Carrot Cakelets

There is a Nordic Wear pan that I absolutely love.  Its mini bunt cakes but it comes with a recipe for Carrot Cakelets.  I tried them out the other day and it came out so well.  Everybody loved them.  I used the recipe on the insert for the Carrot Cakelets but I used my own recipe for cream cheese frosting and added chopped pecans on top.  I got the pan at Walmart.  It has a ton of different colors to choose from but I chose plain white on top and red on bottom.

Here is a picture of the pan top and bottom.

 

Here is a picture of the finished cakelets.

I learned from the first batch not to fill them like regular cake pans.  They rise too much and overflow the cavities.  Next I filled them only halfway and they didn't rise enough.  It took a little bit of experimenting to get the right balance between rising levels of the cakes.

Cheesecake Bars

This is a great recipe that looks like lemon squares but tastes like cheesecake

I got this recipe from a book called "101 Things to do with a Cake Mix" by Stephanie Ashcraft

Bottom Layer
1  yellow cake mix
1  stick margarine, cooled and melted
1  egg, beaten

Top Layer
1  lb. powdered sugar
2  eggs, beaten
8  ounces cream cheese
1  tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix cake mix, beaten egg, and melted margarine.  Spread into the bottom of a greased and floured 9x13" pan.
In a separate bowl, mix together powdered sugar, eggs, softened cream cheese, and vanilla until smooth.  Spread miture over bottom layer
Bake 30-35 Minutes

It comes out thin but very good.  The bottom layer rises and sometimes comes up through the top layer.  I suggest doubling the top layer.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving.  Here is a recipe for Pumpkin Pie that never fails, is quick and easy, and everyone loves.

I got this recipe a while back from www.allrecipes.com

1  15 ounce can of pumpkin
1  14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk
2  large eggs
1  tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1  9 in. unbaked pie crust

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Whisk everything together until smooth.  Pour into crust. Bake 15 minutes.
Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking 35 to 40 minutes or until knife inserted 1" from crust comes out clean.  Cool on cooling rack.  Store left overs in fridge.

My oven takes about 50 minutes to cook it completely.  If you don't want knife marks in the middle of  your pie, make sure that it doesn't wiggle when you move the pie.  Usually I find that that means its done.

New Chocolate Classes

I am going to be teaching chocolate classes at A Baker's Choice in Lafayette.  I'm so excited.  We have the first class scheduled for December 5th at 6 p.m.  Here are some chocolates we will be making.

Gingerbread House

I had a demo at Michael's yesterday and I had to make a gingerbread house.  I am hoping to get to teach a class on gingerbread houses soon but the other teacher is already teaching one.  I may have to wait till next year but thats ok.  Here are pictures of the finished product.

The finished gingerbread house will be on display for a few weeks at Michael's in the cake section.

Cupcakes

I spent the morning making cupcakes to send to work.  I surprised my boss with them today.  I made strawberry cupcakes first.  Half of them came out burned.  I put one metal pan in next to some disposable pans.  The metal pan burned everything to a crisp but the cupcakes in the disposable ones came out perfectly.  It was the first time I have used the metal pan.  I may try to use it again before doing something else with it but I don't know why it did that.  I ended up making chocolate too because I didn't have enough after the strawberry ones burned.  I filled them all with cream cheese filling.

Here is a picture of them filled before I iced them.

I iced them all with buttercream.  I wanted to try out how they look with some Lucks sugar decons I just bought.  I think they came out really cute.  Here are the finished products.

School themed cupcakes

Monster themed

 

Halloween themed

Fall themed

...and all of them put together.

 I was excited with the way they turned out today and I really liked the Lucks decons I bought. The website for Lucks is www.lucks.com.  You have to have a retail license to order from them.