bake it pretty – Jennifer Michie

May 15, 2010 / 1 Comment

Button Mushrooms

I found this adorable recipe on the Bake it Pretty Blog and I thought I would share. I love making shortbread, usually I just mould it into a pie shape and then cut it into thick wedges to have alongside a nice cup of tea. These would be perfect for a “Gnome Tea Party”, with Bake it Pretty’s gnome or mushroom sprig cake toppers placed on cupcakes and their gnome or snail shaped cookie cutters used for sugar cookies or to shape tea sandwiches. The possibilities are endless and I know I am already getting carried away with the ideas buzzing around in my head…

The use of a beer bottle dusted with cocoa powder is a fantastic idea to create that sweet squat mushroom stem. How inventive! Since I am in a shortbread baking kind of mood this weekend I thought about trying this recipe if we can squeeze it in to the crazy weekend that will be happening…

I have included their recipe if you want to try it for yourself:

Ingredients:

Preheat oven at 350 degrees – yields approx. 42 cookies

1 – 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 cup (two sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon table salt

One empty soda or beer bottle (cleaned and dried)
Cocoa powder (about 1/4 cup)
Water

Recipe:

Sift together flour, cornstarch, powdered sugar and salt. Add softened butter and vanilla, and mix thoroughly until a thick but light dough is formed. It should be soft but not too sticky, and easy to handle.

Roll the dough into 1″ balls and place about 1″ apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper or silpat mats. Place about 1/4 cup of cocoa powder into a small bowl, and about 1/4 cup water in to a separate small bowl.

Dip the top of the soda/beer bottle into water and shake off any excess. Dip the bottle into the cocoa powder and tap the side to shake if any excess. Gently press the bottle straight into one of your dough balls, pressing just barely into the dough, only about 1/4″ inch, then pull the bottle away.

Continue with the rest of your cookies, dipping your bottle into the cocoa between each pressing. If it gets too light, do another water-dip then keep going.

Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Take them out when they are just done, and barely the tiniest bit brown on the bottom. Let cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes.

*Details:

– You can substitute flour for the cornstarch if you like, it will make the cookies a little more dense and toothsome. I definitely reccomend using the cornstarch if possible, it really adds to the delicate and crumbly nature of the cookies.

(All images and recipe text copyright Bake it Pretty, cookie cutter image embellished by J. Michie)

December 27, 2009 / 0 Comments

Peppermint Fairy Cakes

MMM! I know that after the holidays the last thing on your mind is probably eating anything more. But, these cupcakes on The Farm Chicks website looked so heavenly, I think they are worth stuffing your face with.

The cakes in these little star studded wrappers (from Bake it Pretty) with a candy cane on top, look absolutely delectable. I love that they are filled with a peppermint cream. I love to whip up extra icing or a Boston Cream Pie filling and pipe it into my cupcakes. It just gives them that extra little something. I am a cupcake kinda girl, they are the perfect bite when you just need that little taste of something sweet!

To make your own Peppermint Fudge Cakes click here to get the recipe.

Wouldn’t these stripe and polka dot cases look sweet as well, holding these wintery tasting treats!

(Images copyright the FarmChicks & Bake it Pretty)

November 22, 2009 / 0 Comments

Crazy Holiday Ideas

I have these crazy Martha Stewart ideas at times, I see something and I think, “Oh, wouldn’t that be the cutest idea, all made, decorated, beautifully wrapped and lined up in neat rows to hand out…”, the idea I am thinking of, are Thanksgiving goody bags, or boxes in this case.

Whether we had Thanksgiving at our house or someone else’s, everyone always left with a bag of goodies, especially (my mom being an original New Yorker before she moved below the Mason Dixon) if cookies had been sent down from New York, you can’t beat a good bakery! Divine cookies with sprinkles or nuts or a little cherry stuck in them; shaped like leaves and hearts and circles, they were a box of pure happiness!I was looking for something this morning and went to the Bake it Pretty website and saw their turkey cupcake picks and that started off my whole wave of crazy thinking. I thought wouldn’t it be cute, if you made little pumpkin bread cupcakes, iced with mountains of cream cheese frosting (in these retro Sound of Music looking liners), stuck in a little turkey pick, whipped up some acorn shaped sugar cookies while you were at it and had everything all beautifully packaged in a box with some bakers twine or raffia tied through the handle, with something cute stamped on the box.

These are my Martha Stewart moments, the ideas that I would be insane enough to do, but will not. I just love the idea of it!

(Images from the Bake it Pretty website)

P.S. I heard my 1st Christmas song of the season on the radio this morning, I did a Charlie Brown Peanut’s dance of happiness!

October 2, 2009 / 0 Comments

Gnome is Where the Heart Is

Well, as you may or may not know I love gnomes! I think they are just cute, whimsical, funny and kitsch. While searching for a particular cupcake item, I went to one of my favorite sites, “Bake It Pretty“, it has an array of goodies and lots of those hard to find retro/vintage looking cupcake picks. They were established before “Layer Cake“. Although, they have some product cross over, I think each have their own unique qualities.

I started going through their cookie cutter section while I was there and came across this guy! I thought he was too cute for words. He would be adorable iced with a little red or blue hat. Maybe even a little beard piped on with a small star tip.

When I was in high school, our local baking supply store was holding a Wilton Cake Decorating course and being the nerd that I am, I set aside some babysitting money and my mom let me sign up!

I love to bake and cook and I thought this would be a way to expand on that. I had so much fun, making roses, learning how to make the clown bodies to stick the clown head pick in for cupcakes or cakes, and best of all, you got to take home your finished products and eat them, now that alone was worth it for me, a guaranteed chance to have scrumptious cake once a week with that heavenly “wedding cake” icing, mmm!

You can buy him on this own or in an adorable “Pretty Magical Forest” set. Which gives you a really nice shaped mushroom that you could easily decorate to go along with him. He will need a place to sit on and rest of course!

This little gnome was too cute not to share and so sweetly photographed against the yellow gingham, I felt something needed to be said about this little character. If looking at these sites doesn’t make you want to run out and start whipping up cupcakes with the cutest toppers to put on them, I don’t know what will!

(All Images from “Bake it Pretty” website)