Favorite Baking Blogs

I love to get my bake on.  I love watching butter and sugar get all creamy and fantastical, but mostly I love eating the treats once they are done.
Like most people, the muse isn't always upon me.  Creativity comes in waves, and sometimes we could all use a little inspiration to encourage blossoms to bloom.  So I thought I would quickly share my favorite baking blogs with you, just in case you could use a little miracle grow for your creative juices today.

Joy the Baker

Witty writing, yummy treats!

Sweetapolita

Lovely cakes and recipes.  Always, always.

Smitten Kitchen

A wide variety of everything sweet and savory.

TRY the DIY.

Here's a collections of some great DIY projects that I'm itching to try!  I knew you would all be pretty interested too, so I thought I would share.

1.)  I've been seeing these knitted pouf stools everywhere lately.  And they are always extremely expensive.So if you're like me, and you're asking yourself "how the heck can I get this look for less?":  look no further!
Click here for a knitted floor pouf tutorial from Norwegian Knitting Website, Pickles!
Wouldn't this pattern work great with a stretched jersey fabric instead of yarn?

2.)  DIY sprinkles!  I know, right?  Can we just talk about how many times I have gone to the grocery store to buy just plain white sprinkles and all I can find is a rainbow funfetti vomit fest?  Now I never have to worry about it again.  This tutorial makes so much sense, and I am POed that I never thought of it before.
Click here to learn how to make your own sprinkles!

3.)  Spumoni Bombe!  Think Neapolitan ice cream and Baked Alaska had a chunky Italian baby.
Click here for a step by step Spumoni Bombe recipe!

Cherries.

Can we just talk about how one of my recipes have been featured on grassroutestravel.com?  Yeah!  And it was my very first baking recipe that I ever created; a hearty, rustic fresh cherry scone.  I feel so very honored for the nod.  Thanks for thinking of us, GRT!

You can find the "What to do with Cherries" post: HERE!
You can find the direct link to my cherry and oat scone recipe:  HERE!

 

via echoesofthepastonline

Sunflower Seed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Phew!  It's finally cool enough to bake here in Wisconsin!  We had quite the hot spell last week, but now all is well!  
I baked some cookies for my father and Jason's father for Pop's Day, and I just thought I would share it with everyone!

What are you doing for your dad for Father's Day?

 

Sunflower Seed Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you're in the mood for a cookie that isn't too sweet with a light airy texture...this is the one for you, my friends!


Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup natural, creamy peanut butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 2 large egg
• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup unsalted sunflower seeds
• (optional) peanut butter M&M's for topping...only because it's a Father's Day treat.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*F.
2. Mix wet ingredients into a stand mixer, then proceed to add the dry ingredients. Mix together until blissfully smooth and delectable.
3. Bake for 15-20 mins.
4. Fin!

Mixing with Evie.

I would really like to introduce you to my new best friend, my kitchen aid mixer.
Yup.  I got it last Thursday from my grandparents as an early wedding gift.  It was the one thing that I desperately wanted on our wedding registry, and now I can't imagine my life without it. Since Thursday, I've baked two cakes, one quiche, and one puff pastry.
I also baked these delicious Dulce de Leche cupcakes with Evie this morning.  You can find the recipe here!  Yum!

Be prepared for some more eye-candy.  Lots more.

Iron Cupcake Madison -- Citrus Challenge!

1.)  Evie and I didn't win Iron Cupcake this month, but it certainly felt like it!  Everyone was so kind and welcoming, and we all baked our fine little booties off!  Hats off to you, bakers and eaters alike!
At least now we know that we can bake over 10 dozen cupcakes and survive!

 ^ via Evie's facebook (but I'm not going to link it!)

2.)  Ladies Rock Camp Madison is only a few weeks away!  Women between the ages of 19-190 can come and learn their instrument of choice, form a band, and fund a girl to attend Girls Rock Madison this summer!
Scholarships are available for Ladies Rock Camp AND Girls Rock Camp! 
Please contact GRC for more info!

Buttercream Bru-ha-ha

Evie and I have been hard at work.  I'm so happy we had the past two days off together to try 4 different cupcake recipes, with 8 different varieties!  I feel like this was much harder than baking 10 dozen cupcakes of the same recipe.

Gosh.  It has been like the cupcake Olympics, 

but I'm pretty sure we've found our gold metal winner.

Iron Cupcake Madison

I just applied for Iron Cupcake Madison's citrus challenge this afternoon!  Together with my friend Evie, we plan on participating in the second Iron Cupcake Challenge in Madison...and raising some money for Porchlight Inc.! 

For more information on the event: CLICK!

I've mentioned Evie on my blog before, but I don't think I've given my readers a true introduction.  We met at Michael's crafts store in the t-shirt/screen-printing department, with our significant others...and we were buying the same exact things!  We ended up striking up conversation, and traded contact information.  Later that week we got together for a coffee and knitting break, and discovered our shared love of indie pop music, baking, and crafts.  Basically, we were placed on this earth to be friends.  Duh!

Thanksgiving 2010

I love holidays, but Thanksgiving is extra special for me because it reminds me most of Jason.  One of my happiest memories with Jason is of us dancing in our living room last year because we had four days off together for the first time ever.  We were both over worked and exhausted, and I had pneumonia, but we were so happy that we had to dance.
I don't think Jason even remembers it, but it's one of my most treasured memories.
Thanksgiving is also the only holiday that we have already created our own family traditions.  Baking my mom's cheese cake recipe together (and complaining the whole time about how we wish we had a mixer), making a beautiful vegetarian dinner all day, and watching It's A Wonderful Life before bed.

Check out the Quorn Turk'y ;)

This Thanksgiving we had our friends Kari and Wes over, since we were all kind of misplaced.  It was very relaxed and informal, with no drunk uncles or awkward baby stories.  Yes please.

Psychedelic Cupcake Tutorial

This weekend my friend Krista and I made the most colorful cupcakes for our friend's Andrew and Alex's joint birthday party.  They were the champions of the evening (next to the company!), and will be sure to kick any funfetti cupcake's butt in the future.
By the by, I was inspired by The Dainty Squid's cupcake Tutorial!

Psychedelic Cupcake Tutorial.

Materials:

• Light colored Cupcake Mix of your choice (I used boxed yellow cake mix because I was in a hurry, but you can use any light colored cake batter of your choice.)
• 1 Measuring Cup
• Food Coloring
• Cupcake liners
• Four bowls (or more)
• Four spoons (or more)
• Toothpicks
• Cream cheese frosting (like you would want to use another kind anyway...psh.)

Instructions:

1. Mix up the ingredients called for to make your cupcake batter.
2. With a measuring cup, separate the batter into four bowls (or more, depending on how many colors you want to make.)
3. Dye the batter in each bowl a different color with food coloring.  There should be a dye chart on the back of your box of dyes, but if not, this chart might help.  Also, Krista and I doubled the amount of dye if the color wasn't bright enough.
4. Place your cupcake liners into your cupcake pan.
5. Place a designated spoon to each batter color, and proceed to add small layers of each colored batter into the cupcake liners until the liner is halfway filled.
6. Swirl with a toothpick (optional.)
7. Bake.  Cool.  Frost.  Eat.

J's 30th birthday weekend! (in pictures)

Them Damn Kids

el-tin fun

Slow Loris


violet birthday cake

Jon and Taryn hitch-hiked from Beloit for the party.




And now I own two copies of Fried Green Tomatoes on VHS!!

A late gift. A new item.

Jason forgot about a Christmas gift he had for me, so I got to open one last Christmas gift last night as the cherry on top of a dinner and a movie.
Matryoshka Measuring Cups!! <3333 style="font-style: italic;" size="1">Oh my wordddd.

I've never had anything nice like this before,
I nearly cried when I opened them up!

I feel so unbelievably blessed. xx

Also, I've added a new item to my Etsy!

Upcycled Lens Barrettes.

I like them very much!
I hope you do too!

I DO NOT MESS AROUND Peanut Butter Cookies.

I like my cookies like I like my friends.
Not too sweet, and full of personality.
I usually don't like peanut butter cookies, however, I made this recipe to fit my standards.
So if you're like me and you roll your eyes at plain ol' PB Cooks because you're maybe a little bit of a cookie snob, you will most likely enjoy my twist on dull, country grandma peanut butter cookies.
Plus, the crunch of sliced almonds just does something for me.
I hope it does something for you, too.


I DO NOT MESS AROUND
Peanut Butter Cookies.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup natural, creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup milk (I used soy milk, but whatever you choose would be fine.)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
  
• 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup M & M's (I used them because Jason and I got a free bag. You could use more chocolate chips instead.)
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*F.
   
2. Mix together dry ingredients, then wet. Mix together.
3. Let cookie dough chill for 30 mins.
4. Bake for 15-20 mins.
5. Fin!

P.S. Happy snow day, my fellow Mid-westerners!

November House Show, Part II

The last house show of November was so much fun! I wish everyone could have been there to listen to the music and experience the fun!
We made some new friends, played with kids, ate a lot, our brains were blown by great musical performances, AND no one was mean to Willi. Hooray!

Eli August played, and he did a great job!
I especially loved his ukulele songs, however, I am biased when it comes to uking til you're puking. In fact, the topic of puking even came up during his set! (Not in a gross way, of course. It was fitting and humorous.)

Plum Union graced our presence once again. It feels so nice to have a circle of friends all over the country, however, it feels comforting to know that there are some right by you that you can always visit with and smell the garlic and tea tree oil mixture on them when you hug them! Not only that, but to hear their lovely singing voices almost whenever you please!
Edwin of Plum Union just had a birthday on Wednesday, so I baked a cake for him from scratch, and I decorated it with some runny homemade frosting.Cat also played some solo songs, which were a real treat! It was the first time I've seen her perform live by herself.

Cowboy Motif played some pretty upbeat, acoustic pop songs with an Animal Collective backbone, which I am always a sucker for.
They were very young and very sweet and kind.

Let's do this again, and again, and again, please!

Vanilla Apple Tart.

I try my hardest to bake Jason a treat once a week. This usually turns out to be a treat once a month, but whatev's, I work more than 45 hours a week.

Vanilla Apple Tart.

Ingredients:
Dough:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup milk
2 tbl oil

Filling:
1 large Granny Smith Apple
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp flour
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp brown sugar
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp vanilla (or less, depending on how you like it!)


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400* F.
2. Mix dough ingredients together. Roll out dough, then place it into your pie dish.
3. Mix together your filling ingredients, lay them over the dough.
4. Bake for 13-18 mins.
5. Remove from oven.
6. Sprinkle powdered sugar over the tart while it is still warm. (This helped to make it more moist without covering the whole tart in icky sugar jelly filling. yuck.)
7. Allow to cool, then sprinkle some brown sugar over the apples.
8. Eat!
   

Break it down now!...so I hear you like pita bread?

Okay, a little break from the blessings. Blah blah blah (I hope that's not what you're hearing, even though I know that's probably what you're hearing!)

Pita Bread Recipe!

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 1 package of yeast (or 2 1/2 tsp)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cup warm water
  
• 1/2 tsp Italian herbs (or just one of your favorite Italian herbs would be fine too, I'm sure.)
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp sugar (nuh-uh, you say? yes sir/madam, I say!)
• olive oil

How to do it, and do it well (according to Connie):

1. Pre-heat oven to 400*F.
2. Add yeast to 1/4 cup of warm water, wait a few minutes to let it activate.
   
3. Mix dry ingredients together.
4. Make a well in the middle to the dry mixture (basically, dig a little hole). Add 1 additional cup of warm water. Mix together, then knead and let it rise is a warm place for about an hour. (My mom always put her dough to rise on top of the steps with a towel over it.)
   
5. Divide the dough into smaller balls (depending on how big you would like your pita bread to be), then roll them out with a rolling pin.
6. Grease a baking sheet with olive oil, and place the rolled out pita dough upon it. Put a little olive oil on top of the rolled out dough to keep it moist and D-lish.
7. Bake for 10-12 mins. This really depends on how chewy/crunchy you would like your pita bread to be.
8. And now the best part! Eat!!
   

Oh hey, look what you can do with it!

Hello, dinner.yum!

I'm a Gawker.

I've been engulfed all morning after finding these websites which are right up my ally.

Craftgawker

A concentrated collection of handmade beauties which redirect you to where they are being sold.

Foodgawker

A concentrated collection of pictures of food, which redirects you to recipes and the like! ooo la la!

Strawberry Topped Cupcake

by Jane Alice

You'll thank me later.
(after you've wasted an hour of your day looking at all of this stuff)

Trailmix Cooks.

This is an extremely simple recipe that is a variation of my Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies that I posted in late spring of this year.
My Trailmix cookie recipe is perfect for late summer when everyone is pushing in their last camping adventures and picnics with friends.
It's a hardy cookie, packed with oats, dried berries, nuts, and chocolate.
What could be better, right?

Peanut butter.
That's the answer.
And that's why I put it in these bad boys.

Trailmix Cookies!
Yum!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter (room temp)
  
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup light brown sugar (lightly packed!)
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups quick oats
• 1 1/2 cup trailmix (I used Country Trailmix. The mostly peanut kind, because it's what I had in the house.)
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbl vanilla
• 1 tbl natural peanut butter
  
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbls milk (I used soy milk)
  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*F.
2. Cream butter in mixing bowl. Add the rest of those ingredients and mix them up, baby!
3. Place the dough in the fridge to chill for about a half hour (or however long you can keep yourself from sneaking nibbles of cookie dough, in my case...)
   
4. Take a tablepoon to scoop out the dough, and help to shape it with another tablespoon.
5. Place the shaped cookie dough on baking sheets.
6. Bake for 11-13 mins (or more if your cookies are extra large!)
   
7. Take those babies out to cool (I always take them out a little early and allow them to keep cooking on the baking sheets for a bit.)
8. Enjoy!

Also, get ready for the giveaway!
It's coming up this week!!!