Baby, It's cold outside...

Que frio que hace... y es diciembre!! I still can't get used to associating cold weather with the end of the year. I do associate it with the holiday season, just not with the end and beggining of a new year. I know it sounds odd, but the holiday season is such an American thing for me. I grew up celebrating Christmas and New Year's by the pool and watching fire works, so that is the end of the year to me. The holiday season is English Christmas songs, cold weather and crazy shopping season... but this year is a bit different, there is a LOT of baking going on.

This Friday is the Biblioball so I've been getting ready for it. Today I worked on the fillings for the empanadas and tomorrow I'm baking cookies all day. I already worked on the cake pops, since they are time consuming but once made, they last up to two weeks in the fridge. I made three kinds:

• Vanilla

Also known as my Christmas tree farm...

• Red Velvet as Santa Hats
  

• Reindeer Chocolate Cake Pops

They are so cute, I kept giggling while making them  :)

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Post Thanksgiving - Pre Christmas Craziness.

After last week's Thanksgiving orders, I really needed a break from the kitchen. I love the actual baking, I'm just not used to being up on my feet all day long and with all the cleaning up, labeling and packaging I was ready to spend some time outside my tiny kitchen. Thanksgiving  was exactly what i needed. I had a great meal, a bonfire, fresh Connecticut air, great turkey and amazing spicy sausage stuffing. mmmm...


Another great thing about my Thanksgiving? I got orders for Christmas! Woohoo!! This time they will be shipped to different locations and as - wait for it.... -  corporate gift packages instead of my usual cookie bags, so today I went on a mission to find cute, sturdy, green and price conscious packaging... ehh... my feet hurt and came back with random baking supplies... How did that happen? I'm not sure. I realized it was too much to ask for. If it was cute, it was too small... if it was green, it was ugly and if it was sturdy, it wasn't green and more expensive than what was gonna be inside of them. Boo to packaging! It's so wasteful yet so necessary. How about a cookie postcard?

You don't need to write anything in it, when you get this in your mailbox, you can just assume someone feels you deserve a treat. Peel the stamp, and enjoy! And- how cute are the Simpsons stamps?

I will be very busy starting next week getting ready for the Biblioball 2009. I will selling baked goods at the fundraiser which is hosted by The Desk Set and the proceeds go to literacy for incarcerated kids. Check out their website for tickets! They expect between 300 and 450 people at the event so that's a lot (a LOT) to prepare for. Wish me luck!

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Come out, come out...

Tomorrow, Saturday November 21st the Greenpoint Food market returns...

I'll be selling:
-Spicy Beef Empanadas
-Spinach & Mushroom Empanadas
-Chocolate Cake Pops
-Red Velvet Cake Pops
-Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake Pops
-Hazelnut Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies
-Double Chocolate Mint Cookies
-Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I'm really sorry for the short notice, I was busy baking all that good stuff... Hope to see you there!

Also- I finally created a Facebook page for La Tia Faby, so check it out!

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Turkey day is around the corner...

In case you were wondering why I haven't been posting anything... This is why:

I made these pops using a friend's Raspberry Jello Shot Chocolate Cake (longest cake name ever) recipe, they have vodka and creme of cacao. I covered the tip of some candy corns with chocolate and used them as the feathers, and chocolate covered sun flower seeds for the beaks... aren't they adorable?

I will be selling baked goods at a fundraiser on december 11th, and since it's a winter ball, why not winter- themed baked goods?

So I baked some delicious Double Chocolate Mint cookies... unfortunately, being busy baking... I forgot to take pictures of them... and now they are gone.. oops! I have to do some minor changes to the recipe so once I bake them for the fundraiser, I'll make sure to document every single crumb.

I also made more cupcake pops (of course). These were vanilla ones with sprinkles and covered them in white and dark chocolate..

Yuuumm...

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Soooo Cheesy...

Crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside... Also known as Chipa, these little pao de queijo are addictive. It took me quite a while to finally come up with the right recipe. These little cheese puffs are so delicious... and they are gluten free!

Pao de queijo are inexpensive snacks usually sold by street vendors in heated containers in Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Bolivia. They are made with Tapioca Flour which is used a lot in South America but a little hard to find here in the US (but wholefoods has it, of course).

Believe me, if you like cheese, you'll love these. I baked these on a quiet afternoon during the past fourth of July weekend we spent with a group of friends up in this amazing house we rented in Maine. They are super easy to make, and they are to die for when you eat them right out of the oven and paired with a nice glass of wine.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of soy milk
• 1 teaspoon of salt
  
• 1/2 cup of butter
• 1/2 teaspoon of chopped garlic
• 2 cups of Tapioca flour
  
• 1 1/2 cups of grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 eggs

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven at 400 degrees F (200 degrees C)
2. In a sauce pan, bring the milk, salt and butter to a quick boil (cut the butter in smaller pieces, so it melts faster).

3. Once it comes to a boil, remove it from the heat and add the Tapioca Flour and garlic. Don't worry, the Tapioca flour didn't go bad... it just smells odd.
4.  Mix it until its all combined and let it cool for 10 minutes.

5. Add the eggs one at a time mixing well after each addition.
6. Finally add the cheese. 
7. Make little balls (size of a walnut) and place them 1" apart from each other on a baking sheet.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. Bake for 20 minutes. They should be golden brown, they might look a little oily in the oven just because the cheese is melting,  but they won't be oily once you remove them from the oven.
9. Enjoy!!

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A picture is worth a thousand words...

My sister-in-law has an amazing camera, so I had to take some pictures of my creations... Here is my cookie runway!

Hazelnut Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chunk Cookies

 Almond Biscotti

The packaging.

 

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Boo!!!

This past week after making the Alfajores de Maicena, I worked (very hard) on a Halloween/ birthday cake and tons (tooons) of ghost cake pops. I made the chocolate ones again, and also made some red velvet cake pops for an order my boyfriend got for me from some of his coworkers.

The cake was a black forest: rich chocolate cake, whipped cream, cherries and covered with an awesome chocolate ganache. This is the cake filling... you can already guess my fourth of july cake for next year.

I stressed out when it comes to decorating the cake; I feel confident when it comes to the taste, but not so much when it comes to looks. I think that's another reason why I love covering cakes in a nice rich chocolate ganache, it's very hard to mess that up, and it always looks so pretty and shinny...

I'm totally scared to work with fondant, and I don't really like the taste of it, but i'll use it one of these days, and tell you how it goes.

The ghost pops I made were a rich chocolate covered with white chocolate melt, and drawn with an edible pen, not sharpie. Here is a picture of my little ghost army that i had to post because it's too cute.

 For Halloween this year I had a very low cost costume; I was little red riding hood; I reused a red cape i got as a gift when i celebrated my birthday at medieval times a couple of years ago and wore red tights i bought for Santacon. The best part of my costume was the white basket i got from goodwill and filled it with pops to carry around and give away.

Boo! Happy late Halloween!

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