SMiLes by Meg

Blueberry Cream Cheese Breakfast Buns

We had a very full weekend, and I’m very tired. We spent a lot of time biking around, in the sun, generally enjoying the outdoors, which means I’m sunburnt and ready to go to bed early. But also means I had so much fun, and there’s lots more to come – we’ve got camping trips planned for the next two weekends! So for baking, I was kind of craving some kind of breakfast sweet all weekend. I thought about making pancakes, but then realized this was a blog opportunity, and ended up pulling out my Magnolia Bakery cookbook to see

Blackberry Lime Muffins

I really intended to make a pie today. It’s Pi Day, and it’s a Sunday, and Erik has been patiently waiting for me to make him a pie for six months. But then I remembered the important part about pie – you need to let the dough chill, preferably overnight, which wasn’t going to happen when I started looking at recipes at 1pm this afternoon. The plan had been blackberry pie, so instead I made blackberry muffins. These were quick, made a little more interesting with some lime zest, and will hopefully be a good breakfast/snack/treat for the week. Start

Flourless Chocolate Mini Bundt Cakes

Ends of vacations are the worst. Though as COVID vacations go, this was a pretty good one. Erik and I spent a few days at a cabin where we could go for paddles on my stand up paddle board in the marsh. We saw lots of cool birds. We saw the wild horses at Assateague National Seashore. It’s snowing out right now. And I made these really good mini cakes, the last of which I just ate for second breakfast (first breakfast was cold pizza and a smoothie to cancel out the cold pizza). I bought the mini Bundt pan

Small Batch Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

After making last week’s apple cake, and then eating apple cake with pumpkin ice cream every night for a week, I remembered the importance of small batch recipes during a pandemic. So this week, I turned to Hummingbird High’s trusty guide of small batch recipes and asked Erik which sounded the best. We landed on lemon poppy seed muffins, and the recipe was perfect – it made 4. I thought making 4 muffins would be breakfast for two days, but turns out it’s just breakfast for one day. On the plus side, I now can’t eat them everyday all week.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

This week’s recipe was a request from Madison, and I am so glad she thought of it. Though I was a little late to the pumpkin game this year, Madison is a HUGE pumpkin fan, and thought that there must be a way to make cinnamon rolls pumpkin. She was right, and these are them, and you need them next Sunday morning when you’re looking for something a little sweet and very Fall for breakfast. Start by heating the butter and milk over low heat just until the butter melts. Set aside. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle

Apple Cider Donut Holes

This weekend, I was reunited with my favorite sous chef, the one and only Laura Bakst! Despite living on the same coast, I visited her for the first time since law school (which is slightly embarrassing – I blame her work schedule), and had just the perfect weekend. We walked all around, baked, ate good food, drank good wine, stumbled upon a pickle festival and generally got to just catch up on each other’s lives. I never realize how much I’m craving friend time until I get an uninterrupted weekend of it. When that friend time also includes frying donut

Banana, Date and Walnut Tin Can Cake

This is a recipe I’ve been excited to make since getting the Sweet by Ottolenghi cookbook. I started saving tin cans as soon as I saw it, and finally had an extra banana and some time to give it a go. And I’m so glad I did – this is like banana bread but better. There’s banana. There are walnuts. AND THERE ARE DATES. Which I love, and think make all things better. So this one starts by briefly toasting the walnuts. Spread them out on a baking sheet and bake at 350°F for 5 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Cinnamon Donuts

A couple weeks ago, for Easter, I made carrot cake. And it was such a cool carrot cake. Very pretty, perfectly “Easter,” the whole deal. But my dad was NOT impressed. “Carrot cake isn’t cake!” He declared. And refused to consume it. So this weekend, when I decided to go out to Duxbury for the night, I wanted to bring him something he’d like. I’ve already made half moons, whoopie pies, and icebox cake, though. And then I remembered I have a donut pan. The obvious answer? Cinnamon donuts! First, in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat

Raspberry Apple Muffins

Another of my awesome baking-related Christmas presents this year was silicon cupcake cups. This may not seem revolutionary, but they’re in some very happy colors, and I have a really bad habit of deciding to make cupcakes or muffins only to realize, once the batter is made, that I don’t have any paper cupcake cups on hand. Enter silicon baking cups – never again will I have to run to CVS only to find out that CVS doesn’t carry cupcake liners! When trying to decide what to make in my new silicon liners, I wanted to make something that I

Cranberry Lemon Scones

Last week, I told you’d I’d give you a recipe to use with your leftover fresh cranberries. This week, I’m delivering! These scones are quick, foolproof, and wonderfully crumbly. Eat these fresh from the oven, with coffee, or for dessert with a scoop of ice cream. You really can’t go wrong.