Birthday Bouquet

After seeing this idea on Pinterest, I knew I had to make one for someone's birthday. For Mel's birthday cupcake bouquet I made the Ultimate Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting (I subbed vanilla extract for the vanilla paste). I bought a plain terra cotta pot and painted it purple to match the cupcakes. I followed the tutorial pretty closely, and ended up with 9 cupcakes on the bouquet. It took a lot of green tissue paper (and a lot of help from Ryan) to make all the leaves, but I think it was worth it!

Daring Bakers: Challah

May’s Daring Bakers’ Challenge was pretty twisted – Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood challenged us to make challah! Using recipes from all over, and tips from “A Taste of Challah,” by Tamar Ansh, she encouraged us to bake beautifully braided breads.

I actually made this bread almost on time, but never got around to posting it. I think yeast hates me because my breads never seem to rise correctly. I blame this on my cold kitchen, so I am going to try again now that it is warmer.

Inside of my Challah loaf

The braid disappeared during the second rise

Food Photo Roundup

A few pictures of random things I've cooked in the couple months.

Butternut Squash Mac n Cheese with
Roasted Broccoli

Dill and Lemon Salmon with Kale Chips
and Roasted Butternut Squash

Chicken Pot Pie

Daring Bakers: Dutch Crunch Bread

Sara and Erica of Baking JDs were our March 2012 Daring Baker hostesses! Sara & Erica challenged us to make Dutch Crunch bread, a delicious sandwich bread with a unique, crunchy topping. Sara and Erica also challenged us to create a one of a kind sandwich with our bread.

Living in the Bay Area, I've grown to love Dutch Crunch bread and I order it my sandwiches on it regularly. A good Dutch Crunch roll is the best bread for a sandwich. It was interesting to learn that many people haven't heard of Dutch Crunch except for around San Francisco and some places in Europe where it is often referred to as "giraffe bread" or "tiger bread."

Seeing this month's challenge was exciting, but also scary because yeast and I don't get along. My sourdough bread challenge was a failure, which didn't even make it to my blog. So while I was excited to make Dutch Crunch I was worried it wouldn't turn out. Fortunately, my rolls came out decently and were good enough to make pastrami sandwiches. I would have liked the topping to be more cracked, but this is a huge improvement over my last bread endeavor.

Dutch Crunch Rolls

Pastrami Sandwich

Daring Bakers': Quick Bread

The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lisa stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.

I made banana bread for my quick bread. I used a recipe from Cooking For Seven, but omitted the nuts.

White Whole Wheat Banana Bread

Daring Bakers: Scones aka Biscuits

Audax Artifex was our January 2012 Daring Bakers’ host.. Aud worked tirelessly to master light and fluffy scones (a/k/a biscuits) to help us create delicious and perfect batches in our own kitchens!

I shouldn't have waited so long to do the challenge. My first batch I accidentally used baking soda (oops!) instead of powder so while those came out pretty they tasted really, really gross.

My second batch did not come out as puffed or as pretty as I would have liked. But I'm already late on the challenge so I'll have to try some other time. Here are my ugly biscuits in a horrible picture...totally not in focus =(

Biscuits Made with Half and Half

Coconut Macaroons

Coconut Macaroons

Last October Birthday! I made these for Sarah's birthday and I was happy to hear that both her and Wilmar really liked them!

Madeleines for Madeline

Orange Scented Madeleines Dipped in Chocolate

These cookies (also referred to as cakes because of their consistency) were for Madi's birthday in October, as well. I think I used the recipe from Joy Of Baking but I'm not positive. I added orange zest because I really like the combination of chocolate and orange (like the chocolate oranges you break open!).

White Chocolate Macademia Nut Cookies

White Chocolate Macademia Nut Cookies

I'm super behind on posts. These cookies are from Melissa's birthday in October. It was so long ago, I can't remember what recipe I used. Oops!