Sweet Nostalgia

I found the very best thing ever when at the used bookstore the other day and I just had to share.

What I have here is a little piece of my childhood. This book is the same one my mom had when I was a kid. At a bargain price of $4.00, I can relive some of my favorite recipes. Also, I won't have to ask my mother to e-mail me the sugar cookie recipe anymore.

This is a treasure of the early 90's. Just look at the shining face in that picture. I know cookies make me smile like that. What I really like about this book is that every recipe is straight-forward and simple. If I could do these as a kid you bet I can do them now even better. Something fun I like is that there's always a picture to reference. I'm not saying every cook/baking book needs pictures, but when trying new things I'm grateful when my cookies look like the ones in the book. Otherwise I'm just guessing.

   

Look at these adorable chapters! There's even a few cake and pie recipes in there, too. Everything looks so delicious I can't really decide where to start. Any suggestions for me? Those bar cookies are looking pretty scrumptious, but so are all the others.

Oh, and speaking of adorable and delicious: take a look at my new cake server.

Cupcakes! Isn't this darling? I received it as a gift and I adore it. It's the cutest piece of kitchenware that I own, that's for sure.

I can't decide if the cupcake wearing a crown is my favorite, or if it's the one with the party hat. It's too difficult to make that choice.

xoxo
Stephanie

Chocolate-Dipped Coconut Macaroons

These. Are. So. Good.

These cookie were an unexpected treat I made last week (yes, I'm behind on my blogging. Expect a lot of posts this week as I play catch up) due to the fact that I had shredded coconut in my house and I never have shredded coconut in my house. I'm thinking of making it a staple from now on.

If you like macaroons, I promise these are amazing. They may also be one of the the easiest cookies I've ever made. There are only four ingredients!

• 3 large egg whites
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 14 oz. package of sweetened flaked coconut

Looking at that picture you may be thinking "Hey. That doesn't look like a full package of coconut." It isn't, but there was still enough to make the cookies.

See, I had made some granola early in the week that needed just a little coconut and I had most of the bag left over to do something with. In case you're wondering, the granola needs work but it was edible.

The first step is to preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Then, in a large bowl whisk together the egg whites, sugar, and salt until frothy.

Yum. With a fork, or spatula like I used, mix in the coconut nut until moistened.

Pack the mixture into level, tablespoon amounts and drop onto baking sheet. Bake until golden, about 25-30 minutes. I checked mine at 20 minutes and they were perfect. Know your oven.

Once they were cooled I made up some ganache; because I had some cream I wanted to use up and chocolate-dipped macaroons sounded amazing. Ganache is also ridiculously easy, but here's the recipe for anyone who would like it.

4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped

1/2 cup heavy cream

First, chop up that chocolate as fine as you can. This will help it to melt more evenly. Place it in a heatproof bowl. Next, bring the cream to a boil over medium heat in a saucepan. Pour the cream over the chocolate and let it sit 10 minutes. Stir the mixture gently until fully incorporated. The ganache should appear glossy.

After I made that I dipped the cookies half-way into the ganache and placed on waxed paper. I did not get any good shots of this process, but you can imagine. Then they're all done!

I took these to work and they were gone within an hour; and that was even with the cupcakes that someone else had brought in. Those were not gone in an hour, but to be fair, there were more cupcakes than cookies.

xoxo

Stephanie

*recipe from Martha Stewart. Again.

The Girl Wonder | Cake and Cookies

Du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du-Batman! This may be the best cake I've ever baked for myself to date. Oh, and others. That sounds presumptuous but it may be a little bit true. Luck was on my side this time.

You see, I have this funny little habit of trying out new recipes when I'm going to be feeding other people. I always need a reason to try something new but this can be a little frightening because I won't know how it tastes until everyone already has a piece. If it's terrible then that's it. No back up plan.

I knew this couldn't fail, though. I chose my recipes from Martha Stewart (genius) and Rosie from Sweetapolita (love this blog), both of which I've tried recipes from before.

I'm a chocolate lover and the words "Ultimate Chocolate Cake" from Martha kind of sold me. The inclusion of coffee was great because I always have good coffee in my home and from what I understood it would really bring out the chocolaty flavor. It did not disappoint. It was moist and dense and all those wonderful things a cake should be.

To tone it down a bit I decided to go with vanilla frosting. Going back to that whole "trying new things without a test run" I decided to give Swiss Meringue Buttercream a try. Rosie always makes it look so beautiful and delicious. She recently put up a blog post all about it, how could I fail with perfect step by step directions? I may not go back to powdered sugar buttercream for a while because this stuff is delicious. It has a way more subtlety sweet flavor than regular buttercream and it is so easy to work with!

Once the base was made up I added some yellow dye and two vanilla beans and I had what you see here. I made those little ruffles with a 104 decorating tip, to make it as feminine as a Batman cake can be, and I am very happy with the results. They're not perfect, but again it was a first, and the buttercream was very forgiving.

I love those little vanilla seeds. I couldn't tell you exactly why, but they're great.

The Batman logo I made out of marshmallow fondant. Surprisingly, not a first, but I'm still not sure about the consistency of the stuff. It held it's shape well enough, but I can't help but think it should have been a little firmer. I've never worked with fondant that I haven't made myself so hopefully after those decorating classes I'll have a better idea about it.

Oh, and speaking of fondant. I made party favors. 

Who loves ginger? I do!

I love ginger. I made a marinade for salmon the other day (delicious) and it just wasn't enough. After I looked around online at a few different recipes I finally found one that didn't involve refrigerating the dough, which would have been fine if I didn't want these as soon as possible. These resulted in delicious, chewy cookies.

Ginger Cookies
2 1/4 c. flour
2 tsp. ground ginger*
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tbs. water
1/4 c. molasses**
2 tbs. sugar

*I added an extra tsp. of freshly grated ginger root because, like I said, I love ginger.
**This one I didn't have, so I used brown sugar. 3/4 cup (firmly packed) for every cup of molasses.

I didn't eat all of those, but I could have...