Cowgirl Birthday Cupcake Tower

Here at The Smart Baker, we've made all different types of decorated cupcakes for parties.  Lately, rather than make a lot of time-consuming edible decorations I've been using Cupcake Picks as simple but chic cupcake toppers.  It is so easy to make the cupcakes match the theme of the party.  
This April was our niece Ella's 4th birthday, which she celebrated by having a party at the farm with a petting zoo and pony rides.  To go with the theme, we made her this Cowgirl Cupcake Tower.  There were chocolate and vanilla cupcakes in pink, blue and green gingham print liners, with contrasting color gingham cupcake picks with her name on them.

Highly Addictive Salted Caramel Pretzel Bark

I often make cakes, pies and tarts which require slicing before serving.  If someone wants a piece they need to very deliberately pick up a knife, grab a plate, slice and serve.  However, I really enjoy making things people can  casually snack on, too.  These things don't require knives for slicing, spoons for scooping, or even plates for serving.  These things can just be picked up and popped in one's mouth.  I think these types of things are usually the biggest hit (or at least the type with the least left over).  

This is one of my top favorite "snacking" recipes.  It is pretty easy to prepare, and results in a bite-sized, sweet-n-salty, highly addictive snack.  I found this this recipe on Mama Say What!?  and I'm very glad I did, because this was thoroughly enjoyed by all who snacked on it.  My favorite way to enjoy it is straight out of the freezer!

Salted Caramel Pretzel Bark

Ingredients:

1/2 of a 1 lb bag of mini pretzels

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup lightly packed light brown sugar

2 cups chocolate chips of your choice (I used semisweet)

Fine sea salt (I always use Diamond Crystal)

Preheat your oven to 350 F.

Line a large jelly roll pan (or two 9x13 pans) with precut parchment paper.  Carefully, line the trays with the mini pretzels making neat rows, placing the pretzels right up against each other.  

In a medium saucepan on medium heat, melt the butter.  Add the brown sugar and stir.  Allow the sugar to dissolve and let it bowl gently just until it starts to stick to the bottom and it forms a nice smooth caramel.  Let it bubble and little and get nice and thick.

Remove from heat, and pour evenly over the rows of pretzels.  Put in the preheated over for 5 minutes (this will help the caramel spread out even more evenly).  Remove from the oven and sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top.  Place back in the oven for just 1 minute, and then spread the chocolate chips around with a offset spatula until mostly melted.  

Sprinkle generously with sea salt, and allow to cool at room temperature for a few minutes.  Then place in the freezer for 2 to 3 hours, until completely frozen.  When frozen, break it up into pieces and serve.  (I like to keep it in the freezer until I serve it).  

Toilet Humor... Crap, You're Old cake

Most of the time, I make Princess cakes, or Lightning McQueen cakes, or cupcake towers themed with cute little jungle animals or smiling ladybugs.  Recently, however, I made a cake quite different from the adorable desserts we're used to making.  We were requested to make a toilet shaped "Crap, You're Old" cake for our brother in law's 40th birthday... complete with a baby ruth sitting in the bowl.  Take a look for yourself... if you have a strong stomach.  Weak stomached readers, you may want to press the back button on your browser and skip this post. :)

To create this unique shape, we used many different sizes and shapes for the baking pans.

For the tank: We made two 8 inch square cakes, cut them in half and stack them on top of each other (making a four layer 8x4 inch cake)

For the bowl: We did a two layer 8 inch round cake and carved down the sides to get the curvature at the bottom where it meets the base.  

For the base under the bowl: We used one 6 inch round cake

All of the cakes were frosted and covered in white fondant.  

To make the blue "water" for the inside of the bowl, we simply tinted clear piping gel with food coloring and piped it into the bowl.  To make the... err.... "present" in the bowl, we microwaved a Baby Ruth candy bar for a few seconds and shaped it a little bit.  

The cake was a pretty big hit at the party.  We asked the question "Funny or just gross?" on The Smart Baker's Facebook page and there were some pretty strong feelings about this one.  There were just as many people that thought it was hysterical as those who felt it was just too gross to eat.  What do you think?  Would you make this cake?  And would you actually eat it if it was served at a party? 

Sweet and Salty Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Are you into the Sweet and Salty trend?  We so completely are.  Every recipe I make includes fine sea salt in one way or another.  This new recipe, however, take it to a whole other level.  This is like a cross between a potato chip and a chocolate chip cookies... in a good way.  It has the sweet and chewiness of a oatmeal chocolate chip cookie combined with the salty addictiveness of a potato chip - I definitely "could not stop at just one".

*The basic oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough recipe is formed into balls which is then rolled in a combination of Sugar in the Raw and fine Sea Salt.  The original recipe called for 1 1/2 Tablespoon of salt, but I found that to be just too much.  So, in the recipe below I reduced it to 1/2 Tablespoon.  If you find it to too salty / not salty enough, simply adjust the recipe to fit your tastes.

Sweet and Salty Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies adapted from My Kitchen Addiction
Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1 egg, room temperature
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup raw sugar (such as Sugar in the Raw)
1/2 Tablespoon fine sea salt* (see note about salt amount above)

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl.  Add in egg and beat until smooth.  Add the corn syrup and vanilla, and beat until fully incorporated.

In a separate bowl, whisk to combine oats, flour, baking soda and 1/2 tsp salt.  Gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, mixing on low until the batter comes together.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  Refrigerate at least 30 minutes.

Towards the end of chilling, preheat the oven to 375 and line several cookie sheets with pre-cut parchment.  In a small dish, combine raw sugar and fine sea salt.  Roll cookie dough balls to about 1 inch, and roll each in the sugar-salt mixture.  Using your palm or a flat spatula, press down gently to slightly flatten.  Bake 8 - 10 minutes or until edges are just barely golden - do not over bake!  Cool on pan about 5 minutes and then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Berry Key Lime Cheesecake with Greek Yogurt

Sometimes, you just need a cheesecake.  Wouldn't you agree?  It's great when said cheesecake is made with Greek Yogurt, so even when you're indulging you can feel just a little bit better about it.

I'm kind of picky about my cheesecake.  I'd rather not eat it if it's not amazing.  Mediocre cheesecake isn't really worth it for me.  Next time I'm feeling cheesecake, I think I'll go the Greek Yogurt route again because it lent the cake such a wonderful texture.  It was nice and light, unlike some heavy dense cheesecakes I've eaten.  The flavor from the flavored greek yogurts (raspberry and key lime) was noticeable but not over the top strong.  Overall this was a great (and SUPER SUPER easy!!) dessert.  We had no problem getting rid of the left overs.

Berry Key Lime Cheesecake, from Oikos
Ingredients:
Crust -
9 Graham Crackers
2 Tbsp Granulated Sugar
4 Tbspn butter, melted
Filling -
2 (5.3 oz) single serve containers of Dannon Oikos Key Lime Greek Yogurt
2 (5.3 oz) single serve containers of Dannon Oikos Raspberry Greek Yogurt
4 eggs, rom temperature
1 can sweetened condensed milk
4 Tbsp All Purpose Flour

In the bowl of a food processor, pulse graham crackers, sugar and butter.  Pat the mixture into the bottom of a 9 inch spring form pan. Set aside.
In a bowl, combine key lime yogurts with 2 eggs, 2 Tbspn flour and half of the sweetened condensed milk.  If desired, add food coloring.
In a separate bowl combine raspberry greek yogurts with 2 eggs, 2 Tbspn flour and half of the sweetened condensed milk.  If desired, add food coloring.
Pour Berry mixture on top of the crust.  Then slowly pour the key lime mixture on top of that.  Swirl with a knife if desired.
Bake a 250 F for 30 - 40 minutes, until the center of set and edges are fully cooked.  Refrigerate for at least 3 hours or over-night before serving.

Apple Cinnamon Blondies

Hard to believe all the Holiday hub-bub is over.  Yesterday, we took down our Christmas tree and put away the last of the decorations.  I always feel a tiny bit sad when we do that, though it is nice to get that corner of the living room back.  Is everyone still in sugar shock from Holiday parties and dinners?  That's just not possible for us over here.  So if you're like me and you're not in a giving-up-sugar stage, then you may want to make these Apple Cinnamon Blondies.  It has all the comforting homeyness of apple pie, but is much much easier.  The end result is a moist, sweet, flavorful blondie that is just begging to be enjoyed with a scoop of ice cream on top :)  We put Sea Salt Caramel Gelato on top and that may just be one of the best decisions we made all week. 

Apple Cinnamon Blondies adapted from Baked by Rachel

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups lightly packed light brown sugar
1 stick unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chopped granny smith apple, skin on (approx. 1 medium apple)
1/2 cup cinnamon mini baking chips (I used King Arthur Flour)

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350; spray a 9.5-inch tart pan with non-stick cooking spray, and line 1 small baking dish (1 cupcake, 1 mini springform, etc.) with parchment and set on a large cookie sheet (this way if anything drips, it will fall on your cookie sheet and not the bottom of your oven).  Set aside.

Melt butter and brown sugar in a heavy duty saucepan over medium heat stirring constantly; remove from heat and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, salt, cinnamon and baking powder. In a separate large bowl, whisk eggs and vanilla.  Add melted butter and sugar mixture and whisk until combined. Slowly whisk in dry ingredients just until combined. Fold in chopped apples and cinnamon chips.

Pour batter into prepared baking pans and place cookie sheet in pre-heated oven for 25-35 minutes or until a knife comes out clean from center.  The small baking dish will most likely be finished a few minutes ahead of the 9.5 inch tart pan, so keep an eye on it.  

Allow to cool almost entirely in the pan.  When ready to cut, separate pan by carefully running a knife around the edges and then pushing up from the center of the bottom of the pan.

Best Rolled Sugar Cookies

Do you and your family decorate cookies for the holidays?  I'm not sure if it is the extra humidity in the air here in Florida, or if it is my short temper with all things that involve a rolling pin, but the process of rolling out cookies is not one that usually occurs without some kicking and screaming.  No matter how much flouring of the rolling pin and the counter that goes on, and no matter how thorough and frequent the dough chilling is, everything always sticks to what it is not supposed to and the cookie cutters never work like they're supposed to.  So, Daniel and I have developed the slightly wasteful yet much less frustrating and MUCH quicker method of using cookie cutters.  I wish I had taken pictures along the way, but I'll just have to explain as best as I can...

1. Chill your cookie dough in the refrigerator
2. Roll out cookie dough in between two sheets of Pre-Cut parchment that fit the size cookie sheet you are using. (By rolling the dough between two sheets of parchment, you won't have to worry about the dough sticking to your rolling pin!). 
3. Put the cookie sheet back in the fridge to re-chill a little bit. (This step helps the top layer of parchment peel off easily and cleanly so it can be re-used).
4. Place cookie sheet in the preheated oven to bake one large cookie the size of your cookie sheet.
5. Immediately when your cookie dough is done baking, remove from the oven and slide the parchment to a heat-proof surface (I slide it on to our granite countertops).  While the cookie is still soft, use the cookie cutters to cut cookie shapes out of the baked cookie dough.

Not only is this method quicker and easier, but you end up with tons of cookie scraps to eat! Ok, so it does "waste" some cookie dough, but I use the term "waste" lightly because Daniel and I ate the cookie scraps for days after.  Another nice thing about this method is that you don't have to worry about the cookie dough puffing during baking and ruining the cute cookie-cutter shape you worked so hard to cut.  

What do you think?  Is this method too wasteful for you or do you think it would keep the peace during all of your holiday baking?  For me, I find it saves my sanity so it is worth losing a few cookies worth of dough due to the cookie scraps byproduct.  

Cookie scraps!

Anyway, this is a new-to-me cookie recipe that I'm quite happy with.  The cookies are nice and soft (a quality many people commented on, "how do you get them so soft??") and flavorful.  I'd say this is a very good basic sugar cookie recipe.

The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened

2 cups white sugar

4 eggs, room temperature

1 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

5 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour.

Place about 1/3 of the dough in between two 9x13 sheets of parchment paper.  Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness.  Place dough back on a cookie sheet and place in the fridge for a few moment to re-chill the dough and allow the top layer of parchment to peel off cleanly. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Bake cookies about 8 to 12 minutes or until the dough just barely starts to brown at the edges.  Remove from oven, slide the parchment on to a heat proof surface such as granite countertops or a wooden cutting board and immediately cut the soft cookie into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place on a cooling rack to cool completely.