Friday, May 23, 2014

Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars


Seriously? Yes, seriously. This is the only picture I took. Because I wasn't planning on blogging about these cookies. But they are my everything. As much as I love chocolate, nothing hits my sweet spot like a good, crispy-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside frosted sugar cookie. Nothing. It makes me feel like I'm 5 years old and don't have a care in the world and can just be in the moment of eating that cookie. But, as I've said before I hate the refrigerating, rolling, cutting aspect of making sugar cookies. Remember when I said I'd never use another sugar cookie recipe ever, when I made these? Yeah, I lied. THIS is the recipe I'll never cheat on. I want to make and eat these bars every day. For every holiday. Independence Day coming up? Yeah, Imma make them and sprinkle them with red, white, and blue sprinkles. Halloween? Orange and black sprinkles. Or maybe I'll use those teeny tiny bones and googly eyes sprinkles I have in my pantry. Christmas? Red and green. You see where I'm going. I can't think of a holiday (or a day of the week that ends with Y) when I wouldn't want to eat these. In fact, Monday is Memorial Day. What sprinkles should I use? Because I'm making them. And so should you. You're welcome.


TGIP Rating--Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars--KEEPER.

Next up: I'm just about finished with the first phase of my super secret project. And school's almost out. And maybe we need cupcakes up in here. Like these ones.

Friday, May 9, 2014

Sweet & Salty Millionaire's Layer Cake



This guy (AKA mr.) had a birthday last week. And graduated from the University of Utah on the same day. AND he didn't just graduate, he graduated Magna Cum Laude, which for this school means he was in the top 3.5% of graduating seniors. I almost burst with happiness for him. Seriously. My happiness leaked out my eyes all day.

So, he deserved a cake meant for a millionaire. And this was exactly right. There are a lot of steps on that recipe and it looks like it's going to be super difficult. But it wasn't. Okay, maybe I cheated a little because I'm not so good at making caramel. I bought some of this for the caramel layer (buying stuff is super easy):



I consider it a smart concession to my known lack of talent in a particular area.

Then I made the shortbread crumble (super easy):


Then I made the cake layers (super easy), the buttercream (super easy), and the ganache (super easy). (No, seriously). Then I gathered it all together for assembly.


I'm going to be honest here and admit that I should have let the ganache cool more, but I'm impatient. Also a known lack. But look how amazing the buttercream/caramel/shortbread crumble filling looks:


And then I sprinkled regular and red sea salt around the top and more shortbread crumbles around the bottom (what is it about the bottom edge of a cake that bugs me so much I always have to cover it up?).


And then we ate it. So rich. So delicious. Perfectly moist cake. Perfect ganache. The surprise of the crunch of cookies in the filling was just delightful. A complete success and just the thing for my amazing husband's birthday/graduation celebration weekend.



TGIP Rating--Sweet & Salty Millionaire's Cake--KEEPER. Reminder to myself: next time make the ganache before the buttercream. Let it cool while making the buttercream. Then both will be at perfect assembly consistency at the same time.

Next up: More work on my top secret project that I probably still can't talk about for a few months. AND...the sugar cookie that is my new everything.