Holy Moley Guacamole

I love guacamole almost as much as I love cupcakes. I recently ran across this recipe while watching Oprah. I quickly grabbed a pen and paper to jot it down. Not sure if I wrote the recipe down exact, but it turned out great and is now my favorite guacamole recipe. It is so flavorful, with the perfect amount of heat.

Guacamole
4 avacados
1/4 cup white onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup cilantro
6 T fresh lime juice
2 t kosher salt
1 jalapeno, finely chopped
Mash avacados with a fork. Add remaining ingredients and mix well.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

I enjoyed the carrot cake I made the other day so much that I decided to try it with cupcakes. I had no idea how they would turn out. I had never had a carrot cake cupcake before. Much to my surprise they turned out fantastic and were every bit as good as a slice of carrot cake! I followed the recipe exactly and they were ridiculously easy to make. I will definitely be making these again very soon!

Carrot Cake Recipe

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 cups finely shredded carrots

8 oz can crushed pineapple (drained)

1/2 cup coconut

1 cup cooking oil

4 eggs

Grease cake pan(s). I always spray my round cake pan with Wilton's Bake Easy Nonstick Spray and then I place a piece of parchment paper (cut in the same size as the bottom of the cake pan - a circle) at the bottom of the pan. In doing this, I never have problems with my cake sticking to the inside of the pan. With cupcakes, I just use cupcake liners (this recipe yields about 32 cupcakes).

In a large mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Add carrots, pineapple, coconut, oil, and eggs. Beat with an electric mixer till combined. Pour batter into prepared cake pan or cupcake pan.

Bake at 325 degrees for 60-75 minutes or until center of cake is no longer jiggly. For cupcakes, bake about 20 minutes. This particular recipe always takes a long time to bake. Much longer than a box cake because it is a much heavier cake. Just use your best judgement in regards to the baking time. Once the cake is finished baking, let it cool on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes and then carefully remove cake from pan. Cool completely then frost as desired with Cream Cheese Frosting (see recipe below).

Cream Cheese Frosting

Beat together two 3 oz packages cream cheese, softened; 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened; and 2 teaspoons vanilla till light and fluffy. Gradually add 2 cups sifted powdered sugar, beating well. Gradually beat in 2 1/2 to 2 3/4 cups additional sifted powdered sugar to reach spreading consistency. This recipe makes the perfect amount to frost cupcakes, but you will need to double it if you are frosting and layering an entire cake. Just for fun I used leftover frosting and mixed it with orange and green food coloring to create a little carrot on top. I used Wilton decorating tip 2D to ice the cupcake and Wilton tips 1 and 3 to pipe the carrot.

Simply the best!!

There is one cake that I will always make from scratch...a carrot cake. This is my absolute favorite type of cake! Although I have never actually tried a box of carrot cake mix I just can't imagine that it even comes close to one made from scratch. I have tried a few different carrot cake recipes, but this one has always been my favorite. The recipe is from Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook and it is a great one to add to your collection. It is fairly simple to make, tastes unbelievablably delicious, and is a very impressive looking cake.

I just made this cake the other day and it was fabulous!. My parents are visiting from the States and I know that my mom shares the same love that I have for carrot cake, so I decided to make one. Everyone loved it (even my kids). I'm all about adding layers to a cake especially when it involves cream cheese frosting. I used this 8 inch round cake pan from Wilton and a cake leveler. I highly recommend both of these items when baking and layering any type of cake. This particular carrot cake turned out perfectly in this pan. Usually I have to trim off the top, when baking a round cake, to make it nice and even. Not this time. No trimming was necessary! We got to enjoy every last bit of the carrot cake! Due to blogging technical difficulties, I will share this super yummy recipe in a separate post (very soon, I promise).

Favorite Baby Purees

These are a few of my baby's favorite purees. She absolutely loves them! The recipes came from the book Top 100 Baby Purees by Annabel Karmel. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in making your own baby food. All of the recipes are very healthy and easy to prepare. This has been my first experience with making my own baby food and I love it! I love knowing exactly where the food is coming from and what is in it. Most of the recipes you can freeze. It is very convenient and economical because you can make numerous meals, freeze them, and take them out as you need them. It really is not that time consuming and it has made feeding time so much fun. I love trying the different recipes and introducing my baby to all different types of healthy food, not just the basic fruits and vegetables. I purchased these trays to freeze the food in, but I'm sure you can use ice cube trays as long as you cover them. I use a mini food processor, but I think any blender/hand blender/food mill/food processor will get the job done. The recipes that I listed below are for babies 7 months and up.

Potato, Leek, Carrot, and Peas
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup washed and sliced white park of a leek
2 small potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 medium carrot, peeled and sliced
1 1/4 cups Vegetable or Chicken Stock
1/2 cup frozen peas
Melt the butter in a saucepan and saute the leek for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the potatoes and carrot and pour in the stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and cook for 10 minutes. Add the frozen peas and continue to cook for about 6 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Puree in a food mill or blender/food processor. This recipe is suitable for freezing.



Pasta with Butternut Squash, Tomato, and Cheese
1 small butternut squash, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons tiny pasta starts (I used tiny alphabet letters)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped (**see note below)
1/4 cup grated Cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons milk
Steam or boil the butternut squash for 10 minutes or until tender. Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to the instructions on the package, but without adding salt to the water. Melt the butter in a small saucepan and saute the tomatoes until mushy, then stir in the cheese until melted. Blend the cooked butternut squash and tomato and cheese mixture together with the milk using a blender/food processor, and stir in the pasta. This recipe is suitable for freezing.
**For the tomatoes: Plunge them into boiling water for 30 seconds. Transfer to cold water, then peel, seed, and chop.



Blueberry, Banana, and Apple
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 banana, sliced
1/2 apple, peeled, cored, and chopped
Put all the fruit into a heavy-bottomed pan and cook, covered, over low heat for 8-10 minutes. Uncover and simmer for 5 more minutes or until most of the juices have evaporated. Mash or puree fruit together by hand or with a blender/food processor. This recipe is unsuitable for freezing.



Yummy Banana
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 small banana, sliced
3 tablespoons orange juice
Melt the butter in a small frying pan or saucepan and saute the banana for 1 minute. Pour in the orange juice and cook for another minute. Mash with a fork. This recipe is unsuitable for freezing.

Now That's A Cupcake!

This has got to be the biggest cupcake I've ever seen! Have you ever noticed how a cupcake usually tastes better than a piece of cake? I was so anxious to try out this giant cupcake pan not only because it's a giant cupcake (and I love cupcakes), but also I was curious as to how the cake would taste. Turns out, this giant cupcake actually tastes just like a little cupcake. I've made two cakes now using this pan and both turned out really cute and tasted exceptionally good!

Pistachio Cake with Pistachio Whipped Cream Icing

For the cake part of this recipe, I added 1/2 packet of instant pistachio pudding mix to a box of dry white cake mix and mixed as I usually do. For the frosting, I added the remaining packet of pudding mix to 1/2 quart whipping cream and let it mix (for quite a long time) until peaks formed. Using a spatula, I frosted the top of the cupcake and then sprinkled chopped pistachios on top. I also put a layer of icing between the top/bottom half of the cupcake. This was such a fun and easy cake to make!

Calling All Nutella Fans...

This post is for you! I recently stumbled across this recipe (over at Bakin' and Eggs) for Banana and Nutella muffins. I love Nutella and I love it even more with bananas, so I knew I needed to try this recipe. I just made it yesterday, and it was delicious! There's nothing like biting into a fresh, hot muffin with Nutella oozing out of the center! The recipe said it made 12 muffins, but I had leftover batter, so I added 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips to the remaining batter and made an additional 12 mini chocolate chip banana muffins (no Nutella). Those turned out delicious as well! I pretty much ate muffins for breakfast, lunch and dinner yesterday!

Banana Nutella Muffins

2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)

1/3 cup sour cream (I used light)
1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup Nutella

1/4 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with liners or coat with cooking spray. In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking soda and salt, stirring with a whisk. In a separate bowl, combine bananas, sour cream and vanilla. Beat sugar and butter with a mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy and well blended, about 1 minute. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add banana mixture and beat until blended. Add flour mixture and beat at low speed just until moist.

Fill muffin tins about 1/4 of the way full with batter. Place 1 teaspoon (or desired amount) of Nutella in the center of each muffin. Fill muffin tins with remaining batter. They should be about 3/4 full.

Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes before enjoying!

If making the mini muffins, add the chocolate chips to the remaining batter and bake for about 10-12 minutes.

Happy May Day!

For the past two years the kids and I have delivered May baskets early in the morning on May 1st to our friends and neighbors. Of course we had to continue with the tradition this year. Inspired by the flower arrangements I saw at Keukenhof, we used teacups and saucers as our flower planters. I let the kids pick out the flowers they wanted to use and then let them do the planting. They fit perfectly into the teacups, so it was very easy for them to plant. They turned out really cute! We also made little paper baskets filled with candy to go with the flowers. We woke up early and delivered them this morning. The kids had so much fun ringing the doorbell and then running. There is just something about trying not to get caught!

Next week is Teacher Appreciation Week, so we are going to use this same idea to make gifts for the special teachers in our lives. The teacups are such a simple and thoughtful gift to make and very fun for kids to do. The baskets are super easy to make as well. All you need is a sealed envelope (any type will work). Cut the envelope as shown in the pic below. Use markers or crayons to decorate your basket.

I hope you enjoy your May Day!