Oooey Goooey Brownies

These brownies came out so much better then i thought they would. Taste great with ice cream. I made them with bittersweet chocolate baking chips which was my first time using chocolate baking chips. I have heard horrid stories about them, about how they dont melt right and stuff but these were at this cake decorating store I found a while ago and I thought if Ina Garten (i think thats how you spell her name, whatever the barefoot contessa) uses them I should do. I wish the store was closer so i can buy more. They melted great and the brownies turned out so moist and not too rich like the chocolate cookies I made. I cut down the chocolate the recipe asked for. I also added walnuts cause they always go great in brownies.



I dont know if I already mentioned this, but if anyone is in the market for a new baking book I totally recommend William Sonoma Baking book and Martha Stewart Baking Handbook. I recently bought them and they are fantastic. They have helped me out so much.

The Best Gift to Give.

Graduation time is around and I thought instead of spending tons of money on gifts for friends that are graduating that I dont even think they need I could bake them something. Because one its from the heart and because its practice for me.
I decided to make 3 or 4 things for each person. I had 3 people to bake for which meant a lot of organizing to get this right. Its one thing to have your family eat something that you made but its on a whole other level if you have someone not related to you eat something you made. It's just more pressure.
This took 2 days of baking, because there is only a certain amount of day I get to use the kitchen all by myself without people coming in and out complaining about the mess I am making.
Also this was a great time for me to use my new Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer I just got in a great Red color.
So I decided to make stuff that would be small and wont go bad when mail. I made Raspberry Crumb Bars, Blondies, Banana Nut Bread, Sweet Cinnamon Bread, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Pumpkin (chocolate chip) Muffins. This was the most I've baked since Senior year I had to make close to 200 cookies for a school event. That was a little more hectic then this though.

Cinnamon Bread:
(Sweet Bread that is cake like and the bread is made of basically vanilla cake and then in the middle and top has cinnamon butter, sort of like cinnamon roll.)

Brown Sugar Blondies:

Raspberry Crumb Bars:
(The Crust and Topping had the best smell, I mixed in some cinnamon and nutmeg for taste and smell, those have become my 2 favorite ingredients they aways kick up anything you are baking to a new level)

Banana Nut Bread (with walnuts):

My awesome moist and crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies:
(I must have made nearly 50 cookies for mom's coworkers, family, and then freinds)
I made Pumpkin Muffins but Ive already posted on here and I have got to say that those muffins are probably the first recipe I actually invented and has secret ingredients. Hah.

Cream Cheese Blueberry Bars

The crust for these bars are made of hazelnut, what a wonderful wonderful smell to have your house filled with. The nutty flavor of the crust goes great with the cream cheese & blueberries.

I had to use frozen blueberries so the blueberries didnt spread out as much as i would have liked.

I think this could also make a great cheesecake recipe or the crust could be used in a pie.

Sorry for the bad picture, the lights in my house are dim and dont make for great picture taking especially since i dont know how the flash on my camera phone works.

If anyone is in the market for a new book I highly recommend the William Sonoma Baking book. It is probably the best one I have and use it often. Also I just got the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook and can't wait to try some of the recipes out. I will making so much this month with graduations, mothers day, and daring bakers!

Apples Apples Apples! (Tartlets & Muffin)

I have had 2 huge green apples sitting around for a while now and haven't been in the mood to eat them so I decided to bake something with them.
The tart crust is made from cream cheese, butter, and flour. Sat in the fridge over night. Roll out and pressed into the tart shells. The filling is a apple filling I created cause I love experimenting with different things. It is apples cooked in brown sugar, lemon juice, vanilla extract and cinnamon. Used corn starch for thickening. For those who don't know, if you ever want to bake with apples make them green apples. They turn out the best and never get too soggy as red apples tend to get.


The muffins came out really great. I decided to add cinnamon to the batter and topping along with nutmeg in the topping for more flavor. You could really taste both spices when eating it and they always go well with lemon. I didnt have enough brown sugar for the batter so i added half brown sugar and half granulated sugar. I also ran out of buttermilk so I used milk and it came out great

For the first time I am going to add the recipe because I didnt really adapt this recipe like I have other recipes because it wasnt necessary:

Apple Pie Muffins

2 1/4 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 c. buttermilk (I used milk for half)
1/2 c. butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 c brown sugar (i used 3/4 c brown sugar & 3/4 granulated sugar)
2 c diced apples (no skin, green apple)
**1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 c. brown sugar
1/3 c all-purpose flour
**1/2 tsp cinnamon
**1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 TBSP butter, melted

**I added to the recipe for more flavor

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine 2 1/4 c. flour, baking soda, salt, and 1 tsp. cinnamon in a small bowl
3. Cream egg, buttermilk, butter, vanilla, and 1 1/2 c sugar together with a mixer
4. Add flour mixture to the wet ingredients until combined. Make sure you don't over mix because muffins will come out dry.
5. Stir in diced apples until just combined. Do NOT over mix
6. Using a ice cream scooper scoop into greased muffin tins
7. Mix the dry ingredients of the toppings in a small bowl (1/2 c brown sugar, 1/3 c flour, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg)
8. Slowly pour in melted butter while mixing.
9. Using a tsp pour over batter in muffin tins
10. Bake for 25 minutes or until cooked (using a plastic knife place in the middle of a muffin to see if it comes out clean).

I think everyone should try these, they are pretty easy and fun to make and make for a great breakfast.

Good Mornin' (Muffins & Sourdough Baguettes)

Sometime I enjoy waking up before anyone in the house to make hot fresh treats for my family to wake up to. We always eat bread for breakfast with cream cheese or something. So I made sour dough baguettes with the same sour dough starter I used for the rounder I made the other day.
I finally figured out how to form the dough in a baguette size without it having cracks on the top and bottom. Practice makes perfect.


Then comes the pumpkin muffins I made. At the bakery I worked at we would have pumpkin muffins and I would eat one every day. I missed them and so I decided to make them. I made them fat free with apple sauce instead of oil/butter. Made them have a new texture I enjoy. They came out a lot sweeter then I wanted but I think my applesauce had sugar in it. I add oatmeal for texture and taste. I also added semi-sweet chocolate chips to half the batch. I love the color of them and they tasted basically the same as the bakery.

Super Lemon Pound Cake with Lemon Curd Filling

Where do I start. This cake took so long to make, maybe I am just not that fast yet but this cake took a lot of components. The recipe was made for a bundt cake but I always picture a pound cake in a bread pan. This recipe also called for lemon extract which I didnt have and dont really like to use because extracts cost a lot of money that I don't think its worth spending. This was the first recipe I really really really adapted and totally made my own.
First you make the batter for the cake and I wanted to use fresh lemon juice instead of pre-bottled. Then you make a syrup to pour over the cake once baked fully.
Then I thought it would be great to make a lemon curd filling which really didnt turn out the way I wanted to. It turned out a lot more thin and liquid like then I imagined. I think it might have happened when I split the recipe. The recipe a friend gave me called for 5 egg yolks and to split it I used 3, maybe 2 would have been better.
Overall, everyone really really liked the cake. However, I do not like the flavor of lemons so this cake wasnt for me. If you are a fan of lemons then this cake is for you.
So far I have only plated one of the cakes and I think for the other one I won't cut it in half put the "lemon curd" on there and just pour it over the cake.

This was the lemon curd, sad it didnt turn out the way I wanted to but next time I am sure it will:




I noticed that I named this blog and it makes it seem that I just bake cupcakes but I have been making anything but that lately. Hopefully that will change soon. I am thinking of changing the name of this blog. If you have creative names for a way to show that I am a baker please share!

Sourdough Bread

As many know you have to make a sourdough starter before you make the sponge and dough. So 4 days ago I made a sourdough starter that consists of milk and flour. Smells so awful after a few days. Anyways 4 days went by and I finally made the sponge and dough. The 3 weeks I worked at the bread bakery paid off cause the recipe called for adding more water to the dough and I thought that would ruin it and we never did at the bakery.

The bread over cooked either because I sprinkled too much water on it or I put it in for too long. Mistakes only make you learn and not everything always goes perfect.