I can hardly believe it’s the end of January already!  And that The Big Game is quickly approaching.  Whether you love football or hate football, you’ll probably find yourself surrounding a flat screen on Sunday.  Chatting.  Eating.  And hoping that your team gives you something to cheer about.  Or that the commercials come back on soon!  However you enjoy The Big Game, every party needs a dessert.  It can’t all be about the hot wings and chips.  And football-shaped bites of cake sound perfect to me!  Chocolate cake sandwiched together with fluffy cream cheese icing.  Now that is what you call a touchdown.  You’ll score big with this super recipe, shared with us by Lauryn Cohen of Bella Baker.  Are you ready for some Football Whoopie Pies? 

Lauryn Cohen of Bella Baker shares a tip on how to make any dessert ready for The Big Game:

“The laces piped on to the Football Whoopie Pies can be piped onto a variety of desserts, whether it’s cupcakes, brownies or a chocolate cake. Simply place white frosting into a piping bag fitted with a small round tip, pipe one long horizontal line, and then pipe small vertical lines intersecting through the long horizontal line. This is an easy way to transform your ordinary desserts into Super Bowl ready creations!”

FOOTBALL WHOOPIE PIES
recipe by Bella Baker

Ingredients:
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) shortening
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 cup milk
5 tablespoons cocoa
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350°.  Cream together shortening and sugar.  Add egg and vanilla, beating well until blended.  In a bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa, salt, and baking soda.  Slowly beat in the flour mixture, alternating with milk, until blended.  Using a cookie scoop, drop onto greased baking sheets.  Then using a toothpick or butter knife to gently create points on either side of the circle, creating the shape of a football.  Bake 10 to 12 minutes, or until firm.  Cool on racks then fill with filling, below.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 pound (4 cups) confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions:
With an electric mixer on medium high speed, beat butter and cream cheese until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add sugar 1 cup at a time, and then vanilla, mixing until smooth and combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. If not using immediately, frosting can be refrigerated up to 3 days in an airtight container. Bring to room temperature again before using.

Assembly:
Fill a piping bag fitting with a star tip with your cream cheese frosting. Flip one of your Chocolate Whoopie Pies over so the bottom is facing up. Starting from the perimeter, frost your whoopie pie, working your way in, until the entire circumference is frosted. Gently press the bottom side of another whoopie pie on top, creating a “sandwich”. Use the remaining cream cheese frosting to pipe football laces onto the top of each whoopie pie.

VENDORS & CREDITS
Football Whoopie Pies:  Bella Baker

If you’ve ever planned a First Communion or Baptism celebration, you know what a challenge it can be to create something new and modern yet still appropriate for the occasion.  Which is exactly why you’re going to love today’s feature!  Shades of blue, navy and green bounce around this dessert table filled with vibrant color and style.  Inspired by the look of stained glass windows, Jacki Fanto of Blissfully Sweet created this dessert display for her son’s First Communion celebration.    A custom ‘string art’ backdrop sets the stage while gorgeous watercolor desserts fill the table.  Treats like painted cookies, swirled macarons and petite layered cakes topped with little discs mimicking the stained glass look.  And of course, a spectacular cake anchored the table.  It’s a gorgeous spin on the decorative windows found in churches across the globe.   Filled with light and reflective beauty, it’s a stunning First Communion Dessert Table.

Jacki Fanto of Blissfully Sweet gives us the scoop on this event:

“With my son’s First Holy Communion I wanted to have a special celebration however I wanted the detail to not be overly in your face religious, but to still have the beautiful sentiment of the occasion. When I started thinking, I knew I wanted to incorporate an abstract pattern as the main design motif and when I started looking at pattern inspiration, I kept coming back to stained glass windows. What could be more religious than the stained glass windows of the church?? My go to girl for printables, Nicole at Pretty and Print took my idea and with my colour scheme of greens and blues matched with crisp white, I loved the simple and effective design that she made for this occasion.

I always try and do something a little different when making my cakes or attempting to style my own tables. I did not want a usual backdrop, but something a little more dimensional but with clean lines. With the crisp white in my head, I knew I wanted to have the coloured lines to enhance the stained glass look. A friend reminded me about the “string art” projects we made at school and I knew I wanted to try that and with some simple hammering of nails and twining of strings, my backdrop was made. Always trying to find a DIY project or trying my hand at my own thing, I wanted to make some of my own risers and cake plates. The main riser at the back of the table is a long wood piece that I added some decorative wood feet to each end and painted white. The rectangle cake plates at the front of the table were made in the same way. This way I could design my own table and design the tableware around my thoughts. The green cake stands on each side are simple white candle sticks from IKEA with wooden circles secured on top and then painted in my lime green colour. All of it came together to make the clean look of the table that I wanted. My table was not a huge table and I needed to utilise my space and I did not want it cluttered at all. My riser at the back was used as the display piece for the coloured candy in my design colours. All the candy was supplied by Leanne at Sweet Style. No fancy glass candy jars here, just plain tall drinking glasses.

Then onto the actual sweets for the sweet table. The cake – I wanted to make a stained glass effect cake and WOW I loved how it looked. The black lines were all piped on in their various lines and then all the windows were hand painted in different shades of the design colours. This was the perfect centrepiece for the table. I wanted to have a simple and uncomplicated array of coordinated desserts. Handpainted watercolour cookies were a colourful addition and the marbled macarons were sensational. The macarons were made by the macaron goddess Its a Cake by Jhoanee. Layered and coloured petit cakes stood at the front of the table and were topped with royal icing stained glass disks. Then the only other desserts were pannacotta shots topped with mini macarons.

Lastly, our celebration was a small family and friends affair and this allowed for small and intimate table arrangements for the guests. Flowers for each table were the centrepiece and arrangements of blue hydrangeas and baby hydrangeas were natural looking and bought colour to the table. Little glass jars filled with little flower buds completed the table flowers. I included the printables into our table setting in the form of placemats for everyone. I loved how these set off the blue china perfectly.

All in all, we had a beautiful day with our nearest and dearest. It was a day filled with laughter and love and joy at seeing our boy become a young man.”

VENDORS & CREDITS:
Cakes, Styling, Sweets, Backdrop and Photography:  Blissfully Sweet
Macarons: Its a Cake Thing by Jhoanee
Lollies, Milk Cake Stand, White Compote Jars:  Sweet Style
Printables:  Pretty and Print

Happy Monday!  We have a fresh new recipe to get your week off to a fabulous start.  Nothing adds a ray of sunshine to your day and awakens your senses like lemon.  The crisp, citrusy aroma of lemon is seriously hard to beat.  And if you’re like me and crazy for mini’s… mini cakes, mini cupcakes, mini desserts of all kinds.  Then today’s recipe is a double win!  It’s cheerful, bright and just down right fun.  Adorable and delectable.  You’re going to love these Lemon Poppy Seed Mini Donuts!  Shared with us by Jessica Segarra of The Novice Chef Blog from her new book, Mini Donuts: 100 Bite-Sized Donut Recipes to Sweeten Your “Hole” Day.

“As a lover of everything citrus, the Lemon Poppy Seed Mini Donut is one of my favorites from the book.  Anytime I have an unused lemon hanging out around the house, it is almost always being zested and squeezed into these Mini Donuts.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!”  ~  Jessica Segarra of The Novice Chef Blog

LEMON-POPPY SEED MINI DONUTS
a recipe by Jessica Segarra
make 24 Mini Donuts

For Donuts:
²⁄³ cup whole milk
2 tablespoons sour cream
1½ cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, room temperature
½ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
Zest of 1 large lemon
1 tablespoon poppy seeds

For Icing:
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1½ cups powdered sugar

STEP 1:   If using an electric donut maker, preheat according to manufacturer’s instructions.  If using donut pans, preheat oven to 350°F and grease donut pans.

STEP 2:   In a small bowl, whisk together milk and sour cream.  Set aside.  In a separate small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.

STEP 3:   In a large bowl or a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy— about 1 minute.  Add egg, lemon zest, and poppy seeds.  Beat for 30 seconds, scrapping down the bowl as needed.

STEP 4:   Then, alternating flour mixture and milk mixture, combine all ingredients until just blended.  Transfer batter to a piping bag, or to a Ziploc bag with the tip cut off.

STEP 5:   If using mini-donut pans: Carefully fill each donut indentation ¾ full. Bake for 7–9 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a donut comes out clean. Transfer donuts to a cooling rack and cool completely.  If using an electric mini-donut maker: Carefully fill each donut indentation ¾ full. Bake according to manufacturer’s instructions or until a toothpick inserted into a donut comes out clean.  Remove donuts from appliance, transfer to a cooling rack, and let cool completely.

STEP 6:   Place wax paper under a wire rack to collect any drippings for an easy cleanup.  Then, in a small bowl, whisk together lemon juice and powdered sugar until smooth.

STEP 7:   Dip the top of each donut into the icing, transfer to a wire rack, and let set for 5 minutes.  Serve immediately; donuts can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days but are best served fresh.

Double Dip: While it’s not okay at parties, when you’re icing donuts, it is totally acceptable to double dip.  If you are a big fan of lemon, circle back around after your first donut dip . . . and dip them again!  Just allow a little extra time, about 5 minutes, for the icing to set up after your second dip.

{Excerpted with permission from Mini Donuts: 100 Bite-Sized Donut Recipes to Sweeten Your “Hole” Day (F+W Media, November) by Jessica Segarra of The Novice Chef Blog}