Our What’s Baking host this month, Beantown Baker, chose sprinkles as our theme! We could either bake something that had sprinkles in it, or decorate a baked good with sprinkles.

March also happens to be my birthday month! Actually, today is my birthday. No, I’m not telling you how old I am.

Now, I don’t know about you, but when I think of decorating with sprinkles, I think birthday cake. I was thinking about past birthdays as a child, and I always had a yellow cake with chocolate icing. Then another memory popped into my mind.

My father, a law enforcement officer, worked the overnight shift for much of my childhood and teenage years. He was often just getting home from work when I woke up to get ready for school. On his way home on the morning of my birthday, he would stop and get me a birthday donut — always a chocolate glazed, my favorite.

So, for What’s Baking, I decided to bake my own birthday donuts. I slightly adapted a recipe I found on RecipeBoy.com, who adapted his recipe from Tasty Kitchen. The resulting donut reminds me of both the yellow birthday cakes of my childhood and the chocolate glazed birthday donuts from my father. The yellow cake mix adds the yellow cake flavor and the cake texture. The chocolate glaze reminds me of the chocolate frosting from my birthday cakes.

The sprinkles I used were are “confetti” sprinkles from a Wilton variety pack, available at Target and most craft stores. You can substitute just about any non-chocolate cake mix you like (the original recipe uses Funfetti). I wouldn’t use a chocolate mix without adding additional cocoa powder to the batter. Using chocolate cake mix alone wouldn’t provide enough chocolate flavor.

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As 2012 draws to a close, I find myself reflecting back over the year, its highs and lows.

Some highs:

• Getting back to work, even if only part-time
• My blog redesign!
• We took our first vacation in six years
• Liam’s first birthday
• And my favorite Christmas present — an engagement ring!

Some lows:

• With me working only part-time, we’ve struggled financially at times 
• We’re still in our crappy apartment
• One of our dogs is having some health issues, and it’s a reminder that she’s getting older

I’ve made some goals for 2013:

• Find a full-time, permanent position
• Make an effort to eat healthier and exercise more often

What were your highs and lows? What are you goals for 2013? 

I also thought it would be fun to check look back over the past year, and feature the top 12 most popular posts. These posts, this whole blog, are popular because of YOU, and I really do appreciate every single pageview, every single comment, every single share. Knowing that you read, share, and try these recipes yourselves makes it all the more enjoyable for me.

I’ve blocked the photos on this page from being pinned; if you’d like to pin them, please click on the link to the original blog post and pin from that source.

At #12: Eggnog Ice Cream

At #11: Cheese Tortellini with Pumpkin Alfredo Sauce

At #10: Alton Brown’s Baked Mac and Cheese

At #9: Orange Creamsicle Martini

At #8: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

At #7: Mulled Apple Cider Donuts

At #6: Gingerbread House

At #5: Peppermint Marshmallows

At #4: Strawberry Macarons with White Chocolate Ganache Filling

At #3: Baked Cheeseburger Eggrolls

At #2: Tiramisu Cupcakes

And at #1: Baked Pumpkin Donuts with Vanilla Glaze

Happy New Year to all of my readers!

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Readers, I hope you all enjoyed reading about these Christmas treats as I did finding new and interesting recipes to share with you.

I hope you clicked through the link-up photos and found even more new recipes, and more new blogs to read.

I wanted to post a round-up, not only of the recipes that I posted, but also highlight 12 recipes from others that I can’t wait to try myself.

In the collage above, the top photo is rich, creamy egg nog ice cream, which would be fabulous served alongside a slice of apple pie for Christmas dessert.

In the next row, on the left, is crisp Italian-style vanilla bean biscotti. Vanilla is the star ingredient in these cookies, with the inclusion of vanilla extract AND a whole vanilla bean, both pod and seeds.

Top center of that row is gingerbread sandwich cookies with maple cream filling, a traditional Christmas flavor with a twist.

Bottom center of that row is homemade mulling spice sachets, made for a fraction of the cost of store-bought!

Top right of the row is decadent caramel shortbread bars, and bottom right in that row is peppermint marshmallows. Store-bought marshmallows just can’t compare to homemade!

In the last row, top left is homemade peanut butter cups, treats that I made with my grandmother when I was a child.

Bottom left in the last row is inside-out caramel apples, a more elegant presentation of a childhood favorite.

Top center is mini maple pumpkin pies, perfect for large parties where no one wants to be the first to cut into the pie, and bottom center is cranberry white chocolate cookies, another traditional Christmas flavor.

Yes, that’s only 11 treats. I skipped a week in early November, too busy with a wedding cake, a gingerbread house, and my son’s birthday party.

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On to my favorites from other bloggers!

From Week 1, Candy Cane Brownies from Roxana’s Home Baking! I love fudgy brownies, I love peppermint and chocolate. These are so festive!

Photo by Roxana’s Home Baking

From Week 2, Browned Butter Shortbread Crisps from Vintage Kitchen Notes! Shortbread is one of my favorite cookies (appropriate, since they are Scottish cookies, and I am half Scottish). Browning butter brings a whole different flavor to the table, and I can’t wait to try them!

Photo by Vintage Kitchen Notes

From Week 3, Pumpkin White Chocolate Chip Cookies from Alida’s Kitchen! I love, love, love pumpkin. Need I say more?

Photo by Alida’s Kitchen

From Week 4, Nutella Magic in the Middles from Sweet as Sugar Cookies! Prior to starting my blog in 2009, I’d never heard of “magic in the middle” cookies. Actually, I’d never heard of Nutella, either. I’ve still never had a Magic in the Middle (but I have tried Nutella), and these sound right up my alley!

Photo by Sweet as Sugar Cookies

From Week 5, Pumpkin Snickerdoodles from Sweet as Sugar Cookies! When I first read the title, I thought it sounded weird, but when I gave it more thought, snickerdoodles are covered in cinnamon sugar. Pumpkin and cinnamon go naturally together. How could these not be awesome?

Photo by Sweet as Sugar Cookies

From Week 6, Apple Cinnamon Streusel Bars from Meal Planning Magic! They just sound so . . . comforting. Warm apples. Streusel topping. Drizzled icing. It’s like wrapping yourself in a warm, fuzzy blanket.

Photo by Meal Planning Magic

From Week 7, S’mores Truffles from Cooking to Perfection! Who would you think you could create a creamy graham cracker filling? Wrap it around a mini marshmallow, dip the whole thing in chocolate . . . Yum!

Photo by Cooking to Perfection

From Week 8, Caramel Cupcakes by Baked Bree! If you’re tired of cupcakes that simply serve as a vehicle to move tons of frosting, you might enjoy these cupcakes with a caramel glaze.

Photo by Baked Bree

From Week 9, Peppermint Bark Ice Cream from Delicious Meliscious! I’m not the only nut who eats ice cream in the winter! The ice cream sounds delicious and is so pretty, too!

Photo by Delicious Meliscious

From Week 10, Skinny Eggnog Pie from Kitchen Meets Girl! I love how she took a lightened-up homemade eggnog recipe and turned it into a pie with a gingersnap crust. Not exactly diet food, but with so many tempting treats, it’s nice to indulge in something a little lighter now and then.

Photo by Kitchen Meets Girl

From Week 11, Cookie Dough Fudge from Cooking to Perfection. Cookie dough is my weakness. I never get the full yield of cookies from a chocolate chip cookie recipe, because I always eat at least two cookies’ worth of dough. Maybe if/when I get salmonella someday, I’ll stop. Or, I could make this fudge and get my fix.

Photo by Cooking to Perfection

From Week 12, Peppermint Cake Roll from Baking and Boys! I was considering a different version of this dessert for my last post of the link-up, and I’m glad I did the ice cream instead, only so that I didn’t duplicate someone else’s efforts. Cake rolls are fun to make, easy to serve, and impresses guests!

Photo by Baking and Boys

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Welcome, and thanks for visiting the Cookies for Kelly Online Bake Sale! This auction-style bake sale is to raise funds for Kelly, a friend and fellow mom of a December 2011 baby. Kelly’s home on the eastern side of central New Jersey was flooded during Hurricane Sandy, and she lost just about everything.

I put out a request for donations just 10 days ago, and the response has been overwhelming. I’m so grateful to everyone who has offered to help, from those who spread my request for to donations, to those who donated baked treats, and those who helped advertise the bake sale. 

If you are unable to bid on an item or make a direct donation, I hope you’ll help me spread the words about today’s bake sale by sharing this post by email, on Facebook, Twitter (hash tag #CookiesForKelly) or other social networks. 

Let’s down to business! Here’s how it works: 

• Bidding is open to U.S. residents only. 
• Each item is numbered. Each listing has the donated item’s name, a short description, a link to the recipe (if available), and a photo. If you have additional questions about any item, leave a comment on this blog post or send me an email at DNCWWO{at}gmail dot com. Each listing also has a “starting bid.” In order for your bid to qualify, you must meet or exceed the starting bid.  
• How to bid: Send me an email at DNCWWO{at}gmail dot com that includes your name, the listing name and/or number, and your bid amount. Bids placed in the comment section of this blog post will not count. 
• Bidding opens at 9:00 AM EST. Bids placed before that time will not count. Bidding ends at 5:00 PM EST. Bids placed after that time will not count. In case of a dispute, I will defer to the timestamp on the email. 
• I will update each listing with the current high bid throughout the day (the frequency will depend on how quickly bids come in). The highest bid at 5:00 PM EST will win the donated item. I will contact each winner to arrange for the bid to be paid via PayPal and get a shipping address, which will be forwarded to the baker who donated the item. Winners will have 24 hours from receipt of the winning notification email to submit their donation via PayPal. 
• A few people have asked about making a donation without placing a bid. If you’d like to do that, please send me an email at DNCWWO{at}gmail dot com. 

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Don’t forget that bidding for the Online Bake Sale opens Monday, 9:00 a.m. EST, and closes Monday, 5:00 p.m. EST.

Here’s a sneak peek of some of the items you’ll be bidding on:

Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies from Does Not Cook Well With Others

Lemon White Chocolate, Coconut and Cranberry Cookies

Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies

Monster Magic Cookie Bars from Kate’s Recipe Box

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies from The Cookaholic Wife

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Dirty Girl Scouts from Cooking with Frazzoo

Lemon Crinkles from Simple Gourmet Cooking

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies from Eva Bakes

And finally, a variety pack, including one dozen of each of the following:

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Butterscotch Chip Cookies

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Thanks for looking! Please come back Monday to bid on your favorites. 

Also, please spread the word about the bake sale with your friends and family! 

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I posted last Friday about a woman named Kelly. We met through a forum for pregnant women due in December 2011. Her baby was born two weeks after Liam.

Her home was in the path of Hurricane Sandy, and she lost everything. I started planning this online bake sale to raise funds to help her and her family. 

Today is the last day to contact me with a donation for the bake sale. Details on how to participate, as a baker or a bidder, are below. 

Generous people donate baked goods. 

On the day of the bake sale, each baked good is listed in a blog post, with a photo, a description, and a starting price. People can bid on those baked goods by leaving a comment on the blog post. I will update the blog post all day with the current winning bid of each item. 

At the end of the day, the winner sends the amount they bid to me via PayPal. I will then send the entire amount to Kelly. 

The winner will also send me their name and address, and the person who donated the baked goods will have two weeks to ship their donated item to the winner. 

The bake sale will be held on Monday, November 12, 2012. 

Bidding will begin at 9 a.m. EST. Bidding will close at 5 p.m. EST. 

Winning bidders will have until 11:59 p.m. EST on Monday, November 12, 2012 to send their payment via PayPal. 

Bakers will ship the donated treats to the winner no later than Monday, November 26, 2012. 

If you’d like to donate baked goods, please send me an email with the name of the item you are donating, a photo, a short description, and if available, a link to the blogged recipe (a blog post is optional – it does not need to be an item you’ve blogged before and those without blogs are encouraged to donate baked goods as well). 

Please send no later than Friday, November 9th, 2012. 

If you’d like to bid on a baked good, check out my blog on Saturday, November 10th for a list of baked goods that will be available. 

Then come back Monday, November 12th, to place your bids! You may bid on as many baked goods as you like. You will only be responsible for paying for any bids you win.

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Online communities can become powerful groups. As participants share more details of their lives, they inevitably grow closer together. When something negatively affects one member, it affects all the members. 

When I found out I was pregnant with Liam, I joined a community for pregnant women, specifically a group for women with December 2011 due dates. Members migrated off the site and into a Facebook group, where private details could be shared more freely. 

We know each other’s birthdays, our children’s birthdays. We celebrate achievements, and support each other through hard times. We knew that a dozen or so members of our group were in Hurricane Sandy’s path. And when word came that one member, Kelly, lost everything, we rallied around her to help. Thus, this online bake sale to raise money for Kelly.

Generous people donate baked goods. 

On the day of the bake sale, each baked good is listed in a blog post, with a photo, a description, and a starting price. People can bid on those baked goods by leaving a comment on the blog post. I will update the blog post all day with the current winning bid of each item. 

At the end of the day, the winner sends the amount they bid to me via PayPal. I will then send the entire amount to Kelly. The winner will also send me their name and address, and the person who donated the baked goods will have two weeks to ship their donated item to the winner. 

The bake sale will be held on Monday, November 12, 2012. 

Bidding will begin at 9 a.m. EST. Bidding will close at 5 p.m. EST. 

Winning bidders will have until 11:59 p.m. EST on Monday, November 12, 2012 to send their payment via PayPal.

Bakers will ship the donated treats to the winner no later than Monday, November 26, 2012. 

If you’d like to donate baked goods, please send me an email with the name of the item you are donating, a photo, a short description, and if available, a link to the blogged recipe (a blog post is optional – it does not need to be an item you’ve blogged before and those without blogs are encouraged to donate baked goods as well). Please send no later than Friday, November 9th, 2012. 

If you’d like to bid on a baked good, check out my blog on Saturday, November 10th for a list of baked goods that will be available. Then come back Monday, November 12th, to place your bids! You may bid on as many baked goods as you like. You will only be responsible for paying for any bids you win. 

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On the recommendation of a friend, I checked out a meal-planning website called PepperPlate.com. I had been using FoodOnTheTable.com. Truth be told, I like both sites. 

Food on the Table imports the sale pages from grocery stores near your home, and suggests recipes based on the sales. You can indicate meal preferences (specific ingredients, types of meals like soup, dietary restrictions like vegetarian, etc.). Food on the Table provides recipes, but also lets you input your own. It creates a grocery list from your recipes, organized by type (meats, produce, bread, etc.), and you can easily remove items already in your pantry or fridge. You can also add other items that you need, but may not appear in your recipes. You can then print your grocery list (and your recipes, if you choose). The site also has a mobile app for smartphones. 

Cons — you must type, or copy and paste, your recipes into Food on the Table, which is time-consuming if you prefer to use your own recipes rather than theirs. They recently updated the site’s layout, and the “Create Recipe” page is difficult to find. The site is also not free. 

PepperPlate does not import sale pages. Its biggest advantages over Food on the Table are that the site is completely free, and the ease of importing recipes from supported websites. Most of the big recipe sites (FoodNetwork.com, BonAppetit.com, etc.) are supported. Simply copy the URL of the recipe into PepperPlate, and it stores the ingredients, directions, and a picture (if there is one). You may also type or copy and paste recipes from unsupported sites (like blogs). The site creates a printable, organized grocery list. PepperPlate also has a smartphone app. Another feature that Pepperplate offers that Food on the Table does not is the option to plan a menu (rather than just a weekly meal plan). This allows you to organize recipes for special occasions, like a holiday meal, and create a grocery list for the meal. 

Though Food on the Table makes it easier to plan meals from the grocery store sales, I found Pepperplate more user-friendly and intuitive to use and I simply had the local circular open in another browser window. So, below is our weekly meal plan, courtesy of PepperPlate.com. All recipes (except the Trader Joe’s Gnocchi) are from FoodNetwork.com. 

• Sunday (breakfast) — Steak and Eggs with Beer-Molasses Steak Sauce
• Monday— Chicken and Mushrooms with Couscous
• Tuesday— Pesto Pork with Polenta
• Wednesday— Salmon with Lemon, Capers, and Rosemary
• Thursday— Steak Pizzaiola
• Friday— Honey-Glazed Chicken Drumsticks with Sugar Snap Peas
• Saturday— Trader Joe’s Gnocchi Alla Sorrentina

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It’s here — my first Mother’s Day. Dave was planning on taking me out to brunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Cantina dos Segundos in the Northern Liberties neighborhood in Philadelphia. But Dave’s mom wanted us to come visit, and so did my mom. It would have been way too stressful to do all three things in one day, making sure the baby got his regular nursing and nap sessions, and making sure the dogs were taken care of. 

So Dave decided to invite his mother and step-father and my parents to our apartment for brunch. I got excited and sort-of — ok, I totally took over the planning. Dave intended it to be a day off for me, but I love to cook and brunch is my favorite meal, so hosting it was a treat. Dave did most of the cleaning and cared for the baby so that I could prep and cook the dishes. 

First hurdle: what to serve? More specifically, how to narrow down all the delicious recipes so that I didn’t end up with enough food to feed a football team? I checked the Mother’s Day features on FoodNetwork.com, Epicurious.com, Delish.com, and a few others (I always tend to overload myself with information and options). I bookmarked recipes that sounded good. I narrowed it down to six recipes (yes, still enough to feed a football team, but think of all the yummy leftover treats to eat throughout the week!). 

It was a fun afternoon, the food was delicious, and the baby was only mildly cranky (a combination of teething and stranger anxiety). I got lovely cards from The Mister, the baby, the dogs, my parents, and The Mister’s mom and step-dad. 

I hope all of my readers enjoyed this Mother’s Day!

I’ll be posting the recipes we enjoyed throughout the week: muffins, cinnamon rolls, French toast casserole, and mango bellinis on Thursday! 

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