Baking fool

Last week I was in such a baking mood. I had a bag of frozen blueberries so I decided to make a Blueberry breakfast cake from my Pinterest board on Tuesday.  It didn't really turn out that great. Usually I tweak a recipe a little here and there, but I truly followed this one. I'm not sure what went wrong. It tasted fine, but texturally it was a little off, sort of crumbly like a shortbread biscuit. It was a bit dry for me too, again like shortbread and I really don't care for shortbread. Stella seemed to enjoy it so I gave most to her. Then I deleted the pin. I've got so many other recipes to try, I didn't figure it made since to keep it around if it didn't blow my socks off.

Wednesday, I made the most delicious cupcakes for Britany's 30th birthday. Her birthday was on Thursday and she wanted to go out to eat after our husband's softball game. She always bakes the best cupcakes so I thought I would try to return the delicious favor. I had a recipe for Ellie Krieger's Healthy Carrot Cupcakes that I'd cut from the newspaper. I thought carrot cake was appropriate since it was the beginning of Spring. These were absolutely something I will make again. It was also nice in that to taste so indulgent, they really weren't too bad for us. Unfortunately, Britany's oldest was sick so she couldn't attend the softball game and yummy Mexican food afterwards. I gave Bob eight or so of the 24 cupcakes I'd made & iced and sent him home so the family could at meat enjoy them at home. We took pictures later on as everyone was devouring them and sent them to Britany.  The only change I made was not including walnuts in the batter.  I iced all 24 cupcakes and sprinkled chopped walnuts on 12 of the cupcakes. I left the other 12 nut free. In the craziness of trying to get everything done and having a 9 month old, I forgot to take a picture of these gems.  Oh well, next time. And there will definitely be a next time.  Here is the same recipe I found on Pinterest.   

Saturday we were attending JP's graduation party at The Carrerras House.  I wanted to make something sweet to bring, but something that didn't involve a ton of effort.  Enter this dessert, Biscoff Ice Cream Pie . I cannot put into words how amazing this thing was.  At one point, about 5 people were just eating out of the middle of it.  I made my own graham crust instead of buying one since I always have graham crackers in the pantry because they are one of Stella's favorites.  I made it Friday afternoon and let the tub of ice cream soften for 30 minutes Friday night while I took a shower. I mixed it with the biscoff spread when I got out, poured it on the crust and threw it in the freezer overnight. The next day, I drizzled and crumbled and possibly salivated while doing that.  This was a HUGE hit.  This is another one I will make again because it was delectible and super easy. It's not exactly cheap when you factor in a half gallon of ice cream (I got the all natural kind from Aldi), a jar of Biscoff spread is $4.99 at Kroger and the cookies are $2.50 I think.  I went a little cheaper route by making my own crust instead of buying one pre-made or making the crust from the actual Biscoff cookies which is an option.  With it's spiciness from the cookies, I think this would be a great dessert in the Fall.  It happened to be a little chilly last Saturday, but not too cold to enjoy this. Around 1:30 am Saturday (ok, technically Sunday), I grabbed it from the freezer and sat around the hot tub eating this with Donald and Justin.  That made it perfect!