1. I was anxious to spearhead this blog with a somewhat respectable post. 

2. For the first time this week, I had nothing in particular to do.

3.  Today is one of my close friend’s birthday and everyone knows baked goods are the greatest gift.

4. My list of saved recipes on epicurious was just calling to me. 

Most likely, the strange combination of those four just reacted in my subconscious and released some chemical into my bloodstream, sending me to the oven. There was obviously no logic involved, considering it was 90 degrees today. Whatever which way, this bout of bedlam a la cuisine yielded:

 Raspberry Yogurt Cake

This cake is spongy, not in the Spongebob sense, but in the perfectly moist way that the French intended yogurt cake to be. My father, blissfully accustomed to the horrors of boxed cake mix, held the cake up to me after biting into it and informed me it needed more baking. Since that is probably my greatest fear, I swiftly grabbed a fork and waited for the worst. To my great satisfaction, not only was he wrong, but the cake was far superior than any other yogurt cake I have ever had. I say that crediting the recipe and its originator, not me. With raspberries, orange juice, zest, and almond extract all battling to be the top flavor note, this cake hits you like no other yogurt cake could. 

• 3 cups unbleached all purpose flour, divided
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
  
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
  
• 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract, divided
  
• 1 teaspoon finely grated orange peel
  
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
  
• 1 cup plain low-fat yogurt
  
• 2 1/2 cups fresh raspberries (two 6-ounce containers)
  
• 1 cup powdered sugar
  
• 1 tablespoon (or more) water
  

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 12-cup Bundt pan. Whisk 2 1/2 cups flour, baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in medium bowl.

Using electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in large bowl until creamy. Beat in orange juice, 1 teaspoon almond extract, and orange peel. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition. Mix in yogurt.

Add dry ingredients to batter and beat just until blended.

Toss 1/2 cup flour and raspberries in large bowl. Fold berry mixture into batter. Spoon batter into prepared pan; smooth top.

Bake cake until wooden skewer inserted near center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Cool 30 minutes.

Invert cake onto plate and cool.

DO AHEAD: DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and let stand at room temperature.

Whisk powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon water, and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract in medium bowl. Add more water by 1/2 teaspoonfuls as needed for thick glaze. Drizzle over cake. Let stand until glaze sets.

         Giant Chocolate-Toffee Cookies

      Here is a fact to which this blog will eventually stand testament: I am hopelessly devoted to chocolate cookies. As any cookie aficionado would tell you, they are the tall-dark-and-handsome variety of America’s favorite dessert (I say that unofficially, fearing the wrath of pie.)I have been waiting to make these for months because I simply could not find Heath bars. After scouring every grocery store imaginable, I recently found Skor bars, which, as far as I can see, are the exact same product as Heath bars. Perhaps I’m wrong. Whether it was the anticipation or the cookies themselves, I simply couldn’t profess my love for them once I tasted one. There’s also the fact that possibly no chocolate cookies could hold a candle to those from Nigella Lawson’s Nigella Express (a book I so highly recommend.) I will most likely be posting those next week. Nonetheless, these cookies weren’t a total failure; I will still gorge myself on them. That must count for something. I also wonder if the nuts did them in for me. Next time (if there is one), I may do the toffee chunks and chocolate chips instead.  

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
  
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  
• 1 pound bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
  
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
  
• 1 3/4 cups (packed) brown sugar
  

• 4 large eggs
  
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  
• 5 1.4-ounce chocolate-covered English toffee bars (such as Heath), coarsely chopped
  
• 1 cup walnuts, toasted, chopped
  

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in small bowl; whisk to blend. Stir chocolate and butter in top of double boiler set over simmering water until melted and smooth. Remov

e from over water. Cool mixture to lukewarm.

Using electric mixer, beat sugar and eggs in bowl until thick, about 5 minutes. Beat in chocolate mixtur

e and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture, then toffee and nuts. Chill batter until firm, about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment or waxed paper. Drop batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto sheets, spacing 2 1/2 inches apart. Bake just until tops are dry and cracked but cookies are still soft to touch, about 15 minutes. Cool on sheets. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.)

 Blueberry Hill Cupcakes

When it comes to my friends and relatives’ birthdays, there is usually chocolate involved. When I remember (or see on facebook) that a fateful day of the year is coming, I typically whip out Trish DeSeine’s Chocolate and call it a day. Anything else sends me into fits of eye-twitching and toe-tapping. Well, today proved to be a day of uncomfortable fidgeting because my friend whose birthday is today doesn’t like chocolate. He “appreciates a good brownie every now and then,” but, unlike every normal person including myself, he won’t bake a flourless chocolate cake to eat by himself in times of distress. Or anytime really. So, my stomach in knots, I headed to epicurious to find something I could stand/understand as a birthday offering. I’m more or less a stuck-in-her-ways person, but I admit (with sincerest apologies to the chocolate community) that I actually enjoyed making and eating these cupcakes. I would recommend these to anyone, especially to those members of the we-don’t-like-chocolate persuasion (I would also recommend psychiatric help for your taste buds, but that’s an entire different issue.) These may have been the ultimate triumph of the day, but I won’t be making a full “no chocolate” birthday conversion just yet. 

Cupcakes

• 3 1/4 cups all purpose flour
  
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
  
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
  
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted
  
• 1/4 cup canola oil
  
• 2 large eggs
  
• 1 cup buttermilk or low-fat yogurt
  
• 1 cup whole milk
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
  
• 1 1/4 cups fresh blueberries, frozen for 4 hours
  

Frosting

2 1/4 cups powdered sugar

• 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
  
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons maple sugar
  
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
  
• 1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
  
• 4 teaspoons (or more) whole milk
  
• 1 cup chilled fresh blueberries
  

• Fresh mint sprigs (optional)
  

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two 12-cup muffin pans with paper liners. Sift flour and next 4 ingredients into large bowl. Whisk melted butter and oil in medium bowl. Add eggs; whisk to blend. Whisk in buttermilk, milk, vanilla extract, and peel. Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients; whisk just to blend. Stir in frozen blueberries. Divide batter among liners.

Bake cupcakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 23 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to racks; cool.

For frosting:
Combine first 5 ingredients in medium bowl. Add 4 teaspoons milk. Using electric mixer, beat until well blended and fluffy, adding more milk by teaspoonfuls if dry (small granules of maple sugar will still remain), about 4 minutes. Spread frosting over top of cupcakes.

Garnish cupcakes with chilled berries, and mint sprigs, if desired. (Can be made 4 hours ahead. Store in airtight container at room temperature.)