7-Up Cake and MOAR BAKLAVA!

I promised the boy I'd surprise him with 7-Up cake one day, because it's his favorite (though I had never heard of it until him). So I made it!

I followed this recipe that I found. I even went out and bought 7-Up (cause I don't usually buy soda). I followed the recipe pretty much to the t. Though, honestly, I didn't cream the butter and sugar for 20 minutes. That seemed a bit much and I am not very patient. I did let my Kitchenaid go at it for a good bit though.

While that was baking, I wanted to use up the leftover dough from the previous attempt at baklava. I followed the rough draft of the recipe, but mixed things up a little more this time. Instead of pistachios I went with chopped walnuts. I also used cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom in the nut mixture instead of cinnamon and cloves. I used the same spices again for the honey syrup. What can I say? I'm like my adventurous baking.

The 7-Up cake was super rich and buttery.

The boy definitely enjoyed it!

The baklava was again awesome.

I think it was even better than the first batch, but I also think I personally prefer the spices I used this time around, so that's just me. The container of them I brought into work disappeared before lunch, so I think my coworkers agreed that it was pretty tasty too!

Baklava and Boys!

So that cute boy I was baking for (now the boyfriend) and I decided to make baklava! I've never made baklava before, and I've never baked with my boyfriend before so this is a whole new adventure!

So we followed this recipe with only a few minor modifications.

I melted the butter for the layering of the dough, which the boy did while I made the nut mix. I added some extra cinnamon to the mix, because who doesn't love cinnamon. Had I been baking alone, or done this before, I probably would have gone a bit crazy with more spices, but I contained myself.

Once it was all together, we tossed it in the oven and made the syrup. The boy added extra honey, and we used powdered cinnamon instead of cinnamon sticks in the syrup as well. When it came out we drenched it with syrup and began the agonizing wait for it to cool.

Yay Baklava!

Yay Boyfriend!

And, of course upon hearing the ruckus in the kitchen, and having sampled much of my legendary baking, my room mate, the mad scientist, came to see what was cooking.

As is his horrible fate, he had to sample some. He agrees... it's awesome! Also, my office agrees on the deliciousness. And, of course I win. I've got baklava and boys!