COME ON OVER!

Come visit Balaboosta's Bakery at Shecky's Holiday Marketplace this Saturday and Sunday at

The Altman Building on 135 West 18th St. (between 6th & 7th ave). We will be selling an

assortment of our delicious cookies in beautiful packaging--great for holiday gifts! Be sure to stop by!

BALABOOSTA'S BAKERY

Hi old friends! Please visit my new business website at www.balaboostasbakery.com and place your orders today!! We have 24 unique mini cupcake flavors as well as delicious cookies to choose from! Delivery in NYC available.

MINI CUPCAKE ASSORTMENT

Hi! Featured here are my mini cupcakes that I sell. Flavors include nutella, vanilla coconut, chocolate coconut, wedding cake, red velvet, peanut butter Oreo, vanilla almond, cinnamon, and original (chocolate cupcake with vanilla buttercream and chocolate shavings). Flavors not shown include birthday cake, peanut butter & jelly, and carrot cake.

All of the above and pictured flavors come in regular and jumbo sizes as well. Now that I've started my business I'd like to give all my readers some insight as to what I'm selling! In addition to cupcakes, I have other fantastic unique desserts to order. My business website, as mentioned earlier, is under construction and will be up and working soon!

For the time being, if you would like to place an order, please email me for further details. I'm located in Manhattan and deliver locally. Enjoy!

60TH BIRTHDAY CAKE!

My dear friend asked if I would make her boyfriend's mother's 60th birthday cake! Lets be honest--I cannot turn down any opportunity to bake a cake. I heart cake-making! While this cake was designated to feed 12-15 people, it could have EASILY fed 40+. This guy was huuuuge; consisting of three tall 10inch round layers of devils food cake with silky chocolate buttercream sandwiched between and accompanied by gum paste flowers for garnish.

Believe it or not, I actually had some extra batter to spare so I made a half dozen jumbo cupcakes with the same chocolate buttercream as the cake and pretty pastel fondant flowers. The cake + cupcakes were a huge hit! I'm pretty sure that cake will stick around for a while! There's nothing like busting out a slice of cake from the freezer for a late night snack.

ALL-IN-ONE COOKIE BITES

Hi y'all. Let me ask you something. Have you ever showed up to a bakery craving cookies but didn't know which kind to get? There are endless appetite pleasing opportunities in the world of cookies. We've got sugar, chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, peanut butter, ginger snaps, black & whites, chocolate chocolate chip, cowboy, kitchen sink, plus hundreds of others.

These all-in-one cookie bites feature my four favorite kinds of cookies united as one. From the bottom layer up we have sugar, chocolate chocolate chip, peanut butter, and lastly chocolate chip. The top chocolate chip layer bakes crunchy while the inside is soft creating the most divine flavor and texture combination.

These cookie bites have officially solved my "over-buying because I don't know which flavor to get" syndrome at the local bake shoppe. Woot. Woot.

On another note, I'm getting some angry emails/comments from my lovely readers about my lack of recipe postings. Readers, you must understand that my blog has changed over the last year because I opened my own bakery business. Therefore, I can no longer post my sacred recipes to the world because, well, that would be silly. I will, however, post recipes I use that are not mine; however few those may be. So, please understand that I'm not displeasing you on purpose! I will continue to post drool-worthy pictures as well as my commentary so feel free to come along for the ride :)

NY CRUMB CAKE

Dear classic NY crumb cake,

Where have you gone? Why have you chosen to leave me? Why are you no longer a staple in the local bakeries? Write back soon. Love, Melissa.

I am baffled as to why the classic NY crumb cake (a.k.a. "cawfee cake") has been eliminated in the bakery world. Why?  This deliciously moist sour cream cake with a cinnamon swirl and heavy-duty crumb topping just might be my number 1 guilty pleasure.

When I graduated college I went on this crazy crumb cake obsession.  I would bake a new crumb cake everyday for weeks at a time and critique each recipe appropriately.  While I was trying to come up with the perfect NY crumb cake recipe, my mother interfered and offered me her staple, secret crumb cake recipe.  Why had she taken so long to give it up? I was agonizing over the perfect crumb cake for years! I quickly baked her recipe and was finally at peace. 

The.Most.Amazing.Crumb.Cake. End scene.

Mind you, this was several years ago and as my baking skills grew to new levels, I neglected this fantastic crumb cake---until last night. Oh yes, my most glorified crumb cake had officially entered the building. It was even better than I had remembered with a touch of cinnamon flavor and ample amounts of crumb topping. Oh my dear readers, how I wish I could reveal such a recipe to you but I just can't.  Think about all the calories I'm sparing you :)

DOUBLE DARK MOCHA DROP COOKIES

I received my monthly King Arthur Flour catalogue yesterday; and while flipping through the pages of countless fun baking gadgets, I stumbled upon this recipe for double dark mocha drop cookies.  Sounded delicious enough and off to the kitchen I went! I've been baking cupcakes the last couple days and felt a truly good cookie recipe was long overdue.

According to the picture of these cookies in the catalogue, they spread when baked. However, my cookies, as you can see, did not. They maintained pretty much the exact shape as they were before baked.  I traced back my steps and didn't make any mistakes so perhaps my oven wasn't calibrated properly. However, when I bit into these chocolate round blobs, they tasted delicious.  This cookie has a real brownie like texture and the center is dense and fudgy from all the semi sweet and white chocolate chips.  These are a winner and I'll most definitely make them again--flattened or not ;)

Click here for recipe.

RED VELVET CUPCAKES

Can't you feel the love in these handsome red velvets? Moist, fluffy, super red, and bursting with vanilla buttercream icing. Simply delicious.

I topped each cuppie with a little candy heart and doled them out to my neighbors. Needless to say, everyone was quite appreciative! I can safely say that I spoiled everyone's dinner on the 5th floor. Sorry folks.

As always, enjoy :)

CHOCOLATE OREO CUPCAKES

It has been slightly over 2 months since I've posted last. If that's not an indication of how busy I am then I'm not quite sure what is. I'm back to my old stomping grounds after spending the winter living in Tennessee and have been so incredibly busy igniting my new bakery business.

My bakery is called Balaboosta's Bakery and the website is currently under construction at www.balaboostasbakery.com. Please check back soon for updates! In the meantime, a very dear friend of mine turned 30 this weekend and I showed up with an abundance of mini and regular sized chocolate Oreo cupcakes. The mini's were beyond adorable and literally tasted like bite sized bursts of vanilla cream with a not-to-overwhelming chocolaty flavor.

I would have preferred to border the cupcakes in all chocolate sprinkles but unfortunately I was out so I went with the colored which added some nice flair. Enjoy.

KIDDIE CUPCAKES

I made these adorable cupcakes for a dinner party I was invited to on Sunday. The host's have two young children; a 2 year old girl and a 5 year old boy and I knew I wanted to theme my dessert cupcakes around these cuties.

Both sets of cupcakes consisted of cream-filled double chocolate fudge cake topped with either:

• pink buttercream, a dusting of pink sanding sugar, and a Valentine colored M&M for garnish (obviously these were appropriately decorated for the little girl)
• chocolate fudge icing with a dollop of vanilla buttercream and assorted colored fondant cut out circles for garnish (aimed at appealing a young boy!)

These were SUCH an incredible hit! There was a perfect ratio of cake to cream filling to buttercream for each cupcake! Enjoy.

BLACK 'N WHITE CUTIES

I've begun the "packing up" stage here in Memphis, TN and part of cleaning out my pantries involves baking everything off that I have bought in the last several months here. I have no room in my car to ship everything back up to NY and besides, my two 80lb dogs deserve all the room they can get. After all, it is a close to 20 hour drive back up North. Therefore, I made it my duty to use up all the ingredients, chocolate, canned items, etc that existed in my kitchen, bake it off, and donate it to charity. One of the many varieties of goodies I donated were these cute black-n-white cuppies.

All of them were mini chocolate cupcakes stuffed with vanilla cream and topped with a variety of fluffy white cream cheese frosting, chocolate frosting, coconut, and a jumbo chocolate chip. In addition, as you can see, the cuppies donned black and white polka dot liners. Cute!

While many of these cupcakes were donated, I had to pull a couple strictly for tasting purposes only ;)...and the verdict?? Outrageous.

SALTED CARAMEL CUPCAKES

My blogging has clearly slowed in recent months but I plan on picking it up very soon. As most of you know, I've been temporarily living in Memphis, TN since October to complete the last phase of my baking and pastry arts degree (a 210 hour internship at a local Memphis bakery). Well folks, my internship is up and I'm headed back to NY this weekend with tons of new baking tips, business knowledge, and amazing top secret recipes. I'm psyched!

Anyway, on to these cupcakes! I made them a couple weeks ago but because it has been so crazy here, I didn't have much time to post. I've wanted to make Martha's salted caramel cupcakes for quite some time now and I should have never waited this long! These are absolutely delicious; beginning with a one-bowl chocolate cupcake recipe stuffed with ooey gooey homemade caramel, topped with a rich dark chocolate frosting, and some sea salt for good measure. Once the caramel cooled inside the stuffed cupcake, it thickened and made for a perfectly, chewy, candy stuffed chocolate cupcake. Unconditionally delish!

RAINBOW COOKIES!!!!!

Oh..my...god!! I did it! I did it! Rainbow cookies are something I always wanted to challenge myself with and I finally gathered up the courage to do so...and it took 48 hours! Woo hoo!

Rainbow cookies have been my absolute favorite for as long as I could remember. Seven layer cookies, as they are also called, contain rich almond cake layers sandwiched with apricot or raspberry jam and topped off with a hard chocolate shell. New York is known for these cookies and they are hard to find elsewhere in the country. As most of you know, I have relocated down south to Memphis, TN for the time being and for the life of me, I can't find any rainbow cookies. My problem was solved when I decided to make them from scratch.

I had heard that the act of making rainbow cookies isn't so much difficult as it is time consuming--and I heard correctly. You need a solid 2 days to make these cookies between the chilling, the sandwiching, etc and let me tell you, it is worth every second. The cake layers are super easy to make, requiring almond paste, amongst other basic cake ingredients. The batter is separated into three separate bowls, each being colored red, green, and one left plain white.

In my case, apricot jam is heated and strained and then spread between each layer. A baking pan is used to weight the layers overnight and then the chocolate layer is spread on the top and the bottom to finish off the cookies. After reading many reviews, I froze the completed, unsliced cookies for several hours before slicing them with a chef's knife dipped in hot water. This method worked perfectly and none of the chocolate cracked on top. I cut them into thin slivers which produced several dozen. You can choose to cut them into 1 inch squares as well, however, traditionally these cookies are served in thin rectangles.

I encourage you all to try your hand at this recipe at least once in your lifetime! It's not as difficult as it seems and if you have the time to spare, go for it! Next time I think I will go with raspberry and apricot jam in between the layers.

Check out smitten kitchen's recipe for these cookies found here.

REESES PEANUT BUTTER CUP CHEESECAKE

Wow, I've been making a ton of cheesecakes lately. There's nothing like digging your fork into a cold, creamy cheesecake with a crunchy crust. It's official, cheesecake is by far my most favorite dessert. I love to make them and I love eating them even more!

My boyfriends brother celebrated a birthday a few weeks ago and rather than baking your traditional classic birthday cake, I went with a Reeses peanut butter birthday cheesecake. This cheesecake was unreal. The peanut butter flavor wasn't overly strong and the Oreo cookie crust made for a perfect cheesecake foundation. The chocolate ganache layer on top really put this cheesecake over the edge as my most favorite cheesecake, to date.

This recipe fills is designed to fill a 10 inch springform pan, however, I only had a 9 inch so I had some extra batter leftover which I used to make mini peanut butter cup cheesecakes. Since my boyfriends family are die-hard Tennessee Volunteer fans, I stuck these cute little Vols picks in each mini. They were a huge hit.

Please note that you should plan a day ahead when making this cheesecake. It requires a lot of chilling time and I always find that leaving a cheesecake to chill in the fridge overnight produces the best results.

For The Crust

• 4 1/2 cups crushed Oreo cookies
• 1 cup chopped roasted peanuts
• 1/2 cup butter, melted

For The Filling

• 2 lbs cream cheese, softened
• 5 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 cup smooth peanut butter (not natural-style)
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 12 Reese's Peanut Butter cups, broken into small pieces

For The Topping

5 ounces milk chocolate chips

1/4 c. sour cream

1. Please Note****Plan ahead--cheesecake needs to chill for at least 4 hours.
2. To Make The Crust:.
3. Combine crushed Oreo cookies and peanuts that have been ground in a food processor with the melted butter.
4. Pat the crust mixture onto bottom and sides of a 10-inch springform pan.
5. To Make The Filling:.
6. Beat cream cheese in bowl of electric mixer until smooth.
7. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
8. Add sugar, peanut butter and cream; mix until smooth.
9. Stir in vanilla, then fold in peanut butter cup pieces with a rubber spatula.
10. Pour filling into prepared crust.
11. Place springform pan into a larger baking pan.
12. Pour hot water into the larger pan so that the water comes 1 inch up the sides of the springform pan.
13. Bake at 275°F 1-1/2 hours, or until firm and lightly browned.'
14. Remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for one hour
15. you may run a knife along the edge of the cake to loosen it from the pan somewhat.
16. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours (overnight is your best bet)
17. For The Topping:.
18. In a saucepan over low heat, melt the chocolate and sour cream, stirring constantly. Spread over cheesecake and return it to the refrigerator to set up.

CHRISTMAS GIFT GOODIES

In addition to passing out boatloads of salted cashew chocolate toffee as holiday gifts, I also made Christmas-themed cupcakes and cookies-n-cream fudge to switch it up a bit.

The cupcakes were half carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and half chocolate cake with vanilla cream frosting. The mini cupcakes were decorated with holly's and the regular sized cuppies had decorated candy canes on top. Super cute and incredibly tasty!

Fudge was a major lesson in the first module of my culinary program. While fudge uses very basic ingredients to make, it can be an extremely temperamental process to produce perfect, creamy fudge.

I realized this after it took me 3 times in school to master making delicious fudge. All the temperatures must be exact for cooking and then the cooling process is very precise. Most recipes require the text book step by step instruction to produce a baked good, however, I found a fudge recipe that completely strays from the norm. This cookies-n-cream fudge recipe is most definitely NOT textbook and cuts all the corners to produce perfectly creamy, half the labor, fudge. Where did I find this, you ask? Nestle's Very Best Baking site. Yep, who would have thought! As long as this post never finds its way back to my module 1 chef instructor, I should be alright. This recipe is simplicity at its best. When there's a will, there's a way...

Ingredients:

• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter or margarine
• 2/3 cup (5 fl.-oz. can) NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk
• 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Premier White Morsels
• 1 jar (7 oz.) marshmallow crème
• 1/2 cup finely crushed cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
• 1 cup crumbled cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies

Directions:

LINE 9-inch-square baking pan with foil.

COMBINE sugar, butter and evaporated milk in medium, heavy-duty saucepan. Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Boil, stirring constantly, for 3 minutes. Remove from heat.

STIR in morsels, marshmallow crème, finely crushed cookies and vanilla extract. Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle crumbled cookies on top. Gently swirl cookies into fudge using a knife without touching bottom of pan. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm. Lift from pan; remove foil. Cut into 48 pieces. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

CLASSIC CHOCOLATE BROWNIES

I've been food blogging for several years and I'm always seeing various quests for the "perfect brownie". Of course, this is by personal taste because everyone likes their brownies different. Well, if you are at all like me and seek the ultimate brownie to have a cakey yet fudgy interior with a flawless light and flakey exterior than look no further. I have been making Nick Malgieri's Supernatural brownies for years on end and no one can convince me otherwise to make another variation. These brownies have it all. Compared to most other brownie recipes, Nick's brownies contain much less flour allowing for an ultimate burst of chocolate flavor. They are moist and fudge-like but hold a cake-like structure so they don't fall apart to the bite. They are extremely versatile and I've dressed them up with numerous fix-ins such as peanut butter, Andes mints, chocolate chips, and what have you. Trust me people, these are a winner.

Click here for recipe.

PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE

This post is way overdue. Believe it or not, this amazingly delicious pumpkin cheesecake was made for Thanksgiving. That's a clear indication how far behind I am, however, the salted cashew chocolate toffee below was from Thanksgiving as well. So, slowly but surely, I'm getting there.

I make this cheesecake every year for Thanksgiving and it has become a staple dessert for years to come. I go for a slice of this before the pecan pie which says a whole lot about this cheesecake. The crust is crushed up gingersnap cookies followed by a creamy maple pumpkin filling and topped off with a brown sugar glaze. The crust to filling to glaze components are perfectly in sync for a blast of delicious flavors in each bite. This truly is my most favorite cheesecake out there and it can be made all Fall through the Winter---not just for Thanksgiving. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups gingersnap cookie crumbs 3/4 cup ground hazelnuts (feel free to eliminate) 3 tablespoons brown sugar 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened 1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 cups canned solid pack pumpkin 1/2 cup heavy cream 1/3 cup maple syrup 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice 4 eggs

DIRECTIONS:

.

1.	Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9 inch springform pan.
2.	Using a fork, combine gingersnaps, hazelnuts, 3 tablespoons brown sugar and melted butter. Press mixture onto the bottom and two inches up the sides of the pan to form the crust.
3.	With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the pumpkin. Mix in the cream, maple syrup, cinnamon, allspice and vanilla. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing until smooth.
4.	Pour batter into prepared crust. Bake in the preheated oven for 90 minutes, or until center of cheesecake is set. Allow to cool in pan for 30 minutes then refrigerate overnight.

SALTED CASHEW CHOCOLATE TOFFEE

Homemade heath bar crunch, if you will--with a little twist. I feel truly guilty for this post. Let me just get that out in advance. Now is your chance to "X" my website out and revisit at a later date; preferably when this post is no longer viewable on the home page. Don't say I didn't warn y'all. Why am I so concerned with your well being, you ask?This salted cashew chocolate toffee is addicting, fattening, waist- swelling, crack. It's chocolaty. It's salty. It's nutty. It's crunchy. It's four million calories and it's worth every single bite.

Of course, if you're not a fan of cashews, you could always go down the traditional route of almonds or even peanuts. Any nut works in this instance--trust me, I've tried them all; take my word for it. If you have absolutely no reason to bring this deliciousness into your household; here's one: make a boatload of these as holiday gifts for your family, co-workers, friends, etc. It may not be a great excuse to stuff your face with them but, however, it is an excuse. I'm just trying to help you out. Seriously, proceed with caution :)

Click here for recipe.

CARAMEL APPLE PIE BLISS

Ok, seriously..this is one of, if not the, best pies I've ever had in my life! A buttery flaky crust meets a cinnamon-spiced apple filling, studded with hunks of gooey, slimy, sweet caramel. Oh my...just the very thought of a slice of this apple goodness is causing a serious build-up of drool! I must stop. This pie is perfect. Ok, I'm done...

Here's the recipe. Make this, ASAP!

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE CAKE

How cute is this? Chocolate chip cookie cake. Turkey decoration. Need I say more? Well, actually..one more thing: it was "gobbled" up in seconds. True story.

Use your most favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and double it to make a thick 9 inch round cake and if you're reallyyyyyy lucky, you may have some dough left over to sneak in a few cookies. Enjoy!