The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap

My favorite food blog is Love & Olive Oil. I have been reading her blog for about a year and half, and check it almost everyday! She always has great ideas for meals, sides and, my favorite, desserts. Also check out the pictures of her cats, they are adorable.

So today I checked her blog for anything new to make for dinner and ta da!  The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. (I know not dinner, but still something new.) I have never done one of these but it sounds Amazing and Fun!  So far over 200 people are signed up to swap cookies.  So what are you waiting for Sign Up:).

Gift Baskets

I was asked recently by a friend, if I could make gift baskets filled with baked treats and Catarina Dulce de Leche. She is a realtor and would like them for her clients when they move into a new home. She needed a couple samples for the other realtors to see. Very exciting!! Mary, the owner of Catarina, and I came up with a $20 and $40 dollar baskets. We are also working on an individual size for college students or as a small miscellaneous gift.

This basket is our $20 one. The basket contains 2 fruit scones, 2 cookies filled with Dulce de Leche, 2 cake balls, one jar of Dulce de Leche and 1-187mL bottle of Sangria or Champagne.  

This is our $40 basket. The basket contains 4 fruit scones, 4 cookies filled with Dulce de Leche, 3 cake balls, 3 mini cupcakes, 2 jars of Dulce de Leche, and 2-187mL bottles of Sangria or Champagne.

Then here they area all wrapped and ready to go!

I also made some samples for the reality office, so people could try all of our yummy stuff!



Gluten Free Baking

There are only two Bakeries and a handful of restaurants in Grand Rapids that have Gluten Free items. I went to lunch today with some friends and the restaurant had a Gluten Free Menu, which was nice, but not much to choose from. They only had one dessert and no bread that I could eat, but they brought out bread for everyone else...frustrating when you are trying to follow a diet.  I want there to be more choices for people when they go out to eat or get coffee at the local coffee shop.

Today I went out and bought a few different gluten free flours at Harvest Health Food. I have decided that this month I would try and bake as many gluten free items as I can!  So the first two things that I created were Gluten Free Cinnamon Muffins and Herb Crackers.

All of my GF Flours.

 I filled the regular sized muffins with Raspberry Jam and put a powdered sugar glaze on top. The Raspberry Jam mixed with the glaze but they look better that way I think! The small muffins I rolled in powdered sugar.

Look at that crumb!! So delicate and not dense.

The crackers were interesting because the dough was moist. I had to roll out the dough between two pieces of parchment. I then removed the top piece and baked the crackers on the bottom piece all without lifting the dough off of the paper. They were reealllly good and flaky, so worth the effort.

The dough had oregano, rosemary and garlic salt.

Grand Rapids ArtPrize and Samples for Catarina and LaMare Bakery

So Mary Baker the owner of Catarina decided that she wanted to hand out samples of her Dulce de Leche at the Grand Rapids ArtPrize, to get more publicity. Then I thought about it and decided that I should hand out samples for myself since that was a great idea of hers!  (During the 2 1/2 weeks of ArtPrize there are thousands of people that come almost everyday to see the art, eat and explore.)

Mary spent a week making Dulce de Leche and filling about 1,500 sample jars....yes really.  I spent about two days making close to 300 mini cookies for 120 bags to hand out. I made pumpkin shaped sugar cookies and ginger molasses cookies. 

Mary enlisted the help of her friends to help hand out our samples and it was a lot of fun!

These pictures only show a fraction of the art and people that attended ArtPrize. I took these pictures of the Bob's parking lot around 12 and at 4 the parking lot was a sea of people.

Mary filling her Dulce de Leche sample jars.

Winter Squash Coffee Cake with Dulce de Leche

  This week at the grocery store, I was walking around the produce section to see what new things I could use in baking. Since it so happens to be Fall (even though we wish it wasn't here yet) there was a huge selection of squash and pumpkins.  So I took one of each of the sweet ones: acorn squash, golden acorn squash, dumpling squash, pie pumpkin and yellow acorn squash.
  First I cut them all in half, degutted them and saved the seeds. I then baked the squash at 350 F for 40 minutes until I could poke a fork through the outer skin.  I pureed all of them together since they each have a unique sweetness and texture, which I thought would go well together. So I ended up with a gallon Ziploc bag full of squash goodness!  I also baked the seeds and ended up with a quart Ziploc bag.
  I made Winter Squash Coffee Cake today with the puree and decided it needed a little something sweet and creamy...Dulce de Leche.  My cousin Mary-Catherine just started her company Catarina not too long ago. She makes THE best Dulce de Leche...Ever.  If you have never tried or heard of Dulce de Leche now is the time, because you are truly missing out! Just click on the link above to learn more.
Anyway, I gave some of the cake to the owners at Wagin Tails and the rest is going with Brandon to work tomorrow....if there is any left:).

See how creamy and delicious the Dulce de Lech looks?!

Armadillo Birthday Cake

Yes, an Armadillo Cake!  A friends work collegues husband wanted his birthday cake to be a bleeding armadillo. I carved the body out of Chocolate Cake and made homemade raspberry filling and Raspberry Buttercream. I then covered it with gray fondant and made the ears out of gray gumpaste. I luster dusted it to give it some depth.

 These two pictures are before I put the ears on.

Car City Supercenter Sheet Cake

So for Labor Day I wanted to make something for Car City and my husband suggested a sheet cake. So I made a Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Buttercream.  I made a car out of fondant and a buttercream transfer for their logo. It was big enough to feed 60 people.

 Brandon and Bella having a lazy Sunday.

Donatello sunbathing.