Alright, so I decided to tackle a nut-free fruit cake the other day. It’s always a bit of a mission, fruit cakes, but I was determined, especially since a few folks I know can’t do nuts and I hate for them to miss out during tea time. So, here’s how my little baking adventure went. Getting All My Ducks in a Row First thing I...

Alright, so the other day, I got this real hankering for some cornbread. Not just any cornbread, mind you, but the kind you make in one of those cast iron corn stick molds. You know, the ones that give you those crispy edges all around? Yeah, those. Getting that Old Mold Ready First thing I did was dig out that trusty mold. It’s heavy, seasoned...

Alright, so I’d been seeing those fancy desserts everywhere, you know, the ones with perfect shiny domes. Mousse cakes, chocolate spheres, that sort of thing. And I thought, “Hey, I could probably do that.” So, I went ahead and got myself a set of those dome silicone baking molds. Nothing too expensive, just a couple of standard-looking ones from some online place. They arrived, looked...

My Lemon Juice Fruit Powder Adventure Alright, so the other day I found myself with a whole bunch of lemons. You know how it is, you buy them for one thing, and then they just sit there, looking at you. I thought, what can I do with all this juice that’s a bit different? And then it hit me – lemon juice powder! I’d heard...

Okay, so the other day, I had a bunch of bananas that were seriously looking at me, you know? Like, “eat me now or I’m gonna turn into mush.” And I also had some bread that was a couple of days old, not stale enough to be a weapon, but definitely not fresh-sandwich material anymore. My brain went “ding!” – chocolate and banana bread pudding...

Alright, let me tell you about my recent dive into the world of OXO baking tools. I’m not a professional baker, not by a long shot, but I do enjoy making a mess in the kitchen, trying to whip up cookies or a simple cake now and then. For ages, I was using this collection of hand-me-down, mismatched tools. You know the kind – plastic...

My Little Kitchen Experiment So, the other day, I was staring at these bananas, you know, the ones that get all spotty and you swear you’ll make banana bread but never do? Yeah, those. And there was this half-eaten loaf of bread just sitting there, getting a bit too friendly with the air. Waste not, want not, my grandma used to say. So, I thought,...

Okay, so everyone’s been seeing those fancy caramel rose apple pies online, right? And I thought, hey, how hard can it actually be? Famous last words, let me tell you. Getting Started: The Dough and The Dream First off, the crust. People always go on about the crust. I read somewhere that a bad crust with the best apples makes a fair pie, and a...

You know how it is, you’re all set to bake something, maybe some nice weekend muffins, and then – disaster. You reach for the baking powder and the tin is practically echoing. That was me last Tuesday. Stood there, flour already in the bowl, and not a pinch of leavening agent to be found. And honestly, I’d been thinking for a while about all the...

Alright, let’s talk about baking paper and silicone. You hear all sorts of things, right? “Silicone is non-stick, you don’t need paper!” And then sometimes you try it, and, well, things don’t go as planned. I’ve been there, trust me. It’s not like I just use one or the other. My kitchen? It’s a mix. Sometimes I’m slapping baking paper into my trusty old metal...