Baklava Cupcake

Last week I went Madison's one and only place dedicated to cupcakes - Daisy Cafe and Cakecupery- for the first time. It opened 2 years ago, but because it was on the other side of town, I didn't really get to it. But now, I go to school on the other side of town, so I dropped by to see how the cupcakes measured up.

This baklava cupcake was pretty good. I was leaning toward a mocha one, but decided to try something unusual. I think it was the sprinkled pistachios that hooked me. When you bite into the cupcake, you reach a really yummy layer of honey-pistachio filling. I only wish the cake of the cupcake was better. It was dry and seemed like it was made from a box. I'd still give the cupcake a B, and would come back to see what else they come up with and also to try their breakfast.

Epic Lava Cake

My birthday was yesterday, so of course, I made a birthday cake. One of the blogs I adore is Smitten Kitchen, and it has a wealth of cake recipes. I fell in love with the picture of the chocolate peanut butter cake. My cake didn't turn out as pretty, but it was certainly fun to make. This cake is the moistest I've ever had because it includes sour cream, oil, water, and eggs. I was lucky enough to have some fresh duck eggs this time, again from another co-worker of my husband.

I do have to put a warning on this cake. It is the heaviest piece of cake you'll ever eat too. I could barely finish a small piece of it, which is not normal for me. The recipe can be found here.

Cream Puffs with Chocolate Whipped Cream

Cream puffs to me are state fair food. Back when my family used to go to the fair, we all had to have one, every year. And being the Dairy State, they were oh so good. So I was really hoping that my first batch would be just as great as those I'd had in my childhood.

As I went through the pâte à choux recipe in TSOB (the cream puff dough), I was a bit doubtful that the mashed potato-looking dough in the pan would come out of the oven as a light, airy biscuit.

But they turned out perfect. Aesthetically, not so much, but man were they good! Now I can make eclairs, profiteroles, etc. But next, I'm going to move on to a fried version and try to make a chocolate banana beignet!

Back to School!

I start culinary school this Thursday!!! I am so excited (see the three exclamations). It's going to be a bit of a rough transition to go back to school after 5 years, but I'm so happy. The chef jacket is so cool, like being in a real restaurant. I'll be posting here way more sporadically, but I intend to keep baking from time to time.

Almond Chocolate Chip Torta

You know when you buy a cookbook, and it sits on your shelf untouched? Well, sadly that's what happened to my copy of Lidia Bastianich's "Lidia Cooks From the Heart of Italy" for about the past six months. It's a beautiful book; more than just a cookbook, with pictures and descriptions of the many regions of Italy. The problem for me is most recipes seem to have exotic ingredients or take way longer than a weeknight meal should take.

I decided to give the book another shot, especially since I wanted to do some more baking. I found this recipe and the only weird ingredient I had to search out was almond meal. After searching my regular store, which had almost every other kind of flour and meal, I found some at Whole Paycheck, oops, Whole Foods.

The cake was pretty good; I couldn't really get over the cornbread-like texture of the cake to say it was great. I hope if you pick up the book, you like it better than I did!

Vanilla Ice Cream with Chocolate Caramel Sauce

Another long gaps between posts. I finished the HP books, and am now on to watching all the movies. Also, I've been away on a vacation this past weekend. So, to make it up, and show I'm not incredibly lazy, I've got two posts for today.

This ice cream and sauce was what you only wish you could get when you ordered an ice cream sundae at most places! The ice cream was so rich, and was more like a custard. I also used a whole vanilla bean, which by itself, makes this whole recipe worth it! The sauce is again that amazing creamy caramel I made awhile back, but even better because of the chocolate.

What a great way to (almost) end summer!

Blueberry Scones

I haven't posted anything in a while because I've been immersed in the Harry Potter books. I'd never read any beyond the first three, and decided I wanted to catch up. And man, are those books huge! One's a 900-pager!

Anyways, to ease back into things, I whipped up this batch of scones for breakfast. I was meaning to use fresh, whole currants from our CSA, but I'd let them sit for two weeks and they weren't that good. I used a decent recipe from Whole Foods.

Next up: on to the vanilla sauce, for real this time.