Orange Nutella Hurricane Cookies

It’s become a running joke at work that if we’re expecting miserable weather, I must be headed to the beach to visit my family. It’s funny, but if I cross the Bay Bridge (connecting the east and west shores of Maryland) on a sunny day, I feel a bit uneasy.  Where’s the rain, wind, or fog?

So I guess it was no surprise that my weekend travel plans coincided with Irene. Sigh.

I spent Thursday debating whether or not to attempt the trip. Getting there on Friday would have been no problem, but depending on the severity of the storm, returning on Sunday could have been an issue. My nephew’s birthday was Friday and I hated to disappoint him, but when the evacuation notices came out Thursday evening, the decision was made for me.

After touching base with everyone through phone calls or text messages Saturday morning to be sure evacuation plans went smoothly, I spent the rest of the morning glued to the TV. I got through a few hours of watching the projected path of Hurricane Irene swirl up the East Coast, and then made my brain switch to baking mode.

Swirling storm to swirling cookies. An orange sugar cookie dough with a swirl of Nutella and almonds sounded good. Hearing from my family that they returned home safe and sound was even better.

Orange Nutella Hurricanes (cookie dough adapted from Holiday Cookies)

2 ½ c flour

1 t baking soda

¼ t salt

¾ c butter, softened

¾ c sugar

1 egg

1 T finely grated orange zest

2 T orange juice

½ c Nutella

½ c cinnamon roasted

    almonds, finely 

    chopped

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.  In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add egg, orange zest, and orange juice.

Add flour mixture and combine well.

Wrap dough in plastic wrap or waxed paper and refrigerate 45 minutes to 1 hour.

I rolled the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap.

Roll out the dough to a 10 by 13-inch rectangle. Spread Nutella to within a half inch of the dough edges and sprinkle with chopped nuts.

Starting at one of the longer ends, roll dough into a log.  Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°.  Slice into ¼-inch thick disks and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets.  Bake approximately 12 minutes, or until golden brown at edges.

Chilling the log of dough made it easier to slice.

Coconut Cookies with Lime Frosting

Earthquake, impending hurricane, and not winning the fabulous red ice cream maker from the giveaway on Bake at 350.  Sigh.  It’s been a week.

That’s okay.  Someday I’ll make homemade ice cream.  In the meantime, Bridget, her beautiful cookies, and her fun blog inspired me to try something new.

It’s the end of summer, so my thoughts turned to tropical treats.  I found a recipe for coconut icebox cookies from allrecipes.com and an ice cream cone cookie cutter.  Because I planned on cutting out cookies instead of slicing them (as the recipe called for), I measured the shredded coconut and then finely chopped it.

I chilled the dough for a couple hours and then cut out ice cream cones.

While the cookies cooled, I mixed the icing.  I followed the royal icing 102 tutorial from Bake at 350 with just one change. When measuring the scant half cup of water, I first added 2 tablespoons of lime juice. 

First, I outlined the ice cream cones with royal icing.

Then I thinned the royal icing and flooded the cone with tan frosting and the ice cream with white frosting.  For color, and to hint at the lime flavor, I added some green sprinkles. 

As a final touch, I added the waffle marks to the ice cream cones.

Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

It’s been one of those lazy weekends – reading a mental candy book, hanging with my dog, spending way too much time exploring Pinterest. I did, however, manage to drag myself into the kitchen. Sugar, chocolate, Nutella – it was definitely worth the effort.

I wanted to try out my shiny, new cookie dough scoop, so I perused the cookie recipes section of the World Nutella Day website (and I did promise you more Nutella recipes).  It took me to a great Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe by Sugar Cooking.

I added an extra half tablespoon of cocoa powder to the dough.

LOVE my new cookie scoop.

The cookies smelled great coming from the oven.

This recipe is a winner.

Threadcakes 2011

A couple weeks ago I learned about the Threadcakes competition. It’s an online contest where the amazing tee shirt designs from Threadless.(You’ll want to check them out if you’re not familiar with the site.) are turned into cakes. With only two weeks to go until the deadline, I started pouring over the hundreds of designs.  The choices were overwhelming, but eventually I narrowed down my selection to a few.

While I loved the Muppets tee, I had to consider my time constraints.  To do the cake justice, I’d have to spend lots of time tinting fondant just the right shades, then carving the cake and sculpting all the characters. I decided this might be a project for next year. This year my goal was to enter a cake. Next time I’ll be prepared to create something spectacular – or at least pretty darn good. 

Order the shirt
here.

                           

I kept coming back to the jack o’ lantern design and decided to go with it. The tee is kind of creepy and lots of fun, with a design within a design.

The first thing to do was bake.  I went with my standard cold oven pound cake to provide a sturdy surface on which to stack. Then, since I was making a jack o’ lantern, pumpkin cinnamon buttercream was a must.

I stacked the layers, did a little carving, and crumb coated the cake. Then it was time to cover it with orange fondant. 

I used a ruler to create some ridges and set the pumpkin aside.

Next I sketched the face and cut out the eyes and nose from black fondant and the mouth from dark gray fondant. I added to few stars and a crescent moon to the eyes and nose and applied them to the pumpkin.

Then I cut out the buildings from black fondant and laid them on top of the mouth and added white stars to the sky. Working with the teeny, tiny orange windows and lane dividers was tricky and more than a bit tedious, but I kept at it and got them positioned just right.

I shaped the two ghost figures with dark gray fondant and applied the mouth to the pumpkin.  A brown stem completed the jack o’ lantern and a fondant candle and flame finished the design.

Can’t wait to get started on next year’s cake!  Here's the link to my entry.

Oh, and be sure to check out all the amazing cakes on the Threadcakes site.

 

Carsen

Welcome to the World, Carsen!

August 13, 2011

We're thrilled you've finally arrived!

Your brother and sister and I made you a special treat.

We cut out sugar cookies. . .

and put them on a sheet to bake.

Your sister oversaw the cooling process.

Then it was time to decorate them.

Look how hard your big brother is working.

The cookies sure were beautiful and tasty.

We're just sorry you can't eat them yet.

Orange Crush

If a watched pot won’t boil, then it’s probably safe to assume a watched baby won’t be born – or at least not any time soon. We all know that pot’ll boil eventually. You just might go a little batty waiting for it to happen.

Since not thinking about the soon-to-arrive beach baby is proving to be practically impossible, I’m directing my beach thoughts in another direction. Thinking about favorite beach treats and ways to cake-i-fy (yes, it’s a word) them is always fun.

The coconut muffins at Harpoon Hannah’s are at the top of my “recipes to re-create” list, but I haven’t yet replenished my coconut supply (see German chocolate cake truffles). There are the fried pickles from Dr. Unks, but only Oscar the Grouch would appreciate pickled buttercream. The crepes served with the ginormous omelets from Bayside Skillet fluttered around my brain for a few moments, but then the orange crush from Harborside stuck in my head.  

The orange crush is the specialty drink of one of my family’s favorite restaurants in West Ocean City. Freshly squeezed orange juice makes this drink particularly tasty.  The triple sec, vodka, and lemon-lime soda don’t hurt, either.

Because, as my sister says, the drink goes down so smooth you don’t realize how much it’s affected you until you try to stand, I opted for mini cupcakes with a light buttercream frosting.  Also, since I’m bringing these into work tomorrow, I thought it’d be best not to get my coworkers too liquored up with a big serving of cake.

 

Orange Crush Mini Cupcakes (adapted from epicurious.com)

2/3 c butter, softened

1 ¾ c sugar

2 eggs

3 c flour

2 ½ t baking powder

½ t salt

Finely grated zest of 1 orange

½ c whole milk

¼ c freshly squeezed orange juice

¼ c triple sec

¼ c lemon-lime soda

Preheat oven to 350° F. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing until thoroughly combined.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, salt, and zest. In a measuring cup, combine liquids.

Alternately add liquids and flour mixture to butter and sugar, starting and ending with the liquids.

Pour into lined cupcake tins and bake approximately 10-12 minutes, until toothpick inserted in cake comes out clean.

into the oven

Orange Crush Buttercream (adapted from Cake Central)

waiting for the buttercream

1 c butter

1 c shortening

1-3 T whole milk

2 lbs powdered sugar

½ t salt

1 t vanilla

1 t triple sec

1 t lemon-lime soda

Finely grated zest of 1 orange

1 T freshly squeezed orange juice

Cream butter and shortening until light and fluffy.

Add 1 T milk, sugar, and salt and mix well.

Add vanilla, triple sec, soda, zest, and orange juice and mix well. 

If necessary, add remainder of milk to obtain consistency you want.

Here, Fishy Fishy

Well, my stubborn nephew hasn’t made an appearance yet (C’mon and get born already. I want to meet you!), but that meant I got to spend the day with my chosen family.  Lots of laughter, a tasty lunch, a great movie, and of course, cake with some of my favorite people ever - life is good.

Yesterday was my friend’s birthday, so I made a coffee chocolate chip pound cake with mocha filling to celebrate. I’d been brainstorming design ideas for him for a few months and came across a beautiful cake that looked like a fish jumping out of the water. I figured this would be perfect for the fly fisherman.  And whadda ya know? He’s leaving for a fishing trip tomorrow. Perfect.

To make the fish, I decided to tint gum paste light yellow and then add layers of food coloring with a paint brush. This way, fish would be shiny and look like it just came out of the water. I wasn’t crazy about the way the fish head turned out, but went ahead and started painting it anyway. I figured I could always start again.  After a couple layers of color, however, the fish came to life.

I roughly frosted the cake blue and added swirls of green and white. With a scattering of candy chocolate rocks at the base of the cake and a few gum paste leaves, grasses, and a cattail, I created a fish pond.

Ah, I just love it when a cake comes together.

Happy Birthday, Chris!

Coffee Chocolate Chip Pound Cake

1 c margarine, softened

½ c shortening

2 ½ c sugar

5 eggs

3 c flour

1 t salt

2/3 c evaporated milk

1/3 c strong brewed coffee

2 t vanilla

1 c mini chocolate chips

Grease two 9-inch round cake pans. Cream margarine, shortening, and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time. Combine flour and salt. Combine evaporated milk, coffee, and vanilla. Alternately add wet and dry ingredients, mixing thoroughly with each addition. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared pans and place into a COLD oven. Bake at 325° F for approximately 40 minutes.

Baby Cakes

My thoughts keep turning to the beach these days, partly because it’s August and just about everyone I know is on or returning from vacation, but mostly because I’m waiting for a very important call telling me it’s time to head to the shore. My sister (the one who lives at the beach) is expecting her third child. About ten days ago, her doctor told her she could deliver at any time. Now, every time the phone rings, I make a mad lunge for it, hoping it’s my sister or brother-in-law calling with good news.

In honor of my nephew’s imminent arrival, I thought I’d share some baby shower cakes.

The sand castle was for a tropical shower. I iced the chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and then covered it with crushed graham crackers. The decorations are chocolates molded in various seashell shapes.

I created a jungle cake for a baby with a jungle-themed nursery. For the party, guests were asked to bring items to hang on a clothes line. I incorporated that idea in the cake by attaching fondant baby outfits to a wire strung between the cakes.

The wire served another purpose, as well. It was a humid weekend and unfortunately, the fondant palm leaves started to droop - a lot. I ended up creating wire frames to attach to the tops of the pretzel rod tree trunks. Then I draped the leaves over the wire supports. Now I know it would have been better to use gum paste instead of fondant for the leaves. Lesson learned.

The shower guests may have felt a bit like cannibals eating these cupcakes, but the idea was so cute I just had to try it. To celebrate the arrival of a baby girl, I baked pink strawberry cupcakes in bright pink liners.