12/10/2017 0 Comments That's A WrapHello and welcome to my last blog post! This week it is very bittersweet. I am glad that the project is over, but I know I will miss baking every week. This week I didn’t bake anything I just worked on wrapping up my project as well as my presentation.
My project didn’t always go to plan, but overall, I think it was a success. Each week I managed to bake something which I was pretty impressed with. In the beginning, I was worried that I wouldn't have enough time to bake each week, but I always found a way to make it work. Sometimes I had to plan around it, but it I always got it figured out. Plus I donated my products to someone each week. They never went to waste. Many weeks it was a big ordeal about who was going to drive me to take my treats, when we were going to take it, etc. At the start of this project as some of you may recall I made a plan. This plan was a week by week plan that told me what I was going to make and who I was going to donate it to. It was helpful to have that, and I’m glad I decided to make. Although it helped me out I didn’t always stick to it which I expected, but I didn’t expect to stray from it so much. Down below I've included my original plan. There you can see which weeks I kept the same and which weeks I didn't. In the means of success and fails in the kitchen I definitely ran into some bumps along the road. As you may recall the first time I made the red velvet whoopie pies it was a disaster, but the next week I fixed that and everyone loved them. Also over Thanksgiving, I ran into the problem that my dough made way too many cookies, so I had to do some improvising and make them much bigger than they should’ve been. However, in the end, it all worked out. All in all, I had a great time doing this project, and I achieved my goal of donating to people in the community that are not always thanked for the work they do. I am pleased with how it all turned out in the end. Thanks for tuning in each week and reading my blogs! I hope you all have enjoyed! I know I sure have! *Week 2 (10/1/17) - Bake: Paleo Pecan Pie Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting Recipient: Ellis Middle School Staff *Week 3 (10/8/17) - Bake: Snickerdoodle Cupcakes with Cinnamon Maple Frosting Recipient: Hillsdale UMC Youth Group Week 4 (10/15/17) - Bake: Pumpkin Spice Truffles Recipient: IBM Staff *Week 5 (10/22/17) - Bake: Pumpkin Bites Recipient: Shady Grove Elementary Staff Week 6 (10/29/17) - Bake:Candy Corn Homemade Rice Krispie Treats Recipient: Church Pumpkin Party *Week 7 (11/5/17) - Bake: Cherry Pie *Recipient: Hillsdale UMC Staff Week 8 (11/12/17) - Bake: Red Velvet Whoopie Pies *Recipient: Central Davie Education Center *Week 9 (11/19/17) - Bake: Chocolate Caramel Pretzel Cookies Recipient: Dashing Beauty Salon *Week 10 (11/26/17) - Bake: Hershey's Black Magic Cake *Recipient: Advance Fire Department Week 11 (12/3/17) - Bake: Peppermint Bark Fudge *Recipient: Smith Grove Fire Department Week 12 (12/10/17) - Reflect on project - what I’ve learned and accomplished along the way. Was it a success? Wrap up. **Anything with a star and bolded text means I strayed from my original plan and I did not bake what I had planned on or I didn’t donate it to whom I said I was going to.
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12/3/2017 1 Comment Quick and EasyHello and welcome to this week's blog! Can you believe that this was my very last week of baking? I know I sure can’t. Surprisingly enough, these past 11 weeks have gone by really fast. Anyways, for my last week, I decided to bake a Christmas themed treat! I baked peppermint bark fudge and donated them to my church’s women's tea which they do once a month. I had originally planned on donating them to the Smith Grove Fire Department, but my mom signed me up to bake desserts without me knowing. Therefore, I didn’t have much of a choice as to who I donated to. I was proactive this week and went ahead and bought my ingredients over the weekend so I could bake whenever I was ready. To start out I crushed up my candy canes. Next, I had to divide up my condensed milk into two saucepans, one with white chocolate chips and one with dark chocolate chips. Then things started to get crazy. I should’ve melted my chips at different times, but I thought I could stir both at the same time, get out my dish that I was going to put the fudge in, line it and butter it and get out the vanilla and peppermint extract to pour in when it was finished melting. I quickly learned that I am not superwoman, so I had to call in some help. I had both my mom and dad helping with different things. One was getting out measuring spoons and the last of the ingredients that I needed and the other was lining and buttering the dish. Once the chocolate was ready I poured in the dark chocolate on the dish. Next, I poured in the white chocolate and sprinkle crushed candy canes on the top. After that, I just had to put it in the fridge to chill, and then I was done. It was the fastest thing I’ve ever done. It took less than 20 minutes. After it finished chilling I cut it up, packaged it and sent it to my church. They ladies at the tea loved it! Don’t forget to check out all the pictures below as well as the link! Once again I would definitely recommend trying out this recipe it was delicious! Don’t forget to tune into next week. It’ll be my last blog, and I’ll be wrapping up my project! Link - https://sugarspunrun.com/peppermint-bark-fudge/ 11/26/2017 1 Comment THanksGivingHey y’all and welcome back to my blog. Thanksgiving was Thursday so you know what that means....it’s Christmas time! This week I made chocolate salted caramel pretzel cookies, and I donated them to my family. I decided to donate to them to my family instead of the Fire Department because I wanted to share the love as well as my bakes with them. Much like the first week I started baking I had to bake at my grandparent's house because we went up there for the weekend. I went ahead and took all my ingredients with me so I didn’t have to go out and get them when I got there. I first started by mixing my ingredients together and measuring out my ingredients so I would be prepared. Plus I had to kill some time while my butter was chilling to room temperature. Once my butter got to room temperature I creamed together my butter and sugars together. I then added my vanilla extract. Next, it was time to add my dry ingredient in. I was a little weary about that because there was a TON of mixture to add in. I added it very slowly, and luckily everything went well. Then it was time to roll them out into balls. That was interesting. They were ginormous! My family and I were baffled at how much batter there was, so we decided to look at how much the recipe yielded. We were in for a treat when we found out how much the recipe made. It made 40 cookies! Whoops! Guess I should’ve read that ahead of time. I just said screw it and made them huge. However, when they came out they smelled delicious and they tasted delicious too. My family loved the cookies. They were a hit for sure! I even had enough to take home and share with my friends. Don’t forget to check out the pictures below! I would definitely recommend you trying this recipe sometime if you like chocolate and sweet and salty treats. Just make sure to half the recipe! Don’t forget to tune in next week. I’ll be making Christmas treats. Link - https://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/chocolate-salted-caramel-pretzel-cookies/ Hello and welcome to week 9! This week I made red velvet whoopie pies again, and I donated them to Dashing Beauty Salon. As mentioned in last weeks blog I was planning on making chocolate caramel pretzel cookies. I was actually really looking forward to making them because they sounded delicious. However, I got to thinking. As I was thinking I decided I wanted to remake those whoopie pies again and make them right. Plus I decided that the best way to learn in baking is from your mistakes and fixing them when they occur. Since my project's goal is centered around me improving my baking and giving to others, I figured this would be an excellent way to help achieve my goal. Since I was I looking forward to baking the chocolate caramel pretzel cookies I decided that I would push them to next week. This week I gathered the few ingredients I needed since most were left over from last week. I also already had icing made from last week's bake that I kept just in case, so I lucked out and didn’t have to make any more icing. That also meant I could focus on my whoopie pies and really perfect them. Before I started baking I made sure that I was extra organized and had some sort of plan in my mind. I started by making the batter. To my surprise, the batter was not as thick this time. Now I’m not saying it wasn’t thick at all, but it was not as thick as last weeks. This time I put the batter into a piping bag with a big tip on it so I could easily pipe it. With a little help from my mom we got the batter as well as the icing into piping bags with no mess at all. After I got the pies piped out I stuck them in the oven to bake. Within 20 minutes they were out and cooled. I then took some of my icing and put a generous helping of it onto my pies. Afterwards, I sandwiched them together and then I dusted them with powdered sugar. The next day I took them and dropped them off at the salon. The owner later texted me and raved about how good they were and how quickly they were gone. I was relieved that they looked good and tasted good! I was also glad that I could redeem myself from last weeks tragedy. Thanks for tuning in this week! I hope you come back next week when I make chocolate caramel pretzel cookies. Don’t forget to check out my pictures below! Links - http://scrappygeek.com/red-velvet-whoopie-pie-recipe/ https://www.wineandglue.com/the-best-cream-cheese-frosting/ 11/12/2017 1 Comment Epic Fail.... Sort ofHello and welcome to this week’s blog! This week I made red velvet whoopie pies and planned on donating them to my church. I planned to drop them off at my pastor's house the night before, so I wouldn’t run into the same issues I did last week. However, things didn’t go according to plan. This week I did not get a chance to bake during the school week because we had a short week at school (yay!), and I was swamped with homework (boo!). However, it was a blessing in disguise that I didn’t have a chance to bake during the week. I first went to the store and gathered my ingredients. This week I had to get almost all of my ingredients. The recipe called for a store-bought package of cream cheese frosting, but I’m not a big fan of store-bought icing, so I decided to find my own recipe and make it homemade. When I started baking I looked at my recipes and saw that both of them were a basically a one-step process. I was super excited because I knew it wouldn’t take long. Well, I was very wrong about that. The batter for the whoopie pies was the thickest batter I’ve ever had to work with. It was terrible to try to pipe out into circles or work with period. It took a couple tries before I kind of got the hang of it. It was so messy. There was batter all over the counter, our salt and pepper shakers, me, the wall, etc. You name it there was batter on it. Once I finally got the first batch in the oven I was going to start making my cream cheese frosting. That didn’t happen. I spent the whole time wiping off the counter and trying to get things under control. When they came out they just looked like flat cookies. I just had to say screw it and keep going. I then made my icing which was a breeze (thank gosh) and then piped it onto my whoopie pies. They looked a little better but I still only had eight, and I was so annoyed I decided there was no way I was doing another batch. Since I only had eight I decided it wasn’t enough to donate and plus they weren’t very pretty. When I finished with them I tried them to see if they even tasted good and they were delicious. My family couldn’t get enough of them. I decided next week I’m going to attempt to donate to my church. Hopefully, the third time's the charm! :) Don’t forget to check out my pictures down below as well as the links to this delicious recipe. Make sure to tune in next week. I’ll be making chocolate caramel pretzel cookies! Thanks for reading. Links - http://scrappygeek.com/red-velvet-whoopie-pie-recipe/ https://www.wineandglue.com/the-best-cream-cheese-frosting/ 11/5/2017 1 Comment One Last Taste Of PumpkinHello and welcome to this week’s post! This week I decided to make pumpkin cream cheese swirl muffins, and I donated them to the staff at my dad’s work because every time I went to take them to my church no one was there. I had originally planned on making a cherry pie, but then I got to thinking, and I realized that muffins or something individual would be easier for a group of people rather than a pie. Luckily this week I had almost all of my ingredients at home. I decided to bake during the week again this week because I enjoyed not having to worry about my project over the weekend. I started and finished on Wednesday rather than spreading it out over two days. To begin I mixed my dry ingredients together in one bowl and my wet ingredients together in another bowl. Then I mixed the dry ingredients into the wet and filled the muffin tins. I then sat the muffins aside while I made up the cream cheese mixture to swirl in on top of the batter. Trying to swirl the cream cheese mixture on the top was the hardest part of the whole entire recipe. I was afraid they were going to look terrible. However, they turned out looking pretty good. I think I may have overfilled the cupcake liners though, so they seemed to overflow a bit. This recipe didn’t have any icing, so after they finished baking in the oven they were done. I let them cool and then put them in a container. The next morning I took them to my church. No one was there so I decided to just take them the next day. When I went back the next morning no one was there again so I just let my dad take them to his work to donate. He came home that afternoon and said they loved them! I was glad they liked them and they didn’t go to waste. Thanks for reading! Check out my pictures below! As always the link to the recipe is included as well. I would definitely recommend making these yummy muffins if you like pumpkin flavored treats. Link - https://thenovicechefblog.com/2015/11/pumpkin-cream-cheese-swirl-muffins/ 10/29/2017 1 Comment Halloween TreatsHello and welcome to this week's blog. I am finally half way done! This week I made candy corn shaped Rice Krispie treats, and I donated them to my church’s annual pumpkin party. Since they were going to a party for younger kids I had to make sure that my treats would be very kid friendly. I started off by going to the store and getting my ingredients. This week I had to get every single ingredient because I didn’t have a single one at home, whereas last week I had almost every single ingredient I needed. After I went to the store I went home and started on my baking. I started baking on Wednesday this week. Normally I bake on the weekend so I don’t have to worry about time issues. However, I am going out of town this weekend, so I had to start so my treats would be ready for the party. To ensure that I wouldn’t run into a time issue I decided to split it up into a 2-day process. The first day all I had to do was melt the marshmallows and then add some orange food coloring to them. Afterwards, I mixed in the Rice Krispies and then let it harden and cool until the next day. On day two I had a harder task. I cut the treats into triangles and then rounded off the edges to make them have a more realistic look to them. This didn’t sound like a hard task, but it sure wasn’t easy. Afterwards, I heated up the chocolate and began dipping. I first did the milk chocolate and let it set and then I did the white. This task took me longer than I expected because I thought I could just dip it in and be done. However, I had to dip it in there and then use a spoon to get the chocolate covering everywhere it needed to be. The next day I packed them up and took them to my church. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the pumpkin party, so I was not able to see who received them. I’m sure some little kid loved them though. Even though I don’t know exactly who they went to it still warms my heart to know they are going to a good cause. As always check out my pictures below! The link to the recipe is also below. It would be a great treat to make for an upcoming Halloween party. Thanks for stopping by. Link - https://pintsizedtreasures.com/chocolate-dipped-candy-corn-treats/ Hello and welcome to this week's blog! I’m nearly halfway done! This week I’m made copycat Panera Bread Pumpkin Muffin Tops, which is different from what I had planned on, and I donated my treats to the staff at Shady Grove Elementary School. I originally planned on making no-bake pumpkin bites. However, when I started reading the list of ingredients I once again realized that the pumpkin bites called for strange ingredients such as coconut flour and almond butter. I decided it wasn’t worth buying them, but I still wanted to stick with the pumpkin theme. I saw these copycat pumpkin muffin tops which I absolutely love, so I thought that would be something fun to try out. It made it even better that I had all the ingredients I needed at home except for one! Before I began baking I went to the store and got the one ingredient that I was missing. Then I came home and started right away. The recipe was fairly easy to follow, all I had to do was combine all the wet ingredients with all the dry ingredients. After that, I scooped out six mounds of batter out onto a baking sheet and popped them in the oven for about 12 minutes. Then I took that batch out and put 6 more mounds in. I mixed together a powdered sugar and brown sugar mixture to sprinkle on top once they were had cooled. After I gave them their dusting of the powdered sugar and brown sugar mixture I was done. It was one of the easiest recipes I’ve made so far and they tasted pretty good too. They were much better than last week's truffles. The next morning I took them and dropped them off at Shady Grove Elementary. The teachers were so grateful for my donation. I even talked to one of the teachers after she sampled my treats, and she said she couldn’t tell a difference between the real thing and mine. They were a hit! Don’t forget to check out the pictures below, and as always the link to the recipe is included if you would like to try it out! Thanks for tuning in this week! Don’t miss next week's tasty treat! It’s going to be Halloween themed! Link - http://bloomingbitesphotography.com/copycat-recipe-panera-breads-pumpkin-muffin-tops/ Welcome to week 4 of my blog! I'm changing it up this week. For this weeks bake, I made pumpkin spice truffles. I had been looking forward to making these for a while, so I was very excited to finally get to make them. This week's treats went to the staff at IBM. I had never made truffles before this week unless you count Oreo balls as truffles. I love anything pumpkin, and I love truffles so I thought this would be a fun thing to bake. I also thought that this would give me the opportunity to try something different and gain some experience in baking something rather than just cakes and cupcakes. This weeks ingredient list was surprisingly short and the ingredients were pretty common compared to the lists in the past. Therefore, it was easy for me to get my hands on the ingredients I needed. A couple days before beginning I read through the direction and saw that I was going to have to let these chill for at least 2 hours in between steps. I couldn’t decide if I should do it all in one day or if I should do it in the span of two days. I ended up doing it in the span of two days. Day one of the process was relatively simple. All I had to do was heat up some chocolate and whipping cream and mix it together with a few other ingredients, and then chill it. The next day I rolled them into balls and coated them with chocolate. It was hard to roll them into balls because the batter was rock hard so it was hard to scoop it out, and it was sticking to my hands really bad. I would roll two or three and then wash my hands, roll two or three and wash my hands. This turned out to be the quickest recipe I’ve made so far, but it was my least favorite so far. They didn’t turn out as pretty as I would’ve liked, the recipe didn’t make many, and I didn’t love the way they tasted. However, I still donated to the staff at IBM and they really liked them which made me feel better. A few of them even wanted to recipe. Next week I hope to be satisfied with my results. Like always you can find pictures of the baking process and my results below. As well as the link to the recipe for the truffles. See you next week! Link - https://houseofyumm.com/pumpkin-spice-truffles/ 10/8/2017 3 Comments Snickerdoodle CupcakesWelcome back to my blog! This week I made Snickerdoodle cupcakes and shared them with my church youth group at Hillsdale United Methodist Church. I was going to make snickerdoodle cupcakes with maple frosting but instead, I decided to do snickerdoodle cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I was afraid the snickerdoodle and maple frosting would be too sweet together and not very appealing to middle and high school kids. However, I still wanted a fall flavor that’s why I settled for these. Cupcakes are more in my comfort zone, whereas last week's muffins were not. Normally they would be pretty similar to cupcakes but the batter was much different than regular muffin batter, so I was excited to be back in my comfort zone. This week I made sure to read the directions thoroughly before beginning to ensure that I wouldn't have any mess ups like last week. Sure enough that worked and everything went smoothly… for the most part. I made sure to let my cream cheese and butter sit out and reach room temperature before I used them. The cupcakes were relatively simple to make. However, you were supposed to sprinkle a cinnamon sugar mixture on top of the batter before baking, and I completely forgot to do that on my “test” batch. Luckily it was just my test group so there was no harm done. The reason I like to make a test group is because I like to be able to taste what I am giving away and make sure that it tastes okay. The frosting was very easy to make, so there was no trouble there. To give these cupcakes my own touch I added half of a cinnamon stick to the top of each cupcake for decoration. Overall, I was very pleased how these cupcakes turned out. Again this week I have included the recipe below as well as pictures of the process. Don't forget to check back in next week. I'll be making pumpkin spice truffles! Link to Snickerdoodle Cupcakes and Frosting - https://www.garnishandglaze.com/2017/01/14/snickerdoodle-cupcakes-recipe/ |
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