Saturday, October 17, 2009
Not until a couple weeks ago was I extending a welcome to our friends to come over and eat dinner for one of their birthdays. I asked what they wanted for dessert and they suggested cheesecake. I was going to simply make my faux cheesecake and I thought that would be that but I suddenly got extremely ambitious and I said to myself, "Why CANT I make my own cheesecake? I don't even know how truly difficult it is." So, I went online and typed in 'how to make a cheesecake'.. It took me to this link here. I followed what it said as closely as possible. It was kind of hard because we were in a tornado warning at the time and I was being rushed out of the kitchen.
I put the batter on top of a home made graham cracker crust. There were still a few lumps of cream cheese in it because I don't think I properly let them get to room temperature before I creamed it with the sugar. I also think I overmixed it, hence the bubbles on top. I left it in the oven for 1 hour at 300 degrees. It was still 'jiggly' when I took it out but I read it was suppose to be. In retrospect, I think I should have left it in 5 to 10 more minutes and it would have been PERFECT.
I got it out of the springform pan, which I had lined with foil so it'd come out easily. I did not try the water bath I heard so many talk about but I may try that next time.
The edges weren't as nice and uniform as I would have liked but the fact that it even looked remotely like REAL cheesecake was good enough for me.
I topped it with canned cherry pie filling. I would have made the cherries myself if they had been in season.
We dug in. I realized I had extra heavy cream left over from making the cheese cake, and another stroke of domestic genius hit me as I looked up a quick recipe for homemade whipped cream.
VOILA! The first bite was so scary for me. I had no idea what it would taste like... It was.. HEAVENLY! And perfect... well, almost. The middle, as I suspected, was not as firm as I would have liked, but the edges going in about 3 inches were perfect texture. As I ate my delicious cheesecake, my mind was racing at all the different types of cheesecakes I could tackle after that. I also thought of the little cheesecake tarts swirled with pumpkin that I would love to make for the Halloween party that I'm going to.
I couldn't believe I made cheesecake. And also, it's for a fraction of the price I would have spent on a store bought version.
I totally pwnd the cheesecake.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Halloween is my favorite holiday, bar none! I love the costumes, I love the candy, I love the air of ghost stories and being scared. I've always been that way. It is very fitting that I am a costume designer.
My first treat was not actually for Halloween, but for the True Blood finale episode for season 2. Ah, true blood. I used a recipe for vanilla cake batter calling for buttermilk which made it oh so decadent. I baked the cupcakes, cut cones out of the top to fill them with cherry puree, then put the cone back on. Once I had finished doing that, I drizzled all of them on top with a marshmallow glaze. Lastly, I created a buttermilk vanilla frosting with a hint of almond extract for a bit of fruitiness.
The final touch was a toothpick and remaining cherry puree for vampire fang marks! Voila! Bill Compton Cupcakes!
You're going to think that all I make is cake. WELL, I did get the hankerin' for some cookies one evening when it was starting to feel like fall outside. I had some cocoa, so I figured undertaking some double chocolate cookies were in order. I used the toll house chocolate chip cookie recipe, but I added 2/3 cup of cocoa to the mixture.
To make it a little bit more 'autumn like' I always, ALWAYS have to get some candy corn whenever it is first made available at the end of September. I have this giant bag of candy corn so I put two and two together. When the cookies came out of the oven, I immediately pressed a candy corn right into their warm centers. It hardened as they cooled and kept the candy corn in place.
I'm still pretty mad that most of my candy corns are lacking a white tip. Thanks BRACH'S.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Because I was lazy and I didn't put any pictures up yesterday, you get a twofer today!
First off, I mentioned that baby shower I held for my friends Julie and Aaron... well, rummaging around here, I did find a photo of those cupcakes. To my mortification, they had the aesthetic of baby poop. I did not realize this until I was trying to pipe the oreo filled chocolate buttercream frosting onto the cupcakes, and it kept getting clogged and did not look pretty.
Next time I will put the oreos ON TOP and not in the frosting. Lesson learned. It was pretty funny though.
Secondly, talking about chocolate cake with crap on top of it, my second picture is of a snickers cake I made for my friend Tiffany's birthday party. I will admit - it was from a box. The last time I actually made a cake from a box. The twist was putting sliced snickers in the batter before it baked, and then crushed snickers ontop of the frosting when it is done. If you're not much of a baker, you can always make regular old box mixes your own by adding stuff like that.
Aforementioned friend Aaron made some brownies with the same concept, except he put yorkshire peppermint patties in it. It was *DELICIOUS*.
I will be updating with recipes as I discuss current baked goods that I'm making, as for these, well, It'd be a lot of searching around.
Also stay tuned for Halloween themed goodies!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
My husband's, my mother in law's, and my step grandfather's birthday party were all this last weekend. I of course, being tight on money as I am, opted for creating the gifts I gave... including baking.
I had never made a coconut cake before, but I decided that it was probably basically like the vanilla cake recipe I had, except I added a few extra things. Almond extract tastes really fruity, so it went really well with the coconut flavor I incorporated into the coconut cake by adding instead of buttermilk, COCONUT MILK! How incredibly decadent is that? Coconut milk is amazingly good. I made a coconut milk based frosting as well, and finally smushed shredded coconut into the frosting once I had finished laying it on. I just thought it was so PRETTY, I didn't want to cut into it.
We did, however, and man... I may have diabetes now.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Hello Everyone, welcome to my obligatory first post of what I hope to be primarily my baking blog. I don't really have a catch or a scheme for lots and lots o' people to read this blog, but it will be there so I can catalog what I deem my 'baking adventures'. I have so many unseen pictures collecting dust in my virtual photo albums, why not share them with the world?
I guess I should explain a bit about myself. I am .obsessed. with sweet things. I am a chubby girl, granted, but aside from stereotypes I could literally just be happy having sweets around me without being able to eat them. They are so lavish, delicious, beautiful, and I love to give them to others. Most of what I bake is to give to other people as gifts or things I am bringing to functions. Hopefully my photo skills will get better as time passes.. as for now, I will be posting one sweet a day that I have been collecting pictures of, and more will follow as I produce new and different things.
