“Ok. Seriously, it is time to update!” I suddenly thought about it when I was taking a break after I did 3 loads of laundry this afternoon. Ever since my husband and I moved up to San Francisco, I was extremely busy with getting a job and settling down. It’s been almost 6 months and everything is going well in San Francisco. So far, we went to a few famous spots in San Francisco – still exploring and we love the city.

The good news is that I am getting close to start baking again! Last week, we applied an apartment that we want to move and we are waiting for the approval. If everything goes smoothly, we will have a new place at the end of this month.

Since I haven’t been able to bake freely these days, I would like to show some pictures of my sweets from the past. The other day (now, a few months ago), I was organizing my photos and found old pictures of cakes and cookies that I made from 2004 to 2007. This was the time that I just started getting interests in baking, so the sweets that I’m introducing today are not 100% made from scratch except few cookies, but they were good as they were made from scratch!

My First Cake – June, 2004

This is my first cake ever. Before this one, cake was something that I only buy at a bakery. I made this cake for my husband’s birthday. I used a cake mix and a store-bought icing. It’s not bad for the first cake, is it?

Strawberry Shortcake – April, 2005

This is such a quick and easy dessert. My husband introduced me to the great world of strawberry shortcake. Ever since than, I’m in love with the combination of strawberry and whipped cream!

Dark Chocolate Cake with Fresh Strawberry Filling – June, 2005

This is a second cake that I made for my hubby’s birthday. Can you tell that I really tried hard to make it little bit fancier than the first one? I used Betty Crocker Super Moist – Dark Chocolate cake mix (It was my favorite, but I don’t see this anymore in a grocery store.) and I LOVED it. The combination of “Dark chocolate cake + Whipped cream icing + Fresh strawberry filling” is my ultimate favorite!

Strawberry Flavor Icing Cake – June, 2005

This is a cake with yellow cake mix and strawberry flavored icing. I wasn’t sure where I was going with the decorating part, but my friend who got this cake loved it…=]

Chocolate Whipped Cream Cake – August, 2005

Whipped cream icing is my favorite, not so much for my husband though. I like it because it is sweet, but not too sweet. I’ve always whipped my own heavy cream as I have a control in consistency for decorating. How did I make this chocolate flavored whipped cream? It’s simple, just add chocolate syrup while you are whipping heavy cream!

Dark Chocolate Cake With Raspberry Filling – September, 2005

I love to watch Foodnetwork channel! I have learned most of cooking and baking knowledge and skills by watching TV shows on Foodnetwork. One day, I saw a very fancy chocolate cake on TV – something like the one that I made, and I decided to try for my friend’s birthday cake. At that time, I had absolutely no idea about ‘tempering chocolate,’ so I just melted regular chocolate candy bars, piped and shaped, and waited until they get hard. However, shaped chocolate decors were still soft, so I decided to chill them in a refrigerator. They got hard, but it only lasted for a couple of minutes. Result – my finger prints appeared everywhere on chocolate decors and as soon as it reached room temperature, they were falling apart. Years later, I now know what to do! =]

Dark Chocolate Cake With Berries – January, 2006

After I had a great holidays (Christmas and New Year’s Day) at my parents-in-law’s house, I wanted make something sweet for them before I go home. Again, I made my ultimate favorite – A dark chocolate cake with fresh berries and whipped cream icing. I forgot to buy mint leaves, so I went out to their backyard and got some sage leaves! It worked for that time. Haha…=]

Strawberry & Blueberry Shortcake – February, 2006

Strawberry short cake is my emergency dessert – when I really want some sweet stuff, which is very rare. Any kind of cake (pound cake, angel’s food cake, sponge cake, or chiffon cake) and strawberries are all I need, then, I can simply make this dessert. Don’t have whipped cream? Don’t worry, It is still good without whipped cream!

Brownie With Vanilla Bean Icecream – May, 2006

One of my favorite desserts is good quality vanilla ice cream on top of freshly baked hot brownie. Of course, I can’t forget to drizzle some chocolate syrup and dust powdered sugar for extra sweetness! Oh, I recently got an ice cream machine as a gift from my mother-in-law. I can’t wait to make all different kinds of frozen desserts!

Dark Chocolate Cake With Strawberry Whipped Cream – May, 2006

I made this cake for my birthday. Yeah, it sounds a little weird, but it was my first time making my own cake. I think everyone deserves to have a special cake on their birthday. =] For this cake, I tried some new techniques. First, I added fresh strawberry puree while I was whipping heavy cream. You can see strawberry seeds on the cake! I personally don’t like using artificial flavor, so this is how I usually flavor my sweets. Second, I tired sugar art for the first time. I didn’t know how to do it, but I just did it after I saw a quick process of ‘how to make sugar art’ on TV. It was very beautiful, but my hands were burning!

Caramel Covered Walnut Shortbread Cookies – February, 2007

Although I had not attempted to bake cakes from scratch during my first four years of baking, I made some cookies from scratch time to time. One cold night, I had to have some sweets and made pecan shortbread cookies. I shaped dough in start, square, and triangle before I freeze them. They were good. =]

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing Cake – November, 2007

My first homemade icing (other than whipped cream icing). Instead of adding sugar to cream cheese icing, I added melted white chocolate. Yammmm…it was good! No special decoration needed! Just decorate two layers of baked cake with white chocolate cream cheese icing and sprinkle cocoa powder on top!

Gingerbread Cookies – November, 2007

Winter was coming. I had to smell freshly backed gingerbread cookies in the kitchen before Christmas arrived. I think I over-baked cookies little bit, but it was ok. Royal icing is so fun and pretty to decorate.

Thanksgiving Pumpkin Designed Cake – November, 2007

At the end of 2007, my mother-in-law and I decided to take a cake decorating class for fun. We registered at Joann for Wilton cake decorating beginner’s class and decorated three cakes through the classes. This was my first cake – the theme that I picked was ‘Thanksgiving.’ I decorated cute mother and baby pumpkin using a star tip decoration method.

Clown Designed Cupcakes – November, 2007

My second week of class, I learned how to make clowns on top of cupcakes. My clowns were about to fall.

Flower Designed Cupcakes – November, 2007

We also learned how to make drop flowers on the same week we made clowns.

Mini Wedding Cake – December, 2007

This was the final project – decorating with flowers and ribbons. I baked a regular cake mix in a one cake pan (the height was higher than a regular pan) and sliced them in three layers. Then, carve them into three different sizes using plates. It was my first mini wedding cake. =]

Dark Chocolate Ganache Individual Mini Cake – December, 2007

I’ve always dreamed about making individual cakes. I didn’t have individual cake rings, but I attempted to make them anyway. I baked cake in a sheet pan, cut it with a circle cookie cutter, and arranged layers with whipped ganache by hands. It was messy and not easy, but I did it! By making this sweet, I’ve learned why it is important to have right tools and pans to make certain sweets. It saves lots of time and helps me to get a perfect result. I still don’t have individual cake rings – they are quite pricey. I’m just waiting for the right time to buy all kinds of different size cake rings!

This is the end of my sweets from semi-scratch collection. Although I started baking and making sweets from scratch only a year ago and I love that way more than anything else, I have to tell you that I don’t mind to use cake, brownie, or cookie mix once in a while. They can be convenient when I have to make massive amount of sweets for events or when I am lazy to bake anything. Most of all, it is really a good way to start for beginners who just entered the joy of baking world.

A lot of people love marble cakes because it’s a great way to enjoy the flavor of vanilla and chocolate in one bite! I wanted to share with you a way to enjoy the very same taste in a small cookie, so here is a great recipe.

These marble cookies are going to be crispy and will be great with a cup of coffee or tea. I personally like crispy cookies but you could make them moist by adding extra butter. (Experiment at your own risk.) =]

Although you will have to make two separate batches of dough, (one with almond and one with chocolate), it’s basically the same process for each. Everything will be the same except that the almond dough gets sliced almond added to it and the chocolate dough will have cocoa powder.

It might be easier if you make one batch of dough and divide it in half before adding the sliced almonds and cocoa powder to each individual half. I decided just to start with two separate batches of dough because I wanted to mix each half in the mixer separately. You can choose whatever method you like, you’ll just want to make sure that everything is thoroughly mixed. If the cookie dough and cocoa powder aren’t mixed really well, you might not get a good contrast in your swirls.

EQUIPMENT & INGREDIENTS

Equipment

Stand mixer (or hand mixer)
Rolling pin
Pastry brush

Ingredients – Makes about 2 dozens cookies

Almond Dough

1/2 cup and 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 tsp milk
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp corn syrup
1 egg yolk
1 cup cake flour
1/2 cup almond meal (grounded almond)
3/4 cup sliced almonds

Chocolate Dough

1/2 cup and 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 tsp milk
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp corn syrup
1 egg yolk
1 cup cake flour
1/2 cup almond meal (grounded almond)
1/2 cup cocoa powder

HOW TO MAKE

Making Almond Dough

1. Beat the unsalted butter in a stand mixer and add the milk.
2. Add sifted powdered sugar and salt along with corn syrup and beat until you no longer see any powder.

3. Add egg yolk and beat well. (I added a drop of red food coloring to make it pink, but it didn’t work.)
4. Add sifted cake flour and almond meal and fold in by using a rubber spatula.
5. Add sliced almonds and lightly fold in.
6. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Making Chocolate Dough

1. Beat the unsalted butter in a stand mixer and add the milk.
2. Add sifted powdered sugar and salt along with corn syrup and beat until you no longer see any powder.

3. Sift cake flour, cocoa powder, salt and set aside.
4. Add egg yolk and beat well.
5. Add sifted dry ingredients and almond meal and fold in by using a rubber spatula.
6. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Rolling Dough

7. Lightly dust a rolling pin and surface with cake flour and roll out each slab in rectangle shape until the dough is 1/4″ thick. Place the chocolate dough on the top of almond dough and roll together.
8. Cut the rolled dough in a half and roll the dough again, pressing outward until the diameter of the roll is about 1.5 to 2 inches. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and freeze them for at least 2 hours. (Freezing dough makes it easy to cut and keep it’s shape.)

Sugar Coating & Cutting: Preheat the oven to 325F.

9. Brush the whisked egg white all over the hardened dough from the freezer.
10-11. Line the bottom of a pan with sugar and immediately roll the dough on the sugar.
12. Cut the dough in 1/2″ slices and place the cookies 1 inch apart on a baking sheet. Bake about 15 minutes and cool down.

ALEXA’S TIPS

1. You can always substitute sliced almonds to your favorite nuts or dried fruits.
2. While you are making dough, if it is crumbling apart, add 1 teaspoon of milk at a time until it stays together.
3. When you cut the dough in 1/2″ slices, try to work fast because the dough might get sticky as it gets warm.
4. If the dough becomes too soft to work with, you can chill it for approximately 30 minutes.

They are great with coffee or tea!

Are you planning on giving these marble cookies to someone? Check out Individual Cookie Wrapping.