Heavenly Sweets Bakery Dessert Diary

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

First Things First! Introducing the Halo Scale and More

Hello my fellow foodies! I've always believed that Food Critics had the best career of all times!! To have the honor of being the spokes person for many different restaurants, cafes, bistros, etc., the gift of travel to sample all different types of delicious eateries and all they have to do in return is write a review for us, the ones who can only drool at the pictures of the amazing foods tasted by the critic and based off of his or her review hope to travel to that restaurant or bistro or cafe one day to have a taste for ourselves!

Well, I just couldn't take anymore so I thought I too can be a food critic, taste all of the many different delicious treats available and review them .. I'll just have to make them myself! So this is exactly what I'll do! I am Gwendolyn Jones, Owner of Heavenly Sweets Bakery, Lover of all things delicious and I'm excited to introduce to you my blog, "Heavenly or Not so Heavenly: An HSB Recipe Review!" Have you ever read a Recipe and thought man this looks delicious, I'm going to try it .. then you either file it away or, if you're like me, you go out and buy all of the ingredients necessary complete the recipe, take the time to make it, sit down to taste it and you're either delighted or disappointed! If the recipe is delightful, it's great, you mark the recipe as good and file it in your favorite cookbook or journal, but if you're disappointed and the recipe doesn't really taste as good as it looked in the picture, you're upset b/c you've not only wasted time making the dish, but you've also wasted money buying the ingredients! I feel your pain and I'm coming to your rescue! I usually follow the recipe as it the first time, then tweak it and change it accordingly! But you don't have to, b/c i'll complete the first step for you and tell you how to make it even better (if necessary), in my review, what you make at home should be perfect ... the first time you make it!

The Review

Once or Twice a month I'm going to pick a recipe, (Disclaimer: these recipes are found via the internet, magazines or cookbooks and are not property of Heavenly Sweets Bakery, we will make the item by following the recipe as written and taste to write the review.) make it and taste it. I'll then post the recipe and teach you step buy step how to make it, but I won't stop there, I'll write a review about how delicious (Heavenly or not so Heavenly) this item is. I'll rate the recipe on the "Halo Scale" (0 = not so heavenly to 10 = Heavenly), and I'll write about how easy or not so easy it was to make the dish, I'll add in things that I think were left out of the instructions, (some recipes assume you're just supposed to know - Not Helpful at all) and some things that I think could make it better, if it's not perfect as is! I'm going to work out all of the kinks for you so when you make it, it'll be delicious as is! No wasted time or Money!

But Wait There's More ...

Don't just take my word for it! I've put together a team of wonderful people that have great personalities and are also lovers of all things delicious! They have agreed to taste the completed recipe item, rate it, using the Halo Scale and write a review with their ideas about what they liked and disliked about the recipe. They are full of personality and will "tell it like it is" So be prepared to laugh as you read these reviews ... Let's meet the Team!

Introducing Members of the "Clean Plate Club" Our HSB Recipe Reviewers at Your Service:

Meet Mr. Jones aka "Sunshine"

Mr. Jones is my dear husband (My Sunshine) and co-owner of Heavenly Sweets Bakery! He's also probably my worst critic! He was my original taste tester and continues to be the one to test and approve all of my recipes before we ever offer them to anyone else! I can count on him to tell me the truth, so I know he'll do the same for you. He loves music, food, family and fun and I'm excited that now he can critique other recipes besides my own! ;-)

Meet Anastasia, the "Food Whisperer"

The picture says it all! She says, "This captures the essence of my deep relationship with tastiness. You can just call me "The Food Whisperer." A native of Southern Mississippi, Anastasia is an amazing cook herself and definitely a fellow lover of all things delicious! She's full of personality and is sure to give you her honest opinion about the recipe and also provide great baking tips that I know you'll enjoy!

Meet Parteek Singla:

Parteek has a great personality .. again the picture says it all! He knows good food when he tastes it and is sure to keep you laughing and will not hold back his honost opinion! Look out for this guy, you never know what he'll say!

Meet Nandita Rao:

Nandita is a lovely addition to our team! She's full of fun and says that she Loves food! She jumped at the opportunity to be an HSB taste tester and actually coined the phrase, "The Clean Plate Club" Look forward to her great personality and interesting tips/twists that she likes to add to recipes tasted in her review.

Stay tuned .. Great Reviews are on their way!

Happy Baking!!

Gwendolyn Jones and the Clean Plate Club

www.heavenlysweetsbakery.com

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Thursday, August 23, 2012

Let's Make Cake Pops

Cake Pops or Cake Bites are very popular! They are cake crumbs mixed with icing that are molded, put on a stick and dipped into chocolate. You can have a variety of flavors and if you dip in white chocolate you can color the chocolate any color you'd like! If made correctly these delicious treats are perfect for any occasion! I've been making a lot of them lately and it's so easy I wanted to share! So lets get right into to! Let's Make Some Cake Pops!

1) bake your cake, any box cake or cake recipe is fine. Let it completely cool. Make your icing, I make my own icing but you don't have to .. any type of icing that you like will do, and you don't need a lot of it either. Too much icing will cause your cake pop to turn into a MUSH pop and no one wants to eat MUSH!! Melt your chocolate! Here's what you'll need:

I use Ghirardelli chocolate b/c i'm a chocolate snob but you don't have to, nestle, almond bark, any chocolate that you like will work, you can also use milk chocolate, you just can't color it. I melt my chocolate in the microwave (watch it carefully, it burns easily) then I put it into my chocolate fondue pot to keep it warm (love that thing) it's also go the perfect depth for dipping! One 9 x 13 inch cake makes about 40-50 small cake pops, and 1 bag of chocolate will make 30 - 40 pops.

2) Make sure you're hands are clean b/c you'll have to dig in to this recipe. Break your cake into a large bowl and continue to break it until you have crumbs. I only crumbled about 3/4 of the sheet cake. I don't like using my hands to mix things but this is just almost impossible to do with a spoon, trust me I tried!!

3) Once you have your crumbles you add your icing .. THIS STEP WILL MAKE OR BREAK YOUR CAKE POPS ... If you do this correctly you'll have cake pops .. if you get too happy with the icing you'll have Mush Pops, if you don't add enough icing you'll just have a mess, lol! The purpose of the icing is to hold the cake crumbs together so that when you make your cake ball it won't fall apart and will cling to the stick when you dip it in the chocolate! Your cake is already moist (hopefully ;-)) so you only need a little icing to "glue" the cake crumbs together. I only used about 2 tablespoons of icing (cream cheese icing since i used red velvet cake) for mine and they came out perfect!

Mix the icing and cake crumbs until the icing and crumbs are completely mixed, no large icing blobs

4) Once you've got them mixed then your ready to press and mold your crumbs into small cake balls, I used 1.5 tablespoons to make mine and they were a good size. It's kind of like playing with play dough once you start pressing it should mold into a ball or any shape that you want, at this point you can use molds, cookie cutters or anything else to shape your pop.

5) After you make your ball it's time for the fun part ... dipping it in chocolate! But first you must secure the stick into the pop, so take your lollipop stick, dip it into your chocolate and then stick it into the cake ball. once you're done with all of your cake balls, stick them in the freezer for about 20 mins. this allows the chocolate and the cake to set and it also chills the cake so that when you dip it in the chocolate it will set faster and not drip and drool everywhere.

6) Once your pops are all set and chilled, just dip them in your melted chocolate, pull it out and let it drain for a moment, then stick it in a piece of styrofoam or just set them on wax paper if you don't care about having a perfect ball. If you are going to sprinkle the pops you must add the sprinkles immediately after dipping, before the chocolate cools and sets, otherwise they will bounce right off your pop!

7) And we're done! Put your pops in the refrigerator for around 10 - 20 minutes, just enough for the chocolate to set, then enjoy if you'd like you can wrap them in syran wrap with a bow or you can jsut get the lollipop packaging from Michael's or Wal-Mart, twist and finish with curly ribbon.

Happy Cake Pop Making! This is a fun thing to make own your own or with your kids! Play around with colors and sprinkles, Be creative and just have fun! Remember baking is easier than you think!

Gwendolyn JonesOwner, Heavenly Sweets Bakery

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Wednesday, March 14, 2012

The Art Of Baking Cupcakes

Ever wondered how to bake the perfect cupcake? Not too dry, perfectly raised, won't dip in the center when they cool and form a huge icing crater! If you've been at war with your cupcakes, I'm going to show you a simple way to bake and decorate the perfect cupcakes, this tutorial will also include a recipe for delicious cream cheese icing! Baking and decorating cupcakes is an art we all should have under our belts .... everyone loves cupcakes!

Let's talk about batter:
For cupcakes you want a nice light batter, you don't want a really dense cake batter, like pound cake. A simple strawberry, vanilla or butter cake recipe will do just fine. We're going to use a simple strawberry cake batter today!

Here's what we need to get started:

If you don't have a fancy mixer, that's fine, you can use a hand mixer or just mix them by hand

You'll also need some cupcake liners, they come in all sorts of colors and patterns, choose the liners

that match your event accessories/colors

Now That We Have the tools That We Need ...

Let's Bake Some Cupcakes!

I slowly add my wet ingredients (milk, eggs, oil) to my dry ingredients already in mixer (flour etc.)

Once the batter is mixed, we're ready to pour it into the cupcake liners. I use a piping bag to do this, but you can also do this using a large ziplock freezer bag, just cut a little bit off of one of the corners, this way you can control how much batter is placed into the liner, this is the key to getting a nice shape to your cupcake. Over filling will cause it to rise over the sides of the pan which is messy and causes it to lose it's shape, it also means you'll have to cook the cupcake longer which could cause it to be dry. (and nobody likes dry cupcakes :-) ) Here's what it should look like:

Once this is done, into the oven they go. I don't usually put my cakes/cupcakes on the bottom rack close to the heating element, causes them to bake to quickly and changes the texture.

Bake at 350 or whatever temp. your recipe recommends for about 12 -15 minutes

or until toothpick comes out clean.

THIS IS IMPORTANT! Do NOT allow your cupcakes to cool in the pan. The metal is still hot and will continue to cook the cake even though it's not in the oven! It's called carryover baking and it's the cause of a lot of dry over cooked desserts.

Once your cupcakes are done baking immediately remove them from the pan and place them on a heating rack to completely cool.

While they are cooling ... let's make some icing!!

Recipe for Cream Cheese Icing:

1 stick Butter

1 pack Cream Cheese

1 2 lb bag Powdered Sugar

1 TBSP milk

Step 1 Cream Your Butter and Cream Cheese until mixed

Then turn the mixer on low and slowly add your powdered sugar and milk, continue to mix and it should turn into a smooth delicious icing.

Now The Fun Part .. Let's Decorate!

For this we'll need a piping bag (again you can use a ziplock back), 2D tip, Sprinkles, and these cute little cupcake picks.

Starting at the edge of your cupcake, put pressure on the top of the bag to squeeze out the icing, guide the bag with your finger. Lift the bag, release pressure and reapply, squeezing from the top of the bag.

Repeat this process as you begin to move counter clockwise around the cupcake. Continue until you have covered the top of the cupcake.