Baked Good of the Day: Banana Split S'more Whoopie Pies

Source: cakespy.com via Cake on Pinterest

Did you know that today is National Banana Split Day? AND National S'more Day? Combine them thusly. Find the recipe for these sweet treats here.

Baker's Dozen: A Batch of Sweet Links

Source: bettycrocker.com via Cake on Pinterest

OMG: Tie Dye cupcakes!

Strawberry. Cheesecake. Milkshake.

Brown Butter Funfetti Cookies!! Hooray!

Chocolate chip softies: like chocolate chip cookies meet poundcake.

OMG: Ice Cream Monkey Bread.

Absolutely classic: Nanaimo bars.

Frozen Brandy Alexander Pie. YUM! (thanks, Jeff!)

Red Currant Trifle: Looks cooling and tasty.

Accidental vegan: store-bought treats that don't contain animal products.

Minty Icebox Pie. 

Who invented S'mores?

Bakery I wanna visit: Ovenly in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Glaze? Frosting? Icing? What's the dif?

Circus Animal Cookie Truffles Recipe

Image: Domestic Rebel

As a kid, I grew up eating Circus Animal Cookies. My grandma never paid attention to the food I had during the day, so I could shovel handfuls of these cookies into my mouth-hole while watching marathons of Scooby Doo on Cartoon Network. I am partial to the white ones as I believe they taste slightly better than the pink, but science has yet to back me up on this one.

I decided to make them into truffles since truffles are cute and portable and are yet another vessel for more chocolate and sprinkles (sprinkles are practically mandatory in life). The result is a super sweet, adorable truffle that is reminiscent of my favorite childhood cookie.

Circus Animal Cookie Truffles

• About 3 cups Circus Animal cookies
• 1/2 can cream cheese frosting
• 1 pkg white chocolate almond bark
• Rainbow nonpareils
• Pink food coloring

Procedure

1. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and set aside. Meanwhile, in a food processor, grind the cookies (about a cup at a time–work in batches) until finely ground, coarse crumbs. Pour all the ground cookies into a large bowl.
2. Once cookies are ground, spoon in the half can of cream cheese icing. Using your clean hands or a spoon, mix together the crumbs and frosting until thoroughly combined.
3. Begin portioning the crumb mixture into inch-sized balls (I used a small cookie dough scoop) and place the balls onto the foil-lined baking sheet. Repeat until all the mixture is used up.
4. Freeze the truffles for about 3 hours or until completely frozen and solid. While they’re freezing, prepare your white chocolate according to package directions until smooth and melted. Pour half that mixture into a separate bowl, and using your pink coloring, tint one of the bowls a pretty pink shade.
5. Dip half the batch of truffles into the white chocolate, and the other half into the pink chocolate. I used a fork to coat all sides of the truffles, then allowed the excess to drip off the bottom before gently placing each dipped truffle back onto the foil-lined sheet. While still wet, sprinkle the truffle tops with the rainbow nonpareils.
6. Allow all the truffles to harden and set, about 20 minutes in the fridge. Store leftover truffles airtight for about 2-3 days at room temperature, or a week in the freezer–just allow them to come to room temperature before eating them that way.

About the author: Hayley is The Domestic Rebel. She believes in cake mix, overdosing on sparkles & eating that extra cookie. And she really, really loves cupcakes.

Sweet of the Day: Brown Rice Pudding

Source: joythebaker.com via Krystle on Pinterest

Did you know today is National Rice Pudding Day?

Find the recipe here.

Gratuitous Glaze Experiment

Here's the thing about most loaf cakes. Instead of frosting, they're often served with glaze. 

In itself, this is not a problem. But what is a problem is that the glaze is only on the top of the loaf cake, leaving a lot of uncovered (unglazed) territory. 

There's all this cake...

and only the thinnest sheen of delicious glaze. No fair! I want more!

And so I started to wonder...what would happen if there was more? Like, a LOT more? Like, a cake so saturated that it was practically bloated with glaze?

and so, I decided to experiment with it. 

First, I took a slice of loaf cake (in this case, a slice of the olive oil lemon poppyseed cake I had just made). 

And then, I whipped up a batch of glaze. A big batch of it--like 2 cups of cream mixed with about 2 cups confectioners' sugar and a dash of almond extract. And a squeeze of lemon. But if you want to do this experiment, you could use any cake and any glaze you'd like.

Next, I took a shallow bowl. I laid a piece of plastic wrap across the bottom of the bowl.

Into this vessel, I poured a generous amount of glaze. And then I placed the cake slice in this delicious pool.

I then coated the rest of the cake with glaze. DROWN!

Then, I covered up the cake to seal in the glaze, and let it set overnight.

The next morning, this is what greeted me. Oh, hello, glaze saturated cake. Amazingly, it had maintained its solid shape, it hadn't come apart with all of the liquid. But it was definitely altered in texture--like a sponge saturated with water, it was heavy and thick. But unlike a sponge, it was also highly delicious.

When cut into, it oozed glaze. Texturewise, in your mouth, it's sort of like a tres leches cake or a steamed pudding--extremely moist and rich. Unlike a typical loaf cake, it didn't *need* coffee, tea, or milk to keep your mouth from drying out. 

This glazed cake was an absolute pleasure to eat.

So, if you were hoping I would be grossed out by the glaze overload, you are wrong. It tasted effing fantastic. 

However, I realize that it may not be possible to give your cake this much glaze all the time, so for now, I am simply going to simply make sure I always quadruple glaze recipes so that I can have extra to serve on the side with my loaf cake -- you know, as a dipping sauce.

Baked Good of the Day: Rustic Apricot Galette

Source: sosuzette.squarespace.com via Cake on Pinterest

Find the recipe here.

Nanaimo Bar Brownies Recipe for Serious Eats

If some is good, more is amazing. That's the guiding principle behind the mega-brownie that is the stunningly delicious and unbelievably rich result of combining brownies with the Canadian delight known as Nanaimo bars.

So what happens, exactly, when you cross a Nanaimo Bar with a brownie? Visually, it doesn't differ too much from a traditional Nanaimo bar. But taste-wise, you have a sweet specimen which ups the ante of both desserts: a delicately crumbed, buttery brownie base coated with a smooth, creamy, custard-buttercream filling. And then, because, well, why not, you top it all with a firm chocolate topping. And oh, are they good. Consider serving in small portions, though: this is an extremely decadent breed of dessert, the likes of which will take your breath away and give your body a chocolate rush that might just last for days.

Find the full entry and recipe here!

Sweet Times: My Panel at BlogHer 2012 Ruled

Illustration: The Animated Woman

Recently, I was asked to be a panelist at BlogHer 2012, the premier conference for female bloggers. It was quite an honor to be asked, especially since the panel was hosted by the extremely talented Rachel Nabors and I got to play co-panelist with Shalini of Reading & Chickens. Look at how awesome we are:

Although all of our websites are quite different, what we have in common is that we tell our story using illustrations--and hence, the title of the panel was Telling Stories with Pictures: Incorporating Graphics, Cartoons, and Iconography to Better Engage Readers. I know, a mouthful. But it was as awesome as it sounds.

In case you weren't there, let me briefly tell you some of the things we discussed, and some of the valuable take-aways. 

Rachel began the session by explaining that, people mostly LOOK at pages upon first visiting a website, not focusing on the big blocks of text--at least initially. So it's vital to have a visual aspect that will draw in readers to see what it is you have to say.

image: Rachel NaborsWe then spoke briefly about how we three all illustrate this idea with our work - using illustrations to stand out from the crowd. In my case, I mentioned the fact that there are a ton of blogs about food and baking out there--but very few that feature adorable illustrations of cupcakes, unicorns, and robots. Therefore, I am able to set myself apart from the crowd by using my artwork.

Of course, this is not to say that you just need to learn how to draw unicorns to find everlasting success. You need to find what works for you. For instance, in the cases of my fellow panelists, Rachel is a cartoonist turned web developer, but she still uses her cartooning skills to make her blogging about internetty stuff more engaging and interesting. Shalini is a humorist, not a trained artist, and she uses her drawings to deliver punchlines on subjects both lighthearted (the differences between NYC and Seattle) and heavy (infertility, weight loss troubles) boosting her traffic through her hilarious images.

It proves that you can use art to carry a message and engage readers REGARDLESS of your artistic ability, what tools you have, et cetera. The idea is to have fun--others will undoubtedly respond to that. 

Another important thing we discussed was some of the barriers one might have to contend with: though artistic talent ought not be a barrier to using illustrations or imagery, criticism, motivation, and maintaining inspiration might be. I have already written a post about some ideas for maintining inspiration and motivation.

Moreover, I found this panel extremely thought-provoking and inspiring, and a wonderful way to explore the simple idea that art makes writing more fun.

I hope that the attendees agreed; if any attendees from the BlogHer conference happen to be reading, you also might find this writeup (not about BlogHer specifically, but appropriate) on getting the most from your conference after the fact might be of help!

Thanks again to everyone who attended, and especially to The Animated Woman, who was so inspired during the panel that she illustrated it in progress! (pictured top)

Baked Good of the Day: Monster Magic Cookie Bars

Source: somethingswanky.com via Cake on Pinterest

Dudes, dudettes, when I saw this on Pinterest, I knew it was the Baked Good of the Day. Combining Magic Cookie bars with Monster Cookies, this is basically an amalgamation of awesome, a get-fat treat that will make you feel so good while doing it. Hey, everyone deserves a treat that tastes like a big smile sometimes!

Find the recipe at Something Swanky.

Olive Oil Lemon Poppyseed Cake With Lemon Almond Glaze

Not so very long ago, the California Olive Ranch sent me some olive oil with which to try out some baking.

YES!

So, I looked up recipes, because I have been really wanting to try out an Olive Oil Cake. But I specifically wanted a loaf cake type. I don't know why. Well, OK, yes I do. I have an adorable loaf pan. It's by Emile Henry and it's green. I think it's very cute. Plus, when you bake cakes in loaf form, they sort of resemble bread, and in my mind, that kind of makes them health food.

So I found a recipe which looked good, but I decided that instead of blood oranges, I wanted to use lemon. And I like lemon poppyseed, so I added some seeds. And, well, just to be a bit zany, I decided to add a dash of almond extract to the glaze. 

And so, with all of these little additions and amendments, I ended up with Olive Oil Lemon Poppyseed Cake with Lemon Almond Glaze.

DEAR GOD was this thing good. While it may look like a pound cake, the olive oil sets it apart, taste-wise. While a pound cake is delightfully dense, this had a more tender, layer cake-like crumb, but a rich flavor that while not buttery, was very delicious--luxuriant and lightly fruity-nutty. It is hard to describe, so rather than fetch my thesaurus I am going to suggest that you break out some olive oil and give it a try. I'll give you one more reason why you should try it:

Aw yeah. Here's the recipe.

Olive Oil Lemon Poppyseed Cake With Lemon-Almond Glaze

For the cake

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• zest of 1 large lemon [about 1 tablespoon]
• juice of 1 large lemon
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3 large eggs
• 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon poppyseeds

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 5-by-9 inch loaf pan. 

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside. 

Combine sugar and zest together in a bowl; using your fingers, rub together well. Add juice and milk, and whisk to combine. Add eggs and oil, and whisk to combine. 

Add flour mixture to the milk mixture, and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the seeds last, stirring until evenly distributed.

Transfer batter to the pan, and bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, 40-50 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes.

Turn cake out on rack, and using the tines of a fork, gently poke small holes on the top surface of the cake. Apply half of the glaze while cake is still warm.  When cake has cooled, apply second half of glaze. 

For the Glaze

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• dash of almond extract 
• squeeze of lemon juice

Mix all this stuff together. If it's too thin, add a little more sugar. If it's too thick, add more lemon juice or milk or cream.