The Magic of Baking

Guess what fellow Blogging Moms and Dads: We just finished Selesnya week and to celebrate I am baking my favorite cookies: Pecan Oatmeal Chocolate Chip. What weird Magical language am I speaking? What crazy fall tradition calls it self Selesnya? A Magical One. Magic: the Gathering that is.

One of my favorite parts of fall is teaching my children the traditions of family and helping making secret traditions of our own. The weather is cooling, snow is on the way (well for you it is, I live in a desert. Don't be jealous) and you are going to have many stir crazy days to make it through. Don't stress just yet. I am going show you a simple treat to keep your little ones tummies satisfied and a card game to keep their growing minds occupied.

Being a Texan born and true, there are many traditions in my family. Football being the chief among them. It is important to me to teach and involve my children in the things I am passionate about to see what might stick. This week I will begin teaching my Daughter the game I have loved since I was fourteen years old. Magic the Gathering is a strategy game with a little spice of random chance. The cards are designed by brilliant minds and painted by skillfully artistic hands. Just look:

The great thing about Magic the Gathering is it can be as simple or advanced as the person who builds the deck. It challenges the mind on many levels. If you are interested in getting your child into a social activity that can occupy their nights at home or become an event playing at your local comic book store I highly endorse this! Now on to the yummy!

First thing first. I loaded the kids up and hauled them to our local comic store which holds Magic: the Gathering events and tournaments. It also sells tons of cards. In the newest set released Return to Ravnica you get to join a Guild and battle for the honor and glory. I am Selesnya. It reminds me of our Mommy Blogging community. The Selesnya Guild is about nature, supporting and helping the collective group. They are teachers, fighters and one. 

We picked up some new packs of Return to Ravnica cards and then headed home to bake our favorite treats. Oatmeal cookies! I decided Oatmeal cookies would fit perfect with our guild choices since they are lovers of nature. We are going to put Oats, nuts and chocolate to delicious use. 

What we need:

Yes. I know if this was a professional kitchen you be having Vapors at the mess. It's not though. 

Let the babies help and then declare your kitchen a disaster area after all is said and done. This is about as simple and classic of an oatmeal cookie you can find in just about every cook book in the multiverse. I just prefer chocolate chips to raisins. 

Ingrediants

1 1/2

cups brown sugar

1

cup butter or margarine, softened

1

teaspoon vanilla

1

egg

2

cups quick-cooking oats

1 1/2

cups all-purpose or unbleached flour

1

teaspoon baking soda

1/4

teaspoon salt

1

cup semisweet chocolate chips (6 oz)

1

cup chopped nuts (pecans if you please)

Go ahead and pre-heat that oven to 350 degrees. Take your softened butter and brown sugar and mix them in a bowl until completely combined and looking sinful. Add the vanilla and egg and stir until mixture gets light and fluffy. You don't need a fancy kitchen aid for this. Just use a good ole fashion spoon and elbow grease. Go ahead and throw the works at it now. Toss in the oats, baking soda, salt, chocolate chips, and chopped nuts. Stir it around until every oat is coated and you don't see any trace of white flour.

When the mixture looks something like this gooey edible mess it's time to doll out cookie drops. Get out your small ice cream scoop and scoop drops of the mixture onto an ungreased cookie sheet. 

So I'm not really superstitious but I still like to do my baking in front of my Irish cross. Don't judge me and I won't laugh when you throw perfectly good salt over your shoulder. 

At this point we pause our broadcast. Someone hasn't had Mom's undivided attention for ten whole minutes.

Ok. Down for a nap. God bless sleeping babies. Amen. 

This is about the size and space you want the cookie drops on the cookie sheet. Now just shove those bad boys in the oven and cook for 10 minutes. One of the things I love Magic: the Gathering is it gives you so many chances to be an individual while also being apart of something huge. Just like baking. Here is where our roads divide  I'm gooey on the inside. I take mine out of the oven at 9 minutes and let them finish cooking/cooling on the cookie sheet. You might be firm on the inside (I love you anyways, promise). If you are then you might want to leave your cookies in until 11 minutes. In baking one minute can be the difference between delicious and disaster.

Get in my mouth! 

I hope you and your little ones have a Magical fall and extremely satisfied tummies. 

The Wizards behind the curtain did not ask me/ want me / pay me to write anything in this blog. All views expressed are my own. 

If you have any questions about Magic or Baking feel free to tweet me:

@RevisedAngel

Momofuku Milk Bar Baking

Do you Momofuku? Well I Momofuku. If you haven't heard of the Momofuku Milk Bar you are in for a treat.

Christina Tosi is one of my idols. She thinks outside the box in her baking and makes everything taste like it is from your grandmothers oven. If your grandmother was a Master Pastry Chef. I love cook books. I love learning. I have not been this excited about a cookbook in my whole life. I got a gift card to Williams and Sonoma from my Boyfriends awesome parents for Christmas and we right there to pick this book up. They also sell their Milk Bar cookie mixes.

If you like following along I suggest you go pick up this book because I am going to spend the next couple of months testing, baking, trying and reviewing every recipe in the book and sharing it with you. If you love to bake you will love the advice, recipes and beauty in this book

Soon we will be whipping up cereal milk, making cornflakes crunch and baking some cornflakes-marshmallow-chocolate chip-cookies. I can't wait.

Man Food: Episode One: Mini Bean Pies

I am interrupting my regular broadcasting of all things girly to bring you a hearty and easy "Man Dish". My Guy likes meat, potatoes and beans. Finding different ways to feed him meat, potatoes and beans is my mission in life. The best part about this recipe is it literally takes five minutes to prepare, nine minutes to cook and you will look like you have been slaving all day. Lets dig in!

What you will need:
2 muffin pans (or one large one)
1 can of eight biscuits. (what ever brand you love best)(regular size 
    biscuts not jumbo)
1 can of baking spray
1 can of black beans (or your favorite kind of beans)
   (For the black beans: The great part about making mini pies like  
    this is you can put what ever you want as filling. Here I am using
    black beans but I have filled them with tuna and cheese, crab    
    rangoon mix, shrimp and barbecue sauce. After sharing this with 
    my partner at work she immediately went home and filled it
    with taco mix, topped it with cheese and had awesome taco pies.
    I have put a layer of Nutella in the center and filled it with
    fruit. The only limit to this recipe is the limit of your  
    imagination.)
   1 cup of shredded cheese (your favorite kind of cheese) (also you
   can slice little chunks of cheese and lay them on top of the pies
   if you don't want to shred the cheese.)

Spray your muffin pans with the Baking Spray and set to the side. (HINT: always spray your pans with a light coat of baking spray when baking just about everything. Even if it says place on non-greased pan or your pan says it is non-stick.)

Preheat Oven to 350degrees.

Open your can of biscuits and separate along the pre-divided line into eight biscuits:

Take one biscuit and using a sharp knife (not a butter knife) cut the biscuit dough in half like this:

Divide all your biscuits like this. When your finished you should have sixteen biscuit halves. Placing a whole biscuit in the muffin pan and trying to fill it will not work properly. The dough will not cook consistent and it will overflow the sides once you add your filling. Plus this gives you more mini pies!

Place one of the halved biscuits in the bottom of one muffin section. Pull the edges of the dough up along the sides like you are making a pie. Try to get the dough as close to the top edge as possible without ripping the dough.

Once you have all your biscuit halves placed and fitted to the muffin pans it is time to fill them! If you are using black beans (or any beans) open the can of beans and drain the liquid. Spoon small amount of beans inside the mini pies. Do no over fill or the filling will leak of the top of your pies.

Top the mini bean pie with your favorite cheese and they are ready to place in the oven! (You can use Parmesan cheese/Velveeta cheese/shredded cheddar or what ever Chef likes!) If you can't have cheese just skip this step and they still taste amazing!

Place muffin pans in the oven and bake at 350degrees for about eight minutes. The biscuit dough will bake quicker because you cut them in half. After eight minutes check the biscuits to see how they have progressed. Baking time can vary depending on many things like which type of oven used or altitude of where you live. The first time you make them I would check every minute after eight minutes until the edges are nice and golden and the cheese is melted. When they appear ready pull out of the oven and let sit two minutes. Take a fork and run it along the edge of one pie to lift mini pie out of the muffin pan. Check to make sure it is cooked all the way through and ENJOY!!!

ready to be taken out of the oven

I hope you enjoy and remember you can fill these mini pies with anything your heart desires so get that apron on and get to baking up something yummy!

New iSprinkled gear is here!!!

You asked for more designs so here they are just in time for the Holidays!! Get your iSprinkle, iCupcake or iSprinkled on your Cupcake gear now for your favorite Baker, Chef or lover of sweets!

Go to my iSprinkledonyourcupcake Store now!

Christmas Cake Pop Sophistication

Attempting these cake pops is more then a year and half in the making. It was lunch time this exact time last year with my best friend Amanda. We were discussing our differences in styles. This is us...

Amanda and Heather

I am not happy unless something is dipped and dripping in glitter. While we were lunching Amanda said something that struck me (I am sure she won't even remember). She said, "My biggest problem with your cake pops and all this cake pop madness is what if you are a grown up?" "What if I don't want to eat a Princess head or some other cutesie thing." This was just about the time I brought these to work last year for Christmas:

I have been thinking about our conversation since last year. I decided for this Christmas to make a Christmas cake pop a little more on the subdued side. Something a little classier. Something I think Amanda might order if she was throwing a high class Christmas party for adults.

I decided on a simple green candy melt base with red ribbion frosting wrapped around it. (I am still working on my piping skills but I think they came out mostly decent). I hope if you are more classy like Amanda and less glitter like me these cake pops will give you some ideas for your Christmas party this year.

Now about my Glitter Tree!!

Merry Christmas. May all your baking adventures go amazing and if they don't, may you get it on video and put it on youtube so I can laugh along with you!

Mummy Spooky Cake Pops

I received a few emails asking for links to the Mummy Cake Pops I made last year for Jordan's Halloween Party at School. Because this is what I will be making again I decided to share my version of the
Yummy Mummies by Bakerella again this Halloween for your little spooks to enjoy!

FOR SCHOOL:
 All children can have allergies to foods like peanuts but special needs children seem to have these allergies at a higher rate. It is a good idea when ever shipping your little hero off to school with a new batch of HeroCakePops to make sure they are labeled with ingredients for the teachers.

Now turn to page 131 in Bakerella's Cake Pop book and lets make some Yummy Mummies!

First we need one mini-hero dressed as a bee....Check!

Then we need to bake our cake - let it cool - mix it with 1/3 can of frosting - roll cake pops!

The great thing about Mummies is they can be what ever color you like best! I dipped my cake pops in white chocolate (candy melts)  This part is all up to the artist/baker (or the baker's helpers)!

Then we need some green and white Yummy Mummies!! After baking the basic cake pop (I used a store bought white cake mix for ease) and cooling the mummies were ready to be painted with candy melts.I first coated all the mummies in white like described in the book. Then once all mummies were made I used green gel based coloring (never water) and tinted the rest of the white candy melt booger green! I then used a disposable piping bag to pipe on the mummy wrap!

Remember the more mess the more it looks like a Mummy! I hope everyone has Happy and

safe Happy Halloween!

For more AWESOME ideas for cake pops and Halloween treats head over to our

Flickr Group Cakes On A Stick!!

DazzlePopDiva takes a Walk on the Dark Side

Hello my fellow Divas!
As we move through dreary February (remember, I live in Michigan), sometimes one needs a bit(e) of indulgence to brighten the spirits. With this in mind, I decided to make some special pops that I call DecadencePops. These pops will revolve around an extremely rich, heavily-flavored cake ball, coated with dark chocolate and dusted or decorated as my whim desires.


So...after that description, do you really need an excuse? I didn't think so. And now, on to the important stuff. Introducing DecadenceDevilPops!

Yes, I AM smart ;)

To begin, choose a rich heavily-flavored cake recipe. I chose to make devils' food cake for this batch. Use either a dark chocolate or vanilla cake frosting to form the balls. In keeping with the chocolate theme, I chose to use chocolate frosting.



Look! You can see my flash!



In this batch, I deviated from using chocolate candy melts in favor of semi-sweet baking chips for two reasons:

1. I was out of chocolate candy melts

2. Chocolate baking chips harden (eventually) to a high glossy finish

On the other hand there are a few disadvantages to using baking chips; for instance, candy melts harden more quickly and solidly than baking chips. Baking chips also retain a tacky surface and are sensitive to being over-handled.



From here it is just a matter personal Decadence preference!
(I dare you to say that quickly 3 times!)
I used the same type of Decadence typically found on chocolate truffles. I crushed English toffee and chocolate covered espresso beans (separately) in my food processor until it was reduced to dust, essentially. Then each DevilPop got it's own healthy coating of Decadence!

Crushed chocolate covered espresso beans

Crushed English Toffee

In the end, these cake pops turned out to be a wonderfully rich filling dessert that won't last in my house for very long at all.

During the course of my experiment with the DecadenceDevilPops, my awesome Sissy/Partner was (digitally/spiritually) right beside me offering her expertise and essentially, babysitting me. We decided to conduct further experiments using a combination of baking chips and candy melts to achieve a hybrid dipping mixture that delivers a richer flavor, high gloss and structural stability. Because science is important. (Yet another reason to make more cake pops, in case you needed one.)

Wishing you ALL one hour of indulgence this week!
Alicia the DazzlePopDiva

Year of the Rabbit

Happy New Year: Year of the Rabbit! 2011

Having a special need child can be challenging but it seems to be the most challenging when trying to explain concepts. Like the concept of different, same, race, culture and tradition. We pretty much have tradition down: kisses before bed time, brush teeth before bath time, Halloween means candy and Christmas means lights. It is important to me that my daughter understand the concept of her Country, her State and why her Country and State are special. Finding culture in Nevada is complicated. Las Vegas is composed of millions of people born in raised in other States and Nations. Very few are native Nevadans and because of our international travelers it gets even more confusing. What isn't confusing when you live in Las Vegas is how important the Asian culture is. Asian travelers make up a huge portion of our revenue and their amazing cuisine has infiltrated our glowing city to it's core. You can find authentic Asian restaurants run by brilliant Asian Chefs in every major Hotel along Las Vegas Blvd. It should come as no surprise then Chinese New Year is a huge celebration in Las Vegas. All major Hotels decorate and pull out all the stops to welcome our Asian friends as they bring in the New Year their way.

To help my daughter understand it is going to be a special time we made cake pops. Now fortune cookies are more an American tradition but Jordan understands when we go to our local China Town to eat she gets a fortune cookie so I decided to incorporate it. Red is a very important color for Chinese New Year so I tried to incorporate it as much as possible and still make it fun for an eight year old.

For cake pops I promise you it is going to be easier if you aren't used to making
them to use a cake mix. Duncan Hines also make a vegan cake mix if
you need that for sensitive tummies or lifestyle choices.

Just follow directions on the back of the cake box and bake your cake like normal!

What you will need:



I bought this in the baking section at Michale's. I use Duff's
cake graffiti for everything, including spraying my
Styrofoam blocks for presentation purposes.



This animal sprinkle set is from Wilton. The jumbo sprinkles
can be used to make everything you could possibly think of
and we are going to use them (the orange ones) to make a Dragon!
You can find them here: Animal Sprinkle Set

We are going to use the red candy melts for dipping our cake pops.
You candy find the Wilton candy melts I use here: Candy Melts

If you were born under the sign of the Rabbit then it is your year! Happy New Year Rabbits!

If you have a Kitchen Aid get out this attachment and crumble your cake
into the bowl. If you don't have a Kitchen Aid then simply crumble
your cake into a large mixing bowl.

Add half a can of frosting (I used cream cheese but you use what ever your
taste buds demand) and mix that baby until it looks like
cake dough.



Roll into your balls/shapes and dip a lolly-pop stick in melted candy melts and place in cake balls.
Then off to the freezer they go for about 7-10 minutes to get nice and cold!

 

Dip all your prepared cake pops in the red candy melts. I use the Wilton Chocolate Pro because it makes
this process so much easier but you can also accomplish this with a microwave.



Spray your fortune cookies with the Duff cake spray.

I made mine silver but you can use what ever color you wish. Duff has a ton of different colors to choose form.

New Year Dragon. I used a torn piece of twizzler for the fire breathing effect. Just cut off
a small piece, dip one end in the candy melt and hold in place until the candy melt dries and
acts like glue.

I used the orange jumbo sprinkles to make the dragons scales. I just dipped one side of the sprinkle in the
candy melts and held in place until it hardened.

I though the twizzler for fire breathing really worked great. I also used the orange jumbo sprinkles to
make the dragons snout.