Nantucket Blogworks

Love birds we have some sweet treats for you to tweet about.  Beth went a little wild with some crazy insects and Suzanne trashed her way to Andy’s heart…

Hello, Cupcakes!  For Valentine’s Day I got out my trusty copy of Hello, Cupcakes! to try my hand at some fancy-pants cupcakes.  I decided to try the Valentine’s cupcakes that are decorated to look like a box of chocolates and then I thought I’d do the insect cupcakes as my anti-valentines treats, too.  After whipping up a batch of cupcakes I assembled the candy, frosting, and various tools and treats needed to make the decorations.  Last year I made some of the baby shower cupcakes in this book and was totally converted to their method for icing mini cupcakes, microwave canned icing for about 20 seconds, stir, and dip the cupcakes for a even, smooth coat of frosting- quick, easy, and very clean looking!  Once frosted, the fun begins.

I also bought a cheap heart-shaped box of chocolates to set the cupcakes out in the heart box.  Looked super cute, but the chocolates that came in the box were all the gross kind and most ended up in the trash instead of my belly…probably for the best.

On to spiders and ants and ticks, oh my!  These were lots of fun to make and very easy…melted chocolate for the bodies with various sizes of M&Ms stuck on top.

A quick visit to the freezer to set and then they just peeled off the wax paper.  Easy-peasey!  The bugs, I think, are way cuter than the chocolates, and way more fun to eat!

This is a great book for inspiration, but most of the samples in the book require a lot of patience, a bit of practice, and lots of candy!

This week we have and added treat, pun intended.  I gave Suzanne a break from the Cookwork weekly schedule and she baked away anyway.  Here’s her special treat for her husband, Andy….

Dump Cake

prepared by Suzanne

So here is Dump Cake! Our trashy Valentine’s Day dessert! Don’t even know where this came from but it cracks me up and it is so good! Dump Cake for your wedding anyone?!
This is like an upside down pie! Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Into a 10 inch pie plate dump a 21 ounce can of cherry pie filling and a 20 ounce can of pineapple chunks that have been mostly drained… I leave about 1/4 cup of the juice with the chunks.

Take your favorite yellow cake mix and spread half of it, in powder form, over the cherries and pineapple once you have smoothed them over. Smooth the cake mix  out evenly and pour 1 stick of melted butter, I use unsalted butter, over the top.

Next comes coconut any type you like sprinkled over the butter, around 3 ounces, I use more because I like it! And finally top that with chopped pecans you can use walnuts if you prefer them. Bake for about 45 minutes or 1 hour until the top browns and you see the cherry syrup bubbling at the top. I let it cool and stick it in the fridge because we like the hard crusty crunchy top but warm is good too.

Andy couldn’t have been happier

This actually is Andy… Suzanne’s cupid.  He made this outfit, wings and all as part of a neighborly holiday competition.  Some people think Nantucketers are a little crazy, salty sea air, seclusion, and the like… I think those land lubbers don’t remember what it’s like to be creative.  Sweet Cupid, Andy!  High Five!

Filed under: Book Reviews, Cookworks