The Season Finale

6/365

The Great British Baking Show is coming to an end this Sunday (Mar 1) in its Season Finale.  I feel like my best friend is leaving town for good.

For the past nine weeks, PBS has been hosting this show on Sunday evening.  The contestants are made up of a variety of homebakers who are passionate about and skilled in the art of baking.  The youngest member of the group this season was only 17 and still in school.  The oldest~~not sure but maybe in his mid-60s.  Each week the contestants are given 3 baking assignments.  Each week one contestant is eliminated.  Each week we sigh for the loss.

Each week I think I should get myself into the kitchen and do some baking.

Sunday night we're celebrating~~well....not exactly celebrating.  More like honoring the finale by having snacks that are little more out-of-the-ordinary than cheese and crackers.

So each one of us declared our intention for our contribution.

I said I would make petit fours.

I looked up the recipe...I laughed!

My friend to the rescue.  She has a mold for something that I can only describe as fancy cupcakes.  She purchased the mold from Williams & Sonoma several years ago and said they would make something called Ladycakes.  hmmmm

They aren't fancy/complicated petit fours, but they aren't plain/boring cupcakes either.  Done!!

So this morning I got going on the project.

I really wanted the cakes to be a little more fancy than just plain cake.  When I went to the store to buy the ingredients I had intentions of using some strawberry jam for the center, but instead I found...be still my heart...a jar of lilikoi jelly.  Done!!

I think I might have overfilled the molds just a wee bit.

I was pleasantly surprised by how they turned out.  You can see where the jelly seeped out a little.  It was a good learning experience so that next time I'll know better how to fill the batter then the jelly then the remainder of the batter.  It was only a near-disaster, not a total one.

Once they were cooled, I put another dollop of lilikoi jelly in the center.

I also tasted a wee bit of the cake~~on my goodness!  (I found a pound cake recipe online that will now be my go-to pound cake recipe)  There was enough batter to make the ladycakes and an actual pound cake, so next week we'll have strawberry short-cake & whipped cream.

I certainly wouldn't win any awards on the Great British Baking Show, but I think we'll all be happy with the results of my efforts.

Cranberry Cream-cheesy Bars 

(otherwise known at Starbuck's as Cranberry Bliss Bars)

36/365

I have been waiting FOR.    EV.    ER.   to make these things.  Well, maybe not that long, but definitely for a long time.  I discovered them about 5 years ago when I first began frequenting Starbuck's on a fairly regular basis, especially when in Hawaii where there's a Starbuck's on every other corner.  They only sell them during the winter a little before and a little after Christmas.

They are Amazing!!!  Like, over-the-top it's a good thing these are so expensive or I'd buy and eat many more amazing.

Then a friend of mind, actually a friend of my daughter's who used to come to the house when they were in high school, began posting that she was making and selling these scrumptious bars along with other goodies, as a fund raiser for their adoption efforts.  

Of course I purchased some and oh, my goodness, fell in love with them again.  I'm not sure it's the exact recipe that Starbuck's uses, but it's close enough to call it a SCORE!!!

Over the years I've thought of contacting the girl to see if she'd be willing to share the recipe and finally put feet on my dreams this year.  Last night I made them.  Now....I don't usually cook, bake or do anything else constructive/productive at night because, well, I'm a morning person as I mentioned in a recent post, and once noon comes & goes I'm pretty much off the clock.

But I really wanted to try these bars.  Really wanted to as in "I'm going to make them now even though it's 7 pm and I'd rather be sitting on the couch editing photos".

And really....they are as scrumptious as I thought they'd be.  So now the struggle begins:  do I eat one every time I get the notion?  do I eat just half at a time?  do I resist 3 out of 4 times?  or do I just eat them and not make them again for a long time?

Well, the verdict is out on that.  I'll get back to you about it sometime, or maybe not.

Coffee Break

12/365

I decided to bake some cookies this morning for two reasons: 1) I haven't done much baking lately and 2) I needed a subject for some still-life photos.  The other day I found a recipe for Shrewsbury Biscuits (English cookies) and they looked so yummy.

They're similar to shortbread cookies, but they don't have as much butter.  

So, so, so good.

After baking them and taking the photos I treated myself to a couple as a reward for my efforts. Don't let the second image fool you, I really only ate two...

I'm discovering that the tricky part of photographing food is trying not to eat it before taking the photos, especially when hungry.  So I guess I have to use the same strategy as when I go grocery shopping.  Eat first, then shop, or shoot.

Everything is a learning process.  So fun!~!