Creamy Oreo Pie

First off, this is another ugly photo post. Honestly, I have two windows in my apartment that I've really learned to work with and how to get a great photo during certain times of the day. Any other place or time and I simply can't capture a pretty photo if my life depended on it. I am going to work on this. I just need to find time to really play around with white balance on my camera in different settings to figure out how to get natural and captivating colors outside my ideal shooting situation. I didn't have my trusty tripod with me for these photos and that definitely made my job even more difficult.

Terribly photos aside, this Oreo Pie, though nothing too exciting visually, is simple but delicious. I had about 2 hours this afternoon to make something for dessert for Father's Day/the weekly life group cookout my in-laws have every Sunday evening. I knew I had to make something that was quick and I wanted something that would be cool since it's been so hot out lately. This pie, while definitely rich and decadent, does have a slightly refreshing quality about it. This one is a real breeze to throw together. It's even faster and more fool proof to make if you decide to buy a ready made Oreo pie crust. I decided to make my own to use up the rest of the package of Oreos I needed for the filling and because I wanted to use my pretty, vintage inspired pie plate. I roughly made 1 1/2 the original recipe to fill my large pie plate. The amount was perfect for my 10-inch x 2-inch pie dish. This is a really simple recipe and is perfect for all those cookies & cream fans out there. I definitely suggest making this sometime!

Creamy Oreo Pie
adapted slightly from Nabisco

39 Oreo cookies, divided
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 (8 oz.) package Philadephia cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups thawed Cool Whip

Process 26 cookies in a food process until finely ground; mix with melted butter until well blended. Press the crumb mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie plate. Refrigerate the crust while preparing the filling.

Chop 9 of the remaining cookies; set aside. Beat cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Gently fold in the whipped topping and the chopped Oreo cookies until well blended. Spoon into prepared crust and smooth top.

Refrigerate at least 2 hours or until firm. Pipe swirls of whipped topping on top of the pie and garnish with halved Oreo cookies before serving, if desired.

An Elegant Retreat

I stumbled upon this bedroom today and immediately fell in love! I've seen several bedrooms in the past that utilized crisp, clean whites and neutrals and have always enjoyed the sophisticated look and calming effect. This is by far the most lovely example I've seen and I would love to use this as inspiration for the day the hubby and I can invest in furniture and really decorate our bedroom. There is an elegance and grace about this room that really captivates me. It certainly has a feminine touch without being overwhelmingly girly. I think I could get my hubby on board for a knock-off version of this room for our future.

I am drawn to this neutral look the most when various textures are thrown in to create visual interest and drama. I've seen some gorgeous white and ivory bedding lately with pretty pin-tuck and rosette details that would be perfect for this application. I love the soft beige walls, crisp white trim, and dark wood accents in the furniture. These neutral palettes are perfect for adding pops of color which can be changed around daily, weekly, with the seasons, or just whenever the mood strikes. You could even work in a soft accent color more permanently with something like this gorgeous robin's egg tweed bench.

I do love color, but I find I have difficulty finding color schemes I could really commit to. While some folks can afford to change out furniture or mix things up every few years, I just don't see that kind of luxury in my immediate future. With a neutral backdrop such as this, you could easily switch out relatively inexpensive accessories such as pillows and art to completely change the way the entire room looks. A room full of crisp, clean colors will always look elegant, sophisticated and luxurious.

Bridal Shower Treats

First of all, let me say that these photos are going to showcase my complete inability to take a decent picture in anything but natural light. While I am fairly proud of my ability to take a pretty picture when the sun is shining, I still haven't quite gotten the hang of capturing colors accurately in harsh artificial light. I need to work on that.

That said, today I'm sharing photos of some treats I made last Friday for a friend's bridal shower. Her colors are black, white and clover, which I wanted to incorporate in the desserts. I chose to mostly use white with hints of black and with a few spots of clover to keep things elegant and simple. I thought the prettiest treats I made for the shower were these wedding cake shaped sugar cookies.

I decorated the cookies with royal icing. I outlined and flooded the cookies and let them dry for about an hour. After they were fairly dry to the touch, I piped on increasingly thicker lines (from top to bottom) and sprinkled them with crystal clear sanding sugar, giving the cookies a gorgeous, glittery sparkle. I then added three small handmade gum paste flowers for a sweet pop of color. This was really only my second time working with royal icing, so I'm pretty happy with how these turned out. I'd like to get some cute cookie cutters to practice decorating different cookies. I'm seriously smitten with these strawberry cookies from Bridget of Bake at 350 and would love to give them a try. If only I had an appropriate cutter.

I took the next several photos after setting up at the shower. I had to make due with borrowing some cake stands and a cupcake tier from my mother-in-law because I really have absolutely no serving pieces. I made chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, topping half of each with vanilla buttercream and half with chocolate fudge frosting. Each cupcake was topped with a gum paste flower.

With my limited resources, I couldn't get too creative with the presentation of the sugar cookies. I just piled them high on a large cake stand and called it a day. :)

I loved these black and white brocade look baking cups I found for the mini cookies & cream cheesecakes I made. I bought these from Bake it Pretty with most of the other supplies for the shower. I was pretty bummed about these. They worked great and were beautiful, but I paid almost $5 for them and then saw them at my local Kroger (can you believe these gorgeous baking cups are from the folks at Reynolds?) while I was shopping for ingredients for less than $3. I definitely made a mental note for the future!

I'm a bit embarrassed about the piping on my cupcakes. I was definitely behind schedule with everything and had to finish baking my cupcakes, make the frosting, and do all the decorating the morning of the shower. I was rushed, exhausted, and wasn't feeling well and it definitely shows. I was also half afraid I would run out of frosting and didn't have time to make more, so I was a bit less generous than usual with my frosting clouds.

You can't tell in these photos at all, but I painted the white gum paste blossoms with luster dust so they had a really pretty, pearly shimmer to them! I thought they looked very girly and elegant and contrasted nicely with the dark chocolate fudge frosting.

I wish I could have captured the beauty of the sanding sugar on these cookies better in the photos. It was such a pretty touch and now I want to coat everything in sanding sugar.

These cookies and cream cheesecake are really nothing to look at, but they sure were yummy! The pretty baking cups definitely help them look less drab. I thought about doing a cute little piped dollop of whipped cream on top of these, but I knew it wouldn't hold up well over the course of the shower.

Now you know how I spent Thursday evening, all of Friday, and Saturday morning. I really enjoyed making all these treats for the shower. I'm really excited about really experimenting with more recipes and figuring out my favorites in a few months once things cool off. With the heat we've had lately and the fact that I don't have air conditioning in my apartment, I'm not as inclined to want to get in the kitchen and bake. But once things cool off again, I fully plan to take advantage of the fact that I know can send my baked goods to work with the hubby so I can experiment with recipes without trying to figure out what to do will all the resulting desserts.

Most of the time when I bake for a given event, I really struggle over deciding what to make. With a few exceptions, I really don't have go-to recipes for the basics just yet. I still haven't found homemade plain chocolate or vanilla cupcakes that I completely love. There are some chocolate cupcakes that I have made that bake up beautifully and are pretty yummy but could be a bit more moist. As for vanilla cupcakes, I've yet to try a recipe that baked up to a nice, pretty dome. I half wonder if some of my issues with the appearance of cupcakes is due to my oven. I have a really cheap gas oven. While I have an oven thermometer and pay attention to it, I still find that I have serious difficulties getting my baked goods to bake up according to a recipe. A lot of times the texture turns out off or I'll have to bake things A LOT longer than a recipe states. I'm curious to see if and how my baking changes when I have a different oven. I've only been seriously baking since we moved into this apartment a little over a year and a half ago.

I'm curious, does anyone have any recipes for chocolate or vanilla cupcakes that they swear by? I know appearance isn't everything, but one of my biggest criteria for the perfect cupcake is that it bakes up with a beautiful, domed top.