Tea Time!

Happy Birthday Aliecia!

This weekend Ashley and I went to woodstock of Aliecia's 21st birthday! Friday when we got there we made cupcakes, cheese dip, bacon bacon dip, and went to pick up Rita's Ice (the best stuff in the world!) When we got back we got ready and went to eat at RuSan's Japanese Steak House! The next day was the highlight of the weekend though! We went to this place in woodstock called Tea Leaves in Thyme! It was basically a place to go and have an old fashioned tea party! and it was so cute!! If you're near woodstock or visiting, this is definitely a place you need to go visit!

for $14 you get unlimited tea in as many flavors you want, with a three-tiered tray of fruit, scones, sandwiches, and desserts! It was so delicious too!

on the top tier the top tier there was fresh watermelon, grapes, cantaloupe, and 3 types of scones: vanilla, poppy seed, and cherry! the second tier had little tea sandwiches, they were egg salad, cucumber, ham, and pimento and cheese! The last tier was the dessert tea and it came full of lemon bars, carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, chocolate date bars, and chocolate mint brownies!

They had SO many different types of teas! and i didn't try one that I didn't like! Some of the ones we ordered were mango green tea, peach tea, creme brulee, vanilla spice, Chinese Lovers Dream, and Strawberry Kiwi! They brought each tea out in a different tea cup, but this one was my favorite!

They also had big hats, scarves, and gloves you could put on while you enjoyed your tea!
here's a few more pictures! =)

Irresistible peanut butter cookies

My boyfriend Wes leaves to go back to school on friday! So i wanted to make him something tasty to take back with him to the apartment! He requested peanut butter cookies so i found this recipe on the Jif website and they turned out SO good! Irresistible is right! I had to make myself stop eating them so there would be enough for him! ;) here's the recipe and i only made one change.. i used crunchy pb instead of creamy!

Ingredients:
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup all vegetable shortening
1 1/4 firmly packed light brown sugar
3 tbsp milk
1 tbsp vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 c all purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp soda

Directions:
preheat oven to 375 F
combine pb, shortening, sugar, milk and vanilla on medium
add the egg and beat until blended
add flour, soda, and salt
roll into balls and flatten with fork on baking sheet
bake for 6-7 mins, or just beginning to brown
makes 3-4 dozen cookies depending on size of cookie.
(mine made about 4 dozen)

the best home made brownies

I was watching food network challenge and they were making cookies.. and one of them was a chewy chocolate cookie, which immediately made me think of brownies.. which i LOVE! but we didn't have any brownie mix! a few years back i tried to make brownies from scratch and they just weren't any good! So i consulted the trusty foodnetwork.com and found a recipe of Alton Brown's that sounded super easy and i gave it a shot! and guess what! it was a super success! these brownies were quick, easy, and delicious! I only made two changes to the recipe which was 1/4 cup less of cocoa powder, because i added the first cup and it was already A LOT of cocoa! and i cooked the brownies in a 10x7 inch pan! i thought they turned out perfect but if you want a darker chocolate taste, go with the original recipe!




Ingredients

• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar, sifted
• 1 cup brown sugar, sifted
• 8 ounces melted butter
• 11/4 cups cocoa, sifted
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup flour, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Butter and flour an 8-inch square pan. (or use my personal favorite bakers joy spray with flour)

In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the eggs at medium speed until fluffy and light yellow. Add both sugars and mix until thick and fluffy. Add remaining ingredients, and mix to combine.

Pour the batter into a greased and floured 8-inch square pan and bake for 45 minutes. Check for doneness with the tried-and-true toothpick method: a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan should come out clean. When it's done, remove to a rack to cool. Resist the temptation to cut into it until it's mostly cool.

Super Savvy Saturday

Thursday I did a little shopping, and I found some really good deals! I'm going to start observing in the classroom this year for my next education class (which i'm REALLY excited about) but i have one problem.
I do NOT look like i'm about to be 21! So i headed out to the mall in hopes of finding some sophisticated clothes to help mature my look a little bit! I hadn't really planned to go to The Limited, but I walked by and saw that cardigans were 30% off! and i LOVE cardigans! So I went in, and turns out, the two cardigans on the top were 30% off AND students get an extra 15% off with your student ID! How great is that!Next I headed to Forever21 and found this adorable black and cream skirt for only $9! I was stoked! The black tank top I got across the street at target for only $8 and the dressy denim capris for only $20! I did need some accessories though, so before I left the mall, i went to forever21 and found those adorable bow hair pins for 1.50, and the earring sets were about $5 a peice! all in all, it was a great shopping day and now i'm super excited to go back to school and start observing at a high school! =)

Chocolate Caramel Heath Cake

Today Ashley and I made a birthday cake for my mom! The ending result turned out great! However, it was quite the adventure getting there!
First, we set out to make a "tried and tested" chocolate cake! Thinking I was being super productive, I pre-measured all of the ingredients.



BUT I made one minor (that turned out to be MAJOR) mistake! I completely forgot to double the sugar!! Long story short, we had tiny layers that tasted like buttery cocoa powder! =(
Earlier, the dog peed on my foot, then i sliced my finger open trying to open a cardboard box! So today definitely wasn't my day! Needless to say, after i realized the cake mishap was ALL my fault, I was less than pleased! So the only thing left to do was to start all over and hope for success!



And the result....



SUCCESS! After a LONG afternoon of baking, it was finally time to start decorating! We decided to use a caramel icing as the filling, chocolate fudge on the outside, and crushed Heath bars on the sides! We topped it all of with some caramel dipped strawberries with fudge stripes! Here's our masterpiece!




If you would like our recipe (which was absolutely delicious) here it is:


½ stick of butter
2 tbsp cocoa powder
½ cup of milk
1 tbsp of Nutella
2 eggs
¾ cup sugar
1 cup self rising flour

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F
In a skillet, melt butter, cocoa powder, milk, and nutella. Don't try it in he microwave, it doesn’t work!
In a separate bowl, beat eggs until fluffy, 1/4 cup at a time; add in the sugar, beating each time until sugar is dissolved. Let sit 1 minute or so, and beat again until fluffy. Repeat as necessary. this step is very important! the fluffier, the better!
Fold in the sifted flour alternately with the butter/cocoa/milk mixture (make sure its at room temperature before folding it in.)
Pour into 9-inch greased round cake pan. We recommend Baker’s Joy with flour baking spray! It’s the best! My cakes came out stunningly perfect without the flour residue! And the best part.. the spray is fat free, unlike oil sprays!
Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes! Or until the top spring back when lightly touched!

*if making a double layered cake, we would recommend following the directions twice; without doubling the recipe! Our first attempt, we tried doubling and ended up in the trash!

Key Lime Pie with home made Whipped Cream

Ingredients:
PIE:
14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup fresh key lime juice(i used about 8 keylimes)
3 egg yolks
8 inch unbaked pie shell

WHIPPED CREAM:
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Directions:
Place a bowl in the freezer(you'll use it later for the whipped cream)
Bake the pie crust according to the directions on the back.
Then turn the oven down to 325 F
In a medium bowl combine the condensed milk and keylime juice. Blend in the egg yolks.
Pour into the cooled crust and bake for 10 minutes.

For the whipped cream,
remove the bowl from the freezer.
With an electric mixer, beat the cream, sugar, and vanilla until stiff peaks form. Spread on the pie, or use a piping bag and star tip to create my look. =)

confusion, cakes, and cupcakes!

SO i was feeling pretty proud of myself for figuring out the template and background change! Then i wanted to change my font so it would look super cute like Lesle's (http://lifeinitsordinaryform.blogspot.com/) but, i'm stuck! I can't figure it out! =( so for now i'll have boring plain font!
Yesterday at church i showed Leslie a picture of my ladybug cake and i told her i'd post it! along with some other desserts! so here are some recent desserts i've made!



My Roommate Aliecia and I made this lady bug cake for our other roommate Katie! She LOVES lady bugs so much we call her Katiebug! =) The icing is just regular icing we died with wilton gel food coloring and the decorations are fondant also died with wilton food coloring.


This is the cake I made for my sister on her birthday last year! the icing again, is regular store bought lemon icing, died with "sky blue" wilton gel food coloring! And the daisies are a wilton fondant cut out! All supplies were bought at Micheal's =)




These are the cupcakes I made this easter! i piped the green icing to look like grass, used "robin eggs" candy for the eggs, peeps for the chickies, and the egg is an air head i cut with a regular knife!