BAKE 52

APPLE DUMPLINGS

Uhhh...Talesha, your picture is blurry and where are the dumplings?  

Good question. 

First, my camera broke and so now I get to use my cell phone to take pictures.  Lovely.  

Second, you know when your just to lazy to check what the recipe for the week is so you ask your friend and she tells you it's apple turnovers and then you guys realize you could use that recipe to serve at book club and get all crazy with fun Halloween recipes and turn the apple turnovers into bloody intestines?
  Good, then you know what happened to my dumplings! 

I still want to try the apple dumplings, but I must say, those intestines were delicious!  And they looked really cool too!  (See Michelle's blog for a much better picture). 

Check out Emily's blog for the apple dumplings recipe.  They are so cute and look scrumptious! 

BAKE 52

CREME CARAMEL

Creme caramel sounds much better than plain old custard, but that's pretty much what this is.   Except with caramel, but I didn't think it improved the flavor any.  I'm not a custard fan due to texture, look, and taste, and after this recipe, I'm still not.  However, it was a really cool process with the caramel because it set up like a hard sucker on the bottom of the ramekin, but after baking it seeped into the custard so that when you turned the custard out it had a beautiful dark golden color on top that was just as soft as the custard.  It also left a liquid caramel that drizzled over the surface, but I didn't love the taste of it (which is weird because I love caramel).

     Oh, and one more thing about the caramel.  When a recipe says to be careful handling the caramel because it gets extremely hot--heed the caution.  Otherwise, you end up with a beautiful blister like this:(

     If you like custards, give this a try, and if you don't, it's still fun to make and you can take it to a neighbor.

 Michelle was our host this week and you can get the recipe over at her blog HERE.

BAKE 52: WEEK 42

OATMEAL SCONES

This was the first time for me making "real" scones.  The "fake" scones I make for dinner are more of an Indian fry-bread, but I was raised calling them scones and scones they will always be.  These "real" scones reminded me of biscuits and they are just as easy and simple to make.  I usually borrow a food processor since I don't have one (gasp, I know!), but I just made it with my handy dandy KitchenAid and they turned out fine.  I thought they would be dense and heavy, but they were actually very soft inside and very filling.  I served them for lunch with honey and jam and a big glass of milk.
Overall, I thought them quite lovely to photograph and fun for a change, but it's not something I think I will be craving.  Jennifer O. was our host this week and you can get the recipe at her blog, HERE.

BAKE 52: WEEK 41

PUMPKIN SHEET CAKE

I'm so glad my fellow bakers are liking pumpkin right now too!  I seriously think I could finish off the year with a pumpkin recipe each week--given the book had that many pumpkin recipes and I supplemented with chocolate on even days:)
Needless to say, I loved the pumpkin sheet cake.  The cake was light and moist and the cream cheese frosting was smooth and tangy.  I thought 3 cups of frosting was a bit much so I cut the recipe in half and that was perfect.  Also, I don't know about anyone else, but sheet cake to me means baking in a big ol' cookie sheet not a regular 13 by 9-inch baking pan, so that's what I did--and I ain't even Texan.  We had lots of yummy cake all day long and you could have seconds without the guilt (thirds and fourths didn't feel bad either!).  Betsy was our host this week and you can get the recipe at her blog, HERE.