Birthdays and Baking and Biscotti, Oh My!

Would you look at that?!  It has been seventeen days (give or take maybe a handful of hours and minutes) since we chatted about baking.  And, as much as I would like to say it was just because I was busy, that’d be a little bit of a lie.  Actually, I think it would be better to state that it would be a lie of omission.  I have been busy, however, I have also been sick, sleepy and sore.  Stressed, sick, sleepy and sore do not a baking mood create.

So why, do you ask, am I posting?  Well, I’m certainly not throwing an internet-wide pity party (that’s for sure!).  I’m posting because, in the spirit of celebrating birthdays, I was quite the busy baker.

This past weekend was my father’s birthday!  Remember we had been talking about biscotti?  Why, why haven’t I baked more biscotti since Christmas?  How could I be so cruel not to make more biscotti?  Oh, I’m such a horrible daughter!

You can imagine the shock (followed by happiness) that greeted the biscotti that I baked up as a gift.  That is one thing that I must say I adore about baking; you can always bake to your heart’s content and then give the results as gifts!

I didn’t, however, just stop at cookies.  A good birthday has cookies.  A great birthday calls for cake!  Apple cake as a matter of fact.

Long story short, the coconut biscotti went over really very well.  I should probably mention that I never actually got to eat one of the biscotti.  Don’t get me wrong, I totally munched on the crumbs on the baking sheet, but it seemed cruel to eat part of a batch of cookies that I intended to give as a gift.  That’d be like opening the packaging of something before giving it away (in my opinion).  I fully intended to swipe one after they were opened though.  My dad, however, hid the tin and refused to share.  And you can’t guilt someone out of something that you gave them!  Gah!

I can say that the apple cake turned out absolutely lovely.  I give fully credit to my mandolin.  That little sucker is the newest addition to my arsenal of … random kitchen gadgets that I have always sort of wanted.  Next up, I dream of pizzelle maker.

Before I wrap this up completely, its probably worth mentioning that a student in our lab also had his birthday this week but 'didn't want to make a big deal about it and bother people'.  I mean, I can relate, but only because I really have a jar full of hate for my birthday; that majority of them over the years have been, shall we say, of a less-than-stellar nature.  But I digress.  Long story short, I cranked up the oven late at night to bake him a batch of short-cut cookies.  Is there nothing that Quaker Oat's Oatmeal Cookie Mix can't fix? ^__^


Oh, I should also mention, because I rambled so much, I hid the recipes behind a cut.  I didn’t want to be a spammer.  My bad!