tanya's treats Holiday goodies for sale!

Decription of tanya's treats Holiday 2011 yummies!
Cookies:
Kolache, Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter Kiss, Maple Nut, Shortbread, Gingersnap, Devil's Food, NEW Bacon Sugar cookies!
... 4 dozen- $25, 8 dozen $45
Goodie Sticks (great stocking stuffer!)
$20 per dozen
Brownies (with or without nuts)
$9 a dozen
Breads:
Banana, Lemon, or Pumpkin
small- $5 each, large $9 each
Cocoa:
The Very Best, Mocha Cocoa Bliss, Aunt Hilda's Aztec Elixir
1 jar $8
1 jar and 1 8oz bag of handcrafted marshmallows $15


Kolache- a small pastry with a fruit filling. Choose Strawberry, Raspberry, or Blueberry.
Chocolate Chip- delicious! I make mine with a bit of ground oatmeal, to create a crunchy texture. You'll love it!
Peanut Butter Kiss- traditional peanut butter cookie with a chocolate candy smack in the middle.
Maple Nut- cookie filled with a maple nut filling. One of my favorites!
Shortbread- traditional Scottish shortbread. Simplicity at it's best!
Gingersnap- The best Gingersnap you will ever taste. Made with fresh ginger. Slightly spicy, super crunchy. Awesome!
Devil's Food- delicious chocolate cookie with marshmallow on top, and chocolate icing on top of that.
Decadent!
NEW Bacon Sugar cookies- sugar cookie with delicious bacon added to the batter. Topped with a bit more of bacon, and maple sugar.

Goodie Sticks- Pretzel Stick wrapped in caramel, rolled in nuts, enrobed in chocolate. Called “Cracksticks” by it's fans, I must admit, they're pretty addictive.

Brownies- Rich, chocolatey, moist, chewy...Brownies are good! I can make them with, or without nuts, and I can send it in a tray, whole, or cut and wrap individually, to a dozen.

Banana Bread- made without nuts (can add nuts if requested)
Lemon Bread- super lemony. So good!
Pumpkin Bread- pumpkin and spice, so nice!

Cocoa:
The Very Best- creamy, chocolatey, the best cocoa you've ever had!
Mocha Cocoa Bliss- rich cocoa with coffee added. Nom!
Aunt Hilda's Aztec Elixir- a bit of spice added to a delicious chocolatey base. Wow!
Marshmallows are handcrafted, so soft and sweet, perfect for adding to cocoa, or roasting, or just eating out of the bag!

These treats are great gifts, or make great party trays!

All Orders need to be in no later than December 1. Orders will be delivered via USPS (unless local.)
Postage will depend on order size, and where it's going. Email me with any questions! tanyas.treats@gmail.com

To order- email tanyas.treats@gmail.com, once I know where you want it sent, and how much you want, I can then email you back with the postage. It's that easy!

Oh, geez, sorry.

So long since I updated. I really need to update more often.

I'm currently visiting my mom. My Mother's Day gift (very very late Mother's Day gift) to her was to cook a 4 course dinner for her and 4 of her friends. So, for the appetizer, I made a mixed mushroom ravioli with a White Wine sauce, the soup was French Onion, the main course was a horseradish encrusted Prime Rib, Asparagus in Hollandaise and twice baked Potatoes. Dessert was Amaterasu's Delight.

The ravioli was completely from scratch. I used Tyler Florence's pasta recipe, but neither my mom nor myself has a pasta machine, so I rolled them out by hand. The mushrooms were minced very finely and cooked along with finely minced yellow onion. I added salt, pepper, a bit of nutmeg, and white wine vinegar. Delicious. The white wine sauce had a few mushrooms and shallot, again, finely minced, and cooked down, with white wine and a bit of white wine vinegar. Cooked down to appropriate thickness. the thickness of the pasta could have been thinner, but other than that, deeelicious. So now, I need a pasta machine.

The Amaterasu's Delight managed to delight another group of people. That dessert may make me famous. No, really, it's that good.

I made bacon chocolate cupcakes a few weeks ago. That was a successful endeavor. Will attempt to bacon up some more stuff.


The new class at Art Soup starts on Monday. This will be a 6 week class. Good times!

A really good idea

So, I've been thinking alot about the future of my business. I so very desperately want to own my own business, to be my own boss, to feed people delicious treats on my own terms. I also don't want to get a business loan to do it. So, it can't be a restaurant-not yet. So here is my solution, and I think its a good one.

A vending truck!

Here's how it would work. I would rent a kitchen, part time, and sell goodies out of the truck, probably downtown Tulsa, and Brookside, the big bar areas. I would also hit the area around the BOK center. I would start by selling cupcakes (everyone loves cupcakes!) and coffee drinks, as well as soda, bottled water, energy drinks. As the business progresses, I would add other goodies to the menu. I think it would be successful.

As for the start up: about $20K for the truck. another $10K for taxes, licenses, equipment and ingredients. So, I'm looking at $30,000. Not alot in terms of a business start up, but a lot of money nontheless. I'm going to need help.
I'm thinking of different ways to raise money, and I think the first will be this.
Anyone who donates $30 will get a dozen cookies. You can choose between chocolate chip, gingersnap, or gluten-free and paleo friendly coconut macaroons.
In order for this to work, of course, I'm going to need a minumum number of donations,I'm thinking at least 10. I certainly won't make the whole thing doing this, but it will go into the savings account I'm opening tomorrow. And any money I make selling anything via tanya's treats will go towards this start up. I hope all those that love my baked goods will help me out.

So, if you want to help a girl out, and get a dozen cookies in the process, let me know!
I'm so ready to get this going!

a teaching gig!

So, orders for cupcakes trickling in, but the newest venture is a teaching gig!  I will be teaching a basic cake decorating class for the Art Soup Program at Youth Services of Tulsa. The class is called "Edible Artwork". I'm really looking forward to it!

Soon, will be time to bottle the vinegars and vanilla extracts. I also need to start the ginger extract, as well as another batch of the orange and the lemon extracts. It will be a busy summer!

Long time, no see!!!

My dearest readers,

I'm so sorry.  I know its been several many weeks since my last update.  Life has done that "life" thing, and I set aside my blogging for a bit.  But no more! I am back, and I am blogging!

So, what have I been up to, you may ask?  Why, cupcakes!  Lots and lots of cupcakes!  I've tried new recipes, refined old ones.  This week is my sisters baby shower.  Yes, I'm getting a new niece or nephew in a month and a half!  My sister and her husband have opted to be surprised when the baby is born, but if you ask my nephew, who will soon be a big brother, he's convinced its a boy.  But back to her baby shower.  She wants 1/2 dozen yellow with lemon filling and vanilla buttercream, and 1/2 dozen chocolate with mocha buttercream.  So, I made some lemon curd, and used the nifty pan my mom gave me, which puts a hole in the cupcake as its baking.   Soon, I will be filling those holes with delicious lemon curd, and top it with vanilla buttercream.  Then I will make the mocha buttercream and finish off the chocolate.  Delicious!

I'm working on my pricelist, and soon, will have a brochure with all my goodies, and their cost.  I'm even working on a website!   

So for now, I bid adieu.  Until next time!

2 more cakes.

So, I found a couple more pictures of cakes I've done.  This one, to the left, I'm particularly proud of.
"What is that?" You may ask  Why, its a Companion Cube!  Its from a video game called Portal.  I've never played it, but just about all my friends have.  Apparently, the game involves this cube, and a cake at the end of the game.  Apparently, also, the cake is a lie.  This cake, though, was most assuredly NOT a lie.  And it was a birthday cake for the aforementioned Groom of Chocolate Love, so, of course, the cake was chocolate.  Never mind the mess in the back...that's all my decorating stuff.  Right after finishing the cake, I took a picture.  I was rather proud of this cake.  I feel I made up for not being able to do the d20 cake.  I hope so, at least.
  


This next cake was for a birthday, of course.  The girl liked pink, and liked polka dots. 
So she got both.   My writing is better on this one than on some of my previous cakes..
see, I get better at it!  I rather like writing on cakes now.  I got some practice doing it at a bakery I worked at for a while, and that helped.

So, that's 2 more cakes.  as I find more pictures, I'll post more.
I took last Wednesday off from baking cupcakes, but this Wednesday,
I shall be baking Yellow cupcakes with Chocolate frosting-it's a classic
combo, and it's sooo tasty.  I'll be delivering them to my friend Cyndi's
salon. I'm also going to be making chocolate chip cookies, for an event at work.  I'm also going to be experimenting with meat pies..more specifically meat tarts..like PopTarts, but with meat.  I will be sure to blog about those.

The Kitchen Sink.

Today is my day off, so I decided to spend the day doing laundry and vegging out in front of teevee.
I was watching the Cooking Channel, and on one of the shows, they were making pizza. I suddenly decided that I needed pizza. But do we have the ingredients for pizza? I go through the list in my head- I know we have flour and yeast, and I knew we had cheese. The rest, I'd just wing it. I looked through the fridge, and saw lots of left over things, so I used them. This, my friends, is why its called "The Kitchen Sink".
I will admit to cheating on the crust. I used my bread maker. DON'T JUDGE ME. I'm all about new technologies! So as the dough was being made, I started on the pizza sauce. I started by chopping up some leftover onion that had been languishing in the fridge for a couple days- I saved it from a fate worse than, em, something. I sauteed those on medium, then added a balsamic vinegar. Now, this vinegar, I love this vinegar. I bought it last year at the Flower Mart, which is an annual street market in Baltimore. It's a balsamic vinegar with fig and vanilla. I have used it on everything- so good on veggies, so good on pork, so good on chicken, so good on salmon, so good in hamburgers..so I wanted to try it with pizza sauce. I let those work together to caramelize the onions, as I prepared the tomatoes. We had 1 tomato, and a handful of little grape tomatoes left over. So I took the tomato, squeezed out the seeds, and coarsely chopped it. I just cut the grape tomatoes in half. Added them to the onions, and added some salt and garlic. Cooked that on medium for a few minutes, then set it to low while the dough rises.
Meanwhile, I got the rest of the toppings. I found a container with about 12 olives, left over from a meal a couple days ago. So I got those and coarsely chopped them. Found an artichoke heart- Just one. Chopped it up, mixed it with the olives. We had some spinach! Chopped it up (I don't like big leaves of spinach on my pizza, but I do like spinach on my pizza). 2 leftover italian sausages, perfect! Some provolone slices, and some shredded cheddar. So, those were my pizza toppings.
I have a pizza stone somewhere, but I suspect its in the garage, with much of my other stuff, so I just used my rectangular stone, so the pizza wasn't round. But the shape doesn't matter.
So, after baking it at 350 for 24 minutes, I couldn't wait to taste it. And mmmmmmm was it tasty. I like my pizza crust thick, so I made it such, but not too thick. the sauce was thick, tangy, maybe a little sweet, from the balsamic, and sooo good. the different toppings worked super well together.
Making pizza from scratch isn't hard. (especially if you have a bread maker). And the toppings can be anything. You should try it, too. Its so good!

Banana Bread Recipe.

Since posting about my Banana Bread yesterday, I've received several requests for the recipe. Gladly I share! But let me give you a few tips about flavorful and delicious banana bread.

Firstly, make sure your bananas are ripe. And by ripe, I mean black. They really should be as dark as possible. The darker they are, the sweeter and more banana-er they are. That really adds delicious flavor to the bread.
Second- most banana breads call for vegetable oil. Not mine. I love butter. Butter make everything better. I'm told that oil makes for moister breads. I call bollocks on that. My breads and cakes are perfectly moist and more delicious because butter has more flavor that vegetable oil. Plus, butter is more natural than veg. oil. And I'm a fan of natural foods.
Thirdly- Don't use iodized salt for baking. It imparts a tinny flavor to your food. Use sea salt, or Kosher salt. AND DON'T FORGET TO ADD SALT TO YOUR BAKED GOODS. It makes a huge difference in flavor.
And Finally for the love of all that is holy, NEVER use Artificial Vanilla, or Vanillan. Spring the extra bucks for real Vanilla Extract. You'll thank me for this. Really, you will.

Now, make some banana bread, and tell me how it turns out!

Tanya's Tasty Nanner Bread
makes 2 full loaves
preheat oven to 350.

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
5 bananas, very ripe
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups AP flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt.
1/2 cup raw sugar

In bowl, sift together flour, powder, soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.

In mixer, cream together sugar and butter until fluffy. add bananas and sour cream. Then eggs, one at a time, and vanilla. slowly add dry ingredients. pour into 2 greased loaf pans. Sprinkle Raw Sugar on top of loaves.
bake 50-55 minutes.

The adventure of the Grooms Cake.

A few years ago, some friends I had made when I first moved to Baltimore asked me to make the groom s cake for their wedding. They asked me if I could make the cake in the shape of a d20. Without thinking, I said "Of course I can!".For those non geeks out there, let me help you out. a "d20" is a 20 sided dice.
Here, let me show you a picture. As you can see, it is 20 sided. You may say to yourself "Ah, Tanya, that must have been difficult, making a cake in that shape." I would answer with. "Yeah. Frakking impossible, in fact."
I couldn't do it. I tried, or lord, how I tried. But a cake in that shape just wasn't working. If I could get the shape, it wasn't stable. If I got it stable, it wasn't that shape. I was frustrated, sad, and felt like a failure. So I called the happy couple to give them the bad news, they didn't seem too terribly upset. In fact, Dave, the groom, had just gotten a D&D Dragon that he thought would look cool on a cake. So, if I could just make him a chocolatey chocolate cake, we could put that figurine on top, and that would make a fine grooms cake.
So that is what I did. I made a dark, rich chocolate cake, with a whipped ganache filling, a chocolate buttercream, with more ganache poured on top. I then took some chocolate morsels and put them in the the food processor for just a few seconds, and sprinkled those on top. And atop that, the mighty dragon. The cake was devoured, and everyone loved it. Most importantly, the groom. He still speaks of the gloriousness of the chocolate cake with chocolate, and some chocolate with chocolate on top. With maybe some more chocolate?

Also, for that wedding, I made Aphrodite Cakes, with the recipe I found at http://www.tigersandstrawberries.com/2005/06/20/whispered-secrets-of-a-kitchen-tantrika/ . Aphrodite cakes are delicate, and have rosewater in the icing. They were very good, and the bride was pleased with them, as well. I'm very glad I found that recipe, and I would like to make them again.
All in all, it was a lovely wedding, and I'm very glad they gave me the opportunity to contribute to its success.

Mocha cupcakes and banana bread.

First of all, my lemon cupcakes with the raspberry buttercream were a success. Words like "sublime"...actually, the word sublime typed twice, and in all caps. That's always cool.
So, this week, I made cinnamon scented mocha cupcakes with chocolate buttercream. I delivered them to my friend Liz and her co-workers at WordCom, and also to my BFF Destiny and her co-workers at Pennwell. And, a second week of success. Everyone loved them. I hear the most compliments about my buttercream, which is cool. I make my buttercream with (gasp!) BUTTER! Butter makes everything better. Everything.
But, I must admit, my first batch of mocha cupcakes were a fail. They didn't rise, and were too heavy. Not delicious. But, I laugh in the face of adversity, and I reworked the recipe, and tried again.
Success! The cupcakes came out fluffier, lighter, and yummier. And the buttercream came out divine-like.
Mocha Cupcakes FTW is all I have to say about this.




I made the banana bread tonight, after work. I bought the bananas 2 weeks ago and let them ripen. Its important to make sure they're very very ripe. I also use sour cream in my recipe. It always turns out moist, and yummy. I don't add nuts, but someone (or many someones, actually) recommend chocolate chips, and that doesn't sound like such a bad idea. But tonight, just plain banana bread. (though, to be fair, ain't nothin plain about it..)



Yeah, I totally had a piece of it. Or perhaps 2 pieces of it. It was quite good. I shall wait til morning for another piece, because I think its very possible I could devour the whole loaf tonight. Yeah, I love banana bread.

Buttermilk Lemon Cupcakes

So, today, I made Buttermilk Lemon Cupcakes with a Raspberry Lemon buttercream. I did this because I had leftover buttermilk, from the buttermilk chocolate cake I made on Saturday. The texture of the cupcakes was a bit more muffin-like, but that may be because I didn't beat it long enough. However, they are super moist, and lemony, and soooo good.


As you can see, they have a pretty pink color. That's the raspberries, baby! I took frozen raspberries (I would have gone fresh, but it's not raspberry season, and fresh ones were spendy. Really spendy. ) So I basically made a raspberry coulis, making sure to remove as much of the seeds as possible, then added the juice of 3 lemons to that, then using that as the liquid base of my buttercream (instead of milk). The result is a tart but smooth buttercream, that goes soo well with the lemon cupcake. I am quite proud of this.
Tomorrow, I'm going to take these delicious cupcakes to Youth Services, where the employees, who work super hard, can enjoy the fruits of my labor.

Sooo Tasty.

I know, gentle reader, that I promised you pictures. And you shall get your lousy iPhone picture..on another day. The picture in question, I took with my friends better camera'd iPhone 4G, which is a whole number up from my 3G. But I'll still tell you about the cake.

It was very good. The cake itself was so moist. I tell you, that buttermilk just adds the most delicious moistness to cakes! The chocolate of the cake married very well with the mint of the icing. One of my friends wants the cake for his Grooms cake, when he gets married next year. I can totally do that!

So, you want a recipe, eh? Well, okay. And let me know how it turns out!

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

Ingredients

1 cup butter

2 cups white sugar

2 eggs

2 cups buttermilk

2 t. baking soda

2 t. salt

2 T Vanilla extract

3 cups AP flour

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour 2 9 inch round pans, or 1 regular rectangular cake pan.

sift together dry ingredients. In another bowl, Mix together wet. Beat butter and sugar in mixer until fluffy,then add egg,one at a time. Add wet ingredients to the mixing bowl, slowly add dry, being careful not to overmix.

Pour Batter into prepared pans, and bake for 30-35 minutes.

Creme de Menthe Whipped Icing

1 pint heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup Creme de Menthe liqueur

1/2 t. powdered gelatin

mix ingredients into mix bowl. start mixer on low, and gradually add speed as mixture thickens. Whip until thick whipped cream consistency.

Musings on Chocolate Cake.

Tonight, I made chocolate cake. I have been sick the past four days, with the sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever...you get the jist. I was good for nuthin. So, today, my fever hath disappeared, I'm medicated to the gills, and most importantly, I had the energy,and I had the need. People are coming over tomorrow!

So, I made chocolate cake. Tomorrow, I'm going to ice it with a fortified Creme de Menthe whipped cream. (by fortified, I mean I'm going to add a small amount of geletin, so it stays sturdy, and doesn't just melt away, as whipped cream on cake can sometimes do.

Now, I don't know about you, but I make my chocolate cake with buttermilk. I LOVE buttermilk chocolate cake. The buttermilk adds a beautiful, and ever so slight tangy-ness, that goes so wonderfully with chocolate. I also tend to add double vanilla, because vanilla is such a great flavor with chocolate, as well. If I don't have buttermilk on hand, I'll use sour cream. That creates a very moist cake.

In the same vein, when I make banana bread, I use sour cream the sour cream with the banana offsets what could be a potentially very sweet bread to create the perfect balance. Oh, man, I'm going to have to get some bananas and let them ripen, so I can make some banana bread.

Tomorrow, after I ice the cake, I will take a picture. At that point, I will have consumed a piece, as well, and I will let you know who it was. I will also post the recipe. But I can already tell you it will be delicious.

I also have a lot of buttermilk left, so I need to bake some buttermilk based goodies. So sad for my friends..

more cakes.

The first couple pictures are wedding cakes.
The first one has a Valknut on top. The Valknut is a symbol of the Norse god Odin. It is not an easy symbol to draw, much less cut cake into the sh ape of. but I look at difficulty square in the face and laugh at it. Also, I sometimes stay up reeeeeally late, working on it.








The cake to the right is from the same wedding, this time, a Thor's Hammer atop it. The hammer was a breeze compared to the Valknut, but still had a level of difficulty. The cakes were a double layer round, with a single layer cut into the shape.










On the side, as seen on the left, I piped runes around the whole of the sides. The couple loved the cakes, and I'm very happy with how they
turned out.








The tiered cake to the right was a vegan chocolate cake. Yes, I can bake a delicious vegan cake, as well. Unfortunately, I took this picture after someone moving the tables knocked the table the cake was on. Caused a bit of a tip, but it didn't topple over, so all was well. And yes, its got pink roses, and baseball figurines on top. Gotta love it...

I thought now would be a good time to post some pictures of cake. Because cake is delicious.


This first picture was for a baby shower. They showed me the announcement, and wanted the elephant on the cover to be on the cake. I'd never done freehand drawing before, on a cake, but in my estimation, I NAILED IT. And this comes from a woman who constantly finds fault in everything she does. The elephant is flawless. The writing, not so much. The actual picture isn't that good, either. I need a better photographer.

This second picture is same family, a year later. Again, with the invitation, but this one was a bit easier. They requested more balloons, and more color. And so they received. I enjoyed doing these cakes for this family.









This picture for the cake on the right just doesn't do it justice. Its Horton Hears a Who, and yet another elephant. She loved her cake, and I enjoyed doing it, as well.


I still think I need a better photographer, though.

Next post will be cakes from a wedding!

the boring meat loaf.

I gotta learn to remember to take pictures.

So, I'm visiting my mom, in Arkansas. She asked me the other day if I make meatloaf. But of course I do! So she asked me to make it while I was here.
So, as the story goes, my mom, who is an excellent cook, tried to make meatloaf, like 25 years ago, and it came out horribly. And so she's never made it again. Apparently, all the times we had meatloaf, it was my dad who made it. Oh, the things you learn of your family. Anyway, for some reason, I was a bit nervous about making meatloaf for my mom, and I'm not usually nervous about cooking for her.

I'll tell you it turned out AWESOME. And now, I will tell you how.

first, I took 1 onion, chopped, and a handful or 2 of baby carrots (you can use regular carrots too. she just had baby carrots in her fridge) chopped finely. I sauteed those on medium heat, for a looong time, until the carrots were soft. I then added 2 jarred roasted red pepper, chopped fine.
then I let that cool.

Then I took 1 1/2 lbs of ground beef, and 1/3 lb of pork sausage. 3 eggs. 7 slices of bread, cubed very small.

I used salt, pepper, and herbs de provence to season. Mixed it all together, and formed a loaf type thing. I don't put it in a loaf pan, I just let it go free form. Baked it 45 minutes at 350. but you check the meat, it may take more or less time.

So, lets talk about the glaze. Now, I am a tomato based glazer. But this is because I hate brown gravy with the power of a million suns. Hate it! So I'm not going to put it on my meatloaf.
But upon looking in my moms pantry and fridge, I saw a lack of ketchup. Oh, dear. The only tomatoes I saw were some tomatoes my aunt had canned. So I took those, and cooked them down a little more, before straining it, to get the seeds out. I added about 1/2 cup of red wine vinegar, and 1/2 cup brown sugar, a clove of garlic, and some salt. and let that cook til it reduced by a third. it wasn't quite thick enough, so I made a slurry with 1/3 cup red wine vinegar and 1 teaspoon of corn starch. It thickened to perfection. I brushed some of it onto the loaf before baking, and served some on the side.

Mom loved it. it was by far the best meatloaf I've ever made. So good!