Night Baking

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ladygub

on August 07, 2009

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baking fondant

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demerara shortbread

I have been on a shortbread kick recently. I love the sandy, crumbly goodness of shortbread squares. Years ago, I worked a booth at a trade show, and in the next booth, they were baking cookies. Right at the booth. And then dipping the shortbread in dark chocolate. Mmm... excuse the reverie... Although I usually prefer a thick, traditional shortbread, I recently tried a King Arthur Flour recipe for Demerara Shortbread. These are thin, crisp, buttery cookies. The dough is rolled into a log, rolled in demerara sugar or sanding sugar, and then chilled, sliced, and baked. I chose this recipe to provide a pop of color to a tray of baked goods for a party, so I used a primarily-red, multicolored sanding sugar. They were actually delicious. My mother-in-law really liked them. My only objection is that I am not a huge fan of crisp cookies. However, the flavor was delicious and the sanding sugar around the edges added a nice crunch. Here's how they looked: Incidentally, these

pretzel kisses

The lovely Nanette made us some of these as a holiday treat, and I was hooked! They are simple, festive, and delicious - you get crunch from the pretzels, smooth chocolate goodness, salt, and sweet all at once. When I started searching for the ingredients, I realized I'd made a modified version of them before with waffle-shaped pretzels, topped with a Hershey's Kiss, with an M&M stuck jauntily into just the tip of the Kiss, but I really wanted to follow Nanette's lead on the adorable look of these. She used melted chocolate which she piped into a round pretzel and topped with an M&M. I wanted to stick with the Kisses and try some of the different flavors, but the round pretzels were a must. Guess what? Nearly impossible to find. No worries; Nanette supplied me with two huge ziploc bags of round pretzels from the 8 pound box she had to buy online. Thanks, Nanette! There's no recipe here. These are easy-peasy. I've made trays and trays of them this season

taste the rainbow

Bug Bug and I had a little trouble agreeing on a design for her 6th birthday cake. The party had no discernible theme (Ariel tablecloths and a homemade invitation with a robot (for the boys) and a butterfly (for the girls)). I wouldn't agree to a Hannah Montana cake since I am a mean mommy and think she's a little old for 6-year-olds, and we'd done Tinkerbell last year. Finally, we decided on a rainbow made out of colorful candies (I went with Skittles) and puffy clouds made of mini-marshmallows. And here it is! (Please excuse my lame method of Photoshopping her name off.) It was a really simple cake, but actually lots of fun to make. I'm not sure if you can tell, but I tinted the frosting to match the Skittles. I used my salad bowl to make an appropriately-sized rainbow shape out of parchment paper which I then laid on the cake and used as a guide for the red frosting. It was easy enough to pipe the rest of the rainbow frosting following that curve. I

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