Lucky Vanilla Cupcakes...By who else?! Sprinkle Bakes!

Stacey from I wish I was Martha, got together for some kid-free quality baking time. 

And squealing over edible glitter time.

We  decided to make these Lucky Vanilla Cupcakes from the fabulously talented Sprinkle Bakes!

Don't judge me for squealing until you see the pictures.

There better be squealing where you are!

To see the whole post, Click ------> Here.

To see the fantastic recipe and Click ---------> Here.

Also I'd like to give a great big shout out out to my new friend Lisa over at Flour Confections for having Edible Disco Dust in Canada and charging an arm and leg for it! YAY!

You can look forward to seeing more of her products here for sure!

Leek Tart, an Actual Irish Recipe. No Jokes!

I'm currently sitting in bed in my PJ's watching a Harry Potter movie, 

(it really doesn't matter which one, does it? They're all awesome!)

blog stalking my favorite blogs, and

 eating Fleur de Sel dark chocolate. Now if this doesn't paint a lovely picture what does? 

Ben's on his way home from ice fishing (ick) far far away, so I'm getting cozy.

We're talking scrunchies and white zit cream, people. (insert disturbing mental image here ------)

A girls gotta have a break sometime right?!

Seriously though, it's not pretty. 

But earlier today I actually was productive, honest!

I made two things for my mama.

1. A real Irish Leek Tart

and

2. 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter cookies

I don't know how the tart turned out to be honest. I sent it on its merry way to a birthday party.

So baker-beware!

Here's what you need to make an Irish Leek Tart:

3 Tablespoons of butter

3 Leeks, washed well and sliced thin

1 Tablespoon of Herb de Provence

1/3 cup of whipping cream

1 egg

1/2 cup of Gruyere or mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup of aged cheddar

1 pie shell*

Pre-heat your oven to 450.

Saute butter and leeks until tender. ( I like the caramelized taste, so cooked mine a little longer)

Add Herb de Provence.

In a separate, small bowl, mix whipping cream, beaten egg and Gruyere cheese.

Add mixture to the leeks.

Fold until combined.

*I am just loving the pre-made pie crusts from Pillsbury, so easy and so many uses!*

Roll out one shell flat on to a parchment covered cookie sheet.

Fold the edges in 1/2 inch, just so there's a small edge to keep the leek mixture from spilling out.

Spoon leek mixture onto the pie crust and spread out evenly.

Brush the edges with egg wash if you like a nice golden crust.

Sprinkle your aged cheddar over the tart.

Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Until it looks like this....

Hopefully it tastes as good as it smells!

And these tasty looking morsels were a last minute add on, courtesy of Sprinkle Bakes. Click on this link  to get the tiny recipe that took less than 20 minutes, start to finish!

Click here ------> Sprinkle Bakes facebook page. 

Happy weekend everyone!

Happy Valentine's Day! We Made It!!!

To all you love birds out there, Happy Heart Day!

I'm going to keep this post like me, short and sweet! This recipe comes from my baking hero, yes, Sprinkle Bakes again! I'm sorry I can't help it if every recipe she comes up with is a no-fail, gorgeous success!!

Here's my tribute to Heather of Sprinkle Bakes Heritage Red Velvet Cake. In cupcake form.

This was my cocoa and coloring mixture. 

The batter all coming together.

My first valentine. I heart you Peanut! 

My second valentine. I heart you Bug!

I piped the cream cheese frosting, but really there was no point. The icing was just too thin of a consistency, I was afraid if I added more icing sugar I would lose the cream cheese flavor.

The famous red inside! If you click on these pictures, they will show you their true color.

This truly is THE best red velvet recipe you will ever come across. It's moist, flavorful, perfectly colored and best of all, beautiful. A perfect treat for any ones valentine. Mine are making an appearance at my mother-in-laws annual Valentines Tea tonight!

Je'taime Mon Petite Coeur

I am basically in love with all things french. I think there's a term for it, but I don't want to use it wrong then look like an idiot. So instead I pretend to know how to speak french and do a post title en francais.

This is common knowledge to my close people. Once I got 3 of the same toast stamps, which is a stamp that you press onto your toast leaving an imprint of the Eiffel Tower so you can have 'french' toast (I know! how flippin' cute is that?) . PS. I bought one too.

I have in fact been to Paris, if you can call 3 days, actually being in Paris. I'm holding on to that, so please don't try and take it away from me! I am determined to go back one day and spend a little more time than 72 hours of frantic racing around.

So right now, I am vicariously living in France through some baking, buying almost anything with french writing or an Eiffel Tower on it in sight. This includes shirts, art, clothes for my little girls, subtitled movies and keeping all my food in the fridge and pantry turned around so the french labels all face out. 

 In keeping with the french spirit of things, such as love and pastry, I whipped up my easiest treat yet! And when I say 'my' I mean my baking hero, Heather from Sprinkle Bakes. She's one of a kind, Artist/Baker, who is taking the foodie world by storm. And she also is kind and answers my stupid questions really fast!  If you click on the link above, it'll take you right to her site and the recipe for her French Palmiers. If you don't want the recipe, you should just go to her site simply for her pictures, they are art all on their own.

So here they are, my version of the French Palmiers, made in to hearts (shocking, right?).

What you need:

1 package of puff pastry, thawed.

1/2 - 1 cup of sugar.

Rolling pin

Spread 1/2 of your sugar on to a cutting board (I like to use a cutting board simply for easy clean up, but you can use your counter top too.)

Spread out your puff pastry on top of the sugar.

Put the remainder of your sugar on top of the puff pastry.

Roll out the sugar-covered pastry until its 1/4 " thick, or resembles a large rectangle.

Roll the sided into each other, until they meet in the middle.

Flip over your tube of pastry and slice into 1/2 " slices.

Place your slices on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

I unrolled mine just a little and pinched the middle so my cookies resembles hearts.

Put in a 450 degree oven for 4 minutes, spin your pan around and bake for another 4 minutes. Best to stay around and watch them juuuuuust in case, that's one hot oven.

The only thing I actually did differently was that I didn't flip my cookies over. I've tried it that way, it just hasn't worked for me, these have been my best batch to date.

So crunchy and flaky.

I love these cookies!

I (HEART) SprinkleBakes

OK, this will not be a super long post, but I had to let out a squeal of happiness .

SQUEAL!

Heather, of SprinkleBakes.com, talked to me!

Well, she didn't actually talk to me for real, but she did answer my question that I posted on her blog about the most delectable looking Sweet Potato Whoopie Pies.
I used pumpkin puree, simply because I'm impulsive, I needed them now, AND lazy (a deadly combo), because I didn't want to go to the store, bake and mash sweet potatoes.

I know she's super busy, writing her first cook book, keeping up with a blog and inventing new art/desserts and I didn't really expect and answer right away. But, she answered my question 20 minutes after I posted it! 

I think this is as close as I'll get to a celebrity. Except maybe that time in Vegas when I saw Mario Batali...

(Ew).

Which is fine by me.

Thanks, dear Heather, of SprinkleBakes.