We don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day — it’s just a week before my birthday and Ryan’s birthday comes afterward  in quick succession. But I do love a little bit of pink silliness this time of year. And I know I’m a little early, but I couldn’t resist!

You could definitely start with a cake mix on this one if you’d like. I had enough ingredients on hand that it was easier to just start from scratch, but either way works. I would definitely plan on getting these out of your house as quickly as possible, unless you’re prepared to eat the whole batch! They are just so delicious.

Valentine Cakes
Adapted from Melissa’s Munches and King Arthur Flour

I had a hard time finding a relatively small heart-shaped cookie cutter, so I actually used part of a candy mold, pressing it into the top of the cake and cutting around it with a serrated knife. My hearts ended up being about 2 inches wide, so if you use a larger cutter, you’ll have less total cakes.

Makes about 16 2-inch cakes

For the cake:
2 cups sugar
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter or margarine, soft
1 1/4 cups milk, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 large eggs

For the filling and coating:
3 tablespoons unsalted butter or margarine
1/3 cup marshmallow creme
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
24 ounces vanilla candy melts
3 ounces white chocolate
pink gel food coloring*

To make the cake: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 9″x13″ pan with parchment paper, and lightly spray with cooking spray.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter and beat with an electric mixer at low speed, until the mixture looks sandy.

Combine the milk and vanilla and add, all at once. Mix at low speed for 30 seconds, then increase the speed to medium and beat for 30 seconds. Scrape the bottom and sides of the mixing bowl. With the mixer running at low speed, add 1 egg. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 30 seconds. Repeat this procedure with the second egg. Continue adding the eggs, scraping after each addition, until all 4 are added.After the last egg is added, scrape the bowl once more, then beat at medium-high speed for 30 more seconds.

Pour the batter into the pan and smooth with a spatula. Bake for 40 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown and just beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cake has cooled, press the heart cutter of your choice into the top of the cake and cut around it with a serrated knife. Turn the heart onto its side and slice it in half, so that you have two little heart layers. Repeat this process until all of your hearts are cut out. Set your hearts in the freezer while you prepare the filling — this will (temporarily) firm up the cake a little to make it easier to work with.

To make the filling: In the bowl of a mixer, beat 3 tablespoons butter, vanilla, and marshmallow until fully combined. Add powdered sugar and milk and beat on medium until filling is light and fluffy. Spread filling onto half of the hearts and then top with the remaining hearts. Set aside.

To make the coating: In a large bowl, microwave candy melts on 50% power for 30 seconds, then stir. Repeat until totally melted, then stir in a tiny bit of food coloring (I barely dipped the tines of a fork into the coloring and then stirred that into the candy melts). Use a fork or spoon to roll cakes in the melted candy, spooning more over the top until they’re completely covered. Transfer cakes to wax paper.

In a small bowl, microwave white chocolate until melted, stirring every 30 seconds. Drizzle over the top of cakes. Allow white chocolate and candy coating to set completely before serving.

*It’s important to use gel food coloring rather than the normal liquid variety, because any water in the candy melts will ruin their texture. If you’ve never used gel food coloring, you can find it in the cake decorating section of your local craft store (or even Walmart!).

I’ve had these little beauties stashed in the freezer since Thanksgiving, and have been slowly sneaking them one at a time for a little bite of Christmas. I am obsessed. I didn’t love white chocolate…until now. It just needed a pepperminty best friend.

I made these brownies from my favorite, super-simple recipe and spooned them into muffin pans. I did so while watching an old episode of Grey’s Anatomy on Netflix — which means that they go from the pantry to the oven in about thirty minutes! You can’t beat that. You’ll still have plenty of time to wrap presents.

I think a few of these would make a lovely gift! Put them on a pretty plate and take them to an awkward party. It’s that time of year.

Candy Cane Brownies
Adapted from Baker’s One-Bowl Brownies

Makes 20 brownies

4 squares unsweetened baking chocolate
1 1/2 sticks butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup egg whites (or 2 additional eggs)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour
20 Hershey’s candy cane kisses, unwrapped

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 20 muffin cups with paper liners, and spray lightly with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, microwave chocolate and butter on high for 2 minutes or until butter is melted. Stir thoroughly until chocolate is melted. Add sugar and stir to combine. Add egg, egg whites, and vanilla, and stir to combine. Add cinnamon, salt, and flour, and stir until well blended.

Spoon batter into muffin cups until 1/2 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a brownie comes out clean. Immediately top each brownie with a candy cane kiss, twisting the kiss gently to set it into the top of the brownie. Carefully remove each brownie from the pan and transfer to a wire rack — the kisses will be soft, so try not to tilt the brownies so that the chocolate doesn’t ooze. Cool completely.

Foodbuzz recently provided me with some cake mix coupons and I finally put one of them to good use. Although I usually bake from scratch, a good cake mix is always handy and comes together so quickly. And this one looked so fancy — I was excited to try it!

They basically had me at caramel. I decided to add some fresh apple and cream cheese frosting because, well, it just seemed like a good idea. I stirred up the cupcakes, unloaded the dishwasher while they baked, and went for a quick run while they cooled. There’s nothing quite so fun as coming home from a run to fresh cupcakes. I’m just saying.

This cake mix is a lovely thing to have on hand! The apple bits and caramel included make it much taster than your average boxed mix, and adding fresh apple and homemade frosting makes these a treat fit for all of your holiday occasions (sprinkles help too).

Caramel Apple Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

There’s something about homemade frosting that just makes me happy! Usually I make this frosting with both butter and cream cheese, but I’m running low on butter this week so I stuck with cream cheese only. This is how we made it at the bakery, so I knew it would be tasty.

For the cupcakes:
1 Duncan Hines Apple Caramel cake mix
1 1/3 cups water, divided
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon oil, divided
1 egg
1/2 cup egg whites*
1 medium apple, peeled and diced (I used Jonagold)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 16-20 muffin cups with paper liners and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine small pouch of caramel mix with 1/3 cup water and 1 tablespoon oil, and stir until thickened slightly. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine cake mix, 1 cup water, 1/3 cup oil, egg, and egg whites, and stir until well combined. Fold in diced apple.

Spoon batter into muffin cups until they’re two-thirds full (you should have enough batter for 16-20 cupcakes; I ended up with 19). Drop a heaping teaspoonful of caramel onto each cupcake and swirl gently with a knife. Don’t worry about how it looks; the “swirling” is just to spread the caramel out a little.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until cupcakes are golden brown and spring back when touched. Let cool in the pan for about ten minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

*The box calls for 3 eggs but I substituted 1 egg + 1/2 cup egg whites, figuring the cupcakes would be rich enough with the caramel and frosting. You can go either way!

For the frosting:
8 oz cream cheese, softened**
4-6 cups powdered sugar
splash of vanilla extract

With an electric mixer (stand or hand), beat (the heck out of) cream cheese until it’s light and fluffy. Add a splash of vanilla and beat again until combined. Add 3 cups powdered sugar and beat until well combined. From this point, add remaining powdered sugar one cup at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl and judging the frosting’s thickness after each cup, until frosting reaches your desired consistency. I ended up using about 5 cups, but the amount you use will vary based on temperature, humidity, and what color nail polish you’re wearing.

Spread or pipe frosting onto cupcakes, add Christmas sprinkles if you so desire, and enjoy!

**You can use full-fat or reduced-fat cream cheese, but please, for the love of all that is holy, do not use fat-free! The texture is just not the same, not to mention the taste.

I was so excited to make these crescent rolls! They were a bit time-consuming but insanely delicious. I may have created an every-holiday-monster here.

I’ve been about 99.9% vegetarian for over a year but made this turkey breast for Ryan — and ended up loving it! This recipe is a winner and I’ll definitely be making it again.

I didn’t really measure the mushrooms and apples in this sourdough stuffing and may have overestimated a bit. We ended up with stuffing for days but it was so, so good.

I made my grandma’s seven layer salad for the first time and we enjoyed it way too much. It tasted like Christmas when I was little!

Green bean bundles are always on the holiday table in Ryan’s family, so I didn’t want to forget them. So I accidentally bought the wrong kind of green beans, no biggie.

This pumpkin pie was another first for me — I’ve never made a baked one before. I was proud (although I did buy the crust).

Onward to Christmastime! I’m so ready to break out the candy cane Hershey’s kisses.

And okay, I like non-traditional desserts at Thanksgiving! I’m a huge fan of this pumpkin bread pudding — usually I make that and this apple pie. But this year I’m making a plain-Jane pumpkin pie for my dear husband. Sacrifices! So first I made these bars, naturally. Just to get the crazies out of my system.

Holy delicious. First we have a super rich brownie layer, with what basically amounts to pumpkin pie filling spread on top. I can’t think of anything I’d rather eat at the moment (especially straight out of the fridge), except perhaps a slice of pizza, but that’s another story. I realize it’s last minute, but leave your boring pies behind this year and mix it up! I bet you have all of the ingredients in your kitchen right now.

Pumpkin Pie Fudge Brownie Bars
How Sweet It Is

For the brownie layer:
1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups sugar
10 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 325°F.

In a small bowl, beat eggs and vanilla and set aside. In a double boiler, add butter, cocoa, sugar and salt. Mix until the mixture becomes a batter – this will take approximately 10 minutes and at first will just look like clumps of cocoa power. Be patient! Remove the bowl from heat and whisk in the egg mixture (very slowly while whisking, so you don’t have scrambled eggs!) until combined. Stir in flour until batter is smooth, then pour in baking dish. Use a 9×13 dish for thin bars, and an 8×8 for thicker bars. For 9×13 dish, bake for 12-13 minutes. For an 8×8 dish, bake for about 18-20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely! Then make pumpkin layer.

For the pumpkin layer:
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 large egg
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup heavy cream*

Preheat oven to 425°F.

In a bowl, whisk together sugars and egg until smooth. Add in pumpkin and spice, again mixing until combine. Finish by adding in heavy cream, stirring until everything is mixed, then pour on top of the cooled brownie layer and spread evenly with a spatula. Bake for 10 minutes (9×13 dish) or 15 minutes (8×8 dish), then reduce heat to 325°F and bake for 18-20 minutes (9×13 dish)/22-25 minutes (8x8dish) or until pumpkin layer is set. Let cool completely (ideally overnight, or about 3-4 hours) then slice and serve.

*I used just under 1/2 cup skim milk, because it was what I had on hand! I added about an extra tablespoon of pumpkin to thicken things up a bit.

Let’s talk Thanksgiving. It’s almost here and I’m trying not to freak out. These white chocolate pumpkin blondies are like pumpkin pie without the slime factor. It’s a dreary day miracle.

Let’s talk pumpkin spice biscotti (and using the same napkins 27 times). Nothing is better with a piping hot cup of tea; I’ll promise you that right this second.

Let’s talk applecake. Apples are out of control right now. Chop some up and make the most dead-on delicious thing ever. This is the stuff wedding toasts are made of!

Let’s talk braided apple bread. This is a legit people-pleaser. Don’t fear the yeast!

Let’s just get down to it and talk about some chocolate. The holidays are coming. You’re going to need it, and you’re going to need it fast. These quick toffee squares are the jam!

Okay, so you might need more chocolate.

I don’t know if you have a Valentine’s party to go to or a cute guy to impress or just some new coworkers to make friends with (like me), but I’d say these little beauties should do the trick. They were a big hit with the cute guy in my house!

Valentine Cake Balls

Many variations of this little recipe have been making their way around the Internet for awhile now. The beauty of it is that you can use whatever flavors of cake and frosting you’d like – I tried to make mine as pink as possible, but it’s up to you.

Boxed cake mix of your choice (I used a Valentine Funfetti mix)
Canned frosting of your choice (I used strawberry)
One package Almond Bark (or about 16 ounces of chocolate)
Sprinkles (if desired)

Bake the cake mix according to the package directions. Once the cake is cooled (or mostly cooled), use your hands to crumble it into a large mixing bowl. Add the frosting to the bowl and stir thoroughly. Chill the cake mixture for an hour.

Melt Almond Bark or chocolate in a medium bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally.

Form the cake mixture into balls, about a teaspoon at a time, and place on a small plate or bowl. I like to do about fifteen at a time and then pop the dough back into the freezer while I dip those fifteen.

Spread out a piece of waxed paper close to your melted chocolate, and have the sprinkles handy. One at a time, place cake balls into melted chocolate, stir around a bit, and fish out with a spoon. Place on waxed paper. Repeat as many times as necessary! I usually stop after every five or six to add sprinkles so that they definitely stick.

Let cool until chocolate has hardened completely, and store in the fridge. Once they’re cooled you can use a small paring knife to trim off the excess chocolate (around the edges) for a more uniform shape, if you like. Yum. Try not to eat them all!

We’re eating leftover Mexican takeout for “brunch” and dropping off the dogs, but if we weren’t airplane bound you can believe I’d be baking these cookies again. Don’t they just look festive enough for Santa himself? They’re easy enough to get the kids involved and allow for the liberal use of sprinkles. Do I need to say more?

Here’s hoping your holidays are wonderful – we’ll be back in the new year!

Christmas Cookie Dough Balls
Peas and Thank You

3/4 cup (vegan or not) butter or margarine
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup organic sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup unbleached organic flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1-3 teaspoon non-dairy or organic milk

sprinkles for decoration

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a stand mixer or using an electric mixer and a large bowl blend together margarine, sugars, vanilla, salt and flour. The  mixture will look dry, but keep blending until a dough comes together, though it will still be crumbly. If you still haven’t reached a stage where the dough can be shaped into balls, add as little milk as necessary.

Using a mini scoop or your hands, form dough into golf ball-sized balls. Roll in sprinkles and transfer to baking sheet.

Bake for 8-10 minutes.  The dough balls will be delicate still, so allow to cool for at least 3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

I would try to figure how many cupcakes I’ve made this week, but math makes my brain hurt. Let’s just say it’s a lot. My house still needs to be cleaned and a couple of gifts still need wrapping, but guess what? I’m done baking! I kept these last few treats super simple on purpose. It’s the eleventh hour, people! Santa is breathing down all of our necks! Or maybe just mine – I’ve had a lot of caffeine these last few days.

This bark is really excellent. It’s a great use for good-quality chocolate, but of course you can use whatever’s at hand. I’m already thinking that my sister and I will be snacking on it once I’m home this weekend (hi Mary!). Make some to share with the mint lovers in your life!

Peppermint Oreo Bark
Trying to Heal

24 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
24 ounces white chocolate chips
One box mint Oreos or Trader Joe’s Candy Cane Joe-Joe’s (if you’re lucky!!)

Line a large cookie sheet with waxed paper and set aside. Coarsely chop cookies and set aside 1 1/2 cups for topping the bark – choose the largest pieces for this.

Carefully melt white chocolate in the microwave, on medium power, stirring every 40 seconds or so. Stir in cookie pieces (except reserved), and immediately spread onto cookie sheet with a spatula.

Melt the semi-sweet chocolate in the same way, and spread on top of white chocolate layer. Sprinkle reserved cookie pieces over chocolate and gently press down with the back of a spoon.

Let bark set at room temperature until it’s almost hardened, and then slice into squares. Store in an airtight container.

I know this might seem a bit basic, but who doesn’t love chex mix? The great thing is that you can use whatever you’d like in it. And it travels well (which I’m looking forward to, come Friday).

Chex Mix
Adapted from Peas and Thank You

This is just the best such snack mix I’ve ever had. I love the flavors here. And honey-roasted peanuts are a must, in my book!

Makes about 6 cups

4 1/2 cups cereal of your choice (I like generic rice chex)
1/2 cup pretzels
1/2 cup nuts of your choice (honey-roasted peanuts!)
1/8 cup butter or margarine
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 1/4 teaspoons seasoned salt

Preheat oven to 250°F. Combine cereal, pretzels, and nuts in a 9×13 pan.

In a glass measuring cup, melt butter and add seasonings. Stir until combined. Pour butter mixture over cereal mixture and stir until everything’s coated.

Bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Pour onto paper towels to cool and store in an airtight container.