- Chocolate Chip Gingerbread Cookie

For whatever reason, I thought both of the cookies I made this week were awesome (if I do say so myself . . . I am pretty darn humble). I am not s huge ginger fan, as a matter of fact, I usually avoid it like the plague. But in this particular cookie, it was fine. I think the milk chocolate chips really offset the taste of the ginger, which might have been overwhelming without the balance. It called for fresh ginger, which gave it kind of a kick that I wasn't expecting, almost like a peppercorn. Soft cookie with a little crispness on the edges. I think it would be good warm, and with a glass of milk for dunking.

An Experiment in Sweet and Salty - Chocolate Caramel Cookies with Sea Salt

A lot of people that have been sampling the cookies repeat the same thing - I like a bit of salty with my sweet. It makes sense, chocolate covered pretzels, bacon chocolate bars, honey roasted peanuts, the salt makes us better appreciate the sweet. So I have been on the look out for recipes that combine the two . . . and I came across this one.


I think once I figure out the best method for getting the salt distributed onto the cookie, this will be a winner. The cookie part itself was excellent, soft and rich, but not too overwhelming that you felt sick after one bite. I spent the weekend looking for good caramels, and I have to say, the investment really paid off. No going back to using Kraft caramels for cookies, gourmet all the way. Instead of cocoa powder, I used dark chocolate powder (also by Hershey), and I really liked the flavor it imparted to the cookie. Sprinkling the cookie with Sea Salt is a non-starter. Lots of it in one bite, none in others. I think next time I will try either using a finer grain and less of it (probably will need to roll it or flatten the cookie before sprinkling), or I might salt the caramel instead.

Is It Ok to Master Bake at Your Friend's House? - Oatmeal Cake with Coconut Pecan Frosting

Every time I go to Hilmes's house, I tend to go a bit over the top when it comes to food. I just can't help myself. Two doctors who work insane hours with a little girl in the house, sometimes you just need someone there to take care of you. Enter the Master Baker. I for sure was told that I am not allowed to make more than one cake in the weekend, but I just couldn't help myself when it came to our Friday night dinner. Everyone loves to come home to cake right out of the oven, it is so yummy, makes you feel so good. So I picked a simple recipe to make, and I think it turned out nicely.


The Oatmeal Cake was nice and moist, with a not-too-sweet taste to it. Very simple, maybe the next time I will make it a 'spice' cake, and add some cinnamon or nutmeg to it. But not too rich, and a great texture. The frosting was good, I should have left it in the oven for a bit longer in order to allow the coconut to brown a bit more, but all in all, it was a great cake. Kind of like a big praline on the top with the pecans and the brown sugar. For not wanting to have 2 cakes in a weekend, we managed to polish this one off before we ate the Angel Food cake on Sunday.

A Weekend in Nashville - Angel Food Cake (for my little angel)

I am pretty sure that my best friend Melissa thinks I am crazy . . . how can baking be relaxing? Well, when you work in the field that I work in (IT Consulting), your days are filled with hours upon hours on end of sitting in front of a computer, working on things that you know make no difference in the grand scheme of life. Moreover, nothing you do exists in the 'real' world, it is all virtual. So having the chance to create, to do something that always makes others happy, well, it makes me feel good. And it is also super relaxing. Having to get up for a 5:30am flight, not relaxing. Baking cookies before the big flight, super relaxing.

Anyway, spent the weekend in Nashville for a friend's baby shower (congrats Bonnie!), and while I was there, decided to lend a hand in the kitchen, making cakes and cookies for my buddies. Jeff (Melissa's husband) put in a special request for this - homemade Angel Food cake with Chocolate Whipped Cream frosting (not pictured). I had never made an Angel Food cake, but now that I have, I will never buy one at the store again. It was very simple to make, and tastes so amazing in comparison, so fresh. And I like that I can play around with the flavorings, too cool. The chocolate frosting was also nice, although I am a fruit girl when it comes to my angel food cake. Oh well, nice change of pace.

This little cutie is my god-daughter, and I think she is just about the cutest kid in the world. look at that tongue hanging out there! She thinks she is about 8 feet tall, totally fearless (hmmmmm, wonder where she gets that from?). We took her to the playground and she just loved crawling and walking around and having us follow her. A special favorite was the swing . . . howled with delight.

Sometimes Simple Master Baking Is The Best - Chewy Graham Cracker Butterscotch Cookie

I love butterscotch, it is maybe my most favorite flavor in a cookie. Or in any sweet . . . go out for ice cream, I want my sundae made with Hot Butterscotch. The butterscotch candies are wonderful, let's face it, butterscotch makes everything better. Alas, poor butterscotch, you lose out to chocolate and peanut butter all the time, hell, even caramel kicks your butt. But not here, not in my kitchen. You reign supreme. I love the way you make things taste better. Like these lovely cookies, made with mostly pulverized graham crackers than flour. Not too sweet, just the right amount of thickness, chewy on the inside, crispy on the outside. Could become a regular in the rotation . . .

Finally, a Nutella Cookie I Can Stand Behind - Nutella Peanut Butter Pillows

So most of my Nutella cookie adventures have ended up in disaster. Ok, maybe not disaster, but I always ended up feeling like I made this whole investment in a cookie that was supposed to have a Nutella flavor, and it never did. Well, finally, finally I found a recipe where the Nutella flavor really stands out. Not overwhelming, not overpowering, but you know there is a glob of Nutella in that cookie.

Anyway, a fun cookie to make. And to eat! It is a peanut butter cookie on the outside (with Almond flavoring added for good measure), and then you flatten out the cookie, add in a glob of a Nutella mixture, and then roll it into a ball and coat it with peanuts, cinnamon, and sugar. I added in extra Nutella because the mixture was mixed with a bit of peanut butter, and you just couldn't taste it strongly enough. So I probably doubled the amount of Nutella (and extra powdered sugar to make it less sticky), and voila! Magical, wonderful, Nutella-y goodness. I really liked how the Nutella and the peanut butter went together. A excellent combo.

Master Baking Gets Freaky - Chocolate Chocolate Chip Bacon Cookies

Good old Steve . . . always with the odd special request. Last week that brought us the Jagerdoodle (which I think when I open my bakery, we'll do a whole line of Morning After Hangover Cookies . . . Jagerdoodles, Red Bull, Whisky), and this week, the request was for bacon. I have experimented with bacon in my sweets . . . the bacon cheesecake was a huge hit, so I figured why not. The cookie by itself was nice, great consistency, just the right amount of chewyness, all sorts of goodness with the white and semi-sweet chocolate chips. And if I didn't advertise it as a bacon cookie, you wouldn't immediately know it was bacon. You'd know something was different . . . salty, chewy bits, but bacon? Yep, it's in there. Not sure . . . would you want it to taste more bacon-y? Use the bacon fat instead of the butter? Bigger chunks of bacon? Let me know.

Happy Valentines Day with Master Baking Flair - Hummingbird Cake

I cooked dinner for some friends this year for Valentine's Day, those of us without that special man in our lives, and we had a really good time. Pasta, fish, wine, and of course, dessert. Who could ask for more? I made this Hummingbird Cake as a follow up to the Carrot Cake I did a couple of weeks ago . . . a friend of mine in Chicago had made one for her husband's birthday, and I really liked it, so I decided to take a swing at it myself.

Where does the name come from? I was asked this, and of course I had no response. Here is what I got from the Martha Stewart website - "Some say this Southern layer cake earned its name because each otherworldly bite makes you hum with delight. Another theory is that it's as sweet as the sugared water used to attract its hovering namesake."


Well, this cake certainly made me sing. I still need to work on my frosting techniques (no comments here from the peanut gallery), I could have gone thicker in the middle layer and then a bit thinner on the outer layer. The cake was super moist, and I liked the flavor. It could have been bolder, I am not sure how exactly, but there was something that just didn't pack enough punch for me. There was a banana bread flavor, but not overwhelming for folks that don't like bananas. Maybe it was the spices, it called for cinnamon, I might add something else (nutmeg perhaps) the next time I make it.

Big, Juicy Mangos . . . If That Isn't Enough to Get You to Read On, Nothing Is - Fresh Mango Bread (Food Porn)

After living in Africa for 18 months, and then spending my fair share of time in Latin America, you'd think I would like mangos. For whatever reason, I have never really developed a taste for them. They are slimy, so for sure I have a texture thing against them. But the taste really doesn't do much for me. I have tried and tried, but nothin' doin'. I will however be a sport and bake them into goodies (i.e. Fresh Mango Bread) when I get the request.

This bread was ok. It is a solid, 'meaty' bread, on the dry side, but not 'dry', if that makes any sense. The taste was fine, you couldn't really taste the mangos (or mangoes, apparently either spelling is correct), which probably is not a good thing for a mango bread. The spices were nice, the raisins, well, raisins are not my cup of tea anyway, so they were ok. I guess all in all I wasn't overly impressed, and it will not likely make the rotation any time soon.

I Should Spend More Time Sleeping vs. Master Baking - Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

I surf the net quite a bit looking for those perfect cookie recipes. I certainly have had my fair share of duds, but this cookie, well, it was maybe one of the best cookies I have ever had. It has everything you would want in a cookie - chocolate chips (minis no less!), coconut (which I increased over the original recipe, I really like coconut), almonds, oats . . . it sort of tasted like an almond joy in cookie form. Crispy on the edges, soft in the center. And right out of the oven, it was like heaven in a little round cookie. I will certainly be making this a regular when I open up the bakery. It will sell like . . . well, like a really popular cookie (you thought I was going to say hotcakes, but I didn't).

Alcohol Makes Master Baking Lots of Fun - Jagerdoodles

So I think my photographs are getting a tad bit better. I am just not as into the pretty photos as I am the food, but it is nice when the pics are half way decent. My friend Steve (aka Ham Jambo, aka Steve-o) my upstairs neighbor with ADP when I was living in Kenya loves my baking (specifically the Zucchini Bread). A couple of weeks ago I asked him for ingredients he would like to see in a cookie, and one of them was Jagermeister and anise. Now, I am not the biggest fan of either one of those flavors, but for good old Steve-o, why not?

After searching high and low for something that looked right, I found a site that gave me enough ideas to do this on my own. I took my favorite Snickerdoodle cookie, and substituted Jager for the vanilla, and anise for the cinnamon. I ended up having to add like 8 teaspoons of Jager in order for the flavor to come thru, but when it did, it was subtle enough to not overwhelm the senses. The Snickerdoodle didn't end up as flat as I would have liked, I assume it was due to the amount of additional wet ingredients, so I will have to work on that for next time. All in all, good for a first try at this one.

I Think I Am Going to Be Sick From All This Master Baking - Carrot Cake

I made a carrot cake like . . . 8 months ago for a friend's birthday that was very similar to this recipe. The last recipe I did was a conglomeration of 3 different recipes that I had, picking the best from each of them. This one had almost everything in a single recipe, just a couple of minor tweaks and it was perfect.

I really liked this cake. I have no idea what I did differently between this cake and the Coconut Cake, but the layers on this one were perfectly flat straight out of the oven. I am going to have to figure out what the difference was. The frosting was perfect, not too sweet, but not a strong cream cheese flavor either. Moist, densy, and full of carrot-y goodness. And the nuts in it really gave it a texture contrast. Yum!

Super Bowl in San Francisco - Geaux Cakes! - Coconut Cake with Raspberry Jam

So, looks like a giant snowball . . . food photographer I am not. This was my first Super Bowl in 2 years, I missed the last one while I was living in Nairobi. I really do love football, and the excuse to eat food that is really bad for you, like Buffalo Chicken Wing Dip and Chili with Cheese and Sour Cream, Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread, and cake. Oh, the cake. I am definitely crazy, as I made 2 cakes for, oh, let's say 8 people. Like a quarter of a cake per person. To say there were leftovers is an understatement.

This is one of two cakes, the Coconut Cake with Raspberry Jam. It was pretty spectacular, although I certainly learned some lessons with this one. I am not a cake maker, I lack that creativity when it comes to decoration and whatnot. And on this one, I made 3 layers, cut them in half, and then alternated jam between each layer before coating the entire thing in frosting. So, rule number 1 - you cannot put the uncut cake on its side and try to cut it in half. That is a great way to get it to break, which I did, and then mended it with frosting. Rule number 2 - make the layers even and flat so you don't end up with a big dome when you are done stacking the layers. It is a lot harder to frost that way, and the jam in the middle tends to run out when you do it that way.

All in all, taste-wise it was pretty darn good. It tasted like real coconut, which I'd attribute to the coconut milk and the back of shredded coconut I put in the cake batter itself. It went so nicely with the raspberry jam, awesome flavor combo. Next time I might more frosting so I could alternate the layers between frosting and jam, because all 5 layers of jam was maybe a tad bit too much.

Cake in front of the new city. Really liking my life in San Francisco. Thanks Mike for an AWESOME party, and for taking this great photo, capturing my creation with my new hometown.

I Can Make A Mean Loaf of Bread - Maple Sweet Potato Bread

I think I am a much better bread maker than anything else. That is not to say that my other goodies aren't fantastic, but I just tend to knock them out of the park when in bread form. Case in point - the Maple Sweet Potato Bread. It was like Thanksgiving in bread form. Of course my friend Mike was in a rush, so it didn't have time to perfectly set, but it was out of this world. I used a new kind of sugar - palm sugar. Not as sweet as cane sugar, but added a flavor to the bread that is hard to describe. And the ends and the sides with all of the crispy crust against the moist bread, heaven.

Why Stop When It Feels So Right - Nutella Hazelnut Cookies

I have been burned by the Nutella cookie before. It seems like such a fantastic idea - yummy Nutella in cookie form. Yet the two times I have tried it before, the Nutella I could taste in the batter did not come thru in the cookie. So I hedged my bets this time, added more than the recipe called for, and thought this was it. I was going to have success. Sadly, while a good cookie, it wasn't great. It made a crispy cookie (and I am not a huge fan of the crispy cookie), which was pretty to look at, but just not inspiring in the taste category. I might give up on getting Nutella in my cookies and go for it in breads or cupcakes. I am tired of the disappointment.

I Think Master Baking Helps My Migraines - Oatmeal Toffee Cookies (with yummy Dried Cherries - yeah, I had to add it)

This is maybe the worst picture of a cookie I have taken yet, which is such a bummer since I think this one was my favorite. So the taste of this cookie was FANTASTIC. The mix of dried cherries, bittersweet chocolate, oats, and toffee was pure genius. The whole thing came together really nicely. The preparation I had to modify half way thru, and I think there are things I would do differently. It had me roll these bad boys into logs about 1in thick (no comments!), and then cut them. That totally didn't work. Next time, I will make them in 1 tablespoon portions, and I will for sure refrigerate the dough more before I bake it. They spread a whole lot more than I was anticipating. But taste cannot be beat!

Nothin' Says Happy Birthday Like Master Baking - White Chocolate Peanut Butter Oat Chipsters

I arrived in San Francisco just about a week ago, just in time to celebrate my friend Mike's Birthday. Now of course I felt badly as I didn't even get him a gift. And normally, my backup when there is no gift is to bake, but since I hadn't finished unpacking . . . I am such a bad friend. So, finally settled into my brand new apartment with my brand new kitchen, I set about baking up a storm.

First of all - can I just say how AWESOME the new kitchen is? Convection oven, loads of counter space, huge fridge . . . I was smiling all day. So this is the last cookie that I baked for Mike - the White Chocolate Peanut Butter Oat Chipster. It is a little cookie, but I liked the texture, and turned out to be a crowd fave at the apartment Sunday night. Not sure what I would do differently, it was pretty well balanced.