Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

This is a kicked up version of my original peanut butter cookies. This is one of my favourite peanut butter cookie recipes because they are crunchy on the outside and super chewy on the inside. On our recent trip back to the coast, we ate some delish mini Reese cups and I thought they would taste really good in a cookie! So here they are...

 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Butter
• 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
• 1/2 cup White Sugar (+ more for rolling)
• 1 Egg
• 1 cup Smooth Peanut Butter
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 1/2 cups Flour
• Reese minis

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 375F. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars.
2. Beat in egg, vanilla, and peanut butter.

 

    3.  In a small bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking soda. 

    4.  Roll tablespoon sized balls in sugar. Place on baking sheet and press down slightly to flatten. Push in a Reese mini.

    5. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until slightly golden on the bottom. Let cookies cool on the pan for about 2  minutes before moving to a cooling rack. 

My cookies turned out a bit flatter than they normally do. I think i pushed them down a bit too much.Either way they still taste amazing!! Hope you enjoy!

Mason Spice Jars

[ Mason Spice Jars ]

       Well it has certainly been a while since I have posted anything... on this blog that is! It has been a very busy past year finishing my PDP. While I was doing that, I was updating my other blog and putting my creative efforts into teaching. Now it is back to regular life as a TOC so my weekends can be spent creating things for my new home! Here is my first project and hopefully a kick start to more regular posts.

        Now that I have a wonderful new kitchen (with an island might I add...), I want to keep it organized and accessible. I have always hated having a cupboard filled with random spice jars so instead I have decided to use mason jars to organize my spices. I love that I can clearly see what is inside each jar and that they all stack so neatly in the cupboard. 

[ My New Toy ]

       I finally got a label maker (YAY!) so I made some labels for my jars. I decided to use the clear labels, but white would look nice too. I labelled both the side and the top of the jar

       I love how neat the cupboard looks now and how easily I can see what is in each jar. This makes me want to do some cooking and baking which hopefully means some more recipes posted here soon!

Motorcycle Cake

Okay, so this is so looonnngggg overdue!! In August I made this cool motorcycle cake for my boyfriend's 22nd birthday. He just got a motorcycle so I thought this theme would fit the bill. Let's start with the cake. It was a two layer vanilla cake with banana custard in the middle. I then iced it with Wilton's #233 tip. It makes awesome looking grass. To make the grass look more realistic, I put a light and dark green icing the in the bag and piped it out at the same time. This gives the grass more dimension. I also was able to find some chocolate rocks to line the road and the bottom. They looked so realistic you couldn't even tell that they were food. The road itself (which I wish I had a better picture of) was made from thick flat strips of black licorice.


The chocolate motorcycle is probably my favourite part of this cake. I found the perfect moulds and chrome lustre dust. When mixed with vodka or gin, the dust is perfect for painting onto chocolate and gave the motorcycle a very unique look. To make the bike stand up I sandwiched a Popsicle stick between two finished bikes and stuck it into the cake. Altogether the cake turned out great and my boyfriend loved it!

My New Favourite Thing: Powdered Food Colouring

While trying to find a way to add some interest to a coconut cupcake, I came across this wonderful product: food colouring powder. For those who do a lot of baking this is probably not a new thing to you. I am using the Candy-n-Cake brand and it cost about $2 for 3 grams (you don't use a lot). I have used a similar product before, but it was flavoured too and I didn't really want to add apple flavour to a coconut cupcake. The great thing about this product is that it has no flavour at all. Sometimes when using the gel colourings you get a bitter taste (especially with the red). I have yet to try it with icing, but will be sure to post an update when I do.

To colour coconut, put coconut into a Ziploc bag and add a bit of the powdered food colouring (remember: A little goes a long way!). Shake it up and add more colouring if needed. This would look great to add the look of fur or grass to cakes and cupcakes. Imagine the possibilities!

Chai Sugar Cookies

If you like chai tea you will love these! This is an adaptation of my grandma's sugar cookies. They are crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. I have included a half recipe because it makes so many, but it could easily be doubled.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups Flour
• 1 cup White Sugar
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 cup Butter
• 2 Eggs
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1 Tbsp Milk
• 4 Tbsp Chai Powder (The kind that you mix with milk. It can be found at coffee shops and specialty stores.)
• Extra chai powder and sugar for tops of cookies.
  

Steps:

1. In mixer, cream together butter and sugar. The longer you cream these together the smoother your dough will be.
   
2. In a bowl, combine flour, salt, baking power, and chai powder. Set aside.
   
3. To butter mixture, add eggs, vanilla, and milk and beat until mixed.
   
4. Gradually add flour mixture. You may need to use your hands to make sure all the flour is combined.
5. Separate into two, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.
   
6. Once refrigerated, preheat oven to 350° and line cookie sheets with a silicone mat if using.
7. Roll out dough about 1/4 inch thick. Cut into shapes and sprinkle tops with extra granulated sugar and chai powder.
   
8. Bake for 10 mins or until golden brown. (TIP: cookies will hold their shape better if the dough is cold. So before baking, you can return the sheets to the fridge for about 10 mins. Make sure to keep dough you are not using refrigerated until it is ready to go into the oven.)
9. Let cool on pan for a few minutes then transfer to a cooling rack. These cookies taste better when they have completely cooled.

The great thing about these is that you can freeze dough for later if you have extra and keep it on hand. Enjoy and happy baking!

Stacked Pot Planter

I saw this project on instructables.com and I knew I just had to make one for strawberries. It is really simple to construct. I used an X made from wood instead of the PVC pipe that the original used and painted my pots bright pink. It looks super cute and I can't wait until I get some nice red berries. I would recommend painting the rod that goes up the middle so that it is a little less visible. The rod in the middle should also be pretty thick to minimize swaying.

After making the tower for strawberries, I went straight to making one for herbs using smaller pots. These are super functional for anyone with limited space and they add a lot of interest to any garden!

Happy Gardening!

Homemade Tea Bag

I have some loose teas that I love and wanted a way to have them on the go. So instead of toting a tea ball around, I thought I would make my own tea bags. Throw some into a Ziploc and into your bag and you've got loose tea on the go!

Materials:

• Cheese Cloth
• Kitchen Twine
• Sewing Needle
• Optional: sticker paper for tea tags
  

{Step 1}.........................{Step 2}

Step 1: Cut out a 4-layer square of cheese cloth and place 1 tsp. of loose tea leaves in the middle.
Step 2: Using kitchen twine (separated in 1/2 so its easier to thread onto the needle) and a
needle, thread twine through side closest to you, then the side farthest away.
Step 3: Thread twine through right side, then through left side. It should look something like
this:

{after step 3}

Step 4: Now thread through the corners the same way going across from each corner until all 4 corners have been threaded. The bag will now look like this:

Step 5: Tie around the top and knot to secure. The top can then be trimmed.
Step 6: Trim remaining string. Attach a tag if desired. I made my tags on MS Word and printed
them off onto sticker paper. I then stuck two together to create a double sided tea tag.

{Finished Tea Bag}

I find this way to be most secure, but if it seems too complicated you can use the following alternate method.

Alternate Method: Thread in and out in a circle around the 4-layer square of cheese cloth. Put 1 tsp. of loose tea leaves into middle. Pull the two ends of the string together and knot. Continue with step 5 above and you're done!