Housekeeping

Hi all! *dusts off blog cobwebs* 

I have a few new recipes to share, but truth be told, my food-making and recipe-sharing days have been extremely limited. There just aren't enough hours in the day, and the hours that do exist go primarily to my family, my job and my sanity (pretty much in that order, haha). Meghan is no longer posting on the blog, so basically, you're stuck with me and my meager offerings.

I love having the blog and enjoy referencing old recipes and cataloging new ones, so the blog is in no way going any where, and since Meghan contributed many of the recipes for so much of the blog's existence, the name won't change. But (as I'm sure you could already tell) new posts might be few and far between in the future.

If you're in search of some good blogs to follow, I have added three new blogs to the "Baking Blogs" blog roll on the right sidebar. They're some of my new favorites to peruse and bookmark new recipes to try. Also, if you're on Pinterest, follow me and we can share the yummy goodies we find!

So, dear readers, if you're still hanging with the blog, do you have any recipes you'd like to share? Any other food blogs I should add to the blog roll?

Strawberry cake

Around the time that my daughter was born (almost 11 months ago, eek!), I started social networking with a lot of other expectant moms and new moms. The connections you can make via blogs, Twitter and Facebook are astounding, and I love the virtual community/sounding board/friendships I've had access to - these people are truly amazing.

One of my favorite new mamas (her absolutely adorable son was born a few short weeks ago) is an extremely crafty lady who Tweeted a few months ago about making her husband a strawberry cake. Elizabeth has an amazing sense of humor, is a great writer and is insanely creative and stylish. She and her husband have an amazingly sweet love story, and I relate to their May-December pairing. I've followed her pregnancy via her blog and Tweets, and I was instantly intrigued by her mentioning of the cake, as *my* husband is a big strawberry fan.

She e-mailed me the recipe, which looked easier and yummier than I had initially imagined. I worried only that I might not be able to find the strawberry nectar, but lo and behold, it was super easy to find in my grocery store - it came in a soda can-type container and came in many other flavors.

Having secured the necessary ingredietns, I vowed to make it soon. 

Soon came when I co-hosted a bridal shower for a friend (and Tim was promised the leftover cake). It was the perfect cake for the occasion, and it was absolutely delicious. It was simple, flavorful and moist - all winners in my book. And after Elizabeth pointed out the candy-like flavor, it totally jumped out at me, and I've started mixing all of the fruit-y flavored frostings that I buy with a vanilla or cream cheese frosting. This is a cake that isn't drastically complicated or crazy different, but it tastes great and has the amazing touches of the preserves and the strawberry nectar.

The recipe, from Elizabeth:

Use a boxed strawberry cake mix and add strawberry nectar in place of the called for water (like Jumex strawberry nectar - you can usually find it in the Hispanic section of the grocery store).

Instead of icing between the layers, use strawberry preserves.

To ice the outside, mix a container of strawberry icing with vanilla or cream cheese icing so it doesn't taste like candy. The vanilla seems to drown out the fake strawberry flavor in pre-made icings.

Then cut up fresh strawberries and arrange them on top.

Source: E Tells Tales

Calling on bakers ...

As was blogged about earlier this year, Meghan and I have been busy gestating little bundles of joy for the last few months. And now, as the time quickly approaches for those babies to make their entrances in the "real world," we realize that we might, um, be a little busy for the next few months as we enter motherhood.

To keep the flow of blog posts steady even if we're up to our eyeballs in dirty diapers and sleepless nights, we wanted to put out another call for any of our fellow bakers to offer up future posts. It isn't hard or all that time-consuming to do - you just need to bake something, take a few photos of it, write a short little intro and include the recipe. It can be some new, something tried-and-true, something super easy or the most complex thing you've ever attempted - we're all about baking diversity here! And just think of all the sugary joy and gooey happiness you'll be sharing with the rest of the blogging world.

If you're interested in submitting a blog post at any time, please contact us by leaving a comment on this post or e-mailing us a easttowestbakers@gmail.com. I KNOW you all have fantastic recipes that you're dying to share, and we'd love to share them on the blog!

Happy anniversary eve to us!

A little more than a year ago, Meg suggested that we start a blog together. A baking blog. We didn't know what would become of it, but we were EXCITED. Several of our favorite things came in to play. Baking? Check. Writing? Check. Doing something together despite being separated by 1,000+ miles for the past six years? Check.

And so the blog was launched. At first, we went crazy, baking up a storm to try to get several new recipes out each week. Eventually, though, we *had* to slow down because of demands from life, work, school, and most recently, our still-gestating babies. We've continued to try to provide at least one new post a week, and over the last 12 months we've worked hard to vary our offerings so that you don't find 90 cookies recipes and one muffin recipe. You've read along during our theme weeks and while we shared our pumpkin obsession with you on Pumpkin Fridays.

We've been able to share some of our favorite tried-and-true recipes, and we've also tested out some new ones, combing recipe sites on the internet, other blogs and old-school recipe books for our newest baking adventures. We started with a scant two blog followers and have grown to 22 followers. The blog celebrated 100 posts AND a redesign (old header is at top of post). We've led two rounds of Operation Baking Gals, and many of you have supported our troops by participating.


Over the course of the last year, we've had some major baking successes ... some of my favorite recipes from the past year include the party-pleasing Cookie Pizza (right), the oft-requested Pumpkin Bread Pudding, the sinfully decadent Cheesecake Cookie Bars, the ever-popular Cookie Dough Dip, and my favorite, easy-to-variate stand-by, Cakies.

And now I'm officially hungry :)

And of course, there have been some unappetizing failures. One of my most notable failed recipes was for S'mores Bars. While they turned out edible, they did not impress me at. all. I struggled with the recipe for Haystacks around that same time. My initial return to baking after a Lent-long hiatus was also quite a disaster.

Thank you to everyone who has been along for the ride so far. We're looking forward to the recipes of the future, and we'd like to get some more feedback from all of you. Sooooo ...

What do you like most about the blog? What do you like least? What would you like to see more or less of? Feel free to leave a comment here on the blog with your thoughts, or e-mail us at easttowestbakers@gmail.com.