back to baking {2 new recipes}

After an eventful weekend and a restful start to my week, I'm back in the kitchen (literally, I'm typing this post from my teensy little cooking space). I'm baking something fun + slightly new that I'll post about at a later date.

But here's all the baking I did last week in preparation for our housewarming guests.

Banana-Carrot Bread.
I got this recipe from a friend of ours who brought this delightful treat over along with a pasta dinner just after Malakai was born. Bless her (and all the other kind people who cooked for us that first couple weeks). I used wheat flour + coconut oil instead of "salad oil". It was while making this that I discovered a deep loathing for "finely" grating carrots (this was soon replaced by my loathing for scrubbing tile floors).

Brownie Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Creme frosting.
I've made these before. I also served some with plain ol' store bought vanilla frosting. Also, yummy.

Pumpkin Roll
A friend from college made this yummy treat one fall. I can't remember the occasion (small group?) but I remembered loving it. I made two of them and had borrowed my mom's "jelly roll" pan. Since you use wax paper (or parchment) I think it could work with a regular flat cookie sheet as well. I also used 1 batch of frosting for 2 rolls as some advice online said a whole batch would ooze out the sides. So glad I made two of these, it was the most popular thing on the table.

{my first experience rolling cake in a towel}

I had ample amounts of canned pumpkin leftover, so I froze it until I figure out what to make with it next.

*edit: I forgot to mention that I left the nuts out of my recipe. We don't much like nuts in baked goods around here.

I was also going to prepare some parmesan biscuit bites ala The Pioneer Woman, but ran out of time. So to offset all the sweets I put out chips and salsa (which was largely ignored).

This is what my kitchen looked like after all the baking...although a little warped from the panorama mode, you get the gist.

{mess.}

Sadly I didn't get a good picture after the scrubbing + cleaning and now the plates fell off the wall (again) and it's a mess from my current baking project. Some day soon I'll do a tour of our home post, another motivator to get it cleaned up again.