Patchwork - Indie Arts & Crafts Festival

I'll be at the Long Beach Patchwork festival on November 6th!! So excited and now so busy with preparing everything! I've got the classic items on the menu, plus a few seasonal selections... can't wait to share with you all the final packaging and displays!

 

Check out their blog for more details!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

If you're like me and manage to spend hours in a bookstore just browsing through cookbooks... you're sure to have come across this book:

and now... the follow-up:

But rarely do you ever splurge on getting these pretty books for yourself. So it was quite exciting when I got the second book for my birthday this year!

There are so many great recipes I'm dying to try! Double-Chocolate Loaf with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Spread, Boston Cream Pie Cake, Cowboy Cookies...

My first pick (simply because I had all the ingredients - but isn't that how it always is?) was the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. YUMMM.

Like the recipe describes, it has a really good flavor of an oatmeal cookie, but as a nice dense cake reminiscent of a banana bread loaf. Can you imagine?

I used a dark baking pan, when the recipe calls for a glass or light-colored one... so I will admit, it did get a bit overdone by the time I realized. But still good!

Chocolate Crack!

What a loooooong time it has been (again)! Not much time to do actual baking as of late - except for a few repeats of the classic recipes. But here's something I couldn't wait to try as soon as I saw it online.

We are all familiar with my "crack fish" yes?
Well, when I went to Unique LA a couple of weekends ago... I came across Bacon Crack from Cast Iron Gourmet. SO good... and then I didn't feel so un-PC by calling my crackers "crack fish".

So when I found this recipe for "chocolate crack"... why the hell not give this a shot? Plus, all I had to pick up from the store were the saltines.

Chocolate 'Crack' from Serious Eats

Ingredients:
Approx 2 sleeves Saltine Crackers
8oz Unsalted Butter
8oz Dark Brown Sugar
1tsp Vanilla Extract
12oz (or random handfuls) of Dark Chocolate (chopped or chips)


Line a half sheet pan with aluminum foil.
Then lay flat saltine crackers all along the bottom of the lined tray.
Melt butter on the stove. Add sugar and vanilla. Cook until thick and bubbly.
Pour over crackers. Spread evenly.
Place into preheated 350 oven, until butter mixture gets super bubbly. (I might have pulled this out earlier and may not have reached optimal bubbly-ness.)
With butter mixture still hot, drop chopped or chips of chocolate all over the top. Let it melt from the residual heat and spread with a spatula.
Let cool to room temp. Then place in refridgerator to let it chocolate firm up.


*I sprinkled some sea salt on the top. I like a distinct contrast of salty and sweet.

This is definitely Trial 1. The crackers got a bit chewy/soggy. Perhaps from prematurely taking them out of the oven. And I think I would play with the thickness/thinness of the butter-sugar layer as well as the chocolate layer. But great flavors together. Got to brainstorm something for the texture. I want crunchy. Crunch crunch.

Tuesday Night Cafe - Los Angeles June 21st!

The Appropriated Muffin will be vending at the bi-monthly Tuesday Night Cafe in Los Angeles this coming Tuesday, the 21st! Stop by for some treats and get your fill of live artists and performers!

 

For more information, go to:
website: www.tuesdaynightproject.org
facebook: www.facebook.com/tnproject
twitter: www.twitter.com/tnproject

A "Thank You"

I sometimes find myself struggling with the (weak) correlation between my education and my "career". Art and baking, respectively. But then, I get a "project" that gives me reason to believe again. LOL.

Hand-cut/shaped rice krispy treat letters.

Sea Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies, PB Cup Rice Krispy Treats, Krispy Marshmallowy Peanut Buttery Chocolate Brownie Squares

Cookie Cutouts

We all know I have a slight aversion to decorating. It drives me (almost) bananas. I try not to decorate any of my cutout cookies or sugar cookies simply because I don't like icing/decorating a whole bunch of individual items. But when you get some cute ass cookie cutters, why the hell not make an exception?

We've seen these before!

Got this tree cookie cutter from Sweet Baking Supply. Awesome shop! Great stuff, quick to ship!

I love my snail cookie cutters too! Still looking out for "the" perfect dino cookie cutter though.

Sugar-crusted Strawberry Muffins

In the "early years" of my baking adventures, I would jot down recipes into this little 3"x5" Hello Kitty notebook. (What other way is there, really?)

And even so, I still look through it for treats to make! Thus, a re-visit to fresh strawberry muffins.
The source of the original recipe is now lost, but at least I still have it to work from!

Sugar-crusted Strawberry Muffins

Strawberry Muffins - yields 1 doz

2T Butter
2/3C Sugar
1/2C Milk
1 Egg
1/2tsp Salt
1-1/2C Flour
1tsp Baking Powder
1C Chopped Strawberries
Turbinado Sugar to top

Cream butter + sugar.
Add egg.
Add milk.
Then add the (already combined) dry ingredients.
Fold in fruit.
Portion into muffin cups.
Sprinkle with turbinado sugar.

Bake at 350 for 35 min, or until toothpick comes out clean.