Baking Bucket List

I have a bucket list, but it isn't just a normal bucket list, it is a baking bucket list. It is all things baking that I someday want to try making and possibly master. I have a list of recipes that I have always wanted to try and I'm always making the same things over and over again that I don't try the new recipes, so this is the way I am going to get to the recipes, My Bucket List!!!

1. Angel food cake
2. Apple pie Lattice top 11/7 
3. Babka cake 
4. Bagels 
5. Baguettes 
6. Baked Alaska 
7. Baklava 
8. Banana bread 
9. Banana cream pie 
10. Banana pudding 
11. Bananas foster 
12. Beignet 
13. Biscotti 
14. Black and white cookies 
15. Black Forrest cake 
16. Blackberry grunt 
17. Blondies 
18. Blueberry buckle 
19. Blueberry muffins 
20. Blueberry pie 
21. Boston cream pie 
22. Bread pudding 
23. Breadsticks 
24. Brownies 
25. Bundt cake 
26. Butter cake 
27. Buttermilk biscuits 
28. Cake balls 
29. Cake in a jar 
30. Cannolis 
31. Carrot cake 
32. Challah 
33. Checker board cake 
34. Cherry clafoutis 
35. Chiffon cupcakes 
36. Chocolate cheesecake 
37. Chocolate chip cookies 
38. Chocolate cream pie 
39. Chocolate lava cake 
40. Chocolate moouse 
41. Churros 
42. Ciabatta 
43. Cinnamon rolls 
44. Cinnamon swirl bread 
45. Club crackers 
46. Cobbler 
47. Cookie bouquet 
48. Cream Cheese Icing11/16 
49. Cream horn
50. Cream puffs 
51. Creme brûlée 
52. Crisp 
53. Croissants 
54. Crumb cake 
55. Custard tart 
56. Danish 
57. Devils food cake 
58. Divinity 
59. Donuts 
60. Eclairs 
61. English muffins 
62. Flan 
63. Flour less chocolate cake 
64. Fortune cookies 
65. Fritters 
66. Fudge 
67. Funnel cake 
68. German chocolate cake 
69. German pancakes 
70. Gingerbread men and house 
71. Gluten free cake 
72. Gold fish crackersUse sharp Cheddar 11/12 
73. Graham crackers 
74. Homemade hostess cakes 
75. Homemade nutter butter 
76. Homemade Oreos 
77. Homemade sandies 
78. Ice cream cones 
79. Ice cream sandwich 
80. Jill's bread 
81. Keylime pie 
82. Lemon bars 
83. Lemon meringue pie 
84. Macaroons 
85. Madeleine's 
86. Maple cookies 
87. Meringue 
88. Molasses cookies 
89. Monster cookies 
90. Moon cake 
91. Muffins 
92. New York cheesecake 
93. Nutella cookies 
94. Oatmeal cookies 
95. Olive oil bread 
96. On top of the stove cookies 
97. Pain au chocolat 
98. Parker house rolls 
99. Pavlova 
100. Pecan pie 
101. Petit fours 
102. Pineapple upside down cake 
103. Pinwheel cookies 
104. Pita bread
105. Pop tarts 
106. Popover 
107. Pound cake
108. Puff pastry 
109. Pull a parts 
110. Pumpkin Pie Cake11/17 
111. Pumpkin roll 
112. Red Velvet Brownies11/16 
113. Red velvet cake 
114. Rhubarb pie 
115. Rice pudding 
116. Ritz 
117. Roulade 
118. Royal Icing11/16 
119. Rugelach 
120. Saltine crackers 
121. Scones 
122. Seven layer bars 
123. Short bread 
124. Snicker doodles 
125. Soft pretzels 
126. Sopapillas 
127. Soufflé 
128. Soup bowl 
129. Sourdough 
130. Spice cake 
131. Sponge cake 
132. Stollen 
133. Strawberry shortcake 
134. Strudel 
135. Sugar cookies11/16 
136. Tarts 
137. Texas sheet cake 
138. Tres leches 
139. Truffles 
140. Turnovers 
141. Vanilla wafers 
142. Whoopie pies 
143. Yule log 
144. Zebra cake 
145. Zucchini bread

 So, that's it! Just kidding this is an on-going list, I will always be adding to it and maybe even removing somethings but eventually I will have everything on the list striked-through.

The Wedding Cake Shop

I told you before that I really want to go to the Culinary School, well, my plans fell through and I couldn't get the funding to go to school. So I started my job search, I decided since I can't go to school I'll work instead. I tried a few different places and I wasn't very successful with any of them. My Sister in law told me about a lady she knew that owns at a Wedding cake shop. I got in touch with her and I went in to meet her, she told me that she wasn't hiring right now but she was losing some people in the beginning of 2012. She asked me what I want to do. I told her I really want some training, like an internship or apprenticeship. She told me she could train me and possibly hire me on when she loses her staff. I was so excited. She asked me that day if I wanted to stay and work with her for a while. I said yes. She was decorating some white chocolate leaves.
Chocolate Leaves
What you do is pick some leaves from a tree, non-poison, non-hairy, clean leaves. You wash them with soap, dry them, and lay them face down on a paper towel. Melt some white chocolate rounds and coat the backside of the leaf where the veins are, it will make an impression. It is very easy and fun to do.

I decided that instead of telling you all the little secrets I learn, I will tell you one every once in a while. I gotta have some to myself, right?
Well, anyway, thanks for reading!!!

Carrot Cake!!!!

Today I made carrot cake but I did not photograph it because I made it for my brother's wedding on Saturday. I had never made carrot cake before and I was a little hesitant to make it but the recipe I chose was highly recommended by my cousin, so I did it. I tasted a little crumb of it, it is good. The next couple days I have to finish the cake, put frosting and fondant on it, and decorate it, then on Saturday I will present it to them. BTW my soon-to-be-sister-in-law got the cake toppers for the cake, they are of a man fishing with a wedding band and a bride being hooked.

Anyway, the recipe is as follows.

Carrot Cake.

4 eggs
1 1/2 cups good tasting vegetable oil (very important)
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon

3 cups finely chopped carrots

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Beat the eggs and the oil in an electric mixer until combined. In a separate bowl combine sugar, flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Grate, chop, or use your blender/food processor to cut the carrots.
Add the dry ingredients to the mixer slowly. Let mix until combined, then add the chopped carrots. Mix well.
Prepared your cake pans with spray and parchment paper and split the batter between them. I did two 9 inch round pans and two 6 inch round pans for this recipe.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 mins, check with a tooth pick and let cool on wire racks.

Finish your cake with a good cream cheese frosting and enjoy!!!


Cream Cheese Frosting

1/4 cup butter (softened)
8 ounces cream cheese (softened)
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar

Mix the butter and the cream cheese then add the vanilla, and powdered sugar.


Now you can enjoy!!!!

White Cake!!!

Okay so I did not make this cake recently, I made it in march for my brothers birthday. He is in New Mexico so he couldn't try it but the rest of the family did and I think that it was delicious.

To Begin, Clean your Kitchen.



Then put on your Apron.



Then you can start your cake just read through the recipe first and a few times.

White Cake Recipe

1 1/2 sticks butter
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup sugar(for egg whites)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 cups plus 2 Tablespoons AP flour
6 Tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 1/4 cups milk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
6-8 large egg whites (3/4 cup)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare 2 - 9x2in round cake pans by spraying with non-stick cooking spray and line each with a round of parchment paper.

Instructions

1. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and 2 cups of sugar at high speed until lighter in color and fluffy.

2. Sift the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt on to a piece of parchment paper.

3. Mix the milk and vanilla together in a bowl.

4. Add the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients alternatively to the batter, ending with the dry ingredients.

5. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy.

6. Add the cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form.

7. Slowly add the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.

8. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold a little of the egg whites into the batter, then add the remaining whites, until just combined.

DO NOT OVER MIX THE BATTER OR ELSE IT WILL DEFLATE!

9. Pour the batter into the pans equally, and bake for 25-35 mins (check it after 25 mins), until the cake tester/tooth pick comes out clean.

10. Cool the cakes for 15 mins in their pans then turn out on to wire racks to cool completely. Prepare the cake how you want to or layer and frost.

Collect your ingredients,



and preheat your oven.



Prepare your pans.




Beat the butter and sugar.



Sift together the dry ingredients. (I do not have a sift so I mixed them alternatively with the flour.)



Mix the milk and the vanilla.



Add the dry and the wet ingredients alternatively, end with the dry ingredients.



In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy, then add the cream of tartar until soft peaks form, then add the 1/2 cup of sugar until stiff peaks form.



Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in egg whites.



Pour batter into pans and put into oven.



While waiting for the cake to bake, clean your kitchen and do the dishes. And wait until you can test the cake with a toothpick.



Cool the cakes in the pans 15 mins, then cool them completely out of the pan, then prepare the cake, stack them, and frost them. Then prepare your fondant and cover the cake, That's what I did.



This is my finished Cake!!! Happy Birthday Brother!!!



I video called my brother on Skype so he did get to see this cake and I put pictures up on Facebook too. When he comes up for his wedding he will get an even better cake, YAY!!!

Thanks for reading!!!

I Love to Bake!!!!

When I was a little girl I always wanted to be an artist. For Christmas' and Birthdays, I would always ask for art supplies, a new art set, a new pack of crayons, anything that I could draw or color with. I always said I wanted to be an artist. When Toy Story 2 came out, my sister would always make fun of me at the part where Prospector Pete and the Barbie Doll are in the backpack and Barbie says, "You'll love Amy, she's an artist". My sister would say, "You'll love Andria, she's an artist"!
I had this plan so ingrained into my head that I still to this day want to be an artist. As I grew older I realized that I am very creative but not very good at the normal mediums of art, I've tried drawing, painting, and oil pastels. I liked what I did and had fun doing it but it was very beginners work. I've tried ceramics and photography but I am absolutely in love with baking. I believe that baking is a medium of art all its own, you have to know what your doing in order to get the right outcome. You have to know what goes together and what an ingredient does to the recipe.
For the last few years I have known that I want to go into baking, I have researched recipes and techniques. I would watch the Food Network or the Cooking Channel and take notes. I am always looking through cookbooks or magazines looking for new things to try and taste.
I have a grandmother who was a wonderful cook and she loved to bake. I inherited her cookie press, cookie jar, and her decorators bags and tips. I was so excited I cried. These were definitely the best things I could have gotten. I will always remember her as I bake.
This May, I am graduating from Salt Lake Community College. This fall I would like to go to the culinary school nearby and get into the baking/pastry program. I am scared but so excited to get started on my dream of becoming a baker.