Peppermint Oreo Cupcakes

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! Since Atlanta hardly ever gets snow, it's so wonderful and unexpected that we got to see a white Christmas this year. I hope everyone had a great day. I spent mine with family, stuffing my face and squeezing my favorite niece :)

This week I made peppermint oreo cupcakes! These are so damn good, they remind me of this quote I read from a grad student I worked with when I did research at Tech...

Black Sesame Macarons

Black sesame is something I'd never heard of until I visited China and Joe picked up some black sesame seed buns for me on the street. I loved it! It had a slight crunch from the seeds and a sweet and nutty flavor. It smells delicious as well. 
Sesame seeds come in black, brown and white. The white and brown have a more delicate flavor while the black is the strongest. It's very common in Asian cooking and is high in nutritional value. According to my research, it's high in calcium, iron, copper, magnesium, and phosphorus! And it promotes good digestion!

Peppermint Mocha Cupcakes

I made these for my Friendsgiving party. I LOVE Christmastime and everything in the peppermint chocolate combo! I was getting a little ahead of myself but I didn't care.

Cranberry Japanese Cheesecake

This post is a little late but I made this for Thanksgiving dinner! Since most Thanksgiving dinners are often heavy (and delicious), I wanted to make something light for dessert. Someone was already making pumpkin pie and I've never been a huge fan of pumpkin. At first I was going to do a regular American cheesecake, which I still haven't attempted yet. But at the last minute I thought a Japanese style would be better.. a light, soft fluffy cake accented with some tart cranberry sauce!

Blackberry Cupcakes

When I saw a box of blackberries at Costco this week, I quickly grabbed one. I've never really eaten blackberries, other than tossing frozen ones into my smoothie (and even then, they're in a mixed berry bag). These just looked so juicy and perfect that I had to try something with them.

Chocolate Bacon Macarons

For this month's MacTweet Mac Attack challenge, they asked for a savory sweet macaron. I had been intrigued by the combination of bacon and chocolate for a while, and was originally going for a cupcake. But I took this as an opportunity to try it in a macaron... I've never been a huge fan of bacon (I prefer sausage with my breakfast) but I do like a salty sweet combo.

Berry Buttermilk Cake (And Happy Birthday Blog!)

Today is my 1 year Blogaversary! Happy Birthday to TheSweetArt! Looking back on my first post, it's obvious how terrible the picture is (photographing food at night?! with a flash?!) and how nervous I was to put the ingredients together. But since then, I've practiced so much and tried so many new recipes and flavors I never thought I'd like. 


It's funny how this started out as an opportunity to practice food photography and turned into a major baking adventure. I'm so glad this blog happened to me :) And a HUGE thank you to everyone who reads this/comments/clicks on ads!