Recipe: Baked Pumpkin Spice Donuts

It's Fall which means I'm in a pumpkin recipe rampage and I decided to make this yummy recipe for baked pumpkin donuts from Cheeky Kitchen. I love pumpkin (you'll see from the next couple recipe's I'll be posting) and have a donut baking mold from Sur La Table so it was calling out to me to make them. 

They smell and taste amazing, aren't difficult to make and are fun to put together. I used a piping bag to fill the molds with the dough and used to forks to easily dip the donuts top down into the glaze. Who doesn't love donuts? Get the recipe after the jump.

Sparkling Jasmine Tea + Cake

For my birthday last month my husband bought me this bottle of Golden Star White Jasmine Sparkling Tea I'd had my eye one. I love jasmine tea and when I saw that there was such a thing as sparkling tea in my favorite flavor I had to try it. It was the perfect bubbly to celebrate my birthday with! It's a great alternative to alcohol, it has a smooth floral taste with the right amount of carbonation. It'd be great to serve with dessert or during a cocktail hour at an event. I definitely recommend it if you love tea and bubbly. I had it on a picnic at the beach with a delicious deli sandwich. Sweet memories.

Make it a pretty party

{Sweet Lulu images via Hostess with the Mostess}

If you were inspired by my last post (and this one too} and want to get your hands on cute dessert table decor visit Sweet Lulu & Bake It Pretty to make all your sweet party detail dreams come true. Everything you could think of to pretty up your confections and your space, these shops have it all!  A girl could really loose it and go on a spending spree. So the next time you're looking for those pretty striped straws, fancy cupcake wrappers or cute little treat bags you'll know where to find them!

{Pretty baking kits via Bake It Pretty}

Valentine's Day Dessert Tables

Get ready to have an aching in your sweet tooth!

 ***

I love Valentine's Day because I love hearts, the colors pink, red & white, desserts {and any sweet treat for that matter} and LOVE! I'm a sucker for dessert tables decorated Oh, so cute like with darling cake stands, jars and pedestals dripping with candy and pastries in coordinating colors. If you're looking to set up a dessert table of your own for you and your sweetheart {or little baby sweethearts} here are some {along with yummy dessert ideas} in my favorite colors to get inspired!

I like the simplicity of all the white with red accents and how the florals make this table.

{Images via Green Wedding Shoes styling by The Special Day}

{Rosette cupcakes via Flutterby Cakes}

These are so pretty it'd hurt to bite in to them...almost.

Red & White stripes + Milk glass= ♥

{Images via Green Wedding Shoes styling by Punch}

{Cake via Sweetapolita}

Okay, I know this cake is huge but I just had to include it, it's amazing!! I'm in love with stripes so you'll notice a lot of them in this post :) Including in the trimming of this cake that is just like twine, so adorable. And the pretty flowers are done like fabric rosettes. Swoon.

{Images via Hostess with the Mostess styled by Anders Ruff Custom Designs}

Super cute ideas for kids with lots of pink and little hearts.

It's an extra treat if their birthday is on Valentine's.

 {Treats via Hosstes with the Mostess styled by Sharnel Dollar Designs}

{Red velvet cake balls via The Velveteen Baker}

{Mini baked donuts via My Baking Addiction}

{Ice cream cone cake pops via Bakerella}

Hope your Monday is off to a sweet start ♥

Valentine's Tablescape Inspiration

I'm such a sucker for tablescapes. There are so many different styles, themes and colors palette possibilities! But one of my favorites are the super girly, glittery, pink ones of course. Here is one done by Sitting in a Tree Events {their work is amazing} for Valentine's Day. It's gorgeous!

{Images via Grey Likes Weddings/ Photography by Joielala}

     *What kind of yummy treats do you plan on making for the lovey-dovey day? 

{Image via Annie's Eats}

 I have my eye set on this yummy neapolitan creation.

Recipe: Cake Mix Whoopie Pies

This super easy recipe is from GroupRecipe. Requires little time to throw together and totally fool proof since you make it from a box. Whoopie pies are becoming the new cupcake and I kind of like it! Maybe because they look like jumbo macarons. There are so many different flavors and combinations to try. I made mine with double fudge cake, it had bits of fudge in the mix, it was pretty good. I liked this filling but I think there's room for improvement. Overall this specific combination tasted exactly like an ice cream sandwich. I'll have to try a whoopie pie/cookie recipe from scratch, I'm thinking gingerbread or red velvet...

Color Palette: French Pastry Themed Nursery

 I designed this color palette for my dear friend Sydney who is pregnant and planning to style her nursery themed after French pastries. Delicious idea, I know! Lucky girl got to study abroad in France, so she's tasted first-hand all the treats that serve as her inspiration.  I couldn't help but base it off of this pretty watercolor that I had in my Tumblr archive, and that she also had picked out. Can't wait to see the end result!

Forever Marie Antoinette

Image courtesy of 100 Layer Cake

Image via Wedding Chicks

Image via Cake Coquette

Just thought I'd add some ridiculously delicious Marie Antoinette pastry inspiration to this day. I will never get tired of these screen shots! I'd be pretty much the happiest girl ever if I could spend the rest of my life styling amazing dessert tables like these...

Recipe: Double Chocolate Birthday Cake

I made a delicious double chocolate cake for my husband's birthday. I had read great reviews for this recipe and decided to find out if it was all it was talked up to be. And let me tell you, it was! Really chocolatey, dense, super moist...delicious. The blurry picture of the slice does it no justice at all. I topped the cake with fresh berries as well as white chocolate dipped strawberries. Get the cake recipe here. In case you get to the recipe and are wondering about using two 9 inch pans instead of 10 inch, it's ok to do so because I used 9 inch pans and the cake didn't over flow. I also made boston cream pie cupcakes from this recipe. The recipe for the cupcake filling made a lot more than I actually needed so I used the leftover to serve with the cake and everyone loved it. Hope you make this cake next time there's a birthday or just in the mood for a great chocolate cake.

{A very delicious birthday}

Yesterday was my 25th birthday. I woke me up to the smell of gardenias that my husband had scattered through out our room. And I got to spend the day doing some of my favorite things. I decided to try my hand at eclairs, something I haven't made before. And I have to say they turned out delicious! Homemade is always better than store bought. I found a pretty simple recipe and got to it, I was surprised by how easy they are to make. I'll definitely be making these again. While the husband made one of my favorite desserts as my birthday cake, pavlova. I just love being in the kitchen with family. 

You can find the eclair recipe here and the pavlova recipe here.

{Oh, so sweet: Peach Cupcakes}

It's crazy how much I love a deliciously ripe, fragrant summer peach...or 5. I seriously could eat them all day long, all Summer long. So I was thrilled when I stumbled upon this delicious peach cupcake recipe at Smitten Kitchen. You just have to make these! They're like mini peach cobblers topped with an amazing brown sugar cream cheese frosting {that I and the rest of my family fell in love with} I'll spare you and won't even tell you how many I ate. The recipe makes 2 dozen plump cupcakes, enough to share with friends and neighbors.

P.S: In case you don't have cake flour for this recipe you can substitute all-purpose flour by using the following equivalent. For every 1 cup cake flour you need use 1 cup minus 2 Tbl sifted all-purpose flour.