A Flair for Fashion

Well here we are, November which means "holiday mode" is in full swing! I haven't been too busy in terms of baking which is good because I am prepping myself for the holiday season.. it is going to get busy but I say bring it on!!

This  “throw back Thursday” I’d like to throwback to an event I really enjoyed – a little girl’s fashion show themed birthday party! This party was actually for my cousin who invited all her friends to a local dance studio. They got their hair, nails and make up done, played games and at the end put on a fashion show complete with boas  and jewelry. It was the cutest thing. I wanted to really bring in the theme to this display and make it at girly as possible but also “grown up” without going overboard. 

My favorite part of this display is the base. I wanted it to scream high fashion! I love the mod sunglasses, models, and pictures of clothing and designers. I also included a lot of words that express fashion and being a girl – confidence, beautiful, natural, be yourself.  It really tied everything together!

The little picture frames with quotes from noted fashion icons were fun! I love the chocolate handbags.. I went crazy with chocolate molds!

Shoes! Every girl needs shoes.. definitely my favorite cake pops!

OK maybe the nail polishes were my favorite!

The chocolate lollipops were a huge hit! The little girls were running all around with them.

The finished product was amazing, and everyone really loved it.  It brought the party theme full circle and my little cousin Katie was in her glory – friends, fashion and food, what more can a girl want?

One day closer to the weekend! I am making a chicken soup from scratch this weekend which I am excited for! I also may try out a spice cake recipe I found... we'll see how it goes!

-Elena

Throwback Thursday: Sweet Baby Boys

I love baby showers, there is just so much joy in them. Everyone, especially the expectant mother is glowing with the excitement of adding a new little human to the crowd.  It is a nice time to spend with loved ones and close friends, sharing stories and celebrating love and life.

I have posted some baby girls, but I think it is time to give my boys some attention! I have done a few showers for baby boys, each one a little different.  They make me laugh every time, just because they are so darn cute!

 I like the little crying baby boy in the back there... a little taste of a real new born, right!?

Little details really add to the presentation..

You always need taste cards! I like to give people the options instead of leaving the flavors a mystery.

I hope everyone has a fabulous Thursday! Let's go RED SOX!

-Elena

Victory Cookies

It was a sunny morning in Connecticut and I was getting dressed, filled of excitement.  We were getting ready to hop in the car and head to Boston for the Red Sox game.  I asked my mom what the weather would be like, and she said it should be warm and sunny, as the sun was shining in CT and assumed it would be in Boston too.  We drove to the game, only to find clouds, but no rain, so we proceeded into Fenway Park.  As the game started, the wind picked up and the temperature dropped.  My brother and I were freezing, wearing shorts and t-shirts, and my Dad kept taking us under the stands to get food to keep warm.  I remember wrapping the plastic bag from the pizza stand around my arms to keep warm.  It was freezing!  Eventually my Dad ran to the car and brought back a sheet and we both huddled under it, cheering for our favorite team.  It didn't matter how cold and miserable we were, because we were in the best place in the entire world.  I'll never forget that game!

My brother and I grew up at Fenway, literally.  My parents took me to my first game when I was 5 and we were going to games every two weeks or so.  My parents never cared if we were up late on a school night... Dad would call Mom and ask if we wanted to go because he got free tickets from Coca Cola, so off we went. Coke box, 600 Club, bleacher seats.. we sat in them all!  At the time, we lived only 20 minutes north of the city.  When we moved to Connecticut, it was harder to get free tickets but we still went regularly.  I have been a fan my entire life. 

 Fenway Park is my favorite place to be. You may get older, and the park may add new seats or more ads on the Green Monster, but the Fenway experience never changes.  The smell of The Sausage King's onions and peppers fill the air as you approach the stadium, and boys standing on milk crates try to sell the game's magazine for a few bucks.  You enter the stadium and it is bustling with people rushing around, getting pretzels and beer, trying to find their seats.  The stadium is old.  You dodge pillars in the middle of your path, the floor is uneven, the wooden seats are tiny and cramped but that is what makes it so great. There's 100 years of history in that place.

The Red Sox are different than any other team in baseball.  Being a Sox fan is like being a part of a giant family.  You see a stranger in the store with a Sox hat on, and you're instantly bonded. There is that sense of unity.  The Sox can make you the happiest person alive, or they can break your heart.  Luckily, I've seen them win 2 world series (hopefully 3!) in my lifetime.  Before 2004 they hadn't won in 86 years...There are fans who literally never saw them win one.  Heartbreaking!

So, here we are tonight playing for our spot in the 2013 World Series!  It is an exciting time to be a Boston fan! In the spirit, I decided to make some flooded cookies in Boston's honor! I am sort of becoming obsessed with flooded cookies.  It is becoming a problem because I don't know what to do with all the cookie cutters I keep ordering on Amazon.

I decided to go with a chocolate sugar cookie. This recipe is delicious, the cookies taste like brownie ends.. SO GOOD! So I started by whipping butter, sugar and cocoa powder and essentially made chocolate butter. I could have stopped here, because it was so delectable I wanted to toast a bagel and spread this on!

But I didn't. I proceeded with the cookies. I ordered some awesome Red Sox licensed cookie cutters on Amazon (help I am addicted, seriously) and then baked for 8 minutes. The results were thin little cookies that are surprisingly chewy but hard enough the withstand royal icing.  

So, I spent this fall Saturday piping my little heart out, decked out in my "We Own The East" shirt for good luck!

Whipped up some royal icing. You know royal icing is ready when it looks like this--Elmer's Glue! If it drizzles into the bown and disappears within 3 seconds, it's ready for flooding.

I started with baseballs, using the toothpick technique to create the stitching.  

The Boston "B" logo was my favorite! A challenging pattern to pipe but it really ties it all together.

And here's the finished product!! 

I am really happy with how they came out.  I am going to continue to work on my piping skills, to clean up my edging... But otherwise, I am excited to enjoy them with my boyfriend tonight while we watch the game, and package a few up for my coworker Pete who is a giant Red Sox fan! He called them "Victory Cookies"! Let's hope we come out on top tonight and win our ticket to the 2013 World Series!  Fear the Beards! GO SOX!

-Elena

A Spooky Throwback

Happy Thursday! I love Thursdays because all day long there is that excitement of tomorrow being Friday, and you’re that much closer to the weekend!

My week has been busy, filled with lots of cooking and baking.  I am finally ready to start my newest cookie projects and to get into the spirit of Halloween! I love Halloween.. who doesn’t? It is a day to celebrate candy and all of its sugary goodness!  As a kid, my brother and I would pick out our costumes and my mom always had to make sure it was something we could fit a turtle neck under, because it would be chilly and we would be out for hours with my dad filling up pillowcases worth of candy that would be frozen and keep reappearing throughout the following months.  I mean, we got a ton of it. I loved the excuse to be outside and up late with friends.  As you get older, the trick or treating ends but the dressing up gets more intense especially in college when you celebrate it Thursday, Friday and Saturday night and need three costumes to keep up! Ah.. those were the days.

Now, as a post-graduate, working adult, I enjoy Halloween the most because it gives me such a creative jump.  The possibilities are endless in terms of baking for Halloween… Skulls, blood, webs, creepy crawlers, monsters, witches.. it goes on and on. So I am gearing up for Halloween 2013, and in doing so I’d like to share some of the past Halloween goodies I’ve done! So happy to get into the spirit!

Now back to enjoying the fall with some October Red Sox baseball! 

-Elena

Marine Wedding Themed Cakes

Well this is what 100 cake pops looks like! So happy to make these for a friend's brother who is getting married this weekend! I love the glitzy gold colors mixed with the deep blues.  I decided to make the wedding dresses look all different, just to add some variety and give more personality to them.  These were the classic flavors of chocolate, vanilla, red velvet and strawberry! 

The little XO's are my favorite! 

I hope everyone loves them! I am super excited to focus on some Halloween treats now! And some postseason baseball treats!! All coming within the next two weeks! It is going to be a busy remainder of the month but I am up for the challenge! Hope your week is going well :)

-Elena

Cake Pops for Awareness

It is national Breast Cancer Awareness month and pink is IN! Football teams and baseball teams are wearing it, there are walks to raise money and awareness going on in cities nationwide, and there is no better time than now to spread love to those who have been suffering or have suffered from cancer.

Cancer sucks. There’s no other way to put it and why be polite about it? There is just nothing good about cancer. It touches everyone in some way—a spouse, a parent, a sibling, a teacher, a coworker, a coach..we all know someone with a form of it.  My grandmother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and is now in remission. She is one of the lucky ones.  Unfortunately it is a plague we all have to deal with.  The world would be a better place without it.

My brother’s girlfriend Marissa works with a woman named Jenn who has battled two types of cancer.  They were participating in a walk for a cure for breast and uterine cancer, and asked for me to make some cake pops to enjoy after their walk!  The cakes were enjoyed by all and I received a very sweet note from Jenn afterwards thanking me for thinking of her and incorporating the colors and ribbons.  It really touched my heart and I was so happy Marissa asked me to provide these little cakes that bring so much joy to people. I have said it before and I will say it again—I do this because I love it. I absolutely love creating beautiful little bites of food for someone who is going through a rough time and needs a smile. There is nothing better!

These were vanilla, red velvet and pumpkin spice cakes, and I used chocolate molds for the pink (breast cancer) and teal (uterine cancer) ribbons.  I was able to order some breast cancer awareness ribbons in tiny sprinkles, which I loved! So adorable! I finished them off with a quick spritz of edible pearl spray to give them a glitzy, girly feel.  Very perfect for the occasion and fitting for Breast Cancer Awareness Month!

-Elena 

Please Give my Page Some Bloglovin'!

Hi All! 

My eyes hurt. When I close them they are burning! I have been working on getting this page to fit "me" and I think I am almost there! It is starting to scream "ELENA" at me, so I think I am close to finishing.. for now.

Anyways, I've added a place where you can enter your email and get free, on the spot updates!

You can also now follow me on Bloglovin.com along with all your other favorite blogs!  A great place to keep up with the ones you love to read often.

I've been reading blogs like Bakerella and Souvlaki For the Soul for a couple of years now, but writing is something new! So far I am enjoying it. Today I am taking the day off from baking and cooking a large dinner instead... tender baby back ribs with slow roasted mix of sweet potatoes & purple potatoes with butter and rosemary (special trip today to Whole Foods for some fresh spice sprigs and the purple taters).

Enjoy the weekend everyone!
 -Elena 

The Floodgates Have Been Opened...

This week I finally completed something I have wanted to do for a very long time-- flooding cookies!

I have read so much about cookie flooding and royal icing and watched so many youtube videos and I am absolutely fascinated with these cookies! The possibilities are limited to the cookie cutters you have but after that, they are endless! So many colors, shapes, flavors... I was asked by a neighbor if I could make some sugar cookies for her son and daughter-in-law's "Gender Reveal" party this weekend, and of course I said "Sure I can do those!" No, Elena. You can't possibly know you can do them, you've never done them! BUT, I am an experimenter and my skills are becoming more refined so I went for it!

First, I had to create the dough. I used a recipe for a thicker sugar cookie, one that could withstand heavy royal icing.  Three cups of flour, 2 sticks of butter, some sugar, an egg and some extract is all it takes to get a nice crumbly dough. I decided on pure almond extract for a flavoring, as I think it is a more mature flavoring than the boring, old vanilla.  I wanted these things to smell mouthwatering.. and the dough was just that. Smelled SO GOOD. So I kneaded the dough and rolled it out and cut out some adorable shapes...

How cute are the onesies!!??! Then, I mentally tied my hands behing my back (for no other reason than to stop myself from shoving all this delicious, almondy, buttery dough into my mouth) and threw these suckers in the oven. 350 degrees for 9 minutes.

Boom. Done. Beautiful little rattles and bibs!

Now it was time for some royal icing. Royal icing is very heavy and thick, but it contains NO oil like a buttercream icing does, so it hardens like candy and is used for piping decorations and when watered down, for flooding! So I whipped some up. Meringue powder, some water, corn syrup (for shine) and some almond extract.

I used this to outline each cookie.  You need the heavy icing to keep the "flood" in the cookie! So you outline the cookie first, then take the rest of the icing and water it down to the consistency of Elmer's school glue.  Then I had to color it with my beautiful Atecco, water based icing colors.  So gorgeous.

 AAAAAANDDDD the flooding began! I flooded onesies.

I flooded rattles... baby elephants... I flooded bibs.. I flooded everything.

Flood Flood Flood. It's like playing with glue as a child in kindergarten. The onesies were just my favorite. In case you are wondering how I got the designs.. Once you flood the cookie, while it is still wet you drop in another color, then you can use a toothpick to swirl it or cut it to makes tye-dye or hearts!  I added some cute sugar pearls as buttons and some candy hearts as bows. It is always the fine details that really get people's attention.

And.. finished product! 

 

My lines are not perfect on the edge.. but other than that I am super happy with how they came out, especially being that this is my first time ever flooding. I will definitely do it again soon... I think I have created a monster here... the floodgates are open... let the cookie flooding obsession begin. 

-Elena