Almost an entire month ago Recently, we held a joint birthday party for my son & niece.  Usually, the kids' birthday shindigs are a big deal because we hold them in DC every time as a way to be able to reconnect with so many friends & fam (or friendmily) that we don't get to see regularly due to our military life.  AND...thanks to our amazing fam, we've pulled this not-so-tiny interstate but intracoast about 10 times now.

So, I'm usually the one who creates and is responsible for a majority of the menu...and like at home, it tends to be from scratch and healthy (or at least healthier).  The cakes are no exception.  I get the uber-insane idea of baking nonstop for 48 hours before these parties to ensure some delectable treats.  The cakes (with icing), from scratch, always include two flavors...let me clarify...two different cakes.

This year was easier...one cake for my son & one for my baby, oops, I mean niece.  Jaron's was chocolate with cookies & cream buttercream...the texture & color of the buttercream actually added a nice gravelly effect to the finished product.  Big Boy vascillated between chocolate chip, chocolate, and lemon raspberry for his cake flavors.  LUCKILY, I got to choose the lemon raspberry for Talia.  This was also my first foray into the wonderful world of fondant (which I DID NOT MAKE from scratch).  I bought these cute little posies for her cake and used yellow pearl luster dust to color it a pale yellow...except I also forgot to bring a soft brush with me and used my mom's old pastry brush resulting in some streaks here and there.

However, friends should not let friends fondant (yes, I made it into a verb) without doing a test cake first.  Also, friends let friends RESEARCH how to work with and drape fondant correctly before doing so on the DAY OF THE PARTY.  I apparently am not a fondant rockstar like my friend Melissa.

Otherwise, you'll have to take your first try and let your shame face the wall.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Cookies & Compost = Yummy Deliciousness

Huh?

Say what?

Yup...cookies and compost equal some pretty darn yummy creations...especially when that creation is from the uber-renowned NYC restaurant Momofuku.  Ok, so it's not really compost per se, but basically you take whatever you have on hand and throw it into this cookie.

This is actually the cookie that you saw my kids were sharing.  That cookie was out of pure laziness since I ran out of room for the initial shaping & chilling stage of the cookie and dumped it into a bowl.  I then proceeded to dump said bowl onto the cookie sheet & baked it as is.  Yeah, I'm lazy a rebel like that.

For our cookies, I threw in chocolate, peanut butter, & butterscotch chips:

Ok, yes, that's quite normal...so here's where we make it interesting:

See that?  That, my friends, is a melange of pretzels, Oreos, potato chips, & coffee grounds...and yes, it all goes in the cookies.  I know I made my sister throw up a little in her mouth when I mentioned my add-ins.  Whoops.

But, if you're a person who likes sweet & savory creations, give this a try!  Christina Tosi, pastry chef of the Momofuku restaurants and David Chang, chef/owner/culinary bad-a$$ of the Momofuku restaurants serve this cookie in the Momofuku Milk Bar.  His other Momofuku restaurant Momofuku Ssam Bar was named of the 50 Best Restaurants in the World.  David has been nominated/won several James Beard awards over the years and was one of Times 100 Most Influential People for 2010...plus he's a DC native...whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat.  His cookbook Momofuku was released last fall.

My friend Linda, a fellow foodie and restaurant owner tipped me off to these bad boys.  You can find the recipe here.  Christina Tosi was on "Live with Regis & Kelly" showing how to make them.  On that segment one of the things they used was Goldfish crackers...I'm adventurous, but I'm not sure I could use those.  Anyhoo...if you have a stand mixer, you're in luck...'cause these bad boys need a total of 10 straight minutes of butter/sugar beating!  Also, definitely follow the chilling time.  I actually chilled mine at least overnight and even waited the 36 hours as recommended by Shirley Corriher when making cookies.  Ooh and my last rec would be to use the coffee grounds (which I used fresh coffee grounds and I've seen as used, dry grounds)...they lend a depth to the cookie which is ridiculous!

Again, find the recipe here and ENJOY!