Doubly Blessed Bakery Morsels

Whew! What a whirlwind weekend!

2012-02-13T16:02:00.000-06:00

Have you ever had one of those weekends that just flew on by? And it seems like if you just blinked and it was over? That's what this last weekend was like here for us. We had our first touch of real wintery weather out here, with snow and blustery winds that cut right through your coats...Brr! Good thing I was inside baking cakes!

I had an order for two sheet cakes, similar to the last sheet cake I did. Both were half chocolate and half vanilla with a chocolate buttercream filling and vanilla buttercream on top. The fun part was since they were for two separate parties, but the same client, I got to spice things up with the decorating a bit! The first cake was for our church's coffee hour, which the client hired my mom ( of Seasons, a Catering Service) to cater and in turn a special cake from yours truly. So, that is the pink accented rose cake to the left.

The client also hosted a fundraiser choir event later that evening for the Cobb Creek Environmental Center. We also catered that event, and had another cake. Because of the Environmental theme, the tables were decorated with frogs and birds and other nature inspired items, so for the cake I wanted something vibrant. I went with this bright yellow buttercream, but mellowed it out a little with some pink luster /sparkle dust. I've just gotta have my sparkles!
I also made some vanishing oatmeal cookies, but totally spaced on the whole photographing part of the recipe. Bad blogger! It happens, and I will just have to make sure to get pictures next time. Anyways, it was an awesome set of parties and a lot of fun challenges that seem to come with big cake making in a small (normal) kitchen. I have two more cakes on the books for this month, so keep an eye out for more posts and pictures.

Thanks for reading and I hope you stay warm whereever you are!

I'm a bad blogger. There I've admitted it!

2012-01-30T19:47:00.000-06:00

But I am an awesome baker!! We have had a lot of chaos going on around here lately, with the moving across country thing and all.. But we are finally starting to get to feel settled. So the first cake I have made out here in this crazy new zip code was for our new church. There was a retirement party for this lady who has worked there for 37 years, and I got to do the cake! It's a 'simple' sheet cake, half vanilla and half chocolate with white buttercream icing and chocolate buttercream filling. Here's hoping I'll have more cakes to post soon!

Happy UnBirthday cake!

2011-05-07T22:38:00.000-05:00

First the 'family birthday cake'

Birthday Cake- Enchanted Castle.

2011-04-09T17:02:00.000-05:00

This is my first experience with shaping a cake. It went actually pretty well, and it was a great learning experience, since the humidity reared its head last night and made my buttercream not want to stick to the cake! Anyway, on to the pretty pictures! The castle was actually more of a pink with copper on top, and it shows up more orange-ish for some reason in the pictures. This is entirely made of cake, and fondant. No plastic, no dowels, just cake!!

The cake- a chocolate sponge
The icing- Peanut butter buttercream and Rolled Fondant
Decorations- luster dust, disco dust

Birthday cake- Favorite toys

2011-03-27T21:08:00.000-05:00

I asked my now three year old what some of her favorite toys were, and used them as a base idea for the fondant on this cake.

The birthdays are coming, the birthdays are coming!!

2011-03-22T16:18:00.000-05:00

I have been blessed with not one, but two wonderful unique children whose birthdays are a month apart. Okay, technically one month and eight years.. but I'm not being technical. So, keep an eye on the blog cause in the next weeks, I will unveil this year's masterpiece!

Baked doughnuts are SO much better than fried.. or no doughnuts at all!

2011-03-19T21:19:00.000-05:00

Trying to lose weight while being a baker is kinda silly and hard. I mean would you trust a skinny baker? But trying to live healthier means making changes.. like baking things instead of frying for example. I have always just had the fried doughnut from the shop or grocery store, never thought to bake my own... Until I went out and got some doughnut pans! So my first doughnuts ( that I actually remember to get pictures of at least) were not actually made with the doughnut pan.. but they are still awesome!

Maple. Bacon. Doughnuts.

technically Maple, Turkey Bacon, baked Raised Doughnuts... but name is too long.

Chocolate Sandwich cookies*!!

2011-02-03T02:12:00.001-06:00

* also known as Oreos.

Note to self, when snowed in with children ( on the second snow day right now..) Making Homemade Oreos is not a great idea when one is one a diet... :)

A Rainbow way to start your day.. and week!

2011-01-16T15:30:00.002-06:00

Rainbow, flaxseed infused pancakes. YUM! Have a great week!

Happy 1-1-11!!!

2011-01-01T16:53:00.000-06:00

I know I have been mad busy for the past few weeks, cleaning up the house, wrapping gifts .. baking gifts. Today I went a more savory route and made some Black-eyed peas... with a dime thrown in for luck! And some sweet southern cornbread, mostly because I love the mix of savory and sweet! I am one of those odd ducks that will eat something sweet, like a cookie with something salty for a snack. Are you like this too?

The Countdown towards Christmas has begun!!!

2010-12-16T21:08:00.000-06:00

I know, I know. I haven't posted in FOREVER. I .. forgot my password! But, fear not, I have reconnected to my forgotten blog to share and share some more!! Here is some of the stuff I have done in

the past few months...

(from the top, "Heaven on a Plate" Braised Short Ribs served on Polenta, Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Cake Balls, Pumpkin Cheesecake with a Gingersnap cookie crust, Pumpkin Whoopie Pies, Plum and Blueberry Jam, Kiwi Lemon Jam and Strawberry Jam.

Since I have more goodies cooking in the coming weeks, see you soon!

Since I cant get a 'good' shot of the homemade ice cream..

2010-07-11T23:15:00.000-05:00

These will have to do. Fudge Revel Bars, made with oats, brown sugar, chocolate chips and of course.. butter! Yum, yum! Dessert anyone?

Another birthday, another cake!

2010-05-03T21:37:00.000-05:00

This big beauty is a Pizza Cake. Same kind of cake as the Elmo, except this time, the birthday girl chose a rainbow chocolate cake. So I made the 'pizza cake' part and the 'table' cake together as one big batch. This is a fondant free cake, except of course the figure ( which is supposed to be Alex Russo from the Wizards of Waverly Place show). The table cake is simple buttercream and royal icing, while the pizza cake is a bit more labor intensive. It is a buttercream with cocoa sugar ( for the 'crust'), royal icing (for the 'tomato sauce") and raspberry fruit roll ups for the 'pepperonis' and shaved white chocolate for the 'cheese'. This is a half sheet cake ( the table part) so its great for parties!

TaaaDaaa!

2010-03-29T18:44:00.001-05:00

This is the rainbow Elmo / Zoe cake.

it took about a day to make

I started by making a simple yellow cake ( not the box, homemade!) and then divided it into 6 bowls and place different colors in each bowl with the batter. Then I put them ( it?) into the cake pans layer upon layer, and voila! Rainbow cake. It is iced with vanilla buttercream, then topped with rolled fondant.

Hint..

2010-03-24T17:25:00.000-05:00

Not my picture (I'm a baker artist.. but not really a photographer) I found the picture on the Om nomnom's blog. But it's my hint on what kind of cake I am making right now.. I'll post pictures as soon as I'm all done!!

Whoops!

2010-03-22T20:44:00.000-05:00

So I have been a tad busy... ok fine really busy. But with my youngest having a birthday this weekend ( I can not believe she will be 2!!!) I have to get cracking on her cake for this weekend. I have to top last years.. which was a 'triple decker death by chocolate' cake topped with a fondant giraffe ( her favorite toy at the time) and with sugar cookies on the front. It was everything we wanted ( chocolate!!!!!!!!!) and the best part was the birthday girl enjoyed the fondant giraffe more then the cake!!

Well I have already completed the sketches for her cake.. it will be awesome.. And Elmo will be definitively be making an appearance!

More photos...cause i can

2010-01-02T02:38:00.000-06:00

These are Expresso Bars, marshmallows and cheese fudge and Chewy Cherry bars.

upclose Rich Expresso Bars with Buttercream Frosting and Chocolate Covered Expresso bean garnish

upclose; Chewy Cherry bars

Upclose: Cheese Fudge and Homemade Marshmallow

Marshmellow pictures.

2009-12-30T15:24:00.000-06:00

And yes they are as fluffy and yummy as they look!

Homemade marshmellows!!!!!

2009-12-28T01:02:00.002-06:00

I will never purchase store marshmellows again .. these are so delish!!!! I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

The cookies are done! 10 dozen!!!

2009-12-23T15:31:00.000-06:00

I finished these last night, and got batteries for the camera so you can see the yumminess!

Here is the 10 dozen in all their boxed glory. I had three different clients, 2 wanted just sugar cutouts and the other wanted variety ( so she got Dulce de Luche sandwich cookies and Rich expresso bars with buttercream frosting)

More cookies!

2009-12-17T21:41:00.000-06:00

So while I was at my parttime job, minding my own business, I had a lady ask me for 4 dozen sugar cutouts by wed (dec 23). Then the other lady at the table.. added and asked for 4 dozen as well! Then later I went up to the mucho yummy local coffee shop here in town ( YAY WE HAVE A COFFEE SHOP!!) to drop off some samples, and she asked for 2 dozen for .. you guessed it, Wed the 23rd. So I got more cookie making to do.. and finally got more batteries for the camera so I *will* *post* *pictures*!

So this is christmas...

2009-12-10T14:56:00.000-06:00

And after the massive collection of cookies that I just made a week ago, made but not eaten I might add, now comes the normal time of year of baking and eating christmas cookies. I have a few that I love to make; the chewy cherry bars, pecan pie bars, iced porcelain cookies and the eggnog spitz.. even though I cant quite figure out how to use the cookie press correctly.. Now I have some new favorites. The smore thumbprints looked good, as well as the chocolate mint thumbprints. Maybe I am on a thumbprint thing right now. Do you have any favorites?

Final Tally at 0341.......1201!!

2009-12-02T03:46:00.000-06:00

We did it!!! After making so MONSTER batches of brownies, checkerboard cookies, dulce leches cookies and finishing off with Smore thumbprints WE ARE DONE!!

(pausing for dramatic effect)

Man even with cleaning up as I cooked.. my kitchen is dirty. And my back hurts in places it shouldnt.. but the boxes are filled and sealed and the van is loaded for delivery at 930am tomorrow. Now off to a well deserved shower and sleep. I'll post pictures tomorrow. This is the final two batches packed up before I sealed the box up. They are the rich expresso bars with buttercream frosting ( kinda like an expresso brownie without the chocolate) and the Smore' thumbprints.

518 cookies down.. 682 to go

2009-12-01T04:52:00.000-06:00

Wow. I really love standardized recipes in cases like this. The problem I was having yesterday was when I planned out my recipes I looked at what they yields were. And used that to 'gauge' how many cookies I should do on each day. What threw my count of yesterday was most of the recipes I used weren't standardized so they dont make exactly what they say they should. And in this case.. that is not a fun thing. But because of the recipes from my textbook, I was able to only bake three different kinds of cookie tonite, but 1 batch alone yielded like 128 cookies! And I got to prep out a lil more complicated cookie recipe ( never before attempted!) and hopefully that will help out tremendously tomorrow. ... I just need to find a couple more MASSIVE recipes like I did to today and this whole thing will be Done.

Cookies made today ( so no pics)
Nieman Marcus Cookies ( yes that crazy email recipe about a lady who spend like 250.00 on a cookie recipe)
Chocolate Hazelnut Shortbread
Checkerboard Cookies ( prepped not cooked)
Sugar cookies.

The cookies so far.... only 19 dozen completed so far

2009-11-30T01:37:00.001-06:00

These are the White Chocolate Dipped Gingerbread men.
Then the camera's batteries died.. and the rest are on my cell camera.. which I am trying to figure out how to upload to here. But I wanted to post something! I need to edit the other pictures before I can post them back on here... Ah the joys of a non professional camera and no photoshop!

Goal is 1,200 by Dec 2.

2009-11-29T18:11:00.000-06:00

Ok. Our goal is to have 1,200 cookies ( a variety and all homemade) cookies done by Wed. Dec 2. And since DB is just starting out, that means.. me and me and C get to do a lot of cookies. Good side, obviously if we can pull it off its great publicity.. and we just arent gonna discuss any other option! So the goal each day I have is at least 34 dozen a day. I am taking pictures as I go, and when I stop for the night I will upload and show off all my hard work!! Ok. back to work, wish me luck!

Ok. I am terrible at this blogging thing.

2009-11-27T16:07:00.000-06:00

I started out with great intentions! I really did! I set up my little camera, and took (what I thought to be) wonderful shots.. but they came out all blurry so then I forgot about it. ( Busy mom &wife..what can i say?)

Then some time has passed and now here we are at the start of the offical xmas season! And I have my first cookie job! I have until Dec 2 to make .. 100 dozen cookies for a clients party! OMG!! It's awesomely terrifying! So now I will photo document this part of the journey as a test run to see how I do with this.. and go from there!

First POST

2009-09-09T23:48:00.000-05:00

Hello and Welcome to our lil cozy spot here on the wilds of the internet. My name is Erin, and I am going to try to take you on a culinary journey. I first had the idea of owning my own bakery when I was working for Bagel and Bagel ( currently Einstein Bros Bagels .. way to show my age yay!) I realized that the process of taking something so simple as flour and water, and then adding heat made such wonderful things... I became a junkie, also known as a foodie. It also helped that part of my paycheck was taking home a free dozen of their wonderful bagels a day.... you never really know what you can make with bagels until you are living on your own with a plethora of bagels and no money. But I digress. I was hooked on baking, and after a few more years and many, many more jobs in the food biz, I was crazy enough to want to go to culinary school. I started my schooling in Washington DC, but because of my husband being discharged, we had to move before I got to the fancy stuff. I can cook my butt of now, especially since I have a working knowledge of the basics, but the awesomely cool stuff is still in the trial and error phase. Hence where the idea for this site started. I have so many recipes that I have converted to my family's needs/tastes that I figured I would start a blog to help get those ideas out there. Plus, according to the 5 love languages book, I need affirmation. :)

So I will start off tomorrow after I take some photos ( cause seriously what is a food blog without photos?!) Hope to see you back then, and thanks for reading!