Making the move over to wordpress

Hello everyone!

 I have made the move! Please check out my new blog Shred Muffins! It's a little bit of a different spin on my adventure through the baking world and life!

Hope to see you there!
Maddie

Surfer Cake

The other day I got a call from the good friend asking if we could make a cake that had a surfer on for her boyfriend, another good friend of mine. She wanted to make a memorable cake for his 27th birthday. I have had this dream of really getting good at decorating so I decided to take on the challenge!

My first step was to figure out what the heck I was going to do. I knew the best place to start was pinterest. After getting a few ideas there I drew up to ideas. The first being a giant wave and the second a beach scene with the ocean on one half and beach on the other. After baking the cake and figuring out logistics the wave cake was out. I didn't have enough cake to work with so we decided to go with the beach and ocean scene. I made a 9 x 13 yellow cake as my canvas. First step was getting an icing that was blue. I instantly thought blueberry icing! It sounded delicious so I added it to the butter cream only to have the icing turn pink. Not really thinking the blueberry part through I used my icing coloring and got a dark purple and blue tint as my base layer. While I was fiddling with the icing my roommate and friend tackled the fondant wave. I gave them a quick down and dirty of fondant they were off! After the wave was constructed and dried for a little bit we put it on the cake. It looked fabulous! Then I made another butter-cream frosting with blue die for the water. The mix of the blue icing and purple really give a great sea look. A surf board was also created and a little mini surfer man added. I thought about the sand for a little bit wondering what would look best and I came to the conclusion that brown sugar was the best option! I looked real and it was edible, double win!

For being my first cake in this genera I was extremely happy with how it came out! The sea looks like waves and the beach is fantastic! Next up is a dinosaur themed cake for my friend's birthday in two weeks. I'm thinking a whole fondant cake with dinosaurs all over. It will be perfect for her since that is one of her favorite things!

Hazelnut Goodness

As I mentioned in an early post I made some chocolate hazelnut linzer cookies for a dinner party. This was my second time whipping up these little gems. They came up on the Smitten Kitchen blog a while ago and I haven't stopped thinking about them. Some ladies were coming over for wine and snacks a few weeks back so I figured not better time to make these tasty treats.

What excites me most about these cookies was the use of hazelnuts and Nutella, possibly two of my favorite things. The cookie is essentially a sugar cookie but with finely chopped toasted hazelnuts mixed in there. I had never toasted hazel nuts before but it turned out to be super easy. You just lay them on a cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Once they are toasted the shells just fall off in your hands. The first time I toasted my hazelnuts and put them all in my little food processor. The directions say to not let the hazelnuts turn in to a paste. Trying to not make this happen I didn't chop them up enough and I had rather large chunks. The second time making these I only put half of the hazel nuts in at the time to make sure they got nice and fine.

Another issue I had with my first batch was that it was too dry; maybe it had to do with the large hazelnuts or not enough liquid. Regardless this time around I decided to add the whole egg instead of just the yokes that the recipe calls for. In the end this was not the fix I needed.

This time my cookies came out flat and they ran together, not holding their shape. They tasted fabulous but didn't have that sugar cookie consistency I wanted. I think the next time around I will try just one whole egg and one yoke. Maybe that will be the magic number.

Once the hazelnut cookies were prepped and chilled in the fridge I had fun with cookie cutters. I did all shapes and sizes: stars, circles, flowers, etc. They were a fun cookie to work with. I baked them all and then constructed the cookie. The bottom cookie has nutella spread on it and then you put the other cookie, which has been dusted with powder sugar, on top to make the most delicious hazelnut cookie.

These are a bit of an time-intensive cookie but I deemed it worthy of my time. I suggest you have some friends over to hang out while you cook. I did this (with a glass of wine) and the company makes all the hard work go quick!