Friday, September 26, 2008


A website I frequent, Cakespy, started a list called The Sweet 100. Their list includes "fine food, strange food, everyday food and even some pretty bad food"--but it's all sweet! They are encouraging readers to go through the list and see how many have you tried. I decided to see how many I knew and which ones I had yet to try. If you'd like, feel free to follow the same guidelines:

1) Copy this list into your site, including the instructions!
2) Bold all of the sweets you've eaten!
3) Cross out any of them that you'd never ever eat.
4) Consider anything that is not bold or crossed out your "To Do" List.

  1. Red Velvet Cake
  2. Princess Torte
  3. Whoopie Pie
  4. Apple Pie either topped or baked with sharp cheddar
  5. Beignet
  6. Baklava
  7. Black and white cookie
  8. Seven Layer Bar (also known as the Magic Bar or Hello Dolly bars)
  9. Fried Fruit pie (sometimes called hand pies)
  10. Kringle
  11. Just-fried (still hot) doughnut
  12. Scone with clotted cream
  13. Betty, Grunt, Slump, Buckle or Pandowdy
  14. Halvah
  15. Macarons
  16. Banana pudding with nilla wafers
  17. Bubble tea (with tapioca "pearls")
  18. Dixie Cup
  19. Rice Krispie treats
  20. Alfajores
  21. Blondies
  22. Croquembouche
  23. Girl Scout cookies
  24. Moon cake
  25. Candy Apple
  26. Baked Alaska
  27. Brooklyn Egg Cream
  28. Nanaimo bar
  29. Baba au rhum
  30. King Cake
  31. Sachertorte
  32. Pavlova
  33. Tres Leches Cake
  34. Trifle
  35. Shoofly Pie
  36. Key Lime Pie (made with real key lime)
  37. Panna Cotta
  38. New York Cheesecake
  39. Napoleon / mille-fueille
  40. Russian Tea Cake / Mexican Wedding Cake
  41. Anzac biscuits
  42. Pizzelle
  43. Kolache
  44. Buckeyes
  45. Malasadas
  46. Moon Pie
  47. Dutch baby
  48. Boston Cream Pie
  49. Homemade chocolate chip cookies
  50. Pralines
  51. Gooey butter cake
  52. Rusks
  53. Daifuku
  54. Green tea cake or cookies
  55. Cupcakes from a cupcake shop
  56. Crème brûlée
  57. Some sort of deep fried fair food (twinkie, candy bar, cupcake)
  58. Yellow cake with chocolate frosting
  59. Jelly Roll
  60. Pop Tarts
  61. Charlotte Russe
  62. An "upside down" dessert (Pineapple upside down cake or Tarte Tatin)
  63. Hummingbird Cake
  64. Jell-O from a mold
  65. Black forest cake
  66. Mock Apple Pie (Ritz Cracker Pie)
  67. Kulfi
  68. Linzer torte
  69. Churro
  70. Stollen
  71. Angel Food Cake
  72. Mincemeat pie
  73. Concha
  74. Opera Cake
  75. Sfogliatelle / Lobster tail
  76. Pain au chocolat
  77. A piece of Gingerbread House
  78. Cassata
  79. Cannoli
  80. Rainbow cookies
  81. Religieuse
  82. Petits fours
  83. Chocolate Souffle
  84. Bienenstich (Bee Sting Cake)
  85. Rugelach
  86. Hamenstashen
  87. Homemade marshmallows
  88. Rigo Janci
  89. Pie or cake made with candy bar flavors (Snickers pie, Reeses pie, etc)
  90. Divinity
  91. Coke or Cola cake
  92. Gateau Basque
  93. S'mores
  94. Figgy Pudding
  95. Bananas foster or other flaming dessert
  96. Joe Froggers
  97. Sables
  98. Millionaire's Shortbread
  99. Animal crackers
  100. Basbousa

Cookies With 5 Ingredients...Seriously


I was searching the internet world for some quick cookies to make and stumbled upon these delicious peanut butter cookies made with 5 simple ingredients. I swear, just 5 and no flour! They turned out wonderfully and looked pretty as well.

Ingredients:
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
melting chocolate
crushed peanuts

Directions:
1. combine peanut butter, sugar, and egg in a mixer and beat until smooth
2. refrigerate dough for 30 min.
3. preheat oven to 325
3. remove dough and roll into 18 balls (more if you want them smaller) placing them 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet
4. flatten each ball with a fork to make a criss cross pattern5. bake for 18-20 minutes just until they are golden on top
6. cool for 5 min.
7. while cooling melt chocolate
8. dip one end of the cookie in the chocolate and cover with peanuts before it cools
9. let dry on a cooling rack and you are good to go!

Friday, September 12, 2008

Happy Birthday Sis

Last weekend I had plans to travel and seem my sister Nancy over her birthday. I had a flight out of Norfolk Friday evening. Things were complicated when Tropical Storm Hanna decided to make a visit to the Virginia Beach area. I ended up spending my entire night in airports as I was rerouted and switched to get to Buffalo. Eventually I made it to the great state of NY, but not until midnight.

I had the chance to see Nancy's lovely decorated apartment and have a fantastic meal at the Buffalo Chop House. Nancy also ordered a beautiful birthday cake from a little bakery near her school, The Dessert Deli. The bakery was definitely a dream for me. It was around breakfast when we picked up her cake and I purchased a lemon buttercream cupcake for breakfast....delicious!

Nancy had called me when she first designed her birthday cake with the bakery. She wouldn't tell me much about the cake just the flavor: two layers or white cake with a layer of chocolate cake with chocolate raspberry ganache and buttercream icing. I know, your mouth is watering. She said when we saw what the cake was our response would be, "AWWW, Nancy!" because it would be so her. Well, that's exactly my response. Here's the cake:
Of course! A Tiffany's box. It was perfect and delicious and the outside was buttercream, not fondant and it was so smooth!

We had a great weekend, I just wish I had more time to spend up there with her. I had to leave on Sunday so it was a short weekend. My grandparents also travelled up with my parents to surprise Nancy for her birthday. She was so happy to have them there and show off her apartment and her town.

Applesauce and Cinnamon Cupcakes

Another baking adventure.

I just recently purchased a new cupcake book:So I have more than enough recipes to last me while I'm baking to relieve stress. I had been baking a lot of thickly sweet cupcakes and decided that something a little more muffin like and fruity was in need. I selected a recipe for Applesauce and Cinnamon cupcakes. What a wonderful combination! Plus the recipe inludes walnuts and raisins...mmmmmm.

They turned out better than expected. The first batch wasn't sweet in the slightest so I ended up making a second batch and adding just 1/4 c. of additional extra fine sugar. Those turned out the best!