carrot & oat muffins

My two biggest struggles when it comes to feeding my kids is breakfast & packing lunch.

Breakfast is always hit or miss, especially for my little one...and a filling breakfast makes a big difference on how our morning goes!

Lunch is a whole other struggle...luckily my older son is pretty easy-going, but that doesn’t mean I want to send him to school with the same pre-packaged food everyday, either.

That’s why I love these muffins so much.  They’re a (kid) crowd pleaser no matter the age or time of day.  The biggest bonus of these muffins? CARROTS.  A veggie I don’t have to force feed my children?!  SIGN ME UP.

• These are pretty easy to mix together, I use my silicone muffin molds & they pop out beautifully. (They’re amazing and I don’t know what took me so long to get them, so if you don’t have them you need to just pull the trigger and get some!  ...SERIOUSLY)
•  I usually make 12 regular size muffins & about 16 mini muffins.  I like getting both sizes out of one batch of this.
• Don’t over mix your batter once you add in your dry ingredients! Once they’re combined, stop and use a cookie scoop to fill your molds.

Adapted from Yellow Bliss Road

Tips for Naked Cakes

Hey guys! I wanted to share some tips for beginners to making those super popular "naked cakes".  My sister in law & I made the one for my mom's wedding, which turned out awesome, so let's shrink it down & make a cake for your next special event!

The first step is greasing your cake pans. You need your cakes to come out perfectly and the best way to to that is rub with Crisco then coat with flour. Fill your pans up half-way so they're nice and thick.

If you don't have cake-pan wrappy things to make them level, just use a serrated knife to even them out, in flatness & thickness as well...you want the layers to look even.

You want a thick and sturdy frosting to hold up those layers.  Sidenote: For the big wedding cake, we used dowels to help hold everything up.

Start by spreading a little frosting on your cake stand before your first layer to hold the cake on.

Using a big round frosting tip, pipe a generous layer of frosting on, extending aaaalmost to the edge.

Check up on how even your layers are stacking up, and if necessary, add more frosting in.

Even out any frosting that may have been squished out of the sides.

For the top we did like on the wedding cake, pipe some round mounds on, and using a wide knife or off-set spatula, place in the middle of your mound and gently pull the frosting into the center.

Top with flowers, cake topper, sprinkles, or anything fun and you're set to party!

YUM!

I love hitting up Target after a big holiday to get some sweet deals.

This year I went after Easter, & among other things snatched up a doughnut pan. (Always wanted one.)

I made some the other morning & while they don't taste like fried doughnuts...these are a teensy bit healthier, more filling & stinkin' delicious!

I used this recipe for the batter & tossed them in powdered sugar & cinnamon sugar.

*for the cinnamon sugar, I used some cooled melted butter lightly brushed on, then tossed in ziploc bag*