CookieD-oh

The chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and ganache that I made last year was so popular that I turned it into cupcakes. Because, honestly, they're easier to deal with sometimes. Go-to dark chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and a ganache drizzle. Very tasty, if I do say so myself. They're best if eaten with a fork. Just being honest. The cake recipe is here . To make cupcakes, fill cupcake liners 1/2 full and bake in a 375 F oven for about 16 minutes. Cool completely before frosting. Here is the frosting recipe: Peanut Butter Frosting 1 cup butter 1/2 cup peanut butter (creamy...not natural, sorry) 1/2 cup shortening 1/4 tsp salt 1 tsp vanilla extract 2 lbs powdered sugar 1/4 - 1/2 cup heavy cream Mix butter, peanut butter, shortening, salt and vanilla extract in the bowl of a stand mixer until well-combined. Add the powdered sugar and mix until incorporated. Add cream until the frosting reaches the desired consistency. Beat for 5 m...

Because who doesn't like a nice orange creamsicle? Nobody who enjoys summer, that's for sure. Orange cupcakes with vanilla cream cheese filling and orange cream cheese frosting. Yum! The folks at work seemed to like them. :-) That's all for now. Enjoy!

Peach cobbler revisited...because this recipe is amazing and deserves to be reposted. I think I even got some pictures that were better than the first time around. I know that peach season is mostly over, so you'll have to forgive me for posting this so late. I blame the computer; it's having some issues right now. :-( *Before we get started, I would like to say that I only make this recipe with fresh peaches from the fruit farm (unless I'm using frozen peaches that I froze myself after buying them from the fruit farm). Grocery store peaches just aren't the same. So if you can find some fresh-picked peaches, use them to make this.  You won't regret it.* Anyhoo, start by mixing peaches, cinnamon, and sugar together in a bowl. Set the bowl aside and let the ingredients mingle for a while. Next, in a new bowl, take some shortening and some sugar and beat the tar out of them until they're good and fluffy. Remember when I burned up my hand mixer m...

Made for a friend's daughter's baby shower. The theme was Mommy to Bee. These aren't colors I use regularly, but it was nice to do something different! There was a lot of black and some of the designs were wet-on-wet, so I made the icing with extra meringue powder, just in case. I've heard that extra meringue powder will stop bleeding. (Of course, for my regular royal icing recipe I've halved the amount of meringue powder I use, so really it was just the normal amount.) But whatever the reason, it worked! There was no bleeding black icing, even with the white polka dots. All bagged up and ready to go! I really have to start taking pictures before they're in the bags. I think that's all of them. I'm going to be making more cookies in the next couple weeks, so hopefully I'll actually get them posted to the ol' blog. Maybe. Well, that's all for now. Enjoy!

Welcome back to the blog! I know it's been a while, but that just seems to be how it is these days. :-) I'm going to be teaching a baking class at my church in October, and I needed to decide early what I want to bake. We wanted something Christmas-y, since October is now (according to most American retailers) the beginning of the holiday season. After much vacillating, waffling, hemming and hawing, I decided on a chocolate cake with peppermint frosting. Because cake. I tried really hard to take better pictures this time. I'm pretty sure I failed, but the effort was there, I promise! I even went on the internet to see how other bloggers staged their cakes for photos. I went down to my basement and found a white plate! THAT is dedication right there. This is the same chocolate cake I always make because, really, it's the best. Start out by gathering your stuff. Here's some of the stuff you'll need. The first thing you'll do is to mix some boil...

My friend's daughter got accepted into medical school! She's going to be an Ob-Gyn, so my friend asked for a themed graduation cake. I was fighting humidity again...I'm going to stop doing graduation cakes because I can't deal with the melting fondant. :-( Anyhoo, strawberry cake with hand-sculpted fondant decorations. That's all for now. Enjoy!

OK, people. I would just like to say that I recently found a new recipe for chocolate chip cookies, and these cookies are the real deal. I didn't have particularly high hopes. I didn't even take any pictures of the process. I mean, a chocolate chip cookie is a chocolate chip cookie, right? Maybe. Maybe not. I have made these approximately 8 times since discovering them on Smitten Kitchen last month. (And yet, somehow, I still only have the one photo.) Anyhoo, I tinkered with the recipe a little bit, just because that's who I am these days. The one thing I need to stress is that you should use a chocolate bar, cut into chunks. Chocolate chips work, but the cookies are better with chunks. So far I've used Ghiradelli, Hershey Special Dark, and a Spanish baking bar I received from a friend. If I could easily get the Spanish chocolate, I would use it again, but since I can't, I've been using the Hershey bar. It's bigger than the other and cheaper. And j...