dessert Archives - Life's Tidbits

30Mar 2015

The Cake Smash That Wasn’t

First birthday cake smash photos are just the cutest! Little hands and smiles covered in frosting just melts my heart. As Jellybean’s birthday approached I got increasingly excited at the idea of her cake smash. On her birthday my parents entertained Jellybean while I got to baking. I made the vanilla cake and pink buttercream frosting {from scratch} and anxiously awaited the hubby getting home from work so we could sing to the birthday girl and then watch Jellybean get her cake smash on.

I envisioned how cute Jellybean would look covered in pink frosting. I hoped I would snap a really cute photo that could be used on her birthday ‘thank you’ cards. The camera was set out on the table, charged and ready to go!

We took some ‘practice’ shots of Jellybean with her princess birthday hat on while she ate her dinner.

The hubby, my parents and my husband’s parent (via Skype) sang ‘Happy Birthday’ and Jellybean just looked at us with that little furrow brow she has when she’s unsure of what’s happening. With the cake in front of her I stepped back to snap what one would only assume would be an adorable face and then …

We realized she didn’t like the cake. No, it wasn’t that she didn’t like the cake, but instead she was afraid … Yup, completely terrified of the cake! We all started pontificating what might be the matter. She was tired, wasn’t hungry, and so on. And while we discussed her face said it all, “someone to make that cake disappear … STAT!

Completely baffled, we took the cake away, put her on the floor with the cake and then my baby girl cried. It’s my cake and I’ll cry if I want to! It was hard not to laugh at how much she most certainly did NOT like the cake. For a child who has never shown any signs of fear, is was a strange sight!!! All I can think when I see this picture is ‘no one puts baby {and a cake} in the corner”. Tee hee hee =)

We tried again a few days later at her winter ONEderland birthday party and met with similar results. A little scrunched up face, followed by some crying and no cake smash.

Despite there being no cake smash for Jellybean’s 1st birthday; we did get one hilarious story to tell over and over again. I’m sure we will embarrass her at some point when we whip out these photos in front of her friends, or better yet a future boyfriend hahahaha {pending Daddy’s approval for her to date, of course}.

Anyone else’s baby not like cake?!

08Jan 2014

Most Popular Posts of 2013

by Nicole ⋅ Leave a Comment

As 2014 kicks into high gear I thought it would be interesting to see what posts were most popular in 2013. I was a bit surprised by the top 5, however maybe I shouldn’t be. No two post were from the same category. which I was pretty happy about. I think it helps “prove” sharing different types of tidbits is working out well for the blog!

Without further ado, here are the 5 most popular posts of 2013 …

Number 1 – {Recipe} Cracked Sugar Cookies

These cookies really are A-MAZING!

Number 2 – DIY Wedding Envelopes with Calligraphy

This post is read consistently each week. It was a pretty easy DIY wedding project and saved us a good chunk of money as well!

Number 3 – French Dresser – Inspiration / Mood Board

The first purchase we made for the nursery was the dresser (and nightstand). Everything else we selected was based on the shabby chic / french inspired dresser.

Number 4 – One Year in a Flash – Birthday Party

The party was decked out with all sorts of details and DIY projects. As co-owner of Baker’s Bliss Kia made all her own cupcakes for the party!

Number 5 – {Pregnancy Tidbits} The 5th Month

I really enjoyed blogging about my pregnancy. It’s fun to go back and read how each month went! Some tidbit I remember so clearly and others I had kind of forgotten about. I’m glad to have the pregnancy log to help me reminisce.

I’m looking forward to seeing what 2014 has in store for Life’s Tidbits. I hope you will continue to follow along and share your tidbits!!

What was your favorite blog post in 2013?

Happy New Year!!

If you enjoyed this post, please add your tidbit by commenting below. Don’t forget you can follow us on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

19Sep 2013

{Recipe} Chocolate Crumb Cake

by Nicole ⋅ 2 Comments

Admission – I am a sweetaholic! Always have been and probably always will be. I’m starting to believe Jellybean, like her mommy-to-be, has a wicked sweet tooth as well. Yes, wicked … I am from Massachusetts and wicked is an adjective, promise! I’ve been tried out a lot of new baked good recipes over the last couple of months. Two of my favorites are classic brownies from Smitten Kitchen and white chocolate brownies from Bake or Break.

Recently I’ve been looking for new bloggers to follow when I stumbled upon Tin’a Chic Corner. The chocolate crumb cake recipe immediately grabbed my attention. Last weekend the husbands were away for a boys “football” weekend so the girls and I decided to do a dinner/game night! I figured it was the perfect time to give this new recipe a whirl.

Ingredients Needed:

white sugar
dark brown sugar (I used light brown sugar since that’s what I had in the cabinet)
ground cinnamon
salt
butter
all-purpose
unsweetened cocoa powder
baking powder
baking soda
egg
skim milk (I substituted 2%)
oil (I think vegetable … at least that’s what I used)
vanilla extract
boiling water
miniature chocolate chips (totally forgot to put these on the cake and it was still delicious!)

Get the recipe and directions from Tina’s Chic Corner here.

Although my crumb topping didn’t come our nearly as pretty as Tina’s the cake was absolutely DELISH! The girls all loved it. We even had seconds. The husband, who isn’t a big chocolate fan (seriously, what’s wrong with him?!), really liked the piece he had when he returned from his trip. I will definitely be making this chocolate crumb cake again … and soon!

Any recipes you’ve tried lately that you’d recommend?

If you enjoyed this post, please add your tidbit by commenting below. Don’t forget you can follow us on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

17Apr 2013

{Recipe} Raspberry-Peanut Butter Chocolate Truffles

by Nicole ⋅ 2 Comments

I’ve recently become somewhat obsessed with making truffles. Right before Easter my friend came over to hang out and was interested in learning how to make truffles. I had been dying to try out this new truffle recipe and decided it was the perfect time. I told her we had to document the process as this was a recipe I had been planning to blog about. So …. we collected all the ingredients, got the camera ready and the truffle making began!

Although I do really enjoy cooking by myself, having someone to chit chat with and lend that extra hand makes the process that much more fun! I’ve been trying to think of a clever/fun name for these truffles, but haven’t come up with anything good yet. I was considering PB&R, but that reminded me too much of the beer PBR … pout. Any good name suggestions out there?

If you decide to go for the larger portion of peanut butter these truffles kind of become a fancier and more decedent version of Reese’s Peanut Butter cups with a hint of Raspberry. Either way the feedback on this little dessert was very positive so it will definitely be staying in the make again (and again hahaha) pile of recipes.

Here we go … it’s truffle yummilious time!!

Ingredients
10 oz semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon raspberry extract
1/4 cup peanut butter (if you are peanut butter LOVER do 1/2 a cup)
10 oz of chocolate for coating like melting chocolate

Directions
Chop the chocolate and put in a heatproof bowl.

Bring the heavy cream and butter to a simmer in a saucepan over medium heat.

Pour cream/butter mixture over the chocolate and let sit until melted, about 10 minutes. Stir with a rubber spatula or whisk until smooth. (If necessary, microwave in 20-second intervals until the chocolate melts.)

Stir in the vanilla and raspberry extracts.

Then stir in the peanut butter. Stir until the ganache is smooth and shiny.

Pour into a shallow baking dish (or leave in the glass bowl as I did) and refrigerate until firm, 1-2 hours or overnight.

Roll tablespoonfuls of the ganache into 24 balls, then return to the refrigerator for at least an hour. Heat your melting chocolate in a double broiler or in a chocolate melting pot. Drop each truffle into the melted chocolate and cover completely. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Place in the refrigerate until firm. Store is airtight container until ready to serve. I like to let them sit at room temperature for 20 minutes before serving to ensure the center is nice and gooey!!

I hope you like this new tidbit!!! I’ve created an easy print recipe card for this recipe.

Click here for a 3×5 index card recipe card.

Recipe adapted from Food Network Magazine.

Happy Cooking!

If you enjoyed this post, please add your tidbit by commenting below. Don’t forget you can follow us on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

21Mar 2013

Ten Tidbits

by Nicole ⋅ 5 Comments

I was rereading the about page for Life’s Tidbits the other day and started thinking about ways to share more random tidbits. Specifically I was focused on “life is a compilation of the small things, tidbits…”. So here goes nothing. Below is a collection of some very random tidbits from the past week or so …

1 – I’ve taken butter out of the refrigerator to soften three days in a row and end up putting it back. I keep meaning/wanting to make sugar cookies, however I think it’s best for my waist line if I don’t have 2 dozen cookies laying around for me to eat … I mean the last time I had them around I started eating them for breakfast on a Friday! Truth!!

2 – Texts You Don’t Want To Get From Your Parent – #5 is pretty darn funny! #7 is fabulous. #8 goes out to my sister … :) and omg please don’t miss #12 … scratch that read them ALL!! 90% of these made me LOL … I am laughing so hard that the dog is confused and is barking at me.

3 – I have been battling a case of writers block over the last couple of weeks. I feel like I’m finally coming out of it, but blogger writing block is a first for me. I found it really frustrating that the words just weren’t coming to me.

4 – Revenge has become one of my favorite TV shows and I don’t really know anyone else who watches it. Literally I’ve been trying to recruit people to watch it for a few months now so I can chat about it with someone. I managed to get my sister all sucked into the show, but haven’t been successful with anyone else. Do YOU watch Revenge? … oh my I think I’ve taken to recruiting via blog posts (hang head in shame)!

5 – I think my new recipe for March is going to be a Chocolate Peanut Butter and Raspberry Truffle. I wanted to call it PB&R, but that kind of reminds me of the beer PBR instead of of the PB&J sandwich I was going for. Any suggestion for a cute name for my new truffle?

6 – Lightroom is my new favorite photo editing software thanks to my friend Sara. Don’t get me wrong I am certainly not ready to part ways with PhotoShop, however Lightroom makes editing photos super fun and easy.

7 – Lofty goals of getting back into running came to a screeching halt after just one run. In just a few short weeks there will be no more “it’s just so cold outside” excuses … hopefully the spring weather will help my running motivation levels!

8 – One of my oldest friends is coming to visit me next week!!! She did this horrible thing about a year ago and move all the way to the west coast. It just isn’t the same without her in DC. I am super excited to spend some quality time with her next week.

9 – When I learned that Google Reader was “closing its doors” (so to speak) on July 1st I kind of freaked out. Google Reader has been like an iv for reading blogs, new and trashy celebrity gossip. I use the mobile app as well as the bower based version more than once a day. Not to worry I found a replacement I do believe (… more to come). Were you as upset as I was to learn Google Reader will be no more?

10 – This post has zero pictures. I wonder if anyone is going to read it … I mean everyone likes a little eye candy. Maybe I should add some pictures in next week … thoughts?

BONUS TIDBIT – Once tomorrow’s blog post goes live I will have blogged 4 (YES FOUR!) times this week. I think that’s a new record. I’m pretty stoked. =)

What random tidbit do you have to add this week?

If you enjoyed this post, please add your tidbit by commenting below. Don’t forget you can follow us on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

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Tag Archives: Dessert

The Cake Smash That Wasn’t

Most Popular Posts of 2013

{Recipe} Chocolate Crumb Cake

{Recipe} Raspberry-Peanut Butter Chocolate Truffles

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