College Day

I'm sorry it's been this long since I've blogged! I have been so busy with senior year but I won't let that keep me from baking. This year I was asked to make cookies for each college representative that came to our school for college day! Maybe this will help me get into any college I want :)

They spelled my name wrong............ Don't you hate it when that happens.

Princess Party

Two of the cutest girls I know had their 4th birthday party and it was a princess theme! I babysit them both and they are best friends. Their moms did a great job throwing the party and a lot of little princesses showed up! 

Happy Birthday Hart and An Wilkes!!

Baby Shower

Cookies and Cream Cake

I know it may sound crazy, but one of my all time favorite cakes is the Cookies and Cream cake from the Publix bakery. My mom randomly brought this cake home one day a while back and my family loves it now. The icing is like Heaven in your mouth and it goes perfectly with the cake. We like to keep in in the fridge and the icing gets cold and then melts in your mouth.. It's seriously amazing.

I ran across a copy-cat recipe of this cake and I had to try it out. 

Honestly, this recipe is good, but I'm still on a search for the perfect one. 

Cookies and Cream Cake

3 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1Tbsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1 cup room temperature milk

2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter

4 large eggs, at room temperature

4 ounces of chocolate, melted and cooled (it calls for bittersweet but I used semi-sweet)

For the icing:

4 egg whites

1 1/2 cup sugar

4 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature but cold on the inside

2 tsp vanilla 

1 sleeve of Oreos, finely choped

1.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease two 9 inch pans. In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl, mix the milk and vanilla

2. In a mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the butter at medium speed until really light and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat until combined and fluffy (about 4 minutes). Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl each time. Mix in the dry ingredients, alternating  in 3 batches, alternating with the milk, scraping down the bowl as needed.

3. Mix two cups of the batter with the melted chocolate. Pour the remaining batter into the two pans. Dollop the chocolate batter over the plain batter and swirl using a knife.

4. Bake in the oven for around 30 minutes, or until springy and toothpick comes out clean (I took mine out a little early so it wouldn't be dry). Let the cakes cool for 15 minutes, then take them out of the pans and put them on a cooling rack.

For the icing:

1. Lightly whisk the egg whites and sugar in a double boiler over simmering water. Whisk until the egg white mixture is hot to touch.

2. Pour hot egg whites into a bowl and whip with a wire whip on medium high, until the egg whites double in size and become stiff. In the meantime, cut up the butter into 2 inch pieces (the butter should be cold on the inside but moist on the outside).

3. On your mixer, exchange the wire whisk with the paddle attachment. Add half of the butter into the bowl and turn the mixer on and off in a jerky motion until the butter is covered completely with the meringue. Add the rest of the butter and turn the mixer on and off again until covered. Slowly increase the speed, starting at low and going until medium, increasing every 10 seconds.

4. Continue beating until the mixture looks light and fluffy. Reduce the speed to low and add the vanilla and Oreos. Then beat on medium-high for a minute.

5. Ice the cake and put a Oreo on the top for decoration.

I thought I would change it up and put my dad in the picture.

Life's short, so have a cupcake.

Toffee Cookies

Toffee Cookies

2 sticks of softened butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

3 eggs

3 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 (8-oz) package of HEATH toffee bits

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheet with parchment paper. I always use parchment paper when baking any type of cookie because I think they turn out better.

2. Cream butter, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt in a large bowl until combined. Add eggs and beat until well blended. Mix flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar in another bowl and gradually add it to the butter mixture until blended. Stir in toffee bits.

3. Using a medium size ice cream scoop, drop cookies on the baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.

4. ENJOY!

Orange Cupcakes

To all my trusty blog followers out there, I apologize for the gap in my blogging! I've been out of town for the past three week at the beach and camp, but no worries, I'm back.

I love food network more than you can imagine and it is basically the only channel I watch. I was watching Semi-homemade with Sandra Lee today and was inspired. I'm not really a Sandra Lee fan and don't usually watch her show because she just bothers me for some reason. Anyways, I decided to make a semi-homemade orange cupcake today and it turned out great. I always make all my cakes from scratch but sometimes you just don't have the time and it is a whole lot easier to use a box cake mix.

I used a white cake mix and simply added 3 teaspoons of orange extract to the batter. I made a cream cheese frosting and added 2 teaspoons of orange extract to that too.

I was in Jo Ann's the other day and saw the cutest cupcake holders and I had to try them out. Martha Stewart is just so great.