Pineapple Upside Down Cake

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Hi everyone! It’s been about 2 months since my last post. December was super busy for me (with holidays and family visiting from Peru). Then, in January I traveled down there to visit my parents and stayed a couple of weeks to spend time with them and help with extra stuff like taking them to doctors appointments and having a few things fixed at their house. My mom is doing ok with her early stage of Alzheimer, the medicine that she’s been taking for about 2 years has helped a lot. On the other hand, my dad (who will be 81 this year) has gotten slower and with some kind of depression but he is now being treated for that, so hopefully we see some good results soon.

Also, I visited some friends and had some deserved “me” time . I visited a couple of new restaurants and bars. Traffic was bad as always.

Anyway, I hope everyone is doing great and I want to start my new year (Yes, in the Chinese horoscope I’M A DOG! LOL) with an easy but delicious cake recipe that you can make for a birthday, a potluck, dinner or because you just want to bake!

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Mocha Cake

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It’s raining right now in Northern California, feels cold outside. My heater is on and I’m drinking coffee . I’m thinking about it’s time to start decorating for Christmas but maybe I’ll do it this weekend.
Yesterday, I was craving for some cake but I didn’t want to spend hours making one. So, I remembered that my hubby likes a Mocha Cake that I used to bake a couple of years ago when I started baking. Actually, I think this cake was one of the first ones I baked. The cake is super easy to make when you feel that you want to bake something or you just want some cake. I’m sure you have all the ingredients at home too. The frosting is a simple icing that I just make in a bowl with a spatula, I don’t even need a mixer.

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Chocolate Chip Muffins

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Weather has cool down a lot here in Northern California. I already bought a new pair of fluffy slippers, made hot cocoa and started wearing Christmas sweaters. My husband says that he is not ready for Christmas yet and I’m like what?? As soon as I put my Halloween decorations down, I started playing Christmas songs lol…

Anyway, I already baked a lot of things with pumpkin (which I love), so yesterday I decided to bake something simple that goes well with a good cup of tea or coffee. I chose coffee (and mixed in some of my favorite creamer of this season Peppermint Mocha) .

This recipe will remind you of those vanilla muffins with chocolate chips that you can find in a bakery , but of course these are way better!

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Pumpkin Spice Latte Cupcakes

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Hi everybody!!!

My favorite season is just around the corner and I couldn’t wait more to start making something with pumpkin. I’m a huge fan of Fall and Halloween. I’ve started decorating my house for like 2 weeks now.

I love coffee… I love pumpkin… I already had like 3 pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks lol … I know… I love it!! So, I wanted to bake something for the birthday celebration of my sister -in-law and decided to make these cupcakes.

This is a very easy recipe. If you follow each step, you’ll have delicious cupcakes to share with your friends and family.

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Apricot Walnut Bars

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I am not a very big fan of baking with oats but when they can get crunchy like in this recipe, I’m all in! I was looking to make something that doesn’t include chocolate, something more fruity, so I looked into my pantry to check what I had and found dried apricots, apricot preserves and nuts.

This baked good has become my favorite when I have a friend over to talk and hangout. I can say these bars goes well with any kind of tea specially Earl Grey or English Breakfast.

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Strawberry Cake

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Hello Everybody!!

Summer is almost here and it means that we’ll start baking with lots of berries. Last weekend hubby and I decided to do something different and we went to San Francisco for the day. Our first stop was Baker Beach and it really surprised us! First of all parking was great and very close to the trails that takes you to the beach. It is dog friendly and you have a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

After spending a couple of hours there, we decided to go Embarcadero and walked around Pier 39 and they had a small farmers market with great looking fruit and decided to get some strawberries.

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Let’s talk about Carrie

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Hey everybody! It’s Wednesday night and my husband is out of town because of work. I just thought that it would be nice to introduce you to one of my furry babies, Carrie. She’s a maltipoo and she is 4 years and 5 months. I found her online and rescued her from a lady that could not keep her anymore because her husband was very sick. I adopted her when she was 3 months old. You might wonder why did I name her Carrie, well I named her after Carrie Bradshaw from Sex And The City which happens to be one of my favorite shows.

Carrie has been my very first best friend dog. We know so much about each other and she is always there (literally… she is ALWAYS there lol). She is very smart and affectionate but she also likes her own space. She loves toys, water (oh yeah … she has her own small swimming pool in summer time), ice cream, treats, Greek yoghurt and blueberries. Oh! I almost forgot, she is a sock thief.

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Alfajor Cookies

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Who doesn’t like cookies? I know I do! I think it is my mother’s fault that I’m such a cookie monster. Since I was a kid, my mom always had different kind of cookies at home. Also, I remember that whenever it was my birthday or any of my siblings birthdays she baked everything from scratch. She made cookies, little desserts, sandwiches, treats, birthday cake and even she made a special meal for the adults. She really worked hard for any celebration at home.

There is one cookie that I learnt to bake since I was a kid which is called “Alfajor”. An alfajor is a soft delicate cookie filled with dulce de leche dusted with plenty of powdered sugar. You can find different versions of this cookies because they are pretty popular in South America , but the one that I will show you how to make is the Peruvian version.

Also, you’ll find different alfajor recipes on this blog. In some other recipes I use walnuts, hazelnuts or different fillings. This is the traditional recipe.

Make a cup of coffee, grab an alfajor and make your morning better.

Let’s start with the recipe.

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I’m back!

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Hey everybody! It has been a year since my last post. My mother has been diagnosed with an early stage of Alzheimer’s and that put me down for a while and stopped baking that much. It took a while for me to get use to the idea of what was going on, specially because I live so far away, but I have been back to Peru twice in the last year and I can see that my mom is in a stable condition for now. It is so important that if someone has any kind of dementia, they don’t wait too long to go to a doctor, get a diagnosis and start a treatment so the illness doesn’t progress that fast .

My husband has been really supportive in any way you can imagine, he is really my rock. I’ve had pretty dark moments where I thought that maybe my mom won’t recognize me anymore BUT we are not in that stage yet and hopefully it never will. Hiking has helped a lot too . I love my trails! Continue reading →

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