What do you get when you take one slightly obsessed Hunger Games fan, who happens to be a baker (I love you Peeta) and give her the un-official Hunger Games cookbook? You get a Capitol Feast of course.

And since the movie release is tonight at midnight, I thought this would be the perfect time to create a “celebratory” dinner using menu items that had actually been referenced in the Hunger Games novel.  (The unofficial Hunger Games cookbook provided the recipes to the Orange Chicken and Capitol Grade Chocolate Cake, not to mention it had some other really great recipes too. If you love Hunger Games – you must get this cookbook!)

Let the 74th annual Hunger Games begin!

The feast and their significance to the Hunger Games:

* Harvest Grain bakery bread spread with goat cheese and topped with blackberries and basil (or in this case it’s topped with mint as I couldn’t find fresh basil).

This is the same meal enjoyed by Gale and Katniss in the woods, on the day of the reaping.

* A platter of various bread rolls – each representing a different district. When lacking dinner conversation, Peeta explains the different breads to Katniss.

* Orange Juice and Hot Chocolate. Katniss had never tasted either of these things until that first train ride to the Capitol.

* Orange You Glad I’m Chicken, recipe from the un-Official Hunger Games Cookbook

After an exhausting day of being “remade”, Katniss isn’t in the mood to enjoy another elaborate feast. Her stylist Cinna encourages her to her to eat this delectable dish: Chicken and chunks of oranges cooked in a cream sauce laid on a bed of pearly white grain.

* Capitol Grade Chocolate Cake, recipe from the un-Official Hunger Games Cookbook.

The feast served during Katniss’s first night away from her family ends with a decadent chocolate cake.

I decorated mine with roses in representation of President Snow.

And I found the printable *here*

Enjoy, and MAY THE ODDS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOR.

~ Sandy

And the Winner of the Salted Caramels Giveaway is #40 (thank you Random.org), Rikki who wrote: “I am thankful that my husband is not deployed.”

After reading all of your comments and all of the WONDERFUL things you are thankful for I have decided to pick a couple more winners. These winners, also chosen by Random.org, will receive 1/4 lb of salted caramels:

#5, Danielle, who wrote: “I am thankful for SO much but I guess I’m most thankful for my family and their health!”

and

#12, Cineca, who wrote: “I am thankful to be the mother of the sweetest, most loving, crazy, maniac 3 year old EVER!”

Thank you for sharing your hearts the past couple of days. I wish you all a very Happy Holiday Season!

BTW, Here’s what I am thankful for:

Today’s guest post comes from Taryn, of Taryn Lisa Photography.

You all know I adore Taryn and her work. She has been our family photographer for years, and you have seen the pictures here and on Facebook. I cannot say enough about the wonderful moments she has captured of our family.

What you might not know is that Taryn and I are best friends. We have know each other so long, that we will have to remain friends forever because she knows way, WAY too much about me!! Which is why I have no problems telling her to do a guest blog post even though she isn’t a baker.  She did an amazing job, and her pictures of the experience are ridiculous. Seriously, she is going to have to come here every week and start photographing my food!

Here’s Taryn’s Post:

To say that I was shocked when Sandy asked me to guest blog, would be a mild understatement… I believe something along the lines of, “you want me to do what?” may have been slightly shouted.  I have known Sandy for years, and for years she has razzed me about my baking skills…  well, the baking skills that always start with a box that says Betty Crocker…  But seriously, I would do anything for Sandy, so I am honored to be asked to guest blog!

Now, I already told you my FIRST reaction, which was immediately followed up with “well, okay, but you need to send me a recipe”.  With that she quickly sent me a recipe for triple layer fudge… which I have to confess I was TERRIFIED of!  I tried fudge, once….   let’s just say it could have been used for sandpaper….  but I trust Sandy, so when she said it was a good recipe, and told me that she just knew I could do it….  I relented and set out to show her just how wrong she was… that’s right people, I was almost positive this would turn into one of those what NOT to do in the kitchen posts…   BUT – I, will publicly state (at least this ONE time)… that Sandy was right, and all of you fudge lovers can run out right now and make this too!

OK… so here it goes…

You always go to start out with good ingredients…  what could be better then Ghiradelli chocolate!

When the recipe says BOILING and stir constantly, it isn’t kidding…

When it came time to add the marshmallows, I have to admit, I made a few funny faces…

But, yumm…. then you get to add the chocolate….

And then, look at that!  I was so proud of myself, I had the first layer complete and in the pan (and I must admit I was a little giddy, since it actually LOOKED like fudge!)

Whew – first layer was complete…  I completed the second layer, which switched over to white chocolate yumminess….

Now, I must tell you… I did a little dance around my kitchen…. that’s right, no one was looking, and I was darn proud!  Repeated steps for the third time…  really the constant stirring is the hardest part.  Before you knew it, my fudge was complete, and looky looky….

That’s right people… I made fudge… ME!!! Then it came to actually taste test it…  I must say, even if people were home, I would have danced in my kitchen!  This is seriously some good tasting fudge, with not a hint of the sandpaper quality of my first admitted defeat.   So there you have it people, if I can do it, ANYONE can!  So follow Sandy’s simple steps and you will soon be dancing in your kitchen as well!

Chocolate Fudge:

1 ½ cups granulated sugar

1 – 5oz can of evaporated milk

2 tbsp butter or margarine

¼ tsp salt

1 ½ cup mini marshmallows

1 cup (6oz) chocolate chips

1 ½ tsp vanilla

*grease 13×9 inch pan, set aside.

*Combine sugar, milk, butter and salt in a med. Saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Boil 5 minutes stirring constantly.

*remove sauce pan from heat stir in mini marshmallows until melted and mixture is well blended.

*Add chocolate chips & vanilla stir until mixture is smooth. Stir for 6 minutes or until slightly thickened.

*immediately spread mixture into prepared pan.

White Fudge:

Substitute white chocolate ships for regular chocolate chips and follow directions for chocolate fudge.

Immediately pour over chocolate fudge and spread using a lightly greased rubber spatula.

ENJOY!

~ Sandy

Oh, Nutella how I love you and all your creamy chocolate-hazelnut deliciousness.

I love you on whole wheat toast for breakfast, or in crescent rolls as a snack.

Or, let’s be honest here, with a spoon straight out of the jar.

I would like to say that I buy so much Nutella more for baking purposes, and not so much for my addiction to it, but that would be a lie.

However I did try this recipe for Hazelnut Crinkle Cookies that I found via Betty Crocker that called for Nutella and it was almost as delicious as eating it right out of the jar! Almost.

What I love about this recipe is how easy it it to make, satisfying your cookie craving almost immediately. And it’s easy to double the recipe, which will be perfect for all those up coming holiday parties and cookie exchanges!

Hazelnut Crinkles (Nutella Crinkles)

Wholly Heck – These bars are so good! I can’t even write a blog post because I am too busy eating my weight in caramel apple cheesecake bars. Cookie crust, creamy cheesecake filling topped with apples and cinnamon, covered in sweet streusel topping and drizzled with caramel sauce

Seriously people, you need to stop what you are doing and make these.

Now.

You’ll thank me.

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars

(Original recipe from Paula Deen. I found it via the Girl Who Ate Everything)

Crust:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

Cheesecake Filling:

3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar, plus 2 tablespoons, divided

3 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Apples:

3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Streusel topping:

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup quick cooking oats

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

In a small bowl, combine all ingredients. I like to really combine it by using my clean hands to thoroughly combine the butter into the mixture.

1/2 cup caramel topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, combine flour and brown sugar. Cut in butter with a pastry blender (or 2 forks) until mixture is crumbly. Press evenly into a 9×13 baking pan lined with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Bake 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese with 3/4 cup sugar in an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth. Then add eggs, 1 at a time, and vanilla. Stir to combine. Pour over warm crust.

In a small bowl, stir together chopped apples, remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Spoon evenly over cream cheese mixture. Sprinkle evenly with Streusel topping. Bake 40-45 minutes, or until filling is set. Drizzle with caramel topping and let cool. Serve cold and enjoy!

Enjoy!

~ Sandy

Are you familiar with Anders Ruff Custom Designs?

Well you should be! Maureen Anders and Adria Ruff are two of the most incredibly amazing, super-fabulous, ridiculously talented people on the planet! (And the rest of their team is equally awesome.) They are changing the party decorating world and making it even more stylish and obtainable. They will create all your party decorating needs. From the invites & thank yous, to water bottle labels & banners, it is all done for you. All you have to do is print, cut and display!

I have had the honor of working with Anders Ruff on a couple of their photo shoots, providing cookies for display and I wanted to share some of those with you today. I will show pictures that feature my cookies, but then also provide links to the their site so you can see all the photos they have. It’s worth the trip over, they are all brilliant!

Fist up, the School Day collection:

The collection includes favor tags (To/From hangtags) – perfect for a little gift to the teacher or friends at a school themed party or appreciation week.

I made Apple cookies that coordinated with their collection and featured the little worm, as well as the A+ paper cookies and the black board cookies.

To see the rest of this photo shoot and get all the links to it’s contributors Click Here

Then there is the most fantastic Halloween set up I have ever seen:

Anders Ruff created 33 pages of FAB-Boo-lous printables perfect for your own Halloween party, classroom treats or home decor! And if you visit their site you will not only see all the details of this “Spook-Tacular” party, but you will also see decorating tips and have the opportunity to purchase the printable set on sale! Click Here

I created the owls and pumpkins based on the designs in their printable collection as well as the black bats that they have hanging in the back ground.

Last, and quite possibly the most AWESOME opportunity, EVER – Girls Night In. This set of printables and the photo shoot were designed specifically for the DVD release of the Universal Studios movie Bridesmaids. Together with Target and e.l.f cosmetics, Anders Ruff has really out done themselves:

They have created everything you need to host your own Girls Night In (too much for me to even try to mention), as well as teamed up with some pretty amazing vendors to create the perfect party!

I made extra large heart shaped cookies that match the ones in the movie (you know the scene where Annie goes crazy and punches the big cookie) as well as favor tags cookies and “stamps” that match the printable collection.

It was such an incredible opportunity for Firefly Confections to be a part of, and now it can be an incredible opportunity for you as well.

Because you can win. All of it. The cookies, the movie, the printable collection, make up from e.l.f, and so much more!!

Click Here for all the details & Good Luck!

Thank you to Anders Ruff and all their contributors for including me in their incredible photo sessions. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next!!!

~Sandy

I love birthdays.

Mostly mine.

I love cake and decorations and packages wrapped in pretty paper all for me!!!! I love my birthday so much that I talk about for months prior and a celebrate a birth-week, not a birthday.  Others are well aware of this and simply go along for the fun that is commonly referred to as “Sandypalooza”.

I have passed this love of birthdays on to my kids and I happily encourage it.

Connor’s birthday party has been in the planning for months!  We discussed cake and decorations and guests lists back in March (he turned 5 last week).  Now when Connor picks a theme he mostly just means the decoration on top of the cake.  This year was Captain America.  This year we got a little more excited about the decorations, since most of them could be purchased after the 4th of July, on sale.

As for the cake – I made it.  It’s not a glorious fondant master piece that I know some of you can do.  But it was as good as store bought, a lot cheaper, and if I do say so myself – more tasty!

As I was about to decorate, I decided to take step by step pictures, to show you how easy it can be to make your kids’ birthday cake (and if you use cake mix from a box would cost about $1.25 for the cake itself). Please make your own butter cream. While frosting from a can may work on cupcakes, home made butter cream is best for cakes. I recommend at least 2 batches of frosting, maybe 3.

Connor’s Cake is Paula Deen’s Blue Velvet Cake, 1 batch of Cream Cheese Frosting as the filling, and 2 batches of Confetti Cakes Cupcake Frosting. Here it goes (please ignore the off colors, I have a crappy camera and poor lighting in my kitchen):

Bake your cake and let it cool completely. Cut your cake into 2 layers and set the bottom layer on your serving tray or covered cake board (you can use a little spoonful of frosting to secure it to the board). Pipe a border of frosting around the edge, using the same frosting you plan of putting on the outside of the cake.  This will prevent your filling from “leaking” out.

Add a heaping portion of filling to the center of the cake. Using an off set cake decorating spatula gently spread your filling to the edges, so that it touches but does not go over the edge of frosting you piped on.

Gently place the second layer on top. Don’t worry too much about cracks as there will be 2 layers of frosting covering it.

Cover your cake with a thin layer of frosting, also know as the “crumb coat”. Yes you need to have a crumb coat, this will prevent little pieces of cake showing through your pretty decorations.  Wipe off any excess frosting that may get on your serving tray/cake board and refrigerate for about an hour. You will want to apply your next layer of frosting when your crumb coat is cold and firm.

Add your second layer of frosting.  Again I use the off set spatula for this.  Try to make sure you have an even and full layer over the top and sides. Also try to get them smooth. You might want to try using a bowl/icing scraper.  Then add your decoration to the top.  For Connor’s cake I used an edible image of Captain America, as my cake decorating skills are limited. Edible images are thin sheets of edible paper (made mostly of corn starch) and require an edible image printer (which essentially a regular printer that has only ever been used with edible ink!)

Then add your border. I colored a portion of frosting red and piped it on using a Wilton #21 tip.  Start with your bottom border, then the top. If you mess up, which I did, just scrape it off, wipe off the cake board and start again.  Add a Happy Birthday, sprinkles and a candle and you are done.

Is it perfect? No. But it couldn’t have been too bad as there was about 18 hungry kids, and their Moms, and this was the only piece that was left:

Happy Birthday my little Captain America.

If you have any questions or tips – please share!

~ Sandy

BTW – we are already discussing Addison’s Hello Kitty party for December!

I went to the gym today.  I didn’t enjoy it.

I wish that I were one of those people who go for fun or adrenaline or whatever ever it is they like about sweating profusely with others who are sweating profusely. But I don’t.  I enjoy eating.  And therefore I MUST go to they gym.

Today I decided to be adventurous and try the row machine. I sat down, buckled in my feet and went at it. About 4 and a half minutes later I thought I might pass out.  I stopped to catch my breath and the older gentleman (about 65 years old or so)  looks over and says “It’s not easy is it?”  To which I reply, quite honestly, “It’s kicking my butt”.  He says ” I know, I’ve been on here for about 30 minutes now and I’m really starting to get tired”.

What? 30 minutes? Are you kidding me?  Well, I wasn’t about to give up in front of the old guy after only 4 minutes. So I started rowing again.

I breathed a ragged sigh of relief when he got up, and wished him a nice day, and then he sat down on the bike next to me and started talking. Crap.

Oh, he was nice and I enjoyed his friendly old man talk about women’s soccer and how he started the first soccer team at his kids’ school when they were little and how his brother just missed the men’s row team by half a second, but I was starting to have blurred vision.  I made it another 13 minutes before stopping and joked about not having the strength to pick up my 3 year old later.  He replied with “Cardiac Rehab patients are only allowed to do 10 minutes at a time because it’s very strenuous on their hearts, so you made a good effort”.

Thanks.

Wait, why are you telling me that?

Yeah.  I went home and ate a cupcake.

A Vanilla Bean Pound Cake with Salted Caramel Butter Cream Cupcake.

And it was delicious!

Of course that means I will be back at the gym tomorrow.

Vanilla Bean Pound Cake (or cupcakes):

1 lb. (2 cups) Sugar

the seeds from 1 vanilla bean

1 lb. (4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temp.

9 large eggs

1 lb. (4 cups) all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

*Pre-heat oven to 325

*In a food processor, grind vanilla bean and sugar until very fine.  Sift this mixture twice to make sure all the larger pieces have been filtered out. Set aside.

*In a large bowl, cream butter. Gradually add the vanilla sugar, continuing to beat well until smooth.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Gradually add the flour and salt, beating constantly.  Add the vanilla and continue mixing until well blended.

*Spray a 10 inch bunt pan with Pam spray for baking, with flour. Or line muffin tins with papers.  Pour in the batter and tap it gently to make sure it’s distributed evenly.  If making cupcakes fill each cup 2/3 full.  Bake until a straw inserted into the cake comes out clean, or with moist crumbs, about 1hr – 1hr and 15 minutes.  If making cupcakes, check them after 20 minutes – you don’t want to over cook them as it will cause them to be dry.

If you make it in a bunt pan it looks like this:

Or you could make the cupcakes and top them with this amazing Salted Caramel Butter Cream recipe that I found over at Bake it in a Cake! I warn you now that once you are at Bake it in a Cake you may never fully recover.  Megan takes delicious things and bakes them into other delicious things and crazy amazing delicious things are created. I love her.

If you made the Caramels as I did last week, this is a perfect time to use them!

These moist, thick, vanilla cakes topped with Salted Caramel frosting are totally worth 17 minutes on the row machine!

~Sandy

So my husband’s birthday was Monday.

And, as with all the projects in my life lately, I was late making his cake.

I suck.

I mean seriously. His favorite cake is SOOOOOOOOO easy to make! It’s like, 5 ingredients and costs less than $10.

I really suck.

Anyway, here’s his cake:

Here’s what you need to make it:

1/2 cup warmed Hot fudge sauce. I used Hershey’s Hot Fudge, in the jar. It’s the best, and I should know. I have tried just about every ice cream topping know to man!

1 tub of Cool Whip (2 tubs if you want to pipe it on pretty as I did)

1 pkg Chocolate instant pudding

8 Oreos chopped/broken into “chunky” pieces

12 Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwiches

Yep.

That’s all you need.

Whisk together hot fudge sauce and 1 cup of the whipped topping. Add dry pudding and stir (if it seams too thick add 2 – 4 tbsp of milk)

Stir in chopped Oreos.

Arrange 4 ice cream sandwiches side by side on your serving tray. Top with half the pudding mixture, the another 4 ice cream sandwiches, then the rest of the pudding mixture, then the last 4 ice cream sandwiches.

Cover with a thin layer of whip cream and freeze for an hour then pipe on the rest of the whip cream using a no. 21 tip, starting at the base and squeezing gently as you move up the side of the cake.

I used hot fudge to write Happy Birthday, but you could use frosting or decorating gel. Just be warned that decorating gel in the tube (for writing on cakes) can bleed when it’s on whip cream, thanks to the condensation.

And there you have it.

It looks fancy when you cut into it so it’s perfect for company.

Or you can eat the whole thing by yourself, but I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s very rich, so 1 slice nearly put me into a sugar coma. But it was worth it.

Happy Birthday Miguel.  You are my everything and I love you.

Sorry I suck.

~ Sandy