The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookie EVER!

These cookies are my absolute favorite ever! I don't make them very often because the recipe calls for a full pound of butter, but for those rare occasions when you're feeling especially deserving of something bad for you, they fit the bill perfectly!

This is another Martha Stewart recipe, actually from her daughter, Alexis. They are big and flat and chewy and crispy? Sounds odd, but trust me, they're amazing!

Alexis's Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies

From Martha Stewart

1 lb. (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

3 cups packed light brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

4 large eggs

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups AP flour

1 1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment and set aside. Cream butter until smooth; add sugars and beat until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Into a large bowl, sift together dry ingredients. Slowly beat dry ingredients into wet mixture. Fold in chocolate chips.

Drop 2-3 tablespoons dough per cookie onto prepared baking sheets; space dough at least 2 inches apart to allow for spreading. Bake until golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove cookies from baking sheets, and allow to cool on racks.

Makes fifty 4-inch cookies.

Perfect Lemon Cupcakes

My friend is celebrating her birthday tomorrow... She loves lemon, the color yellow, and stars, so I decided to make little lemon cupcakes with pretty yellow buttercream and super cute confetti star candies! It wasn't really a stretch for me, I do have an addiction to lemon anything...

You know when you go to a cupcake shop and try the lemon only to find out it tastes something like lemon household cleaner?? I recently had this bad experience and have decided to make it my crusade to come up with awesome natural lemon-flavored cakes.

Here it is - all my own creation! Makes 24.

Perfect Lemon Cupcakes

By Dulce Doll

1 cup butter, room temperature

2 cups granulated sugar

4 eggs

Zest of 3 lemons

Juice of 2 1/2 lemons

1 cup milk

1 tsp. lemon extract

3 cups AP flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat together butter and sugar in a stand mixer until smooth. Add in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add rind, milk, lemon juice and lemon extract. Beat well until completely combined.

Add flour, one cup at a time, beating well between each addition. Add baking powder and salt and beat until smooth.

Line 2 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake liners. Fill each cup with about 1/4-cup of batter.

Bake 18 to 22 minutes depending on your oven, rotating pans halfway through.

Lemon Buttercream

By Dulce Doll

1 cup butter, room temperature

Zest of 1 lemon

Juice of 1 1/2 lemons

4 1/2 cups confectioners sugar (may vary depending on desired consistency)

Yellow gel food coloring

Beat butter until creamy and smooth. Add lemon zest and juice and beat until incorporated.

Start adding sugar, one cup at a time, beating after each addition until you have desired consistency for piping or spreading.

Beat in a few drops of gel coloring until you get the color that you'd like.

Gateau au Citron

On my Facebook group Bakealicious! I've implemented a monthly baking challenge to try to get everyone into their kitchens and trying new and yummy recipes. For March I chose a French-style yogurt cake from Orangette, which I made finally last night, and it turned out delicious! I'll definitely be making it again and again and with different citrus fruits.

It was super moist and tasty and had a tart lemon glaze, I highly recommend it. I made it all in the one bowl of my stand mixer, very little mess! I altered the original recipe slightly, adding a little more lemon zest than it called for because I LOVE lemon!

For the cake:
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups AP flour
2 tsp. baking powder
Grated lemon zest of two lemons
1/2 cup canola oil

For the glaze:
Juice from 2 lemons
1/2 jar powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a large bowl, combine the yogurt, sugar, and eggs, stirring until well blended. Add the flour, baking powder, and zest, mixing to just combine. Add the oil and stir to incorporate. At first, it will look like a horrible, oily mess, but keep stirring, and it will come together into a smooth batter. Pour and scrape the batter into a parchment-lined 9-inch round cake pan.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the cake feels springy to the touch and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Do not overbake.

Cool cake on a rack for about 20 minutes; then turn it out of the pan to cool completely.

When the cake is thoroughly cooled, combine the lemon juice and powdered sugar in a small bowl and spoon it gently over the cake. The glaze will be thin and will soak in like a syrup.

Great Coffee In Vancouver

I know I should probably NOT be advertising another coffee company's brand, but whenever I'm close to an Artigiano's location I make a point to stop in for a great Americano or French Press. I can't help it - hope you do the same sometime! Quaint, great service, welcoming atmosphere, appropriate food offerings, and delicious coffee!

More Olympics!

Something I loved to do almost daily during the Olympics was visit the Cauldron down on the waterfront. I was very depressed the day they put it out.

Gold rings means Canadian gold medal!

One afternoon a friend and I decided to go for a walk through Stanley Park to visit the Olympic rings out on their barge in the harbor. Needless to say, it didn't look as far as it was and we ended up walking about ten kilometers round trip! Totally worth it, however, despite the gray weather and the threat of rain. It made for some great photos...

Downtown on Robson Street was chaos once the games were on!

Urban Fare

When I was at the Olympics I did my shopping at this great market that I found in the new Shangri La building in Vancouver. It's the tallest building in the city now, home to celebrities, Burberry, and the Urban Fare Market.

It includes a full bakery/pastry department, deli, salad bar, and Thomas Haas Chocolaterie. It was just a really pretty store to shop in!

March Mac Attack Entry!

Firstly, thank you again to Jamie and Deeba for facilitating this fun activity! The theme for Mac Tweets' Mac Attack 5 is "Spring Fling", and the inspiration is to be spring flowers. The first thing that always comes to mind for me when I think about spring/summer is lavender. I love everything about it. How something so simple can be so impactful is amazing to me.

I knew I wanted lavender macarons, but I got the idea to pair that flavor with fresh orange from Cannelle et Vanille.

Lavender Macarons

By Dulce Doll

1 cup plus 1 tbsp. confectioners sugar

1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. ground almonds

2 large egg whites, aged 24 hours

5 tbsp. granulated sugar

Grated zest of 1 orange

Blue or lavender gel food coloring

Dried lavender

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment, and have a pastry bag fitted with a plain 1/4-inch tip ready.

In a food processor, pulse together the powdered sugar, almonds, and cocoa, until a fine powder.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the egg whites until they begin to rise and hold their shape. While whipping, beat in the granulated sugar until very stiff and firm, about two minutes. Add orange zest and a very small amount of food coloring, only enough to very slightly tint the color. Whip again for a few seconds to incorporate zest and color.

Carefully fold in the dry ingredients, in two batches, with a flexible rubber spatula. When the mixture is just smooth and there are no streaks of white, stop folding and scrape the batter into the pastry bag (standing the bag in a tall glass helps if you're alone).

Pipe the batter on the prepared baking sheets in 1-inch circles, evenly spaced one-inch apart. Sprinkle tops with dried lavender.

Rap the baking sheet a few times firmly on the counter top to flatten, then bake 8 to 12 minutes depending on your oven. Let cool completely, then remove from baking sheet.

Fresh Orange Buttercream

By Dulce Doll

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

Confectioners sugar

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Zest of 1 orange

Cream butter until smooth. Add vanilla and continue beating to incorporate. Start mixing in confectioners sugar, 1/4-cup at a time until you have desired consistency. Beat in orange zest.