BAKED Sunday Mornings: Malted Vanilla (and Chocolate) Milkshakes

An easy Baked Sunday Mornings recipe!  It has been super hot around LA this past week and so a recipe which requires no oven and results in a delicious milkshake makes it a prefect recipe for a hot summer day.  I promised my son a milkshake and he was holding out for chocolate, so I adapted this recipe a little bit, using chocolate ice cream instead of vanilla.  I still used the vanilla bean, so it had a nice vanilla, chocolate and malted flavor all mixed together.  If you are looking for a great milkshake recipe, I recommend this one.  It got the seal of approval from my five year old and from me!

You can find the recipe here and check out what all the other bakers did.

Happy Happy Lemon Cake

I can't believe we haven't posted since May.   My life has gotten so crazy, and this is supposed to be a quiet season.  Oh well.  Can't say what Sarah's excuse is.  She came to visit us recently, and while we did bake a key lime pie, it got eaten so fast I didn't even get a picture.  I assume Sarah will chime in with a cupcake review at some point.

Anyway, enough excuses and on to this amazing lemon cake.  This is a cake that I made at the end of May for a co-worker's birthday.  Like most cakes from BAKED, it had about a zillion steps but it was so worth it.  Every single part of the cake was amazing and when they came together it was awesome.  One of the best lemon cakes I have ever had, let alone baked.  I did not have three 8-inch pans, as the recipe calls for, so I used two nine inch pans and cut the layers in half for four layers and it was great.

I highly recommend this cake, but only make it if you have time (you can make it over two days or so).  You will be rewarded for your hard work with total deliciousness.  You can find the recipe here.

BAKED Sunday Mornings: Chocolate Peanut Butter Spread

So I might loose all my foodie cred for telling you this but I don't like Nutella. I honestly don't understand the appeal. When I saw this week's recipe was chocolate hazelnut spread I was not excited. However, I do love peanut butter and when I had the idea to replace the hazelnuts with peanuts, then I was super excited!

I urge anyone who loves the chocolate peanut butter combo to do this. It is so easy and delicious. You just whir peanuts, cocoa powder, sugar and a bit of oil in the food processor and you come out with this rich and yummy spread. 

I also used the spread to make scones, based on the Nutella scones from baked. Instead of chopped hazelnuts, I used mini chocolate peanut butter cups. Insane!

Check out what some of the other bloggers did here.

BAKED Sunday Morning: Black and White Cookies

I am a New Yorker.  No matter where I have lived, whether it be Connecticut, Texas or now LA, I have always identified with and been at home in New York. Black and White cookies are one of those things that people always identify with New York and that you can get in every corner deli and bakery.  Unfortunately for the iconic black and white cookie, most of the ones that you buy on the street in NYC are dry, crumbly and generally tasteless with too sweet frosting.

These cookies are the total opposite of that.  They taste like what you want a black and white cookie to taste like, only better.  They are soft and flavorful with a slight crunch on the outside and a distinctly vanilla frosting and a distinctly chocolate frosting.  Neither frosting is too sweet and it is a nice compliment to the only slightly sweet cookie.  Someone once said that the key to a true New York City black and white is lemon zest in the cookie batter, which I think adds to the flavor and keeps them from being cloyingly sweet.

These were pretty simple to put together.  The batter is something between a cookie and a cake and you scoop it with an ice cream scooper to get large but not obscenely huge cookies.  After baking you mix up the vanilla frosting and then take half of that and mix in the cocoa powder for the chocolate side.  My frosting was a little drippy (as you can see from the photo) but it set up nicely and I was able to stack and store these with minimal trouble.  

I feel like black and white cookies are one of those things that seem like they would be a lot of work, but in the end are not.  I only used three bowls and a few measuring cups, a near record for a Baked recipe.  You can find the recipe here and be sure to check out what the other bakers did.

BAKED Sunday Mornings: Vanilla Bean and Chocolate Budino

Happy Purim!  If you came here looking for some hamentashen (triangle cookies), you can find them here or here or here.  I didn't have it in me to make any this year, although I've always wanted to try my friend Shoshana's S'more Hamentashen.  However, I've been away and I have a huge Purim program today, so no hamentashen for us this year.

But, I do have some pudding for you (which reminded me of Dorie's Split Level pudding but not quite as rich).  Technically this is a budino, which is apparently an Italian custard or pudding, so pudding is fine.  Budino just makes it sound super fancy.  Despite the fact that this pudding used many, many bowls and pans, it was quite easy to make.  The thickening power mostly comes from cornstarch, so you can't screw it up.  My pudding was a little lumpy, but I don't really mind.  I really enjoyed the flavor of these puddings, both separately and together and I love the way the vanilla one looked with all the vanilla bean seeds sprinkled throughout.  If you want a dessert that looks impressive but is easy to make, you should totally try this.  You can get the recipe here and head over to Baked Sunday Mornings to see what everyone else did.

Happy Purim!  

BAKED Sunday Mornings: Sunday Night Cake

This cake is called Sunday Night Cake because it is something that you can just throw together for an informal Sunday night gathering.  Nothing fancy and no great hassel.  When I first read the description of the cake and the frosting, I thought it would be like Dorie's Cinnamon Squares, a cinnamon cake with a chocolate frosting.  However, Dorie's cake has a lot more cinnamon punch and a richer chocolate frosting.  This cake is only faintly cinnamon and the flavor of the frosting is a more mild chocolate.  The Baked boys called this frosting a pudding and although I have never made a pudding like this, I can see what they meant.  I don't think I would want to eat it with a spoon, but together with the cake it was really good.  Don't skip the step of putting the frosted cake in the fridge.  My frosting was kind of grainy and strange tasting, but once I put it in the fridge, it was smooth and tasted really good.

I enjoyed this cake, especially in its simplicity.  The cake was tender and moist, with a good, warm flavor with a hint of cinnamon and the frosting balanced it nicely with a hit of chocolate.  My husband (the non-chocolate eater) enjoyed the cake without the frosting too.  One note...I didn't have the right size pan, so I made it in a slightly smaller pan and cooked it a little longer and it was totally fine.

Head over to Baked Sunday Mornings to see what everyone else has done and to get the recipe.  

Update: I have learned that I misread the frosting recipe and I used bittersweet chocolate instead of unsweetened. If worked fine and the frosting was great after a stint in the fridge.

BAKED Sunday Morning: Malted Milk Chocolate Pots de Creme

Well, I have kind of fallen down on my Baked Sunday Mornings participation.  Things have been a little crazy around here and the idea of making a super complicated recipe hasn't be that appealing.  However, when I saw this recipe, I knew I had to make it.  I love Whoppers, milk chocolate, malt and pudding, so it seemed like this recipe had everything.  To top it off, it was super easy.  It was calling my name.

I wish I could say I was in love with these, since they seemed so promising.  However, mine came out way too salty and it overwhelmed the delicate flavor of the milk chocolate (public service announcement -- you have to use really good milk chocolate, not just a Hershey bar.  I used Scharffen Berger).  It seems that the Baked boys like things much saltier than I do, since this has happened before.  I hope to try them again and cut the salt a bunch.

The other issue I had was totally my fault, in that I took them out of the oven too early.  After 25 minutes they were still pretty jiggly, but I thought they might set in the fridge.  Turns out that was not too be.  They weren't totally watery, but they did not have that custardy texture I was looking for.  I haven't given up hope though, and will be trying these again one day.

Check over at Baked Sunday Mornings for the recipe and to see what everyone else did.

Baked Sunday Mornings: I'm Back!

Life is slowly returning to the new normal -- life with two kids and a traveling husband -- so I have finally been able to return to Baked Sunday Mornings.  The group is actually now baking from two books: Baked Explorations and the new book, Baked Elements.  These are from the latter book.  I have been following along, but the last few recipes have been more complicated than I could do at the time.  However, when I saw these Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip scones, I thought they would be the perfect thing to mark my return.

These were a snap to put together and full of delicious ingredients.  Sometimes, scones can be dry, but I think the addition of the peanut butter and the chewiness of the oats keep them nice and moist.  I actually thought mine were a little underdone when I looked at them, but it turns out that that is just how they look.  I really enjoyed this combination.  The peanut butter is not overwhelming and you can really taste each of the ingredients.  The only thing I would change is that the scones were huge!  I would cut them into smaller pieces, because I'm not sure anyone can finish one in one sitting.  You can find the recipe here and be sure to check back to see what other bakers have done.

You're a Grand Old Donut

Hi there, happy Fourth! I hope everyone had a very nice time celebrating America's birthday. I, for one, had a lovely day filled with family, beach, 1776 (the movie, not the book), and of course yummy food. What kind of yummy food, Sarah? Glad you asked. Ever since I saw the buttermilk farmstead donuts in Baked Explorations, I've wanted to make them. Only problem is, donuts really need to be eaten the day they're made. Usually I can bring any class of baked goods to my office and they'll be gone within two hours. But I didn't feel like waking up super-early to make donuts to bring to the office. Sue me. So I needed a special occasion, one on which I knew I'd have a free morning and a captive audience forced to eat my donuts. And what better occasion than America's 236th birthday. What a dame.


The donuts were pretty easy to put together. The dough didn't cohere as well as I wanted it to but it didn't seem to negatively affect the end product. (Some of the donuts did come apart, but I think that was because they were too big.) My main piece of advice is to actually follow the recipe and fry the donuts for the full amount of time recommended. I took mine out when I thought they had achieved a nice brown color but then they were a little undercooked. Of course if you're in to things being undercooked (I am), it was all good. Throw together some vanilla glaze and slap some red and blue sprinkles on that sucker, and you've got yourself a delicious, patriotic treat. Happy birthday, dear America!


You can find the recipe here. (And for those readers concerned about my continuing saga with boiling oil - all of you, I'm sure - I will inform you that apart from one splatteriffic close call where the oil nearly came into contact with my shoeless foot, all was well. I think I'm getting more confident here.)

Baked Sunday Mornings: Mississippi Mud Pie (B)

As I have mentioned, I am the official office cake baker.  Whenever someone has a birthday, I find out what they want and I make the best version I can find.  I also make cakes when people leave and for other office occasions.  In the past couple of weeks we have had 1 graduation, 1 birthday, 2 people leaving and 1 person converting to Judaism.  That's a lot of cake.  I had said I was on cake maternity leave until after baby #2 arrives in a few weeks, but it seems I just can't help myself.


There is a woman who has been helping out in our office who converted to Judaism this week.  She said she likes things that are cake and chocolate and when I saw this coming up for Baked Sunday Mornings, I figured she would really enjoy this cake.


This is a serious cake -- oreo crust, flourless chocolate cake, chocolate pudding and whipped cream.  You have to really like chocolate.  Despite all those layers, this cake is lighter than I thought it would be.  The whipped cream is totally necessary to lighten things up and neither the cake layer nor the pudding layer are too sweet.


I did learn something very important with this cake.  Most of the time, especially when I make things with a graham cracker crust, I just crush the cookies in a bag with a rolling pin instead of getting the food processor dirty.  I did that with this cake, but it did not work well.  The crust was too chunky and hard to cut and it took up too much room in the pan, so there was not room for all the pudding.  Next time, the food processor is coming out.  It was still delicious though.  Don't be scared of all the steps -- you can actually do a lot of them at once.  While the crust is cooling, make the cake.  While the cake is baking, make the pudding.  Then put the cake and the pudding in the fridge to cool and all you have to do the next morning is assembly.  I highly recommend this cake for other chocoholics in your life.  Check out the Baked Sunday Mornings website for the recipe and to see what other bakers did.

Baked Sunday Mornings: Peanut Butter Chocolate Cream Pie

On the outside, this looks like this week's Baked Sunday Mornings assignment, Peanut Butter Banana Cream Pie, but on the inside it is NOT!  As readers of this blog may know, I really do not enjoy bananas.  However, I wanted to bake this week because I haven't made any of the most recent selections.  I went back and forth between making this as is and pawning it off on people or adapting it so that it was something I wanted to eat.  In the end, I decided that it is always good to to want to eat what I bake, and I adapted this pie and brought it to our end of the year staff meeting at school.  It was a big hit!

I did a couple of things differently than the recipe called for.  For the crust, I didn't bother with the food processor.  I just crushed up the vanilla wafters with a rolling pin, mixed in the melted butter and mixed it with the sugar.  It turned out fine -- just like a graham cracker crust.

My main adaptation was to change the banana pudding into chocolate pudding.  Instead of the vanilla bean and the bananas, I used 1/3 cup of cocoa powder.  The pudding was a little lumpy before it was set, but it was smooth once we ate it.  I made the peanut butter topping as written and the whole combination was terrific.  It was almost totally gobbled up at the meeting, but I tried to take a picture of what it looked like with the different layers.  Not my most successful photo, but you get the idea.  You can see the unmodified recipe here and also check out what other bakers created.

Baked Sunday Mornings: Chocolate Whoopie Pies

This week's Baked Sunday Mornings was chocolate whoopie pies, a fairly straightforward mix of 2 chocolate cake cookies with a marshmallowy frosting.  These were easy to put together -- the cake didn't even require a mixer and the frosting came together quickly.

I enjoyed these, as did the two events I brought them to (the recipe said it would make 15-17 small pies, I got 24 small and two very large).  However, knowing the enormous amount of butter in the filling made me think that they could have been just as good with a less rich filling.  Even at a small size, one is really enough.  I was thinking that the filling could also be made in other flavors -- salted caramel, mint, or raspberry (which would make a nice Valentine's day pink color) all came to mind.  I will certainly try that in the future.

You can find the recipe and all the other bakers' creations on the Baked Sunday Mornings website.

BAKED Sunday Mornings: Buckeyes

I have never made candy before, so I was a little nervous to make this week's recipe.  In fact, it almost didn't happen because I was afraid it might be too much work.  However, these buckeyes were easy-peasy.  The only complicated part of these is dipping them in the chocolate and even that wasn't so hard once I had some patience.


As my husband points out, these are a candy, named after a nut, named after an animal's eye.  However strange their origen/name, they were delicious.  If you like the combination of chocolate and peanut butter, you will enjoy these.  And if you are a candy making novice like me, start with these.  They might give you the confidence to move onto more complicated candy (and looking at the upcoming Baked Sunday Mornings recipes, I think I'm going to need that boost).


I made half the recipe and got 26 pieces.  Check out the other bakers over at the Baked Sunday Mornings website.


In other exciting news...2 of the three baking sisters will be reunited today when Rachel comes out to LA.  Hopefully we'll get to bake something fun together.

BAKED Sunday Mornings: Baked French Toast

This recipe intrigued me, first because it seemed pretty easy and second because I was pretty unsure about what it might look like.  Would it be French Toast or would it be more bread pudding.  Turns out it was much more bread pudding like and pretty good.  I thought the flavor could have been a little stronger, but I'm not sure what else it needed.

I made two changes to the recipe.  First, I left out the almonds because I don't like nuts in baked goods.  Second, I made blackberry sauce because that is what I could find in the supermarket.  Then, I made a salted caramel sauce that I thought would also be good with the blackberry and the combination was delicious.

This would make a good addition to brunch (just remember that it has to sit in the fridge for 8 hours or more before baking).  Check out the recipe and the other bakers here. 

BAKED Sunday Mornings: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake

This week's choice for Baked Sunday Mornings, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, used one of the strangest methods I have ever encountered.  First, you essentially make oatmeal with boiling water and butter and then you fold it into a cake batter.  It may be strange, but it works because this is definitely one of my favorite recipes that we have made so far.  The cake had a nice chewy texture, the chocolate chips added a nice layer of flavor and the cream cheese frosting was divine.  It might be a little intense for a regular morning breakfast, but it makes a nice morning treat or a yummy dessert.


Today is the day after Yom Kippur, a fast day in the Jewish calendar.  It is a really busy time of year for me and not a great time to be baking but this was really easy to put together and made a good break fast last night.  I will be making this again.

BAKED Sunday Mornings: Honey Corn Muffins

Sometimes, when Baked Sunday Mornings comes around, I get scared of how much work the recipe is going to be.  However, when I hoped up the book to look at this recipe, I breathed a sigh of relief.  2 bowls, one muffin tin, no mixer and these muffins were done in under 30 minutes.  And they were quite yummy to boot, with a good corn flavor and a little something extra from the honey.  They tasted like the best version of a corn muffin -- not too sweet with a good texture.  I ate one plain right out of the oven, and then the next day with butter and honey and they were both delicious.  I've been on something of a baking pause because this is my insane time of year at work, so it was nice to find something easy and yummy to make.

BAKED Sunday Mornings: Coffee Ice Cream

Amazing!  A Baked: Explorations recipe that didn't involve every dish in the house.  This week's pick was coffee ice cream.  Now, I am not a coffee person, but I love coffee ice cream.  I have made David Lebovitz's coffee ice cream before and it is good ice cream, but the bitter coffee flavor is a little bit too strong for me.  Maybe it is the beans I am using?  I was hoping that this version might have a different coffee flavor, since it uses espresso powder and Kahlua to give the coffee flavor.  I think something might have gone wrong when I added the salt (like maybe I added 2 teaspoons by accident or something), because the base was really salty.  It actually reminded me more of salted caramel ice cream than coffee ice cream. It was actually really interesting and I enjoyed eating it, but I want to make this again to see what it really tastes like.  Head over to the Baked Sunday Mornings blog to see how everyone else did.


I put this ice cream on top of a chocolate cake with coffee glaze (that I will blog about later) and the combination was great.  The cake was able to cut some of the salt flavor.

Salty Brownies for Sweet Katy

Two weeks ago today was my first day of work. I love it so far but, as with any new job, there is a lot to learn! Luckily, I am helped along mightily by Katy, another assistant in the office. She has been training me, and has been so surpassingly kind and helpful and patient in answering even my dumbest questions. (Sample: Sarah: I can't find the Zingales contract, where is it? Katy: Have you checked the contracts folder? Sarah: Oh, thanks.) I wanted to give her a token of my gratitude, and the way I give tokens of gratitude is by baking. Luckily, I had wanted to make the sweet and salty brownies from Baked for a while, ever since finally caving and buying a box of fleur de sel, and this gave me a fine excuse.

As with all Baked creations, this was very buttery, very yummy and very complicated. I was a little disappointed with the caramel flavor, or lack thereof. Maybe I was too cautious because I didn't want it to touch the sides of the pan and so I didn't use enough of it, but I barely tasted it in the finished product. This was probably because of the overwhelming chocolateyness, although next time I will take the suggestion to drizzle the leftover caramel on top. When you eat these brownies, make sure you have a glass of water or milk on hand, because they are EXTREMELY rich. I baked them for 40 minutes instead of 30 and they were still slightly undercooked, but that's how I like 'em. The fleur de sel was definitely worth the purchase, and it really added a special something to the brownies. Between these brownies and showing every how to make PDFs using OpenOffice, I was totally the office hero on Friday.

You can find the recipe here.

Baked Sunday Mornings: Grasshopper Bars

Just noticed something...this is our 200th post!  Wow.  Now, back to regularly scheduled programming.


Another Sunday, another Baked recipe that uses every bowl and utensil in the kitchen.  These were among the recipes that I was most excited to make because I love the combination of chocolate and mint.  However, I had a couple of significant issues with this recipe.  First, Kosher Creme de Menthe does not seem to exist.  Anyone out there know anything about that.  I figured I would just leave it out.  The filling tasted fine, but it did not whip up light and fluffy (as you can see in the pictures).  I don't know if the flour/sugar mixture was too hot when I added the butter, although it felt cool to the touch or what, but no matter how long I whipped it, it would not whip up and I didn't have the patience to try again this morning.  Then, when I put the glaze on, it seemed to melt the mint filling, so it got swirled into some of the glaze instead of creating a nice shiny top.


Despite all that, I really enjoyed the flavor of these.  I hope to try them again and try to get the mint filling right because I think it would have provided a nice balance of texture.  As they were, I thought they were a bit to heavy and fudgey, but overall yummy.


You can find the recipe and what other people baked at Baked Sunday Mornings.

Baked Sunday Mornings: Mom's Olive Oil Orange Bundt Cake

I know what your're thinking.  Olive Oil in a cake...for dessert...ewww!  Don't worry, I was thinking that too.  I had no idea what this cake would be like, and I was a little worried that it would be gross.  However, I read some good reviews of this cake on other blogs, so I decided to take a chance.

I'm really glad I made this cake for Baked Sunday Mornings.  The olive oil gave it a complex flavor, but you did not really know there was olive oil in it unless I told you about it.  We have a parve orange cake that we usually make, but I think this one might replace it.  It is not too sweet and the orange flavor really comes through.  I imagine you could make it with other citrus fruit as well.

The recipe gave you an option to glaze or not to glaze.  I made the glaze because I had delicious oranges from the farmer's market and because I enjoy glaze.  I just combined fresh squeezed orange juice and confectioners sugar until it looked right.  It was a really pretty pale orange color from the intense juice.  

You can see that I had a little trouble getting it out of the pan, but other than that it was super simple to throw together.  I substituted tofutti sour cream for the yogurt to make the cake parve, but otherwise made it as written.

You can view the recipe and the creations of the other bakers at Baked Sunday Mornings.