Halloween Spooky Cakes

Happy Halloween! I love Halloween, the costumes, the candy and the spooks! I definitely scare easily and cry like a little girl! In the spirit of Halloween I wanted to concoct an elaborate treat to post about, but that did not happen. Instead ahead of the hurricane I quickly whipped together some trusty good ol' funfetti!

I thought the icing dribbles looked like spider webs, no? 

I added some purple, orange, black and white non-pareil sprinkles to the batter, which ended up turning the batter an eery brainy purple color! Then I whipped up an orange buttercream frosting, melted it in the microwave, then drizzled over the cakes and topped them with even more sprinkles!

The perfect treat for when the power goes out! 

If you are in the way of Hurricane Sandy, is there anything you baked beforehand to enjoy when the power goes out?

Enjoy and be safe!
Molly

Here is a shot from instagram! The colors are a little different than my camera.
 Do you like it better than the regular camera ones? or no? 

I just joined instagram, so please follow! Maybe I will join the twitter soon! :)

Rock Me Like A Hurricane!

As you may know, Frankenstorm is barreling towards the East Coast! As I am on the East Coast, I made my supplies trip to BJs to get water, peanut butter, jelly and batteries, about 450 dollars later I finally exited the building! Ahead of the storm I am just warning you that I may not be able to bake or post for the next week (cry), we almost always lose power during storms. One time it was just us and our neighbors across the street who lost power in our town, INSANITY! During Irene we lost power for seven days...fun.

Anyways enough of my pity party, here are some pictures from earlier today ahead of the storm. I went for a walk at a nearby state park and part of the road was already washed out and Sandy has not even arrived!
As we batten down the hatches, I will share some beautiful, but alarming "calm-before-the-storm" pictures! Hope to be back on soon!

Another shot of the washed out road. 

Storm's abrewin'! 

The dark clouds were beginning to roll in.

White caps were beginning to appear, and the surf was getting pretty rough! Not a boating day! 

Although there were white caps in the open water, the marshy areas remained relatively calm. 

Enjoy and be safe if you are in the path of the storm!
MollyCakes

Oh and Happy Fall! Finally got a pumpkin! 

"Tate's" Chocolate Cookies

Most everyone knows and loves Tate's Chocolate Chip cookies, while I enjoy Tate's I am not as enthralled with them as some people.  Don't get me wrong, they have yummy taste but to me they lack  an authentic homemade taste, rather they possess an artificial essence of butter. So, I sought to make a truly homemade version of the infamous Tate's cookies! The recipe I found is delectable and definitely has a homemade taste!

These are some spectacular chocolate chip cookies, but they were lacking Tate's signature crunchy crispiness. When baked up, this recipe did not spread as much I had anticipated them to. This spreading of the dough during baking is what gives Tates their crunch. For what they lack in crunch, these cookies make up for in taste! Tastes found in these cookies include smooth mini chocolate bits and warm notes of vanilla.

These cookies make a great addition to your ice cream, I may or may not be enjoying that very treat as I write this! I even made an ice cream sandwich with them and it was to die for!

So, are you a Tates fan? or are you like me and enjoy them, but would prefer a more authentic version? Have you developed a homemade version of Tates? If so I would love to try it!

Enjoy!
MollyCakes

"Tate's" Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients: 
2 C all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 C  (2 sticks) butter, one salted the other unsalted, softened
3/4 C granulated sugar
3/4 C packed brown sugar
1 tsp water
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs, beaten

2 C (12oz) mini chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F, and line baking sheets with parchment. 
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. 
3. WIth a handheld or electric mixer, beat together the butter and both sugars. 
4. Add to the butter-sugar mixture, the water vanilla and eggs. 
5. On low mix in the flour mixture. Gently mix or fold in the chocolate chips.
6. Drop the dough by about 1 tsp onto baking sheets. 
7. Bake for 10 minutes, rotate sheets half way through. 
8. Cool for a minute or two on baking sheets, then transfer to wire racks. 

Original Recipe Source GOOP

Blueberry Boy Bait

The story goes that a young girl once entered a recipe similar to this into the Pillsbury Baking Competition! Although she only took second place, her lovely story has lived on! She named her confection Blueberry Boy Bait because of its ability to have boys swooning over her! Now if only my baked goods had boys swooning for me...I have had two off-the-cuff marriage proposals after sharing my cookies! I guess that counts as swooning? Right? Only these have so far not panned out, but anyways on with the food!

This recipe makes a delightful complement to your breakfast or brunch, and will not have you stressing about whether or not it is too difficult to pull off! It is "easy peasy lemon squeezy"!

One of my favorite aspects of this recipe is subtle crunch and hint of flavor given by the cinnamon-sugar mixture that is sprinkled over the top of batter! I would have never thought of putting cinnamon and blueberries together! The next time that I make this recipe I plan to add a touch of vanilla extract. I could not believe the recipe did not call for vanilla, but I decided to try it without. While it was delicious without the vanilla, I think the vanilla would really push this over the edge and make it superb!

Do you have any go-to ingredients that you seem to put in EVERYTHING? For my mom it is cinnamon, she puts it in all sorts of things. I really like to use vanilla!


Blueberry Boy Bait 
Ingredients For Cake:

• 1 Cup plus one TBS all-purpose flour
• 1 Cup plus two TBS cake flour
• 1 TBS baking powder
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 Cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 3/4 Cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 Cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 Cup skim milk
• 2/3 Cup Chobani Vanilla Greek Yogurt
• 1 Cup Fresh of Frozen Blueberries

Ingredients for Topping:

• 1/2 Cup Fresh or Frozen Blueberries
• 1 tsp Cinnamon 
• 3 TBS sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter and flour a 13x9 baking dish. 
2. In a medium sized bowl whisk together the cake flour, 1 cup of the all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt. Set this aside. 
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat together the butter and sugars until light and airy. Beat in the eggs, make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure everything is incorporated. In a separate bowl mix together the yogurt and milk. 
4. Reduce speed and alternate mixing in the milk/yogurt mixture and the flour mixture until evenly incorporated. 
5. In a separate bowl stir the blueberries with the remaining tablespoon of flour. Then gently mix the blueberries into the batter. 
6. Spread the batter into the prepare pan. Then sprinkle the blueberries and cinnamon-sugar mixture over the top of the batter.
7. Bake 45-60 minutes, or until cake bounce back when poked, and/or a cake tester comes out clean. Cool for 20 minutes in the pan, then transfer with the topping side up to a serving dish (I just left it in the pan overnight until picture time!). 
8. Wait for your bait to lure the boys! Or you can eat half before you can even take pictures...

Enjoy,
Molly
Recipe Adapted From Smitten Kitchen

Boston

Last weekend I took a brief trip to Boston! Boston is such a great city with so many delectable hot spots to please your palate! I had the opportunity to visit the Flour Bakery not once, but twice! The first visit was for an afternoon pick me up! I ordered a "Chunky Lola" Cookie, my sister ordered a cookie with dried cherries and white chocolate, and my mother order a meringue cloud with chocolate! We all thoroughly enjoyed our cookies, I did not think I would like the meringue as much as I did! Normally I don't go for meringues, but this one was so airy and cloud-like that it truly melted in my mouth. Here are some pictures from our afternoon visit!

Including some great advice from Joanne!

Here are our good eats!

And their fabulous logo!

The next morning my mom and I went back to Flour for breakfast! I ordered the "sweet panini" with seasonal fruit and mascarpone cheese! The bread was grilled perfectly crispy and the filling so sweet and delicious! My mom loved her steel cut oats special with seasonal fruit! 

Together we shared a ginger-peach muffin, which was a little bland. Probably a little lackluster given it is the end of peach season and I recently bought a dud batch of peaches at the Farmer's Market. So I forgive Flour! 

I love their display and cannot wait to open my own bakery some day if the finances allow it! 

Now for some dinner eats! We walked around looking for a restaurant in Boston's South End for almost an hour. My shoes were not fully broken in yet so I was not a happy camper and was ready to sit down and eat. All of the restaurants we initially tried had waits of at least 45 minutes, finally my sister suggested we try a Thai place that she had enjoyed before. She called and they had no wait so we gave it a go! I ordered the mango fried rice, it was very good, but I think it may not have been fresh mango, given that it was a little mushy. Otherwise we enjoyed it, as you can tell from the pictures below. 

Here was an interesting menu feature...

 Our empty plates...

Now for the quote of the night....after a few glasses of wine, my mother asks the waiter, "do you have any fortune cookies?" He gave an uncomfortable laugh and said he did not. We all gave my mother a look of what was she thinking, we were in a Thai restaurant, not a chinese restaurant. I would highly recommend this although I was not thrilled with the quality of my mango. The chicken satay was very very good! The restaurant was called Equator, try it if you are in the area! 

While in Boston, I also had the chance to visit a great market aptly named Foodies! They had an amazing selection and variety of goods that included a wide selection of Bob's Red Mill products! I grabbed some xanthan gum for some special recipes I will be sharing soon! Here are some pictures from my Foodie adventure! The store's atmosphere was fabulous! They had charming wood floors and chalkboard signs, I may have looked out of place taking pictures, but how could I not with such a great atmosphere! 

Those floors...I love 'em! 

Such a great sign!

And these sweetie pies waiting for their owner outside! 

"Did you remember our treats?" 

Have a great weekend and I hope you enjoyed this different kind of post!

Have you been on any great food adventures recently? I want to hear about them, so please share! 

Enjoy!

Molly