LEHI — Stephanie Younger's 4-year-old daughter was impressed when she saw her mommy on television making cinnamon apple bread muffins. She watched with great interest as her daddy explained to her that "Mommy was on TV."

When Younger came home later that day and everyone watched the tape, Abbi hugged her mother. She then stood back and asked, "Is that mommy going to come home too?"

Fortunately for the child, Younger is both — the mother Abigail bakes with at home and the one on the TV who is the creator of "Stephanie's Kitchen," a popular Web site for all lovers of treats and goodies.

Fortunate because Abigail, her little brother, Benny, and her daddy always have delicious things to eat, from apple muffins, pizza and sugar cookies to cranberry sauce and Golden Zucchini & Italian Sausage Penne.

"I've been doing my blog for just over a year, since last January," said Younger. "I've been cooking all my life."

Younger said her mother was an amazing cook and taught her to love it, too.

"I love to bake; baking is my real passion," she said. "My other passion is food photography. I love simple pictures of good food."

Thus, stephanieskitchen.com features recipe after recipe and picture after picture of easy-to-make, original foods, most of them tarts, cookies and candies.

"I either use family recipes or make up my own," Younger said. "Mostly, they're my originals."

Younger gets between 500-1,000 hits on her blog every day and tries to keep new recipes coming two to three times a week.

With a 4-year-old, a 2-year-old and a baby due in June, that's sometimes tricky to manage.

"Nighttime is the best time for it," she said. "I bake during the day. My daughter loves to help me."

Abigail Younger said helping her mother is hard work, but she really likes it.

Younger's neighbors like it, too. They get lots of shared goodies when Younger bakes and experiments.

Her husband, ironically, isn't much of a sweet-eater, but he likes what she cooks.

Younger has a number of advertisers on her blog, and she also runs a Web site for Cafe Zupa's.

Her recent appearance on KSL's Studio 5 boosted her hits, and she's hoping someday soon to write a cookbook of her own. She'd love to enter some cooking contests one day also.

In the meantime, she's plenty busy with her family and serving as the enrichment board member in the Relief Society in the Lehi North Lake 1st Ward.

"I just made 100 chocolate bowls and the chocolate cake, chocolate mousse desserts to go in them for a Relief Society dinner," she said. "… I'll wait until naptime to post it."

E-mail: haddoc@desnews.com

Chocolate Dessert Bowls:

Ingredients:

baking chocolate

pkg. of small balloons

parchment paper

cooking spray

chocolate cake mix

white chocolate mousse

white chocolate

almond cream

Melt chocolate slowly in a glass bowl over a slightly simmering pan of water. You don't want the chocolate to get too hot or it will turn white. Stir it constantly until it is smooth. Once it is melted, take your blown-up balloon (you want to use the smallest balloons you can find, I used 5-inch balloons) and dip it into the chocolate just about half way up the balloon. Set the dipped balloon on parchment paper that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Once the balloon has set, simply pop the balloon and it will come right out of the bowl. You now have a beautiful edible chocolate bowl. You can fill your bowls with whatever you desire. I filled mine with rich chocolate cake cubes (I used a boxed cake mix to which I added a box of chocolate pudding), drizzled the cake with a white chocolate mousse and topped it off with white chocolate and almond cream.

Perfect Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

4 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup granulated sugar

3 eggs

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3 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Cream the butter, shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time until well incorporated. Add milk and vanilla. Slowly add the flour mixture until well mixed. Roll out on a floured surface and cut out in desired shapes. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden.

anne

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