I’ve been making this Cinnamon Coffee Cake forever. Okay, forever might be a bit of a stretch, but it’s been in my recipe box for a long time. I most recently made it for my sister’s baby shower.

It is one of my go-to recipes for a brunch or breakfast. I love it because it is so moist and doesn’t dry out like some coffee cakes tend to do.  You can easily make it a day or two ahead with no problems. It’s Delicious!

I got this recipe from The Cake Mix Doctor cookbook. It’s a great cookbook with lots of good recipes that all start with a cake mix so they are easy and super quick to make. I would highly recommend it. I also have Chocolate from the Cake Mix Doctor and Cupcakes: From the Cake Mix Doctor (both of these are great, as well).

Oh, and I got The Cake Mix Doctor Bakes Gluten-Free for Christmas, which happens to be the only one I can use now for my own eating enjoyment (boo!). If you eat gluten free as well, you will want to check out my Gluten Free Cinnamon Coffee Cake recipe (which is an adapted version of the recipe below).

{Just to let you know…if you purchase a book from Amazon through one of my links I earn a small portion of the sale.  I purchased the books I own myself and I’m only recommending them because I really enjoy them.}

Can you believe that summer is almost upon is. Memorial day weekend is THIS weekend?!?

This time of the year is so busy for us…it feels like we have a party of some kind every weekend. There are graduations parties, Memorial Day parties, bridal and baby showers, and birthday parties…it never ends! I’m sure you all can relate!

If YOU are on the throwing end of any parties this spring/summer, you may want to consider using HoneyBaked Ham to help take the burden off of yourself.

Everyone loves their food and it makes it easy on you…it’s a win win situation.

I was recently given a $25 gift certificate to try out Honeybaked Ham and let you all know what I thought about it. And the best part about it is, I was also given a $25 gift certificate to give away to one lucky reader!

Honeybaked Ham was not new to me, I have had their ham many times, and it is aways wonderful! I’m not typically a ham fan, but I really enjoy theirs – it’s addictingly good!

When I checked out the HoneyBaked store, I was surprised by all that they offer. They have so much to offer besides their famous Ham.

They have all kinds of mouth watering party trays, as well as turkey breast and chicken. They even have side dishes and desserts. They have everything you would need for a delicious party!

I also checked out their Pinterest page. What did we do before Pinterest?!? Anyways, they have all kinds of party ideas on there.

My favorite board was their HoneyBaked Recipe Box board. The Turkey, Snow Pea, and Ramen Salad sounds like a great summer dish, as does the Ham and Asparagus Tart.

If you are hosting a party or get together and don’t have the time to cook, you should check out HoneyBaked.

Would you like to win a $25 gift certificate to HoneyBaked Ham?

ENTER THE GIVEAWAY HERE

Disclosure: I was given a $25 gift certificate for HoneyBaked Ham as well as one to give away to one of my readers from HoneyBaked Ham. All opinions are my own.

About The Face of the Earth:
When Mitchell Brannon’s beloved wife of twenty years kisses him goodbye one autumn morning, he has little idea that his life is about to change forever. Mitch returns from work early that evening, surprised Jill’s car isn’t in the garage. Her conference in Kansas City is only a few hours’ drive from their little town of Sylvia, Missouri. But her voice on the answering machine makes him smile. “Hey, babe, I’m just now checking out of the hotel, but I’ll stop and pick up something for dinner. Love you.”

Mitch sets the table with their best china and lights some candles, looking forward to their first weekend as empty nesters.

But at eight o’clock, the candles have burned to stubs and Jill still hasn’t shown up. Mitch tries her cell phone only to get her voice mail over and over again. Their two college kids haven’t heard from their mom either.
At midnight, Mitch’s irritation turns to dread. And later, when the police and Missouri Highway Patrol have turned up nothing, the Kansas City hotel calls to say they’ve found property belonging to Jill in a hotel maid’s possession.

Mitch enlists the help of their next-door neighbor, Jill’s best friend, Shelley, and together they search for clues to Jill’s disappearance. As days turn into weeks and weeks into months, Mitch and Shelley’s friendship grows ever closer–and decidedly complicated with Jill as the tie that binds them together. Just when Shelley decides to finally reveal her feelings for Mitch, a clue to Jill’s whereabouts is uncovered. But every lead seems to be a dead end, and Mitch wonders how he can honor the vows he made to a woman who has seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth.

Purchase a copy: http://ow.ly/kFdwM

Meet Deb:
Deborah Raney is the award-winning author of several novels, including “A Nest of Sparrows” and the RITA award winning “Beneath a Southern Sky” and its sequel, “After the Rains”. Deborah’s first novel, “A Vow to Cherish”, was the inspiration for World Wide Pictures’ highly acclaimed film of the same title, which in December 2004 aired on prime time network TV for the second time. Deb’s novella, “Playing by Heart”, was a National Readers Choice Award winner and a 2004 Christy Award finalist. Her novel for Howard/Simon & Schuster, “Yesterday’s Embers”, appeared on the ECPA Christian fiction bestseller list. Known for her sensitive portrayal of family struggles and relationships, Deb has also written nonfiction books and articles and often speaks at women’s retreats and writers’ conferences around the country. She and her husband, illustrator/author Ken Raney, have four children and make their home in Kansas.

Find out more at DeborahRaney.com

My Thoughts:
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I read the back cover of this book.  It sounded interesting and quite different from books I usually read.  It was the first book I read by Deborah Raney and I really enjoyed it.  I finished it in just a few days because it was one of those books that you don’t want to put down for long…you want to find out what happens next!

Mitch Brannon comes home one Friday and starts to prepare for his wife coming home from a work conference.  He tries calling her to find out how close she is so that he can get dinner started.  But, for some reason she isn’t answering or returning his phone calls.  Except for a message she left him that afternoon – nobody has heard from her.  After several hours, he starts to get really concerned.

He finally calls their next door neighbor, Shelley, who is also Jill’s best friend, to see if maybe she has heard from Jill.  Jill has completely vanished.  And the police have nothing to go off of.  They are searching for her, but with no clues, they don’t even really know where to search.

Shelley, is there for Mitch as a friend, not only to help find Jill, but also provide comfort to Mitch and the kids.  After being so close, the lines are eventually blurred and their friendship starts to bloom into more in their hearts.  Mitch wants to honor his wife and their marrige vow, but as time goes on, he’s not sure what to do…

I really enjoyed this book and especially the ending (which you will have to read to find out).  I can’t wait to pick up another book by Deborah Raney!

Check more reviews of The Face of the Earth at http://litfusegroup.com/author/draney

Enter Today – 5/7 – 5/30!

Disclosure: This book was given to me for free by Litfuse Publicity in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

As I mentioned earlier this week, my sister had her sweet baby boy Ezra last Saturday! Isn’t he so adorably sweet?

He is healthy and doing great, but unfortunately things haven’t been quite as easy for his Mommy.  She is having some serious heart problems.  They got to come home Tuesday and then she had to go back to the hospital and leave little Ezra in our care for a little bit (but I promise we took really good care of him).

She is home now, but having a hard time resting because we have to keep bouncing from doctor appointment to the next doctor appointment to try to get her healthy again!

I haven’t really been around to post on the blog this week and probably won’t be back until early next week. My priority right now is helping her get better. And making sure Ezra knows he is loved by giving him lots of snuggles. And getting some sleep. And maybe getting some clothes washed since I’m about out of clean ones.

I will be back as soon as I can! Please say a prayer for her!

Where have Cream Cheese Mints been all of my life?

Seriously, they are amazing! I had heard about them, but I never got around to making them. I thought, “What’s so magical about cream cheese and powdered sugar?”. Well, I know it sounds simple, but trust me…they sure are magical.

I finally got it in my mind to make some for my sister’s baby shower, so I marched right over (virtually speaking) to Tiffanee’s blog where I remember her posting this recipe forever ago.  These will be making a yearly appearance at Christmas time in our house!

I stored the leftover mints in the freezer, and let me tell you…a mint straight out of the freezer is Ahh-mazing! I’m going to get all bossy for a minute and demand that you listen to me and make these for your next party!  Mmkay?  You will come back and thank me.

Recipe Source: One Crazy Cookie

I’m hoping that the menu actually goes somewhat as planned this week.  Last week I completely wasted my time writing out a menu.  Not a big deal, though, that happens sometimes.

Last Thursday my sister was told she needed to go to the hospital to be induced because of some complications she was having.  It was a long, long, LONG labor, but he finally made his grand appearance late Saturday night.

Little Ezra is healthy, has a head full of hair and is an abnormally cute newborn.  She has had some complications since he has been born, but she got moved out of ICU and into a regular recovery room today and it looks like they will be coming home soon!

I’m planning to keep the menu easy so that I can leave plenty of time to go spend time with him (and help her)!

Monday- Out to Eat
Tuesday- Berry Baked Oatmeal, Bacon, and Fresh Fruit
Wednesday- Crock Pot Taco Chicken and Mexican Rice
Thursday- Slow Cooker Chicken, Baked Sweet Potatoes, and Steamed Veggies
Friday- Out to Eat
Saturday- Ham Fried Rice
Sunday- Baked Almond Chicken Nuggets with Honey Mustard and Fries

Linked to: Menu Plan Monday

I made this delicious breakfast coffee cake when I was in search of recipes for my sister’s baby shower. I wanted to do an A, B, C theme for the pastries, but only had a B and C. So, the search was on.

I finally settled on this Caramel Apple Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake and just shortened the name to Apple Coffee Cake to fit my theme. And this recipe makes TWO coffee cakes!  Isn’t that awesome?

One for you and one for a friend or neighbor?

or if you are feeling stingy…

One for you and one for your freezer?

I halved the recipe and made one cake regular and one gluten free by using Better Batter Gluten Free Flour.

(For the record: I’m only plugging Better Batter because I genuinely love their flour, and it makes this GF girl feel like she can eat normal baked goods again.  They have absolutely no idea who I am.)

The gluten free cake was absolutely wonderful! I could not believe it was gluten free!  Even after a few days it was all dried out (which is a common pitfall of GF baked goods).  It had excellent flavor and I think the icing was the best part!!!

Recipe slightly adapted from: Shugary Sweets

In case you missed it, I shared the baby shower decorations yesterday and ducky punch the day before.  Now we are on to the good part of the baby shower – the food! That’s the best part, right?

We did something a little different and had a morning shower (10 am). Since it was early we went with breakfast food! I really liked doing it this way because the food was different than the typical lunch fare and it was over early enough that you still had your whole afternoon.

We served three types of pastries:
A is for Apple Coffee Cake (one gluten free and one regular)
B is for Baby Blueberry Muffins (that Kimery’s friend, Julie, was so kind to make)
C is for Cinnamon Coffee Cake

I had planned to only have the Blueberry Muffins and the Cinnamon Coffee Cake. Not a big deal, right?  Then the day before the shower I came up with the A, B, C thing. It would have been lame without an A, so that’s when I decided to make Apple Coffee Cake.  I made one regular and one gluten free – so that my mom and I would be able to eat coffee cake!

And boy, I sure am glad that I did, and you will be too once you try out the recipe.  Amazing!  Recipe coming TOMORROW!

I’ve had the recipe for this Cinnamon Coffee Cake forever. I thought for sure the recipe was on the blog, but I guess it’s one that slipped through the cracks. It’s moist and delicious and starts with a cake mix. I based my Gluten Free Cinnamon Coffee Cake off of this recipe. I will be sharing it soon!

I love yogurt parfaits! We made mini parfaits with vanilla yogurt, mixed berries, and homemade granola. Pure deliciousness!

Here is my sister, Kimery! I neglected to get the important pictures in the craziness of the day, but I made sure to get a picture of the pregnant girl with the table of food. Important pictures first, right.

We also had breakfast casseroles, but I forgot to take pictures. I already have the recipes on here though. We had Mom’s Breakfast Casserole and Green Chile Eggs Casserole (only I used different veggies in it).

Since it was early I didn’t want to have a big cake, so we did soft sugar cookies with blue and green icing.

I also made some homemade cream cheese mints that were to die for. I had never made them before, but I definitely will make them again. I just have to keep them aways from myself so I don’t eat them all.  Recipe coming soon!

We had Rubber Ducky Punch along with coffee and tea. The punch was so cute!

Do you like throwing showers?

What food do you like to serve at parties or showers?

I started off my baby shower posts yesterday with Rubber Ducky Punch!  I’m back today to share some photos of the decorations we had for my sister’s baby shower.

My hope in sharing these photos is that it will give all of you who are throwing a baby shower in the near future some ideas!  Pin away! If you are throwing a bridal shower, you may want to check out this post as well.

Personalized Banner

I loved this Personalized Vinyl Banner that I ordered from Shindigz – it was the first decoration I bought.  They had a ton of options to choose from and I was able to customize the colors and the text to make it just how I wanted. I was totally thrilled with how nice the quality was.

If you are throwing a graduation or birthday party soon you may want to get one…it’s a lot of decoration bang for your buck.

Diaper Cake

The diaper cake could not have been easier to make… I rolled up diapers and secured them with tiny clear hair bands. Then I formed them into a circle and used a larger rubber band around them. After snapping several rubber bands on my finger (ouch!) with the biggest tier I decided that curling ribbon was the best way to secure the big tiers.

I glued some ribbon on and added some paper crinkles and it was good to go! I placed it on a box wrapped with wrapping paper (from the dollar store) for added height and color. Wrapping boxes with wrapping paper is a great and cheap way to decorate!

I designed the topper and all of the other paper products with my Silhouette machine.  Our invitations had a baby carriage on them, so we just kept it going through the whole theme.

Prizes and Games

We had metal buckets filled with chocolate wrapped in blue and green for prizes. You can’t really go wrong with chocolate, right?

Finish Kimery’s Sentence:
We played a fun game where I had a sheet that had a word and then a blank next to it and you had to guess what Kimery would put in the blank. For instance: Toy ______, Tiny _______, or Diaper ________.

(I had Kimery fill the sheet out prior to the party)

Gift Timer:
We brought a timer with a buzzer and set it to go off 10 minutes or so into the gift opening (the guests had no idea). The person who brought the gift she was opening at that time won a prize. We did that twice during the shower…and the guests had no idea what was going on when the timer went off the first time!

It was fun low key game that you could do at any party where there is gifts?!?

Advice Scrapbook

This was one of my favorite projects…an advice scrapbook!  I think it will be something that she will treasure for years to come!

I just created a sign with instructions (again with my Silhouette machine) and popped it into a picture frame that I added a few rosettes to.

I made four different advice cards for guests to write a message on.

My mom always said…
Remember to…
Always…
A good mother…

And a party is not a party without tissue poms, right? Mom made tons and tons of tissue poms! They add tons of color and are inexpensive and easy to make.

Here she is opening gifts – he’s all ready for church with his little vest and tie outfit from Aunt Sandy.

She is blessed with so many wonderful friends and family members that love her so much. I was blessed to get to go to her other two showers as well (his family thew the cutest Peter Rabbit themed shower).  She has everything she needs for him and SO much more! He is definitely one lucky, blessed, and loved little baby!

Favors

Finally, we wrapped it up with some favors. We did tea bags in cute little boxes. Tea bags kind of went with the breakfast hour of the shower. The tag says, “A baby is brewing”.  Get it?

Do you like planning and making decorations for parties?

Back in March my mom and I hosted a baby shower for my sister, Kimery. Over the next week or so, I’m finally going to be sharing some recipes, photos, and ideas from the shower.

If you are hosting a baby shower in the near future you are going to want to stay tuned!  If you are hosting a bridal shower, you may want to check out my 5 Tips for Throwing a Bridal Shower on a Budget post.

I’m starting things off with Rubber Ducky Punch! I didn’t come up with this genius idea, but I did make my own punch recipe. Okay, so I’m using the word  ”recipe”  very loosely here…I just used Blue Hawaiian Punch, Sprite, and vanilla ice cream.  Very basic and easy!

The big ducky did great, but the little babies had trouble keeping their heads up.

I added the chilled punch to the punch bowl and topped it with scoops of ice cream.  Then I poured the Sprite on top and that’s what created the bubbles.  Finally, we topped it off with some clean rubber ducky’s that we washed well in hot water.  I did all of this at the last minute, because I wanted the bubbles to be there when the guests arrived.

Technically this should be enough for 40 servings, but it all depends on your cup size, I guess.  We had about 30 people and one recipe was plenty (one recipe makes 2 punch bowls).  We also had other drinks as well.

Do you ever make punch for parties?