My blog

Swig is a super yummy cookie and soda place in Utah. We found out about them through Bryce's sister, who managed at the Provo location for a while. They are known for their super dense sugar cookies, for which you can find hundreds of copycat recipes online. The thing is though, while the sugar cookies are great, the iced oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are THE BEST. So what the heck internet? Why are there no copycat recipes for those cookies??? Don't worry, I made one. Also all the other copycat Swig frosting recipes call for sour cream, but Swig's icing isn't refrigerated so I don't think that is right. I have my own icing recipe below. My copycat Swig Iced Oatmeal recipe differs from regular oatmeal cookies in a few ways: 1. Baking method. Swig cookies are dense and soft, kind of like eating cookie dough, but cooked, but not like a regular cookie...it's hard to describe. I will outline my method in detail below. 2. No baking soda, and just a hint of baking po...

Petits Fours This Saturday was a really special day! My niece, Maddy, got baptized ! Children who are born into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, (Mormons) don't get baptized and become official members until they are 8 years old. This is because we don't believe that children begin to be accountable for their choices until this age, as I mentioned before . Maddy is a fun girl who likes pretty things, animals, and wrestling with her dog. I thought petits fours would be a fun treat for after the baptism. I had never made them before but I followed the directions on this site . They were fairly easy*, although I didn't realize that her pan was smaller than a normal full jellyroll pan, so I ended up having to make two cakes and a filling to put between them, otherwise they would have been "trop courte fours" . (I just made that up, is it a thing? I am deciding it is a thing.) Also the poured fondant was not extremely difficult*, but you definitely have...

Yesterday was Haley's Birthday I tried to get a picture of her with the cake, and I got a lot of them, but Haley has some crazy ability to blink every single time you snap a picture, so her eyes are not open in any of them: blink Kind of blink blink blink blink blink Blink! Whatever. Here is the cake from the inside! It was zebra! Sara told me about it and I used the technique on this website. It was a surprise, so Haley didn't know that she color coordinated her dress with the cake. Too bad I didn't get a picture with her eyes open! Or did I??? Happy birthday Haley!

Bakery Bread I posted a recipe for french bread a few months ago and called it the "best bread" , but I now need to recant that a little bit. I have found a new recipe and new method for making bread that blows any earlier attempts out of the water. It is called "No-Knead Dutch Oven Bread". It is very little work, but it needs to sit overnight, also not surprisingly, you need a dutch oven or heavy-duty pot to make it. I used the recipe on this site. It is a simple recipe: 1/4 tsp active dry yeast 1 1/2 cups warm water 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting. You may use white, whole wheat or a combination of the two. 1 1/2 tsp salt Cornmeal, flour, or wheat bran for dusting I was skeptical that this could work, but it worked so well! First you combine the water and yeast. You will probably feel skeptical about what a paltry bit of yeast 1/4 tsp is, but just go with it. Then you mix in the flour and salt. Your dough will look hideous and shaggy, you might de...

Secret Recipe Ice cream sundaes are great but there is a problem. This is the proportions of the sundae: These are the proportions that you really want though: But you can't have that much chocolately goodness without looking like a greedy glutton. Never fear though, Bryce's mom discovered the solution to the problem. You see: If you swap hot fudge with chocolate pudding suddenly it is socially acceptable to have the correct ratio of warm chocolate and chilly cream. I know, she's a genius. Internet, you're welcome.

Berliner I know everyone knows that Kennedy said "Ich bin ein Berliner" and it is hilarious because that is a jelly doughnut. It is not actually that funny though because a Berliner is also a non-doughnut-human from Berlin. Anways have you ever eaten one? (The doughnut, not the human, though if you have eaten a human Berliner please tell us about it in the comments.) They are not very difficult to make at home, (again, we are talking doughnuts here, human Berliner are pretty difficult to make at home unless your home is in Berlin, in which case it will take about 9 months to make one) so if you want to you can! I used this recipe and it was fabulous! Of course I decided to make my Berliner (also known as Krapfen) into little heart shapes: Also of course, I fried mine in lard. I know, lard is a bad word. (We will talk about ugly words tomorrow.) Here's the thing though: Lard is delicious. All the delicious bread items you have eaten are delicious because of lard. Don...

Candy Pine Cones For Thanksgiving this year my sister, Haley, and I made candy pine cones! First we made some candy and shaped it like little pears: Then we stuck almonds into the candy: And we kept sticking almonds in until the candy started looking pine coneish. (The blue candy is coconut flavored, and the white is almond.) Then we dipped them in chocolate White and milk chocolate TA da! It's a decoration, no it's a treat! It's candy!!! We decided that next time we will make peanut butter centers. Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Birthday Harold I have known Harold for about seven years. I take full credit for the fact that he married my bff college roommate Steffy. (Don't worry, she paid me back by getting me to work at IT and thus meet Handsome Bryce , so we are even.) Steffy is throwing a surprise birthday party for Harold and asked everyone to bring a food that reminds them of him. I was kind of distressed about this because the only Harold-food that stands out to me are scallops, because he was the first person I ever saw eating them. I hate scallops and I did not want to make them. Steff bailed me out though, and asked me if I wanted to bring the cake to which I said YES!!!111! I love making birthday cakes, because it is a special cake for only one person. You don't have to compromise or adjust things for everyone's tastes you just make it the way the birthday person wants it. Harold's favorite is yellow cake with chocolate frosting, and he likes the video game Zelda . Since I wanted...