I am of course, always last minute.

I did not decide on a cake until last night and that meant my friends scrambled to the store to pick me up chocolate bunnies and cake mix. I ended up venturing into the front yard pulling up various flowers while looking like a maniac in my skull cap. I am sure the neighbor's kids were traumatized by my appearance. But those flowers coupled with the ones I picked up from the store were perfect for a simple Easter table.


Nothing fancy here, just a cool table that cost me all of $15. We had a great dinner my mom made and the kids enjoyed their egg hunt. Each prepared an Easter lesson for us for the REAL reason for the day.

Frost your cupcakes and then top with the crushed cookies. Then firmly place a 'carrot' into the center.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I just finished this cake for my son, Austin. He might think it sucks that his birthday is on Thanksgiving but I for one and super thankful for him, so it seems only fitting.

I made this cake for him. Chocolate overload surrounded by pocky and topped with his favorite---Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  Recipe coming this weekend!

Being a mom of four, easy is what I live for. I like making desserts but I am far from a baker. I like creative desserts that are not only good but that I can put together with little time. These dessert shooters are so quick to make and so many combinations can be made.



For these, I used chocolate cake, layered with Philadelphia Cheesecake filling and topped with freshly made chocolate ganache and toffee popcorn.  They were mini versions of this cake I made not too long ago. Ohhhhhweeeeeee they were good. Just the right amount of sinfully sweetness in a tall shot glass.

I love making cakes but I cannot bake. I have never made my own cake mix from scratch. Now, my mom....she throws down on homemade cakes.  One of these days, I will try my hand at baking a cake from scratch. Memorial Day was just not the day to start.

What I like about making cakes is that the possibilities in decorating and taste are endless. While I may not be a master piper or be able to make fondant toppers, I like using common things to make cakes look kinda cute, funky, different.

I saw a cake on pinterest of a peanut butter cake topped with caramel popcorn. I was like, whoah. Yes.

This cake is not one that comes with a recipe, it is just an idea...something that you can easily recreate at home and believe me, although it looks less than the way I wanted it to look, it did not make it past an hour of cutting into it. Everyone LOVED it.




The filling is premade Philadelphia Cream Cheese Cheesecake Filling. The topping is a fresh ganace I made.

For the ganache, 1/2 cup of heavy cream with  1 cup chocolate chips...slowly melt on low heat until smooth in a double boiler. I did not have a double boiler so the pyrex measuring cup over a boiler worked just fine for me.

Yeah, any excuse to eat ice cream is a good one, right?

So the weather is nice, the sun is shining bright and bold and my kids need a treat. I do what any other mom would do....I head to pinterest.com and eye photo after photo for some ice creamy inspiration. I found it...boy did I find it. I saw a photo of an ice cream cake that took me all the way back to the late 80s when my fifth grade (highly fashionable with my lopsided ponytails) self knew what it meant to be cool and have the coolest birthday party. You could not be cool and awesome without an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. So there it was. My inspiration and what I would make. Nevermind I had never made one before. Who cares about that? You gotta try.

I tried it and I loved it. Man, oh man, did I love it. The kids loved it and my friends loved it. Let's just say, last year was the Year of the Popsicles but this summer will be the Year of the Ice Cream Cake.

While it is not perfect, my first attempt....Death By Chocolate and Peanut Butter...

If you are like me, the children always get tons of candy at Easter. The day and week after, we still have so much left. Sometimes I end up throwing it away because they become a ball of melted chocolatey mess.  This year I decided to try something different...why not milkshakes. You can always freeze the candy for milkshakes later or why not serve these easy milkshakes to family and friends on Easter!

Check out my recipe and so much more, including Easter and holiday printables and crafts over at Living Locurto!

During the cold holiday months, I keep stock of hot cocoa mix. Year after year, my cabinets are filled with the premade boxes for hot chocolate.  My kids run through them like air. I mean, easy enough, right? Buy a box of packets, kids can microwave their drinks. Yeah, easy peasy. But what is even easier and more economical is making a huge batch of your own mix. Besides, everything tastes better when it is made by you!  

So there I was in the grocery store about to toss 4 boxes of hot cocoa mix in the basket when I remembered, heck, I have sugar, I have chocolate, I have cocoa. Literally, I had some kind of mommy-culinary-I-am-going-to-save-money epiphany. I put the boxed packets back on the shelf and put in a box of dry milk instead.

When I got home, it took all of a couple minutes to mix up enough hot cocoa mix to last us two weeks...and that is with 4 kids! I used a variation of a recipe from the Brown Eyed Baker. Seriously, it gets no easier and I like to think I saved a few bucks in the long run. I mean dude, a lil bit of unsweetened coco goes a long way!


You will need:

3 cups nonfat dry milk powder
2 cups powdered sugar
1½ cups cocoa powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1½ cups chocolate chips (I used mini chocolate bars...the kids loved that)

I mixed the dry ingredients in a bowl and placed in an airtight container (mason jars, here). I keep the mini chocolate bars in the pantry so that when I am ready to make the cocoa, I give a bar or two to the kids and let it melt and stir in their cocoa.  When you are ready to make it, just add some hot water, add in and stir your chocolate and yum!!

For the s'mores hot cocoa, I made the hot cocoa, topped the oven safe cups with a heap of marshmallows, then placed in the oven with it on broil until they browned. I topped with crushed graham crackers, a graham cracker and chocolate bar with a little of chocolate syrup drizzle. Yes, please.

I was wondering where all the new visitors and pins were coming from. Thank you to Jessica over at Swanky Recipes for including my chocolate milkshakes in her holiday drink round up. Now, I seriously have a taste for chocolate.

*As Jessica said, add red and green sprinkles for a festive flair!

Growing up I loved anything that had peanut butter in it.  My father, a doctor, had his practice right across the street from a convenience store that sold lots of peanut butter candies for a nickle each.  Atkinson's Peanut Butter bars, why of course. I usually bought plenty. Chico sticks, peanut butter cups and of course whatchamacallits.