Grandfather and Cake pops?

About 5 years ago my grandfather started losing his eye sight. For the longest time he didn't let it affect him until it started getting worse. He has a condition called Macular Degeneration, which starts slowly and it starts off by missing holes in your sight. Essentially it's like looking through a pasta strainer. He can't drive, he made his garden smaller (which is his life) and started becoming depressed.

Recently he's seemed to be more cheery and more involved in our lives. He has started trying to not let it effect him, although, everyone has their days. Anyways the reason i'm writing this is because my sister and I often make cake pops for special events i.e. weddings, birthdays etc. We we're making these black and pink cake pops for someones birthday.

He saw us making these cake pops and as usual said to us "Ma, you two never stop baking do you?" and of course sat down and started watching. It was only a matter of time before he became interested and started helping us dip the cake pops in chocolate.

Recently, he has become more involved in our lives and not as "angry" as he use to be. Although, he's become more accepting of what has happened to him his eyes are continuously getting worse. Thankfully his attitude is getting a lot better and has his funny days... where he thinks he's hilarious but does it in a mean way. We've just come to accept that thats the way he deals with things so we ignore what ever it is that he decides to say to us.

NEEDLESS TO SAY, I probably have the cutest grandfather. In the words of my nonno,

 "Too many chiefs, not enough indians."

Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Bowls

These are one of my favourites! Mainly because they look cute and you can eat them when you're finished your ice cream!

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup firmly-packed brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
¾ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup (1 ½ stick) butter, melted
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips


Step 1Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Step 2To make the dough, combine the flour and salt in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl combine the butter and sugar and beat with electric mixer until light and fluffy. To this mixture, add the eggs and extract. Once it’s blended start adding the flour mixture, one cup at a time. Be sure to blend it after each cup.

Step 3Roll out the dough in between two pieces of wax paper. Use the other side of a cupcake tray and cover in tin foil. Make sure you crisco the tin foil so the dough doesn't stick when it comes out of the oven.
Cut pieces large enough to cover the tin foil on the cupcake tray.

Step 4Bake for about 10-13 minutes or until the cookie cups are golden brown. Cool on pan or cooling rack for 10 minutes before attempting to loosen the bottom edges of the cookies. So as not to break off the cookie edges and using a small spatula carefully remove cups from the pan and allow them to cool completely. Wash the pan, spray it again, and repeat the process with the remaining dough.

Fun Decorating

This post is just about fun decorating I've done in the past.

Tiffany's Inspired Cupcakes

Balloons

 Cake Pops

 Christmas Trees

 Easter Basket

 Angele's Birthday Cupcakes

 Oreo Flower Lady Bug Cupcakes

 Alison's Ladybug Cupcakes

 Mario & Luigi Cupcakes

 Mickey Mouse Birthday Cake

 Joey's Moustache Cupcake's

 Halloween Tomb Stone Cupcakes




















Butterfly Cupcakes

Apron

So I've been baking for years with my mother and sister and we've never used aprons before. Last year however, my sister and her friend Vanessa started baking quite a lot together for their students. So my sister Nikki decided to make them custom made aprons that say "Cake pop cuties" on them and this year at Christmas she purchased ones for Frank and Joey that showcased Spiderman's body and Batman's body on them. (Which can be seen in a previous post)

Needless to say, I was a little bit jealous that everyone had these cute aprons and I was stuck wearing a raggedy old shirt to bake in. She promised me that she would get one specially made for me...which of course she didn't do.

So it's been about a month since we last baked together and the other day she comes home with probably the cutest apron i've ever seen. Now i'm quite excited that I have a new apron that features cookie monster on it.

I am quite excited and cannot wait to use it the next time I bake!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

This is honestly one of my favourite recipes of all time... it honestly makes the most fluffy red velvet cupcakes I have ever had in my life. I made these for Valentine's Day last year.. what a hit!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Ingredients:

2/12 cups of cake flour, sifted
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon of salt
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon gel-paste food colouring (liquid doesn't work as well)
1 cup buttermilk: which can be made by adding a table spoon of white vinegar to regular milk
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons white vinegar


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Whisk together cake flour, cocoa and salt.
3. With an electric mixer on medium to high speed, whisk together sugar and oil until combined.
4. Add eggs, one at a time-beat them in well- scape down sides of the bowl as needed.
5. Mis in food colouring and vanilla.
6. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batched alternating with two additions to buttermilk and whisking well after each.
7. Stir together the baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl (it will foam like it did in 4th grade science class);
8. Add mixture to the batter and mix on medium speed for 10 seconds.
9. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, fill each about 3 quarters full.
10. bake for about 20 minutes

Makes 24

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
3/4 teaspoons pure vanilla

Directions:

1. Beat butter and cream cheese with a mixture on medium to high speed until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.
2. Reduce speed to low.
3. Add sugar, 1 cup at a time, and then vanilla.
4. Mix until smooth and top off your red velvet cupcakes when done!

*Side note: Even though the recipe calls for 4 cups confectioners' sugar, I tend to taste it half a cup at a time because I like my cupcakes to taste a bit more tangy than I do sweet.

Christmas Baking- 2012

Every year my sister, mother and myself spend a whole day baking for the Christmas season. This year we added two new people as our helpers our significant others Frank and Joey. They ended up helping out more than I thought they we're able to, I honestly thought these two were incompetent.

We normally make 15 different types of cookies, this year however my mother decided it would be a brilliant idea to make 20 different kinds of cookies.
On our list:
1. peanut butter cup cookies
2. mint chocolate
3. reindeer cookies
4. white chocolate macadamia nut
5. chocolate crinkles
6. turtles
7. mars bar rice crispies
8. skor bars
9. peanut butter blossoms
10. penut butter balls
11. white chocolate torrone
12. milk chocolate torrone
13. cake pops
14. chocolate christmas trees
15. old people cookies? i'm not quite sure exactly what they are....


In all honesty we made way too many for me to remember, it was quite the long day that started at 9 am and didn't end till 6 pm of non-stop baking. Every year I honestly wonder why we put ourselves through all that torture by baking so much in one day and ruining something we truly love to do. Then when I see the smiles on friends & families members faces I remember why we do it every year and hate it for quite sometime after that. Although having new helpers did help it to be a much lighter load on the three "chiefs" of our kitchen.