catching up

Around here, things get busy. I'm constantly baking, but I'm not always diligent about keeping up with blogging, so I try to just focus on the fun, interesting, or really delicious things that I think the interweb might want to know about.

Here's a quick catch up of some of the other things I've baked in the last few months.

I made a lemon cake for a family birthday. It was fun to play around with lacy piping details.

These are some cream cheese star cookies. Only one cookie actually held its shape (the one in the front). About a half-dozen stayed partially closed (back right). ALL THE REST completely failed. Since I didn't even like them that much, they're not worth further discussion, but the picture's kinda cool.

My daughter and I made these pinwheel cookies for a school event. They are SO cute and she loves them. I just wish they tasted good. They're really mediocre. The dough is fun to work with: you can shape it into pinwheels, checkerboards, or stripes. If I can find a better-tasting recipe, I would absolutely make these again.

Now I'm really dating myself: these are Christmas cookies! My Secret Santa from the bakery bought me a cookie stamp kit. The cookie cutter stamps your personalized message while cutting the shape. I also made pretzel kisses because they're seriously delicious. This year, I used dark Kisses, Hugs, and Rolos - the chocolate, caramel, salt, and crunch combo is to die for!

Next up: caramel sauce. Mmm, look how thick and delicious it looks ribboning off that apple slice. Ina Garten's recipe is tasty, but I would continue to search for the ultimate, world-class recipe.

I think that's enough eye candy for one post. More catch up posts to come!