Pumpkin Roll

     I had never tried a pumpkin roll before a few months ago when I had a lady request  me to make her one. So my research began.  A pumpkin roll is basically a very thin pumpkin cake with basically a cream cheese filling. Sounds simple, right? In it's own way it is, but its also tricky. I normally end up covered in powdered sugar and so does half my kitchen. But boy oh boy is it worth it. My first bite was pure bliss. I instantly became addicted. The middle was sweet and creamy and the cake was just the right amount of pumpkin and spices (well after a bit of tweaking, that is). I made and sold around 6 of them in a two week period. I have also made them for family holidays. Of course I plan to make other flavored rolls in the future, but I am not sure if any of them will ever compare to the infamous pumpkin roll!

A Year Later

     I am a little ashamed to realize that it has been at least a year since I have been on here or written anything. Boy, what a year it has been too. I moved an hour and a half away from my home town to be with my boyfriend and his son. It has been a pretty big change in lifestyle for all of us. With all the changes I let my baking be moved to the back  burner. Now, do not get me wrong, I still did some baking for us personally. It was just hard trying to get my goodies out there for other people to try. I have up for a while and decided to do computer work from home instead. I had a bit more success with that than the baking. Now for the past several months I have been focusing a little more on my baking again as I began to seriously miss it. I have done quite a few things this past year that I am looking forward to sharing with you guys. I hope that you enjoy reading about my kitchen exploits as much as I enjoying having them.

Home Made Pizza Dough

      How much do we spend when we order a pizza? Between $10 to $15? I understand that sometimes we are tired and just want to pick up the phone, order a pizza and either have it delivered or walk in, pick it up and take it home. No muss no fuss. Well as I usually say, you can beat home made. I have never attempted to make any sort of dough on my own so this was a little nerve wracking for me but I was totally determined.
     You dont need many ingredients for pizza dough but you need a very specific one that I dont just keep on hand. And its one I have never before used, Yeast. Now I am in a tiny little one light town and I was a bit unsure if I would even find yeast in the store here considering I can rarely find half the things I need. But I was in luck and found some much to my surprise. So from now on I will endeavor to keep some on hand for the occasional pizza craving .
     So into my mixer went my water and yeast. After it dissolved i put in my dough hooks and added my other ingredients, flour (all purpose since i didnt have bread flour available), little salt, little sugar and some olive oil. I let the mixer mix my dough until it formed a ball. After kneading by hand just a couple times I rolled it into a ball and coated the entire outside in oil. I then covered it tightly in plastic wrap. Now comes the waiting part, you have to let it set and rise for at least about an hour and half in a warm place.
     Once the dough sets and rises, it will double in size at least, it times to make the pizza. I wanted to try a couple different ways to cook it. I did one pizza on a regular flat pizza pan and the other one in a cast iron skillet. I pushed and pulled my dough flat working from the middle out, making sure to get all the air bubbles out from under the dough. Once I was satisfied i rubbed some oil over the crust before adding my topping, this is to keep the sauce from soaking in and making the crust too doughy. Being that this was a test for my crust and the limited availability of ingredients, I just used pre made sauce and shredded cheese.
     Now I have a picture of the pizzas made before they cooked. I was too excited to try the pizzas once they came out that it totally slipped my mind about taking a picture when they were done. Sorry guys, but I am sure I will be posting again when I make pizzas with home made sauce and fresh ingredients and I will do my best to remember pictures then!

Beasty Bites

     Baking is one of my major passions in life, along with animals. My chihuahuas are my children and a very big part of my family life. I have never been the best at dealing with people, I have extreme anxiety and panic issues when it comes to most situations dealing with people. Baking and dealing with animals has always been my retreats to calm myself. I have recently started to delve deeper into those passions, finding a way to combine them together. I started making pet treats, its a way to bake while spoiling the pets that I love. Then I began to think that this is something that I can share with others out there. I have set out to start an online pet bakery. I know that it will be hard at first but I am sure once I am able to get a client base started and they begin to spread the word it could take off. I put my heart and soul into the things that I make, and want to make them the best possible. I dont have a whole lot of things right now but I am slowly adding to my inventory as I go. The creation process is a tricky one with some items. But each of my orders will be made per each order, they are not made way ahead of time and stored, they are 100% fresh made.
     So for all of you pet lovers out there please feel free to check out my site, it also has a link to my Facebook page for the site, where I started out.

Here is the link to my website:


http://beastybites.weebly.com/

Chocolate Peanutbutter Passion Cake

     Do you love chocolate or peanut butter, possibly both? What about Oreo cookies or Reese's Peanut Butter Cups?  Now imagine what a cake could be with all those things included. Can you even begin to imagine it? If not then I will happily show you the possibilities. Now I am not the biggest chocolate eater myself but I do know how to appreciate it. 

     This cake is an amazingly rich moist peace of heaven. It is made from scratch with coffee in place of water to enhance the flavor of the chocolate. The frosting is a cream cheese and peanut butter mousse frosting that combined with the cakes is phenomenal. Around the side and on top of the cake is crushed Oreo cookies. The top is also ringed with crushed Reese's cups. It can be done with them both the way I did or you can just use one of them. If its a bit too much then you can just plain frost it. Either way the cake is amazing.

Catching Up

     I have gotten a bit behind in writing on here. But I guess that is ok cause it is my blog lol. The holidays and all my baking adventures just had me so busy i lost track of time. Now that the holidays are over with, at least for about a month, I figured it was time to do some catching up. So keep your eyes out cause I have several things to write about. I hope that everybody had a wonderful Christmas and New Years.

Cookies for Dogs

     How many of us have four legged family members? I know my chihuahua is a big part of my family. She is always there when I am sad or alone to offer comfort. I feel that they deserve yummy home made treats just as much as we do. So i decided to get in the kitchen today and make dog cookies and I must say I am proud of how they turned out. My sister-in-law was wanting to eat them they look and smell so good. And of course they were a hit with my baby girl. She is eating for four right now and is a picky eater when it comes to treats. She devoured three of them before I could even blink. I even got two orders (one quite large) within half an hour of posting the pic online. I am going to have a busy few days whipping up more. And I am going to try more recipes to see what happens. So excited!