Ashley's Monthly Bake Sale - September

Just a little late on this one! I'm so slow with the blog posts these days...shame shame! Soooo September's Cupcake of the Month was a good ol' southern specialty...hummingbird cake. Mmmmm! I found a recipe from Martha Stewart that I thought I'd try. Now I didn't get to try these cupcakes, so I don't actually know how they turned out, but everyone at work loved them. My boss even said she might like them better than the strawberry lime cupcakes which is a big deal! I'll have to try this recipe again someday so I can actually get a taste! The recipe can be found here.

Operation Baking GALS - Round 2

For Round 2 of Operation Baking GALS, I was on Team Maybe For Real hosted by Anna at Maybe Just A Little Bite. This time I wanted to try to make something that I love & reminds me of home. My favorite cookie in the whole world are snickerdoodles, so I thought maybe our soldiers would love them too. I found a recipe that sounded pretty good, so I set out baking. These cookies were so easy, & they filled the house with the delicious smell of cinnamon & nutmeg. I had to make sure I taste-tested these little morsels before I sent them off, for quality control of course! Mmmmm...so good!




Snickerdoodles

1 cup butter (softened)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp cream of tarter
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Mix throughly in a bowl the butter, sugar & eggs. Blend in flour, cream of tarter, baking soda & salt. Chill. Shape rounded teaspoonfuls into balls. Roll in sugar mixture (listed below), & place on an ungreased baking sheet two inches apart. Slightly flatten balls with a glass & bake 6 to 8 minutes or until set. Remove from baking sheet immediately.

Sugar Mixture: 2 Tbsp sugar, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Ashley's Monthly Bake Sale - August

WOW...I haven't posted an update in over a month!! Shame on me! Over the next fews days I'll be catching up on everything that's been going on lately.

First out of the box is my August Monthly Bake Sale. I decide to go a different route this time & picked brownies instead of the usual cupcakes. I am addicted to Food Network, & one of my favorite shows is Barefoot Contessa. Ina is genious! So for August's bake sale I choose Barefoot Contessa's Outrageous Brownies. Their name suits them well...these suckers were loaded with butter & chocolate! They were delicious!! I was sort of in a time crunch to get these finished, so in my haste I completely forgot to take a picture of the brownies. I only managed to get a picture of the packages containing the finished product. These were definitely a hit at the office!



My selection for September are hummingbird cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. A southern classic that I can't wait to try!!

Wordless Wednesday

YouBar? No...that's MyBar! Get your own!

Is it really possible for a nutrition bar to be good for you & taste good too? Why yes, my friends, it is! The folks at YouBar are starting a nutrition bar revolution...you choose everything that you want in a bar, & they'll make it exactly to your specifications. Kick ass right?! Right! I was lucky enough to receive 4 samples in the mail a couple of days ago, & I've successfully managed to consume every single one in a 2 day period. (Hey...it's all in the name of research. That's my story, & I'm sticking to it!) Each bar was a different flavor Honey Cashew, Great Date With Chocolate, Your Name Here, & even a BlakeMakes.com bar! My absolute favorite was the Blake Makes bar...it was full of cinnamon, raisins, & apples. As soon as I finished it I wished that I had an entire box full of just that kind. They were GOOD! The others were good as well...Great Date With Chocolate reminded me of a very moist brownie. I definitely didn't feel guilty eatting these tasty treats; they were a great change from all the "bad for me" sweets I've been consuming lately. (Although if you waived a cupcake in my face right now, I certainly wouldn't turn it down!)

Please forgive the crappy photography. I forgot to take pictures until after I had already eaten 2 of the bars, & the only camera I had was the one on my iPhone. One of these days I'm going to figure out that I should at least keep my little digital camera in my purse at all times!





Thanks a million to BlakeMakes & YouBar for this awesome giveaway!

Operation Baking GALS - Shortbread Cookies

For the inaugural Operation Baking GALS event, I knew I needed to bake something that was durable enough to hold up to shipping overseas. After digging through all my recipes, I found exactly what I was looking for...Shortbread Cookies. This recipe is so easy to put together, & the cookies are delicious. I hope Susan's cousin enjoys eating them as much as I enjoyed baking them.



Shortbread Cookies

1/2 cup butter, cold
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup plus 1 1/2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 egg yolk, ice cold
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp lemon extract
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place all ingredients in bowl of food processor. Process until a ball forms. Take out & form together. Wrap in plastic wrap & chill at least 1 hour. Before rolling out, let set at room temperature until soft enough to roll. Roll to 1/4" thick and cut into shapes. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake about 10 minutes.

Yields approx. 2 dozen (depending on size of cookies)

Operation Baking GALS

I wanted to spread the word about a genius idea that I read about today. Susan at She's Becoming DoughMessTic & My Kitchen, My World put a call out to a few of her food blogging friends asking for help sending homemade goodies to her cousin in Iraq. Well her idea has exploded (now appropriately titled "Operation Baking GALS"), & she's offering to anyone who like to help a chance to send their homemade goodies as well. I fell in love with the idea as soon as I read about it, & e-mailed Susan immediately. I'll be baking my sweet treats tonight so I can send them off tomorrow. Nothing makes me happier than knowing that something I made will bring a smile to a soldier's face. I'll post a couple of pictures tomorrow of what I'm baking, but until then...it's a surprise!