Easter Weekend

Oh Easter weekend :)
It's one of those times when a smile follows a little sigh of satisfaction. Not only is it a time to reflect on the Atonement of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (which really should be a thing we do EVERY day...but not the point) but it's a time to bake! (which also should be a thing I do every day...haha)

Right up there with Christmas, Easter is a holiday that involves a lot of sugar. And butter. And sugar. And umm a lot of eggs haha. I mentioned sugar right??

I know it's a week after the fact, but I wanted to share with you some pictures of the stuff I made!

The Recipes, like seemingly always, will have to wait until next post. I am going to friend's wedding today, so I'm a wee bit crunched on time. I'll have to be posting the recipe next time. But, to keep you interested...here are the yummies I made!

Exhibit A: SUGAR COOKIES

Seriously the best and most adaptable cookie for any holiday! It's all in the frosting baby!

Honestly. People are ALWAYS impressed by these cookies. They can be as time consuming or as easy as you choose. The more intricate the design on top, the more time. BUT these taste amazing. So regardless of whether you replicate Picasso and Rembrant with your frosting, or just slather on anice spoonful, they'll be a hit!



And I can GUARANTEE, you'll have people praising the ground upon which you walk...especially if you accidentally drop some crumbs.

Exhibit B: PEEP WARS

I have been wanting to try this for years. I don't know why I never did. Sometimes, I'm not a very logical person.

 But whatever. 

I did it this year. 

 Haha, it didn't exactly go as smoothly as I had hoped it might,

 BUT. I had a lot of fun. And so did my little brother. (I can't say the same for our Peep warriors unfortunately...)

Aaaaand the end result was delicious!!

 I guess that's all that really matters, right!?

Exhibit C: CAKE

I LOVE decorating cakes. I LOVE eating delicious cakes. And so occassions that allow me to do both...oh beautiful times!

 She turned out purdy, didn't she! And really, all this consisted of...

-a box cake mix (Vanilla!! my absolute favorite!)

-buttercream frosting (I posted the recipe yesterday which you can find **)

-food coloring (for the diff colors of frosting)

I know, I use cake mix. Sue me. I never said I was Betty Crocker. Or Mary Poppins. Besides, cake mixes taste amazing AND are less time consuming. I'd say it's a win-win.

AND

Exhibit D: (D for DELICIOUS) PEANUTBUTTER COOKIES.

Honestly, is any holiday weekend complete without these?? Not in my home. Not in my stomach.

 they just look gorgeous. With their peanutbuttery color and their peanutbuttery taste. And their peanutbuttery smell. Oh the peanutbuttery heaven!! It's quite easy to obtain this peanutbuttery bliss...and I've already posted this recipe!

(click here to begin your quest of peanutbuttery heaven attainment)

I wish you and your loved ones a very delicious and delectable day.

Keep dreaming, keep baking (really it's all the same)

~MollyMarie

Mt. Chocolate Monster

I just avoided cake disaster. And by avoid, I mean Matrix like action maneuvers Oh man. It was bad. I have never really messed up a cake before but I guess when I do things...I go all the way. All or nothing. And this time, it was an all out FAIL!

This cake was for my brother's birthday party. We had invited extended family, so my reputation was on the line. I don't know if anyone realizes how much effort went into getting that DISASTER to look not so DISASTROUS.

Meet...

Mt. Chocolate Monster!!

Chocolate fudge cake, a creamy Peanut Butter-esque filling, about every frosting you can create as an attempt to fix this sucker and Reese's Cups (chopped and whole).

THE STORY:

First: For the first time EVER...the middle of my cake sunk. 

I thought it had finished baking. I had inserted my toothpick and IT CAME OUT CLEAN!! Silly me. My toothpick wasn't long enough to find the patch in the middle bottom that was still a pool of batter. Ugh. So, it sunk. AND I didn't want to put it back in because I was scared of burning it. This is why I HATE baking with chocolate stuff. I can never tell if it's burned or not :/ So i had a sunken-top cake. Fantastic.

But I wasn't too worried. I would just put a little extra frosting to fill in the top and make it appear even. Oh gee. How I wish it had been that simple.

For this cake, since my brother adores Peanut Butter so much, I wanted to incorporate it into the cake. A Peanut Butter filling! Genius. *sigh* Using my fishing line...I made a nice, straight cut (the best cut I've ever done) separating top from bottom. But upon lifting the top off, I discovered not only the pool of batter mentioned above...but that the middle of the tope had not accompanied the sides in removing itself nicely from the bottom. Oh, well. No biggie. And even when the top managed to break itself into four awkward pieces, I wasn't sweating it. 

I continued to fill my cake splendidly and placed the four pieces back on top. Yes, there was still a gap from the removed middle...but I thought "I'll just fill it with more frosting" If you haven't caught on, I view frosting as a cure all for cake mistakes. *stupid* 

EQUALS HERO!!

FROSTING

Now I bet all of you cake experts are asking yourselves when I flip the cake to hold the broken pieces in place. 

I don't.

Not for a while anyways. BUT I continue to frost a thin PB crumb coat...and here's where it get messy. The pieces kept sliding, the cake was ripping and the more frosting I added to attempt to "glue" it together just made it worse and worse. I had frosting pushing the pieces further out, I had frosting in my hair and I had frosting in my mouth a good portion of the time. DISASTER. (there are no pictures of this. I was a bit preoccupied. When saving/destroying a cake, one doesn't usually reach for a camera...or at least I don't haha)

Now, by this time it is 2:00am and I'm staring at the most horrendous chocolate mess. The top is in all reality a warzone of frosting. I have no more chocolate cake mix, no energy to make batter from scratch. I'm tired, frustrated, and sick from all the frosting I've consumed. And so...I go to my mother.

My dear, wise, loving, all-knowing and beautiful mother tells me to flip the cake. Flip it. And that, my lovely readers, is what mothers do best. Give what should be obvious advice to dim-witted blonde children.

I flipped my cake, frosted the top, decorated with Reese's Cups and compared to what it could have been...ended up not so terrible.









So now, I have a cake sitting in a pool of warring frosting stabilizing on four awkward sliding pieces of top layer, and covered with a "ganache" frosting which I experimentally created.

Yup. Many would still consider this ^ the epitomy of a "cake disaster". In fact, this would probably be the picture in the dictionary next to the term...but I consider it slightly less. More like a cake flop. Eh. you'll have to decide an accurate title.

Mt. Chocolate Monster...Death by Chocolate!

My Family's Reaction: I offered this cake unapologetically. I wanted themto think I made it like this on purpose! It's SUPPOSED to be lopsided with bumpy layering and uneven frosting!! It's a volcanoe of chocolate!!! Lol.

Top view :)

AAAAANDDD!! It was a SUCCESS!! They didn't even suspect that the cake wasn't supposed to look or taste like that. I got sooooo many compliments on it! I told you. FROSTING IS THE ANSWER TO EVERYTHING!!!!!!

Reese's crown this epic disaster! 

Mt. Chocolate-Monster-PeanutButterLava-Volcano was a BEAST to create. Happy Birthday Brother!! Enjoy the last cake I EVER attempt to make at 2am in the morning!!

Ah, but what is life? Is it not a testing ground? A time to learn and grow? In the kitchen of life, it's necessary to mess up a few cakes to gain experience for our masterpieces :)
~MollyMarie

THANKSGIVING!!! the day of reckoning...

Thanksgiving FINALLY came!!

Last night was spent in the kitchen...and I mean ALL last night...AND ALL yesterday morning...or as I so intelligently called it a few days ago "last morning." (Yeah. I got teased for that one! But the more I think about it...the less wrong it sounds lol. I may just go with it haha.)

As you may have guessed. . . . I didn't go to Magic Mountain. My responsible side won out. But I'm glad I chose to stay home. Not only did I finish the rolls, which turned out splendidly, I went to class, which was super good because even though the teacher said that not coming wouldn't penalize people. . . we ended up learning A LOT! I'm pretty sure that if I had missed, I would have come to class Monday and been completely and utterly lost. BUT I went and so I'll be great and good on Monday :) Also. I ended up making cookies!! Peanut butter for my Mom and sugar cookies for Thanksgiving night.

 ADORABLE right?!? haha follow the link to see where I originally got the idea! Only thing I changed is due to laziness! Instead of using icing for the beak and feet and M&Ms for the eyes. . .I just stuck a candy corn on for the beak and used some leftover candy from my gingerbread kit for the eyes. It doesn't look quite as good as the original, but I'm still pretty happy with them!
http://theherberfamily.blogspot.com/2009/10/thanksgiving-treats.html

 

Yeah check out my other post
 for the recipe and better pics!
nutty for my peanut butter

BUT I KNOW THAT YOU ARE WONDERING ABOUT. . . . . .  THE ROLLS!!!!

Well. Here they are :) My babies. . . . 

 There are sooooo many. I think I've made my quota of rolls for the next decade!! lol. But I did enjoy perfecting my own roll recipe!








Only a few of the batches...

They LOOK SO GOOOOOOOD!!!! And they taste even BETTER!!! Huurrraaaahhh for perserverance and hardwork! Go Me...and of course all those who helped me succeed!

We'll see how it goes!!
MollyMarie

PS: I wrote this BEFORE our Thanksgiving Feast...But IT WENT SPECTACULAR!! My next post will include comment on people's reactions and on just Thanksgiving stuff :D

Nutty for my Peanut Butter

My family is completely, 100% entirely, and unashamedly addicted to peanut butter. There I've said it. And it feels good to admit! Phew. I mean seriously. We devour at least 3 large tubs of the creamy goodness every week. It's peanut butter though, right?!?! It's HEALTHY!!! So I feel no tinge of guilt for the recipe I'm about to share. Just remember, peanut butter is healthy. Just repeat it to yourself like I do and I can guarantee that you will eventually feel better. That feeling may or may not be directly linked to the DELICIOUS and FANTASTIC praises your taste-buds will be singing to the peanut butter fairy after the first bite of one of these cookies!

We make these cookies ALL THE TIME! 

Our house smells wonderful. <--one of the most appealing reasons for taking up baking!

Peanut Butter Cookies

½             cup        shortening

½             cup        peanut butter

½             cup        sugar

½             cup        brown sugar, packed

1                                egg

1 ½         cup         all-purpose flour

½             tsp         baking powder

¾             tsp         baking soda

¼             tsp         salt

(OPT: throwing in a good 1/2 cup of chocolate chips never hurt anybody!!)

Mix shortening, sugars, peanut butter and egg. Blend thoroughly. In a separate bowl, mix together dry ingredients (flour, b.powder, b.soda, salt). Stir Flower mixture and shortening mixture together.

Preheat oven to 375deg. Roll dough into 1 ¼” balls set 3” apart. Flatten criss-cross style with fork (dipped in flour). Sprinkle with granulated sugar.

Bake: 10-12 minutes.

It should clue you in to how utterly addicted we are when I tell you that we ALWAYS triple this recipe!

~ Molly Marie

PS: I've been trying to get more professional looking photos. It's difficult. I don't have a great camera and it's hard to snap a picture before munches and crunches leave none of the subject left...what? I don't know what you're talking about! ...I never contribute to the cookie theft...