Chocolate Coffee Break Muffins

This weeks recipe was very simple to make.  I am not crazy about coffee flavored food.  I LOVE coffee don't get me wrong, but when it's in ice-cream or muffins, eh, I could live without it.  So, to make it more pleasing to my palate, I added coco powder ~ 1/2 a cup to the recipe.  It made the muffins taste more like a chocolate biscuit, perhaps I need just a tad more sugar?  They were perfect served up with a little honey butter.  Yum!

This recipe was picked by Rhiani of Chocoholic Anonymous (hopefully the recipe will be posted soon!) or you can find it in Dorie Greenspans' Book, Baking From My Home To Yours on pg 15.

Celebration Church Country Fair

My beloved church is hosting a Country Fair in celebration of it's 10 year birthday.  As part of the activities they are holding a Blue Ribbon Food Contest!!  I have never competed in a contest for baking or otherwise.  I'm going for it!

But what to make, what to make??!!!  I can't decide.  So, I'm asking you my internet friends/family.  Any suggestions??  I can't wait to hear your response!

If I decide to use your suggestion I'll give you a prize!  If you want to see more about our church festivities check out this link:

http://www.celebrationchurchtx.com/10th-birthday-bash

Devilishly Moist Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

This cake was so moist and delicious! I used Tish Boyle's The Cake Book recipe for Devilishly Moist Chocolate Cake, my all time favorite recipe, and I made cream cheese frosting to go with it.  The cake was a square 8" three layer cake.  I used the crumbs from the cake layers to decorate the sides of the cake, and I drizzled warm chocolate across the top.  It's pretty but a little messy, and this one does not take hours to decorate!  :) 

To add to it, I made chocolate covered strawberries, that surrounded the cake.  I love to do this!  It adds extra elegance to the cake and they taste so wonderful!  

"Cinderella" Castle Cake

This Labor Day I spent the day decorating a super fun cake for my friend Emily's kiddos.  The cake was a Golden Cake from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle.  The buttercream is my Billy Vanillie recipe that I've posted here.  The cake is made from four 8" square pans, topped with buttercream, then decorated with white and blue fondant.  The fondant I make from powdered sugar and marshmallows.

My husband made the flags for me and even made a special trip to the store when (gasp) I ran out of powdered sugar.  He is a very good husband.  <3

Just for fun I thought I'd share my very first fondant cake I made, that just so happened was also a castle cake.  You can see how far I've come in a year + a few months, of baking.  It's not that long, but I have had a bummpy and fun ride making cakes!  I've had some super great cakes, and some not so great, I'm sad to say.  Overall, I have learned so much.

My first cake ever!  June 2009, My daughter's Pony birthday party cake.  The fondant was hard for me to smooth out, the cake was hard to form, not to mention I did not have The Cake Book!, but the idea was good.  It inspired me to keep trying.

Thank you Emily for the honor of making your cake!  I'm truly blessed that my friends and family believe in me and support me as I learn the "art" of cake decorating and baking.

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Crisscrosses

We like chocolate in our peanut-butter.  Yumm!  These little tasty treats were easy to whip up.  Easy Peasy, Old Man Squeezey as my 1st grader likes to say.

To see these cookies again and get the recipe you can check out Jasmine Cuisine who picked our recipe this week.  The first part is in French but if you scroll down you'll get the English version.  She's a French Canadian ya know.  Or you can find the recipe in Dorie Greenspan's Cooking From My House To Yours on page 78.

Hope you had a great Tuesday!  Ours was wonderful and rainy.