Almost Free For You Today, Two For One

Wow, it has been a while since I have posted anything to my baking blog.  Not that I have not baked anything, for that is not true.  My dear husband would be long gone if that were the case.  :)  But it seems everything I have baked as of late has been reruns of everything else I have done.  There has been one exception

My youngest daughter is getting married in May and is using the colors of the rainbow as her color.  Being her mother and loving cake decorating as I do..... Yes, you can guess it.  I get to make the cake.  We came up making the cake rainbow colors and  icing white with some rainbow swirls on it.  So, being the type of person I am I decided to experiment with this.  There is no way I want to wait until the last minute and find out my idea will not work exactly the way I envisioned (not on a wedding cake).

My first attempt put the batter from a white cake recipe into the pans and then swirling the food color.  NO!  Do not try it this way.  While there were rainbow colors, it was not a solid color and the white was too visible.  I want the cake to be a solid color.  Next time I will mix the colors in a bowl then add them to the pan.

The decoration on the cake turned out no better.  I used a plastic decorating bag, which would be fine with icing, but I found it does not work well with food color.  I think the easiest way to get several colors of icing in the bag and keep them several colors and not one big ugly one would be to paint a strip of color along the side of the bag.  This does not work with the plastic bag.  The color and plastic separates like oil and water.  The color does not come out as clearly and consistently as I would like.  Will have to try this with a cloth or paper bag.  I know it works in paper bags.  

Jimmy took this (in my opinion) ugly monstrosity to work with him and shared with his fellow employees.

At least now I know what I do not like and will have to try this again and find something I do like...I know how I will work the batter, but not sure about the decoration.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

I had made peanut butter cookies the other day and several days later I made chocolate ones.  I found Jimmy spreading peanut butter on them and it was good.  We thought that mixing the two batters may make a pretty good cookie.  Yesterday Jimmy had to work an exceptionally long day, so I took advantage of the extra time and made both peanut butter and chocolate cookie dough.

I used a regular peanut butter recipe and made Cringle Cookies.  No variations in either recipe.  The peanut butter dough is stiffer than the chocolate.  I rolled some peanut butter dough out on the counter and spread the chocolate over the peanut butter like icing on a cake.  Then rolled up the peanut butter like a jelly roll.  I cut slices and placed on a cookie sheet and baked.  Then when the timer went off I was busy and could not get to the oven that second, so I forgot about them for several minutes more.  :)  (a nightmare to me, but heaven for Jimmy).  When I pulled them out of the oven they were more crisp than I like and would consider burned.  This combination was really good.  Not quite like a Reeses but well worth the effort to try again.

I only made one pan and put the rest of the dough in the fridge to set.  Today I will bake some more of these.  Jimmy says they are his favorite cookie so far.  I have to admit they were quite yummy.  This time some will have to come out of the oven a little more gooey so I can really make a correct determination of their yumminess.

Stay tuned for the next item on the menu..... Bacon and cheese crescents.