Salted Carmel Cheesecake

Joy the Baker is one of my favorite bloggers. I mean, she's hilarious, smart, and shares the most amazing food recipes. What's not to love there?

So yesterday we had a little get together and celebrated my friend Rachel's birthday, and I made this.

OMG. Goodness in a cheesecake.



If you guys like salted carmel and cheesecake- this is your heaven.

Here's a picture of mine, I'm happy to say it was a success. I'm never sure how it's going to turn out when I cook...



Ready to make this thing? The recipe is right here. If I can do it, you can :)

Just wanted to share cause I was pretty excited about it :)

Photo via Joy the Baker.

The other day I played hookie from working and headed out to Carpenteria with my cousin and my sister. It turned out to be a great choice.




Even though the beach was freezing, we took a little stroll on the sand. There's something about being near the water that is just so rejuvenating and refreshing. This day was no different.



One of the reasons we went to Carpenteria was because we were craving burgers and onion rings from The Spot. And it was definitely closed. Something about a break for the holidays... who does that? ;)



We explored the many antique shops and I fell in love with this old sign. I would have bought it right then and there, but it was just a bit out of my price range... maybe one day I'll go back and get it :)



After hanging out in Carp, we went home, watched Christmas movies and baked cookies.
Good day. Very good day.

I've got to wrap presents and take care of some last minute Christmas stuff today. Is anyone loving this time of year as much as me? I sure hope so! Merry Christmas guys!

Food Pins Mood Board!

I'm a lover of mood boards, and I'm a lover of food. Lately I've been pinning so many delicious
looking food recipes! If only I had all the time in the world to bake...

Here is a little food-mood board for ya. All the links to the recipes can be found down below.

I figure if I don't have time to bake, maybe someone out there does, and I can live vicariously
through their baking extravaganzas...



You can find awesome food recipes on this amazing pin board and this one too- as well as my own,
where I constantly post yummy treats I will bake one day. I will... Just you wait...

So here are the recipe links! Look at the number on the photo of the treat you want to bake, and
click on the match below to be magically taken to the recipe!

1 // Cinnamon Roll Cookies
2 // Lemon-Scented Pull Apart Coffee Cake
3 // Baked Apple Rings
4 // A Cup of Coffe Cake. (In Five Minutes no less!)
5 // No Bake Vanilla Cake Chocolate Truffles
6 // Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread
7 // Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Scrumptious Apple Streusel Muffins

If you've been reading my blog at all, you know I love food and baking.

This weekend I made some pretty awesome apple streusel muffins- and I used a real recipe this
time! I got the book "1 Mix, 100 Muffins" at one of my bridal showers, and pulled the recipe from
there. They were pretty scrumptious. Not too sweet- perfect for morning breakfast with some coffee.
It has this wonderful cinnamon crumble on the top- that was my favorite part.

Some important things you need:
Apples + Modern Family on Hulu (watch while baking) = Apple Streusel Muffins.



Here's the recipe from the book:

Ingredients:
280g/10 oz plain white flour

1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 salt
115g/4oz soft light brown sugar
250g/9oz cooking apple
2 medium eggs
250ml/9fl oz milk
6 tbsp sunflower oil or 85g/3oz butter, melted and cooled, extra for greasing

For the streusel topping:
50g/1¾oz plain white flour
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
35g/1¼oz butter
25g/1oz soft light brown sugar

Directions:1. Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas Mark 6. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin or line with 12 paper cases.

2. To make the streusel topping, put the flour and cinnamon into a bowl. Cut the butter into small pieces, add to the bowl with the flour and rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and set aside.

3. To make the muffins, sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar. Peel, core and finely chop the apple. Add to the flour mixture and stir together.

4. Lightly beat the eggs in a large jug or bowl then beat in the milk and oil. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the beaten liquid ingredients. Stir gently until just combined; do not over-mix.

5. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin tin. Scatter the streusel topping over each muffin. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes until well risen, golden brown and firm to the touch.

6. Leave the muffins in the tin for 5 minutes then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.

I hope you like! I made them for our church small group and they were gone pretty fast.

They're super fall-ish, I think thats why I had so much fun making them. And the fact that Modern

Family was playing on my laptop while I baked. Not very romantic, but fun non the less :)

Happy Baking and Happy Thursday!!

PS: You still have a few hours to enter the Creative Connection free ticket contest! In the post below-

I'll announce the winner this afternoon! 

Greek Yogurt Choco Chip Cooks.

Thanks so much for everyone's input yesterday on the logos- I'm making a few little changes,
but I think with everyones help via Facebook, Twitter and this blog, I have got a way better idea
of what to do. Sometimes all it takes is some good advice to help you see outside your little head.

So thanks everyone! I REALLY appreciate all your thoughts!

So now its on to the next subject... cookies.



I was kinda in the mood for baking this weekend. Its October and there's nothing like the smell
of cookies baking in the oven... its warming to the heart and soul.

I also felt a little ADD and wanted to take a little risk. So I thought I would add some
Greek Yogurt to my cookies. My thinking was it would make it more dense, I would put in less
flour and only one egg. I don't know anything about baking science, I just was in the
"lets see what happens when I do this!" mood. So I did.



And I was pleasantly surprised when they turned out really good! I was very pleased with this little invention!

I think one of my favorite things about making cookies is putting them on a plate and having them
warm up your kitchen. It just feels homey. And when people come over you can hold out your plate
of cookies and say, "oh would you like a cookie? They're homemaaade!" and then they feel
at home and all warm and fuzzy inside. And then you do too.



So I'm keeping that plate of cookies out on our counter for guests to eat, for me to eat, and for
Nolan and I to both eat when we're watching Lost at night. (We both had never seen it and
kinda got addicted this week on Netflix) And despite that look on Nolan's face, he really is
enjoying that scrumptious cookie... I swear...

Here is the recipe if you're brave enough to try it! I promise they're good :)
Ingredients

2 sticks melted butter, cooled

3/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup light brown sugar

3/4 cup plain greek yogurt

1 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 11oz package chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix sugars in to melted butter.
Add in egg and vanilla and mix well.
Add in the greek yogurt and mix it up real good.
Then add flour, baking soda, and salt and stir until well combined. 
Stir in choco chips.  
Bake for 10-12 minutes.


recipe adapted from mother thyme

So about to eat this

This is totally baking in the oven right now. Homemade banana bread.

Its making my stomach grooowwl...!

This is my favorite banana bread recipe right here. Perfect for when those bananas start to get a
bit too ripe to eat. And when the weather finally cools a bit and you get the urge to bake and
feel all "fallish." Totally me today :)


photos from Design*Sponge

Insta-Grahaammys

In the spirit of our instagram photobooth, here is an edible instaGRAHAM for ya!

Directions on how to make these cute little graham crackers are here from one of my favorite
baking blogs, Bakerella.

I love and appreciate the art of baking, using quality ingredients and making everything

from scratch. I REALLY do have a strong appreciation for that... but lets face it, baking everything

from scratch takes a lot of time, effort, and money that we just don't always have!

So what do you do when you have to make some cupcakes for the party you're going to tonight

but have no time or money? Make these! 

These are so easy, taste great and look great too! I love frosting cupcakes with the ziplock bag trick.
It makes your cupcakes look good, even though you don't have the necessary tools used for frosting.
And the berry on top gives the cupcakes that extra wow factor. Especially when you put one of these
Dark Chocolate Acai Berries on top. My new addiction- they're amazing.

Here are the ones I made for my small group the other night, they got a little messy
when I loaded them in the car, but you get the idea!



Not too shabby for a few bucks and not much effort! They tasted great too. I like to put them
in the oven for just a minute or two less than what the recipe calls for- it makes them extra
gooey! So yummy and oh so simple.