Culinary Adventures with Camilla

  These were a 'just because' dessert...no special reason for them. Well, not really. I was just looking for something to pass the afternoon and to trade with a friend. She was dropping off burgers and fries; I wanted to give her a treat, too. So, I guess there was a reason after all. These are rich and chocolate-y with a splash of coffee flavor in the cakes and the savory bent of tahini in the frosting. Ingredients  makes 12 cupcakes Cupcakes 2 eggs 3/4 cup organic granulated sugar 3/4 cup organic dark brown sugar 1 cup buttermilk or sour cream 1/2 cup olive oil 2 teaspoons vanilla 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1/2 cup brewed coffee 1/3 cup hazelnut butter (such as Nutella, you could also use tahini here as well) 2 cup flour 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chunks Cocoa Tahini Frosting 1 cup (2 sticks)  butter, softened 1/2 cup tahini 1-1/2 cups organic powdered sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon...

  Here we are the kick-off for the 2021 edition of the Cake Slice Bakers. For 2021, we will be baking from  Little Everyday Cakes: 50+ Perfectly Proportioned Confections to Enjoy Any Day of the Week by Candace Floyd. * I can't believe that we're already in a new year. In many ways 2020 dragged on as the shelter-in-place orders continued month after month; on the other hand, it was a completely blur because there weren't milestones to mark the passage of time. In this group, we are given a selection of three cake recipes. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes! Follow our  Facebook ,  Instagram , and  Pinterest   pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the links below to take you to each of our cakes....

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Quail & Olive . Complimentary product was provided for this post and this page may contain affiliate links. However, all opinions expressed here are my own. I have been making this upside-down pear gingerbread cake for years! Probably seventeen years. But this is the first time they asked if I could stack them. And add some cream cheese frosting. Ummm...okay. I only had mascarpone in my fridge, so I used that. This cake is made moist with the addition of olive oil and sour cream. For this version, I opted to use the  Taggiasca Olive Oil   from The Quail & Olive*. The Taggiasca olive comes, originally, from the Liguria region of Italy. That was an area I never visited in the thirteen months I lived in Italy; I will have to remedy that  if  when the world ever opens back up. But it was the hint of spice in the oil - cinnamon really - that made me think of adding it to a gingerbread cake. And I polishe...

Here we are the February edition of the Cake Slice Bakers. For 2020, we'll be baking from  The New Way to Cake: Simple Recipes with Exceptional Flavor  by Benjamina Ebuehi.* In this group, we are given a selection of three cake recipes. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes! Follow our  Facebook ,  Instagram , and  Pinterest   pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the links below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details. The Cake Slice Bakers also have a new Facebook group called  The Cake Slice Bakers and Friends ...

This month for our Lit Happens book club, Amy of  Amy's Cooking Adventures  picked  Stargirl  by Jerry Spinnelli.* Though that is not a cook-from-the-book kinda group; I always find some kind of inspiration to create an edible of some kind! But first, the book... On the Page This book is a celebration of individuality and nonconformity set in a time - adolescence - when popularity and inclusion rely on conformity. Narrator Leo Borlock tells the tale of Stargirl Caraway's arrival at Mica High School where the tacit rule is: do not stand out under any circumstance! "We wanted to define her, to wrap her up as we did each other, but we could not seem to get past 'weird' and 'strange' and 'goofy'. Her ways knocked us off balance. A single word seemed to hover in the cloudless sky over the school: HUH?" (pg. 11). Stargirl was born Susan, then, she explains her evolution during her interview in the Hot Seat, a school-produced program. ...

I still don't remember what prompted me to make these cookies. I had been staring at a jar of pink peppercorns. Maybe. But I was in charge of all the sweets for our fundraising dinner and decided to make some pink peppercorn shortbread cookies. Then, because I thought people might find them too savory, I added a dollop of beet-dyed pink frosting. Little did I know that these would be the surprise hit of the nine treats I made. I never even got one; but I'll take my husband's word for it that these were good. And you'll probably seeing these in heart-shape for upcoming Valentines' Day! Also, I scented these with Aquavit which, despite how long Scandinavians have been making and drinking aquavit, it's largely unknown outside of those countries. It's such a shame because, as a spirit, it's completely beguiling. The name 'aquavit' derives from two Latin words: aqua vitae and translates to "water of life." The French have a cle...