Happy Labor Day!

By: Amy Weinberg (9/7/15)

Break out the barbecues and the white shorts one last time this summer because today is Labor Day! 

How are you going to celebrate all of the achievements of the American Workforce? My mother is celebrating this morning by doing yard work while I sit in this nice air-conditioned house listening to music and brainstorming dessert shooter ideas. The only laboring I will be doing today is moving my fork from my plate to my mouth.

If you’re not wearing Red White & Blue, you’re not doing Labor Day right. I think today is the perfect day to rock my American flag shorts (they’re mostly white so today is their last hurrah anyways). Whether it’s on your shorts or on your plate, today is a day to represent America.

And what better way to represent?

Now, it wouldn't be a holiday or a barbecue or America with out My Grandma's. I didn't want to labor myself too much today (always up for a good pun though), so I kept this dessert extremely simple. I was going to make an icing for this cake but I’ve been making a lot of icings and glazes lately. Plus, our cakes are too good to be hidden under a delicious layer of sugar every single time.

(Maybe every other time?)

I broke out Nana's nice China, slapped down an Original Cinnamon Walnut Coffee Cake, and called it a day. 

Just kidding, that's too easy. To go with the coffee cake, I quickly whipped up some red white & blue shooters. All you need is a blue fruit (blueberries), a red fruit (I chose raspberries), and some freshly whipped cream. These shooters are quick, easy, and most importantly, CUTE. 

Whoever came up with the idea of putting desserts into shot glasses deserves a medal of some sort.

Maybe even his/her own holiday.

I mean come on, Chewing Gum has its own day (September 30^th). 

WHEN WILL DESSERT SHOOTERS GET THE RECOGNITION THEY DESERVE.

Anyways, dessert shooters, along with everyone involved in the American Labor Movement, will be honored today in the Weinberg household. How did you celebrate your end-of-sumer day off? 

Delightful Delectables - SUGAR DECORATIONS!

By: Amy Weinberg

Pop Quiz: What is tiny, grainy, and makes everything better?

That's right. Sugar. It is also extremely versatile! It’s hard to find a great dessert without sugar and let me tell you, this one has plenty. I used My Grandma's of New England Lemon Poppy Mini Cakes for this dessert because I want to hold onto this last scrap of Summer.

I figured I would dabble in the art of sugar. Sugar art, that is. Sugar decorations are those things that are super sweet, make a dessert look super elegant, but are surprisingly not super hard to make. 

Let me clarify, the simple ones are not super hard to make. 

All you really need to do to get started is melt a whole bunch of sugar in a saucepan on medium heat. The first decoration I decided to make was the sugar bowl. All you really need to make this stunning decoration is the melted sugar and a ladle. Drizzle the sugar all over the back of the ladle and viola; you can now open your own bakery.

 Depending on how you look at it, you could even turn it into a tiara or The Iron Thrown. 
Go crazy, get creative.

The second decoration would be absolutely perfect for Easter. All you have to do is drizzle the sugar back and forth across a knife sharpener until it starts to collect at the bottom.

String together this nest, drop in a couple a couple of chocolate eggs, and you have a perfect dessert for the kids!

This last decoration was definitely the hardest, but definitely worth it. Don’t be fooled by how nice mine came out. You should have seen the first 3 attempts! The key to this one is purely the temperature of the sugar. The sugar can’t be hard, but it can’t be dripping. You’ll have to be able to wrap the same string of sugar all the way around the bottom of a wooden spoon. Pretty much anything cylindrical will do, I just had to work with what I had. Once you wrap it around your wooden spoon, just break off the tips and GENTLY slide it off. I say GENTLY because one of the first three casualties fell at this stage.

As for the icing, I just whipped up a super easy, SUPER delicious cream cheese frosting. Once everything is ready, just lather on some icing, GENTLY place on your decoration, and prepare to impress all of your guests!

Let Them Eat Cake! Coffee Cake that is.