I definitally see cake decorating as a form of art! all the cake shows like Cake Boss im obbsessed with! some of the stuff they do is amazing!

Good luck with that recipe, aslanisthebest It's one of my favourites

I agree, georgiefan1. Although I love baking I'm only just getting into decorating properly. I have a plan to learn how to make buttercream roses this summer, it's probably the most complicated I've ever got

I made cupcakes for my friend's birthday the other day. She's not very adventurous with cakes so I went for plain vanilla cupcakes, with oreo buttercream frosting -

I also piped her initial in chocolate to go on each cake. This wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be, but it was really time consuming. Despite my lack of enthusiasm for plain cupcakes, these were actually really nice, it was a great recipe which I can probably locate if anyone would like it

And today I made a batch of brownies with white chocolate chunks since I've had a craving for ages

Another simple, one bowl recipe! They came out very moist and dense, especially considering there's no actual chocolate in the sponge, just cocoa. I'll definitely be making these again.

Woah, cool! A baking section! Finally! All that stuff is absolutely scrumptious! I'll try some of them, since I cook & bake a LOT! I will post recipes, whenever I bake & pics too! I also have a Narnian Food topic if anybody's interested! (http://www.narniaweb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1563) Also, click on my signature if you are interested in signing the Reprinting for the Narnia Cookbook petition! Thanks!

Those muffins look divine, Shantih!

As today is my father's birthday, my mom kept up the tradition of making an Italian Black Forest cake.
It basically is chocolate cake, in two layers. Between the layers is first bread crumbs, jam, then fresh hand-whipped cream. The other layer goes slap on top, and then the whole thing is frosted with more hand-whipped cream and then decorated with strawberries/chocolate/mint sprigs.
I took no part in decorating except for encouraging the addition of strabwberries and later putting on thick chocolate curls, which was not photographed. None the less, here it is!

Oh, that cake looks yummy, Aslanisthebest! Your mom must be a wonderful cook/baker! I like the strawberry garnish! Very pretty! I usually do the most baking in my house. Does anyone here watch "Cake Boss" on TV or YouTube? It's about an Italian Bakery in Hoboken, NJ. I want them to make a Narnia & a LOTR cake. That would be cool! I can't wait til the Narnia Cookbook gets reprinted (hopefully), then I will try out all the recipes, and take pics of them & post them! I also want to get "The Redwall Cookbook" by Brian Jacques. Good thing that's still in print. My mom's a MAJOR cookbook collector. We have over 200 at the least, and not over-exaggerating. I also like to bake/cook recipes from http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/, http://www.cookscountry.com/, http://www.marthastewart.com/, http://www.epicurious.com/, http://www.foodnetwork.com/, since these are the most popular, reliable food websites. My mom likes to look at blogs also, as do I. Well, anyhoo, here's a molasses gingerbread cookie recipe, that I just made with my little cousin & sister. They are delicious, and smell good too! And that's saying a lot, because I'm a amateur food critic, and am really interested in culinary school? OK, enough about me: here's the recipe- http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/782. Enjoy!
P.S. Any "Top Chef" watchers out there?

EDIT: Hi! I just made a delicious pumpkin chocolate cake for kids who despise pumpkin or squash. You can't taste the pumpkin (I guess, it's because I used a darker cocoa. Yeah.), but it makes it incredibly moist. It's also really good with vanilla ice cream or powdered sugar! Here's the recipe:http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/2635. I also have some pics for everyone to click on! Enjoy! *goes to get more cake*

7/23/2010: I just made this gorgeous pumpkin bread today! http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/1461

As this is also cooking...

For the first time I have gotten my from scratch pizza sauce recipe down! I finally wrote it down!!!!

2 cans of tomato sauce
1 can of tomato paste
2 tbs garlic
1 tbs oregano
1/2 tbs paprika

Then adjust from there to taste. I usually do all of this by feel and taste instead of by recipe. I started out just throwing stuff in and I got it down to consistent ingredients, but I never wrote down the amounts. I usually throw some other stuff in there, but that's the base I use.

Me and my Mom made an Apple cake the other day and it was delicious!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice pizza sauce there, Kat. Will probably try it myself.
I love apple cake too, joy93! I am going to make either a giant chocolate chip cookie or cake (http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/giant-chocolate-chip-cookie-cake) for tomorrow or chocolate chip cookie bars: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/chocolate-chip-cookie-bars-recipe. I also love making bread the no-knead way. I have a cookbook just for that. ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/031254 ... 0312545525) I also want to try out NYC baker, Jim Lahey's no-knead recipes which got featured on the New York Times. Some are on http://www.marthastewart.com/

Nice pizza sauce there, Kat. Will probably try it myself.
I love apple cake too, joy93! I am going to make either a giant chocolate chip cookie or cake (http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/giant-chocolate-chip-cookie-cake) for tomorrow or chocolate chip cookie bars: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/chocolate-chip-cookie-bars-recipe. I also love making bread the no-knead way. I have a cookbook just for that. ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/031254 ... 0312545525) I also want to try out NYC baker, Jim Lahey's no-knead recipes which got featured on the New York Times. Some are on http://www.marthastewart.com/

I love chocolate-chip cookie cakes!!!!!!!!!!! they are the best me and my mom are planning on making a strawberry cake next cant wait!! I might try those cookie bars they sound really good!!!!

Nice pizza sauce there, Kat. Will probably try it myself.

If you do, let me know what you think. Though if you aren't a fan of a lot of garlic, I'd recommend dropping the garlic amount and increase the amount slowly until you get it where you like it. It covers quite a bit. We can usually spread it out on two ready-made Pillsbury pizza crusts in the flat, rectangular pans.

I see cooking in the title there so this is the thread for me. I mostly bake breads, actually, but I do do some cooking.

One of the last things I made was tomato sauce using several tomatoes a friend gave us. It was just a very base sauce so it didn't have any particular strong flavor. It was very orange instead of red like a tomato should be but that wasn't too big a deal. I froze most of the sauce but I did use some of it right away.
The other thing I made with the tomatoes was a potato and tomato pie. I thought it tasted pretty grand and I got all rave reviews. The potatoes were for the crust (because I didn't feel like making a crust and my sister doesn't tolerate gluten very well). The inside of the pie was onion rings and tomato slices layered and then topped with mayonaise and cheese. If anyone has a surplus supply of garden tomatoes and wants the recipe they can certainly have it, it is one of my own "creations" and I'm certainly proud of it.

I am going square dancing this weekend and there is a potluck before the dancing. I can't decide if I want to bring dinner rolls or apple pull-apart bread. Maybe I will make both and bring whichever one turns out best or maybe I will bring both if they both turn out.
I make all my breads with whole wheat flour using an eletric mixer with a dough hook.

I received an ice cream maker for my last birthday, so since today is one of my roommate's birthday, my other roommate and I wanted to make her some ice cream and cup cakes (since we just got some cupcake tins). When my roommate suggested we try cookies and cream ice cream, I remembered how Shantih made these cupcakes here and we went for matching ice cream with cupcakes with oreo frosting. They aren't quite as pretty as Shantih's, but they tasted great!

Do you guys have any favorite recipes that you love to make and share with your friends? I love cooking..and eating . If anyone has a good recipe for cinammon rolls I would love to know!

Cool cake, RevelinginWonder. I love the bright colors. Was the fondant hard to work with? And what did it taste like? I've heard it doesn't taste good, but I've never tried it myself. However, I would like to someday.

Shantih, how is it that everything you post pictures of, has to look so delicious? I so want to make some cupcakes like that, but I always forget to ask Mom to get Oreos. *Goes to put Oreos on grocery list.* That frosting looks too good.

Aslanisthebest, that cake sounds delicious.

ElfMaidenArcheroRivendell, I can't remember having gingerbread, we always make gingersnaps. But it sounds scrumptious.

Mmm, your pizza sauce recipe sounds really good, StarKat. We do have a recipe for pizza sauce that we like, but I'm thinking I need to try yours. Can't have too many good pizza or sauce recipes any more than you can have too many cookie recipes!

Nice cupcakes, Kate. Hmm, I think it's been too long since we've made ice cream around here... *adds cream to grocery list, too*

And now for what I've been cooking... yesterday I made apple crisp. I love the smell of apples and cinnamon - it's such a "fall" scent to my way of thinking. It was delicious by the way. I had some of the leftover crisp for breakfast. (Fruit is a very healthy breakfast, you know, and of course the topping is made with the same basic ingredients as bread...) It's just as good cold as it was warm.

SnowAngel

Do you guys have a favorite kind of tea? I hear they drink plenty of tea in Narnia.

There is a wonderful store near where I live that has a huge variety of tea available. You can buy the leafs and take it home or sit down and have a cup.

I had some cinnamon flavored tea that was really good.