Review: 101 Cupcake, Cookie & Brownie Recipes

101 Cupcake, Cookie & Brownie Recipes by Gooseberry Patch
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Melissa's Musings:

I have to say, this book is pretty disappointing. It's got nice photography, and a few interesting flavor combinations, but I was really disappointed that several of the recipes feature cake/brownie mix as the first ingredient. It might be an okay book for young kids who want to create something on the easier side, but it's definitely not for people who have more advanced baking skills.

One of the only recipes that looked interesting to me was the recipe for Brown Sugar Apple Cookies.

What's one of your favorite baked treats?

Review: The Artisan Soda Workshop: 75 Homemade Recipes from Fountain Classics to Rhubarb Basil, Sea Salt Lime, Cold-Brew Coffee and Much Much More

The Artisan Soda Workshop: 75 Homemade Recipes from Fountain Classics to Rhubarb Basil, Sea Salt Lime, Cold-Brew Coffee and Much Much More by Andrea Lynn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Melissa's Musings:

This is another book that's been sitting on my shelves for 5 years.

It's an excellent collection of soda syrup recipes. The book is sectioned off into different types of syrups. It is well laid out with very nice photography to accompany the recipes.

I appreciated that the author provided some of the history of soda, as well as some alternative uses for recipe ingredients/the soda syrup, if you don't actually want to use it to make soda. I'm surprised that the only tea recipe was for a green tea syrup. I'd be interested in using these in alcoholic beverages to give them interesting twists.

This year I've really cut down my soda consumption. I used to drink a soda per day, sometimes more (bad, I know!) but now I've cut that down to having soda on Fridays and Saturdays only. Are you a big soda drinker? What flavor combination do you think would make a good syrup?