{twd} swirl cakes are my nemeses

Yes. There isn’t a swirl cake I can’t make ugly. Not on purpose. It just happens. I can make gorgeous croissants. I have no problem baking rolls that look like, well, rolls. I can’t make pretty swirls. I admit defeat.

Paula agrees.

Even though my Nutty Chocolatey Swirly Sour Cream Bundt Cake won’t win beauty contests, it was still mighty tasty. Those scraps did not go to waste. 😉

Thanks to Jennifer of Cooking for Comfort for hosting this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie. For the recipe, visit her blog.

{twd} lemon poppyseed muffins

I have an awesome neighbor. Okay, sometimes he says things like “I don’t know how you make it sometimes, Wendy”. Gee, thanks.  Other than that he is a pretty cool guy. I think he sees me as the daughter he never had. When I had trouble edging my lawn, he said he would do it. Week after week, I would mow my lawn and he would edge it.  In November, I went on vacation for 3 weeks. He said he would mow my lawn while I was gone. I returned home to a beautiful manicured lawn.

As thanks I decided to bake him and his family a basket of mini-muffins. For some reason, I decided to bake all the muffins I had not yet baked out of Dorie Greenspan’s Baking…From My Home to Yours. I took a basket to work and I walked a basket across the street to my neighbor. I also froze some of each. These, my friends, are the ones I took out of my freezer when I discovered this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie selection was the very popular (with neighbors and co-workers) Lemon Poppyseed Muffins.

Thanks to Betsy of A Cup of Sweetness for hosting this week. For the recipe, visit her BLOG or buy the BOOK.

(By the way, I have not mowed my lawn since late October. Love my neighbor.)