i art a day.

Until recently I haven’t really given much thought to the frosting on top of the cupcake save for how good it tastes; but it’s come to my attention that there are about a bazillion ways to decorate a cupcake. At work we pipe frosting on with star and round tips, sometimes with sprinkles, sometimes without. Then there’s the homemade cupcake frosting where it’s just sort of blobbed on and then rounded out which makes me all warm and fuzzy thinking about family picnics and childhood birthday parties.

On my recent trip to the  City of Wonder I encountered a completely new way to frost a cupcake. It’s a little bit homestyle, a little bit formal, and it’s everywhere. So, after watching a couple of cupcakes get frosted I thought I’d give it a shot myself.

You will need some cupcakes (duh), a frosting that isn’t too soft & isn’t too hard (normal room temp frosting), a straight spatula, and sprinkles.

My notes from watching the swirl in action.

It took me a couple of cupcakes to really get a swirl down that I was happy with. Next time I’ll use a smaller spatula to get a tighter more spirally swirl. I certainly couldn’t crank out dozens of these things at a time, but the next time I whip up a batch for a party I’ll practice my little swirl again. If you’re looking for a good frosting, try this chocolate buttercream. It’s by Elinor Klivans author of several delightful cake & cupcake books. It’s for about a dozen cupcakes, with some to spare, and it’s nice a creamy and delicious!

3 oz. Chopped Unsweetened Chocolate
2.5 cups Powdered Sugar
1 Tbsp + 1.5 tsp Cocoa Powder (Dutch Process Preferred)
1.5 cups (3 sticks) Unsalted Butter – Room temperature
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 cup Heavy Cream

Melt Chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water (double boiler), and set aside to cool slightly.

Sift Powdered Sugar and Cocoa Powder into the bowl of a mixer or bowl if using a hand mixer. Add the Butter and mix on low speed till smooth (about 2 minutes – less if butter is soft). Add the chocolate and mix till combined. Add the Vanilla and Heavy cream and mix till combined.

On Medium to medium-high speed beat frosting until smooth and creamy, and lightened in color. Use frosting immediately. If refrigerating make sure it is covered tightly and comes back to room temp before using.

Whoopie Pies that is (for the past several days it’s been a (cheesy) running joke in my household). Last week at the bookstore I came across Whoopie Pies by Sarah Billingsley and Amy Treadwell, and absolutely had to get it. How could I resist?

Oh Chronicle Books, with your well designed popular cookbooks and your clever ideas, and your cookbooks all chockfull of mouth-watering photos:

With 21 cake recipes and 29(!) filling recipes (and ENDLESS combonations) I could hardly decide which whoopie pie to whip up first. Now the classic is a chocolate cake filled with marshmallow fluff, better known to me in my younger years in Charleston as a “Moon Pie”, and almost always on hand at my grandparent’s house:

As you can see though, even the classics come in quite the variety. So, with a large and hastily ripening pile of bananas on my hands I set out to make the banana whoopies with a chocolate fudge frosting. The banana whoopies came out delightfully, perfectly sweet in their banana flavor and stick-to-the-plastic-wrap moist, just how god intended.

Banana Whoopie

1 cup All-Purpose Flour
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Salt
4 Tbsp. Unsalted Room temp. Butter
4 Tbsp. Vegetable Shortening
3/4 cup Granulated Sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
2 Large Eggs
3 Very Ripe Bananas, mashed
3/4 cup chopped toasted pecans (optional – I didn’t add these but I’m sure it’s tasty)

- Whisk together flours, soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside.
- Cream butter, shortening, sugar and vanilla for 3 minutes. Scrape down bowl and add eggs one at a time till combined.
- Add bananas and beat till completely combined, about 2 minutes. Add flour mixture in 2 parts, mixing just till combined.
- Drop about 1 Tablespoon of batter onto parchment lined baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake one sheet at a time at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes each, or until cakes begin to brown. Let rest about 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

I’m not sure how the whoopies in the book photos came out so perfectly round, but they were still tasty regardless of shape. I got about 19 pairs out of the batch, and then started making the chocolate fudge filling. This particular recipe was adapted from the Chocolate Buttercream recipe in the book:

Chocolate Fudge Filling

2 2/3 cups of Confectioner’s Sugar
1/2 cup Cocoa Powder
6 Tbsp. Unsalted Butter at Room Temp.
1/4 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1/2 tsp. Salt

- Beat together sugar, cocoa, and butter, starting on low and increasing to medium speed, until mixture is crumbly – about 1 minute.
- Add heavy cream, vanilla, and salt. Beat on high until smooth (3 minutes).
- Spread or pipe onto cakes and sandwich!

I can’t wait to try the Pumpkin with Maple Frosting Whoopie Pie next!

Once upon a time I tried to make cream puffs, but ended up with…

Burnt, eggy tasting, and most unevenly puffed, I tossed the whole batch and avoided making them again fearing that I may never get the hang of it.

Usually when faced with a challenge that I imagine I’m going to fail at (either because I’ve tried already and failed or I’m just a ninny) I’ll put it off for about as long as possible. I’m sure I’m not the only one out there who does this, but over the past five or so years I’ve realized that I’ve made sort of a habit out of it. It’s not just simple procrastination, although laziness is an anchor constantly trying to drag me under while waves of anxiety wash over me. I think it’s more of an inferiority complex masquerading as a superiority complex or something.

I mean, I’ll do something (a project, a job, anything) that I’m really pleased with and that seems to please someone else, and then I’ll think to myself – what if I can’t do this again? What if I can’t work up to this level all of the time? Worse yet, what if it was just a fluke and now these people think I’m actually good at this but I’m really not. And I reel. I’ll put it off again, sacrificing the good opinions of those around me and fulfilling my worst assumptions that I’ll chalk up to not really being capable in the first place.

About two months after the Choux burning debacle, with at least two more supervised attempts at making these deceptively simple pastries successfully produced, I told a friend I’d make him a batch…to serve to other people no less. 50 other people actually.

Why is it that it’s so easy to believe in our faults with little to no objection, but our merits and achievements are often hard to swallow? I’m not talking modesty and humility here – but serious flaws in self confidence.

Luckily, what I lack in confidence and actual skill I make up for in fortitude (at least when it comes to those things I’m truly passionate about). Saturday night I mixed up my frist batch of Pate au Choux, piped about 24 cream puffs out onto two baking sheets, and slid them into the 425 degree oven. I flipped the oven light on, sat down in front of it and waited…

…for fourty minutes, with my eyes glued to the glass like it was the last episode of LOST or something. It was life or death. Rising or collapsing all hung in the balance of those fragile puffs starting to brown in my oven. Would I be Jenny the Pastry Mistress Extraordinaire or that girl who pretends to know what she’s doing in the kitchen but will have to buy some puffs at the grocery store at 8am as not to disappoint her friends?

And out they came…

As they cooled they didn’t collapse, but got slightly crunchier, just how they were supposed to be. And the next batch came out light golden brown with well developed air pockets and crunchy exteriors as well. And the third batch too!

So I whipped up a batch of chocolate mousse, filling part of the puffs with such a decadent treat and drizzling tempered chocolate over them. Then a bowl of traditional pastry cream was cooked and cooled, and filled the second batch of puffs. By the time the third batch of puffs were baked I couldn’t help but get a little playful and try out the cream puff swan:

Luckily, heavy cream is a staple in my refrigerator these days, and after filling the swans with pastry cream they were topped with whipped cream and sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar. Sure, I fancy them more like squatting ostriches, but they came out just the way I had intended.

I’ve kept a mental checklist of those things that I have been or am still too afraid to really tackle. Personally anyway (if not professionally as well) I think I’ve moved cream puffs from the “What if I can’t really do this” column and squarely into the “I’ve got this” column. And I didn’t come home with any leftovers to make me think otherwise.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been doing a great deal of baking, trying to come up with a small collection of things – a menu if you will – of treats that I’ve got confidence in telling people I can make. Of course, it’s one thing to tell someone how great my brownies are, and quite another to show them.

The next best thing to actually eating some sweets is looking at delicious sweets. So in order to visually document my baking “line” I set up a little make-shift photo shoot – seriously low budget, and have gotten some decent results. A couple of friends have asked me how I’m putting these shots together, so here’s what’s up!

What you’ll need:

1. A camera. Any camera really. I’m using my point and shoot Nikon Coolpix that’s like 5 years old and totally user-friendly. Sure, I know how to manipulate it because I know my way around a more advanced camera, but my point is that you don’t have to go overboard here. Don’t go and buy a new camera, and don’t think you’ve got to have any special skills (unless you consider focusing a skill). A film camera will even work just as well, but be prepared to use up a lot of film and wait to get your prints back (who has that kind of patience anymore!?). $0

2. At least 1 spot light. I picked up a 150watt portable clamping flood lamp from home depot because I can clip it on to just about anything and it puts out some serious wattage. You will need a second light source to light the other side of your set-up, but consider using a floor lamp or a desk lamp that you can angle towards your set. $15

3. A large flat table. I’ve been using my dining room table (contrary to the boyf’s wishes – see above), but a desk, folding table, or counter are all fine too. Just make sure it’s wide enough to spread out a little on and high enough so you aren’t hovering above your shots. Free!

4. Backdrop paper. Actual photographer’s backdrops can be REALLY expensive (and usually very large). Unless you’re lucky enough to find someone trying to give them away on Craigslist – chances are you’ll need to settle for something cheaper. I’m using Fadeless Art Paper Rolls (24″ wide by 12′ – more than that isn’t necessary unless you think you need it) and hanging (taping) them up behind my table set up as a colorful backdrop. NOTE: while white backdrops seem like a good idea, white is a hard color to light properly and shoot, and will often turn out grey in the background or mess your light meter up. Instead, consider a color or lighter neutral backdrop to take the edge off. $2.50 each (I bought 3 for variety)

5. OPTIONAL BUT RECOMMENDED: Accent Fabric. I went to Wal-Mart and picked out a couple of fabrics with simple patterns that I knew would match my backdrop papers and would coordinate with the vibe of the foods I want to snap photos of. I bought a yard of each to cover the table I’d be setting up the photo shoot on. Each yard was about $4 each, and I picked up 3 or 4 yards, again for variety.

The Other Stuff:

- Iron & Ironing Board for making sure that accent fabric is super flat and photo ready.
- Tape (masking is good, scotch not so much) for securing the backdrop paper to the wall/bookshelf/whatever & accent fabric/paper to the table.
- Plates/glasses/silverware if you’re shooting food. If you’ve got presentable pieces then that’s great! Work with what you’ve got! You can also find cheap presentation platters at thrift stores and Ikea-type places.
- Stands/props/background objects if you’re shooting crafts & handmade goods (flat artwork is a completely different beast).

Now start taking some photos! Don’t be afraid to take 100 photos of the same thing. Switch up the angles, reorganize the set-up, switch out props and try different backgrounds. Go high, go low, zoom in and out. If you’re using a little point and shoot camera experiment with all of the different settings. Go macro and zoom way in and try out the low light settings to see if they help the final image. I take at least 50 photos every time I set something up, so keep taking pictures until you’re sure you’ve gotten at least one good photo.

While I’m in the kitchen whipping up a batch of {cookies, cupcakes, pies, brownies, etc} I usually bring in my laptop and watch a movie. Last week I got to work creating a birthday cake for the boyf, which was great because I can’t find enough excuses to make full-sized cakes these days. Technically, the cake was only for the two of us, so it’s still a miniature cake, but it’s not a cupcake anyway. While mixing up the batter and whipping the icing, what could be better than sipping on a beer/glass of wine (or three) and popping in a girly movie to get emotional to? Thus, the creation of the Jane Austen Baking Club. Current members: me.

What you’ll need to make a miniature chocolate cake with caramel-milk chocolate icing:

Sense & Sensibility – the Kate Winslet/Emma Thompson/Hugh Grant/Alan Rickman theatrical version
2-3 glasses of wine/bottles of beer/shirley temples (virgin if you like)
Baking Ingredients for Caramel-Milk Chocolate Frosting and Caramel Sauce Recipe, Chocolate Cake recipe below
1 – 6″ round cake pan & 1 – 4″ round cake pan

First, you’ll need to make the icing since it’s got to chill out in the fridge for a couple of hours. While that chills you’re free to move on to the actual cake making. For this icing you need to also have everything chopped & measured & ready to go the moment you need it, because once it gets going there’s no stopping to prepare. Basically, the icing is just a ganache (truffle chocolate) with caramelized sugar, chilled then whipped to make a lighter frosting.

1. Chop 3oz. of bittersweet chocolate. In this case I bought 2 – 11.5oz bags of Ghiradelli milk chocolate chips and a 4oz bar of bittersweet chocolate to chop.  2. Combine in the same bowl and keep handy. 3. Measure out the 2.25 cups of Heavy Cream and keep handy next to the stove. Pour sugar & water into deep saucepan and get started!

4. Stir sugar & water over medium heat till sugar dissolves. 5. Bring to rolling boil. 6. Continue to boil as sugar mixture thickens and turns an amber color. 7. When amber, pour in heavy cream (whisk while pouring in cream – cream will vigorously bubble up). 8. Stir/whisk until caramelized sugar and cream are dissolved together.

9. Pour caramel syrup over chocolate and stir. 10. Keep stirring – it’s not smooth yet! 11. Smooth and lovely – put that baby in the fridge for 2 hours while you make the rest of the cake.

At this point in your movie watching & baking you should be about 30 minutes into the movie (the Dashwood girls have been turned out of their home and make for the cottage that will serve as their new home, with the hopes of seeing Edward again soon.) About one drink has been drunk. Moving on to the cake recipe, adapted from the Cupcake Kit by Elinor Klivans:

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter at room temp.
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules dissolved in 2 teaspoons water
2/3 cup buttermilk (regular or reduced fat)

1. Butter & cocoa powder the 4″ & 6″ pans (flour will make the cake dusted white, which isn’t a biggie, but cocoa is just better, k?) Preheat oven to 325 degrees. 2. Stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda & salt. 3. Cream butter and sugar till light & fluffy. 4. Add eggs one at a time until combined and a little creamy looking. 5. Add coffee and vanilla. 6. Mix till combined – toffee color. 7. Add half the flour mixture and mix till just combined. 8. Add buttermilk and mix till combined. 9. Add remaining flour mixture and mix batter till completely combined. 10. Fill both pans about half full. This  cake rises quite a bit; there should only be enough batter to fill these two pans evenly.

At this point we’ve watched the Dashwood ladies get settled into their “humble” cottage (that I think any of us would kill for these days), and Marianne get swept off of her feet by the romantic and charming Willoughby. He’s left her on the fence as to his affections when the girls go to London and she seeks him out. Elinor secretly suffers as she learns that her secret love Mr. Ferris is already engaged, but keeps it together (somehow). It’s time to put the cakes in the oven, sit back and watch hearts get shattered like only Jane Austen can. The smaller cake will take 30-35 minutes to cook and the larger should take 35-40. Make sure to pause the movie about halfway through to turn the cakes around.

DING! Cakes should be done (as well as the second drink if you’re me)! In an attempt to truncate an already extensive post, here’s the final steps: 1. take caramel-chocolate frosting out of the fridge if you haven’t already and bring to room temp. while cakes cool. 2. transfer caramel ganache to mixer bowl. 3. Whip several minutes till icing becomes a much lighter color and has more of an icing consistency. 4. Look for soft peaks and spreadable texture. 5. If you’ve got it, use a very large round tip and pastry bag, fill with icing. 6. Cut dome tops off of both cakes and cut each cake in half. 7. Pipe icing filling between cake layers. 8. Crumb coat 6″ layer cake and put in fridge/freezer while repeating steps 7 & 8 with 4″ layer cake. 9. Stack cakes.

And then of course, decorate the cake:

I’ve got to admit – I’ve always smiled at the thought of certain ex-boyfriends sitting brokenhearted in Willoughby’s place overlooking Marianne’s happy ending. I relate so much to her character that I’m convinced Austen wrote the part based on me. The screenplay for this film was actually written by Emma Thompson herself (so talented!), and holds such a special place in my heart, not just for the story line but because she and Kate Winslet are definitely two of my favorite actresses. As a final note to the cake, I made a caramel syrup (link given at the top of the blog) to drizzle over the cake, and it came out super tasty. Of course, it’s very sweet – but it was a totally awesome birthday cake.

Want to be part of the Jane Austen Baking Club? Tell me which Austen movie, tv series, tv movie, or Austen-esque film you’d recommend for my next baking expedition!

Just as cute, and a thousand times sweeter than the real thing, I totally fell for these panda cupcakes! Originally from the Hello, Cupcake! book, these little pandas were a little time consuming to construct, but well worth the effort. While perusing the grocery store for all of the decorating ingredients, I had to get a little creative because they don’t carry chocolate covered sunflower seeds and Oreo’s Cereal. So, for the ears I used Mini Oreos taken apart and cut in half, and just used black icing for the nose. The cupcakes themselves were made from scratch (from the vanilla cupcake recipe in the book), but store-bought vanilla icing was used for icing in an effort to cut out an extra half hour from the prep time.

I made twelve total. The first six came out a little deformed before i got the hang of the squeezey tube black icing. Of course once they’re all put together you don’t want to actually EAT them. But, once I did manage to start munching on them I was pleased. The vanilla cupcake recipe isn’t the best I’ve ever had, but it’s fine (I probably baked them for too long), and not really the point of this creation anyway.

Sort-of Book Review Blurb:

If you haven’t seen the Hello, Cupcake! book yet (or bought it and made everything in it yet), then what are you waiting for!? It’s been written about on just about every baking blog already, and it’s FANTASTIC! I can’t wait to make the sunflower cupcakes and the garden party cupcakes, and OH! the owl cupcakes!!! It was given to me for Christmas and I pretty much can’t stop looking at it. I want to start throwing parties and whipping up these babies as gifts and maybe even just get some beautiful ideas of my own.

On top of all of the super cute cupcake designs, the full-page full-color images of all of the creations, and the tips & techniques for creating them, there’s a selection of homemade recipes at the back of the book for cake and icings. There’s also a section dedicated to altering out-of-the-box cake mixes! Yay shortcuts! Oh, and supplies sources! This book rocks!!!

image: Steve Adams for Cookie Swap

Last week was the first week of Baking & Pastry School! A year ago I might have never guessed that this is where I would be now, but then again – a year ago I was sitting restlessly while watching the architecture firm I was working at slowly crumble under the burden of the heavily distressed economy. At the same time, I can’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing right now.

Over the summer I knew that I loved baking, and spent a good amount of my spare time mixing things up. In the fall I thought I’d give it a try professionally and work at a bakery/pastry shop, just to see if I’d still enjoy it under the pressure of production. In October I started studying every culinary school from New York City down to Washington DC to find a fitting baking program. By Thanksgiving I had applied to the Art Institute here in Philadelphia, for their Baking & Pastry specific program, and reorganized my already tight finances to make it happen.

The program is a year long, run on a quarter system which is totally new to me. Because of the truncated quarters instead of semesters, the courses are all at least four hours long, if not two days a week as well. Luckily, I’m used to long classes of this sort thanks to design school. There are three classes per quarter to help accommodate working students, which is sorta where I’m at these days. This quarter I’m taking the basic courses, Intro. to Baking (which is also a Culinary Arts class – I’m the only B&P person in it), Kitchen skills for Baking (All B&P students, learning how to use every imaginable piece of equipment), and Safety & Sanitation (for everyone – you just gotta know it!).

Contrary to popular belief, there’s some of this:

and of course, plenty of this:

This time around though seems pretty different, and I don’t just mean the content of the program. When I was in school for my bachelor’s degree college WAS my life. I lived at school and ate at school, and anything that I did was either for school or with people from school. Five years of SCHOOL. This time it’s different because I have a life that I’ve started to build, and I’m fitting school into it. 16 hours a week substituted with class time, and a couple of hours a week of reading or homework where I’d otherwise be reading for pleasure or goofing off. I see a lot of the kids in my courses and think, “Wow, they just graduated from high school.” But I’m not the only older student, there’s plenty of people with other jobs, families, and lives that are fitting a little bit of education into it all as well. Ultimately, it’s just great to be learning about and spending my days doing something I really enjoy again.

At the moment I’m on my flight home from Charleston, SC – heading home after a truly wonderful Christmas with my family. I arrived on Christmas eve with the rest of the fam already on the ground, and headed for my Aunt’s house where the majority of the holiday festivities went down. Of course, the gift part of Christmas day was awesome. One of the MANY amazing gifts I received is this pair of tangeriney sweet pair of slippers:

made by em & sprout

Not to mention, the personalized cake pan from my Aunt T, beautiful original print from my cousins, Planet Earth on dvd (finally!!!) and great books all around! But of course, the gifts were only a fraction of the holiday experience. No trip to Charleston would be complete without indulging in the following meals:

tasty Christmas dinner…

Fried Shrimp (with Key Lime pie not pictured)

Bessinger’s barbeque…

While my friends and the boyf were shivering up north I was enjoying every moment in flip flops and a sweatshirt in the 50ish degree weather of the south. The time spent with my family was so long overdue and so comforting. Love was pouring out of every person I was around, and laughter was in every smile. Holidays like this one make me wish I was a little closer to all of these amazing people! If you’re one of my twitter friends you probably saw that every post of mine for the past two weeks talked about making gifts, which turned out pretty well:

I hope all of your holidays were just as awesome! Are your ready for the New Year? While taking a holiday I had the opportunity to really think about the past year, and the upcoming one and deliberate on my hopes and intentions for 2010. More on that next time =)

This year I’ve found myself with the Christmas Spirit in FULL FORCE. If I sing another Christmas carol I think the boyf is going to end it. I’ve boiled it down to a couple of reasons:

1. I finally found the Muppet Christmas Carol on DVD (thanks Amazon). I’ve been looking for this for years, especially since I don’t have a VHS player anymore. Best Christmas Movie EVER.
2. I haven’t seen my family in a long time. TOO long. Like, a year and a half too long. I’m ecstatic to see them come Christmas Eve.
3. I already have my Christmas present (this gorgeous laptop!), which is a mood elevator every time I look at it.

To channel some of this glee I made a gingerbread house for a museum charity fundraiser, which was way larger than it needed to be, but came out alright. I have a little dough left over to make another (smaller) one as a gift. I’ve also picked up some household holiday gear have a little bit of cheer in every room including a couple of large holiday mugs perfect for coffee and hot chocolate in front of the laptop:

and a set of prep bowls from Pier 1 for the large quantities of cookies I’ll be whipping up over the next two weeks:

We’ve put a tree up and put lights on it (colored lights for the first time in years!), but can’t decorate it much more because the cat has climbed it a couple of times, and all of those baubles would probably just throw her over the edge this year. I’ve picked up some of my favorite holiday songs on iTunes and have played them on repeat (top 3: Wham! – Last Christmas, Judy Garland – Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Mariah Carey – All I Want for Christmas is You) probably to everyone else’s distress. We even picked up a live wreath and hung it on the door today:

With all of this excitement Christmas itself is coming up on me pretty quickly, so I’d better get to gift making. Speaking of which – time to whip up a couple of “test cookies”. ;c)

Tonight I’ve finally had the chance to sit down for a leisurely meal and bake, and even do a little blogging. So what’s new? How was everyone’s Thanksgiving? This year my family and I did things a little differently. See, I’m an only child and my parents live a good distance from the rest of our family, so we usually end up having a quiet dinner at home in Virginia and hanging out for a little while before I make my way back to Philadelphia. This year on the other hand, the parents came up to Philly to  have Thanksgiving at my house! (one of the perks of having an adult-sized kitchen and an actual dining room table.) My friend Brandon also joined us for the meal – which was filling and tasty! I worked at the bakery on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, so unfortunately we had to squeeze family time in between work hours.

Upon the parents’ arrival on Wednesday after I left work, we headed out to King of Prussia to the Apple store…where my early Christmas gift was waiting for me! Oh yes – I came home with a beautiful, shiny, elegant, awesome new 15″ MacBook Pro!!! The excitement is still overwhelming – I’ve been waiting for this computer for YEARS. I couldn’t be more grateful! I’m looking forward to maybe even doing some video blogging now – yay!

The new Apple!

The past few days I’ve also been pushing hard to finish 3 painted sets for a children’s musical theater. Two of the backdrops were 8×6′, and the third was 8×14′. Last night was the longest night I’ve spent working in a very long time, and finally dropped the backdrops off around noon. So finally, I’m sitting back for the rest of the evening and enjoying some of the things I’ve been looking forward to. In celebration of a little down time (which ends the moment I wake up in the morning) I whipped up a batch of Cinnamon Brown-Sugar Baked Apples this evening that taste so good I though I was actually going to cry from delight. unbelievable with a little vanilla bean ice cream, mmmm!!!

Yummy baked apples!

The recipe came from the Kitchn, and will be immediately added to my cookbook. Super easy and SURE to delight. I used 4 different kinds of apples, because I don’t really know that much about different apples, and was very pleased with the baked Rome apple tonight. I’m looking forward to having another one for breakfast. Time to sit back and relax for a little while longer with the Muppet Christmas Carol =)