Milk, dark, white..I love 'em all.

It got cake crazy in my house for about a week.

It started with a TROLOLOLOLOL cake I made for a friend coming back from England after a 3 week stay.

Long story short, Kyle got jealous.

Kyle demanded a cake for him.

Apparently, what Kyle wants, Kyle gets.

TONS of calories and whatnot. But SO good.

I did cheat on the frosting, though. That was store bought because it was the specific kind Kyle wanted. *eye roll*

Welcome back, Jesse!

My friend Jesse, went on a 3 week vacation to England to visit her mom. And she was missed.

She came back to the states yesterday, and the day before that her boyfriend got ahold of me.

"Let's make a welcome home cake for Jesse. Well, actually, what I mean is, let me buy a bunch of shit so you can make Jesse a cake and we can come see you when it's finished and we can surprise her. Yeah, let's do this somehow sometime."

After talking to Jesse about how I felt like baking and didn't know what, she told me that I should bake a white cake with different colored layers. So that was settled.

Andy and I brainstormed on how to decorate it.

It started with this drawing.

Initially, I was going to lay wax paper over it, trace on the wax paper with frosting, and then pop it on the cake. But that didn't happen, because I couldn't find what I needed. So I piped it all, freehanded, onto the cake.

Yeah, it's a bit rough, but for my first time piping anything onto a cake, I'm okay with it.

It's 4 layers of white cake colored pink, green, blue, and purple.

And vanilla frosting.

Around the side, it says "TROLOLOLOLOL".

And then the boring cake box turned into...

That's a direct Andy quote, right there.

The decorating skills I lack are overshadowed by the fact that the cake is delicious.

I know the cake is delicious because of the cake recipe that I used (which is already posted on this blog).

Hope you enjoy it Jessiekins! 

Rollin' in the dough.

Hah. I wish.

Anywho.

I have a weird husband. I've talked about him.

Kyle..ugh. He will eat raw BREAD dough if you let him. He thinks it's delicious. I think it's disgusting.

As far as cookie dough is concerned, I can see his way of thinking. I think cookie dough is delicious, but I hate any of us eating it because of the raw eggs. I'm not a fan of putting my family at risk.

However, there IS a way to enjoy cookie dough...

...egg free!

Burnt Apples?! What?!

There's little things that I like more to eat in the spring than fruit cobbler. I'm a sucker for peach cobbler with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side. *sigh*

Kyle's not a peach person, really. Or a strawberry person. Or..okay, he's not very diverse in what he eats. So when I'm making something fruit related, I try to keep it apple. He's happy with apple.

So, apple cobbler it is.

I PROMISE IT TASTES BETTER THAN IT LOOKS.

"Whoopehhh."

"Hey look! My mom's here!" 

"Whoopehhh." 

Name that movie.

Okay, so being from the northeast (Pennsylvania, to be exact) really instills a lot of things into your mind.

1. Amish people are people, too. This means that, yes, they deserve their own special parking area for their horses and buggies.

2. Knobles is a place you will never be too old to enjoy.

3. Turkey Hill sells THE BEST TEA EVER. If I could get my hands on a couple gallons of orange tea right now, I'd be a happy girl. But it has to be the Turkey Hill kind. None of the others taste right.

4. Whoopie pies are good anytime, anywhere. And that's a fact, Jack. 

I haven't had these babies in SO long. Honestly, I'm more of a fan of the cookie part, but that's just me. I've tried many different recipes for these, but the best whoopie pies you'll get are from random small restaurants...if you want to call them that. 

Here's the most recent recipe I tried. I LOVED the cookie part. The innards could use some work, though.

Fat Kid Night.

The amount of stress in my life is still at high, and *gasp* I'm out of crafts to do at the moment to take my time off of it. So, tonight I claimed myself to a Harry Potter marathon and baking.

And these cupcakes are totally worth not having a craft to do.

I guess they're a craft in themselves.

You know your mouth is watering.

I'm not built for the outside stuffs.

I'm really, really, REALLY not an outdoors person.

I don't do the whole camping thing. 

And here's why.

1. It gets freaking HOT in the summer. Pennsylvania wasn't so bad, but now that I'm in Missouri, it's like I'm walking outside to Hell. I prefer air conditioning.

2. There's no bathrooms when you go "real" camping. I'm saying "real" camping because Kyle, bless his heart, just gets into a tizzy when you bring up campgrounds. You should hear his rant. It's quite amusing.

3. There's bugs and things. Bugs are too icky for my taste. And skunks. And mountain lions. And armadillos. And possums. *shivers*

4. I'm a mosquito magnet, literally. If you want to walk outside with no bug spray on into a swarm of those things, take me will you. I promise that you won't get bit. They'll be too busy attacking me.

Now, camping food? I'm down with that.

Fire roasted hot dogs, I love. Jiffy Pop over the fire? Bring it.

And s'mores. S'mores are #1 on my fire food priority list.

In the summer, Kyle makes a fire in our yard to burn branches and random scraps of wood that I collect (because you never know what you can make from them!) and I can only stand about 2 minutes in the heat. And everytime I request a s'more, I hear the dreaded words...

"Make it yourself!"

*sigh*

But WAIT! I found the solution! Head over to Just Baked and find...

...THIS SUPER AWESOME RECIPE FOR S'MORES CUPPYCAKES!

^ Click above for recipe. ^

I'm serious. I don't kid about cuppycakes. Or s'mores. And these are as close as you're going to get to a s'more without having to fight the evils of being outside.

I'm not posting the recipe on here, but below are my photos of the process and end result. You'll drool, I promise.

Kyle and I are already fighting over them. :)

"VIOLET! You're turning VIOLET, VIOLET!"

I love Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory.

It always goes wrong at the dessert, right?

PIEEEEEE!

Who doesn't love pie?

Technically, I baked this for Kyle, but I'm the only one that's eaten any of it. >.<

Food Twister.

When I was younger, I got toted around. A lot.

I know, it's pretty typical for the kid to get toted places. You know, when we have no say in things. The good ol' days for the parents.

I specifically remember getting toted to the mall when my mom wanted to shop for old lady clothes. I was always restless. I've never been able to really simmer down. I get bored easily.

So everytime we went to the mall, I ended up with either a slice of amazing pizza or an awesome soft pretzel. And you know what? The love of soft pretzels has never left me. Ever.

I prefer making them as pretzel nugs, but I just had to try the actual pretzel shape.

I suck at it, by the way.

Also, I reached a huge plateau in my bread baking. I totally bought a jar of yeast instead of using packets.

I'm BACK! With brittle!

Oh my God, I can't believe how long it's been since I've been able to post via laptop.

I'M SO FRIGGIN' EXCITED.

And I wanted to post the awesome peanut brittle I made for the dad-in-law. Because he's speshul.

Yes. I meant to spell it like that.

And I only have 5 pictures of this. So you get no starter picture...

Just the information that this stuff can cause some serious damage to your teeth. But it's totally worth it.

Sugar And Spice And Everything Nice.

It's not just what little girls are made of.

Especially my little girls. Those kids..ugh. I think they got a bit too much of me in them for now. I'm hoping it's getting out of their systems before they hit the teens. Because if not, I'm screwed.

Anywho.

Cinnamon rolls are a favorite in this house. Mainly for Kyle, but I dig them, too. Kyle misses having a Cinnabon around pretty much everyday. If there's something on TV about them, he HAS to watch it. 

He's not obsessed or anything.

So, when I get the chance to, I like to make him some cinnamon rolls. They aren't Cinnabon worthy, but good enough for us.

Also, you'll never get your cinnamon rolls to taste like Cinnabon. They use a different kind of cinnamon. Now, you MIGHT be able to buy the cinnamon directly from them, but no company in the US will sell it.

Truth be told, I'd rather be eating these than paying an arm and a leg for a cinnamon roll.

Together in perfect harmony.

Me and chocolate have a love/hate relationship.

It's mainly "OMFGILOVEYOUSOEFFINGMUCH!"

And then I step on a scale.

*sigh*

I don't quite care for dark chocolate. I prefer milk chocolate. And white chocolate. And very rarely do I use semi-sweet chocolate chips in cookies.

This is no exception.

These will be gone in a matter of days.

I'm poor and can't afford a Daddy.

My Daddy's Cheesecake is delicious. That's a given.

BUT managing money + My Daddy's Cheesecake? Yeah. You know what that equals to without me even saying it.

Anywho.

We're going to Kyle's aunt's house tomorrow for their Thanksgiving get together. And let me tell you, this side of the fambam is amazeballs. I get along with..most of them, if not all of them. And the first time I was at this particular aunt's house, her husband, Kyle's uncle ofcourse, had me cornered on their porch and forced me into talking. I was still on the fence about in-laws after my past experiences. But the conversation started out with...

"Okay. I gotta ask....Rocketship?" 

^.^ Oh, Moonshoes. The amount of confusion that comes from our names is totally awesome.

Again, anywho.

I was asked to bring a pumpkin pie or something of the sort, but once I told Kyle, he went on about how EVERYONE brings a pumpkin pie. Yeah, that didn't flow too well with me. Not because I have to stand out (atleast, when I'm sober...), but because I didn't want there to just be pumpkin pie. Don't get me wrong, I can eat the crap outta pumpkin pie (I think it's mainly for the whipped cream, don't hate on my inner fat kid) but after a while it just gets monotonous.

So, I made cheesecake. :)

Cherry and blueberry. I can't wait.

Rainy Day Baking

It's a pretty gloomy day in my parts. Raining on and off, dark..okay..light grey..clouds all over the sky, and a nice, cool breeze. Which, I love cool breezes. I love having the windows open and the smell of the rain just filling the house.

*sigh*

I'm on a pretty tight pantry right now, so I was pretty limited on making something, but it's a given. When it's a day like today, baking needs to occur. 

Unwritten rule? Yes. Very yes.

I wanted whoopie pies, so desperately bad (hollaaaa to the north!) but I had nothing close to what I needed to make them. But what I did find was the exact things I needed to make the easiest thing ever.

And these things are always in my kitchen. Helloooo baking safety net.

Yeah. Totally talking about some amazing, versatile peanut butter cookies.

Oh, and it helps that they only take 3 ingredients.

Leftovers = Brownies

This isn't very typical, huh? When leftovers become brownies?

Well, I had some leftover unsweetened Baker's chocolate from when making my BIL's birthday cake. They screamed at me and I caved. Eh. My inner fat kid, who is named Philipé, caved. 

And, come on. Who DOESN'T love brownies?!

King me!

When I asked my brother-in-law what kind of cake he wanted, he was very blah about it. 

"CAKE! I don't care. I just love CAKE!"

>.<

I've personally been itching to try making another checkerboard cake. I've tried making them in the past without having to buy the special pan inserts, but they haven't come out looking the prettiest. So, I decided this would be the perfect time to try again.

The idea of the checkerboard cake is that when you cut a piece out of it, it will have a 3x3 checkerboard pattern on it. I'm doing it in chocolate and vanilla, and you can use food coloring to change the color scheme.

This will be a 3 layer cake, so using 3 cake pans of the same size would be easiest. Seeing as I only have one cake pan, I'll be washing the pan between bakes. That kinda sucks, but it's crazy what I'll do for family.

And so it begins again.

Fondant Hell.

My brother-in-law is coming to Missouri from California for a visit, and his birthday falls on his vacation here. So what did I do?

Well I HAD to bake him a cake, ofcourse!

For this cake, though, I decided I wanted to go all out. I don't even do this for my kids. I love them to pieces, but I'm not sure this would ever be something I'd do again. Ever. 

I tried making fondant for the first time. Marshmallow fondant. It tastes delicious. But it's a HUGE pain in the ass. There was a lot of foul words thrown around in the kitchen that night. Kyle was getting a kick out of it all. You know, as he sat back playing his XBox 360. *eye roll*

Melty marshmallow goodness.

This is where the Hell begins.

"McDonalds or homemade?"

I've never made a pie.

Ever.

Ironic, huh? I cook and bake almost everything under the sun that I can, but I've never tried a pie.

SO, in order to pop my pie cherry (insert Warrant song joke here), I decided I had to go all out.

I had to make it completely from scratch. Pie crust and all.

And it had to be apple.

>.<

So, I sent Kyle out to get me the apples and I searched for a recipe. I like AllRecipes because of the variety of recipes, plus the 5 star rating system. It really helps me filter out what I want. But I'm going to repost the ingredients and such here, so you don't have to go all over the interwebz.

*I baked this in a casserole dish..because I don't have a pie dish. I don't suggest doing that.*

Ohhhh F-U-D-G-E.

I was totally channeling A Christmas Story with my title. >.<

So, we've been going through a lot lately, more than anyone could probably imagine. I've been on edge and stressed out so badly. I needed something to calm myself.

I needed baking.

Ironically enough, I didn't want to bake. <insert shock face here> 

I went for the next best thing, though. Chocolate.

Now, everyone knows diamond ads lie ALL the time. Diamonds are NOT a girl's best friend. It's hands down chocolate..unless you're regretfully allergic. And I apologize to anyone who's allergic to chocolate. What a sad, sad world.

WIP shot, rolling boil.

Nomnomnom. Almost done.

FUNnel Cake..or something like it.

I love funnel cake from the fair. That, and the taffy at our local fair. I look forward to that stuff every year. What can I say? I'm a fat kid. I inhale the calories and don't think about it until the next day. Health conscious? No. But you only get to live once. And I want to do it right. Life's too short to be unhappy.

That being said, I don't reccomend eating these 24/7. In moderation, it's all good. I don't make these too often, so they're a great treat in this house. You can also top them with some fresh fruit and have them for breakfast, much like IHOP. Yum.

These were the first out of my batch, and it's almost a rule that I burn the first one. But it was still super delicious. I can almost taste it..*mouth waters*