Chris's Coconut Cake

Chris requested coconut cake for his birthday today, so I went in search of a new recipe. I found one by Ina Garten and followed a few tips from the reviewers and voila...a beautiful, made from scratch cake! I toasted a bit of coconut (first time I've done that - nearly burned it!) and mixed it with some regular coconut and spread it all over the top and sides - on top of the cream cheese frosting. Amazing stuff - it turned out really good.

Banana Cinnamon Muffins

I made these muffins this morning for Chris's birthday. Banana Cinnamon. Oh my. They are delicious! I got the recipe from a blog I stumbled across: www.apastryaffair.com

It's officially summer!

It's been summer here in Nashville for weeks already, but now it's official! I know y'all have birthdays, wedding showers, VBS programs, daycare parties, family reunions. and I'm sure that you need cupcakes, cookies, cakes, etc. I am available all summer long (except for July 23-31...on vacation!), so please let me know how I can help you!

And - 4th of July parties! :)

Auction win

Here's a shocker - I bid on an auction basket at a recent event that included a cake mix, sprinkles, cookbook and wooden spoons. My main draw was the fact that it was one of The Cake Mix Doctor's new all-natural cake mixes. (I have all of her books!) I hadn't bought one of these mixes yet, as they are a bit pricey - like 7 times more expensive than a regular Duncan Hines/Pillsbury mix. But the other bonus in this basket? A $50 coupon for any Viking Culinary School class. We've got a school in Franklin and I've always wanted to take a class out there...now I just have to decide which one! Now if I could just talk my husband into letting me take the 4 week Viking University: Baking Classics course! :)

New tools & veggie garden!

One of my 1-cup measuring cups mysteriously disappeared and I really missed it. So I went in search of a nice set of stainless steel cups. Thanks to Sur la Table, I ordered these FABULOUS measuring cups a few weeks ago. They were seriously expensive, are seriously heavy and seriously sturdy - Chris said I could use the 2-cup as a weapon! I'm just thrilled to have a 2-cup measuring cup - so handy! Best baking investment I've made in a while!

(And guess what? I found my missing 1-cup in the wheat flour bag from the last time I used it, about 3 days after these came in the mail. Figures!)

Haven't been baking much the last couple of weeks, but we have been growing a few veggies. These are Chris's tomatoes and peppers. We actually have 8 tomatoes on the vine that are starting to turn - we didn't even get 8 tomatoes out of last year's plants!

And these are my babies...cucumbers! I planted 8 plants because some never grow. Right. Not this year - they ALL took and we are about to be inundated by cucumbers - so excited!

X's and O's

I made 120 of these babies last week for a co-worker who was having a wedding shower/engagement party for her nephew. My biggest job yet! They turned out great & she said there were only a few left at the end of the night!

And then I just had to play around with the rest of the icing & the leftover cookies. :)

Graduations & Baseball Season

This is 3-layer strawberry cake made for the son of a co-worker, who graduated from high school on Saturday!

I made these cupcakes at the last minute for a friend who texted in her order - my first text order! These are for her son's baseball team as they end their season. The white circles are fondant and I just piped on some numbers. Turned out well!

The quest for the perfect scone recipe...

...is still going. This was the best-tasting recipe so far, but they were more like flat blueberry muffins. I need a recipe that's more dense without being a brick. Still searching...

Rosemary Focaccia Bread

I made this focaccia bread for the first time today. It was hands-down the best first try of any bread item I've ever made. So yummy!

Mounds Cupcakes

I made these "Mounds"-type cupcakes for my mom - as she was here with me on Mother's Day - and she loves Mounds candy bars! Dark chocolate cupcakes, filled with coconut buttercream, topped with regular buttercream and covered with coconut flakes! Delicious!

Dessert party with friends

Little Miss Carrigan and her mom Nanci enjoying some chocolate chocolate chip cake!

Matthew & Jackson stopped playing outside with all the cicadas long enough to enjoy some treats!

This is what happens when my mom visits...

She tutors me in family recipes! This time it was my grandmother's coffee cake recipe that I've been eating all my life. Basically, a Kuchen dough recipe and custard, with fruit. We made apple, peach and prune - they turned out great!

Molasses cookies & chocolate cakes, oh my!

Made a couple of these chocolate chocolate chip cakes today...

...as well as about 8 dozen of these yummy cookies - a new molasses cookie recipe.

See? Even experienced bakers have accidents.

This would be the egg that rolled off the counter and onto the kitchen floor this weekend.

Easter Brunch

The morning started out with Chris having to break out the pliers to open the prosecco for mimosas when he broke the wine opener, leaving the screw part of it in the cork - still in the bottle. :) (He was successful getting the cork out via this method!)

Apple cinnamon muffins - turned out pretty good considering I used twice as much water as it called for. Totally misread the recipe.

Chris made a ham, swiss cheese and broccoli quiche. Quite tasty!

Easter treats

Made this 3-layer strawberry cake with fresh strawberries & buttercream for a co-worker.

These were little mini cupcakes for my friends Nanci, Jon, Zac & Carrigan who just moved into a new house!

Over the course of about 3 days, I made about 10 dozen of these little guys. Lemon with regular buttercream and spring sprinkles! All for Easter orders.

Football Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for a co-worker's son's birthday. Blue & orange are his football team's colors.

Pound Cake

I'd been dying to try a pound cake recipe that was showcased on the cover of a recent issue of Southern Living. 1/2 pound of butter and 1/2 a dozen eggs later - voila! It's quite rich, but really moist and delicious. The recipe called for Strawberry Glaze to be swirled within the batter, but I used my mom's homemade strawberry jam. Delicious! I know both of our offices will be very happy to see this coming tomorrow!

Pizza

This is all Chris - I had nothing to do with this work of art! He's taken to making homemade pizza dough with some fancy high-gluten Italian flour, brushes the crust with garlic/butter mixture & uses really good cheese. We really like a thin crust, so he's been perfecting it for a while. He's done it on the grill before, but this one was in the oven - made for dinner while Heidi (my pizza-loving best friend of 25 years) was visiting last week. Delicious! (And that's Chris's new pizza peel that just arrived - he loves it!)

Homemade Bread/Rolls

Tried a quick bread recipe for beer bread. I was a bit concerned about how wet it was when it went into the oven, but it turned out great and was really good. Although, by day 2 - it smelled very much like beer! :)

Homemade wheat rolls - using my mom's recipe.

Miss Olivia post-party pictures!

What a beautiful child - and so stylish too! :) Here's the birthday girl enjoying one of her lollipop cookies. Olivia's mom, Monika - arranged the lollipop cookies in a cute bucket and then gave them out to the kiddos as favors - super cute!