CookieD-oh

Last summer I bought an obscene quantity of peaches from the local farmer's market.  I made 24 pints of peach jam with some of them, and froze the rest.  Even though it's spring/summer, peaches aren't yet in season, so I thawed some out and made a peach cobbler :-) First you'll want about six peaches, peeled and sliced.  Put them in a bowl with some sugar and cinnamon, and set aside while you make the batter.  Cream shortening and sugar (sorry to the shortening-phobes...I guess you could use butter if you had to).  Remember back when I made the petit fours, and I burned up the motor in my hand mixer?  Yeah, I still haven't replaced it. Anyhoo, next have your lovely assistant take a photo of the progress with her trusty princess phone. Into the creamed shortening and sugar, mix flour, baking powder and salt alternately with some milk until it looks something like this: Spread it a baking dish.  And then have your lovely assistan...

My friend brought me a picture of a cake and asked me to copy it for her nephew's birthday, so I can't take any credit for this design.  However, the picture did not say who made the original cake, so I can't credit the baker, either.  If anyone knows who did this cake originally, please let me know and I'll add a link/credit.  The nephew is an aspiring rapper by the name of Jelani.  This was my first attempt at a tag, so it's not the greatest.  But I thought the record came out ok. Of course, my handwriting is atrocious.  I blame being left-handed.  It's my cross to bear.  Vanilla cake with strawberry filling.  The record is chocolate fondant (yum!) and the brick wall is vanilla fondant.  The record player arm is a mix of both, with straws internally for support. And that's it for today! Enjoy!

Backstory:  (Because most of what I do has a backstory) I somehow got nominated to bring birthday treats to work once a month, and April was Chris' birthday.  Only he doesn't like cake.  I made cinnamon rolls over Christmas, and he told me that they would be perfect if they had caramel and pecans in them.  So I searched the web and found this:  No-Knead Sticky Pecan Caramel Cinnamon Rolls over at the Steamy Kitchen All I can say is, "Holy Sugar Buzz, Batman, these are awesome!" So you start with the master dough, mix it up and put it in the fridge for two or three days.  I made the dough on a Wednesday and made the rolls on Friday. The recipe calls for instant yeast, but I didn't have any, so I used regular yeast and let it bloom in the honey and warm water for a little while before mixing the other ingredients. Here is the finished dough.  Pop it in the fridge and let it do its' thing. The dough a couple days later: Now, the...

I finally made brownies and took pictures!  I've made brownies approximately six times since I started this (baking) blog, and never remembered to take a picture.  So here you go: Had I had something to block out the background, this might have been a decent picture!  Anyhoo, I use this recipe, almost exclusively:  King Arthur Flour Fudge Brownies   They are very, very good.  I'll post about King Arthur flour another time.  First, you melt butter on the stove, then you add the sugar and heat until the mixture is hot, but not boiling. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and vanilla.  And here is where I differ from the original recipe.  I do NOT use espresso powder.  I see on baking sites where people say, "Oh, you can't taste the coffee, it just makes the chocolate taste more like chocolate!"  Baloney.  It makes the chocolate taste like coffee.  So I use vanilla and about 1/4 t...