I’m helping Pillsbury Funfetti mix & frostings celebrate their 25th birthday with some celebration tips of my own!

The giveaway is now closed. Congrats to Patsy! Thanks to all who entered.

When was the last time you had a celebration just to celebrate? Not for a birthday or anniversary or anything, but just because?

Right now, with the snow falling down outside, again, I can tell you *this* family is going to have one heck of a party when spring finally arrives! Want an invite? It’s going to be an epic “Welcome Spring” celebration!

Whether you are celebrating the final snow of the season, a happy birthday, or simply another day, I have some great celebration tips to share with you!

Cake decorating is not my forte, at all. You might remember that when I took a cake decorating class through Wilton several years ago, I made roses that looked like cabbage heads. My skills are quite comical.

Well, my daughter, Kelly, is currently taking a cake decorating class for 4-H. She seems to be a natural, whipping out pretty designs with little effort. She obviously doesn’t take after her mom. Watching her practice has given me the bug to try and learn again, which is perfect since a couple weeks ago I received an email from Amanda with I Am Baker asking if I would be interested in participating in a Food Styling Challenge. (more…)

I remember the day we found out our first baby was going to be a boy. I, of course, was happy to find out he was healthy but I was beside myself with worry about what I’d do with a boy. I am a girly girl, all the way around, and for some reason just had it in my head that if I was blessed enough to have kids, they’d be girls. The idea that I’d ever be a mom to a boy never crossed my mind.

Jacob was born, and little by little I was given the opportunity to discover how special little boys are. They are different than girls, that’s for sure, but just as sweet, lovable and fun as girls. Having my first born be a boy has been a really great experience and now I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Much to Jacob’s dismay, babies 2, 3, and 4 were girls. Oh, I got my girls alright, but also had the chance to give them the opportunity to have something incredibly special… an older brother to always look out for them (which, we’re still waiting on to happen, but I’m sure it will, someday, right?) (more…)

Today I feel like being random then sharing this awesome recipe with you. So here are my random thoughts from today…

When you wear a blazer as part of your outfit but the weather gets colder than blazer weather, do you wear a jacket or coat over your blazer? What’s the right thing to do there?

Why do people at airports stand up and wait in line to get on the plane before their zone is even close to being called? Do they not understand that we are all getting on the same flight? Just because you get on the plane first doesn’t mean you are going to get there any faster than the rest of us?

Curious – text on food photos… do you like it, does it bug you, or do you not care either way?

My friend Stacey posted on Facebook the other day that she read the next hair trend would be a throwback to the 80′s. For me the 80′s was all about big bangs and Aqua Net. Can we all just agree that we do NOT need to revisit the 80′s hairstyles again? I don’t think our ozone could take it!

In case you are wondering, she is as awesome in person as she is on her blog. Love that girl!

What’s your favorite flavored creamer to put in your coffee?

Can cap sleeves just die, please?

Finally, who are The Kardashians and why exactly are they famous or always on the front of all the supermarket magazines?

OK, that’s it for my randomness! Now onto this great recipe my friend Jenny shared with me from a Gold Medal Flour booklet. Her version was and amazing apple cake with nuts and raisins, but I decided to do pear without the add in’s. Enjoy!

Summer is slipping away.

The funny thing is, as much as I love summer, as soon as the kids start back to school I am more than ready for autumn to make its presence known. The crispness in the air, the colorful hues adorning the trees, football and pumpkin…all are my cue that summer is long gone and fall is here.

I wanted so badly to make pumpkin bread today, but I couldn’t do that to summer. Summer needs it’s last hurrah before autumn pushes it out of the way and takes the spotlight. So, with the smell of lemon filling my kitchen and sweet sunshine tones of summer, I made a lemon cake.

This, my friends, is not just any lemon cake. This is a lemon cake with everything rich and indulgent I could imagine poured in. Sour cream, pudding, butter and buttermilk… all wrapped up in one brightly baked package. It smells like summer, it tastes like summer… in my mind, it is an ideal way to bid adieu to a wonderful few months and to let fall know that yes… now we’re ready.

(Just like those awesome chevron spoons from my banana pudding ice cream post, these yellow bags are also from I’m With Cupcake. Check out their adorable stuff, today!)

The other day I received a big package of goodies from my friends at Zatarain’s. At the very top of the box was a bottle of their Root Beer Extract, including a recipe for making homemade root beer.

The box couldn’t have come at a better time as I was in the middle of making my “things we want to do this summer to make the summer fun” list for the kids. You know that list, with all the great expectations on it, that no matter how hard you try to achieve everything on it you fail? Then, at the end of the summer you look back at the list of things you didn’t get done then feel like a failure of a mom for not making summer the absolute best it can be? Yeah, that’s the list. And yes, I know how it turns out each and every year, but every summer I still make the darn list in hopes of a better turn out “this time around”.

Anyway, I immediately added “make homemade root beer” to our summer bucket list. That should be an easy one to cross off, right? There’s nothing incredibly grand involved… just some Zatarain’s root beer extract and a few simple instructions and voila…. root beer! I’ll let you know as soon as we’ve checked this one off. I may make it be first on the list, just so we can start off summer with a bang!

So, since it isn’t quite summer break yet (1 more week!) I have to wait to make homemade root beer, but I still wanted to do something with the root beer extract now. I decided to give Root Beer Float Cupcakes a try!

I knew I wanted an extra creamy frosting for the cupcakes because everyone knows the very best part of a root beer float is the melted ice cream / root beer mixture at the very end of the glass. I then went on a search for a Swiss Meringue Buttercream recipe. Swiss Meringue is a delicious, silky, creamy frosting made with an egg white and granulated sugar base and lots and lots of butter! It’s a little bit of extra work, but oh my… so very worth it in the end. I combined the recipe over at Martha Stewart’s website (replacing vanilla extract with root beer extract) with the awesome instructions from my friend Rosie over at the Sweetapolita blog. Thanks to them, I had incredible success with my Swiss Meringue Buttercream.

These Root Beer Float Cupcakes with Swiss Meringue Buttercream are the bomb, if I do say so myself. Any root beer float fan will be as big of a fan of cupcakes made to their liking.

Do you have a summer bucket list? If so, add these cupcakes to your list… in the number one spot. Even if you fail at everything else this summer, you’ll have started your summer off on the right foot! Enjoy!

These other friends have tempting (and all unique) Root Beer Cupcake recipes too!

• Root Beer Float Cupcakes from How Sweet Eats
• Root Beer Float Cupcakes from Smitten Kitchen
• Root Beer Float Cupcakes from Coconut & Lime

Disclosure: I am a 2012 brand ambassador for Zatarain’s. All opinions expressed are my own.

Food blogging isn’t always pretty…not everything I make comes out in the nice little package I envision when starting a new recipe.

Take this Peanut Butter Bundt Cake with Jelly Glaze. I make bundt cakes all the time and think they are one of the most beautiful cakes around. I don’t always blog the cakes I make, but this cake… this cake I had big plans for. My friend Cindy over at Once Upon a Loaf is hosting Project PB&J where she has challenged bloggers to create a baked good of some sort representing the classic PB&J.

Over the weeks I’ve been envisioning a peanut butter bundt cake with a beautiful jelly glaze drizzled over it. What I got was…

This…

Turned this…

What my kids got was an earful of curse words as I swore at the stupid bundt cake pan that held on to huge chunks of my delicious peanut butter cake!

Not so pretty, right?

When life hands you chunked up bundt cake and jelly glaze that has cooled because you’ve been sitting around cussing for to long, what do you do?

You make a parfait, of course! So now, instead of a beautiful Peanut Butter Bundt Cake with Blackberry Jelly Glaze, I give you Peanut Butter Bundt Cake & Blackberry Jelly parfaits. Yummy idea turned failure turned rebound success.

Either way you make it, this bundt cake is a PB&J Lover’s Dream. If you are a big PB&J fan make sure to check out the details and prizes surrounding Project PB&J over on Cindy’s blog. I hope you’ll join in on the fun!

Recipe: Peanut Butter Bundt Cake with Blackberry Jelly Glaze

For the cake:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste (can sub vanilla extract)
• 5 eggs
• 3 cups flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk

For the glaze:

• 1 cup blackberry jelly (or flavor of your choice)

1. Heat oven to 350. Grease and flour 10 inch bundt cake pan. (Take it from me… do this really thoroughly)
2. In large mixing bowl, combine butter, peanut butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla paste; beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. Reduce mixer speed to low. Slowly add flour, baking powder, and salt; mix until well incorporated. Add milk, increase speed, mixing until batter is smooth and incorporated.
4. Bake at 350 F until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
5. Cool in pan 15 minutes on wire rack. Carefully remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.
6. For glaze, simmer jelly in a saucepan until liquified. Drizzle warm glaze over cooled cake. Serve.

I know that bragging isn’t always flattering, but I’m throwing all of that out the window today and am going to spend this post bragging about my husband.

I married a really good guy and am very lucky. Sure there are times we don’t get along and when I can’t wait for him to leave on his next business trip, but for the most part I am happily married to a great man.

The kids and I recently went to visit my parents for Spring Break. This left Nick as a bachelor at home for almost a week and a half. While I was gone he… scrubbed the wood floors in our house (the entire first floor), did all the laundry, built extra shelves in our pantry so I’d have space for my cookie sheets, planted flowers, bought me flowers for my desk, cleaned out our dresser, made Limoncello and when we finally arrived home it was to a table set with candlelight and a delicious dinner.

In addition to all of this, he does things on a regular basis that proves he is pretty incredible. He works hard at a demanding job each day, making it possible for me to stay home with the kids. When my work takes me out of town, he happily supports me and takes time off of his job to watch the kids. He does the laundry, which for a family of 6 can be a full time job. He is an amazing dad, taking great interest in what our kids are doing and actively participating in their loves. He’s kind, caring, compassionate and loving. I could go on and on and on… but I’ll stop bragging now.

While I was away visiting my parents, my mom made the most amazing Angel Food Cake. Angel Food Cake just so happens to be Nick’s favorite cake. When we first started dating I found this out and have been making him angel food cake for special occasions ever since. The only problem is, I’ve been making my angel food cake from a box mix. I figured with all the egg whites and things, making it from scratch would be too much work and the taste couldn’t be that different, could it?  When I took one bite of the angel food cake my mom made, I knew I had been slighting my husband for the past 13 years… poor guy. He does so many great things for me and I’ve been making him sub par desserts in return. Homemade Angel Food Cake is pretty darn incredible. Who knew?

I am away on a business trip this weekend for Bush’s Beans, but as soon as I return I’m making my very deserving husband a homemade angel food cake. He deserves it!

Recipe: Mom’s Best Angel Food Cake Supreme (From the Betty Crocker Cookbook 1970′s)

This recipe is great alone, or we also like it cubed and topped with fresh berries and cream.

• 1 cup cake flour
• 12 egg whites
• 3/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1-1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

1. Preheat oven at 375°
2. Combine cake flour and 3/4 cup sugar plus 2 Tablespoons sugar.
3. In another large mixer bowl beat egg whites, cream of tartar and salt until foamy. Add second amount of sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time, beating on high speed until meringue holds stiff peaks. Remove mixer bowl.
4. Gently fold in flavorings. Sprinkle flour/sugar mixture, 1/4 cup at a time, over meringue, folding in gently until flour mixture disappears. Push batter into ungreased tube pan. Gently pound the bottom of the pan on a hard suface (countertop) to remove air pockets.
5. Bake 30-35 minutes until top is browned and springs back when touched with finger. Invert pan over funnel (I use the top of a ketchup bottle) until completely cool.

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I’m going to blame it on Pinterest…

You know the feeling that what you are doing just isn’t adequate? That feeling. This Halloween, that feeling is thanks to Pinterest.

I volunteered to make the snack for my son’s 4th grade Halloween party. I’m a simple gal when it comes to baking and treats. I have no talent when it comes to decorating fancy cookies. I’m not a creative crafter. And I sure as heck can’t turn a blob of fondant into something fancy like a pumpkin patch.

So, last night, after fretting all week about what to make, and wishing I lived back in the days when a sucker wrapped in tissue with eyes marked on it with pen was fancy, I decided to just do something simple and make cupcakes. Not even cupcakes that look like jack-o-lanterns… simple, plain, white cupcakes with orange butter cream frosting.

Oh, and I sampled them to make sure… you know… they were decent enough to feed 4th graders. They were delicious. I bet that’s more than can be said for some of those fancy Pinterest treats. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.

I like to say I’m setting the bar low to make other mom’s feel good about themselves. That’s why I do what I do and go the simple route. I’d hate to be responsible for the over achieving behavior caused by creating elaborate treats no one can replicate. Sounds like a good enough reason to go simple to me!

If you too want to go plain and simple, you can find the recipe for Millie’s White Wedding Cake on my past blog post. Also, Amanda has a pretty darn good buttercream recipe that really can’t be beat.

Okay, okay… I know I just shared a Bundt cake recipe with you. And yes, two Bundt cake recipes in a row is probably a bit much, but I couldn’t help myself.

This recipe was inspired by a pantry cleaning project. This past Saturday I was bound and determined to get my pantry in tip top shape. Ignoring the suggestion of FlyLady to pull out only what I can put away in 15 minutes time, I pulled everything out of my pantry. Every inch of counter top was covered in baking supplies, canned goods, spices, snacks, pasta and more. As I looked around my kitchen trying to determine what should stay and what should go, I decided that there were some items that simply needed used up. 1 cup of oatmeal, an insane amount of canned pumpkin, and enough powdered sugar to cause a state of emergency in Kansas, I decided to do what most people would do. No, I didn’t put everything that was on my counter away… instead, I decided to bake a cake.

Moving everything aside, I pulled out my mixer and decided another Bundt cake was in order. I adapted the Pumpkin Bundt cake recipe I shared the other day, omitted some ingredients and added some others. The end result is what I am calling my “Clean Out the Pantry Bundt Cake”. It’s a Pumpkin and Oatmeal Bundt Cake with a powdered sugar dusting and it was delicious. In fact, we ate it for breakfast the next morning… couldn’t be any worse for you than a muffin, could it?

Anyway, Bundt Cake, if your wondering, is a great distraction. I think you should stop what your doing right now and go make one yourself. Cleaning can wait, right?

Recipe: Oatmeal Pumpkin Bundt Cake

• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup quick cooking oatmeal
• 1/4 cup boiling water
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan (I use Pam Baking spray).
2. Place 1 cup oatmeal in a small bowl. Pour 1/4 cup boiling water over the oatmeal and stir together. Allow oatmeal and water to sit for 10 minutes.
3. Add sugar and butter to a large mixing bowl. Beat on low until light and fluffy.
4. Slowly add the eggs, one at a time, and continue mixing until well incorporated.
5. Add the pumpkin, oatmeal/water mixture and vanilla, mixing on slow speed until well blended.
6.  While mixer is still going on slow, add the flour, one cup at a time. Next, add the pumpkin spice, baking soda and salt. Blend until well incorporated.
7. Pour cake batter into prepared Bundt cake. Bake for 60 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clear.
8. Allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes then invert onto a large cake plate. If desired, dust with powdered sugar.