baking

Lemon Raspberry Birthday Cake

It was “ladies night out” to celebrate our dear friend Beth’s birthday.  Since lemon is one of her favorite flavors, I knew I couldn’t miss with this cake.  Print Lemon Raspberry Cake Ingredients one Betty Crocker Supermoist Lemon cake mix 3 eggs 1 cup whole milk 1 stick melted butter (8 tablespoons) 2 teaspoons lemon […]

Funfetti Sugar Cookies

If you don’t love-love soft, colorful, happy, pretty sprinkles, these cookies are NOT for you.  If you are like me, however, and crave them on cake, cookies, chocolate dipped pretzels and Carvel soft vanilla swirl ice cream (the best), then go ahead and take the butter out of the fridge…you are in for a treat. […]

Jen’s Big Birthday

Today is a big day for my friend, Jen, as she celebrates a milestone birthday.  Her grade-partners have prepared a surprise celebration, and I volunteered to bake the cake. Since I wasn’t at the party, I don’t have any photos of the sliced cake (bummer).  I will do my best, though, to describe it.  I […]

Minty Hearts and Chocolate Coconut Bites

I have been looking for a real good reason to make peppermint patties again, and what better opportunity than Valentine’s Day.  These patties are the perfect combination of oh-so-minty and deliciously-creamy, and I couldn’t resist turning them into a sweet Valentine’s treat.  After I formed and pressed the prepared patty, I cut them with a […]

Wedding Shower Cookies

I’m going to a bridal shower on Sunday for my beautiful niece, Nicole.  I baked these as a surprise and I have to say that I had a really good time creating them.  It took three batches of sweetsugarbelle’s sugar cookies to make 50 large cookies and, instead of making the royal icing from scratch, […]

Neapolitan Bundt Cake

This cake tastes as good as it looks!  It starts with a white cake mix which is separated into three parts.  The white layer is poured first into a bundt pan, the strawberry and chocolate layers follow, and voila.  Pretty and delicious! The recipe is on allrecipes but, after reading the reviews, I made the […]

Old-Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies

I like peanut butter cookies, but I hardly ever add them to a cookie tray as the aroma (like mint) tends to attach itself to all the other cookies and, before you know it, you have a peanut butter extravaganza. So, for me, these cookies are a stand-alone favorite, and Betty Crocker seems to do […]

Almond Joy Cookies

I love Love LOVE Almond Joy candy bars.  So much so that I buy bags of them every Halloween knowing full well that it’s not a favorite amongst trick-or-treaters and knowing full well that there’ll be a ton left over for me.  As candy goes, I can’t think of a more perfect combination…creamy coconut, sweet […]

Annual Christmas Cookie Baking Marathon – 2011

Includes recipes for Spritz, Mom’s Best Peanut Brittle, Hazelnut Raspberry Almond Thumbprints, Pignoli Cookies, Vanilla Drop Sugar Cookies, Almond Diamonds, Susan Branch’s Lemon Squares, Sugar Crusted Snowballs, Italian Christmas Cookies, Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies, Molasses Sugar Cookies, Toffee Turtle Bars, Double Coconut Biscotti, White Chocolate, Cranberry, Pistachio Biscotti

Christmas Cutout Cookies – Ornaments & Trees

Little a and I enjoyed our marathon holiday baking weekend, and there’s so much to share.  Instead of snowflakes this year, we chose to decorate ornaments and trees: The basic sugar cookie and royal icing recipes came from Sweet Sugarbelle.  I just love her blog and her cookies inspire me to keep trying, although I […]

Vanilla Drop Sugar Cookies

Crispy on the outside…..soft, vanilla wonderful on the inside.  These are goooood!! Print Vanilla Drop Sugar Cookies Ingredients 3 sticks butter 1 1/2 cups sugar 3 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla 3 3/4 cups flour 1 tsp baking soda 2 tsp cream of tartar 1/2 tsp salt Instructions Cream together butter and sugar until light and […]

Hazelnut Raspberry Almond Thumbprint Cookies

My holiday baking is underway, and raspberry thumbprint cookies are an all-time favorite…and they’re pretty too! For these cookies, I combined two of my favorite recipes:  Pillsbury’s Hazelnut Melting Moments and Land o’ Lakes’ Raspberry Almond Shortbread Thumbprints.  With toasted and chopped hazelnuts, the Pillsbury recipe* makes a tender and delicious base,  and I used […]

Homemade Peppermint Patties

Move over York.  I’ve found me a new peppermint patty, and it is DE-licious! Easy to make, too.  My inspiration was from sweetapolita, who was inspired by Joy of Baking, who was inspired by who knows.  And who cares.  These are fun and easy, and make a great new addition to my holiday baking (although, […]

Chocolate Birthday Cake

My dear friend, Holly, celebrated a milestone birthday this month and we surprised her with a small dinner party.  I baked her this cake and (if I must say so myself) it was really good!!  Really good. I’m not into the cakes-from-scratch thing.  Call me lazy or uninspired, but I enjoy baking and eating cakes […]