LoveOutLoud...with cookies!

Happy Tuesday, dear loves!  I am just beyond amazed at how fast January is flying by already!  It seems that each time I blink, another month goes by!  Anyways, I have a very special post today.  Of course, you all know I'm playing catch up!  You will obviously be able to tell from this post because the goodies we made...well, they were very holiday-esque!  So, I don't remember if I mentioned this but back in November (of 2011), I had an opportunity to get together with Project LOL and donate some of my time and passion with a very special group of kids at the Toussaint Academy San Diego. At that first "hang out," I showed the kiddos how to make fresh vanilla ice cream and pumpkin pies.  All from scratch.  Yes, we're talking about real home-made ice cream...putting simple ingredients, such as eggs, cream, and sugar and turning it into some yummy, creamy goodness.  We also made mini pumpkin pies from scratch.  The kiddos made the pie crust, pureed fresh pumpkins (not that canned stuff!) and mixed it with a bunch of yumminess to create this wonderful, flaky, melt-in-your mouth goodness called pumpkin pie.  Yeah, it was that good.  OH, don't forget to add that home-made vanilla ice cream on top of the pumpkin pie too.  OH, wait, I almost forgot.  We also whipped up some fresh whipped cream to top off all that goodness.  I wish I had pictures to show you...we definitely had a lot of fun.  So much fun, that I asked my friend and co-founder of Project LOL, Daniel, to set me up with another play date with the kiddos.  And, my man pulled through.  We had a play date to decorate sugar cookies...just in time for Christmas!

I was very happy to see my kids from our previous bake session come back!  There was a Chargers game going on that very day, so, a lot of the kids kind of trickled in throughout our time there.  But, again, I was super excited to see my kids from last time come back, along with some new faces.  Like I say, the more, the merrier!  And who the heck can resist home-baked sugar cookies...to decorate and then to eat??  What I did was pre-baked the sugar cookies into various shapes.  That way, the kids can spend more time decorating the cookies (since we have limited time at our bake session) instead of mixing, baking, and then decorating.  Even I don't try to do it all on the same day, so I can't expect my kiddos to either!  And they all did such a great job decorating the cookies!  Look closely, dear readers...there are some great artistic expressions in those cookeis!!  It must be because they were fueled with cookies to decorate these cookies! We also baked a few batches of fresh cookies that day too.  We made very simple chocolate chip cookies...some just with chocolate chips and some with festive M&M candies.

I just love the looks of happy, content faces!  See Danny's gigantic grin after taking a few bites of fresh cookies?  Oh yeaah...he definitely enjoyed those cookies.  I think we were all on a sugar high that day! I had also brought some goodie bags for the kids to bag up their cookies.  I always appreciate home-made gifts over store-bought, any day!  So, I thought it might be fun to instill something that I always (and still) love to do and hope it's something the kids will keep in mind when thinking about gift giving.  I feel that something made by one's own hands, is just so much more precious.  The fact that so much time and effort was put into such a gift, is something that is just not replaceable!  And not only that, these gifts are one of a kind...you definitely cannot find it at the store!  I definitely had a blast with my kids and I cannot wait for our next bake session!  Who knows, I might uncover the next great baker here!

Thanks for stopping by dear readers!  I hope you enjoyed this very special post and I hope I'll have more adventures with these kids to share with you!

XoXo,
Linda

Fruit Strudels

Once upon a time, at one of my family gatherings, no doubt during a holiday of some sort, my cousin had brought over this beautiful fruit strudel from the famous Han's and Harry's.  Of course, at the time, I had no idea who or what Han's and Harry's was.  I mean, I rarely head south of the 94 freeway, here in San Diego...and of course, Han's and Harry's is in Chula Vista area.  So, nope, sorry...never heard!  But after that first bite of delicious fruit strudelliness....I was hooked!  It was soooo good!  However, this strudel was one of those special orders, where you can't really walk in and purchase one.  My first thought, of course was that I'm going to make my own fruit strudel....as close to possible as Han's and Harry's!  I mean, how hard can it be right?  Strudels consists of some kind of puff pastry, pastry cream, and fruit.  Easy, peasy.  ... .... Uh, right...not quite so "easy, peasy."  The problem, I found, lies in the pastry cream.  The very first time I tried my hands at this, the pastry cream was way too thick and eggy.  Not quite creamy like Han's and Harry's.  Hmm...back to the drawing board.  Let me tell you...pastry cream isn't as easy as you think.  Especially when I'm trying to get that right texture and taste.   Suffice it to say, it took a really long time for me to finally come up with a pastry cream that I was happy enough with to compare to Han's and Harry's.  What do you think?

I'm loving the fruit on these fruit strudels.  In fact, fruit strudels, although a somewhat pain to make, really makes me happy.  All those different fruit colors really appeal to my eyes!  And add some glaze to it...LOVE!  Stay tuned for more!

Happy New Year!!...and A Bunch of Cakes!

Happy new years my dear readers!!  I know, I know...it's actually nine days into the new year already.  If you couldn't tell yet, from my infrequent new posts, it's been one heck of a crazy roller coaster ride for me!  I've learned so much about myself these past few months, that even amidst all the craziness, I  actually look forward to 2013 and envision the happiness and success that will come my way.   One bright aspect of last year is the ability to forgive, move on and look forward to the future.  This year, as selfish as it will sound but definitely needs to be said, ...this year, is dedicated to me. Alis volat propriis! I will make the most and the best of this new year.  I can feel the changes, and it is only for the better.  To a happier and better ME!

Ok, so let's start the first post of the new year by show-casing all the cakes I've been making!  I can still remember my initial reactions to cake creating.  Did you know that I initially came into baking because of cupcakes and not cakes?  I had a paralyzing fear of cakes.  For some reason, they just seem so daunting and intimidating!  So, instead, I dipped my feet into cupcakes!  And somehow, cupcakes turned into....dessert tables??  And TONS of cakes??  What the heck happened?  I feel like I don't know myself anymore!  In actuality, I was beginning to find myself and really fine tune what some would call "talent."  And now, I can definitely see my future in the sweets world...so, watch out, here I come!  In the mean time, check out these awesome cakes that should've had it's own posts, but I am SO behind, I think I'd rather show-case them all in this one giant blog!

This first cake is a mummy cake (so back from around Halloween...).  It was my girl's boyfriend's  (Freddy) birthday.  And because it was around the time of Halloween, they were really easy with the decoration...pretty much whatever I wanted to do.  The only decision they made was that the cake needed to be chocolate!  Great choice in cake, if I do say so myself!  So, I made chocolate cake with an Oreo cookie filling:

Poor Freddy...he never saw it coming.  That first gigantic piece of cake, was smashed in his face.  Oddly enough, he didn't get mad that his face was smooshed with cake.  Instead, he was more upset that a slice of cake, a big one at that, was "wasted!"  Ahh, I couldn't have better friends...and yes, he did eat what he can of that slice!
Next up, I did a Monster High cake for one of my girlfriend's niece.  Again, I had no idea what the heck Monter High was.  Once I found out, I must say, it's pretty darn cute.  Cute skeleton thingies with pink bows.  Awesome.  Check out the cake.  I thought pink and purple zebra stripes were kind of cool for a young girl.  And that tiara topper for the cake is actually wearable!

Next up, I recently made a one year anniversary cake for my tattoo artist.  I've show-cased this rose swirl design in a previous blog post, but what's different about this one is that I decided to do multiple color swirls instead of monotone.  Interesting, right?...something different!  The inside of this cake was really cool too.  Dennis "Dizzy" really liked red velvet cake, while his girlfriend liked chocolate cake.  So he asked me to mash those two up somehow.  What I ended up doing was both a layer of chocolate cake and a layer of red velvet.  The middle filling was a layer of cream cheese frosting, vanilla Nilla cookies, vanilla frosting.  That way, the frosting corresponded to the cake!  Clever, huh?  Not sure how that tasted, but I thought it was super clever.

This next cake has a great story attached to it.  It was a special request from my girlfriend's brother for his girlfriend's birthday.  So what's so special about that, you might ask?  Well, not only was it for Ana's birthday, it was also a day of proposal!  Yep, Billy did it...he shackled himself up...asked the lovely Ana to be his wife!  So the day was celebrated with this orange creamsicle cake!

And last but not least, I can't close out the first post of the year without some macarons!  Check out these Hello Kitty ones.  I had an order for one of my classmate's wedding reception (last picture)!  Of course I made extras.,.I even tried Hello Kitty without her ears....I guess they still  look semi-cute right? 

Again, Happy New Year my dear readers!!  I hope you enjoyed this lengthy post and that you continue to check back for new ones!  Let it be noted that I sincerely appreciate every one of you for visiting my blog and for silently (or animatedly) cheering me on from the comforts of wherever you may be!  

XOXO,

Linda