Earl Grey & Vanilla Bean Birthday Cake

 

It's my mother's birthday again!  My mom loves tea, so I decided to make her a little earl grey cake this year.  Since earl grey is a pretty mild, delicate flavor, I decided to accompany it with a subtle vanilla bean buttercream.

Pear Pie

Ah, winter.  Seattle's color palate is dominated by grey, dark grey, and very dark grey.  Today is the shortest day of the year (fingers crossed that it's not the last day ever).  Sunset is officially at 4:20, but it'll start getting dark by 3:30.  And the endless winter drizzle, which will last until May at least, has begun in earnest.

So...it's absolutely necessary to brighten the winter days with some warm, sticky, delicious pie.  Pear pie is one of my favorites.  I first made it last Christmas instead of the apple pie I usually bake, and, although it's almost blasphemous to say in my family (we really care about pie), I actually prefer pear to apple.

Chai Spice Oatmeal Cookies (In a Jar!)

I decided to make cookie mix for Christmas gifts this year!  I have seen these adorable treats both around the Internet and in grocery stores for a while, and thought it would be fun to try them for a personal, DIY gift.

To give these oatmeal cookies a unique twist, I added chai spices and black tea to the mix for yummy, warm, chai spice oatmeal cookies.

Grandma's Tortelettes (Daring Bakers' Challenge)

This month's Daring Bakers' Challenge was holiday celebration cookies (hosted by Peta of Peta Eats).  This challenge had two parts - to make one of the dozen recipes listed by Peta, and to make another celebration cookie of our choosing.  For the second requirement  I picked out and made some of my grandma's holiday cookies - ones that she called tortelettes.  Due to an unfortunate kitchen malfunction, I didn't get to the first of the criteria.  So, this post is all about grandma's tortelettes!

Walnut Carrot Cake

I've always disliked carrot cake.  In my experience, it is often too dense, the frosting is usually too sweet, and it almost always commits what I consider to be a major cake felony - it contains chunks of nuts and carrots right in the cake, which messes with the texture in an inexcusable way (this is totally my opinion - I know lots of people like this). 

I decided to create a carrot cake that I would like: light, moist, and free from chunks in the cake - all without losing the carroty-ness and nutty-ness that defines a good carrot cake.

Baking Experiment! Cupcakes with Varying Sweeteners

I've been neglecting my studies.  Last year, I got How Baking Works by Paula Figoni as a gift and have been slowly (very slowly) working my way through it.  At the end of each section, there are experiments that demonstrate the concept being taught.  I learned about different flours in a previous experiment, but I hadn't done a single experiment since then.  It's time to change that - this weekend I did an experiment to determine the effect of the amount and type of sweetener used in pound cupcakes.

Pumpkin Pie Cookies

I've been itching to try a new rendition of the pie cookie.  After hearing that we would be having a small Halloween celebration at work, I caught myself wanting to bring in some delicious pumpkin pie, and decided this would be an excellent opportunity to try pumpkin pie cookies.