Toffee Lesson

For as long as I can remember, my dad has been making toffee during the holidays. His toffee is out of this world fantastic. No joke. It's the best candy around. He even sells boxes of it to friends and family - they like to give as gifts and serve at their holiday parties. Today was the day I was going to attempt to make said toffee. Good thing my dad is a patient guy. It's a tedious process and you really need to be patient (note to self: work on building up my stirring muscles!). My dad doesn't use a candy thermometer and doesn't always measure (he uses a dash of this or a cap of that), so we'll see how I manage using my own intuitive skills! Overall, it was a successful day. The little bit I tried was pretty darn good.

Look at all that butter! What's not to love about that?

Look at how it changes color - YUM!

Melting the chocolate to coat the pieces

It's time consuming to do it this way, but so worth it!

The finished product... it will look much neater once it's cooled and boxed up nice.

Bake off

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. It seems the holidays are getting the better of me! We had a bake off at work on Friday, and I won for the second year in a row! I originally had planned to make mini red velvet whoopie pies, but the recipe I followed didn't taste right, so I 'll be going back to the drawing board on that one. Instead, I decided to make a trifle. I love trifles. They are the easiest dessert  to make and can be made in so many ways. The one I made was with brownies, chocolate mousse, strawberry mousse, whipped cream and toffee bits. Every bit as scrumptious as it sounds.

Start with a layer of brownies

Happy Birthday!

I love to bake... so I decided to bake cupcakes for my husband today (it was his birthday after all). His favorite flavor is chocolate, and he may be a bigger chocoholic than I am!!  

I always bake with room temperature ingredients - it makes all the difference and is worth the forethought. 

 

I would be lost with out my Kitchen Aid Mixer.  It was my grandmother's and it's older than my dad, by it still works like new.

 

We got a pancake pen from Williams Sonoma for our wedding and I have yet to use it, until today.  It made pouring the cupcake batter easy and mess free!

Don't they look delicious??