Key Lime Pie for Hungry Guests

So when asking my mother what I should make for Christmas dessert, the first response was "lemon marang!" I said, "Mom, what is MARANG!?"

I told her I wasn't a huge fan of lemon meringue. She then proceeded to ask me why I ask her what to make if I'm not going to make what she suggests? Hmmm...valid point mother. She said, "I don't know, key lime?" This I agreed to. Key lime pie is one of my favorite summer treats. I feel like it's more fitting for the warmer months of the year, however, I wasn't going to turn this one down.

This was my second time making key lime pie except this time I used a different recipe. I have become a huge fan of Joy of Baking's website and have used many of her recipes over the course of my journey here in the blogging world. I decided to try her key lime pie recipe out this time.

The first time I made the pie, I used a meringue topping in contrast to a whipped cream topping. That was my first time making meringue in general so I was a tad nervous. While baking the meringue on top of the pie, I noticed it was extracting some watery substance onto the top of my pie. It was a bit concerning as no one likes watery pie...however, it was extremely tasty when we bit into the final product.

Joy of Baking's recipe included a whipped cream topping this time. The pie is EXTREMELY easy and all recipes for it are really similar. The main ingredients in the pie are SWEETENED condensed milk, egg yolks, FRESH lime juice, and lime zest. That is it! The yolks and condensed milk make the pie seem pretty fattening, but it also makes it absolutely creamy and delish.

If you are making your own crust, I'd recommend buying actual honey graham crackers and crushing them in a food processor. In my case, I didn't get my food processor until Christmas morning so I had to deal with already crushed grahams. 1 1/2 cups of grahams, 6 tbsp. of melted butter, and 2 tbsp. sugar is all it takes to make a 9 inch crust for this pie (or any other pie that calls for a 9 inch graham cracker crust).

I used regular limes (the juice from 3-4 of them) in this recipe since the grocery store I went to did not have key limes. Key limes are really small and round so you would be able to tell the difference between those and regular limes. Key limes are also higher in acidity so it makes the pie more tart. I just used a tad more juice and zest from the limes to make it as tart as I wanted it to be.

This pie is so easy and only needs to cook for about 15 minutes. You want to make sure that the pie is "just set" to know that it is done. Set means that it is still a little jiggly but the top of the pie does not shift. You will be done in no more than 45 minutes!

After it is done cooling COMPLETELY in the fridge (I like to leave it over night) you can make the whipped cream and top the pie with it. I piped the whipped cream on Christmas day right before serving the pie to our guests.

REMEMBER! Don't eat the green stuff :)

Shawn is still not old enough for pie, but this was his FIRST Christmas!

Dirty Eggnog Cookies

Good morning All!

So remember when I said I was going to be making "Dirty Eggnog" cookies for an ugly sweater holiday party last weekend?! Well I made them and I must say I am pretty damn proud of 'em!

The eggnog cookie recipe was extremely easy and very tasty. However, when I added chocolate chips and crispy bacon bits to the sweet batter, it put the icing on the cake. Instead of covering the bacon bits in chocolate, (I figured this would get pretty messy and was just plain unnecessary) I just threw whole, semi-sweet chocolate chips into the batter and bacon bits alongside them.

It's funny. I am not a dark chocolate fan AT ALL but I just can't fathom putting milk chocolate chips in cookies. It's just ODD to me. While in the store, I went to pick up a bag of Hershey's milk chocolate chips and thought to myself, WAIT A MINUTE I can't do that!

Another tip of the day for these cookies: BURN the bacon. Well, make it real, nice and crispy. I baked the bacon (I had lots of time that day before the party) at 400 for about 30 minutes or maybe more. I just kept an eye on it and made sure it got super dark. I like baking bacon because it prevents grease from flying everywhere. However, if you are on a time constraint, I'd just fry it up because it does take a while to get it crispy in the oven.

I used this eggnog cookie recipe. It was super easy and includes those two favorite holiday flavors--nutmeg and cinnamon. However, I think maybe next time if I decide to add the chocolate chips and bacon bits again, I would leave out the nutmeg. There were LOTS of flavors going on!!

I added some more eggnog to the batter because a 1/2 cup just didn't seem like enough when I tasted the batter (oops!).

Once the batter was made, I crushed up the crispy bacon (it ended up being about 10 strips of bacon but you can adjust to your preference...more or less), threw in ALMOST the full bag of Hershey's chocolate chips (didn't really see a need for the whole bag but you can use the full bag if you like), and stirred it up!

The recipe said it would make six dozen, but this was not the case. I even dropped them by SMALL spoonfuls onto the baking sheets and I still ended up with about 4 1/2 dozen.

The final verdict: The dozen or so people that tried the cookies at the party thought they were very strange but liked them. It was so funny watching the faces of the people that tried them. One individual said they loved the nutmeg in them...others thought I should possibly remove the nutmeg the next time. Dominic ended up taking the rest to his family's house on Christmas day and said they all LOVED them. His grandma even took the rest home with her!

These cookies were a success for one important reason: They successfully captured EVERY single flavor that I tackled in this recipe. Eggnog, spices, dark chocolate, and crispy bacon. The fact that you could taste each ingredient made me smile :)

These may be added to the Liv's Bakery menu!

Check out these new additions to Liv's Bakery! One of my favorite personal cupcake photos framed in a 20x30 and a matching apron!

What Do Ya'll Think of Chocolate Covered Bacon??

Current Mood: Thankful & Sleepy!

Current Song: Frankie J-Suga, Suga (Baby Bash station on Pandora rocks!)

So I was being a complete bum yesterday (not complaining at all!) and didn't get a chance to bake anything. That's okay though because I am definitely going to make up for that this weekend and next Monday as well! Yesterday was filled with laying on the couch for 5 hours, watching our boys not win (unfortunately), and then doing laundry and enjoying a nice spaghetti dinner at my parents house. 

So this coming holiday weekend (and end of the world!) I will be going to another ugly sweater party. I've decided to bring a dessert, of course, to the party but just couldn't think of something different/unique off the top of my head. Dominic decided to throw his two cents in and suggested I make cookies...well duh...it would have been between cookies & cupcakes...but not just ANY old cookies...eggnog cookies. Well, the eggnog cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting were a HUGE hit at my work holiday party so I knew the cookie form was going to be just the same huge hit. Then...there's bacon bits...not JUST bacon bits...but I suggested adding chocolate covered bacon bits into the batter of the eggnog cookies. STRANGE HUH?? Then of course, what are cookies without a nice cookie glaze on top?? I'll be piping a cinnamon/nutmeg glaze on top of the cookies and then sprinkling a little extra cinnamon to give them the final holiday touch.

Definitely going to be an interesting experiment! My group of guinea pigs at that party better be ready :) 

I think I'm going to name them "Dirty Eggnog" cookies. Chocolate covered bacon bits...eggnog...ya get the idea! 

Stay tuned for the outcome that will be posted this coming Sunday!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

Holiday Favorite

Who likes eggnog???

I've actually never (at least I don't think I have) had a full glass of eggnog--with or without alcohol. I am a huge fan of eggnog frozen yogurt...we used to have this at TCBY back in the day when I worked there in high school...but I have never had a full glass of ACTUAL eggnog. Is this strange??

I hear that it's definitely an acquired taste and ya either like it or ya don't. The flavor, to me, is awesome so I had the urge to make eggnog cupcakes! We were having a holiday party at work on 12-12-12 (WEIRD!!) and my CFO presented me with another bake-off opportunity. This guy dislikes literally everything that has to do with food. Well, not EVERYTHING, but he is extremely picky. However, he is apparently a very good baker. When he proposed the idea to me a few weeks ago when we began to organize the holiday party, I took it! I'd participated in a 3-round bake off last month with a friend and I lost 2-1 :( However, this does not stop me from keeping up with my passion!

The only rule to this bake off was our dessert had to be holiday-themed. We had decided on cupcakes also. I immediately thought of eggnog as a traditional holiday flavor. I also thought about ginger bread, however, I knew that not many people acquire a taste for this. Then again, there are probably many people that don't like eggnog, but the idea of an eggnog cupcake sounded pleasing!

Then he got sick.

Not too sick though! He was out for a few days here and there and mentioned the day before the party that he probably wasn't going to be making anything for the bake off. I was saddened, but not TOO upset, because we had been talking about it for a while! He said he'd probably just buy something from the store and TRY to stay at work for the party.

Then came 12-12-12!

As I walked down the hallway to my office, he says to me, "Hey Alivia, I put my cupcakes on your desk so you could try one before I put them out for everyone...I usually bake by smell and I can't smell s*** right now so I don't want someone to die from eating one." HA! At this point, I was sort of displeased because I felt like I could have done a way better job on my mini eggnog cupcakes with maple syrup cream cheese frosting! He went on to say we were still doing the bake off EXCEPT he was leaving before the party. WOW. He ended up making candy cane cheesecake cupcakes which were pretty scrumptious I must say.

Long story short, everyone raved about my cupcakes and ate 2, 3, or 4! I had co-workers saying, "Alivia, you SOOO won that bake off!!" So that made me feel 20X better that day :)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Don't forget to check out that recipe! There is no alcohol in these cupcakes and they have just the right cinnamon-nutmeg spice to give that real, eggnog flavor! I also used organic maple syrup that my boss had given me. I made them into minis and they were all gone after the party!

The icing could have been a bit thicker, but I will be sure to add more confectioners sugar next time!

Back from the Break!

HAPPY PURPLE FRIDAY EVERYONE! 

Since I took Sunday off last weekend from baking (YES, I was at the Raven's game!!), I just HAD to bake something this week to make up for it. I was also bored out of my mind last night and it was only 7:45pm. What does one do when TV/movie won't do the trick?? BAKE SNICKER DOODLES! I mean honestly, who DOESN'T like snicker doodles???

A few months back, I made snicker doodle cookie CUPCAKES and they were da bomb. Layer of cookie on the bottom, layer of cupcake in the middle, layer of homemade cinnamon whipped cream spread on the top. To make you drool a little, here's what they looked like inside:

Definitely a cupcake you want to try now, right?

Anyways, I hadn't made the good ol' fashion snicker doodle cookies in a while and since after all, they are my favorite and I had all the ingredients for them last night, I just had to make 'em.

I have to say though, what I really wanted to make were oatmeal raisin cookies.

Oats-check
Raisins-check
Brown sugar-not nearly over 1 cup :(

Then I thought about molasses...hmmm...these are delicious when they are fresh out of the oven, soft, chewy, sugary around the outside...I forget why I didn't make these last night...oh well!

These were the gingerbread/molasses kissed cookies I tackled last year for our holiday party! They were unbelievably soft and stayed that way for days! 

Okay, back to my snicker doodles. I was thinking about making a soft butter cookie with some flavor glaze on top (lemon, orange, etc). I didn't have either fruit...

I found this snicker doodle cookie recipe from one of my favorite baking sites, Joy of Baking! It is SOOOO simple and anyone can do this...honestly...

Just a soft, chewy butter cookie covered in cinnamon sugar before going into the oven that puffs up while baking. HOW CAN YOU GO WRONG WITH THAT??

Tips: do NOT overbake these. I suggest taking them out when you see them rising in the oven. They will actually stay like this and won't flatten out. These cookies do not show so easily when they are really "done" but I can tell you that if you start to see a brown edge, TAKE THEM OUT RIGHT AWAY! :)

Also, when you make the dough, it will be very sticky and soft. I rolled them into balls just like this though which isn't a problem. It might be helpful to cover and refrigerate the dough right in your mixing bowl for a little while. It will make it easier to roll!

USE A STANDING MIXER IF YOU HAVE ONE! It makes EVERYTHING 100x easier...true life. These cookies only took 5-7 minutes to whip up with my brand new Kitchen Aid mixer!

That's all for now folks. Check back in next week on WEDNESDAY after I bake amazing egg nog cupcakes for our work holiday party! ANOTHER BAKE OFF!!!!

Cheers :)

My mixer in action for the very first time! Life is good :)

Round Tres! TIE BREAKER

Current Mood: Motivated
Listening To: The Cab- La La 
Current Day: STILL HUMP DAY!

Soooooo friends and family...the...final...verdict...

Alivia-1, Martin-2 :(

It's true!! There are really just some people out there that are good at EVERYTHING. Seriously. Although, I'm sort of happy that I'm NOT good at everything. That leaves room for improvement! And I am excited to grow into the baking world. I'm learning so much and as 2012 comes to an end, I am happy to say that my baking blog has treated me well since May. I can't believe it's already been underway for seven months. Craziness!

So anyways, Martin=good at everything. As a co-worker once asked, "Martin, is there anything you're NOT good at!?" I can't think of a damn thing now! HE'S NEVER BAKED IN HIS LIFE! What is that crap? Just kidding...

I'm done venting, I'm not sour at all! Just means I'll have a future employee :)

Round 1 of the bake off=cranberry orange scones
Round 2=pecan pie
Round 3=a cinnamon muffin with another "special" ingredient. Mine happened to be sweet potatoes and his was white chocolate chips/a streusel type topping with oats in it and a glaze.

Fact=everyone in our office is addicted to extremely sweet things *places this in the back of my mind*

I'm completely crazy and FORGOT to take pictures of our final round! Boooooo well go here for my recipe and you will see that they are sort of like mini donuts! I made mine in regular sized cupcake pans and it made about 18.

What I did differently: I boiled a whole sweet potato, mashed it with my hand blender (it says puree, but I don't have my food processor yet!), and added the whole potato to the milk/vanilla mixture which was more than 1/2 cup. I was a little upset that you couldn't really TASTE the sweet potato in the finished product. Although, I have to say that the mashed potato made the muffin EXTREMELY moist which everyone loves.

These moist-cinna-sugar-pop-in-your-mouth muffins were addicting.

Martin chose this recipe. His were more of a coffee cake consistency with a swirly center and streusel-like-crumbly-oat mixture on top. He used large muffin pans and made six.

I have to tell ya, seriously, they were BOTH very good. I think it was hard for people at work to vote because they were pretty different. It just came down to what you like better. Do you like the chewy oat topping and white chocolate surprise? Or do you like moist, donut-like mini muffins covered in cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar deliciousness?

I ended up losing 7-5 this time around. That means I won only the pecan pie challenge...which was well deserved...sorry had to add that in there :) and he won the cranberry orange scone battle and the cinnamon surprise throw down.

All good future employee!

Cheers!

Random Fact of the Day: Brown sugar is made from granulated sugar and molasses. Even though it's cheap enough in the stores to buy, could be a fun project that can be made in bulk.

That. Is. All.

Mini Spicalicious Apple Pies

Current Mood: Dancey (is that even a word??)
Listening To: Armin Van Buurin ft. Avicci-Drowning
Current Day: HUMP DAY! 

HAPPY ALMOST DECEMBER!

Is it normal to spend 3 hours on a dessert for Thanksgiving day??? Apparently mini apple pies take twice as long as a full size pie! When I showed up to my parents house before driving down to Canton to my cousins for dinner, my dad says, "Couldn't you have just made a regular-sized apple pie!?" My answer, "No way! That's so boring."

True Story.

Why bake what every one else bakes for the holidays? Dare to be different! I also figured that these would each be smaller than a slice of apple pie so they would be better for you? Hmmm...think about it....

Yummily filling

The 3 hours were SO worth it! Everything was pretty much the same as a regular apple pie except I had to dice the Granny Smith apples (7 of them took me over an hour to slice for SOME unknown reason). I also ended up breaking the dough into 18 individual pieces and THEN rolling each one out into a circle. I fit each one into an ungreased cupcake cavity, filled with the apple mixture (which had LOTS of nutmeg in it or so it seemed), cut little strips to make the lattice, baked for about 40 minutes and BAM! I know I'm not Emeril...I can pretend right?

They were a hit at my cousin's condo! Heat it up a bit and it's the best thing you'll ever try :)

That may be a bit overboard...

Anyways, the recipe is REALLY easy just time consuming and it was well worth the time!

Round Dos! Pecan Pie

So Sunday was round two if the BAKE OFF!! I was a tad nervous going in this time around considering the man who has NEVER baked anything in his LIFE won the first round when we made cranberry orange scones. See, I had never baked a scone before (which was definitely fair, no doubt about that) but I wasn't going to be bitter if I lost! And in fact, I wasn't! Beginners luck! I also found out during the first round that looks ain't always the deal breaker!!! Just kidding...your scones still looked like scones! Presentation and glamor comes later on in the baking world. First, you gotta bake tasty treats THEN ya work on perfecting their looks. Anyways...ya got me the first time around! BUT NOT THIS TIME!

Round two of the ultimate bake off involved pecan pies.

Two...sticky...extremely...sweet...pecan pies! I've made a key lime pie...a...pumpkin cheese cake which could have been considered a pie because I didn't have a spring form pan at the time...and...well...that's about it! I'm pretty new to the pie world so this was going to be another challenge. After picking my recipe from Epicurious (everyone should check out this site some day), I actually felt pretty confident as it had a "special" ingredient...orange zest...ya ever heard of such a thing in pecan pie!? Not me...

I think, other than the orange zest, our recipes were both pretty similar. Martin chose a flaky crust and I chose the butter crust that was actually included in my recipe. Flour, butter, salt, and water were the only four ingredients in my crust. I've come to the conclusion that homemade crust isn't really my worst enemy. Just use your hands! Probably better than a food processor anyways! (That's on my Christmas list this year actually) I could actually use a processor for crushing nuts and other things too, so it will be a great asset to Liv's Bakery, no doubt!

Anyways, getting back on track...the crust sat in the fridge for over an hour...maybe two...and it was ready to be rolled out. I was a little nervous at first because when I took it out of the fridge, it was rather stiff. I immediately thought it was going to be tough to roll out but with a little flour and friction, it turned out fab! I always doubt myself when it comes to making enough dough or something of that sort. I always seem to want to make more because it never looks enough! When baking cupcakes, I used to put too little batter in each cupcake liner because I underestimated...I've learned that lesson though! And I now put more...this time it looked like there wasn't going to be enough dough but after rolled and pressed into the 9 inch pie pan...there was a tad left over that I could trim from the edges. Perfecto!

The filling was probably the easiest thing I've ever made in a saucepan on the stove. It took some butter, brown sugar (actually less than the recipe called for), salt, vanilla, orange zest, and light (and a little dark) corn syrup. Melt the butter, whisk in the sugar, remove from the heat and add everything else! You are literally done from there. All you have to do is pour two cups of CHOPPED pecans in the CHILLED pie crust, pour the filling over the nuts, and bake for 55 minutes!

This pie set extremely well and won round two of the ULTIMATE BAKE OFF!! 1-1 baby...tie breaker round it is!!!

Tips for this pie: After taking a look at the recipe, I would make the following recommendations:
- Definitely use chopped pecans...no one wants to break their tooth on huge pecan halves 
- The recipe calls for all 3/4 cup of LIGHT corn syrup...I used 1/2 cup light, 1/4 cup dark...it's not as sweet this way and it is just right!
- I used only 1 cup of brown sugar rather than 1 1/4 cup. Again...makes it not as sweet!
- Put foil around the edges of your crust...they don't burn and it comes out fabulous!
- I ended up putting a little extra orange zest which was definitely NOT a bad thing. Adds that little kick ;)

I HIGHLY recommend this recipe. Crust and all. Great job Epicurious!

Random fact of the week: FAT makes treats moist. That is the phrase I live by when baking. How to improve my very own cupcake recipe? IT CAN ALWAYS BE MORE MOIST! Add an extra egg yolk...use full fat sour cream...oil...half and half...use WHATEVER has a good amount of fat and you will be satisfied. Some say use some oil in place of some of the butter that the recipe calls for. I have also found that weighing flour can be a good thing when baking...this ensures that you don't use more flour than the recipe calls for which, in turn, will ensure that your product is not dry :)

CHEERS!

Is the Third Time a Charm!?

New ingredients in the mix!

Good evening! So I just finished round 3 of Liv's very first, original cupcake recipe. If ya'll remember, I wrote my own recipe back on October 1st and it was somewhat a challenge but this might just happen to come somewhat natural to me because the first round was better than I expected. I decided to make what I call "Hazelnut Coffee Lovers" cupcake and write my recipe completely from scratch. The original recipe can be seen in one of my earlier (from Oct. 1) blog posts. Since then, I have tweaked it three times.

The first time, it wasn't quite moist enough and I am STILL working on that aspect of the cupcake it seems like. This, for some reason, DOESN'T seem to come so natural to me. I know what makes cupcakes moist--FAT. Anything that has high fat content...egg yolks, sour cream, oil, cream. The first time, I had some sour cream but I don't think I put in enough. The second time around, I used oil instead of sour cream (because I didn't have any at the time). The cupcake is moist, but could be more moist...if that makes sense? EVERYONE is a sucker for a delicious, moist cupcake...so the moister...the better...okay that didn't make sense...and wasn't a word...

Anywho, the second time around I made cupcake minis instead of the six regular sized cupcakes and took them to work. Everyone seemed to love them! I only got positive reviews. Even the lady that doesn't like sweet things ALWAYS eats my desserts when I bring them...how could she say no!? Just playing...

But it is always a pleasure to see people who constantly say they don't like sweet things eat your treats...

For some reason, I don't think I really want to use coffee extract anymore. The first two times I made my recipe, I used JUST the extract in the batter. This time, I knew I had to make a change so I used actual coffee grinds and the extract. I also spotted the Nestle cocoa powder in my drawer and decided to throw in some of that because who doesn't like chocolate and coffee together? OH AND with hazelnut added in the mix...can you think of anyone?

There was also some half and half in the fridge so I used that in place of milk (higher fat content!!)

All in all, it is DEFINITELY getting there and it will be perfected the 4th time around...it will, it will, it WILL. This is what baking is all about :)

"Hazelnut Choco-Coffee Lovers" (Yields 6 regular sized cupcakes or 20 minis)

3/4 cup all purpose flour 
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. cocoa powder
1/4 c. unsalted, softened butter
1/3 c. granulated sugar

2 large eggs (I might add an extra yolk next time, perhaps?)
1/2 tbsp. coffee grinds (definitely need to use a stronger coffee next time)
3/4 tsp. coffee extract
3 tbsp. half & half

If you want the instructions simply ask me :) Oh and it is always good paired with my hazelnut butter cream.

Fun Fact of the Day: Did you know you can make baking powder by mixing baking soda and cream of tartar? Next time you don't have any...go for it! Mix two parts cream of tartar with one part baking soda. Also, you can NEVER substitute baking soda for baking powder...but you can do vice versa. Basically, baking soda doesn't have enough umph to make things rise.

Ta-Ta!

not as pretty as all my others but still delicious and in the works!

BAKE OFF BABY!

Have you ever had a bake off with someone who's NEVER baked ANY DESSERT EVER BEFORE IN THEIR LIFE!? I thought this was going to be a piece of cake...however...that was not the case the first round of our bake off!

November was supposed to be cookie month since it's been almost (I think) a full year since I've actually baked cookies! Can you believe it!? This was the ONLY thing I used to bake when I lived at home. But since I've started my baking blog and Liv's Bakery, I've sort of left them out of the picture, unfortunately. I was totally ready to dedicate November to cookies when...all of the sudden...a co-worker had this brilliant conversation starter.

Jason: "Martin, you know how to do everything around here! What DON'T you know how to do!?"
Martin: Silence at first
Alivia: BAKE!

This simple, laid back conversation started a WAAARRRRRR.

Now, there's people that can cook and hate or simply cannot bake and then there's those who love to bake (like myself) but HATE to cook (or just...like myself again...can't cook!). I felt like Martin was going to be the one who was good at cooking/grilling but not so good at baking...I guess I was wrong :(

One cold, blah, Friday night while we were too lazy to actually do anything productive, my lovely roommate Diana, Martin, and I decided to plan our course of action. We made up rules to the bake off and all sorts of things. We decided to choose two types of desserts that I've never made before. We OBVIOUSLY couldn't pick cupcakes as one because we all know who would've won that round! So to be fair, we chose scones & pies. We have decided to go all month with this and, therefore, I had to change my theme for November to THE ULTIMATE BAKE OFF!!!!

We are going to do "best out of three" (skipping the 18th because I will most likely be baking our Thanksgiving dessert in place of that weekend's delight) and the last weekend Diana is going to choose the type of dessert.

Not going to lie, I was actually nervous about making these scones. FYI, we're baking the same desserts but choosing our own recipes. We wanted to tackle cranberry orange scones last Sunday. SCRUMPTIOUS!

First time going on Pinterest to find a recipe served me well, although I did happen to lose. How does that happen when someone has NEVER baked ANYTHING before!? Blasphemy...

We came up with this elaborate scoring plan at first but then decided to go with the simple, vote for your favorite. We took both batches to work, laid 'em out in the break room, and everyone had at it! When I finally got a chance to look at the score sheets after our 2 1/2 hour long meeting, it was already 3-0 :( The final score was 7-3.

I believe the ULTIMATE decision maker was that Martin's were more "moist" even though that's not even how a scone should be! Dryer, Biscuit-ier, not super super sweet, and well-shaped (you liked how I slipped that in there, huh?) are how traditional scones should be. If I drenched mine in 2 rounds of glaze, they would have all tasted the same :)

Just kidddinnngggg...all joking aside, he did a surprisingly well job for his first time baking anything in his life. No peeking, no help, no tips from anyone and they turned out good! Nice job! But just so you know...I'll be bringing it on full force next Sunday with our pecan pies!

Tips for scones: knead the dough for about 1-2 minutes to allow for proper rising, roll dough out to about a 1/2 inch thick, use a pizza cutter to form wedges, and don't worry if they look a little dry...that's how they are supposed to be!

CHEERS!

A Seasonal Fav'

That's right ya'll, today I made my seasonal fav' PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!

It's my roommate's favorite treat that I make and she just couldn't WAIT for me to make them this year. Last year, while preparing for a Christmas party that my roommates and I were having, I decided to make DOUBLE the recipe that I had gotten from Allrecipes.com. That was such a silly idea when I ended up with 100 cookies! It seemed like I baked forever that night and I just couldn't understand WHY I did such a thing. The recipe makes 36 cookies (today it ended up making about 42 or so) so I just don't know why on earth I would double this recipe last year ESPECIALLY when I made another type of cookie!

Anyways...I was going to make half the recipe today, but then my roommate said she wanted to take some to the guy she's seeing because they are just THAT awesome. Trust me, these will be eaten up in NO time in any house. My mom used to make them, and still does, and sometimes she would add raisins instead of chocolate chips which is also good!

The recipe says to ice the cookies when they are cooled, however, I'm not a huge fan of putting icing on top of cookies. I think cookies are too thin to add an extra flavor on top; it simply takes away from the delicious, moist cookie flavor! The only cookie I would ice that brings me back to the good ol' days are the butter cookies that my mom used to ice with a thin, lemon glaze. Boy were those da bomb.com. Mom, can I have that recipe!?

Other than leaving the icing off, I follow the recipe exactly and add almost a full bag of regular sized, semi sweet, chocolate chips. I'm a huge fan of milk chocolate in contrast to semi sweet, but for these cookies, you MUST go with semi sweet.

Once they are baked (they are a little hard to tell because the color stays relatively the same as before they are put in the oven) for 18 minutes, remove them from the oven, let stand for no more than 5 minutes, and immediately place into a container of any sort. Seal tight and they will be moist and chewy for days! DELISH!

All the awesome spices prepped before mixing...cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg!

Before popping in the oven...small dollops flattened just a tad

 

 

Happy Halloween!

Like I mentioned in the previous post, I was going to make punkinhead cupcakes and creepy, dirty, wormy, cupcakes for work. Next on the menu was pumpkin streusel cupcakes for Dad for his birthday! I was praying on Monday night that our power WAS NOT going to go out that night due to Hurricane Sandy. Thank you Lord, it didn't!

Tuesday night, I set out to make all three treats for Halloween/Dad's Birthday. I had been prepared since the weekend just in case the hurricane kept me inside until Halloween--I had all the ingredients I needed.

For work, I decided to put together some vanilla bean cupcakes with actual beans and vanilla butter cream frosting. Sweet and simple! I used the very basic vanilla cupcake recipe that I've used in the past from www.cooks.com because it only has 8 ingredients! Very easy which makes it VERY easy to put your own twist on it :) I decided to add just one vanilla bean (which adds incredible vanilla flavor along with the 2 tsp. extract) and it made these cupcakes to die for (as one co-worker said after she bit into one). I stuck with the classic vanilla butter cream frosting, used a 1M tip to ice the "wormy" cupcakes, sprinkled crushed chocolate grahams on top, planted a worm in there, and there it was!

If you use this recipe, I highly recommend adding a vanilla bean. Also, don't forget to ALWAYS finish off the mixing with the DRY INGREDIENTS...mix until JUST combined so your finished product doesn't become tough. 

And there ya have it...Dirty Vanilla Cupcakes ;)

I used the rest of the butter cream, mixed red and yellow icing color (yeah I know right, they didn't have a freakin' plain orange color!!!), grabbed the spatula, and iced the other half of those babies! The orange was a perfect pumpkin color and was very festive. I was supposed to save some butter cream to color black for punkinhead faces but I forgot--so unfortunately, these punkinheads had no faces...all tastes the same, right!?

The cupcakes were very moist, short and sweet but very tasty. Someone even said that when the carrier was opened, it smelled like vodka...well that's cause of my long lasting, homemade vanilla extract!! Which by the way, is definitely going to last me forever; it is barely below the neck of the wine bottle for gosh sakes. I encourage EVERYONE to make their own extract..seriously...ask me for tips!

Onnnnn to the next treat for the night.

Pumpkin streusel cupcakes made with Truvia with homemade whipped cream and chopped, sugared pecans. 

This was one of Liv's Bakery's sort of made up treats minus the actual pumpkin cupcake recipe. I pulled this recipe from my newest cookbook (thanks to my sister!) but instead, substituted Truvia for the sugar. Never have I EVER used "fake" sweetener when baking but I thought I'd try something new! I really think I am getting braver and braver as my baking journey continues...

For those of you who don't know what Truvia is, it's a zero calorie sugar replacement that comes from the Stevia plant. I went online to find the equivalent to sugar and it said for 1/3 cup sugar (which is what the original recipe called for since I was only making 6 cupcakes) to use about 7 packets of Truvia. This was just NOT enough. I ended up adding 4 more packets to get rid of the extreme, bitter taste from the pumpkin puree. I added streusel that I had frozen from the pumpkin muffins and baked! I was a little nervous when they came out a yellow-ish color so I decided to try one and they were pretty tasty with the streusel! It made it sweeter and I just KNEW the homemade whipped cream was going to do the final trick.

Right before dinner at my parents, I whipped up the cream (Mom, thanks for the extra sugar!!), added the toasted, sugared pecans, and everyone loved 'em! My cousin even licked the whipped cream bowl clean.

I HIGHLY recommend using whipped cream if you don't have all the ingredients for butter cream or any other type of icing. It's so simple and adds that lil sunin' sunin' to an already sweet dessert. All it takes is some whipping cream, a little sugar, and a tsp. of vanilla.

I will definitely keep adding streusel to my delicious pumpkin desserts!

Shawn the Dragon! I'm sure he wanted a cupcake!

BOGHAD!!!!!!

That's right, buy-one-get-half-a-dozen! 

Order from me for the holidays whether it be Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, New Years Eve, or any other celebration you may be having this winter! If you do, you will be receiving a free half dozen cupcakes along with your order!

Here's what's on the menu next Tuesday evening:

-Vanilla bean cupcakes with dirt cake icing (you get a free, scrumptious, slimy, worm crawling out of it)
-Chocolate cupcakes with orange vanilla butter cream punkinheads 
-Pumpkin Spice "sugarless" cupcakes with homemade whipped cream and pecans--this treat is for Daddio's birthday

This is the best time of year, why not celebrate the season with Liv's Bakery?

Cheers!! 

P.S. Your autumn treats are meant to go wonderfully with a nice, cold pumpkin beer! 

Pumpcan Streusal Breakfast Delight

What first comes to your mind when you think about autumn? For me, it's the colors red, orange, and yellow, warm pies, cranberries and walnuts, pumpkins--carving and eating, and Halloween!! Who else likes when Hocus Pocus comes on ABC Family and we count down from the 13 days of Halloween on TV? Fall has GOT to be my favorite season as we pull out the sweatpants, cuddle in our Raven's snuggies, and watch our boys kick some @$$! What else could be any better???

Oh yeah...my Pumpcan Streusal Muffins that I made last Sunday!

So far this month, I've made a double layer snicker doodle cake with apples and cinnamon in the middle and a brown sugar cinnamon butter cream; warm apple dumplings; these pumpkin-pecan streusal muffins (get it??? pump-can???) and ALL have been a great pleasure. The apple dumplings could use some work but I think next time, I will be making apple cobbler which will be so much easier and taste exactly the same :)

Last Sunday will have wrapped up Oktoberfest month with my scrumptious autumn desserts, unfortunately. Next Sunday, I'm making a sugar-free dessert for my dad's birthday! He was the lucky one born on Halloween.

Anyways, back to my pumpcan muffins...I've never made streusal before (and in fact, I don't even know how to spell that word because each way I spell it, the computer says it's wrong!) so I wanted to see how easy it was. That's right, it was SUPER easy--cold butter, brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon! Mix it with your fingers to make it crumbly and BAM. Now, I ended up having left overs so I froze the rest in a tupperware. I read online that you can do this...now I just have to find something else to use it on! Perhaps a coffee cake?

The inside before adding more batter...streusal and pecans!

As far as the muffin goes, the ingredients were literally all that would go into a cupcake, just add the pumpkin puree. My friends that tried said that they were moist, flavorful, and one of the best treats I made so far :) I added some pecans and streusal in the middle of the cupcake then some more streusal on top before putting them in the oven. It actually worked out lovely that I made the original recipe (which made 12 regular muffins) yet poured the batter into a 6 cavity souffle pan and made bakery-style muffins! It was JUST enough batter.


I would probably change nothing about this recipe, however, I would most likely add more pecans next time and fold them into the batter instead of sprinkling them in the middle of the muffin. Raisins would also be a great addition...or chocolate chips! YUM!

It may look like the sides are burnt, but that's how the picture is!

I quote my friend "I think these are one of the tastiest things you've made."

P.S I highly recommend making your own vanilla extract. All it takes is about 25 vanilla beans sliced length wise, a liter of mid-grade vodka, and an old wine bottle. Madagascar beans are one of the best and you can get them on Amazon. Let the bottle sit in a dark cabinet for AT LEAST 5 weeks shaking frequently and there ya go! You will have extract for a lifetime and it adds some speckles to your treats :)

Schmapple Schmumplings

Who doesn't like desserts with apples and cinnamon in them!?

That's right...

no one! 

It just dawned on me while writing this blog that last weekend, I made the snicker doodle cake with apples/cinnamon mixture in between layers and this past Sunday I made a dessert with a very similar taste but even BETTER!

Sunday, I made apple dumplings for the first time! As soon as I glanced at the recipe, I knew I had to use it. It reminded me exactly of my dad's apple dumplings that he made on the cool, wintery nights when I was younger. They warmed our bellies up! Although, I didn't remember how cumbersome they can actually be...

I've been using recipes from Taste of Home because they always get great reviews. I should probably leave a review one of these days, I just never think about it. While searching for a scrumptious apple dumpling recipe, I came across lots that had chopped up apples, weird store-bought doughs, and even came across a "southern apple dumpling" recipe that had Mountain Dew as the sauce. Talk about weird! I may have to try them one day though...

Then I came to the recipe that sounded exactly like my dads. It involved full, peeled and cored granny smith apples wrapped up in homemade dough with the yummy cinnamon/sugar mixture sprinkled inside each apple before bundling it up. I made homemade dough when I tackled the blackberry cobbler a few months ago and it's definitely the way to go--I don't use any of that Pillsbury stuff, NOT IN MY HOUSE! It can take some work, especially when you have to mix in the cubed butter for 20 minutes to make the dough crumbly. But then you pop it in the fridge to become "workable" and voila! You have homemade dough that can be made into warm biscuits or used for autumn pies, dumplings, cobblers, bakes, and anything else that involves dough. All it takes is flour, salt, baking powder if you want it to rise, butter, and water! This recipe actually called for shortening but I've learned (thanks Mom) to substitute butter for that. I couldn't even tell you what shortening looks like!

I also added some nutmeg to the cinna-sugar mixture, plopped a teaspoon of that inside of each cored apple along with a teaspoon of butter, wrapped 'em on up, whipped up the sauce, baked for 55 minutes and there ya go!

It's actually not THIS easy. I only made 4 of the dumplings and ended up coring 2 apples and slicing 2 apples. I didn't have a corer handy, unfortunately, and I thought I was going to cut my hand off after the first two by trying to core them with a knife. Therefore, I decided to go the easy (and probably safest) way and slice up the other two. I piled the slices up and wrapped the dumpling that way. It made the two of them open up a little while baking, but this in NO WAY takes away from the warm, amazing, homey, awesome flavor once that fork touches your mouth.

Whether it's an apple pie, an apple bake, an apple cobbler, or an apple dumpling, it all melts in your mouth and is BY FAR the best autumn dessert in all of mankind. I am DEFINITELY going to be making many apple cobblers (it's an easier version of it all) this winter!

Next on the list, PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS!!!!

P.S. Check out Joy of Baking...Joy's blog has been named Best Baking Blog by Food-buzz and was nominated for Best New Blog in the Bloggies. She resides in L.A. and her cookbook has found a place in my home :)

Who's Ready for Autumn? This Girl!

Autumn has finally showed her face and I am SO ready for the yummy treats that she brings!

October brings the scents of apples, cinnamon, pumpkin, and sweet potatoes and those flavors are most definitely on the menu for my blog this month. To me, these smells bring a homey feel to my life--just like that pumpkin spice latte that I get from Starbucks and the apple pie that I eat on Thanksgiving. Even though I hate when the weather gets chilly, these flavors definitely bring joy to my world!

Last Saturday, we went over my cousin's in Potomac to celebrate his 21st birthday and my aunt had asked me to bring the cake. I had no objection to this! Even though my specialty lately has been cupcakes, I was very interested in trying out a two-layer cake for the...second?...time. These cakes make me NERVOUS. My worst fear is one of my desserts falling apart and then next on that list is tasting so dry that ya never want to eat something from Liv's Bakery ever again. I can't say that the last worry has ever been a problem over the past five months...but the first one has been present and unfortunately, happened this time.

I decided to be festive and make a double-decker-snicker-doodle-apple-cinnamon-party-in-your-mouth cake for the get together. Everyone loves snicker doodles (if you don't then something is for sure wrong with ya) and everyone KNOWS cinnamon and apples go together like pretzels and chocolate...yes, one of the best combos. I found a recipe for a snicker doodle cake and decided to put cooked Gala apples (basically the filling of an apple pie) in between the two layers of cake.

 I cooked the apples for about 45 minutes on the stove with a half cup of light brown sugar, a few teaspoons of cinnamon, and a slab of butter. I was thinking of adding either cloves or nutmeg, but that reminded me too much of an apple pie and that wasn't what I was really going for with this cake. I simply wanted to successfully capture the flavors of apples and cinnamon. And that's what I did!

I iced the whole outside of the cake with the brown sugar cinnamon butter cream recipe that is on the recipe above. I used my new prep bowls to mix two different colors of icing--dark brown and rusty orange (that's actually how it came out and was utterly festive) for decorations. The tan butter cream, rusty orange, and dark brown went wonderfully together.

My boo-boo: The cake batter tasted DELECTABLE but when I took both cakes out of the oven, I decided--the distracted dummy that I was--to let them stand for only 5 minutes and then put them right on a flat surface rather than a cooling rack. They were both also upside down. This was a big no-no as one cake cracked almost completely in half. Good thing I did this the night before! So the next day, I made half of the cake recipe and it came out perfect that time :)

Next time: I would probably put more awesome-apple-filling in between both layers of cake because when it was cut at the party, some pieces only had a few small slices of apples in the middle.

What I LOVED: The icing was impeccable. My favorite flavor is cinnamon (with literally EVERYTHING) and there was so much of this in the whole cake. It was autumn in my mouth!

What did we do with the ruined cake?

Literally MOST of my roommate's doing. He sat in front of the cake, used my left over rusty orange icing, and chowed down with a fork! At least it didn't go to COMPLETE waste!

Just Another Manic Monday!

Monday Night. Bored. Still got work to do on my recipe. Who wants cupcake minis!?

Tonight was going to be round numero dos for Liv's "Hazelnut Coffee Lovers" cupcakes. Except this time, I wanted to use my brand new, Wilton mini cupcake pan! Thanks Mom and Dad :)

I've never baked minis before so it was definitely going to be a challenge. Or was it? Basically, I knew ya had to bake the cupcakes for less time, so how hard could it be? That was really the only difference...

I had some tweaking to do on my recipe and it still is going to need round 3 and probably round 4 and/or 5. I now realize how writing a recipe can take lots of effort and perseverance. I am determined to perfect my very first recipe! 


This is how I modified my first draft of my recipe (in italic):

1 cup sifted cake flour—sift first then measure

¾ tsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp. salt

1/3 cup softened butter

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 tbsp. canola oil (or full fat sour cream)

¾ tsp. pure coffee extract

2 tbsp. milk

I didn't have anymore sour cream so I decided to use canola oil (which essentially works the same and I'm not so sure which is better for you). I thought it had to be a TAD more moist so I decided to add some milk. Then, I balanced it out a bit with a little more cake flour. They STILL could have been more moist when they came out of the oven! I guess it does make sense now since I still kept the flour/oil/milk amounts balanced...should have just kept it with more wet ingredients. Oh well! That's why there is always round 3. I also added a quarter cup more of coffee extract which didn't really add much more flavor after all, unfortunately. They could still be more coffee-y! 

I baked the minis for 12 minutes and they came out perfect.

I whipped up the same hazelnut butter cream that I made last night and plopped a little on top! They are so cute, I love 'em! So quick and easy to ice and make a great picture. Going to take these to work tomorrow so I can get more feedback.

Liv's First Ever Original-Completely-Made-From-Scratch-Off-the-Top-of-My-Head!

I FINALLY DID IT!!!

Since the very beginning of my baking blog, everyone has been encouraging me to make up my very own recipe to post, write about, and sell. I finally did it!

I LOVE coffee (I literally have to drink a cup every day to stay alive) and hazelnuts are probably my most favorite kind to eat. You will also find me switching it up at Dunkin Donuts with hazelnut iced coffee and then at Starbucks with a hazelnut non-fat, no whipped, no foam hot latte (yup, I'm one of those folks!) 

Why not put the two flavors together into a cupcake? Why not do so during my very first time making homemade, from scratch, not even glancing at another recipe, experience!? 

I knew the basics of a cupcake recipe which made it that much easier to come up with my very own. 

I knew that sour cream, milk, and/or oil make a batter moist. 
I knew that flour thickens batters. Cake flour is even better! 
I knew that baking powder makes things rise.
Eggs are part of every recipe and make the batter smoother.
Butter makes cupcakes fluffier. 
I've never known what salt does to a recipe but I added some anyways!

Knowing all of these facts, I still didn't know how MUCH to add of each ingredient--this was the trickiest part of my journey.

I sat down and wrote out how much of each ingredient I THOUGHT I would need for about six cupcakes. I envisioned recipes in my brain that yield 12 cupcakes and thought about the most common measurements of each. I didn't want to make 12 so I cut everything down to what I thought would yield about 6 cupcakes. 

Here's what I came up with at first:

1/2 cup sifted cake flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

1/3 cup softened butter

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 tbsp full fat sour cream

½ tsp pure coffee extract

Frosting:

¼ cup butter

(No idea how much yet) Powdered Sugar

(No idea how much yet) Hazelnut extract

(No idea how much yet) Milk

And so I began! Below are the directions I wrote out for myself.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven for 350 F.

2. Line six cupcake cavities with liners of your choice

3. Sift cake flour and then measure it out. Combine the cake flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium sized mixing bowl.

4. In a separate mixing bowl, combine the softened butter and sugar. Cream the two together for about 2 minutes.

5. Add the egg and mix well.

6. Blend in the sour cream and coffee extract. Mix until creamy. 

7. Slowly add the flour mixture and make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl while mixing. Do not over mix as the batter may become "tough"

8. Using a spoon (I like to use an ice cream scooper), fill each cupcake liner 3/4 of the way with batter.

9. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean (or with no wet batter on it)

 
While making the batter, I noticed that it wasn't smooth enough and it would probably not make 6 cupcakes. I immediately realized more flour was needed. I added 1/4 cup sifted cake flour, 1/4 teaspoon baking powder, 1 more tablespoon of sour cream, and also 1 more egg. Surprisingly, the egg made a huge difference; the batter immediately became smoother/creamier. Since I was adding more flour, I had to add a bit more of baking powder to even it out. I got out my ice cream scooper and filled away. It made exactly six cupcakes with a teeny, tiny bit of batter left over! Woohoo go meeee!!!

I ended up baking for 20 minutes (I first put 18 on the timer) and they came out perfect. I let them cool for about 10 minutes and bit into one un-iced cupcake.

What I would change next time: I would only change a few things about my recipe. They could have been a tad more moist--no one likes a dry cupcake! However, I believe this is probably the trickiest part of perfecting a recipe. To do so, I would add maybe one more tablespoon of sour cream as well as about a 1/4 cup of milk. This would add moisture to each. I would also add a 1/4 teaspoon more of coffee extract to capture more of that rich, coffee flavor.

As for the frosting, it came out scrumptious! I made the well-known vanilla butter cream and added some hazelnut extract. I knew I wouldn't have known the exact measurements of powdered sugar, milk, or extract until I actually went to make it. I ended up with the following:

1/2 cup (1 stick) softened butter

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 plus a dash of hazelnut extract

1 tbsp milk

Making the frosting:

1. Cream butter in a mixing bowl until smooth

2. Slowly add the powdered sugar, mixing well after each addition

3. Blend in the hazelnut extract

4. Slowly add the milk or whipping cream to the frosting until you feel that it’s the right consistency. My test: If the frosting doesn’t move one bit when you tilt the bowl, then it’s ready!

5. Pipe or spread icing onto the cupcakes and decorate as desired

I would probably not change a thing about the frosting. Next time, I may try a different type of butter cream that involves egg whites and regular sugar instead of powdered. I believe it would probably be less rich. Although, the richness of the icing adds A LOT more flavor to the cupcake that isn't too sweet to begin with.  

To make cupcakes fluffier: I may try to whip up the egg whites separate from the yolks and add one more egg white alone to the batter. I've read online that this makes for fluffier, lighter cupcakes!

That's all for now folks--I am very proud of my VERY FIRST attempt at making up my unique, most original, Liv's Bakery "Hazelnut Coffee Lovers" cupcake. This recipe will be tweaked, practiced, and perfected in no time. Stick with me!

Cheers!