Sometimes Life Is Sweets, Sometimes Life Is Sour, But Mostly Life Is Everything in Between!

I cannot imagine how two and a half weeks has passed since my last post.  A lot has gone on,  some good and some not always so great, but, oh, how I've missed baking and blogging about it!  Life Is Sweets has become such a nice constant amongst unpredictable days.

I wanted to write about Easter.  It was such an amazing day!  The majority of my family is in Buffalo so I am not able to spend most holidays with them.  My Husband's family is from Ukraine and do not celebrate holidays in general.  So, once a year I love gathering my in-laws and the rest of my Husband's family together for a Holiday meal.  This year we hosted Easter, despite the fact some family members are Jewish and others are Russian Orthodox, so their Easter is a week later.  Truthfully, it was my first Easter as a hostess, so I tried some new recipes.  Some worked, some didn't.  Case in point, the ham:

I was so excited to try a recipe I found for Dijon/Brown Sugar/Gingersnap Crusted Ham.  It seemed simple enough to do, BUT, the crust fell off in chunks and bits...basically everywhere but on the ham.  HOW DO YOU SUCCESSFULLY MAKE A CRUSTED HAM??!!  I still haven't found the answer.  The ham was delicious despite my efforts.  ;)

Another new recipe I found from Pinterest, Honey/Balsamic Glazed Baby Carrots turned out perfectly delicious:

The recipe, from So Wonderful, So Marvelous, is so easy I highly recommend it!

Balsamic Honey Glazed Roasted Baby Carrots

2 pounds baby carrots

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for drizzling

3 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spread carrots on cookie sheet, careful to not pile them on top of eachother.  Drizzle with some olive oil adding salt and pepper.  Roast for 20 minutes.  Remove from oven and add the two tablespoons of olive oil, honey and balsamic vinegar.  Roast for 5 more minutes.  Eat and enjoy!

My Husband decided our featured Easter drink would be Chocolate Martinis.  Yeah, they were super delicious!!

Before everyone arrived I made sure everything was ready in the dining room, which is fairly small.  We have a long table with both leaves inserted.  As a result, we have to turn the table sideways to fit everyone.   For this gathering we needed seating for 10 adults and 4 children.  I had ideas on an earthy tablescape, but also wanted a bit of fun for the kids.  I found the adorable string bunny and egg decorations and hung them along the curtain rod.  I thought they added some Easter cheer without being tacky.  Not only did the kids love them, my cat did, too!

I bought some loose flowers and eucalyptus leaves to make floral arrangements in three square glass vases.  I loved how they turned out, though I can definitely use some practice at arranging.  I also bought egg cups and filled them with some jasmine I snipped from a bush in my yard.  

And then there was dessert.  I made white cake mini rose cupcakes and a meant-to-be-but-not-really hydrangea cupcake.  The icing was a brighter green than I was going for, and I got overzealous with the frosting, but, hey, I tried!  At least the roses turned out cute. it was my first time trying the technique and it actually works!

Hold the cupcake in one hand and in the other a piping bag fitted with a 2D tip.  Holding the piping bag upright over the cupcake, start piping from the middle of the cupcake and slowly spiral around, ending where you begin.  So super simple!

I wish I could say these cupcakes were totally delicious, but they were dry and not very tasty.  At all.  I was completely embarrassed!  However, I made my Lemon Tarts, too, and they were a HUGE hit.  They saved the day.  :)

I made Easter baskets for my niece and nephews filled with candy, puzzles and other fun stuff.  My Secret Service Agent cat Morticia took her job seriously and guarded them closely.

My sisters-in-law brought eggs dyed and designed by the kids and a wonderful collection of pussywillow branches with colorful hanging eggs.  So cheerful!

Dinner was totally delicious with great food and tons of laughing.  It was such a gorgeous day outside...we played games, egg hunted, scavenger hunted and enjoyed the sunshine.

And then everyone went home happy!  Am I the only one who feels a sense of satisfaction of a job well done when I see a table of used dishes stacked up after a gathering?  It's not that I love the cleanup, I just enjoy the remnants of a good time had by all.  :)

I hope you had a wonderful Easter or Passover!!

Candy Cupcakes Part III - Mini M&M Bite Sized Rainbow Fish Cupcakes

Oh how I *so*  love these little guys!!  Once again, I've been seeing them on blogs and Pinterest, so I don't even know who to give credit to for this idea...but whoever you are, well done!!  How great are these?  I even had a lot of fun putting them together.  And, it's so easy!  This would be a great activity to do with children.  Here is the first time I came across these cupcake fish.  I made a few slight changes - I did not place the M&M's on an angle and I added M&M tails.

To begin, you need either store bought or or make your own mini cupcakes.  You can find mini-muffin liners at the grocery store and they can be placed in a mini muffin pan.  Fill the liners about 2/3 full.  It's much easier to frost them if the cake is even with or a little above the top of the liner.  If they don't quite reach the top, you can put them aside to use for the "water".

To assemble these you need a bag of M&M Minis, White Icing (either a can or homemade.  I always recommend homemade.  It really makes a difference!), Orange, Yellow, Green and Blue food dye, and either 2 Ziploc baggies or  piping bags.

Split the white icing into five parts.  Dye one yellow, one orange, one green, one blue, and leave the last white.  Set the white aside.  Next, decide how many cupcake minis you would like to be fish and how many to be "water".  Set the water cupcakes aside.  Start icing the designated fish ones in each of the four dyed colors.  Once you have completed this step, it's time to add the M&Ms...the best part!

The photo below shows the first steps of placing the M&M's.  Coordinate the M&M colors with the cupcake icing color.  If you are anal like me, you will be careful to make sure the"M" logo is facing down.  Add two red M&Ms for the fish lips:

The next part of the transformation is to add the eye.  Fill a Ziploc bag or piping bag with 1/2 of the white icing.  Snip a very small bit off the corner of the baggie or  bottom of the piping bag.  I used a Wilton Tip #3, but realized I didn't need to after all.  Squeeze a dot of white icing where you would like the fish eye to be located:

Now take a brown M&M and gently push it into the center of the white icing dot:

Adorable!  Right?!  Next I made the "water" cupcakes to place randomly around the fish, as if they were swimming around.  In the second Ziploc bag or piping bag, I placed the white and blue icing together.  I squished the two colors a bit, careful not to fully blend them:

Snip the end of the bag again, a little wider this time to make more of a wave pattern, and ice the cupcakes.  I used a piping tip for a little more texture, but if you don't have one to use, it'll be just fine.  I used an up and down motion sort of like this ^^^^ in two or three layers on top of eachother until the cupcake was covered.    Then, I arranged the cupcakes and water on a Fish Platter:

So cute!  Yet, something was bothering me.  I realized it was missing tails!  The photo I first saw didn't have tails, and lots of others didn't, either.  A few I saw used flattened Starburst Candies shaped like a tail and placed on the end, but I didn't have any.  Instead, I decided to use some of the leftover white icing I'd used for the eyes as "glue" to add some M&Ms for tails.  This worked fantastic!  

Now I was happy!  The "gluing" of the tails worked because the M&M Minis are so light.  I'm not convinced this method would have worked with regular size M&M's.  I believe their weight would have made them fall off the edge.  However, this was a success and I just love these little guys!!  I like anything with fun, bright colors, really, though.

Well, tomorrow is my last day of Candy Cupcakes.  Stay tuned for M&M Raspberry Chocolate Cupcakes!

Oreo Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

My plan to do auto-posting while I was away on vacation this past week did not work.  I have to figure it out!  So, now I am manually posting later than I planned.  Here we go!

Cookie's and Cream Cupcakes: Everyone is making these, I see them everywhere.   I even baked a version of them when I first began this blog.  During that trial I used a box cake mix and wasn't happy with the taste.  Also, I did not show how to make them, which I will do this time around!

The vanilla cupcake recipe is:

Scratch Cookies and Cream Vanilla Cupcakes

Adapted slightly from Martha Stewart

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups milk

1 cup of crushed Oreo Cookies

24 Large Oreo Cookies

Mini Oreo Cookies for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line cupcake pan with liners; set aside.  In a medium mixing bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.  In a large mixing bowl cream together butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time,  mixing until incorporated.  Scrape down sides of bowl and mix in vanilla.

Add flour and milk alternately, beginning and ending with flour.  Stir in crushed cookie bits.  Scrape down sides of bowl.  

Spoon a small amount of batter into the bottom of each liner.  Put a regular size Oreo Cookie on top.  Contine to divide batter evenly among liners on top of the cookies, filling each about 2/3 full.  

Bake until cake springs back, approximately 18-20 minutes.  After removing pan from over place on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes.  Remove cupcakes from pan and let cool completely on rack.  When cooled, top with buttercream icing and garnish with mini Oreo Cookie.

Vanilla Buttercream Icing

2 sticks of butter (I did use salted)

4 cups of confectioner's sugar, sifted

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup of crushed Oreo Cookies

3-5 tablespoons half and half

Place Oreos into a Ziploc Freezer size bag.

Use a rolling pin, water  bottle, anything you can roll across the cookies to crush them.

Using a mixer, beat butter until it is fluffy.  Add 3 cups of sugar - one cup at a time - mixing until it's completely incorporated.  Add vanilla, half and half, and cookie bits along with the last cup of sugar and mix together, adding more half and half until the icing is the desired consistency.  Pipe icing onto cupcakes and garnish with an Oreo Mini.

This is the Martha Stewart Cupcake recipe I used for the Raspberry Buttercream Cookies, so the cake was a bit more dense than I would like.  Still looking for a scratch vanilla cupcake recipe!  I do love these Cookies and Cream Cupcakes, though, especially when you bite into it and find a cookie surprise inside!  :)

I have shared this recipe on:


 

Autumn Leaves Are Gently Falling on Chocolate Trees!

That is, they are gently falling from chocolate trees onto plush buttercream grass!  Oh, how I love October - the changing of leaves, crisp days and nights, hats and scarves, Halloween, my birthday and, of course, new baking possibilities!  Apples, pumpkins, and cider...oh, my!  So many recipes, so little time.  Where should we start?  I say with the bright colored leaves of fall!

Awhile ago, as I always seem to be, I was browsing through fall baking ideas.  I fell in LOVE with  the chocolate trees I found here.  All you need is chocolate and Autumn Leaves Quins...which, as it turns out, are not so easy to find.  Eventually, I ordered them from Amazon.com.  They took a bit of time to arrive, but when they did I was hardly able to contain myself.  I baked up some cupcakes immediately, melted the chocolate, placed waxed paper on the counter (any flat surface will do), and started on the trees.

Once you have melted the chocolate, pour it into a plastic pastry bag or Ziploc baggie.  Cut the end (or corner of the bag if using a Ziploc) off a little at a time.  You can always make a bigger whole, but cannot make it smaller!  I learned this the hard way when I cut too much off the end and had a flood of chocolate flowing everywhere.  Next time, I will use a funnel to pour the chocolate into a squeeze bottle for more control over the flow.  I'm still orienting myself with pastry bags in general!

Make the rough shape of a tree and a few branches on the waxed paper:

Next, take a toothpick to make a thicker trunk and whimsical branches.  Be sure to use enough chocolate to make a sturdy tree trunk because you want the tree to be strong enough to stand on it's own once placed in the cupcake.  Also, do not worry about smoothing the chocolate perfectly.  The swirls and texture will make the hardened chocolate look more tree-like.

While the chocolate is still wet, sprinkle some of the Autumn Leaves quins on the branches.  Work on one tree at a time.  The leaves will stay on the branches nicely once the chocolate hardens.

While the trees are setting, approximately 10-15 minutes, begin frosting the cupcakes.  I mixed up some buttercream icing, but you can use canned frosting if you prefer.  Dye the icing green using gel or liquid dye.  You can spread the icing on the cupcake as your normally would, but I bought an icing tip shaped to create the effect of grass (as well as many other things).

Once the cupcakes are frosted, carefully peel a chocolate tree off of the wax paper.  Start with the trunk and work your way up.  Go slowly, especially with the branches, and there should be no breakage.  Look at how lovely the leaves look!

After you've lifted the tree, push it into the center of an iced cupcake.  Repeat this process until you have created an entire forest.  The result is magical!  Wouldn't these be cute at place settings on a Holiday table?

HAPPY FALL  EVERYONE!!!

How much blueberry is too much blueberry?

Well, unless you are Violet Beauregarde, I personally, don't think there is such thing as too much! On that note, I had a few pints of blueberries I purchased from a Farmer's Market and wanted to find something fun and delicious to do with them. I decided on blueberry cake with blueberry filling topped with blueberry buttercream icing.

First I mixed up some vanilla cake batter. Next, I added the blueberries to the batter, but not before coating them in flour.

Doing so prevents the berries from sinking while baking. Without the flour coating, they sink to the bottom of the cake. Once you have added the coated berries, FOLD into the batter mixture. If you stir too vigorously the berries can burst and their juice will turn your batter purple.


After the berries are fully incorporated, spoon the batter into cupcake liners placed in a cupcake pan. Bake as directed for the cake recipe you have chosen.

Next, I made what was supposed to be blueberry filling for the cupcakes. I followed a recipe that made an absolutely delicious blueberry SYRUP, but did not gel as promised into a filling consistency. As a result, I could not inject it into the cupcakes for a "surprise inside". I will try to make filling again tomorrow, after purchasing more blueberries, as I used up my supply today.


So, onto the buttercream icing. Instead of milk I added some of the blueberry syrup to the mixture. I thought this would produce a lovely blueberry taste, but neither my husband nor I thought the berry taste stood out. However, it turned the buttercream into a beautiful purple color, which I loved. After frosting the cupcakes, I spooned a bit of the blueberry syrup on top to finish the look. I am hoping it will set nicely and not create a liquidy, sticky mess. So far, so good.


Even though this project didn't turn out as I originally planned, the cupcakes are DELICIOUS with an incredible blueberry taste!! I hope if you try them you enjoy them, too.


If you are interested in a wonderful blueberry syrup (great for pancakes, ice cream topping, crepes, etc.), you can find the recipe here.  Next time I make this syrup I'm going to add some Blueberry Port Wine. Mmmm.....

A Hole In One?

Yesterday's project was a bit more involved than anything I've attempted so far. While browsing the web for ideas, I came across this "golf-scape" idea. Coincidentally, my Husband's partner is celebrating his birthday today and he is an avid golfer. Perfect opportunity to give this a try!

This was my inspiration:

Image used is from Cutest Food found at

http://cutestfood.com/3094/golf-course-cupcakes/

As I started, I thought I might like the end result better if I filled in the gaps between cupcakes for a better golf course effect. I baked Vanilla cupcakes, let them cool, placed them in a transportable container, and set to work.

After mixing the buttercream icing, I used green gel dye to begin the grassy area. The day before, I practiced make the rough grass effect with a piping bag. I used leftover canned icing from the Panda cupcakes and was pleased with how it looked. From that practice session, I was not concerned with the process of piping the rough grass other than how long it might take. Ah, but this is where baking becomes a fickle art and can throw an unexpected curve into your plans!

The buttercream icing I favor is not nearly the same thickness as canned icing. Had I more time, I'm sure I could have come up with the necessary consistency required to pipe rough grass. Waiting until the 11th hour made me a victim of overconfidence, my friends! I was simultaneously baking rainbow cupcakes for my Husband's secretary's birthday, as well, and thought I had it all under control. Turns out, maybe not!

As it became late in the day, I had to settle for the rough grass design below (at no point did canned frosting become an option. I would rather sacrifice appearance than taste):

I wasn't thrilled with it, but my Husband loved and it and it's for his friend, so if he's happy I'm happy enough!

For the dark, trimmed grass area, I iced the cupcakes green and then covered them in dark green sugar to provide a contrast from the rough. For the sandbunker, I iced the cupcakes in white and covered them in light brown sugar. Next time, I will use crushed Nilla Wafers, as I think the sweetness factor of sugar on icing might be a bit much! I used a semi-sweet chocolate chip for the hole, and a mini-chip covered in white icing for the ball to create a hole-in-one. The flag is a toothpick with a taped triangular cut of paper. HB is for Happy Birthday!

On my next attempt I will perfect this type of grass icing:

Image shown from Delicious Dishings found at

http://megan-deliciousdishings.blogspot.com/2009/07/ladybug-cupcakes-and-some-news.html

Okay, so what have I learned?

-Master the grass method with the intended icing for use, not a substitute, which may provide false results!

-Next time a little more rough and a bit less sand bunker.

-It's REALLY not ideal to take photos at night. I don't know enough about using flash to compensate for the low light without bleaching out the objects. Photographing food is NOT easy!!

-This particular cupcake scheme does not look so great in a foil transporter, better to use a pastry box or arrange it on a flat board of some kind.

-This is a fun design you can really be creative with. Look at these clever creations!

Image from Cupcake Crafts at 

http://www.cupcakecrafts4u.com/golf-course-2/

So, lessons have been learned and the cupcakes are on their way to celebrate! I don't think this was a hole-in-one finished product, but since it was my first time I'll give myself a 1-2 over par. :) ** I have since made this golf course again with much better results.  Click here to see!!**