52 weeks of baking: a summary

A month late, but whatever. Let's talk about that time I baked something weekly for an entire year!

The first week of January last year I saw a couple bloggers starting "a year of cakes" or "a treat a day". I'm a lover of sweet things and of challenges, so I came up with "52 weeks of baking". I wanted to be cool too. So I did it. Baked something once a week for a whole year. And it wasn't that hard. I love baking and was doing it a lot anyway as it was, this just took it to the next level. There were some close calls when things were especially busy, some OMG I HAVE TO BAKE SOMETHING RIGHT NOW THE WEEK'S ALMOST OVERRRR, but I made it. I didn't repeat a recipe once, although there were some doubles, like multiple chocolate cakes and quite a few chocolate chip cookie variations, but never the same recipe twice. It was FUN. And yummy. I ended up making some truly wonderful things and am a significantly better baker this January than I was last January. I mean, I'd hope so, right?

So to toot my own horn, because it's oh so satisfying to see it in list form, here are the 52 things I baked:

1. Banana bread

2. Betty Crocker fudge brownies

3. Mini-morsel shortbread squares

4. Everyday chocolate cake

5. Lime and blackberry cake

6. Yellow cake

7. Oatmeal cream pies

8. Zucchini carrot cake

9. Pumpkin cupcakes

10. Honey chocolate chip cookies

11. Coconut shortbread

12. Chocolate cake

13. Strawberry cream cheese cobbler

14. Coconut bread

15. Chocolate zucchini cake

16. Banana chocolate chip cupcakes

17. Simple white cake

18. Chocolate chip cookies

19. Grapefruit yogurt cake

20. Maple cream pie

21. Apple crumble

22. Snickerdoodle cookies

23. Peach hand pies

24. Quick breads

25. Molasses cookies

26. Chocolate caramel brownies

27. Fourth of July cake

28. Peach galette

29. Lemon cheesecake

30. Rosemary chocolate cake

31. Chocolate cake #2

32. Lemon cake with black tea icing

33. Chocolate chip pretzels

34. Coconut chocolate chip cookies

35. Salted caramel brownies

36. Flourless chocolate cake

37. Donuts

38. Lemon cupcakes

39. Salted caramel dark chocolate chip cookies

40. Pumpkin bread

41. Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

42. Pumpkin coffee cake

43. Pumpkin swirl brownies

44. Lemon gingerbread cupcakes

45. Apple slab pie

46. Snickerdoodle cookies #2

47. Cream cheese pound cake

48. Black bottom oatmeal pie

49. Spice cake

50. Chocolate lava cake

51. Gingerbread men

52. Double chocolate torte

They are here, just in reverse order, newest first. There were some minor fails thrown in there, but nothing inedible. For the most part it was all yummy. We were stocked up on dessert for a year! And now after dinner we're kind of like, awww, there's no dessert. Although I have baked chocolate chip cookies. And Brendon made banana bread. So the baking continues, just not as structured. Or frequent.

Highlights!

The most successful recipes in my opinion (in chronological order, not by preference, and pictured in the same order above) were the oatmeal cream pies, zucchini carrot cake, peach hand pies, rosemary chocolate cake, lemon cupcakes, pumpkin coffee cake, apple slab pie, and chocolate lava cake. Brendon's favorite were the lemon cupcakes, and they were without a doubt the best cupcakes I've ever made. The rosemary chocolate cake miiiiiight be my favorite, just because it was so different. And delicious.

It was really fun experience. I loved the challenge and the accountability. I also loved feeding all our friends. Thank you for helping eat all the baked goodies folks! I've got to give a special shout out to the future pharmacists though, you guys ate so much and sent Brendon home with the sweetest compliments. Thank you! And thanks to everyone who suggested recipes! And everyone who followed along with this nonsense throughout the year!

Thanks for tagging along. It was a good year of baking. And I'm not diabetic, so that's a bonus. 

52 weeks of baking: 52 - double chocolate torte

Fifty-two. We made it! I did it! 52 weeks of baking. Done. PHEW!

For my last week of baking I baked something that I knew I'd love, because it's my year of baking and I'll do what I want! I needed something involving chocolate, and specifically chocolate mousse. I think my favorite food might be chocolate mousse. So I made a double chocolate torte, via Smitten Kitchen of course. It's basically a big ol' pile of chilled mousse with an almost flourless cake at the bottom. It's a pretty little thing and very yummy. Oh and it has a pound of chocolate in it.

No lie huh, it's pretty. It had to chill in the fridge overnight and it was torture. I wanted at that thing. And raspberries are the perfect companion to chocolate mousse. They are killer on this and I'm not even that nuts about raspberries.

This torte is easy to make, just very time consuming. Like hours and days unless you start it in the morning. There's a lot of chilling and a lot of whisking involved. And chopping a pound of chocolate. Worth it though. Chocolate mousse is always worth it. Unless J-E-L-L-O has anything to do with it.

So that's it, y'all. 52 weeks!!! Thanks for hanging out if you managed to stick through the year. It's been fun and yummy. There will be a follow up post for sure. Because, I mean, a year of baking deserves one.

52 weeks of baking: 51 - gingerbread men

Isn't that just like the perfect shade of dog poo? Don't let that deter you, these cookies are delicious and spicy and festive as heck. Dough or batter of any sort containing molasses just always comes out poo colored. Amusing!

This week has been insanity. Not that that is anything new, that's the story of my dang life, y'all! But this week, I got sick! Figured it would happen soon, you can only go full throttle for so long before your body is like, NOPE. But luckily it kind of worked out, most of the feverish worst of it was on my two days off so I only spent one very long day at work feeling absolutely rotten. So baking was pushed to the end of the week. And it was a close call. I've just worked 24 of the last 48 hours, but I somehow managed to bust out these cookies last night and am throwing them onto the internet before I go to work today.

Also, there is something real funky going on with my camera. The top portion of all the photos is blurry as hell and everything sort of looks like a nineties glamour shot. It's been going on for a while and I have no idea whats up. But everything kind of looks like this:

Oh well, faces are overrated anyway.

For shapes we only did a handful of traditional gingerbread men, and the rest were stars, kitties, and ducks! Because why not?

My royal icing was waaaay watery, but I was too lazy to add more powdered sugar, so we rolled with it. Came out just fine.

Brendon's design's were my favorite. He made a cute dark wing duck with a mask!

Clearly my writing skills have some room to grow. But these cookies are GOOD! Like I said, spicy! There's a good amount of black pepper in them, and it's awesome. I think if I made them again I'd roll them out thicker. I like a softer cookie. They're a little ginger snappish when they're thin, which is yummy, but I'm into chewy cookies generally.

ONE MORE WEEK OF BAKING! Craziness. I probably won't bake or have anything interesting to report until after Christmas (I have three days off next week!!!!), so Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to the internet!

EDIT: I just realized I did NOT include the recipe I used. What the hell? It's a Smitten Kitchen recipe, I'M SORRY, I WAS RUSHED!

52 weeks of baking: 50 - chocolate lava cake

Alright people. This recipe. I don't know how I've survived without it. It's insanely easy and ridiculously delicious. It's molten chocolate lava cake. Like you get at restaurants. Except AT HOME and made fresh with quality ingredients, because who knows whats in that nonsense from Chili's and how long it's been around. Here's the recipe, and bookmark that sucker because it is a keeper. I found it months ago but somehow just got around to making it. SHAME.

Like I said, this recipe is EASY. It's a one bowl wonder and it's only downfall is that it makes four little cakes. And that's definitely not a bad thing. If you've got four folks around, perfect, but if you're me and Brendon that leaves you with two extra. And these babies are made to be eaten right out of the oven. Not sure how well they'll keep, but we'retrying it out. Even if they're not as melty and perfect as they were fresh, it's still chocolate cake. It will get eaten. I think next time, and there will be a next time, I'll try halving the recipe.

I mean, is that not heaven? I love cake batter far more than I should, so this little cake was my happy place. Oh, cake batter. I love you so. Don't kill me, raw eggs!

52 weeks of baking: 49 - spice cake

Oh my gosh can you believe it? Only three more weeks of baking and my year of baking will be DONE! As busy as I've been the past month or two, I can't say I'm not a little excited. When life is normal (what is normal and when was that?) it's easy to knock the baking out but dang, I've been so busy it's been hard to squeeze in time in the kitchen.

This week I made a spice cake! For my step mom's birthday last month my dad made a cake and as we were all oohing and aahing over it (I mean, my dad bakes once a year, it's a thing of wonder) and guessing what kind it was, my sister asked if it was a spice cake. It wasn't but that got me thinking about spice cakes. We had them all the time growing up apparently, but I couldn't for the life of me remember what they tasted like. So of course, I had to make one! I used this recipe and it is SO EASY; a one bowl wonder if you rinse it out and use the same bowl for the icing.

Someone LOVES cream cheese icing! I'm a batter fiend, but he's all about that icing.

This cake is very yummy. Spice cake is pretty similar to carrot cake in that it's full of mulling spices and topped with tons of cream cheese icing. The recipe is spot on, although it's a little dry. I may have over cooked it at tad, although I did bake mine in a metal pan versus the glass one the recipe showed. Noted for next time, I'll probably lower the temp a bit. But other than that it's great! I love that it's not a giant cake. It's a sweet little 8"x8" which is perfect for us to knock out in a week.

The final weeks of baking are approaching, and I feel I must be extra picky when choosing items to bake! There are just so many choices! You'd think after almost 52 weeks of baking I'd have run out of ideas, but NOPE! There's just so much yumminess out there.

52 weeks of baking: 48 - black bottom oatmeal pie

Well, we're back to it. The only posts I seem to have time to do lately are my weekly baking. So here's a recap of Thanksgiving and the past week. It has been BUSY. Dear lord. I always work a lot, but this month man... I can't even tell you. I am exhausted and time is flying. How has Thanksgiving even come and gone? PHEW. It was a good day though. Brendon and I ran the 5 mile Turkey Trot here in Austin and I did soooo much better than I thought I would, seeing as how I hadn't run in over a month. And holy cow, I have never run a race with so many people. Usually a mile or so into a run people kind of stagger off so you aren't running in a crowd, shoulder to shoulder, but this race was a crowd all the way through. People all around you until the very end, and there was a mad traffic jam at the finish line. Like, seriously, a standstill. There were something like 25,000 people there. Craziness! But we had a lot of fun and it was definitely one of my favorite runs so far. Very positive and the view and weather were great.

After running our butts off we headed down to New Braunfels for two back to back Thanksgivings, one with my mom and one with my dad. Lots of good food (so full, STILL) and good company, but needless to say it was not the most relaxing day. Too much running around. A very good day though.

So of course, here I am, blogging my baking at the very last minute. I actually baked two pies this week, a pumpkin pie for my crew at work (undocumented because I was in a huge rush) and this black bottom oatmeal pie for us. This pie is very interesting. I've never really had anything like it. I guess the closest thing would be a pecan pie, but it's softer. Oh and there's chocolate.

Helloooo there tiny kitchen! How I dream of one day having counter space!

Why yes, there is a layer of chocolate ganache at the bottom of this pie. Hence, black bottom! Cute and clever!

It's real good with a hearty dollop (or two) of freshly whipped cream. Excuse my terrible pie crust. My crusts never look pretty, but boy do they taste good! This pie is a little like a mapley oatmeal chocolate chip cookie... but in a pie. It's very different and very good.

Can you believe it is December? Where did November go? WHERE DID THE YEAR GO? Although I am glad that time is going by so quickly (only 18 months until Brendon graduates!), I've been feeling a little left in the dust and frazzled. I need a break, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. Perhaps January will bring some calm into my life. Goodness knows I need it! Until then, bake on folks! Dessert makes everything better.

52 weeks of baking: 47 - cream cheese pound cake

YOU GUYS! My computer died! Blue screened all to hell. My computer was real old and funky, it was only a matter of time. BUT Brendon was trying real hard to make it run faster so the other day he backed up everything on an external hard drive, cleared everything off, and restored the factory settings. And then when it tried to do an automatic update restart, it just died. Not sure if it was the backing up that caused it (Brendon says no, I say YES), but it died. Luckily, we had just backed up everything so all my pictures are safe and sound saved onto our little hard drive, and LUCKILY Brendon has wonderful friends at pharmacy school. A sweetheart computer guru friend of his took my computer home, took it all to pieces, upgraded the RAM, put it back together, and brought it back to life! I'm even running Windows 7 now, y'all! No more Vista! It's like  a brand new computer! Like brand new as in it doesn't have any programs on it except Solitaire and Free Cell. I don't even have Word or Excel on here. And the photo editing capabilities are: MSPaint.

Soooo these photos aren't edited! You probably wont be able to tell a difference because the program I was using to edit photos was like "Microsoft Photo Editor" or something and incredibly lame and incredibly limited. I suck at computers, so whatev. 

ANYWAY, I made a pound cake. I have been thinking about making a pound cake all year and it just never happened, but my mom shared this recipe with me recently and it was so dang easy I just had to try it. It is a freaking winner you guys.

I think pound cakes are traditionally made with a pound of each butter, sugar, eggs, and flour, and this is pretty close, with welcomed addition of cream cheese. It makes SO MUCH BATTER! It is fluffy and heavenly and very tasty. There are six raw eggs in there, and I licked that batter off of the beaters without a second thought. Cake batter and cookie dough for life.

I made this baby in a bundt pan that my momma gave me instead of the suggested tube pan because I don't have a tube pan. Surprising, I know. It worked just fine.

This cake is soooooo good. The consistency is on point. It's thick and fluffy and rich and creamy and smooth and just really perfect. I did not glaze it (GASP) because of laziness. (Tiredness! My life right now you guys. You don't even know.) There is no recipe for a glaze in the recipe I used, but I think 1 cup of sugar and a couple tablespoons of milk would be perfect. This cake would be lovely with a glaze but it is delicious all on it's own.

This pound cake is pretty flawless and would be an excellent starting point for a flavored pound cake. Strawberry cream cheese pound cake? YUM. Get after it!