Cake Style Donuts (Baked recipe)

Homemade baked cake style donuts

Several months ago, I bought 3 sets of the large Wilton donut pan!  This pan is awesome!  Each pan will make 6 regular sized cake donuts – and with three pans, I can make the entire bowlful of batter (from 1 box of cake mix) at the same time!  Because I use doctored cake mix for [...]

Mika’s Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce

Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce

It was my brother’s birthday last week and instead of a birthday cake, he requested “Brownie Sundaes with Hot Fudge Sauce”.  I decided to use my favorite brownie recipe as the base for these sundaes and thought that this would be a good time to post an easy-to make hot fudge sauce recipe – one [...]

Homemade Fresh Croissants from Scratch

Homemade croissants from scratch!

For my latest project, I decided to tackle homemade croissants.  I thought I would try using a really easy dough, like the Master Bread dough recipe that I posted not too long ago… because when you are making something complex like croissants… the easier you can make all the steps the better.  But I don’t [...]

Fresh Homemade Pumpkin Pie (from scratch)

Homemade Pumpkin Pie from scratch.

Happy Thanksgiving!  Thanksgiving is almost here… and I’ve been slowly getting ready for the big feast on Thursday.  I plan to make most of the side dishes on Wednesday… but the pumpkin pie and other desserts can be made up 2-3 days in advance to help save time on Thanksgiving Day.  My husband always says, [...]

Stuffed filo pastries

Stuffed Filo Pastries

Here is a quick and easy (but impressive) bite sized dessert/appetizer that you can serve at a holiday party or get together – triangles of filo pastry, stuffed with… whatever you want!  I’ve made these little triangles with savory cheese filling, different types of meat fillings, and my favorite – dessert fillings like Nutella!  This [...]

Basic Homemade Crepes (How to make crepes)

Basic French Crepes

Crepes are the foundation of so many wonderful dishes and desserts!  Sweet crepes can be filled with jam, nutella, chocolate, fruit, whipped cream, custard… there are so many variations.  Just roll up or fold the crepe over whatever filling you like, sprinkle with powdered sugar, and top with whipped cream or ice cream.  Voila, dessert! [...]

Homemade Fresh Cherry Pie

Homemade Fresh Cherry Pie

There’s something about cherry pie made with fresh cherries… sweet and slightly tart, juicy and bright!  Cherries are in season right now… the perfect time for fresh Cherry Pie!!!  My only problem with making cherry pie at home from scratch – is the time it takes to pit the cherries.  What a chore (and a [...]

Individual Mini Peach Pies

Mini Peach Pies

Last week, I was reading my latest issue of Food Network Magazine, and came across a wonderful idea for individual peach pies: use half of a peach to stuff a pastry lined cupcake pan!  This reminded me of the “Mini Apple Pie” recipe that I posted a few years ago… and I thought why not [...]

Bread Pudding in Whiskey Butter Sauce

Bread Pudding with Whiskey Butter Sauce

This past week, most of San Diego county has been on fire.  I think at one point, there were 9 separate fires burning all over the county… and one of the biggest fires was in my city.  Our entire community had to evacuate, with very little notice.  On day 1 of the evacuation, I ran [...]

Carrot Ginger Walnut Sweet Rolls

Carrot Ginger Walnut Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting

Happy Spring!  Here’s one of my new recipes… a carrot ginger-walnut roll, similar to a cinnamon roll.  The dough is made with pureed carrots, and the filling flavored with ground ginger – for a interesting variation on the sweet roll.  Topped with a salty-sweet rich cream cheese frosting, this is a wonderful pastry to serve [...]