Alright.

This is getting slightly ridiculous. I swear I'm still baking. I'm just WAY too lazy to actually post anything.

This is my new promise:
"I am going to post all of the old pictures and baking adventures that I have. I will post them once a week until I run out. Then I will have to start baking again."

That is my promise. I will keep to this one. I think I can do that. BUT. You have to make me a promise in return.

Type this in as a response to tell me that you will keep  your promise:
"I will respond to at least once blog post a month otherwise Elizabeth will feel like there is no reason post to her blog because it seems as though no one reads it."

If you promise, I promise. We can make this work together!

-e

IS THAT A POST YOU SEE?

Yes. Yes it is.

Contrary to what might be interpreted from my lack of posting, I am alive and well. And baking. Just not posting. 'Cuz I'm lazy like that.

I can promise you that within the week. Yes the week, if I don't follow through on this you have the permission to unsubscribe (Well actually don't. Please don't. I love you...).

I have to post about:
-Snickerdoodle Bars
-Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins
-Pull Apart Bread
-Cake
-Cupcakes
-Brownies

Along with some more things that I hav yet to tell you about.

I am going somewhere this weekend and have been told to bring snacks. You know what that means... Though, the night before I will be at a sleepover with Amelia (Hello!), so hopefully she will feel pitty for me and allow me to bake in her kitchen.

Thanks for remaining my subscribers for now!

-Elizabeth

Day Ten - Milk Chocolate Florentine Cookies

I found this recipe in my favorite cook book: The Nestlé Tollhouse Cookbook. I love it so much. It surprised me at the amount of time that it took to make though.

The dough was gross and had the consistency of really sticky oatmeal. But once it was cooked it flattened out and made really nice florentine cookies.

Then I  had to put a layer of chocolate on the bottom of one and make a sandwich with the other. This proved to be a very messy and tedious job. I've only made nine full cookies, but tomorrow I'm going to take the rest of the florentine cookies and make the sandwiches!

-Elizabeth

Day Nine - Lemon Bars

My mom's best friend, Laura, has always made the best lemon bars, but I was unable to get her recipe, so instead I used a recipe from a Charlie Brown cookbook. It even came with a cartoon!

The recipe was really easy. I made a dough for the crust.

Then there was the lemon filling.

Finally, powdered sugar.

They were great! It was such an easy recipe!

-Elizabeth

Day Eight - Strawberry Sorbet

If I had to pick a favorite fruit, it would have to be the strawberry. I love them. So, when I found the recipe for strawberry sorbet... well... how could I resist?

First I had to cut and stem the strawberries.

Then I had to add sugar and lemon juice and blend them together to make a sort of smoothie.

Once I had my smoothie, I put it in my ice-cream  maker and waited until it was done!

It was a wonderful summer treat that everyone loved!

-Elizabeth

Day Seven - Cinnamon Swirl Bread

I have always loved baking bread, but normally I stick to the basics. A nice white bread. Not wheat, I am not a wheat-bread-eating-person. But for this, I decided to try something different, and when looking in one of our many recipe books i found a recipe for cinnamon swirl bread. One of my favorite kinds of bread in the world.

It took me hours to make this bread. First I had to mix everything. Then I had to knead it for twelve minutes. Yes. Twelve. Then I let it rise for two hours.

After that, I had to roll it out and spread the cinnamon mixture on it and then I had to roll it up again. Of course, it had to rise. Again. For another hour.

Finally, I put it in the oven. When it came out, I had some difficulty figuring out whether it was done or not. The recipe told me that it should be 185 degrees in the center of the bread. But while the inside was at 140 degrees, the outside was at 200. Fearing that it would burn the outside, I took it out. It was perfect.   Out of all of the things I have made so far, this is my favorite. It was amazing!

-Elizabeth

So Much For A One-Day-Hiatus...

Friday night I got home around 11 and was exhausted. I also had my computer taken away.

Saturday, I woke up late, had to help clean the house, and then had guests over until 11 and promptly went to bed. Still no computer.

Sunday, I made cinnamon swirl bread and strawberry sorbet, but neither of them were finished when I went to bed. Again, no computer.

Monday, I finished up the bread and the sorbet and took some pictures but was unable to make any finalized pictures. Finally, computer.

Plans for Tuesday: Wake up at 9. Bake lemon bars and milk chocolate florentine cookies. Take pictures. Post online.

I will be caught up. I will.

Also, I'm convinced I'm becoming a cat, the number of hours I'm awake during the day is shortening. Please call for help if I start meowing.

-Elizabeth

Day Seven - Hiatus

So, it's 10:41PM and I really don't feel like finding a recipe, making it, let alone cleaning up after it, so I am going to be combining Day Seven and Day Eight. Meaning, tomorrow I will be making two things. But they will be good things. I swear. Sorry about this, but I'm just too tired.

-Elizabeth

Day Six - Fudge

If any of you haven't noticed, it's hot out. My house doesn't have central air. So, even though we have and airconditioner, it's still hot in our house. This meant that my parents forbade me from using the oven. There are only a handful of recipes that I know of that don't use the oven. One of those is fudge.

Now, this recipe isn't new, my grandmother has been making it for about 50 years, but I have never made it. It was really easy: just put everything in the pan and bring it to a boil, stir for five min (quite exhausting), add the chocolate and then chill overnight.

I'm looking forward to having fudge in the morning. But, I really don't know what to do with all of it...


-Elizabeth

Day Five - Tiny Fudge Squares (Part 2 )

I just wanted to write a follow-up post for yesterday's. I'm sorry about the shortness of it, I was annoyed at the recipe and I was exhausted and just wanted to go to bed.

The recipe took me about two and a half hours to do and it only made about 24 squares. I was supposed to roll the dough out on cloth that was sprinkled with sugar. This proved to be very annoying. The dough liked to stick to the roller and the more sugar I put on it, the stiffer the dough became. It was also supposed to be only 1/16 inch thick, which is really quite thin. Even after all that work, the dough wouldn't stay folded over in the oven.

The worst part about it was that they ended up being fairly good, meaning that in the future I will end up making them again. Great.

-Elizabeth

Day Five - Tiny Fudge Squares

I thought it was going to be easy. I was tired. I didn't feel like going through a big huge baking process, so i picked these things. You'd think they would be easy. You make a simple dough and then put a spoonful of filling on it and fold it over. That's it. That's all.

I will not make them again.

-Elizabeth

Day Four - Brownies

For future reference, I count a day as when I go to sleep to when I wake up. So, even though technically these brownies were made on a Wednesday, I am counting them as being made on a Tuesday. I enjoy baking at one in the morning, so expect this to continue.

Anyways, considering it was already past midnight when I started looking up recipes and I have volunteering tomorrow which runs from seven to five, I really didn't feel like doing anything extensive. I also realized that I had never made brownies from scratch.

 They were really easy to make and I had absolutely no problems. I used the optional recipe which called for no nuts. I'm sorry, I am not a nut-in-brownie kinda gal. Never have been.

Because they are cooling, I haven't had a chance to eat one yet, but I am looking forward to a delicious breakfast of butter, sugar and chocolate.


-Elizabeth

Day Three - Cupcakes

Today, I felt like doing something simple. With a twist. So, I made cupcakes. Fluffy, white, vanilla cupcakes. Then, I used a new recipe for the frosting. It was one of the most disgusting things I've ever made. It asked me to make this paste stuff which wouldn't unstick itself from the pan. But, it turned out really well. Then, because trying a new recipe wasn't enough, I attempted to make roses out of frosting. You can judge for yourself whether I succeeded or not.

Because I'm an amateur, I don't actually own a piping bag and tips, so I had to be creative. I took my regular plastic bags and cut a hole in the corner like normal. Then, I cut apart a soda can (which I cleaned beforehand, for the record) and made it into a teardrop shape. From there, I followed the instructional video I found. It was actually pretty easy. I did mess up a few times, but I just scraped off the frosting and started over again!

So, what do you think of my first attempts at a rose? Comment!

-Elizabeth

P.S. If you have any family recipes that you would care to care, I would be much obliged!

Day Two - Fondant

I have always wanted to make fondant. For those of you who don't know what it is, here's Merriam Websters' definition: A thick paste made of sugar and water and often flavored or colored, used in the making of candy and the icing and decoration of cakes.

The fondant wasn't hard to make at all. Next time I make it though, I'll be sure to use more powdered sugar, it was sticking to everything! I used some of the left over cake from Amelia's Half Birthday cake, so this was only a two-inch cube, but according to my neighbor who ended up eating it for me, it was good!

-Elizabeth

Day One - Half Birthday Cake

Saturday was Amelia's half birthday and we decided to celebrate it. Now, what kind of a birthday has no cake? A bad one. So, I decided to make it a good one, and I made her a cake.

But because it was only her half birthday, she only got half of a cake.

This is a chocolate cake, homemade of course, with white frosting. The frosting is just powdered sugar, butter and milk, so it isn't the best, but the cake was pretty good!

Mind you, all of my frosting decoration is done with a plastic bag with a hole cut in a corner. Oh yeah. I'm just that cool.

-Elizabeth

My Crazy Idea

As many of you know, it is the summer. Finally. But as much as I look forward to it, and as busy as I am, I always end up being bored. So the other day, I was bored like always and I thought to myself, "I should make a cake!" and I did. Then the next night I thought, "I should make another cake!" and another cake was made. But I found myself wanting to try new recipes and challenge myself more and more. So the more I thought about it, an idea formed.

I will bake something new every day for the next 40 days.

Why 40? Because I originally wanted to do the entirety of July, but I want to start baking as soon as possible, so I have decided on 40.

I am going to use this blog to talk about the recipes and the disasters that are bound to occur!

Wish my luck with my confection affection!
-Elizabeth