I LOVE oatmeal cookies, but after I bough silicon forms like these I just went crazy with my sweet combination.
I don't even necessary have any particular oatmeal cookie recipe. I just mix together main ingredients: oatmeal, butter, sugar, flour,baking powder,eggs. I've been baking so much I don't need a precise recipe now. This makes my treats taste unique every time. You can use any cookie recipe you like.
I like to fill them with all sorts of yummies: nuts, raisins, cranberries, chocolate chips, banana, peanut butter....
Then I mix cream cheese with a little bit of yogurt and sugar until it's smooth and pour it over the cupcake.
Sometimes I add egg or melted chocolate or orange/ lemon zest, also instant drink powder for color and taste. Just use my imagination.
Bake 350F for 20-25 min
KitKat bars 'glue' together with warm chocolate. Let cool in a freezer
You'll need:
*5 eggs
*200 grams sugar
*200 grams flour
*food coloring
*orange juice
*vase or any container
*skewers
* florists foam for flowers
INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 350°F and coat a baking sheet with cooking spray.
Mix eggs, sugar,flour and food coloring ( optional) together and pour different size circles/pancakes with a ladle. They won't be perfectly round but that's OK. Remember that the bigger pancakes you make the bigger flowers you'll get. To make them look more realistic it's important to have different sizes. This arrangement is the amount I got from the recipe.
Bake about 10-15 min or until golden brown. If you use food coloring then judge 'wellness' by the sides/rim. When done it's important to keep your baking sheet inside the oven. You want your pancakes to stay hot as long as possible. You'll need to work fast so they don't burn ether having to sit in a hot oven. To make a flower all you do is roll petals together starting with the smallest working your way to the biggest. You may want to wear some gloves to protect your hands from heat, because that's what makes petals stick/glue together.
To keep my roses moist and to add some additional character to the taste I sprayed them with some orange juice and rubbed with a little bit of sweetened condensed milk.
Then decorate a vase. Put some foam inside. I skewered my flowers adding blueberries to hide the tips and added some orange slices just to make my bouquet more rich looking.
Here is a cake I baked for Thanksgiving. It was my first time hosting family celebration with a lot of people. So I was not sure what kind of cake to bake to make everyone happy. That's why I decided to combine chocolate layer with cheesecake...can't miss with this combo :)
Unfortunately I didn't make step-by-step pictures.
* 1 tablespoon plus 1
teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 1 cup sour cream, room
temperature
Directions
NOTE: I used half of everything for this chocolate cake
1. Preheat oven to 350
degrees. Whisk together cocoa and hot water until smooth. In another
bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
2. Melt butter with sugar
in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring to combine. Remove from
heat, and pour into a mixing bowl. With an electric mixer on
medium-low speed, beat until mixture is cooled, 4 to 5 minutes. Add
eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping
down sides of bowl as needed. Add vanilla, then cocoa mixture, and
beat until combined. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in two
batches, alternating with the sour cream, and beating until just
combined after each.
3. Bake until a cake tester inserted in centers comes
out clean, about 30-40 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool; turn out cake onto rack and let cool completely. Cake can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to
2 months, in airtight containers.
4. To finish, cut cake into 2 in the middle. Spread frosting between the layers and a thing layer on top. Refrigerate for 30min - 1 hour.
FROSTING
Any chocolate frosting will do.
I used
*1 1/2 packs of cream cheese (room temperature)
* sugar to taste
*1/2 cup chocolate chips
I always have my cream cheese at room temperature. It makes frosting smooth and even in textured. I even warm it in a microwave for about 10-15 sec.
Mix cream cheese and sugar until creamy and add melted chocolate chips. Mix well.
My frosting on a picture turned out to be very soft because I decided to add a little bit of plane yogurt. Well, it didn't harden as much as I would like it, even after refrigerating.
Make sure to have your chocolate cake be even on top before placing cheesecake there.
CHEESE CAKE
*3 (8-ounce) packages of cream
cheese softened to room temperature *3 eggs,
room temperature
Preheat
oven to 350 degrees F. Bake 45 min or until ready. I baked in a water bath. Wrap
the bottom of a springform panwith
two layers of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Set aside another oven-proof
pan that this can sit into. You will use these as a water bath
when cooking your cheesecake, so make sure the aluminum foil come up
high enough to keep water out of your cheesecake.
Beat
the cream cheese for a minimum of 3 minutes; add 1 cup
sugar and beat this mixture until it is light and creamy. And heavy cream.
Add
the eggs, one at a time, beating at medium speed after each one is
added. Increase the speed of the mixer to high and let this mix
while you add lemon zest and vanilla to your cream mixture. Frequently
scrape down the sides and the beaters so that the mixture is smooth.
Pour
the mixture into the prepared spring form pan.
Chocolate swirls
Make a lot of dots with chocolate syrup and swirl them with a toothpick
Pink round balls are made out of homemade fondant. To make them pink I just added some instant drink powder. Decorated with fresh pineapple and blackberries on toothpicks.
It turned out to be quite challenging to execute it, at least at that time, when I still was learning and didn't know about the existence of so many cool techniques and tools available. Well, despite some mistakes I created this bright purse-container for all my computer and phone gadgets.
I would like to share with you some of my deco ideas/looks for the house.
Let's look closer at what I did on the first picture. One day I got lucky to buy 10 cent frames with some pictures inside in a Family Store. ( Yes, I bought all they had on sale....10 cents....oh, yesssss. Wouldn't think such prices exist in 2011 :) )
The very base of the centerpiece is one of those frames. But what I did, I took some leftover fabric from the chair you can see on the background of the picture and upholstered the picture that was in the frame. I didn't even bother to glue 2 pieces together, just in case I may want to reuse some of the elements in the future. Then I placed a decorative golden plate, some cheap Christmas tree deco balls ( red), added a golden bird and a glittery flower for some sparkle. By creating visual layers with different shades of gold, orange and red this centerpices is truly rich and impressive. It makes a great conversation piece and is a true joy at meal times.
Fall is a wonderful season, when it's sunny and warm. I wanted to bring those same feellings and colors to my table. The flowers were simple mums from my yard. To create this perfectly round arrangement you may watch this video. Personally I cleaned off all the leaves and separated bigger flower clusters into much smaller. This way it's much easier to control the shape. I didn't bother to use any tape to hold the stems together. My vase had a very narrow neck anyways. White ribbon and a bow covered up uneven stems adding elegance.
Easy, bright, colorful!!!
Some crystals and drinking straws. One jar though has some candy on the bottom (those candies actually triggered the idea). Once, my husband had his sweet tooth cravings and ........oh, no....he dug in....and ate some of them. LOL
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