De Baking Psychopath

One of my lab co-workers is leaving us soon (*sob*) to go to grad school. She's not leaving our institution, so we'll still get to see her, but it's still sad that she's leaving the lab. As a parting gift, I made a special batch of white chocolate macadamia nut cookie dough for her. I baked up a dozen or so, but left more than half of the dough raw for her and her boyfriend to enjoy. They love eating dough, especially him. Apparently in some areas of the country, this flavor combo is available in the refrigerated cookie dough selection in supermarkets, and it's sorely missed by my co-worker and her bf after moving here. I'm not much of a raw dough eater myself. Probably because I get my fill of raw ingredients along the way by licking stuff that gets smeared onto my hands during the process of making things. (Disclaimer: I do wash my licked fingers/hands before continuing the baking process!) I got this recipe from one of my favorite baking blogs, Cookie M...

I know, I know, something savory?! What's up with that?? But despite what it seems like from my blog, I don't eat cookies and cakes all day. (Really!) And even though usually I relegate the savory baking to Michael (i.e. the pizzas and quiches), occasionally a savory quick bread such as these spinach and feta muffins will catch my eye. These muffins are low fat and chock-full of healthy bits of greens and cheese, and overall a very yummy choice as a dinner complement or uber-healthy breakfast...or for a Pirates baseball game tailgate/pregame dinner, as these were made for. Spinach and Feta Muffins (adapted from The Muffin Book ) Ingredients: 8 ounce packet frozen chopped spinach, thawed 2 cups self-rising flour (you can sub in 2 cups of all purpose flour + 2 teaspoons baking powder) 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg 2/3 cup feta cheese, crumbled 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese 2 eggs, lightly beaten 1 cup milk 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) melted butter Instructions: P...

Q: Do you really need that much Red 40? A: No. A typical red velvet cake will contain between 1-2 oz of red food coloring. This equals to 2-4 tablespoons of food coloring in two layers of cake. I don't know about you, but that seems rather excessive to me. Especially since I've made red velvet cake twice now with just 1 tablespoon, and it's plenty deep red for me. But maybe that's because I love deep shades of red like maroon and Falu red , and the relative small amount of food coloring I add, in combination to the boost of deep brown cocoa that is in the cake, gives me the rich maroon that I would more appropriately associate with such a sensuous cloth as velvet. Who wants velvet in tomato-red anyways? Not me. So here is the cake color as I make it: Figure 1. Cake of a lovely deep maroon hue. My kind of red. I was asked today about what kind of cake "Red Velvet Cake" really is. It has a few tablespoons of cocoa, but not enough for any chocoholic to l...

One of my classmates brought a PB&J sandwich for breakfast every single freakin' day in our first year of medical school. For his birthday that year, I decided to make a PB&J cake in his honor. It was a chocolate cake, with a strawberry jam layer in the middle and peanut butter frosting on top. Unexpectedly, it was another one of my other classmates, Mark, that took a fancy to this flavor combination in cakes, and he's requested it for his own birthday ever since. So when he decided to throw a get together for his birthday yesterday, I decided to re-invent the PB&J cake for this year's offering. After some Internet searching, I found myself linked back to one of my favorite baking blogs, Bake or Break , for a peanut butter pound cake with milk chocolate chunks strewn throughout. Perfect. I decided to throw some strawberry jam into the cake for good measure, and to top things off, I made a strawberry sauce to bring out the strawberry-peanut butter combo. Mar...

There are a number of "community supported agriculture" (or CSA) farms around where I live, and these local farmers, some organic some not, do subscriptions for summer veggie boxes. They often distribute in multiple locations throughout the city. One such company who distributes for a number of local vegetable farms has pick-up locations on campus, and one in the common lobby of a few of the research buildings, which is uber-convenient for me. A second advantage is that this company allows you to make one-time orders instead of requiring a whole-summer weekly subscription, which is a little too much commitment (and money) for me at this point. So I decided to try out the one-time orders periodically throughout the summer to sample some local produce as the crops change. I got the "basic" sized box, which is portioned for 2-3 people. I was supposed to pick up my box last Thursday, but a clerical mistake on the part of the company left me with no veggie box prepare...

Today was a pre-birthday celebration for one of my friends, and he loves orange and green, and so when I mentioned to him I'd like to make a cake with orange and green frosting in his honor, he exclaimed, "Ooh, can ya make a Ninja Turtle? Michelangelo's my favorite!" Dubiously, I looked into it. I figured if I could find a stencil (the kind you find to carve on pumpkins), then I could probably do a simplistic version of it. I'm not the best artist in the world, let me tell you. This was the simplest I could find: Most pictures were from the live-action movie, or from little action figures, or from some bad-ass version of the cartoons, so they look really buff and angry but also drawn with too much detail for me. So I printed out the picture above, cut out the head, and blew it up a bit on my photocopier to make it roughly the right size to trim from two 9-inch diameter cakes. And here, I'm proud to present, is my Ninja Turtle cake: I am sooooooo happy with h...

To celebrate my advisor's birthday, I brought birthday cupcakes in for lab meeting today. Since she is quite sensitive to refined sugar, I was excited to try out these "Splenda-iferous Cream-Filled Vanilla Cupcakes" from Buttercup Bakes at Home by Jennifer Appel, founder of Buttercup Bake Shop in Manhattan. With nonfat milk powder and buttermilk to keep things hydrated, these cupcakes were wonderfully tender and moist and light! The frosting was uber-creamy and completed the whole melt-in-your-mouth experience that these cupcakes provided. Totally did not miss the sugar here. Not low fat, mind you, but at least you save yourself that sugar high. Splenda-iferous Cream-Filled Vanilla Cupcakes (adapted from Buttercup Bakes At Home ) Ingredients: 2 & 1/4 cups cake flour 1/2 cup instant nonfat powdered milk 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup (1 & 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened 1/2 cup Splenda Sugar Blend for Baking...

My mom has come to visit, and I prepared a couple of recipes for her that I knew she would like. She loves quick breads and muffins, but she doesn't like things that are too sweet, so these were a perfect blend of healthiness and a touch of sweetness. These are also low in oil/fat, with no eggs or oil in the Whole Wheat Quick Bread, and just ~1/2 cup of oil and 4 eggs for 24 Zucchini, Carrot, and Apple muffins. Just what she likes. The Whole Wheat Quick Bread is dense, nutty, and has just the right amount of moisture while being sturdy enough to eat like toast, spread with jam or butter. Our variation of adding pine nuts and dried cranberries introduces tart and buttery elements that I think make it even more delicious. The Zucchini, Carrot, and Apple muffins are super-moist and yummy. The coconut adds a pronounced toothsome texture while the walnuts add crunch. The grated veggies and fruit blend together to make a fragrant sweet background taste without being overpowering, a...