I’m going to be honest here and admit that these lemon bars were made months ago for Max’s baptism! I know, I know, I have been Miss Lagger McGee over here with my posts. What happened to Linda’s Love in the past two months? I’ve been very busy and stressed out with leaving my old job, graduating school, looking for a new job, and now leaving my new job. I won’t speak about it for two reasons: 1) Those of you who know me are probably sick of hearing abotu it, and 2) I’d like to leave painful memories behing I’m kidding. Half kidding I usually do bake more when I’m stressed, but it also can get pricey, so I’ve been laying low in that department. I’ve been baking actually, but haven’t had teh time to blog about it. I’ve also been making a lot of repeats like the S’mores cookies, since they are so easy and always such a hit.

But about these lemon bars! With summer approaching (when I was baking these) and now that it’s fully here, all I want to bake are citrusy desserts. I combined a few basic lemon bar recipes and made these. They tasted great, although I over baked them. Also, I repeated one of my first mistakes, which was to skimp on materials. Since I still don’t have a food processor, I made the shortbread part from hand. I’m not sure what exactly went wrong, but I think I didn’t incorporate the butter into my dough well enough. After I added the lemon filling and baked it, the lemon part didn’t stick very well to the bread part. So even though it tasted yummy, the lemon filling and bread separated almost every time. Who wants to donate to “Linda needs a awesome-tastic food processor” fund? Any takers? Why is it so quoet out there???

I know. It’s been a minute since I’ve posted anything. Who knew being out of school would be busier than finishing up? I’ve actually been baking, just not documenting. I’m not so good about snapping shots of my goodies. But in the past few weeks, I’ve made cake pops three times, one of which was for my first actual order! Although it ended up working out, I won’t even go into the madness that ordeal was. I made super gooey, chewy chocolate chip peanut butter cookies – which were bomb. I think there was something else too, but I forget.

For Max’s baptism, I made lemon bars (see next post) and S’mores cookies again, since they were just a hit. This time, I almost quadrupled the graham cracker crumb amount, and used actual crumbs from the box, instead of crushing actual crackers. It was simple and tasted so good. I baked them a minute longer before adding the chocolate chunks and marshmallows, but I think next time I’ll even leave them in a bit longer. They were chewy, gooey, and flipping tasty. I think I also decreased the amount of salt by a smidgen too, with all the extra graham cracker crumbs.

I can’t wait to make these suckers again. They were a big hit, and seem to be the only thing I’ve baked so far that pretty much everyone likes. One of my sister’s friends even said this was the best cookie he’s ever eaten. Hi! My name is Linda and my head is getting bigger by the second! Almost all the cookies went, which is great for me since my booty would hate me if they were laying around just waiting (and not for long) to be inhaled.

These aren’t anything special or cool. It was a Wednesday night and with no school to stress about, I couldn’t very well just sit there could I? I dug into my pantry and found some oatmeal, orange flavored cranberries from Trader’s, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and the usual dough business. Threw them all in a bowl and scooped them into the oven. No one tried these either. I gave the batch to my mom who took them to work.

Over all, they were decent. The recipe I adapted from Kacey’s Kitchen called for rolled oats, but being that I don’t eat oatmeal and was also too much of a FF (Duonger lingo) to go to the store, I used whole grain instant oatmeal. I ate about 5 cookies. Hey, I had to test them out at each stage: just out of the oven, five minutes out of the oven, cooled completely, on a napkin, on my bare hands… you get the point.  Not a bad batch, but after the unnecessary sugar intake, I did manage to haul myself to the gym. Max liked them I think…

Cherry! Coke! Cherry Coke! And sugar free Cherry Coke? Shut the front door, this cannot be. Thanks to Kayte, I just discovered this guilt free drink (nope, harmful, artificial sweetners don’t scare me). Not bad. And it reminded me of a recipe I recently saw around the blogs – Cherry Coke cupcakes.  I mean, mind as well be chocolate dipped Redvines coated in sugar plum clouds and cotton candy rainbows… I had to try it.

To be honest, the recipe from Annie’s Eats just looks like some science experiment. It doesn’t particularly make sense to me, but then again, not many things in my life do. I love it. The ingredients are:

1½ cups all-purpose flour
3 tbsp. cocoa powder
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
¾ cup sugar
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 large egg
½ cup buttermilk
¾ cup Coca-Cola
¼ tsp. maraschino cherry juice
2 tsp. vanilla extract
Maraschino cherries, stemless

There was also a Cherry Coke “glaze” deal that is basically powdered sugar and coke. Definitely interesting, but not really something I can’t live without. Then for the topping, I just made what the recipe called for, whipped cream.

As you can see, the cupcakes came out adorably! Cherry Coke taste, not so much, which I was not surprised about. I wonder why the recipe didn’t call for Cherry Coke itself, instead of regular Coke. Annie? Anyhow, the whipped cream was super yummy. I know it’s a basic thing to make, but it was my first time and I burn toast. So go ahead Lin, brush your shoulders off  They tasted pretty good, although not Cherry Coke-y at all. Interestingly, they taste like gingerbread and have this quaint holiday feeling to them.

Who knows, you all tell me. I like them, but I feel like it’s a misnomer to refer to them as Cherry Coke cupcakes. What about Cupcake Sundae? Gingerbready-But-Not Cupcakes? I hear crickets… Any ideas people?

Yeah baby!

1. The cupcake itself is moist and has that interesting “I can’t put my finger on it” quality.
2. Whipped Cream came out perfectly. I started with one tablespoon of confectioner’s sugar and slowly kept adding more while whisking it until I came to a taste and consistency that I liked.
3. Piping frostings instead of spooning them is so much easier. I did wish I were one of those freaks that can do it with a spoon and make it look effortlessly rustic.
4. These things, good or not, are freaking cute!

Mmmm, not so much…

1. Not enough Coke flavor. Maybe that’s a good thing. I mean, who wants to eat Coke in dough form?
2. Maybe using fresh cherries would taste better, and instead of using the Maraschino juice, grenadine might produce a more pronounced punch. Or!… What if I cut up a bunch of fresh cherries into small pieces and added them to the batter? That could be insane!
3. I was debating during mixing the ingredients whether I should add more cocoa powder. Having a chocolatey taste would have made it more tasty. (How come “tasty” doesn’t have an “e” in it? Weird.) Next time I’ll try to follow my instincts more.

Since I have finals next week (yeah! I’m done with school!), I can’t spend much time baking anything this weekend. So I decided to do a mid-week session, and as I haven’t yet ventured into cookies, that sounded like a natural choice. I’ve made cookies before, mostly chocolate chip and peanut butter (I actually made some awesome Tagalongs last month), so I wanted to do something different, but the kicker was that it had to be something The Matador would eat. Anything with cream cheese and banana are out. It would have to be chocolate. And loads of it.

After perusing some cookbooks and surfing the blogs for a few hours (while I should have been working, or studying, or you know, being productive), I couldn’t find anything fun. And then, it popped into my head. S’mores! Who doesn’t like s’mores??? They have graham crackers, which you can eat with basically anything; chocolate, which needs no justification at all, and MARSHMALLOWS – the funnest food ever – except for maybe cotton candy or kettle corn. (Yes, I know ‘funnest’ isn’t technically a word, but I like it so get used to it!)

I looked around and found a couple of recipes that had some variations, but generally had the same gist. The trick was the marshmallows. To get them to stay somewhat in tact but get a little gooey, you can’t just incorporate them into the dough. Then with the chocolate, you have to have Hershey’s chocolate, or it won’t be authentic.

I crushed and incorporated the graham crackers into my cookie dough, added chocolate chips (just about a cup, not as much as I would for chocolate chip cookies), then put them in the oven. Halfway through baking, I pulled them out and at the speed of lighting (or maybe more like “run, Forrest, run!) and added mini marshmallow and chunks of broken up Hershey’s. Then I put them back into the oven for the second half.

The cookies came out pretty tasty, but didn’t have enough graham cracker taste. So with the second and third batches, I added more. I’d even do a whole box next time. The marshmallows and chocolate were gooey. They did that pizza cheese stringy thing when pulled away from your mouth. Yum. I would have liked a toasty taste that you get from the burnt marshmallows, but not sure how to do that one. Anyone have any ideas?

Hooray!

1. I’ve learned to combine the dry ingredients separately from the wet, which I think makes for a better cookie texture.
2. Adding the marshmallows and Hershey’s chocolate on top of the cookie halfway through gives it a more authentic touch.

Boo!

1. I think the dough was a little too salty. Especially with the graham cracker crumbs, it was a tad bit apparent.
2. More graham crackers! And what might be fun too is to do both graham cracker crumbs and bigger chunks in the dough.
3. I don’t think the cookies look very pretty. They just look like confused blobs. But not sure how to make it more aesthetically appealing. What do you think?

Thanks to Bakerella’s adorable cake pop ideas, I was able to make these uber cute chickadees and easter eggs for the holiday. I gotta say, even though they took me roughly five hours to make, it was so fun and I didn’t make any mistakes! Yeah! For my very first time making these treats, I have to say they came out pretty decently. I can’t wait to make more next time in different themes. Plus they’re perfect for the kiddies. and since Max’s second birthday party is coming up, it gives me just enough time to practice.

The cake and frosting part: I made the cake and remembered to lessen the temperature of the oven by about twenty five degrees. It came out so moist and delicious! finally Lin,  you listened! After it cooled, I made the shapes with the cake and frosting (out of a can this time but next time I plan to do my own). Then let it set with the Popsicle sticks in the freezer for awhile.

Decorating: I used candy melts for the coating, and I have to say, it tastes pretty good. now I have to tell you, the coating and decorating, although easy, takes a long time. you’re dipping each individual pop, tapping excess chocolate off, and then letting it dry. Then you get to do the funnest part – decorating! With the chicks, I used teeny tiny colored chocolate chips and flowered cake-fetti. For the eggs, I just did polka dots and sprinkles because it’s all I had. Bakerella does this really cute bunny with upside down pastel candy corn. Super cute.

They dry pretty quickly so that’s nice. I was running late to meet cold war (you’ll find out soon), so I packaged them up in candy wrappers and they were set. The girls loved them. and according to the midnight text I got from Jenn, Justin does too (see below). Sorry Justin, say hello to the world wide web!

My nephew Max really liked them too. He showed that chick who was boss!

Uh oh! Where did the chickie’s head go Max?

Yeah, there’s no such thing as table manners when it comes to chick pops!

Uh oh, chickie all gone!

Hooray

1. Followed the recipe and baked according to my non-stick pan status
2. Took my time. a whole lotta time!
3. Had fun with it.

Boo

1. I’d like to make my own frosting next time. Anyone know a good chocolate frosting recipe?
2. Try different themes for decorating!

Anyhow, I’ve made them out of the box and added some extra zings that I learned from Chi Hai. So it’s only natural to learn how to make one of my favorites from scratch. I researched a bunch of recipes for this southern dessert, looking for some common denominators, special techniques, and interesting additions.

The cake: I ended up combining about three recipes I found and then added my own touches with my taste in mind. I love love love chocolate, so I quadrupled the cocoa count, added some additional flavorings, and made it so that the cake was dense, which I love. Some people like light and airy, I love dense and moist. I baked the cake in the oven with the temperature as directed – Linda, don’t you ever learn?! Obviously not. As the type A, anal retentive control freak that I am, I decided to follow the directed temperature. C’est pas bien. The cake, although super tasty and had a great chocolate flavor, came out dry. Darn! The one good thing was that I didn’t get red food coloring everywhere. I didn’t even stain myself! Woohoo! For those of you who know me, this was a feat in of itself.

The frosting: I also researched frostings because I didn’t want to do the usual cream cheese, butter, and confectioner’s sugar version, which is yummy. I found a recipe that called for mascarpone and heavy whipping cream in addition to the usual ingredients. Sounded great, so I tried it. The frosting came out pretty well actually. I added extra vanilla extract and lessened the amount of whipping cream. It was also ten o’clock at night so I was tired and wanted to eat it already! That’s one of my problems I learned. I rush too much because I’m an impatient person and want results… stat! Overall, the frosting came out great, but the cheeses were a little prominent. I’d probably add a slight amount more of sugar next time and also more whipping cream, which would have made it easier to frost…

Frosting the cake: Holy moly, who woulda thought it would be so hard??? I knew it’d be a little difficult from the blogs that I’ve read, so I did what others suggested, which was to put the cake layers in the freezer for at least an hour to harden. Then I tried to do a thin layer of frosting first, so that the red crumbies would get stuck on that layer, and not the outside one. what a pink mess! I did an okay job frosting the outter layer, but it looked a hot mess. How do those people get pretty flat surfaces or swirlies? Heck if I know. I tried and tried, and as you can see, did not figure it out. Next time what I think I’ll do is freeze the cake layers even longer, then freeze it again after the first frosting layer is set. And maybe with the added whipping cream, it will be easier to work with.

Whoopie!

1. The recipe itself was a success. the flavor was delicious, but maybe I’ll try harder to “disguise” some of the ingredients so to create a “je ne sais quoi” factor.
2. The cream cheese frosting was decent.
3. iIused a hand mixer this time, which I think was what made the flavor come out tasty. the batter blended nicely.

 (ugh, here we go…)

1. With non-stick pans, lessen the temperature!!!! Focus Linda!
2. Don’t rush the baking process, it takes time.
3. Frosting is NOT easy. hopefully I’ll learn a thing or two in my wilton cake decorating class that I’m starting at Michael’s next Thursday.
4. I should have put more frosting between the two layer cakes,
5. Quality work doesn’t happen at ten o’clock at night. Start earlier in the day and plan ahead.

I tweaked some of the proportions, but the cupcake recipe is from Martha Stewart and the frosting recipe is from Tasty Kitchen. The ingredients below include my adjustments.

The cupcakes: I followed the banana bread cupcake recipe and added more mushed bananas because I always love more! I also added more walnuts. They came out pretty well, although I think a little overcooked. I always try to take things out of the oven a few minutes before the directed time, but for some reason I always over bake. I insert the toothpick, rotate the pans, lessen the egg count, but for some reason, this is always where I go wrong! Agh! Overall, they came out pretty good, but without the frosting (as I’ll share with you in a minute), they are essentially banana walnut muffins.

The frosting: This frosting is called “The Best Frosting I Ever Had.” I have NO clue what I did wrong, but it was a disaster. I followed the recipe and combined the milk and flour in the saucepan, cooled it completely, then added the rest of the ingredients. Not sure if it was supposed to be that way, but after the milk/flour mixture was cooled, it had that plastic like layer on top. The ingredients didn’t all fully incorporate. Eew. I think the problem here was that the butter wasn’t room temperature enough, making it hard to combine with the sugar. And on top of that, I didn’t have a hand mixer so I did it manually. No bueno. So I didn’t frost the cupcakes and threw this batch out disappointed and annoyed at myself for taking shortcuts.

What I did right:

1. Added extra bananas to make it moist.

(Man, is that all I did right??)

Lessons learned or what to do next time:

1. Use correct equipment, no skimping!
2. When using darker non-stick pans, lessen the oven temperature by 10-15 degrees
3. I don’t think my bananas were ripe enough. Next time, go with bananas that have some browning on the skin.
4. A suggestion from Chi Hai: not completely mushing and leaving some bits of banana in the batter will make is tastier and more fun.

Are some of these mistakes totally idiotic? Am I completely missing something? You tell me  :)