Ruffle Tower Cake Inspired by ruffled tap pants, this cake is covered with frilly rows of white and pink frosting piped from a single bag. Three tender lemon layers make this birthday cake tall enough to show off the ribbon-candy effect of the frosting and ensure there is plenty for everyone. INGREDIENTS 1 recipe  Tender Lemon Cake 1 recipe Swiss Meringue Buttercream DIRECTIONS Trim bottom layers; stack on cake round, with 3/4 cup buttercream spread over top of each. Add top layer; spread 1 cup buttercream over entire cake. Refrigerate 40 minutes until firm. Tint half remaining buttercream pink. Place cake on rotating stand. Lay flat a 12-inch pastry bag with #103 tip. Fill half of bag from tip to top with pink buttercream, other half with white. Hold bag vertically, slot of tip perpendicular to cake; use swift back-and-forth motion 1 inch wide to make ruffle, pulling tip up side. Turn cake stand slowly, piping circular ruffle over top.

Pumpkin shmumpkin. You have  months  left to enjoy pumpkin desserts! Let’s forgo the gourd for a minute, change it up a little, and say goodbye to the last of the berries with this stunning Chocolate Raspberry Mousse Cake. I don’t go around calling things “food porn” on a regular basis, so instead, can we just agree that this cake is, for lack of a better term, a  sexy beast ? It has a moist, fudgy brownie base, three layers of light mousse—chocolate, raspberry, and vanilla, and then a glossy topping of chocolate and a tangle of raspberries and chocolate curls on top.  Oh, behave ! I was so obsessed with the honey mousse I made for these  Honey Pots with Honey Mousse , I couldn’t stop thinking of ways to use that quick and easy mousse in other recipes. It turns out it’s easy to adapt that mousse for other flavors, so I made a few tweaks and soon found myself with chocolate, raspberry, and vanilla bean variations. You’ll love it—no separating eggs, no whipping whites or yol

These Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies are great for after school. Or breakfast in my opinion! They have peanut butter chips all throughout the oatmeal cookies! Who doesn’t love dessert for breakfast? Anyone? Donuts are a legit breakfast in my book. As are pastries. Maybe even chocolate cake.  Bill Cosby  says so. Chocolate cake has milk and eggs in it. That totally counts. These cookies could count, too. There’s peanut butter and oats and nuts. See? And since Spring Break is coming up for us at the end of the week, I just may serve these for breakfast. I reserve the right to do that. We will be on vacation, after all. All 10 days of vacation. We are on a four day school week which means that the last day of school is March 29th and they don’t go back until April 9th. Heaven help us survive being home together that long. I will need to get creative with them and make sure they aren’t bored. Pinterest, here I come! Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies  

Share on Pinterest A while ago I posted a recipe for  Homemade Pop Tarts  and I knew it wouldn’t end there. I love making homemade versions of store bought childhood favorites because they are so much better! These Homemade Toaster Strudels are no exception! Really these are  semi -homemade, unless you want to be really legit and make your puff pastry from scratch. But to be honest I’ve actually never made homemade puff pastry because I’ve heard it’s such a tedious process so I just go with the stuff in the freezer isle, and if you really want to splurge go with the butter puff pastry vs. the vegetable shortening. My kids and I were completely in love with these delicious breakfast treats! They put the boxed kind to shame. And I may have spotted my husband squeezing the icing straight into his mouth, that little touch of butter and almond extract makes it just that good. These are a simple pastry to make since they begin with a store-bought puff pastry, and I also used a sto

Growing up, I LOVED having hot chocolate at my best friend’s house because it was the best. Her mom made her own mix and stored it in the pantry. It was always there and it was always so so yummy. I don’t know why it took me so long to get the recipe from her and start making it myself! First, it tastes SO MUCH BETTER than the store-bought hot cocoa, and second….it’s way cheaper to make it yourself. It took me less than 5 minutes folks. I’ve decided I’m going to gift hot cocoa for neighbor Christmas gifts this year. Cute, seasonal, and yet doesn’t break the bank! Okay, so the picture above is actually chocolate powder before it’s mixed with everything else, but I thought it was rad-looking so I made it my main photo. The actual color of the mix once everything’s been mixed together, will look like this: HOMEMADE HOT COCOA MIX 1 8 quart box powdered milk (for me, my powdered milk uses 3/4 cup powder to make a quart of milk, so this ended up being 6 cups powder for me 1 l