Mango bread slice

Can you believe that I actually baked this on Wednesday last week? You’d think that since I baked so early, I’d have this thing written before the weekend, let along before 7pm today. You’d've thought that, but then you’d been wrong, just like the Bride. Nope, I got it in my head that I had to get my savory cupcake baked this weekend, and that’s what it took to get it done…all weekend. And prior to Saturday I was trying to play catch up with my Recipe Round-Ups which I’ve only managed to get last week’s out. Busy, busy, busy.

But who cares. You’re mad about mangos and want to know how they faired in a quick bread. I can tell you they faired well, but got a bit lost in the cinnamon. Apparently it was her ardent love of fruit that brought Kelly of Baking with the Boys to select the Fresh Mango Bread from Dorie’s tome of baked goodness.   Click to continue…

{ 11 comments }

Recipe Round-Up ~ May 9-15

by Aimee on May 19, 2009

What to do with leftover vanilla bottles

Thought I forgot about these huh? I didn’t. I’ve been meaning to catch up, which I’m working on… slowly. At least I have last week’s here. I will be looking back over the weeks that I missed. There’s a lot of good stuff to mention!   Click to continue…

{ 8 comments }

Ricotta Cheesecake with Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta, Whipped Cream, and Strawberries

Holy cow am I late on this one. This was actually supposed to be for the Daring Bakers challenge last month. Jenny Bakes supplied a simple enough cheesecake recipe to follow, but I just couldn’t do it. I can’t handle another cream cheese, brick-in-my-stomach-after-eating cheesecake experience. It’s good going down, but an unruly house guest to my stomach later.

So I hemmed and I hawed all month long….what the heck was I going to do? I want to participate in the challenge, but the thought of cream cheese brick syndrome left me nauseous. I know that some of the other DBers had similar issues with cheesecake and did some tweaks, so I began a search for a light alternative. Then I remembered Martha. That’s right, the woman who started it all for me and the very first baking book I bought offered salvation in a ricotta cheesecake *cue the angels singing with light shining down from the heavens*

(To appease the DB powers that be: The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.)   Click to continue…

{ 6 comments }

Where the heck did my beaters go???

by Aimee on May 13, 2009

Found them!

Last week when I was making the tiramisu cake when I lost my beaters. You know, the beaters for my hand mixer. I spent close to half an hour searching the entire kitchen, resisting the urge to look through the rest of the house for them. Don’t ask me why I was compelled to search my bedroom for hand mixer beaters, but when you feel like you’ve looked in every logical place on the planet your mind suddenly jumps to the illogical ones.   Click to continue…

{ 6 comments }

TWD ~ Tartest Lemon Tart

by Aimee on May 12, 2009

Tartest lemon tart

We revisit the golden lemon this week with Babette of Babette Feasts. She chose Dorie’s Tartest Lemon Tart which, as written, uses the WHOLE lemon, “zest, pulp, and juice.” This zesty combination truly gives you one of the tartest lemon tarts you’ve ever tasted.   Click to continue…

{ 11 comments }

TWD ~ Tiramisu Cake (an ode to TWD)

by Aimee on May 7, 2009

Tiramisu Cake

Buongiorno! Megan of My Baking Adventures leads us to Italy, the land of Tiramisu with Dorie’s Tiramisu Cake. In an attempt to be faithful to the recipe, I’ve been all over town trying to find mascarpone cheese. My last ditch effort was at a natural food store on Tuesday, but no luck. I know some people have been able to find it at Publix, Walmart (gah!) even, but I did not. Thankfully I came across a great website that gives (somewhat cryptic at times) substitutions for mascarpone cheese, as well as others.   Click to continue…

{ 4 comments }

Cherry Midnight Cupcakes

You know the song in Alice In Wonderland, “A very merry un-Birthday to you!” Well, a very merry un-Iron Cupcake challenge to you! At least I’m going to try since I obviously did not make the deadline…yet again…this month. I still managed to get a cupcake designed and baked though, and that’s what the challenge is really all about right…baking cupcakes outside of the box!

I really wanted to branch out with this month’s Iron Cupcake flavor inspiration of soda pop. There are so many sodas to be had out there other than plain ‘ol cola…red apple, crushed melon, green tea, lavender…there’s even orange cola. Being the bohemian that I am, I wanted to experiment with one of the more uncommon flavors. My only problem was that I couldn’t find any of them available locally. Sorry dear reader, but I’m not going to make a special 45+ minute trip galavanting across Florida trying to find Kumquat soda. If I had had more foresight (which I should have by now) I would have known that I live in a proverbial no-man’s land whose only fizzy consolations come in plain Coke and Pepsi Co. flavors, and I could have simply ordered something unusual from somewhere exotic…like Scottsdale. *sigh* But I didn’t. So I was stuck with cherry. Click to continue…

{ 8 comments }

TWD ~ Chocolate Cream Tart

by Aimee on April 28, 2009

ChocolateTart3

Shesh, has another week gone by already? Some weeks I’m not all that jazzed about the TWD selection, sometimes I’m in excitement mode, and then there are weeks where I’m neither jazzed nor excited. This week initially started out jazzed, then turned lukewarm. When I initially heard the title, “Chocolate Cream Tart” (selected by Kim of Scrumptious Photography) I got excited because who doesn’t get excited when they hear the word, “chocolate”. Then I looked at what was entailed, don’t ask me why, but the technique seemed like a bit of a let down. I have no idea what I expected when I heard “Chocolate Cream Tart”, but I do know it didn’t involve what sounded like a glorified chocolate pudding thrown in a tart shell. Well, sometimes it’s good to have low expectations, or none really to speak of. This was PHENOMENAL!   Click to continue…

{ 15 comments }

TWD ~ Four Star Chocolate Bread Pudding

by Aimee on April 21, 2009

Chocolate Bread Pudding

I had high hopes for this weeks selection of “Four Star” Chocolate Bread Pudding (brought to us by Lauren of Upper East Side Chronicle) but alas, my hopes were dashed along soggy rocks of toooo stale brioche.   Click to continue…

{ 7 comments }

Chocolate Amaretti Torte

Our TWD selection this week is brought to you by Holly of Phe/MOM/enon. It’s the 15 Minute Magic: Chocolate Amaretti Torte! The “15 minute magic” part really only applies if you have a food processor. If you are food processor-less, and as temporally challenged as I am then this may take you quite a bit longer. That being said, this was relatively easy to make.   Click to continue…

{ 9 comments }