German Chocolate Cake

Sorry everyone I have been a very bad baker recently and have avoided my blog posts for quite awhile. It's not like I haven't baked anything, quite the opposite, I've been super busy so yeah, that will be my excuse, I've been to busy to think of witty and useful things to tell you all. I guess I need to determine what I really want my blog to be about, it seems like recipe sharing is really popular if you stick with easy things to make, or how too video's are popular as well, but personally, I have no desire to put my voice to a how too demonstration :) So, I think I will just go mainly with recipes that I've made so everyone can try them or just look at them. Some of these will be items I sell and I will post the recipes because it's some that are readily available to anyone, so it's not like I'm giving away company secrets, right?

First up:

German Chocolate Cake with Coconut Pecan Frosting


What you need for the cake:

4 oz. or 1 Baker's German Chocolate bar
1/2 water
4 eggs, separated
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup buttermilk

Heat over to 350 degrees. Spray 2-9 inch cake pans and line with wax paper.

Combine chocolate bar and water in micro safe bowl and cook for 1 min., stir, and put back in for 30 more seconds. If mixture is smooth when stirred, it's ready. Set aside.

Separate eggs. Put egg white is a mixing bowl and beat on high until stiff peaks hold. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Next, in your mixer bowl, beat your butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in vanilla.  Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Next adding alternate flour and buttermilk to you batter. Once everything is combined, slowly fold in your egg whites until incorporated.

Divide batter evenly among both pans and bake 30 min. or until toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and immediately run a knife around the edges to loosen (be sure you do this, or it will stick). Let cool for 15 minutes, then remove from pans and cool completely.

Coconut Pecan Frosting

1 can evaporated milk (12 oz.)
4 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter
7  ounce package coconut
1 1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Combine milk, yolks, sugar and butter in a saucepan and cook over medium heat for about 12 min.or until mixture is thickened. Stir constantly as it will scorch easily. Once mixture is thickened, remove from heat and stir in vanilla, add coconut and nuts. Mix well and let cool completely.

I like this frosting so much that I want it all over and in the middle of the cake. I'm not a big fan of just putting it between the layers and on top. I put a nice thick layer in the middle of the cakes and piped a damn of chocolate fudge frosting to hold it all in. Then I covered it completely in the yummy coconut frosting and then piped a little bit of decoration around the bottom and then on the top of the cake.

This is a very moist and yummy cake if you like coconut, nuts and chocolate. It's a fairly costly cake to make so be warned. The chocolate bar alone is $3. But then again, nothing is inexpensive anymore. Happy Baking!

Tammy
Fluffybutt Cookies Etc.

Caramel Apple-Brownie Cheesecake!!!

 

Wow, can you believe it is September and today is the last official holiday of summer? In a way it makes me sad as I never look forward to winter. I love warm weather and have actually really enjoyed the one we have had. Of course this summer has been very unusual in Missouri because normally our summers are extremely hot and humid, but this year, due to almost no rain for months and months, the humidity has been somewhere from 0-35%. I can imagine this is the type of hot, dry heat that those living in the desert areas enjoy. Another bonus to this weather, at least for me, is very few sinus or migraine headaches!

 

So back to baking now....................I mean really, if it contains fruit, nuts and dairy, that means cheesecake is a health food, right? Aww, come on, if enough people agree then that makes it a law, right? So I hear by declare that cheesecake is one of the best all around health foods known to man :D

 

 

 

Caramel Apple-Brownie Cheesecake

 

3/4 cup chopped pecans

2 (8oz.) packages cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

4 large eggs, divided

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups peeled and diced Granny Smith apples

Caramel Apple Topping (recipe follows)

Caramel Sauce (recipe follows)

 

1) Preheat over to 350 degrees. Bake pecans in a single layer in a shallow pan 8-10 min or until lightly toasted and fragrant, stirring halfway through. Reduce oven temp. to 325 degrees. Sprinkle pecans over bottom of a greased and shiny 9-in.springform pan.

2) Beat cream cheese, granulated sugar, and vanilla at medium speed with a heavy-duty stand mixer until blended and smooth. I have found this to be the absolute most important part of making cheesecakes, make sure that cream cheese and sugar is as smooth as can be! Add 3 eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition.

3) Whisk together brown sugar, melted butter, and remaining egg in a large bowl until blended.

4) Stir together flour and next 3 ingredients; add to brown sugar mixture and stir until blended. Stir in apples. Spoon batter into prepared pan. Carefully spoon cream cheese mixture over batter.

5) Bake at 325 for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until set. Remove from oven, and gently run a knife around outer edge of cheesecake to loosen from sides of pan. (Do not remove sides of pan) Cool completely on a wire rack, about 2 hours. Transfer to your serving plate.

6) While cake is cooling, prepare Caramel Apple Topping and Caramel Sauce. Reserve 1 cup caramel sauce for another use. Spoon topping over cheesecake: drizzle with 1/2 cup Caramel Sauce.
* Recipe was taken from the September 2012 issue of Southern Living.

Step 1) Toast pecan pieces, this step can be skipped if you don't care if your pecans are toasted or not.

 

Step 2) Cream cheese mixture, try not to eat all this right out of the bowl, yummy!

Step 3) Apple Brownie mixture, mixture will be super thick

 

 

Caramel Apple Topping

 

Melt 1/4 cup butter in a large skillet over medium heat; add 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tsp.fresh lemon juice, and cook, stirring constantly with a long-handled wooden spoon 5-6 minutes or until mixture turns a light golden brown. Add 5 Large Granny Smith apples, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch thick wedges. Cook, stirring often, 15-18 minutes more or until after apples are tender and caramelized. Remove from heat; cool 20 minutes. Be sure not to overcook or you will sacrifice appearance. Not saying I had to do this step again.....well okay, I did as I'm not good at following directions but I kept the first batch to spread underneath the pretty ones. I actually skimped on the apples to begin with so this worked out okay in the end. My Granny Smith's were on the smallish side and I only used 2.5 apples in the pic above. I had bought 3 Jonathan's so I peeled and sliced these for the "pretty" apples on top :)

  

Caramel Sauce

 

Bring 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar, 1/2 cup butter, 1/4 cup whipping cream, and 1/4 cup honey to a boil in a med.saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring constantly; boil, stirring constantly, 2 minutes. Remove from heat, and cool 15 minutes before serving. Store in an airtight container in refrigerator up to 1 week. To reheat, microwave at high 10 to 15 seconds or just until warm; stir until smooth. 

Then because I am me..........I love cinnamon strusel topping so I made the executive decision to add that on top of the apples and caramel. What's a few more calories? After all, this is health food right?

 

Feel like a slice????  Here you go!

Till next time, happy baking!

Tammy
Fluffybutt Cookie Emporium ;)

P.S   A friend and I just taste tested this little baby. It is good, BUT, we decided that it really shouldn't be called a cheesecake but a dessert. I think if I made it again, and I probably will, I think I would either double the cheesecake mixture or cut the brownie portion in half. It really just depends on what you want the end result to be. But it is really good, just not what I think of when I think cheesecake :)



Fluffybutt Cookie Emporium: Buttercream Glaze anyone?

Fluffybutt Cookie Emporium: Buttercream Glaze anyone?: Okay, I hate to admit it, but I made this by mistake. Now I'm sure this has been done before....no WAIT, I know someone has made it. However...

Buttercream Glaze anyone?

Okay, I hate to admit it, but I made this by mistake. Now I'm sure this has been done before....no WAIT, I know someone has made it. However always being a chubby girl I've never been known for being the lead runner in anything! So how was this a mistake? Well let me try to explain how my happy accident happened.

I was getting all my glaze colored and bagged in order to get my bake sale cookies decorated. I was just planning on doing simple circles in one color and then placing a violet colored chocolate flower on them. Simple right? You betcha. So I have this bag of "glaze" in the fridge that was a medium purple so instead of wasting it, I just added in some white glaze and white coloring in order to get it to a very light lavender. Once I had it to a color that was okay, I put it in my piping bag and got to work. As soon as I laid down my outline on the circles, I thought hey, this is odd, but that's about as far as that thought process went and I just kept thinking I really like the way this is working. Made me wonder if it was similar to royal icing but how could it be? It was my glaze that I've been using for almost 2 years. You'd think that a "normal" person would be like, wait a minute! This is wrong, what is up with my glaze, it isn't like usual. But oh no, not me, I just kept plugging away. I think I was just working so hard to get everything done that I didn't even let my mind think too long on it. After all, I had to cut and bake almost 4 dozen cookies and get them decorated by last night, so I was pretty much on auto pilot.

So how did my happy accident happen you say? Well, I had forgotten that I had stuck some purple buttercream in the fridge from a week ago! That is what I used and mixed it with glaze. Oh my. But like I said, it was a happy thing in the end. So much so, that I'm going to try it again in a more controlled environment. My job this weekend is to bake a few cookies and just try mixing buttercream and glaze together and see how long it takes to dry! I know I like the way it performs, but drying time is going to be the test.

So if you or someone you know or follow in cyber space uses a buttercream glaze send me a link so I can go check it out. I'd go do it myself, but I'm pooped for the night after making a couple dozen football and jersey's. So goodnight my friends and until next time.....dream of cookies, cupcakes, pies and cakes and the day they will be calorie free but taste the same :)

Tammy

Zebra Cake....it's for everyone!

Hello! I've been out of the blog sphere for quite awhile. To be honest, I actually forgot about having one, but now that I've remembered.....I'm back and back with a zebra cake.

Looks complicated right? Like how do you get those stripes in there, you must have to have a magic wand that you wave right? Wrong! The zebra stripes are actually very easy.

This cake is a mix of peanut butter and chocolate, so I had to make two separate cake batters. The only difficult part of this cake is to make sure your batters are equal in thickness, which sometimes is tricky when making two different cake flavors from scratch. So if you are kind of leery of this, then by all means use a cake mix. Normally I don't like cake mixes, but in cases like this, it makes your life easier. You could also just use one flavor and make different colors of stripes. Your imagination is the only limit.

Spray 2-9 inch round cake pans and line with parchment or wax paper. I use wax paper because it works just as well and is cheaper. Just as a extra insurance policy against anything sticking, I usually give a quick squirt of spray on the top of the paper.

Take a ice cream dipper and plop one flavor of your cake in the middle of your pans, wait a minute then take a dip of the next flavor and put that into the middle of the first one. Wait another minute for it to spread a bit then keep repeating the process. I speeded up the process by banging the pans on the counter to expedite the spreading because I don't have a lot of patience. I'm sure the lady downstairs wondered what in the world I was building up here.....I'm building a cake dang it!!!!  Everybody knows you have to make a little noise to create greatness. lol  Well maybe not greatness, but it is cool looking, isn't it? I don't know how many different stripes I did, I didn't count, I just kept going until the pan was half full of batter. It took around 45 minutes for the cakes to bake. When they came out of the pans, this is what they looked like....

They looked almost like a cinnamon rolls didn't they? Mmmmmmm, cinnamon rolls....

Since these didn't dome a whole bunch, I chose to just level off the bottom one. Also, in order to preserve the striped look as best I could, I put a thin layer of chocolate frosting between the layers which allowed me more frosting for the outside. I had planned on my chocolate frosting being a dark brown but as I was almost out of cocoa, I just rocked the light chocolate. If this was one I was making for sale, it would be a darker chocolate for sure as the color combo of dark chocolate and the peanut butter ganache would pop a lot better.  Anyway, after it was all frosted I popped it into the fridge to firm up the frosting for about 5 minutes while I made the ganache. Once the peanut butter ganache had cooled a bit I poured it over the top and allowed it to drip over the edges, then I took the remainder of the frosting and piped some swirls around the base and a few on the top. Once that was finished, I took a King Size package of Reece's Peanut Butter Cups and chopped them up and scattered them over the top.

So there you have it, easy right? You get a lot of wow for little effort.

Now it's your turn! Let your imagination run wild and come up with something that is totally you!

Tammy
Fluffybutt Cookies

Strawberry Shortcake Cake-a new twist on a old favorite

Is it Summer yet? I can tell you that here in Missouri it sure feels like it's the middle of July! We hit a high today of 94, but thankfully the humidity wasn't super bad, mainly because we haven't had any rain to speak of for a couple weeks.

So what goes better with hot weather than the traditional strawberry shortcake??? My family has eaten this fresh and light delight ever since I can remember. Now me, not so much. Although I think strawberries smell wonderful and are so pretty with their bright red colors, I just cannot eat them. I know....gasp, how can anyone not like strawberries??? I don't, never have, never will.............well I have to admit I do like them in a nice daquiri or margarita, but I think it might have something to do with the alcohol. lol But one of the main reasons is the seeds, can't handle them, they are nasty and get stuck in your teeth. I have a thing with seeds. lol  Green beans is another things....big yuck, those seeds are disgusting. But I digress...............:D

So what even made me think of a cake covered in my enemy??? A order for a birthday cake and the birthday person loved strawberry shortcake. But they wanted a CAKE. So my brain was whirling quickly trying to think of a suitable alternative and then it hit me...why can't I make a strawberry shortcake CAKE???? I had never had one (of course. lol) but I was sure my thought wasn't an original one. So I told the lady that I thought I could make one of these, two layers of a white cake filled with strawberries and fluffy frosting with a strawberry drizzle. So after I said I could do it, that's when I went to our greatest resource....Google! I typed in Strawberry Shortcake Cake and up popped a bunch of recipes. See I knew I wasn't the only sheep in the flock to see the wolf. I saw The Pioneer Woman's blog and there it was, right there for me to try out. So I stopped at Aldi's to buy a couple quarts of 99 cent strawberries as well as sour cream for this soon to be master piece.
I whipped up the cake last night. I did everything by the book....this time :)  It was a
pretty simple recipe..see it at her website....just type in strawberry shortcake cake by Pioneer Woman and it should take you right too it. Sorry, it wouldn't let me copy the link.

thepioneerwoman.com/.../strawberry-shortcakecake/

Like she said, this cake bakes a nice golden color, it's just the nature of the beast. It's not burned so don't worry. The reason you use the offset spatula is because this cake DOES NOT dome on top like a normal cake. Not sure you can tell the color or not as this picture was taken after I split the cake in half.

Since the lighting in my house is terrible for taking pictures, I often head to my patio to take pictures. Hope you don't mind :)  There is almost one quart sliced and soaking in sugar in the bowl to create some wonderful juice. I saved out 4 large berries to slice for the top of the cake. Once the berries soaked for awhile it created quite a bit of juice, so I went ahead and smashed some of them up. I strained out the berries and put the juice in a sauce pan along with a bit of water and a couple tablespoons of corn starch. Since the juice is pretty pink once it's thick, I always add a bit of red coloring back to the glaze to return it to the original red color. I put both the berries and glaze back in the fridge to cool it completely before assembling the cake.

Once the cake was split into two layers, I went ahead and and made my favorite Fluffybutt fluffy frosting. You can find that recipe on my Facebook page www.facebook/fluffybuttcookies.com, look under the notes section to find it. Trust me, it's yummy and everyone thinks it's to die for :)  I spread a thinish layer of frosting on top of the first layer. This is where I started my rebel ways from the way PW did hers.

I then took half of the glaze and the strained strawberries and mixed them together. I piped a frosting damn so that the strawberries would stay confined and not try and sneak out.

Looks tasty so far doesn't it???  :D

Next comes the top layer of cake. Just take it and lay it gently onto your first layer, then do a nice crumb coat all over you cake. Set it in the freezer for about 5-10 minutes, just so the frosting is nice and firm. Finish frosting the cake.

Now it's time for my favorite part.........making it look as good as it tastes! I took the remainder of the glaze and carefully spread half of it in the middle of the cake, then took the rest and randomly let it drizzle down the sides. I tried not to do too much, just enough to make it pretty. Once I was satisfied with that, I sliced the 4 strawberries that I had reserved and arranged them on the top of the cake, then piped frosting borders around the bottom and the top. Topped the sliced berries with a squirt of frosting and one whole strawberry with the leaf and stem still on.

So there you go. Summer at it's finest....or Spring really I guess since Summer technically is still a month away. If you try this recipe let me know what you think. I know it's a fairly impressive looking gem when it's finished. My presentation is quite different from The Pioneers Woman's, both are pretty in their own way. It's just a matter of visual taste which direction you choose to take yours!!!

Enjoy and remember to keep the cats away from the frosting....they love it!

Tammy (Fluffybutt Cookies)
pioneer womans strawberry shortcake cake

Fluffybutt Cookie Emporium: Packaging..........are you impressed with nice pac...

Fluffybutt Cookie Emporium: Packaging..........are you impressed with nice pac...: This issue has recently come up in talking with another cookie person. We were discussing packaging and just how important is it in selling ...

Packaging..........are you impressed with nice packaging or not?

This issue has recently come up in talking with another cookie person. We were discussing packaging and just how important is it in selling your cookies, cakes, etc.? First off let me say that I try to be very economical with my packaging and try to come up with creative ways to make inexpensive items look custom made. But how do you feel? Do you feel that your decorating and cookie flavors are the most important part of your business and the packaging isn't a big concern? I'm not saying there is anything in the world wrong with this, because it's true, if the product inside the fancy smancy packaging isn't well done or tasty then they won't be dialing or emailing you again just because it came in a cute little package.

To me it's a very important part of the service I offer as I feel it's just as important as the product. I want to take almost as much effort with the first thing they see as I do with what's inside. I've always been that way. Just ask my family how my Christmas packages are always wrapped, sometimes the package looks much better than what's inside. lol  The gift might only have cost a couple bucks, but by golly the wrapping and bow are going to look gorgeous.

Recently I was asked to make 80 truffles, 20 packages of 4 truffle's each. Originally I was asked if I would be putting them in boxes or bags. Not thinking when she asked I said boxes, because at first it was just 10 orders and I thought I had them. Then it went to 20! I knew I did not have that many so then I started to panic. Just what WAS I going to package them in. I knew from our conversation that they were to be gifts to teachers on the last day of classes so I knew they had to be a bit more special than just throwing them into a bag and tying a bow on them. So off to Michael's I go in search of something that doesn't cost a lot because I put a pretty big discount on the order to begin with since she was trying to keep it in a budget and because she is a loyal and frequent customer. Needless to say I found nothing that was even feasible to put them in. I don't consider 3 boxes for $4 to be very reasonable for this order, so I was left with trying to figure something out. Kim from the Cookie Puzzle suggested that maybe I could find a template to make truffle boxes on the Internet. Immediately I got online to look and sure enough I found some. So back to Michael's I go to buy some cute scrap booking paper because as luck would have it was on sale....5 for $1.00....SCORE!!!  I buy some that I think would make cute packages for teachers, you know like school buses, alphabets and things like that. She also wanted little stickers that said Thank You on them and since I couldn't find them, I thought why not just print out some from Clip Art.  I found some really cute ones and emailed her and of course she picked the ones that looked nothing like the scrap booking paper I bought. lol  No big deal, I really liked these better anyway. I made several boxes and they are cute, really cute, but they still didn't satisfy my idea of pretty packaging or at least they aren't my style.

Here is what I came up with!

I think they are pretty darn cute....I still have to do the label for the green ones but I am happy with them. I really think I need a Cricut or something. Not because I want to do scrap booking but because I want to be able to make more of my own packaging. It's such a personal touch and shows that you really put a lot of thought and effort into making their purchase just for them. In the past I've used bags with bows, boxes with bows and ribbons and they were pretty, I did put effort into them and everyone always complemented the packaging. So I think it's worth it.

The bags you see above were $2.99 for 12 of them and I got them 40% off and then another 20% off that total as they were having a special that week! Then I bought 4 pieces of scrap booking paper and a couple card stocks...for like $1.00 and I still have some left over for additional bags and 50 cents for the ribbon. So you see, it was cheap packaging and I think it looks really cute. Yes it took me some time to do it, but you know what???? I enjoyed it! I've always been someone who likes to do crafty things so this is up my alley.

So before you ask the obvious question here.....I will tell you. I have cute little cups for the truffles and then I am going to individually heat seal each one and then will put two in the bottom of the bag and then two more on top of those. I feel it will work just fine :)

I am gong to try and ask more questions of my customers as to how they want their items packaged and then that will be figured into the price. I know if it's just for them, just because they want a tasty treat then they probably don't mind them just bagged and put into a box or platter, but if it's a gift then I think they are willing to pay just a tiny bit more to wow their friend, co-worker etc. with a package that's just as pretty as the gift within.

So there you have it.................what is your opinion? Packaging, does it matter, does it impress you or not? Say you have two identical sets of cookies, one is in bags with no ribbons or anything and put into a plain white box, the next one comes sealed in bags as well, closely cut off to the cookie, sitting on shredded paper that coordinates with the cookie colors, also comes in a box and tied with a bright ribbon, label and a thank you card. The price is just a bit more expensive....couple bucks. Which one would you pick?

Me..............I'd take the prettier one, just because color and packaging attracts me, and makes me feel like I am getting something much nicer when in reality I'm getting the same product, but it makes me feel happier buying the one that is happier looking.

I welcome your feedback, good or bad :)  I'd love to hear what some non-business people have to say as well as other cookie/cake people. Just want to be sure that you know I'm not saying my way is the right way, there is no right way, it's whatever makes you and your customers happy.

Have a great weekend!

This is my little not so helpful helper. Whenever I'm in the kitchen, he is in there with me. Not such a good pic of him but he's a pretty little guy :)

Oops....I'm a week late with the Buttercream transfer

First let me start this post by saying I'm sorry it's so late. I believe I promised I would post the how to on buttercream transfers last week and things got so crazy busy I never got the chance. But here is the promised post!

Okay people, listen up................I must confess that my buttercream transfer was a dismal failure! Failure, failure, failure, I don't know what else to say. It wasn't pretty..well it was as pretty as writing can be until I put the background buttercream behind the lettering and that my friends is when it all went to pot or should I say smoosh city. I think the lesson here is that buttercream transfers do not work well on any design or writing that has no give and take. At first I thought it was because maybe the frosting was too soft and that made it smoosh, so bright chick that I am, I thought, hey, I will put just the lettering in the freezer, firm it up, THEN put on the background buttercream and it will be perfect, no flaws and it will work like a charm..hmmmmmmmmmmpppppffffffffffff, guess I am not as brilliant and innovative as I thought, it didn't make a difference, it still smooshed and was unusable. So here are my pics...

First person that guesses what this is ......wins, one million dollars! Just kidding, don't start spending that money already! Okay, okay it's just plain white buttercream, nothing exciting :)

First step after making your frosting is to get your image ready. Print out your image or whatever picture you are using. Make sure the paper is thin enough to see through as you need to turn the image over and trace it so that the image is backwards. You could actually just put parchment paper over your image and trace it, then turn it over when you are ready to pipe. I didn't have any parchment paper and until now, I never thought about using it.............I used wax paper. Since I used wax paper, I placed my image under the wax paper  and taped both of them to a piece of plexi-glass with the wax paper on top, as that is what I was piping on. The reason I used plexi-glass is so that I could look under it and see what the image was going to look like when it was completed. (The frosting you see looks like a royal blue but it actually was a bit darker). Next, let the piping begin!

Hold onto your socks, it's starting to get exciting here....lol   If you have a image that has a outline on it, that will need to be done first. Think of it like you are getting dressed. The outline is first, which is you shape, your eyes, nose and body parts are the next to go on, the parts that are seen anyway (well, you know what I mean...right?), then clothing and finally your shoes. I hope that makes sense.

Ta Dah! This is the completed image before I put the buttercream on the back and ruined it.

Here I took a picture of the image without the plexi-glass behind it and below, with the original image still on the back. The one below is what it should look like on a white cake.

See above is the beginning of the end of my transfer. You plop it down and spread it lightly over your image. I guess I was so irritated and disappointed that I didn't take a picture to show you what it looked like after I put that frosting on..........but believe me it made the letters go all wonky and they ran together, not pretty. I just folded it all up together and trashed it!

After you successfully get the buttercream on the back of your image you then stick it in the freezer for at least a hour, preferably overnight. Be sure you are ready to put it on your frosted cake because it doesn't take long to thaw and you want it still firm when you place it on your cake and remove the wax paper. Peel the wax paper back slowly so you are sure not to tear your transfer. Smooth out the background with your cake frosting!

Hey what's that little guy doing in here? Crazy Angry Bird! Actually I just wanted to show you a picture of one that did work. This was a practice one but it did work out pretty good.

And this is the final Angry Birds cake with buttercream transfers. The images moved a bit but not much. So see, it can work, just not with letters.

Here is the final product for the Columbia College graduation cake. I had to just go and do it the tired and true way of just piping it onto the cake by hand and do the best I could with it. I should have tried doing the hat as a transfer but I was running out of time so I just drew it on the cake.

So there you have it. My grand tutorial on transfers. The good, the bad, the ugly, failure and success! They do work so don't be afraid to try your hand at it, I'm sure you will succeed!

Happy baking!

Tammy

Tomorrow night................how to make a buttercream transfer!

Tomorrow night I will be working on a buttercream transfer to put on a graduation cake order I have for Friday delivery. It's actually going to be a simple one, but that's good right? I will just show the basics and then you will be able to make them on your own! This will only be my second one I've attempted so I'm a newby at this as well but you can learn from my mistakes and take whatever good you find from it when you do your own. It's not hard at all, just intimidating at first :)  So tune in tomorrow night! The final product will not be posted until Friday night, but at least you can see the transfer and how to do it before you transfer it onto your cake. YOU can do any picture you want, believe you can and you will.

Fluffybutts say..........beware of fleas, they bite

Later my friends,
Tammy

Do you love Cupcake Wars and fantasize about what you can create?

Let me start by saying that I LOVE watching Cupcake Wars! I DVR it every week and sometimes watch it while it's recording as well. I just find it fascinating what these contestants are able to create in a very short time with some really weird ingredients. Now with that being said, here are my observations and really questions about this show. So if any of you have been lucky enough to be on the show, please relieve my curiosity :)

1) I think I read that you apply to be on the show...okay, I can understand this one. What are their requirements and how do they pick who they want? (I have no ambition to be on, I am just curious, you know, like a cat).

2) During the opening of the show you see the contestants in their home turf and they are packing up ingredients and equipment. I am just curious why they do that because once they are on the show, you will notice that all the kitchens are set up exactly the same with the same equipment. Plus unless they know ahead of time, there is no way they would know what ingredients to bring. I mean really, who would think to bring mushrooms or bologna to put into cupcakes?

3) It's my feeling that the contestants have to have some idea of what they are going to be asked to use for ingredients? Am I wrong on this one? I mean I could be because some of their creations don't always turn out that well but then again, some of them fair really, really well. What do you think?

4) Then my final question is the 1,000 cupcake round. Do they really only get that short of a time period to bake that many cupcakes? I mean that's a lot of cupcakes and what about their visions for the display? I don't know if I could come up with anything that quickly that would wow the judges that much in that time period. Do they know ahead of time what type of event they are will be designing for?

I know, questions, questions, questions. lol

So do you fantasize about what unusual types of cupcakes that you could make? My mind just goes around and around trying to think what flavor profiles would go together. I get overwhelmed and most of the time just give up. :)  Other times I get up and throw things together but my problem is that my taste testers don't like their cupcake flavors mixed up. They are strictly chocolate or red velvet lovers. Sometimes I can't even get them to take one bite! LOL  that's no help and most of the time I like what I bake, but that's me, and I want opinions! Plus they are more than happy with cake mixes. *shakes head*, I just don't understand that. lol

I wish everyone lived close by me that would like to be a taste tester....I could help you gain a little weight and in return you would tell me if something is great, ehhhh, or gross, please throw those away and never attempt them again!

I once tried pink champagne cupcakes, one tester tried them and said they tasted like cornbread and the other one wouldn't even try it, you'd have thought he was a vampire and I had asked him to hold a clove of garlic! I actually thought they were kinda good. lol  Then, oh my, don't even think of putting a filling inside the cupcake, that's like asking a Pepsi lover to drink Coke, it just isn't a option.

My favorite really so far has been the Oreo Cookie Cupcake, it's quite good, but don't do like me and try using the bagged Oreo pieces, they just change the end product and not a 100% positive way. Granted they are still tasty, but there is something about all that yummy cream filling that makes the cupcakes. I will post the recipe at a later date, I believe I swiped it off The Brown-Eyed Bakers blog.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Here's to cupcake visions and Fluffybutt dreams :)

Tammy

Super Marketing idea or not???

Well here it is Saturday night and I sit here alone as usual. *sigh* But that's okay as it gives me time to make plans to take over the world with little handheld objects that make you squirm in delight.  Now if your mind isn't in the gutter and you realize you are on a bakers blog, then you know I'm talking about COOKIES! Yes, those delightful little buttery and sugar laden objects of pleasure for your tongue :)

A opportunity fell into my lap this week and I decided to give it a try, well actually the original opportunity was really for next weekend and when I mentioned it to my friend Kristie she said I could set up a table this weekend at her sale. When I say sale, I am talking garage sale, yard sale, tag sale, whatever you call it where you reside. Around Columbia it's either a garage or yard sale for the most part. Anyway, after my friend Lori offered me the first opportunity my mind got to spinning on what I could do. Then, when Kristie offered me up the same thing, I had to think fast since I only had 4 days to get it executed. So I'm thinking, what would be the fastest cookies I could possibly make? No, I can't just do the normal bake sale things, that isn't unique enough and really doesn't bring in many orders to be honest as most people have mastered the art of chocolate chip cookies.........although they haven't had mine. lol  Anyway, I thought, apples, baseballs, cupcake cookies, and then I had seen these cute little round cookies with bees on them from Pinterest....sorry I forgot to write down which business it was, so if you know or if it's you, then let me know and I will gladly give you/them credit. Then I thought, wow, I could actually bag up some cookie mix and offer that for sale as well as making some brownies and individually heat sealing them for sale as well. I think I baked on either Tuesday or Wednesday, then I skipped a day and spent 5 hours last night decorating those 47 cookies. For the most part I liked how most of them turned out. I got up this morning at 6:10, with the intention of being at the sale a little after 7 when she opened......that didn't happen. Didn't happen mainly because I failed to get those brownies made last night so I made them this morning. That put me way behind as it took a entire hour to bake those puppies. They were super thick!

I arrive at the sale around 8:30 with my individually bagged cookies (which I did this morning) and a red hot pan of freshly baked brownies. They really smelled good and added a nice aroma to the garage this morning! I really enjoyed the day but only sold $11 worth and I think only 1 person took a business card and because I'm a terrible salesman and didn't insist on them taking one. So I'm wondering if it's really worth all the time it takes to decorate a bunch of cookies for this type of setting? The main reason I ask is because I have two cakes to make this next week, one due on Friday and one on Sunday. Plus, Kristie and her friend Chris loved the baseball cookies and placed a order for almost 4 dozen due next Saturday. My thought is that I should just concentrate on my cakes and these cookies and forget the other sale and do as Lori suggested if I didn't have time, to just bring them business cards and they can stick one in everyones bags. I mean I would love to make a bunch for that sale as well, but I don't want to spread myself too thin and I want to do a great job on the orders that I already have as that is a sure sale, whereas this other is kind of a crap shoot.

So my wonderful friends, what are your suggestions? I want to get the exposure as it is a neigborhood sale that nets thousands of people each year. Should I do just a few, maybe a dozen cookies, just for a visual in a nice cookie jar, a few bags of cookie mix and give them business cards or should I just forget it and go with cards only?

It really is difficult for me to say no to any opportunity, but I want to do quality work on what I have.

Now I arrive finally at my original reason for this post.............do you believe garage sales are a good marketing oppotunity or not?

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Here are some pics of the cookies for the sale today :)

Have a wonderful evening my Fluffybutt friends and remember, always look where you step when you live with pets ;)

Fluffybutt (Tammy)

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes---Ta Da!!!! Beautiful...or maybe not, you be the judge :D

Who would have guessed that someone that can bake almost anything would have trouble with the simplest things? Can you make Jell-O? I can't.....not unless they it's meant to be Jell-O shots, then I am your girl! Do you find Rice Krispie Treats to be a breeze? Nope, you guessed it, I can't make those to save my life, they fall apart on me. I've no idea why I can't make them, it just doesn't work. I barely can make no-bake cookies. Whoa....hold on..........do you see a pattern here? None of these things are baked, that's why I can't make them! lol  and here for I minute I was thinking I was a complete loser. Glad I cleared that up for myself. hehehe  Well maybe I am a bit of a loser because I think even little kids can make these things :( 

Oops sorry, that has absolutely nothing to do with why I'm here tonight! I get distracted so easily and just wanted to share with my Fluffy friends my Kryptonite.

Now, to present........................part two of ice cream cupcake cones!

Here we have the beautiful aluminum pan that I cut holes into so that the cones would fit down into it and stand up to bake.....

As you can see, I started cutting on the left hand side and by the time I got to row 3, I got a lot neater and uniform in shape.

I'm sorry, I didn't take pictures last night so I can't show you how far to fill up the cones, but I will show you what happens when you put too much in, and when you do it the right way and not the Fluffybutt way.

The image on the top is where I filled the batter too high, and in the second picture where I did the correct amount. Not only does it run over if you fill it up too high, it also actually melts the cone..well sort of, maybe dissolves it might be a better term. Plus it's super messy.

Here we have a picture of the frosting and my trusty glass that I use to hold the frosting bags as I fill them. I used a number 48 open star tip to pipe the frosting.

Doesn't get much more exciting than a picture of frosting your really can't see does it?? Don't ever say I don't entertain you!

Next....a picture of all the cupcakes in their little aluminum holes :) Can you tell which ones I put too much in??? Pretty easy huh? Good thing there is yummy goodness to go on top!

 

Now it's time for the fun stuff, frosting! And before you gaze in wide wonder at my beautiful ice cream cone skills, I must confess that my parents owned a restaurant with a soft serve ice cream machine, so I had lot's of practice and was a self-proclaimed queen of the little swirly Q on top of the cones! Thank you, thank you.......I know it's a priceless gift that I possess, so please don't be jealous. Haha, like you are.

So there you have it peeps. My.... maybe not so successful attempt at ice cream cone cupcakes. I think if you try to make these, bake less than 12 at a time so the heat can circulate better around the cones. I believe I let them bake too long as the ones in the middle weren't baking at the same rate. The reason I say this is that some of the cake was a bit dry, but the frosting was awesome. It looked just like a vanilla ice cream cone and tasted oh so good! Oh, and put some more festive sprinkles on them, I forgot to buy jimmies and chocolate is all I had in the house.

I do have to confess though, that although I think these are cute, they really aren't something I myself want. I just don't care for the flavor of the cone with my cake, but I think kids would love them!

Keep those comments coming in on your experiences with these little gems. I'm hoping to learn more through your successes!

If you want the recipe for the frosting, just leave me a note and I will send it to you or if enough people want it, I will try to figure out how to post it on Facebook and then do a link to it.

Tomorrow night.................it's apples, balls, flowers and cupcake cookies.

Goodnight all my Fluffybutt friends and I hope you have a hairball free night!

Fluffybutt (Tammy)

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes.....not as simple and happy as they appear!

Whew! What a day. Have you ever have those nights when you just can't sleep? I had one of those last night. Went to bed around 11:00 and was still awake at 1:30. Finally I went to sleep and was wide awake at 5:30. Made for a rough day. I have one of the greatest bosses in the world and she let me leave early today as I was feeling pretty crudy. Anywho...............after a tiny nap I felt much better and dived right into my favorite thing....BAKING!!!

I have a order for Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes, my first attempt at it. So if you've never made them and want to try it, I will help you learn from my mistakes.

1) Mix up your favorite cake batter. For those of you that like cake mixes.....I'm sorry. lol  Just kidding, some of them are really good, it's just that I'm a purest. If you're going to say you made it, then make it from the ground up is my theory...or at least as far high off the ground you can. Not saying go out and pick the sugar cane and grind the flour, but oh if I could do that, I would love too! Wait!!!!!!!! What am I saying? Who has time for that??? LOL

2) Prepare your pan. You can stick them in a muffin tin and use something to help hold them up, or you can do as I did and buy a throw away aluminum pan which I cut slots in that the cones would fit in and (in theory) holds them upright.  You can also use this same pan to store and deliver them in so they don't fall over onto each other! I will post pics of my crudely done pan, so you can see it tomorrow.

3) Now here is the very, very, important part of the equation. Do not fill them up too far. Resist, I say resist my your urge to fill them up to the point where the cone starts flaring out. Stop right below that. Believe me, stop below that or you might have smoking little puddles of cake batter in the bottom of your sparkling clean (lol) oven and just maybe, the fire alarm will start whaling. But I'm just saying that will might happen and then you might have to put that extra aluminum pan under the cones to catch what acts like a active lava flow :) 

4) Bake them for 20 min and pull those babies out of the oven. Now if you did as I said to do, and not like I did, they will come out looking pretty and neat. If you did like me...you had to use all the ice cream cones in the package to get 12 decent looking cupcakes :) and there are 24 in the pack. I'm a slow learner, I was determined it would hold more. See I'm telling you, learn from my mistakes and don't be a know it all like me! Cause I'm often wrong. Shhh....that's just between you and me, right?

5) Let those little bad girls cool and then frost with some yummy fluffy frosting with sprinkles!

I will post pics tomorrow night since I haven't frosted them yet ;)

Then the baking continued............no I didn't stop there. Well I did for about a hour while I went and mowed the yard and went to McDonalds. When I got back home, then I started in on sugar cookies. I believe I have around 68 total. Made apples, cupcakes, circles and flowers. Planning on frosting them up tomorrow night and Friday in preperation for a garage sale on Saturday. I'm not sure what I will sell but hey, it's fun and I can hand out some business cards.

So, for tonight, goodnight my Fluffy friends and I will chat with you tomorrow after the frosting frenzy :)

Fluffybutt is headed for a cat nap!

Don't you just feel like this sometimes?

This is one of the "South Park" phrase cookies that I was asked to make for a birthday today. They LOVED them. I made 14 cookies and only one of them was a actual character :) Who else had made South Park cookies and would you like to share your photo's with me?

Happy Monday everyone!!!!  Hope everyone had a heck of a great weekend. Mine was not too bad, made some cookies and I managed to only eat 3! For me that is a great accomplishment, thankfully I was on a diet. lol

The cookies are for a guy at work and I was asked to make them by a good friend of his. She only want Cartman and sayings from South Park. So that is what I did, but I sure felt bad for having to leave out Kenny, Stan and Kyle. Then you can't forget all the rest of them and Chef and his big balls?  Someday maybe I will make the whole crew as they are fun little guys to put into cookie form!

I will post pics of the completed set on Tuesday night. Then on Wednesday it's time to bake up some ice cream cone cupcakes! They should be fun to do and something I've never done before too! Hmm, what type of sprinkles should I use on top? Funfetti, stars, pearls, sanding sugar? What do you vote for?

This weekend it will be time to tackle fondant! I'm scared, anyone want to come and hold my hand for me while attempt this difficult and intimidating task? I am going for jungle animals! I love playing with play dough and clay so this shouldn't be all that more difficult huh? I will be sure to post the results. They are needed for a baby shower cake next weekend.

May is going to be a super busy month I think. Baby shower on the 7th, then it's MU graduation cake, then it's high school graduation time and parties to attend!

If anyone knows of any upcoming flea markets or things of that nature, let me know. I would love to do some of those as I think that is so much fun. I used to love having food stands at those places...I am queen of funnel cakes and fried Twinkies! I used to have a booth at craft fairs when I was in high school and they were so much fun too. I've always been into creating food or crafty things. I even love flower arranging. lol

My blog is a work in progress and it definitely doesn't look like I want it too. I just need time and focus to make it my own.

Talk with all my Fluffybutt friends tomorrow!

Happy Saturday everyone!

Obviously I have no idea what I'm doing with this blog. I'm so confused with how to set it up, now I see why people pay others to set this stuff up! It is a work in progress for sure.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Introduction

Whew.......I never thought I'd be writing a blogg.....but here I am!!!  So today is Friday and it's been a sad day since the sun has refused to shine today and tonight I might have to cover my poor plants. Guess I. along with hundred's of others bought into the false promise of no frost a little too soon.

One of the first things I will tell you is that I am terrible at punctuation and really grammar in general. So if you are a English major and things like that bother you.........I will apologize in advance.

I bet you are asking yourself why in the world would anyone name their business Fluffybutt Cookies? Really, Fluffybutt? Isn't that a name that people give their cat's butts?? Well in short yes indeedy that is where the name originated from, but it's not because I think their butts are cute, quite the opposite in fact, but I won't go into that here. lol  I just thought Fluffybutt was kind of cute and let's be real here, I have quite the Fluffy ass myself and that proves I am a great baker, right? Right? RIGHT? Hmm, maybe not, might just prove I like to eat carbs, but we won't go there either. So Fluffybutt Cookies was born in 2011 when I decided I needed a new name so I could begin a Facebook page. I had been going by Black Cat Bakery prior to that but it just wasn't catchy. When I began my Facebook page I started out as Fluffybutt Cookie Emporium then before I got too many fans I shortened it to Fluffybutt Cookies as I figured people would shorten it anyway so I beat them to the punch. However now that I am doing this blog, I thought I'd go back to it because in reality, I do much more than cookies. I really hesitate to call them my Facebook FANS...I don't know they are fans, just people like me that try to help out other pages by hitting that Like button :) But hey, if they wanna classify themselves as a Fluffybutt fan, then I sure as heck won't stop them!

This weekend I will be making sugar cookies that will be decorated with Cartman from South Park as well as some of their catch phrases. I'm looking forward to it as I used to love South Park :)

I will try and post pictures and keep writing on this blog. I will share recipes and just general day to day things with you.

Thanks for listening and have a great Fluffybutt night.