Romy's Baking and Cake Decorating

  Chocolate Doughnuts  with Vanilla Glaze and Fondant Hearts On this Valentine's day I decided to make a small batch dessert that still felt special. We hadn't had home made doughnuts in a long time, so that gave me the idea to make Chocolate Doughnuts . I used  this recip e from Preppy Kitchen. I followed it to the letter but cut the amount to only make six doughnuts. Here they are right before going into the oven. Filling doughnut pans is always a bit of a pain to me, so I only enjoy making them in small batches. Doughnut batter in the pan. I was surprised, since our new oven bakes so hot, that the doughnuts took a full 12 minutes to bake. I checked them at 8 minutes, which is the minimum baking time according to the recipe. But they were raw inside. Not wanting them to get dry, I turned oven down to 340 and checked again at 10 minutes then at 12.  At 12 minutes a toothpick came out clean. After the doughnuts were cool I coated them with a vanilla glaze. I love...

 Recently I made a Banana Bread from a different recipe that uses less butter.  Here it is: Ingredients:  2 cups flour  3/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup sugar 1/4 cup butter 2 eggs 1 cup mashed bananas 1/3 cup yogurt 1 teaspoon vanilla Directions 1. Combine dry ngredients. 2. Beat butter and sugar 1 minute. 3. Add eggs, one at a time. Add bananas, yogurt and vanilla.  4. Bake 1 hour at 350F. Modifications I made: 1.5 cups whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup all-purpose flour. Slightly less banana because that's all I had. Two teaspoons vanilla instead of one. Dash of cinnamon It turned out pretty good! Denser than my usual Martha Stewart recipe, so a little bit dryer. I'd bake it a little less next time, or at a lower temperature. But it's also a bit more filling than my usual recipe. Great for mornings when I have to rush to art class in Connecticut and eat breakfast in the car.