Cake Pops and "Deli cookies"

I call these my "deli cookies" because they were my quick version. Not having my tools there, nor the desire to go all out, this is what you get.

Cake balls, pardon the term, are a piece of cake to make.
Bake a regular cake mix.
Cool, and crumble it up. (It's lots of fun. My niece did this and I think she felt thoroughly rebellious.)
Mix crumbs thoroughly with a can of frosting.
Shape these "suckers" into balls. Once you have them all rolled and on a pan with parchment paper, dip the tip of a sucker stick in melted chocolate and then stick into ball. Refrigerate this till hard. You can put it in the freezer, but when you dip it later, any water crystals will ruin the chocolate. Trust me, from experience.
Once they are hard, dip them in melted chocolate, or cover in fondant. Some (not pictured) I didn't dip in anything. I let them come to room temperature so they were sticky again and just dipped them in sprinkles.
The tops of these pumpkins are green tick tacks.

My first tiered/fondant cake

Here it is.  My first tiered/fondant cake.  It took me about 15 hours.  Lots of work.  I had fun though and will do it again.  The cake started to sink some as I think the moisture was too much when it started to defrost.
It was a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling.
Below you will find the cake recipe. It was a box mix with added ingredients.
The dinosaur was rice krispy treats covered in frosting, then fondant.

White Almond Sour Cream Wedding Cake

• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Total Time: 55 mins
• Servings: 40-50

• 2 (18 ounce) boxes white cake mix ( Betty Crocker or Pillsbury)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 2/3 cups water
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons real vanilla
• 2 teaspoons almond extract
• 2 cups sour cream
• 8 large egg whites

Directions

Place all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir together with a wire whisk.

Add the remaining ingredients and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.

Pour into greased and floured cake pans, filling each pan a little over half full.

Lightly tap cake pans on counter to bring air bubbles to top.

Bake in preheated 325° F oven until cake tests done.

Baking time varies according to the size and depth of pans being used.

For chocolate cake: use chocolate mixes and substitute 6 whole eggs for the egg whites.

For liqueur flavors: substitute alcohol (such as champagne or Kahlua) for about 1 cup of the water in the recipe.

For berry flavors: use frozen berries, thaw reserving the juice. Substitute the berry juice for part of the water in the recipe, and stir the berries in at the end.

For lemon cake: substitute lemon juice for about 1 cup of the water in the recipe, use 6 whole eggs instead of the whites, stir in 1 Tblsp lemon zest, and use 1 tsp of a good lemon extract in place of the almond.

Halloween Cookie Bouquet

Of all the things I do, I love bouquets the most.  My brother is having a Halloween Party and I needed to do something with these extra cookies before they went bad.  And here you have it.

Tip, it can be VERY hard to cook and decorate a cookie on a stick.  No problem. Make the cookie, decorate it, put it in a bad nice and tight and TAPE the stick to the back.  Wah Lah!! 

I do need a new camera.  Blogs are not fun with bad pictures.

Halloween Sugar Cookies

I got this recipe from allrecipes.com.  I was looking to see if there was a recipe that tasted better then my grandma's sugar cookies.  These are not.  If you just rolled them in a ball and cooked them, they were soft and yummy.  If you rolled them and cut them out, they were VERY crunchy.  Still good though.

Soft Sugar Cookies IV

Rated: Submitted By: Laura Stearns Photo By: wifeyluvs2cook Servings: 24

"This Recipe is a State Fair Blue Ribbon winner. This is an easy sugar cookie recipe, you don't have to roll it out, and the cookies are soft and chewy, unlike other sugar cookies. Anybody can make these."

Ingredients:

2/3 cup shortening 2/3 cup butter 1 1/2 cups white sugar 2 eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1/3 cup granulated sugar for decoration

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.	In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, shortening and sugar. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt, stir into the creamed mixture until dough comes together. Roll dough into walnut sized balls and roll the balls in sugar. Place them on an unprepared cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.
3.	Bake cookies 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until bottom is light brown. Remove from baking sheets to cool on wire racks.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2010 Allrecipes.com

Printed from Allrecipes.com 10/16/2010

Here are mine.

I then covered mine in liquid fondant from Wiltons website.  I let them dry several hours.

Quick Pour Fondant Icing

Quick-Pour Fondant Icing is a great choice for covering cakes, cupcakes, cookies or petits fours with a dazzling silky finish. Place lightly iced cakes, cupcakes (narrow end up) or petits fours on cooling grid above a drip pan before pouring.
Source: Cupcake Fun

Ingredients:

• 6 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (about 1 1/2 lbs.)
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon no-color almond extract
• Icing Colors, if desired

Makes: About 2 1/2 cups of icing.

instructions

Cover cupcakes lightly with buttercream icing. Let set 15 minutes.
Place sugar in saucepan. Combine water and corn syrup; add to sugar and stir until well-mixed. Cook over low heat. Don't allow temperature of mixture to exceed 100°F. Remove from heat; stir in extract and icing color.
Place cooled cupcakes or mini cakes on cooling grid positioned over cookie sheet or pan to catch excess icing. Cupcakes which will be covered completely should be turned bottom side up. Pour icing on center of cupcake using pan or measuring cup. Or, pipe icing from a cut decorating bag. Cover the cupcake completely, or use your coating as a glaze to simply cover tops and drip over the sides. Touch up any bare spots with spatula. Let set.
Excess icing may be reheated just to pouring consistency. Don’t overheat the icing as it will lose its shiny finish.

 Be careful, once you pour it immediately starts to set up.  After that, any drips leave permanent marks, like this...

Not so pretty huh!



Next I made marshmallow fondant.  This really needs to sit in the fridge overnight. It is easy to make.  My tip is to make it on a vinyl tablecloth so you can shake out the extra powdered sugar in the yard, and then throw it in the washing machine.  So much easier then scrubbing a counter.  Also, to get a good black fondant, add coco powder to the melted marshmallow, then black food coloring. I got this recipe from Cakejournal.
http://www.cakejournal.com/archives/how-to-make-marshmallow-fondant/

1 bag of white marshmallows (8 oz)
Water (2 tbsp)
Powdered sugar sifted (1 to 2 pounds)
Crisco
Glass bowl
Spoon
Sift
Food colors or cocoa powder



Put the marshmallows in a glass bowl and add the water. Put the bowl in the microwave oven and heat it for approx. 2 mins. until the marshmallows puff up.

Stir the marshmallows until they get smooth. This is the time where you can add your chosen food color/cocoa powder or give it flavor.

Now add the powdered sugar and stir the mixture with a well greased spoon. Keep adding icing sugar until it looks like a dough. Turn out the “dough” on a greased work board and with your hands greased with Crisco start kneading the marshmallow fondant. Keep adding a little icing sugar at a time until it is not sticky anymore.
Be careful not to use all the icing sugar as to much icing sugar can makes it too dry. It is ready when it feels pliable and ready to roll. If you are not using the marshmallow fondant straight away then rub a bit of Crisco on it and wrap it in cling-film and seal it in a airthight bag.
Note: Some uses the marshmallow fondant right away but I prefer to let it rest for a day before use.
If your marshmallow fondant feels very hard you can always warm it up in the microwave for a few sec. at a time. Then it should be more pliable to work with. If it feels dry then knead in some Crisco or if it is too soft add more icing sugar. I hope you can use it.

Finally, I colored the fondant and played with it like playdough.  Wet the back a little and stick it on your cookies.  Here is a method I used to make candy corns.  I cut out the shape, layered the colors, rolled it and cut it again.

I wasn't sure how to get the extra cornstarch off that I rolled the fondant in.  I remembred watching cake boss and he steamed it.  I dont have a garment steamer, so I held my floor steamer over the.  Worked great! Then I gave them a quick blow with the cool part of my blow dryer.  Let those babies dry over night again.

I put these guys in plastic sandwich bags and tied little ribbons.  Cute! I am so proud of myself, I have never used fondant before.

I think I am going to make a cookie bouquet with the rest.  If I do, I will add pics!

Whole Wheat Agave Chocolate Chip Cookies

Whole Wheat Agave Chocolate Chip Cookies


1/2 C Softened butter
3/4 C Agave
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla ext
2 1/4 C whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 C sugar free chocolate chips

Cream wet.  Add dry until smooth.  Drop by balls onto a cookie sheet.  Bake 350 7-10 min. 

Whole Wheat Agave Banana Bread

DH had his wisdom teeth out a couple days ago.  He has had a hard time eating since.  I looked over in the banana bowl and there was definite need to make banana bread with the black bananas.  My whole family has been on the South Beach Diet with the exception of me who is on a low carb diet, so here is a SBD friendly recipe.


Agave Banana Bread

2/3 C Agave
1 1/2 C mashed banans (about 3)
1/2 C butter softened
1/4 C Milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
4 egg whites
2 C whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp salt

Mix the wet well, then add the dry and combine.  Bake in a greased bread pan.  Bake 325 for about 50-60 min.

 My Tips: I bet you could half the butter and do half applesauce to save further calories.

               Whole wheat pastry flour makes it so much lighter, more like white flour. 

My new blog

Here is my new blog, The Green Jello Diaries, though I left out the "The" in the web address.  I love to cook and craft, so I decided to start up a blog of my adventures.  You get the good and the bad, the healthy and the unhealthy.  I will even try to include instructions and recipes!
Enjoy!!