One of the most popular recipes on my site is this red velvet cake roll . Month after month, it comes up in my top three most visited pages. So, I thought to myself this week, why not try to whip up  another cake roll to break the internet? Cue this chocolate covered, strawberry cream filled cake roll. As a swiss roll fanatic myself, I was super excited for how this would turn out. I think I may have attempted a chocolate cake roll sometime in the past, but I wasn't successful and sort of swept the idea under the rug. This time around, I turned to Sally from Sally's Baking Addiction for her cake baking expertise and found this incredible chocolate cake base recipe for the roll. It is super decadent but fluffy at the same time and most importantly, it did not crack. As Sally says, it's super important NOT to overbake the cake because that is what will keep it from being as pliable in the rolling process. As for the inside of the roll, I prepared a whipped stra...

So, why didn't anybody tell me that baking with a pet is infinitely harder than baking without one? I mean, I seriously can't do anything these days without my cat as my shadow. She has even learned the sound a bag of shredded cheese makes when it's being opened and rushes to my side for some of that good stuff. I find myself having to schedule my baking around her cat naps because I would feel way too bad about locking her in a room; those precious meows get me all the time. Thankfully, she fell asleep just before I whipped these up. But unfortunately, after I baked all of my shells, Junie jumped on my table unexpectedly with no rhyme or reason and landed straight onto a tray of paired up shells. Yup. The joys of being a pet owner. I've decided having a pet is quite similar to having a toddler. Did I mention I had to purchase stove knob covers for fear of her turning on the stove...again? Yup, that happened. I'm hoping once she grows out of her ki...

Oops, I sort of let Valentine's Day pass by without baking anything chocolate-y for you all. But..better late than never though, right? I've sort of been trying to be on a diet lately and I'm failing pretty miserably at it. I mean, when I say diet, I really just mean I've been trying to curb my sweet tooth. But it's SO hard, guys. I can literally do high intensity interval training 4 to 5 times a week but I can't say no to a Reese's Fast Break bar. And the worst part is every time I give in, I try to justify it. Like, it has peanut butter and that's protein so it's not that bad. Plus, I worked out. And the cycle repeats itself over and over again. So I figured out that I should surround myself with healthier sweets, that way the guilt isn't so bad and neither are the consequences. This chocolate-hazelnut tart looks so indulgent but it's actually made of wholesome ingredients. There's no refined sugar, no grains, no gluten, and...

So, remember how 2017 was the year of trying new things in the kitchen? Well, I have decided to continue that trend into 2018 and today, I have for you none other than a classic vanilla creme brulee! You guys, all this time, I was making macarons and not knowing what to do with all the leftover egg yolks...why didn't anyone tell me?! Why didn't anyone tell me that creme brulee is so easy to make? Especially for someone who has made pastry cream a bunch of times, like myself. It was a literal breeze. Too easy to the point that I was sure I missed a step...like is that all there is to it? Even the torching process wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. The scariest part was having my husband fill the torch with butane; I was just worried he wouldn't do it right and the whole thing would blow up. But, the torch is fine and it was super easy to get that beautiful caramelized sugar crust. For my first try at this fancy shmancy dessert, I am honestly so impres...

I did it. I gave in to the red food coloring. It had to be done. Valentine's Day just isn't complete without at least ONE red velvet recipe. And I've got the best one for you. Pancakes, red velvet pancakes. And not just any red velvet pancakes, heart-shaped red velvet pancakes. Because circles are so boring, right? Not romantic at all. I intended to bake them as hearts, but alas, the batter was too runny. But no worries, my heart shaped cookie cutter came right in handy. And obviously, I ate all the leftover scraps. In the future, I would use a bigger cookie cutter but that's not to say these mini hearts aren't the cutest!

Ummmm...why didn't anyone tell me that you could put sprinkles on macarons before you bake them and they still come out SO cute? Seriously! Here I was, for months thinking that you are not by any means to mess with the macaron shell. Pipe and pray, that was my routine. This changes everything. For starters, I made these adorable Valentine's Day macarons for you guys! Can you even? I can't even. In true Valentine's Day fashion, I paired together raspberries and chocolate to flavor these beauties. I used freeze-dried raspberries for the shell, and then filled them with a dark chocolate ganache. I also sprinkled additional ground freeze dried raspberries over the ganache to add an extra oomph of tartness! Let me tell you, you will never go wrong with this flavor combination. It is absolutely delectable. Now I'm off to buy more sprinkles for my macarons. If you have any flavor suggestions you'd like me to try, leave them in the comments below!

Hello everyone and welcome to my fourth installment of mini cheesecakes because evidently, I have become obsessed with my mini cheesecake pan. It is an absolute pain in the neck to wash but that won't keep me from using it over and over again. Not that I hear you guys complaining; these Nutella cheesecakes were a total hit last month! So I am at it again, this time providing you with a wonderful idea for Valentine's Day! Ditch the overpriced chocolate covered strawberries and make these cheesecakes instead! Chcoolate ganache beats a hard chocolate shell any day of the week.  Also, you don't have to worry about strawberries not being in season because these cheesecakes are made with freeze-dried strawberries. Shout out to my local ALDI store who recently started carrying them! Don't you just love ALDI? Freeze-dried fruit in general is God's gift to bakers I think. It makes flavoring things so much easier! Stay tuned for another freeze-dried fruit rec...

Ladies and gents, say hello to the inside out version of my chocolate-filled cream puffs with strawberry sauce . The version that's got me, the chocolate lover, saying that I enjoyed a higher strawberry-chocolate ratio. Shocking, I know. But these little nuggets are phenomenal. Like, win-your-partner-over-this-Valentine's-Day phenomenal. And by the way, that old saying about the stomach being the best way to a man's heart most definitely applies to women too. I will literally devote myself to you if you feed me. Especially if you feed me dessert. So men, take notes. Bookmark this page. Make this for your ladies! It's outrageously easy. Basic ingredients, minimal prep, and easy-peasy assembly.

Lately, I've been really starting to get in touch with my creative side when it comes to baking. Where I once used to be afraid to change anything in a recipe, I now think of all the ways I could put my own twist on it. I am even starting to create my own recipes thanks to a little nudge from Mystery Dish . I gotta say, I love this side of me! It has sparked a continuous flow of creative juices, so much so that I now have to stop and write my ideas down because they literally pop up anywhere, at any time. It's been great. The idea for these bars came to me a while back when I made these red and white velvet cookies . The first time I attempted the cookies, they came out crispy instead of chewy. Crispy like graham-crackers. Crispy like they should be ground up and used like a graham cracker crust...with a white chocolate cheesecake. Because what complements red velvet better than white chocolate and cheesecake, right?

Uh-oh. I'm bringing out the strawberries and chocolate. You know what that means....Single Awareness day is coming up! Also known as Corporate Money Making Scheme Day, but more commonly known as Valentine's Day :) Whatever you call it, it's really more and less an excuse to stuff your face with chocolate, so I'm helping you do that. But the reaaaal reason I'm bringing out the strawberries and chocolate today is because these two ingredients were in the mystery box of ingredients that the awesome Allie picked out for us in this month's edition of Mystery Dish ! Perfect timing, wouldn't you say?

Yes, I'm aware that I'm jumping on the cake pop bandwagon pretty late. But to be honest, the idea of cake pops has never really intrigued me. Now, Oreo truffles, those are something else. I could live off of those. But mushing up cake, mixing it with frosting, and then covering it with a candy coating, just doesn't appeal to me. It's way too sweet, even for my sweet tooth. But when I found myself with leftover cake for the umpteenth time, I figured it would be better to salvage it and make it into something rather than throw it out like I always do. I know, I'm a horrible person. But nobody in my house will eat the leftover scraps of cake I end up with after leveling/torting my cakes. Sometimes they do, and other times I'll feed it to the birds in my backyard, but most of the time, it just sort of sits in a tupperware box or plate for days until I finally just chuck it in the trash and pray for forgiveness. I'm not sure if there's some sort of l...

Whoever came up with the idea of using cake mix to make cookies deserves mad props. Not only is cake mix much cheaper than buying pre-made cookie dough, but cookies made from cake mix stay soft and chewy for days, something that many of you probably already know, never happens with cookies from a tube. What's also great about making cookies from cake mix is that the possibilities are endless; you can experiment with different flavored mixes and add-ins, to cater to your taste. I saw these cookies on Two Peas & Their Pod and I couldn't have gotten in the car any faster to go buy a box of red velvet cake mix. Of course, I would find it out of stock. Of course. This is red velvet we're talking about. America's latest obsession. An obsession that I honestly never understood until I tried one of these cookies, warm out of the oven, oozing with cream cheese filling. Contrary to what I believed for a very long time, red velvet is not just chocolate cake...