It’s almost the Marine Corps’ birthday, and that means birthday balls, special birthday messages… and, of course, baked goods. There’s always an epic cake at the birthday ball, of course, but I like to make something festive as well. In the past, I’ve made camouflage cookies and camo cupcakes, as well as “scarlet and gold” […]
Even though Cincinnati has appeared on several lists of recommended places to visit in recent years (including, notably, the New York Times’ 52 Places to Go in 2018 list), you may not think of the Queen City as a foodie destination. But you’d be wrong. Cincinnati is full of delicious food, including several awesome things […]
Last year, I made myself a unicorn cake for my birthday. This year, I wanted something a little different. I thought about baking a hummingbird cake (one of my faves) or trying a new flavor… but then I realized that the perfect cake for a red-headed aquaholic like me was a mermaid cake. An ombre mermaid […]
I’m super excited about my next giveaway, and you should be, too! Today I’m giving away the book Kintsugi Wellness: The Japanese Art of Nourishing Mind, Body, and Spirit, by Candice Kumai. This book is AMAZING and you totally need it in your life. Longtime readers may recall that I’m a bit of a Candice […]
When our Bahrain BFFs asked me to make a 3-shaped cake for their adorable son’s third birthday party, I had some ideas but wasn’t quite sure of the best way to build it. We had both seen 3-shaped cakes on Pinterest, of course, but there didn’t seem to be a lot of tutorials out there. […]
To really understand how important pecan pie is in my life, I need to tell you a story about the first time I went to Afghanistan, in 2008. As soon as I got off the plane at Kandahar Air Field, my friend Kelly (who was the public affairs officer for the unit I was embedding […]
One of the things we weren’t expecting when we moved to Bahrain was an amazing restaurant scene, with everything from roadside shawarma stalls to cool, upscale restaurants that made us feel like we were in New York or L.A. Today, I wanted to share a few of our favorite Bahrain date night* restaurants that combine […]
Near our house in Bahrain, there’s this fabulous bakery and tea room called The Orangery, and they have a beautiful cake called the 1001 Nights cake, which is pistachio with rose buttercream. That sounded amazing to me, and I wanted to create something similar for our rug flop (sort of like a Tupperware party, but […]
I have to apologize for not sharing these cookies with you sooner. They are amazing, and I was keeping them all to myself. Well, not totally to myself. I let my family eat some. These cookies are a much-more-delicious version of those rainbow sprinkle-covered cookies they have at bakeries–the kind that are so beautiful and […]
Pumpkin spice lattes have arrived at Starbucks, apple picking pictures are popping up all over Instagram, and temperatures here in Bahrain have dipped into the double digits (it was 95 today), which can only mean one thing: It’s fall! Let’s break out the canned pumpkin, cinnamon, and nutmeg and make cupcakes. You don’t even need […]