Baking With Williams Sonoma

I guess it's no big surprise that I absolutely adore a fabulous kitchen store. From Bed Bath and Beyond to Williams Sonoma, I can just spend hours upon hours at each one. About 2 weeks back I was browsing through Books-A-Million, my other love, in search of a new romance novel to read. The line was ridiculously long so I putted my way over to the cooking section to see if they have possibly decided to carry a decent cake decorating book. (They haven't.) While browsing I came upon a Williams Sonoma cook book, make that a baking book. Yes!!!! A book filled with recipes for the home baker. It was love at first recipe. I opened the cover and flipped to the first couple of recipes. OMG. Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Flashback to 2007 when I met my husband. I met Uncle Mark late summer of 2007 when I was introduced to Uncle Mark's Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies. Cookies that fell from the Heavens. Months later after my husband and I were engaged, I was informed (after several begging attempts) that once we were married only then would I be eligible to get a copy of the recipe. Since our wedding date I have managed countless attempts at Uncle Mark's cookies. I have come to the conclusion that something must have been left out.

Flash forward to two weeks ago. I purchase my copy of the baking book and head right to the kitchen to test out this recipe. It's incredible. A great runner up to Uncle Mark's cookies. So while I may not be able to conquer Uncle Mark's recipe, at least I can make a batch or two WS Chocolate Chip Cookies to settle my cravings in between family functions. With so many recipes to choose from, I figure I'll have a good bit to blog about! Wonder what I might try next?

I hear you get your own personally made batch of Uncle Mark's Cookies at your first baby shower too. Hmmm......interesting.

Double Shower Weekend

The weekend of May 22, 2010 I had two showers to 1.) Bring the cake and 2.) attend as a guest. On Saturday we had the baby shower for Baby Knox. The Parents-To-Be want the sex of the baby to be a surprise. As I was shopping for Baby Knox's gift, it never occured to me until that moment how difficult it is buy baby stuff without knowing this little detail! The cake on the other hand was not a problem. When I hear the word "surprise" I immediately think of a present. So I decided on doing a gift box cake covered in white fondant and decorated with yellow, pink, blue, and green ribbons and dots. It turned out better than I expected and pretty tasty I must say!


On Sunday we had a bridal shower for Kate and Jared (cousin of my husband). Here's where I had yet another "meltdown". Originally I drew the cake to be a three tiered "wedding" style cake. Aunt Rita bought their last name initial to be the topper. I wanted to use a whipped topping that I normally purchase by Wilton. I went to the store on Saturday to pick up the topping and as my luck would have it, they were sold out. Small meltdown in aisle. Not a problem I'll just do buttercream. Needless to say I was exhausted from working on the baby shower cake and from the baby shower. My attempt to do a three tier cake went down the drain. I had a difficult time with frosting the layers. No matter what I tried, this just wasn't going to work out. Big meltdown. And then along comes the migraine. After a small rest and a chit chat with my mother in law accompanied by a cold beer, I was ready to tackle the cake again. We decided on a two tiered basket weave cake with red roses in the top basket. (The roses covered up the bottom of the initial topper so we had to scratch that idea!)


In the end though they both turned out great! I learned another valuable lesson that weekend. Don't bite off more than you can chew.