Extraordinary Cakes: Lemon Praline Torte

May 02, 2013 by Monica in Baking, Cake, Desserts, EXTC

While I love cooking savory food, my passion really is baking. Through the years, without even striving for it, I have become the “baker” of the family. We need a birthday cake? Call Monica. A fancy dessert needed? Call Monica.

Yes, sweet nothings are my thing. (Psst.. check the blog tittle)

But, even thought I felt comfortable baking, I knew I was not a GREAT baker. There were tons of things out there in the baking worlds that were so unknown to me – pies, anything with yeast, techniques, certain flavor combinations – I was never gutsy enough to try them. I had gotten comfortable in my regular dessert repertoire.

Until I started this blog and saw what was out there – possibilities. And the baking guru inside of me woke up and tapped me in the shoulder and told me “Dude, you need to feed me more baking challenges”.

GCC: Greek Yogurt Cake

April 18, 2013 by Monica in Baking, Baking Club, Cake, Cooking Club, Gutsy Cooks Club

They say that the simple things in life are the most extraordinary. Its true, we take it for granted. Humans are the ones that complicated things.

In this case, this recipe cannot be overthought, or over complicated. It is what it is.

A fast batter to put together with simple ingredients that I bet, are sitting in your pantry/refrigerator right now. And the end results is a great snacking cake.

And I’m not taking about twinkies here.

Pan de Mej [Pani de Mie] Sweet corn buns

March 25, 2013 by Monica in Baking, Desserts, Family Cookbook

This past weekend I stayed at home and decided Sunday my oven was going to go into overtime. I had the bug to be in the kitchen and do some major cooking. And when our big baby – Rufus (the dog) started to bark at 7:00am to be let out, I took that as a sign that I needed to put on the apron and get to work.

I started by fixing some baby zucchinis (more on that at a later post) then moved over to do some potatoes that turned into a hot pocket (yeah I going to share that one too). But, after all that savory cooking I knew I needed to end the day in a sweet note.