I'm FREE!!!!!

I'm-free-at-last!  Finally the dreaded PACE Project is OVER!! Now I can pretty much have my life back.  PACE stands for Performance Assessment of Critical Elements.  Its a big huge scary science experiment + english report + speech + a bunch of other things that lead up to that.  And my (extremely stressful) PACE speech was today! Yeahhh! Thank goodness. We had to dress all professional and fancy and give a memorized 10 minute speech (at least it is in front of 2 random people you don't know).

Unfortunately, I most likely won't be posting until summer, because of school, and the fact that my life is busy. So I'm very sorry, but I haven't been able to post for months anyway (another reason I haven't been posting is because I like looking at all the other pretty blogs instead of working on my own).

To celebrate, I made PACE cookies...which I don't have (good) pictures of at the moment.  In fact, I don't (good) have pictures of anything really.  You see... a few months ago, my camera broke. And now I am forced to use my moms 3 generation I-phone which does NOT take good photos. So now I'm saving up for a $400 dollar one, which is a lot considering I don't have a job (but-good news! I've been hired to decorate cookies for my school librarian for $20)  You might think its strange, but me and my friends all spend break and lunch in the library everyday.  So we love our librarians.  Also, I just spent a lovely spring break visiting Disneyland, Universal Studios and Six Flags. But, as as side-note, have you seen the Hunger Games? Its so good (if you haven't seen the movie yet, read the book first!). Happy Hunger Games! 

Post-Holiday Goodies

How were your Holidays?  Was is full of delicious (fattening) holiday food? Yup.  But after the Holidays is a great time to make and buy Christmas stuff. Then there is no big rush, and you can pack up your holiday crafts and bargains for next year.  I have however, been slacking on my blog in the process. So here we go.

 I made a double batch of macarons (which makes a whole lot) and they were eaten very, very fast. Plus they're gluten free. Here's the recipe. I also made a crouquemouche (pronounced crow-kem-boosh, I think) which turned out awesome, although it dirties so many dishes. Here's the recipe I used.

 

Sorry I haven't posted in forever, I took kinda took a long break. But I have some good posts coming up, so no harm done! 

-Maddie

Temple Cookies

My sister got recently baptized and in celebration I made Salt Lake Temple Cookies.  We don't actually live near that particular temple, but it is the most recognizable.

Anyway, I used Bake at 350's yummy almond roll out sugar cookies.  It's a great recipe, and they don't use five cups of flour like most sugar cookie recipes.  Plus they taste delicious.  Here is how I frosted them:

You will need:

• very light gray icing
• white icing
• sky blue icing
• several small piping tips (I used #2 wilton)
• piping pags

1. print out a tiny picture of the temple and cut the outline  
2. lay it on the cookie and pipe the temple edges and turrets (in gray icing)
3. let it dry a bit and
4. fill the temple (in white icing)
5. let it dry a bit and fill in the sky
6. add Moroni while the blue us still wet
7. pipe the Temple's details
8. eat the cookies

Here are more specific piping directions and a closeup on the details:

Most of the temples each had their own design, until I found one that I liked.  I made the rest like that. WARNING: These take forever to pipe! The details take 5 minutes per cookie!

 

It was worth it. We had a great time eating these at the barbecue that followed the baptism.

My Fair Entries

The Fair starts on the 19th and I entered three things: a cake (as usual), decorated cookies, earrings, a painted T-shirt,  and a piece of art work.  I have entered stuff into the fair for 3 years in a row.  The deadline was yesterday up and we all spent the day gathering last minute entries.  My cookies are based off of Sweetopia's Owl Cookies.  But mine are not half as good because I have only decorated a few cookies in my life and I don't have a Kopycake Projector so I drew the design on (I used pencil because the cookies are not going to be eaten).  I have been getting very frustrated lately because I can't make a good cookie and my fondant wouldn't lay flat on my cake.

I have entered a cake into the fair 2 years in a row so far and this is my 3 year (am also planning on winning first place for the 3rd time).  Here is my cake:

Here are my cookies, but only 4 out of 9 turned out good (I am a beginner): 

I think these are so cute because I made their eyes too big.

Here is the T-shirt:

I'll post a tutorial for these wire cage earrings sometime soon:

 And here is the art:

 I also entered my B (which stands for our last name)

 I hope I win for my cake! It took a lot of work and 20 dollars which is a lot of money for me.  But we saw some of the other cakes and it looks like I have some competition.
Maddie

Soft Oreos (A.K.A. Oreo Cakesters)

Oreos are about the easiest cookie you can make. I think these are more like chocolate whoopie pies since they are soft but considering the fact that I've never eaten a whoopie pie, I don't know. My brother said they taste exactly like Oreo Cakesters, but I haven't eaten those either. But they look like it.  They only have 3 ingredients (if you don't count the filling).  But they taste amazing.  They were gone in like 8 minutes.  I think they are even better if you freeze them . Then they're crunchy, and delicious, just like regular oreo's! Only they are probably not as bad for you. I use cream cheese frosting because it tastes good, but if you don't like cream cheese you might try this or this or this.  I haven't actually tried those fillings though. I heard that you can make the cookies with spice cake mix, or chocolate mix. We tried chocolate mix, but added more cocoa powder, and for some mysterious reason they turned crunchy, so I don't know what to tell you about that.

 Total time: 18 min,  Cooking time: 10 minutes, Makes 16 cookies, Serving Size: 8 cookies (for me anyway)

Ingredients

1 package Devils Food cake mix
2 eggs
1stick of butter (softened)

Frosting

1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened delicious
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup buter (half a stick) softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla or peppermint extract (they are so good with peppermint!)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
2. Mix all the cookie ingredients together till it forms a dough.
3. Roll tablespoon sized balls and then squish them till they are a little smaller than a real oreo.  Place on ungreased baking sheets (or on parchment, but its not necessary) an inch and a half apart. .
4. Bake for 10 minutes. Let cookies cool (or put them on a cooling rack, then put them in the freezer for 30 seconds to a minute) You want them cool enough to not fall apart when you sandwich them together (cause everybody knows fresh warm cookies are the best). 
5.  While the cookies are baking, clean out your mixing bowl and cream together butter and cream cheese till creamy.  Mix in the vanilla, and add confectioners sugar.  Spoon into a sandwich baggie and cut a hole in the corner.
6. Pipe frosting on one cookie and sandwich it with another cookie.
7. Eat. Lots.

It's totally worth it to go and buy five packages of both cream cheese and cake mix.  You don't need 5, but its nice to have some around. Now, get back to baking.

Maddie

Cookie S'mores

Our surplus of graham crackers and Hershey Bars has run out.  All we have left are marshmallows.  So I came up with the great idea for making cookie S'mores.

 

The Graham Cracker Recipe:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup milk

Directions

1. Whisk together the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder and baking soda; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the margarine, brown sugar and honey until light and fluffy. Stir in the dry ingredients alternating with the milk and vanilla. 
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).  On  parchment paper roll the dough out. Divide into rectangles using a knife or use a cookie cutter.  Mark a line down the center of each one by pricking it with a fork (or go crazy and prick it all over like me). For a cinnamon flavored cracker, sprinkle with a cinnamon sugar mixture before baking.
4. Transfer the parchment onto a baking tray. Do not individually transfer each cookie, the dough is too fragile (unless you refrigerate the dough).  Bake for 13 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven till edges are brown.  If you under bake them, they turn out soft, not yummy and crunchy.  Remove from baking sheets to cool on wire racks.

         The original recipe said to refrigerate the dough overnight, but I didn't refrigerate it at all and it was fine. The wheat really gives it that graham cracker taste, but you could use less. In some of the recipe reviews, they substituted wheat germ for wheat flour and said they tasted great.  These aren't exactly like the store brand but are still really good.  They are great as a snack and in milk.  When eating them as a snack, I think I like homemade ones better, but nothing beats store bought crackers when it comes to milk.

The cookies don't spread much when they are baked, so leave them on the parchment you cut them on.

I pricked mine randomly, but 3 pricks down the center looks good.

Here's the awesome tool I rolled out my dough with by The Pampered Chef

Now for the chocolate cookie.  These would be much better with chocolate chips to make it more s'more-y.

Soft and Chewy Chocolate Drops

Ingredients:

3 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter

3 Eggs

1 tsp. Vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350.  Microwave unsweetened chocolate and butter in bowl on high for 2 minutes or until butter is melted.  Stir chocolate till it is melted.  Pour into the bowl of a stand mixer.  Stir in the sugar, then eggs and vanilla.  Add the flour and mix well.  Shape dough into one inch balls 2 inches apart, on parchment paper, or a greased baking sheet. Bake for 7-10 minutes toll the inside is no longer like dough.  Cool on cooling racks.  

Now its time for the yummy part.  Roast a marshmallow and sandwich it between a cracker and cookie.  Or you can microwave a marshmallow on a cracker (like I did), but it makes the cracker soft.