Colors and Cupcakes

Colors and Cupcakes
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

I had a craving for cupcakes this afternoon...with lots and lots of frosting!!
So I closed my books and went into the kitchen.
Unfortunately I did not have any cupcake papers =( and it was too cold to get out of the house and get them. So I tried to make do without them. I baked them as I bake my cakes, with some butter and flour-ing the pan.

I used Martha Stewart's Polka Dot Cupcakes recipe with a few twinks here and there. And I made some classic oh-so-sweet frosting (recipe below), colored it with the beautiful Wilton colors I have (yay!) and had fun decorating them.

This is my first try at cupcake decorating, I usually just frost them. They turned out OK I think.
And as they say: practice makes perfect. I'll keep on practicing until I make the perfect frosted cupcake!

Here's how they turned out.

Colors and Cupcakes
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Colors and Cupcakes
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Colors and Cupcakes
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Frosting - as easy as can be:

What you need:

• 200 g butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tbs. milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla essence
• Few drops of food coloring (optional)

Tools you need:

• Bowl
• Hand Mixer (Your hand with a spatula will do, but you'll need some muscles :P)
• Spatula

What to do:

1. Cream the butter for about 3 min. using the mixer. The butter will become soft and pale.
2. Add the sugar gradually and mix until incorporated.
3. Add the milk and the vanilla and mix well.
4. In order to color your frosting, add a few drops of food coloring and mix till the color is mixed entirely with the frosting.

Tip: In order to have a smooth frosting texture, use the spatula to move all bubbles inside the mixture. Just mix and cream the frosting until it's all smooth and YUMMY!! =D

Happy Cupcake-ing!

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Sablés French Cookies

Sable Cookies
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Sablés are traditional french cookies. Sable means "sand" in French and it refers to the sandy texture of the cookies. They remind me a lot of sugar cookies but they're a tad more sophisticated. You spread one with the jam of your choice and add another one on top and

Voilà!

You have the perfect Sable.


Now, for once, I did not do the cooking. I came home from a long long day at university and I found my mom in the kitchen, making Sables! She said: "Sorry for taking your part in the house but I felt like having some sables!" Well as soon I saw them, I couldn't leave the kitchen. I forgot how tired I was and started helping her  with the rolling/shaping part and we baked them together. I only wish I can forget how tired I am when I have some work/studying to do =(

Before going into the oven
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

In the Oven
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Oh and thank you 3amto Waddad for the recipe. Aunty Waddad is actually dad's aunt and I love her very very much. She gave us this wonderful recipe.

They turned out very very yummy!

And we had some leftover dough so we thought we'd make a pie - a chocolate pie =D
Now I forgot to take a picture of the baked/filled pie but here it is before baking:

Chocolate Tart
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Happy Cookie-ing =D

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Poker Cake

Who doesn't enjoy a good poker game? What if I told you you can now actually eat those winning cards you have, or that 1M chip, OK doesn't sound too appealing but well wouldn't it be fun? =D

Poker Cake
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

It's my aunt's birthday today, and she loves playing poker (to be specific: the Facebook more-or-less harmless game) SO I stayed up last night making her a customized poker cake! =D (I'd like to thank everyone in the family who helped, especially my mom!!! Can't ever do anything without you =) )


It's by far, one of my favorite cakes so far. I used my new Wilton Colors: turned out great!! I only wish I can find them here in Lebanon =( (Thank you Aunty May for getting me the colors)

For the table, I thought I'd make a square green table (I know a poker table is supposed to be an oval, but I wanted to give the square one a try).

That was the easy part!

For the Cards.  I used white marshmallow fondant and cut out 4 rectangles. Then I used my sugar markers to paint the aces and the suits.

Cards
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

For the Chips,  I used red and blue fondant. Mom helped with these =D We cut out circles and finished it off with white sugar pens.

Chips
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

For the Suits,  I made red and black fondant. Cut out the suits and placed them on the sides of the cakes.

Suits
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

 Here's the cake again =D

Poker Cake
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Happy Birthday Aunty!!! =D

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Sugar Cookies Recipe

Sugar Cookies are great for a lot of occasions, whether you want Holiday cookies or just a simple sweet cookie, they're pretty amazing.

Sugar Cookies
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Here's how i do mine:

What you need:

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder

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Eid Cookies

Eid El Ahda is here! So I thought I'd make something to celebrate the occasion. I wanted a change from the maa'moul we do every year, so... I decided to make some sugar cookies!

BUT, I did not have a sheep-shaped cookie cutter =( so I had to shape one from some wire (Thank you mom for the idea - and umm execution)

Anyway the cookie is pretty easy to make, just follow your favorite sugar cookie recipe. I use this one!

After chilling the dough, I cut out the shapes I needed and baked them.

Then came the fun - and very messy - part: coloring them.

I admit they do not look very professional but I did have fun doing them =D

So here they are:

Adha Mubarak
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

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Pink Piglet Cake

I believe everyone has a little kid inside of him/her. And this kid loves - and will always love - and hang on to that very short childhood!

Who doesn't smile when a picture of the Flintstones passes by, or when they hear "I toott I saww a pwussycatt!!! I diiid, I diiidd!!!" =) Ah I bet you this warm fuzzy feeling inside right now, well at least I do :P

Point is: A friend of mine absolutely LOVES piglet! Her entire room is pink and she has like a million piglet toys! It's very cute =D

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy 

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