coconut cream pie bars.

Whenever I watch tennis, soccer, or any really athletic sport (sorry golf), I at some point appreciate how fit those people are. The thought sometimes continues, in-between admiring Rafa's outbursts of greatness and Djokovic's insane flexibility (can you tell I've been watching the French Open?). Commercial breaks come, and I start to plot out a regime of health foods & exercise to get my heart pumping on the level of the players I was just watching. The game comes back, and an exciting rally reinforces my vow to reform my life.

Eventually, the game ends. And instead of immediately going for a hike or run, I stay on my bed, stalk foodgawker, and decide to make coconut cream pie bars. Well ... everyone has their own thing to love, right?

pina colada bars (using cake mix).

I posted a recipe for snickerdoodle cheesecake bars some time ago, also using cake mix. Although homemade baked goods are favorable most 100% of the time, cake mix does have its role in baking. Oftentimes for bake sales, you don't want to spend a lot of money. Or there's just not enough time to make from-scratch dessert.

For these instances, cake mixes work wonderfully. One of the reasons they work so well is not just because they're pre-packaged, but because they're versatile! I Googled extensively on how to manipulate cake mixes into interesting creations. I didn't find as much as I expected. 

In order to increase the doctoring-cake-mix database the Interweb, I thought I'd start adding some of my recipes. I made these pina colada bars for a friend's bake sale, and apparently they sold out first, if that says anything. 

whole wheat carrot zucchini muffins.

The two busiest weeks of my senior year ended today, and I cannot be more at peace. Before 9pm, I had washed my face, brushed my teeth, climbed into bed, and was watching a movie, and IT WAS GREAT.

I figured I would blog since I had the time, even if I made these muffins a while ago.

mango coconut cream cake.

With school starting soon, lots of things need to get done. I went to the bicycle shop today to get my bike repaired (a tube in the tire needed to be replaced). I packed half my clothes. I hauled my MCAT books up from the basement, although I still haven't made a decision on whether a retake is happening or not.

I also went to the dentist to get my teeth checked before a semester of stress eating and potachos healthy eating. I also learned how to use those little floss picks. I've never flossed before though, and the past few times I have, my gums start bleeding immediately! It sucks! I know it's normal, but I'm so wary of pushing my flosser vertically down between my teeth.

I need to get over it. Just like I finally got over any doubts I had about chiffon cakes with this cake.

lamington bars.

As of late, I've been having difficulty keeping up with blogposts. Everyone is aware of the usual reasons - it's time-consuming, there are many other things going on, school will get busy soon, etc. So instead of proffering a ton of excuses & still continuing to blog extremely minimally, I have decided to find a working medium.

Instead of my usual rambling posts, I'm going to post mainly pictures & recipes. This will keep the the posts shorter, but still allow me to get everything to you.

Speaking of, let's get to these bars.

coconut cream pie cupcakes.

It's summer.

Okay, well ignore the rain that's been the backdrop of the past couple days.

But in general, it's hot. Tan lines come very easily. Tinted moisturizer is used in lieu of heavy foundation. Shorts are established as an outfit staple, and ice cream becomes a daily indulgence.

Don't you also feel like eating lots of tropical & refreshing things? Like papaya? And watermelon? And acai juice? Mmmm. These coconut cupcakes are an example of a perfect summer dessert.

blueberry hazelnut coconut oatmeal.

I am here today to introduce to you - delicious oatmeal.

No sugar. Plain oats. Simple things combined to make the classiest breakfast you've probably eaten in a while, unless you have the good fortune of eating at Café du Monde every morning.

But us normal folk tend to either not eat breakfast (bad!!!) or eat breakfast sandwiches or something portable and convenient.

I won't necessarily concede to the fact that this is portable (although it could be! in a paper cup, I've eaten it that way for two years straight in high school .. while driving. so no excuses.), but it is quite easy. If you have ten minutes, I highly recommend it.

toasted coconut butterscotch bars.

Watch out for these. They are dangerously addictive, with the contrast of the crisp edges and top crust with the soft, chewy interior. If you haven't gotten by now, I love when there's a crisp/chewy contrast. The coconut is chewy, but also slightly crunchy and nutty from being toasted. The butterscotch chips are very sweet, and mesh well with the brown sugar dough.

I made them for my brothers, but after tasting them, I am tempted to make another batch to bring back to school with me. If I have time. I need to collect my things & wash my hair & do my nails first. 

I'm excited to work out at Sonny Werbs once I get back, so I can eat more of these .. I want to see you work out for me, work out for me. I don't know if I like the words/idea behind that song, but I definitely like the beat of it.

inside-out german chocolate cake.

So I have awesome friends. Who I do awesome things with. And who also make me awesome birthday cakes! I'll let Danielle do the rest of the talking - yuppp. This is a guest blog post!!

I'm in the black dress; Danielle's wearing red!

Hey friends!  This is Yat's suitemate, Danielle, and she asked me to do this guest post… she likes to show me off sometimes.  Not really, but after helping bake her birthday cake, I have been given the honor to make an appearance on here (so much pressure!). 

Celebrating Yat’s birthday is fun, because her birthday is over winter break, so we try to make it a surprise.  And when’s the best time to make a massive cake?  Obviously in the middle of finals when we’re all stressed to the max and can use the cake to 1. Honor our friend’s birthday, and 2. Eat all our feelings away. We’re nothing if not efficient.  Andrea found a recipe for this beautiful inside-out German chocolate cake, and we decided we would bake it in the small time frame between our organic chemistry final and our friends’ holiday party.  So to give an idea of what went into baking this masterpiece, I will tell it in the form of a dramatic narrative.

"almond joy" pie.

Hello, dear friends. I am not a fan of fibbing when it comes to food. If I'm minding my own business on tastespotting and see some tender vanilla cupcakes topped off with an orange-tinted frosting, I get excited and think, oh maybe it's mango frosting! what a novel idea! mango? in frosting form?! that sounds amazing! And the hype continues for the entire 1 second or so it takes for the page to load & for me to scroll down and see that my hopes & dreams have been shattered by reality. Because in reality, that frosting was neither mango nor papaya. It wasn't even orange. It was artificial coloring that allowed cream cheese frosting to masquerade as something so much more than it actually was.

I hate that.

And so I'm going to keep it real here & tell you from the beginning (I would say "get go," but I am entirely unsure of where that phrase originates/what it even means) that this pie is not some fabulous translation of a favorite candy bar into a delicious pie.

Let me rephrase that. This pie certainly IS fabulous. But it is very loosely based around the idea of an Almond Joy.

german chocolate cake, vanilla version.

I just assembled the cake about five minutes ago. I do not have the slightest idea of what I will write about in this post to you all (well that's not so unusual), and there are walnut skin things all over the place.

But after a little of the frosting got on the back of my hand and I absentmindedly licked it off, I had to share my love with the world. I am aware the world does not read my blog, but let me pretend it does for this time, okay?


This frosting. This caramel, walnut, coconut frosting has blown my mind. German chocolate cake has been my favorite cake ever since my surprise sixteenth birthday party, when my mom (moms know all, srsly) arranged for a 1/4 sheet cake of German Chocolate Cake to be my birthday cake.