July = Cupcakes

We have been eating lots o' cupcakes around here in the past few weeks. I'm searching for the *perfect* cupcakes recipes. No mixes for my cake and Crisco in my frosting are my general guidelines. So far I've got my regular and chocolate buttercream down. Notice I concentrate on the frostings first. Found my regular, old fashioned vanilla cupcake recipe today. Chocolate is a bit harder. I've got one that is pretty good. But the batter is too thin. I must have a chocolate batter that I can add goodies to including, but not limited to, chocolate chips, heath bar chips, coconut. I've got a good Heath Bar cupcake. Take a look:

Yes that is a little Heath bar and Heath bits (don't ask what happened to the rest of that big bag of Heath bars). And it's loaded with bits in the cake. Good stuff.

Other than that it's been business as usual for summer in Florida. We've been to lots of beaches, done some gold mining, swimming, tennis camp. I don't even want to think about school starting. Of course I can say that right now because both my kids are in bed and I have a glass of wine in hand!

Logo Cookies

I've been practicing my piping skills with these!

Guess who is 3...

I'm still waiting for the terrible twos to leave. It was a fun birthday other than the stupid Barbie/Princess cake she picked out for me to make for. That and the cake pops and the cookies and the cupcakes. Guess what she ate. Store bought ice cream and the package of Peeps her Uncle Andrew gave her. Stinker.

Cake Pop Experiment

I've been busy experimenting with chocolate, cake and frosting. This is dangerous work. I rarely am tempted to eat a cookie but chocolate gets me. I've even started eating the cookies again after I dip them in chocolate. Ack! The real purpose of the chocolate is to make the perfect cake pop. What is a cake pop? It is cake and frosting mixed together, formed into a ball, stuck on a stick and dipped in chocolate. Take a look at the 1st run:

All kinds of problems: chocolate cracking, pops jumping off sticks, ugly drizzle. But still yummy. Very yummy. So I kept trying and eating. How about the cake and frosting in a chocolate mold instead of a stick? The first of those. See those sad cake pops in the background?

These are fun to make and fun to eat and really fun to decorate. In case you are wondering they are white cake and strawberry frosting dipped in chocolate. Kind of like a chocolate dipped strawberry but with absolutely no nutritional value at all. That's why they taste so good. Here are some all dressed up and ready to go:

And now back to cake pops. I think I've got the cracking problem figured out. The last batch were good enough to send to work with Danny.

Cake pops have not taken over the kitchen. I'm trying to figure out ways to package cookies that allows people to give them as a gift. I am not entertaining cookies on sticks. Cake on sticks, yes. Cookies on sticks, no. These cookies found a home in a 1lb. candy box with a clear lid. So instead of boring candy for Valentine's Day you could give them a box of delicious cookies.

Can you tell I got a new camera? I love it! It's not super fancy, just has a big zoom. Check it out:

Big, old Mr. Alligator at Blue Springs.

Cute mommy and baby manatee. The animal that evolution totally missed.

These 2 wild monkeys were running all over the place disturbing the peace.

Late Xmas Cookies

Happy New Year! I love the idea of fresh starts even if it comes from just the turning of a calendar page. My fitness resolution is to run a 5k each month. And by run I mean cross the finish line on my feet. I've picked my 1st race for the last Saturday of January and they allow for a 20 minute mile which means I am almost guaranteed to finish. That's mall wander walk speed.

I have some xmas cookies to share but most are stuck on my camera. My computer is so full that it can't accept one more picture. My new computer is on it's way from China as I type (I love online tracking tools). I also have a new fancy camera headed my way from Georgia. Fancy for me means a 26x zoom. Both due to arrive tomorrow so by tomorrow night I'll be super mad that I've spent all day with electronics and still don't have them figured out.

For our dog groomer:

For a client who had these delivered to the hospital for the nurses:


Christmas morning before they were allowed to touch anything. Mom and Dad need coffee before chaos.

Hope you all had a great Christmas. Stay tuned. I'm working with chocolate and cake for my next new products. Which leads right back to the top and my fitness resolution.

Thanksgiving

I know you all are shocked that I'm late blogging my Turkey Day cookies. I'm skipping Weston's 6th birthday-and all 6 cakes-for now. My computer misunderstood "Cyber Monday" and decided to quit on me. It's at the computer ER (my dad's) and I've taken over Danny's.



How was your Thanksgiving dessert? I'm sure it was yummy but was it this cute?

Now, think about December and how super cool you would be if you took some delicious and beautiful cookies to a holiday party or had them on your buffet or gave them as favors. Stay tuned. The next post will be soon and will feature holiday cuties!

Wedding Time

We are packing for Denver! We are going to see my dear friend Erin get married and then stay a few days to enjoy the place. I made her a few wedding cake cookies to enjoy before the big day.

Erin and I have been friends for what seems like forever. With our big teased up bangs. Learning to drive. All sorts of high school mischief that will now go unmentioned (even though I found one of our journals in the garage just a few weeks ago ). Erin was dramatically swept away to Michigan and since that was waaayyyy before email and such, we lost touch. But her brilliant parents bought FL Prepaid so we both ended up in Tallahassee where we had a little college mischief. Oh, and she's the reason I have the cockatiel that will live forever. I also sent her a copy of Bobby Bowden's new book- signed and all. I had hoped he would write some lovely note inside. Oh well.

Can't wait to see you Erin and to meet Chris! I'm so happy for you!

What have you been doing?

It seems like it's been busy since my last post. I guess I haven't posted anything because I haven't baked hardly anything for the past few months. I just shipped off some cookies to a friend but I don't want to post them until she gets them. Our family is still adjusting to the new fall schedule. We have to get up much earlier to get Wes off to kindergarten and it's been taking it's toll on all of us. Wes loves school. So does Kate. She is disappointed on the days she doesn't get to go to school.

Weston's 1st day. I think Kate asked me 50 times "Where Wessy?"

Kate's 1st day. Weston wearing his school uniform (love it!).

Thanks for checking in. Baking stuff next time!