Popcorn popping on the apricot tree

Why: My family likes to play boardgames. Lame, I know. Every now and then we get together to play games and I use it as an opportunity to try new treats. My husband declared "NO CAKE!" when I was planning for our next game night so I turned to the internet and was captivated by the idea of caramel corn. I've never ever had a successful run with caramel at home but I was willing to give it another go. I don't know what I did wrong previously but making this caramel for the popcorn was super easy. I even forgot a few of the ingredients from the original recipe without any major issues. Not only did I escape without major issues but I ended up with the most addicting treat! It's buttery, salty and sweet. Ugh. I'm drooling already.

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• 3 bags of unbuttered microwave popcorn (the best I could find was lightly salted which worked just fine)
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

Pop the 3 bags of popcorn and empty the popcorn onto a cookie sheet or anything with a lip. IMPORTANT: Be sure to remove all the kernels that didn't pop. Biting into an unpoped kernel is the quickest way to ruin your caramel corn experience. Heat the butter, brown sugar, light corn syrup and salt in a large pot on the stove. Stir continually to keep the ingredients combine and continue to stir until it starts to boil. Remove spoon and insert the candy thermometer. Do not stir or touch the caramel until it reaches 280 degrees. Remove the thermometer and add the vanilla (it will fizzle a little). Gently pour the caramel over the popcorn and stir the popcorn to evenly coat. It doesn't have to be perfect - you will stir it while it's in the oven so everything eventually gets coated. Pop the pan into the oven for 1 hour, taking out and stirring every 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. You may have to break apart some of the larger clusters, I find that putting all of it in a Ziploc bag and then crushing it is most effective. Store in an airtight container overnight if you happen to have enough restraint to not eat it all in one sitting.

I tossed in a handful of peanuts when doing the initial caramel pour. They became my favorite part of the treat. I read somewhere that this can be done via microwave (making the caramel and having the caramel set/coat by putting it in a paper bag and nuking/shaking a few times) but I haven't given it a go yet.

Birthday weekend = parade of treats

Excuse the crappy phone pics - I was too lazy to get out the real camera.

Why: My sisters birthday was a few weekends ago and of course I was put on treat duty. As requirement, if she's eating it, it better be lemon. To meet the lemon requirement I made mini lemon bundt cakes with lemon curd and vanilla buttercream. I've mastered this recipe by now because I've made it so often for her. This time to mix it up I used meyer lemons which I have never used before. They're smaller than regular lemons and so much sweeter. It's like a weird hybrid between a lemon and orange. I don't think anyone noticed but I enjoyed the slight variation. Because I couldn't handle having an entire dessert selection of lemon I decided to make some chocolate meringues.

What: Meringues are weird little creatures. They're crispy and hollow but have a little bit of a chew to them once you start eating them. They are typically made with nuts but I love love love the chocolate meringues. They're almost like eating a brownie but with none of the guilt because it's literally sugar, egg whites, cocoa powder and some potato starch. In one of the Martha Stewart magazines I saw that they baked the merginues in muffin cups. Adorable! I used little cups that you put chocolates in and they turned out to be a great grab and go treat. A little bit more annoying to eat but they make for a cute display.

I made a small cake for my sisters birthday, same lemon cake and curd as the mini bundt cakes. I wanted purple frosting but when I mixed in the color by hand it just turned into a muddy blue. Frustrated, I tossed it in the mixed and instantly I had a very very purple frosting. Not that attractive but I don't think she minded.

Apple Spice Cake the Recipe

• Finally, the recipe I used for that delicious apple spice bundt cake that tasted just like pie.
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• 4 apples (I used gala)
• 5 tablespoons plus 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
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• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

dash nutmeg, cloves

Preheat oven to 350°F. Cut apples into small thin pieces. Mix apple pieces, 5 tablespoons sugar and ground cinnamon in medium bowl. Combine 2 1/2 cups sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, orange juice and vanilla extract in large bowl; whisk to blend. Stir flour, baking powder, cinnamon, other spices and salt into egg mixture. Fill the bottom of the ban with 1/3 of the batter and top with half of the cinnamon apple mixture, cover with more batter, add the remaining apple mixture and top with the rest of the batter.

Bake cake until top is brown and tester inserted near center comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 1 hour 30 minutes. Cool cake in pan on rack 15 minutes. Run knife around sides of pan to loosen. Turn cake out onto rack. Cool at least 45 minutes.

You can just cover the cake with powdered sugar or I made a simple powdered sugar glaze to drizzle over the one I made. Of course, if you can stand waiting, this cake is so much better the next day.

Zucchini Failure - seriously.

Why: Internet, I have a confession; I struggle with zucchini breads, especially chocolate zucchini. Baking has always been easy to me. In my mind it's just following instructions. How hard can that be? I've made some of the fanciest desserts without issue but when it comes to a gosh darn zucchini bread, I get my butt kicked most of the time. My problem is that it falls! I've done well with a regular spice zucchini but I have yet to make a successful chocolate zucchini. Wanting to give it another go - today I made both.

What: Determined not to fail this time, I made the chocolate zucchini into muffins and the regular spiced zucchini bread into a loaf. I put the loaf in the oven first and when I opened the oven to put the cupcakes in I wasn't being careful and the oven moved and my loaf sunk. BAH! My muffins turned out ok but still fell a little bit. Overall, the chocolate zucchini wasn't chocolate enough, I could definitely still taste the zucchini. Back to the drawing board for me.

Cinnamon Spice Cake

Why: When I got married my mom gave me a recipe book full of her most popular recipes that she made for us. It's really been invaluable. My little brother's birthday was this week but my sister was out of town so we slightly delayed his birthday party for the next weekend. Not wanting to leave him high and dry on his birthday, I invited him over for a solid home cooked meal. I knew he would love anything out of my moms cook book so I made him his favorite, ribs and cheesy potatoes. For dessert I chose a cinnamon swirl cake. I haven't had it since I've moved out of the house and Michael has been dreaming about it ever since his fork hit the plate. It appears that it's going to become a staple around our house which is great because it's super easy and quick.

What: This cake is pretty much a cinnamon roll without all the fuss and work. Also known as the best idea ever. I don't know about you, but around my house growing up all cakes came in a rectangle pan. I halved the batch and it was the perfect amount for 3 people with a little bit for leftovers. Once the cake had been cooling for apx 1 hour I did a simple powdered sugar glaze which was so necessary. Next time I make it I'll increase the cinnamon mixture a little but overall, mom knew what she was doing.

Apple Spice Cake

I had a sinus infection last week which meant that I spent the entire weekend sleeping it off. Hopefully I'll be baking more and posting more soon.

Why: I have this pipe dream of doing upside down cakes so I bought apples with the intention of doing an apple spice upside down cake. The problem is, upside down cakes are best fresh out of the oven which means that it's a crappy idea to make one when you have guests over because you'll be in the kitchen making it. I got sick of looking at the apples in the crisper and decided that something needed to be baked.

What: My new favorite thing ever is the bundt pan. I never had one growing up so I was missing out of the magic that is baking with a bundt pan. It's already molded into a pretty form and frosting is a subtle flavor addition, not smothering the whole cake. I find that most cakes have too much frosting so the bundt cakes is usually my desired route. Quick, easy and well balanced. This cake was like an apple pie. It was so-so right out of the oven but the next day it was amazing. The apples get coated in brown sugar and cinnamon and then layered within the batter so it's evenly distributed.

Recipe to follow in a few days.

Okkie monster!!

Why: A friend of my sister asked if I could make a cookie monster cake for her little one's birthday.

What: My sisters friend has a gluten allergy so I'm going to be perfectly honest and admit that I totally cheated and used a gluten free box mix for the cake. I'm great with making gluten free brownies and meringues but gluten free cakes and bread are still foreign to me. The cake was a yellow cake with real vanilla bean, the filling was chocolate mousse and the frosting was vanilla buttercream. It took a lot of food coloring to get close to the right shade of blue and I hope it didn't turn her kids face into a blueberry! The eyes were cupcakes that I cut into a dome shape (because really, a giant blob of frosting for the eyes just repulsed me) and the pupils were unsweetened chocolate pistoles. With the extra batter I made cupcakes and what I didn't use for the eyes I made into little cookies.