Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Bean Cake

Oh yum!  I should be packing for the trip tomorrow, but I just couldn't leave the kids without something yummy to eat while we're gone.  I found this recipe quite awhile ago, but I had to pull it out today and give it a try.  I bought some madagascar bourbon vanilla paste at a Le Gourmet Chef store awhile back and it is excellent, especially when vanilla beans aren't readily available here in the middle of Iowa. 

I almost feel like Sandra Lee semi-home made as I also used a box mix and added to it.   The batter smelled soooo good. :)



And did I mention the filling is a CREAM CHEESE filling?  Yummo - plus it made so much, I used it as a filling and a frosting.  Now I have been very very good on my diet this month, but I did cheat today and ate some of this...

I just dirty iced it (as Buddy would say) and went with it.  Some of the things I am going to work on is my food photography as I realize I took the picture of the "ugly" side of the cake and it's very dark.  Guess what?  Still tastes delicious!

Chocolate Sugar cookies

Howdy - I'm ready to start blogging and jotting down what happens in my own little crafty / cooking world.  I am really going to try hard to keep this updated a couple times a week.  I'm very excited to start on this little venture.  Today, I did some baking getting ready for our trip away.  I made peanut butter brownies for Josh to share at his card party tonight.  I don't have a picture, but I'll share a picture of the chocolate sugar cookies that I made for the kid's valentine's parties.

I made chocolate sugar cookies, covered them with fondant, and then wrote each name in royal icing.  Overall I made 55 of them - quite time consuming but they looked great!