24 looooooong days...

That's how long I've gone without baking, but who's counting... :o). I'm happy to report that my granite counter top was installed on Tuesday morning, making my kitchen functional at last. I was super excited. It's just as beautiful as when I selected it a few weeks back. Getting this color of granite, Verde Jade, was a bit challenging. After a few phone calls, I finally found a few slabs. Yay! One of the contractors we considered for the counter top project actually tried to talk me into picking "something else, something more readily available". Talk about taking the easy route! Anyway, I'm really glad I stuck to my guns :o)

I would like to wait until the kitchen project is completely finished before I post pictures. This means, a tiled backsplash (for which I just finished creating a layout design) and a new floor, scheduled for the end of November. Sorry for keeping you in suspense in the meantime. I think the before and after pictures would be even more striking that way. In the meantime, you'll be able to see the Verde Jade counter top in the background of my pictures :o)

Chocolate Chip Crumb Cake Muffins. Definitely a keeper!

Guess what I did after work on Tuesday evening? If you guessed "baking", you were absolutely correct. With a bake sale at work the next day, I couldn't have had a better excuse. I decided to bake Chocolate Chip Crumb Cake Muffins from Gale Gand's new book called Brunch. I'm a big fan of Gale Gand's, ever since I watched her desserts show called Sweet Dreams on Food Network years ago. When I saw her new book on the "Just Arrived" shelf at the library, I had to check it out. These muffins were one of many recipes that immediately caught my attention. This was the perfect opportunity to try them out. They were easy to put together. They were chocolatey, moist, tender, with a nice crunch on top from the streusel. I won't be posting the recipe on my blog as I highly encourage you to check out her book at the library or purchasing it.

My changes to the recipe:

• Added 2 tsp of instant espresso powder to the dry ingredients (without dissolving it).
• Added 2 Tbsp of milk to the sour cream.
• Modified the streusel topping by using melted the butter instead softened butter, and close to double the amount of flour. You get crispier streusel topping this way. I learned this trick from Sarah of Blue Ridge Baker. Thanks Sarah, it worked!
  

The batter was chocolatey and satiny smooth

This recipe makes 24 muffins which was perfect for the bake sale

Sprinkled each muffin with the streusel topping and mini chocolate chips

Here are all 24 muffins (I actually made 25 and shared one with hubby, and then bought 2 more of my own muffins at the bake sale, ha ha!)

Tried to capture the moist and tender interior of the muffin but the lighting was a bit off. It was delicious!

Heavenly Cake Baker - a new baking group

I've recently joined a new baking group called Heavenly Cake Bakers, organized by Marie. Once a week we bake a recipe from Rose's Heavenly Cakes. This is Rose Levy Beranbaum's newest book, published about 2 weeks ago. As many of you know, Rose is the famed author of The Cake Bible.


The publisher, Wiley & Sons, gave away 10 signed copies to the first 10 people who sign up for this bake along. Guess who made it to that top 10? Moi! Yay! I received my signed copy last Friday. It read: "For Hanaa, charter member of the bake along. Blissful baking. Love, Rose". How cool is that?! For one thing, hardly anybody spells my name right :o)


So a big thank you to Rose, for writing yet another beautiful book with stunning color photos, and to Wiley & Sons. Last but not least, a big thanks to Marie for organizing this bake along.

If you would like to join the Heavenly Cake Bakers baking group, here are the rules:

• You must own, or have easy access to, a copy of Rose's Heavenly Cakes.

• You must have a blog.
  

• At the beginning of each month Marie will post the recipes that will be featured for that month. Marie will bake one per week, but you only have to agree to bake two of the selections. Of course you can bake more often if you like.

• Blog posts should be made within a 24 hour period on Mondays.

• If you run out of steam or feel you can’t keep baking, let Marie know so she can remove you from the list of Heavenly Cake Bakers - that way, readers will know that only active bakers are on the list of bloggers.

• Recipes will not be posted on your blogs since everyone will have a copy of the book and we want to encourage sales of Rose's Heavenly Cakes.

• Don't forget to have fun!

This week's recipe was for the Barcelona brownie bars. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to participate this week as I'm in the middle of a kitchen remodeling project. If you would like to give these deliciously fudgy and nutty brownies a try, you can find the recipe on Rose's blog (click HERE for the recipe).

For your entertainment, here's a picture of my very first cake from The Cake Bible, about 4 years ago. I made a white butter cake, with a lightly whipped white chocolate ganache filling, topped with lemon curd. The frosting consisted of the same whipped white chocolate ganache. My inspiration for the laced "chocolate band" came from Rose's Strawberry Cloud Cake. I had also just learned how to temper chocolate and needed an excuse to practice (my birthday couldn't have come at a better time!).

I couldn't believe I was able to pull off the lattice band without any problems!

It tasted as good as it looked and I never went back to store bought cakes ever again!