Oh Sweetbay, I am so disappointed

I love Sweetbay Supermarket!  I have loved shopping there since Miss V started school.  The store and bathrooms have always been clean, the employees are wonderful and polite, the produce section is great, the sales on meat were awesome, they had brands and items that I am familiar with from home (aka Massachusetts) like Willow Tree Chicken pies and they had real hot dog buns by the bakery.  Real hot dog buns are not cut on the sides.  They are cut on the top and when you put a hot dog in it, they don't tip over.  Over by the deli that had a nice little antipasti cart with lots of different olives, mozzarella balls, etc.  As a New Englander and devoted to Dunkin Donuts coffee with light cream, Sweetbay is the ONLY store that I could find quarts of light cream and not have to pay a huge amount for.  All the other stores stock just pints of light cream or half pints.

I love shopping there, it was a very nice experience.  The other patrons were nice.  The employees stocking the shelves were so nice and polite and would move their giant carts so you could pass them.

A couple employees would come over every spring for Miss V's schools's AR ice crea party.  They would set up, scoop and serve the ice cream, and help clean up.  The leftover bananas they would leave for the kids in aftercare.  Just incredible service...

By now you are probably wondering what's up with the title of my post?

Well they were sold/bought out by another huge grocery chain.  I do not like that chain at all!  Every one that I have been in have been dirty, rude employees, sales aren't great.

I am just so disappointed that my grocery shopping choices are less, unless I want to drive 40-45 minutes to Sarasota.  This also means my grocery bill is going up.

I am not just disappointed, I am mad and disgusted!

Assemble the Minions! (Cupcakes that is...)

I think I am almost infamous at Miss V's school.  Last week a mom had messaged me and asked if I could make 3 dozen Minion Cupcakes for her daughter's 16th birthday.  Sure can and I even brought them to school and put them in the lunch room as a surprise.

Since I needed an odd amount of cupcakes I made some Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes from Taste of Home.  I made one regular size batch and then halved it for 12.

½ cup unsalted butter softened

1 ½ cups granulated sugar

2 eggs, room temp

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 ½ cups King Arthur Unbleached AP Flour

½ cup baking cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

¼ salt

½ cup buttermilk, (you can use ½ cup milk and ½ tbs of white vinegar.  Just let it sit for a few minutes.

Preheat oven to 375°. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Combine buttermilk and water. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk and water, beating well after each addition.

Fill paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

For these I made two batches of Marshmallow Fondant.  One was colored yellow and the other was left white and then tinted black, gray and brown. 

Then it was time to get creative.  I used all sorts of round cutters and imagination.  Each little Minion had it's own personality.  I used a tiny bit of store bought vanilla frosting to adhere the Minions to the cupcakes.

They came out adorable and were a huge hit with the high school kids.

Back to Football Friday Butter Cookies with Marshmallow Fondant Decoration

Last week was Back To Football Friday at Miss V's school.  We always have cookie bakers make desserts and I love to make special cookies that fit the theme.

So I whipped up some Marshmallow Fondant (actually two batches) One was tinted all brown and the other was half brown and the other I just left white.  I borrowed a football cookie cutter from one of the other moms.  I cut out the brown footballs and added white fondant stitching.  I left them to dry a bit on the counter and then made my favorite rolled butter cookie recipe.

For the Cookies
6 cups flour

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 cups unsalted butter - room temp

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 eggs - room temp

4 Tbsp milk

3 tsp vanilla

Combine flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

Cream sugar and butter, then add eggs milk and vanilla.

Slowly add the flour mixture and beat until combined.

Roll out on waxed paper about 1/4 inch thick and then put into the fridge for 20 to 30 minutes.  While chilling preheat oven to 350.  After chilling, cut out shapes and place them on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

I can not stress this enough, keep everything; pans, dough, cookie cutters cold.  This makes it so much easier.  Between batches I would chill the pans in the fridge and the cookie cutters in the freezer.

Bake for 10-12 minutes.  You do not want them to brown.  I did find that 10 minutes were perfect for this size cookie.

 When one batch came out of the oven, I put them on the table and immediately placed a fondant football on each cookie.  When that is done, go back and press GENTLY on the fondant.  It should have warmed up nicely and it when cooled it will be adhered to the cookie.

They came out adorable and one of the first cookies to disappear!

Chocolate Malt Brownies in a jar

I found this recipe on Pinterest.  You can find the original recipe at A Spicy Perspective.  The original recipe made 12 half pint jars.  I doubled the recipe and made 24 jars for Teacher Appreciation Lunch.  These came out fantastic and the whipped cream held up great even a couple days later.

The recipe below is for 12 jars.

For the brownies:

1 package brownie mix (13x9 size)
1-2 eggs depending on whether you like them fudgey or cakey.  I prefer fudgey.
1/3 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup water

For the Chocolate Malt Pudding:
3.4 oz package instant chocolate pudding
2 cups cold milk
1/2 cup Ovaltine Malt Powder

For the Chocolate Malt Cream:
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup Ovaltine Malt Powder
1 Tb. cocoa powder
1/4 cup powdered sugar

For the Whipped Cream:
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/3 cup powdered sugar

Preheat your oven to the specification on the brownie mix.

Spray the inside of 12 half pint mason jars.

Mix up your brownies and evenly divide among the 12 jars.  Place the jars on a cookie sheet and bake approx 30 minutes.

For the Chocolate Malt Pudding: Mix the pudding according to package directions incorporating 1/2 cup malted milk powder. Refrigerator until ready to use.

For the Chocolate Malt Cream: Whip 1 1/2 cups heavy cream with 1/4 cup malted milk powder, 1/4 cup powdered sugar and 1 Tb. cocoa powder. Whip to a firm consistency then cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

For the Whipped Cream: Whip the remaining heavy cream with 1/3 cup powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

To assemble: Allow the brownies to cool completely before adding the layers. Neatly add a little less than 1/4 cup scoop of pudding (3 Tb.) to each jar. Followed by the same amount of chocolate malt cream. Top each jar with whipped cream.

I found it easy to use disposable piping bags with the ends snipped off to add the whipped creams.  It also helps to make sure your bowl and beater is well chilled (placed in freezer for about 15 minutes).  

These were a huge hit at school and at home.

Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes with Gingersnap Crusts (in 4 oz mason jars)

I combined a few recipes for this little dessert that I made for Teacher Appreciation lunch.  

1 1/2 cup crushed gingersnap cookies
1/4 butter, melted
4 packages (8 oz) cream cheese softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 tbs cornstarch
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs, room temp
1 cup canned pumpkin
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp fresh ground nutmeg

Preheat your oven to 325.

Blend the cookie crumbs and melted butter in a bowl.  Place about 1 heaping tablespoon of the crumbs into each mason jar and tamp down to make the crust (I used a part of my apple corer)

For the filling beat one package of cream cheese, 1/2 cup of sugar and cornstarch until smooth, about 2 minutes.  Then beat in the remaining cream cheese one package at a time until smooth.  Add remaining sugar, vanilla, pumpkin and spices.  Add eggs one at a time and beat on low speed until combined.

Divide filling among the 24 jars.

Place jars into a roasting pan and add hot water until it reaches about 1/2 way up the jars.

Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Remove jars with tongs and place on a wire rack to cool.

When cool, add lids and bands and place in the fridge.

Tampa Bay Lightning Cake

So a friend asked if I could make a cake for her daughter's birthday and we came up with a theme of Tampa Bay Lightning.  Oh I am such a traitor, my Masshole card should be revoked. 

Anyway I started the cake yesterday and baked them and covered all three pieces with fondant and left the detail pieces for today.  Thanks to Google and Hostesss being back in business I found that Hostess Ding Dongs are the perfect shape and size for hockey pucks.  I also printed out the world BOLTS in the team font and traced it onto the fondant.  For the jersey I found a hockey jersey template on a site that makes custom jerseys.  So I enlarged the picture and traced it in the dark blue fondant and added the white and black stripes.  The lightning bolt actually is a jewelry charm that my fantastic little assistant Miss V found at Hobby Lobby yesterday.  I made a little version of the Stanley Cup and painted with silver luster dust and lemon extract.

I think it came out pretty good even though it isn't Black and Gold with a big ole B on it ;o)

Here are all the process pictures.

Hope everyone enjoys it tonight.

Getting organized

Sometimes I just blow a gasket because stuff is put away in the wrong places in the kitchen.  This happened recently and I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I started with my cookie cutters and tools.  This in a long shelf in the laundry room that I decluttered too.

 

Then my former sprinkle cabinet got cleaned out and organized.

 For an upcoming cake I bought the large bottles of Super Black and Royal Blue.  The colors that I seem to be going through a lot of, I think it will be better just to buy the larger sizes.

 Lots of different extracts.

Then the armoire in the dining room. It used to hold miscellaneous stuff.  Well I decluttered it and put my cake pans, cake boards, boxes and the contents of the sprinkle cabinet.

 Cookie guns and sprinkles sorted by season.

 Candles, and candy supplies

 This makes me very happy!  No more lost tart pan bottoms and cupcake pans every where.