Cinnamon Roll Whoopie Pies and 2012 in review

Happy New Year!!!  Holy cow another year down.  I can hardly believe it seriously.  This past year has been crazy amazing and I am so thankful for it.  I have been able to do and experience some amazing things that I never thought I would do.  So a quick recap of the year is definitely in order...

January:  Somehow I totally flew an airplane...seriously!  And Stephanie agreed to be my first guest poster with her Peppermint Coconut Macaroons.

February: In the freezing cold...in Birmingham, I finished my first half marathon with one of my very best friends.

December Donuts - Week #4: A Classic Cinnamon Sugar Donut

Well let me tell you a quick story.  It is another one of those stories where I had to grow up once again and be an adult real quick like.  So, I was supposed to fly out to Glasgow on Wednesday to visit Charles.  I woke up at 6 am and was in my car driving to DC by 6:25 am.   I made it to DC, repacked, and hopped in a cab to the airport with plenty of time to make my 4:29 pm flight.  The flight was of course delayed, but I wasn't worried yet as I still had plenty of time.  Well long story short, and 3 hours later of just sitting on the airplane in DC we finally took off.  I of course missed my flight to Glasgow out of New Jersey (there being only one direct flight a day), so off to a hotel I went.  But I can't complain because I still get to go to Scotland!...even if it is a day late.  

This is what happens after 2 and half hours on the plane.  I start to text pictures of what is going on to keep myself entertained.  

Cranberry Orange Pecan Coffee Cake

Merry, Merry Christmas!  Just a quick post to share with you all this awesome quick bread recipe.  Seriously so delicious and a great gift.  I was excited to share this bread with my family.  With two loaves, I was able to take one down to Charlotte for my brother and sister-in-law, and give half a loaf each to my mom and dad.  I thought when I came home I might stop baking for a minute or two.  I was very, very wrong as I have been baking everyday since I got home.  This bread was totally worth the effort, plus I had all afternoon to make it.  With my mom at work, I turned on the Christmas music and got to baking.

This bread is loaded with cranberries and has a great orange flavor.  The streusel topping just makes this bread absolutely delicious.  Give it a try, make the full recipe, and just give the extra loaf to a friend.  Enjoy and Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!

December Donuts - Week #3: Baked Gingerbread Donuts

It might sound weird, but I am a little sad the boot camp I started before Thanksgiving is over. Does that make me sound crazy?  I sort of got in to the whole waking up at 5:15 am to workout at 5:45 am for an hour: running, doing squats, lunges, push-ups, etc.  Plus, you know, not feeling guilty about indulging in things like these donuts in the middle of the morning at work after making them when I got done working out.  FYI I am totally still trying to decide between making a classic cinnamon sugar donut or a chocolate salted caramel donut as the week 4 donut.  What do you think?  I might just have to do both.

So these donuts...once again I was able to prep these the night before, which made it so much easier to bake these after boot camp and before heading to work.  Out of the 3 donuts I brought to the office, these might have been my favorite.  Then again I am totally a sucker for gingerbread anything and well cream cheese frosting.  I might be on just a little bit of a kick this holiday season, since there has already been gingerbread tiramisu and I am planning on gingerbread cinnamon rolls by the end of the year.  These donuts came out super light and fluffy, and full of flavor!  The cream cheese glaze adds a great tangy flavor to go with the spicy-cinnamon flavor of the donut.   Definitely worth a try!  Enjoy!

The night before I pre-measured all of the dry ingredients and stored them in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

I also measured out the yogurt, molasses and milk in small container, storing it in the refrigerator.  As well as the apple sauce and brown sugar in another.  Then the only thing I had to measure in the morning was the canola oil and add the eggs.

Boozy Apple Cider Cupcakes

Sometimes life comes at you fast!  Like in a no holds barred kind of way, its not backing down, there is no pause button, and definitely not a rewind button(as much as we might want one sometimes).  You read something in the paper, on Facebook, catch it on the news,  wherever and it can completely turn your day upside down...and sometimes its only 8:00 am.  Then you do one small act, like giving a homeless man one of these cupcakes after dropping off the last Christmas/birthday presents at the post office and it goes in a whole other direction.   As Steve Jobs once said, "Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick.  Don't lose faith."

Yes, those are whisks with cookies in the middle.

Therefore I am going to start a pre-new years resolution that was brought on by a Christmas gift from James, that said "Without whisks, there are no rewards."  In the coming month and year, I want to truly take some advice from Steve Jobs in a quote that I have had highlighted on the back of my work notebook..."Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition."  

It is hard to believe another year is almost over, that 2013 resolutions will soon be a topic of discussion.  That as of this December I have been out of school for 5 years!  Shouldn't I feel like an adult now?  Do we ever really start to feel like adults?  That I have been spilling my guts and adventures on this blog through baking for two years and 160 recipes, and loving every minute of it!  I just can't wait to see what food adventures the coming year brings.

Gingerbread Tiramisu

This is my very first ever tiramisu.  I have been meaning to attempt to make tiramisu for some time now, but it always felt very daunting.  It also felt like a dessert I should make for a special occasion.  I might have just be thinking this way because one of the restaurants I worked at during college served the most amazing tiramisu cake that I totally had as my birthday cake one year.  So, when Shanan in my office suggested I try making this dessert this holiday season, I thought why not.  Then when we started to plan the office holiday lunch I thought to myself, this is as good a time as any.  Plus, lets be real here folks.  This is a time intensive dessert, and you could definitely break up preparing this between two days (make the gingerbread on day 1 and complete the tiramisu on day 2), but I had a Sunday afternoon of movie watching with my mom on my hands.  Therefore, time was on my side.  

Some how this very complicated dessert only needs two words to name it.  This only seems strange to me because I can have cupcakes or even donuts for that matter that need four and five words to really name them.  (Like maple donuts with maple glaze and bacon crumbles or  browned butter vanilla bean cake with brown sugar cream cheese frosting.)  However, when describing this dessert there are a multitude of words that come to mind...moist, spicy, decadent, creamy, rich, light, gingery...this tiramisu is full of flavor and well worth the time and effort.  The gingerbread adds this warm, cinnamon, ginger molasses flavor that goes surprisingly well with the cream filling and coffee flavors.  So, if you have a little time on your hands, and want to make a dessert this holiday season that is bound to impress, give this one a try and Enjoy!

Part 1: Making the gingerbread

Getting together the dry ingredients: flour, spices, baking soda and salt.