Lemon Glazed Bread

One thing I hate about living in the tundra is that you can't grow citrus trees outside.  I dream about retiring on a big orchard someday, and diving into pools of freshly picked citrus fruit.

One of these days I'm going to get me a little indoor dwarf lemon tree but until then I still have to go to the store every time I want to make this bread.

This  recipe is really versatile. You can  add blueberries* if you want. I also don't see any reason you couldn't make an orange version of this bread.

The glaze on this bread is SO yummy. It tastes like lemonade and gives this bread a tart bang of flavor.  Don't skip the glaze.

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Cookies' n ' Cream Cake {Velociraptor Skeleton Cake}

 

About... two-ish months ago my oldest turned five and requested a dinosaur party.  This was the resulting cake.  It was inspired by a picture I saw on Google that had no instructions and no working link to the original image.  So... this is what I came up with.  I'm no artist, but my little guy was happy with how it turned out.

Here's our BIG five-year old in his dino party attire:

Not a dino fan?  Try the regular Cookies' n' Cream version of this cake.  Don't forget the Cookies n Cream ice cream!

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Mint Chocolate Chip Cake

Hypothetically...   If your husband is out of town it's okay to eat popcorn for dinner, right?


No worries.


I had a pizookie for dessert, so most of my important food groups are covered.


Also, me and the kids watched Netflix all day and left the fireplace on all day.  Sometimes being irresponsible feels so good.

If I was feeling awesome I would find some way of tying irresponsibility into this Mint Chocolate Chip cake, but frankly...  I have 95 episodes of Psych waiting for me, so I'm just going to lay this one on you.

I made this cake for my mom's birthday way back in January.  Serve with Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream.  Nummy!  If you like mint ice cream, you'll probably love this one.

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Lemon Creme {Cheese} Cupcakes

 

These yummies have lemon filling inside and a delicious lemon cream cheese frosting on top.

Goodbye summer!!

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Firework Sugar Cookies {Pipeable Sugar Cookie Frosting}

These aren't the cookies I said I was going to post for you today.  But while it's still July I thought I'd better hurry and post the ones we made for the Fourth.  I used my basic sugar cookie and frosting recipe and just piped designs on. This frosting is thicker than royal icing (it's basically buttercream) and tastes wayyy better, but also dries hard enough to gently stack the cookies after 12 hours or so.  This cookie/icing recipe is great for any holiday or themed cookie. You will probably see it a lot around here.  Someday I plan to experiment with using lemon or almond extract in place of the vanilla in the frosting.

In other news, Target should totally have a childcare station like Ikea to leave your kids at while you shop.  I would basically live there.  More than I do already I mean.

That's probably why they don't do it.

Can you imagine all those moms??

(I say this is a good idea but then I have visions of mean bully kids throwing cherry slurpees and super salty popcorn all over my poor innocent kids and the Target dog, Bullseye attacking their pants because they accidentally left some string cheese and meat stick in their pockets.  So probably I'd just keep them with me anyways and bring an absurd amount of snacks to keep them in the cart.)

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Summery Strawberry Coconut Cake

This summer has been... interesting...  being the first real "summer" for us, since Chase just started preschool last year.  I totally underestimated how much I actually got done during the 4 hours he was at preschool each week.  Back when I posted our dino treats I mentioned we had started doing some summer units, to keep him preoccupied, and to keep me from going insane.  We've now moved from dinos to continents and we'll probably do one continent every week or two until school starts in September.

I LOVE doing these units with him and he is in heaven, but so much of my free time now is prepping school stuff instead of baking.  (Seriously... homeschoolers... I have no idea how you do this.)  Luckily I have a ton of posts backed up so hopefully I won't be too absent, and I might even get an Arctic-themed treat posted sometime this week.  I love to bake but I also love to spend time with my kids, especially while they're so young and they still like me.  {kinda.}

Now that it's July and it finally feels like summer, I thought it was time to post this summery cake. 

Strawberry cake.  Coconut cream cheese frosting.  Fresh strawberries.  Coconut. 

It's a little slice of summery heaven. 

This  is so yummy I had to give half of it away so I wouldn't eat it all.  The fresh strawberries really make this cake, so I wrote this up as a 4 layer cake (just by cutting each 9 inch rounds in half across the middle) to make room for more strawberries and frosting. I also wrote up the frosting as 1 1/2 times what I did to make enough for each layer, and give you some extra to frost the cake adequately... *cough*.

Don't freak out when you see how much sugar the frosting calls for,  mmkay?  

It's worth it. I promise.

Happy July!!

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St. Patty's Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

Just in case you're wondering, I did not forget pi day.  Girls that like pie as much as I do don't just forget pi day.

Continuing my quest for the perfect coconut cream pie I made two different coconut cream pie recipes for pi day.  Yes, I know this is a little bit ridiculous when there are only four people in your house and two of them are under the age of 4.

Unfortunately neither of them was the pie.

I'm going out of my mind here people!!  If you have a great coconut cream pie recipe please send it my way!  I can't keep making coconut cream pies every other weekend.


Anyway, since pi day got kicked out the window this year I figured at least I'd better post a St Patty's recipe before tomorrow.  You can make these for St Patrick's Day and put a gold coin in them, or you can make them any other day of the year and put a Thin Mint or Keebler Grasshopper in them.  (Crushed Thin Mints in the cake batter certainly wouldn't hurt either.)

Have a very happy St. Patty's!

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Light and Airy Vanilla Cupcake Frosting

Just because I love you I thought you probably needed this cupcake frosting recipe. It is so delicious and so light.  (Frosting is probably actually a misnomer because it's so light.)

This is the frosting for people who hate frosting.  

It can be flavored with extracts, and holds up well if you refrigerate your cupcakes after frosting.  At room temperature it is roughly the consistency of stabilized whipped cream.

Sprinkling with Nerds is optional.

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Bubblegum Cupcakes

 
 Is it weird that my 4 year old told me today that he wanted to be an organ donor?

(Then he continued the conversation by saying,  "Like maybe they could use my face.")  
I'd really like to know who he knows that doesn't have a face, but that's a topic for another day.

This is the same kid who was discussing politics with his teacher last week.

I'm pretty certain we could do a little freaky-friday switcheroo and no one would notice.  Probably they'd be all, "Wow.  You know about politics and medical terms?  When did you get so smart? You're so refined now!" And I, in a 4 year old body, would just eat bubblegum cupcakes all day and throw my socks on the floor and tromp mud through the house.

Obviously we would never switch back.


The idea for these cupcakes has been in the back of my brain for awhile and I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out.  The frosting tastes just like the pink bubblegum ice cream from Baskin Robbins, which is a wonderful thing. 

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Marshmallow Buttercream Frosting

This frosting doesn't really taste like marshmallow, but because it uses marshmallow it makes a lighter fluffier version of buttercream that I much prefer.  It isn't so heavy and you won't need to feel like you need to scrape it off your cake/cupcakes because it's "too rich".  It is pretty sweet but not insanely so like some buttercreams are.

It flavors really well, so feel free to experiment.  Maybe use bubblegum, for example? :)

This is my go-to vanilla frosting recipe (although I'd almost always prefer cream cheese frosting or whipped cream frosting).

I usually use this one if I need my frosting to hold up well in the heat, or for transportation, or just over a several day period.

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Chocolate Raspberry Frosting

I am about to tell you a secret that equivocates to treason in blogger bakingdom.

Seriously.  Don't throw rocks at me.


It is this:

I am a big believer in box cake mixes.  

(This is where I need a large black grandma to be like  "Oh No, she Dit-n't!)

 currently taking auditions for that part if you'd like to volunteer

Oh yes I did.

Let me explain. 

Except for specialties like coconut or carrot, box mixes are usually just as good as homemade and take about 1/8 the effort. In my opinion, it's really the frosting that makes that much of a taste difference.

Not to be a snob, but this is why canned frosting in my house just doesn't happen.  Homemade frosting typically takes less than 10 minutes to whip up and tastes a million times better.  It's kind of like a disguise for a cake mix.  Like the opposite of when Lindsay Lohan dresses up as a zombie for Halloween in Mean Girls.  Please tell me you remember that part.


I developed this recipe based on my favorite chocolate buttercream frosting by Williams Sonoma.  This chocolate raspberry version is really great on a plain old Duncan Hines chocolate cake.  It adds just enough raspberry and goes great with a glass of milk.

The candy oil can be found at baking stores or craft stores like Hobby Lobby.


A tip for using the LorAnn candy oils-  The bottles are hard to pour from. They will drip all over the place as you pour.  Just a drop or two makes a BIG difference in taste, so when you are pouring your oil into measuring spoons- do it over the sink and NOT over your recipe.  The last thing you want is to overwhelm your recipe with excess candy oil.  Not that I have experience in that area or anything.

(Seriously it's nasty... it will give you aversions for years)

If you're *really* smart you might want to use a dropper to measure the oil into your measuring spoon so you don't waste any. 

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Sugar Cookie Frosting

 

On Valentine's day the kids and I baked up some Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix cookies to decorate.  Super yummy but super flat... maybe should've followed the baking directions for high altitude and added some more flour...  The frosting was so complimentary I thought I'd post it.  It is sweet and rich so you only need a thin layer, but it was the perfect "kid cookie".  The hearts of course got eaten up right away. 

And in case you need photographic evidence of this frosting's deliciosity:   

(The cookie is fully intact but the frosting is all licked off.)

Told ya it's good.

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Red Hot Cupcakes and Frosting

If you have been wondering where I am you should know that my laptop charger died.  (I realize I have already used that excuse once this year, but really, I should probably be a professional charger exterminator or something because I do a really good job.)

I have currently taken my husband's laptop hostage for the night so I can post some of my Valentine's treats far enough in advance that you can actually make them if you want to.

Anyways, this charger drama cause a real rift in our marriage.  I was all "Whyy do you have to be in *marketing*... why couldn't you work at the Toshiba parts assembly plant! Seriously!  Why do these things always happen to me!"

So then for awhile I'm really mad at him for not being a charger repairman.

But then he says he'll go get me a slice of pie to make me feel better. (Obviously he knows the way to my heart.) And he returns with not one slice of pie, but two WHOLE pies, (which is like 8 slices of pies, or 16 if you have portion control), so then I pretty much forgive him for not being a Toshiba repairman, because first of all, who does that? and second of all, he buys me pie so he pretty much rocks.

I think these cupcakes are a pretty great way of saying "I forgive you for not being a Toshiba repairman and you're a pretty awesome pie-bringer."

Which is always a great thing to express to people, don't ya think?


These are really yummy. I was so-so on the frosting, because I have aversions to buttercream.  But the red hots in the cake... mmmm so good.  Don't be afraid of them if you don't like feeling like your mouth is on fire.  These have a great cinnamon flavor but are not really "hot" per se.  You don't need to have a glass of water handy to chase it with, I promise. My 2 year old didn't even notice, and he's kind of a wuss.

Have a great week! 

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Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream

Do you like my ghetto cake picture?  Turns out in the craziness of Chase's birthday I completely forgot to take a picture of his six layer "bone" cake.  So you get a picture of a cake that's lost a layer, fallen on it's side, sat out for a day and a half, and been 75% devoured.  I should probably roll one of my sweatpant legs up right now, tie a bandana around my head, and ask people to call me "K-dizzle".  If you can overlook my ghetto-ness today I'll reward you with a fantastic chocolate frosting recipe.

homie.

This buttercream is great because it tastes nothing like butter.  You don't feel sick as you eat it or want to scrape most of it off.  This is a great go-to chocolate frosting recipe. Also, my dad told me over and over what a great chocolate cake this was, so I'd like to public thank Mr. Duncan Hines for his boxed Devil's Food mix (x2) in helping make the ultimate chocolate cake so ridiculously easy.

This recipe frosted my entire 6-layer cake (barely).  If you want to do great dollops of frosting on 24 cupcakes you should probably make the whole recipe; otherwise, half it because it makes loads. 

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Peppermint Whipped Cream (For hot cocoa or cupcakes)

Sorry I always have to spout off randomly to you before I ever give you a recipe.  I like to hold them for ransom so I can talk to adults for 3 minutes of my day (Love my 3 year old but he wants to talk about "human bodies" all day and that kind of disgustingifies me.)  PS-  Don't call social services on me.  When I say he wants to talk about human bodies, he wants to talk about the skeletal system and circulatory system and how the small intestine absorbs food, and what the white blood cells fight with.  Sometimes he calls me the names of germs, which personally I don't find that hurtful because I don't even know what they are.  As you can probably guess-  it's nice to have a real chat once in awhile where I can talk about adult things.  Like cake batter snack mix.

So, I have to ask.  Has anybody seen Jack & Jill?  What did you think of it?   I laughed through the whole movie.  Probably because I'm immature.  But then I found out that it only got 1 star on IMDB.  ONE. STAR.  I thought they reserved that kind of rating for movies like 101 Dalmations II or Land Before Time XII.

So I would probably feel better about myself if somebody else could tell me they thought Jack & Jill was hilarious as well.  (If you hated it you don't need to tell me. I don't want to go through life thinking I'm a bad movie judger. You know?)

Anyways, this whipped cream is perfect on the Peppermint Rims I posted a few days ago.  Also, it's freaking delicious.  You can just plop it in a cup of cocoa, or you can stabilize it and use it to pipe on chocolate cupcakes and add some peppermint pieces.  (Also freaking delicious.)  By the way, I didn't stabilize mine, so your cupcakes will definitely be prettier than my cupcakes.  No worries. And if you stabilize it, be sure to double the piping gel because that recipe only makes half as much as this one.

If you are using it to frost cupcakes you may want to add more sugar.  It is  lightly sweetened which is perfect  for cocoa, but it may need a little umph to replace frosting.

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Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

You know how in those teen movies from the early 2000's there was always an "ugly, dorky girl" who got a makeover and magically when they took her glasses off and gave her a red dress suddenly she was super hot and dateable?  These cupcakes are like that girl.  They might not look like much, but they are just waiting for Freddie Prinze Jr. to come along and show everyone what is underneath those glasses. Seriously, these are unbelievable (And since I'm a girl, and don't date cupcakes, I can't really help which is totally unfortunate.)

But what I can say, is these are my favorite cupcakes ever.  And I consume a lot of cupcakes.

The cupcake itself isn't all that sweet, and may or may not have passed for a muffin on certain mornings at our house. (Frostingless of course.  What kind of mother do you think I am?)

Just kidding, we eat candy for breakfast all the time.

You should probably bookmark these for next fall.  Or you could just make the frosting to eat with a spoon tonight.  You won't have leftovers.

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Stabilized Whipped Cream. A boring post, but full of tips and tricks.

This is a picture of an unfinished pie.  But I wanted you to see the piped whipped cream around the edges.  I  love flavored whipped cream on cupcakes in particular. I think it gives them such a light touch in place of the heaviness of frosting.  The problem with whipped cream is it tends to melt into a big mess when out of the fridge.  The solution is to stabilize your whipped cream.

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Gingerbread Skeletons with Royal Icing

I love this gingerbread people recipe.  I usually heap the spices a little, and I think the flavor and texture is just perfect.  You can cook them the minimum amount of time for a chewy cookie, or cook them a few minutes longer for a crisp cookie.  My only complaint really is that these will spread a bit, so plan accordingly.  If you have a molasses aversion you can replace some of it with honey or dark corn syrup, but if you use a mild molasses (as opposed to blackstrap or "full flavor") I don't think it turns out too strong.

I like to split my dough into 2 or 3 pieces and roll each piece out between two pieces of parchment (one on top one on bottom) *before* refrigerating.  Then I just put the cookie sheets in the refrigerator. When the dough is fully chilled the top paper will peel right off and you can cut out your shapes right on the parchment/tray.  Then just peel off the excess dough and throw it in the "re-roll pile" and your tray can go right in the oven. No moving the dough and having appendages break off. Let's not make this harder than it needs to be, shall we?

These gingerbread men keep well (you can even freeze them), so it's best to make them in advance and decorate a different day.  For your own sanity, really.

When you make your royal icing, be sure to sift your sugar.  Royal icing is tricky to get the consistency exactly right.  If it's too thick your icing will break or just plain won't stick.  If it's too thin it will "melt" all over the place.  I like to spoon a teensy bit of icing into a cake decorating tip (not attached to any bag) and just push my thumb into the wide end to make it "flow" and test the consistency.  If you spoon all your icing into a piping bag and the consistency is wrong it is a PAIN to remove it all, rewhip and try to put it back in a bag.  Just trust me on this. If you're not feeling up to royal icing's diva behavior you can totally use a different icing or frosting.  I just like royal because it dries rock hard so I can stack these and put them in little baggies for neighbors.

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Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

I saw this recipe on Pinterest the other day.  That website seriously gets me in so much trouble.  I omitted the currants because, well, for one thing I haven't the slightest idea where one even goes to buy currants, and for another, I didn't feel like having strange pieces of random fruit in my cookies.  But do whatever you want.  Word on the street (and by street, I mean MarthaStewart.com) is that you can replace the currants with raisins.  Your call.  Martha's frosting was.... less than desireable.  I don't know if it was the lemon juice or what the heck was wrong but it was a big fail.  It tasted salty and sour and weird.  Maybe she got the recipe in jail.  I don't know.

Anyways, I replaced it with some of my own cream cheese frosting and suddenly everything was right in the world.  These are AWE. SOME.  Put them in your tummy now.  You can also make the cookies a day in advance and store them in a Ziploc.  It makes these super fast to assemble and eat. The cookies are chewier than I expected and taste a bit like a gingersnap/carrot cake cross, but they are still amazing.  If you are afraid of grating carrots, you need to invest in one of these. Seriously.  I'm pretty sure that's the best five dollars you will ever spend.

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Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

These might be my second favorite cupcakes ever. They are rich and creamy and chocolatey and actually kind of taste like cheesecake. As a bonus, they use a doctored cake mix that ends up tasting homemade. The secret is in adding more cocoa powder to a chocolate cake mix, and sour cream to make them ultra-moist. These are multi-step and take quite a while, but they aren't difficult.

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