Birthday Celebration

My mom's birthday was just a couple weeks ago. I think she finally admitted to being 39 this year, so that's a huge improvement. Not sure what she is going to do when I turn 30 in 2 years, but I'm sure she will think of something. Jay and I went up to the lake house to celebrate for the weekend. She doesn't like to request a fuss, but enjoys every second of it when you do. Dad has a really keen sense of knowing what mom wants for Christmas and her birthday every year. He gives me a budget and signs the card when it arrives purchased, and wrapped. Amazing how he always knows!! So this year, I decided to bake a cake for her along with my shopping expedition. I have been pinning at work when it's been slow, and if you follow me on Pinterest, you know it's been slow quite often. I keep seeing these beautiful rosette cakes that make such an impact. I am not a huge cake person because of the fact that I just hate icing them. They are an OCD person's worst nightmare. That is why I typically stay with cupcakes that are easy to put a rosette on top of and move on. After seeing cakes with the same design, I just knew I had to try it.

What made this baking experience so interesting and worth blogging about was not the design. It was the never-ending process of getting it finished. My parents just had their kitchen remodeled, so things were a bit out of whack. I brought my KitchenAid mixer that my wonderful MIL bought me, since my mom refuses to get herself one. Will probably have to add that into dad's budget for Christmas this year. I mean, who can live without that? I figured she would have plenty of 8" or 9" round pans for baking, because they are the same ones I grew up baking in. WRONG! After trying to convince me to change it to a sheet cake I had had enough. I sent everyone down to the lake, ran to Target, and bought new pans. There was only one way this cake was going to look, and that was 9 inches of round fabulousness!

I have to say, the rosettes are super easy and I think they look phenomenal. Really classy and could be done in any flavor, color or style of cake. Just gives it a little something extra. However, it used a TON of icing. I used 3 - 8oz packages of cream cheese, and 6 cups of powdered sugar. I could feel my waste expanding as I made it. It also weighed a ton. But, it ended up feeding us after dinner, and about 12 guys at work the next day.

I just really love how it turned out!

Everyone in our house loves Red Velvet Cake, and what's not to love? So, for my cake I decided on a 3 layer Red Velvet with cream cheese icing. Classic!

Would love to try one of these again with another color/flavor, just give me a reason and I would be happy to bring something over to you!

Hiatus - It's All About the Sweets

As you can tell, I have been on a bit of a blogging hiatus. Between days spent at the lake, and projects around the house, I have been trying to figure out to be the perfect southern wife. I have pretty big shoes to fill. My mother is the epitome of a southern woman. Even though she was raised in Indy, she was born in Texas, and you just can't take that out her. She takes care of the house, cooks (most of the time) amazing meals, always has the fridge full of wine and chocolate, and can make a mean martini. My mother-in-law is also in the running for mom of the year award. Not sure what I would do without these women in my life. I'm trying to figure out how to become the women they are, while still maintaining some Southern Charm! I love being Southern. What's not to love? Words are as long as the porches we drink our sweet tea on. In my quest to Southern wifedom, I have been baking, painting around the house, and enjoying some time with my sweet husband.

I am ending the hiatus today with a quick look into some pink lemonade cupcakes I made this week. It was a new recipe, Found Here! They were really good, especially if you like the bitter sweet taste of lemonade. It looks like there are alot of steps, and ingredients, but it is pretty easy to put together, and I made a dozen of them in about an hour.

It felt really good to get back in the kitchen and bake. It's been a while, and I have to say it was pretty relaxing. I have some pictures for you too!

I wanted to try a new frosting technique as well. I just love the rosettes, and they are so easy to do. I can't believe I hadn't done this before. You start in the middle of the cupcake, and ice towards the outside. I used a Walton 1M tip and a large coupler. I had to do a couple of cupcakes with an exorbitant amount of icing. I think it's fun and that people need an excess of icing in their lives! 

Can't wait to share some more projects with you. I have a couple of small, and one big one on the way! No more hiatus for this southern wife, I'm back baby!!

To Die For Sweets!

Going to Bethany's Bachelorette Bash definitely made me want to bake something phenomenal. I knew Anna was doing a cake, but I figured something else small and sweet would be fun. I decided to make Peanut Butter Cheesecake Squares and Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries. Here are the recipes, and they turned out amazing.

Peanut Butter Cheesecake (from Kraft Recipes)

15 oreos crushed

2 tbsp butter, melted

1 (8ox) package cream cheese

1/4 c peanut butter

1/3 c sugar

1 egg

Chocolate chips, melted

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Mix cookie crumbs and butter. Next, press firmly into 8" square pan.

Beat cream cheese, peanut butter, and sugar until mixed. Add egg. Beat until well blended. Spoon over crust and bake for 18-20 minutes.

For added taste, melt chocolate chips and drizzle after cheesecake has cooled.

**For easier removal out of 8" brownie pan, line with foil first. After cheesecake has cooled, it will pop right out of pan for easy cutting.

20 strawberries

8 oz cream cheese

1/2 c powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 sleeve graham crackers, crushed

Core strawberries. It is easiest to core these with a paring knife. Just watch your fingers in case knife pops out of bottom of strawberry.

Mix cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla. It is easiest to fill strawberries if you pipe it into them. Once they are filled, dip them into the crushed graham crackers to give them that cheesecake feel.

Both of these recipes were surprisingly easy, and were a hit!

Rice Krispie Cupcakes

I had to try this recipe that I saw on Pinterest last week...I am pretty sure everyone has repinned this somewhere on one of their boards. I went to Kroger, not knowing that they actually carried strawberry marshmallows. I threw in a bag of pink marshmallows, 2 tbsp of butter and let it melt. Then I added 6 cups of Rice Krispie treats. This is what we ended up with....

B - E - A - utiful pink marshmallows before I added the Rice Krispies. 

I sprayed my muffin pan with some non-stick spray, then sprayed my entire left hand with the same spray. This ensured that will I was patting the treats down in the tray nothing stuck to me. 

You don't have to let them sit but 15 seconds before the form. I used a toothpick in order to pick them out of the tray easier. Didn't get any sticky anywhere. 

This is the creation I was finished with. I took all of the pink ones into work, and sent Jay with quite a few of them as well. I think that the strawberry icing was too sweet for the already pretty sweet rice krispie treats. I made some more for a friend's graduation party and used chocolate icing instead, those turned out quite a bit better. I guess you could always use vanilla icing and just color it pink if you are sticking with the pink theme. Either way, they were fun and tasted pretty good! 

One bag of marshmallows makes about 15 cupcake treats in a standard size cupcake pan. They would even be fun in a mini sized pan for tiny size treats!! 

Flowers for a Friend

My favorite blonde friend and her husband are coming into town this weekend, so you know I had to make something sweet! I saw some cute flower cookies and decided I would break out my flower cookie cutters and just decorate them in some fun colors. I got teal, bright pink, and (how did I not own this color before?) orange! I have really decided that decorating cookies is an extremely relaxing hobby. Now, if I just knew enough people that would take all of these cookies from me so I don't become HUGE! I think that these turned out pretty cute, not sure I'm in love with the teal ones, but the rest I would definitely make again. It's all about learning and re-creating! Also, it was my first experiment with edible glitter, and let's just say if I could glitter everything I would at this point! Everyone needs a little sparkle in their life!

Orange outline, white flood, and orange glitter!

Orange outline, orange flood, and tons of glitter! Wasn't sure what to do with these after I glittered them!

Teal outline, teal flood, white flower!

Pink outline, pink flood, orange center, and white dots for a little something extra ;)

A Birthday to Remember

Yesterday was my, let's call it, 23rd birthday. I have an issue with getting old, so we can go from there! Of course, Jay is the best husband in the entire world and made my birthday spectacular! He made me breakfast yesterday morning while I was getting ready for work, took me out to dinner, and got me the best presents a girl could ask for. He even let me watch Bravo without complaining one bit, and that's a miracle in itself. All in all, it was the best married birthday I have ever had ; )

I have an obsession with Tory Burch...and now I can wear her all the time! These will go amazingly with my navy blue bag and all of my gameday attire. Plus, they will be great all summer while we are at the lake!

They might even go amazingly with my new seersucker bathing suit. All of you that know me well, know that a southern wife cannot live without seersucker in her life. I mean we even had the boys wear seersucker instead of a tux at our wedding. I have been wanting this, but never went about getting it. Just couldn't Justify it!

After we went to dinner.

Rocking my 5" blue Joan and Davids. Love dressing up. We went to Dominick's in Lawrenceville for dinner, just thinking about it now is making me want to go back right now!

A Very Festive Cookie

I decided to try out a new icing technique last week since we were getting close to the 4th of July. I have never used royal icing on a sugar cookie before, and was pretty excited to see how it would turn out. I can honestly say that I do need some more practice, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. I actually had a lot of fun making them too.

Before you can start filling in any colors, you have to make an outline of some sort and let it dry. This creates a dam that the rest of the icing fills into.

After I had filled all of the colors in. They must be done color by color so the don't run.

I made some smaller cookies too that were just red. They ended up being the biggest hit since you could just pop them in your mouth.

Thinking about trying something else this week too. Not sure what, but I definitely want some more practice at this icing. So much fun!

Happy Father's Day

I wanted to make something fun for Father's Day. Jay and I got a present for my dad and everything, but every girl knows something edible is what your Dad will remember most. I decided to try out a new cupcake recipe I found online through Martha Stewart. I'm not a huge Martha fan...but that girl can make some cupcakes. I decided to go with a vanilla cupcake and cream cheese icing. This was only because Martha's Buttercream frosting is a major fail! Very complicated and tastes horrible. I will post both recipes down below in case you are feeling creative this week!

I decided to go with the muffin pan that makes a little bit bigger cupcake than normal. I think they are easier to and more fun to decorate this way!

I decorated them two different ways. The first way was made to look like the beach. I colored them a light brown and added brown sugar to the top to make it look like sand.

I the other cupcakes I made the icing a teal blue and added blue sprinkles to make them shiny. Then added Swedish Fish (which you can only find at Target anymore...ask Jay we looked at 3 places ; )

I added the umbrellas to the beach cupcakes to give them more of a beach feel! I absolutely love these!

All of the decorated cupcakes together on the counter! Don't you just feel beachy??

Recipes:

Vanilla Cupcakes (makes 3 dozen):  From Martha Stewart
4 1/2 c. flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 cup and 2 tbsp unsalted butter (room temp)
2 1/4 c sugar
6 large eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
1 1/4 c milk

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
2. In a seperate bowl, beat butter and sugar on medium-high until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Mix the egss, one at a time, scraping down sides of bowl as needed, until well blended. Mix in vanilla.
3. Add flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with milk in 2 batches, beating until combined after each. Divide batter evenly among tins. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until tops spring back when lightly touched, about 20 minutes. Let cool and decorate!

Cream Cheese Frosting (Grandma's Recipe)
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 c butter, softened
2 c sifted confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vailla, then gradually stir in the confectioner's sugar. Store in fridge after use.


Happy Decorating!!

Happy Memorial Day!!

Hope everyone had a fun and safe Memorial Day! Jay and I did what we do best, float around the lake for threee straight days. It was really great to relax and spend some time family since things have been crazy since we got married 7 weeks ago! We spent most of our time lounging in the lake, but were able to get out on the boat for a while yesterday. It wasn't too terribly crowded around lunch time so we went for a cruise and then hit Fish Tales, my favorite lake spot, for lunch. They make an amazing fried mac n cheese, exactly what you need after 100 beers and trying to maintain a bikini body! Check it out sometime if you are up on Lanier.

Gorgeous view from the front of the boat!

Still chillaxin...tryin to get my tan on!

Haley, who is terrified of water, spent quite a bit of time on the float we tied to the dock. I think she was lovin it! Such a tough life for a dog!

It's All About the Cake!!

When I started planning our wedding, the one thing I couldn't wait to do was try cake. That is my favorite part of every meal. When I finally was able to do this, I was amazed by how different the bakeries could actually be. I just figured that if you are a successful bakery you probably have some pretty good cake. I was so wrong. Most of the cakes I tried were dry and needed more frosting than they gave me to sample. But, there was light at the end of the tunnel. Sugar Kneads in Lawrenceville has the most amazing cake I have ever tasted. It melts in your mouth, and they truly love what they do. I sat down with the man who owns the shop, and he looked like he would fit in better at a heavy metal concert. But, he was so nice, and baking beautiful cakes is truly his passion. I went in with an idea in mind of something I had seen on the Knot. He took my idea and ran with it, and even made the perfect groom's cake for Jay. I'll add their contact info below the photos if you are in need of anything from a birthday cake to a wedding cake, or just a cupcake pick-me-up in the afternoon.

They made each layer extra tall. Each layer consisted of vanilla cake, strawberry filling, chocolate cake, chocolate ganche filling, and another layer of vanilla cake. It tasted like divine chocolate covered strawberries. He actually did a fake layer on the bottom in order to give it the height it needed.

Jay wanted chocolate with chocolate filling in his cake, so that is what he got! Sugar Kneads added the Red Sox logo so Jay could have a taste of his favorite Boston team!

If you are looking for a bakery you can stop in call Sugar Kneads. Their number is 678-639-1134. They are expanding into a new shop on May 31st. Their new address is 150 Highway 78, Suite 700, Loganville, GA. Or you can check out more of their pictures at Sugar Kneads Online