Choco Crinkles

My dearest husband had been bugging me about baking him some chocolate crinkles. 

Last Friday i was able to fulfill his dream by buying Crinkle Cookie Mix of Celebrations by Sharon from the Maya Kitchen line of products.

What i love about this mix is that It's super duper easy to make. 

The ingredients are:

1 pack of Crinkle Cookie Mix (Celebrations by Sharon) - the Sharon Cuneta!

2 tablespoons of oil

1 medium egg

Confectioner's Sugar

After the mixture had been made:

*Scoop a ball of the mixture and drop into a plate with confectioner's sugar.

*Roll it back and forth until ball is fully covered with confectioners.

*Place it in baking sheet. 

The recipe calls for 370F for 3 to 5 minutes.

*DO NOT OVER BAKE*

Once you remove it from the oven, it will look like this:

Go forth and Bake,

Dina

Cupcake with chocolate ganache spider web design

Last week, i attended cupcake decorating classes. The teacher taught us simple tricks and design techniques with the use of chocolate ganache.

The toothpick made all the designs possible. From feather, spiderwebs and hearts.

It's super duper easy and fun as well.

All you need is a cupcake, chocolate ganache and some toothpicks.

1. dip your cupcake in the chocolate ganache mixture.

2. With the use of a piping bag, pipe a scroll into your cupcake, you may want to use white ganache in able

for your decoration to be visible. 

3. pipe a scroll onto your cupcake. Point your toothpick at the center of the scroll and drag it down till the edge of the cupcake. Repeat this process.

Note: You made need to do this before the ganache dries out.

Smart Tip: My Decorating teacher always do this trick whenever we use chocolate ganache. Since ganache dries out easily, she usually fill her metal kettle with 2 cups of water and she let's it boil. While the kettle boils in the stove she puts her piping bag *with ganache* on top of it. The warm temperature keeps the ganache wet and ready for decorating. 

Bake and Shake,

Dina

Grease & Flour a Cake Pan

Making cakes can be fun, but the fun goes down a notch if your cake sticks to the baking pan. In order to prevent this, you must grease and flour the cake pan before you bake the cake. Greasing and flouring a cake pan is not difficult as long as you have the proper ingredients. Plus, you only need to grease and flour a cake pan if you are making a cake that must be removed from the pan completely, such as a layer cake.

Dip the pastry brush into the shortening. Make sure the pastry brush has a generous amount of the grease on it.

Cover every inch of the pan, from the base up to the top of the sides of the pan, with shortening. Be sure to coat it evenly.

Sprinkle flour into the greased cake pan. Sprinkle about 2 tablespoons of flour at a time.

Hold the cake pan upright and shift it back and forth in order to spread the flour around the cake pan. Once the bottom of the pan is coated in flour, turn the pan on its side to coat the edges. Turn the pan in a circle while it is on its side to completely coat the entire pan. Add more flour as needed.

Tip: If you are making a chocolate cake, use cocoa powder instead of flour to prepare your pan. Flour will give the chocolate cake a layer of white on the outside, while cocoa powder will not.

DID YOU KNOW? 

Always grease and flour your cake pans before you mix the ingredients or your cake might not come out right. Most batters need to start cooking immediately after being mixed, and they shouldn't sit around waiting for you to prepare the cake pans.

Bake Me, 

Dina

Thanks to: ehow.com and google.com

Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip cookie mix

I always store cookie mixes and cake mixes in my baking drawer. They are my "emergency stash", i use them when we have unexpected visitors or when my baking mood arises.

This cookie mix never fails to make my husband, son and friends drool. 

It's very easy to make and it's also awesomely delicious.

This cookie mix calls for a 1/2 cup of butter. Just divide your butter bar into two and basically that's the 

half of it. You need to cream you butter before adding the cookie mix.

*make sure that you butter is SOFTENED and NOT melted.

After creaming the butter in your mixer you can now add your chocolate chip cookie mix.

Once your butter and cookie mix become incorporated with each other, you can now add

you eggs.

Mix it for another minute and turn off you mixer.

*DO NOT OVERMIX.

Sometimes i add more chocolate chip into my cookie mixture.
*death by chocolate chip*

Once your mixture is done, use an ice cream scoop to equally divide your cookies into your cookie sheet. 

Follow the baking instructions indicated at the cookie mix box.

I always aim for soft and chewy cookies, so i remove my cookies in the oven 5 minutes before time.

*COOKIES BAKE/HARDEN EVEN AFTER YOU REMOVE FROM YOUR OVEN*

I usually let them cool and then i place them in a airtight container to maintain moisture and quality.

Try this: before indulging this cookies, put them in the microwave for 15 seconds. They will taste

like freshly baked cookies. 

Cookie Time, 

Dina

Frosting a cake

A pretty cake adds a bit of ceremony to an occasion, don’t you think? As far as birthdays and moments of congratulations go, I think flowers and cakes are the perfect thing for celebrating. I had a friend who used to make a pretty little cake for each friend on their birthday. So I thought I’d share with you a new little trick I learned in case you’d like to do the same: how to frost a smooth, level cake, with no crumbs in the frosting

Of course you will need a cake, buttercream (recipe of choice) and some leveled spatula. 

Once the cake is cooled, level it using a cake leveler or serrated knife. Whenever possible, I like to level the cake right in the pan, then take it out and let it finish cooling.

I was recently introduced to the cake icer tip, which I use with a 16-inch pastry bag. It is fantastic for laying frosting on the cake. If you don’t have one, you can improvise by piping your buttercream frosting out of a ziplock bag and using a knife to keep it on. The trick is to lay frosting on the cake, not rub it over the cake, which will pull crumbs up into your frosting.

If you use the cake icer tip, the jagged edge faces towards the cake, the smooth edge away from the cake.

Use a spatula or knife to level the frosting. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just mostly level. Again, try to press the frosting against the cake, not rub it up from the cake.

If you put strips of parchment under the cake, carefully pull them out.

Let the cake sit for 15 minutes to let the frosting dry a bit on the outside.

This is the last step, the fun part. Use a piece of parchment paper or a paper towel and lay it right on the cake. Use your finger to press lightly over the cake and smooth the icing, then peel the paper away. Do the same for the sides. You can pull it  up and press it back on several times to get the cake as smooth as you like it.

Note: If you use a papertowel with an embossed pattern, you can have the pattern transfer to your cake. If this is the effect you’re going for, make sure you use the embossed side of the paper towel against the cake. And for this effect, you get only one shot of laying down the paper and peeling it away; you can’t re-lay the paper once you’ve peeled it away.

Happy Frosting, 

Dina

Techniques from: http://www.giverslog.com/?p=1502

Kid Friendly Homemade Ice Cream

Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream 

2 TB sugar
1 cup half & half (or light cream)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup coarse salt or table salt(I used canning salt)
ice
gallon-sized Ziploc bag
quart-sized Ziploc bag

Thanks to: Kim and Pinterest for this. 

Ice Cream,

Dina

Lemon Drop Cupcakes

I only use lemon for 3 purposes.

1. i always drink lemon water
2. Tequilla purposes.
3. Lemon Drop Cupcakes

I adapted this recipe from http://partypatisserie.com

Oven 350 degrees F : Bake 18 minutes.(depending on your oven)
*if your using an electric oven check your cupcakes 5 or 10 minutes before time. 

• 3/4 cup butter
• 3 eggs
• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2/3  cup milk
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon finely shredded lemon peel
• 1 recipe Lemon Frosting
• 1/2 cup lemon drop candies, finely crushed

l. Allow butter and eggs to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, line twenty 2 1/2-inch muffin cups with paper bake cups. In a medium bowl stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a 2 cup glass measuring cup combine the 2/3 cup milk and set aside.

2.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In  a large bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar and lemon peel; beat until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Alternately add flour mixture and milk mixture to butter mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined.

3. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each about  three-fourths full. Use the back of a spoon to smooth out batter in cups. Bake for 18 minutes or until tops spring bakc when lightly touched. Cool cupcakes in  muffins cups on wire racks for 5 minutes. Remove and cool.

4.Up to 1 hour before serving, generously spread or pipe Lemon Frosting onto cupcakes. I crush lemon candies and sprinkle on the top.

LEMON FROSTING: Allow 1/3 cup butter to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. In a large mixing bowl beat butter, 1/3 cup shortening, and 1 teaspoon vanilla with an electric mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds. Slowly add 2 cups powdered sugar, beating well. Add 2 tablespoons lemon juice. Gradually beat in 2 cups additional powdered sugar. Beat in 1 to 2 tablespoons milk, 1 teaspoon at a time until frosting reaches spreading consistency. Makes about 2 1/2 cups frosting.

Bake me, 

Dina