Bakerella

My inner Martha Stewart decided to emerge in full force this week. On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday I was seized by the urge to create, then proceeded to embark on a major baking spree. Inspired by the two recipes I saw in Better Homes and Gardens (above and below), they looked so beautiful and mouth-watering that I couldn't rest until I'd tried them both.

Monday: The top one was BHG's $25,000 recipe winner, Whole Wheat Chocolate Blueberry Cake. It's actually healthy, in that blueberry puree substitutes for the butter and the frosting is Cool Whip with melted chocolate chips. As gross as it may sound, I used prune puree instead of blueberries since that's what I had on hand (leftover homemade baby food) and it turned out really moist, almost like brownies. We gobbled up the whole thing for Family Home Evening treat. I didn't tell Andy about the prunes until after he'd eaten it, topped with store-bought frosting. So maybe I'm more Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade than bona fide Martha.

Tuesday: This Marbleous Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cake with Salted Caramel Glaze had me at hello. Absolutely bewitched by the lovely plating, I went out and bought ingredients just for this recipe. It's the on the opposite end of the health spectrum from the blueberry cake, but is to.die.for. I was licking the glaze off the plate with my fingers by the end.

Here's my version after Andy and I had a go at it. Not quite as pretty, but tasty nonetheless.

That day I also had some visits to make and decided to go bearing Chicago Chocolate Cinnamon cupcakes. I figured I needed to use the rest of the chocolate frosting from the night before and these would be just the ticket. It's another recipe I've been eyeing in my cookbook that can do no wrong, the aptly named Favorites. I ran out of cupcake liners, thus the naked nubbins.

On Sunday I made a friend's recipe for French Breakfast Puffs which are basically souped up muffins made special by being dipped in butter and rolled in cinnamon sugar. You really can't go wrong there.

The funny thing about all of this is that it's been 90 or so degrees for the past few days and yet all I want to do is hang around a blazing oven. Crazy, I know, but worth it. It's fun to see everything lined up together and ready to brighten someone's day, not the least mine and my family's.

When you get the hankering to create, what do you do?