A literary birthday party

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Kiesha

Last year, I developed a professional relationship with David Gutowski of Largehearted Boy, providing baked goods to several of his Largehearted Lit events at Word bookstore in Greenpoint.

This week, Largehearted Boy celebrates its 10th birthday with a birthday party at Word. The Thursday night event will feature two authors reading birthday-themed stories, a secret music guest and Fauxstess Cupcakes by me!

This event is free and open to the public, so come on out, eat some cupcakes, hear some great stories and music and celebrate Largehearted Boy’s 10th birthday!

Holiday Baking Wrap-Up

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Kiesha

It’s taken me a while to recover from the holidays this year. We did a lot of traveling around New York and New Jersey and I did a ton of baking.

First up were goodies that I baked for the Winter Warmer party Rob and I hosted on December 23. We invited a few friends over for holiday beers, cookies and homemade eggnog.

These were vegan gingerbread cookies. This year I saw lots of pictures of using upside down gingerbread men to make reindeer, so I made an attempt. I’m not much a cookie decorator, but I think I got the idea across.

Next up were Eggnog Cupcakes. Since we were making the homemade eggnog, I decided to continue the theme. These were not made with the homemade eggnog though; I just used the boxed Jack Daniels’ brand. These were okay, but I think I would definitely prefer to use the eggnog cupcake with a Cinnamon Rum Frosting.

Next up were cupcakes that I baked for my sister-in-law’s annual holiday party on the 24th in Queens.

These were vegan vanilla cupcakes with vegan vanilla frosting. I mixed up my own colored sugars and then decorated the cupcakes to look like ornaments. I used pretzels to make the hooks.

Finally, I spent about six hours on the 23rd baking five different cookies for cookie boxes to give as presents. This was a marathon baking day, but I think it turned out okay. My boxes didn’t turn out quite as cute as I hoped. If I do them again next year, I’m going to take more time to find materials to line the box, rather than using foil and scrapbooking paper. Ah well, it’s the taste that counts.

The cookie boxes consisted of three non-vegan treats, pictured above. These were Iced Ginger Cookies, Peppermint Twists and Lemon Chewies.

The vegan cookies were traditional sugar cookies and Pinwheels.

And, of course, I had to leave a few out for the Big Man.

I hope everyone had a great holiday season. I’m really looking forward to 2012. Speaking of which, you can sample some goodies at my first event this year– The 10th Birthday Party for Largehearted Boy at Word Bookstore in Greenpoint, Brooklyn on January 26. There will be two authors reading birthday-themed pieces and a special musical guest. I’ll be baking Fauxstess Cupcakes! You can read more information about the event here.

Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Kiesha

A few weeks ago, Dane over at The Busty Baker wrote a post about Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix and I thought, “Yes.” I had been thinking of something I could make and give my coworkers for the holidays that would last longer than the four bites it takes to demolish a cupcake. Hot chocolate is such a great winter tradition and drinking something that didn’t come out of one of those packets is pretty cool. And homemade peppermint marshmallows? Come on. Perfect.

I made the marshmallows first. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be, although I jumped the gun on them a bit. I should have let them sit out overnight before cutting them into squares, or at least four hours. I made it three. It was 10 p.m. and I couldn’t bear the thought of getting up extra early to deal with it in the a.m., so I made an executive decision and cut them up early. I think they turned out just fine. In the future, I’ll try to wait.

Mixing the hot cocoa mix was also really easy. I added a pinch of cayenne as Danae suggests, although when I tasted the mix sans liquid, I thought for sure I’d added too much because I could really feel the heat. But I’m happy to report that once mixed with a mug of milk, the unpleasantness of the heat was gone and left only a slight tingling sensation on the tongue.

Packing these up in piping bags was a great way to present them. Adding a candy cane ups the festiveness of the gift.

These might just be perennial gifts. Super easy to put together and my coworkers (as well as a few of my husband’s) were really excited to get them.

Tomorrow begins three non-stop days of baking. I’m making Eggnog Cupcakes and Vegan Gingerbread Men tomorrow night for a Winter Warmer party we’re throwing Friday. Friday I’m off work (hooray!) and will be baking five different cookies for cookie box gifts. Saturday I’m baking Vegan Vanilla cupcakes for my sister-in-law’s annual Christmas Eve party as well as Lemon Meringue Cupcakes for our family Christmas Day festivities in New Jersey. Wish me and my kitchen luck!

Baking Round-up!

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Kiesha

Whoa, it’s been a while! I’ve been doing lots of baking lately and not enough updating, so here’s a quick and dirty round-up of some of the things I’ve made recently.

Pink Beauty (Vegan Pink Lemonade) and Brooklyn Blackout Cupcakes for a Largehearted Lit event at Word bookstore.

Sweet Potato Cupcakes with Toasted Marshmallow Frosting for another Largehearted Lit event.

Vegan Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Frosting for the same Largehearted Lit event.

And, of course, Pumpkin Pie for Thanksgiving!

This is, in my opinion, the BEST pumpkin pie recipe. It’s from the “Cooks Illustrated” people. There’s a whole article about it here which includes the recipe. It comes out so creamy and perfect and I wish I had more of it to eat right this second.

The Vegan Pumpkin cupcakes also made another appearance so my sister-in-law could have a Thanksgiving dessert.

Upcoming Events Where You Can Find My Baked Goods

Posted on November 4, 2011 by Kiesha

Hi everyone!
The Brooklyn Baker is at it again. This coming week, I’ll be baking for two (count ‘em, two!) literary events at Word bookstore in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Tuesday night, you can find my Sweet Potato Cupcakes with Toasted Marshmallow Frosting and Vegan Pumpkin Cupcakes with Vanilla ‘Butter’cream Frosting at a Largehearted Lit event featuring authors Nathan Larson and Joshua Cody. Wednesday night, you can sample Blueberry Scones and Lemon Scones for the book release party for Leanna Hieber and her new book “Darker Still”. Leanna is bringing Earl Grey tea to go with the scones!

Both events are free and open to the public! For more information, check out the Word events page at the link above.

Happy Halloween from The Swedish Chef

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Kiesha

My sister-in-law threw her annual Halloween party last night. Unfortunately, the New York/New Jersey area got hit with a freak October snowstorm, so attendance was a little less than spectacular. That just meant there were more of these bad boys for those of us hardy enough to accessorize our costumes with snow boots.

The recipe for these cute cookies came from The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle. She improved on the previous recipe by including the step of dipping the cookies in yellow candy melts to imitate the yellow/orange/white color scheme of real candy corn.

These were a hit at the party. They’re pretty sweet, but they’re also fairly small, so eating one or two won’t send you into a sugar coma. And they’re incredibly easy to whip up, so there’s plenty of time to make these while waiting for the Great Pumpkin tomorrow night.

Happy Halloween!

Literary Baking (Middle Eastern Baked Goods for Craig Thompson Event)

Posted on September 25, 2011 by Kiesha

You may remember a few days ago I wrote about a couple of events for which I would be baking. The first of these events happened last Saturday.

I baked Middle Eastern cookies for the event celebrating the release of Craig Thompson’s newest book Habibi.

The first cookie I baked was called hab el hal, which are sugar cookies flavored with cardamom.

These were super tasty. The cardamom provided a really interesting flavor and they were incredibly addictive. I just wanted to keep. Eating. Them.

The second cookies was called baraziq, which were butter cookies coated on one side with sesame seeds and on the other with pistachios.

I’m not a big pistachio fan, so I only had one of these, but it tasted pretty good. Other people seemed to really enjoy them.

The event was great and Craig was nice enough to stay and autograph everyone’s book with both his signature and a drawing.

I even took a little plate of cookies to the table where Craig was sitting to do his autographs. I hope he enjoyed them!

My 30th Birthday Party

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Kiesha

Yes, it’s true. I’m finally finally 30! I’ve been waiting since I was about 12 to turn 30 and I’m pumped that I’ve finally made it.

To celebrate, I threw myself a county fair themed birthday party. It was basically an excuse to do a ton of baking and make a dessert table. I also organized a few games of skill and a 1981 trivia contest.

I won’t bore you with the details, but I will bore you with lots of photos* from the day. Here we go!

The dessert table

Whiskey Apple Pie

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie (this was the hit – not even crumbs left!)

Vegan Blueberry Pie

Vegan Cotton Candy Cupcakes

Vegan Ice Cream Conecakes

“Caramel Apple” Cakepops

* Some of these photos were taken by my sister-in-law Megan Duffy, but I can’t remember which are which. Obviously, any with me IN them were taken by her.

Upcoming Events Where You Can Find My Baked Goods!

Posted on September 13, 2011 by Kiesha

September is a busy month for me! Not only did I spend Saturday baking for seven straight hours in anticipation of my 30th Birthday Party (more on that soon), but I am also baking for two different events at Word Bookstore in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

The first event, “An Evening with Craig Thompson” is this Saturday. Craig Thompson is an incredibly talented graphic novelist who is responsible for some incredible books, including “Good-bye, Chunky Rice and my favorite graphic novel “Blankets”. He has just recently completed his first book in about seven years, “Habibi”. It’s the tale of two refugee child slaves and, as Amazon tells me, “at once contemporary and timeless, “Habibi” gives us a love story of astounding resonance: a parable about our relationship to the natural world, the cultural divide between the first and third worlds, the common heritage of Christianity and Islam, and, most potently, the magic of storytelling.”

Tickets for the event are $40 and include a copy of the book. There will be a question and answer session, as well as a cocktail hour in which attendees can meet and mingle with Craig Thompson. This is where I come in. I will be baking two different Middle Eastern cookies for the cocktail hour; Baraziq cookies, which are cookies coated on one side with sesame seeds and on the other with pistachios and Hab el Hal, which are Cardamom cookies.

I understand tickets are going fast, so get yours today!

The second event at Word will be another Largehearted Lit event sponsored by blogger Largehearted Boy. You might remember that I previously baked Doukhobor treats for an event featuring Alina Simone. This time around, the authors are Libba Bray and Steve Brezenoff. Bray is promoting her new book “Beauty Queens” and Brezenoff is promoting his book “Brooklyn, Burning”.

For this event, I will be baking vegan Pink Lemonade Cupcakes and (non-vegan) Brooklyn Blackout Cupcakes. This event is free and both books are young adult friendly!

Come on out, check out some great books and eat some goodies!

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