Better late than never

Over Thanksgiving, I was excited to actually get some time to bake. I have had almost no time to bake throughout this quarter, so I took full advantage of the few days off of school to make some tasty treats. However, I have been so busy with my finals that I have not had time to blog about them until now (and that's just because I'm avoiding my homework). This post is a little late, but I hope you will still enjoy it!

The first dessert that I baked was sweet potato cupcakes with burnt marshmallows on top. This recipe was really easy (surprising, since it was Martha Stewart's recipe) and came out really well.
The sweet potatoes caused the cupcakes to be really moist and the burnt marshmallows provided a really yummy substitute for frosting!

Apparently, the cupcakes were so good that Tucker couldn't resist stealing one for himself!

The second dessert that I made for Thanksgiving actually came from the Cooking Light magazine! It was a cranberry tart with meringue topping. It turned out so rich that it's hard to believe that it could qualify as "light."
The directions had me use shortening in the crust, which I don't usually do. It created a really delicious, flaky crust! The cranberry curd had a very strong taste, so I added a lot of meringue to balance it out. Overall, it was very delicious and [relatively] healthy!
Enjoy!

Mango Coconut Key Lime Pie! And Challah!

My mom and I recently bought 12 limes because they were on sale for $1. Well, the best way to use up a bunch of limes is really to make a key lime pie. I have made many key lime pies before, and wanted to mix this one up, so I decided to incorporate mango and coconut flavors.

Here is my key lime pie, topped with mango compote, coconut meringue, and toasted coconut:

Here is a close-up a piece:

Also this week, we decided to try to make challah, which is a traditional Jewish bread that is sweet. We made our challah with dates to make it really sweet. Here's a picture!

Older Desserts

Because I just started this, I will attach some of my older recipes!

1. Here are my meringue cupcakes filled with creme fraiche and berry compote (courtesy of Martha Stewart cupcakes). These took 3 HOURS to bake! They were very yummy though and worth the wait.

2. Here are mini dark chocolate salted-caramel cupcakes (courtesy of Martha Stewart cupcakes). They are dark chocolate filled with a delicious salty caramel filling and topped with a dark chocolate frosting.

3. These are a variation of Martha Stewart's

Lemon Meringue

cupcakes. My family

prefers key lime to

lemon meringue, so I

substituted lime curd

for lemon. They are

lime flavored cupcakes topped with lime curd, browned meringue

frosting, and lime zest. They were really light and delicious!

4. These are mini raspberry cheesecakes topped with fresh raspberries (courtesy of Martha Stewart). They were pretty tasty, and I'm sure would have been even tastier had I used the right amount of cream cheese!

5. These are a combination of recipes. For my sister's wedding shower, she wanted blueberry cupcakes with buttercream frosting. I used Martha Stewart's blueberry cupcake recipe, and then added a basic buttercream on top tinted to be the colors of her wedding. They are in cute flower cupcake liners and topped with edible pearls.