
I told you I was going to go back in time and address weeks past. I’m finally getting around to it, but it’ll be one at a time. For you Oreo cookie buffs, check out the cookie section for the holy grail of cookie recipes…now you can just say no to store-bought Oreos! [click to continue…]

Here we have it folks, the first in what I’m sure will be an orgy of evidence to prove that klutziness is in fact genetic. Many of you may have looked at this picture and thought, “There’s she goes again.” But it wasn’t me! This “Oops!” belongs to my Mom. I guess it runs in the family.

Can you believe that I actually baked this on Wednesday last week? You’d think that since I baked so early, I’d have this thing written before the weekend, let along before 7pm today. You’d've thought that, but then you’d been wrong, just like the Bride. Nope, I got it in my head that I had to get my savory cupcake baked this weekend, and that’s what it took to get it done…all weekend. And prior to Saturday I was trying to play catch up with my Recipe Round-Ups which I’ve only managed to get last week’s out. Busy, busy, busy.
But who cares. You’re mad about mangos and want to know how they faired in a quick bread. I can tell you they faired well, but got a bit lost in the cinnamon. Apparently it was her ardent love of fruit that brought Kelly of Baking with the Boys to select the Fresh Mango Bread from Dorie’s tome
of baked goodness. [click to continue…]

Thought I forgot about these huh? I didn’t. I’ve been meaning to catch up, which I’m working on… slowly. At least I have last week’s here. I will be looking back over the weeks that I missed. There’s a lot of good stuff to mention! [click to continue…]

Holy cow am I late on this one. This was actually supposed to be for the Daring Bakers challenge last month. Jenny Bakes supplied a simple enough cheesecake recipe to follow, but I just couldn’t do it. I can’t handle another cream cheese, brick-in-my-stomach-after-eating cheesecake experience. It’s good going down, but an unruly house guest to my stomach later.
So I hemmed and I hawed all month long….what the heck was I going to do? I want to participate in the challenge, but the thought of cream cheese brick syndrome left me nauseous. I know that some of the other DBers had similar issues with cheesecake and did some tweaks, so I began a search for a light alternative. Then I remembered Martha. That’s right, the woman who started it all for me and the very first baking book I bought offered salvation in a ricotta cheesecake *cue the angels singing with light shining down from the heavens*
(To appease the DB powers that be: The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.) [click to continue…]

Last week when I was making the tiramisu cake when I lost my beaters. You know, the beaters for my hand mixer. I spent close to half an hour searching the entire kitchen, resisting the urge to look through the rest of the house for them. Don’t ask me why I was compelled to search my bedroom for hand mixer beaters, but when you feel like you’ve looked in every logical place on the planet your mind suddenly jumps to the illogical ones. [click to continue…]

We revisit the golden lemon this week with Babette of Babette Feasts. She chose Dorie’s Tartest Lemon Tart which, as written, uses the WHOLE lemon, “zest, pulp, and juice.” This zesty combination truly gives you one of the tartest lemon tarts you’ve ever tasted. [click to continue…]

Buongiorno! Megan of My Baking Adventures leads us to Italy, the land of Tiramisu with Dorie’s Tiramisu Cake. In an attempt to be faithful to the recipe, I’ve been all over town trying to find mascarpone cheese. My last ditch effort was at a natural food store on Tuesday, but no luck. I know some people have been able to find it at Publix, Walmart (gah!) even, but I did not. Thankfully I came across a great website that gives (somewhat cryptic at times) substitutions for mascarpone cheese, as well as others. [click to continue…]
by Aimee on April 29, 2009

You know the song in Alice In Wonderland, “A very merry un-Birthday to you!” Well, a very merry un-Iron Cupcake challenge to you! At least I’m going to try since I obviously did not make the deadline…yet again…this month. I still managed to get a cupcake designed and baked though, and that’s what the challenge is really all about right…baking cupcakes outside of the box!
I really wanted to branch out with this month’s Iron Cupcake flavor inspiration of soda pop. There are so many sodas to be had out there other than plain ‘ol cola…red apple, crushed melon, green tea, lavender…there’s even orange cola. Being the bohemian that I am, I wanted to experiment with one of the more uncommon flavors. My only problem was that I couldn’t find any of them available locally. Sorry dear reader, but I’m not going to make a special 45+ minute trip galavanting across Florida trying to find Kumquat soda. If I had had more foresight (which I should have by now) I would have known that I live in a proverbial no-man’s land whose only fizzy consolations come in plain Coke and Pepsi Co. flavors, and I could have simply ordered something unusual from somewhere exotic…like Scottsdale. *sigh* But I didn’t. So I was stuck with cherry. [click to continue…]
by Aimee on April 28, 2009

Shesh, has another week gone by already? Some weeks I’m not all that jazzed about the TWD selection, sometimes I’m in excitement mode, and then there are weeks where I’m neither jazzed nor excited. This week initially started out jazzed, then turned lukewarm. When I initially heard the title, “Chocolate Cream Tart” (selected by Kim of Scrumptious Photography) I got excited because who doesn’t get excited when they hear the word, “chocolate”. Then I looked at what was entailed, don’t ask me why, but the technique seemed like a bit of a let down. I have no idea what I expected when I heard “Chocolate Cream Tart”, but I do know it didn’t involve what sounded like a glorified chocolate pudding thrown in a tart shell. Well, sometimes it’s good to have low expectations, or none really to speak of. This was PHENOMENAL! [click to continue…]