Romy's Baking and Cake Decorating

  Blueberry Scones A friend was coming over for coffee early in the morning and I know she loves baked goods. It was a crisp morning in late Summer/early Fall and we had to light a fire in the woodstove to make it comfortable to sit and chat in our sunroom. Perfect timing for Blueberry Scones ! I'd made blueberry scones before using  this recipe  from Sally's Bake Blog. But wanting to try something new, I went with a recipe from Preppy Kitchen.  Here  it is.   I followed the recipe to the letter and it was very easy.  When I dumped the dough onto the counter, I just made sure there was quite a bit of flour. Using a bench scraper and well-floured hands, I continued pushing flour under the dough until it came together from the top but wasn't sticking to the counter. It was quite easy to pat it into a circle and then to push it out to be 8 inches. I didn't manage to cut the scones evenly, but that was ok.  I scraped off the dough that stuck to t...

  Banana Muffins After not getting together all summer today our watercolor group met again to paint together. I didn't know if anyone else was bringing anything, but I didn't want to arrive empty handed.  I didn't have a lot of time, but I did have 3 ripe bananas on the counter. Rather than wait for a banana bread to bake, I decided to make Banana Muffins . I used  this recipe  from Sally's Baking Addiction blog.  It's called Quick and Easy and that's exactly what it is. You can melt the butter and you don't have to use a mixer. I didn't change or add anything. They baked up quickly in 14 minutes, now that my oven temperature no longer seems to be running low. I was surprised at the deep golden color, very nice, no doubt from the brown sugar and the cinnamon. They tasted very good, as well. Very soft and moist for a muffin, and not too sweet.  I'm sure they'd be very good with added walnuts, too. An easy solution!

Peach Shortcake The Summer of 2024, so eagerly anticipated, flew by faster than any other. And was less fun.  Between Bubby's transition from school, a prolonged heat wave, patio construction, and friends returning to their post-pandemic lives, we've had fewer gatherings and there have been less opportunities to bake things.  And for me, in my scant free time I've been focusing more on my watercolor painting than on my baking and cake decorating. But when Grandpa called for an end-of-Summer family gathering, I remembered that several times lately he's talked about wanting Peach Shortcake . I didn't need to think too hard about what to make for this one! I turned to  this recipe  for Strawberry Shortcake from Preppy Kitchen.  According to my notes, I made it for Father's Day in 2020 and I labeled it "Best Recipe".  This time I compared it to other shortcake recipes, such as  this one  that I found online. But I went with my impressions from the pre...