Muffin Time!

The other day, I needed to relax a bit and wanted to try something new. Thus, I decided to try some new muffins! I ended up making two types: Double Chocolate Plus and Peach.

I found the basis of my recipes online, though I did, of course and as always, alter them a bit. I don't feel as though I altered them enough to warrant posting them here, since I would never want to simply repost (or nearly repost) someone else's recipe.

I will post my changes, however, because they both came out as delicious!

For the double chocolate plus muffins, I took a basic chocolate chip nut muffin recipe and did the following:

• added extra deep chocolate cocoa
• increased the chocolate chips
• added dried cherries
• added white chocolate
• added walnuts, slightly crushed

I altered it a bit more, but those were recipe-particular, so I don't think resuscitation of it is necessary. Basically: increase chocolate. =)

For the peach muffins, I took a basic apple muffin recipe and did the following:

• used one large peach rather than the one cup called for
• ground up about 3/4 of the peach to the point of nearly being liquid
• sliced the remaining 1/4 of the peach to very small chunks
• used butter instead of shortening

I know I'll be making these again, and I hope others like the idea as well!

I'm hoping to make a delicious, yet out of the ordinary, pumpkin treat sometime in the near future. Any ideas? 

Back At School

I'm quite sorry for all of the delays in updating. Towards the end of the summer, my illness problems uprose yet again in full force. While I was still able to bake a little, I was not able to do nearly as much as I would like (can we ever?) or to post. No worries, however, as I will go back and update with some of the items I made. I personally feel that the stars of the summer were the baseball themed and Italian themed cakes. Additionally, I discovered a new delicious treat - peanut butter brownies. Mmmm, mmm. I'll be postng all of that shortly!

I just moved back to school (same apartment as last year, happily), so I'll be baking more now. (I can bake everything I want and then leave it out for roommates and visitors!) In just the past weekend, I've already made triple chocolate nut cookies (not a success in the crumble department, but still delightful) and a few other treats, along with - of course - cooking some meals.

If anyone has any suggestions for more desserts or low-cost and delicious cooking, I'm all eyes! (I say eyes since I'll be reading and not listening.)

Coconut Pound Cake

Note: The cake in this picture has a cut out of it due to its use in my baseball themed cakes.

Baseball Cakes

This weekend, I decided that I felt like doing some creative baking. Thus, I looked around for a few ideas and found some helpful sites. I knew that I wanted to make a friend a birthday cake (or set of, as it turned out), so I themed it in a way that would appeal to her.

What I ended up creating is the following: a Red Sox baseball cap, hot dog in bun, hamburger in bun, and fries.
I'll be posting the pictures that I took during the entire process later. Just to let everyone know, this was my first time ever working with shaping cakes or really getting into design. However, everyone thought that it looked very realistic, particularly the tray of 'fried food,'so I feel pretty good about it.

the completed project

Hot dog bun: coconut pound cake
Hot dog: mocha cake
Hamburger bun: yellow cake
Hamburger: chocolate-mocha cake
Cap visor: chocolate
Cap: swirl cake (of all the leftover cake batters)
Fries: coconut pound cake

After making sure I had all of my ingredients (always important), I began to make the cakes. It is important to look at what you have for pans (or simply things that shape well and are fine for the oven) and decide how your pans and the needs mix. Since this took so long, I took pieces of paper, labeled with what part it was for and the type of cake it should be, and put them in the respective pans.

For mine, I used the following pans: small round, 8" round, small glass bowl, large ceramic bowl, and loaf pan.




Later on, I'll update with the exact description of how I did it. I've been meaning to do so, but honestly I've had no time! I'll put up the recipes for each cake, pictures, and how I did it.

Let me know if anyone has any ideas, particularly for football themes or for butterflies. I'm not too concerned with them, but I love hearing other people's ideas!

Lemon Delightfuls

These tasty treats are nice and small (the way I make them) for pop-in-your-mouth melting deliciousness. It is a nice amount of lemon flavor - not too overpowering, yet not too hidden. They are definitely different, but in a good way. I like them as a snack while studying, since they are small.

This recipe was made one day when I was sitting in my apartment and really wanting something lemon flavored. However, I also felt like being a bit creative. I'm not huge on making cookies alone, as I have bad wrists (and I make everything purely from scratch, no blender, no mixer, etc.). So, I looked online and read through a number of lemon cake and lemon cookie recipes. I had some reason to be making more cookies, though, so I adapted a couple of cookie recipes to make this new one. I hope it gets enjoyed by others!

I've only made it a few times, and not recently, so I apologize if I mistype anything here. If you have any questions, just ask me. I'll be correcting and/or changing anything the next time I make them if I feel like mixing it up a bit.

Lisa's Lemon Delightfuls

Ingredients

12  tbsp  butter (1  1/2 sticks)

9/4 cups flour (2  1/4 cups)

1    tsp    baking soda

1             eggs

1/2 cup   granulated sugar

1/4 tsp    vanilla extract (I just add a few drops in)

1    tsp    lemon extract (I put in ~100 drops - more is better here)

If you don't have baking soda, or one of the other ingredients, you can take it and the egg or flour out (depending upon what it is). I've made it before with these ingredients and it came out well as well: 16 tbsp butter, 3/2 - 2 cups flour, 1/2 cup sugar, drops of vanilla, and lots of drops of lemon extract. Toss in some flour if you have it, or not if you don't.

Put the butter in a microwavable bowl, in small chunks. (I usually cut it up with a knife.) Put this into the microwave to melt it for a few seconds - be careful to not put it in for too long. (I'd give a suggested time, but everyone's microwave and settings work differently.) In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, and eggs. (You can do this whenever, but I like to get this going while waiting to touch the bowl again. Be careful not to let it cool too much beyond the point of being able to touch it, however, since the sugar must be able to melt in, essentially.) Mix in the sugar until mixture appears creamy. Add in vanilla extract; mix. Combine the two mixtures together by folding the butter and sugar mixture into the larger flour mixture. Finally, add the lemon extract by adding drops and mixing all throughout the bowl. You should be adding a decent amount, about 60-130 drops depending on your bottle, size of the drops, etc. (It also depends on how much you love the flavor of lemon.) Mix a bit more; it should be a bit creamy, yet smooth and difficult to move. Roll small balls onto the cookie sheets (don't forget to spray/grease them) - each ball should fit into the space made when you roll your index finger down your thumb and back to the webbed space between the two. Space them adequately on the sheet; I usually put them about 4 x 4 or 4 x 5 on the typical cookie sheet.

I don't have any pictures of these, because I've never really taken any in the past. I will the next time that I do, though!

Due To Technical Difficulties...

Unfortunately, due to some technical difficulties, one of the add-ins I had put on this blog has to be taken down now. The idea of it was for people reading to be able to ask and answer questions or share ideas freely at the bottom of the page. Frustratingly, however, it is not allowing anyone to do so and, instead, asks for one to log in or sign up - with no way to do either. Since a) I don't want anyone to have to sign up to use this and b) you apparently can't even if you or I wanted to do so, I'm just going to take this down for now. If anyone has any thoughts on this for the future or would very much like something similar up, let me know and I'll look into it further. For now, however, we'll have to go to the comments section.

With the said, feel free to comment away! I would greatly enjoy for this to become an interactive blog, full of people loving their time in the kitchen. Ideas flowing freely amongst people with a similar joy is such a fabulous thing to be a part of, and it is, in fact, a reason that I created this blog. (Plus, comments help me to know readers' thoughts.)

Check This Blog Out: Baking Bites

The Baking Bites blog  is definitely one to check out when you have some time. It has articles on different types of foods to bake, techniques, and items of the kitchen. Basically, it discusses everything related to baking! If you click to the full article, you will find the recipes.

I really am enjoying this site, particularly the way it is setup so that I can run through and find the meals of the week, go by topic, look at kitchen essentials, and the like. It offers many options without a lot of fuss or overpowering "look at me!" to it. I also like the viewpoint of many of these articles.

Some good posts I've seen so far:

5 Foods to Eat Before You Die, adapted from The Food Blogger's Guide to the Globe
Sourdough - I think making sourdough bread is definitely something I'd like to eventually try... you know, when I get around to it. Making bread is a bit of a difficulty in a school apartment, which is where I am the majority of the year and hence where I do most of my baking and cooking.
Sourdough Banana Bread - combining two great breads is either disaster or awe-inspiring... another one to try for myself?
Baking Cookies in the Car? - I was intrigued... Chocolate Chip Drop Cookies, I believe
Strawberry Lemonade Bars - this one had my attention immediately!