Canape Bread Mold

So I bought a new toy for myself to play with in the kitchen last week. Behold, a canape bread mold.

Canape basically means decorative, one-bite food, or hors d'oeuvres. I like to make these finger foods for gatherings when friends come over. Instead of buying these small breads at the grocery store, I figured I would make them myself. It was extremely easy, and fun as well.

I started off by making the original canape bread recipe provided with the kit. I divided the dough up by 3, and flavored two of them to my liking.

I made a dry pepper salami & cheese bread, a cinnamon sweet bread, and plain canape bread. The salami & cheese one was the best!

Salami & Cheese, Cinnamon, Plain

The mold came in three shapes, a heart, start, and flower. Which will be great for holiday theme!

So here is the plain canape bread recipe:

Ingredients:

1 1/4 Cup warm milk

1/4 Cup melted butter

1 1/4 tps salt

3 to 4 Cup of all-purpose flour

2 Tbs of warm water (115F)

1 package of active dry yeast

1 tps sugar

Directions:

1. Stir together water, sugar and yeast in stand mixer bowl. Let foam for 10 minutes.

2.  Warm milk with butter, add salt. Add to the yeast.

3. Knead on medium for 7 minutes, or until the dough pulls away from the side of bowl. I used 3 1/2 cups of flour.

4. Put in an oiled bowl, let rise for 1 hr.

5. Punch down, divide into three pieces.

6. Flavor them or leave plain. I added 1 tps of cinnamon and 1 Tbs sugar to one piece, and 1/3 cup chopped salami and 1/2 cup cheddar cheese to the other.

7. Shape into logs and place into greased canape bread mold.

8. Let rise for 45 mins.

9. Preheat oven to 375 F.

9. Put caps on, and bake for 30 to 35 minutes.

10. ENJOY!

Thanksgiving Sugar Cookies

I was feeling creative this past week, and wanted to play with royal icing. I wanted to practice my piping skills. I made these.

Aren't they cute? They took a long time to make, since I am so bad at piping. I packaged the finished cookies up and sent them to my mother-in-law today.

This is the sugar cookie recipe I used:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/the-best-rolled-sugar-cookies/

This is the royal icing:

6 oz (3/4 cup) of warm water
5 Tablespoons meringue powder
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
2.25 lb powdered icing sugar

 Directions:

In mixer bowl, pour in the warm water and the meringue powder. Mix it with a whisk by hand until it is frothy and thickened…about 30 seconds.

Add the cream of tartar and mix for 30 seconds more.

Pour in all the icing sugar at once and place the bowl on the mixer.

Using the paddle attachment on the LOWEST speed, mix slowly for a full 10 minutes. Icing will get thick and creamy.

Cover the bowl with a dampened tea-towel to prevent crusting and drying.

Tint with food colors or thin the icing with small amounts of warm water to reach the desired consistency.

I hope you guys find the time and creativity to make them too!

Teabag Cookies

So, as you all know (or will know). I will be getting married in August, and I need a bridal shower! This weekend is that perfect time to squeeze in the bridal shower. The theme of my shower is... Hello Kitty Tea Party. =]

I love hello kitty, and I love tea parties. What better excuse to make and bake cute desserts? I started on the teabag cookies today, to make sure I had time for the other desserts to come this weekend. Aren't they just cute?

They are actually quite easy to make. First, you will need your favorite rolled sugar cookie recipe. I used this one, but baked at a different temperature:

Sugar Cookie Recipe

Then you will need to cut out a tea bag template out of parchment paper. Manually cut out each cookie with a knife or bench scraper outlining the template over the rolled dough. I used a #10 round piping tip to cut a hole for the string in each cookie.

Bake for 7-9 mins at 350.

Once the cookies cool, dip 1/3 of the bottom on the cookie in chocolate. Allow to dry on parchment paper.

Make the cute tea bag strings, I used hello kitty, since it is a hello kitty tea party!

I'm excited to show you the rest of the desserts and party favors for the tea party in the following days! I sewed each guests a hello kitty purse, filled with lovely loot. =]

Zebra Stripe Cake and Uniform Sized Fondant Ball Border

I made a cake yesterday. It was my first zebra stripe cake. I thought it would be pretty easy and fast, but it was very time consuming.

I planned out where to place the stripes before "gluing" it down to the cake. That's probably why it took so long. In addition to that, rolling the fondant ball border took a while also. I learned a neat trick though to get the balls to be all the same size.

To get uniform or same sized balls for your border, you roll out your fondant flat using spacers, or rolling bands to get it to the same width. Then, using any small cookie cutter, cut out several pieces. Then roll them into balls. Every ball will be the same size. Yay.

The stripes were pretty random, I just cut them out randomly, but carefully planned the placement of each stripe. On top of the cake, there is suppose to be the letter "G" in hot pink fondant. It was still drying when I took this photo. 

I learned another trick to get fondant to dry quicker and more sturdy. Add gumpaste. I made a 1/2 gumpaste 1/2 fondant mixture and formed the initial "G," it was the only one that defied gravity. The pure fondant ones broke. Sad =[ Gumpaste is my new love.

This is the letter "G" that will go on top of the cake.

Just imagine it on top. =]

I have been pretty busy this month making custom desserts for people. I'm having tons of fun and learning all these neat tricks that I get to share with you. I'm going to post some wedding sugar cookies I did this week next.

Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes

I had a small birthday party this past Saturday. I was planning to make cupcakes instead of a cake for over a month now. I just didn't know what flavor to make. The horror.

So I decided to make something I'd like to eat the night before the party - cinnamon rolls. So I came up with a cinnamon roll cupcake. The guests loved it! They even took some home. 

I also made tons of other foods. I made mini New York style cheesecakes with a raspberry sauce, chocolate dipped pretzels, mini donuts, caramel popcorns, red velvet cake pops...and oh yes - savory foods too. Which included bruschetta, chipotle shrimp wonton cups, buffalo wings, and mini pretzel dogs. The beverage of choice was raspberry lemonade. 

 Of course, in the picture below, some guests have already eaten some foods before I could shoot a picture. Oh wells.

The cupcakes are actually quite easy to make. I'm sure you and your family will love them too!

CUPCAKES:

Basic Yellow Cake Recipe -> FOUND HERE Or use Yellow Cake Mix

1 Cup brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line 24 cupcake pans with liners.

Prepare the basic yellow cake batter. Use the recipe above or store bought cake mix.

Fill each cupcake liner 1/4 full with batter. Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of cinnamon mixture all over the cupcake batter. 

Fill each cupcake liner again until 2/3 full, but no more. Sprinkle another teaspoon of cinnamon sugar. Using a toothpick, swirl the cinnamon sugar all over the cupcake.

Bake for 15 mins, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a rack.

FROSTING:

8 oz block of cream cheese, softened

1 stick of butter

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 cups of powdered sugar

In the bowl of a mixer, using paddle attachment, cream butter with sugar until fluffy. Add cream cheese and vanilla. Beat until combined, about 2 minutes. Frost cupcakes.

GLAZE:

1 stick of butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt butter with sugar and cinnamon until combined and pourable, but not boiled. Let cool for a minute and drizzle over frosted cupcakes.

I hope you enjoy these cupcakes as much as my guests did.

Mini Fruit Tarts

I made mini fruit tarts before, but not this tiny. These can be eaten in one bite, a little bigger than the size of a quarter. I made 70+ tart shells from the dough, which is enough for a 9 inch tart shell. I made these mini fruit tarts for my fiance's co-workers. They were a complete hit!

So the recipe for the original fruit tarts can be found here. Make the dough and pastry cream, then follow the directions below to make them extra miniature. If you don't have a food processor, you can cut the butter into the flour using a pastry cutter.

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

After chilling the dough for 2 hours, roll the dough out on lightly floured surface to 1/8 inch thick. Using rolling pin bands will help make the dough thickness even throughout. 

Use a 2 inch round cookie cutter with scalloped edges to cut out several small shell pieces. Flip a miniature muffin pan upside down. You will be using the back of the muffin pan to shape the shells. Place one shell piece on each muffin-hill. Try to center it in the middle.

Bake for 5 - 7 minutes, or until light golden. Remove baked shells, and repeat with remaining dough.

Proceed by filling each shell with a small amount of pastry cream and decorate with fruits. Enjoy!

 The recipe for the original fruit tarts can be found here.

First Year Birthday Cake

Tomorrow, March 28, marks my blog's first birthday. I baked a two tier cake for my blog! This is my first tiered cake with columns. I enjoyed making it!

During the first year, my top three favorite recipes to make and eat are:

Click for Recipes

1. Chocolate Molten Lava Cake

2. Opera Cake

3. New York Cheesecake

Of course making Cake Pops was definitely an honorable mention.

I hope you guys enjoy my first year of recipes. I'm excited to continue posting new ideas and recipes in the years to come.