Margarita Cupcakes with Keylime Icing

Ok, still on vacation and after a long day of bike riding, shell looking, boat riding, soaking in the sun and chasing my 3 year old, the last thing I am going to do is bake. I only have two things on my mind - Drinking and Key Lime Pie so.....Put them together and you have Margarita Cupcakes with Keylime Icing! This recipe sounds delicious and easy. I think I am going to make them for an upcoming Cinco de Mayo party (In May I know, but you can never be too prepared). So enjoy, take a few strong licks and think of The Baker Babe still enjoying sunny Florida.

Lime Cooler Cookies - Bring on the Tropical Sun

This week The Baker Babe and family have traveled to Florida for a little fun and sun. So blogs will be short this week, but my ever growing fan base (of like 10) have not been forgotten. Today I am featuring Lime Cooler Cookies. They were technically baked by Baker Babe's sister from the Betty Crocker Cookie Book I gave her for Christmas and given as a thank you (the best type of thank you ever). The cookies had a nice light taste and texture. It was a pleasant change from the heavy sweets typically found around the holidays. Plus eating them gave me a slight taste of tropical adventures to come, which made the last few weeks of cold weather bareable. Enjoy!

Cheese & Ham Swirls

When baking for company, I always struggle with the thought of trying something new vs using the tried and true recipes that I know are favorites. This past brunch that I hosted, I did the traditional recipes, but also wanted to throw in something new that wasn't so breakfasty. I found my inspiration in my one of my Free Kraft Food & Family magazines. If you don't already receive this I highly suggest that you sign up. They have great recipes for each season. My only complaint is that for some reason The Kraft people sometimes skip mailing me one (proven by the fact that my friends get theirs and torture me by not sharing). I haven't completely proven that it is Kraft's fault yet, as I may also have to blame it on my husband for thinking it is junk mail and trashing it. In any case, the Cheese & Ham Swirls (Click for full recipe & photo) are super easy. They came out great and were such a huge hit that I am making another batch this week for a work sponsored Soup & Bread event. For my version I did change the recipe slighlty as I added a few swiss cheese slices on top of the ham and omitted the pepper. These would also make a great Superbowl yummy if you are still looking for your inspiration. Enjoy!

French Toast Casserole

I am a particular fan of brunch get together because breakfast food is so yummy. So this weekend we hosted a small "Buzz (as in Lightyear) " Brunch for my son's birthday. I looked around for some new recipes to try, but in the end I stuck in my main staples for these events: Egg Casserole and French Toast Casserole (recipe below). Both are easy to make the night before, so all you have to do is bake them the day of so yo ucan enjoy more of the party. Pair it with a fruit salad and some bacon or sausage and you have a great and easy brunch menu for all!

French Toast Casserole

6 eggs
2 cups milk
1 loaf of home-style bread
1 ½ cups brown sugar
1 stick of butter
1 ½ tsp cinnamon

In a 9/13 pan, melt the butter. Remove the pan, stir in brown sugar and cinnamon and sped evenly in the pan. Cut the crust off the bread and layer bread slices on top of sugar mixture. Beat eggs and milk and pour over the bread, cover and soak overnight in the fridge. Heat oven to 350, Bake 30-35 minutes until golden, remove from oven, drizzle maple syrup over the top and then broil for 1-3 minutes until the sugar crystallizes.

Grandma's "Secret" Birthday Cake

Most families have those secret recipes that are cherished during celebrations and holidays. For me, one of those great mysteries was my Grandma's Birthday Cake. Growing up we were always hoping that she would work her magic and make one for our special day. It was a moist chocolate cake, layered with this delicious white cream and then covered in smooth chocolate frosting. The pieces seemed large, but yet went away so quickly. When I reached my young adult years, I finally asked my grandmother her magical recipe. I was hoping that I could one day make this wonderful treat for my own kids or better yet sell the recipe and make a ton of money. Imagine my surprise when I was told the following:
* Cake: Devil's Food Cake mix
* Frosting: Can of Chocolate Frosting
* Filling: 1/2 c. butter, 1/2 c. Crisco and 1 c. sugar. Beat until creamy. Slowly add 3/4 c. warm (scalded) milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat for 5 minutes.

Guess I won't be making millions and I didn't really want to know that Crisco is involved, but at least I got the recipe and know I can make my own damn, good cakes!

Karate Men Cookies - A Fun & Tasty Treat

This week I got to tap into my inner artist and create some fun cookies for our friend's birthday party. It was a Karate theme complete with Karate activities at a Karate School, board splitting by the kids and the cake being cut by a samurai sword. It was a lot of fun and only one kid related causality of a kid losing his tooth. My friend wanted to do giveaway cookie cut-outs of Karate Men but didn't want to pay a huge amount so I offered to help her out. I used my standard (and delicious) Sugar Cookie Recipe. These cookies really are a labor of love, because there is a lot of time involved. Making the dough is the easy part, but then you have to let them sit in the fridge for at least 4 hours (I just choose to have them sit overnight), then I spent an afternoon rolling, cutting and baking them. The next evening (as I watched the Primary Debates), I frosted and decorated them. But the time was worth the effort as they came out really cute and I even made matching boards to go with them. One lesson learned was not to use the decorating gel that you can buy in the store. It worked, but when I went to put them into the plastic bags I had they were still sticky after two days in the freezer. But it ended up well, as I purchased some black Chinese take out boxes from the Party store that went perfectly with them. I also got to use my Silicone Baking Mat for the first time and it worked great!

School House Cookie Bars - A great thank you gift

This weekend I tried a new recipe. At my work we recently put together an employee recipe book. It wasn't large, but as I have mentioned before I love these type of books because they contain favorites from people and you know they have been tested out. As a thank you to the team in our print shop that printed and put together 250 books I decided to bake them a treat from the book. I was debating between a muffin recipe or a dessert and decided that cookies would probably go over the best with the print shop guys. I ended up doing the School House Cookie Bars. It seemed easy yet tasty and it was. The only down side was that they came out a little drier then I like in a cookie, but the combination of the caramel and chocolate was great. I didn't add the nuts because you never know in this allergy filled world. My only hope is that by the time the guys get them in the mail that the cookies were still recognizable and that they don't think I am the weird lady that mails cookie crumbs. Enjoy!

School House Cookie Bars
18-1/2 oz yellow cake mix
2 cups quick oats, uncooked
3/4 cup oil
1 egg beaten
12 oz caramel topping
1 cup of chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Mix cake mix, oatmeal, oil and egg. Put 1/2 of mix into bottom of greased 13-9 pan. Drizzle caramel topping over the mix. Sprinkle chocolate chips and nuts over caramel. Crumble remaining cake mixture over the top. Bake at 350 degrees for 28-30 minutes.

Yankee Magazine Cookie Primary - Vote for your Man (or Woman)

When my husband first told me we were moving to New Hampshire I had to ask if that was the state by the ocean. I had no idea what was up here, but have since feel in love with the small state. One of the really cool things New Hampshire has (and has still managed to hold onto - for now) is the first primary in the nation for president. It is a big deal because as a resident (and independent voter) I get calls and opportunities all the time to meet the candidates face to face and I feel my vote really counts. Of course I don't really like politics, so I don't take full advantage of it, but it is still really neat to walk down a sidewalk and see an candidate shaking hands or to get stuck in a presidential motorcade for 20 min (OK, that wasn't so fun). In fact I am posting a little early today because I am heading out to a town meeting tonight. I think it helps that this one takes place at a bar.

When I found out Yankee Magazine was doing a Cookie Primary based on the recipes of the candidates I thought what a perfect way to figure out who to vote for. Way to really get to the issues that matter to me Yankee Magazine. So here is my narrowing down of candidates based on cookies!:

First, I crossed off all candidates that sent in dessert recipes and not actually cookies. Come on people, read the fine print. I figure they really don't know what is going on or they just have stupid people working for them. Sorry Mike, Barack, and Mitt. Next I crossed off all the boring cookies, because I like to see a little originality in my president. So bye bye Joe, Hillary Chris, Tom and Fred. After carefully looking at the recipes, I also have to add Bill Richardson to this list. Biscochitos are just sugar cookies too (he is so obviously just trying to get those Latino votes - but in the end he won the "official" taste test.)

So that leaves me with a tie between Ron Paul and John McCain. Ron because I think he has balls to list a recipe that makes balls (Good PR guys working for him) and John because a 3 minute cookie recipe is a man after my own heart. As for who I am really voting for, I am leaving that up to who flips the best pancake (an old NH tradition for Presidential candidates to embarrass themselves).

PS. For all the candidates that didn't submit a recipe, come on...How hard can it be to Google cookies and grab something that looks good. You know there are always good recipes on thebakerbabe.com (hint, hint).

New Look, New Logo!

Surprise! The Baker Babe has a new look. Do you like it? It matches my BRAND NEW BAKER BABE LOGO!!! (Can you tell I am excited?). Thank you to my friend M. for helping me out.

I am working on the full graphic link, but in the mean time you can check out my new online Baker Babe store filled with Baker Babe items (and while you are there it wouldn't hurt to buy something too!). If you click on the item, most have a short, humorous tagline with them. (It was late and I was bored). Black T-shirts are coming soon!

I also added a nice, easy-to-find recipe list on the top right. Just click on your favorite.

Enjoy and I will be back on Sunday!

New Year, New Diet - Eating for Life

As The Baker Babe, you can imagine that I struggle with good (aka vegetables & fruits) vs evil (chocolate & sugar) almost daily. And like most people I know evil has won mostly over the last few holiday weeks. So like many others, I am going to refocus and let good triumph again. I have done most, if not all, of the fad diets over my years, but what I have really found that has worked for me is the Eating for Life Program by Bill Phillips. If you buy the book it is a great combination of basic nutrition information and then a lot of recipe ideas that follow the program.

In a nutshell, the program follows the idea of the right foods (a Protein, carb, vegetable combo), in the right size (Portion control) at the right times (eating small meals throughout the day). I have found that this really works for me and I don't feel deprived. Plus I can't scientifically prove this but I have so much more energy and I swear my mood swings are not what they used to be (but that could also because I am not a teenage anymore either). The book has a few dessert recipes like pumpkin pie (which is so-so) and a cheesecake (which I tried, but did not like) but my favorite part is that the plan lets you have a "free" day once a week. Which means I can still be good 6 days a week but on one day I can let my hair go wild, my cooking apron go low and I can cook and bake all the Baker Babe treats I want! So if you haven't already heard about Eating for Life I highly recommend it.

PS. I am also working on a new Baker Babe logo, so look for a new look for the blog in the next couple weeks.