recipes – Ryan Bakes It

I Asked AI for a Recipe — Here’s How It Turned Out!

Published on August 13, 2026 by RJ1 Comment

Late last week, I decided to do a little experiment. I asked AI to create a recipe for me. The original prompt that I wrote into the chat was: “Create a recipe for a cake that I can make this weekend that uses fruit that is in-season this time of year. I want the cake to be elegant with rich flavors and perhaps a flavor combination that is unexpected but still tastes excellent.”

Within moments, the chat filled up with a recipe for a Brown Butter Peach Cake. After some refining of what I was looking for in the recipe (type of cake, title of recipe, editing some ingredients), I was eventually satisfied with what the generator had assembled for me.

The original recipe can be found by clicking here. The formatting is my own.

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Fourth Anniversary Thoughts

Published on September 30, 2024 by RJLeave a comment

About four years ago, as the world was still dealing with the effects of the COVID pandemic, I started a blog. I’ll be honest now. I wanted it to become “big.” I wanted it to be popular, similar to the food blogs I read and visit online often.

It didn’t take me long to realize that running and maintaining a food blog of that caliber is a full time job. And unless I was willing and able to put in the work, that it would be a long shot for me to achieve that goal. I guess I assumed that it would happen overnight. How delusional I was!

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Fall Flavor Recipes: Scones, Cakes, and More

Published on September 24, 2024March 10, 2026 by RJLeave a comment

Fall has officially arrived! Pumpkin spice lattes, large crisp apples, cooler days and nights, and soon the leaves will be changing colors. Fair season is in full swing in New England. This year, I was able make the trip to The Big E in Massachusetts. It’s New England’s largest fair and runs over two weeks every year. I was really happy to get back there this year, after missing it last year due to my work schedule.

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A Return to Baking

Published on August 22, 2024March 10, 2026 by RJLeave a comment

As the weather changes, and I’ve settled into my new work schedule, I’m going to make an effort to return to baking and blogging.

A couple weeks ago, I decided to reactivate my baking bug. I made something that I’ve made a few times before and blogged about before. It was Ina Garten’s Banana Chocolate Crumb Cake. You can read more about it here.

Of course my most recent iteration of it didn’t look quite as good as the original. The picture is below. Ignore the sunken spot in the middle. I have yet to buy a proper cake tester for the condo, so I had to use a butter knife.

A New Adventure Awaits

Published on April 10, 2024March 10, 2026 by RJLeave a comment

Hi everyone!

As you may have noticed over the better part of the last year that this site has become nearly dormant. Ever since I started a new job last summer, I just haven’t had that much time to bake and then write about it.

At first I thought that as I settled more into my new role, things would change. It would become easier to find a rhythm that worked. But eventually, I realized that I think I’d just rather be doing other things. So, the baking went to the back-burner. I even stopped collecting cookbooks in the same capacity as I had earlier.

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The Richest Brownies You’ll Ever Eat – Barefoot Contessa 63

Published on November 6, 2023November 5, 2023 by RJLeave a comment

You know, sometimes you just NEED to have a brownie.

This weekend was time-change weekend for most of us in the United States. The fall back one always hits me a little harder than the spring one. I think it has to do with the sun setting before I walk out of work at 5:00 for the next four months. As a way to cope with this, I decided to do one of the healthiest, and therapy-approved methods: bake something sweet!

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Why I Love Collecting Cookbooks

Published on May 22, 2023March 10, 2026 by RJLeave a comment

While many of you come here for the recipe reviews and occasional anecdotes about other aspects of my life, sometimes I like to switch things up. One of the things I’ve only touched upon slightly is my affinity for the printed word. I’m lucky enough to work in a local public library where I get to be surrounded by books, this is especially true since I work in the cataloging department. It’s my job to get the books ready for the shelf and the public. So you may be confused by the title of this post. “If he works in a library, why does he want his own library of cookbook?” Well, honestly there are a few reasons. But the main one is simple: I enjoy having them.

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Sometimes Life Gets Busy

Published on April 11, 2023 by RJLeave a comment

Sometimes life gets a little busy. And sometimes you find yourself saying, “Where did the time go?” I can’t believe it’s been nearly two weeks since my last post. Frankly, I haven’t had much to post. With the holiday last weekend and poor planning on my part, I haven’t had a chance to spend some time in the kitchen working on recipes. However, with multiple days off this week (thanks to some vacation time) and a pretty much empty weekend, I should have plenty of opportunity to whip something up.

I’m currently thinking of making Ina Garten’s recipe for brioche loaves this weekend. Who says bread baking is only for the winter?! But, I’m also itching to get my hands back into the Magnolia Bakery Handbook. Perhaps a tasty muffin or scone recipe is on tap, too.

A small blue and red bird is resting on a thin tree branch with pink flowers. The bird looks directly at the viewer.

A Look Towards Berry Season

Published on March 7, 2023March 10, 2026 by RJLeave a comment

Looking back at some of my older blog posts from the last two years, I noticed that I usually wrote about the long, cold winters I would experience in New England. This year, has been the exception. Our winter has been incredibly mild. In fact, we only received one snowstorm so far that amounted to measurable snow. And, honestly, it wasn’t all that bad and less than a week later the evidence of it happening have almost disappeared completely.

Talk about my kind of winter!

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Ina Makes a Dinner Comeback – Barefoot Contessa 58

Published on February 4, 2023 by RJ1 Comment

It’s winter in New England, and even though we haven’t gotten any significant snowfall, we have had a few chillier days here and there. What’s the best way to end a cold day? A warm and hearty pasta dish. If you’re looking for something super simple and flavorful, then you MUST give this Ina Garten pasta recipe a try. Trust me, you won’t be sorry. I’m patiently waiting for an excuse to make this guaranteed crowd-pleaser once again.

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