Baking Bouquet no.1

So here is it, Temptation Tuesday. Just when you thought you had been doing sooo well, so far this week...I apologise in advance, but these recipes were just too good to wait until Temptation Thursday!

My idea is that with the recipes that I hardly amend, but still want to share, I'll post in groups as baking-inspiration for you, to add a little fairy dust to your day :) With the recipe title giving you the link to the recipe. This weeks' baking-bouquet candidates are real goodies, well, I'm not about to post non-awesome recipes for you am I? :)

Monkey Bread

I have had this recipe in my "to-make" stash for over a year, and always went for something else because I thought it was too hard, but one day I just said "let's make it!" And it is no-where near as hard as it looks! The basic process is: make the dough, let it rise, cut it into 64, roll into balls, dunk in butter, dunk in brown sugar, fill cake tin, let it rise again, bake, then eat!

And O-EM-G, do you eat! It is rather addictive...so I recommend making it when you have lots of guests coming over/or when you do not have an uncontrollable appetite/or when you are not trying to be healthy...for bringing this baby out of the oven will ruin everything. Just one, crunchy, buttery, morsel of this sweet brioche will end all of your adult rationality!

Spiced Blondie

If the steps in Monkey bread still scare you, this one won't, as it's quick to make and bake. It tastes a little like gingerbread, but way more awesome, because it's dense and chewy like a brownie. Don't fear if the centre of the blondie looks uncooked, for it tastes amazing that way! This is one of those batter's where you can eat, without the need for an oven ;P The basic process is: melt butter, add that to sugar, mix in eggs, add the flour and spices before baking to dense-caramelly-spiced perfection! I also recommend that you have a few partners-in-crime around when making this one, as it is mighty fine straight from the oven also =D

Sticky Chocolate Date Loaf

This is a great vegan recipe, because it is quite fudgy with only a slight crumble to it, so you don't miss the eggs or dairy! This is really great when you have a beyond-edible banana (I know I'm not the only one who has neglected a banana in the fruit bowl before!), but not enough for banana cake. Some small amendments were that I used rice-bran oil (as not all canola's are from the canola plant but a harmful rapeseed plant), didn't add the salt (as when I do all I taste is salt in my cake :P), used seven rows of good chocolate (instead of the 1 cup of choc-chips) and baked it at 170°C for 50mins.

I hope you enjoy these recipes, and that you are tempted enough to try out one, or all of them sometime to make your day magical!

Happy Baking! =D