CHILI time!

Hello Folks!

This past few days have been very nice and cold. It even snowed without me realizing it over night. I thought it was going to be a nice regular temperature day but nope, cold air everywhere!

So yesterday we decided to make chili, and for the first time ever there was no left over. We all literally stared in awe at the empty pot. I've always used about 2lbs of ground beef. I like my chili meaty specially since I do add beans to it, and there is always at least a little bit left over, but this time nope, zero, nada. It was actually very satisfying as a cook to see it all gone. But as promised I will post the base of the recipe to leave room for anyone who wants to make their own chili and add their own flavors.

On to the recipe:       TT= To Taste*

2 lbs ground beef
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp chili powder
1 onion med diced
6 cloves garlic minced
1 Tbsp garlic powder
6 or 7 mini sweet pepper (Red, orange, yellow. If you want instead of the mini use the large ones, in that case just 2 would be good) Roasted to remove the skin, seeded, and medium diced.
Salt and Pepper TT
Cayenne pepper TT
1 Tbsp Cumin
2 tomatoes pealed and seeded
1 can crushed tomatoes
2 cans of kidney beans, drained
1 can chick peas, drained
1 Tbsp Oregano
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup of water
1 Tbsp tomato paste

1. In a large pot, add the vegetable oil, let it warm up. Add the ground beef, 1/4 cups of water and all dry seasonings.
2. Once the meat is cooked, add the onions and garlic and cook until they become translucent, about 5 min. Add the roasted peppers and cook for 10 minutes.
3. Add the tomato paste, then add all the beans, cook for 5 minutes.
4. Add the crushed tomatoes plus one can of water that the crushed tomatoes were in.
5. Cover and cook over medium high heat, let it come to a boil for 5 minuted then reduce to a simmer and cook for 6 hrs.

Serve with sour cream, cheddar cheese if desired.  Enjoy!

Cooking Chili and comfort foods!

Hello everyone,

The weather this winter has been crazy! It goes from cold to hot, some type of bug is going around. I keep hearing because of the weather, Detroit schools will be closed tomorrow. But what better way to get out of the funk that with some good old fashion comfort food?

What is your favorite comfort food?

Tomorrow I will be diving into the kitchen to cook up some home made chili. Now for me that's the type of comfort food I like to eat when the weather is this nuts. I enjoy mine, spicy, hearty and I am sure I am going to break some rules with certain people for adding this to my chili but I add kidney beans and chick peas.

I remember the first time I made it, I was still young and still learning a lot in the kitchen. One of my aunts knows how to make it so I decided one day that I wanted to try and do it. She told us that we have to make sure to grab the beans that say for chili. I thought cool easy peasy, well no. We actually grabbed the chili that you would use to put over your hotdog. Well you all can imagine how that turned out.

Remember, comfort food is not about just the taste, you got to love what you are doing for it to translate into the food. I am a big believer that feelings get transfer to food as you cook it.

Anyways, tomorrow depending how long the day is, I will somehow post the chili recipe and we are paring it with some homemade biscuits. I don't know about you guys but I am hoping tomorrow is here already!

Rice Pudding!

Hello fellow readers. Today we are going to talk about rice pudding. Have you notice that on certain days, you wake up and you crave something specifically like eggs and bacon for breakfast. Maybe a salad or a nice thick juicy burger for lunch. Maybe a nice prime rib or dinner or a simple Mac and Cheese comfort food? It can vary from spicy to sweet, hearty or creamy. Everyone's palate is different and that's what makes people have unique experience with food. What I might find to be a simple semi interesting dish, could be the most amazing, "It taste just like my grandmother use to make it," dish for you and that is what makes food great.

So today I am going to post a recipe for Rice Pudding. It is a very simple recipe, and it can be made with ingredients that you already have at home. The original recipe comes from Giada. Hers is very simple as well and maybe one of this days I will try and make it the way she has it done. I will post the link to her recipe.

Giada's Rice Pudding Recipe

I took the portion of the rice, milk, and sugar from hers and kept them the same but everything else I changed.

Our version:

-5 cups whole milk
-2/3 cups of rice
-2 Tbps vanilla extract
-1/2 cup of sugar
-1 cinnamon stick (If no stick add 1 tsp of cinnamon)

1. Combine rice, milk and cinnamon stick (powder) in a medium sauce pan, and bring to a boil. 
2. Reduce to a simmer until the rice is tender, stirring frequently so the rice doesn't stick to the bottom and them milk doesn't scorch, about 25 minutes.
3. Mix in the sugar and vanilla extract and cook until the mixture thickens.
4. Spoon mixture into a bowl, cover, and refrigerate until cold.

Bakers Tips:
Remember, a recipe most of the time is just for you to know what type of technique the writer used. Never be afraid to change a few things to really make the recipe your own.

Cinnamon Craisin Bread

Hey everyone . Its super cold and snowy in the NYC these days an when I think of something warm and comforting to help me fuel thru the snowy sidewalks left untouched by my inconsiderate neighbors, I think of home made bread! There is nothing like the feel of making your own bread, mixing the ingredients the smell of the yeast coming back to life and growing. I bake many things but nothing warms my house like bread...that might be due to the fact I leave the oven on to help it rise and ferment but y'know what I mean right?

One of my favorite breads to make is a cinnamon raisin loaf  with a crumble topping that is to die for!
Seriously you can put this crumble on almost anything pies, cookies and muffins are my go to for ideas.

So here is the break down of the recipe.

Dough
-Milk   4  ounces
-Water 2 ounces
-Dry Yeast 7 grams
-All purpose flour 1 pound
-Sugar 2.5 ounces
-Salt 3/4  teaspoon
-Whole egg 1

Spread/filling
-Butter melted 2.5 ounces
-Sugar  3 tablespoons
-Cinnamon 2 teaspoons
-Raisins 6 ounces (can be switched out for craisins , yellow raisin etc)

Crumble
-All purpose flour 1and 1/4 ounces
-light brown sugar 2 and 1/2 tablespoons
-Cinnamon 1/2 teasppon
-Butter melted 3/4 ounce
-1 egg white to brush the top of the loaf

Procedure

1. Whisk together yeast, milk, and water and set aside.

2. In a kitchen aid with a paddle, mix all purpose flour, sugar, salt, butter.

3. Add yeast mixture and egg to flour mixture and mix until kneaded.

4. Place in a bowl, cover and ferment. (About 30 to 45 min) or till doubled in size

5. Once fermented, remove from bowl, press dough into a rough rectangular and spread butter, then cinnamon, sugar, and raisins.

6. Fold the 2 ends slightly over and roll tightly from one end to the other, sealing as you go along. Place in a buttered loaf pan seam side down.

 7. Brush with egg white and sprinkle with crumb ingredients that have been mixed together to a rough crumb consistency. Ferment at least another 20-30 min.

8. Once risen, bake at 350-375 degrees F for approx 40 minutes.

 What the crumble should look like.

 The bread will be moist from the swirl in the middle. Also keep in mind as weird as it might sound, some dry fruits produce more moisture than others and have different levels of sweetness.

This bread taste really good toasted with butter and a nice cup of coffee to go with it. Maybe a small slice of toast to go with your oatmeal. Or instead of smearing jelly and butter into a piece of toast to go with your eggs, have a slice from this bread with a little bit of butter. One less thing to have on the table. Maybe smear some peanut butter and skip the jelly.
 Pare this yummy bread with your bread pudding mix and you will have out of this world french toast!

Baker's tips

. If using craisins you might want to roughly chop them first.
. Make sure to roll the dough tightly.

Goodbye 2013, Hello 2014

I can't believe a year has gone by so fast and another one just started. Time sure does fly when you are busy with the Holidays, training a puppy, and baking up orders.

I have a good and delicious biscuit recipe that would go very good with either a chicken noodle soup, tomato soup, lentil soup, or just great to munch on by themselves. Those are not the only options though. These biscuits are just so cheesy, flaky, and  melt in your mouth goodness that you just want to soak up anything with it.

But before I get into the recipe I want to talk a little bit about the Grooms cake I just finish doing for a good friends wedding. The cake was Creature From The Black Lagoon inspired and I admit I had a lot of fun making the cake. It was a little difficult because I accidentally pulled my back, but my partner was very helpful with the cake (for not being a baker).

The cake was a two tier orange scented white cake, with a vanilla/ orange butter cream and toasted coconut that was dyed green and placed on the bottom sides to make it look like sea weed. The cake was delicious and the butter cream was to die for. The Clients were very happy and everyone loved the cake so much that they didn't even let us finished setting up the cake before they crowded us to take pictures. All in all very satisfying.

Now for the Biscuit recipe:     Preheat Oven to 450 degree F

1 lb     Self rising flour
6 oz     Butter
8fl oz   Milk, buttermilk or cream
1/2 tsp Salt
7oz      Grated extra sharp cheddar cheese
2 oz      Scallions or chives, chopped

1. In a stand mixer, add the butter and salt to flour on medium speed until it forms about pea size lumps.
2. Gradually add your liquid of choice enough to make a soft dough.
3. Add your cheese and choice of green onion and mix until incorporated.
4. Flour flat surface and knead dough lightly several times to help form for rolling.
5. Press or roll dough to a 1/2 in thickness. DO NOT MAKE TO THIN. 
6. Use biscuit cutter size of your personal choice or you can cut them into squares.
7. Place on sheet tray and bake for 10 min or until the bottom of the biscuit is a nice golden brown.

*Bakers Tips:
- Secret to a great biscuit is not a golden top, by that time your biscuits are actually over baked. It's a nice golden bottom that makes a good biscuit.
- The colder the dough, the better the rise, so you can pre-make and shape them before hand and bake them when needed. 

Making Marzipan

Hello readers!

Sorry for the lack of posting but we got caught up in the holidays. We are also trying to reach 500 likes on our Facebook by Christmas . If we do we will donate 100 treats to 3 different rescues!

We also hope that you enjoyed your Thanksgiving.
I baked some super yummy cheese biscuits, chocolate chip cookies and my first sweet potato pie for my family. I can now say I am quite the fan of sweet potato pie and I will post the pictures of all those goodies later.

We are here to talk about the wondrous awesomeness of Marzipan! Marzipan is over 500 years old and is still a special treat around the world. I grew up seeing them molded as fruits in Italian bakery's. Marzipan also tastes a whole lot better then fondant. If you are allergic to nuts don't fret for there is a nut free paste made with peach pits that taste close to almonds.
Here are some pictures of my marzipan creations.

Some fruits and vegetables I made in school.

These pumpkin and tombstones are also handmade from Marzipan.

 Leaves an Pumpkins for a customers fall themed cheesecake for Thanksgiving 

Edible fun decorations.

Now on the recipe

Marzipan
1 pound of almond paste
1 pound of powdered sugar 
3 fluid ounces of lite corn syrup ( can be switched for honey)

 Beat almond paste in mixer for a few minutes ,then slowly add the powdered sugar to avoid sugar clouds.
spray your liquid measuring cup with a little of cooking spray to help the corn syrup to slide out faster. Pour in corn syrup and beat till the paste comes together. Form in to a ball warp in cling wrap and store in an air tight zip lock bag in the fridge . It can last up to over a month in these conditions.

Bakers tips/notes
If your paste is to dry/ wet add a little more of the sugar /syrup until it becomes a nice and easy to form smooth ball.
To dye your marzipan you can use the same type of dyes that are used with fondant or frosting's.
Just need in the color until you get what you are aiming for.

Hope you give this recipe a try and see how tasty and fun it can be. It's a great new way to decorate cookies and other baked yummies for the holidays. Also its super fun for kids to actually eat what they can sculpt. Unlike play-doh which just looks like food but isn't.

For a bigger Marzipan recipe don't be afraid to contact me!

Halloween candy part 2.

In our last blog we talked about how you can utilize the left over Halloween candy and use it to bake with. Well we actually did just that with Twix bars and bread pudding. Now today is your lucky day because this recipe came out so good that we have to share it with all Twix lovers out there.

It is very easy and simple. Prep time will take at least 15 minutes and bake time 45 minutes. It is a bit long because of the method the bread pudding has to cook but the wait is so worth it.

On to the recipe.
Makes 1, 9in Bread pudding      Prep time: 15 min         Bake time: 45 min       Bake Temp: 300 Degrees F

-1 loaf of plain Italian bread cut into small squares.
-16 fl oz (2 Cup) of Half and Half or Whole Milk
-4 oz (1/2 Cup) of sugar.
-2 Large eggs
-4 egg yolks
-1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
-4 Twix Bars 

Cooking Method:
1. In a medium sauce pan, bring milk and sugar to a boil, stir occasionally to make sure your milk doesn't scorch on the bottom giving the mixture a burn taste.
2. In a bowl, whisk the eggs and yolks together, set aside.
3. Once the milk comes to a boil, turn off heat and  slowly temper the eggs. Strain after it is tempered. Add Vanilla Extract. ( I will explain what tempering is no worries)
4. In another mixing bowl, put the bread, chopped up candy bars and 1/4 of the custard and mix a bit to coat a good amount of the bread.
5. Place in an 9 in cake pan or disposable pan and pour the rest of the custard mix
6. Place in a water bath and cook for 45 Min.
7. Optional, sprinkle some sugar and cinnamon mixture on top.

*How to temper the eggs with the boiling milk.
To make it easy, grab a kitchen towel and fold it the long way and place it on your counter top or table which ever one is easier making a circle shape and living a small well in the middle. Place the bowl in the middle and it will help hold the bowl for when you whisk the milk into the eggs.

To make sure you don't cook the eggs, pour the milk in a small and slow steady stream, onto the eggs as you whisk it together. Make sure you pour the milk where you are whisking or your chances of cooking the egg increases.

Bakers side notes.
: You can use any bread or candy you like, this recipe is great for old bread just laying around.
: Apparently twix bars are made of kryptonite  or something because for being in an oven for over a half an hour and they barely melted. I would chop them smaller then I did.

Cutting up the Twix

Milk coming to a boil with sugar

Whisked eggs

 Whisking the eggs.

Tempered eggs with Milk sugar mixture.

Bread pudding out of the oven.

Close up

Twix Bread Pudding with whipped cream

Recipes and ideas for that extra Halloween candy laying around.

We all know that best part about Halloween is all the candy you have leftover, So instead of having all that candy just laying around and popping a candy bar into your mouth once in a while, why not make it into something delicious that you can have for dessert or bring over for a friends dinner party.

We recently turn a simple Chocolate Chip Blondie recipe into a Kit Kat Blondie recipe. Now who doesn't want to take a break for that?

Yup, we have a good friend that loves Kit Kat. More than love, she went nuts buying bags of it the day after Halloween. She also said she enjoyed blondies so that's when the idea popped into my partners head, "Hey, why not combine the two together?" Well why not indeed. Mind you, this was the first time she has ever tried this with a certain type of candy bar. She was a little nervous about it not working out.

 Well the end product looked amazing, it smelled glorious and I was extremely sad I couldn't taste it. This is what out friend had to say in our Kicken Confections facebook page:

       Elyssa Wecera

 "Just broke into the KitKat blondie I was made. MAN WAS IT GOOD! I absolutely love a good blondie! Soft chewy moist center with a nice crunchy rim. All the good stuff of brownies with the deliciousness of cookies!! Plus kitkats are my favorite candy so it was great getting a bite of those little suckers all around! I made myself some hot cocoa and dunked my blondie bits in there, so great!!! Perfect cold day snack!! Thanks!!"

 

 

  

I don't know about you guys but  I am totally going to get me some Snickers Bar and see if we can make one from that. 

 Also, tomorrow we will talk more about other candies and see if we can make a Twix bread pudding.

 

 

Chicken Pot Pie!

Soooo, we can finally post about the Chicken Pot Pie! There has been so much chaos going outside the house since they are putting in new water pipes, it has been difficult to do anything. Tonight we finally get a break. Unfortunately they will continue to shut the water down until Friday. Yay for us.

Now to the recipe. Sadly because it was an order we do not have a picture of the final product. We do have it before it was baked.

We made our pie with a sour cream dough but you can use any type. You can even use the store bought if  that's what you prefer. Because this order was only a 9 in, we were able to put crust on the bottom of the pie tin and on the top which was exciting. We normally get orders for bigger ones (Usually about 5lb! Holy cow!) and since we want to keep the prices reasonable we only do the crust on top. We cut a few pieces of crust and put them into the pie to try and give it the a slight effect of crust on bottom.

Okay so for the inside of the pie you will need:
-Preheat oven at 400 degrees F.
-Chicken
-Green Peas (You can get the bag of frozen peas and carrots and use that instead, I recommend to stay away from the can)
-Carrots        
- Salt TT (To Taste)
-Pepper TT
-Garlic Powder TT (or you can do a few cloves of garlic)
-Potatoes
-Chicken Stock
-Flour
- Butter

-If doing pie on the bottom, spray the pie tin or pan with cooking spray and line with dough.
-Cut potatoes into cubes and boil until almost done. Remember they will cook again ones inside the pie as well.
-Cut the chicken into cubes, season with salt, pepper and saute for about a minute or two depending on the size of the cut. Do not cook all the way thru or it will over cook in the oven. Set it aside and let it cool.
- Mix in chicken, potatoes, peas, and carrots. Pinch of salt and pepper,garlic powder and spoon the mixture in to your pie pan tin with the bottom crust fitted to the pan.
- In a saute pan, put equal parts of butter and flour to make a roux which is a thickening agent used for sauces.
-In a sauce pan, put chicken stock, bring to boil, reduce heat and add roux, mixing with whisk to get rid of lumps. Bring the stock back to a boil. You will see it thicken. If to thick add more stock, if not thick enough add more roux. (We like using the unseasoned stock but you can use any preference.)
- Let the thicken stock cool then add to the pie filling mix.
- If you are going to bake it the same day, after it's lined with the top layer of dough, make a few cuts in the dough to let the steam out. Do either an egg wash, milk wash, or olive oil.
-Bake until the crust is golden brown.

If you want to cook it the next day, don't do the wash on the top until desired, cover and place in the freezer.

That's how we did our design, you can make it prettier if you would like. This is before the wash and before the baking was done.
If you want to know more, comment.

Pot Pies, Pumpkin Pies, Sweet Potatoe Pies, Apple Pies Oh My!

It is the season for delicious pies, chili's, and hot chocolate milk. Who doesn't enjoy laying under a blanket, watching a movie and enjoying a small slice of pie with something hot to drink every now and then? Me? I take 3/4 of the pie and leave a slice.

On a serious note I just got an order for a Chicken Pot Pie which I will be making for Monday. I have made a few changes here and there for the recipe. Granted it is not one of the hardest recipes to do out there, but putting the right combination inside and paring it with the right crust will make your taste buds sing and your pallet will cry every now and then after making it eat one of the frozen pot pies that you can buy at your local supermarket.

I am Stephanie, the savory part of Kicken Confections. I am the one in charge of making the chicken and the stock for the dog treats, and as you read earlier, I also enjoy making Pot Pies which in reality is the only thing I can put in the oven that involves a pie crust and it won't catch on fire. I also enjoy and have come to learned that I am also pretty good at making breads. The rest, I leave it to my partner.

I will be taking pictures of the pie as it is constructed and maybe putting in a recipe or giving a few hints on how to make your own. It all comes down to technique and that is what separates a home baker from a pastry chef, or a cook from a Chef.

Technique in the Culinary world is everything. That's how you get everything cooking evenly. For example, cutting an onion. If you cut an onion and the pieces are not as even (rough chop), you will notice how some brown faster than others and eventually you will have pieces of burn bitter onion and pieces that haven't fully cooked. Now have it all cut into uniform pieces, everything will brown up evenly.( That is one of the tricks to French Onion Soup for those soup lovers out there.)

Did you know it can take hours to get the perfect caramelized onion? (Hm, second trick?)
Constantly stirring will stop the item from caramelizing and the process restarts making it take longer.

I think we are on a role. If you want to find out more, read our next blog post.

A tale of two Pumpkins

Hey guys !

Its Antoinette and its Fall here in the sates and y'know what that means right?! The air is getting cooler the tree's are changing and I watch Tim Burton's films 50% more then the rest of the year. Baking  doesn't feel like I'm sitting in the oven with my cookies cause its over 90 degrees outside. I love Fall its my favorite time of the year.

Fall also gives me my favorite flavor in practically everything now, there is pumpkin in my coffee, candles  and of course my baked goods. Thought I have only starting baking with pumpkin for about a year or so.
It started with a seasonal dog treat flavor then a butter cream flavor and just yesterday I finally made my own pumpkin pie from scratch for a client.

This start's a tale of two pumpkins, one which was a normal sugar pumpkin that I purchased at a farmers market. The other was this bizarre odd pumpkin my mother bought at a local chain food market.
The normal pumpkin was everything a sugar pumpkin should be, not to big in size a bit tender fleshed when opened with a decent amount of seeds. A sugar pumpkin is small in size but it provides a nice amount of meat that can be used for a few things.  Instead of one can usually only makes one pie .

Pumpkin X aka odd mutant pumpkin bought from a food market. It was smaller then the one I bought and its outside was hard and felt like one of those plastic carving pumpkin. Words can not describe how hard this little pumpkin was . It took four different knives and three different people to crack this little sucker open and when it was open the flesh was hard and had more seeds then the pumpkin I bought. After roasting it with the other pumpkin we tasted them both. The sugar pumpkin I bought tasted as it should but the other pumpkin X tasted almost like butter nut squash . I could not use that for baking at all  so I just added some butter to flesh (which wasn't that much to begin with) and a few spices and served it as a side for dinner .Oh and by the way even after roasting at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes the out side of this things was still hard!  

The Sugar pumpkin became an awesome pie and will become even more delicious pumpkin baked goodness. I'll share some recipes in my next post.

Here are some pics:

 Sugar pumpkin bought from the farmers market. This is after it was roasted. The skin pealed right off. Clean.

 This is how the inside was. Cleaner and fewer seeds.

 This is pumpkin X. You can see how the other sugar pumpkin the skin shriveled with the meat. In this one you can see the skin stay hard and in the same place while the meat shriveled. Skin was still as hard as a rock.

 Here is the inside of the store bought pumpkin. It has more seeds for being a smaller pumpkin than the other one.

This is the pie before and after. It was made with a home made pumpkin custard and a sour cream dough. We use this dough with a few other foods that we like to make and because is such a nice, melts in your mouth, moist dough, we though it would be a great pairing with the richness of the pumpkin custard.

Me VS Muffins- frist recipe share

Hey everyone it's Antoinette and I've had a mighty battle with Muffins the past two days. I've had a muffin base for a few years that was just okay, now with my better knowledge of baking, I'm able to tweak it and make it better. The base wasn't that bad to begin with ...just a bit bland and the muffins would always come out pale in color .
The muffins might have won the battle but I won the war.
Tasty moist muffins with crisp golden brown sides! Breakfast shall be mine!

I'll start out with the original recipe:
Chocolate chip muffin recipe 

2- cups chocolate chips
2- eggs
2- cups all purpose flour
1- cup sugar
1/2- cup of whole milk
1/2- stick of unsalted butter
2- tsp of baking powder
1- tsp vanilla extract
1/2- tsp kosher salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F and grease you muffin pan (I use baking PAM)
2. Mix the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl and set aside.
3. Add the 1 tsp of vanilla to the milk and set aside.
4. Beat together in a stand mixer the butter, sugar and the eggs  till mostly smooth.
5. Alternate between adding the flour mix and the milk mix a time.
6. Scrap down the bowl and add the rest of the flour mix and milk mix.
7. Add the chips and fold them in ( the machine can break the chips after a few rotations )
8. Fill pan and bake for 30 minutes until semi firm in the center

End product was pale okish tasting muffins .

Now for the New and Improved recipe:
Chocolate chip muffin recipe

1- cup chocolate chips semi sweet
2- eggs
2- cups of all purpose flour
1- cup sugar
1/2- cup whole milk
1 - whole stick of unsalted butter
2- tsp baking powder
2- tsp vanilla extract
1/2- tsp kosher salt


1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F and grease you muffin pan (I use baking PAM)
2. Mix the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl and set aside.
3. Add the 2 tsp of vanilla to the milk and set aside.
4. Beat together in a stand mixer the butter, sugar and the eggs  till mostly smooth.
5. Alternate between adding the flour mix and the milk mix a time.
6. Scrap down the bowl and add the rest of the flour mix and milk mix.
7. Add the chips and fold them in ( the machine can break the chips after a few rotations )
8. Fill pan and bake for 25 minutes until semi firm in the center.

Yield depends on the size of pan I get 11 from a 12 standard cupcake pan

Result was tasty golden moist muffins!

 The one the left is the good muffin

 What they should look like when done

 Hope you enjoyed this post and hope you enjoy the recipe if you give it a try!

We are back!

We are sorry for such a big gap in between blogs. Do to work schedules, big projects and orders, it's been a bit hard to juggle everything. Now that we are caught up with everything, we should be able to keep up with the blog.

First off which I think is big news, we did change the dog cookie recipe to make it healthier and better for dogs and puppies alike. We are now 100% cornmeal free. They are a little less crunchy but still just as tasty. Fun fact, one of our dogs drools like crazy when he sees them.

We had a big cake order for a sweet 16 which was A Nightmare Before Christmas cake which included fondant work and delicious marzipan. Also with an order of a dozen chocolate cupcakes with a pumpkin spice butter cream. I got very good feedback on both.

Planing for this cake took over a month from concept, to getting supplies, to the two days of the baking production/ assembling. It was a very fun yet nerve wrecking process since I don't have much fondant experience and I am not that fond of it either. To me fondant is like the stilettos of baking, they both look fabulous but have negative results on your body. I prefer the taste of butter cream any day. The cake was pretty detailed. We even carved faces into the pumpkins made of marzipan and words on the tombstones. Overall, I was somewhat satisfied on how the cake turned out.

One more thing, we will be doing another treat give away in September, if you have a rescue group that you would like to be in the drawing, let us know.

Thank you for reading, don't forget to like, share and comment.