Author Archives: Skylar

Jul 30

Baby Shower!

I can’t tell you how thrilled I am, this past weekend was my baby shower! I never shared the news but it’s a GIRL! After all those boys, both sides of the family are thrilled. It’ll be the first grand-daughter for each side. Of course our sister-in-law is also pregnant, due 4 days after me (my original due date) so she might have a girl too, 50/50 shot!  We aren’t disclosing her name yet since it’s original and also a family name. Silly to say but I want to ‘protect’ it. The theme is Dr. Suess,  One Fish Two Fish and I had so much fun planning it. I have a bunch of pictures to upload but for now I’ll upload the cake! I absolutely loved doing that too! It was a blast to try and make it look like the invites and thank you cards we had. We had fish shaped sugar cookies that I decorated with pastel royal icing as favors, chicken and ham salad sandwiches, goldfish crackers, swedish fish and goldfish pretzels. We got a ton of books to start her library with and I’ll be super thrilled to read them to her. Sorry to go on, I’m just bursting with excitement! Here are the cake and cookie pics!

I absolutely love Sweetopia’s Sugar Cookie Recipe and it works wonderfully with royal icing!

Ingredients:

2  1/2 cups butter (at room temperature)

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

seeds from 1 vanilla bean (or 3 tsp vanilla)

5 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder (*take this out if you don’t want your cookies to spread)

1 tsp salt

Instructions:

1. Cream the butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer on low to medium speed.  (Use the paddle attachment).  Mix until thoroughly incorporated – for about one minute.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a plastic spatula and mix again for a few seconds more.

Over mixing the butter and sugar in this step will cause too much air to be incorporated into the dough.  If you’d like a light and fluffy cookie, that’s ideal, however the dough will spread more during baking; not ideal if you’d like the cookie to hold its shape.

2. Add eggs slowly and mix.  Scrape down the bowl with your spatula at least once and mix again.

3. Cut open your vanilla bean and scrape the seeds out.  Add to mixing bowl.  Alternatively, add liquid vanilla extract.  Stir briefly.

4. Sift your dry ingredients together.  (Flour, baking powder and salt).

5. Add all of the flour mixture to the bowl.  Place a large tea towel or two small tea towels between the edge of the bowl and the electric mixer so that the flour won’t escape.  Mix on low speed for 3o seconds.  Remove the tea towels and observe the dough mixing; when it clumps around the paddle attachment it’s ready.  It’s also important at this stage not to over mix the dough (the glutens in the flour develop and the dough can become tough).

6. Roll the dough out between 2 large pieces of parchment paper.  Place on a baking sheet and into the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour.

7. Roll out the dough further if you need to, and cut out cookie shapes.  Place on parchment paper-lined baking sheet.  Re-roll scraps and repeat.

8. Put cookie dough shapes back into the fridge for 10 minutes to 1 hour to chill again.  They will then hold their shape better when baked.

9. Preheat your oven to 350°F or 176°C.

10. Bake cookies for 8-12 minutes or until the edges become golden brown.  The baking time will depend on the size of your cookie.

I’ve found that taking them out almost immediately when they start to turn, the cookies are soft and moist, like those iced sugar cookies you can buy at the grocery store. Only these, are WAY better! Also, I’ve made half batches and whole batches, both turn out equally well!

 

Royal Icing

2 lbs (1bag) confectioner’s sugar
1/3 c. plus one Tbsp. meringue powder

3/4  c. warm water

1-2 Tbsp. OIL FREE extract

Mix dry ingredients first, slowly mix with paddle attachment.

Add the extract to the water, slowly add to dry mix. It will seem to be more like a liquid than solid.

Mix at medium-high until fluffy and stiff peaks form, between approximately 7-10 minutes. Stop mixing as soon as it forms stiff peaks! Over mixing and oil-containing extracts can keep the icing from setting up.

If you’re using it to pipe/flood a cookie, keep it thick until you’re ready to use it. I typically thin it to a “15 second” icing (video coming soon!) so I can both pipe the outline and go back to flood without having to switch bottles/bags out.  Use very little water at a time to thin as you can’t take away excess. It’s so much easier in that you only color this stuff once, no need to match! Once you finish flooding the cookies, let them dry for 6-8 hours. Perfect!

 

 

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Jul 9

Tis the season!

To get married! Summer weddings seem to be huge, bigger than other seasons. Everyone can be outside enjoying the weather, having fun and relaxing! I was just asked to do a wedding style cake for a co-worker of my mom’s. They were having a surprise “reception” party for her daughter and son-in-law and I got asked to do it! The couple originally got married in winter but didn’t have a full blown reception to celebrate (so I guess my title’s off huh?). Better late than never right? I sketched up a design of my own and I unfortunately tossed that when she changed her ideas so I can’t show you it. It was Tiffany & Co. Blue (gorgeous shade if you’ve ever seen it!) and covered in white gumpaste daisies. It looked beautiful. But then she asked if I could recreate the design on the napkin. I checked it out and it seemed easy enough, I agreed. The added color was black. Interesting! Having all the black icing in the freezer still from last month’s wedding, I just thawed that and piped on my design. What a blessing that was! I had a small heart attack the morning of the party as I was finishing up. The top layer toppled off the cake stand and the icing smeared all over the counter (some flew onto the floor too). If I hadn’t just taken it out of the fridge, it would’ve been a disaster! Thankfully, a bit more icing and it looked like new. The girls loved it and her daughter did as well! Again, I used the High Humidity Icing from Wilton. I posted the recipe in the last blog which you can find here. Enjoy the pictures!

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Jun 4

Summer Lovin’

Hey Ya’ll! Sorry about lack of updates! Getting used to being pregnant and all those crazy symptoms, sigh! Anyway, it’s the beginning of June here and a while back I wrote about getting asked to do a friend’s friend’s wedding cake (if that makes sense!). Well after going back and forth, we had some details to go on. Colors were red and black and the flowers changed to calla lilies. It was to feed roughly 150 people (at first around 2-250 and I was concerned). Luckily I had some wonderful helpers to set up with me (and deal with my pregnancy anger! haha) A HUGE thank you to my parents and my wonderful husband for assisting me! We had a few rough spots but the cake turned out lovely in the end. The worst part was coloring the icing enough without trying to dye people’s mouths shades of red and black! Being that it was June, I was worried about humidity (the day called for rain) so I used Wilton’s High Humidity Icing recipe. Here are some pictures of the cake, during and after assembly.

 

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter softened
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 4 cups (approx. 1 lb.) confectioners’ sugar sifted
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch

Instructions:

Step 1

In large bowl, beat shortening and butter with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add vanilla; mix well. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar mixture has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. In small bowl, combine milk and cornstarch; stir until cornstarch is dissolved. Add to icing mixture; beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.

Step 2

Keep icing covered with damp cloth until ready to use. For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Re-whip before using.

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Apr 10

National Baking Week

Hi everyone! A bit late on this but last week was National Baking Week. At least according to Better Homes & Gardens Magazine (which I have a NEW addiction to!). Along with the “baking” of this little bundle that’s been happening, (Month 4 already!) I’ve been hanging with my favorite (i.e, only) sister a lot lately since being stuck in an ovenless apartment with just Mavs, is not my idea of fun. On the first day of “Baking Week”, I headed into the next county and spent some time with my youngest nephew. Most don’t know, I’ve been on a new “kick”. There are a lot of edible flowers and plants in your backyard you probably aren’t aware of! Included are dandelions, violets, pansies, marigolds and even some plants usually classified as weeds. P decided he wanted to take a walk and since it was gorgeous out, we couldn’t really deny him. On the walk, P kept asking if he could pick flowers. We instead let him start his “rock collection”. We got on subject about the edible plants and making different cookies. I asked Tiff if she had a few ingredients and she said she did. P was pretty excited you could eat some flowers and since I already said dandelions were, he was even more thrilled to pick them when we hit their yard. The front yard was a bit bare, but the back was plentiful. After gathering a decent amount, P saw a bee and decided he had enough for “Mom’s bouquet” so I just followed. I got the ingredients mise en placed after I washed the flower heads and then started “plucking” the flowers. You want to make sure you don’t get any of the bitter green parts when you do this. Hold all of the green back, grasp the petals and twist as you pull. I only needed 1/2 C. but it was enough plucking to stain my hands for a while afterward. You want to lightly oil the baking sheet as well since the oil in the dough gets absorbed. I found they were really simple and even the boys LOVED them! I was very surprised since they hate just about everything you put in front of them (or at least find something to “dislike”). I think P was a bit more excited since he helped make them and gather the flowers for it. B took a cookie, set it down, then went back for more. When Archie came to the house, he ate quite a few! She packed some up for us to take home and they were gone later that night…If you don’t let the idea of eating a “flower” or “weed” get to you, you will really enjoy them. The honey adds a touch of sweetness and they a “bit dry” according to Art, but adding more honey would easily remedy that. The cookies don’t spread out too much so I easily fit 20 on a sheet and got 40 2-bite cookies out of it. All in all, I think they’re a hit!

Also, be wary of the flowers you use for any sort of cooking! If you have animals that “wander” through the yard, the only flowers you have are close to the road, or have close neighbors that use pesticides (that may have traveled to your yard), do NOT use them!

Dandelion Flower Cookies
Ingredients:
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup honey
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup unbleached flour
1 cup dry oatmeal (I used a mix of both old-fashioned and quick, use what you’d like)
1/2 cup dandelion flowers

Preheat oven to 375°F. Blend oil and honey and beat in the two eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour, oatmeal and dandelion florets. Drop the batter by teaspoonfuls onto a lightly oiled cookie sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes. Let cool and eat.

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Mar 27

“WHOOPIE!” for whoopie pies! and cooked icing awe

Whoopie Pie. They go by many alias’ so don’t be alarmed if you have no idea what I’m talking about. When I was in college, most of my major (a whole 12 of us ladies) were from PA or outlying areas (NJ mostly). We were set to make whoopie pies one day and a girl from Southern Pa said, “what is THAT, it sounds dirty!?!” After we described it, a big glob of icing smooshed between two cake like cookies, she said, “Oh! You mean a ‘GOB’?”, One New Jersey chimed in, “No, that’s a ‘Black and White’”. So to most of us from Central Pa, they’re a “whoopie pie”, but to you they may be a “Gob”, “Black and White”, “Bob”, or a “BFO” (big fat oreo). Either way, it’s the same treat and yummy where ever you’re located!

I was checking out “the Pioneer Women” just the other day and was happy to find that she used a “cooked” icing on her Red Velvet Sheet Cake. A cooked icing is started by heating milk and flour, whisking until super thick, then cooling. You then take a fat (usually butter or shortening) and cream it with vanilla and sugar. For me, I grew up with a cooked icing recipe and we ALWAYS use it on whoopie pies. As you’d know, I was shocked when she said she’d never made an icing with flour until someone sent the recipe and persuaded her to try it. I know, flour and sugar seems more like a cake recipe than icing, but it is so fluffy and worth it in the end. Which brought me to another shocker the other day, when I checked out a blog and she also said she never made cooked icing until she found a recipe that needed for it. Even then, people see the flour and are super hesitant to try it. Sure you can easily mess it up (my mother did when she first started!). I’ll even say, the first time I made it by myself, I was on the phone with her (so really, she was there…) but still, it’s worth a shot! Maybe its just that I grew up in “Whoopie Pie Country” and my mother makes them literally, all. the. time. that I’ve engraved that icing recipe into my brain and have grown to love it, or maybe just because its delicious? Well, either way, I’ll post the recipe, and ya’ll can decide for yourself! =] And just for future sake, Maine is not where they originated from, they may have a paper trail from 1925 on, but I have recipes and books containing them, passed down from way before that! Plus a former flame’s grandmother was descended from Amish and she showed me her books and loose recipes as well. PA Dutch is where its at! =]

Cheater’s Whoopie Pie
1 cake mix (your choice of flavor)
3 eggs
1/2 cup of water
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
1/4-1/2 cup flour

Mix all ingredients, except flour, together. Add flour, a little at a time until you have a slightly thicker batter that doesn’t run too much.
Drop onto cookie sheets and bake at 350* for 10-12 minutes. Let cool. “Pair” up the cookies to ones of similar size. Fill with icing and wrap in plastic wrap. (If they sit on top of each other without wrap on, the bottom cake and top cake of the other wp will stick-use caution if you’re going on looks)

*Variation* Bake in cake pan as directed (9×13″ or 8-9″ circles). Let cool. Split cake in half, spread in some icing. Replace top of cake, spread on more icing. Enjoy your giant whoopie pie!

Cooked Icing
4 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
2 Sticks Unsalted Butter (you could also use shortening, I find it leaves a “film” though)
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a saucepan, whisk together flour and milk. Turn heat to medium and cook, whisking constantly, until mixture is thick and creamy. Let it cool completely.
Using your mixer, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the vanilla. Beat in the thoroughly cooled flour mixture. Beat and beat until the icing is fluffy and no longer grainy.

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