warm & flaky

and definitely almost gone.

SLUMBER PARTY PART 2

Remember these sleeping bag invites? Saturday was the slumber party and the birthday girl requested a marble cake decorated like a sleeping bag. The final product:

What would a weekend be without some baking involved?

The cake: Yellow cake with chocolate marble...I think it could have been more marbled but this was my first attempt so, more practicing will have to happen. I used 3/4 of the yellow cake mix and then poured 1/4 of the chocolate batter on top in a swirled motion then took a knife and swirled in the opposite direction. I think there should have been more of a folding method?

The frosting: Decorator frosting tinted with regular fool coloring. Tip: when tinting frosting, on a plate tint a tablespoon of frosting a shade or two darker than you want your frosting to be then add that test tablespoon to the rest of your frosting. To darken, take another tablespoon from the (now colored) frosting and add food coloring to get it the color you want and then add to the batch. This lets you better regulate the color you get.

The decorating: Various wilton tips, pastry bags. Fun!

**I will admit that my Mama helped me out with asthetics and general decorating...she is the master and you just don't mess with that**

MORE CUPCAKES?

OK...so I'll admit it, I've been on a bit of a cupcake rampage lately. Cupcake week over at Martha Stewart isn't helping either. Last weekend I had plans to try chocolate cupcakes with peppermint frosting but my guinea pigs were less than thrilled with that.

I decided to go with vanilla cake and lemon frosting (again) as it is always a favorite. The twist though, I bought this lovely kit (at Target): I should have taken a few more pictures of it BUT I can tell you this:

• It comes with 3 fun decorating tips
• a filler tip (can you imagine lemon pudding in a white cupcake?! I can't wait to use the filler tip!)
• disposable plastic decorator bags (way better than the parchment ones I usually make but, plastic = worse for the environment. note to self: purchase reusable pastry bags)

Man was this fun! All of my cupcakes had beautiful rosette tops and I broke out the spring sprinkles again. The little mini cupcakes I gave as a gift to some hard working nurses and the larger cupcakes were saved for us!

I did have an *issue* though...and a strange one at that - have any of you run into this:

I made one pan of mini cupcakes (24) and one pan of regular sized cupcakes (12). The regular sized cupcakes rose beautifully (see above) but the mini cupcakes barely rose at all. I am thinking that it may have had something to do with bake time? I cooked the bigger ones longer. The mini's were cooked all the way through and despite them not really rising, they were delicious all the same. I don't get it...

But back to the cupcake decorating kit...you really nead one

HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE CHUNK COOKIES

I am not going to lie, for years I have attempted to make the *perfect* chocolate chip/chunk cookie. You know that perfect balance between crunchy and soft. While I am a good baker, I've never been able to achieve perfection in the chocolate chip cookie realm...until now.

These babies kicked butt! I made a few recipe modifications and viola! I used a bag of the Nestle chocolate chunks and followed the recipe on the back but, with the following changes:

• 1.5 cups of white sugar


• No brown sugar


• 1 tablespoon of molasses


• additional 1/4 cup of flour

As usual, I sifted all of my dry ingredients. I also set aside a chunk of this batter to add walnuts to. I don't like walnuts but some of my favorite people do.

Bake for 10min (or until the edges are golden brown).

The first batch came out great, alibet a little on the large side but, my Dad didn't seem to mind as he grabbed 5 (no lie) on his way out the door.

IF YOU BAKE IT, THEY WILL COME

{Image via cell phone camera}

Inspired by Mary(ruffle), last night I made a quick stop for cupcake supplies. I picked up some mini cupcake wrappers in spring colors along with some pastel crystals.

New method for making mini cupcakes: pour batter into ziplock bag, snip off corner and fill wrappers 2/3 of the way full. Perfect! Way less mess too!

One box of cake mix (I know, I cheated) made 48 mini cupcakes and 5 regular sized cupcakes.

I did NOT cheat with the frosting though! I made a batch of bakery/wedding cake frosting and added 2 capfuls of Lemon Oil (purchased at Whole Foods).

White cake + Lemon Frosting = heaven.

To frost the cupcakes I popped a GIGANTIC star-tip into a pastry bag and went to town. This is seriously the best way to frost mini cupcakes. Quick, easy and pretty! Add sprinkles and Viola!

Want to make your own yummy frosting? Have at it:

Decorator Frosting

2lbs of confectionery sugar

1/2 cup water

3/4 cup of Crisco

1 tsp. clear vanilla extract **I always wing it and add more**

Beat on high speed for 5 minutes. **I am not joking - really 5 minutes**

(you can also half this pretty easily, I do it all the time)

**You can add any other extracts you like to flavor. Since this frosting is really really white, you'll want to stick with clear extracts and oils. I got my lemon oil at Whole Foods but I know that Wilton carries a pretty solid line of oils that you can pick up most places that Wilton products are sold. The only Wilton oil I can really vouch for is the peppermint oil - I use it at Christmas for peppermint bark and it is phenomenal.**

Some of these came to work, some were given as thank-yous and others were eaten warm and frosted. Yum.

EVERYDAY FOOD

In addition to my craft addiction (you've seriously got to see my yarn and fabric collection), I am also an avid baker. In times of joy, I bake. In times of stress, I bake. If any of you are Grey's Anatomy fans you'll remember Izzy and her muffin baking...that is pretty much me.

When everyday food came in the mail you can imagine my joy when I found a basic everyday baking mix. It is a basic dry mix that you make in large batches to store in an airtight container. When the time comes and you need/want to whip up a quick batch of something yummy you add the wet ingredients and any other extras that you may want (chocolate chips, oatmeal, coconut, walnuts). Everyday Food gives you some basic recipes to work with but I am thinking of all the wonderful ways that you could jazz this basic mix up. Like some yummy chocolate chip and coconut cookies yuuuuuuuum.

As soon as I give this a whirl I'll post the recipe. It is time to get excited.