An Update To My Hiatus and Red Velvet Cream Cheese Whoopie Pies To Celebrate

Hello again, strangers! I know it's been over 3 months since I've done any blogging, and I'm sorry that it happened without any warning. Some personal issues came up and I started working 45 hours a week and never taking a break, and of course it affected me more than I wanted to admit to. However! This weekend I was encouraged to take a much needed break and spend the weekend with my parents in Chicago. It was an absolutely lovely weekend, and I spent it doing absolutely nothing that I hated and everything that I loved. I wrote, I watched movies with my parents, I ate (finally), and most of all I got back in touch with who I am and who I want to be. It's been an eye opening weekend, and I'm hoping that my plan to take one of these a month is going to seriously help me relax and take a breather sometimes.

This is how I spent my entire weekend (with movies in the background)

Twinkies!

I have to say, Twinkies are the most time consuming, frustrating recipe I've ever done. And I'm not exaggerating when I say "ever'. Combine my entire infuriating 2 weeks of plated dessert in pastry school, with my 3 months of experimenting to fix continuously flat cookies, and my first attempt at making Christmas dinner - voila! You've got my entire night trying to make these Twinkies. I'll tell you the honest to god truth, the only thing my dust collecting Twinkies Bake Set was good for was the official pan to make the shape perfect. I guess I'll take the high heat spoon too :)

Chocolate Cake Batter Fudge

Recently my brother went to Mackinac, MI where we spent a couple of our family vacations as kids. Despite the 8 hour drive, this was always one of my favorite trips. Visiting the simplistic island, where no motor vehicles are allowed, always made me feel at ease and incredibly excited. I always loved visiting the island and taking a horse drawn carriage ride to a museum, or to a farm stand, or anywhere on the island to be completely honest! The best part about Mackinac Island, though? Fudge! Every other store is a fudge store, and at least 1 in every 3 shops had an open kitchen where they made, tabled, and shaped the fudge right in front of you! No matter how many different stores we went to, if they were tabling fudge, I was sitting there, mouth agape, watching them work their magic. Never in a million years did I think I'd be able to do that myself! But here we are, 10 years and pastry school later, I can table chocolate and I still love fudge!

Strawberry Cookies and Creme Cookies

I know it’s 2 desserts in a row, and normally I try to space it out and give you guys something sweet then something savory. But my training got the better of me and I was REALLY feeling these cookies today! So here we are again, watching my diet while still trying to sneak a few cookies, and still getting you guys something delicious to try at home J

Much like my last cookie recipe (Funfetti Nutella Cookies), these delicious cookies take less than 20 minutes to make, bake, and devour!

Funfetti Cookies

I have one word for you: YUM!

These are one of the most delicious cookies I've ever had the pleasure of putting in my mouth! They are soft, chewy, beautiful, and super easy to make. Now if there's one thing my endless surfing of foodblogs has taught me, it's this: if you've got cake mix... make everything but! I absolutely LOVE making cookies out of cake mix, it's one of my favorite things to do. It looks amazing, they take less than 20 minutes to prepare, and it tastes like you slaved over them all day long.