Lemon Bars

I will confess something... I do not like lemon. But my mom loves lemon and she requested a lemon dessert (a lemon meringue pie, but I was in the mood to make something a little easier). So I checked joyofbaking.com for anything, and sure enough they had some lemon bars. The bars were extremely easy to make, so that's a huge plus.  I still don't really enjoy the lemon taste, but the response I got was great. People really loved them (we had guests over as well). If you like anything lemony you should try this recipe.

Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

This next cookie has become a recent family favorite. I've made them twice in one week! (which is pretty rare). It has great texture (chewy because of the oatmeal) and flavour (peanut butter). They are a bit fancier than the peanut butter chocolate chip cookies I've made before. I found the recipe on browneyedbaker.com, a blog worth looking at, it has some wonderful recipes I can't wait to try!

Chocolate Babka

In case you aren't familiar with the glorious Babka here is a little background information for you: Babka is associated with the Eastern European Jewish tradition. The babka is made from a doubled and twisted length of yeast dough and is typically baked in a high loaf pan. The dough contains cinnamon or chocolate. The babka is usually topped with streusel.

Billy's Vanilla, Vanilla Cupcakes

Hmmm I think I should change the blogs name to divine cupcakes, they seem to be taking over! I think the reason people love cupcakes is they are the perfect dessert size and you can get so creative. The cupcakes I baked this time around are Billy's Vanilla Cupcakes. The recipe was shared with Martha Stewart by Billy Reece of Billy's bakery.

I thought they were good, a very satisfying cupcake, but I did have an issue with the cupcakes pulling away from the paper. This happens to me rarely, but when it does it is quite annoying. So of course I googled the problem. The answer that made most sense to me was that when the batter has a sponge texture it shrinks a little after baking, so paper doesn't fit anymore. I also halved the sugar in the frosting, I mean 6 to 8 cups? that's ridiculous.

Chocolate 'n' Cream Sandwich Cookies (Homemade Oreos)

So I've seen homemade Oreos on a couple of blogs now, and finally got the courage (and energy) to give it a go. I do love Oreo cookies, but the classic Oreo, not the fancy ones they have out there. Actually yesterday I decided that I shall get up the next morning and bake. I even went out to a baking store and bought a round cookie cutter, so that the Oreos would turn out nice & neat. I was pleasantly surprised with the recipe. It was not as difficult as I thought it might be. It just shows that you really cannot judge the level of a recipe until you've tried it.