Pumpkins, and more pumpkins...

So this week I worked on and nailed a Pumpkin Cookie recipe as well as the Pumpkin a L'Orange cupcakes. Sold a ton of the cupcakes but unfortunately, none of the cookies sold even though the tasters said they were amazing! I am going to make a fresh batch and mail them out as a part of some packages I am sending out this week. I know this would be a great way to get additional feedback on the cookies and I want as many folks as possible to love them as much as I do! I will keep you guys posted!

FALL FUN...PART DEUX!

I am so excited!

My "Taster" has deemed my very NEW Pumpkin a l'orange Cupcakes delicious! I tried them myself and must admit, I am surprised at how tasty they are! I can taste the freshness from the orange zest that Iadded to my batter along with the pureed pumpkin. The Orange Cream Cheese frosting is a nice touch too! And don't worry folks, the orange taste is much softer than the color you see! I was merely going for a bit of Fall "splash" there. That said, I'll let you know how many of these make it out my door this week. ;)

FALL FUN!!

I have been baking my butt off! Had so much fun these past few weeks as my creative "treat" juices have been flowing! The pic on the right represents one of my newest recipes, Punkin Pie Cookies. Full of spice, real pumpkin and so moist and cake like...truth is my sample batch of over 2 dozen were DEMOLISHED in just a few short hours! I am hoping these do well this week,just in time for Harvest and Halloween season!

As we speak, I am creating another pumpkin treat, this time adding one of my favorite flavors to the "mix", orange! I am logging off now to go and frost these beauties, so stay tuned!

So much on my mind...

Got back from my trip to the SF Bay area to visit my kid! Had an awesome time and am feeling super motivated and inspired! This gig HAS to work out for me...I can smell and TASTE my success.
The week before I left was rough...my ideas for Taste Your Dreams' Deals of the Week kinda fell flat, with me selling ZERO Oatmeal cookies but lots of pumpkin bread and brownies (YAY!). I love my loyal and loving customers and am hoping to acquire many more!
For this week, I am seriously considering red velvet cake or cupcakes and the quadruple threat chocolate chip cookies for sale...or maybe the cream cheese marble brownies??? Sigh...decisions, decisions!
So to get me back in mode I decided to do something that my family is super excited about. I am creating the starter for my Amish Friendship bread. I have been making this bread every fall and winter for the past 25 years and it NEVER gets old! Now, to patiently wait the 12 days for the starter to "develop"...stay tuned!

Muffin Liners!

I am LOVING these new tulip-shaped muffin liners recently purchased. They hold lots of batter and bake some really pretty muffins!
Also loving the old recipes I have been playing with and revamping this past month. Lots are being made healthier but more flavorful, imagine that!!
Biggest news: Taste Your Dreams is officially kicked off and here with weekly specials that will provide a little something for everyone...
Up and coming is credit card payments, shipping orders country-wide and canine cookies (yup, sweet treats for dogs)! Stay tuned, there's lots of fun things ahead!

The Taste Fairy Explores...Yogurt Vs. Sour Cream

This past weekend, while creating Nicole's cupcake order I decided to try an ingredient I had been recently playing with in my baking: Greek yogurt. I know, some purists out there would laugh at my attempts to make a "healthy" cake. I mean, it IS cake after all, right!? My theory is, if you don't treat yourself, you cheat yourself...but that doesn't mean DELETE yourself! Haha...I know. Corny.
In any case, I LOVE adding sour cream to my pound cakes and cupcakes...it makes them so moist and so tender. Not to mention, the flavor it imparts. Mmmm. BUT, it is sour cream and per tablespoon, has almost as much fat as butter and 8 times the fat as Greek yogurt. And Greek yogurt, is every bit as creamy and thick as sour cream. Mind you, I tried using light sour creams but they were watery in texture and yeah, watery in taste...
A trainer at my gym once told me about the benefits of Greek yogurt (low fat, HIGH in protein) which is why I began eating it daily. I perused the supermarket dairy aisle every couple of days, buying different brands until I settled on 2 that I love, for their creaminess as well as their texture (some seemed powdery on the tongue--ew).
I have found that the yogurt (plain or vanilla flavor) is a perfect replacement for the sour cream I use in my sour cream pound cake cupcakes. However, I found when using the same yogurt to make pound cake, I needed an extra 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda. Without it, my cakes are on the gummy side and do not rise.Note that even with the 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, the cake still seems a little rich, or dense to me but for a coffee or breakfast cake, this would be ideal, or so I am told....anyway, try either one in your favorite butter or pound cake recipe and let me know what you think!

Nicole's Vanilla Cupcakes

Ok, so I was invited to my son's girlfriends' going away party as she is relocating to California as a result of a job promotion. I made some of my vanilla cupcakes, using my slightly modified pound cake recipe. Some were iced with my fresh strawberry frosting, some with (my NEW favorite-all improved!) chocolate frosting. I don't know why, but my 1st batch didn't look too pretty, with most of them a little sunken in the middle. Not to mention, I used regular cupcake liners, doubled up so the colors would be vibrant. Typically, when I bake with regular liners, the butter leaches through, giving the liner a greasy, transparent look that I detest. Thankfully, I had the grease proof kind and let me add, I can't ever go back! The colors stay true and your fingers don't get oily from holding your cupcake! No need for doubling up either, since that doesn't work for me anyway.

I plowed ahead and made a second batch, and they were picture-perfect! Not to mention, they tasted lightly sweet, moist and buttery. I frosted them all, while picturing how they would look perched on the new pink cupcake holder I bought at T.J. Maxx, of all places!!

Quickly, I showered, got dressed, grabbed my charged up camera (so I could take pix of the folks at the party as well as the cupcakes on display), the cupcakes and the holder and headed out the door. I fought torrential rain, a road detour and a highway accident before arriving at the party, late of course! AGGHH!

All obstacles aside, the party was som much fun and I feel llike I made some new buddies. Not to mention, the cupcakes were a hit! I am so glad, humbled and elated all in one. I may have said this before, but when anyone compliments my baking it ALWAYS feels like I am heraring this for the very 1st time!! Today I end by letting you know that before all was done, I took a picture of my "naked" cupcakes but TOTALLY forgot to take a pic of the finished product...What a doof I am!

Reeses' PB Brownies

I have given myself until 7/1 to kick off Taste Your Dreams officially. In the meantime, I am just working on practice batches and committing to small simple orders so that I can get adjusted to the new oven and make sure my recipes still were amazing! This week, I decided to work on brownies...fudgy yumminess that can please almost all palates. Can't go wrong here, right?

For this batch, I decide to modify my recipe by adding Reese's Peanut Butter as an homage to VJ's and Mark's love for the mini Reeses' PB cups. For my huge batch (11x17 jelly roll pan) I use a total of 34 OUNCES of 3 different kinds of chocolate...sounds crazy, I know...but trust, it is worth it.

My tasters are my son VJ, his girlfriend Kailah, my hubby Mark and VJ's great bud, Caselli. VJ and Mark LOVED them as did Caselli. This was huge coming from VJ since he is not a brownie lover. Kailah,on a scale of 1 to 10 rated my brownies an 8. In her opinion, they need to be richer, more chocolatey.

Wow, at first I am dumbstruck by her opinion...added to that, VJ,who is sitting right beside me, now agrees with her. BUT, as we all know and have heard the phrase, "out of the mouths of babes"...so, I suck itup and listen. Several batches later I think I have perfected the moist, ooey gooey brownie recipe I love...Now of course, time will telll as customers will be the judge...YIKES!

Nutella, Nutella...for my little "fella"...

Most of you have probably already seen this cake on my FB page. Believe it or not,although imperfect as you can tell from the slight lopsidednesss I really enjoyed making this cake for my son's 18th birthday. I went with this "theme" because Nutellas is his favorite food group. That's right, I did write "GROUP". He eats it for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

I used a vanilla pound cake for the layers and store-brand Hazelnut spread for the filling in between the layers. I must admit, although the spread did initially taste like Nutella I did notice it was thinner which made it easier to spread. However, by the next day it seemed to me the flavor was fading. In the future I will stick to using the real thing. I took the time to give the label a 3-D effect by cutting and creating a piece of toast using real bread and created a knife using fondant and edible paint. The flower is a sugar flower and I also used real hazelnuts. Lastly, can you see the barcoding? Haha! I thought that was a fun touch. All that aside, the cake was a huge hit! It was a great conversation piece at my kids' party and everyone loved the taste and texture.

What the HECK happened to THIS guy!?

Ugh...this is the result of a lack of time mixed with poor planning on my part. A friend of mine asked for a birthday cake for their 1 year old...I knew I was busy with putting the house back together after having a new deck put in as well as having the interior of the house painted. But I love my friends and just could not say no. OK, so I was told the kid loves the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show. It takes a couple of days to clear the house from all of the painting debris, but I get a chance to see the show. Creating the clubhouse was a tall order given time restraints so I decide to attempt (what appears to be) the most popular character on the show, Mickey Mouse. Seems simple enough: I will use my bear cake mold because it has given me great results in the past (see the baby and the little bear cake pix on my facebook page), make some red, yellow and pink fondant and buy some black fondant. I decide on fondant instead of icing so that a 1 year old won't suck down gobs of colored icing. In this case, the parents can just peel back the fondant once it is ready to be served. For the cake we go with a vanilla pound cake with vanilla icing.
First, let me tell you how much my oven rocks! I have made cakes using this particular mold several times in the past and each time, the cake took at least one hour and sometimes even a bit longer to be fully baked. I made the same batter, which is my pound cake recipe and voila! The cake was DONE in only 45 minutes...a savings of 15-20 minutes at least...sweet! The cake cooled. I layered and frosted it, modified the nose to make it more pointy and mousy. I cut the ears off and attempted to reshape his head to make it more round. Lastly, I added two of those fat free devils' food cookies as ears and put it aside to "set". I add a second coating of my "butter cream cheese" frosting and once again, allow the cake to "set". It is at this point that everything seems to run amok and go badly...suckingly bad. After I began to add the fondant I realized this is a difficult task for this oddly shaped cake...perhaps I didn't cut it into the right shape...all I know is everywhere I looked I saw either lumps or seams...not pretty...and WHY does his nose keep falling off? And, WHY won't his arms and hands stay put? UGH! With the help of toothpicks it all works out but the end result is still this "Sponge Bob Mickey" thing that I would not sell, let alone give away to anyone...practice, practice, practice is what I must do...so back to the drawing board!!

The Cakescursion, Part Two...

The next stop really blew me away. A cupcake bakery, plain and simple...this place was not only clean like the other bakery, but it really had its' own whimsical yet cool flair. First, I was impressed with the staff: two young men who knew their cupcakes upwards, downwards and sideways. Their knowledge of the almost 24 assorted offerings really blew me away. This was ALMOST overshadowed by their enthusiasm for the product. Were they owners? Stockholders? Who knows, and who cares?!
Their descriptions of the marvelous flavors of these cupcakes along with their opinions as well as their willingness to offer information was a great surprise!
In five minutes, I knew the flavors of the cakes, the frostings, the prices AND their personal faves!
I also loved their menu presentation: a two-sided card with a picture and captioned description of each cupcake. With all this at hand, Nicole and I had to struggle to select a sampling...how do judges at those freakin' bake-offs do it?!?!
It took a few moments, but we carefully selected: Chocolate peanut butter, Lemon, a "classic", which was yellow with buttercream, red velvet (remember, I am in the South), chocolate with chocolate frosting and a chocolate strawberries 'n' cream...all 6 of these lovely creations (yeah, they looked AMAZING!)were carefully boxed and presented to us.
We, as before, made a mad dash to the car while it STILL was pouring outside. Forks and water at the ready, we dive in to each one: the classic/signature cupcake has a moist yellow cupcake that is, to me, just OK. The buttercream frosting is sweet but has a slightly sandy or grainy texture that is a bit "off. The red velvet cupcake is tastier and moister than the one we had at the prior bakery. Here, Nicole and I had varying opinions...she LOVED the cream cheese frosting from the 1st bakery, which was very rich and cheesy. I much preferred the lighter, sweeter frosting on this cupcake. Their chocolate cupcakes had deeper chocolate coloring and therefore, more cocoa than the cake from the first shop. But, to my surprise, although sweet, still lacked enough chocolate punch to please mine or Nicole's palette. One of our cupcakes had chocolate frosting. The frosting was super light and creamy but we agreed that the frosting from the 1st bakery had a richer chocolate "feel" and flavor. The 2nd cupcake had a very yummy, strawberry cream cheese frosting that I loved. It tasted EXACTLY like mine and even had the little bits of strawberries in it, just like MINE! Wow! This one may be my favorite...the last chocolate cupcake had a peanut butter and chocolate thing going on. Again, quite yummy and creamy frosting and let me say, went great with that chocolate cupcake. I THINK this was Nicole's fave! The last cupcake that was my TRUE favorite was their lemon cupcake. Not for nothing, this cupcake tasted almost exactly like my lemon pound cake, but with lemon frosting on top. This creation had the right balance of sweet and sour going on, down to the bottom of that cupcake! My mouth wasn't singing, but all of my tastebuds had a chorus going on! The frosting was great, but this cake could have gone naked with no problems at all.
This bakery has a great thing going on with their cupcakes, take home menus that are cute enough to post on a fridge and great service. All of these things made the wet, soggy outing and the sweet toothache well worth the while. Wait! Forgot to add: this place is so popular that while Nicole and I were munching away we could see cars coming in and out of the parking lot the whole 30 or so minutes we were there. Each time, folks getting soaked on the way in and on the way out, but happily carrying those cupcakes on the way out! I have been inspired even more and cannot wait to do this!

The Cupcakescursion...

So about three weeks ago my buddy Nicole had a great idea...check out and sample some local "competitors". So off we went on a VERY rainy Saturday. We were hopeful that there would be brochures available that laid out pricing, flavors, sizes, etc...This would alleviate our itch to lie about an upcoming shower in order to pry the information from the owners' grasp. The 1st spot was a fairly popular bakery known here in Atlanta primarily for their cakes sold whole and by the slice. They also sell cupcakes which I felt was the easiest way to sample their goodies. Nicole and I decided on 3 popular flavors that I also bake: Red Velvet with cream cheese frosting...Chocolate cake with (cannot remember the frosting-oy vey!)...and a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting. Our choices were placed neatly in a box. We grabbed some plastic forks, dodged the pouring rain to run back into our Judging Room (AKA Nicole's car) and chowed down.
Our findings: the red velvet cupcake was moist but we both agreed that although a deep red, was pale in flavor. Nicole LOVED the thick, rich cream cheese frosting while I felt it could have been lightened up a bit with a touch of butter to bring out more of the sugar's sweetness.
The chocolate cupcake was lacking in, well, everything. A pale cocoa color, the flavor was a match. If my eyes were closed I would've though it was a vanilla cupcake. Nicole agreed. At this point, I believe there was chocolate butter cream on this cupcake. I know that was a hit, with just enough chocolate flavor and buttercreaminess.
The vanilla cupcake, which was paired with chocolate butter cream frosting was also just "blah"...again, we both agreed the frosting was a hit. The cake itself was dry in texture and although sweet, really had very little in the way of vanilla flavor.
One thing that caught my eye was the packaging of individual portions. They were all in those clear plastic hinged containers. Yes, they are recyclable but it just seems there are "greener" options for selling cupcakes or cakes by the slice. In any case, we sucked down some water to "cleanse our palettes" and drove onward to the next "stop"...

The Bug "Bites" again...

...Fast forward to 1985. The 1st true love of my life was born, Christopher Scott Chandler. I took one look into his beautiful face and knew that I wanted to do my best for my son. This included making sure he ate healthy, chemical free foods wherever possible. I made my own baby food and later on when teeth arrived I moved on to breads, cookies, etc.
When he was a little boy, I baked my 1st cake from scratch, courtesy of a recipe from The Fannie Farmer Cooking School cookbook. This book also contained recipes for some of the best breads I ever made! I digressed here, but wanted to say it was during his childhood that I went from baking and creating the basic round, frosted cake with candles to creating "shaped" cakes. The only other shape I came up with was that of a bunny rabbit. This was basically two round, 2-layer cakes. One of the rounds was left whole for the head while the other was cut to create two ears and a bowtie! I would post a pic but right now the house is a shambles and the scanner is disconnected due to paint work going on here.
Anyway, I continued to bake birthday cakes not only for Chris, but also for the 2nd true love of my life, Victor H. Chandler, AKA VJ who arrived on May 10, 1992. For VJ, however there has been a shift from the regulatory birthday cake to in his words, the more amazing giant birthday cookie. Funny, that through these years I only took one picture of a birthday cake. I guess the reason is because I really never thought they were all that spectacular...

"FUDGE" my life!!

Ok, so here I am in the kitchen again with all of my ingredients. My pot is ready to melt some chocolate, add the ingredients and add it to my square foil pan to "set". I am already wildly imagining the finshed product! So after carefully melting the chocolate and adding my moist, chewy raisins and crunchy peanuts I poured the mixture into my 8 X 8 pan. What the...?! What did I miss? Instead of the pan filling with a river of chocolatey, nutty goodness my "puddle" barely even touched the sides...clearly I did not melt enough chocolate! Oh no, to make matters worse, I forgot to add the required sugar! And now, it is too late to do anything about it! I am devastated. My beautiful fudge is nothing more than an amoeba-shaped candy bar. Without the sugar, no chewy silkiness for Mrs. Sholinsky to sink her teeth into. Without enough chocolate, no cutting to do as my "bar" is the size of a cereal bowl. Sucking up my failure "like a man", I wrap this mess of a candy in wax paper, then some pretty wrapping paper. I brought it to school and presented it to my teacher. She was so appreciated and better yet, took a bite and MMMMM! She loved it! Well, maybe she was just trying to not hurt my feelings. In any case, on that day I made the decision to keep my butt OUT of the kitchen. Period.

The Baking "Bug"...Part II

Sigh...once my revulsion passed I had to figure out what do do about my cake dilemma. After all, I know I had spilled to a few classmates that I was bringing in this cake. I didn't want to lose face or look like a liar, but I was totally out of time.
Somehow, I came up with the idea to make something quick and easy: FUDGE!I remembered watching someone on PBS make it and the cook made it appear so effortless, I knew I could do it. With the cake now dumped in the garbage, I "brushed the dirt off my knees" and headed off to King Charles to buy chocolate chips, cream cheese, peanuts and raisins. I loved Nestle` brand Chunky candy bars and wanted my fudge to have the same goodies in it, hence the raisin and peanut purchase. I ran home to prepare my confectionary creation, broke but excited once again...

...how the bug bit me...

My love affair with the kitchen began forever ago, while I was just a kid attending P.S. 84 in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. I enjoyed watching my mother cook and enjoyed the smells and tastes even more...and who wouldn't?! My Mom is a Jew who happened to have a true knack for Puerto Rican cooking (only in Brooklyn, right?). But I was a kid and, like most other normal kids I had an extreme sweet tooth. So, it made perfect sense that when it was my 4th grade teachers' (Mrs. Sholinsky) birthday I wanted to come through with a homemade birthday cake for her.
So, with some saved earnings in hand off to King Charles' Supermarket for some decorative candies, lovely boxed chocolate cake mix and a can of matching frosting (Duncan Hines, I think). I rushed home and read and re-read the instructions to make sure I could get it right. I preheated my oven, buttered my pans and mixed my cake mix the best way my scrawny arms could with a hand-held beater you crank, or turn (reminiscent of a toy jack-in-the-box)and turn, and turn...WHEW....got tired just thinking about it!
ANYWAY, I sat in the kitchen watching the clock, all the while sucking in the aroma of that chocolatey goodness. When the moment of truth arrived I jumped up, grabbed my potholders that I am sure I made in Summer Day Camp and carefully removed my cakes from the oven and placed them on our kitchen table to cool. I carefully scrutinized and tested these two nine-inch miracles to ensure the perfection matched that of a wonderfully deserving and perfect teacher:
1. Toothpick test: passed and perfect.
2. Lightly pressed the cakes for that bounce-back: passed and perfect
3. Evenness: again, PERFECT!!
My happiness turned to giddyness. I could not wait for these guys to cool so I could lovingly blanket them with the rich, chocolate frosting they needed partnered with those awesome candies playing their part as "icing on the cake". Haha! Wait...the giddyness turned into a moment of confusion and ugh, a flow of feelings from shock, disgust, dread and finally unbelieveable sadness. A closer look at one of the cakes revealed an object on the surface, just slightly off the center...oh, nooo....a cockroach had been in the oven and had apparently plunged into the batter to his tomb and final resting place. I stared and stared at this insect, now a "fossil" on my teachers' birthday cake that was supposed to make its' triumphant appearance at school the next morning.
I remember thinking and even uttered to myself, "what in the world am I going to do NOW!?!?!"

The beginning...

Hi fans, family and friends!

This is my 1st time blogging and it reminds me so much of when I kept a diary as a kid. As alot of you know,
I have a slowly (VERY slowly) blossoming baking business, now called Taste Your Dreams.
I was previously doing business as Amy's Delectables (thank God my goods were not as dry as this name was!) and have my little brother Mikey to thank for my new, if not somewhat risque' and ambiguous name.
I am hoping this blog will chronicle my journey into entreprenurialship (is that a word) and include the ups and downs of baking.
If things go well and folks actually read this,I may be nice and include recipes as well as tips for making some of your own confections. Stay tuned, people and enjoy the ride!!

Blessings, peace and love.

P.S. ~ Thanks, Eva for the blog idea! XOXO