I might have been the worst food blogger of 2013… but I kept my resolution! Good Luck to everyone with theirs in 2014 – Happy New Year!
I might have been the worst food blogger of 2013… but I kept my resolution! Good Luck to everyone with theirs in 2014 – Happy New Year!
It has been a very long time since I updated this blog, but you know sometimes you need a break. Whether it’s a break from blogging, working, even a break from doing nothing, you just need it.
I’m currently working on reinventing myself for probably like Michelle Version 6.0 or something ridiculous like that, and I read somewhere that in order to move forward sometimes you have to go back to something you enjoyed and were successful with and revisit it, hence my visiting this. We will see how it goes, lucky for me, and those of you reading this, I never took a break from desserts.
My mom wrote a fantastic blog entry about my sister-in-law’s bridal shower we threw in April – be sure to check out her awesome quilt skills on her page. Despite the fact that we argue on a pretty consistent daily basis, my mom and I throw a pretty good party.
We hosted the shower at the restaurant I work at, Westwood Tavern, in the wine room, which is by far my favorite private party room ever. It has its own bar and it set up nicely for whatever occasion you’re celebrating. We decorated with some pretty crafty items – chalkboard painted wine bottles and wine cork place cards.
Best part of the shower? I might be biased, but the cupcakes I made were unbelievable.
I was very insistent on making sure everything as this shower was on theme, including the perfect purple cupcakes. The main color for their wedding was silver/pewter/charcoal with a little bit of purple, so we wanted to pluck the purple accent and turn that into the main shower pigment.
So I picked out these cupcakes and per usual didn’t read the instructions until the day before. Surprise, this was a pretty involved recipe. Like really involved. Like pulverized freeze-dried blueberries involved. I took a deep breath and committed the rest of the day to mastering the cakes. Success. They were amazing. Take some time and make these before summer’s over, you won’t be disappointed. The lemon zest in the cakes paired with those pulverized blueberries were the perfect complement to the cream cheese frosting.
They’re also pretty cute. I decorated them with little white sugar balls I found at the grocery store.
Since the cupcakes were so involved, the other dessert was so not involved. Boxed brownies, the eggs, oil & water you add to boxed brownies, and 1/2 a package of crushed cool mint Oreos. I also got a bunch of compliments on these guys, and made them because my brother loves chocolate mint and hates cake, and it was a little bit his shower too, right?
I cut out a heart of some card stock and dusted the brownies with powdered sugar. Aside from the baking time, they took less than ten minutes. I definitely recommend making these too. Every day.
That was four months ago, since then there have been a bunch more desserts in my kitchen and I’m sure I plan to write about them too. Stay tuned.
I totally forgot to tell you about my recipes for my New Year’s brunch.
I wanted to make sure that the cupcakes I made were very moist since they were going to be served unfrosted. Even though some of my cupcake eaters are under five and would eat almost anything covered in frosting and toppings, I still wanted these to be delicious.
Since I was so concerned with the awesomeness of these cupcakes, I went to the cupcake queen for my big event. Martha Stewart.
There was some leftover buttermilk in the fridge from christmas cookie baking and luckily Martha had two perfect recipes for buttermilk cupcakes, one chocolate and one vanilla.. Thanks to google I found them in a few clicks and they were as perfect as I wanted. I even had guests take them home unfrosted. Cupcake success. Please bake these anytime you feel the urge for a baby cake!
It also turns out I completely forgot to write about Christmas cookies. Embarrassing, I’m adding that to my to-do list.
As part of the DailyBuzz Food Tastemaker program, I recently received a wonderful package from Sweet’N Low, including a super cute cocktail shaker!
I was challenged to create a low-sugar drink with my Sweet’N Low packets and since I’ve recently joined the peppermint mocha loving club, I decided to tackle my own version of the coffeehouse favorite.
The first ingredient I used was a simple cup of coffee. I used an instant coffee packet, but you can easily use a cup from your carafe or from a single serve machine.
Pour your coffee in a fancy mug and then add a tablespoon of cocoa powder, for the mocha! Of course, the cocoa is unsweetened and that’s where the Sweet’N Low comes in. I used one packet for my single drink, but this part is really to taste, sweeten your drink as much as you like.
Next 1/2 a teaspoon of peppermint extract. Here’s where you can spike your drink with a splash of peppermint schnapps if you want. That’s one of the things I love about making individual drinks, you can fit each drinker with their favorite flavors.
Finally a swirl of whipped cream topped with a few chocolate chips and a peppermint candy, a low-calorie way to enjoy a sinful drink!
Thanks to Sweet’N Low now I can enjoy peppermint mocha even after I start my diet tomorrow – cheers!
December means a whole lot of fun for most people, celebrating holidays, enjoying peppermint mochas at Starbucks and of course devouring desserts. But if you know my brother, it also means the annual BEARS TAILGATE.
This year was the Ninth Annual Bears Tailgate and it didn’t disappoint, well the Bears disappointed us, because they lost. But the event was still {almost} flawless. I will leave the disastrous defense, misplaced Michelle items, and the unforgettable yet difficult to remember details, out of this post, and instead tell you about the desserts I brought along. Since that is how I get my $10 discount.
I decided to bring three different items since we were a bus of about 25 people, plus I’m always worried people won’t like things, so I bring multiples.
First up, my new favorite recipe – Bailey’s Brownies. These are pretty simple and ridiculously amazing. All you do is buy your favorite brownie mix and swap the water for Bailey’s. Don’t worry, kids can enjoy them, there’s only a shot or two in the entire box and the alcohol cooks out, but the flavor stays in and is such a complement to the chewy chocolate bites! I also added in chocolate chips to max out on the fun.
Next, oatberries. Amanda Lee requested my signature cookie that she’d never tasted. She loved them – success.
Finally I made some graham cracker cupcakes with green vanilla buttercream frosting topped with chocolate marshmallows that were supposed to look like footballs. These weren’t the best things I ever made because some of the bottoms burnt. Embarrassing I know, though I can probably say it was because I used foil cups – whoops, forgot I don’t like to use those.
Also, the marshmallows were gross and no one knew they were footballs. And you know, there isn’t a 60, 70, 80 or 90 yard line on the football field. Fortunately I realized that one myself the night before the game, so at least I could laugh about my dumbness instead of having someone point it out to me!
As aforementioned, things were lost both physically and mentally, so I don’t know how many cupcakes were actually eaten, though I do know that a certain Termini dropped giardiniera on one of those 40 yardline-rs, so I made him eat that one, and the brownies were gone before kick-off!