Hey! Happy Independence Day / 4th of July, Everyone! Here are some Celebratory Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes for the day! Who knew that you can bake directly in ice cream cones. Learn something new every day. Would be cute for a children’s birthday party too. Swap out your favorite cake flavor — I made chocolate cake, but vanilla, strawberry or even lemon might do. Fun dessert for the holiday!
Cookies that could be as good as Christmas Cookies as they are here in the summer-time: Chocolate-dipped Salted Caramel-candied Hazelnut Shortbread Cookies! Yes, that’s a mouthful to say (and to eat, har har). Hazelnut shortbread, dipped in decadent dark chocolate and then partially coated in a salted caramel hazelnut crunch — sort of like a topping that you put on ice cream or an ice cream cone. Not too sweet, just the right size for two bites. Would be a great “after dinner” dessert cookie.
Here is something bright and cheerful to lighten up your Monday morning. Over the weekend, I made these Mini-Meyer Lemon Curd Tartlets for dessert. Very tart, very lemony and surprisingly bright in color (presumably from the very yellow egg yolks — maybe the chickens were eating marigolds!), these are actually very easy to make. In a pinch, you can also substitute store bought curd or other fruit jams to pull something together in a hurry. They were delicious!
Haven’t been baking as much since Easter, and had company so what I was baking was more old-standbys. It’s remarkably hard to do recipe testing, writing and photography with a houseful of guests. That said, I’m back. With so many crab apple and cherry trees in blossom, I got to thinking … well, about crab apples and cherries, so I made these Cherry Almond Oatmeal Crumble Bars. A little tart, a little sweet, a little nutty and overall delicious.
Doing a little more experimenting with “upside down” desserts, this time plain old apples, but the batter also has toasted walnuts for a bit more flavor, and made in a bundt pan. I was actually afraid that this one wouldn’t release as well, and that I might have a disaster on my hands, but it inverted and released quite nicely and it tuned out ok. The cake itself isn’t as moist as I would like though, so might have to serve with some whipped cream. Just a little Sunday afternoon snack at coffee time.