Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I get started blogging consistently and then I fail at life. All the Titanic stuff on this last week distracted me, sorry. To the post!

My signature cookie was Oatmeal M&M for a while, primarily because it was my favorite to eat. Since I have been avoiding baking things I love eating, I haven't made them for two and a half years. I was asked to bake some oatmeal raisin cookies for someone, which broke my streak. As you can see, I made these jumbo sized. They took about 1/3 cup of dough to make them that large, but it was nice because it took significantly less time to get into the oven. They tasted amazing. I can never bake these again (unless they're for somebody else).

Martha Stewart Challenge: Chocolate Mint Wafers

These cookies are very similar to Thin Mints (my favorite Girl Scout cookies ever), but the recipe was not very good. Even though making the dough was pretty easy, once I got past the chilling stage the recipe became fairly misleading. The suggested amount of dough did not flatten out to the size the recipe claimed and they took several minutes longer to bake than stated. I won't get started on the dipping process. They tasted great, yet I'm not sure they're worth the effort.

Grade: C+ (A- for taste, D for the recipe), not sure if I'll bake again.

Carrot Spice Muffins

Happy Easter, or, if you don't celebrate, Happy April 8th! Today seemed like a good day to make some carrot spice muffins. I've had carrot cake twice, but I've never had carrot muffins. They were pretty delicious. The shredded carrot and chopped pecans add a little crunch, which I like, but I think they need a little more spice. I think I need to experiment with these a little more before they're ready.

King Rolls

I made the king cake into roll form because I had the ingredients and felt like it. They were incredibly delicious.

Martha Stewart Challenge: Pillowy Meringues

I am a terrible blogger, but I have a semi-legitimate excuse this time! I was helping my dad pick out a new car/baking things I've previously posted. I'm baking a lot of new things these next few weeks so hopefully I will be getting back into a regular posting schedule. I will also be starting up my training blog (that I've neglected since January...) within the next few days as well. Hooray!

These cookies were a disastuh. They were initially supposed to be shaped into hearts (I was going to do shamrocks since I was making them a month late) using a cookie cutter. That did not work; we piped them instead. The recipe said to bake them for a 2/12 to 3 hours, but it took nearly 4 hours. All of the difficulties making these cookies would be worth it if the cookies were delicious. Naturally they sucked. 

Grade: F-, never making again.

Mad Men and Archer-Inspired Poundcake With Butterscotch

I like to make baked goods inspired by my favorite movies and TV shows. Conveniently the Archer finale airs tonight and Mad Men premieres on Sunday, so I made this a two-for-one special. On the surface these two shows have nothing in common (one is an acclaimed drama and the other is a hilarious, very adult* cartoon), but Don Draper and Sterling Archer both drink a lot of scotch.

This cake is a brown sugar poundcake with chopped pecans inside of it to add a little crunch. I sliced the cake into cubes and topped it with a butterscotch sauce actually made with scotch. The end result is incredibly delicious, and incredibly sweet. I had to follow it up with something salty. I'll definitely make both cake and sauce again though.

*Seriously, don't let kids watch it. It's rated MA for a reason.

Martha Stewart Challenge: Glitter Ball Cookies

I am starting something I like to call the Martha Stewart Challenge. I got the Martha Stewart Cookies 2012 Calendar and it came with recipes for each month's cookies, so I will be making each cookie monthly (even though I am two months behind).

January's cookie is called a Glitter Ball. They are two little butter cookies rolled in sanding sugar and pressed together with a ginger honey frosting. There are no words for how amazing these cookies are. The butter cookies remind me of the free cookies I would get every time we went to Vons when I was little, so I am thrilled to finally have a recipe for them. I was concerned the ginger would be too overwhelming, but the cookies keep the frosting from being too strong. I definitely would not use the frosting on a cupcake though. That would be too much. 

Grade: A+, will (and have) make again. 

Cinnamon Rolls

I am terrible at posting. I've been writing and focusing on other things lately, but I'm baking again (Yay!). 

Anyway I made cinnamon rolls a few weeks ago. As you can see, my mom didn't wait to let me take a picture before she took a few out of the pan. They were delicious.

Almond Marshmallows

Happy Leap Day!

This was the marshmallow flavor I was most excited to try and was probably my most successful batch. I made them with extract and crushed almonds to add a little crunch. The first time I made them (pictured) I used the almonds as a garnish, but it worked best if I folded them into the mixture before I spread it out to set.

Full disclosure: I have made some marshmallows that have not turned out so well due to chemistry, including honey lemon, maple walnut, and peppermint. I just don't blog about them, and won't until I get the combinations right.

And a note to my new readers: I like comments. They make me feel special.

Vanilla Marshmallows

I went through a phase of making marshmallows last month, starting with these traditional vanilla marshmallows. I used vanilla bean paste instead of vanilla extract. They were pretty good.

Chocolate Cupcake with Salted Caramel Buttercream

I have nothing to say about this cupcake because I made them well over a month ago. From what I can remember they were a hit. Also, this particular cupcake is really pretty. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get back to watching Escape from New York.

King Cake

OMG I'm actually updating! I went AWOL for the last month because of reasons. Sorry.

I baked a King Cake yesterday in honor of Fat Tuesday. I don't pretend to be an expert on Mardi Gras (although I love the Jem episode: "Beware of zombies on Fat Tuesday!"), but I love a baking challenge. This particular cake is a yeast cake filled with raisins, pecans, and a cinnamon/brown sugar mixture. It was a relatively similar process to making cinnamon rolls, so I'll probably make some king rolls in a few days because it was delicious.

Traditionally a little plastic baby is placed inside the cake, but I didn't have one so I put a Lego man in it. Whatever works.

Churro

I love churros and will forever associate them with Disney theme parks, so this was a necessity. Unlike Disneyland, there only seems to be one stand, in Frontierland, that sells them. We found it when I was looking for a pretzel. Victory!

Now I want a churro.

Dipped Pretzels

Chocolate covered pretzels are among my favorite things because I love the sweet and salty combo. Goofy's Candy Co. in Downtown Disney has a counter where you can get a variety of custom dipped objects (including marshmallows, rice krispy treats, and 3 pretzel rods), so my parents and I each got our own chocolate covered pretzel. From top to bottom:

• Dark chocolate with chocolate chips and a dark chocolate drizzle (my dad's)
• Dark chocolate with M&Ms and a white chocolate drizzle (mine)
• Milk chocolate with crushed butterfingers and a milk chocolate drizzle (my mom's)

In other news, I have 3 more vacation posts until I get to new, Anna-made stuff. I've been making a lot of one particular thing that happens to be very time consuming (and playing Batman: Arkham City), and needed some filler posts. 

Mickey Mouse Cake Pop

On Day 4 we went to Hollywood Studios and I got this delightful Mickey Mouse shaped cake pop. The head was red velvet cake and the ears were made out of marshmallows. It was the perfect amount of cake for me.

Ghirardelli Ice Cream

We went to Animal Kingdom on Day 3, then Downtown Disney in the evening for dinner and some shopping. On our way out of Downtown Disney we stopped at the Ghirardelli Soda Fountain for some ice cream. I had mint chip with dark chocolate fudge, and a cookie to mix into the sundae. It was predictably awesome.

Desserts from Le Cellier

When we were at Epcot, we had lunch at Le Cellier, the very popular steakhouse in the Canada section of the World Showcase. It was as delicious as I had heard. My burger was top notch, and the pretzel bread haunts my dreams. Knowing I wanted a crepe, I opted out of the fixed price lunch that my parents got. My dad had the "moose," and my mom had maple crème brûlée (which was the entire reason we went there in the first place). I assume they were amazing, but I didn't have any of them as I was stuffed. I definitely recommend the restaurant.

Strawberry Crepe (With Wine!)

On Day 2 we went to Epcot, so my dessert of choice was a crepe in France. Usually I just get a sugar crepe, but on this occasion I felt like a strawberry crepe and a glass of rosé.

Waffles!

The next several posts will consist of desserts from my week long trip to Disney World! Dessert number one: waffles at the Magic Kingdom. They sell waffles at Sleepy Hollow in Liberty Square, so we stopped an had some after visiting The Hall of Presidents. Leslie Knope would be proud.

Cake from Carlo's Bakery

When my aunt and cousin were in New York they picked up a cake from the Cake Boss. I don't watch the show (it's not my type of reality show; it doesn't feature any Kardashians or child pageants [I watch them so I can judge them]), but the cake was good. I would love to try some other flavors some day. The fudge in between the two layers was particularly delicious. I'm curious as to whether or not they have a dark chocolate variety.