Your Spring Baking Musts

 Spring gives us a busy baking season, almost as busy as winter. There are the holidays, Easter , Orthodox Easter Passover and Ramadan along with all sorts of showers and college  graduations. Are you ready for the baking that comes with them.

Of course ingredients should be at the ready. There should be flour for the Easter and Orthodox Easter cakes and breads. You should be stocking up on confectioners sugar for icings.As the holidays progress think about bargain shopping for eggs (still expensive) along with deals on butter and cake mixes.It's also time to get those pastel gel icings if you don't already have them. Once the ingredients are taken care of then its time to look at your molds. Thsi also includes candy and cake pop molds too. Most cake molds last decades if they're made from good aluminum or even steel. If you're a neophyte when it comes to baking lamb and egg cakes now is the time to buy the molds. You can get a cute bunny cake mold at your local Wal-Mart for under seven dollars. Michael's has the silicone molds for cookies as well as Easter themed  cupcake papers. Buy these now instead of waiting for next week. if you're planning on making a lamb cake for the frst time then head to Amazon.  They have the Wilton one for $24.00 and you can have it sent overnight. Also get ready for candy and cake pop making. Make sure you have plenty of sugar along with lollipop sticks and decoarations.

It's shower and graduation season once the holidays are over and done. D o you have large baking pans for sheet cakes along with the tiered ones for showers and smaller weddings? If not you may want to invest in RAQK one hundred pieces cake pan set plus decorating supplies. This is a must have have for any home baker planning on supplying the cake for any shower. It comes with a large, medium and small sized springform cake pans along with icing nozzles , a cake leveler to create more layers and three scrapers to create fancy sides on the cake. It's a great buy on Amazon for $23.99. Of course showers and some grad parties also have smaller cakes for easy nibbling. Do you have enough cupcake pans for a crowd of fifty or sixty ? It pays to buy another tin  which can also be used for muffins if you're planning on a brunch shower.  Check your supply of pie tins for baking that shower staple quiche ,Most showers usually have three different versions so it pays to have a few sturdy tins. These can be used later on to create ice box  pies or ice cream filled ones. Do you also plan on baking petit fours for shower teas.If not you can buy one or two now and try practice baking with them.

Be ready for Spring baking. Make sure you have the right ingredients and the correct molds. doign this will make holiday and baking for all t hose patrties a snap.

Snow Day Cooking Fun

It's another blizzard in another January. Luckily a snow day in means a lot of cooking and a lot of time for fun treats. Frolicking in the white stuff is fun  but there's also a good time to be had in the kitchen.

Start by making a fun breakfast. Omelet cups are super easy and super fun to  make. Take a greased muffin tin Start with a layer of two to three pressed Tater Tots and bake for five minutes at 375 F. The second layer is beaten eggs with a variety of different additions, from chopped ham to broccoli florets/ Top with a hearty sprinkling of cheddar cheese and bake for fifteen to twenty minutes  again at the same temp. Breakfast sandwiches are another fun way to start the day. Vary it with either soft boiled or scrambled eggs along with sausage sliced lengthwise or bacon. Finish with a slice of cheddar. Pancakes are always in demand too. Make it fun by adding chocolate chips and bananas or layering them with peanut butter and Nutella. Consider yourself lucky if you have a waffle maker. Nothing is better than fresh ones with butter and syrup. If it's just grown ups at breakfast add a slug of bourbon to the syrup to make it fun and frisky. This can also be swirled into a bowl of hot oatmeal or farina to jazz it up a bit, French toast is another tasty treat. Give it some oomph by stuffing it. This s just making a sandwich using sweetened cream cheese as the filling. The whole sandwich is then dipped in an egg and milk wash and baked  for ten to fifteen minutes in a  350 degree F oven. Serve with maple syrup or a homemade fruit coulis.This syrup is made by just heating  up jam and a few teaspoons of water in a sauce pan to create a smooth sauce.


A day inside means cooking and baking too. Lunch or dinner can be a homemade pizza. (which is always better than the frozen kind) Pizza dough is easy to make, being an easy blend of flour, yeast and water.Top with pizza sauce and mozzarella for a traditional one. Add anything from bacon bits to sliced onion for a more exciting pie.Use this blizzard to stay indoors and play with all those gadgets you received  for Christmas. Try out that pasta machine by making spaghetti or better yet, ravioli. The new crockpot can be used to make a pot of  chili or stew with dumplings. Bored kids will love making and decorating homemade cookies.. A simple sugar recipe is the easiest and the most versatile.  They can even make sandwich ones too , stuffed with buttercream. By now moms across the area should have the ingredients to  make a good old fashioned chocolate chip cookie. Nothing beats a  full plate  of them with milk after a romp in those flakes. Cake pops are another fun treat to try at home. Kids will love decorating them  as much as they'll love eating  them. Make sure there is plenty of  white, milk and dark chocolate chips to melt into  coatings along with different colored sugars, candy confetti along with silver dragees, shredded coconut and chopped nuts for decorating. You can also do this with cupcakes too. End the day with homemade cheese or kettle corn, again easy to make as it is to eat.

Don't worry about the cabin fever that accompanies a blizzard. Iit's a day to have fun in the kitchen. Be creative , whether it's making a meal or treat!

The Goodness Of a Bake Sale

One of the best and fun charity works anyone can do is a bake show. It fits to any charity along with honing home bakers skills and expanding repertoires . Another plus is sampling other home bakers wares and getting ideas for future projects.

Of course the first step is having a cause. Most sales are for schools or for certain conditions or diseases. However you could start or ask your church or food pantry if you could arrange a bake sale for the needy in the community.They may be able to set up a tent at the any one of the street fests that take place in the fall.You could also help at an organization's cake sale, which gives more time to devote to creating goodies Adding drinks is a great way to increase sales. People love to have tea or coffee to wash down a muffin or cookie. Sometimes a passerby just wants a hot beverage to keep warm (and conversely have iced drinks during spring and summer bake sales). Napkins and forks are a must as are containers and bags for those who want their goods to go.Of course having a cash box and plenty of paper and coin change are other musts.One of the most important things to do is having labels listing ALL the ingredients. So many kids have a variety allergies that it's necessary for parents to know what's exactly in that cake pop or brownie. All lists should state  that the items have gluten,were made in a kitchen where there was nuts and if any dairy was used in the baking or icing.

What to make for  a bake sale?Stick with what you know best. You can use a scratch recipe or mixes. Plain brownies are always popular so have a few batches of those on hand. For large quantities use mixes.They make prep and bake time that much easier. You can add extras such as chocolate chips, coconuts , and nuts to give them oomph. Blondies are another hot seller  as are fruit bars.Kids love cake pops and these are easy to make ,especially if you have the molds. Have help when it comes to decorating though, because that's a bit labor intensive.. Cupcakes are classic and they sell - well- like hot cakes. Have fun with the decoration and icing. Chocolate and vanilla are your best bets for flavors and a classic buttercream frosting is always the crowd favorite.You could set up a decorations bar for a dollar extra  and have a  table set up with  sprinkles, nuts cherries  M&M and chocolate chips.Small pies or galettes will do better than whole pies - too messy to eat a cut slice. Think small too when it comes to cakes. A large one may be too much for a person to  carry. Looking for something different/ Then think cinnamon rolls and sticky buns.They're easy to make an can be made in large quantities.

Bakes sales are a great way of giving back to the community. They're also fun , letting passerbys enjoy sweet treats. Think about organizing one to help out those less fortunate.

Cake Pops Savory Style

Cake pop makers can be fun yet they can be limited in use. After all how may occasion call for these mini treats. Yet you can turn your gadget into an appetizer and hors oeuvre maker. It can even be used for fun poolside snacks or a different spin on dinner. How? Go savory instead of sweet.

It's the entire premise of a new cookbook entitled Savory Bites From Your Cake Pop Maker (Ulysses Press) written by author Heather Torrone. Ms. Torrone,a New Jerseyian is a graduate of the new York Institute For Culinary Institute. She has come up with dozens of fun and tasty easy recipes that turns your average cake pop maker into something special. Thanks to her creativity, even a novice can whip up tasty bites that range from gourmet to fun. She covers all the bases from breakfast to lunch and dinner. There are also savory vegetarian bites as well as burger and crab cake bites.There's also a section on desserts but more like fried iced cream and pop version of apple and sweet potato pie Any one of these would be perfect for a poolside party or summer night gathering. A variety of different ones would be great at any shower or grad party.

The recipes are pretty easy to make, thanks to the cake pop maker doing most of the work. The assemblage is simple with most of the balls just being rolled like mini meat balls. The dough for the cake pops is a simple water and flour recipe. Some also call for ready made crescent rolls. There are some great recipes for both young and old. Kids will love the pizza pops , mozzarella popped into pizza dough squares. These are served with a marinara dipping sauce. Grown ups will appreciate the cool retro sophistication of spinach and salmon bites as well as the beef tenderloin with the cream brandy sauce. All will gobble down the cheeseburger and chicken burrito pops.

If you're bored with your cake pop maker then buy Savory Bites For Your Cake Pop Maker. You can make everything from fun to super sophisticated. It;s a great way of not just getting your money;s worth but making tasty and unusual appetizers and hors oeuvres

Cake Pops 101

Cake pops are one of the hottest party desserts right now. They are everywhere , from fancy soirees to kid's birthday parties. The only problem is that they can be daunting to create, especially the more elaborate ones. Luckily there is a new book out that can help you create bakery quality pops that will make your guests swoon. How sweet is that?

Noel Muniz has created the ultimate cake pop book, The Art of Cake Pops, 75 Dangerously Delicious Designs (Skyhorse Publishing, New York) for cake pop lovers and home bakers.Mr. Muniz, owner of the Cake Poppery Bakery in Chicago is a well known baker who studied the culinary arts at Kendall College.This is a gorgeous , lush book filled with fun pictures of cake pops along with valuable advice about creating them. He has divided the books into such sections for showers , fairies, pets and nature. These are easy to make, thanks to Mr. Muniz, with detailed recipes and steps to create mini works of art.This is a great guide for beginners to the art, showing them exactly how to create a specific decoration for a particular event or party.

What I like about the book is that the author makes no bones about how hard it can be in creating these gems. He spells it out about why using scratch mix is a better base for the cake pops then a mix. He also includes six yummy recipes for scratch cakes  from flavors like banana to vanilla. Mr, Muniz also gives a detailed chapter on what kind of chocolates to use as well as how to prep the pops before dipping.(use frosting).  This also includes hints and tips about melting , prepping and using hard candy to aid in finishing the  design.He has all sorts of designs that are relatively simple and endless fun to make. They include the easy jawbreakers and bowling bowl kinds to the more elaborate nail polish bottles and garden snake ones. To be honest they're too beautiful to eat, especially after knowing the huge amount of labor it takes to create each one.

Cake pops are the dessert of choice these days. Read Mr. Muniz ''s book to create bakery worthy ones. from bridal to showers to kids parties. They are not only delicious but mini gems of art.

Cake Pops Pop

There's a new treat phenomenon hitting restaurants and parties - cake pops. These fun yummy takes on classic lollipops are now easy to make. Once a domain for only gourmet bakers . they're now being created for something as simple as a family dessert or holiday party.

The treat is only a few years old and it's the first sweet that received its' buzz through social media. People gobbled up this idea of a fun cake that's not messy to eat and easy enough for little hands to hold and bite. Restaurants started making their version , first using cheese cake which can be scooped into small orbs using melon ballers. It was then used on regular cake and the next step was a cake ball maker. This last looks like a waffle iron except that it has a mold pocked like a golf ball's surface. Another lookalike section is put over that and then pops baked.

Like cupcakes, cake pops can be made in a variety of flavors using any cake mix. . Bakers can vary using marble and carrot mixes and even add a squirt of jam inside for a surprise. The cakes are them dipped in melted chocolate or frosted with a regular bought or homemade frosting. Luckily there are You Tube videos that help neophytes with icing their first batch. If you're making cake pops for the holidays think about attaching two balls together to form snowmen or even penguins. There are so many ways in which to present them for any holiday. They can be dipped in pastel white chocolate for Easter or frosted in orange to make cute pumpkin pops for Halloween.Cake pops also make great favors at showers and weddings too.

Cake pops are the latest craze that foodies are going wild over. Now they can be made as easily as cookies, thanks to pop makers. They're a fun spin on traditional cake and a perfect sweet for the upcoming holidays.