SMiLes by Meg

Tag: sweet

German Bundt Cake

In my second installment of high altitude baking, I really went for something challenging: a true cake. Cookies bake for a short period of time, meaning that recipes really don’t need to be altered all that much. However, cakes are in the oven longer, and rising is much more important. Though there are plenty of websites online that explain adjustments of various ingredients at altitude, I decided it would be more fun to find an actual cookbook. What I found was a great little spiral bound book called Mountain High Cakes, written right here in Jackson, Wyoming!

Simple Fruit Tart

I’m writing this post from my phone, sitting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where I decided not to bring my laptop and the house decided not to have super consistent internet. Overall, this is a great feature, because it means I spend much more of my time hiking and biking and reading than looking at a screen. However, when it came time to blog, it did make it a little trickier. 

Banana Muffins

Ever look over at your fruit bowl and realize your bananas have turned almost completely brown before you even had a chance to eat one? Looking for a quick recipe when you don’t necessarily have all of the ingredients on hand for the best banana bread ever? Good news: if you bake (from scratch) ever, you definitely have everything to make these muffins and feel like you didn’t waste food after all.

Cinnamon Pinwheels

I’m officially on summer vacation! With a month before I start my last year of school ever, I’m definitely trying to pack a lot in. In a couple of hours, my mom and I will leave for our annual Nantucket trip. Then, two days after we get back, I’ll head out to Montana and Wyoming for a couple weeks of hiking and generally not being in an office. With all of this traveling, baking will be a bit more challenging, but don’t worry – I’m committed.

Strawberry Ice Cream Sandwiches

I learned so many things yesterday. First, baking bread when your kitchen is over 80° is destined to be a disaster. Rather than rise up, the bread spreads out, and then you have flat sourdough, which is really only good to be cut up into crostini. Second, my apron has pockets, which means that when I discovered this and started storing my phone in one, I spent far too much time searching the counter for said phone whenever I needed to take a picture. Finally, there are some recipes that you just know how good the finished product will be …

Lemon Blueberry Ricotta Cake

It feels like forever ago that I made this cake. (It was Thursday.) I brought it to brunch on Friday with some coworkers, but since then I’ve spent two nights up in Vermont with my cousins, making Friday brunch a distant memory. Fortunately, I remember that it got a lot of compliments.

Coconut Lime Popsicles

In this week’s baking adventure, I learned two things: (1) A popsicle mold would be a really great investment for the summer. (2) Popsicles are a hard thing to take flattering pictures of. Fortunately, though this may not be my best food photography, the end product is still a refreshing summer treat.

Twix Cookies

This week, my recipe has a story! At my internship this summer, lunch meetings always have some kind of dessert. Usually it’s cookies and brownies, pretty standard. But one day this week, there were these little slices of chocolate cake with caramel, very much like a Twix, and I instantly decided I needed to make something similar. However, with a cake, you don’t get the same satisfying crunch that the cookie layer in a Twix bar provides.

Viscotti

I have a new theory in the kitchen: cinnamon belongs in everything. Perhaps controversial, but I’m pretty sold on the stuff. It’s amazing what the addition of some cinnamon does to what would otherwise just be a cakey sugar cookie in this recipe. Literally game changing.

Chocolate Coconut Macaroons

Happy birthday, Mom! Though last weekend we had your surprise party, this Friday was the real deal, so of course, despite our emergency trip for coconut cake, I had to make one more coconut recipe. This week, a Kathy Muncey special: chocolate coconut macaroons.