Monkey Bread

With my coffee in hand this morning, I started to work away at my Monkey Bread. It was a good breakfast item to make with little kids, because they had lots of fun helping when it came to rolling the dough in the cinnamon. After lots of somewhat patient waiting, my little baking buddies and I accomplished our first Monkey Bread and it is absolutely delicious. These two children are the pickiest of eaters, but since this is coated with some butter, cinnamon, and sugar...they LOVE it! I hope everyone enjoys their day.

Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!! For Mother's Day this year, my siblings and I decided we would make dinner for my mom. I of course volunteered/was deemed the dessert. I wanted to make something that was springy and delicious, so I made a white almond cake with strawberry filling and a whipped cream frosting. It was a 3 layered, 8 inch cake, which served about 14. It turned out really delicious, so delicious that we ate every last crumb (well actually my brothers opted for seconds). **Keep posted...There is LOTS of baking to be done this week!!

Happy Mother's Day Moms!!

Sauce Tasting!!!

Well, another week has come, and this brings another dessert for Girls' Night. This week I made a Flourless Chocolate Cake (see previous posting), however I experimented a little with some fruit sauces. I made a raspberry sauce and a strawberry sauce. By the raving reviews, this seems to have been a hit! I personally only tried the raspberry, but I sure do wish I could have had room to try the strawberry. I guess I will just have to make another cake!! :) Hope everyone has a wonderfull weekend!

Holy Macaroons!!

I can't emphasize to you enough: Holy Macaroons!! What started out as a quick easy dessert to bring to girls' night turned into 62 (exactly!!) Macaroons dipped in chocolate. At one point I stood back and looked at the macaroons and I couldn't believe my eyes, but it was all worth it in the end. After baking and cooling all the cookies, I dipped them in melted semi-sweet chocolate, can you say YUMMMYYYY!!! All my taste testers agreed, and I even had people calling this morning looking for more!! These are definitely a MUST when the bakery opens!!

One little tid bit of advice that I learned for all you fellow bakers out there: If your recipe calls for cream of coconut and you can not find it in the store, you can buy coconut milk. If you use coconut milk in lieu of cream of coconut, do NOT shake the can and just use the cream at the top of the can as the coconut milk will have separated. Works like a charm! Enjoy :)

Flourless Chocolate Cake

A couple of weeks ago, I was looking for a new cookbook to buy. I decided to email my friend Jessica (Who happens to be a FANTASTIC baker!!!!) for some suggestions. She suggested the "Baking Illustrated". As I "patiently" waited for my book to arrive in the mail, I was brain storming about what kind of recipes I would find in my new baking book. All I could think of to bake was a chocolate mouse cake, or something along that line. When my book arrived, I found a picture for the Flourless Chocolate Cake, and it looked just like a chocolate mouse cake. So, of course I had to tackle this recipe first. I made 2: one for my family to test trial, and a second for a friend of mine as a birthday present. So far only my family has tried it, and they said it was delicious, and it did taste like a chocolate mouse cake! This is definitely a recipe I will use over and over again!

Brownie Peanut Butter Cups

Once a week I take a painting class, and each week I keep everyone up to date with all the goodies. After everyone asking each week why I hadn't brought any goodies along, I figured I was long overdue! I was looking for something that was simple, different, easy to transport, and as always, delicious! So I made homemade brownies, that were baked in muffin tins. While they were still warm, I filled them with peanut butter, and then topped them with chocolate and peanut butter morsel chips. They were delicious! I will definetely be baking these again!

Happy Easter

Hello all! I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. I know our family sure did. Between our big Easter dinner and our Egg Hunt, I'm surprised anyone had room, or the energy, for dessert. But thank goodness they did, because they sure did enjoy the cake and galettes I made. Also, we had two apple pies! The cake I made was a white almond cake with a raspberry filling, and a whipped cream frosting. YUMMMYYY!! The pictures are above. The pictures below are of the two galettes I made. One was peach and raspberry. The other was strawberry and blackberry. I think it went over well because everyone wanted to try each dessert, and there were barely any leftovers.