This is one of my all-time favorite recipes to serve for brunch or a Sunday morning breakfast.  The Jam and Cream Cheese Braid is also beautiful for Holidays!  My grandma used to make this on Christmas and it quickly became a family favorite.  I tend to make it quite often because it’s SO easy and looks like you spent hours in the kitchen.

The recipe involves yeast, but DON’T be afraid!  I know working with yeast can be intimidating, but all you need to remember is that yeast likes the same temperature that we do.  When you are dissolving it in water, you want to use water that is the temperature of bath water.  If it’s too cool the yeast won’t activate and rise.  If the water is too hot, it will kill the yeast.  Test your water with your finger.  If you wouldn’t set foot in a tub of water that temperature, adjust it until it feels just right.

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I decided that my Snickerdoodle cookie recipe needed some updated pictures today.  My brain has been playing tricks with me lately and movement is not my friend.  I was trying to think of things to do that didn’t involve reading, scrolling, watching tv, videos, excessive movement, or too much thinking. (#strokebrain)  Photography seems pretty harmless and I can type with my eyes closed, for the most part.  Plus, I just found out that my son’s girlfriend and family haven’t tried Snickerdoodle cookies.  Crazy!

Happy baking, friends!

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This year, I made gingerbread cookies, snowflake shaped sugar cookies, spritz, spreads, peanut-butter cup-ish cookie bars, and peanut butter cookies with Hershey kisses.

If you are interested in any of these recipes, just type the name of the cookie into the search bar on the blog and they should pop up.

Ok, now I’m really hungry for cookies.  I guess I’ll go chop some veggies for my snack instead.  Boy, I miss the Holidays!

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It’s my week for treats and staff room clean up at my school this week and I made some Snickerdoodles to bring in to work.  I’ve shared the recipe on here before, but it never hurts to share it again.

1 Cup Shortening
1 and 1/2 Cups Sugar
2 Eggs
2 and 3/4 Cups Flour
2 tsp Cream of Tartar
1 tsp Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
Cinnamon and Sugar to roll cookies in

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Mix shortening, sugar, and eggs. Add flour, cream of tartar, soda, and salt. Mix all ingredients.

Use a cookie scoop to form a perfect ball. Roll the dough ball in a cinnamon and sugar mixture. I like to roll the whole dough ball in the mixture, including the bottom.

I bake my cookies on a Silpat baking mat. Using a Silpat ensures that my cookies don’t stick to the tray. It also ensures that the sugar on the bottom of the cookie does not caramelize.

Bake the cookies for 7-8 minutes, at 400 degrees. I use a standard oven, not convection. When they come out they will be slightly undercooked. They will set as they cool and make the perfect soft cookie.

They are as simple as that!

Enjoy, friends!

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There were so many cakes, and over the years, I just kept snapping pictures.

Can you believe this!!! Unreal.

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Have you heard of The Cake Mix Doctor?  If you aren’t familiar with this book, you need to see it. The author takes a regular old cake mix, adds a few other ingredients, and makes miracles happen!

Here’s the recipe:

Darn Good Chocolate Cake
Grease and flour bundt pan.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Add the following ingredients to a large bowl. Mix for 3 minutes.
1 Package chocolate cake mix
1 Package (3.9 ounces) instant chocolate pudding
4 Eggs
1 Cup sour cream
1/2 Cup warm water
1/2 Cup vegetable oil

Fold in:
1 and 1/2 Cup chocolate chips (I use Mini Nestle Chocolate Chips.)
Bake for 45-50 minutes.

In times when I didn’t have any chocolate chips in my pantry (can’t believe that’s even possible since I buy them in bulk) I used semi-sweet chocolate squares instead. I chopped them up and really liked the small little chocolatey bits they added to the cake.

I used my Pampered Chef bundt pan to make the cake.

Here’s the cake fresh out of the oven.

And cooling…

Don’t you just love a vintage cake pans?  I have a couple of them.  This one is a treasure I found at Goodwill.

It was only $2.50! Such a cute little vintage cake carrier, and so perfect for transporting my cake.  The reason I made this cake, this time, was for Senior Night for the basketball team at the high school.  I didn’t take my cake in the cute little carrier this time.  I’m afraid a bunch of hungry boys wouldn’t appreciate the cuteness.  Instead, I put the cake on my $2.oo silver tray.  Every time I walk into a thrift store I look for silver trays or platters.  They are usually under $3.00 and I’m never sad if my plate doesn’t make it home.  You can’t even buy a plastic platter at the Party Store for that price!  Ok, back to that cake.

I think of the keys to this cake’s yumminess is the frosting.  Homemade frosting, instead of that canned stuff, makes all the difference.

Mix together:
3 and 1/2 Cup powdered sugar
1 Cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 Cup butter, softened
1/2 Cup room temperature milk
2 tsp vanilla

Here’s the finished cake.

It’s moist, really yummy, and so cute in the little cake carrier.

Happy baking!

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I usually buy my sanding sugar from Williams Sonoma, because I love the bright colors. With a little sugar, food coloring, and an empty Ziploc, you can make your own sanding sugar.

A cup of sugar and one or two drops of food coloring is all you need. Shake it all together, in a Ziploc, until there are no lumps of color.

My color, for these cookies, wasn’t as vivid at the color from Williams Sonoma, but it sure was less expensive!

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