brunch – DessertedPlanet.com

Treetop Friends Baby Shower

August 23, 2012 1 Comment

A couple of weekends ago I had the extreme joy of hosting my little sister’s baby shower. I am beyond thrilled that she is having a baby…it’s just her and I in our family and she is the first to have a baby/grandbaby, so this is pretty exciting for us and our parents! In just a little less than a month we’ll be welcoming baby Micah into the world and you can bet he will be spoiled to death. And I will probably spoil him the most! At least I’m gonna try. Haha.

The shower was a brunch and held at my parent’s church. We did a delicious breakfast casserole and fresh fruit, along with a dessert table that I planned months ago. It all came together perfectly and everyone had a great time. So wonderful having the opportunity to bless the parents-to-be. Great memories.

The shower was themed after the nursery, which is going to be Treetop Friends. Think trees, bird’s nests, owls, etc…

Here is the AMAZINGLY detailed cake by Celebrations by Sonja. It seriously looked just like the invitation. This is all buttercream, no fondant and I can honestly say her cakes not only look fabulous but are probably some of the best tasting I have every had.

Now for the dessert table…

“Treeknot” Mini Cinnamon Rolls

A close-up of all the yumminess.

The macaroon “bird’s nests” were delicious and it was the first time I’d ever made them. I got the recipe here and just tweaked a little by omitting the Nutella, adding some almond extract and filling them with blueberries and drizzling melted white chocolate over the top. Yum.

Such a fabulous time…now we wait for baby Micah to make his grand entrance!

Breakfast, Desserts, Recipes

The Best of Brunch for Father’s Day

June 15, 2012 No Comments

the-ladies-brunch-burger — Photo Credit: Foodbeast.com

Brunch, it’s what every dad wants. Trust me on this. Sure, when you ask him what he wants for Father’s Day he’ll throw out the usual grilling/golfing/fishing ideas, but what do men REALLY want?? Food. Homemade, from scratch, fill-your-belly FOOD.

Now I know that typically the word “brunch” invokes thoughts of girly tea rooms and fine china and quiche and ya know, things that don’t sound too manly. But throw in a couple meats (bacon, sausage, etc) and some kind of breakfast casserole (one with eggs and hashbrowns and loads of cheese and absolutely NO vegetables…unless it’s jalapenos..those are manly) and brunch is no longer just for the ladies.

And I’m sorry, but it just wouldn’t be brunch without something sweet. Luckily, I have a few recipes that would fit the bill for any dad’s mid-morning sweet tooth. Like these Mini Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut Muffins.

Or maybe he’s a health nut…this Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola is uber-healthy and most importantly delicious. Great plain, with milk or over greek yogurt with fresh berries. Yum.

For the chocoholic, these Triple Chocolate Muffins will totally give him his fix.

Another healthy AND gluten-free option–Blueberry Almond Meal Muffins.

Lastly, Berry Bread Pudding (minus the ice cream..I mean, this IS breakfast after all). My personal favorite.

Really, you can’t go wrong with any of these options. Pick one (or two!) and get to baking!

Breakfast, Desserts, Muffins, Recipes

Blackberry, Almond and White Chocolate Muffins

May 21, 2012 No Comments

Every time I walk into the grocery store lately, all the beautiful berries are calling my name. Strawberries, blackberries and raspberries are just begging to be bought right now and I just had to find a recipe that I could use some of them in. I was struggling to find something that wasn’t a pie or layered cake when all the sudden I remembered a recipe I had made years ago for Strawberry Almond Muffins. I also remembered it was very good so I thought maybe I’d give it a shot…but with a few changes, of course. 😉

Instead of strawberries I decided to use blackberries and also wanted to add some white chocolate. The original recipe called for all-purpose and whole wheat flour but I wanted a slightly lighter muffin so I went with cake flour in place of the whole wheat. What resulted was one of the most delicious, tender and tastiest muffins ever! Now you could say this muffin was verging on cupcake status but hey, I see nothing wrong with that! All I know is I loved these and if you need a recipe to use up some berries, I encourage you to try this one! Feel free to substitute raspberries or sliced strawberries, if you’d prefer. You really can’t go wrong with whatever you choose.

Enjoy!

Blackberry, Almond and White Chocolate Muffins

Ingredients

1 c. (2 sticks) Unsalted Butter, softened
1½ c. Granulated Sugar
4 Large Eggs
1 T. Almond Extract
1 T. Pure Vanilla Extract
1 c. Whole Milk, room temperature
2½ c. All-Purpose Flour
1 c. Cake Flour
1½ T. Baking Powder
½ t. Salt
1 c. Sliced, Toasted Almonds
1 c. White Chocolate Chips
2 c. Blackberries (or more if you'd like)

Instructions

Line 2, 12-cup regular muffin tins with cupcake liners. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Beat in almond and vanilla extracts.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder and salt. Beat ⅓ of the flour mixture until the butter/sugar mixture, then beat in half the milk. Beat in another ⅓ of the flour. Beat in the final half of the milk and then the last ⅓ of the flour. Fold in white chocolate chips and almonds. Very gently fold in the blackberries and divide the batter evenly between the muffin tins (some of mine were quite full so you could probably get more like 25-28 muffins out of this recipe).
Bake in preheated oven for 22-25 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean. Let cool completely on a wire rack or eat while they are still a bit warm...they are VERY good like that. (I topped mine with a little white chocolate and single blackberry for the photos..up to you if you want to do that but be sure they have cooled completely if you do.)

Notes

Makes 24, regular size muffins.

Wordpress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe