In honor of the first day of summer: PEACHES!!!!

Good day to all! It's officially summer here and in honor of this wonderful and glorious season (or so I say until the 100+ temps get here), and mostly for Father's Day, I made Peach Upside Down cake!!! Holy smokes! I've been frequenting a new baking blogger recently, Evil Shenanigans, and she has some delicious looking recipes on her page. Last week I tried her Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Chips, and Sunday I tried this Peach Cake. Let me tell you- it turns out just as beautifully from an amateur (me) as it does in her photos. I forgot to actually take photos, but you'll just have to take my word for it.

The recipe is super easy, and more importantly, super delicious! Please, for your own good- make this cake.

Happy summer friends!

update: I re-made this cake JUST so I had photographic evidence of how beautiful it is. Or just so that I have to eat it again. You decide.

Now that I look at it I should have squeezed one more slice in, but still a feast for the eyes!

A comedy of errors... AKA- Why I normally follow recipes!

Well hello there! It's been a while. I promise you I've been baking, but I always forget to take photos and my adventures have been rather uneventful- until last night. I've had two bananas ripening on my counter for about a week now, so last night was pretty much my last chance to use them in a recipe. Bakerella posted Blueberry Banana Muffin recipe a couple of weeks ago and I thought it sounded enticing so I've been kind of saving my two bananas to bake these delightful treats. Her blog makes them look SO perfect!

Everything started out just fine:


See? Just fine. Eggs, flour mixture, sugars, banana, buttermilk... Improvisation in baking is just not my strongest suit.

Her recipe calls for fresh blueberries, but I've been out of town and my fresh fruit selection is scant at best. I had some frozen blueberries- so I decided that any blueberries would do. It also calls for a cup of bananas smooshed up. Well my two bananas only made up 3/4 cup when smooshed, so I improvised with buttermilk for the remaining 1/4 cup. I really thought this would work! The strawberry bread (Make this bread. You will thank me. Oh, and make it withtwo cups of berries) I made last week was SO pretty. And SO delicious! And it had buttermilk- therefore, every quick bread must taste fine using buttermilk, right? That was my logic and I'm sticking to it.

So as I'm mixing, I'm just about to the last step, gently folding in the blueberries, and I look around to make sure I've gotten everything. I really did look, but apparently I have selective vision I missed the butter that was sitting in plain sight. After I folded in the blueberries (thanks to their frozen-ness, they made pretty purple swirls throughout the batter) and had the batter evenly distributed in the muffin cups, I realized my snafu. Well, poo. I proceeded to scoop the batter back into the mixing bowl once I decided that missing the butter completely would be worse than having completely purple batter. So I go the most gentle route possible and used a wooden spoon to "mix" in the butter. What a mess. The butter was not creamed and therefore never made it past the chunk phase. I did my best to at least distribute it through out the muffins, but it was a horrible result.

The muffins never even made it into my mouth. They felt game-y and tough (can quick breads be game-y???) so I didn't even try them. Unfortunately, because so many things went wrong, I can't even point out how to make this recipe usable, except to tell you to just do as Bakerella says. I'm sure she's right! :)

Funfetti! YUM!

So Allie's birthday is coming up and she's weird. Like SUPER weird. She doesn't like chocolate. Who doesn't like chocolate?! (Well, Allie... but oh well. You have to love besties even if they're weird.) So her favorite cake is funfetti and she's a cake mix loyalist and eats them without frosting and I'm a-okay with that because I, too love funfetti. So I found a recipe online to try (because I love real homemade goodies) before I started recording where they came from, but if you want the recipe, please let me know!

Onward and upward. I started with the recipe and realized that I added a whole stick of butter when I was supposed to only add 6 T. Oiy. I could tell with the batter because it does this weird separating thing where you can tell there's too much butter. Frosting does the same thing and with frosting you can add powdered sugar to make it all better. So I added 1T more flour and tasted and I needed sugar so I added 2T of sugar. Ugh. So annoying. It didn't taste like the mix like I had hoped. I think maybe more or better vanilla flavor? Maybe there's another flavor in there I'm not familiar with? It just wasn't the same. Anyways, the batter ended up looking pretty because anything looks pretty with sprinkles. So I baked them and they looked okay, but flat and spread out a bit too much, but I did fill them higher then I should. ONE of these days I will master the art of filling cupcake liners without over doing it. I'm thinking the butter made them so flat and lifeless. (but pretty!)

Next the fun began because who doesn't love to decorate a cupcake?! So I frosted with Buttercream/cream cheese frosting and it's pretty tasty. I'm getting good at frosting finally. The key is mixing for a while so it gets nice and fluffy. I frosted these bad boys with the angled spatula instead of my favorite, the piping bag. I think these would look lovely piped and sprinkled too, but I really wanted to try a decorating thing I saw online:


Cute, no? It's a flat-top frost with angled edges then you roll the edges in non-pareils poured on a plate (don't pour them too fast- they are some BOUNCY little buggers. I now need to re-sweep my kitchen floor).

I ended up almost popping the cupcake top off because these were so light and fluffy and the frosting was weighing the muffin top down so much that it started separating from the bottom. So it's cute, but do it with a denser cake. I only did two like this and frosted and sprinkled the rest. The end result is just cute. Perfect for a party, but not a good replacement for funfetti from the box.


Trust me I know. I slaved over a cute cupcake.


And I did right by that cupcake! And wrong by my hips, but let's ignore that tiny detail and the extra 2T of butter...

The end result was tasty, especially with the icing, but as with the strawberry cupcakes, the frosting steals the show.

Overall, they're fun and cute, but if you're a loyalist this is one recipe i would (and it pains me to say this) use a box mix for your funfetti cakes. *sigh*


Enjoy folks!

Strawberries galore!

So I had two containers of strawberries that I bought this weekend and were like 5 seconds from going to the great strawberry field in the sky (aka my trash can). I hate to be wasteful, so I just had to figure out how to use them. First things first, strawberry muffins. Why not, right? Here's what they looked like going into the oven



Nothing too exciting, but I added the brown sugar because I felt like making them look pretty :)

This is how they looked after their trip into my oven.



Not too shabby! They look a little light, but the toothpick came out clean.

These muffins can be re-created with blueberries or raspberries or peaches I'd imagine would be good too. I would suggest adding a smidge more butter maybe? Maybe some oil? They are a hint too dry, but the flavor is just right.

P.S. If you want to do peach, add in some cinnamon to bring out the peachy-ness. Yum!

Next up: Sprinkles Strawberry Cupcakes a la Martha Stewart.

These are pretty easy considering they're from one of the most popular bake shops (Sprinkles). They'd better be good!!! :)

First things first- two recipes in one night means a messy kitchen...


Quite the whirlwind. It's all cleaned now and the cupcakes next went into the oven:


Not too tasty-looking from here but alas, we're not finished yet!

When the lovelies came out of the oven, they were PURPLE! Yay for purple cupcakes.

Here's hoping they taste better than a purple strawberry :) Although I'm not quite sure how that would taste. Anyhoodles. Since the reviews of the frosting said it was too buttery, I went with a slightly modified recipe of Strawberry cream cheese frosting and I can attest to its deliciousness.

Yay again for Strawberry cupcakes!!!! And not being wasteful!

Yum-OH!

Turns out these cupcakes were actually a little short on strawberry-ness, but the delightful frosting MORE than made up for any lack of fruit and the cupcakes were perfectly and deliciously moist.

Continuing to venture out on my own! Brownie Bites to dies for!

This week I was low on groceries and too lazy to shop so I decided to modify the recipe for Rocky Road Brownies courtesy of Alice over at Sweet Savory Life because it requires two eggs and that's all I had on hand. I'm not a fan of nuts unless in a delightful salad, so I knew I couldn't just do this recipe without changing it, but her photos looked SO delicious that I just had to try it.

The first time I made these I tasted the batter and knew they would be winning brownies, but I had to bolt towards the end of the baking time and had to leave the removal of the brownies from the oven in the capable hands of my roommate. They ended up a bit too toasty to eat and i ended up digging out the middle and snacking on that part alone. In spite of this little snafu of a baking experience, I knew I had to redo this recipe to prove to myself that this delicious batter was worth tasting in baked form.



Last week I purchased a mini muffin baking pan because I've wanted one for about a month now and happened upon one at Target- so whammo! I bought it. My twist on the recipe was minor but oh so tasty. I omitted the nuts and the marshmallows this time around and (of course) used the muffin pan to make bites instead of regular brownies. The final alteration was to use the leftover cream cheese frosting from last weeks Carrot Cake to top some of these bites and holy smokes! That was the best idea in the world! On the frosted ones I also decorated them with one of the Ghirardelli 60% Chocolate Chips (which are larger than normal chocolate chips) and that too was a wonderful addition.

The bites ended up tasting delightful both with and without the frosting and were a big hit at the office. I really think that they were my favorite recipe that I've ever tasted for a brownie- just delightful. So please, take a look and try these! I promise you won't be disappointed:



Brownies Bites Recipe- Modified from Sweet Savory Life

BROWNIE INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup chocolate chips (dark or semi-sweet)

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, combine marshmallows, almonds, and chocolate chips then set aside. In a medium-large bowl, mix (by hand) melted butter, sugar, and vanilla until blended. Add one egg at a time mixing/beating well. Add flour, cocoa, and salt and stir the batter until fully incorporated making sure you scrape the sides of the bowl including the bottom.
Spray the mini muffin pan with non-stick spray. Scoop brownie batter inside the pan- about 1 tbsp per cup. Sprinkle chocolate chips over the top of the brownie batter. Using the back of a clean spoon, gently press down the chips into the batter just enough so the chips are slightly packed down. Bake for 19 minutes or until done. Allow to cool slightly before serving. Brownies slice really nicely if completely cooled.


ICING (from Pioneer Woman's Sigrid's Carrot Cake):
1 stick Regular Butter, Softened
1 package (8 Oz) Cream Cheese at room temperature
1 pound Powdered Sugar
2 teaspoons Vanilla

DIRECTIONS: In larger bowl, cream butter and cream cheese until fluffy. Add sugar and vanilla and blend.

This one's for you mom!

So since I made a Chocolate Bundt cake for Trissie for Easter, I had to deliver for mom too. That means a request for Carrot Cake because Pioneer Woman re-posted a recipe last week that included fainting in the instructions. You know that's going to be a good cake!!! Anyhoodles.

I forgot to grate the carrots first, but it was no biggie- even with the newly orange finger nails. I also actually sifted as instructed. Please pat me on the back for that. I hate sifting with a passion.

I can tell I'm getting more comfortable with this whole baking business and i ventured out and *gasp* added nutmeg! Sidenote: my sister is the cooking kid in the family because she is all about not actually following a recipe (which makes copying her delicious food THAT much harder). She loves to add fun spices and new ingredients and I love her (and her food) for that. She really kicks butt in the kitchen. Well that's why I am now the baker for the family because I like recipes. I like order and instructions and guidance. They're my best friends and the reason that baking works so well for me. Baking is like a science experiment- a sometimes very volatile science experiment (see macaroons), so it's usually important to do as little fudging of the recipe as possible to make sure you get a moist and delicious baked good. So now you will all understand that nutmeg is a big step for me :)

The cakes are cooling right now and I whipped up the frosting (sans chopped nuts because adding nuts to dessert is just WRONG) and it is to DIE for. I whipped up a double batch per Ree's instruction and will undoubtedly have extra. Guess I'll have to take care of that myself! Definitely a cream cheese frosting recipe worth holding onto! Until later my friends! I must go and frost.

The verdicts are in- the cream cheese frosting is delicious (my own input) and the cake is a perfectly dense, moist, not too carrot-y cake(everyone elses input)! All reviews so far have been amazing. I may even venture into adding more spices next time just to see what happens, but there will definitely be a next time! :)

A Chocolate Chip Cookie-off!

With as much time I spend meandering about the baking blogs, I've come across about a gazillion recipes that all look good enough to eat right off the screen and it feels like I'll NEVER have time to try them all- so I decided to have a cookie off and compare two recipes in one night! Plus- TWICE the goodies! YAY! Amy was a wonderful baking compadre (and she has a Kitchenaid, I'm just sayin...). She came armed with her best recipe courtesy of Thomas Keller a al Ad Hoc at Home. The book had some DELICIOUS looking recipes in there and she had tried the recipe before with a smaller, less accomplished mixer. I came armed with a recipe from My Baking Addiction for the Extraordinary Chocolate Chip Cookies. Jamie did not disappoint!

So she graciously let me start with my recipe. Nothing too extravagant in the recipe. The strange thing about chocolate chip cookies is that no recipe is really that far off from any other. All of the recipes have the same basics- butter, brown sugar, flour, sugar, chocolate chips, eggs, you get the idea). The key is in the ratios of all of the wonderful ingredients. I followed the recipe to a T being that it was the first time I was preparing it. I came up with some changes that I would make after tasting them. First things first though- they came out looking like I DID grab them off of the computer screen! It was insane. The taste was also surreal! The only small change I would make is to use either all salted butter, or one stick (of the two). This time was all unsalted and I think I would have like a bit more salt in there. I also would have mixed the chips better, used all dark chocolate chips (or at least part), and maybe a tinge less brown sugar- like one or two tablespoons less. These are all factors of taste though, so give it a go and make the changes you see fit.

Also worth noting: Amy has a wonderfully developed kitchen. I feel like my kitchen is a pre-teen girl going through "the change" and she doesn't quite have all of her confidence or her umm, fully developed equipment :) Amy's kitchen, on the other hand, is a mid 20's woman who's got all of her equipment in check and knows how to use it- especially her mixer. Man oh man! We got to break it in that night and it was quite a treat! Also? She has a cookie scoop. I never knew I needed a cookie scoop having used my hands to form cookies for the past 25 years. What a TREAT! Almost as much as the Kitchenaid! (Who am I kidding- there was no comparison! But it's nice to know that such a small tool can make baking so much easier) Another treat in Amy's kitchen? Silpat FTW!

After a mouth-watering dinner (Thanks Chris!!!) Amy moved into the ring for round two. I was in charge of reading the recipe from the book and played director. Her recipe called for cold butter (not a normal thing for baking since it adds more crunch), and some more delectable dark chocolate (60% and 72%). Let me tell you, the taste was divine. Absolutely untouchable. I definitely felt like I was eating cookies from an upscale chef at an upscale restaurant. It was how chocolate cookies should taste when they grow up! It was as if in this grown-up cookie the flavors aged so gracefully, while the cookies looked like they needed a little face lift (quite literally as they didn't have much leavening to them), but it's what's on the inside that counts folks! And that's exactly where these cookies ended up- on my inside- YUM! Maybe it was the cold butter that left them a smidge flatter than we would have hoped, but upon consumption, there was no question that Thomas Keller knows what he is doing.

My conclusion: If you like a traditional cookie, try Jamie's from My Baking Addiction. If you have a more refined palate- go big or go home and check out Thomas Keller's wonderful cookbook from his restaurant Ad Hoc. Oh, and I am SO very sorry about the lack of photos. I guess I'll have to force my self to do this again! Any takers? I would love to test out some more recipes!