A Gift for Bakers

What a great idea for the baker in your life!

{Picture & links for the goodies found here.}

Halloween Desserts

Halloween is exactly one week away, so it's crunch time here - need candy for the trick-or-treaters, finishing touches for my costume, materials for desserts, and need to rent those classic scary movies for one frightfully fun night.  How are things progressing at your home?  If you're like me, you scour the web looking at pictures for inspiration.

To make your week easier, I will be doing at least one post a day dedicated to all things Halloween.  As a result, today's first post is dedicated to those yummy desserts we so crave.  Hopefully these pictures inspire you to create your own delicious treats.

Orange & Black Layered Cake

Wickedly Cool Orange, Blue & White Cookies

A Mean Monster Mash Cupcake

Nevermore, Nevermore Raven Cookies

 Pumpkin Tarts

Skulls of Plenty Madeleines 

Black Webbed Cupcakes

Creepy Crawly Cakes

Not-So-Scary Witch's Hat

 Delightful Pumpkins

A Spider Spins His Tale

One, Two, Three Chocolate Headstones

The last three are quick desserts I came up with for a Halloween Party at work.  They are very easy to make if you get in a time crunch.  For the Pumpkin Cupcake Toppers, I bought orange candy melts from Michael's (or was it Hobby Lobby?) and a chocolate mold.  You simply follow the directions on the package and let them harden overnight before placing on top.  Then using green buttercream icing, you can pipe a few leaves or even use a grass tip for the topping. 

The Spiderweb Cupcake Toppers were also made using candy melts, except I piped a spiderweb on a parchment paper and then let it dry overnight.  The next day, simply place them on top of your cupcake with a spider.

The Headstone Cake Toppers in the last picture were done the exact same way as the Pumpkin Toppers, just using regular melting chocolate and a chocolate mold I found at my local craft store.  Then place some spiders around the headstones in various sizes and you have a Halloween themed cake!  All three were incredibly easy to make.  So if you get in a bind, don't stress.  Just head to your local craft store and make a couple of toppers.  No one has to know how much work you did or didn't do. ;)

Bread

I just received my new cookbook in the mail, Nancy Silverton's Breads from the La Brea Bakery, and I am so excited to start reading it.  Yes, I am a P&B nerd.  Our chef instructor (who totally rocks and makes class so much fun) loves bread more than anything and said this was her favorite book.  She stayed up all night reading it cover to cover when she got her copy.  So, I am absolutely thrilled to read this and look forward to sharing it with all of you. 

The biggest reason to buy this book according to Chef is that it explains absolutely everything about bread.  The book addresses how to modify the recipe if you're baking at home versus a professional kitchen and she's tested every recipe, not just included them because she needed to fill the pages.  She called flour milling companies and used her own baking experience to provide a book that teaches the ins & outs of bread making (how & why things work or don't work), versus a book filled with recipes and pretty pictures.

I'm so excited, I'm off to read it....!

Baguettes & White Bread made in Class

Return to the Blogosphere

At long last, I am posting.  It's been about six months since my last post and so many things have happened that I wish I could share them all with you through a fun & quirky video montage. Unfortunately, I didn't make a video.  I have pictures, but no cute video.

The biggest news I'd like to share with everyone is that I have resigned from my day job at an incredible and loving accounting firm to pursue my passion for baking!  I would not have guessed three years ago that this is something I would be doing, but I am excited nonetheless and can't wait to enter pastry school on July 5th.  [I am secretly cringing at the thought that I may be the oldest person there, even though I wouldn't quite consider myself old just yet]  The other great part about going to pastry school (and baking up a storm) is moving to Austin, Texas!  I absolutely love Austin.  It's weird.  It has great vintage stores I can peruse before class.  It's a smorgasbord of fun & creative people.  And it makes my boyfriend happy.

So, I deeply apologize for being absent the last six months.  I did not die, I was not taken hostage by a maniacally deranged cupcake eater who forced me to make endless batches of red-velvet cupcakes, and I was not on a secluded island off the Pacific Coast without internet access (though I did spend many hours watching episodes of Lost).

I am back.  Hope you're ready!


{photo by Alicia Bock}