Joy the Baker

There are three things I want you to take away from this post.  No foolin’ around… I’ll get straight to the point.

One.  You’ll want to stop by tomorrow if you think you might like to be one of those people that attends my (holy heck yes!) summer party.  It’s in August.  It’s for real.

Two.  You know that part of the pedicure when the lady at your feet goes to it with a pumice scrub?  It’s at that point that I have to try with every ounce of who I am, not not not to kick her in the face.  I’m ticklish.  Extremely.  Now you know.

Three.  These blueberry muffins are (yes) perfect.  Straight forward.  Simple.  Summer.  One whole hell of a lot better than the stale coffee shop version… perfect. How often do I say something is perfect?  Not often.  Fact.

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I know.  I’ve been coming up with some pretty strange combinations lately.  This ice cream and hot fudge combination may be the strangest yet.  Remember that homemade hot fudge sauce from last week?  Well, after trying it on nearly everything in my kitchen, it seemed that the proper thing to do was make some ice cream.  Blueberry sour cream ice cream sounded perfect for the approaching summer, and I crossed my fingers that it would work with hot fudge.

The combination was unusual, but fantastic!!  The ice cream is a beautiful blue purple, and the blueberry flavors are highlighted by the light, slight tang of the sour cream.  Smothering that mess in dark chocolate hot fudge adds a depth and richness to the light ice cream.  It’s absolutely delicious!  Like one of those fancy, strange sounding desserts at a hip and trendy restuarant.   Read more »

I come from a family of proud home bakers.  I developed my love for baking helping my father put together delicious desserts in our tiny, pea green family kitchen.  This recipe for pound cake came from my father’s sister.  My Aunt DeeDee loved two things in this life: Jesus and baking.  Even after being blinded by a brain tumor in her mid thirties, she would still insist on baking every family members’ birthday cakes.  Even without her sight, she still had the touch for the perfect cake.  This pound cake recipe came from her very old Kraft cookbook.  I’ve doctored it up with a bit of lemon and blueberry, but at its heart, it’s still my favorite of Aunt DeeDee’s masterpieces.

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