Crumbly Lime Meltaways

Lime Meltaways are simple crumbly cookies that have a fresh citrus taste and are sure to be the perfect treat to bring to a Summer BBQ or Picnic.

When I make Lime Meltaways, I can't help but remember family beach trips during my childhood. Often times my mom would pack Meltaways for a snack on the beach, and they always hit the spot and satisfied my tiny little taste buds. I just can't wait for my first beach day of the Summer!

The recipe I used was from Martha Stewart's Cookies Cookbook.
Lime Meltaways

1 1/2 Sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
Finely grated zest of 2 limes
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt

1. Mix butter and confectioners' sugar in bowl of electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy.
2. Add lime juice, zest, and vanilla, and mix until fluffy
3. Whisk together flour, cornstarch, and salt in a bowl. Add to butter mixture, and mix on low speed just until combined. Be sure not to over mix.
4. Divide dough in half. Place half dough on parchment paper, roll to form a log 1 1/4 inch diameter. Repeat with other half. Refrigerate until cold and firm, at least 1 hour. 5. Preheat oven to 350F. Remove parchment from logs; cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Bake cookies until barely golden, about 13 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through.
6. When done, cool slightly 8 to 10 minutes.
7. While still warm, gently toss cookies with confectioners' sugar in a resealable plastic bag.

Cinnamon & Sugar Mini Cupcakes

My favorite breakfast growing up was simple... cinnamon and sugar toast. I loved the dark spicy taste of cinnamon combined with sweet sugar.

I distinctly remember one morning when the simple toast was off just a tad. With toast in hand, I took a big bite, chewed, and swallowed. Still groggy from just waking up, I hesitated to take another bite... there was something wrong with my beloved breakfast. I took another bite and quickly spit it out. Then, my mom smelled the toast and laughed, she could tell it wasn't cinnamon. So just what was the brown spice she used??? Celery Salt!! We still laugh about this and I learned the hard way to always double check the label!

After slaving away making the ladybug cookies, I had a hankering to bake something simple and sweet and the cinnamon and sugar mini cupcakes - a recipe that reminded me of my favorite childhood breakfast - was just the ticket!


Cinnamon and Sugar Mini Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon grated or ground nutmeg
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temp.
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk (any fat content)

Topping
5 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg.
3. In a bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter for a minute. Add sugar and beat on medium until pale and fluffy.
4. Beat in egg and vanilla, mixing until smooth and thick.
5. With the mixer on low speed, alternate adding the flour mixture and milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix until incorporated.6. Spray a mini cupcake pan with nonstick cooking spray. Scoop batter into mini cupcake pan. No need to use paper liners.
Bake roughly 10 minutes or until tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Once cupcakes have cooled, transfer to a cooling rack.

Now the best part... the topping! Melt the butter in a small bowl. In another bowl combine the sugar and cinnamon. One at a time, dunk a cupcake in the bowl of butter, then in the bowl of cinnamon and sugar.

Lucky Ladybug Sugar Cookies

For a loooong time I loved making cupcakes. Actually, for several years the only thing I ever baked were cupcakes, however I just received Martha Stewart's Cookies Cookbook and now I'm all about cookies, especially sugar cookies. So, now that the semester is over and I have extra time, I couldn't help but bake some fun ladybug cookies.

How could you not love ladybugs... they are the sign of luck and love!

Sugar Cookie Cutouts
From Martha Stewart
4 cups sifted all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Royal Icing
1 lbs. confectioners' sugar, sifted
5 tablespoons meringue powder
Scant 1/2 cup water
1. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into bowl
2. Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Gradually mix in flour mixture.
3. Divide dough in half; form into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hrs or overnight
4. Preheat oven 325F
5. Roll out one disk of dough on a lightly floured work surface to just under 1/4 inch thick. Cut out cookies, and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Chill cookies in freezer until very firm, 15 minutes.
6. Cook, rotating halfway through, until edges are golden, 15 to 18 minutes.
7. Let cool completely.

While cooling, make Royal Icing.
1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until smooth, about 7 minutes. If icing is too thick, add more water; if too thin, beat icing 2 to 3 minutes more or add more confectioners' sugar a tablespoon at a time. To keep the icing from hardening, place a wet paper towel over the bowl.

Cakey Chocolate Chip Cookies

On this rainy day, I am, ironically, headed to a BBQ, and while most people bring chips and beer to a BBQ, I'm bringing chocolate chip cookies. But these cookies aren't your average crunchy, crumbly chocolate chip cookies, instead the cookies are moist and cakey. When I say cakey, I mean cakey... adding less butter and brown sugar to the dough changed the texture to become fluffier and thicker. This won't become your go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe, buuuut if you ever get tired of your go-to recipe this is a nice change.

Cakey Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons (1 3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon coarse salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs2 cups semisweet or milk chocolate chips

1. Pre heat oven to 350F. Whisk together flour and baking soda in a bowl.
2. Put butter and both sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add salt, vanilla, and eggs; mix until combined, about 1 minute. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips
3. Drop heaping tableshopps of dough onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake cookies until centers are set and edges are golden, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through.
4. Let cool, then devour!

Marbled Cupcakes

Marbled Cupcakes
From Martha Stewart

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising) sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup milk, room temperature
1/3 cup heavy cream, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/4 cup boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Stir together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Combine milk and cream.
2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and granulated sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk mixture, and beating until combined.
3. To make chocolate batter, measure out 1 cup batter, and transfer to another bowl. Combine cocoa and the boiling water in a bowl. Stir into reserved 1 cup batter.
4. Fill prepared cups with alternating spoonfuls of vanilla and chocolate batter, filling each three-quarters full. Run the tip of a paring knife or wooden skewer through batter in a figure-eight motion to make swirls. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until tops are golden and a cake tester (i.e. toothpick) inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

Milk Glaze

1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted (or more)
3 tablespoons milk
1. Whisk together ingredients until smooth.
2. When cupcakes are at room temperature, drizzle milk glaze for an extra sweet taste.

Instead of milk glaze, use confectioners' sugar

Strawberry Picking

As a child, every June my family would take a trip out to the country to go Strawberry picking. I can vividly remember the huge strawberry balloon that hovered in the sky high above the farm, the root beer floats and hot dogs we would get from Stewart's Drive-In, and the rock candy treats from an old candy store. But mostly I remember squatting down next to my mom, watching her add strawberries to our box, while sticky fingers and all, I ate the strawberries.

When the sun finally decided to shine on Eastern Massachusetts, I went to Connor's Farm in Danvers to go strawberry picking. I left Connor's Farm with a box of strawberries and with those strawberries I decided to make Martha Stewart's Strawberry Cake.  

Strawberry Cake.

 
Makes One 10-inch cake

6 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, softened, plus some for pie dish
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Strawberries hulled and halved... the more the merrier!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 10-inch pie plate. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together into a medium bowl.

Put butter and 1 cup sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low; mix in egg, milk, and vanilla.
Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture. Transfer batter to buttered pie plate. Arrange strawberries on top of batter, cut sides down and as close together as possible. **** Don't be scared to load up on Strawberries! 

Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over berries
Bake cake 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake until cake is golden brown and firm to the touch, about 1 hour. *** At first I didn't think it would take an hour to cook but that's really what it takes.
Let cool in pie plate on a wire rack. Cut into wedges. Cake can be stored at room temperature, loosely covered, up to 2 days.

A lazy sunday morning

s Sprinkles Dark Chocolate Cupcake mix with Spatula from Fiesta Products

Every lazy Sunday morning needs a lazy activity. You know, an activity you can do quickly with very little effort...enter Sprinkles cupcake mix! Available at Williams-Sonoma, Sprinkles cupcake mix is created by Sprinkles, the beloved cupcake shop started in Beverly Hills. The mix comes in a variety of flavors and inside each package are the signature confectioners' "dots" that finish Sprinkles cupcakes. I used the chocolate mix for my lazy activity!

Polka Dot Mixing bowl from Fishs Eddy.

The mix is packaged in a little tube and comes with instructions that are just a tad bit more elaborate than what you'd find on a Pillsbury cake mix box. For the ingredients you will need: butter, eggs, and milk. Then simply mix and bake!