BAKING GALLERY

I had so much leftover lemon cream cheese buttercream icing after making my lemon cake, so I decided to find another recipe I could use it on. My first thought was something either strawberry or raspberry, and I eventually settled on these raspberry cupcakes! This was the first time I ever made a coulis, but that added tartness in the middle was the perfect addition. I think these are my favorite thing I've made so far!

My mom loves lemon, so I decided on a lemon cake for her birthday this year! I of course had to check if Sally had a recipe, and was not disappointed. This recipe had me both zest and juice some lemons, which was something I hadn't done before, but I love how it added to the cake. I did over-mix this cake a bit, so it came out a bit more on the pound cake side, but it tasted great and everyone was very happy! I decorated the top with some whipped cream and fresh lemon slices just before serving.

While I really wanted to make a chocolate lava cake, I fear my skill level just isn't there yet, so this year I made my dad a regular chocolate cake for his birthday! This recipe did have its own chocolate frosting linked, but I wanted to mimic the light, fluffy icing that our local grocery store tends to have on their freshly-made cakes. It reminds me a lot of whipped cream, which subsequently lead me to a stabilized whipped cream frosting, and it was perfect for this project. The cake itself was very rich, while the icing was light and not too sweet, with just a little cocoa powder for a chocolate taste.

This year for my birthday I was gifted a tin of itty-bitty cookie cutter shapes, and I knew I had to make something with them immediately. While these are just sugar cookies, the idea I had in my head was some sort of visual blend between Sweetart candies, and conversation hearts. I found the perfect recipe on Sally's blog, and made a double batch. One of which I left plain, and only used vanilla extract in. The other I added almond extract into, split into three equal dough balls, and colored pink, blue, and yellow.

I rolled out the colored dough, and cut out so many mini hearts before rolling out the plain vanilla dough. After pressing the mini hearts into the plain dough, I very lightly flattened it all again with my rolling pin, and cut out the actual cookies. I did have to pick out any leftover mini hearts before re-rolling the plain dough and adding more, but it was a fun process. I'm in love with the outcome!

Some more brownie pops! I made these as Valentine's Day gifts for my friends and family, and I really like how they turned out. I made the little hearts with some melted white chocolate and a silicone mold, and made the drizzle with a piping bag. I shaped them into "pucks" this time instead of balls, as I wanted a bit more surface area to decorate.

I tried modifying Sally's recipe this year to cut down the spices just a bit, and I don't think I'll ever use any other gingerbread recipe again! I cut the amount of each spice in half (ginger, cinammon, allspice, cloves), and I LOVE the result! These specific gingerbread cookies were made for a Christmas party, so I made a double batch. They were all eaten by the guests, and were a real hit! I felt super proud!!

I made these cupcakes as a little extra to go along with my gingerbread cookies for a Christmas party, because I wanted to try out a cute shaped cupcake tin I bought. They're just made from a boxed cake mix and a jar of pre-made frosting, both with some added green food coloring, but they still tasted good and looked really cute! I decorated them with a piping tip, some M&Ms, and a single star sprinkle on top!

Around the end of October this year, a friend of mine came to stay with me from the States for a couple of weeks! We made these cupcakes together as a fun little Halloween project‒ pictured are the ones I decorated. They were made with a boxed cake mix and pre-made frosting, colored green and piped on with a pipng tip. The hats were made from one side of an Oreo cookie, a dollop of icing, and a Hershey's kiss!

These bat-shaped cookies were made at the same time as the previous pumpkin-shaped cookies, but the batch I made out of the striped dough got burned in the oven, and I had already smushed the remaining excess dough together. So, no pretty striped bats, but they still tasted the same. I ended up giving out one striped pumpkin, and one brown bat in each goodie bag I made. By the time I got to the last bats pictured, I had also run out of sanding sugar. Those were enjoyed by my family and I!

These, along with the next cookies, were made as additions to Halloween treat bags that I made for the kids of a few friends. I loved Sally's neapolitan cookies so much, I wondered what other flavors I might be able to make using the recipe. For these cookies, I kept both the chocolate and vanilla flavors (the purple stripe is the vanilla), but changed the strawberry flavor to orange. I achieved this by straining the pulp out of orange marmalade with a cheesecloth, using orange extract instead of strawberry, and forgoing the almond extract altogether. It worked surprisingly well, and the flavor was perfect!

While I didn't get very flattering pictures, and they didn't end up being perfect stripes like the neapolitan cookies, I was really happy with how they turned out. I added some purple sanding sugar on top for a little something extra!

A friend of mine recently mentioned that she had really gotten into peacan butter tarts as of late, and it got me wondering how difficult they might be to make. So, when we made plans to meet for coffee, I decided I'd whip some up for us to enjoy.

This was my first time making my own pastry crust, and while it was difficult, I think it went pretty well! These tarts were definitely a challenge overall, and the first batch turned out better than the second (I think by the time I got the second batch in the oven, they had been a bit overmixed and came out runnier than I would have liked). However, they tasted really good! This time I decided to forgo adding the white vinegar, though I'd like to add it in if I ever make them again in order to see which I like better.

I also didn't realize that butter tarts are a specifically Canadian dessert until looking for recipes!

This is the second batch of cookies that I chose to make for my dad's birthday this year‒ neapolitan cookies! Another of Sally's recipes, of course. These were really fun to make, and surprisingly easy for how cute the finished product looks! I do wish I had access to the recommended strawberry extract, as the strawberry flavor without it was very light. I'm hoping I might be able to find some somewhere in the future.

I feel like this recipe has a lot of remix potential. I'm already getting ideas! I'll definitely be making these again.

For my dad's birthday this year, I decided I'd make a couple batches of cookies! I chose this first one because I know how much my dad loves chocolate‒ the richer the better! I got the recipe from my favorite baking blog, Sally's Baking Addiction, where I tend to get most of my recipes after trying her amazing chocolate chip cookies. These were just as good as I expected them to be, and everyone (including Dad) loved them. I used milk chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet for extra chocolatey flavor (and I just prefer them in most circumstances!)

After making my banana chocolate chip coffee muffins, I was left with a full container of instant coffee. While I'll definitely use it to make more muffins, it got me wondering what else I could use it to bake. I went poking around a bit, and found this recipe for coffee cookies which looked good to me! While making the dough balls, I underestimated the size of the cookie scoop that Mischka recommended, and subsequently measured out a tablespoon of dough for each cookie. This meant they came out smaller than expected, and I ended up with a lot of cookies, but they turned out well and were very tasty!

One of my dad's all-time-favorite cakes is carrot cake, so for Father's Day this year I decided I'd make one from scratch. However, he tends to be very picky when it comes to carrot cake. It has to be moist, which he says most store-bought carrot cakes are not. My aunt had made one for him in the past which went over well, so I reached out to her to aquire her recipe for both the cake and the cream cheese frosting. Making this cake was a bit of a challenge, as my local grocery store only had baby carrots that I could use, but it did end up coming together nicely in the end. The verdict from my family was that it was good! A tad bit drier than when my aunt makes it (I asked for their honesty, so that I know where to improve next time), but overall successful!

I made the little carrot decorations out of candy melts by "painting" them onto parchment paper with a toothpick, and setting them in the freezer.

While visiting my aunt not long ago, she had made a batch of muffins that she said were "awful". I gave them a try, and I absolutely loved them‒ as did the others that tried them! I had to get the recipe from her immediately, and have subsequently made them myself. I made a few small tweaks to my tastes, using salted butter instead of margarine, and milk chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet, and I have to say these are one of my favorites now! I already absolutely love anything with banana, chocolate, or coffee flavors, so adding them all together was the perfect dessert for me. I'll be making these forever!!

In a recent blog post I spoke about wanting to get into baking more, and that these were the result! Christmas baking has always been something I've enjoyed, and after making a bunch of treats last year to make gift tins, I've felt even more compelled to finally dive into the hobby. These cupcakes were just made with a boxed mix, but I did mix up some fun colorful icing to go on top!

I LOVE Christmas baking, and I LOVE this gingerbread recipe. I like to switch up what I bake for the Holidays a little every year, but I am very stubborn about always making gingerbread men. They're a Christmas staple, and I get excited about eating them every December. I decided to try Sally's recipe, as I've liked everything I've tried from her blog so far, and these were very tasty! Though I do think I'd like to tone down the spices a little next time, as myself and my parents found them a little overwhelming.

The second treat I made for the Christmas gift tins were these Rice Krispies trees, which I dipped in white chocolate to resemble snowcover. I used the Holiday Rice Krispies, and added a little green food coloring while mixing up the marshmallows. I used little ball sprinkles as the "ornaments", and a single golden star sprinkle for the top. I specifically made enough to put one in each tin, then used the rest of the mix to make little "snowballs" for myself to eat!

Maybe these aren't really considered baking, but I'm putting them here anyway!

This year for Christmas, I decided I wanted to bake a bunch of treats and do up some gift tins for some friends and family. The first thing I made were these brownie pops! I love using brownie instead of cake for making "cake" pops, as it sticks together without the need to add icing into the mix, and the taste is so much richer. For these I just melted some milk chocolate, and sprinkled on some red and green sanding sugar while the chocolate was still wet. I ended up having some melted chocolate left over, so I also made some marshmallow pops!

I mentioned to a friend of mine that I'd love to learn how to make bread someday, and she offered to show me! We made some white bread, and it turned out very nice. Kneeding the dough was difficult, but getting to cut a slice fresh out of the oven made it all worth it!