I'm back!

Hello Everyone!!!

I am extremely sorry for being MIA! This past year has been crazy; I moved across country and was concentrating on applying to doctoral programs. I've done a lot of baking too! Below are some of the yummy things that I made over the last few months. BTW, I got into the doctoral program that I wanted to get accepted too. :)

Thanks for continuing to visit my blog!

Sincerely,
Sylvia

A Pumpkin-Plantain Cake for a Joyus Kwanzaa...

As a baker of mixed heritage, I enjoy baking traditional recipes and celebrating an array of holidays, even if they aren't part of my culture or heritage. So, today I wanted to honor the celebration of Kwanzaa. According to Wikipedia, "Kwanzaa is a weeklong celebration held in the United States honoring universal African-American heritage and culture, observed from December 26 to January 1 each year." Faith, cooperative work, and creativity are three of the seven principles highlighted in this celebration. So, to bring some festive and meaningful celebration into my home all week, I decided to make the Upside-down Pumpkin-Plantain Cake from Krystina Castella's "A World of Cake" book. She suggests to bake this cake during this holiday. Since we had plantains and pumpkin puree, I decided to make this cake today. However, this cake wasn't a good start to a "Joyus Kwanzaa." First of all, I am an avid baker and this cake would not cook in the center. I left it in the oven for over an hour, and it still wasn't done in the center. This has never happened to me before, so I'm going to try the recipe another day and make my own adjustments to it. And, to top it off, the cake was overly spiced.

I love pumpkin and plantains, so I was disappointed because I had wasted good and expensive ingredients on this recipe. The first time I make a recipe, I like to follow the instructions to a "T," even if I don't agree with the amount or type of ingredients. Let's see if I can find another Kwanzaa celebration recipe that I can try tomorrow. In the mean time, let's all be creative and do meaningful things in our everyday lives! Joyus Kwanzaa everyone!

Celebrating National Eggnog Day!

This morning my sister, Chrissy, got up and decided to make these "Easy Holiday Eggnog Muffins" from a recipe she found on the King Arthur Flour website. They were really quick to make and quite delicious! While these pretty little muffins were baking in the oven, she saw that someone tweeted that today is actually "National Eggnog Day." Strange, right?! Thank you sis, for the yummy treat!

Kolache...a wonderful treat!

Delicious Cranberry Orange Delight!

Keeping in the Christmas spirit, I decided to take the time to make this marvelous recipe from Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking From My Home to Yours." It is a bit time consuming to make the fresh cranberry and orange jam from scratch, but it is so worth it! This treat is called the Cranberry Shortbread Cake, and really isn't a cake at all. It's similar to a bar cookie or torte. While my "brutti ma buoni" treat was baking in the oven, I looked up this recipe online and saw how other avid bakers had called it "ugly, but delicious," as well! :) Since I let my mom and sister try the jam, before I baked the "cake," we were all anxious to try the completed dessert since the jam was amazing by itself. No kidding, this "cake" is delicious! I also served this warm with Madagascar vanilla ice cream, and it made the flavors pop! Thank you, Doriee for another great treat!