Sweet Cakes Kirkland

So, I got myself a job. I'm now working weekends as a decorator at Sweet Cakes in Kirkland. I'm very excited about what I'll lean here!!!

Peanut Butter Criss Crosses Part 1

I wanted to bake something simple to ease off my Jameson Bottle Cake. That's what I always go back to.. simple, timeless, tasty shit that my mom used to make kind of baking.... That's what I want to eat! I don't get the appeal of sculpted cakes, really... but I have fun making them... as long as the money is right.
Anyway, as I embark on my endeavor to find the best recipe for the basics that everybody knows and loves, I've decided to start with Peanut Butter Criss Cross Cookies. A peanut butter criss cross is supposed to be smallish, 2-3 inches in diameter. It should be crisp and melt in your mouth. It should remind you of your mom, and school, and probably the 80's. I'm trying this recipe from simplyrecipes.com. Dough is the freezer.....
I want them to come out looking exactly like these:

And they DID! This recipe was a success... look no futher.. this is THE Peanut Butter Criss Cross recipe I'll keep!

Peanut Butter Cookies

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

METHOD

1 Cream the butter for 2 minutes. Add the sugars, cream for 2 more minutes. Mix in the peanut butter and egg. Mix together the dry ingredients - flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir into the sugar butter mixture.

2 Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate at least 3 hours.

3 Preheat oven to 375°F. Shape dough into 1 1/4 inch balls. Place about 3 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten in crisscross pattern with a fork. Bake until light brown, 9 to 10 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for a minute; transfer to rack to cool completely.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

For chewier cookies, bake at 300°F for 15 minutes.

Simply Recipes http://simplyrecipes.com

Peanut Butter Criss Crosses Part 2

It was MY opinion that these peanut butter cookies f*$%ing fantastic, so I sent them to work with the Dr to see what others had to say.
One lady loved them and could not stop eating them.
SEAN, however, thought they were "a bit dry" and he prefers his "a bit more on the softer side". I'm not one to reject constructive criticism, but sorry SEAN... you want a soft peanut butter cookie?? Well then go to Mrs Fields. bleh.
The next day, Sean received a special cookie from me... a sugar cookie, tagged and tied up in its own special bag, nicely decorated with pinks and yellows, with a special message which read "Fuck Off Sean"...

Coors Light Cake

I had high hopes for this cake. I mean, really high hopes. I think it turned out ok. I'm a little pissed that it's not perfect.

Meghan emailed me at the last minute for a Coors Light cake for Elizabeth's boyfriend's birthday. I'm not a fan of sculpted cakes, but for beer, I'll make an exception. 

For the cake, I made a white almond sour cream cake and filled it with milk chocolate ganache. 

Thanks to a tip from Bake at 350, I had just bought these edible markers, and they saved my ass in this project!

Final Product:

Cute, Tasty Shit

I'm just going to do some good old filter blogging for a bit since I have no idea what I'm doing and that's about the only thing that will keep me from freaking out and submitting my resume to some horrid wealth management firm. I'm seriously lacking direction and confidence, so I'm just going to capture things I like or find interesting and hopefully soon, I'll see a trend.

Alissa sent me a daily reflection today, which is always very inspirational:


"If you love babies and cameras and are a stay at home mom, that doesn’t mean you can automatically become a professional baby photographer.  I’m just saying because everyday, I swear a new friend on FB becomes one.  It is not hard to put a sleeping baby in a knitted cap and take a picture.  You added a headband!   How whimsical and creative!!  NO!"

Which prompted me to look up headbands on Etsy...which lead searching for royal icing decorations, baking shiz,etc etc. I could have an etsy shop! Here we go... Another tangent. But seriously, today I found out that one of my favorite cake decorating supply stores, Layer Cake Shop, started their biz with only 7 items on Etsy. Look at them now!

All I want to do is help kids and bake cute, tasty shit. Whatever i want. Whenever i want. For whomever i want. That's it. I don't even care about making money.