Desserts

Friends and family gladly share garden-fresh zucchini with me so I can make and give away many batches of these cookies. I keep shredded zucchini in the freezer so we can enjoy them in winter as well. A cream cheese frosting makes them especially delicious.

This recipe from my sister originally made a pie. But I decided to turn it into a cookie with mouthwatering results. They're so easy to make and very tasty.—Jessie Bethune, Trion, Georgia

I simply love oatmeal cookies. I've added a variety of different goodies to the batter and think this combination is by far the best. It's especially tasty in autumn.

When I think about desserts in the summer, I want things that are easy to make and that really showcase some bright, summertime flavors. Easy to make desserts are nice year-round, of course, but in the summer I want to spend the evenings outside enjoying the nice weather – not working in the kitchen – and I also don’t want to leave the oven on for hours when I want the house to stay cool. This Fresh Raspberry Cake is a beautiful summer dessert that hits both of these nails right on the head. The cake is a tender, buttery cake that is packed with lots of fresh, ripe raspberries. The berries are arranged on the top of the cake before baking and the batter rises up to hold them in place as it bakes in the oven. The result is a cake that looks like it is just packed with fruit – which it is – because it almost looks like a fruit cobbler. The red raspberries give the cake gorgeous pops of color and make it look just about irresistible. The cake batter is made with buttermilk and flavored with vanilla and a hint of lemon zest. The lemon and vanilla give the cake a little depth of flavor and are a nice background to the raspberries, which are definitely the star here. I always use fresh raspberries when making this cake because they have the best flavor when they are in season and they look the prettiest in the finished cake (as frozen berries can lose some of their shape while baking on a cake like this one). The cake needs no frosting, but a little scoop of whipped cream is a nice way to dress it up a little before serving. Fresh Raspberry Cake 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 1/3 cup butter, room temperature 1 cup sugar 1 large egg 2 tsp vanilla extract 1 tsp lemon zest 1/2 cup buttermilk 1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries 1 tbsp coarse sugar, for topping Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9-inch springform pan. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in the egg, vanilla extract and lemon zest, mixing until smooth. Blend in about 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by half of the buttermilk. Stir in half of the remaining flour mixture, followed by the rest of the buttermilk, then add the last of the flour mixture. Stir only until everything is just combined and no streaks of dry ingredients remain. Batter will be thick. Spread batter evenly into the prepared pan. Arrange raspberries evenly over the top of the batter. The batter will rise up around the berries as it bakes, so you don’t need to push them in. Sprinkle the cake with coarse sugar. Bake for about 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached. Cool completely in the pan before slicing and serving. Store leftovers in an airtight container. Serves 8-10.

It has been a long time since I updated the look of Baking Bites’ main page, but I’ve been working on a new look for some time now and launched it this weekend. Sorry for any downtime. I know that I helped a lot of you out by e-mailing you recipes and messaging them through Facebook! The new look has more pictures, although the photos on the main page are smaller to help increase page load time. You can still see the full size images when you load up the individual post pages and recipes. The main page only shows the first few blog posts, as well as some featured posts and baking tips, but you can click on the “blog” tab for a more traditional view of all the posts on the site! I should mention that there are some cool new features on Baking Bites now, too. We are now mobile friendly, with a mobile layout that will work on iPhones and other smart phones and will rescale to work better on tablet computers and iPads! We have a monthly  newsletter put out in conjunction with Rodelle, makers of my favorite baking extracts, where you can get a recipe and some baking tips delivered straight to your inbox every month. No spam, just a recipe! Finally, we also now have a very cool random post button at the top of the navigation bar. This button will show you a random post from the site and it is a great way to explore new recipes and be surprised by old favorites! Did you know that there are more than 3000+ posts on Baking Bites? There has never been a more fun way to explore them. A much improved recipe index will be coming in the next few weeks, as well as some other small improvements, so keep checking back for more updates and enjoy the new look of Baking Bites!

The first round of the Ultimate Iced Tea Tournament is complete! We started with 16 great flavors, and your votes have narrowed the competition down to four flavors: Raspberry Tea, Peach Tea, Green Tea, and Lemonade Tea. This week’s round two matchups will feature two flavors each, and the... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

The day after Father's Day is still an occasion to celebrate. My Dad doesn't like beer, but he would love these chocolate cupcakes made by Chelsea Baker.

So, are ya ready for the next Nosh Show? Episode 6 of The Nosh Show is now available! Head on over to The Nosh Show website to listen and to see a complete rundown of everything we talked about. It's an interesting episode that delves deep into my inner crankiness. Sorry, but seriously, we cover the usual gamut of upcoming craziness but also take the time to point out some of the majors

A cupcake is a treat that delivers a lot of flavor in a small, single-serving package. They’re usually dressed up with sprinkles or other pops of color on top, but when there is a surprise inside the cupcake – such as a dollop of chocolate or marshmallow filling – it makes it that much more delicious. In Bake it in a Cupcake, you’ll find dozens of recipes that deliver more than just a cream filling. This cookbook focuses on “surprise inside” cupcakes. These cupcakes are filled pops of color, different flavors of cake and even pie – with flavors and looks that you would never think to find inside of a cupcake. Surprise inside cupcakes really deliver two desserts in one, and so they do take a little more work than your typical cupcake. For most of the recipes, you’ll need to bake two different recipes – one for the center and one for the cake surrounding it. In some cases this means baking a different type of cake then cutting it into the appropriate shape for the featured center of the main cupcake. In other cases, this means baking a cookie or tiny pie to place in the center. The recipes, although they might have a few more steps than plain cupcakes, are written to make things easy and are not difficult to follow along with. Once you bake your way through one recipes, you’ll discover that the finished product is so much fun (and so tasty) that it is well worth a little bit of extra baking time to make a perfectly surprising cupcake. The recipes are accompanied by beautiful photographs that really showcase what you can do with this kind of cupcake. The cupcakes with tiny pies inside are definitely my favorites, because they are so unexpected! There is a wide range of flavors – from fruit to chocolate, as well as some savory cupcakes – and lots of explanation about the methods used. You’ll be able to use these recipes as building blocks to come up with your own designs and flavor combinations as you “bake it in a cupcake” yourself.

There are a great deal of "famous" and well known candy in the world. It's a group of candies that most people might call classic candies. These are the staples of any candy fans collection of treats they've sampled. In many ways these are the treats that I try to base my reviews upon. The problem is, sometimes I don't actually get around to reviewing them. Sometimes they slip through the cracks, I've tasted them, I've just never put pen to paper and actually written a review. Mike and Ike's "Original Fruits" is just such a candy, but no more is it un-reviewed.Click here to read this classic review.CC