Best of 2013: My Favorites

Delicious.  If I had to describe 2013 in one word, that’s what it would be… delicious!  I made so much delicious food this year, that I think I gained a few pounds!  Seriously!  Most of the time when I make something I like it, it’s yummy… but there were a handful of times out of the 120+ recipes this year that I made and I was like WOW!  I need to either make this again or enjoy EVERY BITE because it was THAT good.

Not only were my favorites this year desserts, but a few dinners and side dishes made the list too! I don’t know if you noticed or not… but I started sharing dinner recipes, especially soups that my family loved.

As I share with you my favorites of the year, I’ll tell you a little bit about why I loved each one.  Some because they were delicious, others because it was a goal to find the perfect recipe and others because it was just fun to make!

Enjoy this look back on the Best of 2013 – My Favorites!

Half Baked Cake

The Half Baked Cake was one of the most delicious cakes I’ve ever made.  It had thick, chewy layers of fudge brownie cake with gobs of chocolate chip cookie dough baked inside are layered between a brown sugar cookie dough frosting. I mean seriously… is there anything more amazing than this cake?  Probably not.

French Macarons

I wasn’t until I read Mindy Cone’s tutorials on how to make French Macarons that I felt confident enough to try these delicate confections.  I had yet to even taste one before I made them, but I had seen plenty in bakeries across Europe.  Because they turned out so well the first time, I put together a brief tutorial and scared many links to other tutorials in my post in hopes that you would feel confident enough to try them too!

Buttermilk Biscuits

For years my biscuits have come out like hockey pucks and a complete failure… until, one of my fabulous readers sent me her family recipe for buttermilk biscuits.  I am happy to report now that I’ve finally perfected the biscuit with this recipe and they are light, fluffy, flaky and are never hockey pucks!

Yuengling Beef Stew

My husband and I love to cook dinner together and one of our favorite things to make is a hearty stew.  This time we used his favorite beer from his home state of Pennsylvania to create one of the most amazing stews we’ve ever eaten.  This recipe is definitely going into our family cookbook!

Roll & Cut Oatmeal Cookies with Pumpkin Filling

These oatmeal & pumpkin cookies were a new way of making cookies for me.  I had never rolled, cut and filled a cookie before, but I am completely in love with how they turned out.  They weren’t very popular on the blog, but in person they were just so cute and delicious that they became an instant favorite!

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip M&M Cookies

A classic cookie with a twist… that’s what these cookies are.  I always love a good chocolate chip cookie, but the added cinnamon in these brings them to a whole new level!  LOVE these cookies!

Pumpkin Spice Latte Layer Cake

The PSL (pumpkin spice latte) at Starbucks is my favorite drink of the Fall season and this was the first year that Starbucks sold it in Germany!  I was so excited about that fact that I made this cake dedicated to the PSL!  I brought it to a potluck for 100 people and it was the most popular dessert of the evening.  Everyone ranted and raved about how delicious it was.  And seriously… it was that delicious… and a favorite of mine for 2013.

Fresh Raspberry White Chocolate Muffins

I eat fresh raspberries for breakfast every morning, so when I decided to incorporate them into a muffin I didn’t realize how good that would be!  If I could eat these muffins every morning… I would.

Original Karamelgebäck Creme Cupcakes

If you don’t know what Karamelgebäck Creme is, don’t worry… it’s just the German for Biscoff, Speculoos or Cookie Butter.  These cupcakes were really fun to make because I used Biscoff straight from Belgium!  One of the perks of living in Europe is that I have easy access to so much YUM!

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

This year I finally found the best recipe to make my version of the perfect chocolate chip cookie.  Crisp edges, chewy center, and loaded with chocolate.  I don’t like a flat cookie and these bake up tall.  So much yum going on with these cookies.

White Chocolate Molasses Cookies

Molasses cookies have been made in my house before, but this was the first year I topped them with white chocolate.  WOW!  What a huge difference it made… the white chocolate brought these cookies to a whole new level!  I sent them to Dave in Afghanistan and they were his favorite of all I’d sent him!

Mini Chicken Pot Pie Cupcakes

I had seen some recipes for Cupcake shaped dinner foods before, but when I came across these pot pie cupcakes I knew I had to make them.   So simple and so good… these pot pie cupcakes have become a favorite & staple dinner in my house!

Make sure to check out these other Best Of posts from this year and years past!

Best of 2013: Your Favorites
The Best of 2012
Top 25 Cupcakes of 2011
Top 10 Cupcake Recipes of 2010
Top 10 Recipes of 2010 (non-cupcake)