lemon birthday cake

I made this lemon cake from the Magnolia Bakery cookbook for my mom's birthday. The cake is tender and moist with a light lemon flavor which comes from both lemon juice and lemon zest. My favorite part, though, was the lemon buttercream. Until now, I have not been able to find a homemade buttercream that actually tasted like a frosting instead of just butter with some sugar mixed in. I think the secret is that this buttercream uses MUCH more confectioner's sugar than other recipes I've tried; eight cups for 2 sticks of butter. This cake would also be good if you used lemon curd in the layers and the buttercream to frost the outside.

You can download my PDF version of the recipe here.

oreo cheesecake

I found this recipe in the Betterbaking.com cookbook. It is the ultimate in rich, and creamy. It has an oreo crust, layers of cheesecake and chopped oreos, and is topped with a semisweet chocolate ganache. When the ganache cools, it looks like a chocolate mirror. This is an easy make ahead dessert and would be perfect when you want a sweet that has serious wow factor.

eating club

In keeping with my love of all things involving food, I am a part of an eating club. There are seven of us ladies in the club and we meet once a month. Each month, a different member hosts the meeting and picks the theme and recipes. Last night's theme was Mexican, and we had a feast of rib eye steak, indian/mexican fusion quesadillas, rice and beans, chix enchiladas, and a chopped salad. To top it all off, we had peach and blueberry cobbler and mexican rice pudding. And to drink, what else? Margaritas and Sangria.

blackberry buttermilk muffins

This recipe comes from my favorite baking cookbook of all time, "The Best of Betterbaking.com". The muffins were light and tender with a nice brownsugar/walnut streusel topping. The recipe calls for orange zest, which I don't think I'll use next time. The orange flavor just seemed out of place with the cinnamon and blackberries. The best part of these muffins, however, was their presentation. I found these great muffin liners at Sur La Table in Tysons Corner, VA. You can also get them online at Surlatable.com. They really give your baked goods a finished, professional look.

peach and sour cherry strudel

I have a weakness for any dish which includes phyllo dough. This particular recipe, however, was just sort of ho-hum. The flavor of the peaches and cherries didn't meld well with the cinnamon and the juices from the fruit caused the phyllo to get soggy in the middle section of the strudel. I think I'll stick with apple strudel from now on.

cowtown chocolate cake

I have been on a mission to find a recipe for a really good, basic, chocolate layer cake and I think this may be the one. This recipe comes from "Cakes" by Maida Haetter, and according to her, hails from the lonestar state. The cake, which is made using both melted, unsweetened chocolate and cocoa, had a rich chocolate flavor and a moist crumb. Yum. Yum.

the saga of the deep dish plum tart

This tart and I have a long history. I found this recipe in the Betterbaking.com cookbook. There's a wonderful color photo in the book that shows the tart with a golden crust filled with ruby-red plums. The first time I tried to bake it, I had completed the process of making and chilling the crust, only to find out that the plums, which I had so carefully selected, were rotten to the core! I was so mad at the plums (yes, this is the degree to which I have become involved with my cooking) that I tossed the tart dough into the freezer and made it sit there for three months. Just this weekend, my father picked up some georgeous red plums from the farmers market, and I decided that it was time to try to make friends with the tart again. What you see in the photos was the result. It looked absolutely beautiful; a 2-inch thick buttery tart surrounding sweet-smelling, bubbling fruit. The only problem was that when I cut it to taste a piece of this masterpiece, the tart lost its integrity, and its juices ran all over the plate. And the taste? Mouth puckeringly sour with only a hint of the sweetness that the fresh plums had promised. Not enough sugar? Unripe plums? I'm not quite sure what the problem was. Needless to say, this tart and I are no longer on speaking terms.

chocolate chip toffee blondies

Again in my search for the extreme in sweetness, I have tried a new blondie recipe. For years, my favorite has been the one from the Mrs. Field's cookbook. That one is still the best I have found as far as traditional blondies go. But, if you're looking to step up the indulgence factor a bit, this one I found from the Baking by Flavor cookbook is definitely the way to go. I altered the recipe a little bit, and used toffee bits and walnuts instead of the Heath Bar pieces and toasted almonds called for in the recipe. I found that when the toffee bits melted into the blondie, they gave it a chewy crystalized sugar airiness as opposed to the teeth-sinking denseness of more traditional blondies. The addition of the chopped walnuts added a layer of buttery nuttiness that tempered the sweetness of the chocolate and toffee. Definitely a keeper.

This is my first post

I just discovered blogging and I'm very excited to begin posting the different dishes that I have been experimenting with. My first dish is a coconut layer cake. I love desserts which are over the top and this cake is as extravagent as they get. The cake has coconut milk, coconut extract, and shredded coconut. The filling is like a thick, coconut fondant. And the best part is the frosting: a fluffy, marshmallow meringue topped with shredded coconut. The result is a towering, shimmery cake fit for a queen (or someone with a SERIOUS sweet tooth).

Baking Archives

This is a picture of one of my more ambitious baking experiments. I catered the desserts for my best friend's baby shower and these were my favorites: mini carrot cake cupcakes, topped with a cream cheese frosting.