• Champagne Brunch with KORBEL

    This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of KORBEL California Champagne for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine. Last week I hosted a small brunch for some friends who were passing through town for the holidays.  Nothing big, but I wanted to have a few dishes for them to nibble on and some delish champagne cocktails to go with. I kept it simple with a fruit tray, a few pastries from a local bakery and then added in a couple of my…

  • Be My Valentine Cupcakes

    Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, in case you didn’t get the memo. If you’re like me, you’re probably procrastinating and pretending like you don’t have to finish your kid’s Valentine’s cards tonight before bed.  You’re probably ignoring the fact that you have to make cupcakes for a class party tomorrow, too.

  • 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.

  • Dipped Vanilla Sprinkle Cupcakes

    When my husband and I finished college, we moved to the suburbs and built our first house together.  We both grew up in a small town, out in the country, and I think we were ready to give “city living” a try.  We built a great first house not far from the police station where my husband works and relatively close to my job.  Then, my first daughter was born.  She wasn’t even six months old when we realized that we wanted her to have…

  • 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…

  • Chocolate Layer Cake

    This is a variation of the very first layer cake I ever made.  I got the itch to make it yesterday, after doing a little bit of maintenance on my site.  I’m in the process of updating all of the recipes on all of Lemon Sugar to make them printable and more functional for everyone, and oh holy cow – I came across some cringe-worthy photos and blog posts from my early days. Case in point:  This cake. I’m totally blushing right now.  I’m so…

  • Lemon Drop Cupcakes

    So, my sister is VERY pregnant.  She’s not due for another 9 days, but she’s done.  I can’t hardly blame her, she works on her feet all day long, and then chases a 22 month old around all night.  The girl is always on the go, and quite possibly the hardest worker I know.  Except maybe my Dad, but I suppose that’s where she gets it. Since I’m just as anxious to meet my new nephew as she is, (ok, probably not AS anxious.  But…

  • Stuffed Crust Pizza

    This has been an extremely busy month for my little family.  Between my husband’s work schedule, birthdays, graduations, anniversary parties and my oldest daughter’s last days of Kindergarten (and all that comes with it), T-Ball, dance class and gymnastics, we’ve been running in a million different directions.  Dinner has become almost an afterthought lately…let’s just say there have been a lot of turkey sandwiches and cereal for dinner this month.  I know, I know.  Bad food blogger. Today, I noticed we were on the same…

  • Homemade Pizza Sauce

    I know, it’s almost too good to be true.  Karen, from The Art of Doing Stuff, graciously agreed to guest post for us here today!  If you’ve never been to her site, you must drop everything and go for a visit.  She does it ALL.  I’ve been following Karen for a long time now, and I have to say that her blog is among my first stops every morning.  But the best part?  She has CHICKENS!  And, she got her chickens at the same time…

  • Carrot Cake

    This is the second time this carrot cake has appeared on Lemon Sugar, for two reasons.  One, it’s fan-freaking-tasticly the best carrot cake ever known to mankind.  It just is. Everyone who tries it says so.  And I’m not bragging, because it’s not my recipe, but holy cow is it delicious. The second reason it’s making another appearance is because my first photos were horrendous.  Bad lighting, bad frosting job, bad everything.  I was determined to make this humble looking cake look photo-worthy, and I’m…

  • Pumpkin Kisses Muffins

    I’ve had an extra box of spice cake mix in my pantry since last winter.  I used it to make pumpkin cake balls, and it’s just been staring at me, taking up space since then.  I had a vague recollection of a Pinterest recipe floating around the inter-webs that claimed to be the best ever pumpkin muffins, using just cake mix and pumpkin puree.  So, I thought today would be a great time to try it out! Of course, a two-ingredient recipe wouldn’t cut it…

  • Caramel Apple Cupcakes

    Last night, I took my girls trick-or-treating.  Our community hosts a safe trick-or-treat and Halloween event in our downtown district.  It’s awesome, because all of the businesses open their doors to the kids and pass out candy & treats – the city closes the streets to traffic, some of the storefronts create little haunted houses, the high-school kids dress up and pass out candy at the elementary school, and there are little kids EVERYWHERE.   My sister owns one of those downtown shops, so my whole…