Banana-Nut Bread

I recently bought another 9x5 loaf pan, which, on the very next day, went to work baking this banana nut bread. Reading through numerous quick bread/cake recipes have made me in want of two loaf pans, instead of one. I have to tell you- there's a lemon loaf recipe from Baked that looks like pure sunshine-y amazingness. Its recipe yields two loaves. I now have two loaf pans. I'm on it. So what if now I have one glass pan and one metal pan? Hope my oven will be forgiving and heat distribution won't be an issue. (Yeah, it will.)

Oh yeah, the banana bread.

I'm fond of banana bread. Even if it was the featured post at the genesis of my blog, with terrible food photography. I like it for its simplicity. It doesn't require a lot of you. Prep, mix, and bake.

It's baker-friendly. And super yummy.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Oreo Buttercream

Yes, that is me holding up a single chocolate cupcake.

...And if you think that's weird/arrogant/tacky/cutesy, then bear with me, because I have a little confession to make. It's embarrassing, so you want to pay attention.

Unbeknownst to most people, chocolate cupcakes- and cupcakes in general- have been my Achilles' heel in the kitchen. For some reason, I can't bake a proper cupcake. Back in 2011, I've made some divine red velvet cupcakes, but every. single. attempt since then has ended in utter failure.

I'm a girl who mastered pie crust, homemade caramels, baklava, and an epic Father's Day cake. I know how to make brown sugar from scratch. I'm close to really getting French macarons. I know how to whip up three different types of meringue.

So why?? Oh, why oh why oh why oh WHY?????

Behold, a litany of my own personal cupcake woes: 1. Overflowing cupcakes/incorrect batter distribution; 2. Lopsided crowns; 3. Shrunken cakes; 4. Dry/mousse-like/just plain wacky texture; 5. No other way to describe it...they were just plain UGLY.

The way I saw it, I had one of two choices: 1. Give up, or 2. Shut up and bake the darn cupcakes.

I shushed, and I baked. I observed, and I fixed.

Result: a cupcake held high in an absolute, all-triumphant victory.

Passion Fruit Bars

 

I'm incredibly blessed to do this really awesome thing called baking.

I transform flour, butter, sugar, and eggs into all sorts of crazy cool confections. I devote a considerable time of my day thinking about all things sugar and chocolate and lately, liquors in cakes. I am a proud owner of a cake turntable. I make some people very happy.

I'd like to tell you that, in all gratitude, everything in the kitchen goes exceedingly well. I'd also like to tell you baking is fuss-free. Batters are 100% under control. Natural lighting is always on my side. And that I look incredibly hot measuring flour.

What it's really like is that I always end up deciding on a recipe at the very last minute. Once I had to run out in the middle of the night just to get extra cocoa powder. Sometimes a recipe goes haywire on me, and it's a pain trying to either fix or abandon ship. Certain pies just make me want to cry.

Baking is hard work. But it's hard work I'm grateful for. 

Because at the end of the day, I still think it's one of the most amazing arts in the world. I'm really blessed.

 

These passion fruit bars are an example of what came about at the end of a long, terrible baking day. I had failed twice on chocolate cupcakes. The clock was pushing 9 PM. I needed something quick that would work in the next 12 hours, and these bars were it.

I had frozen passion fruit puree in my freezer and a key lime bar recipe I'd been eyeing for a while. One minor adaptation, and the crisis was averted. Thank God.

Real life baking. In all its glorious, frantic, messy craziness.

Chocolate Caramels from Miette Bakery

These are the chocolate variation on Miette's famous fleur de sel caramels. It's as if the buttery, deep, complex flavor of the classic caramels interlaced itself with big chocolate flavor and took itself to a whole different level of sexy.

I want to be clear: when it comes to caramels, nothing can replace my love of the classic caramel. I like simple and sweet; it's perfection enough for me. I have gushed about its awesomeness and sang its sugary praises. Read it, and you will see I am a caramel freak, but a wholly justified caramel freak.

However, if you decide the classic needs a black stiletto of sorts, then chocolate is obviously the way to go. If you happen to think chocolate is the greatest thing ever next to [whatever you think is the greatest thing on Earth], then you need to make these caramels. Also, we need to become friends.

Miette's caramels are super easy, no-fuss candies. Just boil all the ingredients together until the proper temperature, then pour onto a buttered and parchment lined pan. These caramels slice beautifully. They also disappear instantaneously.

Cowvin Cookies from Sticky Fingers Bakery

Once I had discovered a vegan cookbook that looked promising- so promising, in fact, that I went out in an active search of vegan "butter." If I was going to stick to a vegan recipe, then dang it, I would do it right.

The nearest store that carried it was a Whole Foods situated about an hour away from where I lived. So I marched in, and did the obvious: I sniffed every essential oil, briefly looked for this one beer (don't ask), fought the temptation to hoard buy chocolate, and bought what I needed. I also ended up with two bars of goat milk soap, a decision I regretted terribly. The stuff dried out my skin like no other.

In any case, long story short, I bought vegan butter.

Then the said vegan butter sat in my freezer, semi-ignored, for a long, long time.

Why? The vegan cookbook failed to pull through on its promises. The cake that was supposed to be dark red turned out gray-blue. The biscotti was so tough I couldn't bite into it.

Naturally I concluded it wasn't worth it to open a box of vegan butter... if the next recipe (and this time, a recipe that would actually require using it) turns out to be yet another disappointment.

But then the famed Sticky Fingers Bakery cookbook ended up in my hands, I turned to THE famous Cowvin Cookies, and end of story, the vegan butter finally saw the light.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

I am big into soup lately.

Chicken noodle soup (coming soon!), carrot soup, and now, cream of broccoli soup.

This lovely soup was made on Monday, which was after Sunday (church+two services), which was after Saturday (rafting trip all day+apricot cheesecake at night). Which altogether meant I was very, very tired.

Slightly sore muscles, a lot on my mind, rainy/drizzly morning, and four heads of neglected broccoli at the bottom of the refrigerator pretty much settled it. I had to make soup. Stat.

I'll be totally honest. I hate when some recipes call for pureeing the soup with a blender. So annoying! It's a cinch if you have a handheld one, but if not (like me!), then it's a lot of extra work and a lot of extra dishes. Still, I think this soup was totally worth it. I ended up eating it for both brunch and early dinner.

Most importantly, I felt so much better, which I guess is what soup is supposed to do for you in the first place.

Apricot Cheesecake Bars

One of the most tragic things ever to happen in my kitchen was when I had to throw out an entire 9x13 pan of cheesecake bars. The entire thing. It was these apricot cheesecake bars, Take 1.

The cheesecake was unsalvageable. I had kept a big tub of cream cheese in the freezer for later use, unaware that cream cheese doesn't transition well from freezer to fridge to room temperature. So what I had on hand was a soft tofu-like cheesecake base. The tiny grains of cream cheese had not fully melded together into a uniform texture, so the end result was reminiscent of eating solidified porridge.

Lesson learned: never, ever thaw cream cheese from the freezer and use it in a cheesecake.

A week later, I revisited the recipe, this time with freshly bought (and never frozen) bars of cream cheese. Increasing the cheesecake layer by half and adjusting for textural preferences, I ended up with these beautiful bars. I personally like a slightly denser cheesecake, but these were divine the way they were. Take 2= success!

The apricot compote is to die for, and the recipe yields many servings. Be warned, though, that these don't last very long. The entire thing disappeared in under 15 minutes. They couldn't get enough.