More baking fun! We've got a bit of a circle theme going on for this roundup. The only non-round item is based on something that is usually round, so I think that counts, ha ha!
Hostess Cupcake Sheet Cake
A suggested Instagram reel got me to make this treat. I used this recipe for the cake batter (didn't have buttermilk) but followed the rest of the recipe from Bakerella because I think a ganache is more proper than a buttercream to get the right textures and it used far less butter (which is getting quite expensive so I don't have as much in my freezer as usual, haha!) The second recipe also made the assembly easier by baking in a sheet pan and cutting in half that way versus having to horizontally cut a cake from a 9x13in pan. Mine baked a little uneven so I ended up with 2 slightly smaller rectangles and then a small square, ha ha.
Martin's Bagels - King Arthur Baking
I have made bagels a few times already, always using the same King Arthur Baking recipe from a series they did during the pandemic. Recently Christian and I were scrolling YouTube and came across a video for Martin's Bagels. Another KAB recipe! They looked very simple (and delish) so I decided to give them a go! I even got a little more experimental with toppings and made one with cheese for Christian! They came out great! Nice and brown, cripsy exterior and fluffy interior. YUM! Definitely found my new bagel recipe.
Conchas
I have been wanting to remake these for a family gathering since Christian and I were the only ones who got to enjoy the conchas when I first baked them last October. I was going to make them for Easter but then we decided to drive to Missouri that weekend instead, so Mother's Day seemed like the perfect opportunity! I decided to make the topping in a bright pink and light purple and they came out great! I made them half the size of the original recipe so people could easily grab and eat one without it being a huge portion.
Hamburger Buns
We planned to have veggie burgers one week last month and over the weekend I decided I didn't want to go to the grocery store becasue we had basically everything we needed for the week, except burger buns. Sooo....I decided to finally try my hand at making my own. I trusted Tessa of Handle the Heat's track record with other recipes and chose hers over King Arthur Baking. They were so easy and came out great! I should have put more sesame seeds on them, but didn't want to waste too many if they came out wrong, ha ha!
Deep Dish Cookie Bowls for Two
On National Chocolate Chip Day I wanted to make something quick and easy and remembered I had this recipe saved! It was super easy, melt butter, mix ingredients, put into ramekins and bake! Definitely a nice, quick dessert that I'll make again.
Chocolate Mousse Cupcakes
We loved Butternut Bakery's Chocolate Mousse Cake so when she posted a cupcake version I knew I had to try them! The cupcake part is flourless and more like a brownie so they are super rich and tasty! They're much easier to make than the cake too, so if you want a quick but still impressive dessert to whip up, this one is for you!
Lunch Lady Brownies
Christian requested brownies a few weekends ago so I decided to make Jenna's version of Lunch Lady Brownies. I looove fudgy brownies and these have frosting and sprinkles too, what's not to love? They're super quick and easy to make. He said they're his new favorite. I still think extra fudgy brownies slightly edge these out, but I love the frosting and sprinkles for added yummy-ness!
Scones 2 Ways
Handle the Heat's March baking challenge was Scones so I made a batch and split the dough in two to make lemon poppyseed and chocolate chip scones! I'm still not perfect at cutting the butter into the flour, it always seems to melt out of the scones. But they were still tasty!
Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Bars
One weekend I wanted to bake cookies but didn't have any butter thawed from the freezer so I searched brown butter recipes and saw these bars. I love a good chocolate chip cookie but bars are so much easier. Overall it took about 45 minutes to make, that includes the 30 minutes to bake!
Braided Stromboli
I was making stromboli for dinner and decided to try out a new recipe. I searched King Arthur Baking for a recipe and found this braided version. Instead of their filling I did pepperoni and caramelized onions. I had way too much pepperoni for what they called for so now I can still make MORE stromboli with it, haha! I split it in half rather than making one large one so I could put more cheese in Christian's. The dough was very easy to work with and came out so tasty. The texture of the bread was perfectly fluffy.
Molten Peanut Butter Fudge Cake
While visiting Christian's family we had a birthday get together for his older brother and I wanted to bake something special to celebrate. He likes dark chocolate and peanut butter so this peanut butter fudge cake sounded perfect! Unfortunately I made a mistake and decided to reheat it the day of the party (I made it Friday, we drove up to Missouri on Saturday and had the "party" on Sunday) so it would be molten again, and it made the cake a little greasy. So it is definitely NOT a looker. Lesson learned.
Pizza
I had to make something round for Pi Day so pizza it was! I've been trying to find a substitute for the amazing pesto we get at the local farmers market but this one also failed the test. I used the recipe from our King Arthur Baking School class.
Ombré Citrus Cake
I've had this recipe from Turkuaz Kitchen saved for a year and finally made it! Betul's recipes are always beautiful and her Instagram videos are so soothing. This recipe was super easy to make but I was scared about it coming out as pretty as hers. I actually made two because I had a lot of orange slices. Techically didn't have enough of the blood orange syrup for both cakes, but that's okay! Half of it is supposed to be served on top as a drizzle when served so I just skipped that step. Next time I may try to make the slices thinner so I can use more for each cake.
Heart Shaped Layered Peanut Butter Crunch Brownies
I made this as a very special Valentine's Day dessert! I slightly modified it by leaving off the cacao nibs and putting m&ms in the brownie. It took a LONG time to bake in the heart shaped pan so the outside came out really cripsy and the inside was undercooked with a large hole in the center. (I stopped cooking it after an hour, haha...the recipe says 25-27 minutes for a normal pan and that it would be "slightly longer" for the heart shaped pan...) So while I'm a little disappointed in the bake of the brownie the flavors were great! I don't mind undercooked brownie but the hard as a rock exterior was not my favorite. Next time I'll just use a normal pan.
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
I always forget I have oats so I decided to whip up some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I went with the recipe in Tessa's Ultimate Cookie Handbook. For me it was a little too oaty, next time I might do less oats and more chocolate chips. The flavor was great though, I love the spice level from the cinnamon.
2 Hour Fastest No Knead Bread
If you've been around long enough you'll know I constantly make this bread recipe for our lunches. This time I did a slight variation and did a cup of whole wheat flour and the rest regular flour. It added a nice bit of nuttiness! Next time I might go for 2 cups and see how that is!
Brown Butter Blueberry Muffins
Another bake I come back to time and again. It's so easy and tasty. I used frozen wild blueberries instead of normal sized because I prefer them small. I also chilled the batter overnight before baking to help them puff up and be extra tall (the recipe says to put frozen blueberries in after this step, but I do it before because I don't mind if they turn blue.)
Chocolate Truffles
I had some leftover heavy cream to use up and in addition to making some "cream" biscuits that I forgot to take a photo of, I also made some delicious truffles. I didn't really need a recipe but decided to try Tessa's. Hers was interesting because there is a little corn syrup in it to help thicken them. After rolling them out I covered them in sprinkles and coconut. I should have done more with coconut but wasn't sure we would like the combo. Spoiler alert - we did!
Lots of Christmas weekend bakes in this one! Plus two more recipes I've had on my "to bake" list for a bit. Almost everything came out exactly as I'd hoped! Love when that happens.
Mille Feuille
I wanted to make something other than Christian's pie (below) for Christmas Eve and remembered we had frozen puff pastry I've been meaning to use. I googled and found this recipe for mille feuille (or napoleons, except this isn't almond flavored.) Objectively a simple recipe, but still messy and time consuming, ha ha! The diplomat cream was a little loose so they slid around a bit by the time I took the final photo, but they were a hit! Everyone that ate one said they were delicious. I don't like pastry cream so I didn't have one. We have some leftover cream and egg whites I need to use up too...
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| Not as pretty later in the evening, haha! |
Lemon Raspberry Pie + King Arthur Flaky Pastry Dough
This was Christian's Christmas Eve bake, but I helped a bit so including it anyway ;) The pie dough didn't come out right but I'm not sure what he did wrong since his pie crusts are usually good. Perhaps the instructions for the recipe were weird or he didn't cut in the butter enough. But the filling of the pie was very tasty even though that recipe was a little all over the place too, ha ha!
Cinnamon Babka
I made chocolate babka earlier this year (and again this weekend) and wanted to try my hand at cinnamon for our Christmas morning breakfast. The recipe was from America's Test Kitchen, the same place I got the chocolate one from but the method was very different. Mine didn't come out looking how I hoped - the filling melted into the bread more than it was supposed to and there was a lot of it at the bottom of the loaf. If I make this again I may double the filling or see if I can find a recipe that uses a different rolling/twisting method. It still tasted great!
Chocolate Babka
As mentioned above I already made this once, but it deserves another mention because its so tasty! And pretty easy to make, even if its a bit messy! It was a hit on Christmas morning and kept us all stuffed until early afternoon at Grandma's.
Chocolate Mousse Cake
I had some leftover heavy cream from all my Christmas baking so I decided to make a recipe I had saved back in October to use it up. This was my first time making a mousse and a layered dessert of this type. It was easier than I thought it would be but also a little nerve wracking. My ganache was a little bit oon the thin side but other than that it came out great! (I'm annoyed because I KNEW it was thin and I was doing a time lapse video and didn't want to stop it to add more chocolate...grr!)
Lemon Blueberry Loaf
I knew I was most likely going to have an extra lemon after baking Saucy Chicken Picatta meatballs for dinner one night so I decided to try and make this loaf! Before using the lemon for dinner I zested it for this recipe and had just enough juice left over as well. I like small, wild blueberries so I used some frozen ones to make this and I think next time I'll use a few less because it was a bit more blueberry dense than it would have been if I used normal size berries. It affected he cooking time a bit because of the extra bulk. But, even with the extra cooking time it was delicious! A perfect breakfast for cold winter mornings.
