Sunday, June 19, 2011

Happy birthday to me!

Another one from Bakerella's site that I have been wanting to try for a long time. I have to be honest and say that I have never had red velvet cake before. I know! I figured what a better time to try it for the first time and make it for the first time, than my birthday!

Bakerella has the best recipes ever, and this red velvet cake just looked so scrumptious and soft, and man, when it was done, I was sure glad I chose her recipe! Look how pretty the red looks.

Matty taking pictures of me frosting the cake. 

You would never know the red is underneath lol. 

But goodness that looks good when you cut into it. YUM! 

So pretty! 

It was so yummy and it was a perfect addition to my wonderful 24th birthday. I had a lot of fun making it, and I learned what I would do differently next time. It is definitely not as pretty as Bakerella's, but I'd like to think it tasted just as good ;-)

Here's the post I got the idea from:


Bakerella, I did enjoy my heart out! :)

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Congrats to Matty!

I am so proud of my husband! His first episode that he worked on for Penguins of Madagascar aired last night in the US on Nickelodeon. I am just so happy for him and so so proud of him! His first professional work. WOW.

I wanted to show him how proud I was of him, so I went in search of a great recipe. Where was the first place I looked you ask? Bakerella of course! You cant go wrong on her site! She is genius, such an insipration, and frankly, has the best recipes ever! Go see her site (www.bakerella.com). Anyway, I looked and I found!

Chocolate Crackle Cookies. So YUM! And what fun they were to make too! I had to take pictures of the progress, because it was just so much fun, and they were so pretty!

You start out with butter and brown sugar. You cream it, then add eggs, vanilla and melted chocolate. Of course you are suppose to do this in a stand mixer or using a hnd mixer, but we all know I dont own a stand mixer, and of course, after 2 months of using my hand mixer, it died on me. I know. I guess next time Ill put out more than $15 for it...

So... I stuck with the whisk. And it worked pretty well for me, and for this next picture, it made it look really pretty. This is where you add the melted chocolate to the butter sugar mixture. So fun!

Then you add the dry ingredients which is flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt to the mixture, as well as milk. Divide the mixture and put it in the fridge for a couple hours. I put mine in the freezer because I only had a couple hours to make them before Matt got home and discovered his surprise. Then you take the batter and divide it into equal squares, roll into balls and get ready to dip. In the picture is the batter which I divided with a knife (thank you Bakerella!), and my dippings, granulated sugar (I used caster sugar) and powdered sugar. 

Then you dip! First in the granulated sugar, then the icing sugar. I took a cute picture of the steps. 

Drop the dipped cookie balls onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and bake away! It was SO much fun to watch them in the oven then when you take them out, this is what you get! 

Isnt it just gorgeous?!?! I loved them so much, and let me tell you, they are a major treat for the mouth too! 

So Matty came home right after they came out of the oven, so the apartment smelled great, and he asked what I made. I told him to look on the table and he saw these. Man they looked good (and no its not becuase I am so good, they just turn out this good on their own!)

This is what he saw. I was just too proud of him not to do anything. It wasnt much, but it was a good reason to do something I love and give him something he loves. They are so pretty and so so good to eat. YUM. 

Congrats Matty! I love you so much and I am so proud of you! :)

So here is the post that I found on Bakerellas site for these. Hers look even better than mine! http://www.bakerella.com/chocolate-crackles/

And here is the original recipe, which came from Martha Stewart.
http://www.marthastewart.com/281209/chocolate-crackle-cookies