It's been a while!

Well, it's been quite a while since I posted anything on here! So, I put up some new pictures to get up-to-date and hopefully you'll check them out and leave some comments! :) Also, I'm always open to constructive criticism, so give me your thoughts. :)

Oh, and WELCOME TO SPRING!! Even though it's snowing here right now, it's still officially spring and it should warm up again...hopefully!

Pumpkin Mousse Petit Fours

HEY! So, this week went great! I decided to make some pumpkin mousse petit fours for my column and they turned out so great! I created my own recipe for spice cake, then made a really simple pumpkin mousse and put them together, cut them into petit fours (they were actually a bit bigger than I would've liked, but it's all good!), covered them in Marshmallow fondant and piped on them with semi-sweet chocolate. (I got the fondant recipe off a blog on here, actually, called the Frosted Garden...she makes the COOLEST and nicest cakes I've ever seen...seriously check them out..) The fondant was SO easy to make and it didn't dry out or crack or get real tough...and it tasted good!!! So I was freakin stoked about that. :) I did have some trouble covering the petit fours because the fondant would tear, but that was my fault because I pulled it too hard. But, it all turned out pretty good...and I'm real happy with how they turned out! So, let me know what you think! (please!)

hmm blog...LOL

First of all, thanks for the comments Scotty and Amber!! You guys freakin rock! LOL

Secondly...I love the word blog...I don't know why...just do. :P

Thirdly....this week's dessert isssss....dun dun dun....Halloween cupcakes! They're not going to be terribly interesting...just regular cupcakes and icing, but I'm going to decorate them for Halloween. I'm going to make black icing and make ghosts and spiders with webs...and I'm going to decorate some with candy corn in neat designs. Should be fun!

I love cupcakes because they're not real hard and you pretty much get taken back to childhood when you decorate them! They're just fun and there should be a national holiday dedicated to them!!!! yeah...LOL

Then comes a Pumpkin Mousse, that I'm debating about whether or not to freeze and make a Pumpkin Mousse cake, or maybe petit fours!!!! How cute would those be!!! Maybe I'll pipe the mousse into a cake pan and cover and freeze it...then unmold it after it's frozen and put it on a board and back to the freezer it will go. Then, make some cake, maybe spice cake...mmm...in the same shape and put the mousse in the middle of the cake layers, cut out rounds and cover them in fondant and decorate! Hopefully that made sense...LOL...it's all right here *points to head*. :)

I'm not sure what's going to be going on with next month's desserts...there will be a caramel pumpkin pie in there somewhere, I know that for sure. :) For December I'm stoked because I'm going to be doing an "International Dessert Tour" of sorts! :D I'm going to research traditional Christmas desserts from different countries and make them! Festive, huh? LOL

One last thing....October is Breast Cancer Awareness month AND Domestic Violence Awareness month...so, be aware and be supportive!

Ciao!!

Oh yeah.....

Oh, and the pumpkins made out of the Circus Peanuts didn't work either.....not sure how to make them work without them cracking and looking crazy......should've just used marzipan. LOL

Cake or frosting trouble??

Ok, so last night I had great hopes for this cake I was making for my weekly column for the paper. My idea was to make a white cake with pumpkin frosting and decorate it with candy pumpkins that I was going to make out of Circus Peanuts. So, I made the cake, which turned out great! It was just a white cake that was very chiffon-like...it was tender and moist and probably the best white cake recipe I've ever used. (I got it out of the Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library Series book called "Cakes, Cupcakes and Cheesecakes." It was the "Almond-scented White Cake" recipe that I adapted. lol) So then I went to make the frosting, which turned out great. I made it just white and made some of it green to pipe onto the pumpkins as vines. Then I added pumpkin puree to the rest of the white frosting, which thinned it out REALLY badly because I under-estimated how much water was in it! So, after adding like 3 more cups of powdered sugar to get it back to the consistency that I wanted, it was fine...or so I thought. I think it still may have been a little too thin because after I stacked the cakes (which I split into 2 layers each to have 4 layers) they suddenly shifted after I had gotten the top and sides mostly frosted! And there was really no way to push them back into place! I was so sad! lol! I swear there must have been an earthquake or something as I was scooping out more frosting because it was like one minute the layers were perfectly stacked...nice and straight and beautiful....then I turn away and the next minute it looks like a building after being imploded! LOL So.....needless to say, I have no idea what happened.....I'm thinking maybe the frosting wasn't quite thick enough, even though it seemed to be thick enough.....who knows. Any thoughts anyone???
Scott and I ate it anyway...LOL....because it tasted GREAT, but just looked like poo. LOL! So, I'm going to play around with the frosting and maybe use the puree instead of milk. I'll let you know how it goes! :)
Coming up for next week.....pumpkin mousse! :D Maybe I'll try that as frosting? LOL

Yay Blog!!

Hey everyone and welcome to my blog! I'm super stoked and can't wait to figure out how to work this site!!! LOL I'm going to be posting some old pictures and will continue to post pictures and descriptions of my work (providing I can figure it out...lol). If you have any questions or comments PLEASE post them! Also, if you're a fellow baker and have any helpful hints or things you've experienced and gotten through that could help me out, I'd greatly appreciate it! :) Anywho, hope you all enjoy the blog and come back for pictures and posts! :)

Ciao!