Stuff I've Been Working On

I feel like I've been away for a looooong time!  The good news is that I have been very busy baking my tush off.  Here are some of the things I've been working on!

Sugar cookies decorated as sugar skulls!  I totally <3 them!

Phillies and Philly Phanatic cupcakes and cookies

(I hope they weren't the cause of our terrible luck)



EAGLES Cupcakes!

A Friend's B-day Cake

Stay tuned for more Halloween themed desserts!

Pumpkin Cake with Cinnamon Cream Chesse Frosting

Pumpkin Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing

Tis the season for spicy cinnamony things and I am in all my glory!  I love this time of year!  This pumpkin cake is AMAZING, its everything I want when I think of fall flavors.  I served little “naked muffins” (without icing) at work for a breakfast treat and they were a huge hit.  I see this pumpkin batter with raisins and nuts baked as muffins in my very near future (perfect with a nice cup of coffee).  When you add the cinnamon cream cheese icing this recipe becomes OUTRAGEOUS. 

These were seriosuly good without the frosting BUT you will not regret making the frosting.  I could have sat there and eaten it with a spoon...thats how good it is.

I topped these off with a little sprinkle of cinnamon just to add some personalily.  Seriously delicious!

Pumpkin Cupcakes W/ Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

·    2 cups all-purpose flour

·    1 teaspoon baking soda

·    1 teaspoon baking powder

·    1 teaspoon salt

·    1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

·    1 teaspoon ground ginger

·    1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

·    1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

·    1 cup packed light-brown sugar

·    1 cup granulated sugar

·    1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

·    4 large eggs, lightly beaten

·    1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice; set aside.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together, brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and eggs. Add dry ingredients, and whisk until smooth. Whisk in pumpkin puree.

3. Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about halfway. Bake until tops spring back when touched, and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating pans once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing

·  (8 ounce) package reduced-fat cream cheese, at room temperature

·  4 tablespoons butter, room temperature

·  3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

·  1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, if you prefer (or more)

1.      1 In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar and cinnamon.

2.      2 Frost cake or cupcakes and let frosting "set" for 20 minutes on counter or in the fridge.



Homemade Milanos

Milanos

I LOVED Milanos as a kid but kind of grew out of them as I got older.  After making them at home I have a whole new appreciation for them.  These are surprisingly easy to make if you have the right tools.  The cookie batter comes together really quickly and the “filling” is just melted semi-sweet chocolate chips.  The most labor intensive part is matching cookies and sandwiching them together.  This is one of those cookies you could just eat and eat and eat. 


 After getting your batter together pipe out inch long cookies on to your sheet pan.  Piping the cookies gives you a much better chance of having matching cookies after they're baked.

After your cookies have baked and cooled, start matching your cookies up into pairs.

After you have your cookies pairs all ready to go start smearing and smushing.

Just let the chocolate dry (at least a little) and ENJOY!

Ingredients

12 tablespoons butter, softened
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
7/8 cup egg whites (from about 6 eggs)
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
8 ounces dark chocolate chips

Directions

1. Cream the butter with a paddle attachment then mix in the sugar.
2. Add the egg whites gradually and then mix in the vanilla and lemon zest.
3. Add the flour and mix until just incorporated.
4. With a small (1/4-inch) plain tip, pipe 1-inch sections of batter onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, spacing them 2 inches apart as they spread. Or spray a muffin lined tin with oil and pipe a thin amount of cookie into each muffin tin. Just cover the bottom of a muffin cup.
5. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool on the pan.
6. Melt chocolate chips in microwave or over a double boiler.  Spread a thin amount of the filling onto the flat side of a cookie while the filling is still soft and press the flat side of a second cookie on top. Repeat with the remainder of the cookies.

Homemade Oreos

Oreos

Yay homemade oreos!!  Ok these don’t really taste like oreos at all but they are delicious!  They are much richer than the original as well as much more flavorful.  I should probably just call them chocolate sandwich cookies but that is so boring so I’m sticking with homemade oreos.

These are pretty easy to make, just mix the dough and put on a cookie sheet.  I used a piping bag so I could get more evenly sized cookies.  The dough is really dense so it takes some elbow grease to get it out of the piping bag but I still think it was faster (and easier) than scooping the cookies with a spoon. 

After baking the cookies let them cool and make your cream. 

Once your cookies are cooled and your cream is made, match your cookies up with other cookies of similar size.  Pipe the cream onto one of the cookies and sandwich its matching cookie on top.  You can kind of mush them together until you get the cream to spread to the outside of the “sandwich”. 

YUM!

Homemade Oreos

For the chocolate wafers:1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar [see recipe note]
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg
For the filling:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat to 375°F.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Mix until dough comes together in a mass.
3. Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.
4. To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.

To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream.