Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal Cookies

Recently I was gifted with a large bag of delicious raisins all the way from California! My husband's grandmother (my grandma-in-law?) brought them back and I was lucky enough to snag some.

And what better way to utilize these raisins than in some tasty cookies?  

Of course the first place I looked for a delicious recipe was Two Peas and Their Pod; they are the best when it comes to tasty cookie recipes!  These are classic: oatmeal, raisins, and a bit of cinnamon to bring it all together. 

Baby Prep - Meals and Desserts!

**In preparation for the arrival of our little one, I have prepped some posts in advance.  As soon as our lives have some semblance of order (hah!) I will get back to my regular posting and be able to respond to any questions/comments you may have :)

In order to prep for the arrival of our little one I cooked and baked up a storm during the last month or so.  I am hoping that it will make things easier when I can just grab a bag from the freezer, throw the contents in the crockpot, and let it cook away until supper time.

I also baked up some treats so that it will be a bit easier to entertain the visitors as everyone comes to meet the new additions!

I didn't take a ton of pictures, but I have had a few people ask me what I have prepared and where I have found the recipes, so here is a list :) If you have any questions, just let me know!

Milk Chocolate Cookies

Another dessert that I made in preparation for our new arrival were these ridiculously chocolatey and delicious cookies.  These are absolutely perfect for when those chocolate cravings hit!

First milk chocolate is melted and mixed into the batter, and then you go and add even more milk chocolate chips, yum!  These also have a fabulous texture, soft in the middle and a crispy/chewy edge.  

Maple-Pecan Shortbread Cookies

In preparation for the (hopefully soon) arrival of our little one, I have been cooking and baking things to store in our freezer to (ideally) make hosting all of the visitors and feeding ourselves a bit easier after we return home.

First I made a few lasagna's to put in our freezer, then I whipped up 8 freezer meals that can be tossed into the crock pot anytime for easy, healthy suppers.  Thank you Pinterest for the crock pot recipes! After all of that cooking, my freezer looked like it needed some treats.

Gingerbread Biscotti

Now that the leaves are turning yellow (yikes!) and cute boots are back in style (yay!) it is prime time for some fall desserts.  Cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, all of those flavours are perfect for the cooler weather that is creeping up on us.  Speaking of fall boots, those are one of my 'pre' maternity items I can still wear! Woohoo! I love boots!

Mint Chocolate Brownie Cookies with Macadamia Nuts

Cookies! Warm, gooey, rich, tasty cookies! What more can you ask for right? How about the addition of some roasted salted macadamia nuts? Oh man, now that is perfection!


This cookie recipe is from Joy the Baker's new cookbook: Joy the Baker Cookbook - 100 Simple and Comforting Recipes. This book is full of so many amazing recipes; I have tried about 4 so far and have at least another dozen bookmarked to try right away! Everything is just so tempting, as soon as you see one of the pictures you convince yourself that you have been craving that dessert for weeks and have to have it right away. As in right now.

Peanut Butter M&M Cookies

You know how sometimes you are walking through the grocery store, grabbing healthy options for your week and doing your best to resist the temptation of the candy aisle, and then when you look at your basket at the till you find that it has a bag of candy in it? And you have no idea how it even got there?

No? um, me neither

But these randomly showed up in my shopping bag the other day and I figured it would be best for all parties if they were consumed as soon as possible. You know, to remove the temptation and all that.

I figured the colourful candy shell would be ridiculously cute in cookie form, and pairing chocolate and peanut butter is always a winner. I used my favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe as a base, and added some chopped up peanut butter M&Ms and semi-sweet chocolate chips.

I had some when they were still warm from the oven and they were unreal! I ate 6 in one sitting. SIX cookies, in one sitting. And that doesn’t even count the rest of the day! oops. Good thing it is sweater season. Puffy sweaters are in fashion, right? please?

I made my cookies a bit smaller than usual, so I was able to get about 4 dozen from this recipe.

Peanut Butter M&M Cookies

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup chopped peanut butter M&Ms
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chipes

1. Line the baking sheet with parchment paper (or spray it with cooking spray) and preheat your oven to 350F
2. Whisk together the flour and baking soda
3. Mix butter and the two sugars together until light and fluffy
4. Add the eggs, vanilla, and salt to the sugar mixture and mix until completely incorporated
5. Add the flour mixture, followed by the chocolate chips and mix until the chocolate chips are evenly distributed
6. Using a tablespoon, drop the cookie dough onto the baking sheets.  Each baking sheet can hold about 1 dozen cookies 
7. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes and remove when the edges are golden brown and the middle of the cookie is still soft.  The cookies will finish setting after they are removed from the oven
8. Enjoy!

I seem to be on a bit of a cookie kick lately! Must be the holiday dessert platters calling me :)

Lemon Cornmeal Cookie Sandwiches

With this chilly weather upon us, sometimes it is night to have a treat that reminds us of the summer and how warm things can be.  I made these lemon cornmeal cookies awhile back, but somehow they got lost in my disorganized mix of pictures. I came across them again recently, whipped up a new batch, and fell in love all over again!

The cookies are amazing on their own, but I love to whip up a small batch of cream cheese icing and make sandwiches out of them.  Delicious!

One thing to note about these cookies is they don’t really rise, so whatever size you make them when you put them on the pan, that’s pretty much what size they will be when they come out of the oven. I didn’t realize this the first time so I ended up with these super small and cute sandwiches, perfect for popping in your mouth every time you walk through the kitchen. Every. Time.  My tummy thanked me, my hips didn’t.

So if you need a burst of sunshine on your Christmas cookie platter this year, whip these up!  The cookies were one of Martha Stewart’s cookies of the day, and the cream cheese filling is totally optional.  The original recipe makes 24 individual cookies, but since I make mine on the smaller size I get about 16 cookie sandwiches (32 individual cookies).

Lemon Cornmeal Cookie Sandwiches

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1 tbsp grated lemon zest 
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• Cream cheese filling (optional)
• 4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/4 cup butter, room temperature
• 1 cup icing sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F and line your cookie sheets with parchment paper
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, lemon zest, and salt
3. In a large bowl mix together the warm butter, sugar, and egg 
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix well
5. Roll the dough into small balls (about 1 1/2" in diameter) and place on the cookie sheets
6. Lightly flatten the cookies with the palm of your hand
7. Bake for 16 - 25 minutes (depending on the thickness of the cookies) until the edges are lightly browned
8. Let cool completely
9. While cooling, beat together the cream cheese, butter, and icing sugar
10. When the cookies are cool, spoon some filling onto the bottom of one cookie, and than add another cookie to make a cute sandwich
11. Continue with remaining cookies, and Enjoy!

Virtual Cookie Swap! Candy Cane Shortbread Cookies

This year the beautiful Rachel from theavidappetite.com had a fabulous idea, a virtual cookie swap for Christmas! How fun!

She organized a bunch of us bloggers (that girl has mad organizational skills!) to share our favourite cookie that we were going to bake up for the holidays so that everyone can get a fabulous start for the Christmas season.  I am so excited for all of the amazing recipes that everyone has shared!

If you want to see what other delectable cookies have been contributed, you can check out her round-up here, and I strongly recommend that you do. Except that it will give you the urge to rush into your kitchen and fire up that oven.  Consider yourself warned.

I decided to do a twist on the traditional shortbread cookie. I absolutely love the buttery taste and texture of shortbread cookies, and how you can always depend on them showing up on the dessert table at Christmas every year.  I thought it would be cute to incorporate some crushed candy canes for a pop of both colour and a yummy peppermint flavour.

These were so easy to make! And so festive looking as well.  I’m super happy with how they turned out.

I used the traditional shortbread cookie recipe that my family has always made, and mixed 2 crushed candy canes into the dough. I then baked them up as usual and out came cute candy cane shortbread cookies! These don’t even need sprinkles (and that is saying a lot, I love sprinkles!).

When it comes to crushing the candy canes, if you have a food processor please use it. I figured “hey, I’m only going to need, like, 2 candy canes. Totally not worth having to wash my entire food processor!”. I was wrong, just use the darn food processor. I made such a mess cutting these candy canes up with a knife I think the cleanup was even longer! Eh, you live, you learn. These cookies were worth every minute of the cleanup!

I made just over two dozen cookies with this recipe. And then I ate half a dozen before I could control myself. So maybe double this recipe, just in case.

Candy Cane Shortbread Cookies

• 1/2 cup corn starch
• 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 3/4 cup butter (room temperature)
• 2 candy canes, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 300 F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper
2. In a large bowl whisk together the corn starch, icing sugar, and flour
3. Blend in the butter until a soft dough forms
4. Add the chopped/crushed candy canes and mix until distributed throughout the dough
5. Roll into 1" round balls and place on the cookies sheets
6. Flatten each ball with your hand or a lightly floured fork
7. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes, or until the edges are a light golden brown
8. Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes before moving to a cookie rack
9. Enjoy!

Jungle Baby Shower Sweets (Vegan Sugar Cookies)

Last Saturday I attended a baby shower for one of my best friends! She is due in the middle of December, and her family decided to throw her a Jungle themed baby shower. So excited!


I was asked to do the desserts (yay!) and was given free reign with the design. The only request were "mini cupcakes (carrot cake and lemon funfetti) and ninja cookies".  The ninja cookies are kind of an inside joke, just go with it.

Oh, and everything had to be vegan. After making these sugar cookies I have to admit that this is the best sugar cookie recipe that I have come across so far. I love how they rolled out, baked up, and tasted! I am also really happy with this vegan icing (ie: no meringue powder could be used!) that I used to decorate the cookies, one batch was enough for 3 dozen of these! Since cookie decorating isn't my forte, I think I will stick with this icing recipe for now.

In addition to the cupcakes and cookies I decided to make a jungle-themed cake to highlight the main baby shower theme. It is sometimes hard display a theme with something as small as mini cupcakes and I had some fun ideas for the cake.

The cake was an 8" vanilla funfetti cake that I topped with chocolate fondant.  This was the very first time that I was able to completely cover a cake in fondant with NO rips or tears!! I happy-danced all over the kitchen over this one.  

I then rolled out two different colours of green fondant and cut it with a variety of cookie cutters. I realized quickly that I only own two different leaf cookie cutters! A maple leaf and a tiny 1" leaf.  Oops.  So I used a funky heart cookie cutter and a snowflake cookie cutter as well to add some extra shapes. Since I was going to be layering the leaves I wasn't too worried about people noticing snowflakes and hearts on the jungle cake :)

The animals were also made completely out of fondant.  I think the Elephant and the Giraffe are my favourites! My idea of Lion needs some work though... I still can't believe I was able to make something like these out of fondant.


I hope everyone enjoyed the desserts at the shower! I had an absolute blast and I CANNOT WAIT to meet this little ninja!


This cookie recipe made 3 dozen ninja cookies. The original recipes for both the cookies and the icing are from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.

Vegan Sugar Cookies

• 2 1/3 cups flour
• 2 tbsp corn starch
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup margarine, room temperature
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp additional extract (could be lemon, maple, almond, more vanilla, etc. I used maple)
• 1/4 cup soy milk

1. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, corn starch, salt, and baking powder
2. In a second large bowl cream together the margarine, shortening, and sugar until light and fluffy
3. Add the vanilla, other extract of choice, and the soy milk to the sugar mixture and beat well to combine
4. Add half the flour to the wet ingredients and mix well
5. Add the remaining flour and mix until a soft dough just begins to form
6. Divide the dough in half and press each half into a disk that is 1" thick
7. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap, and then place in a ziploc bag and set them in the refrigerator
8. Let the dough chill for a few hours, or overnight
9. When ready to roll the dough, preheat the oven to 350 F and line your baking sheets with parchment paper
10. Flour the counter, and then roll one disk (keeping the second disk in the refrigerator until you need it) until it is about 1/4 - 3/8" thick
11. Cut out the desired shapes and place on the prepared baking sheet
12. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes until the edges just start to turn golden brown
13. Repeat with the remaining disk of dough
14. Let cool completely before decorating
15. Enjoy!

Vegan 'Royal Icing'

• 4 cups icing sugar
• 4 tbsp soy milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• Food colouring (optional)

1. In a large bowl sift the powdered sugar until no lumps remain
2. Whisk in the soy milk and vanilla until smooth
3. Divide the icing into several bowls and dye the icing any colour you like
4. Using a pastry bag with a small round tip, or a ziploc bag with the corner snipped off decorate the cookies until your heart is content
5. Let dry completely before storing (they can be stacked with layers of parchment paper between the cookies)
6. Enjoy!

I'll post the vegan Carrot Cake Cupcakes and the vegan Lemon Funfetti Cupcakes recipes later this week :)

Butterbeer Cookies

A few weeks go I was lucky enough to snag a ticket to the opening night of the vey last Harry Potter movie! I have loved the series since I picked up that first book a long time ago. Both the books and the movies are awesome, but the books will always be my favourite.

The movie was AWESOME! It was so well done and I cannot believe that it is the very last one.  While the movie has a happy ending, it was sad to see everything come to an end. The anticipation of the next book or movie has been half the fun!


When I spotted these cookies on Bake at 350, I knew they would be the perfect celebratory snack to smuggle into the theatre.  I have yet to try the 'real' butterbeer that they serve at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park, but I do plan on making my way over there one day! Road trip anyone?

This recipe makes a fairly large batch of cookies.  I make just over 3 dozen with my star-shaped cookie cutter.


Butterbeer Cookies

• 3 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp butter flavouring (you can buy this at Michaels)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Butterbeer Glaze:
• 1 1/3 cups butterscotch chips
• 1/4 cup evaporated milk
• 2 tbsp light corn syrup
• pinch of salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F and line several cookie sheets with parchment paper
2. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour and baking powder
3. In a second bowl cream together the sugar, brown sugar, and butter until it is fluffy
4. Add the egg, butter flavouring, and vanilla to the butter/sugar mixture and mix well
5. Add the flour to the wet ingredients about 1/2 cup at a time mixing well after each addition
6. When you add the last bit of flour, you might need to knead the dough with your hands to incorporate all of the dry ingredients
7. Roll out the dough between two sheets of parchment until 1/3" thick
8. Bake for about 8 - 12 minutes or until the edges are a light golden brown
9. Let cool fully before drizzling on the glaze
10. While the cookies cool you can prepare the butterbeer glaze
11. Set up a double boiler and mix together the butterscotch chips, evaporated milk, corn syrup, and salt until smooth
12. Drizzle the cookies until your heart is content
13. Enjoy! 

Chocolate Florentines

A couple of weeks ago I had a birthday request that didn't involve buttercream or cupcake liners. The birthday girl had requested some 'Florentines'.


I said 'For sure! not a problem!', and then proceeded to jump right onto google to figure out what a 'florentine' was!

These are awesome cookies! They are quite light, and have an amazing crunchy and slightly chewy texture. They came together so easily, and baked up in only 5 minutes!

These cookies are so simple, they are just like a very thin oatmeal cookie.


I decided to put milk chocolate on the back of a third of the cookies, semi-sweet chocolate on the back of another third, and to leave the remaining cookies plain.

My favourite were the cookies that had semi-sweet chocolate, but everyone had their own favourites :) You can definitely customize these for your group (or yourself!).


Definitely do not crowd these cookies on the pan.  They spread from a tiny teaspoon of dough, into a cookie that is up to 3" in diameter!

These were awesome cookies. It was fun to make something I had never heard of before, and they were so addicting after that first bite.


The original recipe is from allrecipes.com, and I made just under 4 dozen cookies with it.


Chocolate Florentines

• 2/3 cup melted butter or margarine
• 2 cups rolled oats (quick-cooking)
• 2/3 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup corn syrup
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• about 2 cups of chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F and line a few cookie sheets with parchment paper
2. Mix together the oats, flour, salt, and sugar
3. Add the melted butter and mix well
4. Mix in the corn syrup, milk, and vanilla and mix until a dough forms
5. Place 1 tsp of batter onto the prepared baking sheets for each cookie. I only placed 6 - 7 cookies per sheet and they just had enough room to spread.
6. Bake for 5 - 7 minutes, watching carefully in order to remove them as son as the edges start to brown
7. Let cool completely on the cookie sheets
8. Melt the chocolate chips in a heat-proof bowl in the microwave and spread on the back of each cookie
9. Let dry face-down until the chocolate sets
10. Enjoy!

Oreo Truffles for Valentine's Day

Here is a quick and easy treat to give to someone special this Valentine's day :) I originally found these over on bakerella.com, but I think they originally came from the Kraft website.  These can actually be found all over the internet; they are so fun and easy to make!

All you need is a package of Oreos, a package of cream cheese, white chocolate candy melts (or white chocolate chips), and sprinkles!  I decorated mine with sprinkles, cinnamon hearts, and red candy melts.

If you don't have a food processor, you can throw the Oreos into a freezer bag and beat them with a rolling pin until they are fine crumbs.

If you need a quick and cute treat, make these soon! 

Oreo Truffles

• 1 package of Oreos
• 1 block cream cheese, room temperature (250 g)
• 1/2 to 1 cup white chocolate candy melts (or white chocolate bark or chips)
• sprinkles or decorations of your choice!

1. Throw about 3/4 of the Oreos (the whole cookie!) into a food processor and pulse until they are fine crumbs (or beat place them in a freezer bag and crush the life out of them)
2. Mix together the crushed Oreos and the cream cheese 
3. Roll the mixture into small balls (about 1" in diameter) and place them on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper
4. When all of the mixture is rolled, place the cookie sheet in the freezer for about 10 minutes
5. While the truffles are cooling, melt the white chocolate in a small microwave safe bowl.  Microwave for 30 second intervals, stirring between each time to ensure it melts evenly
1. If the melted chocolate seems too thick to dip the truffles, you can mix some shortening into it to thin it out, about 1 tsp at a time
6. Remove the set truffles from the freezer and roll them one at a time in the white chocolate
7. Shake off the excess chocolate, and set the truffle back onto the parchment paper
8. Sprinkle or decorate as desired before the chocolate coating dries
9. Repeat until all truffles are done and let set before packing them up
10. Enjoy!

Lemon Wreaths and Hearts

Here is a delicious alternative to all of the tasty chocolate treats that are everywhere this time of year.  While my first love for desserts is chocolate, I have some serious trouble turning down a lemony dessert.  There is something so appealing about a dessert that is flecked with fresh lemon zest!

The original recipe is from Martha Stewart's Cookie of the Day.  Once I saw this in my inbox, I knew I would be making them the next chance I got! 

The lemon glaze is an amazing touch as well, the more lemon the better!


To make the wreaths, roll out 1 tbsp of the cookie dough into about a 4 inch rope.  Then pinch together the ends and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.  After my cookies had cooled and been glazed, I decorated the wreaths with yellow jimmies to highlight the presence of lemon. I think they look pretty cute.

To make the hearts, I rolled out 1 tbsp of the dough into a rope about 6 inches long, and then pinched it in the middle to form a 'V'.  I then brought together the ends to form a heart.  To decorate the hearts, I used these amazing new sprinkles that I got from bakeitpretty.com after dipping them in the glaze. They are perfect for Valentine's Day desserts!

I made about 2 dozen cookies from this recipe.

Lemon Wreaths and Hearts

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 tbsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup sugar
• zest of two lemons
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, room temperature
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• For the lemon glaze
• 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
• juice of 2 lemons
• your choice of sprinkles

1. Preheat the oven to 350F, and line a couple cookie sheets with parchment paper
2. Place the lemon zest and sugar in a bowl, and whisk it together for a few minutes (I used the whisk attachment of my stand mixer and let it go for about 2 minutes)
3. In a second bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
4. Add the room temperature butter to the sugar/lemon zest and mix it until it is light and fluffy
5. Add the eggs to the butter/sugar, and mix well
6. Add the vanilla and the lemon juice to the wet ingredients and again mix well
7. Add the flour mixture in batches, mixing until the batter just starts to come together
8. Remove about 1 tbsp of cookie dough, and roll it into a rope (4" long for a wreath, or 6" long for a heart)
9. Pinch the two ends together to form a wreath (or form a 'V' and then pinch the ends together to form a heart)
10. Place on the prepared cookie sheets, and then repeat with remaining cookie dough
11. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes, or until the bottoms are just golden brown
12. Let the cookies cool on wire cookie racks
13. While the cookies are cooling, whisk together the lemon juice and icing sugar until smooth
14. When the cookies are cooled, dunk the top of each cookie into the glaze, and then set it back on the cookie rack
15. Decorate with your favourite sprinkles
16. Enjoy!