Sallee's Six - The Cupcake Pull Apart Cake Edition

In America, we celebrate with cake! Baby showers, birthdays, sporting events, weddings, and holidays are celebrated with cake. Okay, some Americans celebrate with pie. However, in my opinion, cake is the popular choice. 

Custom Cake and Cupcake Prices

Custom cake prices usually cost about $2.35 to $3.00 per serving. Just think about that for a minute, a cake large enough to serve 100 people can cost $300. Custom cupcakes can cost as much as $1.75 each, or $21.00 a dozen, for standard size cupcakes. However, a well known bakery, such as Charm City Cakes, charges $6 - $9 per serving AND this cost does not include labor. Prices like these cause home bakers to attempt making their own specialty cakes, or cupcakes, at home.

Home Baker Costs for Cupcakes

One cake mix makes twenty-four standard cupcakes. One container of frosting will generously frost about eighteen standard cupcakes. The total cost for a cake mix is about $1.00 to $1.99 each and a container of frosting is $1.19 to $2.35 each. A container of cupcake liners is another dollar or two.Using these prices, you can bake and frost 24 cupcakes for about thirty-six cents each.

                                             

Do It Yourself, Pull Apart Cakes

Novice and intermediate home bakers can bake a cupcake pull apart cake. First, you need a pattern to follow. The links below will take you to six of my favorite, pull apart cakes made from cupcakes.

•  Elmo, 20 cupcakes by thatgirlang                               

Click here to see the pattern

• John Deere Tractor, 39 cupcakes by Jessie Karnes Asbury  

Click here to see the pattern

• Butterfly, 24 cupcakes by thatgirlang                        

Click here to see the pattern

• Spiderman, 27-30 cupcakes  by Sweet E's Cake Creation

Click here to see the pattern

• Princess Dress, 27 cupcakes by Valawynn                  

Click here to see pictures
                                                                                                                 

Click here for tutorial

• Super Bowl Touchdown Cake, 24 cupcakes by Food Network Kitchen

Click here for recipe and directions

Holiday Cookie Box for Christmas

Individual packages of homemade, decorated holiday cookies waiting to be boxed with a nine inch by eight inch Christmas tree cookie. 

A Recycled Cookie Cutter

Last year I received  Ferrero Rocher chocolates packaged in a plastic, Christmas tree shaped container. Thrifty gal and recycler that I am, my first thought was to reuse the empty container as a cookie cutter for an extra large, nine inch by eight inch, Christmas tree cookie.

Changing An Annual Baking Tradition

For years I have been making Christmas tree mini-cakes for my family. Hopefully they won't mind not getting a mini-cake this year. Instead, I decided to make a large Christmas tree cookie and package it with a variety of holiday cookies.

9" by 8" decorated, sugar cookie, Christmas trees.

Cinnamon candies, or red hots, yellow candy stars, and white piped garland and white Christmas bulbs decorate each cookie tree. I used a #3 piping tip to form the white bulbs and garland.

My classic, almost famous, sugar cookie dough became Christmas tree cookies, holly leaf cookies, and snow flake cookies. 

Sallee's Sugar Cookie Recipe

I used a #3 piping tip  to form the white icing features. The black icing was piped using a sixteen inch piping bag with the tip snipped off. To form the reindeer eyes, first pipe a bead of white icing with the #3 inch tip. Next, pipe a dot of black icing on top of the white icing bead. Now you have an eye looking at you.

Peanut butter, roll out cookie dough became Christmas trees and Rudolph, the Red Nose Reindeer cookies. 

My first time using this dough did not work well. The dough is sticky and soft UNLESS you refrigerate it for at least twenty-four hours. Then, you still have to work quickly to get it rolled out on a pastry mat. An additional, necessary step required flipping the dough over and re-flouring my pastry mat.

Also, I gave my cookie cutters a flour bath. Seriously, I had to submerge them in flour to prevent the dough from sticking to the cutters.

I will be looking for a different peanut butter cookie recipe to use.

Snowflake sugar cookies decorated with pale blue icing and Betty Crocker snowflake decor mix.

Sugar cookie holly leaves and peanut butter Christmas trees. For the holly leaf berries, I sorted out the red trees from the Christmas tree sprinkles and used them for the berries. Later I used a #3 piping tip and white icing to pipe ribbing onto the holly leaf cookies. This detail can be seen below in the fifth picture, or next to the last picture.

Sugar cookie trees decorated with yellow candy stars and Betty Crocker snowflake decors.

Christmas tree cookies decorated with a Wilton sprinkles mix. 

Chocolate bells with crushed candy cane trim. Piped borders were formed with a #5 piping tip.

Chocolate Roll Out Cookies 

Chocolate, roll out cookie dough became Christmas bells and Rudolph, the Red Nose Reindeer cookies.

Chocolate Cutout Cookie Recipe

I've used this dough before and it rolls out well after being chilled for two hours. 

Decorating Icing Recipe

Decorated and ready to pack in a shirt gift box from the local dollar store.
Christmas print, shirt gift boxes are sold in a three pack for two dollars.

Carefully placed and ready for a lid!

Zombie Crunch Snack Mix

Bill, my husband, loves to watch shows and movies about zombies. He also loves to eat a snack while watching zombies closing in on the next, horrified victim. When I asked him to help me name this snack mix, I should have known he would want the word "zombie" in the title. 

You can be in the kitchen making a batch of crunchy, salty, sweet, buttery, peppermint chocolate Zombie Crunch Snack Mix while your sweetie watches zombies eat people too.

Prep. Time: About 10 minutes    Cook Time: About 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 1- 2.9 oz bag of popped Movie Theatre Butter popcorn.
• 10 oz. of vanilla almond bark, or half a package
• 1 Tbsp. all vegetable shortening
• Mini pretzels
• 2-3 candy canes, broken into small pieces  I put the candy canes into a zip top bag and use my meat tenderizing mallet to break the canes into small pieces. The size depends on your preference. 
• Semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions

• Place popped popcorn into a large, shallow bowl
• Add desired amount of mini pretzels, chocolate chips, and broken candy canes on top of the popcorn. No measuring is required. 2 or 3 handfuls of pretzels and a handful of chocolate chips. It is that easy. 
• Microwave 10 oz. of vanilla almond bark following the package directions.
• Add 1 Tbsp. of shortening to the melted almond bark and stir until well blended
• Drizzle half of the melted vanilla almond bark mixture evenly over the popcorn snack mix.
• Stir gently to lightly coat the popcorn snack mix.
• Repeat with the remaining half of the vanilla almond bark mixture.
• Turn the coated popcorn snack mix out into an aluminum foil lined cookie sheet and spread out evenly.
• Place the cookie sheet in the freezer compartment of your refrigerator for five minutes.
• Remove from the freezer and gently break the clumped mixture into smaller pieces. 
• Store the Zombie Crunch Snack Mix in zip top bags or a storage bowl with a tightly fitting lid. 

Zombie Crunch Snack Mix spread out on a lined cookie sheet.

After cooling in the freezer for five minutes, the Zombie Crunch Snack Mix is ready to gently break apart and eat. 

Yield: Enough to feed 2 hearty snackers or 3 light snackers

Sallee's Sugar Cookies - A Cookie Exchange Winner!

The two zip bags of cookies were for my coworker, Carrie. Carrie is a big fan of my sugar cookies.

Deck the cook with a flowered apron Fa la la la la, la la la la

Bake the fav'rit'  Christmas cookies Fa la la la la, la la la la

Roll out sugar cookies. Yep, I decided to take my classic, holiday sugar cookies to the cookie exchange at work this year. In addition to using the traditional cookie recipe, I decided to make my favorite shape of all time, Christmas trees. 

This year, twenty-seven of my coworkers brought three dozen cookies to the cookie exchange. The cash prizes were a great surprise!

Yes, I am a Christmas tree lover. The variety of decorating schemes for Christmas trees are endless! This love of decorating Christmas trees, includes making and decorating Christmas tree cookies.

Inspiration for this year's cookie exchange Christmas tree cookies was found over at Bakers Royale. Blogger Naomi Robinson's gorgeous white on white Christmas tree cookie pictures provided the decorating scheme for my cookies. 

• Thinned frosting was spread on the cookies with a butter knife. 
• The frosted cookies were placed on a cooling rack that was sitting on a baking sheet to collect drips.
• The frosting was glossy and set in about twenty minutes. 
• Then the garland and decorations were piped on.
• White garland and green "ornaments" were piped on with a pastry bag that had the tip snipped.
•  The blue ornaments were piped on with a #2 piping tip and pastry bag. 

For the cookie and frosting recipes click on the link:  Sallee's Sugar Cookies

Twenty Minute Crab Delight Salad

Warning: this can be highly addictive!
This is food porn at its best. Plus, six ingredients and twenty minutes to prepare makes this a quick and easy recipe to prepare. 

I do not have any pictures at this time because Bill and I cleaned the bowl out before I could take any. lol...lol 


Yield: 4-5 servings as a salad

Ingredients

• 12 oz. imitation crab meat
• 2 oz. cream cheese at room temperature
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise Do not use salad dressing, it just won't taste the same.
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced celery  My mandoline makes this a 30 second job.
• 1-2 scallions or green onions, thinly sliced 

Directions

• Place cream cheese, mayonnaise, and lemon juice into a small bowl. 
• Whisk until well blended.
• Set aside.
• Place crab meat into a 1 quart bowl and break it apart with your hands.
• Add the celery, onions, and reserved dressing.
• Stir until the mixture is well coated with the dressing.
• Cover the bowl and place in the refrigerator until serving time.
• An appetizer that you can serve with crackers or you can place a scoop on a bed of salad greens for lunch, dinner, or a snack.

SalleeShares- Holiday Baking Championship Week 3

Week Three Bakers

And only six bakers remain to battle for $50,000 and the title, Holiday Baking Champion. Pastry Instructor Bill Liscomb, Home Baker Naylet Larochelle, Caterer David Bondarchuck, Naval Instructor/Family Baker Dante Morasco, Chef Terra Nelson, and Pro Baker Erin Campbell have survived two baking battles.  Each previous bake off battle has been devised to highlight baking skills in the areas of creativity, taste, and presentation. 

Meet the Judges
Owner of Charm City Cakes Duff Goldman,Farmhouse Rules host Nancy Fuller, and Pastry Chef Lorraine Pascale.

Sallee's Three to win the $50,000: Erin, Bill and Naylet.
Leave a comment and let me know who your top three bakers are.

The Preheat Advantage Challenge
The six remaining contestants' faces mirror surprise when host Bobby Deen announces the preheat advantage challenge:

"Use store bought pie crust to make a dessert that is not pie! in half an hour." Whoa, a thirty minute dessert using prepackaged pie crust? 

Six Dismayed Bakers
All the bakers are a little dismayed that they have to use prepackaged pie crust in an inspiring, innovative, holiday dessert that is not a pie. Texturally, a premade crust lacks butter. No butter means less flavor and flakiness. However, Bill did admit that he does use a store bought crust in a pinch. 

Note: Store bought crust is a help when time is short, or you do not know how to make a pie crust. However, I have not used a store bought crust in years because I have a perfected pie crust recipe, Chill and Thrill Pie Crust. This is my go to crust for any pie.


Six "Not a Pie" Desserts

1. Bill decided to make an apple walnut raisin empanada. Empanadas are Latin American hand pies. However, it passed for "not a pie". Seriously, how close can you get to a pie and it NOT be a pie?
2. Dante's choice was also an empanada. He prepared a chestnut chocolate chip empanada with a twisted edge that was eye appealing. However, I again ask the question, "How close can you get to a pie and it NOT be a pie?" During baking, the scrumptious filling leaked out of the empanadas. The judges all wanted more and Dante agreed with them. Sealing the edges of your dough is Baking 101. Nerves and time worked against Dante in this heat.
3. David baked rounds of crust and assembled a black and white Napoleon. I was happy to see a dessert that was definitely NOT a pie. However, David's statement,"I'm all about presentation." was not apparent during this preheat. A powdered sugar stencil was the only holiday decoration. The judges, Duff, Nancy, and Lorraine all loved the flavors, but not the presentation. Nancy wanted to see three red berries and a mint leaf on top.  
4. Erin's choice, deconstructed peach cobbler with egg washed pastry and sanding sugar, set the bar for the other contestants in the preheat. Once again Erin swung for the fences and this time the holiday baking ball soared over the outfield fence. 
5. Naylet's dessert was a pumpkin butter dessert square which was essentially a square empanada that wasn't sealed properly. Guess what happened? Yes, the filling oozed out during baking. Back to Baking 101, seal those pastry edges. 
6. Terra baked baby apple turnovers. Unfortunately, she chose to use unpeeled apples "like Mamaw."  In my opinion, using unpeeled, or pared, apples is a mistake. Apple peels can be bitter and tough. The trio of judges agreed with my opinion. Fortunately, Terra's innovative technique of pressing graham cracker crumbs into the pie crust for texture earned her points with all three judges. 

And the preheat WINNER is ERIN! Remember Erin is one of MY top 3 picks.

The Pie Challenge Continues!

Once again, five faces reflect dismay. Erin can begin baking 10 minutes earlier than the other five finalists in the elimination challenge.

And the Elimination Challenge Is:

Bake 3 pies in 2 hours. 
Glad it is them and not me. Two hours is not very much time to make three pies. 

Contestants' Holiday Pie Flavors

Bill 

• Chocolate Chip Pecan
• Apple Cranberry Frangipane
• Banana Pudding with Marshmallow Meringue

Dante

• Apple 
• Italian Pastia 
• Italian Cheesecake 

David

• Kentucky Bourbon Pecan
• Chocolate Pumpkin
• Cranberry Meringue

Erin

• Lemon Meringue
• Pumpkin
• Salted Caramel Apple

Naylet

• Pecan Chocolate Coconut
• Banana Cream Dulce de Leche
• Cream Cheese Apple

Terra

• Chocolate Chip Bourbon Pecan
• Lemon Gingersnap
• Pumpkin Maple Brulee

Baker Erin Start Your Baking!

Ten minutes slowly pass as five bakers watch Erin enthusiastically begin composing her three pies. Finally, all five could sprint into the pantry and begin work on their three pies.

At the one hour and fifteen minute mark, Dante cut his finger, which bled into his pie crust dough. Remaking pie dough is not what you want to be doing with less than an hour remaining. Could Dante be the eliminated baker this week?

Two Hours Later

Bobby Deen calls time and six pairs of hands rise into the air. A moment later, Bobby says,"I like surprises and I have a surprise for you." With an "Uh Oh what now?" look, the finalists look at each other and back at Bobby. 

Surprise! Pick the Best Two Pies

• Dante was pleased to pick two out of three, but only had one good pie and knew it. 
• Naylet struggled to complete her Cheesecake Apple Pie and quickly chose to eliminate it. 
• David remarked,"It's like choosing between my children!" However, he decided to leave the Kentucky Bourbon Pecan pie in his kitchen.
•  Erin took her Lemon Meringue out of the judging.
• Terra decided her Pumpkin Maple Brulee pie would be left on the counter because it might not be done. 
• Bill chose to leave out his chocolate chip pecan. ( one eyebrow lifted) Maybe because Terra had a chocolate chip pecan too?

(Judge Dredd voice).......................... Pies and Bakers, you have been judged.

Top picks  

David - Cranberry Meringue earned an "Mm, Mm, Mm" from Judge Nancy Fuller. The pumpkin was deemed "excellent."

Nylet - Both of Nylet's pies earned great remarks. Lorraine Pascal said," This is legendary!" Duff and Nancy agreed with her. Nylet told the camera," It's a proud mama moment!"

Your Safe 

Erin - Judge Duff and Judge Nancy liked the Salted Apple Caramel, but Judge Lorraine thought it needed to be saltier. 

Bill - The marshmallow meringue on his Banana Cream Pie had Duff asking how he made it. I believe all three judges will be making marshmallow meringue in the immediate future. 

At the Bottom 

Terra - Mystery flavor in her Chocolate Chip Bourbon Pecan pie. (flour that didn't cook enough)

Dante - texture issues with the Italian Cheesecake Pie
Who Went Home?
Dante had a difficult baking day that sent him home. Cutting himself, accidentally contaminating his bowl of pie crust, and texture issues all combined to send Dante home. 

And the Winner?

Caterer David Bondarchuck won the Week 3 Elimination Challenge. Congratulations on your win David.

Chill and Thrill Pie Crust

Warm temperatures are normally welcome, but not when it affects your pie crust. Chill your ingredients and equipment so you can experience the thrill of making a successful pie crust! You can become a pie crust master. 

Yield

•  four 8" one crust pies or two 8" double crust pies
•  two 9" one crust pies or one 9" double crust pie

A batch of chill and thrill pie crust can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week before using. The raw crust will appear darker, but it bakes up to a beautiful golden brown like the pie in the above picture.

Ingredients

• 4 cups of all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 3/4 cups cold shortening  Tip: Storing shortening in the refrigerator keeps it fresh AND it is always cold for making pie crusts. 
• 1 cold egg, well beaten
• 1 tsp. vinegar, white or cider 
• 1/2 cup ice cold water

Directions

• Sift flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder into a quart and a half bowl. If my kitchen is hot, I will place the bowl of dry ingredients in the freezer for 10-15 minutes to chill before continuing with the following step. 
• Quickly, mix in cold shortening using two cold knives, a pastry cutter, or with your hand. I prefer to mix mine with my hand. I use my fingertips.
• Add beaten egg, vinegar, and ice cold water.
• Mix well by hand with a sturdy spoon.
• Keep the pie crust tightly covered and chilled until you are ready to use it. 
• Roll the crust out on a lightly floured surface and place it into your pie pan.

I fold the crust in half , place the fold line in the middle of the pie plate, unfold the crust, and let the crust settle into place. 

• Trim the crust about 1/4 to 1/2 inch past the edge of the pie plate. The crust will shrink about 1/4 inch as it bakes. 
• Follow the baking directions for your pie recipe. 

You may need to cover the crust edge of the baking pie to keep it from over browning. 

Making a Pie Shield from Aluminum Foil

• Start with a square of aluminum foil that is about a half inch larger than your pie plate.
• Fold the square of foil in half and trim as shown above. 
• Center the pie shield over your pie. 
• Gently tuck the edges under the rim of the pie plate. 
• Take care to not get the shield too tight. You just want to prevent over browning, by keeping the crust edge lightly covered.

I always put a pie shield on my pies. I remove the pie shield for the last 15 to 20 minutes.
It is much easier to put a pie shield on a cool pie and remove it carefully from the hot pie. 

Happy Thanksgiving and Safe Travels

Hoping you have safe travels during the 2014 Thanksgiving holiday and receive many blessings. The holiday season has begun!
Bill and Sallee Bonham

Pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting. Gobble, gobble!

Coconut Cream Tropical Fruit Salad

My oldest daughter arrived for Thanksgiving dinner carrying a shopping bag. Her contribution to dinner was a four ingredient, fruit salad that was ready to eat in fifteen minutes. I love the ease and speed of this recipe!

Coconut Cream Tropical Fruit Salad can be served as a side dish, or as a light dessert.

Yield: about 1 quart, or 4 cups

Ingredients

• 2-15 oz. cans of tropical fruit salad packed in fruit juice
• 1-3.4 oz. package coconut cream instant pudding
• milk
• 1 - 1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows I like to use a cup and a half.
• Optional - 1/2 cup of chopped pecans

Directions

• Drain juice from tropical fruit salad into a two cup liquid measuring cup.
• Add enough milk to the fruit juice to make 1 1/2 cups of liquid.
• In a one quart serving bowl, combine fruit juice mixture with the package of pudding.
• Whisk for two minutes.
• Stir in the miniature marshmallows and the drained, tropical fruit salad. 
• Chill until ready to serve.

Variations

Try different combinations of fruit and pudding flavors.

1. Vanilla pudding , canned fruit cocktail in juice
2. Lemon pudding, pineapple chunks in juice, small can of mandarin oranges in juice
3. Add 1 large banana, sliced to any of the fruit and pudding combinations.

Spiced Pumpkin Butterscotch Mini Trifle

Just in time for Thanksgiving, spiced pumpkin butterscotch filling layered between the halves of a spice cupcake. Then, they are topped with whipped topping and cupcake crumbles. What's not to love?

AND they are portable! 

Mini trifles can be prepared the day before your party. However, when using plastic party tumblers, the dessert can be prepared ahead of time and frozen. Thaw in the refrigerator. 

Yield 15 - 9 oz. mini trifles

You will need 15-9 oz. party tumblers. I bought two - ten packs at the local dollar store for $2. 
Ingredients
1 - 16.5 oz. extra moist spice cake mix
Pan coat spray
1 - 15 oz. can of pumpkin
1 tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. nutmeg
¼ tsp. ginger
¼ tsp. allspice
3 cups cold milk
4 – 3.4 oz. packages instant butter scotch pudding mix
About 16 ounces of whipped topping I used Cool Whip.

Instructions
• Follow package directions on the spice cake mix to make batter for cupcakes.
• Spray cups of cupcake pans with pan coat spray.
• Fill each cup of the cup cake pan about half full.
• While the cupcakes are baking, pour 3 cups of cold milk into a large bowl.
• Pour the four packages of pudding mix into the milk and blend until smooth.
• Add the pumpkin and spices to the pudding and blend until smooth.
• Cover and place in refrigerator.
• Remove cupcakes from the pan and cool on a cooling tray until they no longer warm

• Set out fifteen party tumblers
• Cut fifteen cupcakes in half and place the bottom of each cupcake cut side up in the tumblers.

• Put a rounded tablespoon of pumpkin mixture in each tumbler and level.
• Repeat another layer with cupcake top and pudding mixture.
• If you have any pumpkin mixture left, divide it between the tumblers.
• Fill each tumbler with whipped topping. 
• Crumble one cupcake into crumbs. I only used the center of the cupcake, not the outside edges.
• Sprinkle crumbs onto top of whipped topping
• Decorate with candy corn or other decoration of your choice.
• Cover and refrigerate the mini trifles for at least two hours before serving.
• You will have eight cupcakes left over. I place the left over cupcakes into a quart freezer bag and freeze them for my lunch.

SalleeShares- Holiday Baking Championship Week 2

#BakingChampionship

On the second week of Christmas my true love sent to me, seven bakers baking...lol.  I am gaining the Christmas spirit through my television viewing of Holiday Baking Championship! 

Week Two's Theme: Classic Holiday Flavors
Fall flavors and spices such as cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin, caramel, chocolate, nuts, and apples remind me of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Eve.

Heat One: Eggnog Swirl Dessert

The seven bakers were excited to hear Bobby Deen say they would be baking with eggnog and would have sixty minutes before the heat was over. However, most of the contestants were not thrilled that the eggnog had to be in a swirl dessert.

The Bakers' Dessert Choices

• Pastry Chef Bill Liscomb chose to make Baked Eggnog French Toast and serve it with swirled eggnog and maple syrup. Personally, I didn't think this qualified as an eggnog swirl dessert, but was a breakfast pastry or breakfast choice
• Naylet Larochelle, the home baker who won the Week One main heat, chose to prepare Swirled Pumpkin Tart with Eggnog Whipped Cream. Yum!
• Caterer David Bondarchuck decided upon Eggnog and Spiced Cake Swirl Cupcakes. 
• Family Baker Dante Morasco's dessert of choice was Chocolate Espresso Obsession Eggnog Cheesecake. Seriously, I didn't understand the obsession part of the title. Is an obsession a new type of pastry? Am I that far off the web here in Mid-Missouri?
• Master Baker Punky Egan's choice was a streusel topped, Eggnog Pumpkin Swirl Muffin with Pumpkin Butter.
• Pastry Chef Terra Nelson immediately went with a brownie that featured a sweet potato puree and graham cracker crumb base. The top layer was reduced eggnog stabilized with white chocolate and, a Louisville, Kentucky staple, bourbon whiskey. 
• Professional Baker Erin Campbell's choice was Sweet Potato Cheese Cake with Gingersnap Crust and Eggnog Anglaise.  

Presentation to the Judges

Pastry Chef Duff Goldman, Chef Nancy Fuller, and Pastry Chef Lorraine Pascale were less than thrilled with the taste and/or presentations by:

• Dante - Judge comments included, "Where's the holiday?" The piped chocolate "modern" Christmas tree design on the plate didn't work.
• Erin - A kind comment for a rough presentation, "Not a looker, but delicious." Erin struggled with having a raw cheesecake and decided to put scoops of the cheesecake into small ramekins to finish baking. 
• David - Unanimous agreement from the judges, "Frosting is waxy." "Pedestrian." Not what a professional baker wants to hear!
• Bill - His final presentation was beautiful BUT the eggnog wasn't the star. The judges agreed with my thought that French toast isn't a dessert and it wasn't swirled.

However, four bakers all found favor with the three judges.

• Terra - Served a shooter of Mamaw's Spiked Eggnog with her upscale brownie. "Fab plate of food!" and "Redemption tastes good." were two of the comments bestowed upon Terra's dessert. Terra barely stayed in the competition last week. Redemption is indeed sweet.
• Naylet - The trio of judges all agreed the eggnog flavor was spot on. Duff Goldman asked her if she would teach him to bake. Straight faced humor from the Charm City Cake owner. 
• Punky - A beautiful presentation and flavor. 

And the Winner of Heat One is: Terra Nelson

Terra's main heat advantage? The use of an electric spice grinder. The other six bakers had to use a mortar and pestle to grind spices with. Cutthroat Kitchen's Alton Brown must have had something to do with this advantage! 

The Main Heat Challenge

Each baker was challenged to make a dessert using three classic spices and two sugars in sixty minutes.

An electric spice grinder was a definite advantage because all of the classic spices were whole. Whole nutmeg, whole allspice berries, whole cloves, rolled cinnamon bark, and a variety of sugars were presented to the seven bakers at the beginning of the challenge. 

A Bad Baking Day on National TV

• We all have bad baking days. However, most of us do not have a bad baking day on national television. Last week, Terra Nelson found out what this feels like. 
• This week, it was Erin Campbell's turn to burn a batch of caramel three times AND had her beaten egg whites collapse into soup for her souffle. Her end product completely failed to impress the judges. What kept Erin in the competition? She took on an ambitious dessert and did not quit attempting to scale each barrier that could have prevented her from completing a dessert. 
• Naylet cut herself twice in the first few minutes while grating a roll of dried cinnamon bark on a hand-held grater. However, she also kept baking after the medic bandaged her injured digits.

Seven Bakers Baking

1. Cakelet with Peach Cranberry Compote  by Naylet
2. Spiced Bread Pudding Chocolate Souffle with Caramel Sauce by Erin
3. Apple Nut Cake with Cream Cheese Drizzle by Terra
4. Hamantaschen by Dante. A hamantaschen is a traditional Jewish cookie that is shaped like a triangular hat around a filling.  
5. Gingerbread Man Cookies by Punky
6. Five Spice Orange Holiday Loaf by David
7. Three Spice Creme Brulee by Bill

Outstanding Bakers

 Bill - Nancy and Lorraine love the Creme Brulee. Duff said," it's about the process." and he felt the custard was a tad over baked. 

Dante - Lorraine complemented Dante on his,"great pastry."

David - What a turn around from the first heat! David's bread was deemed,"Awesome!" by Duff Goldman. A lovely presentation with two wonderful sauces. 

Struggling Bakers

• Punky was the eliminated baker. Her soft,under spiced gingerbread men with whole spice decorations fell flat with the judges. All three judges expected more from a master baker and thought Punky played it too safe.
• Erin - Bad baking day, but she stayed in the competition.

Safe Bakers

Terra

Naylet

The Week Two Winner: Bill Liscombe and his Spiced Creme Brulee.

SalleeShares-Holiday Baking Championship

2013 Mini Snowman Cake by Sallee Bonham 

#BakingChampionship

Anticipation! (sing song voice) I have been anticipating the first episode of Holiday Baking Championship with host Bobby Deen since I saw the first preview and set the DVR to record the series.

Baking is my thing! You know that because you have seen the pics of my holiday cakes, cookies, and cupcakes. 

The Prize Holiday Baking Championship's grand prize is $50,000 and the title, "Holiday Baking Champion."

The Judges
The eight competing bakers met the judges Duff Goldman of Charm City Cakes, Nancy Fuller of Farmhouse Rules, and Lorraine Pascal, fashion model and TV cook.

Heat One
Bobby Deen introduced the first sixty minute heat of "Holiday Cookie Madness."
First, each baker unwrapped a Christmas present containing a cooking tool that determined what type of cookie they had to bake:

• a spatula for layered cookies
• a French rolling pin for rolled cookies 
• a cookie press for spritz cookies
• a scoop for drop cookies

Then, the holiday bakers began creating Christmas cookies, or as Bobby Deen said,"The cookie beast has been awakened!"

Struggling to Bake
At the end of the sixty minute heat, two of the bakers, Stephanie Hart and Terra Nelson, were obviously behind the other six contestants. 

Stephanie stated that she was a cake girl and only baked one cookie. 

Terra struggled with timing. Even using the blast chiller, her HOT layered cookies were difficult to put together with bourbon cream. Yes, bourbon cream! 

Organized and Talented
Even before the judging began, I could tell who was going to be in the lead. Some people just have a knack for being organized and quick, not one wasted movement in the kitchen. I am NOT one of those people and admire the skill.

Erin, Bill, Dante, Punky, David, and Naylet were a joy to watch in the kitchen as they created their version of layered, rolled, spritz, or drop cookies.

First Heat Results
Erin Campbell won the first heat. Her advantage in the main heat was free range of the pantry to pick a substitute ingredient of her choice.

Main Heat Challenge
Contestants must bake 3 different cookies, one dozen of each, within ninety minutes AND use three ingredients. Sounds a bit like the dessert version of Chopped!

And the Ingredients Are...

1. Bittersweet Chocolate
2. Fresh Oranges
3. Toffee Bits

Smart girl Erin used her first heat advantage to substitute peppermint candy for the fresh oranges. The contestants instantly began planning the three cookies they wanted to prepare. 

Surprise!Host Bobby Deen had a surprise ingredient for all of the bakers to use, raspberry jam. Seriously, this reminded me of the Chairman's Culinary Surprise on ICA. 
However, not one contestant seemed to be thrown off by this addition. All of them knew where and how they would use the raspberry jam. 

Flavor Combos
I loved the flavor combinations chosen by the contestants. 

• orange ginger - Bill, Stephanie
• bittersweet chocolate and coffee - Bill
• orange hazelnut with raspberry- David
• coffee toffee- David
• orange rosemary- Naylet
• pumpkin toffee creme brulee - Erin
• chocolate raspberry - Dante, Naylet, Erin, Stephanie
• orange nut - Dante
• pistachio orange - Terra
• toffee cinnamon - Terra
• raspberry orange - Punky
• toffee cherry - Naylet
• peppermint hot chocolate - Erin

Mmmmm....makes my mouth water just reading through those flavor combos.

And the Judges Said...
The top bakers were:

• Erin
• Bill
• Naylet - Home baker Naylet won the first holiday bake off! Woohoo Naylet! 

Struggling Bakers

• Stephanie - cake like cookies. Great taste. Duff admired the fact she didn't have a recipe and baked three tasty cookie. However, they were too spongy. Stephanie was chosen to go home.
• Terra - She was slammed by the judges for her madeleine cookie. All three judges agreed that it was the texture of sponge cake. 

Safe Bakers

David, Dante, and Punky

I cannot wait to watch the seven bakers on the next episode,"Classic Holiday Flavors."

Cookies I Am Not Familiar With

Mandelbrot 
According to Tori Avey, "Mandelbrot cookies are an Ashkenazi Jewish dessert dating back to the early nineteenth century. Mandelbrot are closely related to the Italian cookies known as biscotti, which were first made in the Middle Ages. The word mandelbrot means almond (mandel) and bread (brot) in both German and Yiddish."

Rugelach  

The wiseGeek shares this information,"Rugelach is a Jewish pastry originating in Ashkenazy, or European Jewish, culture. It has many alternative spellings, including rugelakh, rugulach, rugalach, ruggalach, and rogelach in the plural, and rugalah and rugala in the singular. The pastry is also sometimes referred to as a butter horn, nut horn, or cream cheese cookie in the United States."