Cherry-Bourbon Jam

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This past weekend was extremely productive! I made three batches of homemade jam, canned my sweet pickles, made two batches of simple syrup, baked up tons of mini pizzas, and made a giant coffee cake to bring in to work. Whew… By Monday evening, I was exhausted! But after cleaning up my work room and the kitchen, I was finally able to sit down, relax, and catch up on a few episodes of Once Upon A Time, the newest show that the boyfriend and I are binge-watching!

If you follow me on Twitter, I posted a picture of all the jams and pickles and syrups from this weekend’s cooking and baking and canning extravaganza! I bought a boiling-water canner a few weeks ago, and this was my first opportunity to use it. So I picked up some beautiful cherries from the Farmer’s Market (along with rhubarb, beets, bread, and the cutest baby zucchini!) and decided to make jam.

The boyfriend and I tend to keep no less than 7 different types of jam and jelly in fridge at any given time. We put it on toast, in PBJs, and pair it with cheese. But buying the organic jams or the mostly-fruit (no corn syrup please!) spreads at $5 each adds up quickly. So, in my effort to make everything homemade and eat fresh and/or locally produced food, I decided to add jam to my repertoire!

And this Cherry-Bourbon jam is phenomenal! The cherries and the bourbon (I used Maker’s Mark) pair beautifully together, and it’s not cloying sweet like store-bought jam tends to be. The recipe makes about 3 8-ounce jars, which can be kept refrigerated for about 3 weeks or canned to be kept for up to a year in the pantry. Not that it will last that long anyways… ;) And check back tomorrow to find out what I’m baking with the Cherry-Bourbon jam!

Click below for the recipe! Have a question? Feel free to ask in the comments. And thanks for reading! :)

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Banana Bundt Cake with Cinnamon Glaze

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I know I’ve mentioned it a few times now, but I always over-buy bananas. I forget to eat them, and they start to brown up on top of my fridge. But I hate to throw them away, so I’m always looking for new and creative ways to use up the overripe bananas! This time, in comes the Banana Bundt Cake!

This cake is dense like a proper Bundt cake but still moist and delicious from all of the banana puree. This cake is very simple, so I decided to spice it up a bit with a cinnamon glaze, which pairs beautifully with the sweetness of the cake.

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One quick thing to note: make sure you grease your Bundt pan REALLY well! The first time I tried making this cake, I only used a little bit of butter to grease my “non-stick” Bundt pan, and the top of the cake stuck to the pan and was sadly ruined… So coat your Bundt pan with a good amount of baking spray, making sure to get in any nooks and crevices! 

Click below for the recipe! Have a question? Feel free to ask in the comments. And thanks for reading! :)

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Giant Cupcake Wedding Cake!

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This weekend, two of my good friends got married in a crazy two-weddings-in-a-day extravaganza! The day started off with an intimate ceremony and reception with family and close friends and then rolled in to a larger second ceremony at dusk with a large potluck reception. With the bride and groom’s combined large family and even larger group of friends, a massive amount of wedding cake was needed! And this is where I came in…

With the two ceremonies and receptions, we decided that cupcakes would be a better option than two wedding cakes. Mini cupcakes would allow for people to try multiple flavor combinations, and some cake pops were thrown in after rave reviews from another wedding I catered! The bride’s vision was for a large cupcake-cake, lots of mini cupcakes, and bouquets of cake pops, all in jewel tones.

Below are a few photos of the giant cupcake cake. The basic shape of the cake was formed using a special baking pan, which I then carved to suit the actual cake. I used my Brown Sugar Cake recipe, which was filled with Whiskey Caramel Sauce. I then decorated the cake with cream cheese icing to look like a large bouquet of flowers in the bride’s theme colors!

Everything came together beautifully to form the dessert table, which I managed to snap a photo of below. I’ll hopefully be getting more photos from the photographer later, including a shot of the bride and groom sharing a cake pop! (The giant cupcake cake was transported to the second ceremony and cut during the friends reception!)

Thankfully, I baked enough that I was able to take about 100 mini cupcakes and a dozen cake pops to the second ceremony, where they disappeared faster than I could put them out! All-in-all, it was a crazy day of cake and day drinking and celebrating the beautiful love between two amazing people! I’m happy that I got to celebrate their union and sweeten it up just bit! :)

~ Emily

PS. Lots of new posts coming soon! I’ve been a little busy with cake craziness and other events, along with trying out new things like making homemade extracts and my first run at fermented pickles! But I’m slowly catching up and getting back in to the swing of things :)

Strawberry-Almond Upside-Down Cake

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Last week, I picked up a few pounds of fresh strawberries at the store. Unfortunately, work was crazy, so I was at the office super-late and living off of take-out. So I never got around to eating the strawberries. The end of the week rolled around, and I found the strawberries when cleaning out the fridge. Instead of racing to eat them before they spoiled, I knew I needed to find a way to bake the strawberries in to something awesome!

I’ve made a few upside-down cakes before, from a traditional pineapple upside-down cake to my Pear & Ginger Upside-Down Cake last fall. I’d never seen a spring-y upside-down cake, so I decided to go a little outside of the box and make one using my abundance of fresh strawberries!

This cake is sweet and fruity, with a soft and moist almond sponge cake. Sprinkled with slivered almonds, it is a perfect spring cake! The boyfriend has now moved it to the top of his list. He says it’s his favorite cake I’ve ever made! But he’s said that 3 or 4 times now, so I know this one must be good. ;)

Click below for the recipe! Have a question? Feel free to ask in the comments. And thanks for reading! :)

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Banana Blondies

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As most of my friends know, I am a banana hoarder. I buy bananas every week at the grocery store but frequently forget to eat them. This “problem” has been somewhat solved since the boyfriend and I moved in together because he’ll eat the yellow bananas that I won’t touch. (Like my grandfather, I need some green on my bananas!) But even he has limits…

I hate throwing away perfectly good food, so I keep bananas around long past their prime. I hide them above the fridge until the brown spots take over and stash them in the refrigerator or freezer until I’m ready to turn them in to, usually, Banana Bread. But, this time, I wanted to do something different!

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So I tweaked a normal Blondie recipe to include a hearty amount of banana! I replaced the normal chocolate chips with white chocolate and added some toasted macadamia nuts. And the result is absolutely magical!

I’ve made this recipe twice now, and my Banana Blondies have been devoured both times. Even the boyfriend loves them, and he doesn’t even like white chocolate!

Click below for the recipe! Have a question? Feel free to ask in the comments. And thanks for reading! :) Continue reading →