marble banana brownie bread

I have never regretted not bringing my camera with me as much as I do right now... I'm over at my boyfriend's house and I honestly feel like I've made the greatest culinary creation in the history of ever! I was just hanging out earlier and I noticed some very ripe bananas on his counter, so I thought, "Hey, I can make banana bread!" Banana bread is his absolute favorite, not to mention his mom has an amazing recipe for it... While that was going on, his brother complained that he doesn't like banana bread, and I found a box of brownie mix while creeping in the pantry so I just figured I would also make some easy box brownies to please him. I had the banana bread batter ready, the brownie batter, and then... I had a total lightbulb moment. What if I swirled the banana bread and brownie together? Oh my gosh! I am seriously so pleased with the results. This banana brownie bread will change your life. Disappointingly, I don't have my camera, so all I have is this lovely cellphone picture. I will add a better one next time I make it... which will be soon! Ah-may-zing. P.S. I'm sorry I seem to have a loaf problem lately.

triple chocolate loaf

Were you disappointed with my exceedingly healthy, easy, and delicious "recipe" for a smoothie yesterday? Well, fear not! I have a real recipe to share with you, and it contains chocolate. Yessss! If you've been hanging around here long enough, you know that chocolate is a favorite. This lovely recipe is another Baked Explorations find, and it's just as delicious as the oatmeal turtle bars I posted about just a couple days ago. This treat features a cocoa cake base and has three different kinds of chocolate chips buried inside, making for a very indulgent, yet not overly fussy, treat. It's perfect for any kind of chocolate craving. Just look at this deep, dark, chocolatey goodness!

In the original recipe, they included a delicious-sounding peanut butter cream cheese spread as an accompaniment, but I didn't make it, as I didn't have peanut butter, OR cream cheese. And I live with a bunch of peanut butter-hating freaks. But, what can you do. I have included the recipe for it here in case anyone is feeling adventurous enough. Unfortunately, this loaf didn't turn out as good as it could have for me because while it was in the oven, I decided to go take a shower, and I left my mom in charge. She answered "Okay", but then I think she got hypnotized by her Italian soap opera because when I got out of the shower, I could definitely smell something burning... and I tasted just a hint when I ate the much-awaited first slice. Lesson learned: never leave my mom in charge of things in the oven when she's watching her shows. And don't shower when things are in the oven. Ever. Like I said yesterday, don't be like me. Learn from my mistakes. :) Keep following me for more valuably obvious life lessons.

orange sunrise smoothie

Okay, okay, I know what you're thinking, "A smoothie recipe? On a baking blog? What?" But, just, hear me out for a second. I live in Texas, which has had pretty much a record-hot summer so far. As in, triple digits. Daily. It's awful. So please don't blame me if the thought of turning on my oven when it's already 105F outside makes me die a little inside. I thought I would offer you an easy peasy recipe for something you're realistically gonna make soon, maybe even tomorrow! For breakfast, perhaps? It's definitely good for you! 

I'm quite confident this smoothie meets your daily Vitamin C requirements 100%! AND it's delicious, and refreshing. It's a win-win-win situation. On a slightly unrelated yet completely relevant note, I just got a new car! And I'm pretty sure I picked the worst summer in the history of ever to purchase a dark grey car with black interior.... eeeehhh. I literally die inside every time I get in when it's been sitting outside. HELP. In the meanwhile, don't be like me. Buy a white car. With beige interiors. But make this smoothie!

vegan mango banana bread

I have a confession to make... before this recipe, I had never made anything vegan. Well, at least, not intentionally vegan. I mean, guacamole is vegan, right? And so is spaghetti and tomato sauce. But, not any real vegan desserts or anything fancy like that. But, most of the time, it's because although a recipe looks good and easy, it calls for strange vegan replacements that most people don't usually have in their household. So, as I am too lazy and cheap to go buy special ingredients for one particular recipe, I just end up never making anything! Until one day just last week or the other, I was doing my daily check on all my favorite blogs (The Pioneer Woman, How Sweet It Is, Smitten Kitchen, and Joy The Baker), and I saw a glorious headline on Joy's blog, "Vegan Mango Banana Bread." The heavens sang, and my tummy rumbled. I had been itching to make banana bread, and in the back of my head I also wanted to make something out of my comfort zone (aka: vegan). So, why not kill two birds with one stone? Perfect.

This recipe is so quick and easy to throw together, as it contains no butter to cream with sugar, etc., and it's one-bowl! Minimal mess and maximum deliciousness. Honestly, the part that takes the longest is prepping the mango... and then obviously the waiting for it to finish baking. Ugghhlll... does anyone else just want to nap and then wake up exactly 5 minutes before your baked good is finished? I'm tempted to do that all the time but I'm always too scared that I won't wake up and then my house will burn down. But that's just me. Anyway, I saw this healthy recipe and decided to make it even healthier, with excellent results! I swapped half the white flour for whole wheat flour, which made my batter turn into a thick dough... so I added about 1/4 cup of mango juice which literally made this banana bread perfect! Super moist and delicious with a very subtle mango flavor. I think the best part of this banana bread is the fact that I can see endless variations in my head! Add chocolate chips and put almond milk (or even chocolate milk) in place of the juice, and it's banana and chocolate! What about adding a swirl of peanut butter? Mixed berries? The variations are literally endless. I'm so excited. This is not the last you've seen of this banana bread!

oatmeal turtle bars

Way back in March, when I turned 18, I told my friends, "Get me cookbooks!" And... cookbooks I got! :) The one I've used the most so far is the Good Housekeeping Best-Loved Desserts, but I think the most unique and beautifully photographed one is definitely Baked Explorations. The photos are gorgeous and mouthwatering, and the recipes are all over the map. From Salt & Pepper Sandwich Cookies (which are the cover picture), to Tomato Soup Cupcakes with Mascarpone Frosting, to Nutella Scones (which you better believe I will make and post about soon!), all of their treats are fun and innovative spins on old favorites. Anyways, enough ranting, but I adore this cookbook! :) 

These oatmeal turtle bars are so freaking delicious. They may not look like they have that much potential, but they are most definitely a diamond in the rough! The buttery oatmeal crust is almost like a shortbread with added crunch, and a layer of pecans, mixed chocolate chips, and homemade caramel make this perfection! A sprinkling of extra oatmeal topping on top seals the deal. These will blow your mind! And, they're so easy-peasy, you can't NOT make them. I had a little problem though... I followed the directions exactly when I made the caramel, and I'm not sure if it called for too much butter or what, but my caramel was covered by a layer of butter "suds" the whole time it was cooking, which made seeing the color underneath really tricky! It tasted fine, but it was pretty liquid, and you can barely taste it in the bars. But, it melted the chocolate beautifully and I think it helped keep the chocolate layer from getting rock-hard in the fridge. Enough talking, here is how you make these delicious babies!

chocolate-dipped orange lace cookies

Hey, remember when I made those tie-dye cupcakes and said I got that amazing recipe from my giant Bon Appetit Cookbook? Well, this is another little gem that was hiding in that monster... orange lace cookies, dipped in decadent dark chocolate. Yuuum. Lace cookies look like fancy French bakery cookies, and although one would think that they would be ultra crispy and crunchy (and I'm sure some variations are), this particular recipe results in thin but gooey and chewy treats! The abundant orange zest helps give the cookies a fresh flavor, but the indulgent chocolate dip makes them taste rich... without being overpowering. 

With all the warm flavors in these cookies, I would say they're better fit as a fall/winter treat... but personally, I'm not one to let the weather dictate what I make! So, if you want to make them now, I encourage you to do it! And if not, save this recipe for a later time. :) Also, you may wanna not make this recipe right away if you fear for your bikini body! Cause, summer may be already halfway over (wait.. what? NOOO!), but most people don't want to binge on delicious cookies that contain more brown sugar than flour. But, that's just my two cents. :)

strawberry & lemon curd tartlets

First of all, yesterday was my Mom's birthday! Happy Birthday, Mom! Whoooo! :) So, I made her these delicious tartlets. And, let me tell you, they were so, so delicious. They may not have been the most photogenic little things, but they sure were tasty. I think part of the reason they were slightly unattractive was that I used strawberries instead of other smaller, daintier berries. Like blueberries or raspberries or something. The problem with strawberries is that although they may be gorgeous and red and juicy, they just don't fit atop a little bite-sized tartlet! So they had to be chopped up, which made them a wee bit uglier. But personally, I always pick taste over looks! As long as it's delicious, who cares if it's ugly, right? :) 

The only thing I can think about when I see strawberries, or eat them, or even just smell strawberry-scented stuff, is summer. Sunshine, swimming, tanning, and juicy, refreshing strawberries. Yum! These delicious little tarts remind me of strawberry lemonade, and the slightly sweet berries contrast with the (homemade) tangy lemon curd perfectly, making these one-bite wonders amazing! Wait, hold up. Did I say homemade lemon curd?! Yes, I did, but don't panic! It's actually really easy... and I say that honestly because it was my first time making it too! This recipe has a few separate steps that need to be taken care of for the tartlets to come together, but that's what makes it a perfect make-ahead recipe! Make the lemon curd one day, the tart shells another, and assemble before serving. Easy as that!

nutella marble cupcakes

In Italy, Nutella sandwiches are the equivalent of the classic PB&J, but honestly, all Europeans love Nutella on... well, everything. Bread, croissants, crackers, crunchy breadsticks, bananas, strawberries... seriously, you name it. In America, it's more of a new thing, but it seems to be quickly catching on. Thank goodness. :) 

While I was just hanging out on Pinterest the other day, I spotted this amazingly delicious looking picture of what appeared to be chocolate and vanilla marble cupcakes, but I was happily surprised to discover that it was actually Self-frosting Nutella Cupcakes. Um, say what?! And I was even more pleasantly surprised when I found out how easy they are to make. Dear cupcakes, where have you been my whole life?! These are so fabulous with so little effort that it'll absolutely blow your mind. Think about a dense, almost chewy vanilla cupcake. Almost like a cookie. Then add in a generous swirl of Nutella that magically melds with the cake batter in the oven and becomes warm and melty while the top becomes crunchy... yep. Heaven! Make these right now. If you have Nutella in your pantry, you probably have everything else you need. Yuuu-um. 

patriotic cake pops

Hi there. No, I'm not dead. Yes, I have kind of abandoned my blog... and I feel terrible about it! I really wish I had time to take care of it, but the truth is, I just can't do it as often as I want to. Now that it's summer, I'm even more busy than I was during well, not the summer. I work at least 8 hours every day and by the time I get home, the last thing I want to do is bake and blog about it. So, pardon me for being human... and a little lazy. I have been trying to get in better shape, so not baking and working out with the time I could be baking have been working out fabulously for me. Not baking means no treats for me to cheat with... because I know that if I bake something delicious, I really can't help myself. 

ANYWAYS, I know you come here for baking and recipes and not for the rants about my life... I know I'm nearly a week late with this, but I had to post about it anyways. For the Fourth of July, I made chocolate cake pops with vanilla frosting, dipped them in white almond bark, and generously dusted them with patriotic-colored sprinkles. They were the cutest little desserts ever! And perfect for any party, seriously.