Articles

Dec 07 2014

Hidden Candy Cane Kiss Cookies

Author: Jenna

Shhhhhh! Don’t tell anyone what’s inside these cookies until they eat them! Let’s keep it a secret, a top secret, between us baking friends. It’s fun that way, isn’t it? It’s also super fun to watch the looks on people’s faces when they unsuspectingly bite into a simple looking cookie and find they’ve bitten into….a giant white chocolate-peppermint kiss! And not just any Hershey’s Kiss: A Kiss beautifully swirled with red and white stripes like the candy canes they are named for, softly melting into the buttery dough and bursting with white chocolate and peppermint flavors. It’s like we took candy canes, which are already awesome, and elevated them to even better, cookie covered heights.

Hidden Candy Cane Kiss Cookies

The year I first made these cookies, I made 13 batches (not even exaggerating).

Dec 05 2014

Chocolate Chip Russian Teacakes

Author: Jenna

There are a lot of cookies coming your way in the next month. Some are the classic holiday cookies straight from my mother’s kitchen, and others are new but soon to be classics, and still others are cookie extravaganzas straight from the weirdly cookie and scone obsessed mind of, well, me! Those cookies and desserts might get a little multi-step on you, so let’s ease our ovens into the cookie season with an easy, breezy twist on a classic.

Chocolate Chip Russian Teacakes

Remember our discussion about teacakes? Long time ago, I know.

Dec 03 2014

Peppermint Bark Bites

Author: Jenna

Welcome back! Did you enjoy your rest from sweets and rich foods once you finished all your Thanksgiving leftovers? (Thanks to a wonderful invention called the freezer, I still have some leftovers to consume, as well as even more Hidden Pumpkin Spice Kiss Cookies, Apple Cinnamon Cakelets, two loaves of Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Cheesecake Bread, and scones that have yet to be published.) I thought I’d be nice and give you a week to recover before I dived face first into the season of holiday cookies!!!!! You’re welcome. And juuuuuust in case your oven wants a little bit longer of a nap–or it still smells like the self cleaning setting, blech–today’s recipe is NO BAKE!

Peppermint Bark Bites

My favorite holiday flavor just might be peppermint. I wait every year for the holiday displays to go up in grocery stores so I can pounce on the cartons of mini candy canes. Not entirely sure why I prefer mini candy canes to full sized ones….anyways, this means I obviously love peppermint bark!

Nov 26 2014

Sweet Potatoes Au Gratin

Author: Jenna

I know what you’re all thinking right now: “Uhhh what?! Sweet potatoes au gratin on a baking blog specifically about afternoon tea? What is she thinking?” I thought the same thing when I mentioned this recipe to my amazing friend Kat (remember her from The T Room?). When I told her that I had come up with this incredible new recipe for Thanksgiving and how I wished I could share it on my blog because everyone should make it for Thanksgiving dinner. And yeah I stretch the “afternoon tea” part of this blog when it comes to baking recipes, but trying to justify sweet potatoes au gratin? That was going too far. And what did Kat say?

sweet potatoes au gratin

“It’s your blog. You can post whatever the heck you want.”

Nov 24 2014

Hidden Pumpkin Spice Kiss Cookies

Author: Jenna

It’s almost Christmas cookie season! Obviously I looooooove baking so the frenzy of cookie baking in the month before Christmas is basically my favorite time of the year. I have no idea how many batches of cookies my mom and I make each holiday season; maybe this year I’ll keep track but I’d almost be afraid at the answer. It has to be upwards of 50? So it’s a good thing all my friends love getting Christmas cookies for presents!

Ughhhh the anticipation is killing me. But I can’t justify starting Christmas cookie baking when it isn’t even Thanksgiving yet! I won’t even play holiday music until Friday. So what’s a girl to do when she wants to bake Christmas cookies but morally can’t yet? She turns her Christmas cookies into Thanksgiving cookies!

hidden pumpkin spice kiss cookies

And so we have the birth of Hidden Pumpkin Spice Kiss Cookies.

Nov 22 2014

Apple Layer Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Author: Jenna

Growing up, apple pie was my favorite dessert. Yeah I’d eat cake or cookies or ice cream, but if you put a slice of apple pie in front of me, you’d be my best friend for life–or at least until someone else gave me a slice of pie. My love even went as far as having an apple pie instead of a birthday cake for my 13th birthday party.

Apple Layer Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

I should have made this cake that day, since it is the best of both worlds, a hybrid of apple pie and the best cake I’ve ever tasted. And I make a lot of cakes. If only I had come up with this recipe back then! Alas I wasn’t such a crazy baker back in my tween years so I had to wait a decade to develop the perfect apple pie cake.

Nov 20 2014

Pumpkin Spice Shortbread

Author: Jenna

Scottish shortbread is one of my favorite cookies, which is super bizarre because I am a card-carrying member of the Soft Cookie Club. But for some reason, Scottish shortbread makes me forget all soft cookies in favor of shortbread’s buttery sweetness. Top it with strawberry jam or lemon curd and I may just choose shortbread over scones (shocking, I know, but it’s a distinct possibility).

Pumpkin Spice Shortbread

The ~~problem~~ best part about this British cookie is the tradition behind it. Quick history lesson? Scottish shortbread is believed to have come from the medieval “biscuit bread”. Leftover bread dough was left out in a low oven to be twice-baked and covered in sugar and spices. Eventually the biscuit bread’s yeast was replaced by butter and supposedly Scottish shortbread is born.

Nov 17 2014

Sweet Potato Pound Cake with Brown Butter Glaze

Author: Jenna

I’m feeling this weird stress and anxiety about Thanksgiving, but not for the reasons anyone would expect. It’s not the idea of a full day of cooking everything from scratch (down to the candied pecans for the salad…yeah I’m that girl) or the trying to reach that perfect balance between new exciting recipes and old classic recipes. It’s not even spending a night with my family (and those of you who know me outside of my blog know what I’m talking about!).

Sweet Potato Pound Cake with Brown Butter Glaze

All my stress and anxiety about Thanksgiving…it’s because I have too many amazing recipes I want to share with you that will no longer be socially appropriate after the 27^th. So many recipes, so little time. Hey! It’s a serious problem! And what’s worse is that I just want to keep baking more and more and end up adding four more recipes to my already overflowing queue.

Nov 13 2014

Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Cheesecake Bread and Muffins

Author: Jenna

I couldn’t help myself. Normally I try to post my recipes in order of when I make/photograph them–as long as they are seasonally appropriate–but today all that is going out the window. I got some awesome personal news this morning so we should all celebrate with cake!…ish desserts. That are seasonally appropriate.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Cheesecake Bread

The name is a mouthful, and not just because you are probably saying it through a mouthful of this delicious quick bread. But it combines three amazing dessert components into one super duper amazing package. I mean, pumpkin? Cinnamon chips?! CHEESECAKE?! When will the incredibleness that is this bread end? Exactly. It won’t.

Nov 10 2014

Cinnamon Chip Scones

Author: Jenna

I’m baaaaack! Can I claim that I go so long between posts in order to give you ample time to make one recipe before I spring another one on you? No? Fine *pouting*. But I understand the tragedy at hand. We are in NOVEMBER (oh my lanta) and I have yet to give you a nice fall season or beginning of holiday season recipe. While the rest of the blogosphere is overdosing on pumpkin—which I am also consuming in too high of quantities—I thought I’d bring you a pumpkin free recipe. Let’s bring out some cinnamon instead.

Cinnamon Chip Scones

Once Upon an Afternoon Tea

The Art of Afternoon Tea from Los Angeles and Beyond

Articles

Hidden Candy Cane Kiss Cookies

Chocolate Chip Russian Teacakes

Peppermint Bark Bites

Sweet Potatoes Au Gratin

Hidden Pumpkin Spice Kiss Cookies

Apple Layer Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Pumpkin Spice Shortbread

Sweet Potato Pound Cake with Brown Butter Glaze

Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Cheesecake Bread and Muffins

Cinnamon Chip Scones