Post Baby Blogging

It just hasn't happened yet. Having a baby is a lot of work. I won't go into all the details of t he last six weeks but I now have a wonderfully awesome baby boy named Dominic!

The last week or so I have slowly started to learn how to juggle baby and baking. The baking is needed to relax me and let me have some time to be a little creative.

First thing I baked some things for the church cookie and candy walk.  I made some pumpkin and chocolate fudge.  I also make some peppermint bark.  The recipe for pumpkin fudge has already been put up on my blog...I made it earlier to rave reviews.  I'm going to wait and post the peppermint bark recipe for when I have pictures to put with it.  (I plan on making a few batches for Christmas presents soon.)

I was going to make peanut butter fudge and peppermint fudge but I learned quickly that baking with a baby takes a lot more time then baking on my own. 

Here is the chocolate fudge recipe:
1 lb. milk chocolate
1 lb. semi-sweet chocolate
2 1/2 tbs. butter
2 cups marshmallow creme
12 oz evaporated milk
4 cups sugar

1. Line a 9x13 pan with wax paper (you can spray butter it too if you want)
2. Heat the butter, evaporated milk and sugar in a large saucepan.  Bring to a boil.  Continuously stir and let boil for four to five minutes. 
3. Put chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and heat in the microwave until softened.  (I just did two 30 sec. rounds) 
4. Add the chocolate to the butter/milk mixture.  (take it off the stove first) Mix until all the chocolate is melted.
5. Mix in the marshmallow creme and mix until smooth. 
6. Pour the mixture into the pan and let it sit for a few hours (you can put it in the fridge to harden if you need to)

I only made this once and I made a few mistakes.  One: I wasn't watching the mixture while it was boiling (even though you are supposed to stir it constantly) and it boiled over...made a terrible sticky mess and I lost about 1/3 of the mixture.  Two: I didn't have good quality chocolate chips and you since it is just chocolate the quality of the chocolate is very very important.  Three: 4 cups of sugar is probably way too much...the fudge was very sweet.  

So if I had payed attention and shelled out for some more expensive chocolate it would have made all the difference.  I also might have just used semi-sweet chocolate with all the sugar that was called for in the recipe. 

Stay tuned for these recipes I have made recently:
Peppermint bark
Hot Chocolate cupcakes with peppermint buttercream icing
Gingerbread cupcakes with lemon cream cheese icing and
Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with lemon cream cheese icing