Two friends, miles apart, who love to bake!
To me, carrot cake is the epitome of spring time. It’s light and fresh after a winter of rich heavy foods. It reminds me of a bright sunny day, which is exactly what I want following all the rain we’ve been having. If you’ve watched …
To be honest, I’m not sure when or why I decided to make this ice cream. But it’s been one of the best decisions of my life. Seriously…it’s that good. Kelly made a basic vanilla ice cream Philadelphia style, which means no tempering of eggs, …
I love lemon desserts. Lemon bars. Lemon cake. Lemon ice cream (specifically the Lemon Cookie ice cream by Three Twins… AMAZING!). Seriously, give me any lemon dessert and I’ll eat it. I haven’t quite decided if this is a blessing or a curse…
So I’m just going to embrace it! And present you with these- Lemon Shortbread Cookies with a lemon glaze. So easy, so good!
I remember one of the first lemon desserts I made was my freshman year of college. I was home for Easter weekend and decided to make a lemon chiffon cake with a whipped cream sort of frosting. It was a disaster. Like a complete disaster in that the frosting didn’t quite turn out and was sliding off the lopsided two layer cake I assembled… It was rough! The only person who actually liked it was my grandmother but I could give her a glass of water and it’s the best water in the world, so I took it with a grain of salt. It was pretty tragic!
Thankfully, my lemon dessert making skills have improved since then. This past summer I made lemon cupcakes for my cousin’s going away party and they were a hit. In fact, I promised my aunt I would send the recipe and as I’m writing this I just remembered I forgot! Sorry Aunt Paula, I’ll send that soon!
My love of lemon dessert is a family thing. Pretty much everyone in my family loves lemon and I’ve been wanting to make a lemon cookie that I can bring to our next family gathering. I think these are the winner! I mean, how can you go with a buttery shortbread cookie and a lemon glaze? I can just picture my mom saying she’d love to have some these cookies with her morning cup of coffee… And I would most definitely agree with her! Hope you enjoy!
-Kelly
adapted from My Friend’s Bakery
Ingredients:
Directions:
For the Glaze:
If we’re being honest here, I’m not much of a frosting person. I’ll eat it, but I’d prefer whatever is underneath. Frosting kind of just gets in the way. When I made this Red Wine Chocolate Cake, I knew I wanted to incorporate the fruit …
Today we have a guest post by Kelly’s friend, Anna! She made this amazing Valentine’s Chocolate Cake for her boyfriend over the weekend and it was a hit! Anna and Kelly were in the Alpha Chi Omega Sorority together at USC. She currently lives in Seattle, …
While making more technical, impressive looking desserts can be fun, there’s something to be said for a quick batch of cookies. You know, the kind you make when you find out you’re supposed to bring dessert to someone’s house later that day and have nothing made but since everyone knows you’re a baker you CAN’T bring store-bought? Yeah. That happens a lot.
Ever since finding the little Kraft caramel bits I try to keep them on hand. They’re the perfect addition to cookies and bars, elevating them from plain Jane to something a little more special.
I’ve also been obsessed with pecans this past year (blame the South) and I love adding them to anything and everything. I like to pretend they make whatever you’re baking fancier, just by association.
I have a confession though. When a recipe tells me to refrigerate the dough, a lot of times I don’t. I’m too lazy and impatient to wait. But you need to let this dough chill. The caramel melts too much if you don’t and you end up with flat crispy cookies. If that’s what you’re into that’s fine, but otherwise please be patient. Put the dough in the fridge for at least an hour and let the baking sheets cool completely between batches.
We ended up bringing these cookies to a super bowl party. While I know I don’t need to eat an entire batch of cookies myself, I do get a little sad whenever I have to share. Don’t mind me if I go whip up some more to eat and make up for the ones I was forced to part with last time.
~Stephanie
Caramel Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies
As baking bloggers, we struggle with finding a balance between eating dessert and being healthy. We try to incorporate some exercise into our visits together, like hot yoga to detox after a New Year’s in Boise or a hike in Portland to counteract countless scoops …
A few weeks ago I saw a Food & Wine article titled the Ultimate Cake Baking Bucket List. The goal is to bake a cake every month for a year and the idea is that each new cake will teach you new skills and give …
After just moving to Louisiana, it only made sense to have a Southern themed bridal shower! The wedding will be in Boise, Idaho (where I lived the last eight years) but I grew up in Colfax, Washington (you didn’t know you were getting a geography lesson today, did you). Traditionally the bridal shower isn’t 6 months before the wedding, but living across the country I knew I probably wouldn’t be back “home” before the wedding. I wanted to include those friends and community members who helped me grow up, so we did the shower when I was visiting over Thanksgiving.
My sister made the shower invitations and everyone was so impressed. Aren’t they adorable?! We did a Pampered Chef party so that I wouldn’t have to fly back with a bunch of gifts and it worked great. My kitchen is almost completely stocked!
Now if something is going to be Southern themed, there has to be food. And if there is going to be food, my dad is going to be the one to make it! He tested out multiple biscuit recipes for the perfect biscuit bar. We had both savory Sage and Sausage Biscuits for biscuits and gravy and flaky Buttermilk Biscuits to go with homemade Strawberry and Roasted Peach jam.
My personal favorite though are his Mini Peach Cobblers. They are so good! Even high school friends, who hadn’t seen these in years, got overly excited to when these were on the table. And don’t forget the Pecan Pie!
The invitations asked that everyone bring a recipe to share along with or instead of a card. This was probably the most fun for me! I opened them all later that night and it was neat learning peoples’ favorite recipes and finally getting some of those long sought after ones from the older ladies at church. There were even a few recipes mailed in from relatives who couldn’t make the shower. I got a recipe from my fiancé’s grandma (which he says is delicious) and an aunt sent me my great grandmother’s sugar cookie recipe. I thought this was so sweet and such a great way to pass on traditions. The recipe box I found out was my grandma’s which makes the whole thing even more special.
I haven’t gotten to spend that much time back home the past few years but I am so thankful for all the friends and family I have there for their constant support and for my family throwing me this adorable shower!
~Stephanie
We haven’t done a book review in a long time but we’re big readers over here on LDB! Our book interests range from sci-fi to memoirs to historical fiction to fantasy (although no fantasy book will ever top Harry Potter…). So in the spirit of …