Red Velvet Cheesecake Bars.

Yes, you heard me right... Red velvet bars. Whoever thought that there was something more to red velvet than just cupcakes? These bars are just as portable and delectable as those cupcakes. The bottom layer is made of a thicker, brownie like consistency of red velvet while the top is a cheesecake layer. Red velvet cupcakes are normally topped with cream cheese frosting, and that combination is unbeatable, so why change it? This top layer is similar to that on top of cream cheese brownies... basically cheesecake, but no refrigeration required. We watched the premiere of Dexter at a friend's house tonight (which was amazing, btw), and I baked these for the host because red velvet cupcakes are his favorite. His reaction? He was absolutely delighted and couldn't stop eating them. This recipe is a keeper, that's for sure.

Chocolate Chip, Toffee, & Almond Cookies.

Talk about a mouthful. If you combine enough ingredients, maybe you'll come up with the right cookie. I mixed three main ingredients into this one: chocolate chips, toffee pieces, and almond slivers. That seemed to be the perfect combination because the boys raved over this one. They practically devoured the plate I brought over! Now if only I can make these cookies just a bit thicker...

Homemade Pizza.

Everyone who knows me knows that I don't cook very much at all. I'd take baking over cooking any day. I figured that I'd better start cooking since every girl (along with every guy) needs to know how to make something when the time calls for it. I kinda cheat and blend my cooking into baking. If it involves an oven, I can do it... stove top, not so much.

Well, I had my boyfriend over for dinner the other day and made him pizza. It's really the easiest thing to make. People are usually afraid of making homemade pizza because of the dough. In reality, the dough is simple, it just requires a bit of time and muscle. After that, you just slab on some pizza sauce and whatever toppings your heart desires (including plenty of mozzarella cheese!). I put mushrooms and bell peppers on my side, tomatoes and pepperoni on his side. There you have it! Dinner in a jiffy.

Chocolate Malt Cupcakes aka Whopper Cupcakes.

Let me just start off by saying how much I love whoppers. Not the burgers, but the chocolate covered malt ball candy. They're delicious! It only makes sense to use them in just about every dessert I can think of. The only problem with that is if they are left out or in the wrong temperature, they gradually become stale. Oh well, that doesn't stop me from baking with them.

The problem with this cupcake was that I couldn't really get it to be "cupcake material." The texture was off and they weren't as light and fluffy. They sank in in the middle and didn't seem to cook all the way, even though they were. As for the frosting, I'm an impatient girl and although heavy whipping cream always intrigued me, I'd rather not wait ten minutes to fluff up some frosting, only to have it sink back down later on. Despite all the trouble, my brother was the first one to take a taste and said, "Kimmy, out of all the things that you have baked, THESE are my favorite. They're DELICIOUS!" Now, he has tried basically everything that I have baked and I bake A LOT, so that's quite a bold statement. Nevertheless, they still turned out pretty and the batter was delicious.

Chocolate Banana Bread.

There were a bunch of bananas lying around when I got home and so I was trying to figure out what to bake with them. Instead of going for the usual banana bread, I opted for a recipe I've never tried or tasted.. chocolate banana bread. It's basically banana bread with cocoa and chocolate chip morsels. In my opinion, this was just too much chocolate for me to handle. I prefer normal banana bread over this.. but if you love chocolate, then this is the bread for you. It's extremely moist (cause I added yogurt) and mouth watering.

Snickerdoodles.

How plain can a picture get? I was over at my boyfriend's house when I remembered to take a picture of the snickerdoodles I baked the night before. It's such a shame cause I didn't have any of my scrapbooking supplies to take a pretty picture! I had to elaborate and find myself a flower to add some color to this simple picture (which I'm still not very fond of).

I tried a new snickerdoodle recipe that was definitely more complex and involved more ingredients such as apple cider vinegar and cream cheese. The outcome? Extremely soft, wonderful texture, marvelous tasting cookie. For all the extra work, I still think my original recipe is better and I'll be sticking to that for a while. It still has yet to be trumped.

Marble/Mix cookies.

Who says that two different worlds can't mix peacefully? These cookies remind me almost of ying and yang, they balance each other out beautifully. Half of it is of a chocolate cookie, while the other half is plain vanilla with semisweet morsels tying the two together. Delicious! It's the first thing I've baked since being back at my apt in LA, and I forgot how much work it is to bake without my kitchenaid mixer. I should probably start working out or something, cause mixing the dough made me tired. Oh dearrr.

Cinnamon Sugar Muffins.

The other day, my friend asked me what the difference between a muffin and a cupcake was. If you frost a muffin, does that make it a cupcake? With my baker knowledge, the only distinguishing answers that I could come up with were:

1. A muffin has a "muffin top," whereas cupcakes are flat and do not rise as much after baking.
2. Cupcakes are frosted, muffins are not.
3. Muffins are much heavier in texture than cupcakes since cupcakes are basically miniature cakes. Muffins are technically bread, while cupcakes are technically cake.

Regardless, I am still stumped on the "official" definition that actually differentiates the two delicious treats. All I know is that these muffins were spectacular.. light, healthy (er), and scrumptious.

P.S. Happy 4 months to me & my boy! :]

Carrot Cake

Carrot cake has always been my dad's favorite dessert. I decided to bake something for him because I haven't been baking much at all this summer. I normally do a hand me down recipe, but I didn't have it handy because it was in LA. Worst ever! So... against my will, I was forced to try another recipe. Although this one didn't turn out bad, I'll always stick to the recipe that my aunt used for her wedding cake (I know what you're thinking.. who has carrot cake for a wedding cake? But this recipe is TO DIE FOR.) Of all the cream cheese frostings that I've tried from various cupcake shops such as sprinkles, crumbles, etc.., nothing beats homemade cream cheese frosting. P.S. Don't mind my sloppy decorating, I rushed this whole cake because I was on my way out the door.

pretty cupcakes!

I think I'm slightly more obsessed with my camera rather than baking, at the moment. There's just so much that my camera can do! I love playing with it, it takes amazing food pictures (not to mention regular pictures)! Everyone should go get a Nikon D40x. Seriously.

Peanut Crisps.

I think the best way to get recipes is by word of mouth. My friend's mom made these for a party a couple years ago and I just had to get the recipe. It's a very simple cookie-- the main ingredient being peanuts. They're sweet and salty at the same time, appealing to both taste buds. The unique thing about this recipe is that it uses coarse salt, rather than regular salt, which makes it so much more flavorful. I'm definitely adding this recipe to my permanent book.