Then we add tons of flavor: sesame oil, red pepper flakes, brown sugar, garlic, lime juice, lime zest, soy sauce and fresh ginger.  Instead of pine nuts in an Italian pesto, we’re tossing peanuts in this one.

Pop everything except for the soy sauce in a food processor

And process it until it looks like a pesto, fairly smooth but with pieces of cilantro and peanuts still.  Add in a little soy sauce at the end.

That’s it folks.  Toss that pesto with hot pasta; sprinkle it with a little chopped peanuts and cilantro and you’re good to go.  I like a little fresh squeeze of lime juice too.  The pesto itself it super yummy over grilled steak too.

 The flavors are so fantastic; it’s like you can taste every little ingredient in there; the sweetness of the sugar and ginger, a hint of spice from the pepper flakes, the roasted crunch of the peanuts and a little freshness and tang from the lime juice and cilantro.  Try it; you’ll love it!

PS- One tip I have is to serve it immediately.  As with many pasta dishes, the longer it sits, the pasta absorbs the sauce and the flavors mellow.  Leftovers still taste great, but the fresher the better.

How To: Cook the Perfect Steak
(of if you’re in the mood for something else, click here for our famous BBQ Ribs, or here for some of the best BBQ Chicken you’ll ever eat.)

How To: Grill Fresh Corn on the Cob

Memphis Style Coleslaw

Sweet Chili-Cheese Cornbread

Fresh Squeezed Lemonade

Save room for dessert!  This one serves a crowd:
Texas Sheet Cake 

We hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday weekend.  Enjoy your BBQ’s and extra day off of work, but also take a minute to remember what this day is all about: honoring the brave men and women who have lost their lives in the service of our country.  I feel an enormous amount of appreciation and respect for those who serve in the armed forces.  Thank you to all of you military families out there who may at this very moment be separated from those you love.  We support and salute you, too!

I was inspired by Joy the Baker who adapted her recipe from Hungry Girl por Vida (although I’m not using this dough). If you’ve ever made our King Cake, that’s the dough I’m using. It’s The Pioneer Woman’s cinnamon roll dough and it’s not only light and flaky and fabulous, but I swear to you, it’s foolproof. I’m kind of fiercely loyal to and protective of that recipe–we have a special relationship.

To make the dough, you’ll need whole milk, oil, sugar, salt, yeast, baking soda, baking powder, and flour.

Place the milk, sugar, and oil in a large pot and heat until it just comes to a boil. Remove from heat and allow it to cool to 105-115 degrees (about the temperature of a hot, but not uncomfortable, shower). Add the yeast and let it stand for 5 minutes. Add 4 cups of flour, stir it up (it will be easy to mix even though you’re doing it by hand). Cover and allow it to rise for an hour. Add another 1/2 cup of flour, the baking soda, baking powder, and salt, stir it up again, and then cover it and let it hang out until you’re ready to use it. If you want to use it semi-immediately, you can either use it right away or let it rise, covered, for another 30 minutes or so. Or you can cover it with plastic wrap and pop it into the fridge for up to 24 hours or so.

Grease a 9×5″ loaf pan and set it aside.

When you’re ready to use the dough, turn it onto a lightly floured surface.

Roll the dough out into a rectangle about 18 inches wide by 9 inches tall.

Melt or soften 6 tablespoons of butter. It doesn’t really matter. We’re talking about butter and carbs here; there’s no need to be picky. In fact, because I’m so generous when it comes to butter and carbs, I did both–my butter was kind of half-melted, half-softened. And then I spread it all over the dough.

Then I sprinkled it with about 1/2 cup of granulated sugar…

and a generous sprinkling of cinnamon…

If you look closely, you’ll notice that I scored the dough on where I was going to cut it. You’ll want to make 6 3″-wide strips.

And then you’ll notice that when I actually cut the strips, I didn’t follow the score marks at all. This is why I don’t sew.

Anyway.

Carefully stack the the strips so you have two stacks of three strips. Does that make sense? This is also why I don’t sew–I need lots of pictures and when people describe things like that to me, my eyes glaze over and I sew a sleeve on backwards and with the wrong side of the fabric facing out. Luckily, I have a picture for you.

Using a pizza wheel, cut each stack into 3 3″ squares. Pop each stack of squares into the greased pan.

Be careful not to stuff the dough into the pan. If you’re running out of room, you can use the rest of it to fill a mini loaf pan or make a few individual pull-apart rolls in a muffin tin. If it gets too tight in the pan, the insides will still be doughy and you will be sad and I don’t want either one of those things for you.

Now…because we’re being naughty here, melt the remaining two tablespoons of butter from that stick of butter you used to get melty/softened butter earlier. Drizzle it over the top of the loaf and then sprinkle with a little more cinnamon and sugar. Don’t worry. It’s okay. It’s Friday. It’s a 3-day weekend. You need something magical for breakfast on Memorial Day morning. Cinnamon and butter bring people happiness. Feeling better? Yeah, I thought so.

Cover the pan and let it rise for another 30 minutes. While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 350. When the dough is done rising and the oven’s done preheating, pop the pan into the oven. If you’re not up for the fun of your fire alarm going off, I’d recommend sliding a baking sheet on the rack underneath the bread pan so it can collect any sugary butter drippings. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until baked through and golden brown on top. If the top is getting too brown before the insides are done, cover the bread lightly with a sheet of aluminum foil. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool completely.

Now…because we’re really living on the edge here, we’re gonna ice this bad boy. You don’t have to, but seriously…if you like sweet melty icing on your cinnamon rolls, you really should drizzle this buttery, almond-vanilla glaze on top of the bread.

You’ll need 8 ounces sifted powdered sugar (by weight…seriously, if you haven’t already, go buy a $6 kitchen scale. It will change your life.), 4 tablespoons of melted butter, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract, 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract, and enough milk to make the icing the consistency you want it. Whisk all the ingredients together until smooth and then pour it into a heavy-duty Ziploc bag. Snip a corner off the bag and drizzle it over the cooled bread. You can either wait until the glaze firms up or start pulling the bread apart. If you are indeed human, I might lose a little respect for you if you wait. Just sayin’.

I’m here today to change that. It involves Oreos and chocolate pudding, which means you can’t possibly go wrong. Unless you don’t like chocolate–then you’re just plum out of luck.

Now…you can either do this as one big trifle in one big trifle dish, or you can do lots of little trifles. From a logistical perspective, it’s significantly easier to put it in one trifle dish, especially since it has so many layers. But from a beauty and photography perspective, it’s not super easy to take a picture of a large trifle and have it not look disgusting, so for the sake of prettiness, I did it in smaller trifle dishes. You could also use jars, and you guys know how we love jars, but since I just posted a dessert in a jar, I figured I’d live on the edge a little.

For the chocolate pudding layer, you’ll need a 4-serving-size (3.9 ounce) package of INSTANT chocolate pudding, 1 cup of cold water, a can of sweetened condensed milk, and 1 cup of heavy cream.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the water, pudding mix, and sweetened condensed milk. Let it chill out in the fridge for a few minutes while you whip the cream with an electric hand mixer until soft peaks form. Gently fold the whipped cream into the pudding mixture until it’s combined and smooth. Refrigerate the mixture until ready to use.

In another medium bowl, whip together 8 ounces of softened cream cheese (I used whipped cream cheese to make my job easier) and 2 8-ounce containers of thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping. Refrigerate until you’re ready to use.

Chop 2/3 of a package of Oreo cookies.

Or heck, chop up all of them and then you can snack on the tiny Oreo pieces because the calories fall out when you cut them. Truth.

You’ll also need to wash and slice a pint of strawberries and wash about 2 cups worth of blue-ish berries (I used blueberries and blackberries). If you’re a food blogger, it would be awesome of you to take a picture of said berries that didn’t come out blurry, but alas, life does not always come out the way we want it to.

Now…you can layer this however you want to. In the smaller dishes, I did a layer of chocolate pudding…

Then I added some chopped Oreos…

Then strawberries…

Then the cream cheese/COOL WHIP mixture…

Then topped it off with a layer of blueberries and blackberries.

If you’re going to make this in a large trifle dish, feel free to layer things however you want and repeat the layers until you run out of ingredients or room; I just recommend ending with the blueberries on top of the COOL WHIP layer because it seems to be the prettiest combination. This a seriously delicious make-ahead red, white, and blue (plus chocolate) dessert for Memorial Day or the 4th of July, but really, when berries are cheap and awesome, it’s perfect all summer.

Thank you COOL WHIP Whipped Topping for sponsoring this post. Join us on Facebook for inspiration and recipes for everyday treats. What you add makes it. #coolwhipmoms

Disclaimer: This post was sponsored by COOL WHIP, but, as always, our opinions, recipes, and ideas are completely our own.

I’m here on assignment for Sea Cuisine, who’s recipes are inspired by world travel, to eat my way through the island and discover what makes this little spot of land, of only 35 square miles, one of the world’s culinary gems and capture its beauty in photographs. The food here is spectacular (a lot of creole influence) and the beaches breathtaking (look at that water! It’s clearer than my local swimming pool) and I can’t wait to tell you more about everything I’m discovering.  We’ll be here for a couple more days and then we jump over to St. Maarten for the second half of the week, where the food is heavily influenced by French and Dutch cuisine (please, please, bring on the chocolate croissants!)  Follow us on Facebook and Twitter and I’ll share a few more photos during the week.

So, onto today’s recipe.  Kate and I love entree salads during the summer, especially.  Last week I whipped up this salad based on a salad by the same name at one of America’s culinary epicenters:  Chili’s Restaurant.  I Joke.  But I also eat at Chili’s sometimes.  Here in the states we often equate “Caribbean” to anything that’s tropical, fresh, and island-y.  So while technically this isn’t a traditional Caribbean meal, it is really bright and fresh with a tropical twist so we’ll stick with the name.  I’ve noticed at Chili’s, this is often served differently every time I order it.  Sometimes on iceberg, sometimes on “fancy” lettuce, sometimes with pineapple, sometimes without, and often with different dressings.  So I created my own Sweet Orange Vinaigrette (instead of their honey-lime) because I thought it went better with the flavors in the salad.  So start by mixing that part up so it can sit in the fridge and get extra yummy.  Start out with a little fresh orange juice.

and add a few spices and a tiny touch of sesame oil.  To get the perfect, creamy consistency, make sure to follow the instructions about emulsifying the dressing (slowly pouring the oil in a running blender, not just whisking).

You can definitely make the salad dressing a day or two ahead of time and just store it in the fridge.  By the way, seriously every time Kate and I post photos with these little carafe’s people ask where they can get one.  The answer: Walmart, $2.

The salad is packed with sweet and savory flavors and textures.  First up, a small can of mandarin oranges.  You could certainly use fresh orange segments (click here for a tutorial on how to segment citrus) but I actually the prefer the sweetness of mandarin oranges in this salad.  Mangoes would be great too, though!

Some dried cherries or cranberries,

some bright herbs and greens, from green onions and cilantro (cilantro haters could use fresh parsley, and when you’re done go to the library and check out the book titled “Why I’m Missing Out in Life by Not Eating Cilantro”)  :)

And finally some diced or sliced red pepper.  I happened to have some of these sweet baby peppers in my fridge so I just sliced those up.  You can buy little bags of these at Costco and I’ve been getting them on every trip lately.  I love how sweet they are and how great it is to just slice up a few for a salad or something.  But any sweet bell pepper (red, orange, or yellow- just not green) will be just fine.

Completely optional, black and/or white sesame seeds.  Funny- I bought these a couple of months ago when I needed them to garnish a recipe in our new cook book.  Last week I got an email from Williams-Sonoma that said, “Hi Sara!  You’re probably out of black sesame seeds by now- would you like us to send you some more?”  That sneaky sneaky Williams-Sonoma…little do they know that jar will last me about 3 years at the rate I use it.  They sure are pretty though!  I love how they garnish a dish.

Put the salad all together by topping it with some grilled chicken.

If I remember, and I have time to make the dressing ahead of time, I like to marinate my chicken in some of the dressing- or simply brush some on in the last few minutes of grilling.

The mix of sweet oranges and dried fruit, mixed with the savory of chicken and herbs and topped with that sweet dressing is magic in your mouth.

Kate and I are huge fans of entree salads for dinner, especially during the summertime and this is definitely a new one on my rotation.

These actually require very few ingredients and the payoff is huge.  It’s a perfect weekend baking project, so have fun!  Start by combining warm water, yeast, some sugar, and some salt in a bowl and let it sit until it gets foamy.  Remember, if your yeast doesn’t foam- it’s better to start over now, then ruin a whole batch of pretzels!

When the yeast is ready, add some all-purpose flour and melted butter.

That’s all!  You’ll mix and knead and then let the dough rise until it’s nice and puffed.

Now you have a few options.  Obviously you can make traditional pretzels.  Creating a pretzel shape isn’t complicated,

but don’t feel bad if it takes a few tries to get it right.  I should post a photo of my out-takes, they were sort of hilarious.  I kept my dough possibly a little too soft which made it hard to shape! Don’t worry though, they don’t have to be pretty to taste amazing.  I’ll show you another shaping option down below.

One step I admit I’ve skipped in the past is the boiling step.  Traditionally pretzels are given a quick boil in baking soda water, and it might sound like a hassle that you just want to skip over.  I’ve changed my ways after realizing that boiling step is what gives the pretzels not only their signature flavor, but also that perfect chew.  It doesn’t take long at all to fill up a pot of water and bring it to a boil, so don’t skip that step (you know, like I apparently skipped the pictures of it…)

The pretzels go straight from the water to a baking sheet where you can give them a little brush of egg wash and, if you’re going to leave them plain, a sprinkle of salt.  After they cook up golden brown I like to brush them with melted butter.

annnnd then dump them in a big bowl of cinnamon-sugar.

Holy smokes these are good.

You must, must eat at least one (and possibly all) while they’re still warm.  The outsides have that slightly tangy chew and the insides are so tender and soft.  Perfection.

Now.  All that being said, I very rarely make these in big pretzel shapes.  At my house we make pretzel bites.  They’re quicker, easier, and more fun to eat. Instead of forming those ropes into pretzels, just slice them into 1-2 inch pieces.  Follow the same baking process and then make a “dip” (aka frosting) for dunking.

My 4-year-old daughter has all sorts of sudden food likes and dislikes that are usually influenced by her BFF of the week (I’m way more concerned about that than I am about her picky eating). I can, however, convince her to eat just about anything if I serve it with ketchup or Ranch (which she refers to as “white ketchup.”)

I had really mean parents that made me get a job when I was 16 (don’t tell them that after all that whining, I’m really thankful for those experiences now). From the time I was 16 until I was 22 or so, pretty much every job I had was in the restaurant industry. And, with the exception of Summer from Hell in a grocery store bakery, all of those jobs involved Ranch dressing in some form or another. At one particular Utah-based sandwich establishment that roasts their own turkeys and bakes their own artisan breads, customers felt strongly passionate about the Ranch dressing served there. I made it every morning for 2 years and it’s so unbelievably beyond easy. And before you say, “Hey, lame-o, post a real recipe!”, let me just tell you that yes, I’m just making a few tweaks to the instructions on the packet, but a) this isn’t a recipe, it’s more of a tip, b) those few tweaks end up making a HUGE difference, and c) this is always something I have to go back and look up to make sure I have the right proportions, so now I’ll always know where to find it.

You’ll need a packet of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix, buttermilk, mayonnaise (not Miracle Whip), and Greek yogurt.

You can use sour cream in place of Greek yogurt, but I’ve found fat-free Greek yogurt tastes much better than fat-free sour cream, and since I’m trying my darndest to not gain 82 pounds this pregnancy, I use the fat-free Greek yogurt. If you’re going to use sour cream, I definitely recommend either using full-fat or reduced-fat, but not fat-free.

Disregard the instructions on the packet. Place 1 cup of mayonnaise (or reduced-fat, but not fat-free mayo) in a bowl. Add 1/2 cup buttermilk and 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt.

Add the contents of the dressing packet. In this particular case, I actually prefer the original Hidden Valley Ranch dressing (instead of the buttermilk), but alas, I grabbed the wrong packet out of the pantry. Also, if you have a hard time with packaged salad dressings, check out this recipe.

Whisk it together. That’s it. Use it as a salad dressing or a dip for veggies.

True story: during one of our many Ikea trips last year when we were remodeling our kitchen, I came across their little espresso cups and saucers. They were ADORABLE and irresistible and, in true Ikea fashion, so cheap that I couldn’t not buy a set, even if it was only one cup and saucer and even if I don’t drink coffee. And then I came home and back to my senses and wondered what the heck I was going to do with a teeny tiny cup and saucer. My answer?

That’s right. Perfect little portions of veggies and dip. This is seriously the only way I can get my daughter to eat broccoli–she pretends it’s a tea party. Wouldn’t these cups and saucers be perfect way to serve veggies at a baby or bridal shower? Tiny things make everything more delicious…

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Hidden Valley Ranch. As always, our opinions, ideas, and thoughts are completely our own.

Our first night there, we walked down the street to The Fire House Restaurant and I ordered a steak sandwich with garlic aioli and brie. It was like the marriage of so many of my favorite things–I’m pretty sure I would have steak for my last meal if I got any say in it, you guys know how much I love garlic, and brie and I have a scandalous, unspeakable history. It is an addictive, naughty cheese that I can’t be in the same room with and still expected to act like a lady.

I was expecting a sliced steak sandwich (like a Philly Cheesesteak), but the steak was a whole steak. And it was one of the most tender, delicious, melt-in-your-mouth steaks I’d ever eaten. However, because I know how tricky that can be (especially for something like a sandwich where even a tiny bit of toughness can make the whole sandwich-eating process a whole lot less pleasant), when I re-made this sandwich at home, I decided to slice the steak. I didn’t do it in the food processor like I do for Cheesesteak Sandwiches, but I sliced a really nice, high-quality top sirloin into 1/4″ slices.

I’d recommend using a lean cut like sirloin or a tenderloin; I tried it with a ribeye the first time because the grocery store was out of sirloin AND tenderloin and it cooked up too fatty for my taste, kind of like beefy bacon. Which, believe me, was not the worst thing in the world, but when combined with the brie and aioli, it was too much.

Anyway.

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add some butter and, when it’s melted and bubbly, add the sliced steak and season it with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cook, flipping once or twice, until the steak is cooked how you like it (I cooked mine until it was just cooked through–it was still tender that way, but I wasn’t worrying about that infinitely long list of things that pregnant women aren’t supposed to eat). Remove the pan from heat.

Slice some high-quality sandwich rolls in half. Spread the bottom half with Garlic & Caper Aioli.

Place 1/4″-thick slices of brie on the top half.

Turn the broiler on your oven to the highest setting and place the open-faced sandwiches under the broiler for 3-5 minutes (watch them carefully!) or until the aioli side is toasting and the brie is melting. Remove from the oven. Use a knife to spread the brie on the top half of the sandwich.

Place a leaf of lettuce on the aioli side of the sandwich. Place the cooked steak on top of the lettuce leaf.

Top with tomato and onion slices and then cap it off with the brie side of the bread.

Eat. Die. Go to Heaven. The end.

Piping Bags
First off- you’ll need a piping bag.  You can create your own by folding a parchment triangle (here’s a great how-to), or buy reusable plastic decorating bags, or disposable decorating bags (which, in reality can be washed and reused), and depending on the frosting you use, even a large zip-top bag works.  If you do use a zip-top bag, I suggest a heavy duty one.  And if you are using a particularly thick frosting, a stronger piping bag generally works better.

Piping Tips
The most important piece is the piping tip.  You need to use a large or jumbo tip, which are much larger than a standard piping tip.  Here’s a visual:

A lot of the cupcakes on our site are frosted with a Wilton 1M or 2D tip, which you can usually find at craft and cooking store wherever Wilton products are sold.  They look like the tip in the middle in the photo above.  Sometimes people try to frost cupcakes with those regular tiny tips and it just doesn’t work! But a step up from the large tips are jumbo tips, on the left in that photo.  See how jumbo we’re talking about?  That’s the tip I use 95% of the time I frost cupcakes. I got this set of moderately priced jumbo tips from Amazon a while back and they’ve been great.

If you’re just going to be using one color/flavor of frosting and one tip, then you can just pop the tip right into the bag, like this:

That’s what I usually do with my  jumbo tips.  If you want to change tips, you’ll want to use a coupler.  Now, if you’re using a large tip- you’ll need a large coupler as well!

The giant coupler works for most large tips, but not all.  I have some jumbo tips that are way too big for it.  If you’ve never used a coupler, it works like this: Place the bottom part of the coupler on the inside of your bag, with the bag covering the threads.  Then place a tip over the top of the coupler and secure the ring part of the coupler on top of it.  this allows you to unscrew the tip at any time and attach another one.

Filling the Bag
(I’m going to explain the basic method, but if you really want to have your world rocked, check out this post about no-mess piping bags.)  Once your bag is fitted with a tip, you’ll need to fill it up.  This seems like a simple process, but can easily turn into one that involves cursing and the throwing of kitchen utensils.  Admit it, you’ve been there.  Don’t just hold the bag open and try to dump frosting in there.  It will end poorly, I promise.  For easy filling, roll the bag down as far as you possibly can.  Either hold it in your hand (as shown in photo), or place the tip of the bag in a tall drinking glass with the bag hanging over the sides.  Spoon your frosting into the bag directly into the tip and pressing down gently as you go, packing the frosting in to get rid of air bubbles.  Slowly bring the edges of the bag up as needed to hold the frosting in.  When it’s filled with enough frosting (Don’t over-fill, it becomes very hard to control) Twist the top of the bag closed.

Choosing a Tip
People are constantly asking about which piping tip to use to get the same looks as our photos.  It’s hard to tell what the frosting is going to look like just by looking a the tip, so here’s some helpful photos.  I pretty much use 4 tips the majority of the time, an open star tip, a closed star tip, a french tip, and a round tip.  Of the four, my go-to are the star tips.  I use the closed star if I wand a shorter “tower” of frosting, and if I’m using a really soft and silky frosting and I use the open star if I want a taller cupcake, or my frosting is thicker.

Can you see the difference?  The star tips are the most common.  The more “closed” your star, the more definition in the lines of your swirls.  You’ll want to use nice smooth icing for closed star tips because any resistance will clog and make it hard to pipe out.  Closed stars will give you the “ruffly” look if they’re quite closed.

And open star will give you a little bit of a thicker rope.  The french tip has little tiny jagged edges and the round tip is pretty self-explanatory.
If you’re wondering why my frosting looks a little lumpy, it’s because I was photographing this project on my porch in near-freezing weather! The butter started to harden and made it hard to pipe.  Not the prettiest, but still tastes heavenly!

How to Swirl:
Ah, now my frosting is soft and smooth.  When you’re ready to pipe, hold your bag perpendicular to your cupcake. You’ll want to apply constant and even pressure and move in one fluid motion.  Start on the outside edge, and make a circle around the border of the cupcake.  As you get to the point where you started, continue in a circle, but move in a little overlapping your first circle to create a spiral. 


When you get to the top of the cupcake, stop!  A very important step is to release pressure on the bag before you lift up.  If you keep pressing, you will get little flags on the top of your cupcakes that look like santa hats.  Release the pressure and then gently lift up and you’ll get a nice star top, like this:

Here’s a little video that will make it easier to see:

video taken with the Nokia Lumia 900 Windows Phone

Now, you can use that exact same process, but in reverse, to create a flat rosette look.  Instead of starting on the outside edge, start in the center and work your way out and you will get a little rose.  See below the reverse rosette on the left, and the standard swirl on the right:

With that method you can make a gorgeous (and easy!) rosette cake like I am baker has made famous in the blogosphere.  (Isn’t that gorgeous?) Here’s a video demonstrating the rosette method:

video taken with the Nokia Lumia 900 Windows Phone

 The traditional swirl uses a lot more frosting than the rosette, so that’s something to keep in mind.

French Tip Technique
If you use a french tip, here’s another easy thing you can do.  Instead of swirling around, just hold the tip steady and still in the center of the cupcake.  Apply pressure and watch the frosting fill the top of the cupcake.

This works brilliantly on mini-cupcakes.  I don’t often use it on regular sized ones because it’s really hard to get it to look even once it goes out that far!

Interesting Techniques
Now that you’re covered on the basics, here’s some extra fun stuff you can do!

Make Blended Dual-Colored (or flavored!) Frosting

Make Striped Frosting

Make Layered Multi-Colored Cupcakes

Make Cupcakes in  Jar

Make Filled Cupcakes 

Check this section of our index for many great cupcake recipes, including a couple doctored vanilla mixes.  My favorite from scratch chocolate cupcake recipe is the base for these Glazed Creme Filled Cupcakes.  We also have recipes for Lemon and Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes.  For frosting, our most beloved recipe is our Perfect Cupcake Frosting (and Filling) and this is my go-to for chocolate, unless it’s going on a cake and then I’m all about this one.  We also have cream cheese and peanut butter frostings as well.

That should be a great start!  If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments.  We’ll try to keep this post updated so you can find all the best tips and info all in once place.  So make sure to bookmark!  And if you love this post, feel free to share it via Pinterest, Facebook, or Twitter!
. . . . . . . . . . . .

Brought to you by the new AT&T Nokia Lumia 900.
Tasks. Joys. Simply Faster.

The videos in this post were taken with the Nokia Lumia 900 Windows Phone.  We are happy to partner with wonderful sponsors, but note sponsors do not provide our content.

Have you ever thought you were super smart only to find out moments later you’re just late to the party?  I walked into B&BW to see they had the same little berry baskets filled with fruity-smelling products all over the store!  Oh well, great minds think alike?   This may seem like a sponsored post by Bath and Body Works, but it’s not!  Apparently Kate and I both just made trips there this week.  And we’re fans.  They have tons of “Fresh Picked” scents, like Strawberry, Tangerine, apple, etc.   But obviously you can use any fruit-scented products.  I’m sure you could even find things at the dollar store.

I’m loving these new floral-fruit ones.  Raspberry-Peony and Cilantro-Peach?  Yummers.

Since we’re on the topic, I just have to tell you guys that this is my latest obsession.  I love this Lemon Lip Cream.  Like LOVE, love.  It’s not super-glossy and sticky, it’s smooth and creamy.  And it’s like licking lemon drops off your lips.  Amazing.  I have a tube in every one of my bags.

Anyway, back to our project.  After l got all of my goodies I came home to design a printable.  But first I got side-tracked on Pinterest and that’s when I spotted this one from the cute girls at eighteen 25.  And they used them with the exact same stuff- perfecto!

They have the printable for Moms, teachers, Grandmas and friends.  Cuteness.

Head on over to eighteen 25 to download the free labels and start gifting fresh-picked goodies to everyone on your list.