Blogging Questions
What are Gingerbread Bagels? And why is your blog named Gingerbread Bagels?
Gingerbread bagels are the best bagels in the entire world. They taste like gingerbread (obviously) and are available from mid November through mid January at Panera Bread. But some insane reason, they got rid of them! Excuse me while I cry…
I wanted a quirky name for my blog, something unique. This is a food blog so I thought why not name the blog after my favorite food, gingerbread bagels. I’m also a bagel fanatic and a ginger fanatic. I eat a bagel everyday and ginger sweets are some of my favorites! 
How long have you been blogging?
I’ve been blogging since August 30, 2010. I’ve been a featured publisher for Foodbuzz since the middle of October of 2010.
How do you find the time to blog?
I move really quickly in the kitchen so it doesn’t take me too long to bake up a dessert. The writing and editing are the time consuming parts of blogging. But generally I’m a pretty organized person and know when I’m going to make what desserts and work on my blog.
What’s been the best moment of blogging for you?
I now have three!
Being nominated for the Foodbuzz Blog Award for Best Baking and Pastry Blog!
Being featured on CNN’s Eatocracy. My Peanut Butter and Jelly Doughnuts are mentioned!
Being featured on The Pioneer Woman’s site. It was super exciting! (scroll down on her site to the Easter Candy Bark, that’s mine!)
What’s your favorite recipe you’ve made for your blog?
Black Magic Cake with Mocha Buttercream
What do you do with all of the sweets you make?
I’ll give the sweets away to family, friends and some I throw out the window…
I didn’t start a blog to eat a bunch of desserts, I started a bunch to create them. I like being creative, writing and just baking. So I don’t eat everything. I taste it and see if it works. I don’t eat an entire cinnamon roll or an entire brownie or eat pieces of cake everyday. After I taste it, I’ll give a couple bars/brownies/cinnamon rolls/whatever away and have others taste them…if they like them, great and it goes on my blog.
In October, I donate all of my treats to raise money for breast cancer. My mom’s work has a fundraiser. She lost one of her very best friends to breast cancer and one of her good friends is losing her battle with breast cancer right now. It’s a very important cause for both my mom and me.
How long does it take you to write a post?
Forever. A couple of days or more. It depends on how involved the recipe is because then there’s more photos to insert into my post.
How many times in a week do you bake?
I lost track…lol. A lot! I love baking. 
What’s the best thing about blogging? Having people try out my recipes and the kind comments people leave on my blog. The comments mean a lot to me!
How can you eat all of those sweets and not weigh 500 pounds? How do you handle all of the extra calories?
I don’t eat everything I bake. I stare at my sweets all the time so they’re not as exciting to me. The appeal to chow down on them goes away after a while.
For me, food blogging is more about creating recipes, the writing, the photography, sharing my recipes. I don’t bake desserts thinking I can’t wait to eat this but more along the lines of, I can’t wait to share this recipe with my readers.
Questions About Me
What’s your favorite kind of bagel?
Panera Bread’s gingerbread bagel. Sadly it’s only seasonal and I so look forward to when it arrives. My other favorite bagel is Panera Bread’s whole grain bagel. I like Starbucks multigrain bagel too.
What’s your favorite blog?
Where did you go to college? What did you study?
I went to Portland State University. I graduated with a BS in Social Science when I was 21. I minored in Psychology.
What’s your favorite flavor combination?
It used to be peanut butter and jelly until peanut butter made me break out in hives and gave me breathing problems. So…it would be have to be chocolate and chocolate.
Who’s your favorite celebrity chef?
Ina Garten. I’ve been a fan of hers forever. Her recipes always have that little something extra that makes the eyes roll back into my head and her recipes never fail me. I’m also a huge fan of Paula Deen. How can I not love someone who loves butter as much as me? Her restaurant, The Lady and Sons is one of my favorites.
Do you have a celebrity crush?
Yes I do! I swoon over Anthony Kiedis (minus the mustache) from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Josh Klinghoffer from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Do you prefer chocolate or peanut butter? Chocolate!!! I can’t eat peanut butter anymore. I break out in hives and it gives me breathing problems.
Where do you live?
Portland, Oregon. I used to live in Celebration, Florida. It’s outside of Orlando.
Where did you learn to bake?
I taught myself to bake. It just comes naturally to me. I read books on the science of baking, measuring in grams, etc. I By the way, just in case you’re wondering…I measure in grams when I bake. I convert everything to cups, etc for my blog.
What’s your favorite food town?
Savannah (Georgia)! I love Paula Deen’s restaurant. There’s nothing like hoe cakes and fried catfish. Pure heaven! And I just have to buy a box of pralines from the Savannah Candy Kitchen! Mmm not to mention, I love the samples.
Are you as friendly and bubbly as you are on your blog?
Yes I am!
What’s your favorite restaurant?
I have a couple. The Lady and Sons in Savannah, Georgia and Seasons 52 in Orlando, Florida.
What are your weaknesses?
Chocolate cake. Bagels. Josh Klinghoffer.
Baking Questions
Why do you use unsalted butter?
With unsalted butter, I can control the amount of salt that goes into my recipes. The amount of salt in salted butter varies depending on the brand of butter.
What are your essential baking tools?
A kitchen scale.
Your baking will improve SO much once you have a scale to weigh your ingredients. I measure everything in grams (I know how much a cup of flour in grams is, how much a cup of light brown sugar is, etc) and very rarely use measuring cups.
For example: If you bake two batches of brownies and you weigh your ingredients, you can almost guarantee that they will come out the same both times.
But if you use measuring cups, then your measurements of flour, cocoa powder, sugar, etc will be different between the batches. The two batches of brownies may come out different. One may have more flour than the other and affect the texture of the brownies.
Weighing your ingredients is very helpful with making foods such as bread, cinnamon rolls, sticky buns.
A lot of people have trouble when working with recipes that require yeast. But if you have a scale, you’ll know that you’re adding just the right amount of flour, sugar, yeast.
If you weigh your flour for example, you’ll know that you added just the right amount for soft and fluffy cinnamon rolls. But if you use measuring cups, you may have added too much flour and you’ll end up with a tough texture for the cinnamon rolls.
An oven thermometer
It may surprise you to learn that your oven is hotter or cooler than the numbers of the oven. Your oven may say 350 degrees F but in reality it may be 375 degrees F and that could be why you’re over baking your desserts.
An oven thermometer will tell you exactly how hot your oven is.
A lot of times, ovens vary in temperature on the left side of the oven to the right side of the oven or from the back to the front. An oven thermometer will let you know where the hotter and cooler spots in your oven are.
With an oven thermometer you’ll also learn that when your oven tells you it’s preheated, it isn’t! Ovens may say they’re preheated when in reality, they’re not quite to the temperature you preheated it to.
It can take a bit longer to get to the preheated temperature.
Where do you get your baking tools?
My spatulas are from Sur La Table.
My round baking pans are from Williams-Sonoma.
My baking sheets are from Williams-Sonoma. The square baking pans I use are also from Williams-Sonoma.
My kitchen scale is Salter.
My loaf pans/gratin dishes are Le Creuset and Emilie Henry.
I’m still working on updating this page. If you have any questions for me, please email me at gingerbreadbagels@gmail.com!
