Giveaway. Nescafe Dolce Gusto Piccolo coffee/espresso maker

The wonderful folks over at Nescafe are giving away one of their fabulous line of coffee/espresso makers. The Piccolo. It's a little powerhouse for single cup coffee and espresso making. I have one and I love it. I am an espresso junkie, but what I love most is the ease of use of the machine--literally plug and play. So easy. And they have a huge assortment of various flavored and non-flavored pods, all coffee made with highest quality ingredients - featuring only 100% Arabica beans.

And along with the espresso maker they are sending along a few sample coffee/espresso pods to get you started and figure out which one you like best. How fabulous is that?

I'm not sure which ones exactly since there are so many, but trust me, they'll take care of you and give you a good amount to get you going--they are good like that.

Personally I love the espresso and the cappuccino ones. BUT the chai tea latte is also pretty darn good too. Did you know you can make cold coffee drinks too? Pretty neat. And now they carry iced peach tea too. Wow.

Do you know that I love their coffee and espresso's so much so that I made a version of espresso cookies using the actual coffee. They were fabulous. Like a mix of molasses/sugar cookie with a hint of espresso inside. Nescafe posted the cookies over on their Facebook Page under the recipes tabs.

Also, if you follow Nescafe Dolce Gusto on Facebook or Twitter I know that they do feature a fair amount of giveaways. For more information regarding the full line of Nescafe Dolce Gusto products just visit them here.

All you have to do to enter this giveaway is tell me what flavor you like most by visiting their website. That's it. Just tell me in the comment section. One entry per person please or you will be voted off the island! Please have a valid email, no anonymous comments please.

The drawing will be Tuesday Dec. 13, 2011. Good luck!

Giveaway! Bakers Field Guide Books

CONTEST CLOSED. CONGRATS TO #76 @SPIFFYCOOKIE!



The kind folks over at Harvard Common Press has donated a free set of the Baker's Filed Guide by Dede Wilson. Four books total including: bakers' field guide to chocolate chip cookies, baker's field guide to holiday candy & confections, baker's field guide to cupcakes (my favorite), and baker's field guide to christmas cookies. I was over the moon thrilled to do this giveaway as this are some of the best cookbooks I've come across in a while. Very detailed, very easy to follow and the size of the book is handy for in the kitchen--nothing big and bulky.


click me for details

Each book is set up in a unique, practical, and engaging “field guide” format that gives home bakers the lowdown on every little, delicious detail of each creation, making the baking process fun—like it should be!—for adults and kids alike. Whimsical creations come to life through each recipe’s breakdown, complemented by vibrant four-color photography that makes mouths water even before the first aromatic
whiff of fresh cookies seeps out through the oven door.
And nobody makes a better “field guide” than Dede Wilson, a contributing editor for Bon Appétit. She has written over a dozen baking books and continues to receive national recognition for her creations and baking innovations. Her baking prowess and her wit shine in these well-loved Baker’s Field Guides, now available for the first time in paperback (and at lower prices), making them more accessible and userfriendly
than ever before! All four guides—Cupcakes, Holiday Candy & Confections, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Christmas Cookies—promise festive, fun treats for the whole family.
Dede Wilson has written over a dozen books, including Christmas Cooking for Dummies, Appetizers for Dummies, and The Wedding Cake Book. She is a contributing editor to Bon Appétit, for which she writes articles as well as makes frequent television appearances on NBC's TODAY and Dr. Oz, among other shows. She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

I'm partial to the cupcake cookbook. It has a huge variety of cupcakes as well as frostings. This one recipe is bookmarked.


Can you see all the tips they give for each recipe? I love that. Brilliant idea.



To win ALL four cookbooks, all you have to do is leave a comment here telling me which book you would open first. Which one is calling to you. Is it the cupcake, the chocolate chip, the holiday candy & confections, or the christmas cookie?
I will do the drawing on November 6, 2011.
PLEASE ONE ENTRY PER PERSON.
MULTIPLE ENTRIES WILL GET VOTED OFF THE ISLAND.

cookbook giveaway (it has doughnuts in there!)

My love for homemade doughnuts runs deep and long. There are so many ways to make them and so many ways to dress them up.

If you're not into making them I guess you could go to one of those trendy new fashionable doughnut places that seem to be popping up everywhere in the major cities. My favorites, and the ones that have been around for a while are Doughnut Plant in NYC and Top Pot in Seattle, WA.

Since I don't live anywhere near Seattle I was thrilled over the moon that Top Pot finally came out with their first cookbook. <---there is also a cute little video of the cookbook too.

Amazing. I mean really amazing. If you love kicked up doughnuts (or is it donuts?) then you have to buy this one. Some of the doughnuts are: raised doughnuts, cake doughnuts, maple bars, blackberry fritters, ducle de leche doughnuts, pumpkin old-fashioned doughnut, all kinds of glazes and the best ways to make them. The list of recipes of doughnuts is long; go to amazon and see for yourself. Way too many recipes to list here.

So with a fabulous cookbook as this I just had to get an extra one to give away. Just leave me a comment here and what is your favorite doughnut to eat or bake, make sure you're a fan of Vanilla Sugar Blog on Facebook, and thats it. I'll do the drawing on October 6, 2011.
*Anonymous comments do not count.
*Please have a valid name and email.
*If you enter more than once you will be voted off the island!
*One comment only!

If you are a doughnut lover as I am, then you'll just love this book. They help you make better donuts and make better glazes; excellent step by step instructions.
This is a great way to show off your doughnut making skills to your friends and family. Oh yeah baby.
If you want to buy one now (don't blame you) at a discounted price then check this out:

giveaway time!

CONTEST CLOSED. CONGRATS TO HOLLY OF ELLENSBURG, WA

There is a wonderful homemade soap company that I am in LOVE with. And I mean love. I am very fussy when it comes to homemade soaps. Some are just too harsh and too granny smelling for me. And others, the scent just fades away. But this company, Funky Chunks makes amazing soaps. With scents that are just right, not too strong or too headache-inducing. There is this one soap called "surf wax" that smells exactly like summer, the beach, a beach house. You know that smell you get after spending all day at the beach, come home, shower, and your body, your hair smell just so good--just like the beach only cleaner; it's just so hard to duplicate that smell at home. Surf Wax is it! I just had to get them on board for a giveaway because you guys have got to try this soap. They have other soaps that are just as fabulous, plus they have a bug spray, an all natural bug spray that actually works. Trust me, where i live the mosquitoes are in mass quantities here. And can I share with you, I got an extra bar of surf wax to crumble up into small bits to place in a bowl which now sits in my office. So everytime I come into my office it smells just like a beach house. I love it. Perfect for the summertime.



Michelle of Funky Chunks was kind enough to answer a few questions about her business, and some techincal questions I had on homemade soaps. soapmaking, and ingredients. Just like food, soap making is a craft along with a small dose science. Very interesting--have a read:

What made you want to get into the soap business?

I grew up with handmade soap. My great grandmother was a soapmaker. I decided to start my own soap company after a conversation with one of my girlfriends. We were talking about how disappointed we were with recent purchases at a big name, big dollar bath and body shop we frequented. The soap didn't lather well and the fragrance was barely noticeable. I decided right then and there to open up my own soap shop and I haven't looked back since.



That scent of the surf wax is truly amazing; it's not too harsh or too soft; it's just right, but it truly reminds one of the beach. How did you get "that scent" just right?

We formulate many of our scents with the help of our wonderful customers. We have a customer testing program that has been a huge success for us. When it came to making a surf wax scent we went straight to our local surfing community for their ideas and opinions. If anyone is an expert on the scent of surf wax and the beach it would be a surfer. They tested 6 different soaps for us until we got the scent dead on. Thanks to their help we now have an insanely popular line of Surf Soaps.

I've noticed that with homemade soaps they tend to last longer and they also leave no film on your skin. Can you explain why that is?

Handmade soaps are made with natural oils and butters and contain natural glycerin. These ingredients produce a hard, long lasting bar of soap. Commercial soaps are made with harsh chemicals, additives and have the glycerin removed from them. Handmade soaps rinse so clean because they don't have chemicals and additives that get left behind on your skin.



Since i love the surf wax smell so much, are there any plans to make a perfume with it?

Actually we are working on a new line of body sprays that will be launching late July. They will be customizable just like our lotions and scrubs. You will be able to get any of your favorite Funky Chunks fragrances made into a body spray very, very soon.

What other scents can we look forward too?

Even though it is the beginning of summer we've been hard at work developing new scents for fall and winter. We're looking forward to bringing back customer favorites like Frosted Pumpkin, Mistletoe and Twice The Spice as well as several new creations especially designed for the cooler weather. We even have a bakery line of cupcake soaps coming out in the fall. We love to get ideas and requests from our customers. They come up with some amazing scent combinations that we use for our limited edition soaps.



Judging from your tweets on twitter @funkychunks , you're awfully busy delivering soaps. I take it business is good?

Business is fantastic! (we have a the greatest customers in the world) It's still hard to believe how much our small company has grown in the last few years. It's been a crazy ride and we look forward to seeing what the future has in store for Funky Chunks.



Is there a lot of "homemade soap" competition?

Absolutely! Just go to Etsy and search for handmade soap to see how much competition there really is. There are so many products to choose from! We love the competition. The more soap makers there are the more the word gets out about how wonderful handmade soap is. The trick is to do what you love, never compromise your values and find your niche in the market. There is definitely room for all the soapmakers out there.

Interesting right? I loved that they went right to the source (the surf community) to get their thoughts on surf-like scents. Smart!



To enter the giveaway, all you have to do is answer the question "Name one of the signature funky soap scents?" here in the comment section.

Hint: to find the answer, go over to funkychunks.net

I will do the drawing on July 5, 2011. ONE COMMENT per person. Extra entries will be deleted. And for the love people, no anonymous comments--what can i do with those but trash em. Have a valid email address and NAME.

The gift bag includes all this (retail value of over $150.00):

large canvas zippered beach bag
large beach towel
pair of flip flops
apple-tini drink mix
flip flop highball tumbler
framed photograph from Beach Bum Photography
Surf Wax Soy Candle
Surf Soap Six Pack
large Quit Buggin' Body Spray
8 ounce body lotion - Midnight Swell scent
4 ounce Whip'd Body Butter - Midnight Swell scent
4 ounce Sugar Scrub - Midnight Swell scent
Midnight Swell soap Chunk

giveaway time!

CONTEST CLOSED! CONGRATS TO THE WINNER

Anyone in the mood for a really good giveaway?

As many of you know I don't do a lot of 3rd party giveaways unless the prize is something big and good. I LOVE to give my fans really good gifts. I'm just not into small little gifts that make you go thru hoops of posts, tweeting, and facebooking--I hate that.

The wonderful folks at Guylian Chocolates contacted me back in winter about a giveaway and I asked them to come back to me when they had something fabulous to giveaway. And just a couple days ago they contacted me again with this giveaway. It is a GOOD one. Check this out.

Guylian Gourmet Chocolate‐Espresso Tasting Experience Giveaway (Valued at $340):

• Nespresso Pixie‐‐ An eye‐catching new single‐cup machine that combines a supercompact silhouette with superb espresso‐making abilities.

• Nespresso Tasting Box‐‐ An ebony‐tinted, varnished wood tasting box with 36 capsules of a different array of coffee samples

• B. Smith 13‐Piece Espresso Set‐‐This attractive and functional espresso set will make entertaining your favorite guests extra special. It features six ultra white porcelain espresso cups and saucers with elegant shapes that are stored on the iron carry‐all stand, creating an impressive presentation.

• Guylian Artisanal Belgian Chocolate Truffles—Slowly savour our signature “ultraindulgent” luxurious chocolate truffle seashells made from 100% pure, silky smooth, dark and white Belgian Chocolate and filled with rich, decadent creamy chocolate praline truffle.

• Guylian Original Belgian Chocolate Truffles—8.8 oz., 22‐piece

• Guylian Extra Dark Belgian Chocolate Truffles‐‐8.8 oz., 22‐piece

Pretty cool right? I mean you will get all that. To be honest I'm just happy with all that chocolate-- 44 pieces of chocolate! And in case you didn't know if you put one of their chocolates into your espresso and let it melt--oh heavenly; read more below. But come on aren't those little cups to die for cute?

Did you know that Guylian Chocolates are a naturally inviting duo, pairing a fresh roasted cup of espresso or coffee and Guylian Artisanal Belgian Chocolates will create a unique gourmet experience. You certainly don't want to rush as you take a moment to appreciate all of the aromas and flavors the coffee has to offer.

Try combining a sip of coffee with a bite of chocolate. Let the flavors of the two meld together in your mouth and take a moment to fully savour the complex new flavor that emerges. Each type of coffee or espresso drink offers a different level of intensity and balance. Experiment with them to find the perfect coffee pairing. For a truly intricate taste experience, try these irresistible pairings:

- Dark Roast Indonesian, Guatemalan or Sumatran varieties

- Espresso drinks like cappuccinos, café lattes and Ristrettos

- A Hazelnut Roast will delicately enhance the flavor of the Mediterranean Hazelnuts in Guylian’s signature praliné filling.

- Make yourself an indulgent Guylian Belgian Mocha by melting a Guylian Artisanal Belgian Chocolate into your espresso drink. Top with whip cream for a super indulgent escape. Whatever your favorite coffee pairing, a Guylian Coffee Break is sure to become your secret indulgent escape! For more information, please visit www.GuylianBelgianChocolate.com.

How to win?
- make sure you're a fan of Vanilla Sugar on FB
- leave a comment here on this post, telling me how you like your coffee (easy peasy)
- one entry per person
- please have a valid email address, no anonymous comments
- drawing is done 5/23/2011
- if you want to follow me on Twitter you can - not necessary though

- Shipping to USA residents only.

giveaway time - two cookbooks!

****Contest Closed**** :-(
You know what? I have cabin fever and I'm cranky because we have WAY too many snowstorms already and it's only the beginning of January people. Of course to make myself feel even worse I read the Farmers Almanac and it said we are going to get a ton of storms. Yay! Wonderful. Isn't that great?
So to cheer myself up, I want to make you happy by having a giveaway. See if you're happy then I get happy.
I want to give away a couple fabulous cookbooks. If you are a cake lover; a kicked up cake lover that is, like me, then these are the books for you. The winner will receive BOTH of these cookbooks by Warren Brown. The cake god himself. I adore Warren Brown. He is the owner of Cake Love Bakery. Remember when he had the show Sugar Rush on the Food Network? That was such a good, relaxing show; I miss that. That and Gale Gands Sweet Dreams. I wish Warren would come back to TV, but I hear he's a busy man. If you go check out his website, he has a free cake app. How cool is that? And the best part, I hear he's super sweet--definitely a chill person with mad decorating skills; definitely a super nice person you want to bake and create with. Check out his blog too!


All you have to do is leave ONE comment with your name and email address about your all time favorite cake. And you could win BOTH of these cookbooks. Yep both.
Let's do the drawing on 1/23/2011.
Please no anynomous entries. Have a valid NAME and EMAIL address.
It might help you win if you become a fan on FB & Twitter.
Hahaha, kidding. I kid, I tease.

new york style crumb cake and a giveaway

I was thrilled to bits, no thrilled to the moon when the new Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented arrived from the publishers. Even more thrilled that they sent me an extra copy. It is so time for a giveaway! I love to share happy happy good things.
I have to say a HUGE congrats to Matt & Renato on their second book. As soon as I opened the book, going straight to the back index to see the list of recipes first, I instantly grabbed my cell phone to send Matt a text at how AMAZING this new book was, how I love it way more than the first book but in a progressive-honest way. I mean seriously this second cookbook is really packed with a whole new family of sweet treats. Later I asked a friend if it was rude to say to Matt that the second book is better than the first--she said no; be careful how you word it though. True, because their first book had me hooked and to be honest their second book is amazing. Some people when they do a second book it doesn't measure up to the first. You think second books, they should should be as good as if not better than the first book; more recipes along the same lines as the first book but better. You with me? This second book they made recipes based on perfect food combinations--food combo's you WANT to eat/devour; recipes that foodies like us can truly use; actual recipes you want to make, and/or use for entertaining. Another excellent feature of their book, just like the first book is it's user friendly, very easy to follow along and make at home. Nothing too fancy or too unusual to do or buy. A few of their recipes? Like baked cheese grits, malted waffles, almond joy tart! Are you kidding? They speak my language! Wait till you see the photographs. There is this one photograph of a cake called "caramel apple cake". The cake is apple, it's thick and the frosting is caramel buttercream. Ohhh please. But the photo is so perfect; I need to learn how to frost the cake just like that. Then there is this recipe for chocolate-peanut butter fondue--this is what I will eat with a spoon, period.
There is also a recipe for chocolate coffee cake with dark chocolate ganche. Hello? Where do I begin on this one? I don't know how many more times I have to ask Matt to marry me before he says yes. Ha ha! Last winter I remember Matt telling me how he was secluded in a kitchen baking and testing away, and how tired he was. Well Matt it truly paid off. This book is a winner--I'm so happy for you and Renalto. Congrats my friend.
If you want to try and win this cookbook, just leave me a comment before October 27, 2010. Tell me what are your favorite cookbooks of all time? I draw one name on October 27, 2010. Good luck!
**And if you win, do you promise the book will go to a good home? You promise to love, honor and cherish it? **

new york style crumb cake
Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented
print recipe

Crumb topping
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, melted, and warm
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Cake
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 ts baking soda
¾ ts baking powder
½ ts salt
12 TB unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ½ cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 ¼ cups sour cream
1 ts pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and position the rack in the center. Butter the sides and bottom of a glass 9 x 13-inch pan. You can use a metal pan, but the edges of the cake may turn crispy (although that is not traditional, it is not an altogether bad thing).

Make the crumb topping
In a medium bowl, stir together both sugars, the salt and cinnamon. Add the melted butter and whisk until combined. Fold in the flour until it is absorbed and set the mixture aside.

Prepare the Cake
Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl and set aside.
Using electric mixer, beat room-temperature butter in large bowl until smooth. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy; add eggs 1 at a time, beating until well blended after each addition. Add sour cream and vanilla extract and beat just until blended. Add flour mixture in 3 parts, beating just until incorporated after each addition.

Assemble the cake
Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan, spread batter evenly. Use your hands to scoop up a handful of the topping and make a fist. The topping should hold together. Break off in chunks and drop them over cake. Repeat to use all the topping. Remember the topping with look very thick.

Bake the cake for 45 to 55 minutes or until tester inserted into center comes out clean. Rotate the pan two times during the baking process. Cool entire pan on wire rack for about 30 minutes before devouring.
The cake will last 3 days, tightly covered, at room temperature.

blue cheese burger and giveaway

Best things of summer:
hearing those familiar crickets cranking away all night long
the first bite of hot, greasy, deep fried seafood
waiting in line for your first ice cream at the local ice cream stand
putting on those old/broke down summer sandals again
that first time you go underwater and freeze, but it feels so good on your head
the first time you encounter your dear old friend 'humidity' again and curse at it
feeling that ceiling fan whirl above you & blow the breeze while you fall asleep
grilled hot dogs with as much condiments as possible
greasy hamburgers on crisp thick buttered buns....ahhh
Seems like all my summer memories are food based. I did do a lot of eating this summer. Didn't do much cooking as the summer was fairly hot. Pretty certain we broke a few heatwave records here on cape cod and boston areas. With that said I spent a lot of time swimming. It was nice to take a break from blogging, but I missed it so....so nice to be back. I missed you guys and I'm sorry if I didn't keep up with visiting your blogs; I will do my best to catch up and say HI again.

What are your favorite summer memories? Tell me and you'll be automatically entered into a giveaway I'm having. I'm giving away 3 of my ecookbooks. This is one hot lil cookbook that you'll not only want to dive right into and try the recipes, but it also has stories of why & how each recipe came about. I personally have two chapters in there, but there are other food bloggers that you may not know about and really should. Chefs and bloggers alike that have major talent when it comes to creating recipes from scratch. One of my good friends and publisher of the ecookbook 55 Knives is Nick at Macheesemo. He was generous to give me 3 to give away. When I asked if I could he instantly said 'how many?". What a good guy right? Maybe I should have said 12?
So all you have to do to enter is leave me a comment about your best summer memory, be it food or not. But in all honesty we want to hear about the food! Make sure your email and/or web page is present so I can get a hold of you if you are picked.
How about I do the drawing 2 weeks from today? Cool?

blue cheese burgers
print recipe

nothing more than a pound of 85% lean beef mixed with one pack of lipton onion soup mix and some fresh ground pepper. form into burgers, slip a pat of butter in the middle of the burger and close up. grill burgers till desired doneness. make sure to butter and grill the buns! serve with lettuce, sliced tomatoes and a HUGE dollup of blue cheese dressing.
makes 4 burgers

giveaway time!

It's about that time for.....a giveaway! Long overdue people. I was unsure of what to giveaway--wanted something good, really good you know? Something that really spoke to you, spoke to me and said 'thank you for being such wonderful, dedicated fans over the years'. Since I know you all are foodies and all love to cook, what better gift to give than $50.00 a gift certificate to Williams Sonoma. Yes, you read right $50.00. I mean if you're going to have a giveaway have a giveaway, right? Oh yes indeedy. And what's best? It's easy to enter. All you need to do is:

- leave a comment on this post telling me what you would like to see Vanilla Sugar 'make or kick up a notch' (tell me as much as your heart desires)

- make sure you're a fan of the Vanilla Sugar Facebook page.

- and if you want to tweet about this giveaway that's good too, but I won't enforce it.

On Friday May 7, 2010 I'll select a random number using the random generator to see who will win. For obvious reasons, anonymous comments don't qualify--please make sure your name, email and/or website are visible in your comment. Good luck and happy cooking!

The above cupcake is my sweet potato & vanilla bean cupcake featured here.

it's about that time.....for a giveway!

You know it's about time for a giveaway--a good giveaway! I don't want to giveaway a tube of this or a bowl of that, no I want to giveaway a pretty good prize. So, since we're all foodies here, cookbooks -- good cookbooks are a pretty good giveaway.
This giveaway will be your choice of one of these fabulous books:

Tartine


Baked: New Frontiers in Baking


How to Cook Everything

All fabulous cookbooks with the best recipes around, to help inspire you to get your own creative cooking juices flowing. If you win, choose whichever one tickles your fancy.
All you have to do to enter is leave a comment at this post and tell me what recipe you have taken in the past or would like to take on, and how have you 'kicked it up a notch'. I want to hear about your creative cooking school skills and to possibly get you wanting to try something new with a kicked up flare.
On October 10, 2009, I will draw a random number and announce the winner. Sorry no anynomous comments allowed, for obvious reasons. Please make sure you have your email or website in your signature or name, so I can get a hold of you.