I have a kitchen helper.  Maybe you do too.  My kitchen helper is my 18-month-old son Matthew.  For about the last 4 months now, he’s been interested in what I’m doing in the kitchen, but can’t actually see what I’m doing–which is apparently very frustrating for toddlers.  You know, to know that someone is doing something fun, but they aren’t a part of it.

So I decided to do what any logical, baker-crazy mom would do.  I pull up a chair and have him stand next to me, watching what I’m doing.  (I usually give him a measuring cup and a spoon, and he’s very content banging the counter, swirling the spoon in the cup, talking outloud.)

This past week, he’s helped me make a cake, sandwich cookies, and now bars.  He’s getting to be a pro, and pretty soon, he’ll pass me up.  His new thing is looking at what’s baking in the oven.  And he usually cleans the outside of the door, which is super helpful.  I mean, tongues aren’t just for talking.

But one of my favorite things about baking is giving my little man a sample.  I know he’s ready for dessert, because when the oven timer dings, he pulls himself up on the chair, bangs his little hands on the dining room table, and opens his mouth like a little bird.  And after his first bite, it kills me when he laughs and opens his mouth wider, because one small bite isn’t enough.  (He’s probably figured out it kills me too, because he always gets a little more than I originally intend to give him.)  Oh, he’s definitely my son!

These Mud Bars are his newest favorite.  They are really easy to make, even if you have to make them by yourself.  For this recipe, I used bittersweet chocolate chips and some Andes mints.  (The mints were leftovers in the pantry, but you can use any type of chopped nut if you prefer.)  You can serve this dessert with a scoop of ice cream, or some chocolate sauce, or have it just plain.  Whatever way you choose, I promise they won’t last in the house very long.  I made them Saturday night and two days later, they are all gone.  I blame my kitchen helper.  Enjoy! xoxo

Mud Bars

printable recipe

1 c + 2 T flour

½ t baking soda

½ t salt

¾ c packed brown sugar

½ c (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 ½ t vanilla

1 egg

2 c bittersweet chocolate chips, divided

1/3 c Andes mints, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease and flour a 9 x 9 – inch square pan.

Using a whisk, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.  In a mixing bowl with a paddle attachment, cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.  Scrape down the bowl.  Add egg and mix until combined.  Slowly add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until there are no more traces of flour.  Add the Andes mints and 1 cup chocolate chips.

Press dough into mixture (it will be thick).  Bake for 20-25, or until edges are golden and toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Remove from the oven and sprinkle remaining 1 cup chocolate chips.  Wait 1 minute, and using a spatula, spread the melted chips evenly across the bars.  Once the bars have fully cooled, put in the fridge to harden the chocolate top.

Remove from fridge and cut into squares.  Store any leftovers in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

 Recipe Source: my fabulous grandmother, Viva–I miss you terribly!

Valentine’s Day used to be my least favorite holiday.  I used to feel, way back when, that it was another excuse for the candy, card, and entertainment industry to suck money out of you, but deep down, it was most likely that I didn’t like Valentine’s Day because I didn’t have someone special to share it with.  I don’t mean family and friends, because that’s different.  (My wonderful dad would give my sisters and me little treats he’d made, from chocolate shaped like teddy bears to chocolate cups with ice cream inside, and my mom would always write cute, little love notes.  And for many years, my single friends and I would pick a fun restaurant in town and dress up and enjoy a nice time out.  We’d then go home, rent some non-sappy movie, and eat milkshakes.  So I wasn’t deprived in the love department.)

When you’re single, and you don’t want to be, you tend to dread this holiday and are reminded of what you don’t have.  But I don’t want this post to be about that.  I feel that I’ve grown up a bit, and while I still don’t feel the urge to buy a sappy love-letter, or make a romantic dinner on this particular day, (or feel entitled to a dozen roses by my hubby), I do really like the idea of Valentine’s Day being shared with the ones you love, no matter how you love them.

This is such a simple dessert to make for someone special in your life.  All you need is heart-shaped cookies, ganache, and sprinkles.  Simple, right?  Exactly.  That’s what I thought.  (I’m not being sarcastic, really. I promise it is easy.)  I make my chocolate sugar cookies from a recipe in the book Cookie Craft, (which is why I’m not posting it on the blog), but there are some good recipes on-line if you so choose.  Using a heart-shaped cookie cutter, (mine were 1 1/2 inches, but you could use any size), bake and fully cool the cookies.  (Half are flipped in this photo to make creating the sandwich really easy.)

Ganache sounds like a really scary word, and until the other day when I made these cookies, it was.  But I found it pretty easy, even though the recipe I decided to try, from Martha Stewart Living, had confusing directions.  (I will do my best to de-mystify this in the instructions below.)  And normally, I alter recipes, but since I had never done this before, I thought it best to stick to the directions.  Anyway, that was a bit of a side note.  But this isn’t any kind of ganache–it’s whipped ganache, and it’s lighter, fluffier, and fudgier.  Once the ganache is made and whipped, scoop it into a pastry bag with a #12 tip.

Pipe onto the underside of half the cookies.

And sprinkle with pearlized sugar.

Do this for all the cookie sandwiches.  And there you have it.  A lovely gesture to those you love.  (I realized in this photo that my husband and son are matching and I just have to laugh, because I am not one to dress our family in the same color on the same day, but this must have been a fluke.)

Share the love with those you love and make some chocolate sandwich cookies.  Even if it’s just for yourself.  And I’d love to hear some of your favorite Valentine treats or special things you do to celebrate the ones you love.  Just leave a little note in the comment section. :) Enjoy! xoxo

Chocolate Heart Sandwich Cookies

printable recipe

makes 15 sandwich cookies

30 chocolate heart sugar cookies, baked and cooled

Red sanding sugar or pearlized sprinkles

Whipped Ganache:

8 oz. bittersweet chocolate (61% cacao—I like Scharffen Berger)

1 c heavy cream

1/8 t salt

Bring heavy cream to a slow boil over medium-high heat.  (Watch that it doesn’t scald or burn.)  While the cream is heating up, coarsely chop the chocolate and place into a heat-proof, deep bowl.  As soon as the cream comes to a boil, gently pour over the melted chocolate and add the salt.  DO NOT TOUCH for 10 minutes.  (This allows the cream to melt the chocolate.)

After 10 minutes, use a whisk to mix the ingredients until it all comes together.  Scrape the bowl, even the very bottom, a few times to incorporate all the chocolate.  Let the ganache come to room temperature, 20-60 minutes.  Every 5-10 minutes, use the whisk to stir the contents.

Once the ganache is at room temperature, pour into a mixing bowl with a paddle attachment, and mix on medium-high speed for 2-4 minutes, until light and fluffy.  Scoop into a disposable bag with a #12 tip and pipe whipped ganache on the inside of 15 cookies.  Place another cookie on top of ganache, to create a sandwich.  Sprinkle sanding sugar around the cookie, so that it sticks to the ganache.

Store in an airtight container up to 3 days.

Recipe Source: Martha Stewart

Pacific Northwesterners love snow.  I say this because we don’t get it very often and it usually doesn’t last.  Yesterday was our first snow of the season, and it was a very light dusting.  My one-and-a-half-year-old son was intrigued by the large white stuff floating down from the sky and kept pointing out the window.  He was also licking the window pane, but that’s another story.

With the weather so cold and the wind so biting, I decided to make a summer-y cake, to make myself feel warm and fuzzy inside.  Plus, I just bought another 6-inch cake pan, and really wanted to make a cake for two.  This cake makes way more than two, but it’s so cute and little, and well, I’m a sucker for those things.  And I couldn’t have just one piece either, so it makes me feel better knowing it’s a small cake.

You can buy these small cake pans at any cake decorating store; I’ve even seen them at Jo-Anns and Michaels.  They cost around $5 apiece.  For the middle of the cake, I used a raspberry filling.  It might sound like an odd combination, but trust me, they work together perfectly.  (I have to admit, though, I cheated on the filling–I bought it at our local cake decorating store. Gasp!!  Anyway, you could cheat like me, or make your own.  Raspberry preserve would also work just fine.)

Some tips with this cake:

1.  Having a flat surface when filling and frosting a cake is really helpful and really easy.  You can use a long serrated knife to cut the top off of each cake, or you can use a cake leveler.  I am not good with knives, so I use a cake leveler–I have this and this, both from Wilton.  The more expensive one is for larger cakes, but both do the job just fine.

2. To make sure the filling doesn’t ooze out of the cake, create a dam.  Place some lemon buttercream in a piping bag with a #10 or #12 tip, and go around the top of the bottom layer of the cake.  Place the filling in the middle, using an off-set spatula to completely fill it in.

3.  Have a crumb coat.  All this means is that you create a messy, first coat, making sure the cake is evenly covered with frosting.  Place in the fridge until the frosting hardens a bit, then coat a second layer.  This traps in all the crumbs and creates a beautiful looking cake.

4.  Place wax paper pieces under the bottom of the cake (between the cake and the stand) when frosting.  If you’re like me, you’ll make a mess, and when you pull the pieces away from the cake, there won’t be any buttercream on the cake stand.  Make sure they are pieces tucked under the cake.  If you place a sheet of wax paper in-between the cake and stand, you won’t be able to get it off unless you lift the cake.

5.  If you want to be a bit fancy, pipe small dots around the top and bottom of the cake, using a #10 or #12 tip.

This cake has a subtle hint of lemon, with a richness of raspberries.  Make it today and dream of warmer weather. :)  Enjoy! xoxo

Lemon Poppyseed Cake

printable recipe

Cake

1 c cake flour

½ t baking powder

1/8 t salt

1 t poppyseeds

1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

1 c sugar

3 large eggs

1 t lemon extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease and flour two 6-inch round cake pans.  In a large bowl fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Add the sugar and continue beating, 2-3 minutes.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, making sure the yolk is fully dissolved.  Add the lemon extract.

Slowly pour in the cake flour, baking powder, salt, and poppyseeds, and mix on low speed until fully incorporated.  Pour equal amounts of batter into each pan.  (The batter is a little thick.)  Use a spatula to move batter to edges and make even.

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden and toothpick entered comes out clean.  Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes, then invert and cool completely.

Lemon Buttercream Frosting

Enough to create a crumb coat and second coat

3 sticks unsalted butter, room temp

4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1 t vanilla extract

2 t lemon extract

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.  Beat in the extracts.  Beat until buttercream is smooth.

Filling

Raspberry filling or preserve

Tools

Off-set spatula

Wax or parchment paper

Piping bag

#10 or #12 tip

Cake stand

To assemble the cake:  Cut the tops off of each cake with a cake leveler or a serrated knife.  Place one cake layer on a cake stand.   Tear off pieces of wax paper and place around the bottom of the cake, creating a layer between the cake and cake stand.  Fill the piping bag with some buttercream frosting.  Going around the edge of the cake, create a dam with the buttercream.

Place some raspberry filling on the center of the cake.  Using an off-set spatula, spread to the edges of the dam, adding more filling as needed to make sure frosting and filling are even.  Place the second layer cake on top.  To have a smooth, even top, flip the cake layer so the top is now touching the filling.

Create a crumb coat and place in the fridge 10-15 minutes to set up.  Frost the second layer, smoothing top and sides as needed.  For a decorative touch, using a piping bag, create “dots” around the top and bottom of the cake with a #10 or #12 tip.

Store any leftovers in an airtight container up to three days.

Cake Recipe Source: slightly adapted from The Kitchn; original recipe from Flo Braker

My good friend is having a baby girl soon.  Like in three weeks soon, and I couldn’t be happier for her.  I had the honor of helping host the shower, with my main job being to bring the desserts.  Her colors are pink and green and I spent a while deciding how I wanted to coordinate her colors into the desserts.  After much, much thought, I decided on vanilla cupcakes topped with a light pink vanilla buttercream frosting and a sprinkling of light green sugar pearls. (You can find the recipe for these cupcakes here.)

And for favors for the guests, I made sugar cookies.  (You can find the cookie and royal icing recipes in this lengthy post.)  Here they are all packaged up and ready for the guests to take home.  Lots of pink!  (I have two boys in my house, so pink is not a color I see very often.)

Here’s a close-up of the pink elephants and onesie cookies before I packaged them.

Pink elephants with a green heart…

Marbled onesies and flower onesies…

All but the elephant and onsies are done with clip-art and a kopykake.  I added some light pink disco dust to some of the designs, to give it that extra umph (a.k.a., girly touch).

I liked how these designs turned out, for the most part.  What really bothered me, and I don’t know if there’s an answer to this, (because most of the great cookie decorators have this problem too, to an extent), is why on the small details, there are air-bubbles, and even though I took a toothpick and ”pricked” the wet icing, when they dried, they popped.  So frustrating!!  (I know some people believe that you shouldn’t talk about what didn’t go well or turn out how you liked, but since this is a blog about what goes well and what doesn’t, I thought I’d be fully honest.  That’s just who I am, so if you don’t like it…well, tough luck.)

Baby carriage…

Stork…

Girly bib…

Rattle…

These sugar cookies were so much fun to make and I had a blast creating a wonderful memory for a wonderful friend.  Thanks Carri-Anne for letting me be a part of such a special time in your life.

Now, my next task is to learn how to make a diaper cake like this one.  It is so creative and adorable! xoxo

I’m linking this up over at Tidy Mom’s and Serenity You’s blogs. Come check out all the fabulous-ness! (Yes, I know that’s not a real word, but it fits so perfectly here.)

I love cream cheese.  No really.  I love cream cheese.  And as my high school students would tell me, I’m sure I’d marry it if I could.  (Yup, not just elementary students use that silly phrase.)  I have yet to find a dessert with cream cheese in it that I haven’t liked.  To me, it comes in a close second to butter.

You can see my love for cream cheese here, here, here, and here.  I made this dessert for my little sister’s 29th birthday a few weeks back.  (We’re both Christmas babies, hence our names, Noelle and Holly.)

I call this dessert a surprise, because from the onset, it doesn’t look like much, but when you take a bite, you get 5 layers of absolute heaven.  There’s no other way to describe it.

When they took their first bite, my sister and brother-in-law said, “Now that’s the stuff!”  Which apparently just means it’s really good.  Like the best good.  But don’t take their word for it, try it out for yourself and see. Enjoy! xoxo  (And happy birthday little sis! I love you. Life would definitely not be as sweet without you.)

Peanut Butter Chocolate Surprise

printable recipe

20 Oreos, divided

2 T unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

8 oz. full fat cream cheese, room temperature

½ c peanut butter (NOT all-natural)

1 ½ c powdered sugar, divided

16 oz. Cool Whip, thawed, divided

20 peanut butter cups, coarsely chopped

1 c cold milk

3.9 oz. instant chocolate pudding mix

In a food processor or blender, crush 16 Oreos until very fine.  Place into a large bowl.  Pour in the melted butter and use a wooden spoon to mix until the butter is fully incorporated.  Dump the mixture into a 9 x 9-inch pan.  Using the back of the wooden spoon, press down until the Oreo mixture fully covers the bottom.  Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream the cream cheese, 1 c powdered sugar, and peanut butter until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Fold in half of the Cool Whip and spread on top of the Oreo mixture, making sure it is even.  Sprinkle the peanut butter cups over the peanut-cream cheese mixture.

Using a mixing bowl (or hand-held mixer), beat the milk, instant pudding, and remaining ½ c powdered sugar on low speed for 2 minutes.  Let sit for another minute, or until soft-set.  Fold in the remaining Cool Whip and place in the pan, spreading evenly.

Using your hands, coarsely break up the remaining 4 Oreos, sprinkling over the whole top.  Place plastic wrap over the pan and chill in the fridge at least 3 hours or overnight.  Store any leftovers in the fridge.

Recipe Source: slightly adapted from Taste of Home