Baking Week Day 2... and a new baby

Hello again.

I'm on time with today's baking post! Woohoooo! I made brownies today. But I cheated and used a box mix... But I made up for it! I added some instant coffee to the water that the box called for. And I made a coffee frosting...

Oooooh. So tasty. Totally rich. And I used the 8x8 pan so that they would stay a bit gooey. You can win my heart with slightly gooey brownies. The frosting... meh. A little sweet. I'll post the recipe I used, but I suggest starting with half the sugar called for and adding to taste.

Coffee Frosting

1/2 c. butter, soft

1 tsp. vanilla

2 c. powdered sugar

1 1/2 tbsp. milk

2 tsp. instant coffee

Dissolve the coffee in the milk. Don't worry, it works even if the milk isn't hot. Cream the butter and vanilla in a mixing bowl. Add the sugar (once again, I recommend you start with half the written amount). Once blended, add the milk/coffee mixture. Beat on high for about two minutes. Spread over your brownies/cookies/cake.

Oh, and I mentioned a new baby in the title. I found another abandoned duckling. It had started raining hard so I grabbed our homemade net (a pillowcase, a hanger, and a handle) and grabbed him. I had to run out in the rain and get wet to rescue him. His name is Rupert (thanks brother!). I figure it works because I don't know if he's a boy or girl. Now if he turns out to be a she we can just call him RuPaul. Clever huh?

Baking Week Day 1... a day late

Yesterday was the beginning of baking week. Since I had just come off of two days of baking desserts, I thought I would use dinner as baking time. So I made my yummy twice-baked potatoes...

Today's is coming up soon. Just waiting on things to cool so the frosting can happen. Check back in a couple hours.

Good News Everyone

So according to the Food Holidays site I mentioned yesterday, today is the first day of National Baking Weeeeeek!!! (Pretend I said that in my best Oprah giveaway voice, drawing out the "e" sound in "week.")

I will hopefully be on top of things all week. Thursday and Friday are planned already: cupcakes. I have some being picked up Thursday night, and I'm delivering some Saturday morning. Tonight I'm doing twice-baked potatoes (hey, I can't do dessert EVERY day).

Possibilities for the rest of the week: cheddar garlic popovers, mocha brownies, sugar cookie bars, and maybe a cookie somewhere in there. Pictures for everything will appear here (of course).

Anyone feel brave enough to join me??? Andrea! I'm calling you out!

Caramel Frosting...

... for National Caramel Day. You think I'm making this up? Nope. Head on over to the American Food Holidays site. I enjoy it. Although I've not actually made something because it was a holiday. I meant to do it on Friday, which was Chocolate Mousse Day. But I didn't check ahead of time and failed to notice that the mousse needs EIGHT HOURS to set. So that plan got slashed.

But today I totally followed through on my plans. I looked around for caramel recipes, but really wasn't feeling making my own caramel. And didn't want to make a trip to the store JUST for caramels. I did have caramel ice cream topping here though. So I found a recipe for frosting that uses the topping!

After I figured out my frosting I had to decide what I was going to put it on. I JUST did cupcakes yesterday, so I didn't want to do them again. And I wanted a recipe I could scale down easily. I don't need desserts floating around here for days. I found a chocolate cookie recipe (sorry, I didn't save the link). So chocolate cookies with caramel frosting it was!

Hubby may eat all of them tonight if I let him. Of course he also said he could eat the frosting with a spoon. So if you want to give it a try...

Caramel Frosting

3 oz. cream cheese, soft

3 tbsp. butter, soft

4-6 tbsp. caramel sauce/topping

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 c. powdered sugar

Mix the cream cheese and butter until light. Mix in caramel and vanilla on low speed. Add powdered sugar a little at a time and mix until incorporated. Beat on high for two additional minutes.