Sundays with Joy/Avocado Pound Cake

I was super excited about this week’s Sundays with Joy.  I thought this was a great idea.

What I loved about this cake was the texture.  I mean adding the cornmeal?  Pure genius!  Also, if you are an eater of batters, it is super light and fluffy and sweet!  Really!  The cake was wonderful and I had my fair share of slices slathered in butter.

I was surprised that I even had the chance to bake these cakes (it makes two) this week.  You see, I only had one day to bake this week with TONS of stuff to do.  I baked the pound cake, a cookie cake for my 5 year old’s preschool graduation, cookies for my 9 year old’s teacher (normally I don’t condone sweets for teachers because they probably get a lot of the stuff, but I was given several hints by said teacher), and bread just because I haven’t made bread in awhile.

My busy month is not slowing down any time soon, but thank goodness for me we only have a smoothie coming up next week.  Whew!  As always, if you want the recipe, go buy Joy’s Cookbook!  You will not regret it!

My GeekyLink for today is ME!  Okay not really, it is this.  While all the other food bloggers will be returning home after hanging out at BlogHer,  I am going to nerd out on some NASA.  I went last year and had the BEST time.  My oldest daughter is going with me again and this year I am taking my nephews too.  I am so excited!

Cinnamon Bread and Toast and French Toast, O My!

Well, I finally got back into the swing of things in terms of baking.  It turns out all I needed was one day with nothing on my plate (OK, a day and a half because I did have a baking fail with this recipe to begin with and I will show it to you).  I was able to make a couple of things and I still have more to do tonight for Angela’s school party tomorrow.  So, first thing’s first.

Cinnamon Sugar Much?

I was really at a loss for what to make.  I was overwhelmed with other recipes by other food bloggers, food bloggers that post more than I do, food bloggers that don’t have young children running around.  Finally, I decided on a bread.  Bread, I think is my “go to” when I just either don’t know what to make or for when feel like I can’t make something.  I wouldn’t say it comes easier, I just think overall, I like it better.

Ready for second rise!

I looked awhile for a recipe and I found one that I liked from The Pioneer Woman (who has 4 kids, no more excuses for me!) and even though she is awesome, I still managed to tweak the bread a bit.  I put some cinnamon in the bread itself and I used some bread flour in mine.  You wanna know where I made my mistake?  One of her pictures shows her cutting into her butter and the caption reads “start with 3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) of butter”, well sometimes using my iPod to follow a recipe just messes me up.  I read it as 3/4 cup which is 12 tablespoons of butter.  Whatever.  I fixed it.  The funny thing is, I didn’t realize what I had done till I had decided that I just didn’t like my bread and wanted to try it again anyway.  I thought that I just didn’t let it rise enough (I didn’t, but that is beside the point if the recipe is off, right?)  Either way the bread tasted great but of course the one that was done right had a much better texture.

Can you tell which one is the baking fail?

This bread was a real winner with the kids too.  They LOVE LOVE LOVE  when I make cinnamon toast for breakfast and this was a new way for them to have it.  It is one of those recipes that means so much to me because the picky one likes it.  She even liked it as French Toast.

My GeekyLink for today is this article by MSNBC.com How NASA could get its groove back.  Now they could start by not using 90s book references to middle aged women but I digress.  It is a really interesting and fun article.

Thanksgiving and Birthdays, Triumphs, and Failures

This year, I didn’t really get to make desserts for Thanksgiving.  Which bummed me out but my family says that some people don’t cook so they can at least buy (!) and bring a dessert, whatever.  So I was not happy.  I really like the recipe I use for pumpkin pie and I was kinda bummed I didn’t get to make it this year especially since I was planning on making my own crust.  Then, I decided not to make one of my usual appetizers this year and my aunt wasn’t happy.  I love and usually make these Mini Pumpkin Tarts and I make chocolate ones too but I hate that I can’t fill the cups until right before we have to leave because if they sit too long they will become soggy.  Granted, there usually aren’t that many left to get soggy but I just wanted to try some new things.  So, even though I didn’t get to bake desserts I was still in charge of sweet appetizers, rolls and I did make some savory appetizers too.

I would have to say that my biggest triumph were the rolls!  O my goodness, so yummy, so perfect, I couldn’t believe that they came out of my kitchen!  I think I am going to write a post about them though, so no link yet.  Sorry, just a preview picture.

I made Bacon Pops as one of my savory appetizers.  These tasted great but were kinda messy to make, at least getting them into balls.  If I had a scoop that was half the size of my cookie scoop, it would have been way easier.  I thought that the sticks they use on the website were too big.  I just used toothpicks and it worked out fine.  I also didn’t use the apple slices to serve them because I didn’t want to have to deal with browning.  It is bacon, cheese, and basil, how much yummier and simpler could it get?  Easy to make ahead too, which is important when making lots of things.  I also made Broccoli Bites.  I added a little more seasoning to these and actually I think I added a bit too much.  I also had to add an extra egg because otherwise they would not have stuck together.  I would like to perfect these.  Overall, really easy to make though.

Pumpkin Pie Cookie with Brown Butter Icing.  This was after Thanksgiving and other cookies had been stacked on top of it.

Now on to the sweets!  I made Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing from Brown Eyed Baker.  There is a reason that these cookies are all over the internet.  They were like eating pumpkin muffin tops with the best icing in the world.  They are originally from Martha Stewart and the brown butter icing is DIVINE.  I had almost two tablespoons left after frosting all of the cookies (and it makes A LOT of cookies) and it was all I could do not to spoon it in my mouth.  One thing though, is I had to make these twice.  Both times I made them they needed more flour.  So if you make them, keep that in mind.  I also made, apple pie cookies from Smitten Kitchen.  These were a lot of effort but I really thought the overall effect was awesome and now I really want to try this crust in a pie.  It was crazy flaky and wonderful.  I also made some cream cheese cookies that I didn’t really like, I thought they tasted just like a regular sugar cookie so I am looking to adapt that recipe and maybe post about it.  I think a good cream cheese cookie would be worth it.

Apple Pie Cookie

We have three birthdays in our family from November 26 to December 1.  My brother didn’t come down so we didn’t celebrate his, so instead of something chocolatey I am sure he would have picked, I made my Mexican Chocolate Cookies.  I had to make these as extra, partly because my family was mad that I shared the whole first batch with my in-laws and they wanted some and partly because I made cheesecake and banana cream pie and not everyone is a fan.  First of all, quite simply if you are making any cheesecake other than Mixed Berry Cheesecake by Ina Garten, I don’t know what is wrong with you.  I actually didn’t put the berries on top this time, I made a caramel but I should’ve made the berries.  Every other time I have made this I do make the berries and everyone loves them on top.  At some point my oven shut off and so I had to wing it as to baking time to finish it but I actually think this is the best it has ever come out.  (Sorry, no picture!) That was for my Aunt.  For my Grandma, who is a big Banana Cream Pie fan, I made Banana Cream Pie with Chocolate Ganache & Salted Caramel Sauce.  O yeah, I loved it!  My Grandmother loved it.  I thought the pastry cream came out so well.  I had to make the caramel twice but I got it to work.  But the stupid (yes, I said stupid!) graham cracker crust fell apart!  The pie looked great and tasted great too but you just couldn’t cut a slice of it, dangit!  I do think it could have stayed chilled longer but I don’t think that was the whole problem.  It just really chapped my hide that the most difficult elements of the recipe I got right, but the simplest was a failure.  I would have posted it, I think, if it had worked completely.

Whether I make this pie again, I don’t know, but I WILL make this pastry cream again!

I am happy to show you that even though I might not post as often as I should, I am still baking quite a bit, it is just that sometimes I forget to take pictures, truly.  I am sorry and I will try my hardest to do better.  It is all about time management and that is something I have never been good at, plus being a procrastinator doesn’t help.

My GeekyLink today is like the biggest news of the day, or it should be.  NASA’s Kepler Confirms Its First Planet In Habitable Zone, this is so awesome and the fact that there are about fifty more or so that they have left to confirm that might be out there as well is just super cool.  If you think that is too “out there” for you, just be glad it wasn’t Ancient Aliens!  Dang, I can’t watch (or at least I shouldn’t watch) it.  There is so much crazy stuff on that show and I LOVE it.