Mother's Day Brunch and Bouquet Party!

Mom's day is the best, isn't it? Mom's, stepmom's, mother-in-law's, someone that is like a mom to you or if your mom has passed - making memories with mom is priceless. God has blessed me with one, stellar mama. And a super bonus, wonderful mother-n-law. I'm a lucky gal to have these two ladies to share life and make memories with. 

I planned a fun brunch for the mom's and my girls and it turned out to be a really, great time! I thought it would be fun to have everyone assemble their own bouquet and to of course have some yummy food too! 

We had ham and cheese quiche, fresh cut fruit with strawberry dip and granola and mini waffle and pancake stacks. 

The sherbet drinks were a huge hit, I can't wait to make them again! I used orange sherbet, although you could use any flavor and then I topped them off with organic coconut lime Italian soda - a refreshing treat! 

I made some flower pot cookies to go with the theme which were super easy and turned out perfect.   

Everyone picked their favorites and created their bouquet. When you have so many beautiful flowers it's easy to make something that you'll love. 

Lots of laughs and finishing touches later we had the finished bouquets!

This was so easy and so fun to throw together for Mom's special day. There is no greater blessing than a mother's love. Wishing you the most beautiful and well-deserved Mother's Day ever! 

Lemon Cake with Strawberry Buttercream

Lemon...my least favorite cake flavor. BUT! Sometimes I just crave a really, light and fluffy lemon flavored cake. And, if I make it myself I can control the lemon flavor and make it just perfect! For the past couple of weeks I've been wanting to try a lemon cake and then mix up some of my buttercream icing - strawberry flavored! This combination turned out just LOVELY so I wanted to share with all of you! You can follow the homemade recipe below but you could also cheat by buying your favorite box of cake mix (white/vanilla) and add the lemon flavor to that. Saving time is sometimes a life saver!

 

Mother's Day is coming so that would be a good time to show mom all the love with this delicious cake! It would also be a nice alternative to strawberry shortcake.

 

 

 

Cake Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs, room temperature

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

*3 tbsp lemon juice

*1 tbsp lemon zest

*(in place of the lemon juice and zest you can also use lemon extract and add as you please until you get the right amount. I usually go by smell and add just enough to make it light enough for my taste.

 

Cake/Cupcake Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two 8 inch cake pans or muffin tins for cupcakes.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

3. In stand mixer with paddle attachment (starting on low), cream together room temperature butter and sugar on medium high until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low and add in eggs, one at a time and mix until blended.

4. Add in vanilla, 3 tablespoons of lemon juice and milk and mix for about 30 seconds on low. Slowly add in dry ingredients and mix until combined.

5. Remove from mixer then fold in lemon zest with spatula.

6. Divide batter evenly among cake pans and/or cupcake muffin cups. Bake 18-20 minutes.

7. Let cupcakes dry completely before topping with strawberry buttercream.

 

Buttercream icing: The buttercream icing is the same recipe posted prior. The only addition I make is add 2 tablespoons of strawberry extract and a tiny drop of pink food coloring to get the pink icing color.

 

Chocolate hearts: The candy hearts are made from candy melts. You can purchase a bag of white, vanilla melts and place in a glass bowl. The best way to melt these is in 30 second increments in the microwave to ensure that you don't burn the chocolate. Once melted well I drop a teeny, tiny drop of pink food coloring in; mix well. To pipe the hearts I spoon the chocolate into a decorating bag and cut the tiniest slit at the pointed bottom of the bag. Go ahead and be creative with making your hearts on a piece of wax paper. Give them a good 10-15 minutes to dry and they should easily peel off the wax paper to place on the cake/cupcakes. Have fun!

 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 





Put On Your Ears. It's Time For Cheers!

Laila is 4! 

We celebrated Laila's birthday with our family and we had tons o' fun! She changed her mind several times about what kind of party she wanted to have but we stuck with a Minnie Mouse theme. 

Laila is in to sprinkles these days! She's my mini baker; always helping me in the kitchen, especially when sprinkles are involved. If she could sleep with her sprinkles she would! It was a given that we sprinkled her cake!

She's also all about 'topping' her ice cream so we chose to do a mini ice cream bar for her to do just that with all of her favorite toppings and ice cream! 

And we couldn't forget the cookies! 

To me, flowers make everything happier; especially birthdays! I really loved how our Minnie Mouse heads added extra cuteness too! 

The past four years have flown by. Laila is such a bright and funny gal. She is an awesome big sister and I'm proud of how sweet she is. 

Of course we had to get the family involved! Photo props for all! 

It was a fun day!
Happy 4th Birthday to our really, great gal. 

Resources: Etsy - angelcakesetc2, SugarSweetBows, ALittleBitOfAud, thebakersconfections, PartiesThatArePretty, HelloFaith, CharlesAlexDesign

Happy ONE Year LGB!

Sweet Lena Grace is 'ONE'! 

A year has come and gone since my sweet baby took her first breath in this crazy, wonderful world. I'll never forget she made her debut saying, 'here I am everyone!'; she was so ready to get this party of life started. She's an angel and she completes our family. 

Pretty much from day one...ok, maybe day two I knew that her first birthday would be a shabby chic celebration. It's the current trend but it also allowed me to use special pieces from our home that belonged to family members that have passed. All of the lace pieces were most likely made by Travis' great aunt Lena and great aunt Grace which is where, you guessed it - we got the name, Lena Grace. I used ice cream dishes that were passed down a few generations as well as a cake plate that would also be considered vintage but will always be chic.

    Sweets and more sweets! The desserts were white chocolate cake pops, macarons, white smash cake and a pumpkin spice cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. 

The menu had a 'sweet' theme; sweet meatballs, sweet rolls, sweet potato chips with sweet corn casserole pie - so YUM!

And of course, what's a party without sister Bessie getting in on the action? She rocked her shabby chic crown!

The punch was an autumn, cider punch and each guest took home a bar of pumpkin spice soap from our very own local Honeyrun Farm here in Williamsport, OH. I encourage you to check them out - hometown proud! 

This little girl enjoyed her day. She wasn't sure about her cake but after a while...she finally dug in. 

We love you Lena. Happy 1st Birthday, baby girl. May we be blessed with many, many more of your birthday's. 

Resources: Etsy - JLouisedesigns, StyleswithCharm, FakeCupcakeCreations, HBHaccessories, ItsyBitsyPaperCuts, MillysDreamBoutique, honeyrunfarm 

Others: Pistacia Vera, North Market - Columbus

Best Summer Cobbler

Peach Blackberry Cobbler

Nothing says summer like a good ol' cobbler recipe. I came across this recipe and added a couple of my own touches to it. It's really perfect and it's exceptional warm, right out of the oven with vanilla ice cream on top! 

Recipe: 

6 Large Peaches

2 Cups Blackberries

3 Lemons

1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar

1 Tbl. Honey

1 Tbl. Maple Syrup

1 1/2 Cup All-Purpose Flour

1 1/2 Cup Oatmeal

2/3 Cup Brown Sugar

1/2 Tbl. Cinnamon

1/4 Tsp. Ginger

2 Sticks Salted Butter (chilled & cubed)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut peeled peaches into 1/2 inch pieces. In a large bowl, combine peaches, blackberries, the zest of 2 lemons, the juice of 3 lemons, granulated sugar, honey and syrup. Stir to combine. 

2. Spoon the fruit mixture into a baking pan or divide it into small backing dishes for individual servings.

3. In another bowl, combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon and ginger. Stir together. Add the cubed butter to the flour mixture. Using a pastry cutter or your hands, work the butter into the dry ingredients until large crumbs are formed. 

4. Spoon the crisp topping over the fruit. Bake crisp for 30-35 minutes until the top is golden and the fruit is bubbly. 

5. Serve warm with ice cream! 

Let me know if you love it too! 

Enjoy!

Happy 4th of July - 2015

Happy 4th of July!

It's always great to get together with friends and family to celebrate America's birthday; she's beautiful isn't she?

Besides the usual greats - coney's and cheese burgers (with all the toppings) and apple pie you can't forget the sparklers, ice cream cake pops and star-shaped watermelon, right? 

Maybe a little angel food cake smeared with whipped cream and berries, sprinkled with powdered sugar too!

Ice Cream Cake Pops! 

Recipe Courtesy of:
Jenny Cookies, thank you Jenny!

Ingredients:

1 box Duncan Hines Cake Mix (flavor of your choice)
1 (3.4 oz) box Jell-O chocolate instant pudding
1 cup water
1/3 cup oil
4 large eggs
1/2 to 3/4 cup Buttercream Frosting 
1 box Joy Brand Mini Sugar Cones
3 (12 oz) packages white candy melts
40 sixlets (any color you wish)
rainbow jimmies

You will need:

9″ x 13″ baking pan or casserole dish

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat the 9×13 baking pan with cooking spray, or grease and flour the pan, tapping out the excess flour. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, and using an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the cake mix, pudding mix, water, oil and eggs on medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until well blended. Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix again until all the ingredients are incorporated.

3. Pour the batter into prepared cake pan. Place the pan in the preheated oven and bake for 35-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

4. Remove the pan from the oven and place on wire cooling rack for 25-30 minutes. Let cool completely before making the cake pops.

5. Mash up the cake and place in a large bowl. Using an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix the cake and 1/2 to 3/4 cup buttercream frosting on medium speed until well blended and the mixture can be molded into a ball. Measure and roll the mixture into tablespoon size balls. Refrigerate 30 minutes to one hour, or until firm.

6. Melt the candy melts in a microwave safe bowl in 30 second increments for about 2 1/2 minutes, stirring as needed until smooth.

7. Barely dip the top of the mini cup cone into the melted candy, just enough to put a ring at the top of the cone. Place the cone upside down on top of the refrigerated cake balls. This helps the candy adhere to the cake balls. Continue until all are finished.

8. Dip the cake balls (with the cone attached) into the melted candy, completely coating it to the edge of the cone. Sprinkle with rainbow jimmies and top each with a sixlet candy while the melted candy is still wet.

'...and the home of the....braaaave!'