Mmm...talking food....

I've been into drawing birthday cards lately. It started with my roommate, and I've managed to continue it up until this point. It's fun, and even if they look a lil' shi'y, it's the thought that counts. It's also made me want to be a greeting card designer over at Sunrise but I doubt that'll happen.

So what does a typical Wallaby card look like? Well, if I had thought of scanning the images I would have a better example. Instead, you get to look at these mildly blurry pictures from my camera!

As you can see I have a thing for drawing anthropomorphic food in various states. I'm not sure why the hedgehogs are on acid, nor why there's a worm in the cupcake's hat, nor why the peanut butter cups don't have arms. I don't even know why there's a strawberry spa. I'm an amateur genius, so I will pretend they are my artistic vision and you just don't understand.

They're all on regular computer paper, start as pencil drawings, and finally copied using a smooth-writing pen on my make-shift light box (ahem, a window). The color's come from a sweet box of gel-ish crayons. They write on ALL colors of paper, EVEN BLACK! For preservation's sake, I glue them onto some colorful card stock and trim the excess. Ta-dah!

And they all have this cupcake on the back as my signature. Goodness, I'm obese.

I think I'm going to keep this up, though I'll scan them next time (I finally know where the school's scanner is). It gives me a reason to draw various baked goods in my notebook during philosophy class.

My one fear is that this will deepen my desire for a super-duper scanner and tablet, and Illustrator and/or Photoshop. Realistically, that will not happen since Adobe likes-ah dah monies I don't have. Christmas is going to be more and more disappointing from now on.

Lator.


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This is overdue

So I made these over the summer, but forgot to post them. They're from Mom's Big Book of Cookies. I really like them. I unfortunately only had the little non-pareils, not the jimmies the recipe called for, so they had a mildly crunchy texture. It was a little awkward. I would definitely have to get the sprinkles for the next time I make them. O yes, there will be a next time. Bask in its deliciousness:

Lator.

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I'll Register Your Car at the DMV in Spanish If You Say "There Might Be Cake"

The title's a bit long, but it's one of my favorite Greg Behrendt jokes, and well this is about cake.

The story is that I wanted to make a good cake after my Nigella cupcakes disaster (pictures to come) but without butter cream icing, as my mother doesn't like it, and really, there's only a certain amount of butter cream I can take. (Does that make me a terrible baker?) Anywho, here's the recipe.

Cake:

12 Tbls soft butter
1 1/2 c sugar plus 2 tbls
1/4 tsp salt
2 c flour

2 1/4 tsp baking powder

4 eggs

3/4 c milk

2 tsp vanilla

3/4 c strawberries

Cooking Spray

Two 8-inch round cake pans (Well, preferably two, I couldn't find my pair so I had to use my one springform round.)

Frosting: (I got this from Alton Brown's Coconut 7 min frosting recipe, just without the coconut)

3 egg whites

1/3 c cold water

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla

Metal bowl

Hand mixer

For the cake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray pans with cooking spray.

---Beat the butter and 1 1/2 c of the sugar until light and fluffy.

---Combine the wet ingredients in another bowl, beat lightly. Combine the dry ingredients in another bowl.

---Alternate adding the dry and wet ingredients, starting and ending with the dry. Scrape bowl often.

---Pour half of the batter in each pan.

---Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until it passes the toothpick test.

---Once out of the oven, let them cool in the pan for about 10 minutes.

---Turn out and let cool completely before icing the cakes.

---As the cakes cool combine the strawberries and remaining 2 tbls of sugar.

Once the cakes are cool, begin the icing.

---Bring two inches of water in a saucepan to a simmer.

---Place all ingredients in the metal bowl.

---With the bowl over the simmering water, beat the ingredients at low speed for one minute.

---Raise the speed to high and beat for another five minutes.

---Remove the bowl from the heat and beat for another 3 minutes.

---Let sit for a few minutes before using

Okay so it's technically a 9-minute icing, but I wanted the icing a little stiffer than it was after 7 minutes. Actually if I could, I would've beat it a little longer to make the meringue icing stiffer than what I eventually settled for.

For the cake construction, prepare the serving plate with strips of parchment so as not to get icing on the plate.

---If any of the layers are severely rounded, level them slightly with a serrated knife.

---Place the first layer on the parchment lined serving plate. If one layer is thicker than the other, place the thicker layer on the bottom.

---Pour 1/4 c of the frosting onto the bottom layer and spread evenly up to 1/4 inch from the edge.

---Drain some of the juices that have secreted from the strawberries.

---Evenly place the strawberries onto the first layer. Save a few for decorating the top.

---Turn the second layer upside down and place on top of the strawberries.

---Pour most of the remaining frosting onto the top and spread over onto the sides to reach full coverage. Add frosting as needed.
---Place the strawberries you'd set aside onto the top.

It's okay if there is a gap that forms due to the slightly large layers. It'll look delicious anyway.

Go shove your face!

Lator.

P.S Hoorah for Shawn Johnson! She definitely deserves that Gold medal.

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Bret Hart Cookie - Part 2 of 2

I have completed the Bret Hart cookie. I did end up submitting it to the Sugar Slam over at Bake and Destroy. I figured it wouldn't hurt. Moving on...If you'd like to make some Bret Hart cookies, here's the recipe and what not. I hope to do some more wrestling baking before I go back to college, where there is no oven available, unfortunately. Need to get as much done as possible. I see some Shawn Michaels cookies to go along with the Hart cookies. Oooh, the scandal!

Oh yeah here's the Bret cookies:

For the Sugar Cookie Dough (A slightly revised version of Alton Brown's Sugar Cookie recipe)
3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon milk
2 1/2 teaspoons raspberry jam
Heart shaped cookie cutter (I used a knife but a cookie cutter will make this A LOT easier)

[This dough makes about 24 cookies. I only used half of the dough and reserved the other for some future baking venture. You could just cut the recipe in half, or make the entire2 dozen.]
For the royal icing:
3 ounces of egg whites
3 teaspoons of cream of tartar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
About 3 1/2 cups Powdered sugar, but have more just in case.
Pink food coloring.
Black food coloring.
Three ziplock bags.
Parchment paper
A printed copy of the Bret Hart logo, making sure the heart is about the size of your cookie cutter heart.
[This recipe makes enough icing for about 15 cookie decorations. Recipe can be doubled.]

---Sift together all the dry stuff.
---Beat the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer until it's all nice and fluffy. Add the egg milk and jam and beat until combined.
---With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry stuff, scraping every once in a while, until combined.
---Divide the dough in two, wrap in the item of your choice (I used plastic wrap, Alton suggested wax paper) and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

---After two hours, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
---Roll out half of the dough, leaving the other half in the fridge so it stays cool. Use some powdered sugar so the dough doesn't stick too much.
---Using the cookie cutter, cut out your cookies and place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
---Bake for 9 minutes, or until brown at the edges, turning the sheet halfway through the cooking time.

---While the cookies cool, make the royal icing.
---Beat the egg whites, cream of tartar, and vanilla until frothy.
---Slowly add the powdered sugar.
---Add sugar until it's the consistency of condensed milk, or that Borax and water stuff you made in elementary school.
---Divide the icing in half. Dye one half pink. Cover this half and refrigerate.
---Pour 3/4 of the remaining white icing into one of the ziplock bags. Cover and refrigerate the 1/4 still in the bowl.
---Place the printed logo under a large sheet of parchment paper.
---Cut the corner of the ziplock bag to make a small opening.
---Pipe the icing on the parchment in the shape of the wings and skull. [The icing should be thick enough to keep its shape. If it's not, add some more powdered sugar.]
--- Move the printed logo to a clear area of the parchment and repeat. Make more skulls and wings than you think you'll need because a few are sure to break.
--- Leave the decorations to dry over night.

---Once the cookies are cool, pour the pink icing into another ziplock bag, cutting the corner as before. I recommend stirring the icing a bit before doing so.
---Outline the cookie's shape, then fill in the heart. Repeat for all the cookies you've made.
---Allow to dry over night.

---Once all the decorations are dry, you can attach them to the cookie.
---Carefully detach each wing and skull as you go along.
---Using the remaining icing as glue, place a skull in the middle and a wing on each side of the skull, using the printed logo as a reference.
[If the wings tend to fall backwards, roll up some aluminum foil and place under the wing in order to keep it up until the 'glue' is dry enough to hold it.]
---Repeat until all your cookies are done. Let dry for at least 4 hours.
---Dye any remaining white icing black, and using the same ziplock method, pipe on the skulls eyes/mouth. Once again, let it dry for at least a few hours.


The drying time and piping make it at least a two day project, but they're quite delicious. Enjoy!

Here are a few of the cookies that didn't quite make it:

Poor guys didn't know what was coming. I assure you these injured cookies were given the proper treatment. Keep reading...

Bret Hart Cookies -Part 1

So I was encouraged to attempt to try out for a baking contest that involved wrestling. Baking and WWF: two of my favorite-est things. Seriously. Anywho, so I thought of this Bret Hart Logo with a Screw somehow incorporated. (Montreal Screwjob, anyone?)

Well, the chances of me entering the contest are slim because the results aren't very good so far. The issue is I can't make stuff with Royal Icing, and this was my first time trying to do so. Hence these (slightly blurry) photos.
So that's the cookie itself. I used Alton Brown's Sugar Cookie recipe (though I added some raspberry jam to it for some extra pink) and the royal icing... i don't know where it came from. I learned it from some book a while ago I suppose. It's a few ounces of egg whites with a few teaspoons of cream of tarter and powdered sugar until the consistency is right.

The cookies look okay. The pink could've been a little darker (and less blurry) but oh well. I also tried to make screw shaped cookies to incorporate with the decorations and the heart cookie, but I failed. The bigger issues came with the icing decorations.
These are the best of the wings. I think they came out pretty well considering my terrible piping skills. It sort of went down hill with the Skulls though.
The skulls kind of look either like ghosts or like happy skulls. Basically not the badass skulls I'd hoped for.
Those black dots? My attempt at making sugar screws. Failed once again.

Basically, this is not turning out how I'd hoped. I'll post back later with the finished product. And then I'll figure out if I'm going to submit it to the Sugar Slam.

Oh and in case you're wondering what the logo actually looks like here's The Hitman's website.

Lator! Keep reading...