• Giant Chocolate Muffins

    Can you justify eating a cupcake for breakfast? I can. It’s easy, really.  You just call it a muffin.  I mean, it doesn’t have frosting, so clearly it isn’t a dessert – and everyone knows that muffins are perfectly acceptable breakfast fare.

  • Irish Apple Cake with Irish Whiskey Caramel Sauce

    The weather was gorgeous outside today.  Sunny, nearly 70 degrees, no wind – and my kids played outside.  We went for a walk.  We didn’t wear jackets, and we didn’t come in until almost bedtime.  These things, along with the fact that college basketball tournaments are on TV and St. Patrick’s Day is a mere three days away can really only mean one thing – SPRING IS HERE! Well, almost.  Still a week or so away but whatever.

  • Meyer Lemon Sour Cream Pound Cake

    I’m back!  I didn’t really go anywhere, but life just got busy.  I am definitely a creature of habit and need my routine to keep me in check – so four snow days, a bridal shower, a gymnastics meet, a sick kiddo (who is scheduled for tubes in her ears on Friday – insert Momma-panic attack here) – and a stressful few weeks at work really have me out-of-sorts. Normally, I bake when things get stressful, but dang-it, I just haven’t had time!  I think…

  • Brownie Tart with White Chocolate Biscoff Ganache + giveaway

    A week or so ago, I received a promotional shipment from Biscoff…a CASE of their cookie spread!  After I got my face out of the first jar of it – I mean seriously, it’s amazing, on a spoon, right out of the jar – I decided I really needed to figure out how to bake with it, and STAT.  Otherwise, my diet for the week was looking bleak.

  • King Cake, Filled Two Ways

    I’m feeling very out-of-sorts and distracted today.  We’re in the middle of a very busy week, mostly the fault of my first grader.  Between after-school basketball camp, dance class, gymnastics and a dance-clinic performance, our evenings are shot.  Oh, dinner you say?  What’s that?  Laundry?  How many times can you wear a pair of jeans before they’re truly dirty?

  • Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

    Have you ever played the “If I won the lottery, I would…” game?  We don’t really buy lottery tickets, but sometimes, when the payout gets really, really high, we buy a ticket for fun.  I think the most fun thing about it is dreaming about how we’d spend our windfall, where we’d travel, who we’d help…it’s good for a little bit of practically-free entertainment and good conversation. I do the same thing when it comes to bakeries.  Sometimes I like to scope out quaint buildings…

  • Snickerdoodle Muffins

    So, I woke up this morning and completely forgot that it was my anniversary. I called my husband after I dropped the princess diva-queen off at school, and I didn’t even say Happy Anniversary or anything. But, neither did he…so clearly he forgot too, right? Then, I’m at work and my phone notification pings and I see that he posted some really nice words about me on Facebook. Whoops. So, of course I did what any loving wife would do – I immediately reciprocated and…

  • Cranberry Walnut Cream Cheese Muffins

    Even though I have about fifteen billion pumpkin recipes that I’m dying to try out, I thought it best to pace myself and take a break from traditional fall flavors for a few days.   Ok, honestly, I had some cranberries in my freezer that have been calling to me for weeks.  Then, I found this recipe.  Shortly after I found the recipe, they appeared in my kitchen. And while I’m being honest, I actually had really good intentions to deliver some of these to…

  • “Homemade” Honey

    Ok, ok.  This is the second blog post in a row that isn’t a real recipe.  But I just had to share our newest kitchen creation – our very first honey harvest!   Those of you that know me well have probably been subject to one of my beekeeping rants in the past year or so.  From the swarms to the missing queens to the urgent need for more honey supers, I now know way more that I ever thought any one person should know about bees.…

  • 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…

  • Cream Cheese Lemon Bars

    I have been eyeing* this recipe on Pinterest for a couple of months now.  I think it called to me because it reminds me of a bakery-type lemon bar, which I love.  Well, I usually love them.  I don’t like the ones that taste like egg yolk.  Have you had those before?  Ugh.  They almost give lemon bars a bad name, but if you have a really good one, you’ll forever be in search of another really good one.  Or maybe that’s just me… So,…

  • Brownie Bites

    Last week I was fortunate enough to be asked to participate in the studio launch party for Melissa Rieke Photography and  Melissa & Beth at their fabulous new facility, RStudio.  I provided a smattering of desserts for the event and have been eager to share the recipes with you all.  The Whoopie Pies from my last post were one of the many items on the menu, and I’ll have another three or four coming soon.  You’ll notice that the photos in these upcoming posts are courtesy…