Tasty Bakes

That book cover is adorable, isn't it? It reminds me of Lois helping in the kitchen. I found the image on pinterest of course and put it on my "because it makes me happy" board. I think it's fun to cook when I have a recipe. I get really excited to try new recipes. Without a recipe though I'm totally clueless, and I find cooking frustrating. It's sort of like understanding the words of a language but not how to string them together to make sensible sentences. I can cook a few things without a recipe, but not much! I'm not creative at all when it comes to cooking. Andrew, on the other hand, is very creative in the kitchen and can whip up something delicious out of practically nothing. He's spontaneous and intuitive when it comes to cooking so he does especially well with savory dishes. I like structure and specific instructions, so I'm more suited towards baking, and I do love to bake!
I made a few things this past weekend and also went to our little local Saturday market where I picked up some tasty treats. I'll share pictures from my market outing soon, once I go through the photos. It's been a busy week so far at our house! Lois started big girl school (half days) and Andrew is away, so momma is working double time. One thing on my to-do list for the next few weeks is to clean off all the photos on my phone, organize them into albums, and sort photos on my computer as well. A daunting task with thousands of photos! As I was starting to go through the photos I realized how many I never shared on my blog. I have too many social networking irons in the fire and often can't remember where I've shared what! In my instagram I came across photos of some of my favorite things to bake, which I'm pretty sure I didn't post on my blog at the time. So here below is a selection of favorites, most of which I've made many times. First is a pear-almond upside down cake. Soooo good! The recipe is from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. 

Below are vanilla cupcakes I made with a buttercream icing but added lime juice and lime zest to the buttercream and topped them with toasted coconut. These were inspired by a coconut lime sponge cake I read about in an old issue of Country Living. 

Below are butternut squash muffins with maple-mascarpone icing from La Tartine Gourmande. Gluten free and delicious! (Plate from Anthropologie last year. My mom bought them for me.)

My tippy-top favorite blueberry muffins from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. A big blueberry muffin post coming soon. 

And another favorite from La Tartine Gourmande, brown butter pistachio financiers.

A banana bread favorite from Alicia Paulson. Well, that's where I found the recipe, here on her blog. If you like banana bread, I think it's the best recipe! I've made it many times and plan to again this week.