Happy Halloween: Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream

Happy Halloween!  I wanted to make a festive dessert this year to celebrate, and after thinking about what to make, I finally settled on something simple after seeing these chocolate cupcakes on Bridget’s blog.  I knew I could trust these to be good, since Bridget is one of the most thorough food testers I know [...]

October Daring Bakers: Peter Reinhart’s Pizza

The Daring Bakers are baking up another Peter Reinhart recipe for October’s challenge.  I didn’t mind one bit because I love Peter Reinhart and his book and because I had really been wanting to try out his recipe for pizza dough.  This gave me just the nudge I needed!  Rosa of Rosa’s Yummy Yum-Yums chose [...]

Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes

I don’t think anyone was surprised that Clara of I Heart Food4Thought chose the Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes this week.  I actually made these over a month ago for my mentor teacher’s birthday, so I didn’t get a chance to decorate them for Halloween like Clara suggested.  So that’s why mine look like birthday cupcakes when most [...]

Pumpkin Bars

I was asked to bake the desserts for the Stewardship Dinner at my church.  They told me to expect about 80-100 people and that I could bake whatever I wanted.  I knew it would be a lot of work, but I was looking forward to it and I was very flattered that they thought enough [...]

Easy Cheesy Beer Bread

I’ve seen this bread on several blogs lately, and I understand why.  It is absolutely fabulous!  I made chili the other night and decided to try this as a side.  I think David and I ended up eating more of this bread than chili!  I usually think of cornbread as the perfect match for chili, [...]

Tuesdays with Dorie: Pumpkin Muffins

Kelly of Sounding My Barbaric Gulp chose Pumpkin Muffins for this week.  I was not surprised that something pumpkin would be chosen soon, since it is fall and pumpkin is all the rage!  I do like muffins, but don’t make or eat them very often.  I was excited about making these because I had been [...]

Gingerbread White Chocolate Blondies

I was in the mood for something with fall-like spices.  I had also finally gotten my hands on a copy of Martha Stewart’s Cookies and these Gingerbread White Chocolate Blondies looked like the perfect way to get my fix.  I made these for our dinner group and they went over really well.  It was a [...]

Speakeasy Cake

We had some friends over last week and I wanted to make something for dessert.  I was looking through the Sweet Melissa Baking Book for ideas and settled on the Speakeasy Cake because the thought of liquor and chocolate seemed really tasty at the time   This was a fun cake to make because [...]

Tuesdays with Dorie: Lenox Almond Biscotti

Gretchen of Canela & Comino chose the Lenox Almond Biscotti for this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie.  I had never made biscotti before, so I was excited about trying it.  I decided to add some fall-like spices to my version.  I added a teaspoon each cinnamon and ginger.  I almost added some pumpkin pie spice, but [...]

Lemon Cake with Raspberry Buttercream (for the Boobie Bake Off)

As soon as I heard about the Boobie Bake Off on Baking Delights, I knew I had to participate.  What a fun event, and definitely for a great cause.  I was thinking about what to make, and as I was flipping through my copy of the Sweet Melissa Baking Book, a recipe for raspberry buttercream [...]