Officially in Business!

Well, I’m officially in business! I had the opportunity to be a part of a home boutique this past Thursday to benefit the Hopeful Hearts Foundation where I was able to sell my baked goods, pass out quite a few business cards, and make some new contacts. The Hopeful Hearts Foundation was founded by Adam and Terra Chez (residents of Santa Ana, CA) to bring awareness of and support for families who have children born with congenital heart disease. It was great to be able to be a part of something which benefitted such a great cause. Visit the Hopeful Hearts Foundation website to read about Adam and Terra’s story, and to find out more information about the organization: http://www.hopeful-hearts.org/.

The car all loaded up and ready to go!


This boutique was the first opportunity that I’ve had to actually officially sell my baked goods. I was there along with some friends of mine-my friend Nikki was there selling items from her line: The Ritzy Glitzy Baby Boutique (blinged out pacifiers, adorable burpies, and more) http://www.etsy.com/shop/mrsandrews07 , and my friend Dana, who does amazing graphic design work, was there promoting her new Christmas card line: http://www.danagrogger.com/ .

I was baking up a storm for the boutique, and it was extra crazy that week because I had accepted a 2-day sub job for the two days before the boutique, which left me with Monday as my only full day to get things ready. Thankfully my mom was able to help out a lot, which made things go much smoother, and we were able to get everything done on time!

I ended up making 3 different types of cupcakes (red velvet with cream cheese frosting, pumpkin spice with cinnamon cream cheese frosting, and vanilla cookies ‘n cream with vanilla cookies ‘n cream buttercream), 3 types of cake balls (red velvet dipped in dark chocolate and pumpkin spice dipped in white chocolate), and fall shaped cinnamon shortbread cookies. The cake balls were a definite hit, as were the cupcakes. I had 64 cupcakes and 120 cake balls to sell…I ended up selling 60 cupcakes and 96 cake balls…I was more than happy about how well it went!!

Cupcakes: Flavors & Pricing

-Classic Flavors-

Black & White
Deep dark chocolate cake topped with a creamy vanilla buttercream frosting

Pure Chocolate
Deep dark chocolate cake topped with a rich chocolate buttercream frosting

Simply Vanilla
Fluffy vanilla cake topped with a creamy vanilla buttercream frosting

-Gourmet Flavors-

Red Velvet
Rich red velvet cake topped with cream cheese frosting & white sparkling sugar

Pumpkin Spice
Luscious spiced pumpkin cake topped with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting

Classic Cookies 'n Cream
Vanilla cake infused with Oreos and topped with cookies 'n cream buttercream frosting

Vanilla Cookies 'n Cream
Vanilla cake infused with Golden Oreos and topped with golden cookies 'n cream buttercream frosting

Raspberry
Vanilla cake filled with raspberry preserves and topped with vanilla cream cheese frosting and a dollop of raspberry preserves

Lemon
Vanilla cake filled with lemon curd and topped with lemon cream cheese frosting and a dollop of lemon curd

Birthday Cake
Rainbow sprinkle studded vanilla cake topped with creamy vanilla buttercream frosting and rainbow sprinkles or rainbow nonpareils

*all flavors available as mini cupcakes

-Prices-

Cupcakes: $2.75 each; $28 per dozen (minimum order of 1 dozen)

Mini Cupcakes: $1.25 each; $27.50 per two dozen (minimum order of 2 dozen)

*Prices subject to increase

*All orders must be placed at least 1 week in advance; Holiday orders must be placed 10 days in advance.

Email to place an order: meghan.samsvick@gmail.com

Cake Balls: Flavors & Pricing

-Flavors-

Red Velvet
Rich red velvet cake mixed with cream cheese frosting; dipped in dark chocolate and drizzled with white chocolate

Pumpkin Spice
Luscious pumpkin cake mixed with cinnamon cream cheese frosting; dipped in white chocolate and drizzled with dark chocolate

Cookies 'n Cream
Vanilla cake infused with Oreos, mixed with vanilla buttercream frosting; dipped in white chocolate and topped with Oreo crumbles

Dark Chocolate
Deep dark chocolate cake mixed with buttercream frosting; dipped in dark chocolate and drizzled with more dark chocolate

Simply Vanilla
Vanilla cake mixed with vanilla buttercream frosting; dipped in white chocolate and drizzled with more white chocolate

Birthday Cake
Rainbow sprinkle studded vanilla cake mixed with vanilla buttercream frosting; dipped in white chocolate and topped with rainbow sprinkles or rainbow nonpareils

Vanilla Cookies 'n Cream
Vanilla cake infused with Golden Oreos mixed with vanilla buttercream frosting; dipped in white chocolate and topped with Golden Oreo crumbles

White Chocolate Raspberry
Vanilla cake mixed with raspberry cream cheese frosting; dipped in white chocolate and topped with a dollop of raspberry preserves and a white chocolate drizzle

*Seasonal decorations available by request

-Prices-

$2.00 each; $24 per dozen (minimum order of 2 dozen)

*Prices subject to increase

*All orders must be placed at least 1 week in advance; Holiday orders must be placed 10 days in advance

Email to place an order: meghan.samsvick@gmail.com

Catching Up

Things have been insane lately and I haven't had any time to blog. Things have picked up in terms of substitute teaching, which has been a blessing, so I've been staying busy subbing 3-4 days a week and then spending the rest of time baking and hanging out with my amazing boyfriend :-) And to top it all off I just survived selling my baked goods "officially" for the first time at a home boutique yesterday (a whole blog post coming on that soon!)...it's been crazy!

Anyways, I'm behind on posting pictures and recipes, so this blog post will mainly just be pictures of some different things I've baked over the past few weeks.

Mini Red Velvet Cupcakes









Mini Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes












Vanilla Cookies 'n Cream Cupcakes



Pumpkin Spice Cake Balls

A Perfect Taste of Fall

A couple of weeks ago, after making the pumpkin spice cupcakes for my grandpa's birthday, I had some leftover pumpkin that I didn't want to go to waste, and since we were actually having some real fall weather here in Southern California, I figured it was a good time to try my hand at making some seasonally appropriate pumpkin spice cookies.

When I was student teaching last fall, the mom of one of the student's in my 3rd grade class brought in these amazingly delicious pumpkin spice chocolate chip cookies, and I had her email me the recipe because I had to make some for myself. Well, turns out I was way too busy with student teaching and then trying out a bunch of new Christmas cookie recipes to ever get around to making those pumpkin cookies, but here we are, a year later, and I have some time on my hands.

I decided to hunt down a different pumpkin spice chocolate chip cookie recipe to try out; one that was similar to the one the student's mom had given me, but with a few different aspects to it. Here's the link to the site where I got the recipe from:

http://kirbiecravings.com/2009/10/pumpkin-spice-chocolate-chip-cookies.html
Recipe from Deelish Dish
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola or corn oil
1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to
325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and butter
the paper.
2. Stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices together in a medium bowl and set aside.
3. In a large bowl using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the
eggs and sugar until smooth and lightened in color, about 1 minute.
Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides as needed. On low speed, mix
the oil, pumpkin, and vanilla until blended. Mix the flour mixture to
incorporate it. Stir in the chips by hand.
4. Scoop mounds of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets,
spacing the cookies at least 2 1/2-inches apart. About 1/4-cup per
scoop.
5. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time until the tops feel firm and
a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, about 15 minutes. Let
them cool on the sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack to
cool completely.



These cookies turned out great; my mom, my sister, and I all loved them. They are definitely a cakier cookie, more like a muffin top than a normal cookie, and honestly would probably be great for breakfast with a nice cup of strong, black coffee :-) And, as always, I doctored up the recipe to make it my own.

A Birthday Celebration

A few weeks ago we celebrated my grandpa’s 70th birthday and I baked both red velvet and pumpkin spice cupcakes for the occasion. Red velvet cupcakes always seem to be a hit no matter what, and pumpkin spice cupcakes are a particular favorite of our family. The red velvet cupcakes were topped with a traditional cream cheese frosting, while the pumpkin spice cupcakes were topped with a pretty amazing cinnamon cream cheese frosting.

And Some More Peanut Butter..

Ok, these cookies have been a HUGE hit every time I've made them. I first made them to take up to Oregon when I went on a whitewater rafting trip with the Young Adults group at my church and made them again a couple weeks later to take up to Hume Lake with the high school group...both times these cookies were DEVOURED. I think the 8 of us girls who were up at Hume ate 2 full batches ourselves in a matter of days!

I stumbled across this recipe about 2 months ago when I was on a hunt for a peanut butter cookie recipe that would yield soft, chewy cookies. I've never been a huge fan of peanut butter cookies, unless they have chocolate in them, mainly because I think peanut butter cookies tend to be more on the crunchy side and I am a fan of soft cookies. Don't get me wrong, I'll never turn down a peanut butter cookie if that's my only option, but if I'm given choices, I'm likely not going to go with the plain PB cookie.


Before I made this recipe I couldn't tell you the last time that I actually made regular peanut butter cookies, but I was on a mission to find a good recipe. I went to my favorite food website, foodgawker.com, and searched for 'peanut butter cookies.' The thing that caught my eye about this amazing recipe is the fact that it was labeled as 'Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies.' I clicked on the site and found that honey was the secret ingredient that was used to make these cookies so soft. The first cookies I ever remember making, when I was around 7 or 8, were peanut butter and honey cookies, so when I saw that this recipe was similar, I had to make these cookies, if only for nostalgic reasons.

I can't say that I followed the recipe exactly..afterall, I am on a quest to create my own recipes, so I will post the original recipe, but do know that I did change up a few things when I made these cookies myself.

Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
¼ cup vegetable shortening
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup honey
2 large eggs
Sugar, for rolling the cookies in

Directions:
In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt; whisk together and set aside. With a mixer cream together the shortening, butter, peanut butter and honey. Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients to the peanut butter mixture and beat until incorporated.

Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Roll the dough into 1½-inch balls, and roll each dough ball in sugar. Place the dough balls on an ungreased baking sheet, a couple inches apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until slightly puffed and golden. Let cool.

Adapted from recipe found here: http://annies-eats.com/2010/01/29/chewy-peanut-butter-cookies/

Chocolate + Peanut Butter= Pure Goodness

I'm waaay behind on my blog posts..I've done lots of baking lately, but just haven't gotten around to posting anything. A couple of weeks ago I decided to make some chocolate peanut butter cupcakes because honestly, when does something chocolate and peanut butter not sound good? Chocolate + peanut butter is one of the best food combinations out there, so I figured that by making a cupcake with those two foods, I really couldn't go wrong.




For the actual cupcake I mixed up a dark chocolate cake batter. When I filled the cupcake pans, I inserted a mini Reese's peanut butter cup into the batter before baking, just to add some more chocolate peanut buttery goodness to the cupcake. I then topped the cupcakes off with a creamy peanut butter cream cheese frosting and another Reese's cup half on top. Talk about a rich cupcake! These cupcakes were great, but a couple of bites was definitely more than enough..I think if I make these again I will probably make them as mini cupcakes just because they are super rich.



Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
One 8-ounce package cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter (do not use old-fashioned or freshly ground)

Sift powdered sugar into large bowl. Add cream cheese, butter, and peanut butter. Using electric mixer, beat mixture until smooth.

Here's the site where I got the frosting recipe from: http://firstlookthencook.wordpress.com/2010/07/20/banana-cupcakes-with-peanut-butter-frosting/

Chocolate Chipness

Not only did I bake cupcakes yesterday, but I tried out a new chocolate chip cookie recipe as well. Now I've been making the same chocolate chip cookie recipe for as long as I can remember..I've never felt the need to try out a new recipe because, frankly, I love my chocolate chip cookies. Over the past few years I've changed the recipe up enough that I've gotten the cookies to be deliciously chewy and contain just the right amount of sweetness. However, over the past couple weeks I've been given a couple different chocolate chip cookie recipes, and have done some internet searching on my own, so I figured, what the heck, I 'd try out a new recipe.

I can't say that I was overly pleased with how the cookies turned out. They definitely were not sweet enough for me, were more on the crunchy side, and the dough was a little oily, so the chips didn't mix in very well. I also found it interesting that you mix up the dough all by hand...I'm used to using a Cuisinart mixer, (can't wait to have a green one of my own someday!) so that was bit different.

I did, however, add in some butterscotch chips, which made the cookies look very fall-ish..while these cookies definitely will not be replacing my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe any time soon, they did still taste good, just not over-the-top amazing :-)

Here's the recipe (from www.wellroundedtable.com):

1-1/2 stick of butter
1 cup of brown sugar packed
1/2 cup of white sugar
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 cups + 2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips (or more)

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Melt the butter in a medium sized bowl. Let the butter cool a little before adding the sugar. Add sugar, mix well. Add eggs one at a time, then vanilla. Add the flour, salt, and soda together. Fold into mixture to incorporate. Add chips.

Place tablespoon sized scoops of dough on a non-stick cookie sheet. Bake for 10-14 minutes (however, always start with less time..you don't want to overbake your cookies, and all ovens are different)

The original recipe says it makes 16 large cookies, however, I got over 20 large cookies when I made it.

Cookies 'n Cream Galore

Since I love all things cookies 'n cream, including cupcakes, I decided to try a twist on the classic and bake some mini cupcakes with golden oreos and nilla wafers mixed in. I've been searching for a new vanilla cake recipe that I could doctor up and make my own, and figured I'd test a new one out and add in some vanilla flavored cookies. I can't say that I'm in love with this new vanilla cake base, I think it was a bit too dense for my liking, (I normally like cakes that are super light) but my family loved it, so that counts for something, right?

On a side note, I am in love with the leopard print cupcake papers that I used. If you know me at all, you know that I have a slight obsession with all things animal print, and am especially partial to all things leopard print...so, naturally I was drawn to these amazing cupcake papers!

I ended up making half of the recipe with the golden oreos and nilla wafers mixed in, and the other half with regular oreos mixed in. I then made up a vanilla bean buttercream frosting and mixed in crushed golden oreos and nilla wafers in half, and crushed oreos in the other half.


To make these cupcakes (or a cake, if you prefer) all you need to do is make up your favorite vanilla/white cake batter, crush up some cookies (I don't crush them up super fine because I like to have chunks of cookies inside the cake) and stir them into the batter before baking. When I crush up the cookies to mix into the frosting, I do crush them up super fine because it's too hard to pipe on frosting that has big chunks of cookies in in!















Vanilla Bean Frosting:
(this is the site where I got the frosting recipe from- http://www.evilshenanigans.com/)

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temp.
2 tsp. vanilla bean paste
6 cups powdered sugar
1/2 milk or cream

Combine butter and vanilla paste. Add in powdered sugar and most of the milk. Mix to combine. If the frosting seems too stiff, add in the rest of the milk. If it seems too soft, add in some extra powdered sugar.

Past Baking Endeavors

Here are pictures of some of the desserts I made for my sister's high school graduation party this past June, and also of some desserts I made for a friend's baby shower last August.














Cupcakes:

Cookies 'n Cream with a cookies 'n cream buttercream frosting, topped with crushed Oreos and an Oreo half

Funfetti with a buttercream frosting

Red Velvet with a cream cheese frosting


















Cake Balls:

Red Velvet cake mixed with cream cheese frosting, dipped in either dark or white chocolate and drizzled with chocolate

Devil's Food cake mixed with cream cheese frosting, dipped in either dark or white chocolate, topped with either crushed Oreos, crushed Reese's cups, or rainbow sprinkles, and drizzled with chocolate



Mini Cookies 'n Cream cheesecakes, with an Oreo cookie as the crust, topped with whipped cream and a mini Oreo

Vanilla cupcakes topped with a chocolate buttercream frosting

First Step Towards a Career in Baking??

I've loved to bake for as long as I can remember, but it has turned into a passion of mine over the past few years. I enjoy trying new recipes, or doctoring up old ones to make them my own. It is a dream of mine to own a bakery someday and to be able to turn this hobby of mine into somewhat of a career. I'm starting this blog to have a place to post pictures of the things that I make and to hopefully start to get the word out there. So far I have baked for graduation parties, wedding showers, a baby shower, a wedding, a high school cheer banquet, countless birthday parties, and just for the heck of it...I'm always looking for an excuse to bake!

I'm in the process of figuring out the logistics of what it will take to turn my passion for baking into a business. The main detail I'm working through is figuring out how to price my baked goods so that I am competitive with already-established bakeries and other smaller businesses, while still remaining reasonably priced for my target market. Any tips in that area would be greatly appreciated! My ideal target market would be those people who are looking for someone to bake for smaller gatherings such as bridal showers, baby showers, small weddings, school banquets, graduation parties, birthday parties, holiday parties, etc.

Some of the things I enjoy baking most are cupcakes/mini cupcakes (red velvet, cookies 'n cream, devils food, vanilla, pumpkin spice, etc.), cookies (sugar cookies, chocolate chip, double chocolate peanut butter chip, snickerdoodles, chewy peanut butter cookies, banana chocolate chip...the possibilities are endless!), and my newest favorite-cake balls (red velvet, cookies 'n cream, devils food, etc.).

I've been saying that I want to start selling my baked goods for so long that I finally decided it was time to stop just talking about it and actually take the first step towards doing something about it...so here's that first step!