My head is literally swimming with pumpkin and apple recipes.  I actually made a list of all of the fall baking I wanted to get up on Lemon Sugar before autumn slips away, and it’s kind of ridiculous.  There are 42 items. How in the world will I ever narrow that down?  I won’t.  You all are going to gain 75 pounds before Thanksgiving.  I apologize.  Really. It’s funny, because I keep rationalizing to myself that pumpkin is a healthy baking alternative, so these recipes aren’t…

I am one of those people who can’t wait for fall to get here.  I really love the summertime but truth be told, August in the Midwest gets really old, really fast.  So, I have to admit that when we turned the calendar to September and then I saw the forecast for today and it included both rain and unseasonably cool temperatures, I was pretty excited.  The first thing I did was look through my saved recipes for a nice, hearty cool-weather dish.  This one totally…

Those (Lemon Drop Cupcakes)? Apparently, they work.  Less than 12 hours after eating two of them, my sister was in labor! Welcome to the world, Baby Evan!  And many, many congratulations to my sister and brother-in-law.  I’m a proud sister and a proud aunt today!

  I’ve never really had a real Boston Cream Pie.  I’ve had the grocery store version, you know – the kind that come with a plastic casing to keep the pudding from oozing out?  They always seem like they should be wonderful, but I’ve never been impressed.   I have to admit that I didn’t make the pastry-cream filling for these, I just used a boxed pudding mix.  I have big plans for the first time I make pastry-cream – those will be special occasion…

I made these cupcakes for my daughter’s 5th birthday party.  It was one of those family gatherings in the middle of the afternoon, not knowing how many were coming and how hungry my guests would be…and of course I over-did it.  I did try a number of new recipes for the event and had some good success, so I will post them as I can! These are chocolate cupcakes with vanilla swiss buttercream frosting.  I’d never had swiss buttercream before, but I’m so glad I tried…