(Another Wedding Cake) Weekend in Pictures

{wedding cake transport in the back of a cab}

{swiss dots and pink peonies for my roommate's wedding}

{adorably vintage cake knife}

{roses, beheaded, that didn't make it onto the cake}

{cocktail hour on the roof}

{perfect new york city views}

{sparklers during the first dance}

{leftover wedding cake batter turned cupcakes}

{visiting my new friend ledley, he's the best}

This weekend was all about wedding cake. Finishing baking, frosting and delivering the cake for my roommate's wedding, then topping it with pink peonies. I loved it! (Are you supposed to compliment your own cakes? Oops, oh well!) Other than the wedding it was a low key weekend, recovering from a bit too much celebrating and visiting my friend's new puppy who has polka dotted paws. Hope your weekend was lovely, friends!

Easter Recipes: Brunch

Is it a little late to talk about Easter? It is in the blog world, but in my world I'll still be grocery shopping for ingredients for Sunday on Saturday (and probably Sunday, too) so if you're anything like me you could probably still use a recipe or two. First, brunch. I think growing up, Easter was about Easter dinner. But as I've started spending Easter with friends in the city, Easter is all about brunch. The lucky years (weather-wise) find us outside in a garden or a park, celebrating amidst sunshine and celebratory baked goods. When spring is slow to come, like this year, we're indoors, relying on springy dishes and cheery tulips to get the celebration going. Wherever you find yourself this Easter, I hope one of these recipes makes it onto your table :)



Spring Vegetable and Goat Cheese Tart - I always want goat cheese and herbs during this meal, who knows why, so this tart is a great way to get my fix.



Almond Berry Coffee Cake - Another thing I insist on (at least in the dishes I'm contributing) at Easter brunch is lemon-y baked goods. Lemon just tastes bright & spring-y. So this Almond Berry Coffee Cake with lemon zest certainly fits the bill.



Asparagus and Pancetta Hash - Potatoes + meat is always a necessary brunch component, right?



Deviled Eggs, Four Ways - As a kid, did anyone else eat egg salad that was a little pink, or a little blue in the weeks after Easter? The leftover dyed Easter eggs had to be eaten! Perhaps that's why I crave deviled eggs at this time of year.



Mustard Roasted Potatoes - I usually make these at Christmas, but have discovered they're equally good at room temperature as they are hot. So they're ideal if they have to travel a bit, or sit out on a picnic blanket for awhile.



Blueberry Beignets - If you're feeling adventurous. (Adventurous for me = frying something.)

Top image by Paul Ferney for Design Mom, all other images via the linked recipe post.

Luck O' The Irish Cupcakes

As with most of the smaller holidays, when I think about St. Patrick's Day I much prefer the childhood version to the adult version (similar to my views on Halloween and Valentine's Day). I'll take wearing green, jokingly pinch people, and sprinkling shamrock confetti over a drunken parade and green beer any day! So, in the spirit of a light-hearted St. Patty's celebration, I whipped up a batch of green cupcakes topped with Lucky Charms: Luck O' The Irish cupcakes!





To add the first dose of green to the the cupcakes, I sprinkled the batter (plain white cake mix from a box!) with two colors of green jimmies. When they bake into the cupcakes, they come out like leprechaun-inspired Funfetti.





See? I loved the unexpected pops of green on the inside. And the lighter green didn't show up as well, so you could certainly use one color of green if that's all you can find. I made up a batch of my new favorite frosting, swiss meringue buttercream, because it's not too sweet. But all these really need is a vanilla frosting base + green food coloring, and you're ready for the "lucky" part.





Lucky Charms! They're crunchy & sweet, so they add a fun texture to the cupcakes. Plus, have you ever met a person who doesn't like Lucky Charms? Initially, I just used the colorful marshmallows. But after a taste test, my taste tester agreed that a little bit of the cereal pieces added a nice flavor.



And there you have it! Luck O' The Irish cupcakes. I'm pretty sure if you're holding one (or a box) of these, you can't be pinched :)

Pretty Swedish Recipes

I spent a good part of Saturday at IKEA, helping a friend buy nearly the entire store to furnish her company's new office. While loading eight (eight!) sets of dishes into one of our (five!) carts, IKEA's new cookbook caught my eye. It's full of tasty-sounding recipes, but my favorite part is the way the recipes are presented. Like last week's snoball cookie recipe, the ingredients are arranged into beautiful compositions, photographed by Carl Kleiner.

Aren't they beautiful? I can't wait to make one.

Photos via FastCo.

The Prettiest Recipe

Have you ever seen a prettier recipe? It's from the latest Olive Us video about making snoball cookies. I've been shopping around for a recipe box (I got some cute recipe cards for Christmas) lately, but this makes me think that all recipes should be visual. Not entirely practical, but pretty.

Happy weekend! Go make some snoball cookies :)

via Design Mom

How to Always Have Warm Cookies

Sometimes, you just need a cookie. Just one, maybe two, but definitely warm and fresh from the oven. Or sometimes, the heat in your apartment is broken and you need a legitimate reason to turn on the oven and stand in front of it, and the peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough in the freezer is as good a reason as any. No? Just me?

Having ready-to-go cookie dough in the freezer at all times is one of my favorite hostess tricks. It's sort of like magic, to have homemade cookies ready in the time it takes to preheat the oven. It's also a great housewarming present, to bake a dozen or so cookies and take the rest frozen so your friends can have more whenever they want. So, how to do it? Easy peasy.



When you make up a batch of cookie dough, set aside a little bit (half the dough, or as few as three or four cookies) for freezing. Scoop out the dough according to the recipe. Meaning, if the dough is dropped onto the cookie sheet in blobs, do that. If it's rolled into balls and rolled in sugar, do that. In the case of my peanut butter cookies, they're dropped by rounded teaspoon then flattened a bit before baking. Set your formed cookie dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment or wax paper (or a small plate, if you aren't freezing that many) making sure they're not touching each other. Freeze for at least three hours and up to 24.



Then, take your frozen cookie dough and transfer it to a freezer bag labeled with the type of cookie dough and cooking instructions. Sometimes, if a cookie is better a little undercooked, or when it's browned on top, I'll write myself a note on the bag so I don't forget.

That's it! The frozen dough can go directly from freezer to cookie sheet the next time you have an unexpected guest, or just need to stand in front of a warm oven. Here's the recipe for the peanut butter chocolate chip cookies in this post, they're dreamy.



Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup peanut butter (at room temperature)
3/4 cup sugar (plus more for dusting)
1/2 brown sugar, tightly packed
1 large egg
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and peanut butter until smooth and fluffy (about three minutes). Add the sugars and mix until incorporated. Add the egg, milk and vanilla and beat thoroughly. Add the flour mixture and stir just until combined. Add the chocolate chips and carefully fold them into the batter.

Fill a small bowl with 2-3 tablespoons of sugar (I used raw sugar, but plain white sugar is fine). Drop rounded teaspoons of dough into the sugar, then transfer to an ungreased baking sheet. Press the dough down slightly with a fork or offset spatula.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, being careful not to over bake them. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for a minute or two, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Vote!

It's Election Day! That means three things:

1) The grating campaign coverage will soon be over!
2) You get to vote!
3) I made cookies!

For that past three presidential elections, I've made cookies for the candidate I'm supporting. In 2004 I made Laura Bush's cowboy cookies (which are really, really good and about the size of Texas). In 2008 I cheekily made black & white cookies and a creation my sister called "Barackolate chip." Are you seeing a pattern here? My cookies have accurately predicted the election two elections in a row.

I'm not one for luck or superstition usually, but it's sort of a fun tradition, and I'd love for my cookies to predict the election again, so I made more. But regardless of who you're voting for, even if his logo is not on the above cookie, go vote today! Democracy in action, folks.

Hurricane Sandy Pumpkin Apple Butter Muffins

When I moved to New York six years ago, if someone had said the phrase "hunker down" I'd probably think a blizzard was coming. But the past two years, it's been an unlikely culprit: hurricanes! Last year, I made hurricane cookies, that contributed to what we dubbed the "hurricane of carbs" when all that ended up happening was some rain and a lot of chips and cookie eating. This time around we're told it'll be worse, so I took my baking slightly more seriously.

I made pumpkin muffins, making a few substitutions based on what we had on hand. And in an attempt to make them healthier, I used some homemade apple butter instead of oil. I figured they'll keep for awhile so we can eat them for days if we need to. But they're pretty good, we've been bad rationers :)



Pumpkin Apple Butter Muffins with Cinnamon Streusel Topping

For the topping:

- 1/4 cup flour
- 2 T. white sugar
- 2 T. brown sugar
- 2 T. cold butter
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup pecans

For the muffins:

- 1 15 oz. can of pumpkin
- 1/2 cup apple butter or applesauce
- 1 1/4 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup milk (or half & half thinned with water, if you're making these in a hurricane :)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease or line a muffin tin.

Combine the topping ingredients (except pecans) in a small bowl and use a fork to cut the butter into small pieces. When it resembles coarse meal with a few larger chunks, mix in the pecans. Set aside.

Combine the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. In a larger bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, apple butter, eggs and sugar. Add the dry ingredients in two additions, alternating with the milk. Whisk just until mixed.

Spoon into muffin tins, dividing equally into 12 muffins. Top with a bit of the streusel topping.

Baking for 15-20 minutes or until slightly browned on top and done in the middle. Eat while watching weathermen try to stay upright on the coast.

PieBox

Last summer I made the blueberry pie you see above and, running late with no time to let it cool, wrapped it in a towel, shoved it in a tote bag and headed out to Brooklyn. By the time I had crossed the East River, my towel and tote were soaked through and stained with blueberry juice. If only I had had a PieBox!





PieBox is a simple, lovely pine box that snugly fits one pie. Pie plates are awkward to carry, so I'd love one for taking pies on the subway or to picnics. Plus: pretty! I'm not usually into single-use kitchen items, but this could carry brownies, simple cakes, and anything else you'd like to avoid putting in ugly plasticware. I'm sold. Thanks for the tip, Kate!

A Succulent Wedding Cake

I made another wedding cake this weekend, would you like to see?







It was for my friends Ian and Ashleigh (their story was featured in Style Me Pretty!), who can only agree on red velvet when it comes to cake, so I made a chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting. I’ve loved the look of two tiered cakes for awhile now, it feels casual but still special. And Ashleigh selected a perfect garden rose and two pretty succulents to top it off. I loved it!

Sprinkles

Sprinkles make everything better, right? I made this cake for my friend Tracey’s birthday last week and when the plain white (carrot) cake didn’t look festive enough...sprinkles to the rescue! There may or may not be sprinkles in my future since today is my (eek!) 30th birthday. I’m terrible about my own birthday (remember last year, when my friends had to tell me about my surprise party?), but looking forward to celebrating with friends tonight.

Happy Thursday! I hope there are sprinkles are in your future :)

Weekend in Cake

When your roommate gets engaged in San Francisco, it's time to make a two tiered cake with a bow for her engagement party. With pale, mint frosting, an homage to Tiffany blue. It's also time to try your hand at using fondant to make said bow. Congrats, roomie!

(A Roommate's Wedding) Weekend in Pictures

{the calm before the storm: a peony shower on my laptop}

{pie and cobbler baking}

{cake and pie prep in murph's dreamy kitchen}

{rainy day rehearsal dinner accessories + fleet week}

{day before the wedding picnic in brooklyn bridge park}

{married!}

{reception details}

{the action at the kid table}

{cocktails and cookies}

{the dessert spread}

{laughing + twirling}

{and off they go in search of a cab, followed by a very determined caterer}

Remember when I mentioned that my roommate was moving out to become a Mrs.? Well, this past weekend she did just that. They were married on Monday, so the whole weekend was full of fun wedding build up. From baking (cakes and cobblers, and assisting with three peach pies) to rehearsing to picnicking and catching up with friends who have moved away. The wedding itself was just lovely. With seersucker, vintage doilies, a 40s-style jazz band and a table full of pie, it somehow felt appropriate for Memorial Day, without feeling theme-y at all.

Congrats, Megan & Derek!

Cobblers in the oven photo via Murph Holder, program photo via Katy Rose.