Busy Vacation

Im sorry I havent posted anything anything new lately but Christmas came and went so fast I didnt have time to put anything online.  I will but too much is going on this week for the New Year and the week after I am leaving to go to Belize :). I did try a few new cookies that I need to place up here but after my adventure in Belize.

Pineapple cookies

 

I know how this might sound, Pineapple cookies but these are my families favorite and there is not a strong pineapple taste.  I got this recipe out of an old cookie book that has lost its cover and first couple of pages so I cannot give credit to the book.  The book is known as the "cookie book" in my family.  This recipe makes a lot of cookies I lose count after awhile especially when I am home since everyone starts eating them as soon as they come out of the oven.  

To start mix together 1 cup of shortening, 1 cup of Brown sugar, 1 cup of sugar.  Once mixed place in one cup of crushed pineapple.  I use crushed because the pieces are small.  After that place 2 large eggs in the mixture.  Add four cups of flour yes four cups.  To that mixture add 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, two teaspoon of baking powder and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.  Once all these are mixed well in the bowl drop by teaspoon onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. 

Frosty's colorful cookies

These cookies are a "vanilla" version of my chocolate m&ms cookies I usually make but I wanted to try something new.  This was in the christmas cookie book like the cocoa kiss cookies and the stained glass cookies.  Start out by mixing 1 1/4 cup of brown sugar, 3/4 cup of shortening, 2 tablespoons of milk and 1 tablespoon of vanilla.  Add one egg and mix well again.  In a separate bowl mix together 1 3/4 cup of flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, 3/4 teaspoon baking soda.  After mixed add to the first mixture.  Then add two cups of m&ms to the batch.  Since it was christmas time I used the red and green ones.  The good thing about the m&ms is that there are so many different colors and types for different occasion to use.  When the candies are mixed well drop by tablespoons on to an ungreased baking sheets.

 

Bake at a temperature of 375 for about 8 to 10 for chewy.  You can leave it in for a few minutes longer for crispy cookies.

These were awesome!!! Next time I make the chocolate version I will put that recipe up.

Stained glass cookies

These cookies in the book looked amazing. 

 

Beat together 1/2cup of butter, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of honey (yes honey), one large egg and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.  This should be mixed until creamy.  Mix in 3 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  After mixed, cover and place in the refrigerate for at least two hours. 

 Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface.  Then cut into any shapes that you want.  I did christmas ones.  The only problem that I had was that I didn't have any cookie cutters with two different sizes but circles.  So my friend Joann and I made our own shapes.

Now the fun part at least for me :). Take Life Savers hard candy and CRUSH! them.  Take all your anger out on those little candies.  Place the candies in the cutouts.

 The cookies should be on foil lined cookie sheets.  Place in an oven preheated at 350 degrees for about 6-8 minutes.  Don't remove the cookies off the foil until completely cooled. 

Cocoa Kiss cookies

I got this recipe out of "Santa's Favorite cookies" cookbook.  This book I picked up out of a yard sale for a quarter.  The recipes in this little book are amazing.  Trying them out for Christmas this year.  The first cookie I made was called Cocoa Kiss cookies.

To start I mixed 1 cup of butter with 2/3 cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.  In a separate bowl I mixed 1 2/3cups of flour, 1/4cup of cocoa.  When both were mixed well I combined the two bowls slowly to make sure all was combined.  The Hershey kisses had to be unwrapped and placed into a bowl.  Some of course didn't make into the bowl :).  Now comes my favorite part.  Take one kiss and wrap the batter around the kiss.  Don't put too much batter on the hershey kiss which I did on some. 

Once that is complete place in the oven at 375 degrees and bake for about 10 to 12 minutes or until the ball has set

When the cookies have completely cooled, in a small bowl place some powdered sugar.  Roll the cookies in the sugar. 

These cookies turned out awesome! They are very rich in taste but very good. :)

Recipies

I was looking at some of the other baking blogs and also some of the comments from followers, is that I am missinig recipies on my posts and lots more pictures.  I will put them up from now on but not for the posts  I already have unless someone wants it then I will post the recipies.  My next few posts are going to be about the Christmas rush and destressing with baking.  Yum!!! My apartment building is going to smell so good!!!!

Another failed attempt sorta

The wednesday before thanksgiving I attempted to make another pumpkin roll.  My mothers oven is also uneven.  I turned the jelly roll pan around.  Not soon enough though.  the roll again was uneven.  This time it cooked all the way thru. The only problem was one side was still very thin compared to the other side and I had to cut a lot of the side that was thing because the paper was stuck on.  I didnt get a picture tho too much going on and I forgot.  Everyone loved them. 

Failed pumpkin roll

So I wanted to make the pumpkin roll before I get home.  I didn't know how off balance my oven was till I placed the roll in the oven to bake.  I caught it just in time before the batter hit the bottom of the stove.  So I had to throw out the roll with one end burned and the other still mushy.  Guess I will have to wait till I get home to make another roll.

Christmas choas

I know it is horrible to think of Christmas already, but unlike the stores I waited until after halloween.  I am a poor college student.  So gifts for Christmas are usually baked goods, and are usually the same things every year.  This year I am going to expand my skills and try some new types of cookies.  On top of that I am making the Christmas cake for my Nana's Christmas party.  It is very similiar to Andrea's birthday cake but I am changing it a little.  For my finals week at college I am baking to get all of my stress out.  When I bake to get rid of stress no one better get in my way.  So a lot of my cookies will get done then, also the prep for the cake will be done at that time.  When I get home it is the weekend before Christmas and not a lot of time to bake cookies.  Of course on top of that short time I made it even shorter by covering my mom's schedule that week so she can have a vacation.  Which she so needs and deserves.  So short time to bake all of these new cookies and a cake to finish.  Some people can view this as stressful but not to me, to me it feels like an adventure and if I don't finish oh well.  People that are receiving these don't know exactly what I wanted to put in it, so they wouldn't know if one type of cookie is not in there because I didn't have time.  The only stressful part of this is the cake.  Since everyone will be expecting a cake, and everyone will view it, makes me a little nervous.  This nervousness will grow once the time is closer but for now I am not worrried as much.  One thing that is going to help with the cake is that my Nana is going to help, she doesn't know about that yet but she is :).

Thanksgiving 1

Thanksgiving is coming up and my goal is to make my first pumpkin roll with real pumpkin.  I made a pumpkin roll with pumpkin out of a can.  It was tasty, but I want to try it with a real pumpkin.  Last night I gutted the small pie pumpkin I had bought.  I made some tasty pumpkin seeds with the little seeds in the pumpkin.  Then I boiled the rest of the pumpkin until tender.  I then let the pumpkin cool.  The skin peeled right off.  After that I needed to mash the insides.  I have a small food processor that I figured I could use.  To find out it doesn't work.  I went old fashioned I took a fook and mashed the insides.  This took forever!  Since I didn't want to make the pumpkin roll until next week I placed the mashed pumpkin in the freezer.

Andrea's Birthday Cake

I started this project as a different design.  The design although looked to much as a wedding cake so, I decided to change it.  I found this design online, and was going to use it for at my nana's christmas party.  But I changed the colors to her favorite and bright colors.  Now it looks like a birthday present instead of a christmas gift.  Her birthday is in october so I added the pumpkins.  This is a one layered marble cake covered in marshmallow fondant.  This cake was interesting because nothing seem to work.  The cake was very moist and while I was doing the crumb covering with buttercream frosting the cake kept falling apart.  The bow was made with the fondant, the pieces were placed on their sides with tissue paper in the loop part, and left overnight.  Also the swirls were left overnight to hold their shape.  To get this shape I rolled the fondant into long "worm shapes" and then twisted onto pencils and pens.  I also put toothpicks in one end to help to put into the cake.  The funny thing was that my cat had taken all my pencils and pens and hidden them somewheres.  So I had to  call Andrea to borrow hers, but she had no idea why I needed all those pencils. 

Victoria's birthday cake

This cake was the one I made after the first marshmellow covered cake.  This is my little sister's birthday cake.  This was a two tiered cake.  I used a yellow cake on the bottom layer of the cake and a chocolate cake for the top layer.  The blue/bottom layer has purple flowers around the sides while the top layer has a V and a star. 

Marshmellow covered cake

This was my first marshmellow fondant cake with my new fondant kit that I bought.  Marshmellow fondant is in my opinion easier to make and very tasty compared to store bought.  Also this fondant is sticky but with a little confectionary sugar added to the fondant the stickyness goes away.  I was practicing before I made my little sisters birthday cake later that week.  This cake was a marble two layer cake.  Buttercream frosting was added to make a crumb layer before the fondant was placed.  I loved making this cake, no strings if I messed up I could always claimed it was how it was supposed to be.  This cake was very simple in design, compared to the others I made after it.

Cortland farewell cake

This cake was made in honor of my friends leaving party from Cortland College.  This is a plain two layer yellow cake.  This was frosted with cream cheese frosting and a red "C" was placed on top.  I used a flat spatula to smooth the frosting around the sides and top of the cake.  The "C" was a stencil I made out of cardboard.  I took a butter knife and slightly traced the "C" onto the frosting.  Then with a star tip I placed dots of red frosting in the "C".