Caramel Mocha Brownies

I was overcome by a desire to bake something last Sunday afternoon. After pushing around various food items in my pantry for several minutes, I decided that I had all the ingredients for brownies. Then, because I love coffee, I decided to make them mocha brownies. Then I decided to throw in some caramel. Usually, my baking projects are well thought-out far ahead of time. These brownies...not so much.

Raspberry Cheesecake (A Late Valentine's Day)

 Whew!  My husband and I are mostly moved into our new house...mostly.  Well, at least we've unpacked essentials like pillows, blankets, the computer, the cat, and the Kitchenaid.  I'm getting used to the new kitchen, which has a gas oven instead of an electric one (weird).  So far, I've managed to tackle a couple small baking projects, and I'm finally ready to post about a scrumptious raspberry cheesecake, which I originally made for Mr. Buttercream for Valentine's Day.

Gevulde Speculaas (Daring Bakers' Challenge)

The first Daring Bakers' Challenge of 2013 was a traditional Dutch spice cake: gevulde speculaas.  The outside is a slightly crunchy pastry, full of all sorts of delicious spices, and the inside is a creamy almond paste.  Yum.  Excellent challenge!

Francijn of Koken in de Brouwerij was our January 2013 Daring Bakers’ Hostess and she challenged us to make the traditional Dutch pastry, Gevulde Speculaas from scratch! That includes making our own spice mix, almond paste and dough! Delicious!

Pâte à Choux Swans (Daring Bakers' Challenge)

I'm continuing to have a lot of fun with the Daring Bakers' monthly challenges!  This month, we were challenged to make filled pâte à choux swans (or, more generally pâte à choux shapes).  Prior to this challenge, I had no idea what pâte à choux was - I soon discovered that it is the pastry used for cream puffs.  I love cream puffs (here in Seattle, they're often served at pho places - is that the case anywhere else?) so I was very excited to get started!

Kat of The Bobwhites was our August 2012 Daring Baker hostess who inspired us to have fun in creating pate a choux shapes, filled with crème patisserie or Chantilly cream. We were encouraged to create swans or any shape we wanted and to go crazy with filling flavors allowing our creativity to go wild!

Mini Rhubarb Crumble

A few months ago, Mr. Buttercream and I were traveling in Scotland.  We took a guided multi-day tour of the Highlands, and were unfortunately starting to feel the effects from days of eating greasy restaurant food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Our tour stopped in a town called Fort Augustus for lunch.  Queasy and slightly green, Mr. Buttercream and I desperately looked around for something light to eat.

We settled on a restaurant that had a pretty extensive dessert menu, thinking that a fruit dessert would be good for our stomachs.  We ordered rhubarb crumble and some herbal tea.  Our crumble came.  It had something on top that we assumed was cream.  It was not.  It was cheese.  Cheese.  Hiding under the cheesy abomination was some tasty sweet rhubarb, but getting at it without accidentally getting a bite of the horrible topping was difficult.  As you can imagine, this did nothing to help our queasiness, and we returned to the tour bus both hungry and even more ill.

Apple Mint Panna Cotta

Both my parents and my in-laws have really pretty, food-producing gardens.  My parents' garden is full of apples, potatoes, rhubarb, and beans, and my in-laws have zucchini, watermelon, and garlic chives.  I really enjoy both gardens, and I especially love baking and cooking with the fruits and vegetables that start popping out of them in the spring.

We celebrated Mother's Day for my mom a day early this year.  I decided to make Mom some mint panna cotta using the apple mint that seems to have taken over a large portion of her garden.

Pecan Nazook (Daring Bakers Challenge)

When daydreaming about my next baking project, it is usually visions of cakes, cupcakes, and cookies that are swimming through my brain.  I'm not usually pondering Armenian pastries like nazook, which is a shame because it's delicious.  Last month, I stumbled across a website called The Daring Kitchen. Every month, it issues challenges - one for baking and one for cooking.  I saw an opportunity to expand my baking horizons, and signed on to become a Daring Baker.