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Today my sweet baby Charlotte is a year old. Maybe if I re-read that line about 100 more times it will actually sink in. This has been such a challenging, sleep-deprived year – and also the most special, love-filled year of my life so far. Charlotte is such an amazing blessing, and it’s hard to remember life before she was here, even though it was only a year ago!
We held Charlotte’s birthday party this past Saturday, and it turned out so great! I love any excuse to gather our family and friends together. It was so touching to see people take time away from their busy schedules to celebrate our little girl.
I had the hardest time picking the theme for Charlotte’s first birthday party, because there are so many sweet options out there. Damn you, Pinterest! I finally settled on the swan theme because it’s so cute and feminine. By next year who knows! Maybe she’ll be telling me that she hates pink and wants a pig in the mud theme party (which actually sounds kind of fun). So I thought I better sneak in one pink party now, just in case!
The party planning began with this sweet pink swan princess invitation from Minted. I hadn’t ever ordered anything through Minted before, and I was a little nervous because I’m a bit of a paper snob. I was really pleased though, and would definitely order through them again.
When guests arrived to the party, they were greeted by this swan planter that I filled with pink and purple flowers, and of course balloons!
My friend Ellie made delicious strawberry cupcakes, and we topped them with these adorable swan cupcake picks that I am so obsessed with! I also found some little swan candy bowls which I filled with pink kisses.
Ellie also made Charlotte’s smash cake. I love how pretty and whimsical it was, and topped with flowers it was even better than what I had imagined!
As you can see, Charlotte also approved! That’s what I call smash cake success – the girl went for it haha!
Can we also just take a minute to admire these swan cookies? I love that they matched the color scheme perfectly, and the swans were set upon a heart cookie which made them even more perfect.
I was so thankful to have so much help from family and friends putting Charlotte’s party together. She is one lucky girl to be so surrounded by love!
Happy first birthday my darling, sweet girl!
These snickerdoodle cookies are so delicious, and I love that they’re soft and pillowy, not hard and crunchy like most snickerdoodles out there. What’s up with that, anyway?
The secret ingredient that makes these SO darn delicious is cardamom! Cardamom is one of my all-time favorite spices. It’s a warm spice similar to cinnamon, so their flavors blend together perfectly and brings your snickerdoodle game to a way higher level. If you don’t have cardamom, I really recommend picking some up. It can be used in a lot of different recipes (a lot of which you will see on here)! If you really don’t want to, don’t let that keep you from trying the recipe – you can just omit it.
You will notice that in the directions for these cookies, I recommend chilling the dough at least overnight. When you first mix the ingredients together, the dough is actually really soft and sticky. I was able to shape it into balls after a few hours of refrigeration, but it really benefits from as much time as you can give it. In case you want to read more about the science behind chilling cookie dough, you can read about it here!
Cookie Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1.5 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp almond extract
1.5 cups cake flour
1.5 cup all purpose flour
1.5 tsp cardamom
2 tsp cream of tartar
.5 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
Cinnamon Sugar Topping Ingredients:
3 Tbs sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
Directions:
Whisk together the dry cookie ingredients (cake flour through baking powder), and set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until it’s light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time and mix until incorporated, and then add almond extract.
With the mixer on its lowest speed, gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Make sure to only mix until just incorporated.
Chill dough in an airtight container at least overnight, but preferably 24-36 hours (I know, I know, but believe me)!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and line a cool baking sheet with parchment paper.
Mix together the 3 Tbs sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon in a small bowl.
Scoop 1 inch (or 2 Tbs) balls of dough and gently coat each one in the sugar/cinnamon mixture.
Place on the cool, lined baking sheet and bake 10 minutes.
Remove from the oven, and transfer to a cooling rack one they’re firm enough to be transferred (about one minute).
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Over Christmas I shared my recipe for Merlot Chocolate Truffles, which were a huge hit. Now that we’re approaching Valentine’s Day (which I can’t believe, by the way) I decided to try out a different flavor – raspberry!
I actually made raspberry truffles over the holidays as well, but I wasn’t super happy with them. I wanted these truffles to be a raspberry, not just a “hint” of raspberry. So I went back to the drawing board, and am so happy I did!
This time I used seedless raspberry jam to really boost the raspberry flavor, and it worked great! I actually got the idea when I was making my Almond Cupcakes with Chambord Frosting. I had originally planned to use raspberry jam as a filling, and even though I ended up changing my mind about that, it was a light bulb moment for these truffles. Eureka!
Please note that you want to use seedless jam. Otherwise you’ll have little raspberry seeds in your chocolates, which totally ruins your smooth truffle.
These are seriously so easy to make. I don’t think people really believe me when I say that. They are easy I promise!
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 Tbs raspberry extract
- 1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
Directions:
Heat milk to a near-boil, stirring regularly so it doesn’t scald. Pour hot milk over the chocolate chips, in a heat-safe bowl. Wait a few minutes, and then stir. If the chocolate chips aren’t completely melted,
heat in the microwave in 10 second increments until the chocolate is melted and smooth.
Stir in the jam, salt and raspberry extract. The jam may take a little convincing to incorporate, but it’ll do it. If there are small chunks that’s ok.
Chill the chocolate mixture in the fridge for 1.5-2 hours.
Roll 1/2 Tbs balls of the chocolate ganache – I usually get about 30.
Melt the bittersweet chocolate chips in the microwave (again, in increments) until smooth.
Dip the ganache balls in the melted bittersweet chocolate. Chocolate dipping tools are actually super handy for this step! The first time I made truffles I didn’t have them, and they still tasted great, but didn’t look super fancy.
After dipping the truffles, put them back into the fridge until the chocolate has hardened.
That’s it! A few steps, but seriously so easy. And seriously so good! You’ve got to try these – they may be my new favorite truffle!
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