Roses are one of my favorite flowers.  In the late spring, one of my favorite things to do is walk around the Rose Garden in downtown Portland.  It’s amazing all the variety of colors and shapes in this one, rather large, garden.  I also like to see which ones are the oldest, (next to the bush there is a plaque with the name, variety, and year it was planted), and it amazes me that the gardeners can keep a few 100-year-old rose bushes alive.  I wish I had that kind of patience with a shrub.  I’m lucky if I can remember to water my indoor plants.  (In in my school classroom, forget about it.  I have fake plants instead.)

That’s why I stick to buttercream roses.  They are a lot less maintenance, and, of course, they’re edible, which in my eyes, makes it that much better.   To make buttercream roses, you’ll need 3 piping bags, red food coloring, and a 1M tip.  And since the flavor is vanilla, use real vanilla extract.  It’s the star of the show, so let the real, intense flavor shine through.  (I love Neilson-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla.  It makes the biggest difference!) If you think you’re frosting won’t be white enough, you can tint it white, but I like to just leave it the way it is.  To see a visual tutorial on getting the two-tone coloring, click here.

Basically, to make these, instead of piping the frosting from the outside in, you go in a circle from the inside out.  Take your piping tip and start at the center of your cupcake, and as you squeeze out the frosting, go in a circle, (in either direction), until you reach the edge.  And that’s it!  You’re done.  I get requests for these vanilla cupcakes all the time.  They are moist, tender, and full of subtle vanilla flavor.  I’d eat all twelve if I didn’t have a conscience.  You know, it’d be mean not to share with my spouse or friends.  After all, it is almost Valentine’s Day.  Enjoy!  xoxo

Rose Cupcakes

printable recipe

Makes 12 vanilla cupcakes

1 ½ t baking powder

1 c cake flour

½ cup flour

1 cup sugar

¼ t salt

½ c (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, at room temperature

2 eggs

½ c milk

2 t pure vanilla extract

Pre-heat oven to 350, and line muffin tin with cupcake liners.

Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, pour dry ingredients into the bowl and mix on low for 2-3 minutes, until well combined. Add the cubed softened butter, and mix on low speed until the butter is well-coated and pieces are small and crumb-like, about 20-30 seconds. Add eggs, one at a time, until combined. (The egg yolk is dissolved.) Slowly add the milk and vanilla—scrape down bowl to get all ingredients combined.

Fill cupcake liners (in tins) about 2/3 full, and bake 17-20 minutes, or until tops are golden brown and toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean. Take cupcakes out of muffin tin and transfer to a cooling rack.

Cool before frosting.

Vanilla Buttercream

enough to frost 12 cupcakes

¾ c (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, room temp

2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1 ½ t pure vanilla extract

red food coloring (preferably Americolor brand)

1M piping tip

3 piping bags

Beat butter with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to medium. Add sugar, ½ cup at a time, beating for 2 minutes after each addition. Add vanilla and beat until buttercream is smooth.

Transfer the frosting into two bowls, making sure there are equal amounts of frosting in each bowl.  Tint one of the frostings deep red.  Place white frosting in one piping bag, and the red frosting in another.  Using the third piping bag, cut off the end and screw on the coupler and tip.  Cut off the end of the filled piping bags and place inside the third bag.  Going from the middle of the cupcake to the edge, pipe frosting in a circle.

Store any leftovers in an air-tight container up to 3 days.

Today is my husband’s birthday.  And it’s not just any birthday, it’s his 30th birthday.  And just like any milestone birthday, this one is complete with pomp and circumstance, as well as a dose of anxiety, deep contemplation, and a little bit of sadness.  Eric’s new goal, now that he’s in his 30s, is to run a 100-mile race.  You know, ’cause that’s something not every person can do.  Apparently that isn’t hard enough though, so to make it more challenging, it has to be run in 24 hours.  (He’s been researching this for hours, and I cannot tell you how excited he was to find a race like this in our area.)  I told him that it’s a great goal and all, but maybe he should just run the marathon again and beat his last year’s time.

To help Eric ring in the 30s, we had a party last Saturday night, full of good friends and great food.  I made some lemon poppy-seed cupcakes with raspberry preserve filling, banana pudding, orange-cream cheese dip, and slushie punch.  Along with some chips and salsa–you know, to balance out all the sweet stuff.

I was first introduced to banana pudding when my sister, who now lives in North Carolina, made some on a visit home.  I couldn’t believe what I was missing!  And because there are bananas in it, I like to think of it as a healthy dessert.  That’s why I end up eating more, haha.  Normally our family serves it in a 9 x 13″ pan, but since it was a party, I made it in a trifle bowl, and had two layers instead of one.  It looked a little fancier.  Some people serve this dessert with a layer of bananas first, before chilling it, but I cut up the bananas when I’m ready to serve the dessert, because I hate them when they get all brown and mushy.  But you can do either way, whatever suits your fancy.

Whenever I make this dessert, I never have any leftovers, which is kind-of a bummer, as this is in my top-10 favorite desserts.   But sharing is caring, right?  So happy birthday Eric!  I hope that this year is a great one, and like Napoleon Dynamite says, may all your wildest dreams come true!  Enjoy! xoxo

P.S.  If you want to sound official, you have to pronounce this dessert right.  Those from the South don’t pronounce pudding like we do in the Northwest.  They pronounce it puddin, like Pudd’nhead Wilson. (Mark Twain–sorry, I’m an English teacher.  I just had to put that in there.)  The g is silent.

Southern Banana Pudding

printable recipe

1 box Nila wafers

6-8 bananas, sliced

2 1/2 cups milk (not non-fat)

1 (5-oz.) box instant French vanilla pudding (or vanilla)

1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese, softened

1 (14-oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

1 (12-oz.) container Cool Whip

Line the bottom of a 9×13-inch baking dish with Nila wafers.

Using a mixer, mix the milk and pudding for about 2 minutes.

Using a handheld mixer, combine the cream cheese and condensed milk together and mix until smooth.  Fold the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture.  Add the cream cheese mixture to the pudding mixture and stir until well blended.  Pour the mixture over the cookies and cover.  Refrigerate at least 3 hours before serving.

To serve, slice bananas into the bottom of a bowl and scoop out pudding mixture and place on top of bananas.

Recipe Source: My dear baby sister Noelle

There are many times where I imagine what my 18-month-old son is saying.  Like when he’s walking around with his favorite car in his hand, saying, “Da dumm sweum shuew dadadum.”  And I respond, “Why, yes, your car can go really fast.”  Or when he asks a question, (which is easy to tell, because the inflection in his voice goes up at the end of his sentence and he looks at me expectantly), and I say, “Of course Daddy can give you another piggy-back ride.  As soon as he gets home.”

Today we went over to my friend’s house.  Both our boys are less than a week apart and it’s fun to see them grow and play together.  Today, Matthew got the opportunity to play with a pint-size kitchen.  He had a lot of fun sautéing vegetables and washing dishes, while talking all about it.  (Secretly, I want him to be a famous chef when he grows up.)

But no matter how many veggies, fruit, yogurt, or Cheerios he eats, his favorite food, by far, are sweets.  (It’s hard to blame him; it’s in his genes.)  While lying on the floor, desperately trying to eat a donut, he says something in a faint voice.  I interpret it to mean, “Mom, these plastic donuts are no substitution for the real thing.”

And he’s right.  There is no substitution for the real thing.  There’s something about homemade cookies–it evokes warm memories of childhood, and that deliciously sweet smell coming from the oven can not be compared.  These sugar cookies are made with lots of butter and sugar, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.  (If you want to see what recipe I use for the cookies and the royal icing, click here.)  I made these Valentine cookies for the blog winner, (congrats again Kathy!), and for a friend whose husband died of cancer not too long ago.  Cookies comfort too.

I made some conversation hearts. (They were my favorite as a kid!)

And some lace cookies.

(And some more lace cookies.  They’re addicting to make!  This lace cookie is with some swirl hearts and lines cookies.)

Lastly, some heart swirls.

I hope these cookies give you some inspiration for your own Valentine cookie-making adventures.  Soon, I’ll show you how to make the swirl hearts.  In the meantime, feel free to drool over the cookie candy.  Enjoy! xoxo

I don’t know about you, but February seems to have snuck up on me.  The older I get, the faster time goes by.  I mean, didn’t Christmas just happen?  And now the stores are clearancing Valentine’s stuff to make room for St. Patrick’s Day and spring.  Did I miss something?  What happened to slowing down and enjoying the moment?  Granted, I have been guilty at times of rushing through things, planning too many outings and get-togethers in a single day, and telling my 18-month old son, “Hurry! We’re going to be late!”  (Which now looking back, I just have to laugh, as toddlers have no concept of time, and rushing something is not in their mind-set.  It’s me who needs to get my act together sooner.  Someday I will learn my lesson.)

So in an effort of slowing down a bit, I decided to make something that our little family would love.  (And since we’re a sweet-loving family, it wasn’t hard to figure out what I was going to do.)  It didn’t require a lot of time, just a little effort to create a sweet moment.  And with a toddler, that moment was…well, just a moment, but that wasn’t the point.  He’s going to grow faster than I want, and these little moments are what I am going to remember–when we took time out of our busy day to spend a moment with the one who matter the most.

Truffles, cake bites, cake balls, cake lollipops–they’re all the same thing.  So call it whatever you like, they still taste delicious and are super easy to make.  You can find my tutorials and tips on how to make these here and here.  To make these truffles, you’ll need:

-silver disco dust

-pink disco dust

-silver edible hearts

-red sugar crystals

-white sanding sugar

-red velvet cake mix

-1/2 can cream cheese frosting

-lollipop sticks

-red, white, and pink candy melts

-styrofoam block  (dip the stick into the candy melts, then the balls, and shove the empty end of the stick into the block)

If you want to adhere any of the above to your truffle, you’ll have to do it right after you dip it in the candy melts, otherwise they won’t stick.

Create moments and memories with the ones you love.  Time goes by too fast not to.  Enjoy! xoxo

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

9

Timestamp: 2012-02-03 02:46:28 UTC

•   Kathy                       February 1, 2012 at 9:06 pm (Edit)

  I “liked” your blog and on FB. My favorite cookies are oatmeal chocolate chip. I’ve made a number of your recipes and have loved them all!

Congrats Kathy! I’ll be in contact with you soon.  Happy Valentine’s Day!!

Some of you have been following my blog since its inception.  Some of you have been following for about a year.  Some of you are brand-stinkin’ new.  And I love you all tremendously, no matter how long you’ve been following.  While technically I started this blog in 2009, it really wasn’t until this time last year that I had a clear vision of what I wanted to do with it and where I wanted to take it.  So I thought that it’d be fun to have a little giveaway, to celebrate my one-year blogoversary.

I know I can’t thank all of you individually with cookies, but I can at least say thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading, commenting, and sharing.  So thank you!  (And while I’m at it, I want to personally thank my husband who so graciously watches Matthew while I bake in the kitchen, willingly proofreads these posts, and happily eats the leftovers.)  I don’t even want to think about how many pounds of butter, flour, sugar, and eggs I’ve used this past year!  We’ll just say a lot and leave it at that.

For one lucky winner, I have a dozen Valentine Sugar cookies coming your way.  Yeah!  So much can be said in a cookie, and for me, it’s genuine gratitude.  I never thought that this little blog would be read by so many special people.

So, here’s how this giveaway works.  You can enter one of two ways:

1.  “Like” Pemberley Bake Shoppe on Facebook, and leave a comment in the comment section telling me you did so.

2. Subscribe to the blog, and then leave a comment in the comment section letting me know you did.

(It’d also be fun if you wanted to add in the comment section what your favorite cookies are.  Maybe I’ll feature them on an upcoming post!)

The contest will end on Wednesday night at 11:59 P.M. Pacific Time.  I will use Random.org to generate a winner, and Thursday, February 2nd  the winner will be announced here.  So good luck and thanks again for reading! xoxo  **The contest is now closed.**