Breakfast Goodies

The first morning after I got my new mixer, I decided to make breakfast for my family. So I made these cute little Cinnamon Sugar Breakfast Puffs I found. They are just like a cross between a muffin and a donut. And sooooo yummy!

So much cinnamon and sugary goodness. Then 2 days later, we were going to my aunt and uncle's house to have breakfast and see all their Christmas presents. I made lemon poppy seed muffins to take with us. I got the recipe out of the cookbook my wonderful boyfriend gave to me for Christmas. It was originally lime poppy seed muffins, but I changed it because I had some lemons in my fridge that I needed to use. Here's the recipe:


Ingredients (Makes 12-15 muffins)
3/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
1 1/2 cups ap flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg white
2/3 cup milk
1 tbsp lemon zest
2-3 tbsp lemon juice (depends on how lemony you want them)
2 tsp poppy seeds


1) Line muffin pan with muffin papers, or oil the pan
2) Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Then add in sugar and stir together
3) In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, egg white, oil, and milk together. Then stir in lemon juice and lemon zest. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture, then add the poppy seeds and gently stir together. Do not overstir.
4) Fill each cup about 2/3 full.
5) Bake at 375 degrees F for 20-25 minutes, or until risen and golden.

Christmas cake & my presents!

 On Christmas morning, I got the best present a teenage baker could ask for....A KITCHENAID STAND MIXER. And lucky me, it was the color I wanted too! The thing was a beautiful shade of ice blue. Needless to say, when I opened it, I cried. A lot. Like that kind of crying where your face gets all red and puffy. So not attractive, but totally worth it. Here's me opening it:

As you can see, I was completely shocked. Here's me with it:

Between my parents, the rest of my family, and my boyfriend, I got tonnnnssss of baking stuff. I'll give you a list: 

• cookbook holder
• set of 4 different sized spatulas
• roll and cut mat
• food writer markers
• cake leveler
• lots of cookbooks
• cake tester
• mini loaf pans
• giant cupcake mold
• giant cookie mold
• icing gun
• 2 6 inch round cake pans
• parchment paper
• pink heart shaped edible glitter
• black, gray, white edible glitter
• mini heart teacake pan
• purple crystal sprinkles
• cupcake papers
• cupcake necklace

So I was a pretty happy girl this Christmas. I'm all stocked up with my baking supplies for a while! For the Christmas day celebration at my Mammaw's house, I made a cake for the dessert. It was a white cake that I split into two bowls, and dyed half red and half green. I covered it in buttercream frosting and tried my best with the decorations. 

Here's the inside:

Cake Pops

So I made some cake pops last week and completely forgot about posting pictures on here. They turned out pretty cute. I loved the sprinkles I used on them. The red dipped ones were red velvet cake on the inside. And the chocolate dipped ones were yellow cake.  I absolutely love cake pops. A few months back, my aunt got me Bakerella's cake pop book. And I adore it. I've made a few from the book so far, but I plan on doing every single one. Because they are just that cute! I made the cupcake bites the same day I got the book. Here's a picture: 

I also made the christmas tree cake pops. But sadly, I accidentally deleted the pictures I took. Oops! So here are the ones I made last week:

I'll do a post tomorrow of the cake I made for Christmas. Hope everyone had a nice Christmas!

Holiday Cupcakes!

 A few weeks ago, my grandma (Mammaw, as I call her) got me two different packs of cupcake papers. And for the past week, I've been pondering over what kind to make and how to decorate them. I wanted to do some kind of topper on it, but just couldn't figure it out. Then it hit me like a snowstorm! Chocolates from a holiday candy mold I have! The one cupcake paper had a wreath on the bottom, so I used a little red bow on the top. The second paper had polka dots all over it, with a picture of Santa and a fun phrase on the bottom. So I used multicolored light bulbs. Here's two photos of the cupcake papers:

I wanted to make a cupcake I've never made before. And I just so happened to be cruising on different blogs and found a recipe for a snickerdoodle cake. So I turned it into cupcakes. Here's the recipe from A Bit of Bees Knees, a blog that I absolutely adore!

Ingredients


1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 

1 1/2 cups cake flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

2 sticks butter, softened to room temperature

1 3/4 cups fine or superfine sugar

4 large eggs, room temperature

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups whole milk, warmed to room temperature

-Preheat oven to 325°F. 

-Butter and flour two 8- or 9-inch round cake pans.

-In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

-Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy and pale in colour.

-Beat the eggs in one at a time, fully incorporating each egg and scraping down the bowl between each addition.

-Add about 1/3 of the milk, beat to incorporate, then 1/3 of the flour, again beating to incorporate.

-Repeat this process, scraping down the bowl as necessary, until all of the milk and flour are added and mixed in evenly.

-Divide the batter evenly between the two pans and bake, rotating midway through, for about 35 minutes or until the cake tests done.

-Let the cakes cool in the pan on a rack for 5 minutes before turning out onto the racks to finish cooling.

I decided to make the frosting my dad uses for his red velvet cake. It so good, and not too sweet like buttercream can be. Problem is, I didn't do it correctly. I actually didn't even notice it until I had all the cupcakes iced and decorated. The butter SEPERATED! I was so upset, but there was nothing I could do. It was already late at night. It tasted fine, just looked really crappy. I loved the concept of my idea, so that's why I am posting this on here. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother. So here are my cupcakes. Please excuse the horrible icing.

Doggie Treats

I decided to make some treats for a Christmas present for my dog, as well as all the other doggies in my life. This includes family member's dogs, my parent's friend's dogs, and my boyfriend's dogs. TONS OF DOGS! I found the recipe while searching on Google. It took me to a blog called things for boys. I also found tons of other great ideas there too! Here's the recipe directly from the blog:

Doggie Treats
makes about 60

160g (1 1/2 cups) rolled oats (quick cooking or regular) 
50g (1/3 cup) margarine 
1 1/4 cups boiling water 
1 beef or chicken stock cube
185g (1 cup) peanut butter
1 egg
300g (2 cups) wholemeal flour

Preheat oven to 165ºC (330°F) and line 2 baking trays with baking paper. In a large bowl, combine rolled oats, margarine, stock cube and boiling water. Let stand 10 minutes. Thoroughly stir in peanut butter and egg. Mix in flour, until a stiff dough has formed. 
Knead dough on a lightly floured surface. You may need to add a little more flour as needed until dough is smooth and no longer sticky. Roll or pat out dough to 5 mm thickness. I find the dough is a bit rubbery, so I don't need to roll it between sheets of baking paper, it goes fine straight on the bench. Cut with cookie cutter or a knife and place 1 cm apart onto the prepared baking trays. Bake 35 to 45 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown. Cool before serving. 

You can leave them plain, or use dog safe icing for some extra bling. I chose to make some of them look prettier by using icing!

Now here are my treats:

As you can see, there were a few icing drips.

And some more here too.

All bagged up and ready to be given!

If you have some sweet pups in your life, make them some homemade dog treats for in their stockings. They'll love you even more!


Linking with:
Craft-O-Maniac Monday

Christmas Sugar Cookies

 It's Christmas cookie season, everyone! A few days ago, I made some sugar cookies for a Christmas party I was attending for a club I'm in. I made 40 of them and it took about 5 hours. I'm still getting the hang of it. Anyways, they were a huge hit. Everyone loved them, and I got TONS of compliments. It definitely boosted my baking confidence by a lot! Here soon, I'll be making some gingerbread men and snowmen. Wish me luck!

Candy Canes and Peppermint Pinwheels

Christmas Trees and Ornaments

Linking with: 
Pink Saturday

Cupcakes, aka my favorite things to make!

Cupcakes. A word that can make any little kid smile. Now I'm no longer a little kid, but I still love cupcakes with all my heart. In my opinion, they're one of the best things ever invented. Just the concept of your own personal cake is enough to win me over. There are the simple cupcakes, like vanilla or chocolate. And there are also exotic ones, like the cupcakes you see on one of my favorite tv shows...Cupcake Wars. So today I'd like to share a few photos of cupcakes I've made. None of them are crazy flavor combinations, but they're still good. I also try my best to make them look pretty. I mean, they do say you eat with your eyes first, right? 

Sports themed cupcakes for my little
sisters  t-ball team..they were blue.

Chocolate cupcake with Kahlua buttercream.

French Vanilla cupcake with cheesecake
 whipped cream frosting.

Butterscotch cupcake with caramel frosting.

Chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting
(they've never been my favorite, but after changing
the frosting, i've changed my opinion)

Candy Corn cupcakes at Halloween time.

Cakes, pies, and the not so good experiences while making them

So as I promised, today's post will just be a few pictures of cakes and pies I've done recently. To be completely honest, I'm not very good at making cakes....yet. I have difficulties with leveling and frosting. I make messes, a lot of them. I guess that means I still need more practice with this specific skill. Also, I despise making pies. I'm not even crazy about eating them. But at the beginning of fall, I figured I should try to make a pie. My very first one. It was a caramel apple pie. Pictured directly below.

Now sure, it looks pretty. And it tasted good. But I had an awful time with the caramel. I made my own, and I guess it wasn't thick enough. Because when it was done baking, the pie was watery. I kid you not, the apples floated around like inner tubes in a swimming pool. I had to spoon as much of it out as I could. So, not a good experience for a first time pie baker. The next pie I made was a chocolate cream pie. Turned out alright, except I wasn't thrilled with the taste of the crust. I definitely need to find a good crust recipe. I'm on the lookout! Here's a picture of it:

   
The first cake I made was a rose cake inspired by Amanda at I Am Baker. It was a white cake with a lemon buttercream. It was delicious!

The next cake was for my little sister's 5th birthday. It was a yellow cake, with an oreo whipped cream filling, and buttercream on the outside. Sprinkled with oreo crumbs.

Now, the next cake I am going to show you has a story behind it. This was back in October, and my dad's birthday was coming up. He was turning 40. So I decided I wanted to take a whack at making his famous red velvet cake for his birthday celebration. When they were done, I pulled them out of the oven and set them on cooling racks to cool. I then proceeded to go sit in my living room to watch tv while I waited. Not even a minute later, I heard a loud racket in the kitchen. I ran to see what it was. Come to find out, it was my dog, Max, eating the cake (Just to inform you, Max is a 115 pound chocolate lab. He gets into almost anything if you leave it sitting on the counter. You'd think I would have remembered this, but I didn't). He's so adorable, so I'm not mad for long when he does this. Here are some pictures of him:

So anyways, thank goodness he had only taken a small bite out of one side. So I just cut the cake directly in half. Eventually I came up with a clever idea to still use the cake, and turn it into something better than I had originally planned. It worked out great!

Well thanks for reading, everyone! I'll post some pictures of cupcakes I've done within the past year soon. Then I have a few new things to share....but you'll just have to wait for that (;
     

Welcome to my blog!

Hello there blogging world! My name is Brooke, and as you can see from the title of my blog, I am a teenage baker. About a year ago, I started to bake. I started out really slowly, doing simple stuff that almost anyone can do. With a lot of help from my boyfriend's mom, Lisa (The Enchanted Oven), I learned new baking techniques. She taught me tons of stuff that I didn't know. After a year of practicing, I have become more creative with my flavors and designs. I've also fully committed myself to attending culinary school to get a degree in pastry and baking once I graduate high school. Today I'll add pictures of some sugar cookies I've done within the past year. Next post, I'll add pictures of cakes and pies I've made.

First sugar cookies I've ever made.

Thanks for reading my first ever blog post!