Happy Birthday Jamie!

Birthdays are my favorite. They give me an excuse to make a cake, decorate it, and then get it out of the house before I have a chance to eat it. I happened to follow this cake to the celebration though, so eating a piece was absolutely necessary (darn)! One of my best friends, Jamie, turned 18 on Tuesday, and her special request cake was my chocolate cake with peanut butter chocolate chip filling and chocolate icing.

Jamie's mom (one of my favorite moms in the world) made a cake, too. That's what the one on the left is in this next picture...

I wish I had had a chance to take a picture of the inside. The peanut butter chocolate chip filling is the absolute best part. Oh well. You'll just have to use your imagination. So in conclusion...HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY, JAMIE!! And what better way to celebrate than with chocolate cake!?

Vacation Intermission

Now that I'm back from my first of two consecutive vacations, I have a little bit of time to post to the blog. With my being gone so much, I haven't had time for many new recipes. However, I did get some baking done before I left, so here are the products...

The smiley face cupcakes were made for my sweet NEW neighbors, and the colorful ones for my wonderful OLD neighbors.

Over the past few days, I have had some goooood seafood. I took a picture of one of the best meals I had on my trip. It was grilled tilapia with mashed potatoes at Bubba Gumps in Charleston. SO GOOD.

I'm off to Gulf Shores in the morning for a vacation from my vacation. Time for some more sun, sand, and relaxation! 

Summer Salad

As far as food goes, I love ANYTHING with pasta in it. With that said, I love, love, love cold pasta salads.  My mom makes a delicious cold chicken pasta salad. Since I love that one so much, I decided to try this new recipe I found. It has chicken, pasta, and all kinds of veggies in it (onion, two whole bell peppers, broccoli, tomatoes). It also has a vinaigrette dressing mixture and ranch mixed in. It was really good, and it made a lot...so it lasted us quite a few meals!

Fresh Fruit and Halloween

We're quickly approaching the official first day of summer, and that means fresh fruits and vegetables! We stopped at Farmer John's yesterday to pick up some produce, and it was definitely worth it. Not only did it taste good, but it looked so pretty when it was all thrown into the basket that I couldn't resist a picture!

To follow up that healthy combination of foods, I have an UNhealthy dessert to share! I made Halloween Bars for the VBS teacher break room this week. Why are they called Halloween bars? I have no idea. They're basically just magic cookie bars. Whatever they're called, they're good. And here they are...

The Ultimate Cookie Dough Lover's Dessert

Before I begin, in my defense, I was in Greenville on a mission trip last week, and the week before that I was busy getting over graduation and getting ready for the trip. So now that I've given my excuse, I'll go ahead and say I haven't baked in a couple of weeks. Shocking, I know. HOWEVER, these Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies make up for the absence. They're delicious, and like the title of this blog post says, the ultimate cookie dough lover's dessert. They're brownie on bottom and homemade cookie dough (egg free!) on top.

Another excuse for the lack of baked goods...I just got a MacBook Pro and have had a really hard time getting off of it. It's incredibly addicting. But there will be more baking this week because it's VBS week. We all know what that means...teacher break room desserts!