Root Beer Layer Cake with Cream Soda Frosting

Happy birthday, Nathaniel! My boy turned ten last week. TEN!

But let’s skip the sentimentality — because once it starts, it won’t stop — and jump right in to the cake. (If you ate, you’d definitely want to jump right into it too.) I asked Nathaniel what sort of cake he wanted, nervously remembering last year’s post-hurricane ginormous Devil’s Food Cake, and he didn’t take long to decide: he wanted the cupcakes his dad got for his birthday, but in layer cake form. So. . .root beer layer cake. With cream soda frosting. Right.

Wholesome Oat Muffins

Get aboard the muffin transport! You won’t regret it. jump to recipe I should have made these muffins instead of last night’s disasters, but we have them now, so the muffin balance has been restored. These are delicious and the recipe seems to lend itself to adding different spices, sugars, or bonus ingredients. The process […]

Devil’s Food Cake with Chocolate Buttercream

Nathaniel requested an insane cake for his birthday party. He didn’t say “devil’s food cake”, but he knew exactly what he wanted. “A chocolate cake, with chocolate frosting, and I want layers, and I want it shaped like a rectangle.” Layered rectangles? It’s not like we invited 50 kids to this thing, I think we’ll […]

Vanilla Chai Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

jump to recipe Nathaniel’s birthday was actually almost two weeks ago, but when Sandy knocked out the power, birthday baking was put on hold. Then I went away to BC, and so it got further delayed. Then I got home, we restocked the kitchen, and the time for birthday treats for his class finally arrived. […]

The Road To Redemption: Peanut Butter Banana Bread

I admit it, I’m still recovering from the cheesecake debacle. But it was a half day at work, and there were some brown bananas on the counter, and I had a recipe for peanut butter banana bread that looked worth a try. And trust me, I read and re-read and re-read the ingredients list as […]

Lemonade Stand On Mother’s Day

This isn’t about baking, it’s about three kids who decided that they wanted to run a lemonade stand. We had a beautiful weekend of hot summer weather, and a little while after Margot came over to play, Nathaniel approached me for what he clearly thought would be a fruitless mission: he wanted to know if […]

Frosted Sugar Cookies With Nathaniel And Juliet

The kids loved when we made sugar cookies for Valentine’s Day, and have been begging me to do it again. It seemed like a good day for a time-consuming project; I needed some distraction but I wanted to spend time with them, and that fulfilled both needs with one buttery, sugary task. Why not. Since […]