Silhouettes

For the past two weeks I had been searching for a way to bake something with an Olympic theme. I didn’t know if I wanted to make a cake, cookies, or a pie so I kept holding off. At the beginning of this week I had an idea and instead of thinking about it for too long I just ran with it.

If you’ve been watching the Olympics you’ve seen the Olympic figures or as I call them silhouettes. They are the little images that represent a sport or event and are shown generally at the bottom of the screen. I looked at past Olympic games and each comes up with their own version of the images kind of like a font you would write with. I printed out this year’s silhouettes and traced them in chocolate to act as cupcake toppers. This is the result:

 

Olympic images on cupakes in chocolate

Tennis, running, gymnastics, fencing, soccer, swimming, biking, and diving

 

The cupcakes themselves are chocolate Oreo cupcakes with cookies and cream icing. These cupcakes were absolutely delicious…having a soft spot for Oreos I admit I’m biased. Once each cupcake was iced I gave each one a silhouette.

After watching the games and being so proud of all the Americans who have competed and medaled I was very happy to finally bake something Olympic.

Cinnamon Roll Pie Crust

I found a great pie crust idea on the internet last week and I couldn’t wait to test it out over the weekend. I got home from work and went right to the kitchen to test out a cinnamon roll pie crust…yup, I said a cinnamon roll pie crust. The idea is so simple and the only ingredients needed besides your usual pie crust are butter and cinnamon.

In the end I made an apple crumb pie with a cinnamon roll crust. Just like in past baking endeavors I took pictures along the way to share how I made it. I started with a rolled pie crust, spread some butter on it, and added cinnamon. I then rolled the crust back up and began to slice it into small pieces to place in the bottom of the pie crust. Once the crust was filled I took the back end of a spoon to press the pieces together and avoid holes in the crust. Then the pie was filled and baked just like a normal pie. It was delicious!

Pie crust with butter and cinnamon.

Rolled up and sliced

Flattened with a spoon

Baked apple crumb pie with visible cinnamon swirls.

Held up for a photo op! The perfect slice of pie to be topped with vanilla ice cream!

Reese’s #1

Raise your hand if you like Reese’s peanut butter cups. While I can’t see who raised their hands chances are most of you reading did. I’ve named this post “Reese’s #1” because it is going to be the first of many baked goods using these delicious candies. Not only do many of my friends love Reese’s cups but there are so many great recipes using them that I would love to try. So without further ado here is Reese’s #1:

Another birthday was upon me at work and the request my friend had was something chocolate mousse and possibly including peanut butter. I was a little perplexed as to how to combine these two flavors since they generally aren’t put together. I turned to a recipe book and made a delicious light chocolate mousse pie. This took care of the chocolate mousse part of the request but now onto covering the peanut butter part. Often mousse pies are topped with a whipped topping and I wanted to do just that. In order to make the topping different I mixed ordinary whipped topping (Cool Whip) with 2 tablespoons of peanut butter and chopped Reese’s cups. Here is a picture of that combination in action:

Cool Whip, 2 tablespoons peanut butter, and 16 chopped Reese’s cups

This method of changing Cool Whip was shockingly delicious; my mother who doesn’t even like Reese’s cups enjoyed it. I can see making this topping for various other desserts such as brownies or simply on ice cream.

Topping the pie with the whipped topping I added just a few more chopped peanut butter cups and there you have it. The pie was delicious and I’m so glad that everyone at work enjoyed it as well.

If you have any ideas for either an Olympic themed baked good or a Reese’s post let me know!

 

A College girl baking

Today being August first I convinced myself to start looking at my college stuff, what I have, don’t have, and should throw out. Everything that usually comes with me to school has been sitting in a giant pile in the basement since December since none of it came with me to Italy last semester. A few of my new housemates for this upcoming semester have started talking about what we all can contribute to the house common areas and I have been in denial that it’s time to have such discussions. Admittedly I am no where close to being mentally prepared for another semester of classes, that is unless I were going back to Italy…which isn’t happening. 😦

In cleaning out I found that I didn’t have as much kitchen ware as I had expected or remembered. It is possible that some things got lost or simply got remixed back into my home kitchen but from what I could tell I needed a few things. On this rainy day I headed out to Bed Bath and Beyond to really just look around and see what might strike me. And boy did something strike me! I walked right into the bake-ware aisle and spent about 20 minutes deciding what I should get, I could use it all. In the end I looked to the boxed sets and began comparing prices and components from each of the major bake-ware companies. This is what I ended up choosing:

I have found the Wilton brand to be great and their products are very reliable. This set (for only $35!!!!) has a cookie sheet, 13×9 cake pan, muffin pan, loaf pan, and two 8 inch rounds. So c’est la vie I bought myself this present. I even broke in the muffin pan with corn muffins simply because.

 
All in all I want no one to fear, even though I have to go back to school soon I will still be baking. I’m actually pretty certain that taking baking breaks between Calculus problems helped me pass the course. If you ask me, that’s the best study tactic I have ever tried, and it tasted pretty good too!

 
If you are a fan of Reece’s be sure to check back on Friday for a new post about a delicious looking treat!