Classic Yellow Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

I love birthdays! They offer the perfect excuse to make cakes, particularly fat layer cakes that make you feel like a giddy six year old. For my mom's birthday, I wanted to make a cake that incorporated her favourite classic chocolate buttercream frosting. Of course it's a perfectly wonderful frosting, but it is so common.

Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars (Daring Bakers' Challenge)

In order to celebrate the 2010 winter Olympics in Whistler Canada, The Daring Kitchen proudly presents these divinely rich Canadian dessert bars. The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and http://www.nanaimo.ca/.

Cocoa-Nana Bread (TWD)

Steph, of Obsessed with Baking, chose this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe. My first impression when I read through it was that it would be a bit boring...and possibly dry.

Clementine Ginger Sugar Cookies

Were it not for the fact that my fingertips and nails would turn orange, I could easily go through an entire crate of clementines in one day.

Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars (TWD)

When I was in college I worked at an amazing little pastry shop called Gastronomy Station. It was tiny, cramped and cozy, with so many baked goods pushed together that it was almost difficult to know which handwritten label went with what item.

Caramel Pecan Bars

I warned you about this caramel obsession. And I still can't quite explain the fascination. Maybe I just like to perform kitchen alchemy and watch the way white sugar transforms into a dark camel coloured creamy substance.

Donut Muffins with Caramel Filling

Caramel and I were not speaking for a while. About a year ago I made Samoa cookies (from scratch) and instead of using real caramel sauce, I melted store bought caramels. It was a disaster. After spending what seemed like hours of unwrapping each candy and scrapping it out of the saucepan, I ended up with a hard, pulley mass that tore through the cookie crust like a lawn mower.

Jacques Torres Chocolate Chip Cookies (take 2)

When I made these cookies the first time I only made half the recipe and I didn't use high quality chocolate. Anxious as I was to try the legendary cookies, I resorted to Nestlé chocolate chunks.

Tart Tatin (TWD)

To mark the 2nd Anniversary of Tuesdays with Dorie we were asked to pick which dessert from Dorie's book we wanted to bake to commemorate the special occasion.

Millionaire's Shortbread Bars

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had fun ringing in 2010 and that you have fully recovered from the champagne headache.