Ice cream and brownies

 I made this tiny ice cream dessert for family who came over for lunch this weekend.  Ganache, 3 tiny scoops of vanilla ice cream and a brownie in the shape of a star.  I  loved this dessert.  First of all I love tiny dishes!  I just bought these from Bed Bath and Beyond 12 for $20 and used the $5 off coupon.  And two of my favorite sweets are ice cream and brownies.  I prepared this ahead of time and kept them in my freezer on my tray.

I am a loyal fan of Ghiradelli brownies and have only made those. But I didn't have any brownie mix at home so I found this recipe that I really liked which I used this weekend. 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease an 8x8 inch square pan.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, butter and water. Cook over medium heat until boiling. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips until melted and smooth. Mix in the eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the chocolate mixture. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until brownies set up. Do not overbake! Cool in pan and cut into squares. 

Wilton silicone brownie pan

I bought this pan a couple weeks ago. It's a really good pan but it took me a while to get the brownies just right. I didn't mind though, because I would just eat the mistakes! :)

As I've mentioned in the past, Ghirardelli Triple Chocolate brownie mix is my favorite brownie mix (I refuse to use any other brand). So if you are going to use this pan, here are some tips for you that will probably work even if you don't use Ghirardelli:


oil each cavity generously


use a 2 teaspoon cookie scoop


350 degrees for 20 minutes


wait at least 30 minutes before removing brownies from pan

The brownies should pop right out with minimal effort.

I was able to make 43 brownies from one pouch of brownie mix (the pan makes 2 dozen.) I also recommend baking something else you need on the same day you bake brownies. What I did was bake the first batch and while it cooled (and while I washed, oiled and refilled the pan), I baked a few dozen cookies. This way I didn't have to turn off the oven when the first batch was done, then preheat again an hour or so later.

delicious 1.5 inch square bite sized brownies. i can eat 20...or more

Eggs and sandwiches

I hope all you mother's had a wonderful day yesterday. I had brunch with my family. It was potluck. I decided to make mini sandwiches and eggs.

i used mini bagels to make a cheddar cheese sandwich.

I saw several people of Flickr make these chick eggs during Easter and thought they were so cute! The beaks are made from carrots and they eyes from black sesame seeds. What you see on mine aren't black sesame seeds though! They are burnt sesame seeds! I only had regular sesame seeds so I burnt them in the toaster oven to make them black! hahaha! of course then they were really hard to work with because they were fragile pieces of coal.

I cut the bottom of the egg slightly so that the egg wouldn't roll over.

Mini Pecan Pies

I have been craving pecan pie for a while now. I decided to make some mini pies.

I still haven't perfected pie crust, actually I haven't even tried yet. Too busy or too lazy. But this is my favorite pie crust that I always use when I need pie crust. The box has 2 crusts.

I was able to make 4 doz little dough balls, about an inch in diameter

I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com, i only used the filling recipe since I already had pre-made crust.

I doubled this recipe:

• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup chopped pecans

25 minutes at 325 degrees in the oven, and they popped right out of the pan. AND so delicious!!

I have to get my sugar fix from things other than chocolate, because for some strange reason now that I am pregnant, I don't crave for chocolate anymore...sad, I know. It's ok, and I'll still eat it, but before pregnancy, I had to fight myself to not eat it with every meal and snack.

mini birthday cake

One of my nieces had a birthday several days ago. Her family came over for dinner this weekend and I gave her this tiny cake. From the first picture, you can't really tell how tiny it is... icing this this was SO hard! that's why it's not smooth at all. i couldn't keep the cupcake from sliding around on the plate. i should have put it in the refrigerator for while, so that icing on the bottom "gluing" it to the plate hardened up a little.

a cupcake covered in butter cream icing, plus a mini cake stand (it's really a pillar candle stand) makes this cake

i bought this candle stand just because it could pass for a mini cake stand. if you've been reading this blog regularly you'll know that i love cake stands and cake plates.

a cake for one

23 mini gingerbread houses Part 2

the gingerbread house decorating activity was a success. the kids really enjoyed it. here are some pictures from yesterday the candy and wreaths and christmas trees that i made
(candy canes, chocolate santa claus, m&m's, mini chocolate chips, lemon heads, nerds, cinnamon candy, peppermints, and gum drops)

i also piped some mini christmas wreaths and trees (but the trees didn't look very good)

the trees are on the right of this picture

i made tiny signs to post in the "front yard" of each house

i forgot to take a picture of all the decorated houses last night, but here are a few of them

here's my house

here it is without the dome

23 mini gingerbread houses

my husband and i are hosting a christmas party this weekend. this is the 3rd year i've made gingerbread houses for the kids (and some adults who want to participate) to decorate at the party. i made the dough last night and baked for almost 3 hours today, then assembled the houses which took just under an hour. i did make a big mistake this year though...i ran out of white flour making the dough, so when i was rolling out the cookies, all i had left was whole wheat flour to use. i tried to brush off the whole wheat flour (before and after baking) but the houses are still tainted with flour. oh well.

here is the recipe i used from allrecipes.com

• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 egg
• 1 cup molasses
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons warm water

here is the template i made (cardboard covered in plastic wrap). the the front of the house is about an inch shorter than the ones i made last year. and the side wall is more of a square than a rectangle for a shorter house.

a bunch of walls unbaked

a bunch of walls baked

i decided to cut out the door, rather than tracing it on the dough like last time. and i didn't make windows on the side of the house this time to save time.

each stack makes a house

here's an animated gif i made.
it took me 56 minutes to put all the houses together. so here are 56 slides to show my progress.

chocolate cake with cupcakes to match

i made these cupcakes and cake for my friend who's birthday was last week. the cake was a tiny 4 inch 2 layer chocolate cake with sprinkles. i decorated the cupcakes so they would match.

another lion cake

i made this 4 inch chocolate cake yesterday also. this one was for my nephew, no reason, except that his sister is the one i made a cake for last week. it was nice playing around more with my grass tip #233. since i was in a hurry making this cake and the cake for my sister, i didn't cut the top off the cake to level it or cut it in half to add a filling.

yellow buttercream icing colored yellow

you know, before i added the nose and mouth, he looked like a hamster or something like that. i think it's because i gave him small ears, next time i'll need to make them 2-3 times bigger