Chocolate Chip & Almond Cookies

These cookies were made out on a whim because my daughter wanted some chocolate chip cookies that she saw from a book. So we ventured out to make it. Originally, the cookies were made without almonds for my daughter is not a fan of any nuts. So I made some for her without nuts and after she ate enough of it, I thought it needed something. That's where the almonds came in since I had them in my pantry. Came out pretty good but I think the next time I make it again, I'm going to put in some dry cranberries or cherries. From this baking experience, I also learned that baking in a cookie sheet that is darker colored made a big difference....it made the cookies softer than baking it in a lighter cookie sheet. But overall, the taste was good regardless of the texture.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Finally, my red velvet cupcakes came out the way I wanted after two trials!!! The first one was soooo bad that I was so afraid to attempt another round. Luckily, the second time around, I learned to use different ingredients and it went well (used sour cream & milk instead of buttermilk). The homemade frosting was the best!! I'm not much of a frosting person but it was sure fantastic or the saying goes..."finger licking good"...hahahah! Added an extra touch by topping the cupcakes off with raspberries or blueberries. Here's the recipe for the frosting if anyone is interested in making their own cream cheese frosting. Very easy and bulletproof for any wrong doing.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

- 1 pkg of Cream Cheese

- 2 tbsp of Sour Cream

- 1/4 cup of butter, softened

- 2 tsp of vanilla extract

- one box of confectioner's sugar

Cream together the Cream Cheese, butter, sour cream and vanilla extract til smooth and fluffy. Then slowly add the confectioner's sugar and mix until it is blended smoothly together.

See, wasn't that easy to make!!!!! Enjoy!

Flower Power

Since my friend's bridal shower is coming up and I'm in charge of making the dessert, I came across this idea that I saw on a website. Basically, it was using marshmallows and cutting it into pieces and assembling it like a flower. In the middle, I just used a pastel colored M & M. The cupcakes were lemon cupcakes. As you can also see, my daugther was trying to come up with her own flower idea too (1st picture). Got to give her credit for trying......

The only problem I have with this is that the marshmallow makers do not make those colorful marshmallows anymore. They only offer the pink ones or white ones. But since my friend's wedding colors are yellow and bluish, I had to figure out a way to make the petals yellowish. My solution was this spray mist that Wilton or some other baking brand (I forgot) offered where you can just spray the surface of your cake, creams, etc with whatever color you like. So I got yellow....and as you can see, it was ok compared to the pink one! I liked the pink one more but again it's not her colors...wonder if she minds......hmmm.

Oreo Cookie Cheesecake

Alrighty.....here we go......something different.....oreo cookies cheesecake!!!! I'm not a fan at all for cheesecake but I figure it was an interesting recipe so why not make it for the heck of things! The only problem was I never tested it out to see how the end results was since I can't stand cheesecake. The smell of cream cheese and sour cream...yuckie!!! phew! I even thought that maybe I messed it up because it smelled really bad. But to my surprised, guess that's how cheesecake should smell like? Anyways, brought some to work for the real test..........

Lemon Cookies (Cake?)

Last night, I decided to test out the Kitchen Aid mixer that I just bought. So I decided to make some lemon cookies and test out the lollipop cookie method. The mixer was AWESOME and I loved it so much! Didn't know why I didn't buy one earlier!!! Could have saved me so much time! Anyways, because I got distracted with the awesomeness of my mixer that I accidently mixed it for too long and not payed attention to the product that I ended up making lemon cake cookies instead (kinda like oreo "cakester"). To me, I liked it cause it as soft and chewy. To others, not sure....brought some to work so we'll see what they have to say about it. As for the lollipop cookie, it turned out pretty good too.....maybe we're going to make this for my daughter's teacher since this week is "Teacher Appreciation Week".......

Valentine Brownie cupcakes

These little cupcakes were made for the "Superbowl" get together we had at our house in Feb. I was testing them out since I needed to make some cupcakes for my daugther's Valentine's party at her school. It was brownie bites with strawberry frosting topped off with a Valentine message heart.

My first blog....

Hi y'all,

I'm usually not a tech-savy kind of person to post blogs or have my own website. But since I'm planning to start my new adventure into baking (a passion of mine), I figure why not post what I have achieved and get some comments. So I'm hoping you will enjoy checking out my blog occassionally and see what new cakes, cupcakes, cookies, etc., that I had come up with. Comments highly recommended!