adiba

Ever since I read the raving review of this Spiced Prune Cake at The Pioneer Woman, I have been dying to make it. It lived up to all the hype. It is delicious, moist and with a sweet buttermilk icing, it tastes incredible.


If you can get over any initial, "Ew! Prunes?!" response, I urge you to try this one out. In fact, if you are worried at how it will be received by your family, just don't tell them about the prune part. The texture is light and moist, spicy and sweet. I thought this cake would go very well with just barely sweetened whipped cream to keep the texture nice and light.

The only tricky part, judging by comments at The Pioneer Woman site and other reprints, seems to be the boiled icing. It seems a lot of people are boiling the icing mixture at too high of a heat which causes the icing to harden to the point of not being able to cut through it. I erred on the side of caution for my icing, keeping it on a very low boil on a gently heat.


Notes; I poked some holes throughout the cake to get the icing to seep down into it. This is an optional step. I think next time I will just skip doing that.

Enjoy!

[Continue reading...]

A delicious and charming retro recipe courtesy of one of my favorite blogs, Mandy's Recipe Box. Be sure to drop by her blog and check out her amazing recipes. I've followed her blog for a very long time and she will always be one of my all time favorites. Mandy has lots of jello recipes for all you fans. Enjoy!

Notes:
~The only thing I would do differently next time around, which there definitely will be a next time, is to pour the mixture into a shaped jello pan to pump up the nostalgia factor.


[Continue reading...]

Simple and delicious. Serve with fresh whipped cream or ice cream.


Ours was just a bit under baked (okay, a lot under baked). We had a timer malfunction. Really delicious even so. Many thanks to erinnish for the recipe. Enjoy!


[Continue reading...]

We had a small celebration for Mardi Gras this year. The kids, grandma and I made a king cake which I think turned out delicious. Along with the king cake we made a pretty dark purple punch.

I got a mix from King Arthur Flour this year. For as much as I mention KAF you'd think I was being paid to promote the, but I am not. Onto the King Cake Mix. Right now they have the price listed at $12.99 but a few weeks ago when I bought it, it was a whopping $19.99. Not exactly cheap when you add in $8 shipping.


As you can see there is a thick almond filling running through the cake which I happen to love. The quality of the sprinkles was outstanding. They have such a deep, vibrant color.

I probably could have baked it for another 5 minutes but as I have mentioned, my oven is a bakers worst nightmare. It runs hot, it's uneven and to boot we are at a very high altitude. So I try my best and cross my fingers when it comes to baked goods.


The kids helped decorate the cake. Even though we had some mistakes with the glaze, I thought it turned out very pretty. All in all it was a tasty cake mix. I don't know that I'd fork over $30 next year just to make it, but I like to try things out from KAF at least once.

Of the other mixes I've tried, the Yuletide Cheer Scone Mix (their holiday scone mix) was outstanding, along with Cranberry & Orange Muffin Mix and a Butternut Squash & Apple Bountiful Soup Mix.




I realized this week that I need to pick up a much smaller punch bowl for our little parties. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up something soon.


This delicious grape punch recipe will be coming soon! I hope you had a great Mardi Gras!

Happy Mardi Gras! Today I have an indulgent and rich Cafe au Lait Pie, recipe courtesy of King Arthur Flour. While I didn't nail the technique 100% in my layering, it was still delicious. I think my mistake might have been not letting the chocolate filling cool long enough. Lesson learned!



[Continue reading...]

These pretty little cupcakes are perfect for Mardi Gras. Made from scratch and to die for good. A lemon cupcake is tipped with lemon cream cheese frosting then sprinkled in green, purple and yellow.


There are a lot of cupcake recipes out there that produce just ho-hum results, but these are incredible!


[Continue reading...]

With this recipe I was reminded of the importance of thoroughly reading a recipe and following directions.


Luckily my brownies still turned out delicious but I did berate myself a little bit for not paying attention to the directions.


For the first dessert post for Mardi Gras Month I went with a deliciously sweet recipe for New Orleans Praline Brownies from Menu Musings of a Modern American Mom. I love Julie's food blog. She is truly a mom who does it all -- she is a professor, mom to a large family, a cookbook author and more. Many thanks to Julie for the recipe and be sure to check her blog out after you read through for the recipe. Enjoy!

[Continue reading...]

Behold, our new, most favorite, sour cream cookie recipe. I've tried a few recipes over the past two years for sour cream cookies which turned out well, but not amazing. Recently I tried making a McCall's recipe which amped up the amount sour cream a bunch to make the best sour cream cookies we've ever tried.


I used my standard medium sized cookie scoop for these. Watch these closely in the oven. You don't want them to get too browned, just barely on the bottom, edges and tops. Enjoy!


[Continue reading...]

These delicious hot chocolate snowball cookies have a few surprises inside. First, they are made with hot chocolate mix, meaning you can use a plain mix or jazz things up a bit by using a flavored hot chocolate mix like peppermint.

Second, they have a bit of cream cheese mixed into the dough, giving them a great flavor and texture. I tweaked the original recipe just a bit by making the cookies larger and reducing the cooking time. I like my cookies to be tender so this worked out very well. Many thanks to Melissa's Cuisine for the recipe. Enjoy!


[Continue reading...]

[Continue reading...]

[Continue reading...]

[Continue reading...]

Almond lovers, cookie lovers, lovers of sweets that taste amazing, let me introduce you to the Soft Almond Pillow Cookies.


This one is for sure going to my top 25 recipes of 2014 list. It is hard to tell from the pictures but they are stuffed full of an almond paste mixture which tastes divine. If you love almond bear claw pastries, it is a similar sort of filling. Many thanks to The Noshery for this recipe.

My only issue came down to the dough, which I think was my own fault. I added the flour too quickly as I was mixing it, and in too large of an amount than I should've. This led to parts of the dough being too dry and other parts feeling too sticky/wet.  Learn from my mistakes and add the flour in small increments.

For all recipes that call for almond extract, I use Almond Bakery Emulsion by LorAnn. I love this stuff! I've seen them sold at Michael's craft store and I'm sure other stores carry them as well. Lastly, as long as you properly chill the dough, these cookies don't spread and should not have any filling leak out. Enjoy!

[Continue reading...]

We were all a bit skeptical of the thought of potato chips in cookies, but the taste and texture of these cookies were fantastic. The kids loved them, along with the adults. They may seem strange but give them a shot. Be sure to use plain, thin potato chips. Enjoy!

[Continue reading...]

Recently I posted a recipe over at Mom Spark for creamy Halloween fudge. Use up all that leftover candy corn! Head on over to check it out.

Recently I posted a recipe for Halloween Cookie Bark over at Mom Spark. Please hop over to check it out!

[Continue reading...]

[Continue reading...]

Recently I posted a recipe for Easy Pumpkin Butter over at Mom Spark. Be sure to check it out!