Funfetti Cupcakes

Funfetti Cupcakes are a moist, delicious, and colorful way to relive a childhood favorite.  Whip up a batch of these to celebrate a birthday, or anytime you want a fun and festive dessert!  

Lemon Coconut Cookies

Lemon Coconut Cookies are an elegant, melt-in-your mouth treat combining the tartness of fresh citrus with the sweetness of coconut.  

Homemade Easter Marshmallows (DIY Peeps)

Homemade Easter Marshmallows (DIY Peeps) have a soft, airy, cloud-like texture.  These marshmallow candies are flavored with honey and almond to provide a depth of flavor not typically found in commercially made marshmallows. 

Coconut Macaroon Birds' Nests

Coconut Macaroon Birds' Nests feature a delicious combination of coconut, salted caramel, and malted milk eggs.  With the whimsical resemblance to a bird's nest, these little cookies are sure to delight guests at your next spring gathering!

Super Simple St. Patrick's Day Cookies

When you're short on time but still want to whip up a festive dessert, these Super Simple St. Patrick's Day cookies are just the answer.  Start with a basic sugar cookie dough, grab some fun cookie cutters, and add the sprinkles directly to the cookies.  By omitting the royal icing, you'll save yourself hours of decorating and drying time!

Triple Chocolate Muffins (just in time for Valentine's Day!)

Triple Chocolate Muffins have a rich chocolate crumb and plenty of chocolate chips.  For extra fun, add in a generous handful of white chocolate chips.  These muffins are so decadent that you won't miss the eggs.

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Eggnog Frosting

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Eggnog Frosting provide a delightful flavor combination for the winter holidays.  Eggnog is used in both the cupcake batter and the frosting, creating a wonderfully spiced confection.  

Pumpkin-Peach Rugelach

Pumpkin-Peach Rugelach have a delicate cream cheese pastry wrapped around a sweet filling made with pumpkin, peach preserves, walnuts, and plenty of cinnamon.  These little cookies are easy on the eyes, and easy to make, too.

Last-Minute Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes

 

It happens to all of us: we plan a decadent, impressive dessert to serve at a special meal.  And despite our best efforts, something goes awry along the way.  Egg whites won't whip into a meringue.  The cake doesn't rise.  The souffle falls.  Or, in my experience, the pie crust simply won't cooperate.  And yet, you still need to serve some type of dessert.  You need a Plan B.

Herbed Cranberry Cornmeal Biscuits

  

Herbed Cranberry Cornmeal Biscuits are flaky and buttery, with the perfect balance of tangy cranberries and savory thyme.  These tender biscuits would be a welcome addition to your Thanksgiving table, or any meal!    

Cranberry Apple Cake with White Chocolate Glaze

Cranberry Apple Cake with White Chocolate Glaze is a celebration of the season: warm apples and cinnamon are combined with the bright and vibrant flavors of orange and cranberry.  The result is a simple cake that can be served for breakfast, or as the finale to a fall feast.  

Garlicky Ghost Pizza

Given that it's November 8th, it's probably too late to post this Garlicky Ghost Pizza.  However, it made for such a cute (and tasty!) dinner that I just couldn't resist.  

Purple People Eater Cupcakes

"It was a one-eyed, one-horned flyin' purple people eater..."

Purple People Eater Cupcakes have a classic chocolate cupcake topped with a coconut oil frosting that resembles monster fur.  Decorate these sweets with an edible eye, a candy corn horn, and a pair of wings.  Just like Sheb Wooley's 1950s hit song, these little treats are more cute than they are creepy!   

Candy Corn Granola Squares

Candy Corn Granola Squares are a chewy bar cookie filled with peanut butter, mini chocolate chips, and plenty of candy corn.  This no-bake treat is surprisingly hearty, and comes together in a matter of minutes.

Oreo Cookie Halloween Fudge

Oreo Cookie Fudge is the perfect recipe for any Halloween party.  It's a quick and easy no-bake treat that is sure to delight young and old.  Use special-edition Halloween Oreos to achieve the bright orange color.  

For years and years, I feared candy making.  Every time I found a candy recipe that I wanted to try, the instructions would be filled with unfamiliar and intimidating candy-making terminology: hard crack, soft crack, hard ball (with Chris Matthews?), firm ball, soft ball (that's a sport, right?).  For years and years, I also didn't own a candy thermometer.  Whenever I tried a candy recipe, I'd be forced to "guess" whether my candy had reached the right temperature.  As I'm sure you can imagine, I've made some pretty terrible candy.

Chinese Moon Festival (Jasmine Lychee Sorbet)

Today is the Chinese Moon Festival, one of my favorite days of the year.  The Moon Festival -- or Mid-Autumn Festival, as some call it -- celebrates the autumn harvest and is typically observed when the moon is the fullest.  


I'm Chinese on my mother's side, and I always look forward to the traditions surrounding this holiday.  Mostly, I love savoring tiny slivers of mooncake -- a dense pastry filled with a sweet filling (I prefer red bean or lotus paste) and a salted dried egg yolk.  The dark filling represents the night sky, and the egg yolk represents the moon.  The salty-sweet flavor of mooncake is definitely an acquired taste, and one that I've come to love.   

Birthday Cake Truffle Recipe (inspired by Momofuku Milk Bar)

I have a confession: Although I have lived in the greater New York area for five years, I haven't been to any of David Chang's ten NYC restaurants.  Not to Noddle Bar, or Ssäm Bar,  or Ko, or Má Pêche or even any of the Milk Bar locations.  For someone who claims to love food, that's a pretty terrible record. 

However, I have had the chance to enjoy a famous B'Day Cake Truffle from Momofuku Milk Bar.  The truffles are small treats no larger than the size of a donut hole.  But one bite was enough to convince me that I shouldn't wait much longer before making a dedicated trip to Milk Bar.     

Until I make that long-awaited trip, I thought I would try whipping up a batch of birthday cake truffles at home.  Luckily, a few other bloggers had already done some research into this very topic.  I found the recipe for the cake and cake crumbs on The Baker Chick, and my process for making the truffles is very similar to the one shared by Bake Like a New Yorker.  I made a few adaptations, such as adding oreo cream and decreasing the amount of cream cheese.  I also substituted rainbow nonpareils for the regular rainbow sprinkles.  It was a minor change that had a pleasant result: when I added the nonpareils, the batter turned a delightful shade of light pink.    

Basic Sugar Cookie Recipe

After making my very first batch of sugar cookies earlier this summer, I've rolled, cut, baked, and decorated about 350 sugar cookies.  Wow- that's a lot of cookies!  I still feel like a rookie when it comes to decorating sugar cookies, but I feel like I could bake them in my sleep. I've learned that, like many things, cookie making is all a matter of practice.