SMS: Black Bottom Brownies.....

YUMMY!!!  What more can I say?  Our recipe of the week, Black Bottom Brownies, was chosen by Cynthia of Bakingtherapest , check out her blog for the recipe.  These went together easily, I used Scharffenberger unsweetened chocolate; I usually won't use expensive chocolate on a new recipe but I just had a hunch this would be a delicious recipe.  I wasn't disappointed! The only change I made was using mini chocolate chips instead of regular and I only used 6 ounces; I didn't want too much chocolate competiting with the cheesecake layer.  I probably got 24 out of the full recipe; the original recipe indicated 12 servings, I think that would have been calorie/sugar overkill!!!  DH said these were very good and will be taking the rest to work tomorrow, get them OUT of my site please.  Yes, these were delicious, I liked the contrast between the brownie (nice and fudgy) and cheesecake (creamy, moist) layer; they are even better the next day, according to my DH of course. 

SMS: Lemon (Orange) Walnut (no nuts) Sour Cream Pound Cake.....

With all the great reviews I had to make this pound cake!  I made mine with oranges because I had two I needed to use and I was too lazy to walk out back and pick lemons.  Left out the nuts since I will be sending this to work with DH and I know there are a few co workers that don't do nuts.  This was amazing; beautiful crumb, nice flavor and a perfect glaze.  I made a mini loaf for DH and me and used a 2 pound loaf pan for the other.  Needless to say the mini didn't last very long, LOL.  You could use any citrus for this cake; I think lime might be good next time.  Thanks to Raeann, who just got back from the Bahamas, of Basically, Baby Boots for picking an easy and delicious recipe.  Check out her blog for the recipe and Lenny Kravitz!!!

MSCC: Coconut Cupcakes.....

I almost didn't make this recipe, I have a great coconut cupcake recipe so why mess with another?  What changed my mind was the 7 Minute Frosting, I have never made this type of frosting so why not?  Glad I did, the cupcake part was on par with my recipe; great taste with lots of coconut flavor and I love coconut!  I liked the frosting, it piped well and was easy to make; my only complaint was that it was very plain, my DH said everyone at work would have prefered a regular frosting.  All in all they were good, would use this recipe if I lost my favorite recipe but would change the frosting.  Many thanks to Jennifer from Cinema Cupcakes for picking our recipe of the month!

SMS: Chocolate Cream Caramels.....

Sorry for the late post, I actually made these on Saturday but an invitation for breakfast and a movie, Avatar, got in the way of cutting and wrapping.  I have made caramels for years and this was a nice change of flavor, never thought of making chocolate caramels. 

These were very good but I prefer a softer caramel; I will make them again but next time cook them a few degrees lower.  The candy cut easily and tasted great! This was perfect timing, I just got my order for cellophane wrappers and had plenty (2000), LOL. 

On another note, I am happy to see the holidays are over, something was lacking this year; can't put my finger ont it but it just didn't seem like Christmas.  Maybe I was baking and cooking for clients and not enough for me, I had loftly expectations of all the holiday goodies I wanted to make.  This year I will cut off client baking at the beginning of December.

It's Giant Cupcake season.....

My Giant Cupcakes have really taken off! I have had so many orders for them I am having trouble keeping up with my posting; but they are fun to make and everyone loves them. Here are a few pictures of the cupcakes.

MS:CC Candied Sweet Potato Cupcakes

This months recipe was chosen by by Karen at Karen's Cookies, Cakes & More and she picked a winner. I used a pan with an indentation on the top to hold the marshmallows; my kitchen torch can be a bit fickle at times and I ended up slightly over doing the marshmallows in a few places but they still tasted great. These were more of a muffin than a cupcake but that's OK with me, I may use this recipe for Christmas brunch. Looking forward to next month's recipe, Gingerbread Cupcakes. I hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!

SMS: Spiced Pumpkin Cookie Cakes

This has been pumpkin week, I made Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes for the MS:CC on Thursday and used the left over pumpkin for the SMS recipe; I just love using up ingredients. These cookies reminded me of the cupcakes I made last week, spicy, moist and yummy! Easy recipe with no issues.

I make French macrons occasionally and have a "cheat sheet" to make them all the same size; I just put the parchment paper on top, pipe the batter and you have perfect sized cookies. Even the piping tip was the same size! My cookies took the full 15 minutes and I feel they could have used maybe another minute or so. The frosting was a cream cheese based recipe, so I decided to use the left over frosting from the cupcakes; I just added orange zest and orange extract to the frosting and it was very good.

The recipe made 68 cookie halves and DH is taking ALL of them to work tomorrow, they are that good. I need them out of the house, LOL.