Seeing Stars: Star Wars Lego Cookies Tutorial

Legos! Star Wars! Cookies! These sweet treats are like veritable galactic minefield of awesome. And now, the force of deliciousness can be with you, too--CakeSpy reader Emily (who writes the wonderful blog Sugar & Meringue and also has a fantastic Etsy shop full of vintage cake finds!) has put together a tutorial on how to make your own!

Curious about Emily? Here's what she has to say about herself: I was born and raised in Nebraska. I grew up in a town with a population of about 650. I like to brag that I was the valedictorian of my class. (I just don't tell anyone there were only 18 people in my class!) Yep… I'm from the sticks.

Components needed:

• Lego minifigure cookie cutter
• Several pastry bags
• Several writing tips- ranging in size from about 1 - 4 & couplers
• Gel or paste frosting coloring: Ivory, Black, Peach, Copper, Brown & Royal Blue
• A glass tumbler
• Lots of bowls
• A very small/fine artist liner paint brush - buy a new one and use it only for food

Royal Icing (See recipe below)

• 6 cups powdered sugar
• 2/3 cup water
• 4 1/2 tablespoons meringue powder

Combine all ingredients and beat at medium/high speed until soft peaks form.

Procedure for Lego Cookies

1. Make rolled sugar cookies using your favorite recipe. Make Royal Icing (you may need 2 bathces) and divide into 6 bowls. Add coloring to each bowl. You will need: white - shirt & pants ivory - vest brown - belt black - details peach - face copper - hair
2. Next, divide each color in half and put in two separate bowls. (One half will be used for piping and the other half will be used for flooding.) Add water, a tiny bit at a time, to one of the halves so that the icing is the consistency of a thick cake batter. (It should be thin enough so that it will drip from a spoon and smooth itself out, but not watery)
3. Equip one pastry bag with a #2 or 3 tip. Fill it with the UNTHINNED icing. Equip another bag with a #3 or 4 tip. Put the bag (tip down) in a glass tumbler and cuff the bag over the top of the glass so you can pour in the thinned icing.
4. Begin by outlining Obi Wan’s vest with the unthinned icing. Then “flood” inside the outline with the thinned icing. You will follow the same procedure for the following steps.
5. Now… STOP!!!!Now… STOP!!!! At this point you need to let the icing dry completely before going on to the next step so that the colors don’t bleed. You may want to let them dry overnight.
6. Outline and flood belt with brown. Allow to dry. Then use a #1 tip to pipe on the black details and a #2 tip to pipe the eyes.
7. Dab a tiny bit of royal blue coloring on some waxed paper and then, with your paint brush, paint the eyes.
8. Pipe on hair and eyebrows. Outline then flood beard and mustache. When beard and mustache are dry, use paint brush to paint on the black lines with black coloring. Use ivory coloring to paint details on shirt/vest.

Want more? Remember, you can find more of Emily's work at Sugar & Meringue, and be sure to check out her Etsy shop!

Sweetie Pie: PiePops and More for Valentine's Day from High 5 Pie

Don't get me wrong, if someone shows up with a big ol' box of chocolates, I'd never refuse them.

But I might just do happy backflips if someone brought me a Valentine's Day parcel full of flipsides, PieJars, Slab Pie (you may know it from the TV) and -- like, OMG--PiePops (yes, those are pie lollipops, in the Luxirare and Bakerella tradition) from Seattle's High 5 Pie.

Per proprietress and her royal Pie-Ness Dani Cone, there's some sweet stuff going on for Valentine's Day--on the menu will be some romantic

heart-shaped flipsides and Piepops! Yep, those are pie-lollipops! And, we're now going to offer our "as seen on tv" Slab Pie by special order, too! Folks can place a special order this week for Valentine's Day (or whenever they want).

Don't know about you, but I'm certainly giving the pie pictures above the look of love.

High 5 Pies are available at all Fuel Coffee locations; for more information, visithigh5pie.com. Also, keep updated with them via Twitter and their blog, and you can also buy proprietress Dani Cone's awesome book on Northwest coffee culture, Tall Skinny Bitter: Notes from the Center of Coffee Culture.

Sweet Love: A Bakery and Baking Blog Crush on Cupcakes and Sundry Cupcakery, Toronto

It's happened again. Like a ray of buttercream sunshine straight to the heart, CakeSpy has another bakery crush. This time it's a double dose of delicious, because Cupcakes and Sundry is not only a custom order baking business, but also a delectable baking blog.

So who's behind all of this sweetness? Head baker Stephanie is a teacher by day, baker and blogger by night. What moves her?

I've been in love with cupcakes all of my life. In March 2008, I started making cupcakes as a hobby in my little apartment kitchen. Every week I'd pump out a different flavour for my friends and colleagues to try and to judge. Everyone has their personal favourite; mine strawberry angel food cake (picture on photo page) and a new flavour the peanut butter colossal.

I like to swirl and sprinkle, dip and glaze, fill and layer, pipe and top or just make cupcakes simple and sweet. Birthday, holiday or any occasion cupcakes are a perfect dessert after any meal.

And now that you have the backstory, howsabout the goods?

On the menu, you can build your own cupcakes using various cupcake flavors, fillings and frostings--love that. And oh, what an array of flavors--the chocolate chip cupcookie with cream cheese frosting sounds pretty good to me--or perhaps some vanilla cake with boston cream filling and chocolate frosting for a sort of Boston cream pie shout-out? Oh, you lucky Canadians who can order Cupcakes and Sundry wares!

Of course, for those not in the Toronto area, instant pleasure is available via the Cupcakes and Sundry blog, where you can follow Stephanie's day to day adventures, and you have access to some of the recipes she loves. Don't know about you, but within five minutes I was able to find a bunch of baking ideas I wanted to try--including Snickerdoodle cupcakes, cotton candy cupcakes, coffee and doughnut cupcakes, Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes, macaroons, and -- OMG-- these: 

Yup--Cupcakes and Sundry deserves to be loved.

You can check out Cupcakes and Sundry in several ways: if interested in ordering, visit the order page; if you want to keep up with the baking adventures, visit the blog; if you want some seriously sweet pictures to tempt you, visit the Flickr page.

Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler: New Orleans King Cake from Sucre

So, recently I was contacted by Sucré (say it: soo-kray), a bakery in New Orleans, inquiring if I'd like them to send me a sample of their king cake. They assured me it was one of the best.

It's ok if you're jealous. This is really kind of an awesome thing to have someone offer.

Needless to say, there wasn't a type point-size large enough on my email to fully convey the powerful "YES" I wanted to send back. But they must have gotten the idea, because a few days later, this was on my doorstep.

(Olive the pug was keenly interested in this parcel.)

There was a pretty box inside...

And then within that...

Behold, the Sucré King Cake. A ring of twisted, buttery dough sweetened with cinnamon and sugar and filled with a whipped cream cheese filling. 

And it sparkles.

Really, I'm not sure if the pictures quite convey it, but this is an exceedingly lovely cake to look at.

And it tastes just as gorgeous as it looks. 

The cake itself has a texture like a cross between brioche and croissant, simultaneously light and rich, and redolent with buttery flavor. The cream cheese filling infuses each bite with a sweet, dense richness which adds a smooth contrast to the buttery flakiness of the exterior. It's all beautifully topped with a layer of thin confectioners' sugar icing which adds just a bit more sweetness and balances out the slight savoriness of the cream cheese filling. One taster said if anything he would have enjoyed a slightly thicker layer of icing, but it's not like he left any of his slice uneaten.

While a great teatime cake, I found it tasted best for breakfast--kind of like a fancy, sparkly danish. It pairs beautifully with a dark, strong coffee.

Now, because I know that receiving something for free can affect one's opinion, I purposefully did not look at the price of the cake and independently polled tasters as to how much they would pay for such a confection before looking up the actual cost. People estimated anywhere from $40  to $60 including shipping, which makes it all the more delightful to say that if you buy a Sucré king cake, it costs only $19.95 plus $9.95 shipping in the US. Honestly, I think that's a pretty great value! Of course, once you get on their site, escaping without purchasing some gorgeous macarons (including Mardi Gras-themed ones! Pictured below), chocolates or confections in addition to your King Cake may prove difficult.

Final word? The Sucré King Cake gets an A+ from CakeSpy. Vive le Roi!

King Cakes and other confections by Sucré can be purchased online at shopsucre.com. If you're in New Orleans, aren't you lucky, because you can experience the magic in person, at their retail shop, at 3025 Magazine Streeet, New Orleans, LA 70115.

Sweet Tarts: Homemade Pop Tarts Recipe a la Peabody

Oh, Pop Tarts. No matter what the makers of Toaster Strudel may say, I'd never hoard you uneaten in my locker.

After having made a batch of Avatar-inspired pop tarts for my most recent Serious Eats post, from which I adapted a recipe for homemade pop tarts on Culinary Concoctions by Peabody, I was naturally also tempted to make a batch in the more traditional pop tart format.

Made using an all-butter crust (Peabody's called for part shortening, but lacking shortening I went the all-butter route), these are a bit flakier and less soft than the pop tarts I remember, but they've got a leg up in the delicious department--and who wouldn't be delighted to choose their own Pop Tart flavorings? (isn't that every child's--and some adults'--dream?)

The sky's the limit with these babies--you could fill them with jam and top them with a thin icing with sprinkles for the traditional look and feel of the pop tart--or you could go straight for the fatty jugular as I did with half my batch, filling them with decadent dark chocolate and topping them with peanut butter icing (photo to come). You're welcome.

Homemade Pop Tarts

Makes 6-8 tarts, maybe even more, depending on size; adapted from wonderful, wonderful Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

For the crust

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened and cut into cubes
• 3 tablespoons cold water

For the filling

Jam, about 1 heaping teaspoonful per pastry (your choice of flavor; I used blueberry)

For the icing

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
• heavy cream, to thin (you could use milk...but I like cream)

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 450°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set to the side.
2. Combine flour and salt in a large bowl. Add butter and blend with a fork, pastry cutter, or your impeccably clean hands. Blend until the mixture is fairly coarse. Add the water, bit by bit, gently mixing the dough after each addition, until the dough is cohesive enough to form a ball.
3. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and roll into a rectangle, about 1/8 inch thick. Cut out rectangles approximately the size of index cards (3x5 inches), or smaller if you prefer a more modest portion (I didn't). Make sure you have an even number of cutouts. I think that mine might have been a little thicker than 1/8 an inch, but I ended up with 12 rectangles (for 6 pastries).
4. On half of the rectangles, place a small spoonful of the jam of your choice in the center. You don't want it to be too thick or the top crust will mound on top of it.
5. Place the remaining rectangles of dough on top of the ones with jam. Crimp all four edges by hand or with a fork to ensure that your filling won't ooze out. I also poked the top of each with a fork, to vent them.
6. Place the tarts on your prepared baking sheet, and bake for 7 to 8 minutes, or until light golden on the edges. Remove from the oven and let them cool completely.
7. While the tarts cool, prepare your icing; make sure it is fairly thin but not so thin that it will just drip off. Once the pop tarts are cool, drizzle it on top. Garnish with sprinkles.

Pop Culture Meets Pop Tart: Avatarts for Serious Eats

Regardless of your thoughts about the actual film, one thing's certain about Avatar: it's a long movie, and there's no way you'll survive it without a snack (or four).

But why settle for butter-flavored popcorn or rubbery Velveeta-topped nachos when you could be munching on something far more delicious?

And so I present the Avatart: a sweet treat wherein pop culture and Pop Tart collide sweetly, in a pocket-sized morsel perfect for smuggling into the theater and decked out in full movie regalia. My recipe is adapted from a homemade recipe care of the lovely and amazing Culinary Concoctions by Peabody.

Check out the full entry and recipe here--part of the The Serious Eats' Movie Awards Season Recipe Series is brought to you by

Baker's Dozen: A Batch of Recipes from Fellow Foodbuzz Kelly Ripa Event Attendees!

Dudes! So as you know, on Monday I am heading over to NYC to be part of an event with Kelly Ripa, Electrolux and Foodbuzz. Booyea!

I will be accompanied by 14 other talented people with foodie websites, and it seemed appropriate for this week's Friday Links (it's a baker's dozen plus one!) to introduce my cake-lovin' blogger buddies-to-be by sharing a delicious dessert recipe link from each of their sites!

Like, OMG. Wonton Pockets with cardamom crema pasticcera, chocolate and cajeta/dulce de leche. Did you just fall in love with Salty Seattle, too? 

What's easier than pie, but equally delicious? Easy peach cobbler from In Erika's Kitchen! (read the interview she did with me too!)

I can't decide on just one recipe from Nobody Puts Cupcake in a Corner's Iron Cupcake!

This cake will get you all hot and bothered: hot chocolate layer cake from Daydreamer Desserts.

Spain in Iowa will tempt you with this comforting and delicious-looking arroz con leche.

Pie or cake? Why decide: RhodeyGirl Tests has a recipe for Pumpkin Pie Cake.

Everyone knows muffins are just cake in disguise--and Carrots N Cake has a recipe for chocolate chip olive oil ones.

Ever think that pecan pie just wasn't rich or decadent enough? Evil Shenanigans has got your back with a recipe for chocolate chip pecan pie.

Caramel macchiato shortbread thumbprints, via The Cooking Photographer. Need I say more?

On Megan's Munchies, these chocolate chippy cakes may be gluten free and vegan, but there's no lack of flavor.

Cannoli Cereal? I like the way you eat breakfast, Graduate Meghann.

You may not know this, but Pecan Tassies are Jimmy Carter's favorite! Still, I like Smoky Mountain Cafe's version better.

Nutella Oatmeal Cookies? Screw you, raisins! These come from My Kitchen Addiction.

Key. Lime. Squares. Thank you, Bake at 350!