Author Archives: bookbakeblog

I’m a YouTuber Now! (but also still a blogger)

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That’s right, I have joined the land of YouTube! I contemplated starting a YouTube channel for a really long time and on Tuesday I finally filmed my very first video after planning on doing so for a few weeks but each time chickening out for various reasons. It was quite exciting and a little bit scary. I talk all about it in the video, so I won’t just rehash all of that right here.

Just to clarify: me starting a YouTube channel doesn’t mean I’m going to abandon my blog: I plan on doing both because I still love blogging a lot too. It just felt like I needed a new challenge – I’ve been doing this blogging thing for over five years already, after all. YouTube seems like a fun way to try something new and develop some new skills, so I’m giving it a try! As for content, it’s going to be mainly books and hopefully some baking at some point too.

I don’t know yet whether I’m going to post all of my videos on here as well, so if you’d like to see more of them, I’d love it if you subscribed to my channel! I’m excited for you guys to see the video and I’d love to know what you think, so please leave a comment, if you like!

Anyway, enough intro: here’s my very first YouTube video!

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Lemon and Blueberry Muffins

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Who doesn’t love a good muffin? I used to make them all the time and I was under the impression this was still one of my most-baked things, but apparently the last time I baked muffins was in June! So, high time for another muffin recipe. My supermarket had a sale on blueberries last week and I love me some blueberries, so those definitely had to be incorporated. And lemon makes everything better, so why not throw some of that in too?

The result is this wonderfully fresh muffin. The texture is silky smooth, I think thanks to the yoghurt, and there’s a blueberry (or two, or three) in every bite.

I did have a bit of a revelation when it comes to baking muffins, though: I usually bake my muffins in a silicone muffin pan and they come out pretty great, but they never really have that amazing muffin top. This time, though, I had some batter leftover, so I used my smaller metal muffin tin to bake the last few in (the ones in the pictures) and they came out so great! Look at the rise on those things! This is the first time I’ve noticed this, so it might be a fluke, but I think I’m no longer going to use my silicone muffin pan from now on! Metal all the way, baby.

Anyway, let’s get to the recipe!

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Mini Reviews: April Edition

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I love writing mini reviews! It gives me a way to review all of the books I read in a month but doesn’t add the pressure of having to write a full-blown review if I don’t want to. Short and sweet! Or salty, depending on how I liked the book.

Amazingly, I managed to finish seven books in April. I think I mostly have the Magical Readathon to thank for that (you can read more about that here). I do want to try to stay in this flow, though, so I’ve already picked out some books I want to read in May. Hopefully, I’ll get to them all!

But first, let’s talk about all of the books I read in April!

april mini reviews 1Saga, Volume 3 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples ★★★★☆

This series just keeps getting better! After reading the first volume, I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to continue the series, but I’m glad I did because I already liked volume 2 a lot better, and volume 3 was even more fun. I’m finally truly invested in the characters and their fates and some of the events in this volume had me on the edge of my seat. Shit gets crazy in Saga, that’s for sure. I like how we’re getting to know more about the crazy world and society the story takes place in and I’m also enjoying the new characters. I definitely want to keep reading this series, but these volumes are rather expensive, so I’m not sure when I will pick up the next one.

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April Wrap-Up: Camp NaNoWriMo and the Magical Readathon

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April Wrap-up

Usually, I feel like the months simply fly by, but the start of April seems like such a long time ago! I had quite an ambitious plan for April: I was going to participate in the Magical Readathon and try to write 30,000 words for the novel I’m working on during Camp NaNoWriMo. Those two events happened to be in the same month and instead of being sad about having to choose one of them, I decided to do both. Spoiler: I only succeeded at one and failed quite spectacularly at the other one. But that’s okay because we’re all about having fun here at Books Baking and Blogging, and I did have a lot of fun! So much so that I decided to tell you all about it. I don’t normally write wrap-ups, but I figured this month deserved one!

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Cinnamon and White Chocolate Chip Cookies

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The cookie urge got me again! I actually made these cinnamon and white chocolate chip cookies a little while back already, but I didn’t get around to writing up the recipe before now because it’s been a busy month. I’m participating in Camp NaNoWriMo this month and my goal is to write 30,000 words on my novel throughout April. It was going really well, but I haven’t written much in a few days and I’m a little stuck in the story… But I hope to figure that out soon! Besides that, I’m also participating in the Magical Readathon all month! It’s an amazing readathon based on Harry Potter and the exams the students at Hogwarts have to take. Take a look at this video if you’re interested! I’ve been having so much fun with it!

Anyway, enough about my month – you probably came here for the cookies. These cookies are actually my attempt to cookie-fy my recipe for cinnamon sugar recipes (which you can find here). That one is one of my favourite recipes I ever made (my mouth starts watering just thinking about it) so I figured it’d be fun to see if I could turn it into an equally delicious cookie.

Okay, I’m going to be honest: I didn’t like these cookies as much as I did the blondies, but they were still pretty damn good! They are very sweet, so if I make them again I might add some pecans or walnuts to balance out the sweetness of the white chocolate. But if you love sweet, you’ll love these! They’re easy to make and super cinnamon-y – what more could you want?

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Why On the Come Up by Angie Thomas Is Worth the Hype

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Sixteen-year-old Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Or at least make it out of her neighborhood one day. As the daughter of an underground rap legend who died before he hit big, Bri’s got big shoes to fill. But now that her mom has unexpectedly lost her job, food banks and shutoff notices are as much a part of Bri’s life as beats and rhymes. With bills piling up and homelessness staring her family down, Bri no longer just wants to make it—she has to make it.

Published: 2019

on the come up

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Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Sometimes, I just suddenly get a very strong urge to bake cookies. This only happens with cookies, strangely enough. Never with muffins, pies, cakes… No idea what that’s about, but when it happens, I just roll with it.

A few weeks ago on a Friday, I got the Cookie Urge again while I was at work and I decided to prepare cookie dough that evening and then bake the cookies the next morning (they turn out the best if you leave the dough in the fridge overnight!). I decided to try out something new, and I remembered the double chocolate chip cookie I’d had at Subway (no spon – but wouldn’t that be cool) the other day. Those cookies really are amazing, aren’t they? And the double chocolate chip is definitely my favourite.

So, I decided to bake my own double chocolate chip cookies and they came out amazing! There’s just something about that combination of dark chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips. And I don’t even really like white chocolate!

I had a bit of a hiccup along the way in that I found out I was out of plain flour when I’d already started baking. Whoops! I did still have wholemeal flour, though, so I used that instead. They still came out great, but a little more tough and dense than I’d imagined them to be. I put “plain flour” in the recipe because I still think that works best, but this proves you can definitely use wholemeal too! If you use plain flour, your cookies will probably spread a little more than mine did.

Anyway, enough babbling. Let’s get to the recipe!

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Mini Reviews: February Wrap-Up

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While January seemed to go on for ages, February felt like it was over in a heartbeat. I blame it on those three days we didn’t have. I didn’t read as much in February as I did in January, but I did have a ton of fun reading! I read what is now a new favourite classic, and I finally read Landline, which had been sitting on my shelves for a good long while.

I also really enjoyed doing these mini reviews wrap up style last month, so I think I’m going to keep on doing that! Although, I’ll still be doing occasional full-length reviews for books I really have a lot to say on (I’ll be finishing On the Come Up by Angie Thomas later today – you can bet I have a lot to say about that!).

Anyway, on to the books!

Landline by Rainbow Rowell ★★★⭑☆ (3.5)landline

After my fantasy-heavy rotation in January, I really felt like reading a light contemporary novel at the start of February and Landline was the perfect pick. Rainbow Rowell is one of my favourite writers, but I have to say I’ve loved her YA novels much more than her adult ones. Fangirl and Eleanor & Park are both favourites of mine, but Attachments and now this one, while definitely enjoyable, weren’t that memorable to me. I love Rainbow Rowell’s writing, especially her dialogues and she also writes amazing characters. They’re always interesting and Georgie and Neal in Landline were so well-rounded and vibrant. I loved getting to know them and their relationship better throughout the book. It was a wonderful, flawed, realistic love story. Apart from the magic phone – that’s the one thing that just didn’t really do it for me.

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Monthly TBRs: Yay or Nay?

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Monthly TBR - yay or nay_

As most of you will know, setting monthly TBRs (To Be Read) is a thing in the book blogging world. I love seeing what other people plan on reading that month, either on Instagram, their blogs or YouTube. It’s always fun to see people get enthusiastic about books they really want to read.

I rarely ever set monthly TBRs for myself, though. However, lately, my feelings on TBRs have changed a little.

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The Macaron Saga – Part 4: SUCCESS (with recipe!)

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I did it, guys! My holy grail, my unicorn of baking, has been captured. I finally managed to make a near-perfect macaron (over 20 of them actually)! After five attempts (divided over about as many years) that ended in differing degrees of failure, I can finally say that I have baked a successful macaron – and could probably do so again, meaning it wasn’t a fluke. Who knew I had it in me? I certainly thought it was a lost cause.

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