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Cherry Almond Sour Cream Cake
Today has been a bit traumatic for me. I cleaned out the sippy-cup drawer. I threw them all away. My nearly-four-year-old has stopped using them, so into the trash they went.
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Boo-tiful Ghost Cake
I’m a scaredy-cat, generally speaking. Well, not generally speaking, specifically speaking. I can fake my way through a lot of scary situations, but deep down, I’m a bona-fide scaredy-cat. I could list all of the things that I’m scared of, but that would be the longest blog post ever. Unfortunately, and against my best intentions, I’m afraid I’ve passed some of my tendencies toward irrational fears along to my girls. My youngest is afraid of “creepy things.” And with Halloween right around the corner, everything…
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Chocolate Macarons with Espresso Ganache Filling
Welcome to my most intimidating moment in the kitchen, the macaron. I’ve been reading about these little puppies forever in foodie-land, and was SO discouraged by the directions that I put it off. But, you know what? They aren’t that hard. In fact, I’d go so far as to say they’re pretty darn easy – you just have to follow the directions. I would recommend a digital scale for these to measure the ingredients, although I just saw someone make them on the Food Network that…
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Out and About: Wine and Sunflowers
I am fortunate to live with a quick drive of two local gems: Holy-Field Winery & Vineyard and Grinter’s Sunflower Farm. Since we have the first week of school behind us now, and since the sunflowers are in their prime this week, a visit to our local winery and sunflower field were definitely in order. Holy-Field Winery & Vineyard is an award-winning Kansas winery. They grow about ten different varieties of grapes, and offer about 18 different wines – from semi-sweet to dry. It’s a…
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Cream Puffs (Pâte à Choux)
This is one of those recipes that I stumbled upon and automatically thought would be incredibly difficult and way out of my realm. But, once I really took time to read the recipe I found it was really very simple. Choux pastry is used to make cream puffs, eclairs and profiteroles. It’s a very light, dry pastry and usually offset by some sort of decadent cream-type filling. I used the traditional pastry cream to fill these and topped them with a liberal dollop of dark…
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Share-It Saturday: Week 4
Hi everyone! Welcome back for another Share-It Saturday on Lemon Sugar! Before we get started, make sure you like Lemon Sugar on Facebook, and don’t miss my latest post – you can enter to win a Better Zester. You’ve got to try one to see what all the fuss is about. You’ll be zesting just for fun. Or is that just me? Don’t answer that. Let’s move on to the party. Welcome, welcome! That was my best Hunger Games voice. Geez, I’m just oozing coolness…
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Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Bundt Cake
Can someone please make summer stick around for a few more months? While you’re at it, let’s just go ahead and do two months of spring, seven months of summer, two months of fall and one month of winter with lots of snow. Kthanks. I’m having weather feelings because today we bought school shoes and backpacks for the girls – they go back to school in less than two weeks. That. Is. Not. OK. Even though I love me some fall weather, I am so not…
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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…
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Turkey & Havarti Croissant Sliders
Oven-baked slider sandwiches are among my favorite party foods. For one, they are SUPER easy to make. Additionally, you can make them ahead of time and pop them in the oven when your guests arrive, so you aren’t left frantically prepping and finishing last-minute details. After a mere ten minutes in the oven, these are warmed through and the cheese is melty and bubbly. They’re awesome. I like Havarti with deli turkey because it’s a smooth, mild cheese and works really well with the pesto. I’ve…
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Charleston Cheese Dip
Yay, dip! I LOVE me a good dip. Like the guacamole homer I am, I get WAY excited when I see a good seven-layer dip at a party (my sister-in-law makes a GREAT one, I’ll have to share it soon) but I’m all about trying new dip concoctions, too. Except, never put shrimp in my dip. Just don’t, k? I’m weird about shrimp. And now dip looks and sounds funny, ’cause I’ve written it way too many times. Dip, dip, dip. This dip, though –…
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Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes
You guys, what a week. What an up and down, crazy, emotional week. A week later, my heart is still raw and aching from the events in Newtown. Then, in a nearby town, two police officers lost their lives in the line of duty. And I sat at home, watching it all, with my young daughters (one of which is a 1st grader), and my police-officer husband. And I cried. A lot.
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Oatmeal Cake Cupcakes
Today is my Dad’s Birthday! The whole family is headed out to celebrate with an early dinner at one of his favorite restaurants. And though I know we’ll have dessert at the restaurant, I couldn’t let his birthday go by without baking for him, could I? =) Dad’s favorite cake is a recipe of his mom’s, her amazing Oatmeal Cake. That cake is awesome, it’s a spicy, coarse-crumbed cake with an ooey-gooey boiled coconut frosting. For some reason, it didn’t work as a cupcake. I tried, but it…
