The Bionic Baker: 2011

Cinnamon Rolls

A friend of mine organized a 12 bars of Christmas pub crawl. I made it to 8 bars and then had to give up but I think some people hung in the whole time, over 12 hours. We also wore ugly Christmas sweaters. Anyway, in hopes to offset the quantities of drinking I decided to have some brunch at my house first and hopefully get some food in everyone's stomach.

Cory actually picked out this recipe and did a lot of the work. I directed him, though and cleaned up after so I feel justified in posting it. These cookies were super tasty.

I am back in Moscow for Christmas but before I left I got to have over some of my wonderful friends (one of whom lives in NYC and I never get to see) to eat and decorate cookies. It made me so happy to see them. I made rugelach at the request of my dear friend Sarah O. I have actually always wanted to try them but thought they seemed a little difficult. But they weren't and they were so totally delicious. The recipe is cutting in line of a bunch of other posts because my friend Rula wanted the recipe and since I think she will have more time over the break to cook then when she goes back to med school I am posting it for her. So you can thank both of them for getting this excellent cookie recipe.

This torte is basically the most ridiculous thing ever. It has peanut butter, cream cheese, espresso, chocolate and Oreos. It isn't something I would normally bake but my boyfriend wants to learn how to cook and he picked this out. He saw peanut butter and Oreos and wouldn't be deterred. It ended up being rich and decadent and amazing. Enjoy!

This is another recipe that has been waiting for my laziness to dissipate, but I thought this one was particularly delicious. I really like green beans when they are only just cooked, but still have a little of that crisp snap.

Here is another recipe from my CSA box that may be a little out of season. However I think replacing the peach slices with apples or pears or even preserves would make a delicious year round dish. Shortbread is one of my favorite types of cookies. This bar type shortbread is especially nice for Christmas cookie season because it saves time on shaping the cookies but the shortbread still delivers on fanciness and flavor.

After almost two months hiatus (i.e. incredible laziness) I am offering you a recipe for possibly the most beautiful and striking dinner you will ever come across. Chilled borscht with beet biscuits create a delicious and vibrant pink meal.

I am totally behind with my posts. I have so many delicious recipes for you. But then I wen to Italy (and got even more recipes) and have been bad about keeping up. Anyway, I'll try to get all these old recipes posted along with the new ones from Italy.

These cookies created a new record at the office: two minutes after I sent out the e-mail saying I had cookies I had to send out another e-mail saying they were all gone. Two minutes! I may have said these were the most epic cookies ever but I stand by it.

Sorry for the terrible picture, I forgot to take pictures in the morning before I brought this into work, so this is with my cell phone camera. It is too bad, because it doesn't do it justice and they were really delicious. You should make it anyway! This is a recipe attempting to use up all my blueberries from berry picking (which I was successful with, after the 4th batch of blueberry pancakes I think).

More things with berries! I went berry picking with my lovely friends and ended up with about 10 pounds of berries. I may have gone a little overboard with the berries. But on the other hand, it doesn't really seem to be a problem and my co-workers are pretty happy about eating all the berry baked goods so I say it was a win.

Blueberry pancakes! I am so excited for them. I may have eaten them for breakfast three times in the last week and a half. I may have finished breakfast and eaten the last couple without silverware or syrup even though I was full on my way out the door. I may have done that at least twice. But let us not dwell on who may have eaten how many blueberry pancakes. Let us instead dwell on the sheer awesomeness of these pancakes and the fact that I will never ever make pancakes out of a mix again and you shouldn't either.

My older brother is visiting me this weekend. I'm downstairs at a coffeeshop waiting for him to wake up. We're two years apart and I spent most of my childhood alternatively worshiping and hating him (like a lot of little sisters, I think). He considers it his job as my older brother to make fun of me for pretty much anything and everything but he particularly likes to tease me about how much of a stereotypical Seattleite I have become. So in case he needs some more ammunition here is a tempeh salad with local organic vegetables from my CSA. But I don't feel bad because it was delicious!

I went berry picking last weekend and I got so many berries (like 10 pounds)! So I've been making lots of delicious things, not the least is chocolate raspberry sorbet, which was excellent for a summer night. I added a little Chambord to give it an extra kick. It was marvelous. Make sure you have friends to share it with or you might eat it all yourself!

These madeleines were delightful. Lavender and honey give them a delicate and distinct flavor. A perfect summer afternoon treat!

This was a super delicious meal that took 15 minutes to make. I have gotten snow peas the last three weeks in my CSA box and was a bit at a loss as to what to do with them, but now that I know about this recipe, I am hoping to get them again.

If you are going to get a CSA box and you happen to live in western Washington, be prepared for a lot of greens. Especially when it is a particularly wet and cold spring. I realize everyone else in the country is hot but we just had about our fifth day where the weather got above 80 this year so yeah, we're feeling a little grumpy about it. Actually, I think people in Seattle have very short attention spans, so if it is a gray week we think it has been a horrible summer and if we have a couple of sunny days in a row, we forget what rain looks like and become unable to drive it in when it comes back.

I realize the rest of America is currently baking in the hot weather but here in Seattle we're having thunder storms. Boo. But we did get some beautiful weather this weekend, sunshine and 80 degrees and it finally felt a bit like summer.

This isn't really a recipe, more like a serving suggestion but it was so delicious that I had to share it. I didn't actually measure very carefully when I was making it, so these are approximates. Play with the proportions until it tastes good to you. I was lucky in that I had fresh, sweet, melt-in-your-mouth strawberries from my CSA which makes this even more amazing. I think substituting vanilla ice cream for the yogurt or using these strawberries to fill some strawberry shortcakes would also be amazing.

I am doing a CSA (community supported agriculture) share again this year. The idea behind a CSA is you buy a share in a farm (for the season) upfront, which gives farmers money they need and reduces their overhead. Then each week, you get a share in what the farm produces. The weekly box is so abundant I often have trouble getting through it all and it is definitely worth it. Plus you get to try a lot of different vegetables.

These peanut butter cookies are totally amazing. I love peanut butter. I used to eat it out of the jar with a spoon. Okay, I still eat it out of the jar with a spoon. But did you know that if you mix peanut butter with maple syrup it is even better. I mean, it seems pretty obvious once I say it because maple syrup is also awesome, but it had never occurred to me. If you have never had maple syrup and peanut butter mixed together and baked into chewy deliciousness, you should probably make these cookies because you, my friend, are missing out.

I have to confess that I love pretty much anything with streusel. I suppose this isn't surprising considering that it is a combination of butter, sugar, cinnamon (and sometimes nuts) all some of my favorite things. So when I see a recipe that has streusel in the name, I have to try it and with these muffins it was definitely the right choice.

I made this cake for a charity dessert auction. The charity supports local and global efforts to enable everyone to have access to healthy, sustainable and local food. Mostly though, I just wanted an excuse to make this cake. This cake has a lot of chocolate in it, so if you're a fan of the it may be the right choice for you.

Blondies

Or: things I have been doing instead of updating my blog

I know, that is not a picture of blondies. I have to admit, I entirely failed to take a picture of the finished blondies. I made them for a wine tasting trip; for the picnic pictured above. If you have never taken a Friday off of work, rented a limo and gone wine tasting, you are missing out because it was seriously an awesome, awesome day. You should do it. And the limo is really part of the experience. It isn't extravagant at all.

This post is in honor of the Vancouver Canucks and all their fans (except for the ones who were lighting cop cars on fire). For those of you (aka Americans) who have no idea what I'm talking about; game 7 of the Stanley cup (that's the hockey playoffs) happened yesterday and Vancouver lost to the Boston Bruins and some of the Vancouver fans took it rather badly. But no reason to be sad when you've got these sweet little morsels to cheer you up until next year.

I know I haven't posted in ages. And I have tons of recipes ready to go. So I am making up for it with this recipe, which is the best chocolate cake ever. Just look at all the chocolatey goodness, so rich and moist. You're forgiving me already.

After cooking some fancy cakes, I thought it was time to try something a little easier. This can is a breeze to make, and takes only about 45 minutes from start to finish. It may not look as glamorous but it's rich chocolate flavor makes it a hit.

This cake is a second attempt at two things: making a red velvet cake that is actually red and assembling a layer cake that doesn't sag. And I suppose practice does make perfect because I was much more successful this round in both regards, creating a very red and stable, beautiful layer cake.

Two of my good friends are getting married in June and have asked me to make the cake (eek!). They are planning on having other desserts but want a small cake for tradition's sake. They key criteria is that it taste good (which I think I can handle) but it also needs to be somewhat photographable (which I'm not so sure about).

First off, I want to wish Happy Mother's Day to my mom and all the other moms out there. My mom is the greatest. If I didn't live six hours away, I might make her something like these muffins for breakfast in bed. As it is she'll have to settle for a call-out in my blog, a phone call and a (belated, oops) gift.

This is another recipe from the Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook and it is a winner. I love brioche, a rich, slightly sweet French bread. I've tried to make it before but with not a lot of success but this recipe is not only amazingly delicious but easy too, especially if you have a stand mixer with a dough hook.

The lovely Sarah O, in whose kitchen I baked scones last week, graciously lent me her Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook and I am adoring it. The Macrina Cafe is located in downtown Seattle (there are other locations in Seattle as well). I like it because it is a local chef but mostly because the bakery is delicious and so are these recipes. These brownies are amazing. Trust me, you should probably make them right now and be transported to gooey chocolate caramel heaven.

I am so excited to share this pound cake recipe with you because it is one of if not they best pound cake I have ever had and it is also the simplest recipe.

Last Sunday I had the most lovely afternoon at my friend Sarah's house. We had tea and I made scones while she did some gardening. It was wonderful to have a relaxing visit with good conversation and no stress before a long and hectic week. It reminded me of my freshman year in college because that year I was living in the dorms and didn't have an oven. That was depressing for me so I would go over to friends' houses and bake there. Perhaps not surprisingly, none on my friends really seemed to mind having me disappear into their kitchens and return with baked goodies.

I know it has been a ridiculously long time since I posted. I was doing such a good job in February and this has been the worst month yet. I had grand plans since this month is my 1 year anniversary for writing this blog but this month has been insane. In a good way. There was a trip to visit lovely people in San Francisco and then I started dating this totally awesome guy and then my parents were in town and then there was a wine tasting trip in a limo and then my mother is in town again and then suddenly somehow it is almost April. All-in-all March has been amazing and I'm sorry I haven't been sharing more of it's awesomeness here.

Marbled cakes are so pretty and easy to make. This one is banana rum and chocolate flavored so it is also delicious.

Pizza party

Or the proper way to work from home.

Last week my team moved from our old office building in one of the coolest buildings in Seattle to our new offices. I like the new offices because they are walking distance from my apartment but the view, while nice, is not as epic and it is not in the immediate vicinity of avocado bubble tea (I know it sounds weird but it is seriously one of my favorite things).

More cupcakes! Cupcakes traditionally seem unsophisticated but not these. A new trend in this area is to have a bunch of cupcakes for your wedding instead of a big wedding cake. Certainly easier to serve, no cutting required. I don't know what it is about cupcakes that is so appealing, is it the childhood memories they illicit or the completeness of each one (you get your own, not just a piece). Whatever it is they seem to be hugely popular.

Red velvet cupcakes are devil's food cupcakes with a lot of red food coloring. Whenever I have devil's food I think of a part from one of my favorite books, "Lamb" by Christopher Moore. The exchange takes place between two angels, one heading off to do a job on Earth and the other asks him to bring back some chocolate, a human snack invented by Satan. The first asks, "Devil's food?" and the second responds, "One can't always eat white cake, my friend." Which seems very fitting for chocolate month.

Happy Valentine's Day! I am not ashamed to admit I spent this Valentine's day getting a massage and then cooking myself dinner and soon taking a bubble bath with a good book. I used to resent Valentine's Day (even when I've been in relationships, so much pressure). But now I've embraced it as a perfect excuse to bake delicious sweets for all the people I love, which is one of my favorite things.

I am so excited about this new cookbook I got, which is "Baking: From my home to yours" by Dorie Greenspan. The book is beautiful with tons of tantalizing recipes and lots of charming asides. I have a feeling I will be posting a lot of recipes out of it. Here is the first one, a cinnamon mocha cake which is absolutely delicious.

I am very particular about my scones and so I was a little worried about these, because they have a lot more liquid than typical and also chocolate chips seem a little out of place in a scone. But in honor of chocolate month I wanted something with chocolate and although I wouldn't see this slightly down-to-earth scones at a high tea, they are excellent nonetheless.

I love meringues, so sweet and light. It has been really hard for me to not eat the entire batch of them; I could eat them non-stop.

I am officially declaring February chocolate month here at Bionic Baker. There is already a lot of chocolate happening here, from macarons to mini-hostessesque cupcakes to chocolate stout brownies, but chocolate is such an important part of my life I think it is fair to focus for an entire month on it, especially if that month contains the one holiday entirely devoted to chocolate, er, love. Anyway, happy chocolate month!

My first experience with video games was our friends' across the street Nintendo 64. In homage to the 1up mushrooms on Mario here are 1upcakes, inspired by this t-shirt. Can you tell I like mini cupcakes?

I love finding recipes like this French apple cake. It has the key aspects I want in a recipe: something that is easy and quick but still delicious and fancy or elegant, a step above ordinary. This cake is a breeze to make and it has a great flavor and it is different from what we in America think of as cake. It is light and fresh.

I had some wonderful ladies over for tea on Sunday for our ladies salon. We get together and discuss articles and whatever else we want. All of the women in the group are wise and insightful. They were a pleasure to have over and I was so happy I got to have a tea party.

I love The Pioneer Woman. She's a hoot and her food always looks delicious. However, I do have a bone to pick with her. She posted this recipe for Petite Vanilla Bean Scones (based, I know now, on the ones from Starbucks). I should have known: the recipe calls for glazing them. But she has never led me astray before so I made them. Let me tell you though, these are not scones. They may be perfectly delicious but not scones. Scones are light, not too sweet, fluffy, buttery and served with jam at tea. So go ahead and make them and enjoy them, but don't call them scones.

Welcome!

Search The Bionic Baker

The Bionic Baker Archive

Subscribe

My favorites

Index

Labels

Subscribe To

Followers

Member Of: