Halloween Cookies

So, today I'm offering up a special Halloween treat - Skeleton Cookies!

Cute, right? To make them, I started with a recipe that I found here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/best-ever-chocolate-cutout-cookies/ it sounded really tasty, and though I was worried working with an unknown, I gave it a try.

The batter was a really thick, rich texture and flavor. See how it looked: 

OK, so it might look like something else in the photo :^)...believe me when I tell you that even raw, the flavor was amazing!

Next, I rolled out the dough. I saw a suggestion online for using the cocoa powder instead of flour, and it worked great. Following that, I cut out my little men. I used the special cookie cutter and press from ThinkGeek.com (link here: http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/e9de/).

My cocoa powder and Gingerdead Men cutout (of course, mine were chocolate!)

The little men are ready for transport

I will admit that this dough was a little brittle. I had to be very careful while transporting it to the cookie sheet. Still, I managed to complete the task with little frustration or ruin.

Ready for the oven...

The cookies did not need to bake long (about the 7-8 minutes that I use for my traditional cutout sugar cookies). I'll also note that the recipe didn't make that many cookies with the size cutout that I used (it was about 15 cookies total). It'd probably be great for smaller cookies, but for bigger cutouts, you'll need to at least double the recipe (unless you're only feeding a few).

After baking and cooling, I decorated. This isn't too difficult because of the bones being pressed in, i.e., you basically just fill them in - The cookie cutter manufacturer recommends royal icing, but I went against professionals advice and chose white chocolate. 

Using chocolate is not an easy task, you'll need to melt it slowly, being sure not to over cook it. I was also careful to melt only a little at a time since the chocolate will re-harden after a while. 

In the end, all the hard work was definitely worth it. The cookies came out spookerific. Oh, and they tasted great too!

  

Happy Halloween!

You're Only One Once, Part 5

Hello all, time for another cake-y edition of Prison City Cakes. *yay* I can hear you all now. Well, let's get down to business. Monkey business, that is. This week's first birthday theme is centered around monkeys.

Well...OK, the main cake is a giant cupcake, but everyone knows it's the little things that matter. Like the adorable Smash Me monkey cake.

Let's take a closer look at the two cakes.

 

The giant cupcake is a pan available from Wilton. The top and bottom of the cupcake are baked separately. After cooling, they are stacked like a tier cake (i.e., you put frosting on the top of the bottom layer and then stack on the top).  The cake was then base-coated in hot pink buttercream frosting on the bottom (for the cupcake wrapper) and traditional white buttercream frosting on the top. The sides of the "wrapper" are decorated with fondant polka-dots.

The surrounding cupcakes are traditional cupcakes baked in the "new" silicone baking cups. They are topped with bright yellow and hot pink buttercream frosting, and the candles are available through Wilton. 

Lastly, the Smash Me cake in the form of monkey. This little guy is not too complicated. The cake is the small standing bear pan from Wilton (it really is a very versatile pan). The ears were removed and re-located to the side of the head to create monkey ears. The cake is decorated using the star tip (to create the texture) and base of the feet and mouth are made by smoothing the light brown frosting. This is especially important for the mouth as it creates a monkey mouth rather than a bear pretending to be a monkey. The tail is simply made with frosting and the star tip (similar to the cat cake).

I still have a few first birthday cakes to go, but then we'll move on to something completely different. All right, NOT completely. It'll still be cake. Till next time!