Buche de Noel

Okay, so I've been gone for a while....and I'm going to blame the holiday season until I can't blame it anymore! With all the shopping, cooking, pastry finals, and LIFE in general I have little time to write witty entries to my blog. For this, I am extremely sorry. So to try and win your forgiveness I present you a Buche de Noel (aka Yule Log)!

In class the other day, we made a Charlotte Royale, which if you don't know, is a 1950's "elegant" dessert consisting of raspberry bavarian cream and jelly roll pinwheels. After making the jelly roll I began think about how I can turn this into chocolate, surprising right? Well I went looking online and found a couple recipes for Chocolate Swiss Rolls. I even found a video of how to roll up your cake. I mean, in essence its a BIG Little Debbie Ho-Ho so I figured it wouldn't be that hard to whip up. One recipe really stood out which was a Yule Log recipe that included adorable meringue mushrooms and I new that I had to make it.

It Takes Two to Trifle

This Sunday was our neighborhood Halloween party and I had planned FAR in advance to make something special. I was trying decide on what dessert to make and then it hit me. I would make a trifle; who doesn't love a dessert that incorporates cake, pudding, whip cream, and crushed cookies?! But I knew one trifle wouldn't be enough for all the people who come to the party so I figured two would be good. I knew I had to make something fall themed, I mean, it was a Halloween party for goodness sakes! I searched online and found a pretty good pumpkin bundt cake recipe. Then I planned to add vanilla pudding, cinnamon whipped cream, and crushed gingersnaps to create the beautiful Fall Harvest Trifle (trademark pending). Then I wanted something chocolate which, as you know, is not surprising at all. So I went with a rich dark chocolate brownie, white chocolate pudding, whipped cream, and crushed oreos which I named the Killer Chocolate Trifle (trademark also pending).

Chocolate Oreo Cake and a Birthday

Last Wednesday was Jackson's second birthday!!! It was a lot of fun to watch him play with his new toys and get excited about blowing out the candles. I still don't know where the last 2 years went, but I can't wait to see him grow even more. He is so big, so smart, and SO adorable. He has a mind of his own and an opinion that he voices often.

So for his birthday I wanted to make him something special. I decided on a chocolate cake because for some reason he doesn't think vanilla cake is actually cake. I don't know why, but he usually won't even try it unless its chocolate, which is fine by me! I was planning on making traditional vanilla frosting, but then I saw a recipe on Baker's Royale for Oreo Buttercream and I just couldn't resist. Of course I didn't have Oreos in the house (I know, it's a sin) so I scooted out to the grocery store and picked some up, along with a bag of Chiptole Cheddar Chex Mix which is pretty good by the way (FYI: don't go to the grocery store hungry!)

Halloween Snake Cake

I am unbelievably excited about the Halloween season. Not because of the haunted hayrides (which you wouldn't catch me dead on), or the costumes. It's the decorations, specifically cake/cupcake decorations. I've been seeing them all over the web and I want to try them ALL. This is my first attempt and I have to say that I am pretty proud. I got the ideas from Martha Stewart's website where you can find the Snake Stencil. I used my go-to vanilla buttercream and dyed it orange with gel food coloring, then I dripped chocolate ganache down the cake to give it a spooky, but sophisticated feel. Next time I think I'll try dying the buttercream a little darker, but other than that I think it turned out really nice. I hope you try it. Be on the look out for more Halloween themed posts!

Chocolate Ganache (from The Art and Soul of Baking)

8 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1. Place the chopped chocolate in a bowl. Heat the cream in a saucepan until it begins to simmer. Remove and pour over the chocolate. Let sit for 5 minutes, then stir until smooth. Let cool until it comes to a thick, slightly pourable consistency. Pour over cake and let slide down the sides.

Homemade Apple Pie

We went to Carter's Mountain Orchard this weekend to pick apples. It has become a family tradition, and one that we all look forward to once summer ends. This year however, the formidable fall wind put a little damper on our picking festivities. It was beautiful on Saturday, not too hot, not too cold. It was sunny all day, but I didn't get to partake in this lovely day because I was baking in the test lab at school. That's right my classes are on Friday and Saturdays from now until eternity May. So since we couldn't go to the orchard on Saturday we planned to get up early on Sunday and head up there.

We all woke up and, to our dismay, realized that it was a little more chilly than we had originally thought it would be. The fact that there was no sign of the sun didn't help matters. But we weren't giving up. We headed out of city, stopped by a Crackle Barrel (it's a road trip thing), and made our way to Charlottesville. We drove up the mountain, parked our car, stepped out onto the grass, and our teeth immediately started chattering. It was at least 10 degrees colder on the mountain than it had been in the city. I was close to jumping back in the car and "picking" some apples from Kroger, but we had already come too far. So I bundled Jackson up and we headed into the orchard. We picked Fuji, Jonagold, and Golden Delicious. Granny Smith weren't ready to be picked by everyone, but they had a big barrel at there general store for people to take. I picked up some of those as well as a few Stamen for the pie.

French Coconut Pie

This pie was made for two reasons. One, I had extra pie dough in the fridge that was calling out to be made into a delicious dessert. And two, because I had an abundance of shredded coconut. My grandma and mom have made this pie many times before, although I will admit that I wasn't always in love with it. I went through a couple stages. As a child I turned my nose up at the thought of coconut, unless of course it was on a Samoa (yes, I was a girl scout!) Later on I tried the pie and decided that it was good, covered in an ungodly amount of whipped cream. Now, I can eat a huge piece, with no accoutrements, just slightly warm from the oven.

This isn't the recipe that my grandma has. It's one that I found on Tasty Kitchen. It's very similar to my grandma's recipe and there is almost nothing to it. It is a super easy pie that results in an extremely rich and decadent dessert. It is a great winter pie because of the warm feeling it leaves you with. I can't wait to make it again and I definitely will because even though I almost doubled the amount of coconut in the recipe, I still have some left over!!

Chai Tea Spice Cake with Cinnamon Buttercream

It was pretty chilly this weekend, which got me unbelievably excited about fall and all of the activities that come with this wonderful season. I started planning trips to the apple orchard, the pumpkin patch, and I was even brainstorming about possible Halloween costumes for Jackson. Of course along with weekend trip planning I also was in desperate need of some sort of fall dessert. I mentioned in my last post that I had found a recipe for Chai Tea Cake and this weekend seemed like the perfect opportunity to whip it up. I went out and got some Tazo Chai Tea, butter, and lots of eggs.

The recipe for the cake is from the Sky High Cakes Cookbook and it turned out just as well as the Southern Coconut Cake so I'm excited to try more of their recipes. I omitted the cardamom because, well, I was scared. Sometimes spices scare me. I'm not the kind of girl who adds cayenne to her chocolate, so I stuck with the traditional cinnamon and I think it worked out quite nicely. Instead of the Honey Ginger Buttercream I opted for a Cinnamon Buttercream. The lightness of the buttercream complimented the dense cake nicely. I'm definitely making this cake again, possibly for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Coconut Cake

It's been a week or so since I brought anything in to my office and I could tell my co-workers were getting hungry for sweets, so I went searching for something to make them. While searching I found this group of bloggers who had made recipes from the Sky High cake book and a lot of the recipes looked really good. I was finally able to narrow it down to three although it was a pretty tough decision. It was between the Banana Pecan Praline Cake, the Chai Tea Spice Cake, and the Southern Coconut Cake.

When I went home i realized that someone had thrown away the ripe bananas I planned to use for the praline cake so that was out. I didn't have and chai tea in the house and didn't feel like running to the grocery store for such a random ingredient (my laziness strikes again!!) so that cake was scratched off the list. So it was settled, I would be making the Southern Coconut Cake, which was good because a can of coconut milk had been sitting on the pantry shelf for about a month and I wasn't about to make curry with it.

Wedding Cake

I made a wedding cake! I know, it's crazy! Now, I have to clarify that the wedding was TINY and the reception was only for 15 people so the wedding cake was also TINY. I did a simple 3 layer lemon cake that was decorated white on white. As someone stated, it was a simple elegance. I took different designs that I had seen and used them to produce, what I thought, was a very pretty cake. I can't really explain how proud I was at the moment I showed it to my friend Patty, who ordered the cake.

This cake wasn't all flowers and rainbows, it was actually giving me nightmares in the days leading up to the baking/decorating. At first I was scared that I wouldn't be able to produce a good tasting cake. Then once I had achieved that (thank you Baking Bites!!) I was nervous that my decoration wouldn't look 'wedding' enough. I knew I was going to use the flowers I had practiced on my brothers cake, but I wasn't sure if that was going to be enough. So I did a few Internet searches and found a beautiful scroll pattern to go along the side of the cake.

EPIC FAIL!!

It started off like any other Sunday. It was mid morning and I was trying to figure out what I would make for Sunday night dinner dessert. I had seen a pie crust tutorial on Pioneer Woman's cooking blog so I decided I would make a pie. But what kind of pie? I didn't want to make apple pie because we hadn't been to carter's mountain to pick them yet. I had made too many peach desserts so that was out. Then I thought...cherry. I would make a fresh cherry pie! I headed out to Whole Foods and picked up some pretty expensive cherries, but I knew it would be worth it once everyone got a slice of pie. I then headed over to Marshall's and picked up a cherry pitter.

I made my way home and started pitting, which involved a lot of juice splatter, but was relatively painless. After finishing that up I combined all the ingredients, cherries, cornstarch, salt, and sugar. I let that sit while I made the pie crusts. The pie crust tutorial was extremely helpful although I ended up not using the food processor because I didn't feel like fooling with it. The dough came together nicely and rolled out even better. I filled the crust with the cherry filling and topped it with the second crust. I even put a cute little heart on top.

Homemade Palmiers

Today I was having some trouble figuring out what I want to bake. I was thinking about snickerdoodle cupcakes, but I scratched idea that because I've been making way too many cakes/cupcakes lately. Some would say that's physically impossible and I would normally agree with them, but after the wedding cake I need to take some time from that sweet treat. I was pretty much out of ideas, then my mom started talking about cookie baking weekend. (That's the when my grandma, aunt, mom and I get together and making a TON of Christmas cookies for our friends. She mentioned that she wanted to make the puff pastry cookies that I had made in my pastry class during the weekend. I couldn't get those cookies out of my mind, so that's what I decided to make.

This summer, while taking my first pastry class I actually learned a lot more than I thought I would. I learned the most during our cookie class. We made palmiers from blitz puff pastry, which is a slightly faster version than traditional puff pastry. My first batch spent a little too much time in the oven, so they were a overly browned. My second batch (which I made for my final exam) turned out really well. But the ones I made today, were the best, by far. They are light, crispy, not to sweet, otherwise AMAZING.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

The other day I was craving spice cake. I don't know why, I mean, it's almost 100 degrees outside and it doesn't look like we're getting anywhere near fall, but I wanted cinnamon-spice and I wanted it NOW. So I perused Foodgawker for a little bit and finally decided on a carrot cake even though I had no of the ingredients to make one.

I then took a short drive to the grocery store and picked up some shredded carrots (because I'm lazy), some cream cheese, brown sugar, and a bottle of wine (for me, not the cake). I cake home a started putting together the biggest batch of cake batter I've ever made, it almost didn't fit in the bowl. I finished it up, poured it in the pans and baked. Everything was going quite nicely until I took them out of the oven to let them cool. They began to sink in the middle, but I wasn't giving up! I leveled the cakes and continued in my pursuit of fall flavor deliciousness.

I put together some cream cheese frosting and began the tedious process of icing the cake. It was tedious because what I really wanted to do was hack off a piece of the cake, slap a dollop mound of icing on and call it a day. However, I refrained myself and continued until the entire cake was covered. By this time it was 10 o'clock and I was dead tired (I know, I'm an old person) so I covered the cake and went to bed.

The next day was the hurricane and we lost power around 6 o'clock. About 15 minutes later I got bored of being without power so I uncovered the carrot cake and dug in! It was AMAZING. It was dense and flavorful. The cream cheese frosting was the perfect compliment. The only thing I wanted more of was pecans, so I think next time I'll sprinkle them on the frosting in between the layers. Everybody else liked it too, and my mom, whose not a big cream cheese fan, ate almost all the frosting. I was very proud! So even if it's blazing hot make this cake in hopes that fall isn't too far away!

Carrot Cake (adapted from Burn Me Not)

3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
4 large eggs
2 Tbsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups veggie oil
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 3/4 cup shredded carrots
2 cups chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line 3 8" cake pans with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl combine the first seven ingredients. In another bowl combine the eggs, vanilla, oil, and buttermilk, whisk until combined. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add in the wet. Stir with a spatula until just incorporated. Add the carrots and 1 cup of the pecans, folding to incorporate.

3. Divide batter between the 3 pans and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Let cool in the pan.

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 8oz pkgs cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2-3 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla

1. Beat the butter and cream cheese together until light and fluffy. And the powdered sugar in slowly continuing to beat. Add the vanilla and beat. Refrigerate slightly before icing the cake.

Assembling Cake

1. Take your first layer and set it on a cake pedestal. Ice the top and then sprinkle 1/3 cup pecans over the icing. Place your second layer on top and repeat step. Ice the entire cake.

My Brother's Birthday

It was my brother's birthday last week, but we weren't able to celebrate until that weekend. We decided to have chicken parmigian at home and I would make his cake. He told me that he wanted vanilla cake with chocolate frosting. I looked around for different white and yellow cakes. I thought I had found the one, but then many of the comments from readers said that there cakes fell in the middle. I couldn't take that kind of risk on a birthday cake, especially one for my brother. So, I went the my Magnolia Bakery Cookbook and found a recipe for Traditional Yellow Birthday Cake. I figured that I couldn't go wrong with that kind of title.

I baked the cake which turned out pretty dense, almost like a pound cake, and cut it to form a two-layer rectangle cake. Then a whipped up some chocolate buttercream as well as vanilla buttercream, for decorating. Now I admit, making perfect corners on a cake is hella hard. I kept going over it, screwing it up, then going over it again. I finally gave up and went with the "rustic" look, haha. (I hope no one asks for a sheet cake anytime soon or I'll be in a pickle!)

For the decorations I wanted to try this flower I had seen on I am Baker. I know, flowers on a guys cake? But I knew my brother wouldn't care that I practiced decorating on his cake as long as it tasted good! So I took my rose tip and piped little petals in a circle (I made a template with a round cutter). Then I made a second layer to give it some height. They turned out surprisingly well and for the middle a put a chocolate covered cocoa nib, AMAZING! (you can find them here)

I have a wedding cake coming up and I'm thinking about using those flowers on the cake. The woman wants white on white so for the middle I'll use white pearls. I'm really excited/nervous about the cake, I don't want to let the bride down with my design, but she's having an extremely small reception and only wants a 3-layer round cake, so I think the simplicity of the flowers will compliment the event. Wish me luck!

German Chocolate Cake

Hurricane Irene came and stomped through Virginia this weekend which put a slight damper on my baking adventures. I had planned on making a carrot cake AND German chocolate cupcakes for our Sunday night dinner. However, I was only able to produce the carrot cake in time. My cupcakes were put on the back burner (which was off since we had no power) while I tried, with little luck, to keep my 2 year old occupied in the dark. Luckily, our power came back on after only a day so we were back on our normal schedule pretty quick.

Now you would think this post would be about the Carrot Cake, but it's not. It's about the German Chocolate cupcakes that I made last night. I decided to make them because my office just got power and I knew people would be looking for a reason to stay in the office (instead of running out and playing hookie like we had been for the past two days). I figured cupcakes would do the trick, and they did!

Chocolate Bundt Cake

So I had to get another textbook for my baking classes. I'm taking bread baking this semester and my instructor is going to be using The Baker's Apprentice which I've heard is a really good resource for beginner bakers. So I went to my school's bookstore and they were selling it for $36. That's when I went to Amazon; they were selling it for $19. Then I went to Barnes and Noble; they were selling it for $19 as well, BUT if I spent $25 my shipping would be free. You know I couldn't pass up a deal like that!

I searched for a few minutes an hour (I admit, I have a hard time making decisions) and decided that my additional purchase would be the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook. It got pretty good reviews and I've seen a lot on foodgawker about their amazing frosting. I submitted my order and the books were in my possession the next week.

Vacation and Pecan Gooey Bars

(See the ice cream melting, that was less than 20 seconds outside)

It's been a little while since I posted last and that's because I spent last week on the amazing Island of Edisto. It's a tiny island about 45 minutes south of Charleston with only a Piggly Wiggly and one gas station. We've been going there for seven years now, usually in August. We had a gorgeous house that was literally a 1 minute walk to the beach, a walk we made two and three times a day! We had an amazing time, the only draw back-- it was possibly hotter than the surface of the sun!

Buttermilk Doughnuts

I have a confession. Sometimes I buy baking items that I don't really need.

"Hi, my name is Allie and I'm a shopaholic...when it comes to new baking do-hickeys."

I've bought petit four molds, multiple measuring cup sets, and every holiday cupcake liner under the sun, even if I don't celebrate that holiday! But my worst purchase was the baked doughnut pan. Yes, I gave into the hype of the baked doughnut. Sur La Table's baking section was plastered with baked doughnut pans, mixes, and recipe books. They all called to me and, like a fool, I succumbed to the pressure and bought not one, but TWO pans.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm kind of in love with Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter cups. So in love that at one time I had two HUGE packages of them in my pantry. SO in love that i was sneaking into the pantry and shoving multiple peanut butter cups in my mouth at one time. So deeply in love that I decided to use those cups to make cupcakes. I mean, chocolate cake + peanut butter cups + chocolate peanut butter frosting could equal nothing else but my biggest food fantasy.

Tangy Key Lime Bars

This recipe is going to involve some back story, so bear with me.

My dad is a bit of a collector. He collects yo-yo, old furniture, marbles, toy trains, coins, etc. Our basement is like a little museum to the mid 1900's. I mean, it's not bad enough for an A&E Hoarders intervention, but he does like his nic-nacs. So, when I showed an interest in baking he started collecting things for me. Jadite mixing bowls, metal chocolate molds, cake plates, and my most prized possession--an old recipe box that was full of 1950's recipes from what I can only assume wish was a lovely southern housewife.

Last summer, when he first brought home the recipe box, from an antique store that is becoming his second home, I shuffled through all the recipes looking for a good one to try out. There were recipes for pimento cheese, multiple casseroles, many a fruit and cheese pie (gotta love those semi-homemade pies), and a newspaper clipping for Tangy Lemon Squares. Now, last summer, I was addicted to key limes. I was introduced to the tart fruit by my grandma who made a key lime pie one evening. I didn't want to crush her spirit so I tried a piece and LOVED it. Consequently,  made it several times over the next couple weeks, to my mother's dismay.

So when I came upon the lemon square recipe I said to heck with the lemons and made it with key lime juice. It was a match made in heaven. The traditional shortbread crust with the tangy, gooey key lime middle and ever so crunching top was divine. Sprinkle a little powdered sugar on the top and you're in business.

Tangy Key Lime Bars

1 cup flour
1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened

2 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
3 Tbsp key lime juice
1 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray an 8x8 pan with cooking spray and line it with parchment paper.

2. To make the crust, combine the flour confectioner's sugar and butter, until it's a uniform mixture. Press into the pan and bake for 15-20 minutes.

3. While the crust is baking, combine the eggs, sugar, key lime juice, flour, and baking powder. You a whisk to incorporate the ingredients.

4. Take the pan out of the oven and pour the lime mixture onto the warm crust. Bake at 305F for another 25 minutes or until no imprint remains on the bars when touched. Place on a cooling rack and then into the refrigerator. Once they are chilled, take the bars out of the pan (with the help of the parchment paper) and cut them into individual bars. Sprinkle with a little confectioner's sugar and enjoy!

Peanut Butter Pie

I wanted peanut butter this week. Jackson eats it every day with Ritz or mini clubs, but I hardly ever eat the stuff. The problem: it get stuff to the roof of your mouth, make you chug a gallon of water, and just isn't that good. Unless it's paired with CHOCOLATE. Duh, I love chocolate, we've established this. But I don't know if I've told you my obsession with chocolate and peanut butter. Those two ingredients combine and equal heaven. Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups = amazing. Seriously, try them. I'm planning on making some chocolate cupcakes and popping those babies in each one before they bake. But that's for another day.

One step closer

This Monday I completed my practical for my first pastry class, Principles of Baking. I had 4 hours to make 5 dishes: Lemon Chiffon Cake, Orange-Cranberry Scones, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Focaccia, and Palmiers. I was certain that I wouldn't have enough time to complete everything and was unbelievably nervous the night before.

I had made a timeline of when I should start making the recipes, when I should put them in the oven and when I should take them out. My timeline gave me 5 minutes to clean up at the very end, so I was FREAKING out. Cleanliness was a big part of the evaluation and I will admit that I'm not the neatest baker. Flour is flying around me a lot of the time. So when I went into the kitchen Monday morning I had pretty much given up on being able to finish all five dishes. But then we started....

Another Birthday Cake

Last week I had an order for not one, but TWO birthday cakes. They were both chocolate cakes with an assortment of chocolate buttercreams and frostings layered in. It was for one of my dad's friends, so I knew it had to look good. As I've mentioned before, I'm not really a decorator. I can use a star tip, but that's about it. So when the guy first emailed me and asked for a regular cake I said 'no problem.' Then he asked for a second cake and I said 'sure, that's easy.' Then he asked that one cake say 'Happy Birthday Momma' and one say 'Happy Birthday Joan Mary' and I said 'that's a piece of cake.' When really I was terrified of having to pipe anything, let alone pretty letters onto two cakes. I've never practiced piping in cursive or working with different frostings to see which one pipes best. But that was what the customer wanted and I was going get it done.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've been making a hell of a lot of cakes lately, so this weekend I was looking for something easy. I browsed my normal foodblogs and found a recipe for m & m cookies on How Sweet. I don't usually make cookies, I don't really know why, I mean they come together so quickly and you get almost immediate satisfaction depending on how long you are willing to wait for them to cool. :) But these looked so good and the recipe seemed relatively simple. It was almost as if those tiny little candy coated chocolates were speaking to me saying, "make me, eat me, LOVE me". Sadly, I didn't have any m & m's in the house, or mini peanut butter cups, or any good candy for that matter (note to self: pick up candy to snack on). So I made the traditional chocolate chip cookies from leftover chips I had from other recipes. The reason I liked the cookie is because of the chewiness, my grandma makes her cookies with crisco and they are always too crisp for me. These cookies stayed soft for the few days that they lasted. I made the them extra-large and figured they'd be perfect for sandwiching some homemade ice cream, which I happened to make in my class on Monday! Now all I need is a really good scale so I can measure out the ingredients and make it at home.

Peach & Blueberry Cobbler

So in my last post I mentioned how my family is addicted to chocolate and how I can never pass up a recipe involving the decadent ingredient. Well, I could see my dad was getting kind of tired of the rich, chocolatey goodness (i know, CRAZY). So I decided that I would make him a cobbler, one of his favorite desserts. He had just gone down to North Carolina and on the way home he stopped by a fruit stand and picked up a massive amount of peaches. Needless to say we've been making a lot of recipes with peaches, including a peach salsa recipe that I'll have to share later. There were also some blueberries left in the fridge from a previous recipe so I figured I'd throw it all into these cute little ramekins and bake it up.

Peach Blueberry Cobbler


4 large peaches, peeled and sliced
1 cup blueberries
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
pinch of salt
1 Tbsp cornstarch

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp light brown sugar
4 oz cold butter, cubed
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Mix filling ingredients together and divide into 4 ramekins. Bake for 20 minutes.

2. While filling is baking put together the biscuit dough together. Mix the flour, baking powder, brown sugar, and salt together. Cut butter into flour mixture with pastry cutter until it reaches the cornmeal consistency.

3. Pour in buttermilk and vanilla, and mix until just combined. Refrigerate until ready to use.

4. Take the ramekins out of the oven and scoop some biscuit dough onto the top of each. Smooth it out a little and place the ramekins back in the oven to bake for 30 minutes or until the tops are brown.

5. Allow to cool slightly before serving...with ice cream!

Chocolate Hazelnut Cake

Everyone in my family, except for my dad is a chocoholic. Sadly there are no meetings for people addicted to such a hard drug so we just continue to binge on anything chocolate, including Nutella.

Now, look at that cake. Would you turn down this cake? Yeah, I didn't think so. When I saw it on Tasty Kitchen I couldn't say no either. This cake is unbelievably moist and has now replaced my jazzed up box mix as my favorite chocolate recipe. For the frosting I took Martha Stewart's Dark Chocolate Frosting recipe and replaced the melted chocolate with Nutella, which worked perfectly. Chopped hazelnuts are the finishing touch to this super decadent dessert. Try it, although I'm warning you now, it may make you crave chocolate day and night*.

*Disregard that last note if you have day and night chocolate cravings already.

Buttermilk Pound Cake

This 4th of July weekend was AMAZING, mainly because of the crazy amounts of food that I consumed, but also because I was able to spend some special time with my mom and son. We went to the pool and Jackson finally got used to the water (there may or may not have been a traumatic head-under-water incident early this summer...). We also traveled down to our local outlet mall  and the trip wouldn't have been complete without a refueling at Pierce's BBQ. If you haven't been there you need to go. The decor may make you want to run away screaming, but their bbq is killer and their crinkle cut fries are worth having to sit in mustard yellow booths. But the best part of the weekend was the awesome grilling that took place in our own backyard.

The beginning of something wonderful!

So this weekend I sold my FIRST cake. It was amazing! It felt as if I should have been doing it all my life (not the baking thing, because of been doing that, but the selling thing). I loved the feeling of pride as I showed my friend the cake. I'm almost always proud of what I make (I admit, there have been duds!) but this was a different pride, because I was actually being recognized for my abilities. Someone was willing to pay for something I'd made. CRAZY.

One of my coworkers needed a cake for her husband's birthday and since I am always bringing in treats for everyone to snack on she asked me to make it. She decided ona dark chocolate cake with caramel buttercream in between the layers and mocha buttercream on the outside. So I started Saturday morning, baking the cake. I decided to make it extra special by cutting the three layers into six. That meant A LOT of buttercream which I made in the afternoon. I was pretty nervous about decorating, because as my friends can atest I am more of a 'if it tastes good who cares if it looks good' kind of person. I mean, I'm not going to give you a fug cake, but I'm definitely not artistically inclined either. So I stuck with a simple decoration around the top and bottom border.

Now let's get to the nitty gritty of the cake...

Snickerdoodle Blondies

I started searching food blogs, foodbuzz, and foodgawker at the beginning of the year. I guess you could say it was my new year resolution to find recipes that I thought were interesting and bake them. One of the first blogs that I stumbled upon, and fell in love with, was Brown Eyed Baker. Her recipes were simple, in the sense that I felt I could make them on a whim without the end result being disastrous. And every recipe that I have tried has been amazing.

Hello Blogosphere

This will be my first post EVER. I'm sure it won't be as witty as some of the other blogs you're currently perusing, but hopefully my spunky personality will make you want to come back and see what kind of treats I'm baking up.

Let me give you a little background on who you will be reading about:

I am currently taking pastry classes at my local college and I am determined to open up a late-night bake shop, of which my city is in dire need! It's not going to be for a few years because, let's face it, the economy sucks and I barely have two pennies to rub together (I definitely have to overage notices to rub together, but that's another story.) So at the end of next spring I will have, hopefully, passed my pastry classes with flying colors and will be well on my way to opening a storefront.

Until then, I bake anything and everything out of my small kitchen. I've gotten a few orders for different confections, in fact next week I'll be making a dark chocolate cake for one of my coworkers, recipe and pictures to come!