these were for the hubs

Hope you all have a lovely and enjoyable valentine’s day–even if you’re single. Go out and get your favorite dessert, a bottle of wine, and a good movie with your other single friends! Or go shopping. Retail therapy is always good. : )

xoxo LENA

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I’ll admit I have not read these books. But just googling “fifty shades of grey cake” turned up some pretty weird stuff that I kinda just want to read them now just to see what all the hype is about!!!

Look for some cookie love tomorrow!!

Hells yea.
I can’t stay. I’ve got more Choco gooeyness to get through!

I LURVE CHRISTMAS TIME. Not only is it my birthday (22nd) but it’s that time of year when I’m just in a good mood all the time. Christmas music is playing, snow is falling, I get to eat a lot. Pretty much my dream.

Every year my beautiful mother and I make cookies together. And we make a TON! Here’s what we made this year:

WHITE CHOCOLATE CRANBERRY

NEIMAN MARCUS (my FAV–also cute story-remind me)

PB KISSES

CHOCOLATE CHIP SHORTBREAD

CUTOUTS!!!

LEMON SHORTBREAD

CHOCOLATE BALLS

BUTTERBALLS (ALSO CALLED MEXICAN WEDDING CAKES)

GIGILANI (ITALIAN SESAME)

PIZZELLES (MORE ITALIAN!)

If you would like any of these recipes please email me!

And now for the wreath!

I found the idea/how-to on PINTEREST–don’t get me started on that topic I will not stop. It was super easy!!

Here’s another one. I got the wreath from a garage sale for a buck! And then glued a lil red bird on it.

PUT A BIRD ON IT!!!! (Portlandia. it’s a TV show. You should watch it. you will laugh very hard. )

UP NEXT: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Let’s celebrate with some eggnog. and booze!

Ya’ll, I love egg nog. I mean I luuuurve it.  I crave it. I look forward to this time of year for 3 reasons: family.food.EGGNOG. Is it one word or 2? eh. i don’t care. i love it.

BEHOLD!!!

(angelic voices singingggggggg)

I love it sOOO much that I put it in my coffee!

seriously try it. it’ll blow your mind. do it. do it. do it. do it. do it. do it.

How about a holiday drink?

awwww yayaaaaaaaaaaa. *that’s a cat in the background if you were wondering. again. I SPY.

So I thought–why not make a cupcake that tastes like egg nog! you could drink egg nog AND have an eggnog cupcake at the time and have an EGGNOG EXPLOSION!!!!! I looked around for some recipes on line and I found a good one that I tweaked only slightly from A Good Appetite:

EGG NOG CUPCAKES!

oh that swirl! that’s the magnolia bakery swirl you know. legit.

If  YOU want to make these, here is the printable link: EGG NOG CUPCAKES

Enjoy your eggnog!!!!

UP NEXT: well my birthday is tomorrow so I may put something birthday-ey up. otherwise CHRISTMAS COOKIES BONANZA

I’ve been baking a LOT!!! I’ve been busy with some orders and I’m now a pastry chef at this catering company in Buffalo–which is awwwweeeessssooommmmeeee to feel legit.

I just get caught up in the day to day of my life. Every day I lay in bed when I wake up and say to myself:

“ok. you are going to do x, y, and z today. period.” (x is always go to the gym; y is usually to clean something; and z is BLOG POSTS.

So you see I start out with every intention of checking these things off of my list but then I get going with my day and all of a sudden it’s  like 9 or 10 o’clock –I haven’t showered–and Adam’s like “wanna watch a movie?” (right there that’s at least 2 things of XYZ I haven’t done!)

And then I have failed.

So! New Year’s Resolution…obviously…. MORE POSTS! (bear with me)

This is what you’ve missed out on in my life:

I went apple picking and I was going to write this super awesome fun creative blog post about fall and how much I love fall and apples and such. Oh wait that never happened….

how gorgeous is this picture?

we made apple butter………..

and then I made this pie apple crumble bar thing that was divine!

can you figure out the steps??? (it’s pretty simple)

this is the inside of a pie that i made but did not bake–but froze!! I wrapped it twice with plastic wrap and then foil and it froze beautifully. I made this in october, and we baked and ate the pie for thanksgiving. bam.

Ok I also made a cake for a boutique grand opening event:

Oh hey remember when I said I was a pastry chef for a catering company? WELLLL we catered a local magazine’s Christmas party and I made the desserts!

TIRAMISU SHOOTERS

EGG NOG CREME BRULEE

MINI CHOCOLATE PEPPERMINT CUPCAKES

PISTACHIO CRUSTED CANNOLI

oh wait here’s more tiramisuuuuuu

this is my display. the event was at this showroom for kitchen remodeling. (it blew my mind)

it was awesome. it was my first major major thing that was a like a big deal!! haha that sounds very juvenile. would you believe that i have a Bachelor’s degree in english? oh higher education. oh and i’m apparently not using punctuation or capitalization for this post so just go with it. : )

I think that pretty much sums up the last few months of my life.

o wait thanksgiving!!! I made a super cute pumpkin pie with a leaf crust!

and acorn donut holes!

chyeeeeaaaaaaa i learned about instagram. well sort of. i’m still working the kinks out .

OK NOW that’s really the end.

I feel so proud of myself! It only took me ehhhh 47 minutes. but that was a buttload of pictures.

UP NEXT: CHRISTMAS COOOOOOOOOOOOKIES!!!!! Here’s a preview:

ps i feel like most of my pictures are like an I SPY book. who can find the diamond ring??????

Oh, and I make wreaths now too. Check it out!!!

Have a happy, safe, goodies-filled Halloween!!!

This is all you need to make a delicious, quick and easy, scrumptiously cinnamon dessert. It by no means is healthy, BUT it is divine. Try it out!

I actually took pictures of the process this time! Kudos to me!

Sopapilla Cheesecake (from my yellow umbrella)

To make a ginormous half-sheet cake you need:

• 4  8-oz packages of cream cheese–softened
• 3/4 cup of butter–melted
• 5-6 rolls of crescent rolls
• cinnamon
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 T and 1 t vanilla

Start!

1. Start by opening up the containers of crescent rolls. I used like 5 containers.. it depends on how thick you like a crust. You can get away with like 4 or 5–if you stretch it, but I like a thicker crust so I used almost 6 total.

Be careful. I’ll admit that I still jump a little when they POP!

2. Once they are all open, unroll each and press them in the bottom of a pan–I used a large roasting pan from the Dollar Tree because I wanted to make a big cake!

I try to press the seams together as best as I can and stretch it to fit the corners.

3. Set the pan aside, and put the cream cheese, vanilla, and sugar into a mix bowl and mix until well blended. Try not to mix too much or it gets weird and runny.

Don’t forget your homemade vanilla!

4. Take the cream cheese mixture and spread it onto the crescent layer.

5. Then take the leftover crescent rolls and unravel them, and press them onto the cream cheese layer. The trick is to try to keep the crescents all connected in like a long sheet, because then you can just place it right over the cream cheese. When placing the sheets, you can start one a little on top of the first one, to make a better seal. Start by securing the edges first, so that the cream cheese doesn’t get pushed up around the sides on top of the crescent rolls. You want it to make a seal so that all the cream cheese is under the crescent rolls.

6. Melt the butter.

7. While the butter is melting, make your cinnamon and sugar mixture. I like equal parts–I love cinnamon! But it’s up to you. Put a little in of each and stir, then add a bit more, then try it. You can’t go wrong!

(and apparently I missed this photo op. @#!@$!!!!)

8. Brush the butter onto the crescent roll layer.

9. Make sure to cover the WHOLE thing with butter. If you have some leftover… pour it on! If you don’t have enough–melt some more!

Then sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture over the melted butter. Again–cover the ENTIRE top!!

10. Bake at 350 F for about 35 minutes until it’s goldeny on top and it smells awesome.

Cool completely, and then I like to refrigerate for a few hours, but some people like it warm or room temperature. Sometimes it does get a little runny if it’s too warm though and then its like eck!

This is a beautiful photo from the original website: my yellow umbrella

I cannot take credit for this photo but this is a nice closeup to entice you if I haven’t sold you on this baked yummy as of yet!!

UP NEXT: ummm not sure… baby shower goodies probably? unless I make something in the meantime : )

Anyways, a friend of mine asked me to make some bride and groom pretzel rods for her wedding as favors. They came out super cute… but did take longer than expected. Check them out:

hard to tell from the pictures but its a tuxedo and wedding gown!

!!!!

I like this one : )

Super cute! It was sort of a marathon—I didn’t factor in all the time it would take and how tedious I needed to be–but it was was so worth it! And the bride was super appreciative which makes me forget all the work that I just did : )

UP NEXT: sopapilla cheesecake!!!