My thesis chair asked me to create cupcakes for her union after not finding  cupcakes at our local San Diego spots that she really loved. This is the first round I gave her a few weeks back as a taste test:

My first time baking madeleines! Spiced with cardamom and nutmeg, and some dipped in chocolate.
They stuck to the pan a little (so they had some scars upon de-molding) but they were delicious!!



( lots more pictures because I am crazy like that )
( recipe )

( Recipe )

Oaty Shortbread, Double Chocolate & Peppermint Muffins, Little Gingerbread Cakes... Just another day in Rainy England (as you can tell by the light in the photograph! Is it ever sunny here?!)



( I've got a bottle of wine to keep me company in writing this, so... Clicky Clicky for More Pictures, far far too much Text & a Rough Guide to my favourite but not traditional Cannelloni )

a little experimenting. i don't like chocolate so i made these to see how they turned out. i currently have chocolate on my face somehow! and my boyfriend gobbled them up ^_^


( more photos & recipe under the cut )

i made carrot cakes the other day...they are yum! i made too many though and i'm the only one who likes them, haha. this is only the second time i've made carrot cakes [att all and using the following recipe] and i have to say, they're probably the best carrot cakes i've ever tried...!

( recipe )

I was worried these might seem a bit Autumnal, but carrots are in season and I couldn't resist. These are very fluffy, fresh tasting cupcakes that are super easy to mix together. Here's the recipe.

Here's the recipe and results for these delightful chai cupcakes with lemon cream-cheese icing! So good! Recipe and more pictures under the cut.

( sugar, spice, and everything nice! )

there's a cafe near my office that sells matcha brownie squares. i buy them often as an after-lunch dessert and i've been trying to figure out the secret to their subtle and melt-in-your-mouth awesomeness. while they don't contain chocolate, i have a feeling the secret might be white chocolate.

i decided to try and come up with a recipe for matcha cupcakes, mixing in white chocolate for its sweetness to balance out the slight bitterness of matcha. the white chocolate flavour barely makes an appearance, just in case you're dubious!

i frankensteined this recipe from several different recipes, crossing my fingers as i went along. they turned out beautifully with a paper thin crispy top and a sweet, moist inner crumb.

in fact, they're sweet and moist enough that they don't even need icing. the first time i made them, i smeared on a dollop of cream cheese icing but i think it was a bit much. it was a good way to dress them up for my boyfriend's birthday picnic. this time i just dusted them with a bit of icing sugar.

( recipe and more pics )

Click here for recipe, pictures, and my thoughts on the finished product!

My brother Rob and my housemate Andrew have birthdays very close together, so this weekend we had a joint birthday barbeque and bonfire party for them. I decided to bake them a cake each and asked them to chose their three favourite flavours. Perhaps I should have told them it was for cakes though as they both turned out pretty strange.

I made Rose Bakery's carrot cake from comments in this comm. I don't tend to make layer cakes that often, but it turned out pretty tasty, though not as sweet as I expected (hey, that's what frosting's for!)

Just a couple of notes for anyone who wants to try it:

• I used half superfine sugar, half regular sugar, and I don't think it made too much of a difference.
• I subbed pecans in for walnuts, which I think worked out really well. You really need the texture contrast of the nuts, and I think pecans give little extra bursts of caramelly flavor too.
• I added almost a cup of raisins in, which was perhaps too many, as the cake ended up being almost too moist. On the other hand, the moistness could be because I grated a WHOLE BAG of carrots. Anyway, it'll probably firm up a bit overnight, so I'm not that worried.
• I made it in two 1.5" deep 9" round pans, so I ended up only baking it for 30-35 min.
• I ended up using ~12 oz of cream cheese for the icing and it still wasn't quite enough to frost a three layer cake - I was probably too ambitious with that, so I couldn't really frost the sides. When I make this again, I'd probably go for a full 16oz of cream cheese, 1/2 cup of butter, and confectioner's sugar to taste.

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I decided that I was going to make Carrot Cake. Instead of making it into a cake, I thought making it into cupcakes would be great. They were so good. Brought back a lot of memories. I'd not had one in so long! When I was a kid, my best friends mother made they most amazing Carrot Cake ever! And I'd not had one since. That was years ago. So I decided to make one. I couldn't believe how moist they were! They were amazing! A total must try I have to say.

So I'm usually not one to ask for recipes, because I usually check the tags first. However, I really want to know what would really taste good, and not just look good. I would like to know if anyone has any tasty carrot cake recipes? Or any good tasting box recipes you've had? My mothers birthday is Friday (yep, right before Mother's Day) and I want to surprise her with an amazing preferably homemade carrot cake.

And if you know any good frosting for it, definitely let me know.

I'd really appreciate this, thanks =)

I made cupcakes for my entry to the baking competition.  It was my first time making cupcakes...it was great fun!

The theme was it had to be something green, so I made Carrot Cake with Matcha (green tea) cream cheese icing.

It was good fun!  

Click here for more pictures of every participants' entry



 

I baked an apple cake today :D

I modified this recipe; I didn't have pecans, so I just used apple and cinnamon.
I also used self-raising flour and left out the raising agents; that turned out all right.
This recipe was really easy to handle, surprisingly (yeah, I'm not the best baker around...)
It's moist, and the flavor's really subtle, but it smells so good!
Best served with ice-cream, coffee, milk, hot chocolate!

Anyway, enough of the blabbering! Click on to see photos of...

( Apple cake... )

Recipe found here: http://whitlidge.blogspot.com/2008/04/my-kinda-carrot-cake.html

You can find the recipe and more pictures over at my blog ommnomnom.com ^_^