Grin and Bake It! | Baking my way through the trials and triumphs of life!

Written on December 1, 2011 by Kate

I’ve tried to instill in the boy that it’s better to give than receive, but a few days ago it became quite obvious that I haven’t done a very good job. I sent him to school with fifteen dollars cash to spend in the school’s holiday shop and when he came home, he proceeded to empty the contents of a rather large shopping bag. A small rope toy for the Naughty One fell out and the rest of the things he bought were gifts to self. So apparently, he missed the entire point of the holiday gift-giving shop.

Don’t get me wrong, I too have embraced the gift-to-self concept. I just believe in gifts for everyone, including self. So in the spirit of giving ~ gifts to yourself or to others, here are a few things anyone who loves to bake would appreciate.

I know a lot of baking friends that share in my fetish for cake plates. I love this Rosanna Rococo one in black, so classy!

Baking is messy, so if you’re going to get messy, at least do it in style. This Reversible apron is from Debbie’s Etsy storefront, DebzDoodlez . She has lots of other prints to choose from.

You might have read one of my posts about this before, but it’s worth repeating. I think this Wilton 50 piece decorating kit is the best out there for someone getting start. It’s reasonably priced and comes with tips, couplers, gel colors, spatulas, bags, and more!
Ruffles are all the rage, and this ruffle pie plate is on sale for $19.99 and ships for free. If you know someone with a cake plate fetish, it’s probably an issue with pie plates too.

If you’re looking for cookbooks, here are two great reads. As much as I love pretty cookbooks, I find most of the recipes I try from the Internet. These two books are not your traditional cookbooks. They explain the science behind cooking and baking so you can be successful in creating your own recipes. Ratio came out in 2010 and Ruhlman’s Twenty was just released this fall.

This is the only baking sheet worthy enough to go in my oven. These Airbake sheets are only $14.99 at Target and by far the best and only sheet I will use at this point. Just don’t submerge it when you clean it, trust me on this!

I love my Babycake Cake Pop Maker. When I bought one for my sister’s birthday in September, I bought one for me too. Happy Birthday to me! They are currently sold out online at Kohl’s, but they should have them in stock in the store. It’s on sale for $26.00 and with the $10.00 coupon they send every month, that makes a great present for a great deal. If you can’t find it at Kohl’s, you can also buy it at the BabyCakes online store.

When decorating cookies, I could not live without Kuhn Rikon squeeze bottles. Sur La Table is selling a new cupcake set which includes a cupcake corer and silicone baking cups. It’s $30… a great price for everything you get.

Anyone who bakes will tell you that measuring cups are not all created equal. I happen to think Williams Sonoma makes some of the best. They have a gift set right now with all of the cups and spoons for $39.00. It’s worth the investment.

Prince Charming, really you can skip the jewelry this year and get me this. Yes, I’m picking a Kitchen Aid mixer over diamonds. This KitchenAid® 7-Quart Bowl-Lift NSF Commercial Stand Mixer is the Rolls Royce of Kitchen Aids. Now I happen to LOVE my aqua blue 5 qt Martha Stewart Kitchen Aid. If there was a fire in the house, I’d grab the boy, the Naughty One, and the mixer. That’s how much it means to me. But I’m pretty sure I could fall in love with this one too. Christi from Love From the Oven was given one to try out (I am seriously jealous!) She wrote a great review of it on her site. The best part is this can make up to 14 dozen cookies at a time. But if you don’t generally make 14 dozen cookies at a time, go check out the rest of the stand mixers that Kitchen Aid has to offer. You’ve got to love the rainbow of colors.

Wishing you all a fabulous weekend!

Gift Ideas, Holidays, Other, Products

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Written on November 29, 2011 by Kate

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I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving week! I am almost finished with day three of my detox from carbs and wine, and let me tell you how much it pains me to even look at this photo. It is only because I’m already past the withdrawal phase that I can post this. I think it was the stuffing, mashed potatoes, and this cinnamon roll cake that put me over the edge… carb overload! And don’t think this is a long-term thing, I only plan on torturing myself for a few more days.

My sister, brother-in-law, and my niece came and stayed with us last week and we had a great time. My sis and I stayed up late one night in our jammies laughing and watching Cupcake Wars. What a blessing to just hang out and catch up with her. She is also a master chef in the kitchen, so I loved cooking Thanksgiving dinner together. She didn’t even get mad at me when we had to run out to the grocery store a half an hour before the turkey was done.

This cinnamon roll cake is both a dessert and a breakfast, especially if you’re a fellow carb-addict. This recipe has made the rounds in the foodie blogosphere for good reason, and this will definitely become a repeat recipe in our house. The boy and family LOVED it! It really does taste like an ooey, gooey cinnamon roll, but it’s way easier than homemade cinnamon rolls. This would make the perfect breakfast for Christmas morning. You can even make it the day before and warm it up before serving.

On a totally unrelated note, thank you to my friends and readers who have let me know about my spam-posting impostor over the past few weeks. I was in denial, hoping it would go away. It didn’t! And no, that was not me trying to sell you false eyelashes, or whatever else was popping up here. The boy has a whole theory about the spam posting impostor and he could be right (he usually is and that completely frustrates me).

Jen from Swank Web Design, who created my blog design, has updated everything and I think the problem has been fixed. If you are looking for a blog designer, I cannot sing her praises enough. I love working with her! She is so creative and incredibly efficient. While Jen was updating things, I had her add a section to my sidebar called “The Essentials”. Many of you have asked for my frosting, sugar cookie, and gingerbread recipes, which I know have gotten buried in my blog posts. All of the essential recipes are now right there, just in time for holiday baking.

Hope you’re having a carb-indulgent week for me! More carbs next week… I promise!

Cinnamon Roll Cake (Posted by Holly at Life as a Lofthouse)

12 servings

CAKE:

3 cups Flour

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1 cup Sugar

4 teaspoons Baking Powder

1 1/2 cups Milk

2 Eggs

2 teaspoons Vanilla

1/2 cup ( 1 stick) Butter, melted

TOPPING:

1 cup ( 2 sticks) Butter, softened

1 cup Brown Sugar

2 Tablespoons Flour

1 Tablespoon Cinnamon

GLAZE:

2 cups Powdered Sugar

5 Tablespoons Milk

1 teaspoon Vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9×13 glass baking pan with cooking spray. Set aside.

In an electric or stand mixer add the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, milk, eggs, and vanilla. Once combined well , slowly stir in the melted butter. Pour into the prepared 9×13 baking pan.

For topping, In a large bowl mix the 2 sticks of butter, brown sugar, flour and cinnamon together until well combined and creamy. Drop evenly over the batter by the tablespoonfuls and use a knife to marble/swirl through the cake.

Bake at 350 for 28-32 minutes or when a toothpick inserted near the center comes out nearly clean.

FOR GLAZE: In a medium bowl, mix the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla together with a whisk. Drizzle evenly over the warm cake. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Breads, Cakes, Desserts Galore, Pastries, Recipes

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Written on November 18, 2011 by Kate

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If you read my post from yesterday, I have to tell you there are not enough rum soaked cherries in the world to ease a mom’s anxiety of the first playoff game. The game was intense. During the last inning, our team was up by one with the bases loaded, and our coach (the boy’s dad) brings in the boy to be the closing pitcher… no pressure. Last night the boy was the hero and struck the next two batters out to win the game. It really was a great moment for him. He was exhausted and so was I! I’m not sure whether to be thankful or not that this team is still in the playoffs and now scheduled for an entire weekend of baseball games. (Did I mention I’m out of rum soaked cherries? We’re taking the Bailey’s and hot chocolate for tonight’s game!)

Here is something to be thankful for… these free Thanksgiving printables from some of my favorite blogging designers. Enjoy!!

Don’t tell me you’ve already made your Thanskgiving grocery list, please lie to me. Your honesty will only make me feel bad about the current lack of organization in my life. When you finally do get around to making your list, this is a great way to map it all out. Love this Menu Planner made by Wendy at Weswen Design.

Amy always shares great printables with her readers. I love how simple these are to put together. You can print the Candy Bar Wrapper at her blog Living Locurto.

I love these festive patterns and colors Rebecca at Somewhat Simple used when she created these flags. It’s as simple as printing, cutting, gluing to a toothpick, and sticking in your Thanksgiving treats.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE sunflowers and thought this Sunflower printable pack was a great Thanksgiving motif created by the amazingly talented Kim of TheTomCatStudio

If you want simple and elegant these Place Cards by Kim of Today’s Creative Blog would look great at each place setting.

How clever are these? I’m not a left-over kind of girl, Thanksgiving is my only exception. These Leftovers Tags are perfect to have ready to go when sending guests home with food. These were made by Tricia at Worldlabel.com

This complete set is a freebie too created by Ashley of Cupcake Express posted at Catch my Party .

I am of the philosophy that kids should be kept busy during Thanksgiving dinner, so that parents can enjoy their wine and turkey dinner. These Placemats are perfect for the Kiddie Table (created by Kirsten at Embellish)

It’s Written on the Wall has posted this Thanksgiving Subway Art plus eleven more to choose from. You can print them on your home computer or have Costco print them in an hour.

Beth from It is What it is created these favor tags in four different color schemes. She posted several ideas on how to use them that you must check out. My favorite is the tag attached to the wine bottle…perfect to bring to the Thanksgiving hostess.

Wishing everyone a great pre-Thanksgiving weekend!

A Few of My Favorites..., Favorite Foodies, Favors, Holidays, Parties, Table Setting Ideas

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Written on November 17, 2011 by Kate

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Seriously, a bowl of cherries doesn’t do much for me… but a bowl of rum-soaked cherries is definitely something to get excited about. I sent my parents off on their road trip with oatmeal raisin cookies (my dad’s favorite). Since I was already making oatmeal cookie batter, I found dried cherries in my cabinet and decided to experiment. These cookies were supposed to have chocolate chips in them as well, but in all honesty I was on my second glass of wine and completely forgot to add them. I remembered to add chopped up walnuts to the batter, which is a twist on my go-to oatmeal cookie recipe. The people at the Fisher Nut Company were kind enough to send me a whole variety of nuts to use with my holiday baking. The cherry-walnut combo was great. I really think the cherry-walnut, and chocolate combo would be even better, so you’ll have to let me know if you bake a batch.

The boy is in the play-offs for baseball this week, which causes lots of anxiety (for me, not him… he’s fine). Why my son decided pitching was his calling in life, I’ll never know. I try to remind myself that it’s just for fun, but watching the boy up there on the pitching mound is nerve-racking… not what I’d call “fun”. I think I now have just the trick to make it more enjoyable. If you’re at the game tonight and see me with a ziploc full of cherries, it’s our little secret that they’ve been soaking in rum, okay?

I will be back tomorrow posting some great Thanksgiving printables!

Oatmeal Cherry Cookies (Adapted from my Go-to Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Recipe)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed

2 large eggs

1 teaspoons vanilla

3 cups oats (not instant)

1 1/2 cups rum soaked cherries

½ cup walnuts, chopped

1/2 cup chocolate chips (don’t forget)

Directions

Pour dried cherries into a glass bowl. Pour 1/2 cup dark rum over cherries (spice rum works too). Add enough water so that all cherries are covered in the liquid and let sit for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°. Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, kosher salt, cinnamon and nutmeg, set aside. Combine butter, sugar, dark brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla with a hand mixer on low. To cream, increase speed to high and beat until fluffy and the color lightens. Stir the flour mixture into the creamed mixture until no flour is visible. (Over mixing develops the gluten, making a tough cookie.) Now add the oats, nuts, and cherries; stir to incorporate.

Fill cookie scoop with dough. Drop 2-inches apart onto baking sheet sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake 11-13 minutes (on center rack), until golden, but still moist beneath cracks on top. Remove from oven; let cookies sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

cookies, Recipes

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Written on November 11, 2011 by Kate

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Happy Friday everyone! I can’t believe how fast this month is flying by. Thanksgiving will be here before we know it, so it’s time to start thinking about turkey treats. My parents are heading out on their first road since becoming homeless, and they will be gone for Thanksgiving. I know what you’re thinking, how dare they leave me on a major holiday (okay, that’s what I was thinking). I might have been a little bitter, but my sister and her family are driving here from Texas to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. The boy and I are SO excited to have them with us. Usually, they stay at my mom’s and we have to share them, but now that my parents are drifters, we get them all to ourselves. My sister and I are excited to make Thanksgiving dinner together. We’re of course making the traditional Thanksgiving pie, but we also need something festive and sweet for the non-pie lovers. I went in search of some adorable turkey treats created by other food bloggers and here’s what I found. Now comes the tricky part… figuring out the cutest.

Two Oreos, a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, and a Whopper disguised as a turkey? This is my kind of dessert posted at ourbestbites.com .

Martha Stewart has a turkey cupcake how-to posted on her site.

I love these M&M turkey favors posted at the Party Animal blog. Wouldn’t they look cute at each place setting at the kiddie table?

How simple and yummy does this turkey rice krispie treat look that Ali from Gimme Some Oven created.

This turkey cake pop posted by Maria on Martha Stewart’s Dreamers into Doers page is the cutest one I’ve seen for Thanksgiving.

Turn a chocolate cupcake on its side, get some Nutter Butters and a few other goodies and you can make these turkey cupcakes (created by Jeanne Benedict)

I love this turkey cupcake cake for a big group posted at Atomic Cupcakes.

Why did I just buy the giant turkey cookie cutter when this cookie made using a circle and heart cookie cutter looks so much cuter. Bee in our Bonnet posted a step-by-step photo tutorial on how to make these.

Happy Weekend Everyone!!

A Few of My Favorites..., Favorite Foodies, Favors, Holidays, Other, Parties, Table Setting Ideas

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Written on November 9, 2011 by Kate

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If you read my blog, you probably know how badly I wanted a baby girl. I love and adore the boy and wouldn’t trade him for anything, but getting him to play Barbies or be excited to go to the mall with me just isn’t going to happen. Since the mall and Barbies are out, I do get excited to make girly cookies and cupcakes Last week these were made to celebrate a newborn baby girl. Bridget at Bakeat350 made “cute as a button cookies” awhile back that I loved, and I thought the idea was a perfect one for this “Sip and See” party.

The only additional step with these cookies was making the fondant buttons. It was really pretty simple with Wilton’s pre-made fondant on hand. Bridget made the process even easier by posting a step by step photo tutorial on how to make them. The words were written on the royal icing using my new Americolor food writer markers. These markers are now my favorite of any of the food-safe markers I’ve tried. LOVE THEM!

I wanted the cupcakes to coordinate with the cookies, so I carried over the flower and button theme. Don’t you just love how the buttons look in the center of the flowers… so adorable and girly I can hardly stand it.

cookies, Cupcakes, Parties, Recipes

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Written on November 6, 2011 by Kate

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My new roommates moved in last Sunday, so it’s been quite a week. I never planned on having roommates. In fact, when I got divorced there was even a discussion about not having roommates in the best interest of our boy. For six years, I’ve kept good on that promise, and in doing so, our house has become the boy’s safe haven.

So I’ve broken a promise… sort of, but I really did find the best roommates possible. Roommates who cook dinner and do my laundry. Roommates who pick up my groceries and watch the boy when I need them to. They’re also roommates who plan on traveling the world and staying here in between vacations. Most importantly, the Naughty One approves, and is in fact in her glory with them here. Our roommates are named Grandma and Grandpa. My parents have given up their huge party house and are moving on to the next chapter in their lives, destination unknown. We are excited to be their home base when they need a break from traveling. They’re here for ten more days before heading out on a 30 day road trip.

Prior to the move-in, we hosted our annual pumpkin carving party. I’ve decided there are two types of food/party bloggers… those who pretend to have parties and blog about them, and those who actually do have parties, forget to take pictures at their parties, and when they actually remember to take pictures, the pictures turn out pretty crappy. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather have a fabulous party with crappy pictures than vice-versa.

Wishing you all a fabulous week ahead. I’ll be back this week to share photos of the baking orders I somehow found time to cram in during moving week.

cookies, Holidays, Parties, Recipes

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Written on October 25, 2011 by Kate

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Our pumpkin carving party is this Friday night. It’s one of my favorite celebrations that we have all year. Good friends, good food, martinis, desserts, and prizes… it doesn’t get much better than that. I have some grand party plans, but seeing how it’s only a few days away, we’ll see how much I can pull off.

I’m serving Mexican food, a crowd favorite around here. It also happens to be the easiest dinner for me to put together for fifty or more people. But as much as I love Mexican food, cocktails and dessert are still what it’s all about.

The boy and I have been on a cake push-up pop kick for awhile, so we decided to create Halloween cake push-up pops for the party. The boy came up with the idea of a push-up pop graveyard, so this is what I’ve come up with… now to make a bunch more and a graveyard!

The push-up containers can be purchased from a variety of vendors. They can be purchased in bulk, but if you’re not in the market for more than 100, go visit Cupkate’s Event Design online storefront and buy them from Kate. She has them in stock. The goal of these was to keep it simple. The biggest time investment was making a Duncan Hines chocolate cake, pretty simple. I am of the belief that some occasions require homemade buttercream, birthdays, showers, and Valentine’s Day to name a few. However, there are other occasions where taking the shortcut is your best bet. This is where the pre-made icing comes in. Milano cookies were used to make the tombstones. I had black royal icing on hand to pipe on the cookies. As an alternative, the Food Writers made by Wilton, or melted chocolate chips or candy wafers could also be used for the design. The little candy bones are also from Wilton. We buried them in the layers of chocolate. Finally, we topped them off with chocolate candy rocks that we found from the candy store.

Want some more Halloween Push-up Pop inspiration? See what Christi of Love From the Oven created. I love the candy corn colored push-up pop! I might need to make some of those too.

Cakes, Cupcakes, Desserts Galore, Holidays, Parties, push-up pops, Recipes

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