Baking this Holiday Season

I love the idea of holiday baking. There are TONS of recipes out there that I want to try. However, each year I go back to the same recipes.

I must be forming my own traditions: fudge, peppermint cupcakes, and cookies.

This year there were no cookies. But there was plenty of fudge and cupcakes. Fudge for work, fudge for Tom to take into work, fudge for family and friends, and of course, fudge for a holiday party that consisted of a dessert-making contest. Cupcakes were for birthdays, baby showers, and that same holiday dessert party!

With all of that baking comes much taste testing. So I got plenty of chocolate deliciousness this season.

And with teaching comes along more sweets - like the caramel cupcake from Georgetown Cupcakes that I got on our last day before vacation.

I totally understand why people go on diets for New Years. I won't go on a diet, but by the time NYE comes around I am ready to take a step back from the sweets for a while!

July Anniversary Cake 2

Our friends, Ben and Liz, celebrated their 1 year anniversary yesterday and before I left Vermont, I made sure to make them a vanilla-frosted lemon anniversary cake to enjoy on their special day.

I decorated it the same way that I decorated their wedding cake last year, however, instead of feeding 150 people, it was baked for just the two of them. 

It was missing the fresh fruit that decorated last year's cake, but frozen fruit is never as good as fresh fruit, so it was a sacrifice I decided to make when decorating the cake.

They certainly are a terrific duo and I wish them many more years of happiness together!

Lemon Raspberry Rolls

Thursday night I posted a question to my Facebook friends, "Two weeks without baking has me going crazy. What should I bake up tomorrow?"

Cookies were the most popular suggestion, but a treat using beer and bacon (for Tom) won everyone over. However, I didn't go with either. Why Not? It wasn't because we don't have beer or bacon, but rather because we had a container of fresh raspberries in the fridge that were screaming to be transformed into something amazing.

And then Joy the Baker came along.

As did her Lemon Raspberry Breakfast Rolls.

They're cinnamon rolls minus the cinnamon. Replaced with brown butter. 

The real question here is, why isn't brown butter an air freshener yet? Because dang, that is quite possibly one of the best scents out there!

I almost threw out the dough because I had forgotten to add the sugar in with the yeast and milk. I didn't realize it until I was half way through kneading it. I wasn't sure if that would make a big deal but I added the sugar and continued on.

It turns out that that was just a minor blip that did not impact the final product. And everything worked out just fine.

Actually, it worked out too well. Because these things are just too good. I struggled (and failed) to stay away from them as I cooked dinner. We brought one to a friend last night and I think she would agree: These are pretty amazing.

Speaking of last night, we watched "All the President's Men" outside at a park in Rosslyn. Everything was going well until we were near the end of the movie. We started to hear some funny noises around the park and then....

The sprinklers turned on!

Someone in the city forgot that the park would be occupied by a few hundred people, relaxing on their blankets and enjoying a movie. We skedaddled our butts right out of there and headed on home.

Happy Saturday Everyone! Will anyone be doing any baking? If not, I hope you still get yourself a delicious treat and enjoy the weekend!

Good Eats: Palena and Ice Cream Sandwiches

After a long, lonely day of unpacking boxes with Wilson, I was very excited to hear that Tom wanted to go out to dinner when he got home. We live near a bunch of restaurants and had to decide between Thai, Indian, Mediterranean, American, Mexican, or Italian. I'm sure there are more choices but I am still not that familiar with the restaurants near us.

We did a quick scope out of the row of restaurants before settling at Palena, an Italian restaurant.

I ordered the gnocchi with peas, bacon (only fancier - I just can't remember what it was) and goat cheese. This was my second time having gnocchi ever, and I am very happy I gave it another try. It was delicious! It had a hint of lemon which made it the perfect summer dish. I was in love with it and was sad to take my last bite. 

Tom had their grilled Salmon which was even more delicious than the gnocchi. And you certainly did not need ketchup with these fries. A dip into the salmon's sauce was more than enough.

Since it was about 93 degrees when we got out of dinner, we decided to hit up Sugar Magnolia on our way back to the apartment. It's a cute little cookie bakery that has unique ice cream flavors as well as homemade ice cream sandwiches. 

We both grabbed the salted caramel ice cream sandwich with chocolate cookies. I really enjoyed the sandwich if I "forgot" that it was supposed to be salted caramel. Otherwise, I couldn't really tell that it was caramel or salted. It was a nice little treat to cool us off for the rest of our trip home.

One Year Anniversary Cake

Last July I made two wedding cakes for two pairs of dear friends. I'm not sure about you, but I think it would kill me to keep the top of a cake in the freezer for and entire year! For one, I have no self control and I fear that it would be demolished by month three, and second, who wants to eat a cake that has been frozen so long?

When both couples asked me to make their cakes I told them that I would make an anniversary cake for them this year, free of charge, and fresh for their anniversary. However, I did not anticipate moving to DC.

Instead of leaving them cakeless, I decided to bake and deliver their anniversary cakes early.

Last week I delivered Kat and Anthony their lemon anniversary cake. They celebrated their one year anniversary this week!

Congratulations!

Hunting Groom's Cake

Last week, in the midst of packing for our DC move, I was able to escape the boxes by baking and decorating three cakes. One of them in particular was so much fun to create. 

I was asked to make a surprise groom's cake by a high school friend, who got married on Saturday. I love surprises, but it is tough to keep them a secret!

Her request was a to create a vanilla hunting cake. The inside is filled with chocolate buttercream, and the outside is frosted with both chocolate and vanilla.

The bullets, antlers, and leaves were made out of fondant. Cool looking, but definitely not delicious-tasting. 

The tree trunk was fun and easy to create. A swirl on the top for the inner tree, followed by a messy frosting with a knife for the bark.

I looked on a lot of websites to see how to do camouflage frosting. The technique I chose was to pipe the border of each color, fill it in, temporarily freeze it to crust the frosting, then to smooth it flat with wax paper and a fondant smoother. 

The grass, although simple, is probably my favorite part of the cake!

To make the antlers I colored some fondant a light brown then shaped them and let them set. I used a knife to create markings and lines, and then used a paintbrush to dry-brush brown food coloring onto the outside.

Congratulations to Elyse and Ryan!!

Gender Reveal Cake

For weeks I anxiously awaited last Wednesday, the day that I would receive a sealed envelope from Tessa with the gender of her little baby. 

My assignment: to bake a cake that would reveal the gender of her baby once the cake was cut.

Oh. And to keep the gender a secret. From everyone! 

Tessa's request was to make it as natural as possible, without artificial dyes. To do this, she asked that if she was having a girl that the cake be made out of strawberries. If she was having a boy, the cake would be blueberry. 

Tessa added a bunting cake topper that she made herself. I fell in love with it!

It was so much fun to be part of this event and now I'm even more excited to meet the little man when he arrives this fall! Check out Tessa's blogpost for the party, found here.

Guinness Cupcakes with Bailey's Buttercream

I had corn beef and cabbage on Saturday for the first time ever. Ever! It was quite enjoyable, and so far has been the only way I'll eat cabbage.

Tom and I were at our friends' house on Saint Patty's day for some March Madness and to celebrate the holiday of course! With our insanely warm weather (we may break into the 80s today?!) it felt like we should have been celebrating Memorial Day instead.

I'm sure you're going to fall out of your seat with shock when I tell you that we brought the dessert! Who would have thunk!

Since it was a holiday, our dessert needed to be something special. It needed to have some green. It also needed to have some beer. Irish beer. And Irish cream.

And that's when the chocolate Guinness cupcakes with Bailey's Buttercream was born! I followed the recipe on Brown Eyed Baker, omitting the ganache portion of the cupcake.

These cupcakes were awesome. Like, really super delicious, and very rich. They will most certainly be reappearing at future St Patty's day celebrations!