not far from the lemon tree

We took a small side trip from the usual baking list and offered to do a cake for a friend of my sister who recently had some unpleasantness come into her life. My sister suggested that since I was making a cake for her friend, I might as well make one for her. We needed something notarized so we took it into her workplace where it was well received, very well. My sister is a lemon addict so I didn't even have to ask her what flavor she suggested. She even provided the lemons. The cake with the lemon curd on top went to her work, the one with the dots went to her friend.

heaven in a pan

I decided that I wanted to be a little bit adventurous and not do a cobbler with the blackberries I got at the farmers market. I made the most delicious blackberry bread pudding. I don't know if it's because I've never made bread pudding or that I've never tasted any decent bread pudding - but what I made totally rocked my world. It was literally the first thing I was a little disappointed to give up, which is exactly why I had to give it up. The bread pudding itself was divine but top it with some brown sugar sauce and it is HEAVEN. Forget birthday cake, for my birthday I am making up a giant pan of this stuff.

now THOSE are some berries!

Check out what I scored at the farmers market!

They weren't on the grocery list but they just looked too good, I couldn't pass them up. Now I just have to think of something delicious to make with them. A cobbler sounds tasty but a little too expected. So many options, so little time before I eat them all plain.

it's snowing in the kitchen!

I've been in the kitchen a lot lately. I finally found the perfect fudge brownie! It took a lot of tries and a lot of tampering with the ingredient levels but I think I finally can rest. Whew.

I decided to make a mess of my kitchen by doing cookies that are covered in powdered sugar. I made what most people know as wedding cookies. Pecan shortbread with powdered sugar on the outside. Mmmhmm. I also made chocolate fudge crackles. The crackles were a pain because the dough has to chill and it's hard to tell when they're done but they are worth the effort. I had to sample a few (a proper baker always samples the finished product, right?) and since it was pretty late at night I was on a sugar high when I should have been sleeping. Note to self, cookies are not a bed time snack.

Excuse the exceptionally poor photos, the lighting isn't the best.

the perfect brownie, take 2

I'm still on a brownie mission, this time I decided to test out some flavors. I decided to go with the two most popular, mint and raspberry. I added some green food coloring to the mint so I could tell them apart but I apparently didn't put enough. The mint brownie was an instant hit for me. I set some aside to snack on and I have to admit that they're already gone.

I'm calling the raspberry batch Raspberry Cheesecake Brownie. Yum, right? I didn't even bother taking a picture of them because I didn't think they turned out that great but after sampling them a day later I thought that I must have been nutso because they were pretty tasty.

Samples have been delivered to the taste tester (ie, my sister), we'll see what the results are.

the perfect brownie, take 1

Is there nothing more evil than a pan of brownies coming out the oven? I get so incredibly tempted by the smell but I know that I need to give it a few hours to cool. From the smell of the 3 batches I just pulled out I'm almost willing to suffer the 2nd degree burns in my mouth. Today my goal was to figure out a recipe for the perfect brownie. I've tried quite a few brownies in my day but none of the recipes changed my life. I hope that I have a winner out of the 3! If not, I'm always up for making more brownies. Yum.

ice cream sandwich anyone?

Thanks to all of those who were able to come out to the stuffed animal drive yesterday at the Riverton Iceberg. There were some fancy looking cars and some great raffle prizes.

We decided that cookies and ice cream are best friends, practically siblings, and should be paired together as often as possible.

Congrats to Nadia C. from Riverton for winning our raffle prize of an oversized sampler. Hopefully she'll have some friends to share with!