Monster Cookies and Ornaments!

Sorry for posting rather sporadically!

I seriously mean to post at least once a week but then it never seems to happen - really I will get better....I promise.......hopefully.......lol.

Today was a great day! I had the day off, the kids and I made my favorite cookies of all time, and we made some homemade salt dough ornaments! Plus I got half of the house cleaned.......I chose season 4 of Cake Boss (that is now on Netflix YAY!) over cleaning the rest of the house. Oh, well :)

We had so much fun! The salt dough ornaments were SO easy to make! Here's the recipe in case you have never made them before.....

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup salt
1/2 cup water

* Mix all together and knead to form a dough
* Roll out the dough to desired thickness and use cookie cutters to cut shapes out
* Or if desired shape dough into desired shapes
* Place tin foil down on a baking sheet so your creations do not stick to the pan
* Bake at 250 degrees for 2 hours

All baked and ready to be decorated this weekend - gotta load up on paint and glitter! This recipe yielded about 2 dozen ornaments for us.

Now onto my favorite part of the day!

Cookies!!! 

Not just any cookies either, these are my favorite cookies in the whole wide world :) They have everything good in them....oatmeal, peanut butter (or in our case soybutter) M&Ms (my favorite candy) and chocolate chips, all melted and baked together into a giant cookie :)

These are a family tradition and a family favorite. My mom bakes them up every year around Christmas time (and sometimes throughout the year too) and always gives us a bag of them to take home. This recipe yields 4-5 dozen! My favorite way to eat them (if they last the night.....lol) is to put the bag in the freezer and let them get crumbly then put it over ice cream :) Serious goodness!

When you make them be sure not to make them too small - they are called monster cookies for a reason! If you make them too small, they will just end up hard and flat (and while I will still eat them that way, it is definitely not the best!) They recommend using an ice cream scoop instead of a spoon to get the right size :) Also don't bake them too long - take them out just before they look done!

Monster Cookies

Ingredients

3 eggs
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon corn syrup
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups peanut butter (or soy butter for nut free)
4 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup candy-coated milk chocolate pieces

Directions

* Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
* In a very large bowl, beat the eggs. Very large.....this seriously makes a lot!
* Add the remaining ingredients in order, mixing well.
* Use an ice cream scoop to put on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. I took them out at 13 minutes and they turned out perfect!

This recipe is halved very easily - for the eggs use 2 and the rest just cut in half!


Enjoy!

Check out my bakery website here!  www.eatcakebakery.weebly.com

Wedding Cake

Hi there!!!

It's been a little while :( So sorry! I have been caught up in a few different things and it's been a bit stressful lately..... So, quite a few things have happened since my last post! I got a new phone which I'm in LOVE with :) it's an iPhone 4 and did I mention that I LOVE it?! I also have started doing cakes - officially - out of my house and made a website for it  www.eatcakebakery.weebly.com   AND I did my FIRST wedding cake and delivery!!! SO exciting!!!! 

 I was SOOO nervous about the wedding cake! I baked it up the beginning of the week, dirty iced (or crumb coated it - whichever way you say it) the night before it was due, then decorated it the morning of. I was worried about the timing, however, I actually ended up getting done about 45 minutes ahead of schedule! Awesome!!! Then came the part that I was the most nervous about.....delivery.

My awesome husband driving :) He helped me carry and deliver the cake and did a wonderful job of being extremely supportive!

In case you were wondering, yes that is my leg next to the cake - I rode in back with it so I was sure that it was safe........just a little paranoid lol

It ended up perfectly fine....my stomach was in knots the whole way there - it was only about a 15 minute drive....actually closer to 30 minutes since we were driving slow....I never realized how bumpy M-53 really is........then we arrived.....after passing it up a couple of times......totally not our fault - there was no sign! Anyways, the hall was absolutely gorgeous....vintage looking with hardwood floors, mood lighting, huge vintage chandelier....it looked amazing. PLUS, what probably was the most exciting part is that the woman owns the hall also owns the bridal shop up above, and she asked for my business cards to put out in her shop!!! AHHH!!! I was on cloud 9 the rest of the day! :)

Here is the finished product all set up..........:)

I just have to say....I'm very proud of it :)

So anyways, here's my recipe for the chocolate cake and the white cake that I use. The top tier and bottom tier are chocolate cake and the middle is white.  It does use a boxed cake base - don't judge it or me until you've tried it! It does not tasted like boxed cake - so very delicious and moist......

Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

• 1 (18 1/4 ounce) package devil's food cake mix
• 1 (4 ounce) box instant chocolate pudding mix
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 4 large eggs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Place the cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, water, oil, and eggs in a large mixing bowl.
3. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute.
4. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
5. On medium low speed, continue to blend for 2-3 minutes more.
6. The batter will be very thick and should look well combined.
7. Pour batter into prepared pans and smooth it out.
8. Bake for 27-32 minutes ( I started checking the cakes at 25 minutes-- it was like gooey chocolate pudding-- then 3 minutes later it was perfect.
9. Another couple of minutes and I think it would have been dry, so keep an eye on your cakes.
10. Allow to cool in the pans on a wire rack for 20 minutes.

http://www.food.com/recipe/darn-good-chocolate-cake-cake-mix-cake-87205#ixzz1d4gT7uVI

The 16" pan for the bottom tier barely fit in the oven!

I use parchment paper in the bottom of my cake pans instead of flour - grease the bottom of the pan only!  If you grease the sides, the cake will not climb up the sides! then lay down your parchment paper that is cut to the size of the bottom = no cake sticking to the pan! You may also notice the little round indent in the middle of the cake. This is a trick that I learned about a year ago - I take a flower nail, used for cake decorating, and put it in the center of the batter - pointy side up. This acts like a heating core so the cake bakes more evenly. Cheaper than bake even strips!

White Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 (18 1/4 ounce) package plain white cake mix
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Place cake mix, sour cream, oil, eggs, and vanilla in mixing bowl.
3. Blend with mixer on low speed for 1 minute.
4. Stop machine, scrape down sides of bowl.
5. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more.
6. Scrape down sides again if needed. The batter should look well combined and thickened.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
8. Place pan in oven.
9. Bake the cake until it is light brown and springs back when lightly pressed with your finger, 35-40 minutes.
10. Remove pan from oven and place on wire rack to cool for 20 minutes.

 http://www.food.com/recipe/basic-sour-cream-white-cake-126396#ixzz1d4heUE4t


Fun Fact: I used about 60 cups of batter for this wedding cake and about 30 cups of icing.........

and in case you didn't catch it the first time, here is my cake website :) please check it out and tell me what you think!!! I appreciate any feedback!

www.eatcakebakery.weebly.com

A Heath Fair and Caramel Apples

I'm having a hard time knowing how to start and what to write today...........I have a lot on my mind. I lost a friend yesterday from a terrible car accident. It really makes you think about your life and how you are living it. My life at home is wonderful. I have the greatest husband a girl could ask for, and 2 beautiful children.

Work, however, is a different story altogether! I hate my job - I work at a retail store in the bakery. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the actual work that I do, but I hate the people that I work for. They think nothing of treating you with as little respect as possible because, to them, all you are is a disposable number.
This is me, trying to talk to managment..........

I have had people in the past ask me if I'm going to try to move up in the company....I refer to this quote........."I honestly believe that it is better to be a failure at something you love rather than a success at something you hate." George Burns. I do not want to spend a minute more of my life doing something that I hate! You never know how short your life will be!

So that being said, I did something that I love the other day :) I cooked up some delicious, healthy food for the Health Fair at the retirement community where my hubby works. I used the fresh veggies from the farmer's market that set up a stand outside the building and had the recipe printed out for everybody to take so they can make it at home. This was the recipe that I cooked up - Ratatouille Pasta. It was a hit! I had many compliments and questions about my cooking and healthy eating. (I even had some people ask me if I'm a chef :)

 A picture of me that I actually like...........

You can't read it but my apron says "Come to the dark side, we have cookies. -V"  :)

Cutting up the garlic cloves..........my hands still smell like garlic.....I did make spaghetti yesterday though....

The finished product :) smelled so good!

The bowls are almost gone!

It was a great day! Afterwards, I went grocery shopping at a new store that my good friend Jake told me about. Its a marketplace that sells probably 70-80% organic/Michigan made food! It's AMAZING! Their veggies and fruit were all Michigan grown and great looking, they had a lot of different fruits and veggies that I've never been able to find anywhere else (I bought Anise.....soooo excited to cook it up!) They also have fresh meats (including fresh ground turkey YAY!), fresh salads (including hummus), Amish made butter, organic canned foods, like crushed tomatoes :), and what I was the most excited over, fresh local milk in a glass bottle! It was, admittedly a little bit more pricey than the conventional milk - but it's worth it. It was delicious and much healthier! 

Our grocery bill has gone up a little bit, but it's just a matter of prioritizing what you spend your money on. I, personally, would rather spend a little bit more money on food that is healthy and good for you, rather than spend less money on food that is laden with chemicals and hormones that are not meant to be in our bodies. My whole family is healthier, for instance, my hubby has lost 50lbs just by eating healthy and his mild IBS is virtually non-existent now. So, actually, we are probably saving money on health bills that we would have gotten later on in life! 

So the perfect ending to this day goes like this............

1. Take a can of sweetened condensed milk

2. Peel the label off and put in a pot filled with water

3. Simmer for about 3 hours - DON'T forget to keep adding water! (I forgot about it once.......it wasn't pretty....) While you are waiting, light a few pumpkin spice candles......hmmmmm soooo good! I'm sooo in the mood for fall!! And if you aren't now, you will be with the candles and apples with caramel :)

4. After about 3 hours take it out of pot and let it cool down. I usually put it in the fridge and leave it overnight. DO NOT open it right away! It will be pressurized and it will hurt you!

5. After it is cooled down, open and this is what you will see.........

6. Slice up some apples and enjoy! (If you want to go overboard a little bit, heat up some apple cider to go along with it......that's what I did :) It also wouldn't hurt to cuddle up with your sweetie on the couch with a blanket and a good movie :)

And here is a thought to leave you with...........

Personally, I would open up a healthy, organic bakery/cafe