Shamrock Delights

I love to bargain shop for interesting baking supplies. I always find cute and useful items that are reasonably priced and get my creative juices flowing. On Friday, I found Paula Deen cupcake pans at Ollies, that will replace my old rusty set. Then at TJ Maxx I found some really great cupcake liners that are extra thick made by Cupcake Creations.
St Patrick's Day is coming and I wanted to make something cute with my my bargain finds that would also use some Irish products. I thought I would make a Guinness cake with Baileys buttercream, but when I went to the store I found some other brands of Stout and Irish Cream made in Ireland that I thought I would give a try.

Kevin and I did a blind taste test to try out the Irish Cream, comparing Baileys to Carolans. Surprisingly, we both thought that the Carolans was better. It had better flavor, although a little thinner in texture/ At half the price , Carolans can't be beat. For the stout we used O'haras. No taste test here because I don't drink beer. (That's right, no green beer for me. Instead I'll take green Irish Cream spiked frosting!!!!)

The Chocolate Stout Cake recipe I used is from Epicurious and was easy to make. My mom and I usually use the recipe on the back of the Hersheys box, but this was even better. So moist and rich and most likely fool proof since I normally can't make a cake to save my life! I made the batter with Penzey's Dutch processed cocoa. Once upon I time I would use the Hershey's Dutch Processed Cocoa, but lately its been hard to find in stores. You can order Penzey's online, but if you live in the DC metro area, there is a store in Falls Church, VA.

While the cake was baking, I made shamrocks to make this project fancy and festive. This is a very easy project, if you just have a few items. I started out by printing out a sheet of shamrock pictures, which I taped under wax paper on a cookie sheet.

To make the shamrocks, you'll need a good semisweet chocolate, green candy melts and a couple of plastic bottles. I love the small decorator bottles because you can choose the size tip you want.

Break up the chocolate if you are not using candy melts and place in microwave safe bowls. Microwave on the defrost setting of your microwave at one minute intervals, stirring frequently. After the chocolate is melted fill the plastic bottles.

Pipe the dark chocolate outline leaving the center of the leaves open. Only do 2 to 3 shamrocks at a time to prevent them from setting up too quickly.

Fill the inside of the leaves with the green chocolate. The leaves are almost heart shaped, so when piping keep it simple and easy by dragging the bottle in a V shape. If you have a holiday in the chocolate, use a toothpick to spread the chocolate. Do not tap the pan, as the chocolate will spread and ruin the crisp shape.

To combine the colors, drag a toothpick through the dark chocolate into the green, starting at the indent of the leaves. Start with the left leaf, pulling into the center. Move onto the right leaf, cleaning the toothpick with a paper towel after each swipe. Finish with the top leaf dragging into the middle of the stem. Let the shamrocks set up at room temperature or transfer to the refrigerator for a few minutes.

Here are the cakes before decorating. I actually made the layers with pans that are a couple inches smaller than the typical 8/9 inch size. This made it so I could make a nice sized cake and cupcakes with the same batch of batter. The new cupcake liner I got were so wonderful because the liner did not get oily when baking.

The buttercream was made with the Carolans Irish Cream. So easy....3 sticks of salted butter, one 32 oz bag of confectioners sugar and Irish Cream to taste. I wanted a very soft consistency, so I used a lot! I started out with a couple tablespoons, but in the end I might have used more than a quarter of a cup! I colored the icing green and swirled it onto the cupcakes, sprinkled the frosting with chocolate jimmies and topped off each confection with a shamrock.

Here's the finished cake. I need to practice my piping skills, but overall I am very happy to have out-witted my cake curse. I also made Guinness ice cream which I will sample with the sous chef (I mean husband) when we cut into this luscious cake tomorrow night. I think I might just skip dinner tomorrow!

Happy Baking!

Sweet Charity

Mardi Gras Cupcakes Gone Wild!!!!

Warning!!!! Naughty cupcakes below!

For all of you that are reading my blog and assuming that baking is always easy for me, let this last minute entry prove you wrong. I decided weeks ago to make Mardi Gras Cupcakes... I started planning, buying molds, supplies etc. Then, my well meaning husband told me about this local cake contest...

Let me back track a little. I have this curse. Seriously, a witch cast a spell on me forever dooming every cake I bake... I even have trouble with the boxed ones. I can make almost anything else, pies, cookies, cupcakes, candy. I can even cook, but cakes are my nemesis.

So my husband calls me on Wednesday from work and tells me about this cake contest that has just been announced that is taking place on Saturday. So I am like, "honey, I can't make cakes, plus I have these Mardi Gras girls to make". He then basically eggs me on and tells me it would be good for the blog...

I am not one to back down to a challenge, so I turn all cake boss and plan this cake with three scenes, done in fondant (which I have never used on a cake).

Long story short, by mid Friday I had 6 collapsing layers of lemon chiffon cake with a sloppy wrinkled fondant covering... So, with my tail between my legs, I gave up.

By this time the kitchen is a disaster, but I still have to make Mardi Gras cupcakes... I planned to make the tops out of cakeballs and dip them in candy coating. The cakeballs came out great with the mold but when I dipped them, they fell apart. The few that stayed intact cracked.

So again I gave up...

Luckily, I am not a complete quitter. The cupcakes below were my last ditch effort to create naughty cupcakes gone wild. I abandoned the cakeballs and used fondant, which although less appetizing looks cute.

I have been to New Orleans and partaken in the jazz, hurricane drinks and beignets but I've never been to Mardi Gras. I have to say that with the tales I have heard from friends I think I would rather celebrate Fat Tuesday from afar...except...

...for the boobs! Breasts are a wonderful thing to be admired and adorned... So these luscious cupcakes are dedicated to everyone who loves boobs or who has celebrated Mardi Gras...especially that wonderful blond fellow on the West Coast, you know who you are...

So whether or not you plan to take part in all the raucous festivities, raise a glass today to all those women who are baring boobs for beads!

Happy Baking!
Sweet Charity

I ♥ Donuts!!!!!

In my world there are three major food groups....mashed potatoes, cheese and donuts! Seriously!!! I actually don't eat donuts more than a couple times a year now because its such an addictive obsession of mine. If allowed I could eat a dozen plus... So, for obvious reasons my house is a donut free zone...until today!

Kevin's cousin lives in Duck, North Carolina and we have been vacationing there a lot lately. This lovely little town is home to Duck's Donuts, a small chain of donut shops that makes your donuts fresh to order, yummy hot cake donuts with toppings like chocolate, vanilla and maple. Seriously to die for!!!!

So I've been feeling the winter blahs and thought a culinary trip to donut land would be a good pick-me-up...so me and the hubby made chocolate donuts with chocolate glaze which equals twice the rich goodness.

I don't do anything the normal way, so I made the donuts heart shaped. Valentine's Day has passed but February is still the month of love, right? To cut them out I used a large and a small heart cutter. We made a couple heart donut holes too, but they did not retain thier shape as well once they puffed up in the oil.

I had a bunch of Valentines hearts and nonpareils left over, so on they went! They really make the donuts pop with the contrasting colors!

They were so yummy with a cup of coffee. I mean delish! But I must say they would have been equally lovely with a cold glass of milk since they were made with dutch processed cocoa, so uber rich... Want to celebrate Presedent's Day with some love and chocolate? Here is the recipe I used... Its super easy, just make sure to give yourself extra time for the dough to chill.

Happy Baking ;-)

Sweet Charity

Happy Valentines Day!!!

Finally to the Chocolate part of my blog!

I love all the sweet gooeyness that is Valentines Day. I even love all the gimmicky, tacky store bought presents that fill the stores, especially because they are in bright shades of pink and red! This my second year making a buffet of chocolately goodness. I kinda went crazy last year during the blizzards, spending all the hours I wasn't shoveling, making mouth watering confections. Believe it or not, I scaled back this year by not making any cupcakes or cookies.

I learned how to make molded chocolates from my step-mother Margie who is a wiz at candy making. She would make the most fancy treats at Easter time, including large bunnies and baskets with bows, all in varying colors. I am just a beginner next to her but I am learning!

This year we (me and my trusty hubby) made 12+ plates of treats. We made peppermint patties, chocolate covered strawberries, peanut butter hearts, orange chocolate truffles, marshmallows, chocolate raspberry creams, chocolate covered caramels, and coconut joys... Things are pretty dishevelled around here now because this year we actually had to go to work and make chocolates... I really didn't want to shovel feet of snow, but I could have used a snow day this week.

I make it sound hard, but if you just pick one or two candies to make, its quite easy. Molded candies are a bit tricky, but ones that are hand dipped are fun to make and you can make a lot of them quickly.

If you want to try your hand at making chocolate candies, I would suggest starting with something like the peppermint patties. The recipe I used is from Epicurious and is a good start, but I think I will tinker with the recipe to make it more moist. The chocolate is Chocoley's Bada Bing Bada Boom Dipping and Enrobing Formula. This chocolate melts easily, is easy to work with and doesn't require tempering, which I don't have the patience to deal with yet. Maybe someday I will get a tempering machine so I can use the decadent couverture chocolate...mmmmmm

So anyway, you make this super simple peppermint dough with confectioners sugar, shortening, corn syrup and peppermint extract and then roll it out and cut it with a cookie cutter. We used a small heart shape but you could use almost any small shape. Our hearts were a little big and got a bit soft when we dipped them. If your pieces are big too, freeze them for about ten minutes before you dip them so they stand up better to the heat of the melted chocolate.

Now, get in the kitchen and make your sweethearts something sweet!

XOXOXO

Sweet Charity ;-)

Superbowl Cookies!!!!!

So, I was in a quandary all week trying to figure out what to make for the Superbowl. I was looking around on Google for images that would spark my imagination. I saw lots of football helmets and jerseys but I thought they were too obvious.


My favorite part of watching the big game is the commercials. I am not a sports fan, unless you classify figure skating as a sport.... My second fave? The food!!!! So, again I went to Google in search of junk food cookie images. Because I only seem to do marathon baking I decided to make three types of food.


Me and the faithful hubby started with pizza...





After rolling out the dough I used a pizza pan to make the circle and cut it into 8 slices. I also crimped the edges to give it that raised crust look. After the dough went in the oven I began to make olives and pepperoni with royal icing. I made them on wax paper so they would peel off easily.


Once the cookies cooled, I iced them with "sauce". I made the royal icing thick so I could spread it, giving the sauce a chunky, textural look.


After the "tomato sauce" started to set up I piped on the mozzarella with a decorating bottle with a wide tip. I then scattered the pepperoni and olives on top of the cheese. Once I placed the meat and veggies I went back and added a little more "cheese" so it wouldn't look too perfect.


We found the pizza pan at the dollar store. Once we placed the pizza on the pan it looked so real we figured we had to take some pictures with it in the oven!!!!


We also made french fries. This project was super easy! Just sugar cookies cut into strips. After they came out of the oven we topped them with sugar to mimic salt. Who doesn't like salt on their fries? The baskets came from the party store. With the baskets and the royal icing "ketchup", they really look like the real deal.



I found these wonderful hot dog cookies on the blog Butter Hearts Sugar and had to make them!!! I love hot dogs... These cuties are the size of cocktail wieners...Hot dog Sliders Anyone?

So we will be off to our party tomorrow with a smorgasbord of fake food!!! Go Steelers!!! (Sorry to all the Packers fans out there, but I'm a Pennsylvania girl at heart!)

Enjoy your Superbowl parties everyone!!
~Sweet Charity

Peanut Butter Hearts

The chocolate shop in my hometown makes these amazingly yummy peanut butter candies that are wrapped in peanut butter candy, yes, not chocolate but peanut butter!!!! I absolutely love love these delights but obviously making them is less expensive than buying them.

I decided last night to run to the store to get ingredients...Reese's Peanut butter chips, confectioners sugar and organic peanut butter. I try to use organic ingredients as much as possible, even though they obviously cost more, but I am hoping in the long run it will save me money in the doctors office...if you don't know what I'm talking about, watch Food Inc., which is in my opinion is the modern wake up call of the century just like Upton Sinclair's The Jungle was in the 20th...but I digress....

So these little dreams are Reese's peanut butter chips on the outside and peanut butter balls on the inside. I choose a heart shaped mold since its almost Valentines Day, but the originals are squares that appear to be hand dipped. I actually think that is the better design, as mine didn't have much room for the filling, but mine are sooo cute!

I am going to try these again with Wilton's Peanut Butter melts. I had to add cream to the Reese's once they were melted. That will have to wait another week for my Valentines Day candy making marathon!!!! Until then, stay tuned because I will be posting treats for game day later this week!!!!

Happy Baking!

Sweet Charity

Welcome and Wii Party!!!

Welcome to my new blog! My name is Charity and I love all things sweet and wonderful. I am a home baker that likes to dabble in making gourmet chocolates, cupcakes, cookies, candy and more!!! I hope you will follow my blog as I create sweet treats that hopefully are as pleasing to the eye as they are to the palate.

So last night my hubby Kevin and I went to a Wii party thrown by our friends Ryan and Angela. As a surprise we made these awesome cookies and cupcakes. I was inspired by pictures I saw online, so please don't credit me with the ideas.


The cupcake toppers are made with fondant....soooo easy! The Wii remotes are a delicious butter cookie recipe from Martha Stewart then covered in royal icing. I used food-safe markers to add the details on the remote buttons.


I got this cookie pop idea from Grey Grey Designs. They were so fun to make and so easy that I let my 4th grade neighbor Ava help. We used a star cookie cutter for the stars. For the mushrooms, I drew a template and Ava cut them out with a small paring knife. I certainly need to improve my icing skills, but I was pretty happy with the results.

These cuties are from the book "Hello Cupcake". We made them a little differently by topping them with cake balls instead of the donuts called for in the recipe. Kevin wanted to make these for a work potluck that was unfortunately cancelled due to the huge snow storm we had this week. Lucky us that we got to take them to the Wii Party instead. If I had known I would have made them blue to match the penguins in the Super Mario Wii game. We had trouble finding the right type of cookies to use for the wings, so they are more kike penguin busts! Next time I'll try making the wings from chocolate candy melts...

Now I'm off to clean the kitchen so I can make more yummy goodies :-)~