Cranberry & Apple topped Cheesecake

I had the pleasure of baking for my family and some awesome friends over the holidays, so I had to make sure I baked something extra delicious. It was the holidays, so I also wanted something easy so I didn't have to spend all day baking. Enter, what I like to call, the 'cheater cheesecake.' This cheesecake base recipe is based off of one on Kraft's website, and is super easy. No water-bath, no tricky ingredients, no complicated instructions. I put a graham crust on it so that you don't even have to worry about pre-baking a shell or mixing up dough. It's also almost impossible to mess up, which I know for a fact, seeing as I slightly over-bake it almost every time I make it and it has never come out anything but delicious.

The cranberry-apple topping is a beast of my own creation in response to the fact that I, one, wanted something unique, and two, find a lot of traditional toppings to be overly sweet.  The cranberries give this topping a tangy twist that helps balance the sweetness of the apples and the rest of the cheesecake. If you are really short on time or lacking in motivation, you can buy a can of pre-made fruit topping and forgo making your own. Since you can make the topping while the cheesecake bakes, it doesn't really add much time onto the process and it tastes way better than store bought, I say go for it-- but if you need that hour to clean your bathroom before your guests come over, or to get that mysterious stain out of your shirt before you go over to someone's house for dinner, I totally understand.

Holiday Cookie Lineup - 7 EASY Recipes

'Tis the season of baking! Most of us will be baking in the next two weeks, be it for parties, our own holidays or new year celebrations.  Since I plan on being occupied with my own fun over the next few weeks, I thought I'd do one of those fantastic cheater posts where I review my favorite holiday-friendly cookie recipes in case you are making some last minute dessert menu decisions. The best part about my list is that they are all SUPER easy, so if you have one of those, "OH CRAP, I FORGOT TO GET A GIFT FOR SO-AND-SO," moments, you can quickly whip up a batch of cookies and act like you planned it that way all along.

Have a cookie that should be on this list? I'm not fancy enough for a linkey, but leave a comment with a link to your favorite, easy, cookie and let's all share!

Drop Sugar Cookies

This recipe is a favorite from my childhood that I recently made as holiday treats for my co-workers. They are quick and easy and very unique. They are soft, light and cakey. I'm told that they taste like old-school Archway soft sugar cookies, but, having grown up in a household that did not believe in store bought cookies, I'll have to take other people's word for it. These are fun because you can add some food coloring to make them festive for a special occasion, and also because THEY ARE DELICIOUS.

This recipe originates from my great grandmother and, other than adding some food coloring, I never alter it. It makes a lot of cookies, so you could easily cut it in half, but, why would you want LESS deliciousness???? :-)

Stamped Lemon Shortbread Cookies

Let's start by saying this-- if you've never considered what short bread cookies are made out of, then turn away now and never read this post. Eat your tin of Walkers in blissful ignorance and rejoice in it's delicious splendor......If you already know what goes into a shortbread cookie, then, welcome, pull up a chair-- let's clamp off our aortas together. :-)

As you may have guessed by their flaky, delicious nature, shortbread cookies are pretty much pure butter. WHICH IS WHY THEY ARE SO AMAZING. My baking tends to err on the side of extra chocolaty, a habit I've needed to break since a number of the recipients of my baked goods do not eat chocolate. (Shocking, I know....I'm not sure why they are my friends....) I also like to have a couple of things in my arsenal that are a light, refreshing balance to some of the heavier chocolate based items. These lemon shortbreads are something I created to serve alongside my favorite brownies. I mean, let's be honest-- there is a tray of cookies/brownies.....who eats ONE, right? But two of my favorite brownies leads to being curled up in the corner wishing that I had the good sense to only eat one, so, enter the lemon shortbread!

Honey Cake

Hellooooooooo! I took a little break, but I. AM. BACK! Summer is on the way out the door, the heat has *finally* broken here in Chicago and I'm back in my kitchen. I don't know when fall officially starts, but here in Julie Vision world, it's up and running. I love fall. I the weather; the flavors; bonfires; hoodie sweatshirts; Thanksgiving; everything short of raking leaves, I love.  For me, the start of fall eating is signaled by Rosh Hashanah. For those of you who do not celebrate Rosh Hashana, it is the Jewish New Year. The Rosh Hashanah meal consists of sweet fall flavors to celebrate the season and project sweetness into the year to come. These flavors include apples, honey, and pomegranate. One traditional desert to serve at your meal is honey cake.

Going back to my love of all things fall-- I love honey cake! Though this is a lesser known fall desert, I find it to be a fantastic fall-food-starter. It has great warm, fall flavor, without being pumpkin or apple. I love pumpkin and apple, but, in a season where you can get pumpkin flavored everything--from your coffee to your car air freshener--this sweet, fall-spiced cake is a good one to work into your fall baking rotation. Plus, this recipe is super easy. Double plus, I love to eat it for breakfast. (Cake is *totally* an acceptable breakfast......right? If you aren't sure if that's true, tell yourself it's acceptable to eat holiday foods for breakfast in celebration of your own culture or someone else's culture.....that just makes you worldly.) :-)

Carrot Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Icing

Hello! Sorry for the week of no posts, it's be HOT here in Chicago! It's not much cooler this week, but tonight is my book club and, dammit, book club cannot happen without treats! I love carrot cake, but am not the biggest fan of cream cheese icing (I know, I know, I'm a weirdo). But what goes with carrot cake other than cream cheese icing? Nothing. That's correct. So I've developed a super-vanillay version of the classic that I find to be delicious. Also, carrot cake is made of carrots, which are a vegetable, so I declare this a vegetable, and, therefor, healthy. Comments noting the fact that the butter and sugar content outweigh the carrot content, or any other sort of science refuting my vegetable theory will be deleted, ummmkay????

Deep Dish Peach Cobbler

Some things in life are not with the time, effort, or calories. Unbalanced cobbler is one of them. Unbalanced as in either too-much-fruit-not-enough-biscuit or too-much-biscuit-not-enough-fruit. I often find that, due to fruit shrinkage when the fruit cooks, the latter occurs by accident. NOT ON MY WATCH, do you hear me?? NOT ON MY WATCH!!! Plus, when there is a lot of fruit you can pretend it cancels out the calories by being healthy and you can eat it for breakfast. :-) Thus, I make a 'deep dish' peach cobbler.

Cobblers are one of my favorite summer desserts. I love them when fruits/berries are fresh and you don't have to use frozen. (You can make very delicious cobbler with frozen fruit, but fresh fruit, in my opinion, always tastes better. That being said-- if you need to save time or the fruit is out of season, frozen is a fantastic alternative.) I've never been big on pie-- possibly the too-much-crust-not-enough-fruit problem that often occurs-- so crisps and cobblers are my favorite fruit based deserts. My recipe started as the one in the Betty Crocker 1969 cookbook featured in my sidebar, but has morphed pretty far from there over the last few years.

Three Layer Irish Cream Cake + Decorating Tutorial (Subtitled: How to narrowly avoid Cake Wrecks)

I made the fantastic Layla a birthday cake. Layla has long been an aficionado of the Irish Cream Cupcakes I made for Leslie's Birthday, so I was quite certain that Layla needed an Irish cream cake for her birthday. The recipe I used is the same as the one for the cupcakes, but with the amounts adjusted to make three, nine inch layers, each about 1.5ish inches thick.

I've also included a decorating tutorial for my standard birthday cake design, which you can all thank me for because now that everyone knows it's easy, they are going to expect better cakes. ;-) I will warn you that the Baileys in the icing made the icing colors appear slightly different than if you were putting them in a white, less boozy icing. This is important in this case only because the cake I envisioned was a lovely dark teal with pastel pick letters and some very elegant pink and white sprinkles, but it became the creation you see here when the colors took differently than I'd hoped and I switched to a standard confetti sprinkle. At any rate, I figure I have narrowly avoided cake-wrecks this time, even if it be only by a small margin.

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

It appears to be a bit of a right of passage for a baking blog to feature a cookie dough cupcake recipe. I've staked a number of them on pinterest, (like this one and this one and this one), and they came in two varieties-- the kind that stuff with dough post-baking and the kind that freeze the dough and bake it inside. I opted to go the route of freezing the dough, so that it really goes in the middle and so that you can get a little in every bite. Consequently, I also went about deciding how to make my favorite cookie dough egg-less, as the dough stays doughy and I have no desire to send anyone into the grips of Salmonella, or any other brand of food poisoning. This post by The Girl Who Ate Everything gave me the idea to substitute the egg with sweetened condensed milk, which worked perfectly. I combined my newly egg-less dough with my favorite vanilla cupcake recipe, doctored up a little vanilla butter-cream to hold a more cookie-like flavor, and DONE. They are delicious.

You'll notice that this vanilla cupcake recipe is the same one I've used as a base for a lot of recipes. I like it because it is consistent and easy. I have a few other recipes I'll bust out for you at another time, but I specifically chose this one for these cupcakes because the batter is thick. It's the same one I use as the base for my cupcakes with Oreos baked inside. You need a thick batter when you want something to bake in the middle-- this helps prevent the stuff in the middle from sinking to the bottom.

Peanut Butter M&M Cookies

As I mentioned here, Erin recently turned 30, and I baked a number of things for the surprise party that her husband threw for her. I was able to find pink and orange M&Ms in the exact colors of the party, so I knew I had to bake something with them. What goes better with chocolate than peanut butter? (The answer is nothing.)

This peanut butter cookie recipe was my great grandfather's favorite; I remember baking them for him with my mom when I was a kid. It is simple and basic, but I have yet to find one that I like better. The M&Ms were not part of the original recipe, but it was just too good a combination to resist! (Please note: I know these photos are all very yellow. Photography is not my game. I'm trying.) :-)

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here)
Peanut Butter M&M Cookies (Yield- about 3 dozen)

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup M&Ms

Hazelnut Mocha Cupcakes

Photo by Donya.

I'll start by stating that I've developed a minor obsession with this dark chocolate cake recipe. You'll notice it popping up a lot. That's because it's good. Like, REALLY good. I have plans to bust it out for some triple chocolate high-hat cupcakes soon, so stay tuned for that one. Also, I liked it for this recipe because you can make the coffee extra strong by using Starbucks VIA packets, which gives the cake a slightly mocha-ish flavor all on its own, even without the icing. (Usually, even though there is coffee in the batter, it doesn't taste like coffee, it just tastes like chocolate).

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here)
The Cake...


Dark Chocolate Cake (Yield 2 dozen standard sized cupcakes)
Adapted from Sweetapolita's Rich & Dark Chocolate Cake

2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups dark cocoa powder, such as Hershey's Special Dark
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup strong black coffee (I used 1 cup water + 2 Starbucks VIA packets)
1 cup whole milk, room temperature
1/2 cup melted butter, cooled
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
12 Ferrero Rocher chocolates, unwrapped (optional)

Road Trip Apple Pies

Last weekend, my family and I took a mini-road trip from Chicago down to Springfield, IL, to engage in all kinds of nerdy, historical, Lincoln related tourism. (If you didn't already know this, I'm a HUGE history nerd. HUGE.) We mapped a route following the start of historic Route 66 and stopping any/all cheese-ball road side attractions. This included giant Bunyan/muffler-man style statues, small town museums, a 'metal menagerie', and various other roadside oddities. CLEARLY, a trip this awesome in nature needed equally awesome road snacks. Enter the road trip apple pie: a single serving pie wrapped in a driver-accessible, eat-while-driving wrapper. Though slightly tedious to wrap, these are super easy to make and they withstand the road with flying colors.

What's that? You want to see some road trip pictures??? OF COURSE YOU DO!!!!

Cinnamon Walnut Coffee Cake

I'm going to be honest here-- sometimes baking doesn't go as planned. I was baking this coffee cake to take somewhere important. You'll see in the pictures below that I baked it in a bunt pan. The pictures of the sliced cake? NOT in a bunt pan. The story goes like this-- I had a very busy weekend and was ROCKING my to-do list, when the coffee cake decided not to come out of the bunt pan. I don't know why it wouldn't come out, the pan was greased/floured/all kinds of prepared- but, as anyone who has ever baked anything knows-- sometimes this just happens. Sometimes it's because you did something wrong, and sometimes it is just because it happened that way.

So, there I was, thinking I was ready to go, and I had a broken bunt cake. I had to do an emergency re-bake and bake it in a loaf pan to ensure it would come out of the pan. Luckily, cake tastes the same no matter if it is in a lovely bunt form or in a boring loaf form. And, since I was plating the cake to take tot he event, it didn't really matter. Except in my head, where this was a disaster of epic proportions. I'll ask you to do me the favor of pretending that you do not notice that my tutorial photos show a bunt pan, yet my cake is not in bunt form, umkay? Thanks. I knew I could count on you.

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here)
Cinnamon Walnut Coffee Cake (Yield - two loaves, one 9x13, or one bunt)
(Adapted from the 'Favorite Coffee Cake' recipe in the 1969 version of the Betty Crocker cookbook featured in my sidebar)

3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups milk
2 eggs

Topping:
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons cinnamon
6 tablespoons firm butter
1 cup chopped walnuts

Easy Homemade Bread

Remember when I hosted that birthday party and made a big bread and cheese tray? This is one of the breads I made for that tray. I chose this one because 1) it's good, 2) it's something everyone likes, and 3) it freezes well, so it can be made ahead of time.

Bread is really not hard to make, it's just time consuming because you have to allow it to rise. And, it can be a bit of a mess. In my instructions below, I detail how I reduce the mess as much as possible. I live in a very small apartment with a very small kitchen, so reducing mess is high on my priority list.

Though I'm usually a fan of wheat and seed breads (recipes for some of those to come!), there is a great deal to be said in the favor of a classic, homemade, loaf of white bread. We aren't talking about preservative filled, fluffy, store bought, nutrition-less white bread-- we are talking about dense, delicious, hot-from the oven white bread. I can't say it's the highest on the nutrition scale, but, if that concerns you, this recipe works exactly the same with whole-wheat flour. This recipe is one I adapted from one in the 1969 vintage Betty Crocker Cookbook. Cookbook info. is in my sidebar.

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here)
 Easy White Bread Yield 2 large loaves

2 packages active dry yeast (4 1/2 teaspoons)
3/4 cup warm water (105*-115*F)
2 2/3 cups warm water
1/4 brown sugar
1 tablespoon salt
3 tablespoons butter (if you are diary-free or keep kosher and want this to be parve, you can use shortening)
9 - 10 cups of all-purpose flour (you can use bread flour/self-rising flour, but then omit the salt)

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cake + Decorating Tutorial

Doesn't this cake look awesome??!!!

It's so easy to make, it's almost embarrassing.

I'm serious.

I have the step-by-step for each part of this cake-- the baking, the decorating and the making of those cute flower toppers--here in this post. ANYONE can make this cake, I promise!


The cake.......

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here)
Dark Chocolate Cake (Yield 3, 9" layers)
Adapted from Sweetapolita's Rich & Dark Chocolate Cake

2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups dark cocoa powder, such as Hershey's Special Dark
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup strong black coffee
1 cup whole milk, room temperature
1/2 cup melted butter, cooled
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Low-Fat Blackberry Oatmeal Muffins

Brace your self-- this is a healthy recipe.....bummer....I know......but don't click away yet!!!

This recipe was born out of two problems: 1) I hate taking time to make healthy breakfasts, 2) one healthy breakfast I do like is steel cut oats made in my crock pot overnight, but it makes way more oats than one Julie can eat, so I always have too much left over. And then, one day, it occurred to me that I could use the leftover oatmeal to make muffins, and, for just one second, ALL WAS RIGHT WITH THE WORLD.

This recipe is fast, easy and waist-line friendly! For those of you out there counting weight watchers points, these muffins are only three points plus points each! According to SparkPeople's recipe calculator, the stats break down to: Calories, 115 / Fat 2.4g / Carbs 24.6g / Fiber 2.3g/ Protein 3g. I'm sure you could lower the fat/calories even more if you use egg substitute instead of real eggs.

Since healthy baking is way less fun than non-healthy baking, you must first make sure you have some really awesome music to sing and dance to while you are baking. Yes, this is part of the official recipe. The muffins will know if you are not dancing. You don't have to dance well-- to prove this, I've provided an internet simulated likeness of my dancing:




Seriously. You have no idea. It's bad. But it makes healthy projects SO much more fun.

ANYWAY...back to the muffins. Yes, these are healthy muffins, so they will have that slightly hockey-puck shape that healthy muffins have; but, they taste good.

Browned Butter & Amaretto Brownies

I'll admit that one thing I've always used mixes for are brownies. I had not, until recently, found a brownie recipe that was any better than a mix and the mixes are just so easy. But then I found the Bon Appetit Browned Butter and Walnut Brownies recipe. Seriously. Like, SERIOUSLY. These are the easiest and best brownies I've ever had.

After making these amaretto cupcakes a few weeks ago, I've been compelled to put amaretto in everything. These brownies were no exception to my amaretto compulsion, and, if I do say so myself, they were fantastic! These are rich, chocolaty, dense brownies with an almond-y after taste. My friend and I used them to make brownie ice-cream sundaes to conclude a feast we prepared on Oscar night. And by we, I mean she. Real food is not my forte-- I'm only good for desert. :-)

Quick and Easy Banana Bread

I feel like there are two schools of thought on banana bread-- those who love it and those who wish it was never invented. I used to love it before I developed a banana allergy. BUT, I was a very picky banana bread eater. All banana breads are not created equally. This one is my mom's and it is is very dense and moist. If you are the type who dunks your bread in your coffee or milk, this will withstand the dunk with flying colors. It is great for breakfast or desert, and very simple to make. Also, like most things I like to bake, it freezes really well so you can make it ahead of time and just keep it in your freezer.

I made mine as part of the bread-and-cheese tray for my friend's recent birthday party. I got the idea for including banana bread when a wine bar I like included it on their meat and cheese tray. Seeing as I like to think I'm just as classy as a wine bar, I figured I would include it on mine. Plus, it's delicious for those of you who are not allergic to bananas.

Cookies & Cream Cupcakes

These cupcakes have an Oreo inside of them. How can you NOT want to make these???

OK, wait, let me back up. This started when we decided to revive birthdays at work. I've been at my job a year and a half and we have not been celebrating birthdays.  That's dumb. We decided to change that. As in, we decided to change that the day before a coworkers birthday, and the same day an AT&T technician was *supposed* to come fix my home internet. (He never showed, FYI.......) ANYWAY-- On the drive home, I mentioned to my carpool buddy that, if the AT&T guy showed up in a timely manner, I'd run to the store and get Oreos and make cupcakes with Oreos inside. The conversation went like this:

Carpool buddy: You'll do what?

Me: Make cupcakes. With Oreos inside.

Carpool buddy: Like, it stays in there-- in the middle-- like a cookie.

Me: Yes. Just like that.

Carpool buddy: (Wide eyed, as to indicated mind has been BLOWN) WE MUST GET YOU OREOS!!! There is a store up there by that red light. I'm getting out.

Me: Dude, you can't do that.

Carpool buddy: Yes I can!!!!

And, in fact, she did. She totally jumped out at the red light, ran in the store, and came out with Oreos. So, really, this whole post is owed to her ability to swiftly hop out of my car, buy Oreos, and jump back in during the length of a red light.

Cherry Walnut Soda Bread

If you've been following along with this blog, you know that I recently hosted a 30th birthday party for one of my closest friend. We wanted to have snacks at the party that could work as appetizers as well as hang out most the night to keep us well fed while we drank many adult beverages chatted and shared stories about life. Keeping this in mind, I decided to do an assortment of breads and cheeses.  I also made some infused butters for a little extra fun. (Infusing butter = so easy and looks SO fancy! Shout if you are interested in learning how; I can do a post.) For this party, I did a garlic chive butter and a lavender butter.

The idea behind this party was MEGA celebration, TINY budget, so baking bread and getting a few types of cheese really helped this happen. I wanted an array of bread flavors/textures, so I went with a classic white, honey oat, banana bread and cherry walnut soda bread. (Two of these I made ahead and froze, so this is something you could plan several weeks before an event if you wanted to do the same thing). I also made sure I had a mix of cheese flavors so there was something to compliment each type of bread. Not being a cheese expert, and, again, keeping budget in mind, I ended up with a locally made pepper jack; cinnamon-cranberry goat cheese; smoked Gouda; and a spread I made out of ricotta, lemon zest, vanilla bean, and honey.