Cookies for Dana!

At work friday a co-worker named Dana came over to me and asked me to make cookies. So I was inclined to make cookies this weekend. All those hours at work I totally forgot to ask her what kind of cookies does she not like. So hopefully she likes M&M Cookies, they are one of my favorites.

Where I live Halloween was celebrated on Devils night, I think that is because it there is a Steeler game tonight. When I was little even if Halloween was on Sunday, Trick-or Treating was always on Halloween. So this year it was a little different feeling. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, but this year for me it was extremly boring, it definitely could have been a lot better. My sister and the kids stopped over, they looked cute in their outfits. I will have pictures up of them on this post.

Futhermore, this week I only have 3 days of class which is really exciting. So I have a four day weekend. So starting November 8 I will have new classes, French Breakfast Pastries, and Purchasing and Controlling. So the French Pastries will lead to more posts coming up.

Next weekend is my moms 45th birthday, so I will be making her cake, and I believe I am going to do something with roses since those are her favorite flowers. So I hope that it turns out the way I envisioned it to be. We'll see......

I have to admit, I was hoping that these cookies would turn out because they are considered a Sugar Cookie, and me and Sugar Cookies do not mix well. They usually sit the the pan, become hard and break off. What really baffles me is that I can make a perfect Chocolate Souffle, but can not manage to make sugar cookie to save my life. But today, I was able to make them, so I think this would call for a celebration.

So Dana these cookies are for you and I hope you enjoy them!!!!!




M&M's!! I think the bag that I bought was a little to big, because I have so much left over!! I really love the peanut M&M's more.



The batter! I was once in class, and appearantly I was smelling everything we were making, and another student commented on it. And I said I smell everything before I eat it. (I get the habit from my mom) And my Chef heard and said "it's good that she smells it before she eats it, I have fired employees for not tasting the batter." So now I am in the habit of smelling and tasting things a bit more. That's why I don't eat anything I make.

Here is the website in which I got my recipe for the M&M cookies off of!
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Waiting to be decorated before going into the oven!


All ready now!!




35 colorful cookies awaits Le Cordon Bleu students!!



The little guy lost the battle. He would have made 36....



Savannah as Tinkerbell for Halloween!!



Timmy as a Dragon for Halloween!!



I don't know if anyone knows that, that sign is still correct. It is supposed to say Pizza Hut. But instead it says Za Hut. Alittle trivia, Za means pizza! I learned that while playing scrabble with John one summer! So even though the word Pizza is missing most of it's letters ZA still makes up for the missing letters.


Happy Halloween!!

Birthday Party Sunday!!!

This coming week is my brothers 19th birthday, on the 28th of October. We decided to do his birthday dinner this weekend instead of doing it Halloween weekend. So this blog post is a little more different than my previous posts.

My brother wanted Pumpkin Pie instead of cake, but we were afraid if some of our friends did not like Pumpkin Pie, so I made Chocolate Cake (We all know you can't go wrong with Chocolate!). As for dinner we had one my of absolute favorites; Fettuccine Alfredo,chicken, salad, garlic bread along with pop, wine, or water.

So I am uploading some pictures of my brother Patt's birthday dinner:


Four Pounds of Fettuccine Noodles!!!


ALFREDO SAUCE!!YUMMY!!!!


My brothers chocolate birthday cake! Patt actually decorate it!



Chocolate Cake and Pumpkin Pie!! yummy!



Getting ready to sing Happy Birthday!!!! It looks so pretty! You have to love candle setting on my camera!!



Patt's first cut into the cake! Make a wish!! I wonder what he wished for...!!



My mom and Mrs. O (the one in the Steeler Jersey....also Steelers one tonight) serving Pumpkin Pie and Chocolate Cake!!



Mr. O (the one on the left) and Michael (my stepdad) talking



My beautiful niece Savannah!!!!!



My nephew Timmy, with Reddi Wip on his face! He's so adorable!!



You can not go wrong with this stuff!!



My coffee and Pumpkin Pie!! Thanks Mrs.O for the gigantic amount of Reddi Wip!!



I got my brother The Nanny season 1 for his birthday! He loves this show!!!!



I hope you enjoyed everything!!! In two weeks it's my moms birthday! So another party coming our way!!!!

Halloween Cake Pops!!!

So this past weekend I decided to make Cake Pops, but I had some help in making them. John my boyfriend was home from Washington Dc, so he helped me make them and decorate them.Since it is the month of October, we decided to do some Halloween themed ones! We made tons of pumpkins, ghosts, and just one mummy!!! They turned out to be awesome! And definitely fun to eat!!!

I used Bakerella's chocolate cake recipe! And also her cream cheese icing recipe as well. They the two combinations turned out great!

We ran into a few problems, one was we made some of the cake pops to big, so we will know next time to make them smaller. We learned that if you melt some chocolate and put it on the stick, put the stick into the cake pop then put it in the fridge for about 2 hours. That when you go and dip it into the chocolate that cake pop will not fall off of the stick. (I highly recommend that). Also, if you put vegetable oil in the melted chocolate it makes the chocolate easier to coat the cake pop!!!!!!!

Here are some of my Cake Pops that John and I decorated and on Saturday!!!!











These are the Cake Pops that that just failed! But that did not stop anyone from eating them!!!!!


I hope you enjoyed my Cake Pops!!! Thanks John for all of your help! Safe journeys back to Washington tomorrow!!!!


Enjoy!!!!!

Update! Bakerella CAKE POPS...in near Future!

Well, I decided to write a little update as to what to expect for this coming weekend project. I decided to make CAKE POPS this weekend!! Since I bought the Bakerella book last weekend. She inspired me to make them! And I cannot wait to get started on them tonight! As for the ones I make, that will be a surprise! Any guesses??????????

The other reason why I decided to make them is John is coming home this weekend and we are going to a haunted house Saturday night with some friends.... so I decided why not make Bakerella Cake Pops to enjoy on the way up!!!


Furthermore, I am considering entering my Le Cordon Bleu Halloween Cake contest that is coming up in two weeks, and since I have to be there for it anyways! The prize is Cake Boss tickets!! I actually already bought some for my mom and I, but if I would win I will be giving them away to some Le Cordon Bleu students. If I do it I will show some pictures of my Halloween Cake!!

There is also another contest that I want to participate in. It's a chocolate cupcake recipe the deadline is in January!! That is one that I really want to participate in, since I am a huge fan of cupcakes!!

Look for my new blog update on Sunday!!!!!

Have a great weekend!!!

Homemade Cheesecake with Recipe!!!

So this weeks project I decided to make my moms great Cheesecake! Out of all the Cheesecakes out there, hers is by far my favorite!!! This cheesecake is plain cheesecake, and this means you can spice it up anyway you want to. I've always liked just regular plain cheesecake. I still have not yet come across a chocolate cheesecake that I've liked, but until then this is my favorite one!!!!



My Cheesecake!!!




This is what my cheesecake looked like coming out of the oven before I put it in the fridge to cool down!!!



THIS is what is so great about just plain cheesecake, you can add whatever topping your heart desires!!! Obviously, mine is Strawberries!!!



Another angle!!!



The first bite!!!!


This is my bowl of goodies! I added grated orange peel to it!! That's my secret ingredient!!



It's whipped into shape and ready to go bake!!!!

Here is my Cheesecake recipe!!

1-1/2 cups of Honey Maid Graham Cracker Crumbs
3 TBSP. Sugar
1/3 cup of Butter of margarine, melted
4 pkg. (8 oz.each) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup Sugar
1 TSP. Vanilla
4 Eggs

Preparation
Mix, crumbs, # Tbsp. sugar and butter, press firmly onto bottom of 9-inch round pan.

Beat cream cheese, 1 cup of sugar, and vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition is blended. Pour over crust.

Bake at 325 degrees for 55 minutes or until center is almost set. Loosen cake from round pan. Then let it cool a bit before removing pan off cheesecake. Then refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. Store the leftover cheesecake in the fridge.

** My suggestion...add a fruit filling on top before serving!!!***


Also, I finally got my Cake Pops book by Bakerella after searching for weeks!!! It's so adorable, there are so many great ideas for all year cake pops!!! There will be cake pops in my house soon!! I can't wait!!!




Here it is!!!



As for weekends project stay posted to find out!!!


Enjoy!!

Bread and Butter Please!!!

At Le Cordon Bleu, I am currently taking Introduction to Breads, by 9:30 a.m I am kneading, preparing, scoring, weighing, flouring,sculpting, proofing, and then finally baking the bread. For three hours I am constantly on the move, but it is absolutely worth it. Because not only is fresh bread the best, but I get to bring home fresh bread everynight and share with everyone! But not only is eating the bread one of my favorite parts but I love preparing the bread. I love kneading, and especially learning the different kinds of knots, twists that make the breads really pretty.

So I decided to share with you some of the bread of I have made so far.



Can you say butter?? We use a lot of butter in everything, it makes everything so much better! Got to love the French!!



This is a wheat bread, but there is an Almond Paste in the center. I twisted the bread so when it bakes it's twisty, and there's Almond Paste at the top, and in the center of the bread.


My finished Wheat Bread with the Almond Paste! It was sooo good!!



Here is my Wheat Rolls, they were absolutely huge, but they made great sandwhich bread!


This is Milk Bread, this was also very good. It had a sweeter taste to it. If you have ever had Hawaiian Sweet bread, this is what it sort of tasted like. But not as sweet. We made several different type of knots for this bread. There was single and double knots, braids, and the figure eight. The hardest one for me was the braided knot, but I think I am slowly getting it. It's going to take some more practice!!



Here is the French Baguette! This so far is my favorite bread. We just made this today, as of October 6,2010. I can't wait to have a piece with butter later tonight! By the way...there isn't any butter in this recipe!!


I hope you enjoyed my bread so far! I have several more weeks to go in my Introduction to Breads class! I will post more pictures of my bread in a few weeks!!

As for this weekends project....I am leaving my options open as to what I am going to make! Stay posted!

And..

ENJOY!!

CuteCakes!!!!!!

I decided to making something sweet and colorful this weekend. I absolutely love cupcakes especially pink ones. You can do so much with them , as you probably already know. My mom bought me this cute cupcake stand so I figured I would put it to use. Yesterday, I started making my cupcakes and it went absolutely horrible. They just turned out horrible. The cupcakes had time holes in them, my can opener broke, and I burnt my arm on th stove. So I cleaned up and said I would start over tomorrow, and everything turned out great!




Here is my cupcake stand, I absolutely love it! I wouldn't mind having another one! I just wish that the top of the stand had more space.



It's PINK!!! I love everything about this one!



These are my three favorite cupcakes I made! The most time consuming part of making my cupcakes was placing the circular sprinkles on the icing.



Here are my cupcakes, they just came out of the oven!



I have to admit, I used store bought icing, because not only is it really good. But I really don't know how to make icing, without it being really soft. With this icing I am able to do piping better. As for a tip, if you don't know how to make your own icing then buy this brand, and put it in the fridge for about two hours before use. It becomes more stiffer, and easier to pipe with. I didn't use the chocolate frosting, I used the two vanilla frosting. And I just dyed the white frosting to making those colors. I used Wilton dye.



Here is my cake stand that my mom bought me. It was only $10.00!!! Totally adorable, and worth it!!!


I hope you enjoyed my cupcakes!!!!!!!! They were soo much fun to make!!