I'm Beth. I like making your eyes happy. I bake (because food is awesome) and make crafty things! (Which means the majority of photos here are my own.)
Hey, Chocolate Muffin. What’s with the disguise? You are too sweet and too cake-like to be a muffin. You’re a cupcake, silly.
Yumm. I excluded the walnuts and the almond topping, and instead topped some with leftover frosting (it keeps well in the freezer).
I had this recipe written down from a few years ago, but it seems to have come from allrecipes. Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Nut Muffins
I like: illustrated recipes!
Cake! I tried out the chocolate version of the Martha Stewart Living cake, and it was also delicious and similarly, the only good chocolate cake I’ve made, ever (not counting the flourless chocolate cake).
I cut the recipe in half again so that I had one layer of cake, but I wanted to try the vanilla again with different frosting, so I had one vanilla as well. The chocolate had chocolate sour cream frosting, and the vanilla had caramel frosting in the middle, and caramel-peanut butter on the top and sides!
For me, one of the best things about Christmas (and…two months after Christmas) is eating the German cake/bread Stollen. Fattening, buttery, raisiny slices covered with powdered sugar! Yum yum yum. I’ve never baked it myself, but the pictures in recipes I’ve seen have all looked too bread-like, and therefore the wrong texture. The store-bought is delicious though, so that’s okay!
Because cake is obviously a perfect choice for breakfast, I present to you…Breakfast Cake, or the Cake Formerly Known as Coffee Cake. I’ve been eating this cake since I was a mere speck in the womb (maybe?) and later my mom started calling it breakfast cake to avoid disgust from my sister and I after saying “cake” right after the word “coffee”.
The only thing you really need to know about this cake is that it’s quick, easy, and you’re going to eat a whole lot of it in one sitting. Bake away, friends:
Breakfast Cake
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup applesauce
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
Topping
1 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1. Combine dry ingredients in bowl, set aside. Prepare topping in separate bowl, set aside. Grease a 9 x 13” pan and preheat oven to 350˚F.
2. Cream butter & sugar, add applesauce. Beat in eggs, sour cream & vanilla. Add dry.
3. Pour half of the batter into the pan and sprinkle with half of the topping. Pour on the rest of the batter, spread out, and sprinkle with the remaining topping.
4. Bake until toothpick comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes. (Original recipe says 35-40, but that’s too long in my oven.)
I prefer it without the walnuts in the topping, but as you can see, I sprinkled on some pecans after it was baked. I still like it better without any nuts.
Well isn’t this marvelous!
Carrot cake decorated as an owl, by estea b.
I just might have to try this.
(via crosshatched-patterns)
I’ve made these pumpkin bars many many times and somehow never posted them (this is a blah picture from my old blog). It’s one of my favorites…soft pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing…yum! Recipe.
Remember these cakes? I tried the yellow cake, and wow…it was delicious and also the only good yellow cake I’ve made. I didn’t want to waste a bunch of butter so I cut the recipe in half, and once it was baked I sliced the cake in half horizontally. This way I could make two half cakes with different fillings or frostings. I ended up using pastry cream for both middles, and I topped one with chocolate sour cream frosting, and for the other, (not) fresh strawberry filling on top of the pastry cream. As you can see I had trouble with the cake falling apart. There’s chocolate frosting glueing a large chunk on and as for the other, well…the second one is just a huge mess. A delicious mess.
Both cakes and all the frostings and fillings are included in the scan (open in a new tab/window to magnify).
Cake! I scanned these from Martha Stewart Living (obviously they don’t match up, but you get the idea). All of the cakes started from two recipes, chocolate or vanilla. The idea was to combine frosting flavors, fillings, and toppings to end up with many different cakes. For frostings, it lists chocolate sour cream and chocolate ganache, and the vanilla frosting can also be turned into lemon, caramel, or coffee.
I want to make them. Lots and lots! Though I don’t really want to use five or six sticks of butter per cake (two in the cake, three/four in the frosting). Butter overload…
My mom has been making this apple spice cake for many years, though I seem to have replaced her on that! The cake is full of dark and golden raisins, spices, apple chunks, and walnuts, and the glaze is flavored with maple syrup. I was out of walnuts when I made the cake this time, and I found that the pecans I used tasted amazing with all the different flavors. I think I found myself a new recipe alteration!
My family all agreed that this version of the cake was the best version of it we’ve had, and my mom and I were ogling over how perfectly baked it was. The timing on this cake is tricky. Of course all ovens bake differently, but the recipe gives a baking time range of 15 minutes from the minimum to the maximum (which is super rare). So without finding the cake’s perfect time for your oven, a minute or so too long will dry this cake out very fast.
P.S. The original recipe called for pears. We’ve never tried it that way, but I imagine the apple is better.
Blueberry Buckle, made during the blueberry harvest. It was delicious, but next time I might try it without the streusel on top (which melted into one solid layer). The extra sugar and butter were good, but with such a small cake (look how short it is!) it was unnecessary and a bit overpowering. A sprinkle of cinnamon sugar or some raw sugar would work just fine…well, in theory.
Recipe from the Joy of Cooking.
