Happy Friday!

Earlier in the week I had extra cake batter.  Normally I freeze my extra batter (*see note below!) but I already have a few containers of frozen batter, so I decided to bake off my leftover instead into 8" rounds.  I've been thinking all week what I wanted to do with the layers, and finally decided this afternoon to throw this cake together.  I often like to use up little bits of things I have around, so this cake ended up being vanilla layers with chocolate ganache, chocolate frosting, decorated with crushed Oreos and topped with whole Oreos. 

A few years ago I was the head baker at a start up cupcake shop. Until this point my whole baking career had been based around scratch recipes.  When I walked into the kitchen at the cupcake shop I saw a whole shelf of cake mixes.  A few weeks later I tried to switch the shop to scratch recipes, but I realized that even though I had great scratch recipes, it just didn't work.  The shelf life of scratch cupcakes is terrible.  And, to put it simply...customers are too used to grocery store cakes.  I needed to come up with something that was in between.  So that's exactly what I did.  Instead of having a "doctored cake mix" I created a "doctored scratch mix." My only issue with the following recipe is that it creates a rather large batch, but I am often used to baking in large quantities so it works for me.  At some point in the future I'm going to work on cutting the recipe down.  The recipe might seem a little odd, but it really is fantastic.  And the great thing is that it's a wonderful base recipe, especially because you can switch out the vanilla box mix for other flavors.

Vanilla Cake
1 cup butter (for cupcakes) or margarine (for cake)
2 cups sugar
1 TBS vanilla
1 vanilla cake mix (I've found that Betty Crocker work the best)
7 eggs
1/3 cup oil
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups water
1 TBS white vinegar plus enough milk to equal 1 cup

For cake:

Cream together margarine and sugar.  Add cake mix, vanilla, eggs and oil.  Mix in baking powder, salt, flour, water (cold), and milk/vinegar (cold) mixture until batter is smooth, well combined, and all the lumps are out. 

Bake at 350 degrees until the top is slightly brown and it bounces back when you touch it.

For cupcakes: 

Melt butter.  Heat milk/vinegar mixture.  Use HOT water.  (*See second note!)

Mix together all ingredients EXCEPT eggs (if you include eggs with hot butter and other hot liquids, you most likely will scramble your eggs!)  Once ingredients have mixed together, slowly start to incorporate eggs until they are all blended into the batter. 

Bake at 325-335 degrees.  Bake until the tops are just slightly golden and they bounce back when you touch them.

For cake, I can usually get a good 3 9" rounds, for cupcakes at least 4 dz. 

*Note One* Did you know that you can freeze cake batter?  Fill microwave safe containers with the batter, and when you are ready to use it, just heat it up to thaw!  Make sure you microwave it in increments (I usually do 1-2 minute) and stir in between.  Another cool thing with this is what my kids like to call "Magic Cake."  They take an ice cream scooper and scoop out some frozen batter, microwave for about 30-45 seconds (depending on the size of their scoop,) stir to even it out, then microwave again for another 30-45 seconds.  Easy single sized cake portions!

*Note Two* For the longest time I couldn't figure out how to get nice, rounded, domed tops on cupcakes.  I tried everything, and finally figured out...it's the temperature of my ingredients!  When you have a cold batter, you will have flat cupcakes that run into each other or run over the cupcake pan.  If you liquid ingredients are nice and hot, making a warm batter, you will have nice, pretty topped cupcakes!

Happy weekend baking!

Cowboy Cake

I did this cake for a friend this week.  The bottom tier was dark chocolate with chocolate ganache and the top was vanilla vanilla.  Cute!

Chipwich!

I am not a big fan of ice cream.  Milkshakes, yes...ice cream, no.  However, one of Adam's favorite treats is a Chipwich.  I've been wanting to make them for a long time, so yesterday I decided to throw them together quick. 

For these chipwiches, you will need chocolate chip cookies, vanilla ice cream, and mini chocolate chips.  Easy, right? 

I really love and highly recommend Cookie Base #1 that I blogged about a few posts back.  I was able to use it with these chocolate chip cookies, and it took no more than maybe 10 minutes to mix them up and have them in the oven.  And, of course, they are crazy good.  I chose to use one regular size (11.5 oz) package of milk chocolate chips as my add in for the cookie base.

Once my cookies were baked and cooled, I thought I was going to be all cool and pipe on my vanilla ice cream.  Unfortunately the top of the cookie slid right off and I had a big mess on my hands (literally.)  I ended up throwing my cookies in the freezer for about 15 minutes, and used a cookie scoop for the ice cream. 

In the end, I found it worked like a charm to place a small scoop of ice cream on one chilly cookie, top it with a second chilly cookie, and roll the edges in a bowl of mini chocolate chips. It would be a great idea to have a tray with waxed paper set up in your freezer so when you are done with each cookie, you can pop it right in and it doesn't have time to melt. 

Enjoy!

Assemble the Minions!

Quick and easy Minion cupcakes for my daughter's birthday party that we had at a local pottery place.  I placed them on an artist palette (like paint.)  Cute!

Death By Chocolate Meets Tye Dye

I found this pin on Pinterest three or four weeks back, and couldn't resist going right to town making them.  Chocolate cupcakes.  With a brownie baked inside.  With fudge frosting. And chocolate chips.  Say whhhat??  The girls adore dark chocolate.  For me it's too much, so I was unsure if the finished product was overkill.  When I took them to my taste testers, I guess they were anything but overkill ("They're BANGIN!") That first time I chose to stick to the recipe pretty closely.  See the original recipe for Brownie Batter Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes here. The only thing I really didn't care for with these cupcakes was that the brownie fell when it baked, and created kind of a hole inside the cupcake (which I just filled with the frosting, so all turned out well and good.)  Still, I felt the need to try and tweak (as I usually do because I can't leave anything alone.)

I'm still not 100% happy with the cake part but the frosting really is out of this world.  If you like  super dark chocolate I suggest to follow the recipe as written on the above link. 

Here's how I made it for these cupcakes...

Chocolate Fudge Frosting

5 sticks butter, softened
6-8 oz confectioners sugar (start with 6 and adjust to taste)
1 cup cocoa powder (not the special dark)
1/4 tsp salt
1.5 cups corn syrup
1 tbs vanilla
16 oz milk chocolate chips

In 30 second intervals, melt chocolate chips (stir in between each interval.)  Set aside.

With a mixer, mix together butter, corn syrup, salt, and vanilla.  Add confectioner's sugar and cocoa a little bit at a time (if you add too much at once you'll be wearing it.)  Once all combined, add chocolate until frosting is blended and smooth. 

My daughter's 9th birthday was Friday, and she requested these death by chocolate cupcakes for her school treat.  I found these tye dye liners that I knew she'd like, but they totally didn't fit the theme of death by chocolate.  In the end, I decided to color white chocolate and make little tye dye decorations to match the liners.  I watched 22 3rd graders devour them like maniacs and rave about them, so I guess they went over well!

It's a boy!!!

I have been wanting to do a gender reveal cake forever!!!  I finally got the chance this week.  A previous co-worker found out that she was expecting, and decided to get a cake for the office to let everyone know what she was having.  The only bad thing was that I was pestered like crazy after everyone knew that I had been let in on the secret!!!  What is normally a two day cake making/decorating process had to be cut into one just so I could stop the stream of text messages coming in about it!  (However maybe if I had held out there would of been some monetary bribes?!)

 

 

 

Congratulations Sophie!! 

 

Cookie Base #1

I love finding and creating base recipes.  Maybe it's a bit of laziness, but I do partly think of it as my sneaky little secret...to make one big batch of cookie dough and see how many different cookies I can make out of it without anyone realizing.  "Wow, Paige...you made ALL THESE in just a few hours?!"  Work smarter, not harder right? 

Years ago I came across this recipe for chocolate chip cookies.  Award Winning Chocolate Chip Cookies  As you can see from the reviews, it's a fantastic recipe.  However, I always have had a difficult time keeping the cookies from sticking together when plated or trayed. They really are great cookies, but just too soft.  I've tweaked it many times, and finally today I think I might of perfected it.  The best part of this recipe...it's an AMAZING base.  There are so many ways you can change this recipe up, from simply changing out the chips to something else (like I did today) to using different pudding mix combinations.  I've even left the chips out altogether and made them into sugar cookies (and sugar cookie bars with frosting.)

Cookie Base #1

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup bread flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 (3.4 oz) pkg instant vanilla pudding mix
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In mixing bowl, mix together melted butter, brown sugar, white sugar, pudding mix, and vanilla. (If butter doesn't look like it's fully mixing together with the sugar, don't worry...it will be fine once the flour is added.) Blend in both flours and baking soda until mixed together. ** Add eggs until completely incorporated. At this time, stir in your "extras " (chocolate chips, nuts, dried fruit, etc etc.) 

**Note:  Normally eggs ARE added before flour.  In this case, however, I'm adding them at the end to give the dough time to cool down in case the melted butter was pretty hot.  (Most people don't like scrambled eggs in their cookies!!  ;) ) 

Your yield is really going to depend on how much you add of your "extras" and what size scoop you use. You can see from my picture of the raw dough balls that I used a pretty big scoop.  With this batch, I ended up with about 16 of those large size cookies. 

I didn't have any chocolate chips, so I raided the cupboards and found an unopened bag of mini peanut butter cups that I had hidden away.  After my cookie base was together, I mixed in about 3/4 of the bag of the peanut butter cups (with the mixer) so that some had been chopped up and blended into the dough.

 

 

   I thought they looked awfully plain, so I dipped them in some melted milk chocolate and chopped up the remaining peanut butter cups to sprinkle on. I tend to like to stripe cookies, so I finished them off with a dark chocolate drizzle.

 

 

 

 

  I think Thing #1 approves...

Happy Birthday To Me....

Today is my 34th birthday.  Or the 5th anniversary of my 29th birthday, as I prefer to say.  On the way home from lunch out today, Adam, the girls and I got on the subject of past birthdays and started reminiscing.  My 30th birthday party came up in the conversation, and all the sudden it hit me at how much has happened in just 4 short years.  On one hand it seems like time has flown by, yet on the other it's truly unreal at how much changed.  How much my girls have grown.  How much I've grown and changed as a person. Four years ago I don't think I would of guessed that we'd no longer be living in NY.  I asked the girls where they thought we'd be in four more years, and surprisingly neither of them thought we'd still be in NC.  Maybe they do have my gypsy spirit after all. 

The past two weeks alone have been a time of true reflection.  The last time I posted was two years ago.  Lord, where has that two years alone gone??  Frosting, Inc so far has not progressed to a store front.  I did, however, go the creative route...I rented a one bedroom apartment just for business use, and had it inspected as a commercial bakery.  At the end of my lease, I had a great customer base, but still not enough to financially be able to get my store front.  And then the apartment complex raised my rent, and I was forced to close up shop.  About that same time an opportunity for a full time corporate position came along, so I shelved baking and went back to banking.  Until two weeks ago.  Have you ever had one of those moments when something just snaps in your brain and it's just an automatic "I'm done."  I couldn't do it anymore.  A year of being miserable.  A year of having to put my kids second.  A year of "you will go where we schedule you, when we schedule you."  I was done.  And then came the "Ahhh, crap.  Now what?!"  Still no money to open my store front.  Definitely can't go back to a corporate mentality.  And like I said, it's my birthday...as they say, I "ain't" getting "no" younger!

So, I'm blogging.  Who knows, maybe I can turn it into a little paying side gig.  Can't hurt to try?  Someone must be reading because I have to say, I can't believe how many views I've had on this cake. 

Kit Kat and M&M Cake

It's kind of funny actually, because I felt so bad making it for Adam; it's probably the easiest cake I've made. I guess it must look pretty cool because I see it all over Pinterest. I don't know who came up with the original idea (I found it on Cake Central.) I will say though, that the recipe I gave back in the original link, I haven't used that in years. Look in some upcoming posts for a new white cake recipe that is REALLY good. 

Earlier this week I was looking back through old pictures and came across cakes that I had made when I first started decorating.  It really was kind of a wow moment, to see how far I've come because I've kept at it.  It really was a little bit of inspiration for me in a time where I feel a little lost...keep at it even when it stinks, eventually you're going to get somewhere!

These two cakes are from very early in my career... 

Yikes!

And two of my most favorite cakes...

 

I'm really looking forward to seeing what this year has in store for me, Paige's Pantry, and Frosting, Inc.  Stay tuned!

Treasure Chest Cake!!!

My little daughter turned 7 last week, and this year she requested a pirate party. I don't know why...such an odd theme for her to choose, but who am I to judge?! I'm just really glad she didn't ask for a pirate ship cake!! This one was fairly easy to make, except that I didn't think through the lid support very well. When I first placed it on, I didn't have the dowels in the right spot, and since the weight of the lid was all in the back, it smooooshed a little. Sometimes I have to laugh...I let my kids choose whatever cake they want, regardless of difficulty just so I can figure these little things out. The cakes always turn out pretty good, but they are definitely guinea pigs!

Ohhhh the CHANGES!

I feel like the past six months have been a whirlwind...changes, changes, changes. Every New Years I look back with amazement at the events that happened over the past year, and this year was no exception. A year ago I was secure in my bank job, happy for the moment to leave pastry on the back burner, and feeling like the banking world was where I would continue my career. Then all the sudden, it was taken away when the company downsized (previous post,) and I was left feeling pretty lost. In October, my husband surprised us with a "Hey, do you want to move to North Carolina in three weeks??" After moving here, I realized that there are NO bakeries (other than supermarkets!) and I'm now on track to open my own dessert cafe/bakery. Currently I have everything ready to go, just trying to get working capital together to open my doors. Here are a few things I've been working on, plus the business logo! To see some more, check out my facebook page.... www.facebook.com/frostinginc .








New business logo!!!





















































And on deck for this week is a treasure chest cake for Cam's 7th birthday party. Should be a pretty fun cake to do.

A few decorating projects...

The last few years have been pretty tough for me, and I sincerely apologize to all who joined my blog and have not seen any new posts. Like many, the job market has not been kind to me; I had set aside my pastry ways for a little while and exchanged "baker hours" for "banker hours," becoming a teller at a local bank for almost a year. However at the beginning of the summer I found myself jobless again, with a company wide downsizing. I had been so busy with my bank job that I had turned down all baking requests, and I didn't realize just how much I had missed baking and decorating. It never ceases to amaze me how many twists and turns life has, and how what's around the next corner is something I never dreamed could happen. Here's hoping that whatever is coming to me is super amazing...I sure need it!

Here's a few pics of some projects I did this summer...















These cupcakes were great; I used the Moosewood chocolate cake recipe, then decorated some with vanilla buttercream and chocolate shavings, some with chocolate buttercream and milk chocolate drizzle, and some with peanut butter frosting decorated with peanut butter cups and milk chocolate drizzle. I sent some into work with Adam, and I guess everyone liked them!


I absolutely LOVE how this cake turned out!!!! A good friend of mine asked me to make a golf theme cake for her husband's 40th birthday, and this is what I came up with (based on a cake on Cake Central.) He loves chocolate, so all tiers are chocolate cake with whipped dark chocolate ganache filling, and chocolate buttercream under the fondant. The golf ball on top is styrofoam covered with fondant (which I had to laugh, I was discussing with another friend what pans I was going to use to make the golf ball, and how I was worried it wasn't going to end up being round; her response was to use a styrofoam ball....duh, Paige!!!)



My daughter requested a volcano cake for her 9th birthday, and I think my husband was more excited about me making this cake than I was because it meant one thing...HE GOT TO PLAY WITH DRY ICE!!! It was definately a fun cake, and turned out really nice.

Soft Pretzel Awesomeness

These pretzels rooooocked!!!! I cannot even tell you how many times I made them! I originally had found a recipe for soft beer pretzels and they intrigued me, and while they were pretty good, they didn't quite hit the spot. I found this recipe from Allrecipes, and let me tell you, they were fantastic. One tip though, don't skip dipping the shaped pretzel dough in the baking soda/water mixture...I tried some without, and they don't get that nice shiny top...just definitely missing something without.

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

The first time I had chocolate chip pancakes was at a diner that was down the street from the first house my husband and I shared together. Mmmm, the were so yummy...it's been a long, long time since I've had them at that diner, but Saturday and Sundays at our house often include big breakfasts with homemade chocolate chip pancakes. For a long time, my husband made them using a box mix, but a few months ago I found this recipe from Allrecipes and decided to try them out. I think my kids are spoiled now with my version that includes chocolate syrup and whipped cream!

Fluffy Pancakes (Adapted from Allrecipes)

3/4 c. milk
2 tbs vinegar
1 c. flour
2 tbs sugar (I sometimes use brown sugar)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 egg
2 tbs butter, melted
chocolate chips
a glug or two of vanilla
a sprinkling of cinnamon

Combine milk and vinegar and set aside for about 5 minutes to sour. In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda. Whisk egg, butter, vanilla, and cinnamon into the soured milk and then add to flour mixture. Whisk until lumps are gone. Add chocolate chips...more or less as you desire!

Heat up a skillet and spray with cooking spray. Depending on how big you want to make your pancakes (I use a cookie scoop that is on the larger side) pour batter onto the skillet. When batter starts to bubble, flip and cook until browned on the other side.

Like I said, I serve mine all yummy like with chocolate syrup and whipped cream (and maple syrup too, of course!) Super good, and great for a sit down family breakfast!!!

Yankees!

A friend recently asked me to make Yankees themed cookies and cupcakes for a party she was throwing for her father's birthday. I didn't think they turned out too badly, and everyone at the party liked them!

Cinnnnnnamon Rolls

I often refer to my daughter Emily as my "mini-me." I swear I've known since the day she was born that she was just like me. She looks like me and acts like me right down to stubbornness and sarcasm. However, she has one trait that I know she definitely did not inherit from me... she is not a sweets eater....except for when it comes to cinnamon rolls (ok and chocolate ice cream.) I have never seen anyone, child or adult that can polish a tray of cinnamon rolls off like Em can. Cinnamon rolls have always been one of those things that I don't really like to make, most likely because I hadn't found a really good, reliable recipe, until a few weeks ago. Em had asked me one morning if I could make them for her, so I went to Allrecipes and found this recipe. I've made it a few times since, and I think it's a keeper.

Ninety Minute Cinnamon Rolls

3/4 c. milk

1/4 c. butter

3 1/4 c. flour

1 package yeast

1/4 c. sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 c. water

1 egg

1 c. brown sugar, packed

1 tbs. cinnamon

1/2 c. butter, softened

Heat milk in a small saucepan until it slightly bubbles, and add 1/4 c. butter. Stir until melted. Cool until lukewarm (or I added ice until it was lukewarm and then omitted the 1/4 c. water.) Once the milk has come down in temperature, stir in yeast until dissolved (make sure milk is not too hot or it will kill the yeast.)

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt. Add milk mixture and egg, mix all together. Add more flour if needed so that dough is not super sticky. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth, and then cover and let rest for 10 minutes.

Roll dough out into a rectangle and spread with softened 1/2 cup butter. Mix together brown sugar and cinnamon and then spread over the butter. Roll up, pinch the seam to seal an cut into 12 equal pieces.

Place rolls in 12 lightly greased muffin cups and let rise for 30 minutes. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or slightly browned.

One change that I made to them was melting about 1 1/2 c. of milk chocolate and spreading it on the dough before the butter. They baked up great, and Emily said they tasted amazing.

Awareness Ribbon Cookies

The past several years, Memorial Day weekend has been a big event for my family. We have always been involved in the Cystic Fibrosis Great Strides Walk, and about four years ago, my mom started organizing a walk in my hometown. It has turned out to be a big, very successful event. This year we are adding another event to our busy weekend...a 5k! The 5k is going to benefit The Sweet Melissa Fund, which is the awesome organization that paid for my brother's living expenses while he had his lung transplant last June. For the 5k, I was asked to make cookies to for the runners (me included...excited to run, but not excited about the 1/2 mile mountain that is in the course!) so I decided to make sugar cookie cutouts of the awareness ribbon and decorate them green, which is the color for organ donation. The cookies will be bagged and bowed along with a giant oatmeal raisin cookie. I am so anxious to be spending an amazing weekend surrounded by family and friends, raising money for two great causes!!

Spritz!

I love these cookies. Plain and simple. Piped spritz are so beautiful, in my opinion. Dainty and light, so pretty. I've tried many spritz recipes, but think I hit gold with this one.

Butter Spritz Cookies (Adapted from The International Cookie Cookbook by Nancy Baggett)

8 oz butter, softened
2/3 c. confectioners sugar
1 egg yolk
1 1/4 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour

Beat butter until very light, add sugar and egg yolk. Continue beating until very light and fluffy (DO NOT underbeat!!! It will make dough stiff and impossible to pipe!) Add vanilla, and then flour.

Pipe dough using a pastry bag fitted with a star tip (or whatever you would like, really!)

Using baking sheets with parchment paper, bake in a 350 degree oven until cookies are slightly browned at the edges. When cooled, decorate or fill as desired.

I filled some cookies with orange marmalade before baking, sprinkled some with colored sugar, dipped some in milk chocolate, filled some with chocolate-peanut butter, and filled the rest with blackberry jam. Yummm!

Rose Cupcakes!

I had to post these cupcakes....I've made these many, many times and every time I love them even more. This time was for Cammy's spring festival at preschool...I also made them a few days later for Em to take to her Girl Scout leader for Leader Appreciation Week. I have to say I feel like a pretty cool mom for being able to make things like this for my girls!

Cinnamon Roll Cookies=YUMMMMMM

I love when you come across a recipe and you just have that gut feeling that it's going to be a winner. Today I was on Foodgawker, and came across cinnamon roll cookies. I knew instantly that they were going to be amazing...and let me tell you, they were!!! Thanks, Christy from The Girl Who Ate Everything for passing on a recipe that is definitely a keeper!

Cinnamon Roll Cookies
1/2 c. sour cream
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter, softened
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla
3 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

Filling (changed this slightly from the original recipe)
1/2 c. butter, softened
1 c. packed brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon

Frosting
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 c. confectioners sugar
a glug of vanilla
milk to thin to desired consistency (I used only 1 tbs)

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, vanilla and sour cream. (My mixture was a bit lumpy; I couldn't seem to get it completely smooth, but after the flour was added it was fine) Add baking soda, baking powder and salt, and then flour one cup at a time. Wrap dough in a disc shape and chill. (Original recipe calls for chilling for 2 hrs; I threw mine in the freezer for a little bit, but probably will chill for the full amount next time and not be so impatient!!!)

After dough has been chilled, divide it into three equal parts, and roll each part into a rectangle about 1/8 inch thick. I combined my filling ingredients (whipped them with the Kitchenaid) and then spread it equally on each dough rectangle. After the filling mixture has been spread, roll dough into a log shape. I found that the logs were much easier to handle after they had been placed in the freezer for a little while. Using a sharp knife, cut dough into 1/2 inch pieces and then place on a greased baking or parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake cookies at 350 degrees for about 8-10 minutes.

For frosting, combine cream cheese and confectioners sugar. Add vanilla and then thin out with milk. When cookies are cooled frost.

What a month!

It is unbelievable to me that Christmas is only two days away. Wow...how did that happen? And that seems to be the general consensus among everyone I speak to; time is just going so fast. November and December can be summed up in one word...baking! I never thought I would be burned out by being in my kitchen, but boy was I wrong! I even bailed on baking cookies last night with Em and Cam, telling Em that if I turned on my mixer I thought my brain might explode! However, being in the kitchen is such a natural part of my life that I'm sure it won't take long before I feel that "need" to get back in there. Here are a few things that I've whipped up this month...

I didn't think it would be that big of a deal to make red velvet roulade. My first thought was to do just like I had with pumpkin roll and use a regular cake recipe. FYI...that doesn't work. And if you have a red velvet cake recipe that you can do this for, please e-mail it to me! I tried a few different roulade recipes before I found one that actually worked. What a pain! I found this recipe here on Leite's Culinaria. I think it turned out pretty beautiful, especially paired with the el cheapo $1.50 green tray I found.


My 16 year old neighbor also loves to bake, and peanut butter pie is her specialty. Everyone in my neighbor-hood goes nutso over it, so I decided to add it to my list this month. To be honest, this pie is getting me back in the kitchen tomorrow when I whip one up for our own Christmas dinner. Doesn't it look soooo yummy?!!

Peanut Butter Pie (adapted from Allrecipes.com)

1 Oreo cookie pie crust

1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened

1 c. creamy peanut butter

1 c. sugar

1 tbs. butter, softened

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 c. heavy cream plus more for decoration

ganache or chocolate ice cream topping

mini peanut butter cups

In a mixer, beat cream cheese, peanut butter, sugar, butter and vanilla until smooth and airy. Fold in whipped heavy cream until fully incorporated. Spoon into crust and stripe with ganache. Refrigerate until set up and then decorate with more whipped cream and peanut butter cups. Mmmmmm.....

And last but not least...here is a sampling of a smallllll portion of the cookies and candy I made this holiday. I think I counted about 35 different kinds that I baked. Shew!