Pumpkin Spice Cookies with Brown Sugar Frosting

Melt in your mouth goodness! Pumpkin Spice Cookies with Brown Sugar Frosting

My favourite cookies of all time are soft sugar cookies. You know the ones — soft and sweet, with the best buttercream frosting on top. The frosting is always piled on generously, slightly set, dusted with colourful sprinkles. These Pumpkin Spice Cookies with Brown Sugar Frosting are SO much better!

Pumpkin spice all the things!

I could enjoy one of these cookies any time, but now that it is fall, my craving has changed. I love pumpkin spice lattés, and this cookie has that same spiciness. And the frosting? To. Die. For. It is rich and buttery, with a smooth, caramel flavour that pairs perfectly with the spicy sweet pumpkin cookies. They literally melt in your mouth!

Soft, spicy, sweet. And that frosting is also delicious eaten with a spoon! Yup, that happened.

Recently a good friend gifted me a batch of these cookies, and for about a week, I spent cool, autumn mornings on my patio with an Americano coffee and a plate of these yummy bites. I’ve made several batches since, and trust me, they make an excellent breakfast!

Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

Summer here in southern BC is a veritable cornucopia of fresh, ripe berries of all kinds. Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and blackberries – all are plump and sweet from the summer sun. This Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake is easy to whip together and highlights the best of our summer fruit.

Cake: it's what's for breakfast. Yep, you heard me.

Since summer has arrived in full force, I’ve been a busy bee; buzzing from one activity to the next. As a result, my garden has been — shall we say — gently neglected. Oh who am I kidding? It is overgrown on the west side with blackberries. 10-foot tall raspberry canes as thick as a baby’s arm, with razor-sharp thorns just waiting to bleed any unsuspecting passers-by. The up side? The branches are so heavy with giant, glossy berries, they are practically laying on the ground. We love berries of all kinds, and this is my absolutely favourite coffee cake to make with fresh berries. Any berry will do – use whatever you have.

Prepare to inhale several slices of this raspberry goodness.

Click through for the recipe....

Red + White Recipes for Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day! That special day where we celebrate ourselves with fireworks, beer, barbecue, The Tragically Hip, and all thinks red & white.

Here is a round up of some of my red and white recipes. Wishing you have a safe and fun long weekend, from me, Handsome Rob, and Cooper!

Cooper wishes you a Happy Canada Day!

Wine Roasted Rhubarb & Strawberry Shortcake

Wine Roasted Rhubarb & Strawberry Shortcake

Red Velvet Cake

Red Velvet Cake

White Chocolate Cheesecake with Raspberry Vodka Sauce

White Chocolate Cheesecake with Raspberry Vodka Sauce

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie with Mascarpone Whipped Cream

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie with Mascarpone Whipped Cream

Sweet Cherry Tart with Port

Sweet Cherry Tart with Port

Raspberry Almond Thumbprint Cookies

Raspberry Almond Thumbprint Cookies

Red & White Recipes for Canada Day

A Very Dog-tastic Birthday Cake

A Very Dog-Tastic Birthday Cake

My sweet little boy turned one on Sunday! Yes, you are correct in assuming my sweet little boy is actually a big, drooling, furry, dog!

Here's Cooper when he was a wee pup:

Cooper as a wee puppy; only 6 weeks old.

As I am always making cakes for everyone in the family, I wanted to make one for Cooper. It had to be special; quality, dog-tummy-friendly ingredients, and still look somewhat birthday cake-ish. I think I was successful!

What's in a dog-tastic cake? Wild salmon, brown rice, free range egg, mashed potatoes, and greek yogurt. Drooling yet?

Coming up with ingredients wasn't that difficult. I pictured a meatloaf-type construction and went from there. I used canned wild salmon and mixed it with some cooked brown rice for a binder. Then I mixed in a free range egg. I divided the mixture into two 4" springform pans and baked them until set. The mashed potatoes are simply instant mashed (perfect for a frosting texture!) mixed with greek yogurt.

Oh please can I just eat it right now? Hurry and take the photo already!

I think he liked it.

Sluuuuurrrrpppp!

Want to make one for your pooch? Click through for the recipe...

Frozen Cocktail Pops

Frozen Cocktail Pops

Deliciously boozy cocktail pops will cool you off in no time

When the weather heats up and summer is in full swing, get ready to grab one of these icy, grown-up treats to cool down.

We tested 3 flavours: Coconut Cream Limoncello, Tequila Sunrise, and Gin + Tonic

Ah, summer! I'm a fan, for sure. I love lazing around in my backyard, pretending it's a tropical resort. You can bet I'll be lounging in my oversized sunglasses and maxi dress, clutching a colourful cocktail. And when the temperature rises, a frozen cocktail cools me off perfectly. The fact that it's on a stick is beautifully effortless. 

Frozen pop molds come in all shapes and sizes. The mold I use makes ten pops, using about three cups of liquid. These recipes have been designed to fill my mold; you may need to adjust the amounts to fill your mold. If you have liquid leftover, well consider that your bonus cocktail! Your mold may also have its own sticks, saving you from purchasing extra.

Click for all the recipes...

Healthy Edible "Candy" Bracelets

Make Your Own Healthy Edible Candy Bracelets!

A healthy, fun craft for kids!

Spring break is here! I remember my idyllic spring break days fondly. Since it was always raining, my afternoons were spent colouring, reading, staging fantastically melodramatic movies starring Barbie and her crew — it was a time of imagination and creativity. When imagination wore thin, Mom would break out some arts & crafts project that would occupy bored minds for a short time. Eventually, bored kids would drive our Mom to give up and we would embark upon a rare outing to the corner store, meagre allowances in hand. How exciting that was! My sister and I would chatter excitedly about what we would get — Mike & Ike’s, Bottle Caps, Pixy Stix, and Lik-m-aid Fun Dip were usually on our list. But the one we would ALWAYS run for first, was the Candy Necklace.

To this day, I can still see myself unwrapping the necklace from its crinkly cellophane package and jamming the necklace over my head. Usually hair got caught in-between the candies, but I didn’t care. I always tried to make it last forever. I would then go about my day with an elastic cord hanging out of my mouth, pink stains on my lips, until the necklace was gone. Later came other candy jewelry — bracelets and rings. 

There are endless patterns to create – and better for you than candy!

Candy jewelry is so much fun, but can you imagine how much sugar and food colouring they contain? With people cutting back on sugar and artificial everything these days, why not try a healthy, natural alternative? These Healthy Candy Bracelets are fun to make, and healthy, too! You need very few ingredients and tools. Smaller children may need assistance getting the needle through some of the tougher fruit, or help with scissors, but the delicious result will be worth it!

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

Mmmmm peanut butter everything!

Friends, I have a dilemma.

I absolutely LOVE peanut butter cookies. As a kid, my sister and I would make them all the time. They were so easy, required very few ingredients, and our mother would trust us to be able to make them with minimal supervision.

Fast forward sound effects to years later, and I met and married this wonderful dude who is my best friend and husband. He only has one teeny tiny flaw, though. He HATES the aroma of baking peanut butter cookies. I know, right?! Because of this, my enjoyment of peanut butter cookies is limited to those rare occasions when he's not at home.

Like recently! Yay, friends, peanut butter cookies! I didn't want to make the usual, I wanted to make over-the-top-peanut-butter-awesomeness-in-a-cookie. These are oatmeal peanut butter cookies, with chopped, roasted peanuts, peanut butter chips, and sandwiched around the creamiest, peanut-butteriest peanut butter frosting ever. I am dying over these, they are so good. I keep them in the freezer, and that makes them even better, if you can believe it.

Try one of these Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies – frozen! Wow!

Cheesy Dog Cookies

Cheesy homemade dog cookies — great for training or for gifting to your fur friends!

So you've made all these goodies for your family and friends; but what about your fur friends?

We recently welcomed a new addition to our house — a bouncing bundle of fur and teeth who requires A LOT of training. Like, a metric ton of training. And all that training requires a LOT of treats. Like a metric ton of treats!

Our bouncing bundle of shark puppy — he requires a lot of training!

I was not feeling great about buying treats from the store. I needed so many, and the decently-made cookies were expensive. The cheap ones? Who knows what's in those. Yuck. With these cheesy homemade dog cookies, at least I know exactly what's in them. And I can adjust the recipe slightly if a friend's pooch has any food allergies. And the best part? Dogs LOVE them!

Let me know in the comments if your pup loves them, too!

Rich Chocolate Fudge

Oh chocolate fudge, how I do love you. You are creamy. You are rich. You make me hide batches of you around the house so no one but me knows where you are. I am a squirrel in your presence.

No fudge here – move along.

We made fudge a lot when I was a kid. In fact, that original fudge recipe is on this blog, and you can find it here. It doesn't quite taste the same, however, because I think the manufacture of marshmallows has changed since then. When I stumbled upon this variation, I was ecstatic! This tastes exactly how I remember it from childhood! It really is very, very close to the original. I know you will love it, too.

A quick note about marshmallows — do not use old marshmallows, where the bag has been open for awhile. Trust me, freshly opened bags of marshmallows really do make a difference.

Rich Chocolate Fudge
Based on this recipe from Nestlé

Ingredients
3 cups white sugar
1 can evaporated milk
1/4 cup butter
4 cups miniature marshmallows
24 oz chopped bittersweet chocolate
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Method

1. Line two 8-inch-square baking pans with foil and set aside.
2. Combine sugar, evaporated milk, and butter in large saucepan. Bring to a full rolling boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil, stirring constantly, for 4 to 5 minutes. Time it! Remove from heat.
3. Stir  in marshmallows, chopped chocolate, and vanilla extract. Stir vigorously for 1 minute or until marshmallows are melted. Pour into prepared pans. Refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm. Lift from pan; remove foil. Cut into pieces. Store tightly covered in refrigerator.

Pecan Pie

Pecan Pie, a decadent, sugary circle of nutty goodness.

I am often asked to bring dessert to family dinners. This Christmas, I wanted to bring a touch of the south to dinner with a rich, decadent Pecan Pie. True to form, I ran out of time to make my own pastry, so for these pies I used purchased pie shells (gasp!) which is perfectly FINE if you are BUSY and working full time and running around and don't want to show up at dinner without dessert! Stop judging me! LOL

I spent a year of my teenage life in Mississippi, in what you would call the Deep South. I was a fish out of water, being a Canadian girl suddenly living in a small town where foreigners never visited. My family never quite fit in there, however, my mother and I embraced the cuisine of our new home wholeheartedly.

I have so many fond food memories, but Pecan Pie is one that stands out, especially around the holidays. I never had a pie made of nuts before — it seemed so weird! Put a slice of Pecan Pie in front of me, and I am transported back to that time. And don't forget a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

You beautiful, beautiful, pie.

Sparkling Cranberries

Sparkling Cranberries — a fun, festive way to present cranberries for the Christmas holidays!

I love cocktail parties! It’s so much fun getting dressed up and having your besties over for elegant appetizers, fun cocktails, and champagne, celebrating the holidays together. Between choosing the right outfit and decorating your space, you could easily get overwhelmed with too many complicated dishes. Why not make something simple, yet glittery and pretty, to serve at your next soiree?

A delicious way to use sparkling cranberries: a cranberry and brie appetizer... so easy!

These Sparkling Cranberry appetizers are beautiful, elegant, and tasty. The cranberries pop with sugar-coated tartness, enveloped by creamy brie. A basil leaf adds just a touch of savoury spiciness to balance the sweetness, and the tiny hint of raspberry jam holds it all together. Serve these with a glass of pink bubbles to complete the sparkle effect!

Click for the recipe…

Cream Cheese Mints

Gifts from the Kitchen

Give the gift that doesn't mints around... get it? See what I did there?

If you're stuck for a gift idea, these Cream Cheese Mints are super easy, quick to whip up and look incredibly pretty! Package them up in little jars, throw on a sparkly ribbon, and you have an almost-instant gift. And who doesn't like getting candy as a gift? (That's a hint, by the way).

Cream Cheese Mints
Based on this recipe from Kraft Canada
Makes 8-12 dozen tiny mints, depending upon the size you make them

Ingredients
1 pkg. (8 oz) Cream Cheese, softened
1 tsp. peppermint extract
5.5 cups icing sugar
Blue food colouring (I used AmeriColor gel)

Tools Required

Piping bag

Rosette piping tip

Method

1. Prepare 3 baking sheets by lining with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Beat cream cheese, peppermint extract, icing sugar and food colouring together until smooth.
3. Spoon mixture into piping bag and pipe little swirls onto the parchment paper. Let mints dry overnight, then package them into pretty jars, decorated with ribbon.

Lavender Gin & Tonic

Lavender Gin & Tonic: The perfect way to cool down on hot summer nights.

Ah, summer! It’s been hot, hot, hot here, with no rain or cool nights in sight. My perfect cocktail to cool down with is a Gin & Tonic.

Gin, gin, ginny gin gin :)

Did you know that June 13th was World Gin Day? I know – it sneaks up on me every year, too! I celebrated this auspicious day with some of my friends. We all brought a selection of gins, tonics, bitters, and other add-ins, and shared some cocktails, good food, and laughter.

My favourite Gin & Tonic of the evening was a Lavender Gin & Tonic, make with Lavender Simple Syrup and this gin from Ampersand Distilling Co. on Vancouver Island, BC. It would also be great with Bombay Sapphire gin. The tonic I used was Indian Tonic from Fever Tree. The lavender really brought out the floral and citrus botanicals in the gin.

Try this Gin & Tonic and let me know what you think – if you come up with something interesting, post it in the comments. Enjoy!

Lavender Gin & Tonic

Makes 1 Cocktail

Ingredients

• 2 oz. Lavender Simple Syrup (recipe here)
• 1 oz. Gin
• Tonic water
• Ice cubes
• Blueberries and sprigs of lavender for garnish

Directions

1. Pour syrup into an old-fashioned glass. Add gin, and stir until combined. Add ice cubes and top with tonic water. Garnish with a lavender sprig and blueberries. Enjoy!

Lavender Simple Syrup

Lavender Simple Syrup – add it to your cocktail and instantly up the class factor!

Simple syrup’s name does not lie: it is very, very simple to make. Add lavender, and this sweet syrup becomes something amazing. The syrup becomes this rich, rosy colour. It tastes like sweet, herbaceous and floral, but not bitter and perfumey.

You can add this Lavender Syrup to cocktails, lemonade, iced tea – whatever your imagination can dream into being. I made a refreshing cocktail for my friends – a Gin & Tonic with Lavender Syrup.

I hope you come up with some interesting uses for this syrup. Post your creations in the comments!

Lavender Simple Syrup

Makes about 1 cup of syrup
Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons dried lavender flowers

Directions

1. Bring water and lavender to a boil in a medium-sized saucepan. Stir in sugar until dissolved. Reduce heat to medium low, and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand for another 10 minutes to cool slightly.
2. Strain syrup to remove blossoms.

Syrup can be stored in the refrigerator for up to one week. Enjoy!

Lavender Panna Cotta with Blueberry Riesling Sauce

On a recent trip through Okanagan wine country in central British Columbia, I was sitting in the pretty flower garden at Peachcliff B&B, enjoying the scents of lavender and roses. As I sipped the crisp local white wine, I was inspired by the aromas and the countryside to create this unique dessert. Lavender had been in the forefront of my mind anyway, and I was lucky to be in the area just as it started to bloom.

At first I thought, "Will this taste like hand lotion?" The answer? It doesn't! Lavender adds a slightly herbaceous, almost fruity flavour, with a very faint, flowery note. I also made Lavender Syrup from the flowers (recipe here).

This decadent dessert is not overly sweet, so it pairs wonderfully with a slightly sweet white wine that has great acidity, like this botrytis-affected Riesling from Wild Goose Vineyards in Okanagan Falls, BC.  

I hope you try this decadent, creamy treat, and that it evokes images of wine country for you as well.






Click through for recipe and instructions...

No Bake White Chocolate Cheesecake with Raspberry Vodka Sauce for Father’s Day

I once again volunteered to bring dessert to the family get-together. This time, it was a potluck BBQ for Father’s Day. My Father-in-law’s favourite dessert is cheesecake (psst it’s mine, too), so I knew I would be making one. Since we have been having unseasonable hot weather here, I thought I would whip up a no-bake cheesecake to bring. “I love having the oven on for hours during hot weather,” said no one ever.

This cheesecake is simple and quick to throw together. The sauce is to die for, with intense raspberry flavour. It’s worth the extra elbow grease to strain out the seeds, pressing the mixture through a sieve to get the tasty pulp along with the juice. Why add vodka? You can certainly leave it out, but the alcohol is cooked away. The vodka adds a rich body to the sauce, giving it a buttery mouth feel without adding butter. I wouldn’t use flavoured vodka, as the bright acidity of the raspberries would be lost.

Click through for recipe and instructions...

Angel Food French Toast with Mascarpone Cream and Raspberries

Yup, it's french toast. Made with cake.

I made french toast with angel food cake.

Yes, my dears, you read that correctly! We have been on a little french toast kick lately. We have tried different breads, thicknesses, egg-to-milk ratios, toppings and the like. I got this idea – the angel food cake idea – from an older issue of Bon Appetit magazine. What a great resource! Their suggestion: substitute sliced angel food cake for bread in your favourite french toast recipe. My eyes glazed over and after I finally retrieved my chin from the floor, I had made a decision. Challenge accepted!

I find angel food cake to be very sweet. While I was sure the egg dip would tone that down a little, I wanted to offset that sugar-hit with the tartness of fresh raspberries, and the tang of creamed mascarpone cheese. I also made raspberry sauce (my sis-in-law calls me the Saucy Saucier, because sauce is awesome, and should be consumed in mass quantities).

The night before my experiment, I baked up an angel food cake. I left it to cool overnight on the kitchen counter, and to dry it out a little as well. OK, OK, you caught me. I forgot about it and went to bed. In spite of my neglect, the resulting cake was just a teensy bit dried out – perfect for soaking up some lightly-beaten eggs mixed with a bit of milk.

The result? Angel food french toast, served with a dollop of mascarpone cream, fresh raspberries and drizzled with raspberry sauce was a little bit of heaven. Dessert for brunch, if you will. I think this would also make a great dessert after a fancy brunch. The toast is very delicate and sweet, and soaks up the raspberries and cream like a dream. 

Mmmm deliciously messy

I ended up with some leftover cake, and you probably will as well. Store it in an airtight container in your fridge, and get creative with some layered desserts!

Golden brown goodness!

Click through for recipe and instructions

Raspberry Greek Yogurt Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Buttercream

Raspberry Greek Yogurt Layer Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Buttercream

One fun benefit of belonging to a large family is plenty of birthdays. Each birthday means another birthday cake, of course! We recently attended a party for my Mom-in-law's birthday, and for her celebration, I wanted to try something special. This Raspberry Greek Yogurt Cake fit the bill perfectly.

It has fruit in it so it's healthy, right? Right? Hello?

This cake is very moist, and the fresh raspberries add bright flavour. The recipe below makes four layers, but I only used three for the cake. Yup, that left one layer leftover for me! 

Happy birthday to a special lady! Photo by Marlee O.

Because this was a birthday cake for a special lady, I made lots of frosting so I could make the cake look extra special. To make a regular, two-layer cake, simply halve the recipe below and use only the Lemon Cream Cheese Buttercream.

The yogurt makes this cake moist and rich.

Click through for the recipe and instructions.

Soft Chewy Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies

Soft, chewy, Oatmeal Cranberries Cookies go well with a cup of tea!

My favourite cookie in the whole, wide, wonderful world is the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie. I love the soft, chewy texture and the rich bursts of sweetness from the raisins. In my opinion, they must always be enjoyed with a cup of tea. Unfortunately, my family does not share my high opinion of these cookies. This is a typical exchange: "What are you baking? It smells great!" "Oatmeal raisin cookies," I smile. "Yuck!" is the usual reply.

It's time for tea!

As a result of my family's raisin revulsion, I rarely have them in the house. When I get a craving for oatmeal raisin, I am usually out of luck. This time, I decided to try dried cranberries as a substitute. Guess what happened? I loved them! They are even better than raisins, in my opinion. The tart cranberries are a bright counterpoint to the rich butter and brown sugar cookie base. Now I have a new favourite!

Click through for the recipe and instructions

Orange & White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Orange & White Chocolate Chip Cookies taste exactly like a Creamsicle!

As winter marches on, I have found myself drifting off to my “happy place” more and more often. You know the place; sunshine, sandy beach, nothing to do but splash around in the water. Summers spent lakeside. Walking to the general store in flip flops – I could feel the heat of the pavement through the thin rubber of my shoes. At the store, I slid back the misted glass of the freezer, full of frozen delight. Which one to choose? I usually chose the creamsicle; not quite ice cream, not quite popsicle. Tart, creamy, and sweet. Orange and milk doesn’t seem like it should mix well, but here, it came together and somehow it just worked. Clutching my frozen treasure, I slapped my sticky stack of quarters on the counter and immediately ripped off the paper wrapping. Outside, not ten steps later, the treat already melted down my arm. The last bites were almost liquid, dripping down my chin in a fluorescent orange line, flavoured every so slightly with the woody tang of the stick. What did it matter if it was messy? Another jump in the lake soon washed away any dinner-ruining evidence.

The creamsicle flavour strongly evokes summer for me so much, that one bite of these Orange and White Chocolate Cookies immediately took me back to that sunny lakeside, full of laziness and fun.

What memory takes you back to summer?

Try freezing the cookies before eating — deloosh!

Click through for the recipe & instructions…