The Monster Cookies

I made cookies today because my husband told me that I never make cookies. Well here you go, Cookie Monster!

These large cookies that I ended up making were crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside.  I used a mix of dark and milk chocolate pieces which added different flavors into the cookies.  I served the cookies with a shot of milk.  I was tempted to put some vodka into the milk just for the heck of it, but it was still too early in the day to be serving alchohol. And I don't really know if Vodka and milk and go together.

Peach and Strawberry Crumb Cake

I have some leftover peaches at home from the salsa that Adam made so I decided to make a Peach Crumb Cake.  After scouring my fridge, I also have some strawberries so I decided to throw it in the mix. 

The crumb cake I used is Sarah's Coffee Cake Recipe which uses her Ultimate Butter Cake as the base and adding to it a wonderful sugar cinnamon topping.  In between the cake and the topping, I made a fruit layer - a mix of small slices of strawberries and peaches.  I think this Coffee Cake recipe is the most fragrant cake I ever make.  The kitchen smells so good whenever I am baking this.  You may have noticed from my older posts that I am not big in adding fruits in cakes.  However, Adam loves them and I am trying to incorporate fresh ones into my baked goods.

Here's a photo of the cake from the side with the fruits.  It created a fruity decadent layer into this already awesome coffee cake.  It is very light and moist.  It is perfect for breakfast together with our favorite coffee, although we also had it for dessert after dinner. 

The Berry Medley Muffins

Breakfast today was at noon because Adam had to go to work in the morning.  I was planning on making muffins, berry muffins, which I had never made before.  I am not a morning person, so there really is no point in making muffins which are supposedly for breakfast.  I know it's not very logical, but that's my excuse.  I'd just end up making cupcakes or something else.  

We had berries sitting in the fridge and I just thought of using those for some baked goods.  I really did not have any staple muffin recipe, so I tried to look online for what looks good.  I decided to try Ina Garten's Berry Muffin recipe.  After having made the batter, I added the berries right at the end of mixing the batter, and added some on top.

The muffins came out really moist and delicious, and it was really colorful because of the berries.  We ate the muffins straight from the oven!

The Wedding Cake

As it is, getting married is already stressful.  And as they always say, you never really have enough time for all the preparations however long you were planning for your wedding.  I had 9 months to plan my wedding.  It was really short, that 9 months went by really quick.

I'm a really hands on person, and having said that, I wanted to be a DIY bride.  I did a reality check on what are the things that I could do on my own, and things that I have to buy or delegate.  Being the baker that I am, I wanted to make my own cake.  I had always wanted a simple cake, and I have a design on mind since Day1.  I did not want any fondant, I just wanted a three tier cake, with very minimal piping and some flowers.  

I got married on a Saturday, and I baked all the layers of the cake on the Monday prior to the wedding.  I baked Sarah's Ultimate Butter Cake in Lemon and Ultimate Chocolate cake - the butter cake being my favorite, and the chocolate cake being hubby's favorite.  My cake tiers are 6, 8 and 10 inches.  I baked extra layers just in case I mess up something.  I also made all the Buttercream on the same day.  I had all Vanilla Buttercream.  After having baked and cooled everything, I wrapped everything and stored.  I defrosted everything on Thursday night and assembled them on Friday morning.  Each tier ended up with 3 layers of Chocolate-Butter-Chocolate Cake combination.  After assembly, icing/piping and decorating, our wedding cake was ready to go.  Hubby brought the cake to the hotel, and the chef at the hotel graciously stored it for us.

I loved our wedding cake, and everyone was raving about how good it tasted.  We served it as dessert for our wedding and we still have the top layer frozen for our anniversary.  

The Cake Pop!

This is the best picture that I can get out of the cake pops that I made. I made milk and white chocolates and colored the white chocolate with pink and blue. They turned out to be really cute!

Adam's Birthday Cake

It's Adam's birthday today and although he never asked me to bake him a birthday cake, I know it will make him really happy if I made one. I had been a real lazy baker all year, and most of the time, I would bake and would not be able to take a picture.

So today I made a Chocolate Cake from my dear Sarah Phillips, and with Chocolate Ganache. Adam's family is coming over today for his birthday so I had to make sure I have dessert. I also made a Raspberry Cream Cheese Pound Cake filled and topped with Raspberry Jam. It's a good way to eat cake right? Chocolate and Raspberry. It was yummy!

The Raspberry Macarons

Happy new year everyone! The year so far had been really hectic with work that even if I wanted to keep my oven burning, I just did not have the time and the energy. I made some Macarons yesterday, Adam asked if "we" could bake some macarons because his sister loves them and it's her birthday. So "we" ( ~meaning me and my lonesome self) baked the macarons as a birthday present. I did the baking, and he did the tasting. :) It's pretty convenient knowing how to bake, worst case scenario is always having to give baked goods as presents - which is a very good gift actually. I would love to receive some homemade baked goodies myself, but I never get any.

My macaron recipe is of course from my dear Sarah Phillips of Baking911. Her recipe is very easy to follow, plus it does not require aging of eggs which I see in other macaron recipes. Making macarons is often time intimidating, and even if I made it several times already, I'm still crossing my fingers every time I put a batch in the oven. And look at how the macarons came out! They are so pretty. Macarons is love!