It’s the beginning of December and I’ve already purchased enough cans of Libby’s Pumpkin to support them until next November. Seriously, if I could throw pumpkin into everything during this time of year I would.
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Category Archives: dessert
Double Chocolate Cupcakes
The beauty of my life as a novice baker lies partly in the fact that I don’t like sweets. Don’t get me wrong – I love baking them, smelling them, working with them and sharing them… my taste buds just prefer the savory side.
Trust me, this is a good thing. My list of food/beverage related vices is long enough that sparing me of sweet related calories is a God-send. Now when I start making my own cheese, beer and bread – we’ll be in trouble… “we” being my waist-line.
Lemon Drop Cake
Every now and then us novice cooks and bakers get ballsy in the kitchen (at least we should be gettin ballsy) – sometimes the results are tremendous and other times, disastrous. As in life, in the kitchen it’s important to step out of your comfort zone, take a leap of faith and just go for it.
For me, my comfort zone is definitely in the cupcake, cookie zone, so when I snatched the amazing Baked: New Frontiers In Baking and drooled after some big boy cakes – I decided to step it up.
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Chilled Summer Peach Soup
Blame it on my upbringing – but I love farmers. I would love to live in a world where farmers make more than any other profession – they do after all keep us fed. Since that’s not happening anytime soon, we can at least take the time to search out and support local farmer’s market, or orchards and farms that sell their goods. (I’m climbing down off my soapbox now.)
But seriously folks, being able to make the following recipe from The Wine Lover’s Cookbook with super fresh ingredients made all the difference. These gorgeous fresh peaches came from the fabulous Orr’s Farm Market in West Virginia. Go find fresh fruit and make this immediately!
Cream Filled Chocolate Cupcakes
I wonder if there have been studies on the effects of nostalgia making things taste better? Every now and then I pick up Swedish Fish from the gas station, and reminisce about penny candy jars and little league baseball games. Those things are like wax, but damn they taste good in my mind.
I would argue for nostalgia making these Hostess Cupcake impersonators taste so darned good, but they just ARE that good!
Tres Leches Cake with Mango
Fresh whipped cream, tangy and bright mango puree, and a sweet and moist vanilla tres leches cake… Sublime. Don’t be intimated by words that aren’t in English ladies & gents, this is one of those times to embrace the foreign and unknown.
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Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Icing
Many moons ago I came across this recipe from the lovely Kristina of The Chocolate Peanut Butter Gallery and wanted to try my hand at it.
Thank God I finally crossed it off my “to-bake” list, cuz these little cupcakes are wicked!
The combination of banana and chocolate chips in the batter is perfectly balanced, with a heavenly whipped peanut butter/cream cheese frosting.
Grown Up S’mores
The man or woman behind the S’more is nothing short of a genius. Seriously, who would have thought to combine a graham cracker, a Hershey bar and some marshmallows? Whomever they were, they knocked it out of the sweet treat park.
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Cranberry Bliss Bars
Remember the days when Starbucks was a hotbed of activity- filled with the sounds of killer music and smelling of reasonably priced legal addictive stimulants? Yeah, I know it’s hard to think back about ten years, but those were the good old days!
Let’s call these delicious cranberry bliss bars an ode to my well-spent late teens and early twenties in NYC, or at least an ode to all the lattes I drank!
Double Vanilla Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ina Garten is the queen of simple recipes that yield perfect results. If you are new to this whole cooking game, or simply looking for recipes that will become staples in your arsenal, Ina’s books and recipes should be your first stop!
When I stumbled upon this recipe a few years ago it immediately became my go-to vanilla cake recipe. Sour cream might throw you off, but rest assured, it’s what makes these babies so darn moist.
I’ve finally gotten around to having vanilla beans in my kitchen and tweaked this recipe slightly by adding those tiny bits of awesome.
