Cake Balls Round Two...

OK so I am a huge fan of Bakerella... and as you all know she has recently gone on the Martha Stewart show where Martha show cased her cake balls! I have been obsessed with them since the moment I saw them and knew that I had to try to make them as soon as possible....
Well the first time around did not go so well but the second time was better so the pictures and commentary are going to reflect the first and the second time.

The first step of the cake balls is to pick your favorite box cake or homemade cake recipe. I choose to go old school with the Funfetti cake...

Once you make the cake you have to let it cool completely and then crumble the cake very fine into a bowl...

Next you add in a container of frosting (per Bakerella you use a whole container of frosting, however, I did this the first time and it produced very mushy wet doughish balls... The second time around I barely used half of th frosting container and they were still able to make into balls and the consistancy was much better)

Once you mix the frosting into the cake you need to form it into balls. The balls must be chilled before you dip them. Both times I put them in the freezer for about 12 minutes and then dipped them.

The first time with the Funfetti cake I tried to use the almond bark like Bakerella does... I found that either melted on the stove or in the microwave it was very thick and hard to work with and just made a mess... Plus when taste tested they were awful! Horrible little weird dough balls things. The second time around we made strawberry cake and melted white chocolate to dip them in. We added a little bit of oil to the chocolate to make the chocolate a little bit more thin and easier to work with. This produce much better results.



The cake had much more of a cake consistancy the second time around. The white chocolate did make them very rich. I still love this recipe but I do feel I need to play with it more to make more of what I was looking for. Miss Bakerella makes it look so simple :O) but I guess that is what all good bakers do! If any of you have made these and have any tips let me know... I am up for all help and suggestions.

Sinfully Yours,

Heather

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It's Pretzel Time!!

So the other day Carri (who I work with) and I were talking about the great pretzels you can get at the mall... we were day dreaming over the salty goodness of the classic pretzel and then moving on to the oh so good cinnamon and sugar pretzel... After our day dream and returning to our oh so boring lunches I returned to my desk to find an email marked "Can you make these?" enclosed in the email was a recipe for "Mall Pretzels" I thought to myself, of course I CAN make them... but will the recipe hold up to our expectations??? That was the question... So I got to baking.
Here it goes...

recipe from CD Kitchen

Ingredients
-1 1/2 cups water
-1 1/8 teaspoons active dry yeast
-2 tablespoons brown sugar
-1 1/8 teaspoons salt
-1 cup bread flour
-3 cups all purpose flour

-2 cups warm water
-2 tablespoons baking soda

-4 tablespoons butter
- course salt to taste

First, sprinkle the yeast on 1 1/2 cups of luke warm water and stir till it is disolved. Then add the brown sugar and the salt to the luke warm water and stir till it is disolved.


Add the water mixture to your mixing bowl and then slowly add flour and knead the dough until it is elastic. (I also added 3 tablespoons of melted butter to my dough to give it a buttery texture)


Place in an oiled bowl and top with a damn cloth and allow the douh to rise for at least a half hour. The longer it has to rise the more flavor it will have... I gave mine about 2 1/2 hours.


After the dough has risen pinch the dough off into sections to be rolled into a long rope and formed into pretzel. (This is the area where I had the most trouble... I could not get the dough to roll out all long and it was very hard it wanted to just spring back up...)


Once you have formed the pretzels then take the 2 cups of warm water and disolve in the 2 tablespoons of baking soda... stir until disolved. This is your soda water bath. Prepare a baking sheet and line it with parchment paper. (I recomend you spray it down with Pam or the cooking spray of your choice as I did not the first time and they all cooked to the paper.) Once you have formed the pretzel dip it entirely in the soda bath then place on the greased parchment paper. Bake at 450 degrees F for about 9 minutes.
Once you have removed them from the oven dip them in the melted butter so they are coated entirely and then top with your choice of topping. I did some butter with salt and the others I did in a cinnamon and sugar mixture. When doing the cinnamon and sugar i mixed the cinnamon and sugar in a bowl and once the pretzel was dipped in th butter i placed it in the bowl and spooned the mixture onto it until t was covered.


Since I had so much trouble forming the pretzel shape I simply made what I called "pretzel bites" with some of the dough. They almost looked like donut holes. They turned out great and were perfectly bite size!
As for the question of time... "did it meet our expectations?" Hot out of the oven they were practically identical to all of my memories of "The Mall Pretzel" The next day, however, they tasted like.... well like a mall pretzel that you took home, put in a tupperware container, and heated up the next day :O) All and all I will defenitly make these again... especailly the pretzel bites. If anyone has any ideas or opnions for next time let me know!

Sinfully yours,

Heather

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Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

The other day I was browsing our fellow foodies and I came across Brownie or Die... She had made this recipe from Cooks Illustrated... It was love at first site and I knew I had to make it... So I came home and did just that... So here is the recipe"

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Ingredients:
2 1/8 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons butter (melted)
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cup chocolate chips

First preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Adjust your oven rack to the middle(I left mine where it was at and it worked just fine)Line a 13 x 9 inch pan with foil(I used parchment paper)Spray the lined pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Mix flour, salt and baking soda together in a bowl and set to the side.

Whisk melted butter and sugars in a bowl until combined.


Add the egg, the egg yolk and vanilla until well blended.


Using a rubber spatula fold in the dry ingredients. Then fold in the chocolate chips. DO NOT OVER MIX
Put the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with spatula..


Here it is baking... I needed to take a peak...


Bake until top is a light golden brown and the sides slightly pull away from the pan. About 27 minutes... Let it cool to room temperature then cut into 2 inch squares and serve.


I did not wait till room temp I just waited for about 5 minutes until they were cooled... Then Jason and I had one with a glass of milk. You know it is good when Jason mumbles as his mouth is over flowing with cookie bar... " Ohh yeah... Oh yeah you gotta make these again..." As if the whole pan in front of his face was not enough!!


Then today ( the next day) I decided to turn it into the base for a cookie sundae... I heated the cookie bar then placed a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream ontop ( blue bell)... I then dressed it up with melted caramel and hot fudge... what do you think???




Mmmm take a bite!!


All I can say is WOW... It is for sure a keeper at our house...

Sinfully Yours,

Heather

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Woo Hoo

Yesterday I submitted a recipe of mine and one of Cassie's from How to eat a cupcake
They are now featuring us both. My post is #12224 and the one for Cassie's Mocha cupcakes is #12202 Click here to see us on Tastespotting


I am proud to be featured on their site and get a little more exposure on my blog!!

Thanks guys and be looking for my post tomorrow about Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars... YUM!

Sinfully Yours,

Heather

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Dunkable Brownies

I had wanted to bake something this week and I was not sure what... Then Amber said she would come over and she was in the mood for chocolate... and it hit me Dunkable Brownies!!! They are the best! My mom used to make them and I love them... So we went to the store, got the ingredients and got to cooking!! Here is the recipe and pics...

Dunkable Brownies
Ingredients:

-6 squares (6oz) Semi sweet chocolate
-4 squares (4oz) Unsweetened chocolate
-6 tablespoons ( 3/4 stick) butter
-3 Eggs
- 1 Cup flour
- 1 1/4 Cup sugar
- 1/4 Teaspoon salt
- 2 Teaspoons Vanilla
-1 Teaspoon baking powder
-2 Cups of toasted chopped walnuts ( or nut of your choice)

The first thing you want to do is preheat the oven to 325 degrees... Then line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper and toast the walnuts... I usually stick mine in as the oven is preheating and by the time it is preheated the nuts are toasted... this time I left them in too long and burned all the walnuts!! I tried one and it tasted like burnt popcorn :O(

I was sooo disapointed and then realized that I had pecans... And that is the nuts that Oklahoma is known for... heck I have a HUGE pecan tree in my backyard... So I decided to use the Pecans and call these Okie Dunkable Brownies!! After the nut of your choice is toasted take them off the cookie sheet and set them to the side until later.

Place all the butter and chocolate in a microwaveable bowl and microwave until melted. It takes about 2 minutes depending on your microwave but you want do this in 30 second intervals taking it out and stiring each time so that the chocolate does not burn...

I made a double batch so my pictures may look like more ingredients then yours...



Once your chocolate and butter is all melted it should be smooth with no chunks like this....



Once melted place all in a mixing bowl and add the sugar. Next mix in the eggs one at a time and then the vanilla. In a seperate bowl mix the baking powder, salt and flour. Slowly mix the flour mixture into the wet mixture...



Once the flour and the batter is all mixed together fold in your toasted nuts...

The mixture will be much more wet lookin then normal cookie dough and that is alright! That is how it should look... Because it is a brownie cookie! I lined my cookie sheets with parchment paer and placed the dough on the sheet leaving a litle room for them to spread... They seem to puff up more then they spread so once you see how they cook you will realize how many you can put on each sheet. Bake for about 12 mintues... DO NOT OVER BAKE they are not supposed to be dry inside they are supposed to have a brownie consisancy... So pull them out a few minutes early if you think they look done!

Look they look like little terds ready to bake!! Ha ha



I had to take a peak while they were baking... Mmmmmm Yum Yum



Tada... the finished product...







I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend!!

Sinfully Yours,

Heather

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Easter Buns...

Hi Guys,

Sorry this post is a little late I had a crazy busy week this week!! For Easter Amber invited us to go to her family gathering... We made my famous cinnamon rolls in mini version for the occasion and here are some pictures! I had the idea to make them in an easter setting... and I think they turned out great! What do you think???









At this point I am thinking I am never going to get the chance to bake anything else and cinnamon rolls are all anyone ever wants!!! haha

Sinfully Yours,

Heather

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Check it out...

What do you think of the new layout? Yay? or Nay??

I had to take my logo out from the top but I thought this layout was so cute... What do you guys think?

LET ME KNOW!!

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The heavens opened up for me....

The gods shown their love down on me... (well the best buy gods that is!!!) and I received a new gift for me...



Are you ready....


CACHOW......




Ahhhhh... (insert hallelujah chorus)





The blog even looks better on it... haha





Jason was insisting on taking a picture of me with the computer as it was almost 1 am and we just got back from getting it which was a long drive... so the pic was a little blurry and I just played around with it...





Then with paint I drew a little pretend buiness card... I thought for free hand with a mouse it turned out kinda cute... I made two and put one in my phone cover so it is the skin for my phone! Nobody wants or needs my pretend card but hey it was fun!!

Well I am excited as it will make blogging so much easier as well as other things and I was happy and I wanted to share!! Happy Hump Day!!

Sinfully Yours,

Heather

P.S. I have Friday off f work for the holiday and the weekend and I would like to bake something to blog about... does anyone have any ideas or anything they would like to see done???

If so let me know.... I would appreciate the ideas as my idea well has been dry these days!

Thanks!

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Order for Work

As you all now I had a double order of cinnamon rolls to make for work on Thursday (the recipe is below) and chocolate covered strawberries... This was a lot of work to get done in one night but it was very fun and I can't wait to do it again!

I thought I would show you a couple pictures... There are not many as I was on a mission to get it all done but I thought the strawberries turned out so pretty... What do you think?

Check out this close up look... Yumm Yumm

While I was drizzling the white chocolate on the berries I had about 4 to go and the pastry bag exploded leaving one massivly white chocolate covered strawberry. It was at that moment that I decided to just leave the others plain!! Haha

Here are the cinnamon rolls awaiting travel... These are not the best photos but I have blogged these earlier this month and I did not want to bore you with duplicate photos!!


They were simply drowning in frosting... Just the way everyone loves them!
And they were fantastic if I do say so myself... Alan Jason's cousin was over with Amber the night we made them and he said "it is a good thing she cut me off at one because I could eat myself sick on these things!!" Some people seem to think I could open a bakery on this recipe alone! I wish that were true-

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Sinfully Yours,

Heather

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And on that note...

And on that note... I had to go to the store to get supplies for a meeting that my work is having with some corporate folks on Thursday. I have been asked to make a double order of my cinnamon rolls and a large order of my chocolate cover starwberries!

I am so excited... it is like my first gig or something... I mean I know it isn't but to me this is kind of special. SO after the spring photo shoot and being at the store I decided that we needed to BBQ last night! I was walking around staring at the produce and meat when I decided that Shishcabobs (spelling??) sounded great and we had not had them in ages!

Once I got home I got started on the veggies...


Once I got the veggies done I started on the meat. I just spiced it up with what he had in our cupboard and what sounded good to me...

Once they were all put on the "bobs" and ready to go I seasoned them some more...
I heated up some butter and garlic to brush them with as they were grilling and sprinkled cayenne pepper all over it (ground red peper) a pretty good amount as it is good for you and Jason and I cannot get enough of it!!

I used the extra meat and veggies, in a grilling grate pan that I have, so Jason would have lunch the next day... It gave it more of a stir fry feel but at least he will have a yummy lunch at work...

Just look at that meat cooking away... I was rather proud of this close up picture...



And last but not least the finished product... with a baked potatoe and smart balance butter (which is sooo good if you don't use it you should) and a little white wine!


Tomorrow I will be baking for work and the lovely Miss Amber Wild of http://www.awildphotographer.com/ is going to be coming over to show me some tricks of the trade with photographing my master pieces!! So that is something to get excited about...

I hope you all enjoyed the photos...

Have a great day ;O)

Sinfully Yours,

Heather

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