Baked Blueberry French Toast - A Mother's Day Treat

This year was my very first Mother's Day!  Both my husband and my daughter did a fabulous job of making me feel extra special, I don't think I changed a single diaper that Sunday!

In addition to being spoiled myself, we hosting a Mother's Day brunch since both of our mom's (and my husband's Grandmother) are in town.  We ended up with a total of 16 adults and 2 kids! But that's how my family rolls, the more the merrier.

Princess Cupcakes

Recently I made some pretty pink princess cupcakes for a 4th birthday party :)

I stuck with vanilla cupcakes and vanilla buttercream as those tend to be the favourites with a younger crowd.  I used my favourite Vanilla Bean Cupcakes from My Baking Addiction for the cupcakes and the classic Wilton Buttercream recipe (sans shortening) for the icing.

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. 

Special Birthday Buttermilk Pancakes

Hi friends! I missed you! Have you missed me? While I have been away from my computer for a while, I definitely have not been away from my kitchen :) So I have lots of fun things saved up to share with you!

For starters, these awesome pancakes that I whipped up for my birthday which was in mid-April. 

Buttermilk pancakes are a weekend staple at my house, but what variation you get totally depends on who is making them.  If my husband is making breakfast then you get regular buttermilk pancakes which are then drenched in maple syrup. So good.

But if I am making them? Well, I tend to get bored making the same thing over and over so I usually end up throwing in berries, experimenting with sour cream instead of buttermilk, adding butterscotch chips, etc.. Or in the case of my birthday weekend: rainbow sprinkles and dark chocolate chips.  Amazing.

Chocolate Banana Pecan Bundt Cake

One of our favourite cakes to make at home is still this Banana Pecan Bundt Cake.  It is so moist and flavourful, every time we have some bananas sitting on the counter I seem to whip this up!

The other day I was also craving a bit of a chocolate fix, so I decided to dress up this easy bundt.  Some chocolate chips and a little chocolate ganache later and we had a treat that was both tasty and pretty!

Apple Cinnamon Rolls

**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 :)

'Tis the season for company!  And what company doesn't love some warm Apple Cinnamon Rolls coming out of the oven as they wake up or walk in the door?

I make these Cinnamon Rolls very often around here.  I am pretty sure they are the main requirement in my husband's diet.  Not too long ago I had a pile of Granny Smith apples staring at me on the counter so I figured I would add some variety to our favourite baked item.  

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.  

{Skinny} Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Scones

Hello everyone! Today I am rocking it out at 39 weeks...and yup that means there is still no baby.  Yeesh, the kid is really taking their sweet time, aren't they?  So keep the 'boy' and 'girl' predictions coming (currently 'boy' is in the lead!)

I know the 'average' pregnancy is 40 weeks and that most first pregnancies result in babies AFTER the 40 week mark, but a person can hope for a bit of an earlier appearance, right?   Right!  So I am keeping my fingers crossed that we finally get to meet this busy little baby in the next few days instead of maybe two weeks from now :) I don't know if my body can take another two weeks of waddling! It's an attractive look, trust me.

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.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!  Hopefully yours isn't as white as ours, it has been snowing off and on for over a week now.  I guess those jokes about Canadians making their costumes so they fit over a snowsuit are true after all :)

A few days ago my sister and I decided to make some cupcakes and deck them out for the big spooky day.

We didn't have any specific plans, we just dyed some buttercream and let our imaginations take over. 

Pretty cool eh? Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Happy Thanksgiving! And a Pumpkin Swirl Pie to Enjoy

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! (Canadian Thanksgiving that is)

I hope you are getting a chance to spend this long weekend with the people you love most :)

We have been (and will continue to be) super spoiled this weekend! Last night was Thanksgiving dinner with my husband's side of the family where we ate our faces off and had an awesome visit.  And now tonight we have dinner with my side where there will be more massive amounts of turkey, stuffing, and family to enjoy all afternoon.

Lego Groom's Cake

A couple of weeks ago two people who are very good friends with my brother tied the knot!  It was a gorgeous ceremony, and we felt so lucky to be there to support the two of them.

My brother looked pretty handsome standing next to the newlyweds in his tux too :)

S'more Krispies

It seems that lately every time a new recipe pops up it is some new take on the classic s'more.  The crazy part is that each and every variation looks so freaking delicious! And I don't think I'll be getting over this 'craze' anytime soon.  Despite the cooler temperatures I think my next s'more adventure will be some version of s'more ice cream...hmm.  Ohhh, or maybe s'more brownies!

This particular dessert came about because a couple weeks ago I found myself with 4 bags of mini marshmallows, and nowhere to store them.  4 bags! Ridiculous right? 

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!

August in Pictures

This August was a pretty fantastic month! Here is an iPhone summary to give you a small taste of how fabulous it really was :)

Banana Caramel Cake - I still dream about this cake 

Baby room reno's are coming along!

A Wedding Cake and Cupcakes

This past weekend a great friend of mine married her perfect guy.  The wedding was so much fun, with lots of tasty food (how can you go wrong with a Ukrainian wedding?), great friends, and an awesome reason to celebrate!

I was so honoured when they asked me to make the wedding cake and cupcakes! The wedding colour was orange, and while the bride requested vanilla and chocolate for the cupcakes, I was given free reign with the wedding cake flavours.

Chocolate Cupcakes w/ Swiss Meringue Buttercream and Brown Butter Glaze

Remember these doughnuts and how they blew my mind because they were just SO good and the brown butter glaze was insane?

I found another use for that tasty tasty glaze :)

I had some leftover in my fridge after the doughnuts had disappeared, just taunting me to dig in with a spoon. But I held strong! Instead I made some chocolate cupcakes, topped them with some vanilla bean swiss meringue buttercream, drizzled them with the remaining glaze, and BAM, proceeded to shoved them in my face.

So. Good.

Camping-themed Baby Shower

In May one of our closest friends gave birth to an insanely cute little boy, Emmett!  This little dude is so awesome; we couldn't be happier for the new parents.

My friends and I eagerly waited until we could throw little Emmett and his mom a prime baby shower.  Since our friends spend almost every weekend in the summer camping all over Alberta, we decided that a camping-themed baby shower would be perfect!

We served all sorts of camping themed food such as mini burgers and mini hotdogs

Zebra Birthday Cake!

This past weekend we celebrated my sister's...21st birthday! (again?)! Yay! 

She had originally requested a lemon poppyseed dessert, but then we found out that a family member was allergic to poppyseeds so the morning of her birthday I woke up and had no clue what I was going to make!

Another one of my sister's favourite desserts is strawberry shortcake, so I decided to make a vanilla cake and fill it with vanilla buttercream and strawberries to try and bring some of the flavours together.

Weddings Galore!

Despite the noticeable decrease in activity on this ol' blog of mine, I have been keeping quite busy in the kitchen this summer.  It seems like almost every weekend I end up with some sort of event or party to bake for. There have been a ton of weddings, showers (wedding and baby), stagettes, birthdays, etc etc that I have been whipping up something sweet for over the last few months. It has been a blast!

Cupcakes still seem to be a huge hit for weddings, so my cupcake pans and stand mixers have been getting quite the workout! At the end of this month I will have my biggest challenge yet, a 2 (or 3 maybe!) tier cake AND cupcakes for up to 400 guests! Oh dear, wish me luck! I think my stand mixers might to into hiding when they find that one out.