Spring Fever, Student Driver and well, what else?! Cupcakes!

I had to add these cookies too! Regular Sugar with Royal Icing and Fondant accents, Spring has sprung!
I just cannot believe that my sweet little girl has my life in the palm of her hands! Gosh how time flies! She is doing a wonderful job, and as usual is an exceptional student...we won't even mention the go-cart incident and how her breaks just didn't work! Really...she means it, really!

Okay, who can remember this awesome icing from your childhood, hmmm, ME! I CAN, I CAN! So I just had to create a chocolate cupcake, filled with hazelnut chocolate cream, and topped with the luscious high childhood favorite, and then, well, it just had to be topped with a coating of ganache to add to the indulgence. Do you think these will make it in Hallowed Grounds? This is what recipe testing is about, I wish you could taste through the computer screen!

The family also tested two separate recipes for the Vanilla Bean Cupcake and Vanilla Bean Buttercream and we were testing the cupcake liners as well. The top left is the one dd and I like. The liner to the top right is traditional and the center bottom is traditional baked outside of the cupcake tin...which one do you prefer? The sugar-rimmed cupcake below is the winning recipe though...the crumb was perfect, the other recipe "shrunk" after baking....cheer us on!


The bakeshop is still under planning stages, we are terrified and excited at the same time...so please keep us in your prayers...God is so wonderfully consistent, I know that HE will hold me dearly in all situations.

This is the future home for

hallowed grounds
COFFEE-TEA-BAKERY

The paperwork is a lot of work, the owners of this building are working with us so nicely...and we are excited about getting our things moved in, once we get "our things" LOL...the process of opening shop is quite huge.

So, off to the bank, the plumber and the landlords...keep us in your prayers!

Hallowed Grounds

There it is the name of our new Coffee-Tea-Bake House...

hallowed grounds

So this a formal announcement. We are in the baby stages of our new business! YIPPEE!! Our vision is a Coffee-Tea-Bake House where the Parson's Wife (me) will be able to change the world one cupcake at a time! We celebrated by taking these Pink Champagne Cupcakes to the local bank (who is working very hard on our behalf!) and for some friends who visited last night for a Home and Garden Party...man I wish you could smell these...they were so moist and the buttercream was so rich! I always feel like I need to have the naked cupcakes showcased as well, they are a beauty in themselves!

I also am trying out Picassa 2...and trying those great tools that it offers...this blurring was on purpose, not an error in my photography- THIS TIME at least! LOL

Chocolate Butter Minis with Peanut Butter Icing and Milk Chocolate Curls

Today I played around with my new Hobart 20 qt mixer and convection oven! Made a wonderful buttery chocolate cupcake with a sweet topping of peanut butter icing and little milk chocolate curls. Picture perfect...and hopefully tummy perfect! I SO tried to get one of my favorite pictures behind the cupcake trio, the grandpa praying over his crusty bread and meager bowl of soup...can you see him back there? Doesn't it just make you think? Think about being so very thankful for your very basics. Pondering now on the wonderful Easter blessing of Grace. I thought today's devotion said so much.


And I thought I would put out a picture of the "undressed" cupcake! wink...and the guy who got it done, Hobart!



Last week I thought it would be fun to combine a pound-cake recipe from a "Friendship Cake" starter that a sweet gal from church shared with me, and cheesecake. So here is a cake made up with a cheesecake layer and the friendship cake on top, it was lovely! (Okay, true confessions, I placed the starter in my crock pot that was on the counter, and about midnight I smelled a plastic odor! Yup, you got it my crock was switched on low! Moral of the story? Don't store things in a plugged-in crock pot!)

Bread Baking in the easiest form!

Check out this basic bread recipe, no kneading, no special ingredients, just the basic water, flour, yeast and salt...and well, time. That is the wonder that God gives to us, feeding us with bread, not only THE BREAD of LIFE, but yummy crusty bread like this!