Meet Mrs. O'Brien

That's right! No more Wiatrowski come June 30th! And now that I will be officially part of the Leprechaun clan I figured it as time to start baking like one so I dove into Soda Bread. And actually, it's not all that difficult.

There's a TON of flour in it, or at least it feels like it. Four cups according to the recipe I made and that's the gist of it. Its' pretty much all flour and only 1/2 stick of butter. Considering the pound cakes I've been making that consist of 3 sticks, trust me, 1/2 stick is nothing.

I was honestly shocked at how tasty it was too for having so little sugar and just so much flour. Of course the best is to eat it warm with butter which is how I served it but it's still tasty without.

One thing I will say though, and take it to heart, it is a wet dough and hard to deal with at first so keep the flour on hand.

And we're not done yet! Have some left over that may have gotten a little stale? (GASP! LEFT OVER SODA BREAD?!?! I know..) Turn it into biscotti! Yes, what? Right. 

Slice it up, place it on a baking sheet, dab a little honey on each piece. 350 degrees, 20-25 minutes. Kaboom. Biscotti. And you're welcome :)

Poundcake For Days

To kickoff the new blog, let me first say that my brother's girlfriend has created a monster. 

I use to be all about cupcakes. Weekly I'd be punching out cupcakes and don't get me wrong, I still love me a good cupcake but it's a lot of work. You (well, I..) have to get the season-coordinating cupcake liners, coordinating flavor, decoration, etc. Not to mention piping bags and backups for when those burst because of air pockets. Don't even get me started.. 

Now enters Jenn and The Biddy Pound Cake from North Carolina. She's a peach, don't get me wrong, she's great. But since she gave me the Biddy Pound Cake recipe on August 2nd, I've made Blueberry, Chocolate Chip, 2 Lemon, Cinnamon and orange poundcake (that's currently cooling). It's THAT easy. It's a simple recipe that you can just add anything you want to it. 

'








The blueberry, I just folded in frozen blueberries. 
(**FRESH frozen. Not from a bag. I bought them in bulk fresh and keep them in my freezer. No added sugar) **Tip - keep anything with fruit refrigerated unless you want to see it get fuzzy. No joke.**

Chocolate of course, I just folded in chocolate chips then sprinkled some on top. 

Then comes the cinnamon. OH MAN. I didn't think something so simple could be so good! Who would have thought that sprinkling some cinnamon and sugar in between and on top would make that much of a difference and be so delicious! 

Last but definitely not least, comes the glaze. Oh yes. Lemon poundcake with lemon glaze. All I did as use lemon extract instead of vanilla and made a glaze out of the juice of two lemons and 3 cups of powdered sugar. Isn't it beautiful?

One tip with the cakes I figured out too is to refrigerate them when you can get them out of the pan or when they're in the pan. Especially after you glaze them. It's so much easier to cut equal portion sizes when it's cold. Plus it helps the glaze harden and make it that much better.

Happy Baking!