What was your favorite dessert as a child? Mine, by far, was these mini cherry cheesecakes. I mean, sure, I loved ice cream and pie and cookies. But if my mom asked me what she should bake — especially if it was to take to school or a party — it was mini cherry cheesecakes. […]
I’m not sure how other people come up with the themes for their children’s first birthday parties, but I was inspired by a stuffed animal. A Hello Kitty doll in a cherry blossom kimono, to be exact. Since Arabella was born during the mainland cherry blossom season and this may be her only birthday (other […]
Toby was at boot camp for his 21st birthday and in Afghanistan for his 30th birthday, so when his 40th birthday rolled around, I wanted to do something a little special to mark the occasion, even though we had only just moved to Okinawa. Luckily, because the Marine Corps is so small, some of our […]
Last year, I made myself a unicorn cake for my birthday. This year, I wanted something a little different. I thought about baking a hummingbird cake (one of my faves) or trying a new flavor… but then I realized that the perfect cake for a red-headed aquaholic like me was a mermaid cake. An ombre mermaid […]
When our Bahrain BFFs asked me to make a 3-shaped cake for their adorable son’s third birthday party, I had some ideas but wasn’t quite sure of the best way to build it. We had both seen 3-shaped cakes on Pinterest, of course, but there didn’t seem to be a lot of tutorials out there. […]
Near our house in Bahrain, there’s this fabulous bakery and tea room called The Orangery, and they have a beautiful cake called the 1001 Nights cake, which is pistachio with rose buttercream. That sounded amazing to me, and I wanted to create something similar for our rug flop (sort of like a Tupperware party, but […]
Pumpkin spice lattes have arrived at Starbucks, apple picking pictures are popping up all over Instagram, and temperatures here in Bahrain have dipped into the double digits (it was 95 today), which can only mean one thing: It’s fall! Let’s break out the canned pumpkin, cinnamon, and nutmeg and make cupcakes. You don’t even need […]
You may have seen pictures of beautiful unicorn cakes floating around the Internet — the ones with lovely closed eyes and long lashes and swirly golden horns. I wanted to bake myself one for my birthday, but I didn’t want to have to use any fondant (or non-edible items), so I had to come up with […]
I love most candies that are basically just sugar + food coloring, so it’s no surprise that I adore candy corn (mellowcreme pumpkins are the best)! But there’s only so much candy corn one human can eat, and they don’t have it here in Bahrain anyway. They do, however, have butter, sugar, and flour, which […]
I know this time of year is all about cookies, but this cake is too good not to share. It’s impossibly light and fluffy, covered with a delicious caramel-y pecan topping. The idea came from a recipe card included in a Christmas gift we received, but I decided to make cake from scratch instead of […]