Confessions of a compulsive baker

Welcome to my kitchen.

Well, this is actually my old kitchen, taken the last time my compulsive baking got out of control. I started off making a couple dozen Christmas cookies to force myself into a holiday spirit. Before I knew it, I had thumbprint cookies, chocolate cookies, peppermint cookies, chocolate striped/peppermint cookies and every sprinkle known to man stacked in my little Kansan kitchen. And a crock pot feast stewing in the background. 

 

This is totally a healthy way to deal with holidays away from home.

Fast forward four months -- another holiday nears, and another kitchen falls victim to an all-day baking marathon. My intentions were innocent enough. I just wanted to make something nice to take to [D]'s house for Easter brunch.

I started scouring my library of cookbooks... as I've previously mentioned, decision making isn't my strong suit. How could I make just one tasty treat when I have a whole cabinet full of delicious recipes?

It started by wanting to try something new. I found a "Celebrations Made Easy" cookbook in a bargain bin at Big Lots a few weeks ago and couldn't help myself. It turned out to be a fantastic find, if for nothing more than this recipe:

It had fresh blueberries in it, so I considered it a health food. Until I doused it with a nice coating of sugar.

The batter was amazing delicious, but I'm always nervous about debuting a new recipe to a large crowd. Just in case this mess of blueberries and sugar turned into a pan full of trolls, I figured I better make a tried and true treat as well.

Hello, Best-Ever Apple Cake. It is so adequately named.

With the blueberry shortbread in the oven, I started peeling apples. Don't apples look funny naked?

Add a good coating of sugar and cinnamon to make them look a lot less funny and a lot more tasty.  

Make a couple layers of cake batter and apples:

 And sha-zam! The Best-Ever Apple Cake is ready to start baking, too.

In the meantime, the blueberry shortbread has formed the perfect golden crust.

Think about how exponentially better the top of a blueberry muffin is compared to the plain ol' bottom. This is pretty much like a whole pan of blueberry muffin tops. Hot diggity.

Since my Christmas cookie spree, I've added a new element of awesomeness to an all-day baking binge.

I finally stopped mooching off my office during the week and driving to gas stations five times a day during weekends and bought a coffee maker when I moved to Ohio. Just another excuse to never leave my house between Friday at 5 p.m. and Monday at 8 a.m.... er, 8:30 a.m.

Somewhere between the first and second pot of coffee, my little apple cake came out of the oven. 

 Oh, and then there were scones.

I really just like the word, scone. It makes me think of sconces, which is another very cool word. Someday, when HGTV comes to re-decorate my house, there will be a lot of sconces involved.  

Do you feel smarter for reading my blog yet? 

Or do you just want me to shut up and bring you scones?

Big, fluffy, maple and cinnamon-y scones.

Another pot of coffee, a heap of cheesy potatoes fixed up in the crock pot, a major kitchen cleaning and a Netflix season of The Office later, and my day was complete. Sometimes it's just hard being me.

Morning has broken

"Morning has broken, like the first morning

Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird

"Praise for the singing, praise for the morning

Praise for the springing fresh from the word

 

"Sweet the rain's new fall, sunlit from heaven

Like the first dewfall, on the first grass

"Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden

Sprung in completeness where his feet pass

"Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning

Born of the one light, Eden saw play

"Praise with elation, praise every morning

God's recreation of the new day." -- By Eleanor Farjeon 

"For what I recieved I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.

"After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also as to one abnormally born.

"For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

 "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect." I Corinthians 15:3-10