Hey there, all...three of you!
I just wanted to take a quick second to fill you all in on some new Savvy Sweet happenings. I promise once I get this shameless plug out of the way I will promptly return to dishing up only tasty baking news for you.
So, in a desperate attempt to become popular in the internet world I set up a campaign on StumbleUpon.com today so that I can see if anyone is actually enjoying my work and ultimately (the bigger issue) coming to the site at all. This is just to confirm that I am not completely failing at this whole blog thing.
For all of you who have not yet been acquainted with StumbleUpon.com (shame on you), it is basically a website that takes your interests and directs you to hundreds of other websites that posses content that relates to those topics you find fascinating. It's also an extremely useful tool to bloggers because it brings our sites to hundreds of potential subscribers.
Anyway, I am asking you, lovely readers, to do something for me this one time only and then I promise I will promptly return to being your humble baking servant. This, sadly, will only work if you are a stumble user but don't worry I'll think up something creative for all you non-stumble users to do for me later.
So, to my stumble users, if you feel me worthy, please click the little "I like it" button and tell the mighty stumble bar how much you enjoy your stay here among all of the savvyness. I not only would be greatly honored but it would also help Savvy Sweets become that much sweeter. Also, please feel free to leave comments, participate in the poll, and like my stuff as much as possible in the future! The more the merrier.
As always, much love is being sent to you all in copious amounts that you can not even fathom and I will be back with more baking shenanigans soon and perhaps a surprise guest or two.
Ciao
Monday, January 4, 2010
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Just the icing on the cake...
The following is documentation of my first attempt at piping in over 5 years. What you are about to see is in fact the product of a capable 20 year old and not the work of a deranged child...proceed with caution. (More explanation to come soon...if you're nice.)
A long time ago...*I'm not going to do it, I'm not going to do it*...oh, ok...in a galaxy far, far away...I knew how to make those corny little flowers out of icing. (Such a better background story than that little Star Wars thing). Yeah, that's right, I had talent. You wouldn't be able to tell by looking at these pictures. However, you may be impressed, so for the integrity of this post I'll pretend you are blown away by this display.
Back in the day my babysitter taught me to make those cute little flowers you see on your standard grocery store b-day cake and the ability to do so meant absolutely nothing to me at the time (bummer). Now, I wish I had some great story to tell you all about how I have known I've wanted to be a baker since I was a little girl, but I don't and won't pretend that I do. I will be the first to confess that baking wasn't really something I was interested in until my freshman year of college.
*random connected memory moment...stick with me through this one. It will all make sense in the end and if it doesn't just smile and nod.*
...I never took to the idea of being away from my mom for long periods of time. I'm usually attached to her at the hip when I can be. So, when I found myself away from home for the first time in my life I tried to hold on to the things that reminded me of my mom the most.
The Food Network was something we really loved, something that I found and still find on the TV the majority of the time I'm at my mom's place (if football isn't on). My freshman year I became obsessed with any baking show Food Network had (most notable , Ace of Cakes, I heart me some Geoff and Duff). I had never done much baking in my life. In fact the only real experience I had ever had with making anything food related was that small amount of time spent working with the frosting flowers. Once the novelty of my small talent wore off (back in the day), I moved on to other things. It wasn't until I made these little beauties that I wished I never ditched my mad frosting skills.
Going into the project featured here I knew I had to think of something to bake that was fool proof. Something that, even if the frosting came off looking a little shady, people would still eat.
Funfetti a.k.a. "The Crowd Pleaser".
I went with the funfetti. Unfortunately I did not only go for the funfetti cake but also the funfetti icing. Now, it's not that I thought that this was too much funfetti for one person to handle (that's an impossibility), but what you have to understand is...funfetti incing has funfetti fun rainbow sprinkles in it. Funfetti fun sprinkles, although quite yummy, aren't so funfetti for bakers trying to squeeze them out of a small piping topper. This project will forever be known as the "Funfetti fail".
Notice that I have to use both hands to squeeze the content of the bag out onto the tiny cake of love. No good. Usually I found that the sprinkles liked to clump in the nozzle all at one time causing massive icing back up. This resulted in my consumption of way too much funfetti by the end of the project. It all made sense at the time, I swear.
The finished product of a dyslexic toddler
All together it wasn't a complete disaster and the cupcakes were consumed so quickly that no one really had time to notice how scary the frost job was. For my first time piping since middle school, those little swirly ones don't look half bad (if I do say so myself).
Can we get a close up of that?
mmm, there ya go. That's art right there.
I'll admit, the creative looking ones (heart, checkerboard, indistinguishable dot patterns, ec.) was stretching it a bit, I understand. But hey, maybe next time they'll come out looking like a slightly less dyslexic 10 year old made them...or maybe I'll just play it safe.
So what did we learn today, boys and girls?
1. Megahan's life story is more thrilling than Star Wars
2. Funfetti is a fun word to say
3. Rainbow icing with the fun sprinkles = bad choice for piping
We'll get through this together, don't you worry. Piping take two will be coming soon.
A long time ago...*I'm not going to do it, I'm not going to do it*...oh, ok...in a galaxy far, far away...I knew how to make those corny little flowers out of icing. (Such a better background story than that little Star Wars thing). Yeah, that's right, I had talent. You wouldn't be able to tell by looking at these pictures. However, you may be impressed, so for the integrity of this post I'll pretend you are blown away by this display.
Back in the day my babysitter taught me to make those cute little flowers you see on your standard grocery store b-day cake and the ability to do so meant absolutely nothing to me at the time (bummer). Now, I wish I had some great story to tell you all about how I have known I've wanted to be a baker since I was a little girl, but I don't and won't pretend that I do. I will be the first to confess that baking wasn't really something I was interested in until my freshman year of college.
*random connected memory moment...stick with me through this one. It will all make sense in the end and if it doesn't just smile and nod.*
...I never took to the idea of being away from my mom for long periods of time. I'm usually attached to her at the hip when I can be. So, when I found myself away from home for the first time in my life I tried to hold on to the things that reminded me of my mom the most.
The Food Network was something we really loved, something that I found and still find on the TV the majority of the time I'm at my mom's place (if football isn't on). My freshman year I became obsessed with any baking show Food Network had (most notable , Ace of Cakes, I heart me some Geoff and Duff). I had never done much baking in my life. In fact the only real experience I had ever had with making anything food related was that small amount of time spent working with the frosting flowers. Once the novelty of my small talent wore off (back in the day), I moved on to other things. It wasn't until I made these little beauties that I wished I never ditched my mad frosting skills.
Going into the project featured here I knew I had to think of something to bake that was fool proof. Something that, even if the frosting came off looking a little shady, people would still eat.
I went with the funfetti. Unfortunately I did not only go for the funfetti cake but also the funfetti icing. Now, it's not that I thought that this was too much funfetti for one person to handle (that's an impossibility), but what you have to understand is...funfetti incing has funfetti fun rainbow sprinkles in it. Funfetti fun sprinkles, although quite yummy, aren't so funfetti for bakers trying to squeeze them out of a small piping topper. This project will forever be known as the "Funfetti fail".
Notice that I have to use both hands to squeeze the content of the bag out onto the tiny cake of love. No good. Usually I found that the sprinkles liked to clump in the nozzle all at one time causing massive icing back up. This resulted in my consumption of way too much funfetti by the end of the project. It all made sense at the time, I swear.
All together it wasn't a complete disaster and the cupcakes were consumed so quickly that no one really had time to notice how scary the frost job was. For my first time piping since middle school, those little swirly ones don't look half bad (if I do say so myself).
Can we get a close up of that?
mmm, there ya go. That's art right there.
I'll admit, the creative looking ones (heart, checkerboard, indistinguishable dot patterns, ec.) was stretching it a bit, I understand. But hey, maybe next time they'll come out looking like a slightly less dyslexic 10 year old made them...or maybe I'll just play it safe.
So what did we learn today, boys and girls?
1. Megahan's life story is more thrilling than Star Wars
2. Funfetti is a fun word to say
3. Rainbow icing with the fun sprinkles = bad choice for piping
We'll get through this together, don't you worry. Piping take two will be coming soon.
Friday, January 1, 2010
The Evidence
To kick off the new year I thought it appropriate to post some pics of past projects that were a complete success and quite the crowd pleasure in 09. Unfortunately I came to find that most of my baking fun had not been documented before consumption occurred. The lucky baking endeavors that survived long enough for their photo shoot were tackled over the past summer, back in the good old days when I actually had the time to try new recipes and the area needed to bake. Here at my parent's house I compete for the space to bake and most of the times I lose the competition. I do what I can with the time I am granted. I long for the day when I have my own kitchen and I am able to bake whenever I have the desire...a.k.a. all the time. What a dangerous and yet strangely beautiful thought.
Anyway, I wanted to take this time to share with you a couple of my personal fav. recipes. As well as upload the small amount of pictures I actually have in order to prove to my humble readers that I am not just some crazy person pretending I know what I'm doing. Ok, in all honesty, I may still be that person, but hey, I have fun pictures so calm down.
Chocolate-Dipped Coconut Macaroons
courtesy of Myrecipes.com (click the pic bellow to go to their excellent site!) Rant: I am pretty much head over heels in love with this website. I'll make sure to put up a perma. link on the side bar somewhere. If you haven't visited the site yet, take the time to do so now. Don't worry, I'll wait for you. It's definitely worth it.
I find some of the most useful features on Myrecipes.com are the ratings for each recipe, the reviews, and the nutritional facts that come along with each recipe. It's such an easy site to navigate through and I found as a newbie backer that their recipes are really easy to work through and the feedback from the people who use the site and who have tried each recipe are all extremely helpful and comforting. There are literally thousands of recipes archived on their site and this macaroon recipe is one of the best I've tried and so, so simple to make. Oh yeah, and super yummy too!!!Ingredients
* 4 large egg whites
* 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
* 2/3 cup sugar
* 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 3 1/2 cups lightly packed sweetened flaked dried coconut
* 2 tablespoons butter
* 4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
Preparation
1. In a bowl, with an electric mixer on high speed, beat egg whites until frothy. Beat in vanilla, sugar, and flour until well blended. Stir in coconut.
2. Drop dough in 1-tablespoon portions, about 2 inches apart, onto buttered and floured or cooking parchment- lined 12- by 15-inch baking sheets. (Savvy tip: I used a measuring spoon in order to make the perfect balls of dough, it worked really well. You could also use an ice cream scoop if you wanted bigger macaroons.)
3. Bake in a 325° oven until macaroons are golden, about 20 minutes; if baking more than one pan at a time, switch pan positions halfway through baking. With a wide spatula, transfer macaroons to racks to cool completely.
4. In a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water (bottom of bowl should not touch water), stir butter and chocolate often until smooth, 5 minutes. Hold a macaroon on one edge and dip other side into chocolate to coat half the cookie. Shake off excess chocolate. Set macaroon on a waxed paper-lined baking sheet. Repeat to dip remainder. Chill, uncovered, until chocolate is firm, about 30 minutes.
I found the hardest part of the recipe was melting the chocolate to dip the macaroons in. (I know, it sounds pathetic but I found it harder than it looked.) In the end I realized that the macaroons themselves were actually much better without the chocolate...go figure. But while I was attempting make sure I didn't burn my chocolate I found that when it came time to actually dip the macaroons, the chocolate hardened and became clumpy really quickly or else it would turn into something too runny. It had a mind of its own, I swear and it was a big, old mess. I'm glad my parents weren't around for that. Perhaps I'll do a segment focused around melting and using chocolate successfully in a recipe. That seems like something I have to master before I can call myself a successful bake, huh? It will be interesting. Let me know if you have any tips for me.
All together this recipe was both fun and easy to make. I had one of my older brothers, Garrett, help me prepare them and then later assist me in consuming all of them in true baker style.
You would be correct in your assumption. This, my friends, is in fact NOT a macaroon. It's a carrot cake, the lord of all cakes and made specially for my mama on her birthday this past May. Awwww.
I have some sad news, ladies and gentlemen. After much searching I have come to the realization that I have somehow misplaced the super secret carrot cake recipe. Don't cry. It will be alright. I know what you're thinking..."if you had The Demy you wouldn't have lost it" and I know, you're right. But I promise you, humble and wise Savvy Sweetians, I will search the darkest nooks and deepest crannies to find it for you and that right there...that's a little thing I like to call love...right there...right for you. Take it.
UPDATE:
Hey all. After the great exploration of my kitchen cabinets I have come out victorious. Here is the long awaited immaculate carrot cake recipe! Enjoy!!:
Carrot Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting
serves 10 to 12
Carrot Cake:
2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoons ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pound carrots (6 to 7 medium), peeled
1 1/2 cups (10 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed (3 1/2 ounces) light brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cup safflower, canola, or vegetable oil
Creme Cheese Frosting
8 ounces cream cheese, softened but still cool
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1 tablespoon sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups (5 ounces) confectioners' sugar
1. For the cake: adjust an oven rack to the middle position; heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 13 by 9-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper and spray the parchment.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.
3. In a food processor fitted with the large shredding disk, shred the carrots (you should have about 3 cups); add the carrots to the bowl with the dry ingredients and set aside. Wipe out the food processor and fit with the metal blade. Process both sugars with the eggs until frothy and thoroughly combined, about 20 seconds. With the machine running, add oil through the feed tube in a steady stream. Process until the mixture is light in color and well emulsified, about 20 seconds longer. Scrape the mixture into a large bowl. Stir in the carrots and dry ingredients until incorporated and no streaks of flower remain. Pour into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick or skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 25 to 40 minutes, rotating the pan from front to back halfway through the baking time. Cool the cake to room temperature in the pan on a wire rack, about 2 hours.
4. For the frosting (By far the best part!): When the cake is cool, process the cream cheese, butter, sour cream and vanilla in a clean food processor until combined, about 5 seconds, scraping down the workbowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add the confectioners' sugar and process until smooth, about 10 seconds.
5. Run a paring knife around the edge of the cake to loosen it from the pan. Invert the cake onto a wire rack, peel off the parchment, and invert the cake onto a serving platter. Using an offset spatula, spread the frosting evenly over the surface of the cake. Cut into squares and serve!!!
Here's to 2010
Joy! The first post of 2010. I'm on top of it. Feel free to try to interpret the above image. If you find anything deep and telling about me from it, drop me a line. Happy new year, kiddies. I hope it's full of lots and lots of things that are bad for us. Yum!
Peace
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