Peanut Butter Tarts

I made a cheesecake. Almond crust underneath lemon cheesecake, vanilla bean cheesecake, strawberry cheesecake all swirled together.  It was absolutely delicious, but it got sliced and eaten and smashed and digested before my camera got anywhere near it, so I don't have any pretty pictures to share.

Instead, here are some peanut butter tarts. I'm not exactly sure what was in each one because I just started plopping different fillings to crusts rather haphazardly, but I do know that there was a ton of chocolate and peanut butter happening. 

Chocolate peanut butter ganache. 

Peanut butter cheesecake swirl. 

Crunchy and sweet peanut butter filling.

Dark chocolate ganache. 

And a yummy shortbread crust. The crusts, by the way, were baked in a toaster oven. Because I'm a college student and that's just what we do.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Candy Cake

I swear, I really was planning on taking pictures of the inside of this cake. During the party I cut a nice slice and put it aside, promising myself that I'd take more pictures in the morning. Then my suitemates and I ate it. I'd apologize to you, but it was so tasty that I really don't feel all that badly about it.

The cake had 3 layers: chocolate, peanut butter, and chocolate peanut butter swirl.

Layered with chocolate peanut butter ganache (just add some peanut butter and extra cream to your favorite ganache recipe) and chocolate peanut butter cream cheese frosting.

As you can see, it's decorated in kit-kat bars, Hershey's kisses, and colorful m&m's. 

And tied off with a ribbon, because you know I can't resist. 

This lovely cake was made for a candy-loving friend's birthday.  

The decoration was incredibly fast and easy - took only about 20 minutes total!

This cake was incredibly rich - perfect with a glass of milk around a table with friends.

Strawberry Chocolate Marshmallow Tarts

Picture this:

Shortbread crust filled with smooth, sweet chocolate pastry cream

 Slathered in rich chocolate ganache.

Topped with strawberry marshmallow peaks.

And finished off generously with a blowtorch. 

And to top it all off, they're individually sized so you don't have to share.

Why yes, thank you, I'll take two.

I'm bored. Let's make lemon cake!

Once upon a time there was a girl named Maddie who didn't want to study on a Sunday afternoon. And that's how this pretty pink lemon cake happened. I'm proud to say that this cake is included in an article about me in my school's newspaper.

Top layer: lemon blueberry. Middle layer: lemon lemon. Bottom layer: lemon strawberry.

Each layer is filled with this incredible vanilla frosting and super tart lemon curd.

It's all decorated in pretty swirls of this cream cheese frosting.  That recipe isn't actually for a frosting - it's really a no-bake cheesecake - but it's delicious, so I'm not complaining.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sit here and pretend that I didn't eat this cake for breakfast every day for a week.

Baked Alaska Cupcakes

When tasked with coming up with something delicious for a dinner party, I decided to make baked Alaska. I wasn't sure exactly what it was, but I was pretty sure it had something to do with meringue and ice cream, so that sounded good enough for me. I did some homework and decided to make the tasty treat in miniature.

Pretty little chocolate cupcakes hollowed out

Add in a scoop of strawberry ice cream (homemade, of course)

Pipe on the meringue and go crazy with the blowtorch. 

They were absolutely delicious and everyone loved them.

Although, in retrospect, serving them frozen solid right out of the freezer probably wasn't the best idea.

 I suppose I'll just have to make them again.

Mini Mint Cupcakes

At the supermarket around the holidays, this bag of Mint Truffle Hershey's Kisses just jumped into my cart. When I got home, I decided to make cupcakes with them to keep myself from eating them all.

I made a regular chocolate cake recipe and filled mini cupcake lines with the batter. 

The kisses were plopped on top and pressed ever so slightly.  

And I just baked them normally. The cupcake puffed up around them beautifully. 

Using a regular (and delicious) chocolate buttercream, I piped spikes on top and asked my sister to toss a few green jimmies and some white nonpareils on to make them even cuter.

Don't you love the carriers?

Each box was only about a dollar (and they're reusable!) and it did an excellent job protecting the cupcakes while I was on route to the delivery site. In fact, these pictures were taken after a bumpy car ride and even the peaks still look beautiful. 

Sugar Cookie Recipe

I suppose it's time to share my sugar cookie recipe. One of my mother's colleagues e-mailed her the recipe in 1998 and we've been using the same scrap of paper ever since with some slight modifications. This dough is AMAZING. I tried other recipes last year, but this is my only sugar cookie recipe now and I'm never going back. 

See this piece of paper?

It gets pulled out every time I make cookies. Like once a week. I've changed it a bit, but there's only so much you can do to a perfect recipe.

This recipe is incredibly easy. Wanna see how to make it?

 

This is my new mixer. We're pretty tight.

Cream butter and sugar.

After I use a vanilla bean, I toss it in with my sugar because there's nothing wrong with extra vanilla. 

I was making a quadruple batch here, so I used 4 eggs. Crack the egg in a separate bowl and dump it in to the fluffy butter and sugar. Why do you need to crack the egg into a bowl first? Well, maybe it's just me, but the last time I tried to crack an egg directly into the mixing bowl while the beater was running, I accidentally dropped the whole egg in. It was pretty unfortunate.

Once you get the egg in, add the vanilla and a pinch of salt. Beat it a little more for good measure.

Oooh, yummy.

Turn the mixer off. Dump in flour the flour all at once. Yes, I know it's scary, but it'll be okay, I promise. 

Turn the mixer on very low, being careful that it doesn't start suddenly and spew a flour cloud across the room. Not that I've ever done that. 

Once it's combined, stick it in the fridge for a bit until you're ready to use it.

And beware: the dough is irresistible, so don't even bother trying to avoid eating it.


Soft Sugar Cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick)  butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tablespoons cream (or milk works fine, too)
Vanilla extract (I usually use about two teaspoons of vanilla bean paste, but the same amount of vanilla extract will work great as well)
Pinch of salt

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar on high until light and fluffy. Add the egg and keep beating, then blend in the salt and vanilla.  Dump the flour in all  at once and mix on low until just combined. Refrigerate for a few hours, then roll it out and enjoy! After rolling on a lightly floured surface and cutting your shapes, freeze cookies for at least 15 minutes before baking to preserve crisp edges.  I like my cookies thick so I bake them for about 9 minutes at 375, but  check your cookies at about 6 minutes so you don't over bake them if you made 'em thin. Makes about 2 dozen thick cookies.

Happy baking!


Notes:
*I always make the dough the day before and refrigerate it overnight, but if you're short on time you can stick it in the freezer immediately after you make it for about an hour and it should be ready to roll by the time you've finished cleaning up and getting your royal icing ready.

* If possible, freeze the cut, unbaked cookies for an hour or even overnight for maximum spreadage-prevention, but if you don't have time to freeze and bake them immediately, don't worry about it. They'll spread a tad, but they'll still be very pretty and even more delicious. 

*I leave out the baking powder because I want to preserve the shapes and prevent them from rising.