Archive for the 'baking' Category

My goal of making 52 new recipes this year is off to a very fun start. I love that it’s making me try new recipes instead of making my old standbys over and over again. I’m hoping to have a much larger repertoire of favorites by the end of the year. So far my favorite new recipe is Beer Batter Cheese Bread. It’s a hearty, savory bread with a wonderful flavor that’s amazing with soup. Or on its own. For breakfast. Three days in a row. Heavenly.

This recipe is adapted from America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book. It’s a very easy recipe, and aside from the Gruyere, I always have all of the other ingredients in my kitchen. As much as I love to make homemade yeast breads, I also love having loaf recipes that can be made quickly. As soon as you have this mixed up and in the pan you can throw it right in the oven.

Ingredients:
2.5 cups all-purpose flour
4 ounces Gruyere cheese, shredded (1 cup, packed – I like a little extra)
3 tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1.25 cups beer (I used Blue Moon, light beers work best)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus extra for brushing

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees & grease an 8.5 x 4.5″ loaf pan.

2. Whisk flour, cheese, sugar, baking powder, salt, and pepper together in a large bowl. Stir in beer & melted butter until just combined.

3. Scrape the batter into the loaf pan. Smooth top and brush with 1 to 2 tablespoons of melted butter.

4. Bake for about 40 to 45 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a tester comes out with just a few crumbs attached. Rotate halfway through baking.

5. Cool for 10-15 minutes in the pan and then turn out onto a wire cooling rack. Cool for 1 hour before serving, if you can wait that long to dig in.

One last thought…is there anything cozier than having a dutch oven full of soup simmering on your stove in your kitchen on a cold winter evening?

I don’t think so.

Let’s do a full disclosure right off the bat here, shall we? I’m obsessed with Pumpkin Whoopie Pies.

I first had one in Washington DC in early October at a really cute cafe that Josh and I stopped in to get me a coffee fix. That was a Saturday afternoon. I spent all of that Saturday evening and Sunday with “pumpkin whoopie pie. pumpkin whoopie pie. pumpkin whoopie pie.” running through the back of my mind. On Sunday, when Josh and I were trying to find a place to eat dinner, he called me out on the route I was suggesting… and he was right: I was trying to lead us back to the Pumpkin Whoopie Pies. Eventually, out of hunger, he gave in, and let me google the location (we actually couldn’t remember the name of the place, so I had to google Border’s, which I remembered was across the street from it). Then we could locate the whoopie pie cafe. Locate, yes, but sadly, couldn’t partake. They had closed at 5 pm.

While I was still in DC, I googled a recipe to make them myself on my phone, and the first hit looked very promising – from the cookbook Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, and featured on MarthaStewart.com. I resolved to make them very soon after getting back home.

Well, I’ve made them twice so far, and they are amazing. I’m going to make them to bring to my family for Thanksgiving, and I’ll probably make them at least once more before then. They have a wonderful flavor, with just the right amount of spice. The bread/cookie part is dense and hearty, and the cream cheese frosting filling is sweet and heavenly.

Here’s the recipe and the photos I took while baking. (Note: the recipe says it makes 12 whoopie pies, but both times I’ve made it I’ve gotten over 30. I used a small ice cream scoop – about 1.5 or 2 tablespoons of batter per cookie.)

Ingredients

Makes 12 whoopie pies

• FOR THE PUMPKIN WHOOPIE COOKIES
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon ground cloves
• 2 cups firmly packed dark-brown sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 3 cups pumpkin puree, chilled
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• FOR THE CREAM-CHEESE FILLING
• 3 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Make the cookies: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves; set aside. In another large bowl, whisk together brown sugar and oil until well combined. Add pumpkin puree and whisk until combined. Add eggs and vanilla and whisk until well combined. Sprinkle flour mixture over pumpkin mixture and whisk until fully incorporated.



3. Using a small ice cream scoop with a release mechanism, drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart. Transfer to oven and bake until cookies are just starting to crack on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of each cookie comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Let cool completely on pan.



4. Make the filling: Sift confectioner’ sugar into a medium bowl; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter until smooth. Add cream cheese and beat until well combined. Add confectioners’ sugar and vanilla, beat just until smooth. (Filling can be made up to a day in advance. Cover and refrigerate; let stand at room temperature to soften before using.)



5. Assemble the whoopie pies: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Transfer filling to a disposable pastry bag and snip the end. When cookies have cooled completely, pipe a large dollop of filling on the flat side of half of the cookies. Sandwich with remaining cookies, pressing down slightly so that the filling spreads to the edge of the cookies. Transfer to prepared baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate cookies at least 30 minutes before serving and up to 3 days.

Notes from Emily:

-3 cups of pumpkin puree is one of the big (two pie) cans of pumpkin puree.

-In my oven, the baking time was closer to 10 minutes, so keep an eye on them, and check your first tray after about 10 minutes. Especially if you’re making them smaller like I did.

-I didn’t feel like getting a pastry bag dirty to pipe the frosting, so I just used an offset spatula to add the filling, and it works just fine.

Last year I thought I had found the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. It was the Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from America’s Test Kitchen. But the more I made it, the more I realized it was good, but that there had to be better recipes and cookies out there. I wanted something with a deeper flavor, and that turned out both crispier and chewier. It must have a very slight caramelized taste, and you must be able to taste the salt, subtly.

I decided to try Alton Brown’s Chocolate Chip Cookie #10. I actually wanted to try his Chocolate Chip Cookie #7, but we didn’t have any bread flour.

So I set out with #10, and was very pleased with the results. The cookies were the best tasting chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made. The flavor was excellent, and the cookie was somehow both extremely crispy and very chewy. I’ll definitely make these again. I also appreciate the fact that all the ingredients are very common, nothing you really have to go out of your way to buy (unlike the Bread Flour recipe… I don’t usually bake with that).

Here’s the thing – there’s no such thing as a perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. Everyone has a different idea of what a perfect chocolate chip cookie is and should be. Sometimes it’s based on a grandma’s cookie they had as a child, some people like them really doughy, or extra chocolaty. It’s a matter of preference. You must find your personal perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. Luckily, the search is quite tasty.

My personal standard is the absolutely amazing chocolate chip cookie that you could once buy at T. E. Merch’s cafes – a small chain of sandwich shops in southwest Michigan that is sadly gone now. My mom and I used to stop in and get some during our shopping trips in Portage. How I long for those cookies. I wish I had the recipe. Every year or so I google “t. e. merch’s chocolate chip cookie” and similar derivatives, in hopes of finding the recipe posted online. It’s been a fruitless search so far.

These cookies though, come very close. They are fantastic. If you ever need to be comforted, whip up a batch of these right away and while they’re baking, pour a large glass of milk. Then sit down in a comfy chair with a plate of still warm cookies, set the milk down on a nearby window ledge, open your favorite book, and prepare to be transported straight into a very Happy Place.

Chocolate Chip Cookie #10

The Recipe*: (I found it posted online on this great blog, so I didn’t have to retype)

Chocolate Chip Cookie #10 from I’m Just Here for More Food (Alton Brown)

Mix and set aside:
2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Now mix together the wet ingredients:
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 c. unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Now add the dry to the wet and mix gently with a wooden spoon. Do not over mix!!  While there is still some flour showing, add 2 c. chocolate chips and mix the rest of the way.

Bake 10-11 minutes or until golden at 375. Turn the trays in the oven about halfway through for even baking & browning.

~~~

I did actually buy bread flour at the A&P this week, so today I’m going to try the Chocolate Chip Cookie #7. I’ll post the recipe and results, and let you know which one is better. :)

*Ryan would like me to note that the bite in the photo above is courtesy of him. He was not pleased when I took his cookie away off his plate after he took a photogenic bite, but was less upset when I brought the plate back a few minutes later with a cookie refill.

(This post was brought over from emilyw.vox.com. Click here for the original post and comments.)

Cupcakes

2 comments

I found this recipe while looking through some older posts from How About Orange. They looked so good that I had to try them right away. I made them a few Sundays ago, and brought them into work the next day. They were a big hit. The cupcakes are delicious and don’t take very long to make – I mixed the filling and the batter, filled the cupcake trays, and had the first batch in the oven in under 30 minutes. I do love frosting, but these taste so good you don’t need frosting. So this is another recipe that’s good for when you don’t have a lot of time to bake, since you don’t have to make frosting or spend time frosting the cooled cupcakes.

The filling is piping hot right out of the oven, so let them cool a little bit before eating. But they are amazing while they are still warm. To re-heat them later, about 20 to 30 seconds in the microwave heats them back up nicely.

You can view the original post on How About Orange right here.

Here’s the recipe:

Filling:
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1/3 c. sugar
1 egg
1/8 tsp. salt
1 c. chocolate chips
1 c. peanut butter chips (or just use more chocolate if you want)

Cupcakes:
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. baking cocoa
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. water
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 Tbs. white vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla

In a bowl, beat cream cheese. Add sugar, egg, salt. Mix well. Fold in chips. Set aside. For cupcakes, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Add water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Mix well. Fill paper-lined muffin cups half full with batter. Top each with 2 Tbs. of cream cheese mixture. Bake at 350º for 25-30 minutes. Cool 10 minutes and remove from pan. Makes 18.

Cupcake Filling

2 comments

Cupcakes – ready for the oven

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Making Pound Cake

When I run on the treadmill at the gym, I like to watch movies on my iPhone. I’m out of digital copies of my movies for now, so I’ve been watching Martha Stewart’s free video podcasts from iTunes. Sometimes they are about cleaning, gardening, or crafts, but mostly they’re about cooking and baking. I find it a little bit funny to be on a treadmill watching someone make incredibly rich desserts and meals. But I don’t mind, I love watching cooking shows, and it’s sort of motivation to exercise often. :)

One episode I watched recently was Cream Cheese Pound Cake. It looked delicious, so I tried it myself this weekend. The pound cake tasted wonderful – the flavor was good enough to just eat the cake on its own with no topping. But there are many choices for toppings and the cake compliments them wonderfully. I made some strawberry sauce by chopping up strawberries and mixing with cold water and sugar. Then I made homemade whipped cream for the top. It was incredible.

A great thing about this dessert is that you don’t spend long in the kitchen. It’d be great for times that you have company over, because you can whip it up without a lot of prep time. Or you could make the cake in advance and before you serve, make the strawberry sauce and whipped cream (which only takes about 15 minutes).

The recipe, from Martha’s site, is:

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. With an electric mixer, beat butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar; beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla. With mixer on low, add flour and salt in two additions, beating until just combined.
2. Generously coat two 8 1/2-by-4 1/2-by-2 1/2-inch loaf pans (1 1/2 quarts each) with cooking spray; immediately pour in batter (pan will seem full). Tap pans on work surface to eliminate any large air bubbles.
3. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the centers comes out almost clean, 60 to 75 minutes (if the tops begin to brown too quickly, tent with aluminum foil).
4. Cool 10 minutes in the pan. Turn out the cakes; cool completely, with top sides up, on a wire rack.

I chose to make this cake in a tube pan instead of two loaf pans, and baked it for about 1 hour and 45 minutes at 300 degrees.

I also dusted the top with powdered sugar.

For this recipe to be a success, don’t overmix the flour into the wet ingredients. Also, because it’s such a large cake with a slow bake time, it’s crucial to rotate the pan in the oven halfway through. I used the foil tent like Martha recommended, so that the top didn’t get too brown.

Making Whipped Cream

You can buy whipped cream of course, but making it yourself is so fun and easy.

Whisking Whipped Cream

All you need is:

1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon sugar

You can add more vanilla or sugar to flavor it to your taste.

I chilled the bowl and the whisk in the fridge first, which definitely helps – especially in the summer. You can use a hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with the whisk, start slow and after a minute increase the speed to medium-high. after 2 to 4 minutes the cream will peak and you’ll have delightful whipped cream. :)

The finished product:

Creamcheese Poundcake

Enjoy!

I made this yesterday, along with a nice dinner for me and Ryan. We had one of my Dad’s recipes, something my family affectionally calls “Chicken with Goop” – chicken in a delicious creamy sauce with french fried onions. I also made homemade dinner rolls, with a recipe I found that tastes fabulous and makes 15 – meaning lots of yummy leftover rolls.

Since the cake was in the oven for almost 2 hours, I had lots of time to read my weekend book – The Rose Variations by Marisha Chamberlain.

(This post was brought over from emilyw.vox.com. Click here for the original post and comments.)

I’ve tried two different recipes for Cream Cheese Frosting on my Red Velvet Cupcakes, and I prefer the recipe from Magnolia’s. It’s a bit sweeter without being overly sweet. It has the added bonus of not having sour cream as an ingredient, so that’s one less thing to buy. We nearly always have sour cream in the fridge and it’s nearly always 2 weeks past the expiration date.

For both recipes, it’s important to not use low-fat or non-fat cream cheese or the frosting will turn out too soupy to work with.

AMERICA’S TEST KITCHEN CREAM CHEESE FROSTING INGREDIENTS:
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened and cut into small pieces
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into chunks and softened
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups confectioner’s sugar

MAGNOLIA BAKERY CREAM CHEESE FROSTING INGREDIENTS:
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened and cut into small pieces
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened and cut into small pieces
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
5 cups confectioner’s sugar

To make both recipes:

1. Combine all ingredients except the sugar into a large bowl and mix on medium speed until smooth, about 3 to 4 minutes.

2. Reduce the mixer speed to medium low and add the confectioner’s sugar one cup at a time. Scrape down the sides of the bowl often. Once all sugar is added, beat until fluffy, 3 to 6 minutes.

At this point, the American’s Test Kitchen frosting is ready to use. If it gets to soft to work with, you can refrigerate until firm. The ATK recipe can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Soften before using.
The Manolia’s recipe should be refrigerated for 2 to 3 hours before using, but no longer.

For 24 cupcakes, I halved both of these recipes and still had more than enough frosting. Make the full batch for layer cakes, double batches of cupcakes, or if you like your frosting piled inches high on cupcakes.

The America’s Test Kitchen recipe is from their Family Baking Book, and the Magnolia’s Recipe is from More From Magnolia. Both are fantastic books, I have yet to make a bad recipe out of either of them.

More From Magnolia: Recipes from the World Famous Bakery and Allysa Torey’s Home Kitchen

Allysa Torey

The America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book

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Valentine’s Cupcakes

I figured my next baking post should be about the best recipe I’ve made this year, so far: Red Velvet Cupcakes.

I’ve made this recipe three times so far – twice as cupcakes and once as two mini two-layer cakes. It’s been delicious every time. It’s most delicious as cupcakes though – the best cupcakes I’ve ever made. I foresee them becoming a staple for birthdays and whenever I have guests over. (So come with a sweet tooth in April, Emma!)

I usually bring any sweets I bake into work to share. Otherwise it’d be impossible to balance my goal of baking more with my New Year’s Resolution of eating better and getting in shape. These cupcakes are the most popular thing I’ve brought in so far. I brought them in for Ryan’s birthday and people absolutely love them. Many people said I should open a bakery and two people said it was the best cupcake they’ve ever had in their life. So these were very popular. :)

The recipe is from America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book. The recipe is for layer cakes, but I use it for cupcakes too and adjust the baking time.

This recipe uses buttermilk, which is a key reason why it’s so fantastic. It may seem annoying to buy a quart of buttermilk just for this recipe, but once you have buttermilk you can make all sorts of fantastic recipes like buttermilk biscuits and homemade buttermilk pancakes. I’ll post recipes for those soon too. (By the way, the only buttermilk I could find at Meijer or the A&P was lowfat buttermilk, which worked just fine.)

Here’s the ingredients, and the steps which I’ve somewhat reworded and added in my own tips.

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons natural cocoa powder*
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
Pinch salt
1 cup buttermilk (room temperature)
2 large eggs (room temperature)
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) red food coloring (this is an entire bottle of McCormick brand     food coloring, which is the only brand I’ve seen at any chain supermarket)
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces and softened
1 1/2 cups sugar

*For the cake to have the proper rise and color, you must use natural cocoa powder, do not substitute dutch processed cocoa. The two standard supermarket brands (Nestle and Hershey’s) are natural cocoa powder and work fine.

STEPS

1. Adjust the oven rank to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare the cupcake pans with liners. (This recipe makes about 24 cupcakes.) If you’d like to make a layer cake instead, grease two 9-inch cake pans and dust with some cocoa powder. Then line the bottoms with parchment paper, cut to fit perfectly in the bottom of the pan.

2. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. In another medium bowl whisk the buttermilk, eggs, vinegar, and vanilla together. In a small bowl mix the cocoa powder with the red food coloring to form a smooth paste. In all my experiences it took a lot of stirring to get the food coloring to combine with the cocoa powder. For a few minutes it looked like the food coloring would never absorb all the powder. But it does, so just stick with it and suddenly it will all combine very quickly.

3. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 to 6 minutes. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in one-third of the flour mixture, followed by half of the buttermilk mixture. Repeat with half of the remaining flour and the remaining buttermilk mixture. Beat in the remaining flour mixture until just combined. Beat in the cocoa mixture until the batter is uniform.

4. Give the batter a final stir with a rubber spatula to make sure it is thoroughly combined. Fill cupcake liners/pans to about 2/3 or 3/4 full. I like to use an ice cream scoop to make sure the cupcakes are all the same size, and so it’s easier to fill the liners.

5. Bake the cupcakes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs attached, about 15 minutes. (If you’re making the layer cakes, the baking time is about 25 minutes, and you should rotate the pans about half way through).

6. Let the cupcakes cool in the pans for about 10 minutes, and then carefully remove from the pans.

7. Frost the cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting. You could also use a vanilla frosting, or vanilla buttercream, but I definitely prefer Cream Cheese frosting, and it’s the traditional frosting for Red Velvet. :)

MY TWO MOST IMPORTANT TIPS
The two most important things you need to do to ensure moist, delicious cupcakes are:

1. Make sure you DO NOT over-mix the batter once the flour is added. Whisk away at the flour when combining the dry ingredients. Don’t worry about the liquid buttercream mixture – whisk as much as you want there too. But once you hit step 3 and start combining everything together it is very important not to overmix. When you’re alternating the dry and wet ingredients into the large bowl, don’t feel the need to mix everything so that it all looks uniform – alternate the ingredients and mix, but just a bit to get the new addition somewhat mixed in a little. Then add the next. Once you have all the ingredients in, mix until it’s mostly uniform, but keep in mind you’ll be doing more mixing to add the food coloring mixture, so that’s the first time when your batter should really all look like one, uniform thing. (Not over-mixing once the flour is added to the wet ingredients is a key tip for most recipes, and especially in this one.) I have a wonderful KitchenAid stand mixer (that will come in VERY handy for making the frosting) but for this recipe I use my small hand mixer to ensure that I don’t over-mix.

2. DO NOT over-bake. I found the baking time to be 15 minutes for my oven, but the first time you try this I recommend peeking at them at 12 or 13 minutes to see how they are. Once they don’t look liquid on the tops anymore and have peaked you can pull them out to test them. The toothpick or tester shouldn’t come out with batter on it, but it will have quite a few moist crumbs. This is good, and it’s probably done at this point. Over-baking will lead to drier cupcakes, and Red Velvets must be moist!

Valentine’s Cupcakes

Valentine’s Cupcakes

Well, there you have it! The best cupcakes I’ve ever made. :) If you try this recipe I’d love it if you’d comment and let me know how they turned out for you, and how you liked them.

As much as I love this recipe, I’m determined to try a few more Red Velvet recipes to compare. This was the first one I tried and I feel like it’s perfect. (America’s Test Kitchen’s recipes often are perfect.) So I will try a few other recipes, including the one in my Magnolia Bakery cook book, for testing. :) I’ll let you know how those turn out.

I wish I had a better photo of the insides of these cupcakes, but I only have one I took in low light on my iPhone while my little brother was eating one. It’s better than nothing though, so I’ll post it for now and next time I make this recipe I’ll take and post more photos.

Here’s the iPhone photo, since it’s better than nothing:

Benny’s Cupcake

Since I do most of my baking and reading on weekends, I thought it would also be fun to tell what book I was reading while making my recipes.

The first batch of cupcakes (the ones in the photos) were made over Valentine’s Day Weekend while I was in Michigan visiting my family. I was reading Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. The second batch, and the layer cakes, were made before Ryan’s birthday and I was reading The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough.

So now you know what books kept me occupied while each batch was in the oven. :)

(This post was brought over from emilyw.vox.com. Click here for the original post and comments.)

If I may, I’d love to request some feedback from anyone who reads (and presumably enjoys) my Vox blog.

Over the past year I’ve developed a passion for baking. Not nearly as obsessive as my passion for books, but I do love to bake. :)

Baking is a very fun hobby for me, and I’ve been wanting to post more about baking: photos and recipes of what I’ve made lately and how it turned out, tips for others getting started with baking, baking supply product reviews and posts about baking/cook books.

According to my tags, I’ve posted five posts labeled “baking” on here in the past. (Not including this one.) So I’m hoping and assuming that with just five baking posts in the past 2+ years if you weren’t interested in baking, it’s not a lot to skip over.  :)

But now I’d like to post more about baking, and have been wondering if I should start a separate blog for it. However, I do think baking and books go nicely together. After all, there’s no better way to enjoy your baked goods than with a hot cup of coffee and a good book. And my blog is called Books, The Universe, and Everything, so it technically fits. :) But the majority of my posting is about books and reading, and I would hate to alienate any neighbors/followers/friends by having a blog that can’t make up its mind what it would like to be about. Also, the baking posts might make more sense on their own blog, where I could organize things differently.

So – here are my questions to you, if you happen to read and enjoy my blog on any sort of regular basis and would like to leave a comment with your opinions:

1. Would it be annoying to read more posts about baking? (And for reference, I don’t anticipate a huge number of baking posts – I don’t bake that much – usually around 3 to 4 times per month)

2. If I did decide my baking posts would work better on a separate baking blog, it would probably not be on Vox. Would you be interested in and/or read that blog too, or no thanks?

3. If I made a separate Baking blog and cross posted to this blog occasionally, would that be mega-annoying?

4. Which option (everything here, or two separate blogs) would you actually prefer?

Thank you thank you thank you in advance for any comments/advice/opinions!

(This post was brought over from emilyw.vox.com. Click here for the original post and comments.)