Archive for the 'Baking' Category

October 18th, 2014

The making of apple pie

I love pie, but I really don’t make it enough. The problem is the amount of food. My husband and I shouldn’t eat a whole pie (I almost said “couldn’t” but then I realized that wasn’t true), and it’s also not enough to share with my coworkers (I double my cookie and cake/cupcake recipes for work). Having people over is pretty much the perfect time.

This morning when we went to do yard work, we saw that apples had grown inย on our apple tree! Today also happens to be when we’re hosting a football watching party, so it was the perfect time to make some apple pie ๐Ÿ™‚ This is a recipe my mom has been using for several years, with a few modifications by me.

The first thing I make is the dough because it needs to be refrigerated for at least an hour before it’s used. Homemade dough may seem intimidating, but it’s actually quite easy and uses very little ingredients.

apple_pie_01

When it comes to cookies, cakes, and frosting, you usually start with room temperature butter because it allows more air to be beaten in. For pies and tarts, you typically use cold butter, and it’s easier to use when cut into smaller pieces and slowly added into the mix. My mom does this part by hand, but I like using my stand mixer with a flat beater. (A large food processor would work as well.)

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February 13th, 2014

Scalloped cake edges

First, I have a small site update! I added a new category called “Tips/Recommends” with 3 subcategories: Baking, Gaming, and Photography. I want to continue writing helpful articles once in a while and wanted an easy way for people to find them again ๐Ÿ™‚

And so, I have another baking tutorial today! I really like doing scalloped cake edges right now. They’re simple, yet have that “wow” factor that make people think it’s hard or time consuming to do. Hopefully with this tutorial, you’ll see that it’s actually fairly easy.

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1. You’ll need: a cake, frosting, icing spatula, and a pastry bag. Optionally, you can also use a large round frosting tip. If I had one, I’d use it, but all of my large tips are star or flower shaped =/

cake-scalloped_01

2. Start by crumbcoating the cake. I’ve mentioned it before, but crumbcoating is where you put a thin layer of frosting on your cake, and then you refrigerate it for about an hour. Afterwards, the frosting becomes a solid layer with the crumbs trapped inside. This gives you a clean surface to work off of.

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