Meyer Lemon Curd Cake

This is not the prettiest cake, I know this. BUT trust me when I say, it is totally and completely worth making. The cake batter part is rich and vanilla-y, which goes really well with the lemon curd. And when baked, the lemon curd gets a lemon bar type consistency. SO good. I'm pretty sure I ate most of it myself. My family aren't huge lemon fans so whenever I end up making lemon things, I eat the majority of it myself (over a period of time of course). I have been known to eat an entire (large) pan of lemon bars by myself in two days... yeah, not a good life choice...
But this cake is one that I definitely do not mind eating all by myself, it's just that delicious. Also, it's totally easy to put together. It'd be delicious with other kinds of curd too of course. I'd like to try it with raspberry curd next.
So while this cake may not be the one you pull out to show off when guests come over, it is definitely a good cake to make for a night in, or a lazy weekend breakfast. Trust me, totally worth making. Don't judge a book by it's cover and all that jazz. Also, it's from Heidi at 101 Cookbooks and I'm pretty sure she's incapable of creating something that isn't totally delicious.
You can use store-bought lemon curd, but it's probably cheaper and way more fun/delicious to make it yourself. It may seem like a scary thing to make, but trust me, it's totally easy!

Lemon Curd Cake
Adapted from 101 Cookbooks
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup lemon curd
Sugar in the raw for the top (optional but definitely adds a good texture and flavor)

Preheat oven to 350, butter a 9" pan. Set aside
Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
In the bowl of a mixer, cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time, then beat in vanilla.
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients all at once and fold in to combine. Do not over-mix.
Pour half the batter into the pan, and using about half of the curd, drop spoonfuls over the batter. Pour the rest of the batter in. It's a thick batter so it's not going to smooth over the curd well, that's okay though. Do your best to get it over, then put the remaining curd on top of the batter. Take a butter knife and swirl the curd and batter just slightly, being careful not to get the curd too close to the sides of the pan (it will stick and be pretty messy after baking). Sprinkle sugar in the raw on top. Bake 32-34 minutes.

Meyer Lemon Curd

Do you ever have specific words that gross you out? I never notice words that I don't like unless one of my sister's or my mother point out words that gross them out. Apparently, a gross word is "curd". You'd think that being 17, my sister would at least try it. Nope! She will have none of it, and neither will my boyfriend. Seventeen and nineteen years old and they refuse to try something because the name is gross... people are strange sometimes :P
But! Don't let the fact that this is called curd get to you. It's totally fabulous and delicious and SO easy to make. Super easy. I have to find more things to do with it, I swirled it into a cake (recipe to come!) and it was glorious. Going to put it on some pancakes later... yuuuum...

Meyer Lemon Curd
FromConfections of a Foodie Bride
1/2 cup Meyer lemon juice (about 4-5 lemons)
1 Tbsp lemon zest
2 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
1 stick butter, cut into 4 pieces

Whisk together lemon juice, zest, sugar, and eggs in a bowl placed over a simmering pot of water. Whisk until warm and then add in butter one piece at a time until melted. Whisk constantly until thickened and smooth, will be about 165 degrees on a candy thermometer.
Pour through a strainer. Use or store in fridge with plastic wrap over the top of the curd (this prevents it from getting a "skin" like puddings do).

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

I make pound cake wayyy too much... it's just so easy and there's something awesome about creaming together massive amounts of butter, cream cheese, and sugar. Especially after getting my absolutely fantastic Kitchenaid stand mixer for Christmas... seriously, I'm pretty sure I'm in love with it. I used to think that maybe they weren't THAT great, and then I got one. Probably one of the best things ever. I just left the cream cheese, butter, and sugar in the mixer to cream while I made dinner. Aaaaamazing.
But I'll stop talking about my mad crazy love for my mixer and tell you about this recipe. Totally and completely delicious, and very easy. One of my sister's says it tastes like cheesecake with a different texture. Anything even slightly cheesecake-y and I'm pretty sure its a great idea.
If you're not a huge fan of cream cheese pound cake, this is a wonderful recipe for normal pound cake, and also one that I use on a regular basis.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake
Adapted from My Baking Addiction
Makes one bundt cake

1 1/2 cups butter, room temperature
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
1 tbs vanilla extract
3 cups flour

Preheat oven to 325, grease a bundt cake pan. Set aside.
In a mixing bowl, beat together butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add in sugar and beat until light and fluffy, at least 5 minutes. Add in eggs two at a time and beat to incorporate. Beat in vanilla.
Add flour and mix until fully combined.
Pour into bundt pan and bake about an hour, rotating pan once.
Let cool in pan for about 20 minutes before removing to cool on wire rack completely.

Giant Malted Oreos

When I bake, I like to plan what I'm going to bake way before I actually bake it. I'm not sure why I do this, because I change my mind about 50 times before I come to a final decision. I'll be all set to bake whatever I decided on, and then change my mind to something completely different. So it's pretty pointless to attempt to plan anything to bake, but I do it anyway. Sometimes planning is most of the fun.
I've wanted to make this recipe for a while and I'm SO glad I finally got around to it. It's totally delicious and not at all hard. It did take me a while to make because I'm ridiculously slow the first time I try a recipe, but for most people this shouldn't take long at all :P
School starts tomorrow for me so posting may slow down a bit, but I am definitely planning to still update at least once a week, preferably two to three times a week, depending on how much I actually bake.

Well, as I have about a million things to do to get ready for school before I go into work, this is a short post. Hope you enjoy the recipe!

Giant Malted Oreos
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Not sure how many this makes, as a lot got eaten before I could count but I doubled her recipe and (accidentally) made my cookies bigger than actual oreos so I'd say about 40 sandwich cookies. Definitely half this if you won't eat them all, but I plan to give some away if I actually have any left.
Also, if you want bigger cookies, use two teaspoons worth of dough. Make sure you give a bit of room between them on the baking sheet, they spread.

Cookies:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup malted milk powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 1/4 cups butter (2 1/2 sticks)
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 375 and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, malt, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Add in butter and eggs and beat on low speed. You may have to use your hands to get this dough to come together.
Drop rounded teaspoonfuls (that's a word now, if it wasn't before) onto baking sheets and press down slightly, bake about 8-9 minutes. Let cool on baking sheets for about 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks.

Filling:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
4 cups powdered sugar
1 Tbs vanilla extract
one vanilla bean, scraped

Beat together butter and shortening until smooth, then add in sugar and beat until creamy. Beat in vanilla and vanilla bean until fully incorporated.

Using a pastry bag or a freezer bag with the corner snipped off, fill cookies.

Chewy Sugar Cookies

When I was little, the best part of going to the grocery store was the sugar cookies you get when you go to the deli. No chocolate chip cookies for me, no way. Vanilla was the way to go. They were always the best, always soft and chewy, never crunchy. Crunchy cookies were (and still are) gross when I was 5, so grocery store cookies were the best.
What is it about children and less than awesome taste in food? Thank goodness it's something you grow out of. Or at least it is for some people... my boyfriend had Eggo Waffles with maple syrup, whipped cream, and chocolate milk for dinner. Some people don't outgrow the gross phase... But anyway! While I outgrew the stale grocery store cookie phase, I still love sugar cookies. These were almost like a mix between sugar cookie and a shortbread cookie. The outside was buttery and slightly crisp, but the inside was soft and chewy. They're very vanilla-y and super delicious. You also can leave the dough in the fridge overnight, too.

Vanilla Sugar Cookies
from Joy the Baker

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus more for tops
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Beat butter till smooth, then add in oil. Beat a bit, although it may not fully incorporate. Add in sugars, egg, and vanilla, beat until smooth.

Stir in dry ingredients all at once until fully incorporated. Refridgerate for at least an hour until firmer and easier to handle.

Preheat oven to 350, and line sheets with parchment paper.


Drop tablespoonfuls (is that a word? maybe not...) onto cookie sheets, flatten slightly, and sprinkle liberally with sugar. Bake about 10 minutes until edges are just slightly browned. Cool on cookie sheets for about 5 minutes before cooling the rest of the way on wire racks.

Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips and Millet

I am a little bit obsessed with pumpkin... okay maybe a lot obsessed. Pumpkin puree starts out looking kind of gross and like carrot baby food, but baked into things, it's amazing. Pumpkin bread is definitely my favorite way to eat it. It's delicious without anything in it, but adding in chocolate chips and millet makes it even better.
This bread is super moist, as most pumpkin bread, and the spices are great. Chocolate chips and millet make it even better. Millet is a strange but delicious thing. It's in bird seed, but is a common grain in other countries. Super delicious and crunchy, so don't be weirded out over it!

These loaves also freeze very well, so you don't have to eat it all at once.

Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips and Millet
Adapted from Joy the Baker inspired by this recipe.
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup milk
1 15 oz can of pumpkin puree
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup flax seed meal
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 cup raw millet
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Raw sugar for sprinkling

Grease two loaf pans and preheat oven to 350.

Whisk together butter, oil, sugar, and eggs. Add in vanilla, milk, and pumpkin. Whisk or beat well until fully combined. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flours, flax meal, salt, baking soda, and spices. Stir in millet. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in wet ingredients. Fold together, then fold in chocolate chips. Pour into to loaf pans and pour raw sugar liberally over the top. Bake about 1 hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pans for about 15 minutes before removing from pans and cooling completely on wire racks.

Malted Mint Chocolate Cookies

When I was about 13 my best friend lived right down the street from Pitt Street Pharmacy, a retro-style pharmacy/diner. Whenever we'd ride our bikes down there, she'd get a chocolate shake and I'd get a mint chocolate chip malt. Sounds weird but is absolutely delicious!
I got some mint chocolate chunks on sale a couple weeks ago and decided I needed to use them in this recipe, as well as add some malt. The cookie is delicious and fudgy and I will definitely be making them again soon!
I got these on sale because the main grocery store that I shop at only has them seasonally, but I believe Wal-Mart has them year round.

Malted Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Annie's Eats

1/2 cup butter, cold and cut in chunks
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup dark cocoa powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup malted milk powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups mint chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 350 and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Whisk together flour, malt, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time, then beat in vanilla. Mix in cocoa powder. With mixer on low, beat in flour mixture until just combined, then stir in chocolate chunks.
Drop rounded tablespoon amount onto cookie sheets, and bake 9-10 minutes, until edges are set. Cool on cookie sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks.

Makes about 56 small cookies.

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Pumpkin is most definitely one of my favorite flavors. I love the spices that go along with it, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, all spice... yuuuum. SO good :) Most of the time when I bake with pumpkin I make into muffins or a quick bread loaf and try to convince myself it's healthy, but occasionally I will give up the attempts at healthy-ness. These are the times I make pumpkin into cupcakes with obsene amounts of frosting. Like, seriously, the amount of frosting on these cupcakes is ridiculous. There is a reason, though; I have an issue with unfilled cupcakes. For the longest time I couldn't stand cupcakes because the frosting just wasn't evenly distrubited enough. Not to mention, grocery store bakery cupcakes are generally disgusting, but that's besides the point. Once I started filling cupcakes with icing, I couldn't stop. It's the perfect solution, it's not much more work and it's much better for icing distribution. I try not to pile too much frosting on top, as it's generally really rich, but it usually ends up with a giant pile of frosting anyway.
These cupcakes are fantastic. I always think of pumpkin baked goods as dense, which isn't such a bad thing all the time, but these are wonderfully fluffy and still very moist. The frosting is my own recipe and I still need to work out a few kinks before posting it, but just a basic cream cheese recipe will work. I frosted mine with a mascarpone/cream cheese frosting. Yuuum. Enjoy! :)


Pumpkin Cupcakes
Adapted from Brown Eyed Baker
2 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups packed light-brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk
2/4 cup canned pumpkin (not pie filling)

Preheat oven to 350 and line 23 muffin tins with liners.
Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices. Set aside.
Beat together sugar and butter until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time, beat until will combined. Beat in vanilla.
With mixer on low, beat in 1/3 flour mixer, mix until just combined. Add in half milk, then another third of flour, the rest of the milk, and then the rest of the flour. Beat in pumpkin until just incorporated. Fill muffin tins about half of the way full, bake 16-18 minutes until they spring back when touched. Let cool completely before frosting.
This is half of the original recipe. It was supposed to only make 16 but I filled mine a little less than the recipe said and got more. I prefered this, the still came up to the top of the paper liners when baked.
Frost with your favorite cream cheese frosting.

Whole Wheat Double Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

I'm pretty sure everyone has a comfort food, a food they eat when they're feeling sick, or sad, or just generally in need of comfort. I have two kinds of comfort foods, the kind I like to eat, and the kind that I like to bake. My super major comfort food to eat is soup. I love, love, love soup. I don't care if it's 120 degrees and you're swimming through the air (trust me, that happens here in the south), if I'm sick, I want soup. I've never really been one of those people to eat a container of ice cream when I'm sad. I like salty things when I'm sick or sad.
When I'm feeling like I want to comfort bake something, it's either chocolate chip cookies, or oatmeal cookies. I'm not sure why I'd pick either of those, growing up I despised oatmeal cookies for the raisins (raisins are the bane of my existence) and did not like chocolate chip cookies because dark chocolate tasted like dirt. But whenever I'm feeling like I need a little balance and calm, I bake chocolate chip or oatmeal cookies.
This recipe is seriously delicious and super easy. I've actually made it with quick cooking oats before and liked that a lot, it makes the cookies softer. I made them with old fashioned oats this time around because that was what we had in the house, and it's a more classic oatmeal cookie feel. Without the disgusting raisins of course.
You definitely can use just all-purpose flour, I was just playing around with different types of flours for fun and liked this combination :)

Adapted from Joy the Baker
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
1 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk together flours, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Set aside.

Cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time, and then vanilla. Beat well.

Stir in dry ingredients, then oats and chocolate chips. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheets and bake about 9 minutes. Let cool on sheets for 3 minutes before cooling on racks.

Meyer Lemon Cornmeal Cake

Sometimes I get a little crazy. I like to talk to the things that I bake. I know, it's weird. I also get ridiculously excited when it comes to weird things, like key limes and meyer lemons. I have an crazy amount of citrus in my house right now. Seriously, crazy. I just couldn't help myself, it's like seeing something on sale. Just because you don't need it doesn't mean you shouldn't buy it, because what if this chance doesn't come up for a while? That was my reasoning when I bought a bag of key limes, and two bags of meyer lemons. Of course, now I have to actually think of something to do with all of these crazy things. I've made lemon curd (recipe to come), key lime meltaways, and now this totally delicious cake. It's nice and simple, totally easy to bake and really good. I think easy cakes like this may be my favorite thing to eat and bake ever. I'm not so good with the whole gorgeously decorated cookies and cakes thing. I am good at baking pretty delicious things, though.

This cake is delicious and comforting. It's not to sweet and the glaze balances that out really well. It's soft and not too lemon-y and the cornmeal gives it a great texture. This is definitely a cake I will make again soon!



Meyer Lemon Cornmeal Cake
Adapted from Joy the Baker

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon meyer lemon zest
1/2 cup (1 stick) plus one tablespoons melted browned butter

Lemon Glaze:
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
3 to 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 vanilla bean, scraped

Butter and flour a 9" cake pan and preheat oven to 350.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In a separate smaller bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, vanilla extract, and lemon zest. Pour into dry mixture and fold together with a rubber spatula until just combined.
Pour into pan and bake about 30 minutes.
While cake is baking, whisk together glaze ingredients. Start with less lemon juice and add more until you get the desired consistency. Mine was thick but still pretty runny.
When cake is done, cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes still in pan, poke some holes in it with a fork, and pour glaze on. Let sit at least 30 minutes before eating.

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

Okay so I am FINALLY posting a recipe with some pictures. Thank goodness. I stole my sister's camera and my mom's computer and put it on a fancy plate that I got at the thrift store yesterday. I got 16 plates, so psyched out of my mind about them, I absolutely loveee them.

Anyway, about this cake. It's amazing. It's a bit strange, it shrinks up a ton once it cools, but it's rich and delicious and has thousands of tiny little poppy seeds which actually taste like something in this cake. Yum, yum, yum. Also, since it calls for 8 egg yolks, I made angel food cake (which calls for 12 egg whites) with the left-over egg whites. I had 4 extra yolks but I didn't have time to do anything with them after baking two cakes and making a mess of the kitchen.
The recipe is here, from Smitten Kitchen who I absolutely love. Her photos are incredible and I've made quite a few recipes from her blog and have loved all of them.

So yes, make this recipe as soon as possible, because it is delicious and make some angel food cake to use up the extra egg whites :)

Frosted Sugar Cookies (Lofthouse Cookie Clone)

Edit January 6, 2012: Added a photo. Also, since first making this recipe I tried another soft frosted sugar cookie recipe that used sour cream, and then made these again for Christmas eve and much prefer the texture of these cookies. The ones with sour cream were definitely delicious, but this recipe is a lot closer to the Lofthouse cookies that I was trying to imitate. Definitely use unsalted butter for these, I generally use salted butter because I don't mind the extra salt and that's what we use more around the house, but it makes these too salty.

Have you had those amazing sugar cookies they have at the grocery store? The ones you know you shouldn't buy because you'll eat them all? They're very cake-y in texture in the best way, and they have super sweet frosting. They're called Lofthouse cookies and they're seriously epic. I don't buy them because I refuse to buy cookies if I can bake some (unless they're oreos, that's completely different).

Another question, is it normal to talk to dogs in the way you talk to people? My mother just asked her dog/bear/rug (also known as a Newfoundland) why he didn't tell her that he needed to go out. I'm pretty sure that's not normal. But, I talk to the things I cook and bake as if they were going to talk back ("are you done? if you burn I am going to be pretty pissed, so don't you dare burn"). Guess I know where I got that from

So anyway, I didn't actually get a picture of these because I made them, had to leave, go to work all day the next day, and then by the time I got home there was only two left so I ate them before I could think about it. But they were so good that I will be making them again very, very soon.

I've been looking for a recipe similar to the Lofthouse cookies for a while now, but most of the ones I found didn't seem close enough, or used a boxed cake mix, and I refuse to bake with boxed cake mix since that takes all the fun out of baking and isn't actually baking. These, however, are amazing. They are freakishly similar to the original Lofthouse cookies, except they're more buttery, which is always a good thing. I didn't change anything to the recipe, other than to add more powdered sugar to the icing as it was runny.

The icing will firm up and become the same texture as the ones from the store after they sit for a bit. The ones I made were just as good on the second day, though I'm not sure how they'd fair after that since they didn't last that long.
Here is the recipe, from the wonderful Annie at Annie's Eats. It's definitely a recipe to make as soon as possible.

Oh you know what else is exciting? They have fancy butter at Publix, who knew? I sure didn't. I looked up at the shelf above the store brand butter that I normally buy and there was like, 4 different kinds of European-style and Irish imported butter! I made some cake with it, just because I felt like it. At over double the price of regular butter it isn't something I'll be buying often (when you use as much butter as I do, even store brand gets a little pricey), but next time I make some shortbread cookies I'll try it and see if I'll be able to tell the difference.

As soon as school starts I'll be blogging more, I've just been so busy this summer doing everything except being home, except when I bake, that I haven't had time to blog. But when school rolls around I'll be procrastinating so much that I'll be posting a ton :P

Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer!

I'm baaaack!

Alright, well. My camera is currently broken, and until yesterday, my computer has been broken (thank the lord for one of my best friends, he is a smartie and knows how to fix crazy, confusing things like computers), hence the lack of updates. I have, of course, still been baking. So I have lots and lots of recipes to update, all of which I'm extremely excited about, the most recent being a seriously amazing white bean and bacon soup recipe that I think I could eat every day for the rest of my life and still be happy.
SO, assuming anyone is reading this, I shall be updating with some recipes (sans pictures, for the most part :( poor dead camera), as soon as I stop procrastinating :P

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.

White Chocolate Cupcakes with Blackberry Buttercream Frosting

I still haven't gotten the hang of taking pictures yet :/ I know my frosting is sloppy, I didn't feel like piping it on and I kind of like the way hand-frosted cupcakes look.

So, I had this strange urge to make cupcakes today, I'm not sure why. I normally never make cupcakes. I've also been wanting to make them with some kind of fruit, I guess because it's getting to be spring time. So although it was FREEZING tonight, like, 45 degrees (it's been in the 80s recently, gotta love the south!), I decided that I NEEDED to make these cupcakes. The cupcakes recipe is from here, but I made up the buttercream frosting :D It only makes enough to frost about 9-12 cupcakes, but I only had 6 blackberries left haha. It doesn't have a super intense blackberry taste, but you could add more and then just wait on adding the cream and see how it looks. Some of the cupcakes have a strawberry buttercream but I haven't perfected that yet so I'm only posting the recipe for the blackberry buttercream. Blackberry Buttercream

6-8 frozen blackberries, mostly defrosted ½ tsp vanilla A couple drops raspberry extract A couple drops lemon extract 2 cups powdered sugar ½ cup butter, room temperature 2 tbs cream

Smoosh the blackberries into a pulp (I don't have a food processer), set aside.

Beat together butter and one cup of powdered sugar, then beat in the second cup. Add the extracts, blackberry pulp, beat. Depending on the texture, add 1-2 tbs cream or milk.

Angel Food Cake

Ok so I have been incredibly slack about baking and blogging lately. I've been super busy and haven't felt with dealing with the mess after I bake, so I just haven't baked xD BUT! Last night I made angel food cake! :) I finally got a tube pan and made it, after wanting to for FOREVER. And it actually turned out really, really well! :) I have to charge my camera and then I will take some pictures. this is the recipe I used. The only thing I did differently was that I baked it only 40 minutes, but I used a convection oven so I would just go by how your oven is. This was SO much easier than I thought and really good. And my mom is doing weight watchers and she was exciting because it was low on WW points, so that's always a plus as well :D