• Kumquat-Orange Cardamom Bars

    Hi everyone!  Once again, I’m super-lucky to have a fantastic guest poster grace the pages of Lemon Sugar!  Everyone, meet  Samantha from The Little Ferraro Kitchen.  I’ve been following along with Samantha’s blog for quite a few months now.  I love to watch her posts on Instagram, because she never EVER fails to make me hungry!  Her recently revamped website is bright and fun to read, so I suggest you head right on over there and spend some time getting to know her!  While you are…

  • S’mores Whoopie Pies

    This, I realize, is not the prettiest dessert I’ve ever made.  It’s kind of frumpy, even.  But – oh my heavens, let me tell you – these are the best whoopie pies I’ve ever made.  Ever.  The cake was amazing.  They were rich, soft, and had a deep dark chocolate flavor.  The cream cheese buttercream was great on its own, but the addition of graham cracker crumbs took it up a notch. Pretty?  No.  But I didn’t even care because they were out of this world…

  • Biscoff Truffle Brownies

    Three awesome things happened yesterday.  One, I got up at 7:30am (which is like sleeping in around here) and made some cinnamon rolls.  Then, I took A NAP.  Like, a NAP.  On the couch.  In the middle of the morning. And my husband took care of the girls and I slept, and it was FAN-tastic.  I felt well-rested for the first time in months.  Or years.  Nearly eight years, to be precise. Secondly, I bought a new cake stand and I’m kind of in love…

  • Hi-Hat Cupcakes

    I don’t know if I even have words for this one.  I think this is hands-down my favorite cupcake I’ve ever made.  It’s beyond amazing.  For me, it’s the perfect combination of moist chocolate cake and fluffy, gooey marshmallow frosting.  They are definitely best served cold, and I’m finding that they are practically irresistible when they come right out of the freezer.  My willpower around desserts is usually very, very high – especially considering the number of deserts that come out of my kitchen.  But these? …

  • Chocolate Toffee Cupcakes

    I’m back!  I know, I haven’t really been gone all that long, but it sure feels like ages since I’ve blogged.  November and December are just super busy months for me.  I know most of it is self-induced – if I could somehow just let things be less than perfectly planned for once, if I could just go with the flow and ignore my messy kitchen or the piling laundry for an evening…if I could just go to bed before midnight – I’m sure I would…

  • Peanut Butter Monster Cookies

    Pssst.  I have a secret to tell you.  You have to pinky-promise that you won’t tell anyone. Promise? I don’t really like Halloween.  I actually kind of dislike it.  It’s my least favorite holiday.   Don’t get me wrong; I love fall, I love Thanksgiving, I love leaves, scarecrows, dried corn stalks, pumpkins, hay bales…but that’s where I draw the line.  I don’t love costumes, costume parties, normal food disguised as disgusting food…(have you seen the spaghetti-hot dog worm thing on Pinterest?  Gross.) I’m not…

  • Share It Saturday: Week #3

    I’m so impressed by the amazing recipes shared last week!  I had a hard time choosing the features for this week – a REALLY hard time.  Please do yourself a favor and check them out. Claudia at The Story shared her broccoli souffle.  Doesn’t this look amazing?  I’ve admittedly never made a souffle, but I’m going to have to try now. Joan at Chocolate, Chocolate & More Chocolate came through, as always, with a fabulous dessert.  Honey Buns are probably my favorite pre-made bakery item,…

  • Butterfinger Poke Cake

    So, I have a small confession to make.  I’ve spent the last couple of weeks catching up on Pretty Little Liars. “Catching Up” = watching it from the beginning because I can’t remember where I left off. I’ve watched 32 episodes of PLL in 13 days. This does not make me proud. I’m kind of obsessed, though.  It started when I was traveling on business, continued while I was recovering from an awful cold, and well, now I have no excuse.   Today though, I…

  • Banana Dream Cake

    When it’s named the Banana Dream Cake, it better be good.  I’m just going to cut the suspense here and tell you that it is, in fact, a dream cake.  It’s dreamy, it’s banana-y, and it’s all covered in tangy-sweet-creamy-omgoshsogood cream cheese frosting. Dream Cake, for sure.  The brilliant Jessica over at The Novice Chef has done it again. I made this cake for our normal Sunday dinner a couple of weeks ago, and my brother is already requesting an encore for his birthday dinner…

  • Spiced Cranberry Apple Butter

    Who still has cranberries left from the holidays?  Anyone besides me?  I always stock up and freeze what I’m not going to use, because I firmly believe that cranberries aren’t just a winter fruit.  It drives me crazy that you can’t find them year round, so when I see ’em, I buy ’em. Our CSA has been overly generous with our apple deliveries lately too – so much so that we haven’t been able to eat them all quickly enough.  We eat them like crazy…

  • Baby Shower Cupcakes

    I’m making cupcakes tomorrow for my dear sister-in-law, who’s hosting a baby shower on Friday night.  I still haven’t decided what I want to make yet, so tonight I thought I’d play around with some fondant and try to get some good ideas.  Instead, I came up with these. I also discovered that fondant and I don’t play well together.  I think I’m going to need a lot more practice before I am good enough to make anything fancy.  Plus, I totally hate the taste…

  • Waffles. Really Delicious Waffles.

    See the updated post, here! Waffles are one of those things that we never really had growing up.  We had our fair share of pancakes and french toast, but I can only remember having waffles a couple of times in my childhood.  They seemed to be more of a restaurant treat, usually topped with strawberries and whipped cream.  After trying a number of recipes at home, I determined what I DON’T like in a waffle – a heavy, egg-y taste. These waffles were the result…