Grand baby Cakes Vanilla cake with Whipped Chocolate Frosting

I received the Grandbaby Cakes cookbook by Jocelyn Adams last week, and I couldn't have been more ecstatic to bake.

I set out with the intention of fully following the recipe, I swear I did, but I ran out of sugar!  I went to the market two times this week to get all of the right ingredients, and didn't realize that I was low on granulated sugar.  I also didn't realize that one box of confectioners sugar was not enough for the recipe.  That being said, I have become pretty good at substitutions.

Here's the recipe:

Caramel Apple Blondies

Now that I have a total of 8 apples, 6 Fuji from the orchard and 2 Gala lying around in the house, I have to use them before they rot.  The answer? Baking of course!  I wanted to bake blondies with apples in the middles, but I did not find a recipe for that, so I modified one by Chocolate with Grace to produce Caramel Apple Blondies; a caramel, apple gooeyness that is to be desired by all!

A layer of blondies, followed by a layer of caramel and sautéed apples, and a blondie coating to finish.  How can you say no to this?

Now that you know you will never be able to resist, here's the recipe!

Fall with apples and pumpkins!

Hey everyone!
Today I finally went to Chiles Orchard to go apple and pumpkin picking!  I have been wanting to go for a few weeks now, but haven't had the time.  I do not remember having gone apple or pumpkin picking before, but I am told that I have been pumpkin picking.

It was a lot of fun!  The patch was a bit picked over, leaving all of the good apples up high.  Being that I am short, I was unable to pick all of the gorgeous looking Fuji apples.

Sugar Cookie Cut-Outs

This past weekend was my moms birthday, and seeing as it was a big birthday, the whole family met-up in the midwest to celebrate.  Given the fact that I haven't seen my family in over 3 months, and I love to bake, I decided to make cut-out sugar cookies.  I wanted these cookies to taste perfect, and didn't have the time to make mistakes, so I used Martha Stewarts Sugar Cookie Recipe; the one my mom has been using for years.

Having never made cut-out sugar cookies before, I learned a lot:

1. You can't color just the dough, you must also color your hands if you want pretty, colorful cookies!
2. Using a wine bottle works great as a rolling pin.  I know that I can buy an inexpensive one, but this was a lot more fun.

Yes, the wine bottle was empty

3. When making cut-outs that are more flimsy, make the dough about twice as thick.  This helps ensure that they don't break (or at least that they won't break as easily).

In this case, I am referring to the X's and O's.  It was much easier to transfer them when they were thicker.