Handmade Christmas 2016 - Crochet and Baking

Good morning! I hope you are enjoying the holiday today. I wanted to show what I made my friends and family for Christmas.

For my friends, Constance and Jim, I made a kitty doll for their baby girl, Arwen. I hope Arwen will like it when she gets old enough to play with it.

For Amanda, I made a short watermelon scarf. I found the pattern/video on YouTube and thought it would be a great way to brighten up a dreary winter day and light enough for weather in California. I love the added embellishment of black Pony beads to use as watermelon seeds.

For my uncle, I made orange brownies as part of his presents. They are his favorites.

In my mother's stash of containers, I found this cute reindeer plastic tub. Perfect for 'wrapping' his brownies.

For my friends, I made those kawaii cross stitch ornaments that I posted about last week :)

I hope you had fun crafting for friends and family too!

Until next time >___<

Baking - Pecan Pie Bundt Cake and Pecan Cookies Version 2!

On Sunday I tried a recipe from the Bake From Scratch magazine, a pecan pie bundt cake. I was at Williams-Sonoma the weekend before last and found the bundt pan that the recipe called for, the elegant party 10 cup pan by Nordicware.

The cake came out well, though I had to wrestle it out of the pan! I don't think it's the fault of the pan. The recipe called for greasing the pan with vegetable shortening. I think next time I bake this recipe, I will use Pam with flour spray and see if it makes a difference. It should work as I had no trouble with my fall Nordicware pan when using it :)

I bought a few slices of the cake for my aunt's family to try. She loved it so much she requested it for her birthday next year. Lol

My mom had a piece a few moments ago and said the cake was still moist. I think it might be due to the brown sugar drizzle on the cake.

This morning I baked some pecan cookies. Do you remember me trying this recipe earlier? Well, the recipe says that if you let the dough sit overnight in the fridge, the taste of the dough takes on a more toffee taste.

I'm not saying it doesn't taste different. I should have baked a few yesterday to compare with today's bake. Lol Either way, they are yummy!!

Luckily I don't have to bake for Thanksgiving. My sister always makes pumpkin pies for the holiday. I can't wait!!! I look forward to them every year. If I could skip dinner and just eat the pie, I would......though it wouldn't help family relations if I polished off the entire pie. Lol

Until next time >___<

Sunday Baking - Harvest Loaves

Hi, everyone! My aunt bought me an adorable fall themed bundt pan from Nordicware.

Yesterday, I tried the recipe for harvest loaves that was on the back of the wrapping. They turned out great. A hint of sweetness and a little rum flavoring.

I love how easy the pan was to use and clean. I thought I'd have trouble getting the bundts to come out, but I used Pam spray with flour so no problems there :)

I like the small batch that this pan makes. It is perfect for making a dessert for my family and my aunt's family! And oddly enough, it is perfect for work as well as I have six coworkers in my department :)

I think I might make another batch of these little cakes this weekend, but I will use muscovado sugar and forgo the rum. It should be interesting to see how it will taste.

Hope you are enjoying the fall by making yummy treats too!

Until next time >___<

Sunday Baking - Boo-tterscotch and Chocolate Chip Blondies

What do you do when you have a bag of overpowering M&Ms? Make blondies, of course!

I picked up M&Ms' new fall flavor, boo-tterscotch, last month, but after tasting a few, I wasn't sure what to do with them.

Surfing the web for a good recipe using them, I ran across a recipe that was based off of this one for cinnamon toffee blondies that I thought would be a great base for my M&Ms.

I used a whole bag of boo-tterscotch M&Ms and about half of a bag of leftover semi-sweet morsels.

The blondies came out dense, moist, and full of flavor. I love the combination of the butterscotch, cinnamon, and chocolate! Delicious.

In addition to using the M&Ms and the morsels, the only other change I made to the recipe was an extra teaspoon of cinnamon. My goal was to mask the butterscotch somewhat since the M&Ms packed a punch.

Overall, absolutely delicious and perfect for the fall season :)

I think I might have to try the original recipe that I used as my basis for these blondies. It sounds yummy :)

Until next time >___<

Sunday Baking - Star Wars Sugar Cookies

Earlier this month, Think Geek had a great sale, I ended up buying a set of Star Wars cookie cutters to try out. Last Sunday, I used a store bought cookie mix, but despite chilling the dough, I could never get the dough to the right consistency to roll out for the cookie cutters. I ended up making regular sugar cookies from the mix instead.

This weekend I decided to try again with a homemade cookie dough. Last night I made the dough and put it in the refrigerator to chill overnight. This morning I got up and thawed the dough for a bit before rolling out the dough.

I experimented with different baking temperatures in between batches. I have always heard that when living in the South, you have to lower your oven temperature by 25° when baking. While doing some online research last night, I ran across several websites that mentioned that cookbooks are written for normal sea level altitudes and that the only time you should change the recipe is if you live in a high altitude of 3,000 feet and above.

With that in mind, I baked the cookies at 350° for 8 minutes and they came out nice and soft with the edges slightly turning brown. When I baked them for 9 minutes, the cookies came out too brown. Baking at 325° meant that I had to bake them for 13 minutes, which didn't give them brown edges, but yielded a soft cookie.

I'm not sure if I am on the right track with changing the baking temperature. I will have to try other baking recipes to see if 25° lower or the recommended temperature is better.

I will say that I recommend the sugar cookie recipe I tried. I used Stephanie's recipe from the Joy of Baking website.

I think I will make these cookies again later this year when Star Wars Rogue One comes out in theaters. I know my fellow geeky coworkers will love them.

Until next time >___<

P.S. I didn't add the sugar to the tops of the cookies so they aren't too sweet. Perfect as a compliment to a cup of Ceylon tea.

Sunday baking with a side of rain

This morning I chose another recipe from The Southern Cookie Book to try out, molasses-spice crinkle cookies. With a lot of trial and error between the batches, I finally found the right temperature and time for these cookies. My mistake was trying to use a cookie scoop instead of using my hands to roll the dough into 1 inch balls. My cookie scoop was giving me slightly larger cookies, which meant a guessing game between the temperature and time.

Note to self, don't use the cookie scoop when it calls for you to roll the dough!

This afternoon I made some Ceylon tea that my friend Amanda had brought back with her from Canada. It was a perfect pairing for the cookies. I sipped my tea while watching a gully washer outside.

Until next time >___< 

Saltine Cracker Candy

I found a book called The Southern Cookie Book by Southern Living while at the library. I found an interesting recipe in the candy section for saltine cracker candy.

Now I LOVE saltine crackers. My sister and I would eat them by the packfuls when my grandmother brought them home from the store when we were kids. Plain, with peanut butter, or cheese. How can a plain salty cracker be so good? I have no idea, but I thank the gods for inspiring someone in the past to invent crackers.

I got myself sidetracked....I need to stop drooling....darn saltine crackers!

Anywho, I decided to try this recipe and while it came out okay, I think I'll change some things the next time I make them.

1. Don't line the entire pan with crackers. Leave some space between them otherwise when you add the toffee mixture, the crackers will float to the top.

2. Do not use the microwave to melt the butter and brown sugar. My microwave separated the butter and brown sugar, which surprisingly still made a toffee, but I think it might have been better if I melted them in a saucepan on the stove.

3. Leave the chocolate to melt a bit longer on the top before adding the walnuts because they didn't adhere to the chocolate very much.

Otherwise, this was delicious recipe that I will definitely try again in the future. The chocolate/toffee flavor is perfect for the fall or winter!!

If you see this book, please pick it up and try some recipes!!

Until next time >___<

Mug Cakes 101

Hi, everyone! While at the library recently, I found a book on mug cakes. I have always been skeptical of mug cakes because microwaves can be devilish.

I put the book in my bag and once I got home, I flicked through the pages until I found a recipe that I actually had all the ingredients for in the cabinets.

With brown sugar on hand, I decided to try the brown sugar cake. I was surprised that my mug cake came out baked on the lowest time setting in the instructions. I mean really, when does that ever happen? Never!!!

The recipe makes enough for two mug cakes. I took some granulated sugar and cinnamon and mixed them together for the topping on the cakes.

Giving one to my mom, she swears it is even better with milk. I've mentioned she's a dingy bird sometimes, right? I can't feed her anything without an addition. Lol

Thoughts: mug cakes actually work and will do when you need a sugar fix without breaking out your baking supplies and preheating the oven. But truth be told, nothing beats traditional baking.

Until next time >___<

Sunday Baking - Blonde Brownies and a Birthday

Good evening everyone! This morning I whipped up a batch of blonde brownies. And yes, they weren't normal brownies. I ended up adding a bag of crispy s'mores M&Ms to the batter.

My sister had me pick up a bag of the M&Ms when we saw them a couple of weeks ago. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them and then I thought to add them to a brownie recipe.

I went with a blonde brownie recipe I found in our copy of Betty Crocker's Cookbook because I thought the taste of the candies wouldn't get lost in a blonde brownie compared to your normal chocolate brownie batter.

My aunt and uncle liked them. My mom wasn't a fan. She told me I had to stop adding strange things to my batters. Lol She's such a traditionalist. It's not like I was adding squid ink to the cookies or anything!!!

After making the brownies, I took a trip across the bay to the World Market. Bought some chai filled chocolate and some Kinder chocolate. Wandered over to Michael's in search of Issac Mizrahi yarn. They didn't have any of his sparkly yarn left, but I was able to buy a lovely new color of Caron Simply Soft yarn called neon coral.

No trip across the bay is complete without stopping at Barnes and Noble. I ended up buying an issue of Simply Crochet, which had some lovely Oriental themed patterns, and a sci-fi book that caught my eye.

Coming back across the bay and through downtown Government Street, I noticed someone had bought the house I have been eyeballing for a while. It is a dilapidated Victorian house with a tower. I think it was a foreclosure. I was worried that the city would tear it down, but much to my surprise someone bought it and started to renovate it!!! Seeing people giving older homes a new life always makes me happy. Especially with a city as old as ours :)

Later this afternoon my family got together to celebrate my birthday with presents and cupcakes.

I got a bunch of books (bookworm, remember?!), DVDs, Starbucks mug, gift cards for craft stores (woohoo for yarn and cross stitch addiction) and Starbucks ( yum!). My aunt got me a gift card for Down Sunshine Lane's website. I can't wait to buy new cross stitch patterns! Now I have to sit down and figure out which ones I really want.....there are so many!!

My mom got me two new brooches, a spring hat with flowers and an adorable fox.

She also got me a Kitchen-Aid handmixer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES!!! Not that I hate the Sunbeam handmixer I have been using, but it is slowly giving up the ghost. This morning I had to hold the plug to the outlet for a few seconds to keep it mixing.

So I am very happy to get a new mixer. I can put the Sunbeam handmixer in retirement. Who knows, I might actually see if someone can fix it as a backup for the Kitchen-Aid handmixer because the Sunbeam is a trooper from the 1980s. That's a lot of baking!!!

Hmm.....I can't decide what to make first with my new handmixer......to be traditional or non-traditional, that is the question.

Until next time >___<

Sunday Baking - Pecan Cookies

This morning I tried a British cookie recipe from another semi-finalist from The Great British Bake Off, Ruby Tandoh. She published a book last year called Crumb. My sister and I refer to Ruby as the Eeyore of her season. She was always doubting herself and apologizing for her recipes.

I tried her recipe for pecan cookies, which turned out great. The only change I made to the recipe was the toasting time for the pecans. It called for 8-10 minutes, but the pecans were just beginning to start to taste burnt at the 8 minute mark. I ended up toasting the pecans for 5 minutes.

The recipe yields 25 delicious cookies that remind me of Keebler's pecan sandies, but that taste 200% better because they are homemade.

I will be honest. These cookies did not last long. We have been eating them all day. We are down to five cookies, which I am determined not to eat because I want the guys in my department to try them.

If you see Ruby's book at the bookstore or library, it is worth picking up!!!

Until next time >___<

Sunday Baking - Cinnamon, Cloves, and Chocolate Cookies

Good morning everyone! While at the library, I found a book called The Cardamom Trail by Chetna Makan, one of the semi-finalists on The Great British Bake Off show in 2014. If you haven't watched any of the seasons of The Great British Bake Off, you should give them a try. I know that Amazon Prime has one of the seasons and Netflix has another. I think my sister was telling me that PBS had bought the rights to air them in the US so I am hoping they will start airing them soon. We had watched one season on PBS......they need all the seasons!!!

After making that flourless cardamom chocolate cake earlier this year, I knew I had to check out the book and make something.

Sadly, my mom and sister aren't fans of cardamom....especially my mom. I was joking with her that she is a Betty Crocker person. She likes the classics in baking and isn't much for trying different flavors.

So looking through The Cardamom Trail, I found a recipe for cinnamon, clove, chocolate, and pistachio cookies. I was thinking surely my mom will like these, they don't have cardamom and they have pistachios, she loves pistaschios.

Sigh........to no avail. I think they are fabulous. Everyone likes them except for my mom. She's a hard one to please when it comes to sweets.

Maybe I need to just flip through our Betty Crocker cookbook and find an old fashion brownie recipe or something?!?!?

I will definitely check out this book again if I don't add it to my Amazon wishlist for my birthday or Christmas. I would love to try more of Chetna's recipes.....especially the ones featuring cardamom. If I have to, I'll just eat the whole dessert by myself O_o" LOL

On a different subject, when I was coming back to our house from delivering my cookies to my aunt's family, I noticed we had a tiny guest on our sidewalk. A tiny little turtle. I barely had time to take a photo of him before he scampered off into the yard. I hope he wasn't headed to the backyard because our dog Sam doesn't leave turtles in peace. He will sadly play them to death.

It's that time of year when turtles are on the move in search of water. Hopefully Sam doesn't start a collection of turtles this year!!

Until next time ^___^

Sunday Baking - Chocolate Cherry Cookies

While going through and cleaning the kitchen cabinets yesterday, I noticed I had several bags of flavored M&Ms. I decided that I needed to use them in my baking before they went bad.

This morning I pulled out the bag of chocolate cherry flavored M&Ms and used them to make cookies. They are delicious, especially if you love chocolate covered cherries like I do.

Next weekend if I'm not too busy, I'll make another batch of cookies using M&Ms again. Take them to work so I don't pig out on them :)

Until next time >___<

Sunday Baking - Swedish Apple Pie! ♡

I had a bag of Granny Smith apples at home that I needed to bake with. I had made the mistake of picking them up at the grocery store....thinking I could eat them for snacks during the week......they were so sour that I knew I'd never eat them all.

Last weekend while I was at the library, I was browsing the baking book section to see if I could find any books with good apple dessert recipes. I ran across a book on Scandinavian baking and there was an delicious looking recipe for Swedish apple pie.

So this morning I made it..........this recipe is a keeper. Sweet, but not overly sweet. And the topping!!! Oh, my....the topping.....crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside.

My sister said I had to make it again for Thanksgiving. Now you know you have a good recipe on your hands when someone recommends making it for the holidays.

I will say that this is a great pie recipe for beginners like myself because it doesn't have a crust, just the topping that bakes over the apples. So if you are afraid of pie crusts, this is recipe to look up and try until you master your fear of pies. O_o"

The book is called Scandinavian Baking by Pat Sinclair. If you can find at your local library, I definitely recommend picking it up.

There is another recipe for baked apples that looks scrumptious. I might have to try it in the future >___<

Until next time ^____^

Sunday Baking - Custard Cake

So you remember when I said I was going to bake a custard cake last Sunday. Well, it was a mess......all my own fault of course. First I burnt the custard because I wasn't watching the pan so I had to remake it and then I had used too many eggs and had to throw out the batter. I thought I could just make a second batter, but we were running low on butter and I didn't want to use it up as my sister was planning to make scalloped potatoes for Easter dinner.

This morning I decided to retry this recipe for a custard cake using Bird's custard powder.

This is a strange recipe as the cake tastes like sweet cornbread, which isn't bad because I love sweet cornbread, I just wasn't expecting it to taste like cornbread. It's not every day you get a yellow cake that tastes like cornbread. LOL

I wonder if there is a culinary term for foods that taste like others?!?!

The comments on the recipe mentioned doubling or tripling the sugar in the recipe, but after tasting this cake, I really doubt it would make a difference....it would be sweeter cornbread. (^__^)

Sunday Baking - Ginger and Cardamom Cookies

Since making that flourless chocolate cardamom cake, I have been on the hunt for recipes featuring cardamom since I have quite a lot of the spice bottle to consume.

I ran across a recipe on the SP Cookie Queen's blog for ginger and cardamom cookies. The good news is that I used more cardamom, bad news is that it called for crystallized ginger so I have another bottle in the spice section of our cupboard that I will have to figure out what to do with O~o"

Luckily the recipe called for two ounces of crystallized ginger so I only have an ounce left!! (It's the small things in life, right?!)

While I love the taste of these cookies, the consistency is not my cup of tea. Now the recipe says you'll get soft and chewy cookies.....it's more like soft, chewy, and dry.

Not that it's a bad thing, just different. My sister made a good observation: they are like soft shortbread cookies.

Since my family didn't really care for the cookies, I will be taking them to work tomorrow. At least I know the guys in my department will eat them and I know I'll steal a few during the day :)

Until next time >___<

Sunday Baking - Basic Chocolate Cake

This morning I attempted another recipe from Bake From Scratch magazine, the basic 1-2-3-4 cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. Not bad for a first try at a classic cake recipe.

I didn't think our little handmixer was going to make it when it came to making the buttercream frosting! It was struggling with an entire bag of confectioner's sugar, butter, and cacao powder. Lol

If I use this recipe again, I will half the ingredients to make a one layer cake. And perhaps try a different flavored frosting. Vanilla cake yields endless possibilities for frostings.

Until next time >___<

Sunday Baking - Flourless Chocolate Cardamom Cake

Good evening everyone! This morning I decided to try a recipe I found in the latest issue of Bake From Scratch magazine for a flourless chocolate cardamom cake. I only made one change in the ingredients. It called for 70% cacao baking bars, but I could only find 60% cacao baking bars made by Ghirardelli. I used 100% unsweetened cacao powder by Ghirardelli to dust the top of the cake.

Now I know you are probably thinking that this cake cannot be sweet because of all the dark chocolate, but the recipe does call for 1-1/2 cups of sugar so worry not, it will satisfy your sweet tooth.

I love the use of cardamom in the cake. I cannot really describe the taste of cardamom. It smells like citrus, but does not taste of citrus. Apparently you can use it in savory dishes as well as sweet ones.

My family liked the cake, but everyone had a different opinion of what it reminded them of. I got fudge brownies, lava cake, and pudding as descriptions. All of which do describe the consistency of this cake. It is a dense, moist, and fudgy cake. My mother and aunt agreed that is the type of cake that you have a cup of coffee with :)

The recipe makes a 9 inch round cake.....I think I might take half of it to my aunt's house tomorrow which will leave half the temptation at our house. Lol

Until next time >___<

Baking - Biscoff Fudge

Good evening everyone! I saw a video on Youtube for Biscoff fudge and knew I had to try it since I love Biscoff cookies.

The recipe was quite easy to make and was actually fail proof. I didn't cut the pieces very large. I left them small so they fit in mini cupcake liners.

For my first time making fudge, I think I did a good job. Next time I'll know to push down the fudge in the tin completely and not rely on just smoothing the fudge out with a spatula.

I had bought some adorable mini Valentine cookie cutters with the intention of using them to cut the fudge, but despite leaving the fudge in the fridge for an hour and a half, it was too 'soft' to cut with the cookie cutters without the fudge breaking :(

I took a good majority of the fudge to work so I wouldn't be tempted to eat it all.....which I know would happen if I left the fudge at home.

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has left a comment on my posts. I appreciate them :) I am hoping to devote a day each week to reading everyone's blogs and commenting instead of just being a 'silent' reader. I just have to pick a day.

Until next time >___<

Sunday Baking - Apple Cake

This morning I baked a chunky apple cake from a recipe I found on Taste of Home's website.

I had been searching high and low for a recipe that called for red delicious apples, but was coming up with nothing.  So when I ran across this recipe, I decided to give it a go.

The recipe calls for tart apples, but I decided to try it anyway because it called for 6 cups of apples. One of my sister's friends gave her a bag of apples for Christmas and I needed to figure out what to do with them before they went bad so this seemed like a good recipe to try them on.

Oven to 325° and 40 minutes later, a lovely brown apple cake. I made the butterscotch sause a few minutes before the cake came out of the oven. I poked holes in the cake with a fork and poured the sauce all over to absorb into the cake.

Overall, I was pleased with the recipe. I am, however, not a fan of butterscotch so I think the next time I make this recipe, I will make a caramel sauce.

Note: if you plan on using red delicious apples like I did you need to cut the sugar in the recipe as red delicious apples are quite sweet to begin with. I added only one cup of sugar to the batter instead of the recommended two cups. With the butterscotch sauce, it still comes out nice and sweet.

Until next time >___<

Sunday Baking - Strawberry Lemon Cake

Yesterday while at my local Target store, I ran across some yummy looking Duncan Hines Perfect Size cake mixes in their Valentine's section. I immediately picked up the strawberry lemon kiss flavor.

After taking all our Christmas decorations down and packing them up this morning, I decided to try baking the cake.

I preheated the oven to 275° and set my bunny timer. After 37 minutes, I was rewarded with a lovely fragrant strawberry cake.

I let it cool per the directions and added the lemon icing. I realized that when adding the icing I shouldn't have scraped the icing that had started to cool in the bowl as it started to clump up on the cake. So next time I'll know to pour the warm icing as much as possible and leave the leftover icing in the bowl so the cake will have a smoother look.

The cake was delicious! And the lemon icing paired well with the strawberry flavor of the cake.

I will definitely be buying a few more of these the next time I am at the store. They are perfect for small families to eat as desserts or even as a cute birthday cake!!!

Until next time >___<