Baking Helper

This is my baking helper. She has beautiful curls.

She reads me instructions for my new mixer.

And then she informs me that she can't actually read and she made it all up.

She's pretty handy, she loves mixing and cracking eggs.

We bake together when she isn't too busy building forts and being a super hero with a cape. I've tried to tell her that superheroes shouldn't have capes (everyone who watches The Incredibles knows this), but she says she doesn't care and continues on with her cape.

Her name is Austen and she's 5, she's my little sister.
Just thought I'd post some pictures of her, since I don't have any baking pictures recently. She's far cuter than anything I can bake, anyway.

In theory I will be baking and blogging about these later, depending on when I get home from work. We shall see. I'll borrow my sister's camera to take pictures (my other sister... Austen doesn't have a camera, being as she's 5 and all).

Update

Ok so with school and finals and everything, I have been super slack about blogging, BUT I have been baking, of course. My camera broke so I haven't been able to take pictures but I will post a list of the things I've baked (at least the ones that I can remember off the top of my head xD).

Poppy Seed Bundt Cake with Orange Glaze
This is SO good! I did not use any extracts except vanilla. I also made it without the glaze and put in sprinkles so it was a confetti cake :D

Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream
I made this into a cake for Easter. Yummmmy. That icing is AMAZING.

Brown Butter Toasted Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies
Brown butter makes everything amazing.

Brownies
I ran out of baking chocolate so I made these instead and they were really, really good. I will definitely be making them again.

Oatmeal Cherry White Chocolate Cookies
I think this may literally be my favorite cookie recipe ever. Like, in the whole world. Crazy, crazy good. Can you tell I have a little obsession with Joy the Baker? I think she's awesome.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Like I said, brown butter makes everything better.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
I juuuust took these out of the oven, so I haven't eaten them yet, but they look and smell AMAZING and I cannot wait to try them :) I love Brown-Eyed Baker as well. She's fabulous :)

Birthday cake

Well... I tried. That is about all I can say for this cake... the icing was bad because I didn't have a food processer, so I improvised and there were seeds in the icing. The icing was too runny and too sweet. I tried decorating it but it just melted down the sides of the cake (it wasn't particularly warm, the icing was just too runny). So I won't be posting the recipe for the icing, but I will be posting the delicious yellow cake recipe because it was wonderful. I will also be posting a few pictures of this cake so that you can laugh at the ugliness of it. The cake itself was delicious. Moist and super fluffy and just absolutely amazing. This will definitely be what I use in the future for yellow cakes. Click here for the recipe.

The Best Fudgy Brownies

So, for some reason I have issues with brownies. They never turn out quite right. They're always good, because they're brownies, but they're never perfect. These are pretty much perfect. Joy is amazing. Just sayin'.

So... these are delicious. They aren't actually dark chocolate because when I looked in the cabanet I realized that I had bittersweet chocolate, not unsweetened, but I didn't feel like going to the store. So these were more milk chocolate rather than dark, but either way you make them, they're amazing.

Here is the recipe!

Brown Sugar Cookies

I have been incredibly slack about blogging lately. I have been baking, of course, but I haven't been blogging about it. I need to get better, for sure. Hopefully once this semester is over I will.

So, these are definitely the best sugar cookies. Ever. In the whole wide world. End of story. I'm not a huge fan of sugar cookies most of the time, I find them boring. This is not to say that I don't eat them if there isn't another option, but they wouldn't be my first choice. These cookies, however, may be one of my new favorite cookies. I had 4 in about two point three seconds. I would have eaten more but I'd given a lot away.

I give some of my friends at school cookies, which was ok when it was just one friend and I was giving him the extra from my baking binges, but now it is expected that I give these 4 guys something baked at least once a week, and if one of them doesn't get some, or gets less than the others, they feel the need to whine. I guess I should be flattered that they like my baking so much, haha.

But anyway. These cookies. Pure epicness. They're perfectly chewy and delicious. I made them twice in one week. I used light brown sugar. You can find the recipe here. Everything I have ever made from Baking Bites has been amazing.