Now that I’m (sort of) unemployed and finally have all kinds of time to craft, I don’t seem to have the space, money, or supplies. Currently I’m in temporary housing and all of my crafting supplies are packed in a storage unit. Also, I haven’t happened upon a craft store yet, and I don’t think I’m braving the 18 degree weather today to find one.
Even still, I have been scouring the craft-loving internets for Valentine’s Day inspiration.
How perfect are these cookies? I just love animals with horns! This Etsy shop delivers by V-Day and there’s even a unicorn cookie!
I love this ombre paint chip wreath. This is a craft I can certainly make in the apartment I’m staying in and it probably cost less than $5.
Here’s another cheap and beautiful ombre d.i.y. made with paint chips. I’ve really got to get on the “paint chip craft” bandwagon.
This 3D fringe heart would make the best party decor. Right?
This Pom Pom Heart Wreath looks simple and quick to make. I wonder if it could work with cotton balls or home made pom poms.
And finally, show your friends you really do put your heart into your baking with this tutorial. How lovely are these cupcakes?
So, have you finished your Valentine’s Day crafts yet?
I couldn’t pass up a $1 pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter from the craft store. Normally, when I buy cheap cookie cutters, well, you get what you pay for – sloppy edges and rounded corners that resemble some type of cookie shape. You’re just not sure what. At least it’s still a cookie. That’s the great thing about baking.
I had a really great feeling about this cookie cutter. And while I know I’ll only use it once this year, it was worth it, because these cookies were fantastic.
See below for ingredients and printable instructions.
In a small bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk the melted butter and sugar together until you get a custardy look.
Add the egg and the vanilla extract. Continue whisking.
Once blended, begin mixing in the melted chocolate chips, until they’re fully combined and you get a nice, smooth chocolate texture.
Slowly fold in the flour mixture until well combined and you get a thick dough ball.
I switched to a wooden spoon here. You want your dough to look something like this.
On a piece of wax paper, roll the dough flat. You want it to be about 1/4 inch thick. Then let it firm up in the firm up in the fridge for about fifteen minutes. If you’re having a hard time rolling the dough flat, stick it in the freezer for a few minutes.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
After the dough has set, pull it out of the fridge and get to work with that cookie cutter.
You can ball up the extra dough and roll it out flat. If it gets too gooey, just stick it back in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes.
Place them about an inch apart on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. These cookies spread a little. Bake for 20 minutes.
Let them cool before you add the frosting.
I added about a tablespoon in the middle and Smush!
For the Filling Beat all of the ingredients until they are soft and creamy. Add food dye until it looks like this (or desired color).
These cookies are great for Halloween. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good picture of the baked pumpkin shapes. I was too busy eating them.
pumpkin-shaped sandwich cookies
Author: heidi
Yields: 12 3-inch sandwiches or 24 cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
½ cup cocoa powder
2 cups flour
½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup butter, melted
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1½ cups semisweet chocolate chips, melted
1 egg
Frosting
½ cup butter, softened
1½ cup confectioners sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. milk (I used almond milk)
red and yellow food coloring
Other Things
Whisk
Wax Paper
Parchment Paper
Cookie Cutter
Instructions
For the Cookies
In a small bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk the melted butter and sugar together until you get a custardy look.
Add the egg and the vanilla extract. Continue whisking.
Once blended, begin mixing in the melted chocolate chips, until they’re fully combined and you get a nice, smooth chocolate texture.
Slowly fold in the flour mixture until well combined and you get a thick dough ball.
On a piece of wax paper, roll the dough flat. You want it to be about ¼ inch thick. Then let it firm up in the firm up in the fridge for about fifteen minutes. If you’re having a hard time rolling the dough flat, stick it in the freezer for a few minutes.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
After the dough has set, pull it out of the fridge and get to work with that cookie cutter.
Place the cookies about an inch apart on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. These cookies spread a little. Bake for 20 minutes.
Let them cool before you add the frosting.
For the Filling
With an electric mixer, beat all of the ingredients until they are soft and creamy.
A black cloud in my baking repertoire is my lack of experience baking vegan. It’s my dirty little secret. Frankly, vegan baking terrifies me. I get how certain ingredients like eggs and butter work within a recipe. They’re safe and uncomplicated. But when you start replacing eggs with oils and butter with margarine, I’d rather have someone else prepare my desserts for me, which is why I started simple.
My bestie sent me this recipe a year ago, so with her seal of approval, I tried it.
Vegan Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies adapted from this recipe; yields 24; prep time: 10 min; cook time: 13
1 1/2 cups whole-wheat all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch of salt
2 large bananas
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup almond butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup vegan chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 375.
In a large bowl, mash the bananas. Then mix in vanilla, almond butter, brown sugar, and sugar until well combined. I didn’t use an electric mixer, just the good old arm.
In a small bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt.
Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture a little bit at a time, until well combined. Once all of the ingredients are mixed, pour in the chocolate chips. Let’s face it, this is my favorite part.
Once they’re good and covered, time to scoop about a tablespoon of batter onto a baking sheet lines with parchment paper. You’ll have to squish them down into cookies sized shapes, since they don’t bake down or out. I baked 12 at a time. Bake for 13 minutes.
And, yum.
I was so happy with how tasty these were. And how easy the prep was – probably due to fewer ingredients.
The bananas kept these from drying out like my normal association with vegan baked treats. The original recipe called for peanut butter, which I would have preferred. But I didn’t have any, so I subbed almond butter instead. Yes, I’m the freak that has a house without peanut butter.
I stopped by Publix today to pick up a birthday cake for my boss and I was appalled at the sights I saw. Really, it was cakewrecks [fantastic blog!] worthy. I would be too embarrassed to take a picture, but the selection was terrible and all of the frosting was squished on the plastic. I’m not sure how professionals let that happen. Also, the color choices were sickening.
Really this was all my fault, because I completely forgot to pick up a cake yesterday, when I would have had more time. I remembered this morning in the shower. I did happen to find a beautiful cake, but I just had to pay more than I would have liked for it.
This whole instance had me thinking about how I’d like to start decorating cakes. I bought a great kit at a garage sale for a steal of $5 a while back, and it’s just been taking up room in my kitchen. I hate having things in my house that are of no use. So I called the only place I could think of that had cake decorating classes – Michael’s. This next part was really luck, because there were classes starting today [day after payday!]. Impulse buy? Yes, but the idea has been stewing in my mind for a while. Also, classes were 50% off, so I paid $23.
Michael’s uses the Wilton Cake Decorating Course. While I would really like to apprentice with a professional baker, I guess I can’t do that until I have some basics down. It’s a lot more challenging than it looks.
Today we did stars – both the decorating technique and the shape. I don’t know what made me think I could decorate this, because I can’t even draw a star.
Since my camera was stolen, I took these pictures using a low-quality digital camera I borrowed from my dad this Thanksgiving.
They make you practice on a laminated sheet before you move up to the cakes. Today we didn’t even get that far, it was cookies only.
Since I was late signing up, I didn’t even get a chance to buy supplies, but a nice woman sitting next to me had an extra set [happenstance] and let me have it.
This was supposed to be a snowflake. It would have worked out, if I could have centered the frosting a little more.
The Wilton cake decorating course is very structured, which means there isn’t much room for experimentation, which I think is always worthwhile. Also, in the decorating book, it shows the type of cakes we’ll be able to make, some of them are pretty ugly, but some aren’t that bad. The course only uses one type of frosting and it’s not spectacular. It’s one of those lard and powdered sugar frostings, which works well with decoration, but isn’t strong on the taste side. It also uses artificial butter flavor for the buttercream, not real butter (this should be appalling for any baker). I’m not so concerned about the frosting choice, but I’d like to learn how to decorate with other types. I’m optimistic the skills can transfer from one frosting to another. I hope I’m not wrong. One final note, we don’t really learn how to bake a decent cake, which I thought would go without saying. Our instructor suggested box mixes, which are great, if we don’t plan on eating them.
I don’t mean to sound so critical of the course. I’m really excited to give this a go. If I am any good, I’ll eventually be able to work with fondant and make all sorts of fun shapes.
