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Christmas

November 8, 2018November 8, 2018

Naughty Christmas Slush

Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can,
in all the places you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can. John Wesley

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Cheer competition day 2 and the original location for The Cake Bake Shop had an opening for brunch this morning and so we did! ❤️ . And it did NOT disappoint, if you can at all make it, it’s worth the drive!!! . Super bonus, if you swipe left you’ll see in the pictures you can eat right at the window where they decorate cakes. I could literally watch someone smooth ice cakes all day... . Happy Sunday!! . Be blessed! Michelle . #letthemeatcake #cakeforbreakfast #brunching #cakedreams #afternoontea

Cheerleading competitions present opportunities such as exploring cafés, bakeries and tea shops in other cities for my youngest and I. . This weekend we find ourselves in Indianapolis and had brunch at The Cake Bake Shop, so worth the drive if you’re in the vicinity! ❤️ . Everything was delicious plus the atmosphere and service were 💯💯💯! . We indulged in 4 cake flavors plus macarons for later. You only see 3 cakes because I didn’t even want to sample a 4th in one sitting!!!!! . Trust me, at this stage in my cake life a couple bites and I’m totally good. 😂 . We might come back tomorrow for brunch again, it was that good. . Hope your Saturday is as delicious as mine! . Be blessed! Michelle . #thecakeshop #cakeforbreakfast #brunch #indulgence #ideserveit

I follow @orsongygi and if you love to bake I highly recommend giving them a follow!!! . This pic is a screenshot from their IG video and I read the blog post as well cuz a blog post about cake pans is exactly the kinda thing I want to read. . Search blog.gygi.com Cake Pan Showdown and it’ll pull right up. . I love Fat Daddio’s pans myself (best in show) for sure and lucky for me the Homegoods by my house always gets them. . My daughter has a cheer comp this weekend and I have reservations at a bakery café I can’t WAIT to report back on!!! . Happy weekend and be blessed! Michelle

I’m still helping my friend’s coffee shop and I discovered I really enjoy mindless tasks such as cubing butter for scones or in this case making streusel topping for blueberry muffins. . With gloves on. I hate getting my hands dirty. Gloves help put a barrier between your hands and cold butter if you have hot hands, just double up the gloves, works great. (The outer size glove being 1 size larger helps if your gloves fit...like a glove. 😎) . I use both my hands and a pastry knife when making streusel topping here at the shop but a food processor works as well, we don’t have counter space for the size that would be helpful here. . I don’t have hot hands but when piping on cakes/cupcakes for lengthy periods of time I double up on piping bags as well for the same reason. Or added bag strength with stiff icings. . Mindless tasks leave me time to think or pray or listen to audio books or YouTube. Repetitive nature projects have their merits. . Fresh scratch-made blueberry muffins, coming right up @coffeecupoverflowing in Hamilton across from Walmart near Bridgewater Falls shopping plaza. . And just so you know a brand new Mike’s Carwash opened up next door, wanted to give them a plug. I love the charities they give to and giving is my heart and soul. ❤️ . Be blessed! Michelle . #coffeeshop #blueberrymuffins #hamiltonohio #streusel #yum #morningrush

I’m not so thrilled with this maple buttercream. I found it in a ladies magazine but it’s a standard American buttercream recipe: . 1 cup unsalted butter 4 cups powdered sugar 1/4 cup maple syrup 1/8 teaspoon salt . I always sift powdered sugar. There will be undissolved clumpy granules if you don’t which clog piping tips and aren’t well flavored if I’m being picky. I am. . Since this recipe struck me as overly sweet upon reading I used 1 stick Land O’Lakes salted butter which contains slightly more than 1/4 teaspoon of salt (.33 teaspoon) and 1 stick of Plugra (my favorite) unsalted. Still cloyingly sweet. . Funny enough it really didn’t have a definably maple forward taste unless you knew to look for it. Even telling my expert taste tester (almost 19 year old daughter with superb taste buds) it was maple buttercream ~ which is cheating because that sets expectations ~ she agreed. . But it was a great piping consistency, I expected it to be too thin, so adding more maple syrup is a no-can-do. . The color is off as well. Maple syrup is amber colored like bourbon so we aren’t striking the familiar visual tones either with this pale buttery yellow. I might add a touch of brown and red. . To cut the sweet I will use a whole cup of salted butter. If that doesn’t work I will substitute sifted milk powder for some of the sugar starting with 1/4 cup at a time. . Or sifted powdered buttermilk? That would cut the sweet and add a little teeny tiny almost imperceptible tang which would be nice since I am giving up my beloved Plugra. That, to me, has a hint of mascarpone on the finish. . This girl loves her butter. 😉 . There are a couple ways to bump up the maple flavor, sub out some of the powdered sugar for granulated maple syrup. That would be expensive and messy as you would need to process it in a spice grinder to achieve a powdery version suitable for buttercream. . Or adding maple flavoring. I love Watkins flavorings so I’m bumping it up with some flavoring. Amazon Prime will get it to me tomorrow, thanks Jeff, ‘preciate you buddy. . Buttermilk cake with maple buttercream and candied bacon still in progress! . Be blessed! Michelle

It’s been a fabulous holiday but I have a bunch of recipes I want to try/perfect and the first one is candied bacon! . If you swipe left you’ll see I managed to burn it but I learned something fantastic that I want to jot down. . In my old ovens I baked 1 tray at a time but my new ovens have a convection feature so I baked all 3 trays at once, reduced the time quite a bit, and something magical happened. They all baked at exactly the same rate and for much less time in spite of oven rack position! . I cut the time so much it didn’t occur to me to check for doneness earlier, but this is definitely a win and it’s delicious anyway. . I’m testing another batch and using it to garnish a buttermilk cake recipe I want to try that will be iced with maple buttercream. . Here’s the recipe I used from a Paula Deen show I watched years ago: . 2 packages thick cut bacon 2 cups dark brown sugar 2 tablespoons chili powder . Stir the brown sugar and chili powder well, then generously coat each piece. . Place on sprayed cooling racks which are on cookie sheets covered with extra wide aluminum foil for easy clean up. I like room between each piece for good airflow. . Bake at 350°F for 30-ish minutes and cool completely on the rack. After 5 minutes slide a spatula underneath each piece to make sure they don’t stick as the melted sugar cools solid. . I have never flipped the bacon over mid-bake and using the convection feature all the racks baked equally, but if I were using regular bake I would rotate racks halfway through the bake and bake only 2 at a time. . Next up, maple buttercream! . Be blessed! Michelle . #candiedbacon #cake #garnish #bacon #makeseverythingbetter