SMS Recap - Top Ten

SMS, or Sweet Melissa Sundays, was the very first online baking club I joined back in the spring of 2009. At the time, Lorelei of Mermaid Sweets, was running it, and later Karen of Karen's Cookies Cakes & More took over. Both girls did a great job organizing the club activities and keeping everyone in line :o) Thank you for making my first baking club so much fun!

I have baked a total of 37 recipes from the book. Some were good, some not so much, and some were just phenomenal. Now that SMS has come to an end, Gloria suggested that we each post our Top Ten SMS recipes. Great idea, Gloria. It was hard to narrow it down to only 10. I looked at my notes and my husband's rating to help me compile the Top Ten.

Don't forget to check out the Top Ten list of other SMS bakers.


Here they are (in order). For some reason, Blogger is not allowing me to display all my pictures in this post, so I've only included pictures of the Top Three.


Strawberry Rhubarb Preserves (and many other variations such as Peach Preserves).


Chocolate Cream Caramels


Caramel Apple-Cranberry Tart


Savory Muffins: Caramelized Onion & Sage & Cheese Muffins.

My very first Financiers: Chestnut Honey Madeleines.

Black Bottom Brownies (is it a brownie? or a cheesecake? it's both!).

Fruity Muffins (Pear/Cranberry as well as Blueberry/Orange Muffins).

Apple Banana Bread (a fruit combo that worked really well).

Caramel Apple Turnovers with Sweet Ricotta Filling (another combination that worked surprisingly well).

Brooklyn Brownout Cake: last but not least, possibly the chocolatiest cake you'll ever eat (Choc Cake filled with Ganache Coated Brownie Pieces, enrobed in Choc Ganache).