Check Out My Organized Baking Closet

Small Baking Closet

The Closet When Opened

Yesterday, I was baking and I couldn't find my small fondant rolling pin.  I had my regular rolling pin but I wanted to use this one for cookie dough rolling.  I looked in my baking closet and it was no where to be seen.  I finished baking, cleaned the kitchen and decided, that since the kiddos were outside with their dad, that I was going to tackle reorganizing my baking closet. 

I think that this closet was originally designed to be a broom closet.  Since our basement is unfinished and there were already broom and mop hooks in a small basement stairwell alcove, we put shelves in this closet instead.  A long time ago it was used to organize the Crock-pots, Tupperware and Pyrex type dishes.  Then, I had the inspiration to make it my baking closet.  It is handy to have all of those things that you usually only need when baking in 1 spot.

After I took everything out and organized, I did find the small fondant rolling pin!

This closet has 4 shelves and then the floor gives me a fifth storage space.  All of the little bins and trays that I have ended up with from other organization projects over the years has ended up here in this baking space.  Most of my cabinet dividers have ended up in here, too.  They are very useful for such small little items.


Top Shelf

On the top shelf, I keep a few mixes, store bought frosting, liquid measuring cups, sprinkles and muffin & cupcake wrappers.  That plastic bag on the left covers some disposable cake plates.

My next shelf contains marshmallows, candy, nuts, small bowls with covers (perfect for cracked eggs), all the baking chocolates, baking powder and baking soda, fondant tools and all of my measuring spoons and cups for dry goods (they were all hand washed yesterday as part of the project so that is why they are missing).  Also on this shelf are the candy molds, baking mat (rolled up), Christmas cupcake decorations and a small tray of office supplies.  My kids have a tendency to get into things so having all of that miscellaneous stuff in a small tray on a shelf in a closet keeps it out of their little hands.  I also keep my kids iron-on labels here as well. 





The third shelf is where I store canola oil, extra sugar, and my FoodSealer Canisters. 
In these canisters, I put confectioners sugar, marshmallows, brown sugar and nuts.  I also have my cupcake mix dispenser, extracts and flavorings, frosting dyes, candles, sticks, off-set spatulas, the traditional rolling pin  and fondant.







The next shelf contains our 2 bottles of olive oil, mini cupcake maker, cake pop pan, cake pop stand, mini pie maker and waffle maker.  Yes, I am the person who likes those little machines!  In the plastic containers in front are the cookie cutters.  One container has holiday cutters while the other box is non-holiday cutters, plus the birthday cutter.

Finally we have the floor or the final shelf.  Here I have a small tote that has non-scratching pads on the bottom.  It holds my pour-able tubs of sugar and flour.  I stash the "butter" liquid that we need for our popcorn maker.  Finally, the cake pop maker is stored down here.

Having this all organized makes me so happy!  Someday I want to jazz up that bottom shelf.  But, I hardly ever see it at this exact angle.

Saltine Toffee With Peanut Butter - Accountant By Day's Version Of This Treat

Saltine Peanut Butter Toffee

I have made this rich, delicious chocolate and toffee treat before and completely ruined it!  I thought that you broiled it for 4 minutes.  Don't do that!  Bake it at 400 for 5 minutes instead.  That seems to be the secret to making a delicious treat instead of a scorched mess.

A second suggestion to leave 50% of this treat in the fridge/freezer and to leave the other 50% in an air tight container at room temperature.  Then, you and your family can decide which storage method makes for the yummiest treats.  If you were wondering, we prefer them frozen or very chilled in the refrigerator.

All you need to make this treat is:
1 sleeve of Saltines plus a few extra from a 2nd sleeve
2 sticks of unsalted butter (I like salt and even I suggest the unsalted version for this recipe)
1 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of smooth peanut better
A dab of butter
2.5 cups of chocolate chips or Hershey Kisses or Hershey Bars

Here are my version of the instructions:

• Line a baking sheet with foil and then spray this foil with Pam spray.
• Place all of the Saltines salt side down on the foil.  I needed 5 extra crackers but, you may have a slightly different sized pan and may need more or less.  If you don't mind not having the cookie sheet filled perfectly then just use the 1 sleeve of Saltines and be done with it.  That is what I did this time and it really bugged me so next time I am going to use another 5 crackers to complete the pan.
• In a pan, melt the 2 sticks of butter and the 1 cup of brown sugar in a sauce pan.  Once it starts to boil let it boil for exactly 3 minutes.  Then, remove the pan from the burner and give it a final stir.  Pour this over the crackers and use an off-set spatula to spread it all around evenly.
• Add the peanut butter and the dab of butter to a small bowl and microwave it for about 25 seconds.  Stir this well and then pour it over the butter/sugar mixture.  Use the off-set spatula again to smooth it out.
• Put the chocolate on top of the peanut butter.  Put it back into the oven for just 1 minute (or maybe 75 seconds).  Remove from the oven and smooth it out with the spatula.  Then, place the entire cookie sheet in the freezer for one hour. 
• Once the hour is up, take it out of the freezer and break it up by hand.

PS
After spreading the chocolate, you can add sprinkles or nuts or whatever.  This time I was in the mood for just chocolate but I may spice things up at the holidays.

I decided to place the additional pictures down here because this recipe and instructions are so simple that I didn't want to make a 10 minute project seem like a big to-do:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cake Mix Cupcakes That Taste Homemade

1 Box of cake mix (skip Angle Food Cake, Pound cake and anything with pudding in the mix)

4 eggs

1 cup of Buttermilk (I know that you probably don't have another use for this but it's worth buying)

Follow the amount of veggie oil or butter asked for on the box

Those 4 changes make for some yummy cupcakes!  If you use a good mixer you will get at least 24 standard home-baker sized cupcakes.

We made butter yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting this afternoon.  J&J love to help me bake.  They listen pretty well and seem really interested for almost 4 year olds.  So, we try to bake together every month or so when summer is over.  If my recipe looks familiar that is because it is from the authors of Hello Cupcake!.  This is one of my all tome favorite baking books.

It was the first day of fall so here we go!

Halloween Cupcakes

They were yummy!

BROWNIES

So, we were adventourous and tried a new brand of brownies. We usually only make the Duncan Hines brand. I was worried because they say to bake them for 45 mins at 325 degrees. I usually do the 350 for 30-35 mins. These were so YUMMY! They were nice and moist and chewy. I think the only thing that would have made them better would have been the addition of chocolate chips.