{chocolate} gingerbread bars

My littles love gingerbread -almost to a fault. On more than one occasion I have caught one of them nibbling on the annual gingerbread houses we make and decorate at Christmastime. Lots of times, the houses are created from my mother-in-laws yummy homemade gingerbread, but other rushed years, we have relied on the store bought kit-in-a-box. That's where the 'almost to a fault' incidents come into play -nibbling on the gross, cement like ginger grossness.

 

So that's why I was so happy to discover these chocolate gingerbread bars. The littles can nibble on these gingerbread bars, sparing the store-bought manufactured house variety.

clock {birthday} cake

My daughter's birthday is coming up at the end of this month. When I asked her what she wanted for her cake, she replied, "a clock cake!" Admittedly, its a bit of an odd choice, but hey, it's her birthday right?

I made one for her 4th birthday a few years back. It came about after I let her browse my cake decorating book. It's suggested event is New Year Eve, setting the hands on midnight, but since she was turning four, we adapted it to four o'clock.

With some frosting, peppermint patties, and mini chips, you've got an easy birthday cake!

bbq + ranch deviled eggs

I made these deviled eggs for Thanksgiving appetizers this year. Considering I was preparing three other dishes, I wanted to make something yummy and easy for my appetizers. And yummy they were. And gone in a flash! They are just as easy to make as the traditional variety.

This fun spin on a classic works for any party or season!

classic apple pie

Thanksgiving is only a few weeks, and one of my favorite things to do is plan our Turkey Day dinner menu.

A few years I made this classic apple pie to finish off our terrific turkey dinner. I borrowed some leaf-shaped cookie cutters from my professional cake baking friend and used them to cut out leaves for the top layer of the pie. I simply scored them with a sharp paring knife to add some additional natural vein details.

Serve al a mode with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a sprinkling of cinnamon, and you're sure to impress all your guests.