• Strawberry Cupcakes with Ice Cream Buttercream

    Hold.  The.  Phone. Did I really just make ICE CREAM BUTTERCREAM? Um, yes.  Yes I did.  And know what it tastes like on top of a strawberry cupcake?  Yep, just like you think it would taste, only better.  Kind of like strawberry ice cream, but without the brain-freeze. And, it’s only four ingredients, and it’s E.A.S.Y. So, strawberry cupcakes, buttercream that tastes EXACTLY like ice-cream, and no brain freeze. Best cupcake ever, right? I’ve been on a bit of a strawberry cupcake kick lately –…

  • Salted Caramel Apple Slab Pie

      You guys, I’m coming up on my four-year blogging anniversary.  It was four years ago that I was planning my daughter’s fifth birthday party and had only just discovered food blogs myself.  Pinterest wasn’t really even a thing then.  Neither was Instagram.  In fact, it wasn’t until I was a year in to this whole blogging thing that I even had a Facebook page for Lemon Sugar, and now we’re going strong with over 28,000 friends. Love. It. To commemorate the big day, I’ve…

  • Summer Sauvignon Blanc Party – Part Two

    This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards. All opinions are 100% mine. A few weeks ago, I posted about planning a wine tasting party.  Did you miss it?  You can read more about it here.  The party went off without a hitch, and we had a great time.  The wine was delicious, the appetizers were tasty, and it was a fun night with my friends. The wine on our tasting menu consisted of: 2013 Sonoma-Cutrer Russian River Ranches Chardonnay,…

  • Double Chocolate Cupcakes

      This year, Halloween snuck up on me.  One minute it was my birthday and mid-September, the next minute I realized I had less than a week to come up with costumes for the girls.  I had the best intentions this year, too – I was going to make them both really cute tulle-ghost costumes, order white leotards and buy white tights – it was going to be adorable. Instead, I recycled a bumblebee costume for my youngest and bought my oldest a tacky, chintzy mermaid-princess…

  • Out and About: It’s Fair Time!

    I’ve been attending our local county fair most of my life.  My hometown hosts the fair, so watching the parade and spending a few nights with the whole town at the fairgrounds has become a bit of a tradition for me.  I remember riding in the parade with my ball teams when I was a kid, marching in the parade with the cheerleaders in high school, and now we spend it on the sidelines, helping our kids collect candy and goodies from the floats. The…

  • Neapolitan Layer Cake with Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

    How fun is this cake?  If you’ve been reading my blog, back in February I talked about my sister and her trouble making a decision for her birthday treat.  She ended up choosing the Key Lime Cupcakes which turned out to be a fabulous decision because they were wonderful.  This was the contender, the cake that made her decision so difficult that week.  I knew I had to make this one, but needed the perfect excuse because it’s so time consuming.  We celebrated Easter at…

  • Tortilla Pinwheels

    Oh, Tuesday after Labor Day.  I have a serious love-hate thing going with you right now. Our summer was magnificent.  The weather was just about perfect ALL summer.  Our grass never did turn that icky late-summer brown color, it’s still a gorgeous bright green.  We sat on the porch almost every evening and just enjoyed the weather while the kids played.  I was fortunate to be able to work from home this summer, so I got a lot of quality time with my kids.  The…

  • Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

    I’ve grown up around a lot of amazing cooks.  Both of my Grandmothers rocked the kitchen, my mom and my mother-in-law are both awesome, and even my husband knows what he’s doing in there.  In fact, two of my most treasured posessions are recipe books full of my Grandmothers recipes.  My mom is practically famous for her chocolate chip cookies, and she made them all the time when we were growing up.  You’d think that I would’ve watched her make them, but honestly – I didn’t…

  • Dark Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie

    During the winter months, I turn into a pantry-hoarder.  I tend to over-stock my pantry on trips to the grocery store, buying one or two of every possible pantry staple, so I always have everything I need for all of my baking whims.  Then, when I use something, I just replace it and I can make it through the entire winter without having to run out for ingredients when I decide to bake. It’s great, for a while.  But then, I end up with way…

  • Pumpkin Ice Cream

    So, I have to admit that as I write this tonight, I’m wearing two pairs of socks, a gigantic sweater and I’m sitting under a blanket drinking a huge mug of extra-hot coffee.  It’s definitely not ice cream weather right now. Isn’t it funny how the first cold night of the season brings out the cold-drama?  I’m pretty sure that 42 degrees in mid-January is going to feel like a heat wave, but tonight it’s awful.  And I want nothing to do with ice cream…

  • S’mores Cupcakes

    This is first of two s’mores cupcake posts.  I searched high and low for the perfect recipe and finally narrowed it down to two – but I just couldn’t decide which I liked better.  So, what to do?  Make both.  Yep, I made two different s’mores cupcake recipes in three days.  The winner?  I still can’t decide so I’ll let you be the judge – I’ll post the other recipe soon. This recipe was probably the easiest of the two.  It’s a dark chocolate cake on a graham-cracker “crust,” and…

  • Coconut Streusel Muffins

    If you follow my Facebook page, you know that I had a pretty rough week last week.  Among other things, my husband and I have been planning a trip to Mexico for ages to celebrate several events…his birthday, our five year wedding anniversary (18 months late, but who’s counting?) and most importantly, 20 years together.  We’ve been together since we were in junior high, so this is really quite the milestone for us.  Well, a VERY long story short, we were turned away at the check-in…