Before and After San Diego

So I usually try to write a blog once a week, but these last two weeks have been busy. First was Valentine's Day, and then it was me and Chuck's two year anniversary and we went to San Diego.It was my first time seeing an ocean (I'm from the midwest, so that pretty much explains it). It was so much fun, even though it rained most of the time. We went to sea world, and the beach, got sushi, and just had a great time away from work.

Before that though, was Valentine's day. I did happen to make S'mores cupcakes finally. They turned out okay, and since it's been a while, I can't remember exactly what I wanted to change, but it was a chocolate cake with crunched up chocolate covered graham crackers filled with buttery marshmallow cream and topped with chocolate ganache and a toasted marshmallow and piece of graham. The marshmallow cream melted into the cake and was delicious. I could have ate it plain.

After this was San Diego, and when we came back we still had two days off and I wanted to make bagels. They were actually very easy to make.

I will admit though, they didn't quite have that "bagel" taste. But I am used to eating everything bagels, so maybe a plain bagel just isn't my thing. First try was a success though. One more step to expanding my skills and someday having my own bakery.




Next week my aunt is coming to visit all the way from Indiana, and I'm really excited. She and her husband, and my parents will come to my house, and I'll probably make a nice dinner. Hopefully my brother will come too, with his wife and kids. I now have to plan a dinner and dessert. After that, Chuck's grandpa is coming to visit for a week and a half and we're throwing him a surprise birthday party, and I think I get to make the cake. So then I have to work on that. I'm really trying to do new things and practice makes perfect. Now I have to go to my real job, but hopefully I'll have some creative things to post soon.

It's Okay to Eat a Cupcake for Breakfast....

I woke up today, got my cup of coffee, grabbed my vitamin C (I am currently getting a cold, or whatever it is that has been going around work... yes, two days before my vacation to San Diego to celebrate mine and Chuck's two year anniversary) and when I opened the fridge to get the creamer, I saw the cupcake that Chuck bouth for me for Valentine's day. Yes, he went to the Coffee Shop (which has been featured on Cupcake Wars) and got four different cupcakes. Last night I ate half of one. I wanted to save the other half for him, because, well, I love him and he deserves a cupcake too. It was a yellow cupcake, I think, with a creamy center and cream cheese frosting. It was delicious and buttery and cakey and just oh so yummy. So of course I wake up and want to eat another. I stopped myself though. I came in here and decided to write about it. But I have had a cupcake or two for breakfast in the past. Somedays you just really need that cupcake to start the day.

On other news, last week I made 70 dollars from baking! I know it's not a lot, but from zero to 70 in a week is a promising start. I made those cupcakes for the birthday party.

I had a lot of fun making these. And I think they came out like my sketches, maybe even better. First I started by making the laffy taffy crowns... and finding laffy taffy was hard! First I bout airheads, but those didn't quite work, so when I sent Chuck off to get more milk, he brought me home laffy taffy.

They're cute and edible! After the hard part was over, everything was baked, and the filling was made, and the cupcakes were frosted.....

They were exactly like I wanted them to be.... and tasted pretty good too. 

After that, another woman at work asked me to make a cake for her mom's birthday... on Valentine's Day. So I did a heart shaped carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. I also threw in some lemon cake truffles because her mom likes lemon cake. (In my hurry to get them to work, I didn't get the best photo.)

I hear that the cake was a hit, and her mom ate one cake truffle and put the rest in the freezer and no one got to have any. I still need to practice writing, but I think this came out better. But like I said, it tastes better than it looks, and that's all that matters. 

I also go an order for 20 Hummingbird cupcakes from another lady at work, and I made them that night too and brought them in to work with the carrot cake. That was a struggle to walk through the parking lot and not drop anything, and then clock in. But I made it and I think everyone was pleased with their product, and that makes me smile.

If I didn't have to go to my real job, I would write about my Valentine's Day dinner, but sadly, I must go to work... I need my own bakery.

Super Bowl Pizza!

So, the Super Bowl was Sunday. I did not care for either of the teams, mostly the Packers because they beat my Bears, but we had people over any way to celebrate a national holiday in America. And since it was a special occasion, Chuck busted out Grandpa Chuck's famous pizza recipe. I was privileged enough to be the first person outside the family to learn the recipe from Grandpa Chuck and write it down. Now, Charlie and I make pizza for people and it is delicious. Hopefully, we'll make pizza with our child, and keep passing it down. Maybe we'll even have our own little pizzeria. Dreams, they're all big dreams that take time though.

It's not only about the dough, and how it's prepared, but it's about the sauce. Charlie makes fantastic pizza sauce. Just like his spaghetti sauce, his pizza is phenomenal. And yes, there is a huge difference between pizza and spaghetti sauce, so just don't go buy a jar of marinara. It's a disgrace to Italians.

We also attempted to make some bread sticks from the leftover dough. They were okay once you dipped them in some sauce. Next time we need to flavor the dough a little more to give it something special.

I also made wings to accompany the pizza, but nothing special about that. I still haven't made my own wing sauce yet. I still buy the bottled kind, but there's nothing wrong with that. It's all pretty much the same. You deep fry some wings, toss 'em in some sauce and keep them warm in the oven. And you must serve with Bleu Cheese. Ranch is just evil. But I didn't get any snapshots of those. But I did get the final product of the pizza.

Looking at the pictures still makes my mouth water. One pizza was half pepperoni, sausage, and hot cappy. The other half was mushrooms, black olives, red bell pepper, zucchini, sausage, pepperoni, and hot cappy. The last big pizza was pepperoni, salami, hot cappy and black olives (this is my favorite pizza... it is like a little piece of Italian heaven in your mouth....mmmmm....).

With the exception of the Packers winning the Super Bowl, it was a pretty good night. I drank some beer, ate some pizza and wings, and watched football with some family and friends, and had a much deserved night with Chuck. Now I'm wondering when we'll use the extra pizza shell and make another pizza. MMM.....

Who Doesn't Love Cookies and Cream?

Well, I made the cookies and cream cupcake, just like I said I would that day. It took me the rest of the night, but I managed to do it. I searched the internet to find some ideas and found a few that put half the oreo on the bottom before the batter was put in.

Needless to say, I gave it a try. And the visual results were picture perfect.

So I bought a 1M tip specifically for decorating cupcakes, and I finally got the chance to do it with these. I made a standard vanilla buttercream frosting and added chopped oreos. Once that got mixed up, I put in in the bag and started to squeeze out the frosting... but had no luck. Some of the cookie chunks were too big to fit through the tip and wouldn't come out. I was frustrated, and eating way to much of the frosting. I pulled out my food processor and put all the frosting in there and pulsed it until the frosting was tinted blackish. And I tried again. There were still a few chunks, but I was able to work around them.

Then I topped it with half a cookie... and this is my masterpiece.  I would change a few things though. I would put a whole cookie on bottom, do a white white cake, with more vanilla and more cookies in the batter. And I would definitely food process the cookies into fine crumbs before adding them to the buttercream.

I took them to work, and sadly brought none home to enjoy after work. But jokes on my coworkers....

I got to lick the bowl. HA.