Spring Lemon Cake

Despite the fact that I'm trying to get fit, and despite the fact that my husband and I have given up after dinner desserts and snacks for lent, I've had a lot of baked goods in the house recently. 

It's actually been a good test of my willpower! 

Learning to say no to after dinner snacks is not easy, but breaking my rules is a lot more tempting when there are fresh desserts on the counter every night. 

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Easter Egg Lemon Cupcakes

Lemon is the flavour of the Spring. 

Am I right? Or am I right?

Lemony goodness screams Springtime. 

Or maybe its just the colour yellow that screams Spring…. but something about the prospect of sunshine coming out, leaving the house without a coat, and pulling out my rain boots makes me want to bake lemon treats. 

So I made some cupcakes :)  

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Snickerdoodles

One of the things I'm loving about being home all day every day is the opportunity to bake all the time! 

I baking is such a great thing to do at home with a little one. 

Most bake goods only take up to 30 minutes to prepare (done during nap time or play time), and then I can easily start feeding my daughter while they are baking in the oven. 

Since I've been on my maternity leave we have had an almost constant supply of fresh cookies, breads, and treats in our kitchen. 

This week I made some delicious snicker doodle cookies.

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Angel Food Cake - Take 2!

If you're thinking, "I thought she just made one of those?", then you would be right. 

I recently posted about making an Angel Food Cake, and although it looked pretty, and tasted good, it wasn't light and airy. I have been waiting for the chance to redeem myself ever since that day.

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Nutella Fudge Cookies

This recipe is going on the top of my cookie recipe pile!

These are the easiest cookies I’ve ever made. And they are good.  As in super rich, fudgy in the middle, good. As in you can whip these up, give them to your friends and pretend you labored over them for a few hours, when in actuality they took about 15 minutes, including baking time. Yup, honestly only takes 5 minutes to prepare, and 10 minutes to bake. Couldn't get any easier! 

Oh, and did I mention it's only 4 ingredients?

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Leftover Cranberry Sauce?

Are you a creative baker? 

Is it natural for you to walk into a kitchen recipe-less and come up with something fabulous. 

Did you take classes, have a mama that baked regularly, or watch a lot of cooking shows?

<this is where I assume people get these skills from>

I am not a creative baker. 

I'm learning. S-l-o-w-l-y. 

Mostly just by baking. And baking. And baking some more. 

I'm a type A personality. I need to have all my ducks in a row and be organized. When it comes to baking... that means I usually need a recipe. 

Even if I'm baking something I've made a million times <insert banana bread recipe> I still consult the recipe. 

Every. Single. Time. 

But now I'm learning to stray from this rigidity. 

I'm carefully modifying recipes (mostly to make them easier). 

Simple changes here and there make me feel like a pro in the kitchen! Honestly! 

I had some leftover cranberry sauce in my kitchen and no one likes cranberry sauce on its own do they? So I came up with a plan to mix them. 

I made my regular carrot muffin recipe, and added all my leftover cranberry sauce, plus some oats to even out the liquid additions with some dry additions. 

I've decided that this makes me amazing in the kitchen! 

Since they turned out to be delicious - I'm now a creative pro! (sort of...)

And then we made some freshly squeezed orange juice to go with them. 

Most satisfying evening snack ever :) 

<mostly because I could toot my own horn!>

{yumm}

Having Ourselves a Merry Little Christmas

Go pour some coffee. Put on a cozy sweater. Play some Christmas music. Go ahead, I won't start until you get back :) 

That's what I've been doing all weekend. Soaking up the Christmas joy!
All weekend long my hands held a warm beverage (usually of the tea variety).
I sat in comfy clothes and watched a couple of mediocre made-for-TV Christmas movies, and basked in the glow of our lovely lit up Christmas tree.
Our Christmas tree which is now FULL of wrapped Christmas presents - some for each other, some for the baby (from Santa obviously), some for family, and even one from overseas :)
It's very tempting to lift one up and shake it every now and then... 

Puppies sitting by the Christmas tree - sporting their seasonal bandanas :)

My brother sent us this gift for the baby from Japan (well... the flavoured kit kats are for us). 

I was so happy to see it was from him at the post office! BEST uncle so far! 

And well... it didn't say not to open it... so we [I] did! 

We've been diving into all the advent treats and activities :)

All Saturday afternoon was spent on my feet, baking Christmas goodies with a friend. 

It was magical. Sprinkles. Christmas music. Good conversation.

So little time, and so many cookies!

There were a LOT of ingredients involved in all of our concoctions. 

And the dogs were nice enough to keep us company... just in case a morsel fell to the floor!

(side note: They are gonna love having a baby in the house that drops crumbs everywhere!)

I think "pregnancy brain" was catching up with me by the last recipe... I may have measured these oats, and then remeasured them 3 times... resulting in a few spills to the counter top.

But all is well - they are still delicious!

Of course tradition dictates that I MUST make a homemade batch of nuts and bolts.

One of my favourite evening treats of the holidays. 

This looks like a lot, but between sharing with all our family and enjoying it ourselves, it'll be gone in no time! 

I may have to set some aside now for Christmas day!

Christmas tins can now be filled with cookies to share with friends and family.

Christmas cards are all made and getting ready to be shipped out! 

Writing in this many cards is almost as time-consuming as making them all - but I love sending them :)

Hope your December is shaping up to be just as festive as ours! 

{xoxo}

Brain Blood Clot Hallowe'en Cupcakes

How does that cupcake look?!?

Frightfully delicious? It should! 

We were challenged to bring a "spooky snack" to our work potluck on Hallowe'en and I was very tempted by this spooky looking recipe.
Brain cupcakes with blood clots on the inside :) 

Here's some pics of the baking process: 

Each cupcake was baked with jam in the middle, and then topped with homemade buttercream icing. 

I tinted the icing so that it was a nice pinkish colour using red and brown gel food colouring. 

Next time I would use a jam that's a bit runnier... bloodier when the cupcakes open up! 

All ready for work :) They were well received! 

And here are some pics of the other creative treats brought to work! 

Witches hat cheese ball, pumpkin puking spinach dip, cheesy spider chip dip, spooky chocolate chip cookies, mummy cupcakes, & more! 

{yumm}

Garden Carrot Spiced Muffins

Still have garden carrots waiting to be used?

We did! So I made muffins :) 

Delicious muffins with some whole wheat flour, oats, and a hint of spice.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup rolled oats (plus a bit more for topping)

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp ginger

1 cup milk

3/4 cup applesauce

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups grated carrot

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease 12 cup muffin pan (or use cupcake wrappers).
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and ginger.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk, applesauce, brown sugar, vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla. 
4. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and whisk until all ingredients are mixed. Stir in the carrots. 
5. Divide the mixture between the muffin cups. Cups should be filled almost to the top. top with a sprinkle of oats.
6. Bake for 20 minutes or until muffin tops spring back when poked and a toothpick comes out clean. 

{xoxo}

Toffee Caramel Apple Dip

Doesn't this look amazing?!
It doesn't taste half bad either!
I was searching for a fall favor to send some guests home with after a party. I thought this would be perfect. Also, since I was planning to hand them out in small mason jars, I figured most people would be willing to take one home with them :)

Ingredients:
1 package of cream cheese
about 40 caramels (or one small package)
1 stick of butter
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1 bag of toffee bits

Instructions:

1. To make caramel: Stir caramels, butter, and sweetened condensed milk on low heat until everything is melted. Stir constantly so it doesn't burn. Takes about 20 minutes.

2. Add cream cheese to the bottom of the serving platter (or mason jars).

3. Pour caramel onto platter as a thick layer. Top with toffee bits.

If you are adding it to mason jars, I found that this recipe made around 7 or 8 jars. I made a second batch to have one for each guest, and then I still had some for the husband!

Here's how they looked all packaged up!

Here is the party platter version - or husband version in my house :)

When the dips were ready, I wrapped each mason jar up with an apple and a "Thank You" tag. 

There was one jar for each guest to take home after the girls Pinterest party I hosted :) 
I picked the granny smith apples (although they are not usually my favourite) because I thought the tart taste would compliment the sweet dip.

{yumm}

White Chocolate Pumpkin Truffles

Looking for a fall baking treat??
Since one of my tasks for my recent Pinterest party was for each guest to bring a snack, I scoured Pinterest myself looking for something delicious to try and bake. 

What I found were: White Chocolate Pumpkin Truffles. 

White chocolate? Pumpkin? Perfect for a fall-themed party! 

You can find the full recipe I used on Pinterest here.

The only adjustments I made were: 

I used pumpkin pie filling (because I had it on hand!) instead of puree

I used more orange zest then it called for because I love the flavour

I used white chocolate melts (from Michaels) - much easier than trying to cook pure white chocolate! 

The recipe was easy to follow, but dipping these into chocolate was much more challenging then I anticipated! I used a very professional "fork & spoon" technique that I'm sure resulted in the beautiful messes you see below :)

In the end, they may not have looked amazing, but they tasted great! (if you like pumpkin, lol).

I added little flags when I displayed them, just cause... well.... I do that.

Next time I will watch for recipes that involve precise chocolate dipping! 

Maybe I'll leave those treats for the professional bakers :) 

{yumm}