Wordless Wednesday ~ Holiday Baking

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cupcake Bake-Off

The girls LOVE to be in the kitchen.  Whether they are helping me prepare dinner,

or I allow them free reign, they enjoy creating yummy food for us to eat.

They are also highly competitive.  My older two, anyway.

So the other day, one of the two decided to challenge the other to a cupcake bake-off.

Complete with time-restrictions, surprise ingredients, the whole thing.
 

 

  

 

It was such fun to stand back and watch as they made their own treats from start to finish, with zero help from me.

And it was a little funny to listen to the smack-talk that was being slung back and forth as they raced to beat the clock. 

 

 

In the end, Makenna made a delicious Vanilla and Oreo Cupcake . . .

 

 

 

And Sierra made a perfectly sweet and fresh Lemon Cupcake with Raspberry Cream Frosting.
 

 

And they were ALL delicious!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Cookies

 It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas cookies at our house . . .
 

 

 

 What about yours?

 

 

 

 

 

More Baking

 I swear, I could bake every day.

Before I got married and had lotsa babies, my older sister and I {half} joked that we'd open our own bakery one day.  I'll be honest, I still dream about it from time to time.

My favorites are hand-held desserts ;)

Cookies, Bars, Brownies . . .
and a new favorite:

Hand Pies.

Seriously delish, y'all.

I looked all over for a recipe that didn't seem too time consuming {I don't have a lot of extra time, don'tcha know}, and every crust recipe I found seemed so overly fussy.  I don't like fussy.

So I kinda just made my own.

I took:

2 sticks of butter {I used sweet cream, everyone else uses unsalted, apparently}
2 1/2 cups of flour
2 Tbsps. Sugar
1 tsp. Salt
2 tsps. Cinnamon
1/2 cup Buttermilk



I cut the butter into a million pieces and combined with the remaining ingredients, leaving the buttermilk for last.  It took awhile to combine to my liking.
Then I sprinkled flour on my counter, rolled out the dough, and cut a bunch of circles with a biscuit cutter.  Then I rolled those circles a little thinner {'cuz they were teeny tiny}.  I set those aside, preheated my oven to 375 degrees, and got to work on the fruit filling.

We had about 425 million apples lying around after making cider, so I peeled, cored, and diced some of those, mixed in a few Tablespoons of sugar, sprinkled on some cinnamon, and even drizzled a little sweetened condensed milk on top.

I wanted a variety of pies, and had some blackberries left over from summer blackberry picking, so I tossed some of those in a bowl with a sprinkling of sugar as well.

Next, I spread some filling on the dough . . .

 

And then I folded them over, sealed with a fork, and sprinkled with decorative sugar crystals.
 

 

 

 Would you believe I didn't get a picture of them when they were finished?  You would if you'd tasted them. They were so delicious, we ate 'em all up!

Don't judge, but the last time I went grocery shopping, I picked up some pre-made pie dough, and I thought I'd try them using that.  How quick and simple would that be?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fall Baking

 

 

Who is ready for some Fall baking? 
I love this time of year, as the leaves start changing, and the weather turns cool.  It makes me want to head straight for the kitchen!

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I have an abundance of blackberries these days, and I love anything cookies or bars . . .

It was pretty much a match made in heaven.

Do you have more berries than you know what to do with?  These bars would be great with blueberries or raspberries too!

You'll Need:

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1 cup butter
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 cups fresh blackberries
1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch

Then:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, and grease a 9×13 inch pan.
2. In a medium bowl, combine granulated and light brown sugars, cinnamon, flour, oats, baking powder, and salt. Cut in butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of the dough into the pan.
3. In another bowl, stir together sugar and cornstarch. Gently mix in the blackberries. Sprinkle the blackberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 45-55 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool before cutting into squares {if you can wait that long}.
 

And then you'll want to grab some whipped cream . . . and devour them.  That's what I did.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hope yours is as yummy as ours :)

Wordful Wednesday ~ In the Kitchen

The weather has been cool this last week, putting me in the mood for . . .

BAKING!

These blueberry muffins? They didn't last long. You may remember, the blueberries were hand-picked with love last month by my sweet girls. I love that I can freeze them {the blueberries, not my girls}, and use them in baking throughout the year.

Last night it was sugar cookies. With sprinkles. Always with sprinkles.

How 'bout you? Been doing any baking?

Hop on over to Miller Racing Family for more WW fun!

It's almost Valentine's Day! I'll admit, I'd never been a big fan of the holiday. I didn't dislike Valentine's Day, but I certainly didn't get excited about it. But over the last few years this holiday has come to grow on me. I mean, really, how can you not like a day that's devoted to love and hearts and pink froufy stuff? {And let's not forget cookies and chocolate! Mmmm cookies. And chocolate.}

So, we've been baking.

And decorating.

And yay me! I found something to do with the {many} pounds of M&Ms left over from Kameryn's birthday! {You know, besides eating them myself, one by one.}

And since I will eat each and every cookie in the house all by myself, it was necessary to gift some of the cookies we baked. {You're welcome, Dad.}

We've been busy making Valentine's cards too. You know, I think this is the first year we've made our own. And it was fun. I found the most adorable idea on The Maternal Lens for super cute Valentine's cards. We sent them off yesterday ;)

Cute, right? The girls loved decorating them and choosing who to send them off to. Such fun! I'm beginning to LOVE this holiday!

What kinds of pink fluffery heart activities have y'all been up to?

And, is time totally getting away from you too? Ugh, I don't know where the days go!