Baking at the Cottage

My thanks goes out to the doughboy

Lately I have craved cake, like, after every meal. Actually, I crave sweets all the time. It's beautiful how boxed cake mix is on sale at the Commissary almost every time we go... not to mention how easily it just sits in your pantry until go time. It just makes all my cakey dreams come true.

Pinterest has definitely given me a few ideas in the desserts department. Most everything I "repin" is some sort of food or meal that looks fun or downright delicious.

For St. Patrick's Day I dyed white cake batter orange and green and made an Irish trifecta cupcake display. This Pin gave me the idea. Bryant even picked all the orange and green sprinkles out of the container so we could have an appropriate representation on top as well as inside the cupcake. Everyone kept questioning the choice of including orange into the color scheme. I really didn't know that Ireland actually had somewhat of an orange vs green rivalry going on until after the cupcakes were eaten. Besides, they were topped with icing infused with Bailey's Irish Cream. Can't we all get along over a bit of Bailey's??

See the fun things we find in eggs? Twins!

The remainder of my baking has been an attempt to eat up what we half already sitting in the fridge or fruit that is about to go bad. We had loads of leftover Bailey's frosting and I had a half dozen bananas on the counter (I wouldn't actually let Bryant eat those even though he wanted to). I really actually planned ahead on the banana bread and watched those yellow guys turn brown for like, two weeks. It's amazing how long the banana bread craving has to wait before being quenched.

I find that mixing all the ingredients together and popping them into the oven is almost therapeutic for me. Not that I need more outlets because "omg, my life is so crazy" because I'll be the first to admit that Bryant and I are pretty much living the dream.  I just really enjoy decorating cupcakes and wrapping up our little breads to give to friends. It feels good to be proud of what you just created and to give away for others to enjoy, even if it is mostly made by a factory in Pennsylvania or wherever. That cake could not have been made if it wasn't for those eggs that I cracked and the 1/2 cup of oil I poured in that bowl!

Birdy helpers for that much-loved parchment paper!

The banana breads (or banana cake as they call it here) I baked the other day were 100% from scratch and I was pretty proud of my ingenuity of making it a fun and hassle-free process. Mom gave me these adorable birdy clothes pins for Christmas I have no idea why because she knows I am a bird lover and they come in handy! I decided that I was going to make mini loaves and used parchment paper to ensure their cuteness to the very end. My birds made the paper stay put while I poured the batter and the paper just stays there after I remove the clips! I hoisted those loaves right out of their hot pan with zero trouble after they were done baking. I didn't have to tip the loaf pans over and hope that more than half of the loaf would plop out.

We like ours warm with a bit of butter. 

How do you eat your banana cake?

So, with four perfectly shaped banana breads and my inability to eat them all, I wrapped up two of them in brown paper (Jo March style) and gave them to our mates from church. The other two were enjoyed by B & me.









In other news... This stuff is amazing. Cream Cheese and Chocolate?? Wow. My mom says they have something like it in the US. Go get a bag of pretzels and a tub of this magic and you'll have a tasty treat:

PS--You're going to want to click that Parchment Paper link because there is a coupon for $1.00 off a package of Reynolds' Brand Parchment Paper! :)