Baking Inspiration

Of course in the middle of a major sweets cutback I start running across the most awesome baking ideas! Since I won't be enjoying them anytime soon, I'm hoping one of you will try them out for me.

It's surprising that as many blogs I read I don't have many baking/cooking blogs. Recently I have stumbled across two that I giddily added to my reader: Joy the Baker and Sprinkle Bakes.

 Thomas and I are suckers for anything avocado. My favorite lunch is a wheat bagel hulled out, filled with diced tomato, garlic and basil, topped with avocado and mozarella, and baked for 5 minutes. We've also made avocado gelato :). I haven't told Thomas about this yet because I didn't want to tease him. Joy shows it served with blood orange and grapefruit slices topped with whipped cream. YUM!

Avocado Pound Cake from Joy the Baker

Another new blog fave is from Heather Baird at Sprinkle Bakes. Not only does she seem to have me in mind when she picks out every single recipe, but she also takes great photos. I think I could substitute this soup for dinner:

Chocolate Soup for Two from Sprinkle Bakes

The cupcake fad is still going strong and Meri Meri has designed a series of cupcake decorating kits that make me want to throw birthday parties for all the kids I know.

Cupcake kits from Meri Meri

Luckily for my healthy eating goals, all the cute cupcake bakeries seem to be far far away from Deerfield. Next time I need celebration and adventure I want to head down to Bleeding Heart Bakery- an organic bakery in Oak Park. Check out the blueberry basil cupcake below! Makes me think of Texas :).

Bleeding Heart Bakery

So come on, share your current baking crushes with me, I need to live vicariously through the sweet tooth of others!