We Want To Send You Cookies!

Sometimes things are too good to be true!!  In this case, it's not.

If you read the title, you might be pinching yourself with glee.  Cookies!  Free cookies?!  What in the world is going on?

Here's the deal, and it's very very simple: we want to send you cookies.  One batch of cookies, which usually amounts to 2-3 dozen cookies.  We will mail them, but you'll have to pay for shipping above $5 (higher mailing costs = faster mailing times = fresher cookies)  Keep reading if you're interested.

Rules for Free Cookies:

1. You must be somewhere in the United States.  We're not sending cookies internationally.
2. The cookies can be made for any time between November 1, 2013 and January 31, 2013.  If you don't cash in on the free cookies before then, you lose out.  Sorry.
3. You cannot resell the cookies.  Even if it's for a child's lemonade stand (if you live in a place that lets you have a lemonade stand in December). 
4. If the cookies are mailed, we will cover $5 in shipping, the rest is up to you to cover.  You can pay through PayPal, or send us the money in the mail.  We will not ship your cookies until we receive the funds!  We also won't bake the cookies until you OK the shipping charges. 
5. You have until 11:59pm on October 15, 2013 to submit a request for free cookies. 
6. We will not take special requests for dietary needs for these cookies.  They contain sugar, eggs, flour, butter, and vanilla.  They are made in a kitchen that also regularly uses nuts, especially almonds and walnuts.  If you have a severe nut allergy, we suggest you do not request some free cookies
7. The Catch: (isn't there always one?)  It's not too bad...as we already stated, if you're too far away to deliver the cookies personally, we will ask you to cover shipping charges.  If you are a local delivery, we will give you a dozen or so business cards that we would ask you hand out.  No, we're not going to double check that you did, we're doing this on the honor system, but since we are baking you free cookies we would remind you that you do, sorta, owe us one...
8. By submitting your name into our free cookie campaign, you confirm that you have read the above rules, understand them, and meet the requirements mandatory to submit your cookies.

 

How To Request Free Cookies:

• Click on this link and fill out the information.  It's seriously that easy!!

 

 

How To Win:

• Multiple people can request cookies for you...brides, if you have a cookie table, have all your bridesmaids write in...they don't want to be stuck baking all these cookies themselves
• Don't cheat (we'll see if you enter more than once...we'll be watching)
• Have a good reason for asking for the cookies.  It doesn't have to be a charitable reason, but if it's funny, and honest, and we like it, you can win.

 

That's it!

 

Best of luck to everyone!  We're excited to fire up these ovens for a good reason...

The Case for Gluten-Free

Ahhh, gluten-free baked goods.  The bane of our existence.  The baked goods you want to hate, but end up loving.  The red-headed stepchild of the baking world.

Remember when lactose intolerant was the cool fad "dietary issue" everyone had?  That is so 1998, though, and in the new millennium everyone seems to have developed a hatred towards gluten.  As someone who purposefully fasts for an entire day to guzzle down Olive Garden bread sticks, we don't get the gluten-free fad.  It's expensive, limits what you can eat, and, in our opinion, not the best dietary choice one can make.  We can make the same argument for enriched, bleached white flour, don't get us wrong, but no one seems to be getting on the bleached white flour-free boat, so we're not sure that's ever going to become a thing.

Now, for some people, we understand you legitimately cannot eat gluten.  And to you people we say, "Boo hoo!"  We're sorry, really we are, that gluten upsets your stomach.  Gluten-free bread is some of the most disgusting food "products" we've ever had.  We really do feel for you.

Our old college roommate has the craziest digestive system we've ever seen, and a few years ago she decided to cut gluten out of her diet to try to help herself.  Great for her, bad for us and our "Taste Testers Wanted" need.  If she couldn't eat all of our delicious goods, what were we going to do?

What we decided to do, is to become familiar with gluten-free baking.  It's an expensive experiment to get involved with, as a small bag of gluten-free flour can run you $12 at Whole Foods.  But we were determined to find success.

From all of our GF friends we've talked to, GF products fail because they are dry, crumbly, and gritty.  They lack the ability to hold together (that's what gluten does, students!), so most of the time when you bite into a cookie, it just kind of dissolves everywhere.

We wanted to work on these issues, and we did so by mixing and matching different rice flour substitutes.  The results, while not perfect, aren't half bad.  In fact (brace yourself here) there are times where the taste of a GF cupcake is equal to its gluten-filled rival.  That's right, it's not half bad!

We still have a long way to go to perfect what we feel is the ultimate GF friendly cupcake, but we're happy with the progress we've made so far.  And as our favorite taste tester can attest to, they're pretty delicious once they're iced and decorated.

Interested in trying some of our GF baked goods?  Look to your right, fill out the form, and hit submit.  We're here for you and your GF needs!!

Enjoy the weekend, friends!

Baby Shower Cupcakes: Jungle Animals

Back from the dead, never fear!  It's been over a week since we've posted, we apologize but we've been enjoying this gorgeous weather.  Autumn is probably our favorite time of year, and since we don't have allergies we don't have to worry about all the leaves and stuff.  Sorry allergy sufferers, that's not us.

To update you on our lives a little bit, this past weekend we had the chance to make some cupcakes for a baby shower.  A friend of ours was attending the baby shower, and admitted it was for a coworker.  The friend works at a vet clinic in Pittsburgh, so automatically an animal theme came into play.  Animal themes are already a solid baby shower theme, but when everyone in attendance works at the same vet clinic we're pretty sure it's a mandatory theme.

We have a love/hate with fondit, because it has such a wonderful look on cakes and cupcakes, but eats up so much of your time.  For example, creating 30 animals for 30 individual cupcakes took us 2 1/2 hours to complete.  There are so many details that have to be accounted for, so many tools to be used, and if the results weren't so breathtakingly awesome we'd probably chuck the lot.  But you have to admit, these animals couldn't be any cuter if they tried!

What mommy-to-be wouldn't love these?

Happy to have been given the opportunity to make some delicious treats for a fun weekend shower.  Now on to the next recipe!

Have a fantastic week, everyone.  Buccos finally have a winning season!! :-)

Cookie Cakes and Cream Puffs

^Could you get a higher calorie count in a blog title?

Hello friends!

Happy Labor Day Weekend!  We love extra long weekends, they make everything seem sooo much more relaxing.  Instead of 48 hours to squeeze in all the fun you want in your life, you can stretch it out for 72.  That sounds much better!

So we've been a little busy these past few weeks, and our blog posts have been limited.  Sorry about that. Sometimes the world just kind of gets ahead of you.  Since we have 72 hours to enjoy our weekend, though, we thought we'd update.

We told you in our last post that people have really been loving cookie cakes this summer, and last week was no different.  We made a fun cookie cake for a co-worker's dad's birthday as a surprise.

Apparently he loves cookie cake but didn't ask for one for his party, so his daughter decided to make sure he had a fun surprise waiting for him.  He thought he was getting just a regular old birthday cake, but instead had a PSR original cookie cake.  Yum!!

Cookie cakes are a ton of fun to make, because the time we have to devote to real cakes isn't involved.  Bake the cake, let it cook, decorate it with some icing, it's very, very minimal.  Not that we don't love decorating, but if we only spend 2 hours in the kitchen instead of 8, well...that's a win in our books.

In addition to updating our blog this weekend, we're also going to try our hand at an old standard, the cream puff.

We've made cream puffs before, but it was eons ago, before we learned all of our important baking knowledge we now possess.  They're fairly simple if you pay attention to them (think of them as an adorably cute puppy that will pee in your house if you're not careful) but our biggest challenge will be trying to find a good pudding/icing combination to stuff them with.  Any suggestions?  Hit us up in the comments.

It's September, folks.  Where did this summer go??  Have a fantastic extended weekend with friends and family.  We'll be updating the blog a few times in the coming week as we have two big projects coming up. Chocolate lovers...you're gonna wanna buckle up for the one order we have!

Cheers everyone!

Sweet Relief's Back (Alright!)

We need a little BSB to set the tone for this post...

(sorry if you a) weren't a preteen/teenager during the 90s boy band craze or b) have no idea who BSB even is...we grew up on these musical gems, you're gonna have to deal with it)

GUYS, WE'RE BACK!!!!

We had a FANTASTIC vacation with our friends and family.  For those of you who haven't stalked us religiously (we'll forgive you this one time) we headed to Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Wildwood NJ for a nice, relaxing, well-deserved break.  We rocked out to some 90s boy band music (including the gem above), patched up the crack in the Liberty Bell (wait, no, that was Davy Crockett), and relaxed on the wonderful sandy beaches of New Jersey with a book in hand.  Oh yeah, we celebrated our birthday too!  Woot!  Best of all, the ovens stayed off, and we simply recovered from a very busy past few weeks.

Little sister Allison is a really good driver through the streets of Philadelphia

As wonderful as the break was, though, we are happy to get back into the kitchens and to get baking.  What's that saying, absence makes the heart grow fonder?  Well, we definitely missed all the baking, decorating, and designing of all our favorite baked goods.  No matter how crazy everything in the kitchen might get at times, it's a familiar crazy, something we're used to and can manage.  Trying to negotiate the streets of Philadelphia during rush hour...??  Not so easy to deal with.

In the coming two weeks we have two big orders heading out, another cookie cake for a birthday (you guys are really loving your cookie cakes this summer!) and some cute themed cupcakes for a baby shower.  On top of that, we received some new birthday presents that we're eager to try out too...from pans, to cookie cutters, we're going to be playing around with some fun flavors.

Until then, have a great weekend, Pittsburgh!  We are PSYCHED for the beautiful weather that will be rolling through the city this weekend.  Sounds like the perfect pool weekend!

The Case for Buttermilk

Ah buttermilk...what can be said about it that hasn't already been said?

To be fair, has anyone ever written a blog about buttermilk before?  Anyone...anyone...Bueller...??

We're going to be honest with you, for years we've kind of looked at buttermilk as the black sheep of the cooking world.  That random product they still sell at supermarkets that no one ever uses.  Honestly, how many of us can say we've ever had a glass of buttermilk?  Well, besides our grandparents.  Has anyone born since 1980 had a glass of buttermilk?  Honest question here.

Since we don't drink buttermilk, we've never had much reason to buy it.  In our humble opinion, why bother?  It's not that we're lazy bakers, but we're practical with our baking.  Why buy whole milk AND buttermilk when one can pretty much do the job of both.  Remember, this is a start up business...we're not rolling in the funds right now.

So we used regular milk for all of our baking needs.  We figured, hey, this tastes delicious, what could the harm be?

STOP!

If you were thinking the same thing, let us correct you.  There is a huge difference between buttermilk and milk.  If you're a casual baker, or baked good consumer, you may never notice the difference.  Half the time we still don't when we're eating the finished product.  But let us tell you, there's a HUGE difference.

  

What makes buttermilk buttermilk is that it's more acidic than regular whole milk, which gives it its different (and to many Gen Y- and X-ers unusual) taste.  Maybe this doesn't seem to be a deal breaker to you, but remember, baking is all about chemistry.  Ahh, chemistry, one of our least favorite classes in high school.  And chemistry, in baking, is super important.  It's what makes things taste so good.

So the extra acid in the buttermilk actually helps your baked goods.  It helps the milk to react and incorporate itself quicker into your batter (milk is usually one of the last ingredients you add), which leads to fluffier cupcakes, richer cookies, and beautifully dense cakes.  

Is it necessary?  Absolutely not.  But over the past few months as we've experimented with buttermilk more, we've found it's sometimes is exactly what you need to bring that "wow" factor.  Think about it this way...in baseball, a home run is a home run, so long as it leaves the park.  But for all those Pirate fans out there, how many of you remember a home run that just makes it over the fence, and how many of you will always remember the few baseballs that have landed straight into the river?  We want to launch our home run cupcakes into the river each and every time we pull them out of the ovens.

If you don't want to splurge and buy buttermilk (who does?) head over to this site, where you can learn how to make your own buttermilk with things you have around the house.  We usually use lemon juice, but have also used plain yogurt with similar results.

Next time you're baking, we challenge you to try using buttermilk.  Add some lemon juice to your milk, let it sit, and see how much better your baking becomes.  It's gonna be outta the park...and into the river!!

Happy (almost) Friday, friends!

Chocolate Whisky Cupcakes

As you guys have seen in the past 10 months this blog has existed (has it really been that long??), we bake a lot.  Cakes, pies, cookies, cupcakes, we do a lot throughout the year to create some pretty awesome sweet treats.  While we taste test and sample all of our goods before we deliver them, after doing this for so long there's very little we create anymore that completely blows our mind.  This weekend, though, we met our life-ending equivalent.  Game, set, match.  Mind blown.

To back up a little bit, though, last Monday we got a call from a good friend of ours asking if we could make a birthday cake for her husband's 30th birthday.  Oh my word, we're celebrating friends turning 30 already!  Where has our life gone?!?  :-)  Anyway, we bounced around a few ideas until she messaged us and said, "What about some whiskey cupcakes?"

Whoa.  Hold the phone.  Whiskey cupcakes?  This was new, and exciting, and a great idea!  We love making alcohol cupcakes, and have used rum, vodka, beer, wine, and tequila in past cupcake creations.  Whiskey, though...this was a new challenge.

When we're creating new flavor combinations, we like to spend some time on google looking up other similar recipes.  Not so we can rip off other people's ideas (we've had that happen to us before, and we know how awful a feeling that is), but to get some inspiration, and some ideas of where other bakers have gone in the past.  It helps us focus our thoughts and make a nice list of "Where to Start".

The overall theme we kept reading was chocolate and whiskey.  Chocolate, whiskey....hmmm, we had a plan forming.  We messed around with some flavor combinations, trying to find something that really hit the spot.  We added some espresso to the mix, because we liked the acidic with the whiskey, and then went about creating some cupcakes.

When the cakes came out our kitchen smelled like a man cave...strong coffee, whiskey, lots of chocolate.  It was a pretty fantastic smell.  Now we needed a great icing to go with it.

We believe that icings are the best part of any cake/cupcake combo. It's a make or break deal in our opinion.  Icings should not be flat and tasteless, they should be full of flavor, rich and creamy, and make you want to lick the bowl clean.  We hate when a promising looking cake ends up being dull because the icing isn't any good.  It's SUCH a disappointment.

This order was no different, the icing had to be pretty unreal.  So we took some whisky, and some melted dark chocolate, some butter and cream cheese and whipping cream, and set out to create a masterpiece. 

As we said in the beginning of this post, there's very little anymore that absolutely floors us anymore when it comes to baking.  This whisky icing...holy crap was it a show stopper.

The best part about these cupcakes was that they ended up going to a good friend for his 30th birthday.  It doesn't get much better heading to a party with some cupcakes you made knowing they're about to rock everyone's world.  Sharing in the party is half the fun in our opinion!!

So happy 30th to our good friend John.  Nothing says "manly cupcakes to celebrate the last few days in your 20s" like chocolate whiskey cupcakes!