I knew you were coming so I baked!

I can't believe there was a time in my life when I hated baking. I knew I was missing out, but I wasn't willing to look past my prejudice of the finicky nature of baking to give it a real chance. Whew. Glad those days are over.

Now my favorite thing to do when we're having company is bake something for them. And sometimes the stars align, I have the ingredients, and I actually remember that I want to bake something before said company walks in the door. There have been two such occasions over the last couple of weeks.

My mom's birthday was the first week in August. She decided to come spend the day with Z-cakes and I for her birthday (yay living in Idaho!). Z-cakes and I baked mom a white cake (her favorite), layered it with raspberry filling, and frosted it with white mountain frosting (all recipes from the Betty Crocker Cookbook...the old red one).

White cakes give me trouble. I still haven't found a recipe that I think is no-fail + delicious. Of course the fact that I don't really care for white cake doesn't help. Nor does the fact that I only make it once a year. But white cake is my mom's favorite and since I love my mom, I make her white cake.

This cake was pretty good. It almost didn't fall a little in the middle and kind of had some flavor. Still...you've won again white cake...until next year.

My friend Jen and her family came for a (very) brief visit while they were in town. I didn't mind that they were only here for a short time because I got to cuddle with her tiny new baby almost the entire time. Also, it gave me an excuse to make these for my fruit-dessert loving friend.

I've wanted to eat these for breakfast lunch and dinner. Luckily, the recipe makes a huge batch. Thanks Summer!

Whatcha been baking in your kitchen lately?