SMiLes by Meg

Father’s Famous Flying Flapjacks

I don’t know how I have other pancake recipes on this blog but not the most important pancake recipe in the world: my dad’s. He makes them for us maybe twice a year (Christmas and New Year’s), but they have always been my absolute favorite, and the standard by which I judge all pancakes. The recipe is simple – dump a bunch of stuff in a bowl, whisk it, and fry them up. Serve with plenty of butter and real maple syrup. Perfect for a family of four! This week, I’m in Alaska, and hadn’t done a blog post yet,

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

Cardamom Coffee Cake

Sunday Scaries are a weird thing. I had the most perfect weekend, and in particular a great Sunday, mostly because we turned the clocks back, and I had a full extra hour to be productive, which gave me extra time to be lazy. But it’s that time of year where, as corporate lawyer, clients start wanting things done by end of year, and there’s a general impending sense of a storm. So as Sunday has worn on, I’ve gotten that pit of dread in the bottom of my stomach. Fortunately, I know the perfect way to combat Sunday Scaries: Cake

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

Easter Cake

I’m at the stage of Easter where I’m back in my apartment, as full of chocolate as physically possible, and still reaching for another piece because if I just make it go away now I won’t have to eat it later. We’ve all been there. It’s the mark of a truly great day. And I had such a lovely Easter! I got to see so much of my family, which is always a treat, and the weather was nice enough to end with cartwheels in the yard with the next generation of cousins. Plus, I got to spend Saturday making

Irish Soda Bread Scones

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Boston is full of people in green, especially in the part of town I live in, so it’s hard to forget. Also, every year I convince myself that Irish Soda Bread is “bread” and therefore not a sweet, so I’ve consumed quite a bit of that in the last couple of days. Now, I’ve made Irish Soda Bread on the blog before. It was my mom’s recipe, and I made it as a surprise for her. Turns out, my mom is rather single-minded when it comes to soda bread: it’s Stop & Shop bakery brand or

Nutella Babka

So I didn’t actually have time to make babka this weekend. I had errands to run. And work to do. And laundry to fold. But I really wanted to make this babka. It’s so pretty! And full of Nutella! And this Tuesday is Fat Tuesday, so I needed something good to treat myself before my yearly no-sweets-for-Lent challenge. Plus, Cloudy Kitchen, who has an amazing instagram, made it look easy. So I decided to go for it. When I told my mom I was making Nutella Babka, she balked. “You make too many Nutella things,” she accused. First of all,

Mocha Bundt Cake

Guys, I had a WEEKEND. I’m sitting in Duxbury now, but it has been a journey to get this far. On Friday night, Molly and I drove up to Vermont for our annual college mini-reunion trip, which this year turned into a girls’ trip with me, Molly, and Marj. We arrived at the AirBnB, after driving through some pretty harrowing wind/snow conditions, at around midnight. We then proceeded to unload the car and go into the house. Five minutes later, Molly saw some motion out of the corner of her eye, and there was a crash. She then beckoned me

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

Spice Cake

Now that it’s January, it’s time to turn away from Christmas cookies and move on to bigger and better things – like continuing my quest to be featured on Yotam Ottolenghi’s instagram feed and using all of my Christmas presents. Those two goals come together in this week’s post: Spice Cake out of Ottolenghi’s Sweet cookbook. When I opened Sweet this week to find a recipe, I wanted something that would be baked in a loaf pan, since Sylvia, Erik’s mom, got me a beautiful yellow Emile Henry one this year (thanks!). Also because a loaf pan cake is a