Blood Orange Crinkle Cookies

Crispy, tangy, sweet, addictive: these Blood Orange Crinkle Cookies are not to be missed. (But we miss them already, because we ate them.)

Vanilla Crunch Muffins

jump to recipe I have been wanting to make these Vanilla Crunch Muffins for ages! I don’t know why I wanted so long. They are sweet, if somewhat sticky, with a lovely coconut crunch on top, and smooth vanilla flavor. A little different from my usual fare. I started by scraping the vanilla bean. Lucky […]

Chewy Brown Sugar Cookies

Here’s what needs to be said about these Chewy Brown Sugar Cookies: if you make these, and give them to people, don’t expect the people to leave unless you send the cookies with them. These cookies are delicious, and addictive, and of course they are, because they are full of brown sugar and butter and will haunt your dreams. They’re soft, chewy, sweet, and utterly delightful. These are fantasy cookies.

Big Soft Ginger Cookies

I am usually all about healthy baking, but the truth must be faced, and embraced: it’s Cookie Season. It’s cold outside, the kids have a lot of time off, and on a fall-that-feels-like-winter afternoon, these Big Soft Ginger Cookies seem wonderfully inevitable.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Mini Muffins

They’re funny-looking little things, aren’t they? Don’t be deceived. These Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Mini Muffins are deliciously addictive, supplying decadence to the tastebuds without contributing to your food guilt.

Molasses-Orange Cookies with Espresso Glaze

I invented a cookie!

Grandma’s Molasses was having a recipe contest, and since I’ve never created my very own cookie recipe before, I seized the moment, thought about flavors, and then inspired by my previous experiment with Orange Mocha Muffins, I created these Molasses-Orange Cookies with Espresso Glaze. Why not?

Chocolate Coconut Espresso Cookies (with Cappuccino Chips)

These weren’t JUST particularly spectacular cookies.

Yes, being Chocolate Coconut Espresso Cookies, they were destined to be delicious, and when I swapped out the chocolate chips for cappuccino chips they went all the way to sublime. But these were special cookies — not in an afterschool special kind of way — because I made them for The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap

Dark Chocolate Espresso Pumpkin Bread, and guest bakers!

It was a beautiful, perfect, delicious bread, and a perfectly wonderful baking day. I had guest bakers! Meet Tracy and Antonia. Left to my own devices, I would have reduced or eliminated the chocolate chips, but Antonia & Tracy are huge chocolate fans and I wanted them to leave with their taste buds singing.

Pumpkin Cheddar Muffins (with a kick)

I had to try making these. The minute I saw this recipe and its combination of pumpkin, sharp cheddar cheese, and cayenne and black pepper, I was caught in its spell and was just counting the days until I could sink my baking teeth into it.

My eating teeth, too. These muffins turned out great. They’re completely different from anything I’ve made before. The combination of the sweet pumpkin, the sharp cheddar, and the kick from the pepper that comes in as you’re finishing each bite is unique and irresistible. It’s like the gum that Violet Beauregarde steals from Willy Wonka’s factory: it’s almost a complete meal.

Root Beer Layer Cake with Cream Soda Frosting

Happy birthday, Nathaniel! My boy turned ten last week. TEN!

But let’s skip the sentimentality — because once it starts, it won’t stop — and jump right in to the cake. (If you ate, you’d definitely want to jump right into it too.) I asked Nathaniel what sort of cake he wanted, nervously remembering last year’s post-hurricane ginormous Devil’s Food Cake, and he didn’t take long to decide: he wanted the cupcakes his dad got for his birthday, but in layer cake form. So. . .root beer layer cake. With cream soda frosting. Right.

Thin and Crispy Oatmeal Cookies

Sometimes, the kids need cookies.

They are often interested in the muffins or the quick breads, Nathaniel more so than Juliet, and they expect the steady flow of them to keep coming. But then there are just those aha! moments when I realize that they DESERVE cookies. At this point it gets challenging because Juliet doesn’t like chocolate chips, at least not in anything homemade, and if I make peanut butter cookies, which she does love, I will probably eat them all before anybody else is smart enough to hide them. And thus, these Thin and Crispy Oatmeal Cookies stepped in to fulfill the need, more perfectly than I’d hoped.

I made them big, because big cookies are fun, and I only made them a wee bit healthier than the original recipe, just because I can’t help myself.

Gingerbread Muffins

Cakey gingerbread muffins for breakfast? Yes!

I really was sure it was going to be one of those other recipes, and then suddenly I was standing in the kitchen looking at a gingerbread muffins recipe. How it happened, I don’t know exactly. I’m glad it did, though, because they are cakey and delicious and I feel happier when I bite into them than I did the moment before.

Almond Butter Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips

My mission: almond butter.

Why? Because my friend (and former co-worker) Tracy wanted something with almond butter, and she waited patiently week after week as I churned out muffin after muffin, loaf after loaf, all almond butter-free. Tracy has been the most loyal of baking fans and makes me feel like everything that comes out of my kitchen is a gift, so when I saw this recipe for Peanut Butter Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips, I fought my peanut butter-loving instincts and decided to make the swap and grant my chocolate-and-pumpkin-loving friend her much-deserved wish.

Butterscotch Brownies

These brownies were a great lesson. I now know that if we find ourselves with unexpected company, I can whip together an amazing dessert without a trip to the grocery store or an abundance of time. And this hypothetical company is in luck, because these brownies are absolutely delicious. They’re sweet, fudgy in texture, and bursting with butterscotch flavor, real butterscotch, because it comes from butter and brown sugar instead of a Hershey’s bag.

Maple Vanilla Muffins

I know, I know. It’s fall, and I’m supposed to be baking with pumpkin or apples, and instead I’m pretending it’s spring and making maple treats. But I got lured in by the fact that this recipe called for non-standard ingredients like vanilla bean and coconut oil, and I already had both of them on hand; I’ve come a long way from the days when I had to check to see if I had baking powder before I made anything. Plus the photos on the blog where I found this recipe are inspiringly gorgeous, making the already delicious-sounding combination completely irresistible.

Maple Snickerdoodles

While everyone else has already jumped aboard the pumpkin train, I decided to pay homage to my Canadian roots and make maple snickerdoodles. (For William Shatner! And Dan Aykroyd! None for you, Celine Dion.)

I combed the web looking for recipes, and finally settled on this version, because it made MORE maple snickerdoodles, which seemed more enticing than fewer snickerdoodles. (And I’ve just learned that typing the word snickerdoodle is even more cumbersome than saying it.)

In addition to your regular anycookie sort of ingredients, I assembled some specialty items:

Apple Cider Mini Donuts

Fall is upon us. . .at least in the mornings.

It’s been super cold here in the morning, so it’s jackets and maybe even a scarf when we leave the house, and then the heat kicks in and by afternoon everyone who isn’t in shorts feels like an idiot. So Fall is whispering at us, maybe, and when the kids went gaga over the apple cider donuts at Stew Leonard’s, I decided it was time to for the first treat of the season.

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies for Juliet’s birthday

It was Juliet’s 6th birthday last week so I sat her down with my iPad and we went through one of my Pinterest boards so she could pick out something special. She knows what she likes, that’s for sure, and once she saw heart-shaped peanut butter sandwich cookies, the searching stopped. I kept thinking she’d want a cake of some kind, but Juliet didn’t care about that. Like me, she loves her peanut butter.

Honey Tea Bread

I’ve been wanting to try making this recipe for weeks, but first I had to use up the carrots, zucchini, and bananas that were sitting around. Finally I ran out of everything, and felt it was morally okay to proceed. (I hate wasting food, okay?)

I had a feeling this bread was going to be something special and I was right. The texture is soft and perfect, reminding me of that Chai Tea Bread I enjoy so much. And it’s sweetened with honey; not a grain of sugar passed through my hands.

Baked Cinnamon Sugar Mini Donuts

The kids needed donuts. They did! I was just doing what my conscience dictated when I whipped up a batch. I was fulfilling a moral obligation. Really.

Soft & Thick Snickerdoodle Cookies

jump to recipe When you need to whip together some crowd pleasing cookies, this is a perfect go-to recipe. They’re sweet, cinnamon-y, puffy and soft, satisfyingly filling, and don’t have any objectionable ingredients. I have yet to meet someone who doesn’t like snickerdoodle cookies. Of course I’m not a purist about such things, so when […]

Healthy Chocolate Zucchini Cake

It’s zucchini season! And that means it’s chocolate season too. (It’s not wabbit season, though.)

I’ve had my eye on this healthy chocolate zucchini cake recipe for a while because it has cardamom in it, which piqued my interest. So I gave it a go.

Peach Ginger Tea Muffins with Lemon

A few weeks ago, I picked up some peach-ginger tea at an interesting little spice store in Sayville. We were on our way to Fire Island, but had some time to kill before the ferry came, so we stopped in town to get some coffee (for us) and some treats (for the kids) and when I spotted the gourmet store next to it, I couldn’t resist. I’ve had it in my mind to bake with that tea for the last few weeks, but I couldn’t decide exactly how. And then I remembered my Lemon-Ginger Tea Muffins, and thought I could use that as my base.

Cinnamon Graham Banana Bread

jump to recipe I know I have a pretty good banana bread recipe, but this one is sublime. And it comes with cinnamon glaze. I’m not surprised it’s so delicious, since I found the recipe on Tutti Dolci, plus it gave me a chance to use more of the graham flour I bought a while […]

Butterscotch Peanut Butter Cookies

It was the 4th of July, and the kids deserved cookies. And when we were in Pennsylvania, I’d picked up something intriguing called “butterscotch peanut butter”, and I thought that would make for an interesting variation. I was right! These are terrific. Sweet, nutty, crunchy, and crumbly.

Strawberry Mini Muffins

Strawberry mini muffins? Please keep in mind that I am known as She Who Hates Fruit In Muffins. Really. I don’t eat blueberry muffins, cranberry muffins, raisin muffins, or any sort of fruit pie or cobbler. I do not like them, Sam I Am.

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Muffins

Another win for the peanut butter team! These Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Muffins are delicious, good for you, and hunger-satisfying in the best way.

Honey Orange Oat Bran Muffins

jump to recipe These turned out great! I could have just added some orange zest to one of my existing bran muffin recipes, but I like to keep trying new things, plus it’s been a while since I baked with oat bran instead of wheat bran. The results did not disappoint. This is a tasty […]

Peanut Butter Muffins

If you love peanut butter, then you love these muffins, whether you know it now or not.

(I love peanut butter.)

They’re not healthy breakfast muffins, though. They’re dessert-y, peanut butter fantasy muffins. And they’re very easy to make.

Peanut Butter and Banana Bread

jump to recipe This was one of those nights when I had a non-specific baking itch. I had no idea how to channel the whisking urge until I spotted the overripe bananas on the counter, then this recipe from Delish leapt out at me. Who was I to argue with a leaping recipe and some […]

Double Chocolate Chip Muffins (“Skinny”!)

I have tasted the magnificence that is a “skinny” double chocolate chip muffin, and I’ve personally witnessed all the ingredients that went into them. I alone can vouch for the seemingly impossible truth: these healthy muffins taste like decadent brownies. For real. And I’ve already made them twice, so I know it wasn’t just a fluke.

Baked Vanilla Donuts

The kids needed donuts. We ran out of Eggo waffles a few days ago and I kept saying I’d get to the store to get more but I hadn’t had a chance, so to make it up to them, I offered to make something for for breakfast. “Donuts!” they cried. They wanted the mini donuts, […]

Blood Orange Tea Muffins (mini)

A while back I made some delicious Meyer Lemon Tea Muffins, only I didn’t realize they were supposed to be mini muffins so I only ended up with 9 of them. Since they were delicious, I decided to give them another shot, this time using blood oranges instead of lemons. And behold: mini muffins. Delicious, soft, fluffy blood orange tea muffins.

Blood Orange and Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Sometimes an ingredient shortage can work in your favor. For want of a few more blood oranges, some Meyer lemons were used, and born out of the uncertainty of that unusual pairing, some poppy seeds were added. Thus, a brand new muffin emerged, and a very delicious one at that.

My intention was simply to make another batch of blood orange muffins, based on my very slight adaptation of a recipe I’ve used before. I started squeezing the blood oranges, noting how much more juice I was getting from each one since I was using a plastic juicer as opposed to just squeezing by hand. But then when I had squeezed the last one out, I looked at my measuring cup and I only had just over 3/4 of a cup. Disaster!

I didn’t want to throw away the juice, or risk having it go bad if I stored it, since I didn’t know when I’d be able to get more blood oranges. So I got creative: I decided to top off it off with Meyer lemon juice. Risky, I know. Bold, even. I am normally neither risky nor bold, but this was a baking emergency. I took out the lemons, and squeezed out enough to make a full cup of juice.

Blood Orange Pound Cake

jump to recipe I finally fixed the white balance on my camera. (Apologies for the previous two non-white-balanced blog entries.) I also found blood oranges at our local grocery store. I celebrated these events by baking with the oranges and taking pictures of the results. I thought it might be fun to take one of […]

Banutter Bites

jump to recipe I invented these. I had some overripe bananas, which I had to protect with a label or our cleaning lady would have thrown them away: I also had an itch to do something new, a craving for peanut butter (which is really just status quo around here, “around here” being inside my […]

Peanut Butter Cookies

Sometimes, in the middle of all the healthy baking, it’s time to make something for the kids. They put up with the bran stuff and the pumpkin whatnot for a while, but they’ve become pretty blasé about all the (what I think are) goodies coming out of the kitchen. So this past weekend, I asked […]

Coconut Banana Bread

Coconut banana bread, who knew? I had many doubts about this one as I was making it and AGAIN messed up with something egg-related (see Cocoa Banana Yogurt Muffins for another egg near miss) but but in the end, it turned out great and was also immensely popular.

Malted Chocolate Chip or Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

I’ve made these before — they’re Dave’s favorites. But I made them again, with some small alterations, because the kids have both just had ear infections and they felt these would help. And why not? The tricky part, though, is that Juliet doesn’t really like chocolate chips. She likes chocolate kisses, or chocolate that comes […]

Peanut Butter Pound Cake

This was my birthday cake. This was one of the most decadent things I’ve ever made. This was also the best cake I’ve ever eaten in my entire life. I may have to make it again next year. It started with two sticks of butter. Then, the first two cups of sugar. (The first two, […]

Salted Espresso Oatmeal Cookies

I’ve made these before, but this time I added a twist. I made them at Christmas, and instead of using regular chocolate chips I used Christmas-colored red & green chips, but this time I really took these to another level flavor-wise by substituting half of the chocolate chips for cappuccino chips, freshly arrived from the […]

Blood Orange Poppy Seed Muffins

I’ve decided that there’s a property peculiar to baked goods with blood oranges in them: it’s all about the second bite. Just like the Blood Orange Muffins I’ve made before, the first bite is a little confusing to the palate, but the second one rolls in all the flavor and goodness the muffin has to […]

Meyer Lemon Sugar Cookies

I know, there’s been a lot of citrus lately. I feel desperate to play with Meyer lemons and blood oranges while they’re still around, plus it helps remind me that spring is coming, despite the really weird snowfall we had yesterday. Full confession: before I made these, I tried to make some kind of low […]

Pumpkin Espresso Bread

Another home run. Make this bread right now. I mean it. It couldn’t be easier and your taste buds will thank you, as will anyone else who gets a bite. I brought some of this to work with me and had someone come back for thirds. Who says you have to wait for fall to bake with pumpkin?

And the topping…to think I almost didn’t include it. How dumb that would have been. The bread is a wonder unto itself but the topping adds a bit of crunchy magic. I made a few changes to the recipe, but the credit really belongs to a beautiful blog called Pastry Affair that gave me reason #85279 to love Pinterest and the internet.

Greek Yogurt and Coffee Chocolate Chip Muffins

jump to recipe These are insane. Now they’re not crazily low fat or anything, but they’re not anywhere near as decadent as they taste, and the flavor combination in these muffins is absolutely exquisite. Semi-sweet chocolate, turbinado sugar, espresso powder, and a hint of orange come together to create some sort of flavor perfection that […]

Mini Meyer Lemon Bundt Cakes

These are tiny sweet lemony bites from heaven. Oh my. I didn’t even know I owned a mini bundt pan until about a month ago. I’m not 100% sure where I got it, but my money’s on it being a freebie from my friend Scratchy’s days at the Martha Stewart show. And what a way […]

Meyer Lemon Pound Cake

I changed this recipe up a fair bit, and it paid off. Dave is normally immune to the charms of the endless stream of baked goods that makes its way through our kitchen, but this one hooked him. He’s even suggesting that there might not be any left to bring to my hungry co-workers tomorrow. I’ll take that as a compliment to the awesome power of Meyer lemon pound cake.

Peanut Butter Krispie Cookies

Man, these are good. They’re peanut butter cookies with a Rice Krispie crunch, how could they not be good? Plus they started with classic cookie ingredients, butter and two kinds of sugar. The recipe called for brown and white, but I replaced the white with cane sugar. Once those were creamed together, I added the […]

Stamped Honey Cookies

I got a lovely break in my day last Thursday by running out of the office for ten minutes to meet Dad at Grand Central. He was on his way to lunch, I was working, but he was going to Toronto the next day and I had two small items that needed to get there, […]

Double Chocolate Yogurt Loaf

jump to recipe Let me just put this out there right away: this picture does not do this loaf justice. The how-to-use-your-new-DSL-camera class doesn’t start until April, so I’m still using the automatic setting, and I baked at night, so there was no natural light to work with. So understand that the dark blob you […]

Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies

I’m still not quite sure about these. The flavor is there, a strong lemon taste with the special twang Meyer lemons bring, with the right amount of sweetness to balance it out. But the texture feels off to me. It’s a little too cooked on the bottom, and a little too chewy on the inside. […]

Chai Spiced Snickerdoodles

jump to recipe There were so many alluring aspects to this recipe that I just had to give it a try. I’d been to yoga, Juliet & I had already gotten haircuts, the rain was steady, and all signs pointed to cookies. We already love snickerdoodles around here (except for that first time I tried […]

Meyer Lemon Spice Bread

I confess I find the name of this bread somewhat misleading. It’s not really about the lemons; this bread is all about the spice. A little too much spice, I think, which is a very big statement coming from this particular spice lover. That said, I might take another crack at this, because I love […]

Meyer Lemon Madeleines

They have a bit of crispness on the outside with a cakey texture on the inside, they’re sweet from sugar and vanilla but get tang and zing from the lemons. I think Proust might remember these too.

Quick and Easy Rolled Sugar Cookies

Time for Valentine’s Day cookies. I’ve used the same recipe for sugar cookies for the past year or so, but the last time I made it we had a lot of trouble rolling out the dough, plus it makes about 5 bajillion cookies more than we need. I poked around the web for something simpler, […]

Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Bread

Definitely make this. Perfect texture, deep, tangy lemon flavor with just the right amount of sweetness, and it’s not even bad for you? A win all around, And I like recipes that get very specific about when to put in which ingredients, and what to do after that, and how slowly or quickly to do […]

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

jump to recipe I couldn’t resist this one. Peanut butter and oatmeal and a Sunday afternoon, it all just seemed like the right combination. The recipe called for half a cup of butter and a full cup of brown sugar. I didn’t mess with the butter portion, but I did play around with the sugar, […]

Baking with Kate in Toronto

We were in Toronto for a few days, and my niece Kate likes baking (and eating), so it seemed only logical to bake with her. Also, she’s fun to hang out with, so really, I’ll take any reason that comes my way to do spend time with her. We immediately ruled out anything that would […]

Meyer Lemon Tea Bread

This lemon tea bread took some doing. It’s not that it was hard to make, it’s that I had one of those rare, completely unnecessary baking disasters, and I wasn’t able to pull it together enough to give it another try until the next day. I’m glad I did, though; it was completely worth it. […]

Chai Tea Bread

jump to recipe This is a keeper. It was easy to make, didn’t take long, and tastes just wonderful, with a soft fluffy crumb and a mix of spices that come together beautifully and provides an array of flavors for your taste buds to savor. I did make a few changes, and I didn’t bother […]

Brown Sugar Cookies

I think I messed up the baking powder & baking soda, and that’s why these cookies are so crunchy, but it’s okay, it’s like eating a really big piece of candy, with tasty crumbs. And the kids like them. The first thing I had to do was brown the butter, which I’ve never done before. […]

Vanilla Mini Donuts

This morning I wanted to make something special and sweet for the kids. They argued about what it should be. There were tears of frustration. Juliet wanted donuts. Nathaniel wanted mini muffins. We settled for mini donuts, with the requirement that they have some sort of icing or glaze. Deal. Into a bowl went the […]

Baked Apple Cider Donuts

A donut pan is one of those things I’ve been dismissing. You can’t own every specialty pan there is, not in a kitchen like mine, which is already bursting at the seams. There’s no room at the inn.  Plus we already have that cute mini donut maker that Jenny gave us, so why would I […]

Toffee Vanilla Bean Bundt Cake with Caramel Sauce

Toffee Vanilla Bean Bundt Cake with Caramel Sauce and Sea Salt, to be precise. The annual bake-off for the Digital Group was upon me, and this year I wanted to really make something special. I’ve taken up baking pretty heavily since the last one, but I mostly do everyday baking: breakfast muffins, cookies for the […]

Pumpkin Gingersnap Cookies

Tonight I let Juliet make the final decision about which cookies to make, since she didn’t like Nathaniel’s gargantuan chocolate birthday cake, or the pumpkin cheesecake on Thanksgiving. I showed her five different cookie photos and she chose these. Good call, Juliet! I started with butter and sugar, substituting a less refined cane sugar for […]

Devil’s Food Cake with Chocolate Buttercream

Nathaniel requested an insane cake for his birthday party. He didn’t say “devil’s food cake”, but he knew exactly what he wanted. “A chocolate cake, with chocolate frosting, and I want layers, and I want it shaped like a rectangle.” Layered rectangles? It’s not like we invited 50 kids to this thing, I think we’ll […]

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Cinnamon Chai Buttercream

Finally, I remembered the sugar.

The last time I tried to make this cake, it took until it had been sitting in the fridge for a few hours for me to realize, mid-bloggery, that I had forgotten to put in the sugar. This time, I remembered. As Juliet would say, “wa-lah!” (It’s her version of “voila.”)

When it comes to a full-on decadent dessert maker, you can’t really go wrong with Paula Deen. I did actually lighten things up just a tiny little bit, but mostly I was just focused on making this a worthy dessert for tonight’s Thanksgiving table at Dad & Michael’s.

Vanilla Chai Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

jump to recipe Nathaniel’s birthday was actually almost two weeks ago, but when Sandy knocked out the power, birthday baking was put on hold. Then I went away to BC, and so it got further delayed. Then I got home, we restocked the kitchen, and the time for birthday treats for his class finally arrived. […]

Whole Grain Nutella Swirl Banana Muffins

People went NUTS over these. I made some mistakes along the way and had to improvise, and wasn’t even sure they were going to turn out okay. But not only did they turn out fine, they turned out delicious, and I have never had raves like this before. I think the word (and the substance) […]

Cinnamon Chip Maple Oatmeal Cookies

These are so tasty! What a great recipe for someone to just invent. I want to learn how to do that. In the meantime, I’ll keep making great cookies like these. And eating them, unfortunately. I’m going to have to get these out of the house soon.

Speculoos Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

jump to recipe They were supposed to be Biscoff Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies, but the grocery stores around here are all out of Biscoff, and who doesn’t want an excuse to use the word Speculoos? Mom’s the one who got me interested in Biscoff spread, and she’s also an amazing baker, so I’ve decided these cookies […]

Vanilla Chai Muffins

Muffin redemption has arrived. I haven’t blogged my last two experiments because I just wasn’t happy with them. It started on Saturday, when I was very excited to make Rocky Road Muffins. And don’t they look good? Sadly, they were not so good. I thought they were too dense, too hard, the chocolate was too […]

Apple Cider Spice Bread

jump to recipe Here’s another one I’ve been looking at for a while. I don’t like baked apples in things, but I do love apple cider and apple-pie-type spices, so how could I resist a recipe for Apple Cider Spice Bread? The only thing keeping me back was the full stick of butter required, so […]

Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread (Lightened Up)

I finally did something with those brown bananas that have been sitting on the counter for days, disgusting all of us. Or maybe just me. I don’t know. I find them disgusting! But I’d seen this lightened-up version of cinnamon swirl banana bread a while ago and wanted to try it out. Its time had come.

Maple Oat Cookies

I gave the kids a choice of four different cookie recipes, and they chose these Maple Oat Cookies with the request that I add chocolate chips. Fair enough. I’ve been wanting to make these for a long time.

Gingery Carrot Tea Cake With Cinnamon Glaze

jump to recipe I’ve made this before, sort of, but today I changed the recipe, used a new pan to make things pretty, and took the glaze from one dessert to add to it, skipping the frosting. We have company coming, and we’ve actually been talking about having these guys over for years. Literally. Years! […]

Spice Bundt Cake With Cinnamon Glaze

I don’t know what happened, I just had to make this cake last night. Maybe it was how good it looked, maybe it was the mood I was in, maybe I’m just nuts. But I had to make a cake, and I did, and it’s delicious, and and it even looks good, which breaks tradition. […]

Cinnamon Chip Pumpkin Blondies

(for Antonia’s birthday) It’s Antonia’s birthday, and she’d like something with pumpkin. Since I experiment on her constantly with my baking, she deserves something customized for her birthday. These blondies also included a honey and caramel drizzle baked into them, which sounded pretty delicious to me. Guess what? They ARE delicious. They’re birthday delicious. They’re […]

Healthy Gingerbread Muffins

jump to recipe This looked simple enough, and very delicious, but I may have screwed it up by using the wrong kind of sugar. I’m going to taste one of these muffins when I finish writing this up and then we’ll all know. If I did screw it up, I’m going to make them again; […]

The Road To Redemption: Peanut Butter Banana Bread

I admit it, I’m still recovering from the cheesecake debacle. But it was a half day at work, and there were some brown bananas on the counter, and I had a recipe for peanut butter banana bread that looked worth a try. And trust me, I read and re-read and re-read the ingredients list as […]

The Pumpkin Cheesecake Debacle

Well, it finally happened. The dizziness got the best of me. Back in June, on my sister Rosie’s birthday, I promised her a pumpkin cheesecake, but she was away all summer and we couldn’t work out the details of making it and getting it to her.  She’s back in Manhattan for a few days before […]

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Cookies

It wasn’t a great night to dig into a new cookie recipe. I am still getting dizzy every night, and today I went to the doctor where they took multiple vials of blood out of me. So I’m extra dizzy. And cookies take a long time, simply because of the swapping out of trays until […]

Mocha Snack Cake

I made this simple but magnificent cake at Mom’s in BC, and I had to find out if I could reproduce it in my own kitchen. I didn’t change the recipe one iota in either place, keeping the all purpose flour, the white sugar, and the butter, but for all I know, the magic may […]

Healthy Pumpkin Bread With Cinnamon Chips

Dave looked at me like I was crazy when he saw me standing in front of a counter full of ingredients, and I don’t blame him. Every afternoon I get this lightheadedness and feel dizzy, and the feeling extends well into the evening, and yet there I was, setting up mixing bowls and measuring cups. […]

Butterscotch Cookies With Rice Krispies

It’s nice to be back in my own kitchen. Tonight I’m feeling a little off, I’ve had this lightheadedness going on ever since I started taking Claritin last week. I knew I wanted to make cookies the kids would like, but since I’m still feeling dizzy, I also wanted to keep it simple. No batches […]

Coconut Oatmeal Cookies With Mini Chocolate Chips

(for Dad’s birthday) jump to recipe So my Dad’s birthday is on Monday, and I can’t be there to celebrate with him, so I’m sending coconut. My Dad loves coconut. I wanted to make him something fun with fluffy coconut frosting, but (a) I couldn’t give Mark & Linus something delicate to carry along with […]

Snickerdoodle Mini Loaves (and muffins)

There are some baked goods that I call “get-it-out-of-the-house-or-gain-ten-pounds-delicious”, and I created that expression specifically to describe snickerdoodle mini loaves. They’re insane. Antonia — the same Antonia who inspired me to make the Cheesecake Brownie Bites — asked for something decadent again, this time to celebrate John Calvin’s birthday tomorrow. She isn’t a Calvinist; in […]

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins With Juliet

The kids were completely disinterested in the Chai Pumpkin Bread, unsurprisingly, and as of late I haven’t been baking things that Juliet particularly likes, so I offered to make her something she’d like, and after some waffling over the cookies vs. muffins debate, she made her wishes known: Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins, please. And she […]

One Bowl Chocolate Cake

I’m not sure which I’m happier about: conquering a recipe with (liquid) coffee in it, or finally managing to successfully dust something with powdered sugar without having it look hilarious, like a 4-year-old did it. Both feel like long-awaited accomplishments, and both resulted in deliciousness. A long time ago, years before I was baking anything […]

Bossk Brownies from the Star Wars Cookbook

jump to recipe Nathaniel, unsurprisingly, is a Star Wars fan. And Nathaniel owns a very entertaining book called The Star Wars Cookbook. No, really, he does. We’ve made Wookie Cookies before, but this time Nathaniel really wanted the Bossk Brownies. I’ve had some bad experiences with brownies, but I decided to give it a go. […]

Mini Lemon Loaves After The Vehicles Fair

Today was a day for the kids. I’m going away in a few days, which makes me nostalgic for family time in advance, plus it was the annual Vehicles Fair, which we have loved going to since Nathaniel was just a tiny guy. I asked Juliet what she wanted me to bake and she didn’t […]

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

(requested by Nathaniel) This was another very early Pinterest discovery: Cinnamon Swirl Bread. I made it in early January and I was disappointed because my streusel swirl sank to the bottom. The only reason I haven’t made it since then was my father’s description: “It was delicious but the sugar made my teeth sing.” But […]