Filed under: everyday
Okay, this is supposed to be a pear tart. But, I only had apples on hand, forgetting to pick up pears at the store. However, we arent reeaally pear people. So, it all worked out. YAY!
The recipe for this week was picked by Dorie herself. She is our host this week. If you had told me last year at this time that Id be heading a group of nearly 400 people who ALL adore Dorie’s Baking From My Home to Yours, I would have laughed my ass off. Oh how much can change in a year. I have made such great friends in the past year while leading this group. And it wouldnt be right of me to celebrate TWD’s 1 Year Anniversary without thanking them. Nikki, Clara, Holly, Jaime, Caitlin, Erin and Shari. You guys have been around for the long haul, which makes me adore you all. You’ve helped me more than I could ever really tell you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And of course I need to thank Dorie. She has been so incredible to not only me, but the entire group. I am so grateful her support, kindness and assistance as we continue to bake our way through her fab book.
I loved this tart. I loved it. I am ashamed to say that I ate more than I would admit. Its that tasty. The only change I made was using apples rather than pears. I followed the rest of the recipe to a T. It was rather simple to make, assemble and eat. I will definitely make this tart again and again. And I am so thankful that Dorie chose it, because I can honestly say I would not have made it otherwise! I love this group for that very reason.
Happy Anniversary to all my fellow TWD bakers! Thanks for all you do to make this group such a fun hobby. You can check out all the tarts from the TWD blogroll. And please go check out Dorie’s blog for the recipe. Its so worth it. Thanks again Dorie for everything!!!
Filed under: everyday
I know that I am delayed. My deepest apologies!!! I was having issues with the site as you may have read. My kick ass hubs figured out the problem and fixed it for me. (flash was not working with firefox, which is why some of you could post and some of you couldnt.) Anyhoo, here we are halfway through December. December is such a freaking busy month. I was late getting this up, so I decided we would hold a Holiday Edition. As long as you post on cupcakehero.com or send in your entries by January 30th, you are good to go. This gives everyone plenty of time. No Christmas rush!!
I was lucky enough to score a prize for the Holiday edition as well. Shawn of Askinosie is kindly providing a very handsome prize pack to the winner….lets just say it starts with a kilo of dark chocolate.. Most of you know that I adore Askinosie cocoa. I looove it. Its the best of the best. I highly suggest you mozy over there and buy some, right now please. I swear to you that you will not regret it.
Okay, so.. onto the theme.
Our theme for the Holiday Edition is WHITE CHOCOLATE!
(apologies to Nik, the official white chocolate hater of the east.)
You guys know the rest. You can either post yourself on cupcakehero.com or email your entry to cupcakeherostaff at gmail.com
White Chocolate must be in the cake, frosting, filling, or all of the above if you so choose. (again, sorry Nik)
All entries must be posted by January 30th to be consider for the killer prize pack by Askinosie. If you hurry, you may be able to snag a bar of Askinosies White Chocolate. They cant seem to keep it in stock, so seriously, if you want to give it a try, go now! NOW!
Special thanks to Shawn of Askinosie for being so generous to the CH Crew!!!
xo~ laurie
Filed under: TWD
I made the slice and bake. I made the cut-out. And I made cute little sugar cookie pies. Unfortunately, the only pictures I took were of the pies. The rest went so fast, I didnt have time to snap pictures. My apologies. I think the cuteness of the mini pies make up for the lack of other pics. 
I have an awful headcold, as do 2 of the boys. This is going to be short.
Loved the recipe. Will def make again. Thanks to Ulrike! Check out the other sugar cookies from here.
Filed under: everyday
Short and sweet this week, since I am getting in right under the gun. I filled mine with semi sweet chocolate ganache. Then, topped with white chocolate and colored sugar. These cookies have huge WOW appeal, but they are just plain too fussy for me. Im more of a scoop and bake kinda gal. While they were not my favorites, my sons and husband LOVED them. I probably would not have made them on my own.
Huge thanks to noskos of Living the Life for choosing this weeks recipe. (He was our very first male TWD’er. Which means I adore him. <3 That and he has one of the coolest back pieces I have ever seen!!!) Check out the other various kinds of Linzer Sables on the TWD blogroll.
*Pictures are still from my cell. I am a slack ass and have not purchased a new digital cam battery yet. Maybe Santa will bring one?
Filed under: TWD
Im just gunna tell it like it is. I do not like rice pudding. I do not like it. If my Grandma’s rice pudding doesnt cut it, Dorie’s rice pudding recipe will not change my mind. With that in mind.. Nikki and I went rogue. She has been bitching for months and months about no one picking the cover cake. And I have to say I agree, why has no one picked that damn cake yet?!?
I meant to make this on Saturday, but we ended up going out of town. Then, I told Nik I would make it last night, no dice. I ended up playing LittleBigPlanet with jaos and the kids till bedtime, and then it was Gossip Girl time. Hey, shut up. Leave my guilty pleasures alone. I like GG!
I finally got around to making the cake this morning. Unfortunately, I was out of wax paper, so I did not line the cake pans. The cake stuck. It turned out ok since you are supposed to crumble part of the cake anyhow. My layers didnt rise much and I had trouble cutting them in half. Once in half, they fell apart during assembly. Thank god frosting is the mightly glue of all glues. You would never know that 2 of the layers fell into 3 pieces and I put the puzzle back together and glued them into place.
I went out on my own with the frosting. While the kids like marshmallowy frosting, I prefer something with more weight to it. I had 5 packages of cream cheese in the fridge, so there we had frosting. I made the cream cheese frosting from Bills Big Carrot Cake. I doubled the recipe. Added a half cup of cocoa powder and then added coffee concentrate to half. I filled with the mocha cream cheese frosting, topped with the chocolate cream cheese frosting, and then lathered on the crumbs.
Looks pretty good to me. Ill try and get a picture once its sliced.
Thanks for going rogue with me Nik. And dont worry hardcore TWD’ers. We understand this does not count as the weekly recipe. But, at least we baked, right??
Thanks to Isabelle for her choice of the week, please go check out her blog for the rice pudding recipe. Check out all the ricey puddings from the TWD Bakers.
Filed under: everyday
I was iffy on making this weeks TWD. Don’t get me wrong. I like brioche, and I like bundt cake. This seemed to be a meshing of the 2. And I love the smell of a something yeasty baking up in the oven. But, I do not like the length of time it takes to make brioche, or this kugelhopf. I just do not have the time to mix and wait, deflate and wait, put in pan and wait. Ive been slacking in the TWD department in the past few months. So, I needed to make this. I chose to use left-over Halloween candy as my add-in of choice. Im trying to get rid of it any way I can.
Things went almost according to plan. It took double the time for the batter to double on first rise. And I called it done when it barely doubled after 4 hours on the 2nd rise. I buttered and sugared it. Then, tried to wait the alloted amount of time before we ate it. We ate it about 45 min later. It was still slightly warm. This yeasty cake-bread is lovely. It indeed does taste very similar to a brioche. The Halloween candy added a sweetness that I think it needed. Now, would I make it again? Probably not anytime soon. All the wait, wait, wait is too much for me.
Thanks to Yolanda for the recipe selection of the week. Please check out the rest of the TWD bakers to see how they fared.
Filed under: TWD
First things first, my hiatus from TWD is over. October was a rough and busy month round these parts. Now that we are into November, I have more time to bake. On to the rugelach. I have made these cookies once before, using Ina Gartens recipe. They came out perfectly, so I had high hopes for this recipe. However, my impatience got the best of me. I didnt let the dough chill long enough, and then totally missed where it said to chill the rolled cookies in the fridge for 30 minutes before baking. (Thanks Jaime!)
In the end, they taste fantastic! They just didnt hold their shape like they should have. Again, I am sure this is baker error, as I didnt exactly follow the directions on the chilling. I used peach jam, walnuts, golden raisins and omitted the chocolate. I will try these again, sticking to the recipe of course.
Thanks to Piggy for the fab recipe choice! Check out the other 350+ TWD Bakers, too!
* Photos courtesy of my cell. The digicams batteries are acting wonky right now.
Filed under: good times
Cool Mom Picks is one of my daily reads. Yes, I have sung their praises here before. But, they just put out their Safer Toy Guide for 2008. I love, love, love this guide! If you have little ones, I urge you to check it out. It has a lot of unusual, unique and very cool toys. These are things that not every kid on the block will have, which is great! Its always nice to find something special with Santa coming soon. Check it out!
Filed under: everyday
While I had high hopes of making the Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes for today, I decided it was silly to do that. You see, I have to make 3 dozen cupcakes for Liam’s Halloween Party on Friday. Then, I need another dozen for Saturday, since he is the snack kid at soccer.
The cupcakes shall be late. Sorry CB! LOVE YOU! Please go check hers out. AH-MAZING!
