Back to Baking - Fall Assignments

My mind has not really been on baking and blogging lately - too many other things going on.

But now my kids are all settled and life seems to be returning to a more regular routine. The weather has been a little cooler...

It's time to hit the books, find some new recipes, crank up the oven and

GET BACK TO BAKING!

I've got long lists of fall assignments for myself:

READING - Read Peggy Porschen's new book Peggy's Favourite Cakes & Cookies. Also, read my favorite blogs more often and look for new blogs to read.

WRITING - Write one blog post every week - due by 9:00 pm every Sunday.

ARITHMETIC - Work on fractions to develop some new sugar cookie recipes.

ART -  Tweek/update the look of Sugar and Meringue

SOCIAL STUDIES - Spend more time writing comments and posting to Facebook in order to get to know other bakers better.

SCIENCE - Experiment with new ingredients, tools and techniques

So - that's what I hope to accomplish this fall. What do you have planned? Any new cookbooks you're reading or recipes you want to try?

Chevron Cupcakes

It's been a few weeks since my last post and so much has happened I'm not even sure where to start. I'll just give you a brief recap of some of the main events:

• I joined the board of our city's Arts Council and helped with a benefit for them. I'm excited to get more involved with the arts in our community and to work to support the programs the Arts Council provides but I'm also feeling totally uninformed and unqualified to be on the board. Oh well - guess I'll just have to wing it for a while.
• I made cupcakes and a little cake for a friend's wedding. 12 dozen. I've only done 1 other wedding so I was super nervous and stressed but with my mom's help everything turned out fine. I even managed to deliver them to the hotel, about 40 miles away, with out ruining any of them. The bride was happy! Phew! (unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to get any good photos)
• We took our daughter to college in Boston. The logistics, the emotions... It was kind of tough. But she's there now and I think she chose the right school. She's going to have so many great experiences. I'm really excited for her. But, she won't be able to come home until Christmas and I'm going to miss her.

Anyway...

Chevron Cupcakes

I've had a thing for chevron patterns lately and after seeing some chevron cake designs on Pinterest, I've been dying to try some chevron cupcakes or cookies. So, that's what I did with some of the extra cupcakes and fondant that I had from the wedding. The first attempts don't look that great and by the time I'd gotten the technique figured out, I ran out of fondant and cupcakes but it was a fun little project anyway.

I'm Dreaming of a White Kitchen

Source: gallery.apartmenttherapy.com via Emily on Pinterest

Source: caitlinwilsondesign.blogspot.com via Emily on Pinterest

Source: kitchenisms.com via Emily on Pinterest

I MUST paint my 1990s honey-oak kitchen cabinets white. Just have to figure out how to get the hubby on-board. Hmmm...

Boston Terrier Birthday Cookies

We have a slightly crazy Boston Terrier that we love to death and, whenever there's a birthday, we usually find a cute/funny Boston card for the birthday person. (It's just a goofy thing we do.)

Tomorrow is my dad's birthday and I didn't get a Boston card so I thought I'd just make Boston cookies. They ended up looking kind of girly and really not right for my dad at all. But - I think he'll be okay with them. He's always supportive of my ideas and endeavors even when they're a little off.

Update on Monday, July 25, 2011 at 9:25PM by Emily Reiman

I've gotten a few compliments on the zig zag cookies. I took photos of these cookies in progress so I thought I'd post them on flickr so you can see how I went about making them. The photos aren't the greatest but hopefully you'll get the idea.

Zig Zag Cookies Start-to-Finish on Flickr

How to Make Granny Square Cookies!

In honor of my favorite Yarn Bombers and National Sugar Cookie Day...

The tutorial is here.

Apologies for the bad photo quality.