Meet my mom. Sweet. Selfless. Caring. Wonderful. This woman is super special!

For mom’s day I picked her up and drove out to Somis for some berry picking at the Underwood Family Farms. This is something that I have never done before (and also happens to be on my 101 in 1001 list!) so I was looking forward to it. I was very pleased with the experience and enjoyed the one on one time with my mom. We spent about an hour picking both raspberries and blueberries for our cobbler.

It was a beautiful day in the high 70s and the sun was shining down on these beauties. While I didn’t so much enjoy the bees around the raspberries, it was a little bit of an adventure for my mom and I as we scoured our way through the long lanes of berries. After about 10 minutes I realized the bees were pretty comfortable with people walking around and started picking without hesitation.

When we got home we made a yummy “cobbler” for dessert after our dinner. I decided to keep it simple and do it dump cake style. I have never done this recipe with fresh fruit before but it turned out wonderfully.

Fresh Berry Dump Cake (Cobbler)

• 1 box Yellow Cake Mix of choice
• 2-3 cups of Berries (enough to cover the whole bottom of a 9×13″ pan)
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 2 sticks Butter (cold, sliced)
• 1/2 cup Brown Sugar *optional
• Vanilla Ice Cream — Recommended!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray or butter a 9×13″ pan and pour berries (any mixture) over the bottom of the pan until complete covered. Sprinkle the berries and let sit for about 10 minutes. Sprinkle the cake mix over the berries and slice your butter into 9 thin slices. Arrange the butter slices to cover the cake mix layer and sprinkle with brown sugar if so desired. Bake in the oven for approximately 50-60 minutes, until the berries are bubbling and the cake mix/brown sugar is golden.

Serve with ice cream and enjoy!

Happy Mother’s Day everyone!

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Honestly, I did not know that a frosting this glorious existed…

The inspiration for these cupcakes — chocolate dipped strawberries.

Chocolate cake
+
Chocolate Chips
+
Strawberry Meringue Buttercream
=
LOVE

Okay, so yes I used a chocolate cake mix (chocolate fudge to be exact), but again I have to thank my back pain for the lack of “from scratch” recipes lately.  But I couldn’t resist this amazing Strawberry Meringue Buttercream recipe from Ms. Martha Stewart. So glad that I did and I will never go back!

Is it quick & easy? Not so much. You need to have a candy thermometer and patience but can I tell you it is beyond worth it! This fluffy piece of heaven was the perfect topper to this chocolate cupcake! It is light, fluffy and tasted like a real strawberry! Many compliments to this recipe and I will be handwriting this onto a recipe card and permanently adding it to my collection of frosting recipes.

Enjoy!

Strawberry Meringue Buttercream

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I believe that everyone should have a Saturday morning that involves the scene above every once and awhile. You know those mornings you just wake up and you feel like making a real breakfast? This was one of those mornings.

I can not deny that one of my favorite things to do on a Saturday is snuggle up to my warm hubby and chat about the previous week or the upcoming day; this usually ends with me all in love and wanting to do loving things for my man… most likely something yummy!

Yes, this was a Pinterest find and yes, I have been thinking about it from the moment I pinned it! If you go to the original recipe and check out her amazing photos, you really won’t blame me. The only fruit I had on hand was strawberries so I decided to throw some chocolate chips in for variety for fun.

Honey Cloud Pancakes

• 2 large egg and 2 egg white
• 1/2 cup of warmed milk
• 1/2 cup of flour
• 1 pinch of salt
• 4 teaspoons of honey
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 – 2 tablespoon of butter
• Soft fruits
• Honey, Maple Syrup, Whipped Cream (for toppings)

1. Heat the oven to 400°F
2. Slice your fruits (Strawberries, peaches, pears, etc)
3. In one bowl whisk egg whites until it is white and peaky (I used our personal blender, it was so fast!)
4. In another bowl, mix the the other two whole eggs with flour, salt, honey, and vanilla and then whisk in the warm milk
5. Heat a 9″ oven proof frying pan over low/medium heat (I used my clad iron skillet)
6. Melt one tablespoon of butter in the hot pan
7. Gently fold the egg white into the batter with a metal spoon
8. Pour the batter in the hot pan and cook for a few minutes until starting to set at the very edge (Approx. 3-4 minutes over medium/low heat)
9. Sprinkle some fruit on top
10. Place the skillet in the hot oven for 12 -14 minutes until puffed up and golden
11. Drizzle with honey, maple syrup and / or whipped cream to serve

TIP: Don’t let your pan get too hot before you add your butter — this is why I say over medium/low heat. My pan got too hot because it was sitting on the flame for too long and the butter burned! I had to take it off, clean and let cool before moving forward with the pancake!

This recipe is going in the recipe box for years to come. It will be much easier the next time around, now that I have figured out my own little tricks (I am new to the clad iron skillet), so I see this being a part of many more Saturday’s to come. Enjoy!

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Hi Friends! I have an invitation for you all to join me on Pinterest!

I have created 2 new boards which are specifically for the purpose of sharing the pins that WE have actually tried out. One board is for recipes and another is for projects. I would like to invite you to these to boards as contributors and hope we can end up with a great collection of tried and true (or terrible) recipes and projects.

The idea is to re-pin any of the pins that you have tried and include a review of sorts or even tips in the comments to help the next person out. I think that this will be especially helpful with recipes. For example:

So who is with me?!

If you are interested either send me a message on Facebook or leave a comment here with your email address so that I can add you as a contributor.

Hope you will join me — there are no expectations or commitments — just re-pin when you feel like sharing! Happy Pinning!

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Who said you can’t dress up cake mix cupcakes??

With my back pain, I am doing less and less from scratch. I ended up buying the German Chocolate  Cake mix, Fudge Frosting and Coconut Pecan Frosting already made. To dress it up, I used the star tip to make a sort of scalloped border around the edge of the cupcake. I then used my Pampered Chef small scoop to scoop in some of the coconut pecan frosting. TIP: I put this frosting in the fridge for about 30 minutes so that it would keep it’s shape, it probably would have worked better if I left it in a little longer.

Aren’t they cute? I just love coming across new ways to do frosting on cupcakes. Here are a couple more ideas that I found via Pinterest recently.

Dollops of frosting on frosting! from Sweet Tooth; Fluffy flower technique from Cupcakes Take the Cake

Heart filled insides from Glorious Treats

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