Tis the Season for

Cupcakes! At least in this house it is. For Christmas this year, I made 3 dozen cupcakes to take over to my husband's Uncle's house. I had 1 dozen Christmas lights cupcakes, 1 dozen medallion cupcakes and 1 dozen cranberry upside down cupcakes. I will admit, the first two cupcakes where the same flavor, chocolate with vanilla frosting, just decorated different. Also, I don't have my usual pictures of the cupcakes. In all the Christmas madness, I forgot to snap away here at home, so pictures were not taken until we were at the party. To be more concise, until I was in the food line and my husband was waiting to get his dinner. So thank you to my husband Jeff who took the pictures for me, so I could share them with you.

First up we have the Cranberry Upside Down Cupcakes. I use to make these all the time (in bigger form) at the catering company I worked at. We would take extra cranberries, glaze them and then but them on top, which I had planned to do but unfortunately, I ran out of cranberries. I decided to add some tangerine zest to the batter this time around, and I think it added a nice touch.

For Christmas, my sister got me the Hello Cupcake book. In it, I found the recipe to make these Christmas light cupcakes. I had planned to make all the cupcakes look like the lights, but after doing a dozen of them, I realized my time was running short (naps were almost over), so I stopped at that dozen.

I made red, yellow, blue and green lights. Some of the party goers thought they looked like turtles.

So here is what I whipped up for the second dozen of Dark Chocolate Cupcakes. I took a disk of fondant, and using another gift from my sister, I embossed the design on the disk. Then I painted them with red metallic edible dust and some edible pearls. I really like these guys for just coming up with them on the fly.

And here are the cupcakes in yet another Christmas gift (this time from my aunt and uncle). I love this carrier. It holds 2 dozen cupcakes and when not in use, it is collapsible. If you plan to make and take a lot of cupcakes places in the new year, I highly recommend getting one.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas, and that you are enjoying your gifts as much as I have been. Next week, how a cupcake started New Years.

Sweet Treats

Tis the season to have lots of goodies in your house right? Well, I did, but they just weren't mine to keep. This year I had a record breaking 39 dozen cookies ordered, made and shipped to varies places in the US. This was great for my little business, but not so great for the cookie status here at the house. For this holiday season and blog, I had thoughts of doing a 12 days of Christmas cookie segment on here, with some of the cookies having ingredients that match their day. But then visions of sugar plums started fighting with those crazy lords a leapin', and before I knew it, it was only a few days before Christmas. Oh well, maybe next year.


I did however manage to pull it all together and make some cookies for my family. Of course once again my thoughts were bigger then my actions, and I made far less kinds of cookies then I had planned, but I am happy with the ones I made. So here you are, a small but tasty collection of Christmas cookies (with recipes).





What yummy treats will this box hold... (corny I know, it's early and the Pepsi hasn't fully kicked in yet)




First up, my Mom's Almond Tea cookies. These are my favorite cookies and I look forward to them every year. You will need a cookie press for these guys.

Almond Tea Cookies:

1 cup salted butter (trust me, do not use the unsalted kind)
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
2 1/2 cup flour
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp. almond extract
maraschino cherries, cut and quartered


Preheat oven to 450

Combine you dry ingredients and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add egg and mix until incorporated. Add flour mix in small batches. Add almond extract, and the batter is ready to go.

Put batter into cookie pressed with flower shaped cookie disk. Press cookies out onto a ungreased cookie sheet. Top with a quarter of cherry.

Bake for 4-6 minutes (depending on your oven) or until cookies are lightly browned.

You can eat these cookies right away, but they are best if they sit at least one day. The almond extract really stands out if they have that extra time.

Next we have some Gingerbread men ready to face the cold weather. I'm not the biggest fan of gingerbread, but I do like decorating them, and really liked making these guys.

Gingerbread Cookies:

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg
3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground allspice

Preheat oven to 350

Combine dry ingredients and set aside. Cream together the butter, brown sugar, molasses and egg until light and fluffy. Add flour mix in small batches, and mix until blended. Use the dough immediately or wrap up and refrigerate dough for a week.

If using right away, roll dough between two pieces of wax paper until about a 1/4 inch thick. Cut out gingerbread men and place 1 inch apart on a greased cookie tray. Bake for 8-12 minutes, or until firm but not dark.

Allow cookies to fully cool before you frost them. Now frost with your favorite icing recipe (I like to use royal icing) and decorate to you heart's content.

A few tips...even if you are not going to use the dough right away, roll it out between the sheets of wax paper so it's ready to go when you do want it. This way you don't have to have to dough come to room temperature again to roll it our once you have refrigerated it. Also, if you line your baking sheets with parchment paper, you won't have to grease the cookie sheets (a little cleaner this way) If you use royal icing to frost your cookies, allow the icing to dry 8 hours so if you draw on the cookies with food coloring makers (like I did), the markers won't be breaking through the icing.



And last, but certainly not least, Peanut Butter Blossoms. I made my version with what has to be the easiest and the tastiest peanut butter cookies recipe. Three ingredients, that all it takes to make the cookies. Thanks again Nicole for posting this recipe on Facebook!

Peanut Butter Blossom Cookie:
1 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 egg
Hershey Kisses, unwrapped
1/3 c sugar

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine all ingredients together. Scoop out into balls, roll in sugar and place on baking sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes or until cookies are slightly browned. Once out of the oven, top each cookie with a Hershey Kiss and let cool.

One quick tip...before you bake your cookies, try to scoop all the batter out and then count to see how many you have. Then you can unwrap all the Hershey kisses and have then ready to go once your cookies come out of the oven.

A 1st for Sweet Natalie.

Last week I worked on making the cake and smash cake for my friend Aimee's daughter Natalie. Aimee had picked a cupcake theme for the party and showed me the decorations she had ordered. After looking at them, I had my idea for the cake and smash cupcake. And Aimee made it very easy on me by letting me make what ever shape cake I wanted and allowing me free reign in the decorating. Her only request was chocolate, and chocolate it was.





Dark chocolate cake with a chocolate fudge filling cover in a light pink buttercream.

First step, pink strips.

Next I added a touch of purple.

And then finished the sides with the white fondant strips.

Then for some more color, and to hide the end of the strips, I put pink, purple and yellow dots for a border.

I got a oversized muffin tin as an early Christmas gift, and was very exciterd to get to use it right away. I put extra buttercream on top, to make sure I had enough of a top for the fondant to sit on and look like the cupcake from the decorations.

Some more dots for sprinkles and topped with a fondant cherry.

Happy 1st Birthday Natalie!

Natalie has two little friends who also have their birthdays around this time, so Aimee asked if I could make them each a cupcake to go along with Natalie's smash cake. I hope all the little girls enjoyed their cupcakes.

Gingy and Frosty

So here we go, into the crazy baking month of December. Sorry I really had no good post for you last week. With trying to get things ready for a very early Christmas, a school field trip, and the usual level of craziness here, I just couldn't get any pictures up of the cupcakes I made for a friend who just had a baby. Yep, I have another version of the baby face to show you. This time they are on cupcakes, not cookies. These little cuties where made for my birthday buddy Drina and her new little guy Emery. Congrats again Drina, Carl, and Alec on the newest member of your family.

Sleeping babies are just the cutiest in real life and in cupcakes.




Last week we drove out East for my Mom's side of the family's Christmas party. We hadn't been to the party since 2004 when I was pregnant with Samantha. And since I am basically required by law to bring desserts to any party I attend, I made some cupcakes.

I decided that I would make two toppers for the cupcakes, and of course they had to have a Christmas time theme. So off to my favorite cake supply store I went, to get a small snowman and gingerbreadman cookie cutter. Below, you will find step by step (well pretty much, as I did forget a picture of one of the gingerbreadman step) of how I made Frosty and Gingy.

12 little snowmen ready to go.

Topped with the traditional black top hat.

Red scarfs to keep Frosty warm.



2 pieces of coal (well fondant at least) for his eyes.

And a carrot nose. Frosty is ready to go.

Now on to Gingy.

White strips by his arms and legs.

And here's where I miss some pictures, like his eyes and his three little buttons. Sorry about that, crazy week and all you know. Anyhoo, here is the final product...

Gingy and Frosty on icy blue fondant disc. Gingy was a chocolate cupcake with chocolate peanut butter frosting and Frosty was a chocolate cupcake with apricot frosting. Both were a big hit.


And since no one responded to my question last week, I'm posting it again here...now that we are in the last month of the year, I have been thinking about the new year and what I'm going to make to post on here. So my question to you is what would you like to see? Is there anything out there that you always wanted to try, but are afraid to or don't know how to make it? Post a comment and I will try (the best that I can) to make what you ask for. I will try to do something once a month in the coming new year that you all suggest. I think this can be fun, and it's always great to read all your comments (the cookie giveaway was a blast). So have fun, get creative and I'll see what we can come up with together for the new year .

A Quickie

Today is going to be a quick post, because I really don't have anything to show you all. I have been busy making stuff, but I have this rule that I don't post what I have been working on, if the person I have been making something for hasn't seen it yet. I think it's only fair that they be the first to see their cupcakes (cookies, cakes, etc) especially if it's a order they placed with me. Now I do have something I should be able to post tomorrow afternoon, if I can find the time with the mad dash that will be going on here today and tomorrow. You see, tomorrow night we head out East to celebrate Christmas with my family. And even though I've been crazy busy with decorating the house, celebrating Thanksgiving, getting a new tooth, and trying to get everything together for this trip, I have been working on special cupcakes to take with. I will post them next Tuesday as everyone I made them for, will have seen them. And I have a special treat for a friend that I will be seeing tomorrow, and that's what I can post tomorrow after I get back for Samantha's class field trip (yep, have that this week too...I'm telling you crazy week for us here at the Mommaerts' house).

I do have a question for you all...now that we are in the last month of the year, I have been thinking about the new year and what I'm going to make to post on here. So my question to you is what would you like to see? Is there anything out there that you always wanted to try, but are afraid to or don't know how to make it? Post a comment and I will try (the best that I can) to make what you ask for. I will try to do something once a month in the coming new year that you all suggest. I think this can be fun, and it's always great to read all your comments (the cookie giveaway was a blast). So have fun, get creative and I'll see what we can come up with together for the new year.

Also, I want to say thank you for those that have voted for me in the Iron Cupcake Earth Challenge. There is still time to vote if you haven't and want to. Just go to http://www.ironcupcakemilwaukee.com/ and vote for A Baker's Remix. I believe you can vote once a day for three days. Voting is open until December 4th.

IronCupcake and the Giveaway Winner

I am entering the IronCupcake Earth Challenge this month. What is the IronCupcake Earth you ask...well, it's a monthly worldwide competition where bakers make yummy cupcakes based on that month's theme. This month is apple, and that may sound simple, but really it's not. I say this because, you want to come up with something different, something that looks great and something that taste great so that the blogging reading public out there will vote for you. Yep, that's right, you all get to vote and maybe help me win some wonderful prizes. What are the wonderful prizes you ask, well to begin with there is The Demy by Key Ingredient (check it out here http://www.mydemy.com/). And then there are the books Hello, Cupcake by Karen Tack & Alan Richardson (http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com/) and The Cake Doctor Returns! by Anne Byrne (http://www.workman.com/products/9780761129615). Plus fun cupcakes accessories from Bella Cupcake Couture (http://www.bellacupcakecouture.com/), the Cupcake Stacker from Gourmac (http://www.gourmac.com/custset.html) and Beautiful Bakeing Liners by Vestli House (http://www.vestlihouse.com/index.htm). And last but certainly not least Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Bakery & Cupcakey Supply (http://www.acupcakery.com/info.html). How could you not want to enter this challenge with all these goodies up for grabs.

I decided I was going to make something that I love come this time of year. A caramel apple, preferably covered in chocolate. So here is what I came up with for this event... a caramel covered apple flourless chocolate cupcake. Wow, that's a mouth full for a little cupcake. And according to my guinea pigs, I mean friends who got to try the cupcakes, it's a tasty mouthful. Now believe it or not, this recipe is fairly easy. I do think I found just about the simplest recipe for a flourless chocolate cake, and it's very good to boot. Here it is along with pictures for you to enjoy.

4 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

1 stick butter

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup cocoa

3 eggs

2-3 Granny Smith Apples, peeled and chopped

1/3 cup caramel chips

2 Tbsp. water

Melt the chocolate and butter together in a large bowl in the microwave for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Stir in the sugar and cocoa until Incorporated. Then add the eggs, and mix until combined .

Divide the batter up into your muffin tins. A tip to make this process very simple and pretty much mess free is to use a ice cream scoop. Ice cream scoops generally give you the perfect portion for a cupcake.

Top you cupcakes with half of your chopped apples. My original idea was to topped the cupcakes with all the apples and then bake them, but my 2 little helpers ate half of the apples before I could get to this step. Bake the cakes at 375 for 14-20 minutes until a toothpick comes out with some crumbs on it. (I know not the normal way you want the toothpick to be when testing a cake, but for these you do.)

While your cupcakes are cooling, take the remaining apples and saute them in a little butter just until they are soft. Then add you caramel chip and water, and heat until all the apples are covered in caramel. Let cool a little and then top each cupcake with more apples.

To finish off the cupcake, I melted some more of the semisweet chips and then drizzled it over the top of the apples. There you have it, your caramel covered apple flourless chocolate cupcake.

So if you think this looks good, please go vote for me. (please, please,please) Voting will begin no later than Friday, November 27th 8:00pm and last until Thursday, December 3rd at 12 noon CST. You can go to Nobody Puts Cupcake in a Corner at http://www.ironcupcakemilwaukee.com/ to vote for me (please,please, please). And if you would like to find out more about IronCupcake Earth, please go to http://www.ironcupcakeearth.com/.

And now the moment that some of you might have been waiting this whole time for...the winner of the cookie giveaway. First I would like to thank everyone who entered. It was great to read about your favorite cookies and it made be pretty hungry. This morning, along with my assistant Mackenzie (she's the one who got the pull the name out of the candy bowl) we picked our winner...and it is Gina. Congrats Gina, you have more cookies coming your way. I'll get in contact with you about me dropping them off.

Serve Out

This should be my last cookie post of the week. I have had a lot of fun making cookies I haven't done before. And I've been very pleased at how they have been turning out.



My husband came home last week after his Thursday night volleyball game, and said he needed a treat to take with him to next week's game. It seems his team has been razzing him as to why they hadn't been brought any goodies. One of his fellow teammates (hi Michelle) follows my blog and has told others on the team about it. So, to make everyone happy, I made up some volleyball cookies. Now I will be the first one to tell you I know very little about volleyball, but at least I do know what the ball looks like. Plus, I had seen volleyball cookies on The Sweet Adventures of SugarBelle blog, and decided that is what I would have to make for the team.



I included step by step pictures of how exactly I decorated these cookies so you too could make them for your volleyball player.



So like all my cookies, I iced these guys with royal icing and let them dry at least 8 hours. I had to make sure they where completely dry so that when I wrote on top, it wouldn't break through the icing. With a food coloring marker (and I must say who ever create these is a genius) I made a mark in the center of the cookie.

From there I divided the cookie into thirds. I made the lines with a bit of a curve to help give the cookie a 3-D appearance.

Then I divided each line into thirds to make where my next lines should be drawn.

After that, all I did was draw the remaining lines of the volleyball. Once again I gave the lines a slight curve.

Now I should say, you could stop right there and the cookies look great. But because I'm me, and I had some sugar dust, I didn't. So here is how I finished my cookies off.

Using a little water, I carefully brushed over the lines that I had drawn on. You don't want to use too much water because you will make the food coloring lines blur and even disappear.

Then using a baby spoon, I sprinkled my sugar dust (also might be called glimmer sugar, edible dust) all over the cookies. The dust will stick where ever there is water. Then I tapped off the excess dust and took a clean and dry paint brush to dust off any of the sugar that was on the white part of the cookie.

And here they are, some yummy, glittery volleyball cookies that are sure to score with any team. (sorry couldn't help myself on that last line)

My First...

GIVEAWAY!!!!! That's right, I'm doing my first giveaway. And I'm going to make it very easy to enter. All I need from you, as the reader, is an answer to this simple question...What is your favorite kind of holiday cookie? I actually have a tie for my favorite. The first one is an almond tea cookie that my Mom always makes for Christmas. They are so tasty and they look like little flowers with cherry centers. My second is the peanut butter blossom, at least that's what I call them. I think they are known by many names, but basically they are peanut butter cookies with a Hershey kiss in the middle. Growing up our neighbor down the street, Mrs James, would make cookie plates up for everyone, and she always made sure to include them.

So let me know in the comments, what cookie you look to forward every holiday season. I'm setting a deadline of Monday, November 23 by 12 CT. After that I will pick a name by random and post it on Tuesday's blog.

I'm sure you are probably all wondering exactly what it is I'm giving away, right? Well, the lucky winner will get a dozen of the snowflake cookies that I make during the holiday season. These are the sugar cookies that I have been blogging about this week. If you live here in the Green Bay area I will deliver then to you. If you live elsewhere, I will ship them priority mail to you. Below is a picture of what each snowflake cookie looks like. Colors will vary as each cookie is hand stamped (and for some reason my purple one was coming up real dark today).

I should also let you know that these cookies are made with all natural ingredients and have no nuts in them whats so ever.

Have fun entering..I can't wait to see everyone's answers!

Baby Mine

So here I am back again with a new post in my week of sugar cookies. In the parent play group that I belong to, there are several of the Moms expecting babies in the next couple of months. One little guy was just born last week, so I decided to make up some cute cookies to take over to the happy family. These came out even cuter then imagined, and I will definitely make them again.


I colored my royal icing a peach for the baby faces.

Then after whipping up a batch of marshmallow fondant, I cut circles out of it. Then I cut each circle in half to make the hats.

I used a small circle cutter to make the pompoms for the hats. I then took a knife and made little marks on each pompom . For the top of the pacifiers. I rolled out the fondant into a log, and then made the loop. I let them dry before I attached them to the cookie, so they would hold their shape.

To attach the pompoms to the hats, I used a little water.

Once again I used water to attach the pacifiers. Then using a food coloring pen, I made the baby's eyes and nose. There is nothing sweeter then a sleeping baby, unless of course it's a sleeping baby cookie.

I took some pink gel food coloring and hand painted on the cheeks. And there you have it, cuteness in a cookies.

Welcome to the world Fisher.

Going to the Chapel

With Christmas just next month, this is crazy cookie season for me. So prepare to have visions of dancing sugar cookies in you head.



A friend of mine from the playgroup I'm in here in Green Bay, took the plunge and got married at the end of October. To celebrate this happy day, one of the other Moms organized a bridal shower for her. At first, I was asked if I could make a cake for the shower. But here in Wisconsin, you have to have a license to make and sell goodies, so the restaurant wasn't to keen on me bring in the cake. Since cake was out of the question, I asked if I could make the favor for the party. I had seen a wedding cake cookie favor on one of the many blogs I check out, and really wanted to make them for the shower. Below, you won't find any recipes... sorry I can't share me sugar cookie recipe, but I will show you how to make these fun favors.



And since I do have a lot of cookies ( and some other treats I want to make in the next two weeks), I will be posting addition blogs this week. Plus, I am planning my first giveaway, so make sure to check back this week to enter.





I iced the sugar cookies with a royal icing and then let them dry so I could assemble them. The bottom tier is made up of 3 large rounds and the top tier is 2 smaller rounds.

To assemble, use a small dollop of royal icing to attach the tiers together. This way they stay together, but can be easily separated when you are ready to enjoy.

To decorate the top of the wedding cake, I made tiny fondant flowers, using the end of a paint brush and my hand to help shape the flower. Here they are drying, so they will hold their shape on top of the cake.

Now with the flower (plus a little fondant leaf) on top, the wedding cake favor is almost ready for your party.

Place the cookie cake in a little bag and tie off with some pretty ribbon, and you have the finished favor ready for a party. These could also make great wedding favors.