Saturday, October 29, 2011

Oatmeal Cookies Day!

Wow! Snow storm on the east coast in october! We didn't bargain for that! So, to warm up the house nicely, my daughter and I decided we should bake some cookies! Oatmeal raisin cookies was the obvious choice because they are Daddy's favorite. :))

Among the zillions of other gifts, my daughter actually got a cookie book for her birthday! She feels so grown-up now! She does love helping mommy in the kitchen. :) Anyway, the book is called "501 cookies, the ultimate a-z guide to bars, drops, crescents, snaps, squares and everything that crumbles" by Gregg R. Gillespie. So, she chose a recipe for oatmeal cookies from there. I have about 2-3 other recipes that I have been using over the years and which I like quite a lot, but I enjoy trying out new recipes- you never know when you will find a new keeper! :) So, here is the recipe we used tonight:

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flower
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup (6 oz) rolled oats
1 cup raisins

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
3. In a large bowl, cream the vegetable shortening and sugar (I use my KitchenAid mixer for that- thank God for that thing- it's worth its weight in gold!). Beat in the eggs. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Fold in the oats and raisins.
4. Drop the dough by spoonfuls 1 1/2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet (I personally use a small ice-cream scoop for that job- works like a charm every time!).
5. Bake for 10-12, until lightly golden brown. (I ended up baking mine 1-2 minutes longer.) Transfer to wire racks to cool.


Baking notes: you can add vanilla extract or almond extract to the dough to enhance the flavor of these cookies. (I did put 1 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract in mine.)

Now, although they did turn out pretty good, I wouldn't call them my favorite oatmeal cookies. I guess there were a couple of issues I had with them: 1) I thought the cinnamon was overpowering; 2) I wasn't crazy about the idea of using vegetable shortening instead of butter; and 3) I didn't feel that the recipe had enough oats in it. The other recipes for oatmeal cookies I have use more rolled oats and less flour and produce a slightly chewier and nuttier tasting cookie than these which I would expect from oatmeal cookies. Other than that, these look good, and certainly taste fine, they just wouldn't be my first choice when it comes to oatmeal cookies. But they sure did warm up the house on this freezing, snowy, windy Pctober night! :))) And hopefully Daddy will like them- which in the end is all that matters, because we decided to make them for him in the first place! :)))

Baby Shower Mini Cupcakes

Just made these cuties for a baby shower. They are mini strawberry cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting that has a touch of strawberry flavor in it too. Pink cake, pink frosting, hot pink liners, light pink pearls on top of each one- it's definitely a girlie-girl thing! :))

Testimonial:
"Hi Nadia,
The cupcakes were beautiful and tasted as good as they looked. Loved the strawberry.....The minis were very very cute."


Sunday, October 23, 2011

Flower Fairy Cupcakes

Yet another flower fairy celebration, this time with cupcakes...

Flower fairy cupcake kit by Meri Meri, which I ordered through amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Meri-Cupcake-Kit-Flower-Fairies/dp/B004S3DDEA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319428476&sr=8-1


These wilton cupcake stands are really handy and make for an elegant presentation: http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=4BD856D4-802D-F658-02A787D3CB120535&fid=DA7FB668-423B-522D-F18858CEEA9A326B


The recipe for the cupcakes was from www.allrecipes.com. They were strawberry flavor with buttercream frosting (in which I added some strawberry extract as well :) Here is the exact recipe for the strawberry cake:  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/strawberry-cake-from-scratch/detail.aspx

And these were the matching flower fairy napkins from Meri Meri: http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Ameri+meri+flower+fairies+napkins&keywords=meri+meri+flower+fairies+napkins&ie=UTF8&qid=1319428531&ajr=0


It was a truly magical birthday!:)

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Bake Sale Cupcakes :)

Chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with my signature buttercream frosting- special batch for my church bake sale tomorrow :)

Friday, October 14, 2011

Flower Fairies Birthday Cake

Sheet cake which had to look like a garden with a lot of flowers and flower fairies: my daughter's favorite thing lately! :) 
Half vanilla, half chocolate on the inside with vanilla custard, whipped cream and bananas in between :)

How it started:

How it ended:

Birthday Cupcakes for School :)

These are the vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting I made for my daughter's birthday celebration at school. We played it safe with the flavors. :)

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Birthday Cake for my Sweet Girl :)

This was actually an orange poke cake with orange flavored buttercream not that you could tell from the way it looks on the outside: my daughter wanted it pink, purple and blue :)

Print recipe

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...