When your mom's hobby is baking...

This is what your birthday party looks like.

I'm 100% proud of how my banana cake and chocolate cream cheese icing tasted. And I'm 95% proud of how the monkey cupcakes look. I'll admit, though, that I'm only about 60% happy with how the cake looks. Rolled fondant takes some getting used to. Plus, the cake was so ginormous and moist (if I do say so myself), that it started to fall apart before decorating, so some last-minute surgery was needed before decorating even began.

Anyhow, we had a wonderful 2nd birthday celebration for my darling Stella, and I have a new cake to add to my ever-expanding menu.

The Carefree Carrot Cake

Carrot Cake: My mom would say it's good for you, because it's packed with carrots and ginger.

Julie looking gorgeous at her birthday dinner.

Cutting the cake.

A little slice of heaven.


It seems that life has been a bit challenging for most everyone I know lately. Job problems. Relationship issues. Apartment/house catastrophes. NCAA brackets getting screwed up.

When my dear friend, Julie, asked me to bake her a deluxe, no-holds-barred, brimming with golden raisins and walnuts carrot cake, I almost said no. I'd been stressed out lately, and I didn't want to add to that.

Thankfully, I came to my senses, because not only was the cake so delicious that it melted my worries away for a while, but Julie's party was also lively and filled with warm, interesting people. It was a delicious evening all around.

And it was held at a 100% organic and green restaurant, Gustorganics. The food was scrumptious and thoughtful, and reminded me that I want to continue moving further in that direction for me and my family. And yes, that includes cakes.

Baking: A Stress Reliever or Stress Inducer?

Things have been stressful at the Bklyn Bakes abode lately. I'm not going to go into details, but it's been rough.

I had an order to fulfill amidst our problems, though, and I was hoping it would take my mind off of things. Well...that's now how it worked.

I baked the cakes -- chocolate -- and in my naivete decided to try a new icing -- a meringue icing from Martha Stewart.

Thank God I made the icing the night before (which was, I will say, delicious), because it fell apart the next morning. As in separated into pure liquid and grainy solids.

So, amidst all our other problems, I had to throw out 6 eggs worth of icing (eggs are expensive, you know) and start from scratch.

I was lucky that I had tons of butter and powdered sugar on hand, because I just whipped up my grandmother's fluffy vanilla frosting and decorated the cake in a flash.

I'm still working on my decorating, but I think this is a big improvement. And I'm proud that I pulled it off while in the midst of turmoil.

I'm still working on letting baking be my therapy. But too often, I mess up and make silly mistakes when I'm stressed out. Well, as they say, practice makes perfect.

Baking with a Toddler

Walking away from the scene of the crime.

A blurry shot of the floury butt.

She doesn't just wear it, she also eats it.

Finished Product: not bad under the circumstances.


The orders have slowed down for a bit over here at Bklyn Bakes, leaving me more time to try to train my toddler to love baking.

My grandmothers trained me from the time I could stand, constantly reminding me that I'd have trouble landing a man if I couldn't make a decent chocolate pie or Italian cream cake. Luckily for them, I liked it anyway, despite my feminist nature, and clung to their teaching even while disagreeing with their ideology.

I can't really tell if Stella likes to bake yet or not. She seems delighted by the messy part of it, as evidenced by the photo of her pants after she slid around in a mixture of flour, oats and wheat germ.

I have to come to terms with the fact that Stella may never have an affinity/obsession with baking like her mother. But at least the child will understand that making your own brownies and yellow cake is far too easy to resort to using, ahem, a mix.

For your enjoyment, here's an incredibly easy and healthy recipe for Irish Brown Bread, to be made with or without the aid of a toddler.

Irish Brown Bread

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups white flour
1 1/2 cups wheat flour
1/2 cup quick oats
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1 3/4 cup buttermilk
2 T. honey

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix buttermilk and honey in a small bowl. Add the buttermilk mixture to the dry mixture, and mix gently until just combined. Turn onto a floured surface, knead a couple of times, and form into a circle. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Turn the temperature down to 400 degrees and bake an additional 15 minutes, or until the bread sounds hollow when you tap it. Let cool 20 minutes.

*NOTE: All orders for Bklyn Bakes are fulfilled WITHOUT the messy help of a toddler.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Like me, my heart cake is not perfect (due mainly to unruly silicon cake molds), but I assure you, it is sweet and filling.

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day everyone, and don't forget to eat something decadent today!

Not Your Mama's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Stella gives our Exotic Oatmeal Raisin Cookies her seal of approval!


Yep, we've got cabin fever.

And what does cabin fever do to me? It makes me want to bake.

However, I really didn't feel like buying a whole bunch of ingredients, and I didn't feel like making anything too involved, so I gravitated to wholesome, delicious oatmeal raisin cookies.

But...I needed to switch it up a bit. I never really mess with my baking recipes, due to a crippling fear that I'm going to REALLY MESS THINGS UP. Which is easy to do with the alchemy of baking.

But I just had to give it a try. Less cinnamon, lots of cardamom, lots of fresh ginger, golden raisins instead of regular ones -- these changes just sounded like a good idea.

And, they were. Cinnamon raisin cookies, but with an exotic twist. Not the ones your mama made, but as you can tell from the pictures, delicious just the same.

Let me know if you'd like a batch.

The Chocolate Bowl

Decadent (and perfect for Valentine's Day) Chocolate Cherry Brownies

My friend Alex preparing to dig in.

Ah, now this is better than any half-time show I've ever seen!


A Chocolate Bowl - now that's something I'd watch, and not just for the commercials.

Our cousins/friends were throwing a Superbowl Party (from which we're already home -- at 8:20pm -- due to a certain cranky and sleepy toddler) and I figured I should bring something sweet.

As per their request, I made my chocolate cherry brownies, incredibly moist and filled with cream cheesy and cherry goodness. And yet, somehow, miraculously, not too rich.

As we were handing them out, though, I noticed that they'd be awfully sweet for Valentine's Day, what with the color scheme and all. I'm just saying...

This is another no-fail recipe from The Elmwood Inn, my bible of baked goods. Let me know if you want some!