Devilicious Bakery

Long ago, a friend and I created delicious and artistic cakes and sold them to co-workers for under-the-table cash. You see, we weren't an "actual" bakery, but the sinful creations flowing from out kitchen would have fooled anyone. We were on our way to fame and fortune with tasty treats in tow. People were actually paying us to make cakes for their own personal occasions! Of course, it usually took all night to whip up a masterpiece and after purchasing the ingredients and taking our labor into account we probably came out in the hole, but still, it was pretty cool.

And then life took over. I got a full-time job, got married and adopted Pixie. She and her husband moved to Mexico to teach English, then to New York for AmeriCorps, then to Wauwatosa to continue their teaching careers and raise their family. An adorable family that includes this little beauty here:


This little one by the way, is absolutely in love with Mr. Z and it's so fun to see him interact with his little fan.

Erin is my Devilicious Bakery partner and she brought her little one to Madison this weekend to attempt to make the French cookies, Macarons.


We were a bit nervous since the cookie is basically a meringue cookie and those can be tricky. You don't want to whip the batter too long because they will flatten out completely.

Miss Betty (the mixer) did a great job today, not only did she whip out a double batch of cookies, but butter-cream filling that took 30 minutes to beat (I learned that the longer you whip butter-cream, the better).


With these cookies, you pipe quarter sized dollops onto the cookie sheet then let them sit for 30 minutes to form a light crust before you pop them in the oven.


While the cookies were baking, we made the butter-cream. Four different flavors: pomegranate, almond, lemon and orange.


Then after the cookies cool, we piped the butter-cream on one and gently placed another on top.


This is the lemon cookie.


Here is a close up of the pomegranate and almond cookies (the pomegranate ones have pink filling and the almond ones are white).


A close up of a pomegranate macaron.


The final products.


The verdict? They kind of came out funny shaped, but they are so tasty! We used Penzey's flavoring and I think that is the key. High quality ingredients usually yield high quality tastiness.

If someone is interested in the recipe, post a comment and I'll add it.

It was so fun to bake with Erin again and having a special helper in the kitchen made it even better!