Wilton Decorating Basics - Class 1: Cookies

Practicing my stars on my star cookie for Course 1

A few years ago I watched every cake decorating, designing, battling show that the Food Network aired. I thought Duff Goldman was the coolest, funniest guy on television. He made it all look so easy. Just roll out the fondant, plop it on the cake, make some things out of modeling chocolate and BAM - awesome-out-of-this-world cake that didn't even look like a cake. I thought to myself...I can do that. If the girls on Ace of Cakes can do that, why can't this computer nerd who had only ever made like one cake from scratch in her life (up until that point anyway). So off to the craft stores I went, coupons in hand, and bought everything I thought I needed. And I just went for it. Turns out it's kinda hard. I really had no idea what i was doing. And the store bought fondant is not good. Who am I kidding...it's downright disgusting. Alas, my passion for baking and this blog was born. I no longer watch any of the crazy cake challenges or even the Ace himself, but when a friend asked if I wanted to take the Wilton cake classes with her, I was in. I thought maybe with a little guidance and some practice I may be able to produce something a little more photogenic than those first two attempts years ago.

For the first class we were supposed to bring the Course 1 Kit, 6 "round" cookies, Ready-To-Use White Decorator Icing, and lots of other stuff we didn't really need for night one.  It was more lecture and learning than hands-on that night.  Our instructor showed us how to whip up the Wilton recipe for buttercream, how to level and split a cake, and then how to add filling between the layers. We got to see and feel the difference between different icing consistencies - stiff, medium, and thin - and which applications each one is for.  She "torted" her cake for us which I guess just means cut it into layers, although after doing some googling this does not seem to be the proper definition of torte.  Torte is a specific kind of cake, no where can I find an official definition of it as a verb...oh well...moving on...

So as you can see, right off the bat I didn't exactly follow instructions.  Plain round cookies sounded boring to me, and if I was going to get everything dirty cutting out cookies I was going to have fun with it!  Turns out I only have a bin of holiday cookie cutters, so from that I pulled out the star shape.  I also had some small flowers that were officially fondant cutters, but the biggest one worked pretty well for a small cookie flower.  Unfortunately this proved more challenging when it came to decorating.  We only learned how to pipe stars in the first class (best seen in the first two photos) which I had troubles translating to the star and flower.  By the end of class, my creative juices were gone.

Tuesday night my creativity came back a little when I went to decorate the rest of the batch and use up more of the store bought buttercream (the rest I ended up throwing away...I realize now it probably would've kept in the fridge forever, sigh).  I did a lot of random patterns and then realized that weekend was Mother's Day!  So as you can see I attempted "MOM" but it didn't turn out so well.  I was starting to dread the night we had to do writing, it's a lot harder than it looks!

March Birthday Madness!

Towards the end of January I decided on my mission for the year and hopefully many years to come.  You may call it a New Year's resolution, but I'm not.  Mainly because 90% of New Year's resolutions fail within the first month (but 66% of statistics on this blog are made up on the spot) and I really want to follow through with this one.  I want to make birthday treats for my co-worker's birthdays throughout the year, but I also wanted everyone to have the opportunity to tell me what they want.  In the past I have always just made whatever random thing I felt like whipping up.  So I created a Google Calendar and added everyone's birthdays and allowed them to edit the details of the event.  I also thought this would be a good way for me to share the recipes after I make them because I always seem to get numerous requests!

March was a pretty busy birthday month around the office.  And when you throw St. Patrick's Day and my mom's birthday into the mix, my kitchen had dirty dishes in the sink pretty much every night.  I started out by going a little crazy chopping up a few peanut butter cups.  Forty of them to be exact.  Yep, just a few.  Okay maybe more like a mountain of them.

 

Chopped, mixed with creamy peanut butter and slathered on top of marshmallowy Rice Krispies resulted in this:

All that chopping was well worth it.  Yum.

Peanut Butter Cup Rice Krispies Treats

Next up was something I had seen a while ago while browsing baking blogs and immediately bookmarked.  This time around I was chopping up caramels, but they didn't take me nearly as long as the peanut butter cups did.  I had already decided who I wanted to make this for and the week before his birthday we were actually teasing him about losing a jeans size because he was eating Special K crackers at lunch (and this is not a guy who needs to drop any sizes).  It was perfect.

 

Cream cheese brownies layered with caramels and *peanut butter* sandwich pretzels.

I think the only thing missing here is the kitchen sink.  Salty and sweet perfection.

Chubby Hubby Brownies

St. Paddy's Day was coming up and the same day I made the brownies I had Guinness-Braised Beef Brisket going in the slow cooker.  So I started looking around to see what I could bake with Guinness.  Last year I made Guinness Ice Cream for our party at work which I absolutely loved.  CHOW had featured a Gingerbread with Guinness that I thought sounded pretty good but the first and only comment on the article was a link to a "better" recipe.  I decided to go with that one instead.

I was actually a little disappointed in this one. Not sure if I did something wrong, or if it just wasn't my thing. Too gingery for me.

Gramercy Tavern Gingerbread

And then St. Patrick's Day was upon us.  There was no question what I was going to make, the only question was if I had the energy to make it.  This was not going to be a small task, especially for a weeknight.  But after I took my first bite of cupcake and ganache, I'm so glad I went through with it.  Ho...ly....cow... 

Guinness chocolate cupcakes.  Filled with whiskey chocolate ganache.  And topped with Bailey's buttercream frosting.  What does that give us?

That's correct!  Pure boozy chocolaty heaven!

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

The next two birthdays came up right in a row - one on Friday and the next on Saturday.  After all that work for the cupcakes I didn't know if I was up for going all out on two completely different desserts so I asked if they could agree on something.  They requested coffee cake and that got me pretty excited.  There's a ton of coffee cake recipes I'd been wanting to try.  Especially the one in my favorite new cookbook Baked.  Theirs contains chocolate which sounded yummy but I wanted to have some variety so I thought I'd do a fruity one too.  I'm glad I continued my search because it made me discover one of my new favorites.  And it's even a "light" recipe!!

Fruity won over the chocolaty IMO. On the left we have Cooking Light's

Cinnamon-Apple Cake

and on the right is the Baked dessert duo's

Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl

I think the reason that I wasn't in love with the chocolate cinnamon swirl is because I kind of burnt the pecans that were in the crumble when I was toasting them.  Everyone else said they couldn't tell, but I definitely could.  I vow to give it another try with lightly toasted nuts.  Almost every recipe in this cookbook intrigues me, but as you may have noticed nothing interests me more than adding a splash of alcohol here and there.  I honestly don't know why, maybe I just like the idea of creating "grown up" desserts.  So off to the liquor store I went, having to ask where the bourbon was and how it was different than whiskey.  I only needed a few tablespoons, but $40 later I was ready to make two incredible looking pies.

For some reason last fall my little brother decided to start making homemade pies - including crusts from scratch.  This was one thing I hadn't tried to tackle yet.  He made it look time consuming and complicated and honestly pies have never really made me go MMmmmm...probably because they're usually filled with fruit.  But the guys from Baked really know how to make my heart flutter - booze and chocolate.  And they made the pie dough making process look really really easy, just dump everything into the food pro....pulse, pulse, pulse, pulse....and voila, scratch made pie dough!

Pretty much a big chocolate chip cookie with a pie crust.  Amazing.

Tuscaloosa Tollhouse Pie

Okay so *technically* this next pie was for my older brother whose birthday is in April BUT it was also for my mom whose birthday is March 20th and after making all these treats for co-workers and not anything for my own mom I felt terrible.  But I knew they both loved pie, so hopefully she was okay getting her birthday surprise a couple weeks late.

I was sad that the crimped edges kind of fell in while baking.  It had went into the freezer so perfectly the night before.  I guess I'll have to work on that.

Tasty.

Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie

Phew!  I'm exhausted just thinking about all those dirty dishes I had to wash.  But every single one of them was worth it and each one was a unique learning experience.  I can't wait to see what I'm whipping up this time next year!!

Continuing My Love of Capers

And no I don't mean going on crazy escapades - I'm talking about those little green balls of explosive flavor (completely the opposite of peas, which are little green balls of mushy poison). You may remember my first tryst with these little lovelies in the gremolicious gremolata.  This is a very classic preparation of a picatta (or apparently piccata?) although I did not have fresh lemons on hand, which is why I decided to go with this dish instead of venture out to the grocery store in the rain/sleet/snow storm that we were having.

Chicken Picatta

(I actually got this recipe out of a free issue of Cuisine at Home I received, but this looks to be the same recipe almost verbatim.)

Obviously I need to work on my chicken breading and browning skills because this did not come out like any of the pictures...(note to self, cramming four chicken cutlets into a wok does not work very well).  However it was still very tasty.  I served it with plain jasmine white rice and honey glazed carrots (yay for quick but tasty microwave sides) which actually turned out to be a nice combination of flavors.  I found myself mopping up the leftover sauce from the chicken with the carrots and mixing every bite of rice with a little chicken.  Yum.

Quick & Dirty

Changes:

• Used regular chicken broth instead of low sodium (although it seems like a lot of things are calling for this, maybe it's worth trying to see the difference?)
• Used bottled lemon juice and didn't finish the sauce with fresh lemon slices
• Didn't garnish with fresh parsley
  

Yuminess:

• The sauce was to die for.  When I added the final butter to thicken it up I knew it was going to transport me straight to Italy.
• Given how sophisticated the flavors were, it was actually a pretty quick and easy dish to put together
• I was surprised at how good the Green Giant honey glazed carrots were (it's nice to have a good cheat like that once in a while)

Sadness:

• My failure on the browning of the chicken.  All the Food Network chefs were yelling in my head "Make sure the oil is hot!  Don't crowd the pan!"  Sorry I let you guys down :(
• I would've been able to get much prettier pictures if I had fresh lemon slices and parsley.  Oh well, there will definitely be a next time :)

Best. Muffins. Ever.

One of my favorite parts about fall is that it's time again to make pumpkin flavored everything. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin bars, maybe next this year pumpkin soup?  Aarti even made pumpkin oatmeal this week, which sounds crazy delicious.  I can't believe I only made these muffins because I had half a can of pumpkin filling and half a bar of cream cheese leftover from other ventures! I also can't believe these innocent looking things set off my smoke detectors (and the bacon the night before did not!)

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

I made a dozen of these in my normal sized muffin cups but I think next time I might try upgrading at least a few to the mammoth jumbo size muffins.  The normal sized ones were gone after only a few bites and I was left wanting more, more, more!  I think they are close to the top of my list of new favorite desserts.

Quick & Dirty

Changes:

• Cut the recipe in half (9 servings) because that's how much pumpkin and cream cheese I had on hand, but I ended up getting 12 normal sized muffins out of it
• Added some pumpkin pie spice in addition to the cinnamon in the muffin batter
• Almost doubled the amount of brown sugar in the cream cheese filling as suggested in reviews
• Didn't add the pecans to the topping, usually not a huge nut fan in desserts

Yuminess:

• I think just making the pumpkin muffin by itself would be pretty tasty
• The addition of the cream cheese and streusel topping make these divine and decadent (this is definitely something worth spending the calories on)
• If you like pumpkin bread/cake/bars and you like cheesecake you will be in heaven with these

Sadness:

• They are a little bit of work, and trying to add the cream cheese to the middle of the muffin batter was kind of a pain.  Next time I'm going to see if there's a better/different way to do this that still yields the same yummy results.
• As I mentioned, my smoke detectors starting going off after they were in the oven for almost exactly 20 minutes for some reason...I think they could've used a couple minutes longer but I was scared and pulled them out and shut off the oven.
• These were a big hit at work, I was sad that I didn't have a ton to give out to everyone!

Baaaaaacon....and other nummy stuff

Bacon, bacon, everybody loves bacon!  Well...to be perfectly honest...up until I made this dish I wasn't a huge fan.  I didn't exactly hate it, but I wasn't head over heels in love with it either.  I just never understood what all the fuss was about.  Maybe that's because most of my bacon eating experiences over the years consisted of fresh out of the microwave pieces of greasy or dried up bacon slices.  But this combination of pasta, cheese, chicken, eggs and you guessed it - bacon - has changed me into a true believer.  And I know, that all sounds super healthy, but it can't be that bad if it's from Cooking Light...right?  Even if I eat a heaping plateful of it...? :)

Asparagus and Chicken Carbonara

Oh there's the healthy twist - asparagus!  Which was actually a very yummy addition.  Plain asparagus is an okay side dish but not one that I get real excited about, but the cheese and bacon flavors with it in this dish really jazzed it up to the next level. I'm glad I was so lazy and tired earlier in the week that I picked up a rotisserie chicken and got to make this with the leftovers.  There was nothing leftover tasting about it.

Quick & Dirty

Changes:

• Used two real eggs instead of an egg substitute
• Used a white cooking wine instead of vermouth
• Cooked the onion and then everything else in the same pan as the bacon (after removing the bacon) to soak up all that great bacon juice - probably not recommended by CL but I think it's what made the dish so delish

Yuminess:

• The combination of asparagus, chicken, cheese, and bacon all in one bite was fantastic
• This is one of the first dishes where I must say the pieces of parsley really helped lighten and freshen things up
• Made Jimmbo's Garlic Knots from AR to serve alongside which complemented the dish beautifully

Sadness:

• Made a little too much pasta...the asparagus to chicken to pasta ratio could've been better
• I think I added the egg mixture a little too quickly to the hot pan because I did end up with a little bit of a scrambled egg affect instead of a creamy sauce
• Very sadly I had to throw almost half of it down the garbage disposal because I didn't finish it all before leaving for a week for Christmas and was scared of it when I got back.  For some reason I didn't think it would freeze well, but next time I will try this since I can't think of anything worse happening than having to toss it out again.

Menu Item Numero Uno

If I ever open my own restaurant I think I found the first thing that will definitely be on the menu, especially during the winter. This Butternut Squash Soup will warm you up on even the chilliest of days. It's the perfect menu item, no matter what type of restaurant - little soup and sandwich bistro, specialty baked goods and treats, five star gourmet. I could see people coming back again and again just for this soup.

Butternut Squash Soup with a Kick

It would be a great appetizer as it wakens all your taste buds. At first you taste the sweet butternut squash and coconut milk, then you get a hint of thyme and sour cream before the heat of the jalapeno fills your mouth. Every bite is a journey for your mouth.

Quick & Dirty

Changes:

• I didn't remove ALL of the jalapeno seeds because I wanted to make sure it had enough "kick".  I left about half of them in, and it was just about perfect for my taste buds
• Sprinkled some dry thyme on top, didn't have any fresh
• Also ate it with whole wheat crackers mixed in, very very tasty

Yuminess:

• The mix of sweet and spicy is my favorite, and this is a new combo of the two for me
• Both the warmness and the spiciness of the soup is perfect for a cold winter day
• I ate it all too fast to try it, but this would probably freeze well if you made a huge batch of it

Sadness:

• I was selfish and ate it all myself, next time I'll try to make enough to share
• Butternut squash is kind of a pain to work with, otherwise I would make this all the time
• Making soup like this makes me want to get an immersion blender...just what I need, another kitchen gadget!

Eating an Identity Crisis

For about the last year and a half the project I've been working on is for a client out in Boston. We finally went out there a couple weeks ago to do on-site training and implementation. The clients were nice enough to provide muffins and other goodies throughout the day and in the morning I helped myself to what looked like a Boston Cream Pie muffin. They raved about how good these muffins are and how we wouldn't be able to get anything like them back in Minnesota. Well, I didn't think mine was that great. In fact, I didn't really like it at all and was glad I only took half. It had some weird flavoring that I wasn't expecting (orange flavored custard?). So after a long day of training and an awesome but not quite satisfying dinner, we went in search of dessert. On a dark, cold and rainy night we were lucky enough to wander into Quincy Market which was lined with various restaurants and bakeries. After walking up and down the aisle checking every place out, we finally picked out a couple creamy pies and sat down with forks at the ready. Only to be disappointed again. It was at least better than the muffin; the custard was pretty tasty. But there wasn't enough of it and the cake wasn't very flavorful. I guess that's what you get when you buy something that's probably been sitting out on a shelf all day.

I didn't get my craving satisfied while I was out in Boston, so I decided to satisfy it myself in my own kitchen. I've actually had this recipe for at least a year now, thinking I would make it when the project was over. Well, it's pretty close to being over now (crossing my fingers) so I thought it was finally time to celebrate. It took me almost all day on Sunday to make (scratch-made yellow cake, scratch-made chocolate cake, vanilla-rum custard, chocolate glaze, and assembly) and I was so worn out by the end of the day that I ended up having cold waffles for dinner (homemade buttermilk waffles that I had made the day before, don't worry they weren't frozen Eggos). It was all completely worth it though, especially getting to share it with everyone at work. I brought it in and everyone was so excited that I had made cake. But, I said, it's not a cake - it's a pie! Or is it a pie-cake? One thing is for sure, it was absolutely delicious!  And it's the least I could do to say a big Thank You for all the hard work everyone has put in.

Unfortunately I got this from a free preview issue of Cuisine at Home and they don't have the recipe online.  I'll have to type it up soon and post it so everyone can share in the goodness!

Spreading the second layer of custard

I thought it kinda looked like a hamburger at this point

Final chocolate glaze

Quick & Dirty

Changes:

• Will try to use real vanilla bean in the custard next time (I had a couple but I didn't realize they went bad!  The ones I had were stiff as boards and there was no way I could split them and get the goodness out of them)
• After making the cakes, I think I should've stored them in airtight containers instead of letting them sit out all day to cool.  I think they may have dried up a bit.
• I used 8x3 pans instead of 9x2 because that's what I had.  I think it made the cake taller but not a big deal.
  

Yumminess:

• The chocolate glaze was amazing
• Everything...even though this was quite a bit of work I could definitely see myself making it again.  I only got one little piece!
• The Vanilla-Rum Custard was pretty tasty, I could see making it for other things (maybe some custard filled donuts?)

Sadness:

• I think fresh vanilla bean really would've helped the custard pop even more
• Did I mention I only got one piece?!