Silver Bullet

I had been wanting to get a new stand mixer for quite some time. I bought my first stand mixer when I was in college and didn't have a whole lot of money to spend on it. It served me well for a while when I was first really getting into baking. The only problem is that it just wouldn't die! I hadn't bought a new mixer because I would have felt guilty if my old mixer still worked, even though it may not have been the greatest and my hubby kept trying to convince me to get a new one. Well, the old mixer finally passed away a couple of weeks ago. After 10 years of waiting (yes, I was just starting college THAT many years ago O_O), I was then faced with deciding what kind of mixer to buy. It came down to either a KitchenAid or a Viking. I ended up going with KitchenAid because of all of the attachments you can get - the most notable of which is the ice cream maker attachment. Yes, that's right, I am going to venture into the world of ice cream/gelato. =D

I named it the Silver Bullet, and I love it. :)

The first thing I made with it was a batch of cupcakes for my nieces and nephews. One of my darling nieces had the awesome idea of turning hers into a cupcake sandwich!

Creamy Devils?

I'm not quite sure what to call these little guys. I think they are traditionally called black bottom cakes, but for some reason, I don't quite like that name. These tasty creations are cream cheese topped devil's food cakes.

There is usually some funny side story that goes along with each of my baking adventures. Lately, work has been really hectic since we're wrapping up a major project, and that has lead to a lot of late-night baking sessions. Lack of sleep and exhaustion do not typically make for a good combination in the kitchen. ;)

We had a friend coming to visit, and I really wanted to make something for his stay with us. I had been going on very little sleep and had just finished a 14-hour workday when I got home at 9:30 pm one evening. (Who knew software development was so intense?! =p) Well, I forged ahead with my plan to bake something and got these cakes in the oven, set my timer, and sat down for a bit. I remember checking on the cakes a couple of times, and all seemed to be going well. I checked in on them one more time and then realized my timer had been paused. I panicked because I couldn't remember when I had put them in the oven. I asked the hubby if he touched my timer, and he emphatically denied getting anywhere near it or near the kitchen for that matter. I guess my lack of sleep and the long workday made me a bit out of my mind, and I paused the timer unconsciously. I ended up over-baking the cakes just a bit, but everyone still seemed to enjoy them. Either that, or I have really nice friends. ;)

Giant Cupcake!

My sister came to visit, and we finally celebrated her birthday (3 months late). I decided to go big...literally. So, I made her a giant cupcake. These pictures are not the best, but I made this cake after a very, very long day at work. So once again, the pictures were taken late at night. I am still working on my photography skills...

Front of the cake:

Keeping with last year's theme when I made my sis a Domo cake, I had to sneak Domo in somewhere. Back of the cake:

Simple and Sweet

I wanted to make some goodies for a friend we were visiting last weekend, and with work being so hectic lately, I didn't have much time. So, I chose two relatively simple sweets: blueberry muffins and m&m cookies. Always trying to make the best use of my time, I took this opportunity to do some recipe tweaking/experimenting. The cookies ended up coming out just about perfect, but I want to tweak the muffins just a little bit more.

After wrapping up a 12-hour workday, these were the result of another late-night baking session.

What am I going to do with all this cream?!?

I went to the grocery store to get some things for dinner, and I just couldn't remember if I had any cream at home. I decided to play it safe and bought another carton, only to find out I did have some at home after all! Naturally, I started thinking about what sorts of desserts I could make to use up all the cream crowding up the fridge. Creme brulee crossed my mind, but I make that often enough that I wanted to try something different. We also had a friend coming to visit, so I wanted to make something special for her and ended up deciding to make mini chocolate mousse cakes.

I created my recipe for mini chocolate mousse cakes a few years ago and had only made it a few times since then, tweaking it here and there each time. I'm getting closer to perfecting it...perhaps one more attempt and I'll have it where I want it...

Chocolate cake layered with chocolate mousse and topped with chocolate ganache. Chocolate overload!