Flag Cake

Made this patriotic cake for my super-duper cute goddaughter's baptism. I know, not the usual cake for a baptism, but it seemed kind of fitting being it was the day before the fourth of July. I had intentions of decorating the outside cuter but was frightened with the thought of it getting ruined in the heat and drive to the cabin. Caught everyone by surprise though when the first piece was cut!

And I was dying to try this design after I saw it pinterest (my new obsession!) And being the impatient person that I am, I just couldn't keep this one on the back burner until next year!




And here is the trick to all of the madness. Make a double batch of your favorite white cake recipe. Color the first batch red and divide it into two cake pans. With the second batch and divide it in half. Leave one half white and color the second half blue. When completed you will have two red cakes, one white, and one blue.

After they have cooled. Using a serrated knife or cake leveler, cut the two red cakes and one white horizontally in half. On your cake plate, start by place one of the red halves. Spread the top with a little bit of white filling. Then place one of the white layers on top and spread the top with white filling. And finally, put the red layer on top and spread with filling.

Now for the fun and clever part! Take the blue layer and cut a circle in the middle. I used a ten inch cake pan and cut a six inch circle in the middle. Works well to use a bowl or cake pan as a template. You can now indulge and eat the blue six inch circle if you wish!! Then take the remaining white layer and one of the red layers and stack them together. Using the same bowl or cake pan template, cut circles in the red and white layers. And again you can indulge in the outside rings of red and white cake!

And for the final assembly steps! Place the blue outside ring on top. Put the white circle in the middle first. Top with filling and then place the red circle on top! I highly suggest doing a crumb coat! And then frost and decorate as desired!!

Birds Nests

I have found so so many cute little Easter and spring time desserts while browsing the internet the past few weeks. And I had full intentions of making a few of them, but as usual, time just didn't allow it. Unfortunately baking got pushed to the end of to-do list. What a shame, huh!

But last night around midnight I decided I just had to make something. Anything. The only criteria were: 1. had to be quick and 2. wasn't going to the grocery store for ingredients. These cute birds nests matched both of the criteria! They took less than twenty minutes to make and only five ingredients! It was my lucky day (or should I say night!)


Birds Nests

3 cups miniature marshmallows
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups chow mein noodles
jellybeans

1. In a microwave safe bowl, melt the marshmallows and butter in 30 second intervals until smooth.
2. Stir in the vanilla.
3. Add chow mein noodles and stir until well coated.
4. Using your largest ice cream scooper, drop spoonfuls of the mixture on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
5. Coat your fingers in shortening and form the spoonfuls into little nests by making a hole in the middle.
6. Fill nests with two to three jellybeans

Source: Bake at 350
Linked to: Tidy Mom's I'm Lovin It

Classic Sugar Cookies

These classic sugar cookies are perfect for dunking in a glass of ice cold milk. They are perfect choice to leave for Santa on Christmas eve. They can be decorated with sprinkes to match any season. So, grab your kids and have them help out with this one.

1 cup sugar

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup butter or margarine

1 cup oil

2 eggs

1/2 tsp salt

4 cups and 4 Tbsp flour

1 tsp soda

1 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp vanilla

Cream butter and sugar. Add oil. Beat in the eggs. Mix the dry ingredients. Rolls in balls. Press down on the balls with a glass dipped in sugar (perfect for your child to do). Decorate with your favorite colored sprinkles (another good way to get the kids involved). Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until brown.

Bake on!

-M

Pistachio Cranberry Bark

This is probably the easiest thing I have made this holiday season! The hardest part was shelling the pistachios. And boy was that hard :) Although I do highly recommend trying to find a bag of pistachios without shells. Then it would become the easiest and fastest holiday treat!


And it is just so festive looking with the red cranberries and green pistachios! This is the perfect sweet and salty treat! Satisfies all of the cravings in one!


Pistachio Cranberry Bark

2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
5 ounces white candy coating, chopped (I used about three ounces and it was more than enough)
1 cup chopped pistachios, divided
3/4 cup dried cranberries, divided

In a microwave safe bowl, melt semisweet chocolate chips; stir until smooth. In a separate bowl, repeat with the white candy coating.

Stir 3/4 cup pistachios and half of the cranberries into semisweet chocolate. Thinly spread the mixture onto a waxed paper lined baking sheet. Drizzle the white candy coating over the top.

Sprinkle the remaining pistachios and cranberries over the top. Lightly press them into the chocolate. Chill until firm. Break into pieces. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Enjoy the Sweet Escape!
-Jess

Santas and Snowmen

Once again, I know, a little early. Just couldn't wait until after Thanksgiving. Today was the second day of Christmas cookie baking with Sarah. We ended up with some super cute cookies, scrumptious truffles, and yummy bark. And best of all, some much needed girl time!

The santa and snowman cookies turned out absolutely adorable! At least I think so! I can't help but to giggle a little when I see them.



Now don't you have to agree that they are cute?!?

The cookie part for both of them is a soft and chewy sugar cookie. So we might have cheated a little. We may have used pre-made sugar cookie dough. But don't judge. We were just more into the decorating part for these and didn't want to waste precious time stirring up some dough.

For the Santas: Frost the top third of the cookie with red frosting. Use a miniature marshmallow for the white pompom. Use a piping bag to pipe on the brim of the hat. Pipe on two small dots for the eyes and one small dot for the nose. Use two chocolate chips for the eyes and one cinnamon red hot for the nose. Frost the bottom third of the cookie with white frosting and stick on coconut for the fluffy beard!

For the Snowmen: These are super easy! They would be a fun project for the kiddos! Frost the cookie and use two chocolate chips for eyes, one candy corn for the carrot nose, and five or six cinnamon red hots for the mouth!

Enjoy the Sweet Escape!
-Jess

More of Michele's Halloween Treats!

Jess and I made plenty of Halloween cupcakes this year. She has already posted some of them that we created together. I made more the next day for my nephews' Halloween party. Here are some featured creations that are a bit different that those that she has already posted.

This walrus cupcake was created on top of a chocolate cupcake with chocolate ganache. I dyed some cream cheese frosting blue to create his face. I pipped on some black eyes. His mouth is made out of a halved peach ring and his teeth are candy coated licorice bites.

This spider and web was created on top of a chocolate cupcake with chocolate ganache. I piped cream cheese frosting to create the web. The spider's body is made out of a milk dud, chocolate licorice and an m&m.

This little blue monster was created on top of a chocolate cupcake with chocolate ganache. I dyed some cream cheese frosting blue to create his face. Mini marshmallows were used to create his eyes and teeth. I quartered the marshmallows for his teeth. I created lips using chocolate licorice.

These cupcakes were inspired by a picture I saw in the MixingBowl.com Fall/Winter 2010 magazine. I made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache. Then I piped on the mummy's wrappings using peanut butter cream cheese frosting. M&ms were used for the eyes.

Justin called this one my "Elmo" cupcake. It is a pumpkin cupcake that is layered with a mini pumpkin cupcake. I used pink dyed cream cheese frosting and gave this little guy a furry look. The orange nose is made out of a gum drop. The eyes are 2 large marshmallows with blue m&ms.

These cupcakes were loved by everyone at the party. I have a picture of 2 of my nephews standing on a chair next to the kitchen counter just staring at all of them. Priceless. I think my brother-in-law ate 3 of them that day. His favorite were the chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache that had cream cheese skeletons piped on them. Of course the kids at the party went crazy for all the monsters that were loaded with lots of delicious frosting. Another attendant of the party said that these were cuter and tasted better than a cupcake shop in the Twin Cities that charges $3-4 per cupcake. Kudos to us.

Bake on!

M

Michele's Halloween Treats

Peanut Butter Eyeballs

If you love PB... you will love these. Once you start eating them, you can't stop. I snagged this recipe from MixingBowl.com magazine Fall/Winter 2010. They were a perfect treat for my nephews' Halloween Party.

2 cups crisp rice cereal

2 cups nonfat dry milk powder

2 cups powdered sugar

2 cups creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup butter, melted

3 cups white baking pieces (15oz)

Red food coloring

Black decorating icing

1. Line a 15x10x1-in baking pan with foil; set aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine cereal, milk powder, powdered sugar, peanut butter, and butter. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until well mixed. using wet hands, shape cereal mixture into 1-inch balls. Place balls in prepared pan. Freeze for 1 hour or until firm.

3. Place white baking pieces in a double boiler over hot but not boiling water. Heat and stir until melted. Dip the balls into the melted baking pieces. Let stand until set. Using a small paintbrush and red food coloring, paint veins on coated balls. Using the black decorating frosting, pipe small dots on each ball. Makes about 50 eyeballs.

Bake on!

M

Halloween Cookie Pizza

So I didn't make this one. The only thing I assisted with was the sprinkling of a few chocolate and peanut butter chips. But I did get verbal permission from Sarah to include it on the blog! It was just too fricken cute and yummy to not share this with all of you!


Ingredients:
one roll refrigerated sugar cookie dough
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
candy corn, pumpkins, M&Ms, peanuts, chocolate chips, and peanut butter chips
1/4 cup vanilla ready-to-spread frosting

Heat over to 350 degrees. Line 12 inch pizza pan with foil and spray with cooking spray. Cut cookie dough into 1/4 inch thick slices and arrange on pan. With floured fingers, press slices to form a crust. Bake 15-20 minutes or until deep golden brown. Let cool completely.

Using foil lining, carefully lift crust and place on serving platter. Spread peanut butter evenly over crust. Sprinkle with candy corn, pumpkins, peanuts, M&Ms, chocolate chips, and peanut butter chips.

Heat frosting in microwave until smooth and thin enough to drizzle. Drizzle icing over cookie pizza. Cut into wedges or squares and enjoy!

This is also from the Pillsbury Best Cookies Cookbook! They also included different cookie pizza variations for Christmas and Easter! Stay tuned for these to be coming soon!!

Enjoy your Sweet Escape!
-Jess

Halloween Cupcakes

This past Saturday was the Second Annual Millard Monster Mash and of course this called for some fun and festive cupcakes! We had a pile of assorted candy and just let the creative juices take over.

"Three Eyed Furry Monster"
This was our first attempt at two-tone frosting! The eyes are dots and the teeth are slivered almonds! He is definitely one of my favorite monsters!

These pumpkins were a little classier than the other cupcakes :) But they were the favorite for the guests that love frosting! Got this idea from "Hello, Cupcake!" A mound of frosting rolled in orange sprinkles and a piece of green apple twizzlers for the stem!

Super cute and easy mummies! Criss-crossed lines using a rose petal tip and M&M eyes!

Bloodshot Eyeball Cupcakes! The center is a flattened dot candy with piped black icing in the middle.

The two one-eyed monsters! The one on the left is a furry little guy that was made with the two-tone frosting and a grass pastry tip. His eye is a peach candy ring with an M&M center. The monster on the right used laffy taffy for the tentacles and milkdud-M&M eye.

I absolutely love these little skeleton guys! A mini marshmallow for the head and #3 pastry tip to pipe on the body.

Three Eyed Alien! The orange is melted candy melts poured over a thin layer of cream cheese frosting. The eyes are flattened dots with shimmery blue gel.

I can't help but to laugh a little when I see this little monster. The back part of his head
was built up using a large marshmallow under the frosting. The eyes are gummy
lifesavers with runts stuck in the holes. And the teeth are slivered almonds!

I already can't wait for halloween next year! But we have a whole year to dream up some more fun monsters!!

-Jess

Frosted "4th" Treats

What can I say? Working holidays is no fun! So... I decided to try to bring a little holiday spirit to the "office" over the 4th of July. I have never met a nurse who didn't like a sweet, tasty treat... Yes, the pics are just being posted... I was having some technical difficulties. I tried two new recipes. Both were very well received by my coworkers who thought I was crazy to have worked a 12 hour shift and then baked not one, but two new cupcakes. To, them... yes, I am crazy. But I love to bake and when the urge hits, I go all out. Watch out come Christmas time.

So, first I made some from a recipe on http://www.foodnetwork.com/. Red Velvet Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting.

I have never had red velvet anything before but have always heard good things about it. Jess will tell you her and her siblings all requested it as the birthday cake that their mom prepared on their special day. So I gave it a go. The thought of the dark red cake was a little creepy it me but I had heard some great things about red velvet and liked how festive it would be on the 4th. They were really easy to make and I think I had just about all the ingredients in may pantry already...what could be better?!?! My husband loved them!!! He thought I was crazy since I decided that they "weren't my favorite". I feared that I had messed up the recipe somehow but velvet cake lovers out there assured me that it tasted just as it was supposed to. I guess I just met a cake I didn't like...never saw that coming. The frosting on the other hand....yum! Who doesn't love some good cream cheese frosting. There was some leftover and I will tell you that it was quite delicious on the strawberries I had in my fridge. One of my fellow coworkers went gaga for it and was ready for me to bring in the leftover for her to eat. We talked about spreading it on banana bread but she probably would have just eaten it with a spoon. Yes, it was that good.

Ok, so cupcake number 2. Vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting. Yum! Have you ever known that a recipe was going to be good just because the dough/batter tasted so good? This is a prime example. The finished product was soooo tasty. I can't wait to use the recipe for my nephew's birthday cake this next week. To make it festive, I divided the batter into three bowls. I added blue and red food coloring to two of the bowls. Then I just placed the batter in the muffin cups in any old way I desired . The cupcakes were beautiful.... the colors vibrant. Each one unique and delicious!!!! And so easy to change up for any holiday.