confectionary stencils

Artist Megan Herbert turned some of her illustrations into stencils for decorating coffee and desserts; I love that using these would allow fondant-impaired persons such as myself to create a presentable dessert without requiring too much work and frustration.

images via Megan Herbert, found via paper tastebuds

strawberry shortcake, the claremont way

Before I met Nick, strawberry shortcake consisted of a store-bought shortcake cup, some chopped up strawberries, and Reddi-Whip. After I met Nick, strawberry shortcake became a much more delightful treat that I now look forward to every spring.

I don't know if it's a Central PA thing or just his family's traditional way of making it, but I do know that it is scrumptious. Here's what to make:

Shortcake
2 1/3 C Bisquick
3 Tbs sugar
1/2 C milk

Mix ingredients; in an ungreased 8" pan, spread mixture and bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.

Strawberries
mash up strawberries
add sugar to taste
that's it :)

Cut a piece of the shortcake you made and put it in a bowl. (I like to break mine up.)

Add the crushed strawberry mixture. Don't be shy... add lots. You won't be sorry.

Pour some milk on top, enough to soak into your shortcake.

Mash that baby up and mix it all around to make a gooey, sweet, and delicious treat. Dig in!

Strawberry season is a short one, so when we have the opportunity to make this with some really amazing berries, we often have it in place of meals. I know, I know — not the most wholesome dinner! But boy, is it yummy.

Have you ever seen/had strawberry shortcake like this?

yummy (and easy) taco soup

Some fabulous people we know had a beautiful baby girl on Thursday. We had the opportunity to meet her today (she is really cute!) and we packaged up some easily reheat-able dinners that we brought over for the new parents, knowing that they might be a tad too busy to cook in the coming weeks.

One of the meals we made was taco soup — I found the recipe ages ago on sparkpeople.com, and Nick and I really enjoyed it when I made it before, but we had since forgotten about it. I like it because it's not quite as heavy as chili, but it still has a similar kick to it. It makes 9 servings, so we packed up a few containers for our friends and saved a little for ourselves for dinner tonight. It's delicious, super easy to make, and doesn't dirty a lot of dishes. (This feature is of particular importance to my husband, the designated dish washer of our household.)

Taco Soup
found via sparkpeople.com, modified by me

1 lb. lean ground turkey
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes w/green chilies
1 4 oz. can chopped green chilies
2 11 oz. cans corn (not drained)
2 15 oz. cans dark kidney beans (not drained)
1 pkg. taco seasoning

Optional toppings:
Tortilla chips
Shredded Cheese
Sour Cream

In a large pot, brown ground turkey over medium heat. Add tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, green chilies, corn, kidney beans, and taco seasoning. Bring to boil, and then simmer for 15 more minutes, stirring often. Serve and enjoy. Garnish with chips, cheese, and sour cream, if desired.

Serves 9

We added a little shredded cheese but skipped the chips and sour cream — still delicious!

ETA: obviously, this recipe could be made with fresh vegetables as well (which would cut back on the sodium) — but if you're low on fresh veggies and time, canned items are a great solution.

breaking in the Le Creuset

Well hi, friends. Sorry I've been a bad blogger this week. I've just needed a little bit of a break and I didn't feel like I had anything interesting to say over the last few days!

Last night, I christened the glorious and lovely Le Creuset Dutch oven that you all talked me into getting a few weeks ago; on the menu were some delicious country ribs drowned in a homemade barbecue sauce. Nick and I barely spoke to each other while chowing down on the yumminess, so I'm pretty sure that implies that they were a success.

Nick got the pork ribs on sale the other day, so when I searched for recipes, I limited my search to ones that included ribs, and wouldn't require buying lots of other ingredients. I'm looking forward to making different dishes in the future, but I'm sure we'll try this one again sometime, too, because the result was fabulous.

Below is the recipe I found at Just Dutch Oven Recipes, for which we ended up already having most of the other ingredients.

Country Ribs

1 c Sweet red wine
1/2 c Chili sauce
1/3 c Vinegar
1/4 c Honey
2 tb Soy sauce
1 tb Worcestershire sauce
2 ts Salt
2 ts Dry mustard
1 ts Horseradish
1 ts Red pepper sauce
1/2 ts Ground pepper
1/2 ts Paprika
3 tb Vegetable oil
3 lb Pork country-style ribs

Mix all ingredients except oil and ribs in saucepan. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Heat oven to 350'. Heat oil in Dutch oven over low heat. Brown half of the ribs in hot oil; remove ribs. Repeat with remaining ribs; drain off fat. Return ribs to Dutch oven; pour sauce over ribs. Cover and bake 1 hour. Uncover and bake until done, about 30 minutes. Remove ribs to serving bowl. Strain sauce; skim off fat. Pour sauce over ribs.

Because I'm a nerd, I made Nick take a picture as I was getting ready to put the ribs into the oven. It's par for the course when you live with me. (Oh, please ignore my terribly messy hair and the mess on the sink. Do you like my apron? It makes me feel fancy.)

The Dutch oven is pretty heavy and I'm a klutz (I could just see myself dropping that thing on the first go-round), so I made Nick take it out of the oven for me when the timer went off. Check out that action shot. Go, Nick, go!

And, the final result. Yummmm.

Mission: Break In Le Creuset Dutch Oven... accomplished! What should we try next?

ultimate chocolate chip cookies

My friend and business partner Terry recently gave me this amazing chocolate chip cookie recipe that may just trump the trusty Nestle Toll House variation. The key seems to be in using cake flour in addition to all-purpose flour, and sprinkling sea salt on top before baking for the perfect salty-sweet combination.

I sent some to my friend Emily, my brother and sister-in-law, and my husband's parents a few weeks ago, and got rave reviews. Not sure if they were just being nice, but I'm pretty sure they liked them ;-)

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients
2C minus 2Tbs cake flour
1 2/3C all-purpose flour
1 ¼ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp coarse salt (or sea salt)
2 ½ sticks unsalted butter
1 ¼ C light brown sugar
1C plus 2 Tbs sugar
2 Large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 ¼ c bittersweet chocolate (or any kind of chocolate chips that you like)*

Directions
Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and coarse salt into bowl and set aside.
Using mixer, cream butter and sugars until very light (5 min).
Add eggs (1 at a time), mixing well after each addition.
Stir in vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
Drop chocolate pieces in and then press plastic wrap against dough.
Refrigerate 24-36 hours. Dough can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.**
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, roll into balls and sprinkle lightly with coarse/sea salt.
Bake 15 minutes or until golden brown (or less time if you like them
really chewy).***

Makes about 6 dozen small-ish cookies

* I dump in the full bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips :) Why not?
** refrigerating for a few hours or overnight seems to yield the same results.
*** our oven tends to overcook things, so 12 minutes seems to be the magic number for perfectly golden, chewy cookies.

the power of persuasion

I did it. I convinced Nick that we should spend our $250 Cooking.com gift card on the Le Creuset 5.5 quart Dutch Oven! Well, actually, dear readers, your helpful comments about the Le Creuset are what helped to seal the deal. So, thank you!

In less than one week, she will be all mine:

I had to pinkie swear that I will use it at least twice a month, so please don't hesitate to share with me your favorite go-to Dutch oven recipes. I'll be needing lots of ideas and recommendations (and I promise to blog about some of my adventures with my new darling).

At $234.95 with $17.00 shipping, our total came to just over our $250 gift card limit. However, with some super sleuthing, I found a free shipping coupon code, saving us $17.00 and bringing our grand total back down to $234.95. You know I couldn't let that last $15.05 go to waste, so I added this lovely green turner set from Rachel Ray for $14.95:

... bringing our grand total to: $249.90. A measly TEN CENTS below our limit.

Am I good, or what?

Finding coupon codes is one of my favorite online shopping tricks. I don't buy anything online without first Googling "[store name] coupon code," and I'd say I find a usable code about 80% of the time. It takes a little trial and error, but definitely give it a shot if you're ever ordering online — you can find some great deals!

here's some free money — spend it already, would ya?

Once upon a time (okay, about a year ago), Nick and I were on a game show together. I won't go into detail because it was not actually a great experience for us (in short, we were robbed... ROBBED I tell you!), and we have vowed to never go on a game show again (unless, of course, Alex Trebek finally comes a-callin'), but we at least came away from the experience with a consolation prize of a $250 gift card to Cooking.com.

Awesome! you may be thinking. Well, actually, not that awesome. We went on aforementioned game show only a few months after getting married (have you guessed the name of the show, yet?), and when you get married, you register for wedding gifts. And, well, when you register for wedding gifts, you get a LOT of stuff. We were extremely fortunate to receive just about everything off of our registries, leaving us needing very few things in the kitchen.

We have all the shiny and sharp Cutco knives you could ever hope for. I'm not allowed to buy anymore cookbooks because we have a shelf full of them. We have a beautiful set of Calphalon pots and pans, all of the dishes and cutlery we registered for at Crate & Barrel, tons of Tupperware, a KitchenAid stand mixer AND hand mixer, a Cuisinart Griddler, a crock pot... you get the point. We have no backyard so no use for a grill, and no dining room, so no use for fancy table cloths or anything of the sort.

It usually doesn't take me very long to spend gift cards, but we can't make up our minds with this one. We just can't seem to find anything we really need, but we don't want to let the gift card just keep sitting here, either. (We don't think it expires, but you never know.) One item that I have my eye on is this beauty:

the coveted Le Creuset Dutch Oven in Caribbean... drool

It's so, so pretty. We would never, ever in our lives spend $235 of "real" money on something like this, but perhaps this is our opportunity to splurge, since it's "fake" money? The only problem is that Nick asked me what I would cook in a Dutch oven (after making a predictable Dutch oven joke... men), and I haven't a clue. Zip. Zilch. Zero. I mean, I don't cook much as it is (but I'm starting to a leeeeetle more) — how am I supposed to know what you make in this thing? Yet I've heard raves galore on these babies, and I'm determined that I could find some use for one. And have I mentioned how gosh darn pretty it is?

Some other less exciting options:

Winsome Wood Hall Bench with Baskets —
we could always use extra storage in our hallway

Stainless steel book/pot rack —
this would cut down on the naughty language when one of us is trying to dig out the %$#*& pot we need from the depths of our cabinets

A conglomeration of small items that we'd like to have, including Jamie's Food Revolution (I know I said no more cookbooks allowed, but shhh), a Microplane Zester Grater, a spatula (I always feel like we need a few more), organic dish towels, and a Le Creuset batter bowl (hey, at least I'd get my Caribbean Le Creuset fix somewhere)

So please, tell me: do you have a Le Creuset Dutch oven? What size do you have? Is it really necessary and/or useful if we already have lots of pots and pans and a crock pot? Enlighten me!

If you would opt to spend the gift card on something else, what would you choose?

food revolution

Have you heard all of the hype surrounding Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution? I watched it on Friday night (clearly, Nick and I lead a wild and crazy nightlife), and it did not disappoint. I've always seen Jamie Oliver as a likable guy and I get a kick out of his enthusiasm for food, but I like him even more now since watching this show. He's really trying to make a change in the way we feed our children and ourselves in this country, and while it certainly won't be an easy or immediate change, I think he is already making a positive impact.

Jamie set his sights on changing the school lunches in Huntington, West Virginia, which is apparently the most unhealthy town in our country. He was met with plenty of resistance, and it's clear that many of the people in Huntington are in denial about the future of their youth if they continue on the path of meals that are completely void of nutritional value. In last week's premiere, it was pretty eye-opening when a class of first-graders could identify French fries but not potatoes, and they knew what ketchup was but called tomatoes "potatoes." Sure, they're only 6 years old, but it's still a little scary to think that they don't know the difference between two pretty common vegetables... and don't even get me started on the "breakfast pizza" they are being served at school.

If you missed the 2-hour premiere, you can watch online at ABC.com. Don't forget to watch (or set your DVR for) this Friday night's episode!

Images via ABC.com

the little things (in the kitchen)

It's no secret that I am certainly not a master chef. It's rare that I make a whole meal from start-to-finish, and I am extremely lucky to have a husband who actually enjoys cooking so he doesn't see it as a chore to make up for my shortcomings in the kitchen. (He doesn't call them shortcomings, I do :)

The one thing that I have always enjoyed in the kitchen is baking. I don't know why I see this as being so different from regular cooking, but I enjoy it so much more. Maybe it's because the result tends to be a bit more sweet and a bit less healthy? I do love sweet and unhealthy things....

Last night I made some chocolate chip cookies from scratch, using the recipe on the back of the Nestle Toll House chocolate chip bag. I feel like that recipe never fails me, and I love the excuse to break out the KitchenAid mixer in all her Ice Blue glory. We have a pretty petite kitchen with limited counter space, so one of the keys to baking cookies without losing my mind (and all of my counter space) has been this:

The Wilton Indulgence 3-tier cooling rack

We registered for this baby when we got married, and for a measley $9.99, dare I say, it has made baking in a small kitchen so much more pleasant. I kind of want another set so I can bake double-batches of yumminess and just keep stacking up :) (And by the way, my cookies look way better than those pictured above.)

While not handy for baking, my two other favorite inexpensive kitchen items are:

Easi Twist Jar Opener

I have the worst time opening jars (small hands, overall wimpiness) and this little gadget is amazing. It's great for jars of any size, and it has not failed me yet!

Forma Over-the-Cabinet Towel Bar

Our oven doesn't have the sort of handle where we could hang towels, so we have two of these and they're awesome at making our kitchen look somewhat organized (or at least like not-a-complete-mess).

What are your favorite little things that make your experience in the kitchen more pleasant?

rocky road crispy bars

We hung out with my cousins on Superbowl Sunday, and I decided to contribute a tasty dessert to the already fat-filled spread (because it just wouldn't be Superbowl Sunday without lots of unhealthy food). My cousin's fiancée cannot have gluten, so I wanted to make something that she could eat. I found this recipe for rocky road crispy bars and decided it sounded too good to not try!

These were extremely easy to make, and SO super duper tasty! We just polished off the last of them tonight (I have eaten an obscene quantity in the last few days... I'm not proud). If you like peanut butter, chocolate, marshmallows and rice krispies, I'm pretty sure you won't hate these.

Here's the disclaimer, though — despite the recipe saying "gluten free," I found out after I made them that Rice Krispies are not actually gluten free. They contain malt, which is derived from barley, which is a no-go in a gluten free diet :-( However, there are brands of rice crisps out there that are gluten free, so if you switched them out in the recipe, you'd be good to go! (And in case you're wondering, my cousin's fiancée decided to take the chance and had no side-effects, but I do not recommend trying this if you can't have gluten!)

Ingredients

1. 3/4 cup chunky peanut butter
2. 1/3 cup light corn syrup
3. 3 tablespoons sugar
4. 2 1/4 cups Rice Krispies
5. 12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
6. 1/2 cup light corn syrup
7. 1/4 cup sugar
8. 1/4 cup butter
9. 2 cups Rice Krispies
10. 1 1/2 cups small marshmallows
11. 1/2 cup chopped peanuts

Directions

1. Cook 1st three ingredients in saucepan until peanut butter is melted, stirring constantly.
2. Stir in the 2 1/4 cups rice krispies. Spread in baking dish (9x13 size is good, or Tupperware cold cut keeper).
3. Cook chocolate chips, 1/2 cup corn syrup, 1/4 cup sugar, and butter over low heat, til butter is melted (stir constantly).
4. Stir in 2 cups cereal and marshmallows.
5. Spread over 1st layer.
6. Sprinkle with nuts. Cool.

Recipe found on RecipeZaar

pink and purple and a special little one

A very special little girl, H, turned one last week, so of course honorary Auntie Brooke had to pull out all the stops to add something special to her birthday party. After all, I owe this little one a lot — she hung out in mommy's belly long enough for her to be the matron of honor in my wedding last September, and even held off until two days after we returned from our honeymoon to arrive (on her due date, no less). Girlfriend has been on my side all along.

For H's big birthday, I took a second stab at Bakerella's cupcake bites (first attempt was back in July with a patriotic theme), and I am proud to say that I am kiiiind of getting awesome at this cupcake bite thing.

This go-round, I used this variation of the recipe with candy molds (which I somehow missed on the website last time). This made things much less messy and the overall process a bit easier. The final result was not nearly as perfectly coiffed as Bakerella's bites always seem to be, but that's okay... we'll just say that mine have more "character."

I started with red velvet cake and made my cake balls.

Since I was using the molds for the bottom part of the cupcakes, I had the genius idea to put my melted chocolate in a plastic baggie and cut one corner off to neatly squeeze the chocolate into the molds. Revolutionary, I know.

After I squeezed the chocolate into the molds, I placed the cake balls in the chocolate and waited for it to harden.

They popped out really easily once they were in the freezer for a few minutes.

Then came the most fun part: decorating time. There was no shortage of pink and purple here — no, sirree. I had pink and purple sugar crystals. I had stopped by a local candy store earlier in the week to buy pink and purple M&Ms. I even stooped so low as to buy food coloring with Hannah Montana on the packaging. (What can I say — it had all of the colors I needed. Don't hate.)

I used white melted chocolate and mixed a bunch of different pinks and purples to have a nice mix of colors. The blue came in handy as the purple alone sort of looked the same as the lighter pink. Adding some blue made a perfect purple.

Then I dipped... and decorated... and voila! Aren't they purrty?

Happy first birthday, Miss H!

number 29: the kitchen workshop

We've been making lots of use of gift certificates lately! Particularly those that people have given to us for hands-on experiences.

A few weeks ago we took a cooking class at the Kitchen Workshop in Paoli, PA, thanks to a Christmas gift from my brother and sister-in-law last year. (It allowed me to check number 29 off of my 101 in 1001 list... thanks, guys!) The class we took was called "Quick, Easy and Delicious Weeknight Meals" and was lead by Art, who runs the Kitchen Workshop. I didn't take any pictures as I was busy chopping and cooking up a storm, but we had a great time.

There were 8 students, including Nick and me, and we made 6 dishes in the 3 hour class. I learned some great tricks and basic skills (I was definitely the least experienced chef in the class), and ate some delicious food. It was great to get some guidance on a few meals that we can quickly whip together during the week, now that Nick is back to work and neither of us feels like spending too much time in the kitchen at the end of the day.

Our favorite recipe was the Garlic Shrimp. I've never loved shellfish, but I've been trying to branch out of my comfort zone and I thought this was super tasty. We've made it once since the class, and we tried it with chicken that we already had in the freezer instead of shrimp — equally yummy!

Garlic Shrimp over Pasta
(Serves 4)

8 ounces uncooked large shrimp, peeled, deveined
1 teaspoon coarse salt

1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 small bay leaf
1 1-inch piece dried red chili pepper, seeded
Pasta of your choice
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley

Place shrimp in bowl; sprinkle with coarse salt and toss. Let stand 15 minutes.

Heat oil in medium skillet over high heat. Add garlic, bay leaf and dried pepper and stir 1 minute. Add shrimp; stir until just cooked through, about 3 minutes. Add already cooked pasta of your choice and combine with shrimp to distribute garlic sauce. Transfer to serving dish. Sprinkle with parsley.

bakerella's cupcake pops

It's a little after the fact now... but I still thought I'd share with you the photos of Bakerella's cupcake pops that I made for the Fourth of July. I modeled mine after her Patriotic Pops and brought them to a family gathering with my in-laws.

Dipping the cake balls into the chocolate without making a complete mess proved to be a little more difficult than you'd imagine. At first, they were looking a bit wonky, like this:

My lovely assistant/husband who was helping me at this point came up with the idea to use a skewer for dipping, then removing the skewer to let the chocolate cool and harden (bottom right photo on second collage image, above). This made everything go much more smoothly, as you can see below. Once he would take the pop off of the skewer and sit it upside-down to let it cool, I would stick in the lollipop sticks while the chocolate was still warm.

When it came time for Nick to dip the pops into white chocolate for the cupcake tops, he just grabbed the lollipop sticks and dipped. (Please ignore our messy kitchen in the below photo... I never claimed to be a mess-free cook!)

We did not have a styrofoam block to put the lollipop sticks into for the white chocolate to cool with the pops sitting upright, so we ended up taking the sticks out and just letting them cool on wax paper. So technically, they became cupcake bites instead of cupcake pops, but having the lollipop sticks in them for dipping still made it much, much easier.

As soon as they were sitting on the wax paper, I decorated them with red or blue sugar crystals and red or blue M&Ms while the white chocolate was still warm. (Unless you're making hundreds of bites/pops, don't bother buying the monochromatic M&Ms. They're ridiculously overpriced — we just bought a regular bag of M&Ms and picked out the red and blue ones! There were plenty to go around and plenty left over afterwards. Om nom nom.)

Note to self for next year: the red sugar crystals on white chocolate topped with an M&M kind of makes the cupcake bites look like eyeballs. Stick with the blue sugar crystals! Much cuter.

They certainly weren't perfect, but I was excited that I tried something new. And despite looking a little imperfect, they were SO yummy!!!

I'm so busy these days that usually, if we bring something to a gathering of friends or family, Nick ends up making it. I was starting to feel crappy about never having a part in putting together some yummy treats, so I wanted this to be my project (although he graciously helped me towards the end when we were under a time crunch). Any cooking project that involves such a crafty aspect is appealing to me because I feel like I get to be artistic.

something fresh

My lovely friend Catherine just launched a wonderful new blog called Fresh. As Cat puts it, "Fresh is a place to seek news and start conversations; in most cases on issues of sustainability in our food systems, as well as our related communities and culture." While this is the focus, you can also expect plenty of lighthearted fodder interspersed throughout the content, and perhaps links to some tasty and unique recipes. I'm already enjoying her witty writing (she's truly a wordsmith) and her clean and (sorry for the pun) fresh layout.


Check out the About page to learn more and then explore your way around the blog; don't forget to show Cat some love as she steps into this lovely little Bloggy world!

eating healthy when you're a picky eater

I'm having a rough time lately. I'm trying to lose a few pounds (er, eight) that I've put on since our wedding (four of which I gained in ONE WEEK on our honeymoon... which, even though it's gross, I'm hilariously kind of proud of... is that weird?) — I just want to feel cute in my summer clothes and proud of my shape again, but I'm not doing such a good job of that. I'm pretty short — 5'3" — so eight pounds makes a world of difference on me.

You may remember that I have been loosely following Weight Watchers for a little while, but it's just not clicking this time like it did before the wedding. I constantly feel hungry when I'm working on 18 points a day, so then I go nuts and cheat WAY too much on the weekends and start from zero again on Monday. This week I have been forcing myself to exercise, which is definitely helping already, but I know that I still need to adopt some better eating habits to lose some weight and keep it off.

One of my biggest problems is that I'm a complete carboholic. I LOVE carbs. If it has "potato" in the name, chances are I'll inhale it. If it has pasta in it, I want it. I also love cheese, and anything greasy. I don't eat vegetables because I want to — I eat them because I know I have to (and I don't eat them as much as I should).

My other problem, and definitely THE biggest one, is that I'm terribly picky. I don't like tomatoes, cucumbers, raw onions, peppers, or mushrooms. I don't experiment often with new foods (although I'm still much better than I used to be) and I tend to eat a lot of the same thing, so I get bored with my food really easily. This is what usually leads me to go a little nuts when I splurge.

Vegetables. Blech.

I need to make a more concerted effort to add more variety to my meals while remaining healthy. I eat too many processed foods and then when I try to make up for that by eating a healthy salad, I just feel unsatisfied. This recipe that Lynn posted the other day looks appetizing to me, and she modified it from a Weight Watchers recipe, so it has to be somewhat healthy. I just have a hard time understanding what is healthy and what isn't (I just think "carbs are bad" and "vegetables are good" but have never really grasped the in-between). I'm never quite sure of what's "good" fat and what's "bad" fat. I have never really fully understood what good sources of protein are and what foods are just loaded with bad stuff.

Help me out! What are your favorite somewhat healthy (and easy) recipes that a picky eater like myself might enjoy? What are your go-to snacks when you're craving something hearty and filling that won't ruin my diet?

spaghetti and meatballs (on a cupcake!)

While perusing Facebook last night, I saw some photos from a college friend's birthday party. I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the AMAZING "spaghetti and meatball" cupcakes that his girlfriend made for him.

Photo and recipe found on foodbuzz.com

After a little Googling I found that this adorable idea comes from the book Hello, Cupcake! which I'm prettttttty sure I need to have. I mean, come on — I AM Mrs. Cupcake!

The "spaghetti" is piped icing; the "meatballs" are Ferrero Rocher candies; the "sauce" (or gravy, if that's your thing) is raspberry or strawberry jam; and the "parmesan cheese" is grated white chocolate.

About.com has it pegged as an April Fool's Day recipe, but I think these would be adorable anytime. Maybe dessert following a yummy Italian meal?

happy birthday, cake wrecks

One of my favorite blogs, Cake Wrecks, turned one today. Happy birthday, CW! Thanks for making me laugh out loud every single day (sometimes so much so that I'm in tears) with your witty banter about icing-y typos and poor grammar, hysterical "stories" of why the "wreckerator" used so many "extraneous" quotes, and, of course, amazing photos of some truly wrecky cake wrecks.

All photos from Cake Wrecks

If you have never visited Cake Wrecks, do it. Do it NOW. You can thank me later.

more owls... this time, edible ones

My friend Alison must have seen my owl post from last week, as she thought to send me the link to these adorable cupcakes today:


They're adorable AND they don't involve fondant! AND they have Oreos on top! Really... does it get any better than that?