Handle the Heat

This is the BEST Cream Cheese Frosting recipe: not overly sweet, full of vanilla flavor, and can be made ahead of time in just 7 minutes.

Jess made my Raspberry Lemonade Cheesecake Bars, and I'm OBSESSED! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ultra buttery and bursting with fresh lemon flavor, this Lemon Pound Cake Loaf is an all-time favorite. The batter takes just minutes to make and will win over any Starbucks lover.

For the cake:
🍋3/4 cup (95 grams) all-purpose flour
🍋 3/4 cup (85 grams) cake flour
🍋 1 teaspoon baking powder
🍋 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
🍋 1 1/4 cups (250 grams) granulated sugar
🍋 2 tablespoons fresh lemon zest (from about 3 lemons)
🍋 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from about 1 lemon)
🍋 4 large eggs
🍋 1/4 cup (57 grams) sour cream or plain yogurt
🍋 2 sticks (227 grams) unsalted butter

For the glaze:
🍋 1 cup (125 grams) powdered sugar
🍋 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
🍋 1 tablespoon milk or cream

What's your favorite thing to bake?

Here’s the scoop: We went to our local grocery store and simply bought the cheapest ($11.12 per batch) and the most expensive ($23.20 per batch) of each ingredient and baked up a batch of my Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies.⁠
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The results were shockingly different!⁠
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At the end of the day...

They’re cookies.

So they’re both delicious.⁠
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Yet in our blind taste test in the studio, each tester correctly guessed which was the ‘cheap’ cookie and which was the ‘expensive’ cookie (even my photographer’s school-age kiddos!). ⁠
The cheaper cookies were more nostalgic but also greasier with crisper edges. The expensive cookies had a more pronounced butterscotch flavor and tasted less sweet, despite having the same amount of sugar in the dough. ⁠
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The final verdict? Buy the ingredients that create the results YOU and your family prefer.

Expensive does not always mean better.⁠
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For me, I invest in quality butter and chocolate.

What ingredients do you prefer?