Lemon Cranberry Scones

Sometimes I get very odd and random food cravings (no, I'm not hinting at any baby news =p). A couple of weeks ago, I was craving dried fruit, so I bought some raisins, dried pineapple and dried cranberries. The cranberries didn't taste how I had remembered...maybe it's because I bought a different brand than before. I thought about throwing them out, but I decided to keep them because I figured I could find a way to use them in some type of baking experiment rather than wasting them.

Well a few days ago, the cranberries caught my eye in the pantry. I had a sudden craving for scones, so I decided to make cranberry scones....brilliant! I added a little bit of lemon zest to them to add some extra flavor, and the scones came out surprisingly well for a random experiment. I even got some very nice comments about achieving above average scone texture. :D

Silver Bullet

I had been wanting to get a new stand mixer for quite some time. I bought my first stand mixer when I was in college and didn't have a whole lot of money to spend on it. It served me well for a while when I was first really getting into baking. The only problem is that it just wouldn't die! I hadn't bought a new mixer because I would have felt guilty if my old mixer still worked, even though it may not have been the greatest and my hubby kept trying to convince me to get a new one. Well, the old mixer finally passed away a couple of weeks ago. After 10 years of waiting (yes, I was just starting college THAT many years ago O_O), I was then faced with deciding what kind of mixer to buy. It came down to either a KitchenAid or a Viking. I ended up going with KitchenAid because of all of the attachments you can get - the most notable of which is the ice cream maker attachment. Yes, that's right, I am going to venture into the world of ice cream/gelato. =D

I named it the Silver Bullet, and I love it. :)

The first thing I made with it was a batch of cupcakes for my nieces and nephews. One of my darling nieces had the awesome idea of turning hers into a cupcake sandwich!

Creamy Devils?

I'm not quite sure what to call these little guys. I think they are traditionally called black bottom cakes, but for some reason, I don't quite like that name. These tasty creations are cream cheese topped devil's food cakes.

There is usually some funny side story that goes along with each of my baking adventures. Lately, work has been really hectic since we're wrapping up a major project, and that has lead to a lot of late-night baking sessions. Lack of sleep and exhaustion do not typically make for a good combination in the kitchen. ;)

We had a friend coming to visit, and I really wanted to make something for his stay with us. I had been going on very little sleep and had just finished a 14-hour workday when I got home at 9:30 pm one evening. (Who knew software development was so intense?! =p) Well, I forged ahead with my plan to bake something and got these cakes in the oven, set my timer, and sat down for a bit. I remember checking on the cakes a couple of times, and all seemed to be going well. I checked in on them one more time and then realized my timer had been paused. I panicked because I couldn't remember when I had put them in the oven. I asked the hubby if he touched my timer, and he emphatically denied getting anywhere near it or near the kitchen for that matter. I guess my lack of sleep and the long workday made me a bit out of my mind, and I paused the timer unconsciously. I ended up over-baking the cakes just a bit, but everyone still seemed to enjoy them. Either that, or I have really nice friends. ;)

Giant Cupcake!

My sister came to visit, and we finally celebrated her birthday (3 months late). I decided to go big...literally. So, I made her a giant cupcake. These pictures are not the best, but I made this cake after a very, very long day at work. So once again, the pictures were taken late at night. I am still working on my photography skills...

Front of the cake:

Keeping with last year's theme when I made my sis a Domo cake, I had to sneak Domo in somewhere. Back of the cake:

Simple and Sweet

I wanted to make some goodies for a friend we were visiting last weekend, and with work being so hectic lately, I didn't have much time. So, I chose two relatively simple sweets: blueberry muffins and m&m cookies. Always trying to make the best use of my time, I took this opportunity to do some recipe tweaking/experimenting. The cookies ended up coming out just about perfect, but I want to tweak the muffins just a little bit more.

After wrapping up a 12-hour workday, these were the result of another late-night baking session.