Recipe: White Chocolate Blondies

I'm not quite sure where brownies and I went wrong, but I'm not really a fan. Maybe it's just the boring, 'traditional' chocolate that I'm not crazy about. -I know, I know. Already you're thinking, "She doesn't like chocolate? What's wrong with her??". But, I do love white chocolate. Always have. And when I found this recipe for these white chocolate blondies, I had to try them!

8 oz. white chocolate, broken into 1" squares

½ cup butter, cut into small pieces

2 eggs

⅓ cup sugar

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

1¼ cups flour

¾ tsp. salt

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

• Preheat your oven to 350, and grease a 9x9 baking pan. (You can also line the pan with waxed paper, and grease that.)

• Melt the white chocolate and the butter together, stirring until smooth. The original recipe called for this to be melted using a double boiler over hot water, but using the microwave (at 40% power) for approximately 4 minutes is just as effective. Once melted, set aside.

• In a large bowl, beat the eggs until foamy.

• Gradually add sugar, vanilla extract and melted chocolate and mix.

• Fold in flour, salt and chocolate chips until well combined.

• Pour the mixture into the prepares pan and bake for 25 minutes.

• Cool. Cut. Serve.

I only just recently tried this recipe, but I loved it. It was easy to make, quick to bake, and tasted delicious. Everyone loved them! I thought that the richness of the white chocolate would make them really dense, but that wasn't the case at all. However, they were definitely more fudge-like, than cake-like, so keep that in mind if you're thinking this will be more like a 'traditional' brownie. :)

With love ♥,

the Mydnyte Baker

In The Kitchen: Take Two.

Shortly after the idea for my new business venture was born, I found myself with an opportunity to start getting the word out about it. The whole 'project' was only a couple of weeks old, so I wasn't ready to go too public just yet, but a family gathering would be just perfect. My cousin, a mother of two, was throwing a princess themed birthday party for one of her daughters. Adoring her girls as I do, I thought that I would do something special for them. Customized cookies to make the birthday girl (and her sister) feel even more like little princesses.

So I took to the internet in search of some cookie cutters that might fit with the theme and was pleasantly surprised to have so many results turn up. Who knew?! I ended up getting a whole 'princess diva set' that included a diamond ring, glass slipper and more, as well as a separate crown-shaped cutter, and again, the ideas just took off from there.

Being so excited to do something special for my girls and share news about With Love Desserts for the first time outside of immediate family and a few of my closest friends, I dove into these cookies headfirst. And for my first attempt at something like these, I was pretty happy with how they turned out.

Yikes. What did I just get myself into??

Due to a shipping error, I had to make the 'magic wands' by hand. Not bad, huh?

Personalized Princess cookies.

Looking back on this project now, I completely underestimated just how much would go into these cookies! My only thoughts were 'bake' and 'decorate', resulting in frustration and my feeling overwhelmed. So a few words of advice for first timers especially?

PLAN AHEAD!!

Give yourself at least 3 days to complete a project like this one, allowing yourself room for error. The idea may seem simple enough, but you don't fully realize how tedious a process it is until you're already covered in flour and food coloring.

With love ♥,

the Mydnyte Baker

In The Kitchen: Take One.

Almost from the moment I decided what I was going to do, the ideas started rolling in. Usually, my creative process...stalls a bit, so I knew I was really on to something with this. I wanted to dive right in, but I also didn't want to overwhelm myself, and end up fizzling out within a month. So I decided to start small scale, and with two personal favorites that I figured everyone could get behind. Cookies and cupcakes.

Right away I was thinking of ways to try and make these cookies and cupcakes stand out above the rest. A friend had mentioned to me a cupcake cookbook she'd recently bought and all sorts of fun, unique ideas it had, so I set out in search of 'Hello, Cupcake!', and when I found it, my excitement seemed to triple. The ideas in this book are fantastic! So creative, and things I probably would have never thought to do with a cupcake on my own. So I bought it, along with a few others and couldn't wait to try out the first recipes.

With nearly 50 different designs to choose from, I narrowed it down to 3 for my first go. Check me out being all ambitious! They seemed to be easy enough. Basic vanilla cupcakes, dressed up in their "fun clothes". Of course it was their dressings that would end up giving me the most trouble. Thinking that I could get away without using most of the "essential tools" listed in the front of the book, I ended up having to get pretty creative with ziplock bags, toothpicks, and the smallest kitchen knife I could find. It wasn't easy, but I DID get it done! Next time though, I'll be well prepared.

"Buttered Popcorn"

I didn't make quite enough to fill the box, but you get the idea, right? I "dyed" the yellow marshmallows myself with food coloring rather than buy an additional bag of multi-colored (and flavored) marshmallows, and risk a funny little taste throwing off what could have otherwise been a yummy cupcake. That aside, these were really easy to make and came out adorable. I unfortunately never got to try one, but I heard they were tasty, too.

"Pandamonium"

These suckers were tricky, I'm not gonna lie. The picture in the book was so deceiving! A lot more went into these than I originally thought. Then again, had I been a little more prepared (and not started so late at night), it probably would have gone much smoother. So learn from my mistakes! These cupcakes were definitely worth it. I substituted the chocolate-covered sunflower seeds, with icing tinted black and mini chocolate chips for the eyes, and Oreo O's (do they even make those anymore?? impossible to find!) with brown M&M's for the ears. They worked just as well I thought. If you're going to tackle these, I might suggest using a toothpick to support head on the body, as one of the Panda's got decapitated in the move from one counter to the other. :(

"Sunflowers"

Now, they may not look so grand, but these were my FAVORITE. The petals look a little wilted, because again, I wasn't fully prepared to take on this project, but I was certainly determined. Regular and miniature Oreos, plus red M&M's for the "ladybugs" were the only adornments necessary. Icing tinted green for grass, and my own personal touch of leftover crushed Oreo crumbs from the Pandas for "dirt". These tasted great, and I think they would have looked much prettier if I had an actual pastry bag and decorating tips versus the ziplock bag and scotch tape I had to put together. But, this is how we learn.

'Hello, Cupcake!' has been my favorite baking book thus far, and I definitely recommend it if you're wanting to try decorating outside the box. Though as a bit of a 'warning', I would definitely find my own cupcake recipes before trying the ones they offer. I found that they dried out within a day and a half, and I ended up having to throw away a lot of the extras that I had left over. But their chocolate frosting recipe is delicious, and I use it for just about everything else.

With love ♥,

the Mydnyte Baker

Grand Opening.

I would have loved to open all of this with a great picture of me in the kitchen doing my thing. However, given my night owl nature, there's rarely anyone else with a camera around to snap me in my element, and self-portraits are a little difficult to pull off when hand mixers and the like are involved. Funnily enough, someone always seem to come stumbling in just when something's finished.

It's not too unusual to catch me in the kitchen, prepping for some baking well past 10PM, sometimes even taking me right into the next day. But hey, when the mood strikes, it strikes. It's because of this very special behavior that my mother dubbed me, 'The Midnight Baker' (or for the purposes of this blog, Mydnyte Baker). She's my inspiration for a lot of what I'll do, so you'll be hearing more about her, and maybe even catching her in the kitchen with me on occasion as this blog continues.

Back in June, as it was becoming more and more difficult to find work, I had an idea to make it for myself. I have several passions in my life: shoes, fashion, Hello Kitty, baking and the WWE (one of these things is not like the other, I know!), and I'm smart enough to figure out a way to make money involving at least one of those, right? Right!

My love for baking started early. Of course like most, at first I was just enjoying the end results. Who doesn't love a warm cookie fresh from the oven? But as I grew, so did my desire to experience more. By my senior year in high school, I had been dubbed "Betty Crocker" by the Varsity football team for providing my practically infamous cookies for birthdays and big games all season long. They were in love, and I was happy to provide those warm and fuzzy feelings they got with every bite.

After that, it started to become more like a 'tradition' at my house. If there was something to be baked, I was in charge. No matter what it is, I'm always told, "There's just something about these...". Something that always seems to make them taste better than when anyone else attempts the same dish. And my response has always been, "I made it with love". I firmly believe that what you put into something, you will get out of it. I've always applied this rule to my baking, and as a result I feel like my products stand above the rest. In taste, presentation and appreciation.

So here I am, 5 months later, pushing my dream of With Love Desserts closer to becoming a reality. With this blog, I'll be sharing a few past projects, experiments, recipes and progress on my first ever business venture, along with all my new ones. So stay tuned. There's lots more to come. ;)

To you, from me, with love ♥.

the Mydnyte Baker