Welcome to my blog! My name is Stephanie and I was born, raised, and still live just outside of Boston. I’m a stay at home mom of two children that don’t really need me to stay home anymore, especially since one of them is in college. So I currently spend my days with my three insane dogs while owning a very small antique business. I love and appreciate all things old, whether antiques or architecture, and love to give items new life by repurposing.
I love food, too much, and I get immense joy from how my food can make others happy. One of the best compliments I have ever received was my daughter telling me that my cooking has ruined everything else for her. I’ll take that!
I’m much more of a baker than I am a cook. Not that I don’t like cooking, I just wish I didn’t have to do it every day. I’d much rather cook when I feel like it. But, since I don’t have a personal chef and my family is picky about eating every day, here I am. Part of the motivation behind this blog is not only to give me someone to talk to during the day other than my dogs, but to be able to share some of the recipes I’ve tried and really enjoy.
I also love to take pictures of every day things that just make me smile. So this blog is just going to be about “my slice of life” and I hope you’ll enjoy some of it!
I had seen a picture of this cute cake and decided to give it my own spin. I used my favorite white cake recipe from my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook and added some coconut. You don’t have to add the coconut, but it is so good in this cake! The cake is moist and has a nice thick dense consistency with the coconut.
For the frosting I am more of a fan of cream cheese frosting, but you could use a buttercream frosting if you prefer. I have a wonderful vanilla buttercream recipe in another blog.
As you can see I am not a professional cake decorator, but my cakes are delicious and to me that is the most important part. This cake is really not hard to make and whoever you serve it to will be very impressed.
Cake Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 2/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup shortening
1 1/4 cups milk
3 1/2 tsps. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
5 large egg whites
1 cup sweetened coconut
Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
8 oz. block cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
Blue food coloring
Additional Ingredients:
1/2 cup sweetened coconut
Melting chocolate
Egg candies
Grease and flour three 6″ cake pans. I greased the pans, then added a layer of parchment paper on the bottoms, then greased again and floured. The pans I used are stainless and not non-stick so I wanted to be sure they came out perfectly.
Combine all ingredients except egg whites in a large mixing bowl or stand mixer.
Beat on low speed for 30 seconds scraping the bowl constantly. Continue mixing on high speed for 2 minutes scraping occassionally. With the stand mixture I let it go about a minute, turned it off and scraped, then continued for another minute.
Add the egg whites and continue beating on high for two more minutes. Fold in 1 cup of coconut.
Divide evenly between the three pans and bake at 350 degrees until toothpick inserted comes out clean. My pans took about 30 minutes.
While the cakes were baking I toasted the coconut for the nest.
In a small frying pan add the coconut and cook over low/medium heat stirring frequently until toasted. Set aside.
When the cakes are done allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pans before transferring to wire racks. Cool completely.
Once cakes are cool you can make the cream cheese frosting.
Beat the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Beat in confectioners sugar until smooth. Give the frosting a taste and see if you think it should be sweeter and if so, add a little more sugar to taste.
Add a few drops of blue food coloring and combine well.
On a cake stand start building the cake and adding frosting in between the layers.
I normally have the rounded side of the cake be the top layer, but for this cake I had the flat side on the top. It was easier to make the nest this way.
Once the cake is completely frosted it is time to splatter the chocolate!
I used a few melting wafers for my splatter, but you can use whatever you normally use. Once the chocolate was melted I used a pastry brush and flicked the chocolate onto the cake. I also managed to flick the chocolate all over my walls so you may want to be a little more careful than I was.
Now just build the nest!
For the eggs I used Robin’s Egg candies and I used a toothpick and put a few dots on the eggs.
Make sure to keep the cake refrigerated because of the cream cheese frosting. If you use buttercream you don’t need to.
I had never heard of this type of “crack”, nor was I familiar with Matzah crackers until recently. A parent at my daughter’s school asked if I could make this for her son for Passover and I offered to give it a try. Now I know why it is called crack, it is so addictive! This is now one of my favorite recipes, so good!
Ingredients:
5 unsalted Matzah crackers
1 cup butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 12oz. bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
Sea salt
Chopped pecans, optional
Line a large cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Cover the pan with the crackers. They don’t break as easily as I expected and I had to use a knife to cut them.
Combine the butter and brown sugar in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until melted while whisking. Bring the mixture to a boil and continue whisking and boiling for 3 minutes.
Pour the toffee mixture over the crackers, then spread with a small spatula to cover the crackers.
Bake at 350 degrees for 8 -10 minutes or until all of the toffee is bubbling.
Top with the chocolate chips and let sit for a minute or so. Once they have softened spread over the toffee.
Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and chopped nuts if you desire, and refrigerate until completely set. Mine took about an hour.
Once set, cut into squares or break into pieces. Yum!!!!
Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil. Arrange the crackers to fill the pan.
Melt the butter and brown sugar over medium heat while stirring with a whisk. Bring to a boil and continue whisking and boiling for an additional 3 minutes.
Spread the toffee mixture over the crackers. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until the toffee is bubbling.
Top with chocolate chips and let sit until soft. Spread over toffee. Sprinkle with sea salt.
So many of my recipes come from my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook as I have mentioned in the past, and this is one of them. Sometimes I bake use the Silver White Cake recipe, but today I made the Starlight Yellow Cake recipe. Super easy recipe and it only uses one bowl! That in itself makes the recipe worth using, not to mention the added bonus that it is yummy!
As you can see the cupcakes I made were transformed into bird’s nests for Easter. I think they came out pretty cute if I do say so myself. Here is how to make nest cupcakes:
First you need to bake the cupcakes.
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/4 cups milk
3 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Either grease a cupcake pan or use liners. I decided to use paper cupcake liners for my cupcakes today.
In a large mixing bowl combine all of the ingredients.
With either a hand mixer or a stand mixer, beat for 30 seconds on low speed. If using a hand mixer make sure to scrape the sides constantly.
Turn mixer to high speed and continue beating for 3 minutes scraping occasionally. Since I was using a stand mixer I turned it off every minute or so to scrape the bowl.
That’s it! Could it be any more simple?
Fill each opening a little more than half way with the batter.
Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
Once they are cool I frosted them with vanilla buttercream frosting. Here is the recipe I use, also quite easy.
Once you have your frosting made just spead some over each cupcake and dip into green sprinkles.
To make the nest I used melting chocolate and squeezed it in the shape of a nest on top. You can also use chocolate frosting. Here’s a tip for using chocolate, only do part of the nest at a time and let the chocolate set and then go over it with more chocolate. Otherwise the chocolate will just blend together.
Once the chocolate was set, only takes a minute, I used a tiny bit on the egg so that it would stick on top. I used large Robin Eggs candies so I only used one egg, if you are to buy the mini eggs you can fit more than one.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease pan or use cupcake liners.
Combine all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
Beat on low speed for 30 seconds scraping constantly. Continue beating on high speed for 3 minutes scraping occasionally.
Pour into pan(s) and bake for 20 minutes for cupcakes, 40 minutes for rectangle, or 30 minutes for rounds or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool on wire racks.
I am not a huge fan of frosting and especially not a buttercream frosting, however, I am a fan of this frosting! It’s delicious! Very easy to make and worked well to decorate cupcakes.
Ingredients:
1 cup of butter, softened
4 cups confectioners sugar
3 tsp. vanilla
4 tbsp. milk
In a standing mixer or with a handheld mixer, beat the butter until smooth.
Gradually add the confectioners sugar until well combined. It most likely won’t be smooth at this point.
Add the vanilla and beat until combined.
Add the milk and beat for 3-4 minutes.
If you would like to color the frosting, add the food coloring and beat until well incorporated.
Years ago I found a very easy recipe for blueberry muffins that has become my “go to” muffin recipe. I tweaked it once and made chocolate chip muffins, and today I tweaked it again and made coffee cake muffins. They came out absolutely delicious! They came out delicious! Oh, and the smell in my home was amazing.
This recipe only makes 8 muffins, so I doubled it and it worked perfectly. The recipe below is for the 8, it is not doubled.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil
1 egg
1/3 cup, or more, of milk
1 tsp. vanilla
Topping ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, chilled and cubed
Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl.
In a measuring cup add the oil. On top of the oil add the egg, then fill the rest of the way with milk until you reach one cup. Add the vanilla into the measuring cup as well. Mine is higher because I was doubling.
Mix into the dry mixture until well combined.
Either grease a muffin tin or use paper liners. Fill the tins about 3/4 of the way full. I like to use a large cookie scoop so I don’t make as much of a mess.
Now it’s time to make that yummy streusel topping!
Combine the sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a small mixing bowl. Cut in the cold butter with a pastry cutter or two forks until butter is well combined and mixture becomes coarse crumbs.
Sprinkle mixture very liberally over the top of the batter. You want a nice thick streusel topping on coffee cake muffins.
Bake at 400 degrees for about 16-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a muffin tin or line with muffin liners.
In a large mixing bowl sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
In a measuring cup add 1/3 cup oil. Add egg and milk until it measures 1 cup. Add vanilla.
Add to dry mixture until well combined.
Scoop batter into muffin tins until almost full.
For topping combine flour, sugar, and cinnamon in a small mixing bowl. Cut in cubed butter with a pastry cutter until coarse crumbs. Top muffins liberally with streusel topping.
Bake for 16-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
I have been craving soup this winter more than I ever have, and last night I was in the mood for some kind of chicken soup. While my husband and son love a plain old chicken noodle soup, I am not a huge fan unless I am sick. I needed to make it creamy, but since I am trying to lose a little extra uninvited weight I wanted to keep it on the lower fat side. I tried just using whole milk to give it a little creamy consistency and taste, but it wasn’t working how I would have liked and just looked like milky water so I added a little bit of half and half and it did the trick. If you want a really creamy soup, use all half and half and I’m sure it will be even more delicious.
Ingredients:
1 tbsp. butter
1 cup chopped carrots
2-3 stalks of celery, chopped
1 potato, chopped
1 tsp minced garlic
1/4 cup flour
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 tsp. thyme
8 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup half and half
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
3-4 cups noodles
Chop up your vegetables and set aside. I managed to sneak in a potato even though my son doesn’t like them, but I didn’t dare an onion 😅. I considered a mushroom but that really would have been pushing it.
If you are wondering why my carrots look so small, it is because I only had baby carrots in the house.
Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the garlic, carrots, and celery and cook stirring frequently for about 5 minutes until they start to soften.
Whisk in the flour, salt, pepper, and thyme and cook for about 1 minute.
Add the chicken broth and potato and stir well. Bring the soup to a boil and let boil for a few minutes before turning the heat down to low/medium to simmer.
Cover cracked and cook for 20-25 minutes stirring occasionally until the potatoes have softened.
Add the milk, half and half, chicken, and noodles and stir well.
Turn the heat up to medium and cook for 10 minutes stirring occasionally.
Chop vegetables and set aside. Melt butter in a large saucepan. Add carrots, garlic, and celery and cook stirring frequently for about 5 minutes or until vegetables are soft.
Whisk in flour, salt, pepper, and thyme. Cook for about 1 minute.
Add chicken broth and potatoes, stir well and bring to a boil. Boil for a few minutes, reduce heat to low/medium and simmer with cracked cover for 20-25 minutes or until potatoes are soft.
Add milk, half and half, chicken, and noodles. Stir well and cook on medium heat for 10 minutes.
Sugar cookies are such a fun cookie as you can make them into so many different shapes, sizes, and colors. I just made a batch in the shape of elephants for some students at my daughter’s college, whose mascot is an elephant. Next month I will be making some shamrocks for St. Patrick’s Day. The other good thing about them is if you don’t feel like adorning them with colored sugar or frosting, they are just as tasty plain. Here is the recipe I use:
Ingredients:
2/3 cup butter flavor Crisco
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
In a large bowl combine the crisco, sugar, milk and vanilla. Beat on medium speed of an electric mixer until blended. Beat in the egg.
In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Add into the creamed mixture and beat on low speed until combined.
Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least a few hours.
When you are ready to make the cookies, roll out the dough on a floured board and cut into shapes. Maybe about 1/8 – 1/4″ thick.
Re-flour the board every time you roll out a new batch. Place on an un-greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 375 degrees for 7-8 minutes or until edges are slightly brown. Remove immediately from pan to cooling rack.
I have never been very good at decorating cookies, but I found this really easy technique on-line that worked well. For the icing combine:
2 cups powdered sugar
4-5 tbsps. half and half
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
Food coloring
Mix the ingredients together until they form a thick icing. Dip the cookies into the icing and hold over the bowl for about 15 seconds allowing the excess icing to drip off. Then quickly turn the cookie over and gently move side to side to let the icing cover the entire cookie evenly. Allow to set on a wire rack.
In a large bowl combine the crisco, sugar, milk and vanilla. Beat on medium speed of an electric mixer until blended. Beat in the egg.
In a small bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to the creamed mixture on low speed until well mixed.
Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least a few hours.
When you are ready to make the cookies, roll out the dough on a floured board and cut into shapes. Maybe about 1/8 – 1/4" thick. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 7-8 minutes or until edges are slightly brown. Remove immediately to wire cooling rack.
These brownies are absolutely amazing! Hence why I named them Amazing Brownies. It is the easiest recipe, and it only uses one bowl which is a huge bonus. They are fudgy and delicious, and honestly one of the best recipes you will find.
I have used this recipe for the Santa Hats and Brownie Trees that I have written about, and as I have mentioned it is the recipe inside the Baker’s Unsweetened Chocolate box. I have been using it for years and will never switch or try anything else.
Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter
1 4oz. package Baker’s Unsweetened Chocolate
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs
1 cup flour
In a large mixing bowl add the butter and chocolate. Microwave for 2 minutes, then stir until the chocolate is melted. It may take a a little while but it will melt from the heat of the butter.
Add the sugar and combine well.
Beat in the eggs and vanilla.
Add the flour and mix until well incorporated.
Pour into a 9″ x 13″ pan lined with aluminum foil and sprayed with cooking spray. You don’t have to use aluminum foil, but it is so much easier to cut the brownies this way. Once the brownies are cool just lift the aluminum foil out and put on a flat surface to cut.
I usually either add chocolate chips or M&Ms to the brownies. If you are going to add something I suggest waiting about 10 minutes after they are in the oven and sprinkling the chocolate chips or M&Ms on top, then continue baking.
Bake for 27-30 minutes at 350 degrees or until a toothpick inserted comes out with fudgy crumbs.
If you aren’t in the mood for chocolate, then give these buttery, sugary, chewy, yummy Blondie bars a try. They are not really a cookie bar, they are more of the consistency of a chewy brownie. You can absolutely make this recipe without the sprinkles, but don’t the sprinkles just make them look happier! 😅
Ingredients:
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup butter, melted
2 eggs, room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9″ x 9″ or 13″ x 9″ pan with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray.
Melt the butter and let it cool slightly. Combine with the brown sugar in a large bowl and mix well.
Look at all that butter! Yum! Brown sugar and butter just go so well together.
Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well until smooth.
Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small mixing bowl. Add to the butter mixture until well combined.
Then…..stir in the sprinkles!
Spread the batter into the greased pan and sprinkle some additional sprinkles on top. Bake for approximately 30 minutes until brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Let cool before cutting. The nice thing about using aluminum foil is you can just lift it out of the pan and it makes it much easier to cut.
