Michelle’s Baking Blog

When you sit next to someone every day for seven months, you start to get a pretty good idea of their favorite things. So making the observation that Maiden’s favorite Art Director loves Audi was a pretty simple one. Now I don’t know much about cars – in fact, I don’t know anything about cars – but I certainly know how to make an Audi-inspired cake (or at least I can wing it).

What was originally going to be a round cake adorned with the rims and tire of an Audi eventually transformed into a more simple style as an ode to Dhruv’s love for modern design. While I was drawing up my idea, there was a silver Audi parked right outside the office windows. Now that’s what I call inspiration.

So here it is – funfetti cake and my standard icing recipe. In case you were wondering, making silver food color is basically impossible – no matter what those baking website color wheels may say. So it ended up looking bronze/brown/greenish? Hopefully the grossness of that color is muted by the vibrant red which, might I add, is also very difficult to create without appearing pink. All in all, the cake was fit for an Audi lover for sure.

Happy Birthday, Dhruv!

We’re happy to announce that today is BEACH DAY at Maiden Media!

We’ve been craving the ultimate summer day, so we made it come true right in our own office. Everyone wore their favorite beach outfit and of course listened to The Beach Boys and Bob Marley all day.

In honor of the most anticipated day of the year, we celebrated with beach themed cupcakes. Standard funfetti and standard secret recipe icing, but this time with some blue waves, a cool swimmer, and a nice umbrella to top it off.

This idea came to me when I had to make 100 cupcakes for a Hawaiian themed birthday party last summer. I figured Teddy Grahams would be the perfect choice for adding a bikini and sticking them in the water. The sand is made of graham cracker crumbs and the umbrellas complete the whole look.

So maybe you’d like to add some sunshine to a typical office day this summer? We definitely loved our beach day!

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Author: Michelle McGowan Tags: Agency LifebeachCupcakes

Peanut butter blossom cookies are a standard, but I never considered what might happen if you replaced the peanut butter with something equally gooey and wonderful. I figured that regular chocolate wouldn’t quite do the trick (and it would probably be a melty gross mess in this late-May weather we’re having in Philly). So I went with the next best thing – Nutella.

For me at least, this chocolate/hazelnut combination spread took off somewhere around 7th grade when every middle schooler started taking French class and got to have Nutella and bread on Fridays. Oddly enough, it has nothing to do with France. Nutella was first introduced in in Italy in the 1940s. During World War II, there was a shortage of cocoa due to rationing, so Pietro Ferrero, an Italian pastry chef, used hazelnuts to extend the usage of chocolate. Now, the world seems to embrace this half and half mixture.

This is what you need:

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup Nutella
1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar (for rolling the dough)
1 package of Hershey’s kisses

This is what you do:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In another medium bowl, place the chocolate hazelnut spread, butter, and both sugars.
Using a hand mixer, cream the ingredients together, about 3 minutes.
Add the egg and vanilla and blend until incorporated.
Stir in the dry ingredients, just until incorporated.
Shape the cookie dough into walnut-sized balls
Roll the balls in the spare sugar, pressing to adhere
Place the cookies on a heavy cookie sheet about 4 inches apart
Bake for 8 minutes
Remove the cookies from the oven
Quickly place a chocolate kiss in the middle of each cookie
Return the cookies to the oven and bake for another 3 minutes
Cool the cookies on a wire rack

I’m definitely a strong supporter of homemade pancakes rather than “just add water” boxes of mix, but even a stubborn baker like myself can’t deny how perfectly yummy these Bisquick raspberry bars are. Since I’ve never used Bisquick before, I was a bit hesitant to give it a try, but the picture looked tempting so I went with it. Two words: good decision.

Forgive the cliche, but these bars are just as good as they look. They’re sweet and crumbly thanks to the brown sugar and oats, yet savory and tart with the addition of the jam/jelly middle. I went with seedless red raspberry jam, but you can choose your favorite and it will work just as well. It almost seems unfair to call these a good breakfast food because they could pass as dessert as well. Whether you’re starting off your morning or finishing up your dinner, this is a simple recipe that will make you feel (and look like) a pro.

• 2 cups Original Bisquick mix
• 1 cup quick-cooking oats
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 cup raspberry spreadable fruit, jam or preserves

1. Heat oven to 400°F.
2. Spray a glass pan (preferably somewhat square-shaped) with cooking spray
3. Mix Bisquick, oats, and brown sugar in a bowl
4. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly
5. Press half of the crumbly mixture in pan
6. Spread jam over crumbly mixture – don’t go all the way to the edge
7. Top with remaining crumbly mixture
8. Bake 25 to 30 minutes

Enjoy!

Thanks, Better Crocker :)

Well, despite a devastating Steelers loss for Tusar, it’s still his birthday! Instead of bringing up bad memories of his beloved Pittsburgh team, I went with a few of his other favorite things. This 2-layer chocolate fudge cake is frosted with buttercream icing and topped with fresh strawberries and raspberries. It was accompanied by Friday breakfast (pretzels of course!) and smiles across the office.

With unusually warm weather this winter, we tried to bring a bit of wishful thinking into the office in the form of sugar cookies. Although the sentiment isn’t always shared, I can’t help but crave a pleasant snowy evening outside the window on North 2nd Street. So far, we’ve been met with 70 degree December days or blistery cold January nights – not what I would call a magical winter.

These sugar cookies are a classic recipe, taken out of the oven pleasantly early so that they retain a nice chewy bite. I came up with the vanilla icing recipe when I was a kid and haven’t stopped using it since. The funny part is, I never actually measure out the ingredients so I can’t quite share the recipe if anyone were to ask. It just sort of happens when I’m making it.

What’s the weather like where you are? If it’s anything like the streets of Old City Philadelphia are right now, I wish you warm thoughts and nights filled with blankets, hot chocolate, and a classic Disney movie.

The holiday break threw us off a little bit, but we’re catching up today with cupcakes for our Creative Director Amol and our Account Manager Janeane.

For Amol’s html cupcakes, I went with the old school bright green DOS-style letters which spelled out his name within a <p> tag. Janeane got quite the opposite with her bright pink, sparkly edges and confetti sprinkles. Both turned out to be fitting for their birthday recipient and made for a great return to the regular work week!

Happy Birthday Zain!

Our director of client recruitment’s birthday got lost in the middle of this busy and eventful week, so the celebration got pushed back to today. But the sun is shining, our doors are open and Old City is bustling, so I’d say it’s a perfect day for some birthday cake.

The inspiration for this cake is pretty obvious. And although we’re in the midst of baseball playoffs featuring Zain’s other favorite Philly team, a football field cake was just too tough to resist.

The cake is golden white flavored, a nice little switch from the usual funfetti, and it’s frosted with my signature homemade vanilla icing. I made two separate cakes in order to cut a football shape out of one of them and carefully place it on top of the base. Since the edges of the football were exposed, applying the chocolate icing was a scary and delicate process because the cake tends to rip apart. But with enough concentration and the right playlist provided by my roommate, I managed to pull it off.

Then I added a few details to drive home the point that this is a football field, but limited space made yard lines and a detailed Eagles logo a little tough. And yes, the football only has 7 laces but we’ll just say that makes it unique.