Happy 6th Anniversary WITK!

It's that time of year to celebrate here at WITK! It's been six years since I first opened up a blogger account and put my fingers to the keyboard to write. Over the years I've gone through pounds and pounds of sugar, butter and flour. I've tested out recipes from Thailand, Spain, Italy, China, Vietnam and countless other countries. I've deep fried, sauteed, crystallized, baked, but most of all, I've had so much fun.

The best part of blogging over the years is being inspired by the other bloggers out there in the world. I'm constantly amazed at the creativity of the bakers and home cooks living in the blogosphere. Reading through my Bloglovin' feed tempts me to try new things and motivates me to up my game.

However, recently I've been feeling decidedly uncreative. My time has been taken up by work, travel and life and I haven't been able to spend as much time as I would like here at WITK. This is the reason why my anniversary cake for 2016 is more than a little inspired by Sweetapolita. This cake is directly pulled from her 2015 cookbook. The colors were so cheerful and vibrant, the sprinkles so happy and bright, I decided not to deviate from the original design.

Thankfully, I have a few life changes planned in the next few months. These upcoming changes will hopefully bring me more time for creativity and baking! I have a massive desire to finish my 2015 and 2016 challenges and bring you all more candy than your teeth can handle. Until that time, please enjoy this beautiful cake. It is not only stunning, it is super delicious. Major kudos go to Rosie from Sweetapolita. She is such a talented baker and businesswoman. I want to buy all of her sprinkles!

Thank you all for coming along on this journey with me!

One Year Ago: Strawberry Cake
Two Years Ago: Neapolitan Cake
Three Years Ago: Milky Way Cake
Four Years Ago: Buffalo Sponge Candy Cake
Five Years Ago: Banana Coconut Muffins
Six Years Ago: Chocolate Cupcakes (with high altitude recipe)

Yum, Sprinkles!

Tahini Cookies

Some items should really be sold in much smaller containers. For example, chicken bullion cubes, fancy vinegar and cornmeal. Generally, you need just a tablespoon for the recipe and are left with a near-full container of the ingredient. Tahini is another ingredient that always languishes in my pantry until it reaches its expiration date.

Thanks to Cooking Light Magazine, my tahini now has more purpose! I recently noticed a new section in the magazine called the "Use it Up Challenge." The May 2015 (I'm a little behind in reading magazines!) ingredient was tahini! While all of the recipes sounded fantastic, I'm making the orange-tahini vinaigrette next, these tahini cookies fit the bill for my Sunday plans.

They come together a lot like a peanut butter cookie recipe, but the flavor is completely different. If you like tahini (which if you have it in your house, I'm assuming you do), you'll love these cookies. The whole recipe comes together in about an hour - from ingredients to baked cookies.

The recipe also makes a completely realistic number of cookies - 24. Even though this recipe comes from Cooking Light, I wouldn't consider it to be healthy or low fat. The recipe includes refined sugar and butter. Enjoy them for the flavor and try not to eat all of them in one sitting!

What ingredients sits in your pantry month after month? I'd love to start my own version of CL - Us it Up Challenge and help everyone use up those weird ingredients!

One Year Ago: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Bars
Two Years Ago: Vanilla Ice Cream with Roasted Cherry Swirl
Three Years Ago: Simple Arugula Salad
Four Years Ago: Oatmeal Pancakes
Four Years Ago: Chocolate Buttercream & Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

CTB 2014 - The Sono Baking Company Cookbook

What is the best thing about summer? Is it the lazy days spent at the beach? Maybe the long nights huddled around a campfire? Is it the picnics spent with family or brunches spent with friends?

Nope, it's not any of those things. It's fruit.

Plain and simple, summer is all about the fruit to me. I can do most of those other things at any time of the year. There are always beaches and brunches, but fresh and local produce is something that you can only get now. I've been stocking my counter with all sorts of stone fruits and berries since I saw the first white peaches at Trader Joes.

I like to make simple desserts during the summer with fresh flavors. I made this peach and raspberry crumble into single serve portions so that I could grab one from the fridge, pop it in the microwave and have a personal dessert. The boyfriend tells me that fruit doesn't belong in dessert, so I had this entire recipe to myself! He doesn't know what he's missing out on.

Holiday Gift Guide - For the Baker

The gift guides continue! Do you have a baker on your Christmas giving list this year? Being an avid baker person myself, I always love getting new tools and cookbooks for baking. A few years ago my parents surprised me with a Kitchenaid stand mixer of my own, the color I listed is the one that sits in my kitchen.

If you're not quite sure what your favorite baker already owns, you can't go wrong with filling a box with all those things that bakers run through like water.  I'm talking about cupcake liners, reusable piping bags, vanilla extract, sprinkles, chocolate chips. It would be not only a practical gift, but a pretty one!

1. Snowflake Cookie Cutters
2. Adorable Cupcake Liners
3. Kitchenaid Stand Mixer
4. Ateco Piping tip set
5. Donut Pan
6. Tartine Cookbook
7. The Four & Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book
8. Mug Cakes Cookbook
9. Nesting Bowls
10. Holiday Mini Loaf Pans