Coconut Cream Cake

Ok.  See?  Freaky pictures.

Pretend to ignore and we can be friends.   It gets better, I promise.


I'm feeling a little bit lost with no holidays to prepare for.  Halloween through Easter has been a whirlwind of baking and trying to cram in everything I want to make and now my baking schedule is completely free until the 4th of July comes around.  It's a nice feeling actually.  I get to wrack my brain for delicious treats to invent instead of plowing through the 3 pages of bookmarked recipes on my computer.

This baby is a cake I make every year around Easter and it is the moistest cake everr.  It is a poke cake, drizzled with cream of coconut and has a fantastic coconut flavor.  It needs to be eaten within 2 days because it is so moist, but you shouldn't have problems getting rid of it.

Just to be clear, Cream of Coconut is that sweet syrupy stuff, often found in a can, over on the mixers aisle  (by the soda).  Look for Margarita mix and it's probably sitting on the shelf next to that.  I have yet to find a store that doesn't carry it, sometimes you just have to poke around a little bit.  Coconut milk, or Coconut Cream (non-sweetened) are NOT the same and will not yield the same results.  The brand I buy is Coco Lopez.  Check the back.   If there are a bazillion-ty calories in 2 Tbsp, and sugar is one of the first ingredients, you've got the right stuff.  Cream of Coconut is a great way to add a strong coconut flavor without adding gritty chunks of coconut to whatever you are baking!

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Peanut Butter Monster Cookies

If you looked at my picture and thought it looked odd, just know that my husband bought me a DSLR awhile back.  I have been... "experimenting" lately with my photos.  Everything I have to post in the next 2 weeks or so looks kind of crazy but I think I finally have it figured out!

(maybe.)

These cookies are great big fat cookies, for those times when your chocolate cravings make you feel like a raging monster.

Obvs.

Also they are monster-sized.  (We're talking a small-ish monster here, not one of those full-sized giants from Harry Potter or anything. So the appropriate serving size is two instead of five.)

How healthy of us!

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Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chick Fil A has insanely good chocolate chips cookies.  Like, it's weird how good they are.  Sometimes when I'm running errands with my little, we eat them for breakfast.

These ones are a little bit different since they don't have any oatmeal in them, but they are the closest I've found. They crunch when you bite into them, and then they're chewy and gooey and substantial.  I buy bread flour just to use for these cookies because I think it does make a difference, but you can sub regular flour if you want.

It's doubtful I will ever make another chocolate chip cookie recipe again.

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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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Baby Shower Onesie Sugar Cookies

Found these beauties from months ago lurking in one of my photo folders.  Love my cute new niece and nephew!

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Ghetto Peach Cobbler

I'm not really sure if I am qualified to call this ghetto peach cobbler, since I've never actually lived in the ghetto and therefore have no real basis for this assertion, but I think I'm gonna stick with the name anyways.

This cobbler is made from yellow cake mix and peaches so it's not exactly Martha Stewart, but we love it.  Part of the attraction is that it comes together in about 5 minutes and we always have the ingredients on hand.  Serve warm with a great big scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.

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Reese's Pieces Oatmeal Cookies

I decided I really needed to post some oatmeal cookies today since their "healthiness" offsets all those Girl Scout cookies you've been eating.

 I mean, I've been eating. 

(For breakfast, lunch, and dinner actually, but who's counting?)


Seriouslysomebodytakethemaway.

Also since when are Peanut Butter Patties, in fact called "Tagalongs"?  Doesn't "Peanut Butter Patties" make so much more sense?  What the hey is a tagalong anyways??

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Toffee Bars

A terrible thing has happened.

My husband finally realized that Revenge is {basically} a soap opera and doesn't want to watch it with me anymore.

For some reason he thinks Emily is cray-cray?

I know.  I don't get it either.  Assuming someone else's name, monitoring all your neighbors via hidden cameras in their houses, and plotting ways to destroy their lives is totally normal.


I knew this day was inevitable.  I mean, I nearly swallowed my tongue when he agreed to watch the first season with me.  

But I'm still going to go eat my feelings. 

Probably with these peanut butter toffee bars.

Wanna join me?

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Valentine's Ombre Drinks

I just found out that hats are not allowed at my son's elementary school next year.

Booo.

I thought that was the great part about having a boy? You know, them being all low-maintenance and everything.  Slapping a hat on them and sending them out the door.

Umm, do they even realize what a huge inconvenience this is?  This will probably add an additional minute and forty five seconds to my morning routine.  Where am I supposed to find that kind of time?

Will there be a complimentary breakfast served at school to make up for the time I will have to take away from toast-making or orange juice pouring in order to style his hair appropriately?

Starving children typically don't do well in school.

Don't they know that??

It's so hard to be a mom these days.


Sarcasm aside, remember the layered drinks craze of last summer?  For Valentine's day I came up with a cute ombre version to make my kids.  So pretty and soo yummy.  The trick of course, is layering these drinks in the right order.

Check the label on the back of the drink and look at the sugar content.  The highest amount of sugar is the drink that should go on the bottom.  The lowest will go on top.  Do not use drinks that contain the same or similar amounts of sugar or they will just mix together like regular drinks.  For really defined layers, choose sugar contents that are pretty drastic.

Happy Valentine's Week!

Wish me luck with all this hair-doing I'm going to be doing.  I should probably start practicing!

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