Silky chocolate cheesecake mousse, filled with malted milk flavor - sitting pretty on an Oreo Cookie crust and decorated with my favorite Easter candy - malted eggs.   It's perfect for Easter celebrations, and just plain fun!

​My family loves this simple chocolate cheesecake mousse - and I love that it's a non-bake dessert that I can make ahead of time, tuck away in the freezer, and then pull out for guaranteed "oohs" and "aahs" - every single time!  And decorated with edible candy grass and colorful candy-coated Easter eggs, how simple and pretty is this?

I'm getting the finishing touches done on my baking for Easter this year, it feels so good to be a little bit ahead of the game!  We've had so much cold and snow, and dreary cloudy rain - and baking and decorating these sweet springtime cookies just made me happy!

​Who doesn't love a big, thick, soft and chewy sugar cookie?  And I had a fair share of willing taste-testers for both the cookie dough and baked cookies fresh from the oven.  My kiddos LOVE sugar cookies, but there is just something a little bit special about these.  For the uninitiated, they had a hard time putting their finger on exactly what the little something was that made these cookies taste just so darn good.  They know I always use pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste in my sugar cookies, but just a spoonful of pure coconut extract make these cookies too good to put down!  Even the odd ones that don't love coconut LOVE these cookies - frosted and decorated, or just simple and plain, snitched from the baking sheet while they were still warm from the oven.  Tender, full of flavor, with a perfectly sugar-crackled exterior.

Our family-favorite thick and chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie, all dressed up for Easter and springtime!  Pretty and pastel, with white chocolate chips replacing semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks.  And warm from the oven?  These are perfect with a tall glass of cold milk - although the littlest guy at our house is on a new kick of wanting to drink "strawberry milk" with everything.  I've learned to just go with the flow when it comes to these crazy cravings that he has!

​I'm doing a little Easter baking in advance, but I know I'm going to have to hide these carefully if I expect them to survive until next weekend.  Luckily these cookies always bake up perfectly, and they freeze like a dream.

​Now that spring is here, we're getting ready for Easter!  If you're looking for something HEAVENLY to serve for your Easter brunch, I've got you covered!  Thick slices of Angel Food Cake dipped in a rich creamy vanilla & cinnamon egg batter, lightly fried until golden, slathered with Fresh Strawberry Cream Cheese and drizzled with Fresh Strawberry Sauce & Syrup - perfect on so many levels!  Is it breakfast, or is it a dessert?  Light, airy and slightly sweet angel food cake makes for the most awesome French Toast you have ever had in your life!

​You may have noticed a strawberry trend at Snowflakes & Coffeecakes Cooking School this week, and now you see what we've been building up to!  And to kick off your spring baking, we're announcing a Rodelle Vanilla Giveaway today!  

For a lazy breakfast, there's nothing better than a shmear of Fresh Strawberry Cream Cheese on a bagel.  And when it's so easy to make, you'll be wondering why you haven't been making this at home for years!  

​Perfect not only on bagels, but just imagine how wonderful this tastes on warm-from-the-griddle pancakes, French Toast, or crepes.  This is also pretty darn good spread on fresh Banana Bread or Strawberry Banana Bread.  And if you're looking for a fast and healthy fresh fruit dip, you've found it.   Fluffy cream cheese, whipped to a beautiful fresh pink with Fresh Strawberry Sauce & Syrup, with a little fresh strawberry puree thrown in for a fresh strawberry flavor that will take your breath away!

Happy first day of Spring!  We're going to be celebrating here with snow.  Lots of snow!  But even with all the wintery craziness still going on (and who isn't just DONE with winter for this year....), it seems like the perfect time to cook up one of our earliest springtime traditions - Fresh Strawberry Sauce & Syrup!  

​The fresh early strawberries are absolutely huge, red and fabulous this year, so I'm ready to kick off strawberry season early.  So many times the berries are white or green at the ends, hard and not too flavorful this early in the year, but the baskets of fresh strawberries I've picked up over the past few weeks have been sweet, juicy and so flavorful.  

Patience is a virtue...good things come to those that wait...

​Do you have as hard a time as I have with time?  And whether it's making "to-do" lists to save me time and organize my life, scheduling cooking and baking so that everything ends up on the dinner table at the same time, or getting organized for holiday celebrations, time always seems to be a critical component!  Thank goodness for easy recipes, easy techniques and slow cookers that just seem to make life go easier!  One of our absolute favorites is this Barbecue Beef Brisket, loaded with barbeque flavor an oh-so-simple to make.  Tender, moist, meaty and slathered with the best barbecue sauce ever, you'll have a hard time waiting for this to be ready!

No, Leprechaun Lime Bars are not really just for leprechauns - but I tell the little ones that so that they don't eat all of these at one sitting.   I think I could just sit and gaze at these beautiful green key-lime bars all day long...but they are just too dang good to resist!

​Always a favorite for St. Patrick's Day at our house, but you can call them "Lime Bars" and serve them any old time of year.  You will quickly be known as the queen of lime bars, as these are truly out-of-this-world wonderful, and you may get tired of making them, because EVERYONE will be begging you to make more!

Today it's all about pi...and for a girl that wasn't too fond of math class, it's amazing how math plays such an important part in baking and cooking!  For me, the "creative" classes were always way more interesting, and math class was such a chore.  Little did I know!

​As a mama, it's always fun to incorporate basic math skills when I've been teaching my little ones how to cook and bake.  Measuring and calculating, it's all in there - and what a fun way to learn!  And it's always fun to be able to discuss the chemistry behind baking as well. 

It's your lucky day!  One of the quickest cakes to bake up for a large group at the last minute has always been an old-fashioned Texas Sheet Cake...rich and moist chocolate cake, with a light chocolate icing filled with pecan pieces, flowing smoothly over the top.  For St. Patrick's Day, I like to dress that old standby up with a little Baileys Irish Cream!  Let's kick those southern pecans to the side, and just ramp up the flavor with delicious Baileys Irish Cream!  And it feeds a crowd, so it's perfect for any Irish celebration.

​Original Baileys Irish Cream is a combination of fresh cream, eggs, chocolate and Irish whiskey, and it's such a natural with chocolate!  I love Baileys in coffee or hot cocoa, but it really takes this dark chocolate cake and icing to a new level!  And if you like a little variety, you can substitute Baileys Chocolate Cherry Liqueur (for a chocolate and cherry flavor), Baileys Salted Caramel or Baileys Vanilla Cinnamon Liqueur for something different.  I love Baileys Chocolate Mint as well, but I haven't been able to find that lately - but it is perfect in this cake!​

Do you have a family-favorite recipe that you make over and over again?  This beautiful tart is so incredibly easy to put together - perfectly simple mint chocolate ice cream layered on top of hot fudge in a chocolate cookie crust, drizzled with chocolate ganache for a little something special, and delicious every bite!  Perfect for celebrating St. Patrick's Day and life's special moments!

And as crisp and minty-wonderful as this cool treat is, it really is just a method, rather than a recipe.  I've got a few little tricks that I've learned thru the years that really make a difference, but you can shake this up any way that you want!  Banana Split Ice Cream Tart?  Strawberries & Cream Ice Cream Tart?  Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Tart?  They all work!

My kiddos adore old-fashioned Classic Peanut Butter Cookies - plain and simple!  But for a special event or party, it sure is fun to kick a simple favorite into the stratosphere with a quick dip in melted dark chocolate, topped with your favorite holiday sprinkles.  So simple, and so fun!

​With so many special days in March, I wanted to have a little bit of fun this weekend, so we're going to be celebrating St. Patrick's Day for more than a few days.  We just have too many favorites to cram everything into a single day!

Just when you thought Banana Bread couldn't get any better, Butterscotch Banana Bread comes along and changes your life!  Tender, flavorful, super-moist and out-of-this-world wonderful!

​And the color....deep caramel, rich butterscotch flavor.  It tastes so buttery and rich, but there's not a drop of butter in it!  The first time I heard of this butterscotch and banana combination I was just a little bit skeptical, but guys, this is beyond wonderful - a match made in heaven!

It's going to be a hot time in the city tonight!  If your family is as crazy about Buffalo Chicken Dip as mine is, they are going to go absolutely NUTS for this homemade Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese!

​It's everything you've ever dreamed of in macaroni and cheese - tender pasta and chicken, a creamy cheese sauce loaded with sharp cheddar and pepper jack cheese, along with hot sauce and the perfect seasonings, topped with a flavorful buttery crumb topping - and if you're game enough, sprinkled with crumbled blue cheese.  What's not to love?