mixer :( that makes me really sad. Anyways. Posts to come.

Yay New Layout!

Hola! Soooo my new layout is done! Yay! I did not design it myself. That's almost laughable if you thought that. My awesomest friend Lace designed it for me! She's also my #1 Fan ;) I'm glad I could give her something to do  that would procrastinate her grad school homework. Thousands of miles away and I still manage to distract her. That's what I call talent, people. Also, as a little teaser...my next recipe is going to be Amish Friendship Bread! It still has a few more days to go so new post coming soon! :)

Again, thanks to my most awesomest friend in NYC for the most awesomest layout!

Dog Food is Delicious!

I mean Puppy Chow is delicious. Chocolate, peanut butter, Chex cereal, and powdered sugar. What could be better? Ooooo I know! Chocolate, peanut butter, Crispix cereal, and powdered sugar.  There is a big difference, my friends.
I went and visited my little brother this past weekend at his school. I had never been to Concordia, or Moorhead for that matter, and so I decided to take a little trip. He not-so-subtly asked if I was going to bake anything before I went to visit and I had all the intention in the world to bake something magnificent. Unfortunately I did not have all the time in the world. I had a very busy week leading up to the weekend and I thought that Puppy Chow (or Chex Muddy Buddies) would be a quick, delicious way to get out of baking something time-consuming. I used the recipe right off the Rice Chex cereal box so here it is:

Ingredients:
9 cups rice chex, corn chex, chocolate chex, or combination. (I substituted Crispix cereal because it's both rice and corn. And I think it tastes better than chex).
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:
1. Measure cereal into large bowl; set aside.
2. In 1-quart microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter uncovered on High 1 minute; stir. Microwave about 30 seconds longer or until mixture can be stirred smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Pour into 2-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag. (I actually melted everything on the stove top. It takes a little longer than the microwave but you don't have to worry about touching a hot bowl or anything.)
3. Add powdered sugar. Seal bag; shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper to cool. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

I made double what the recipe called for and it made a ton. I brought some for Daniel, brought some for the 3 1/2 - 4 hour ride to Moorhead for Andy and me, and I left the majority of it at home ;) Because I made so much, I actually mixed everything in a huge, ginormous tupperware bowl. It worked very well and I even coated the puppy chow with the powdered sugar in the bowl. I just made sure the lid was on tight and shook it! I was a little worried that it might break the cereal pieces but there was so much of it in the bowl that that I really didn't have a problem. I then laid it on wax paper to cool, went to dinner with some friends so there was plenty of time to cool, and came home and put it in ziploc bags. I didn't refrigerate it and I think it's just fine non-refrigerated. I was in such a rush to get this done before my dinner that I didn't even think about taking pictures. Making the puppy chow my way took about 20-25 minutes instead of the 15 minutes the Chex box says it takes. I think it's because I slowly melted everything on the stovetop instead of microwaving it all. Until next time...

Fire Away!

Under Construction

I'm getting the itch for a new blog design so please don't mind the non-matching, weird colors, or anything else that might seem off! It's a work in progress :)

I Fall for Autumn

Hello everyone! So again I'm kind of failing at this baking and blogging stuff. It'd be soooooooo much easier if I had my own place. I could bake every single day if I wanted to. And I would bake a lot more.

My last baking venture was a joint effort with my friend Celia! We decided to make something Autumn-themed because it seemed appropriate. We tried our hand at Maple Cream Cheesecake Bars! I'm going to steal the recipe from her website (www.celiaperry.com) because A) she found the recipe to begin with, and B) we made the same thing so no need to try and find the original website myself. Let's see...hmmm. It's been so long since we've done it that I've kind of forgotten about the details. The recipe comes from the Wolcott Maple Products website.

Crust:

3/4 cup butter, softened

1/3 cup Pure Maple Syrup

1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

2 cups Flour

1/2 tsp Salt

Cheesecake

(2) 8 oz packages of Cream Cheese, softened

1/2 cup Sour Cream

2 Eggs

3/4 cup Pure Maple Syrup

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 tsp Lemon Juice

2 cups Chocolate Chips, melted

8 oz jar Pure Maple Cream

First cream the butter, then fold in the maple syrup and vanilla. Add the flour and salt and blend. Press into 9″ x 13″ pan. When Celia and I did this, we decided to break the dough apart and press the crust down bit by bit. 

Next, pour the melted chocolate over crust. We used a double-boiler to melt the chocolate chips. Spread about 3/4 of the maple cream on top of the chocolate and set aside. Beat the cream cheese until light and completely smooth. Beat in sour cream, then eggs (one at a time). Gradually beat in maple syrup followed by vanilla and lemon juice. Pour over the chocolate and maple cream. 

Bake for 15 minutes at 400° F, then reduce heat to 350° and bake for another 30 minutes. Apparently the website recommends chilling the bars before drizzling the chocolate and remaining maple cream on top, we couldn't wait for more than 15 minutes.

We had a bit o' trouble getting the chocolate to drizzle so we dipped forks into the melted chocolate and just kind of...splattered the chocolate on the cheesecake by moving the fork back and forth quickly. Then we ate spoonfuls of the melted chocolate. 

As always, there is a learning experience to every baking endeavor. We couldn't find maple cream nor did we have any idea what maple cream was so we went without. We probably should've found some kind of maple cream because the bars were not very maple-flavored...but they still tasted delicious. You couldn't taste the maple but there is nothing wrong with chocolate cheesecake. :) Until next time...

Fire Away!

PICTURES!

Celia! 

Keeping It Up!

Hello my fellow reader(s). I'm trying really hard to keep up with this blog now that I'm actually kind of baking and plan on baking a little more. I seriously need to get to Michael's or somewhere and get some cool little baking tools...maybe some real pastry bags so I don't have to use my mom's ziploc bags. I'm sure she'd appreciate that too. "Ziplocs don't grow on trees, ya know!" Ok, so she didn't actually say that, but she's the kind of person that would.

My parentals are out of town this weekend so I might try and bake something. I haven't quite decided yet. I may want to use that alone time to revel in my alone-ness and get in some quality "me" time. Plus I've been blessed with a nasty little cold and I'm not sure people will want to eat my goodies. I don't know if I'd want to eat goodies baked by a sick person. My goodies, my goodies, my goodies, not my goodies. I also believe cold medicine makes you weird and messes with your mind. Forget heavy machinery, I shouldn't use mixers or ovens while on cold medicine.

Anyway, I saw the Lion King 3D this weekend. I love the Lion King but don't see the point in making movies 3D. Didn't really see a difference and it cost 3 dollars more than just a 2D movie. 3D is stupid.

What a Shock!

I have news. I actually baked cupcakes! After I realized that this blog was failing, I decided I'd better start baking. I didn't make tropical cupcakes as my previous post implied...I made chocolate cupcakes instead! Let me tell you...these cupcakes were a hit! Everybody at work (plus the Boy) seemed to really like them! Not to brag but one of my managers said they should be illegal. I'm thinking she was exaggerating a bit but I'm still going to feel good about myself. Haha.

The cupcakes that went over sooo well were a chocolate cupcake with an orange cream cheese frosting, topped with a piece of of Lindt Dark Chocolate Intense Orange chocolate. I made the cake part of the cupcakes from scratch (the chocolate part!) and I found a super easy recipe online. Not only was it super easy, it was super delicious! I'm thinking anytime I make chocolate cupcakes, it will be my go-to recipe. I'll never make chocolate cupcakes from a box mix again! Not that I made many cupcakes before but you catch my drift.

The great part about the recipe I found is that there is no eggs or butter. I know it sounds weird to not have butter or eggs but the recipe is so delicious you don't even notice.

The chocolate cupcake recipe:

2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder (I used Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder)
3/4 cup oil
1 1/2 cups water (I substituted one cup of chocolate milk for one cup of water...so it was 1/2 cup of water, 1 cup chocolate milk)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 tablespoons vinegar (sounds weird but you can't even taste it) plus when it touched the baking soda, it fizzed in the bowl! :)

Mix all the ingredients together until moist and well-blended. Put cupcake liners in a cupcake tin and fill 1/2 - 3/4 full of batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Ta-da! all done with that! Now it's just time to let the cupcakes cool.

The frosting was cream cheese frosting from a can. I used Pillsbury Creamy Supreme Cream Cheese frosting and added orange extract to make it..well, orange-flavored. I spooned out all the frosting from the can and put it in a bowl and then added the orange extract and mixed it all together. I just put in 1/2 teaspoon at a time and kept tasting it until it got to an orange-factor that I deemed delicious. I then tried to be a little fancy and scooped the frosting in a make-shift pastry bag (ziploc bag with the corner cut out..lol) and frosted the cupcakes that way. Learning experience: Frosting the cupcakes fancy-like uses a ton of frosting. I ran out of frosting and had to frost the last few normally. Now I know. I was in a little bit of a rush (it being a work night and all), and so I put some of the cupcakes in the fridge so they'd cool faster and it worked very well, I must say. I knew better than to try and frost cupcakes while they were still warm.

Last, I broke the Lindt chocolate bars into the pre-determined squares and just squished the pieces into the cupcakes (one square per cupcake) so they would stay put. I put the bars in the fridge so they would break easier and wouldn't melt. It was 80-90 degrees outside, after all.

The yield for this cupcake recipe was supposed to be 24...however I only got 22 out it. Not a big deal to me because it wasn't for any event in particular. Just felt like baking.

Well, there it is. My second baking attempt, first successful one. Now that I know I'm not a complete baking failure, I have a feeling I'll be doing more baking :) Until next time...

Fire away!

Pictures for you! FINALLY.

I need to hop to it!

Wow, this blog has been a large failure. I'm really hoping that I'll get back on track and that this blog won't just sit and take up space.

Imagine my surprise when I signed on for the first time in over a month and saw that I had TWO whole followers! :) I'm not even being sarcastic! Now I have two people that I can't let down. The pressure is mounting.

I think the reason I haven't done any baking is that I couldn't figure out what I wanted to bake. The cake balls were disheartening, to say the least. And seeing that it's already September, the holidays will be upon us sooner than we know it and the holiday season is the perfect time to bake and I'd like to come up with some holiday treats. BUT FIRST! I need trial runs for my baked goods (apparently).

I think I might try something simple now like...cupcakes. Maybe some kind of tropical cupcake? I think I'm on to something there...my brain is starting to envision it...

On a side note, I'm pretty sure Bloody Mary's are going to turn me into an alcoholic. I'm going to start trying to create the best Bloody Mary and if I do, I will most definitely share the recipe. :)

Fire away!

Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting (or Baking)

Well, well, well. I finally got around to making the dreamsicle cake balls. First off, I would just like to say that in a way, it's a good thing I have no life because these babies take up a lot of time. I actually started the process Saturday night by baking the cake mix (Betty Crocker Super Moist Golden Vanilla). I knew that the process for cake balls would be a little more time intensive than normal cake baking so I just used packaged ingredients to begin my baking journey. I just followed the directions on the box except I added in 1 teaspoon of pure orange extract to the mix before baking it. It tasted delicious. I let the cake cool for about 45 minutes before crumbling the entire cake into a bowl. I just cut the cake into large pieces and crumbled the cake in my hands until the entire cake was crumbs. Also, i'm not sure if it's the cake ball process or just special me, but cake balls are messy. Extremely messy.

Anyway, since the bowl was too small to mix the frosting with the cake, I just put half the cake into another bowl and then split the frosting up between the bowls. I tried mixing it together with a spatula but it was so sticky that I just had to dig right in with my hands. Needless to say, this is a very hands-on process (Get it? because you use your hands for everything?) Anyway! I just mixed the frosting and cake together until it was a dough-like consistency. If I do cake balls again, I probably wouldn't use the entire can of frosting. Between the super moist cake and entire can of frosting it was seriously sticky. A little TOO sticky.

Next up, I actually rolled the cake/frosting mixture into balls. It took until about the 15th ball to really get a grasp on the rolling technique. They are rather large balls but I still managed to get about 45 balls out of the mixture. Unless you're making them for a party or large get-together, I really don't see why you would need many more than that.

I then stuck them in the refrigerator overnight to help set in the ball shape and it was also 10:30 at night and was tired because I'm lame. I mean, I'm really cool and was up until about 3 in the morning the night before (I actually was) so yeah, I was really tired.

It was time to coat the cake balls the next day and I had decided to use vanilla-flavored almond bark. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Almond bark is more temperamental than a teenage girl. I would know. I was stupid and didn't read the directions on almond bark before starting this process. I had melted about 4 squares of almond bark (using a double boiler) and then I added a teaspoon of orange extract (STUPID). I didn't realize that you can't add any liquid to almond bark or it solidifies and pretty much curdles and gets kind of dry and chunky. so I tried melting a few more squares to just kind of overpower the liquid and that seemed to work for a bit but the almond bark just didnt' want to stay melted. Then it started to scorch and burn and then it turned into what looked like vomit.

Well, the whole point of this baking and blogging is to learn. I have obviously learned my lesson about almond bark and also about how to read directions first.

I haven't decided what my next treat is going to be yet but hopefully I'll have that figured out soon and hopefully it goes a lot better than the cake balls.

Also, I know most of you have no idea what I will be saying, but I find it horribly ironic that my dreamsicle cake balls were disappointing and did not go the way I expected. Just like the inspiration for them. Ah, Life. You and your sick, twisted sense of humor.

Until next time...Fire Away!

I Fail At Life

Ok, so I still have not made the cake balls and it's now July 15th. The title of this post says it all.

I was fully planning on doing the cake balls over Fourth of July weekend but was going through some personal issues. We put our almost-15-year-old dog down on July 3rd and I just wasn't in any mood to do anything, including baking. Personally it's been a rough month, but it's time to be done wallowing in self-pity. Next pity party I throw myself will include some freaking dreamsicle cake balls!

I WILL make the cake balls this weekend. I even told a couple co-workers I was going to bring some in next week so now I can't let anybody down. Not tonight though. Plans to go out and drink some diet coke! First is the gym, then diet coke and super fattening, amazing, delicious waffle fries and seasoned sour cream. I could eat that sour cream with a spoon.

Anyway, rest assured # 1 Fan...my next post will be about my cake ball experience. You WILL get your cake balls and eat them too.

Fire away!

No Cake Balls Yet...

It's the last day of June...where on earth did this month go?! Time seems to just fly on by. I have a goal. My goal is to try and create my Dreamsicle cake balls tonight so I can bring them to work tomorrow and force feed them to my co-workers. Trust me, it'll take some convincing. If I don't end up getting them done tonight, I'll definitely do them this weekend because I have no plans for the Fourth of July weekend and I'll need SOMETHING to do for my 3-day weekend. And like any good food blog, of course I'll be including pictures of my treats. I'm excited to try them out. I actually am doing the cake balls from an idea that just popped in my head. I didn't look online for Dreamsicle recipes or anything. I had to look online to see how to actually make the cake balls, but the Dreamsicle was alllllll my genius. :) I hope it all goes well!

I also need to figure out what my next baking attempt will be. Dare I try a cake? A pie? Maybe cupcakes? I think I need to buy some baking tools.

Wish me luck! (Wish it...or else).

Fire away!

#1 Post! Yeah, #1!

Yay, this is my first post on my brand new blog! Here are some questions you may ask:
What is this blog going to be addressing?
Why does your blog title make me want big hair, converse, and fishnet gloves?
Why is "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" now stuck in my head?  

Is it stuck in your head now?

Anyway, creating the title of the blog was actually the hardest decision I've had to make about the blog thus far. I love Pat Benatar and who can ignore the fact that one of her biggest hits has the name of a baked good in the lyrics? I also didn't want a cutesy, pink frilly kind of blog. I needed a blog title that had some edge, some sass, some spice. It just seemed perfect. Still wondering what this blog is about? Baked goods, of course!

For a while now I've been thinking about how much fun it would be to be a pastry chef. If I could have any job in the world regardless of money or schooling, I would want to own a successful bakery. Woah, dream big! (Juno, anyone?) It may not seem like that great of a dream but I realized my dream should be attainable, unlike my dream of marrying Prince Harry and becoming a princess. That's far too unrealistic...unfortunately.

You know what isn't unrealistic? How expensive culinary school is. So, one day at work, I was talking with my #1 Fan and she mentioned just baking on my own and learning as I go. Buying ingredients is going to be much cheaper than school. I decided she was smart and got really excited about the prospect of baking and she also mentioned that I could blog about my baking attempts. I then got REALLY excited at the prospect of having a hobby.

So what am I going to bake? Well, anything that sounds tasty. Cakes, pies, cookies, cupcakes, cake balls, etc. My goal is to be able to bake a Baked Alaska. Russia and Canada will thank me later. (Side note: I have a thing for really bad puns and jokes). I think my first baking attempt will be Dreamsicle cake balls.

Also, I just wanted to mention that the recipes I find to be delectable I will make a copy of the recipe and keep it in a fireproof box at least 100 yards away from the original. :)

Fire away!