• Autumn baking,  Baking Recipes,  Cupcakes & Muffins,  My favourite things,  Reinventions of classics,  The Breakfast Bin

    In the absence of actual apple pie– Apple Pie Muffins

    You ever have days when you get a hankering for apple pie but you’re too lazy to go through the motions of making the dough, chopping up the apples, and all that? I do. A lot of times actually. So then you might ask, ‘Why don’t you just run down to the store and buy one?’ To be honest, I haven’t found a store-bought apple pie in my neck of the woods that tastes half as good as a homemade one. So what’s a girl to do in such a situation? Well this is the part where I tell you about how this muffin would be a nice substitute for…

  • Baking Recipes,  Cookies,  Experiments & experiences,  From the books

    Thinking of blogging’s role in my life over Cornmeal & Olive Oil Biscotti

    How has everyone been? Me, I’ve been tired. It’s the kind of tiredness that seems to flow from the soul outward to the eyes. My eyes sear in the way that a person who hasn’t slept for a week would experience. I would like nothing more than to close my eyes for a good 24 hours. Unfortunately, I have responsibilities to attend to. The good news is, things have been getting better for me. I’ve begun to learn how to look at the difficult things I have been encountering lately through different perspectives. The bad news is, I’ve been thinking an awful lot; and all the thinking has been giving…

  • Baking Recipes,  David Lebovitz,  From the books,  Frozen treats,  I scream for ice cream (I do)

    Some comfort in Avocado Ice Cream

    I know I haven’t written in a while, but I have a perfectly valid explanation. You see, it’s been a crazy, stressful couple of days for me. My parents took a week’s worth of holiday recently, leaving me to man our company by my lonesome. The amount of work is endless, and every time I so much as blink it’s like the pile of work I am yet to do has given birth to octuplets. Every task I cross out on my to-do list gets replaced with another two, or five. When I go home at night, I am so tired all I want to do is lie down with…

  • Baking Recipes,  Dearly Dreaming Dorie,  From the books,  Simple cakes

    {Dearly Dreaming Dorie} Discovering the Dimply Plum Cake

    People always look for the familiar, especially in the things that are foreign to them; but there will be times when the unfamiliar works its way into our lives and become something we grow to love. Such is my story with plum cakes. Or this particular one, in fact. I don’t believe I have ever eaten plums in any other way than au naturel, quartered into half-moons; or dried, in the form of prunes. When I saw this recipe for plum cakes, I was skeptical. Do plums really play well in a cake? They have such a unique flavour on their own already. I was a bit nervous if we…

  • Baking Recipes,  Bread-making,  Christmas & holidays,  Experiments & experiences,  Living traditions,  Yeasted breads

    Ye odd hot cross buns

    Lenten Season comes rather early this year. We don’t really make anything in particular for Lent, I just thought these were a good place to start. There is just something about Hot Cross Buns that are so fitting for the occasion. Aside from the cross on top of course, they look so unassuming. They remind me of the Christian teachings about learning how to appreciate simplicity in our lives, rather than the material, more ornamental things. It is said that Hot Cross Buns baked on a Good Friday never became moldy, and so keeping one bun until next year’s batch for the Lenten Season would supposedly bring good luck. And while…

  • Baking Recipes,  Dearly Dreaming Dorie,  From the books,  Quickbreads & Loaves,  The Breakfast Bin

    {Dearly Dreaming Dorie} The most amazing Mango Bread

    I’ve been waiting for mango season to roll around, and in my neck of the woods, it finally has! One of the best perks about living in a tropical country is that we’ve got mangoes all year round, however the best and sweetest of the crop are harvested around this time. The mangoes here in the Philippines are gorgeously shaped, yellow and very fragrant; with an addictive sweetness that makes them extremely hard to resist. Mangoes are one of my favourite fruits in the whole universe; second only to Chinese Honey Oranges, or ponkan. As a child though, mangoes were my uncontested favourite. I would often have it with my…