cookie packaging ideas

Cookie packaging ideas http://theessentialpackagingstoreblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/cookie-packaging.html http://lorenarossi.typepad.com/thefinaltouch/food_and_drink/ Baker's Twine http://whiskergraphics.com/blog/2009/10/bakers-twine-packaging/

Announcing KCRW 3rd Annual Pie Contest at LACMA

Pie Again Anyone?

If you are enthralled with the very idea of pie making and the public display of your baked goods, then you must mark your calendars for the 3rd Annual KCRW Pie Contest happening on September 18th!

http://blogs.kcrw.com/goodfood/2011/04/kcrws-3rd-annual-pie-contest-at-lacma/
We are so excited to announce that KCRW’s 3rd Annual Good Food Pie Contest will be held at LACMA on September 18. Details still to come, but we expect to be loads of fun. Expect great judges, loads of pie, another apron fashion show and plenty of family friendly activities.

Don't miss out on this chance to make, taste and view hundreds of pies at LACMA this year. What could be more pleasing than seeing a bunch of scrumptous pies on exhibit at LACMA this fall? Plus, it's a society event not to miss!

So get your buns on down to LACMA on September 18th and yours truly will be there with a pie to knock your socks off! And for those of you nearby, I will be making tester pies to prepare for the event with scheduled tastings on my back patio!


xoxo

Hallelujah, Polygamy Porter!

'Hallelujah! Polygamy Porter by Wasatch Brewing Company is my favorite novelty beer in my fridge right now! The color reminds me of a rich cup of coffee and goes down like butter. It's quite tasty and at the same time satisfies my rebellious side. And to clarify -- I was never and never will be a polygamous!

The Urban Sanctuary of Griffith Park

I'm sitting in one of my favorite places, indulging in the best cup of cheap, diner-style coffee with the sun glistening on my face at the Roosevelt Cafe in Griffith Park.

Several mornings a week, I hike up into Griffith park to maintain my girlish figure and to experience the sacred beauty of the nation's largest urban park through the hiking trails and the wildlife I often encounter such as wild coyotes, little bunny rabbits, and woodpecker's.

Early one morning as I was sitting at my favorite, pale turquoise picnic table drinking coffee, all of the sudden the most majestic strong stag pranced across the street from the cafe. As it leaped up into the brush, he paused and stared into my eyes with his



before continuing on through the golf course and disappearing up into the mountainside.



I sat still in the moment, taking in all the beauty of this creature and thinking how wonderful it is to be living in a crazy place like Los Angeles, where you can escape to place like this just a few steps out your front door and take deep breath.

Dead Sexy

What girl doesn't need a good pair of smokin' eyes as a daytime and naughty nighttime reminder that a girl is still dead sexy even when times are tough.

Ladies, listen carefully...smokin' eyes is the ultimate one-stop, glam pack by Benefit and is the essential thing in my make-up bag. Smokin' eyes is simply the fastest way to give yourself those perfectly groomed eyebrows and smoldering eyes in minutes. If you are at all nervous about this, don't panic because the kit includes easy step-by-step instructions on how to make the sexiest pair of flirty eyes a girl could ever want! Be sure to finish those eyes off with Benefit's Badgal Lash Mascara too.




And don't wait to use all this stuff to out out at night either, use the kit for any daytime activity, even if you are just going to the grocery store. It's dead sexy!

Halloweeny Painted Cookies Oh My!

Polka-dot putty tat's, bluebirds, big pumpkins and happy ghosts ... oh my!

My rather talented neighbors and I decorated these adorable Halloween cookies 'til the frosting ran out. Not only did we have a professional artist on site mixing our custom frosting colors, but we also had one queen of design and little 2-1/2 year old Van to instruct us on the right way to frost a cookie.

However, the smartest cookie was revealed when Van announced "Uh oh... a bluebird cookie broke in half and I have to eat it..." as he stuffed a heavily frosted cookie in his mouth before the rest of 'em were done. My goodness, how do they figure this stuff out so young?



For a fabulous set of Halloween cookies, make this Nigella Lawson recipe, add a spiffy flavor to the dough such as lavender, lemon, or vanilla or add a little something extra to your plain old gooey glazed white frosting for something different. And don't forget to get the 2-1/2 year old tell you how to correctly decorate your Halloween cookies!





Nigella Lawson's Butter Cut-Out Cookies

3/4 cup soft unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 2/3 cups cake flour, plus more if needed
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted, and food coloring
cookie cutters
2 baking sheets, greased or lined with parchment paper

Preheat the oven to 350°F

Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat beat in the eggs and vanilla. Then in another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and eggs, and mix gently.

If you believe that your finished cookie dough is just too sticky, then add a little more flour a little bit at a time. Be sure not to overmix the dough or it will become too tough and elastic (which makes an awful heavy cookie).

Next, form the dough into two balls, wrap in plastic wrap and flatten each ball of dough into discs. Place in fridge to chill for at least one hour.

Once the dough has sufficiently chilled, place one disc at a time on a lightly floured surface. Then sprinkle a little more flour on top and roll out the disc to 1/2 inch thickness and cut out your favorite Halloween shaped cookies.

If the cookies do not come out of the cutters very easily, dip them in flour before cutting out your shapes. Be sure to place each cookie a little apart so they don't bake into one another though.

Bake 8-12 minutes until the edges are light golden. If your oven bakes uneven like mine, switch the cookie sheet around about half way through your baking time.

When you remove the cookies from the oven, let the cookies set up for a couple of minutes on the sheet before placing all of them on the cooling rack.

Once all the cookies are cooled, you are ready to frost them!

To make a simple white frosting that you can use to make all of your frosting colors, simply sift the confectioners' sugar into a large bowl, add a few tablespoons of hot, almost boiling water and mix to form a thick paste. Add more tablespoons of hot water as needed. Now mix up your pretty colors.

Frosting Variation:
(My personal frosting preference)

For a richer frosting,better tasting frosting, replace the water with hot milk and add 1/4 cup unsalted, melted butter.

Lavender Buttercream Cupcakes

I don't normally like to brag about my homemade baked goods but I think that this is one of the best damn cupcakes that I have ever made in my entire life!

If it weren't for my friend Rachel's birthday,I may have never invented these things at all.

As you know, different friends usually require different things on their birthdays. And for my friend Rachel's birthday, she just wanted cake. It didn't matter if it came in a round, rectangle, or Wonder Woman shaped cake -- she just wanted cake, any way it came, for goodness sakes! How was I to know? I thought she specifically loved only cupcakes for her birthdays -- especially the ones from Dots Cupcakesin Pasadena. Sheesh, who knew?

So, feeling all stressed about what to make her, I remembered my BFF Tonya had sent me a gorgeous little canister of Pelindaba Farms culinary lavender from the San Juan Islands, that I had tucked away for a special occasion.



And since everyone and their dog has been stressed out lately (including myself), I decided to invent some yummy/healing lavender cupcakes for satisfying both the birthday girl’s sweet tooth, and to stop me from getting my panties in a wad, or my knickers in a knot, (use whatever phrase you prefer) over useless stuff.

Now that I have taken a deep breath, I am ready to share my recipe for some damn good, yet calming lavender buttercream cupcakes!

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Buttery Cupcakes




Preheat oven: 350 F

Yields 16 cupcakes(I would double this recipe if I were you)

You will need: cupcake liners (preferably black) and a set of cupcake pans

Tips:
1. Use a high fat-content butter, like Plugra, unsalted
2. Since it's almost Halloween, you should buy up all those black cupcake
liners for the year now.


2 large eggs, room temperature
2/3 c. sour cream
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 c.(or 1 3/4 cups) sifted cake flour
1 c. superfine sugar
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
12 tablespoons(1 1/2 sticks)unsalted butter, room temperature

Mix the liquid ingredients in a small bowl, whisking the eggs, 3 tablespoons of sour cream and the vanilla until lightly combined.

To make the cupcake batter, get out your Kitchen Aid (mine has been named Laverne) and attach the flat beater.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt on low speed for 30 seconds. Then add the butter and remaining sour cream until the dry ingredients are moistened. Now turn up your mixer to medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes only and turn off. Scrape down the sides of your bowl before adding the wet ingredients.

Gently turn your mixer back on to medium low speed and gradually add the eggs in two parts, beating on medium speed for approximately 30 seconds each time. Then make sure everything is mixed and sides are properly scraped down. Batter should look buttery smooth and slowly drip off your beater.





Now get a small ice cream scoop and fill cupcake liners about 3/4 full or you may fill it half way for a flatter topped cupcake if you please. And sprinkle a little lavender on too.

Bake for 17-20 minutes depending on your oven or until golden. Use a stick of spaghetti to test the center, which should come out clean.

Cool cupcakes in the pan for 10 minutes, remove and set them on a wire rack to cool completely before dolloping each one the lavender buttercream frosting.



Lavender Buttercream Frosting

Make this about 30 minutes before you are ready to frost the cupcakes.

2 to 2 1/2 c. powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
1/4 c. or more of lavender milk

In order to make lavender infused milk, please place 1/2 whole milk, or cream in a small saucepan with a 1/2-3/4 tsp of culinary lavender. Bring the milk to a boil and remove immediately from the heat. Cover the pan and let it sit for 15 minutes or so until the lavender properly infuses with the milk. Strain milk into a small cup or bowl.

Beat 2 to 2 1/2 c. powdered sugar, 1/2 c. butter, and lavender milk with an electric mixer at low speed until well blended and smooth. If frosting becomes too thick, beat in additional milk by the teaspoonfuls until the frosting is the consistency desired.

Place a generous dollop of frosting on top and sprinkle a little more of that lavender. I suggest that you immediately eat one to stay calm while you frost the rest!

BTW, you should store your cupcakes in air-tight containers that don't mess up your frosting,and keep your cupcakes as fresh as possible for the next couple of days (if they last that long that is...).



HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHEL!