SMiLes by Meg

Devil’s Food Cake

Taking a break from cookie box recipes this week to share with you a very delicious cake that we had on New Year’s Eve. New Year’s has always been a quiet holiday for me, so for the first time this holiday season, it didn’t feel all that different. In college, I was always home at my parents’ for New Year’s. They would go out with another couple for dinner, and my brother would go out with his friends, and I’d have the house entirely to myself. This almost always meant opening some red wine and getting the most comfort-food-style baked

Mini Funfetti Cake

Hummingbird High has introduced me to maybe the best thing to come out of quarantine – mini cakes. Made in a loaf pan rather than a cake pan, these are normal sheet cakes, but meant for 4 to 6 people instead of 16 to 20. So for those socially distant gatherings you might be able to start having, where the group has to stay small, you can still have cake! I also discovered, in making this recipe, that I’ve been living a lie. I always say to make any loaf pan recipes in a 9×5 inch loaf pan, but it

Tahini Brown Sugar Cake

When I picked this recipe, I didn’t mean for it to be a clear-out-the-pantry recipe. And I’m not sure what it says about my pantry that this recipe did clean it out – I only had to buy some buttermilk and unsweetened chocolate, and happened to have everything else on hand. I did pick it entirely because I wanted to use my sprinkles. I didn’t expect this, but leaving the sprinkles in an airtight jar resulted in them all starting to clump together. I’m guessing because our apartment is a bit on the warm side, and maybe because I should

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

Devil Dogs

One of my favorite places to look for inspiration for this blog is my mom’s recipe box. She has all of these cards from her mom and family, handwritten and passed down. A lot of things I’ve made for the blog come from those cards. This week, I started thinking I was going to make apple crisp. My mom said Grammy had a good recipe, so I opened up the box. I found an apple pie recipe, but then I found something even more exciting: devil dogs. Devil dogs are kind of like whoopie pies, but longer and with a

Rainbow Cake

This week, I made a super cool rainbow cake for Alexandra, one of the other first years in the corporate department at work. But before I get to that, I want to make a quick plug for donations to my upcoming bike ride. I’ll be riding the Best Buddies Challenge ride on June 1, and I have until May 17 to reach my goal. If you want to learn more about the ride, you can check out my donation page here, or drop me a comment and I’m happy to chat about why you should consider donating. Thank you so

Nutter Butters

I’m not really sure why I decided I needed to make Nutter Butters this week, but I decided it was my recipe on like Tuesday and became fixated on the idea. Maybe it’s because it’s Girl Scout cookie season, and I was getting nostalgic for cookies of youth. (I have, kid you not, 5 boxes of Girl Scout cookies in my office right now.) Maybe it’s because Marj had me watching videos of how to make homemade versions of other treats I think are best when you buy the processed version (Cheetos, Twizzlers, etc.) Maybe it’s just because I like

Candy Cane Oreos

In my third installment of Christmas cookies, I bring you a twist on a classic: candy cane Oreos. I’ve made a similar dessert as a gluten free whoopie pie, but I think these are much better. Crispy cookie, fluffy buttercream, and some chopped candy canes for good measure. These cookies were inspired by Erik, who called me a couple of weeks ago to tell me about the amazing cookies his neighbor had made – fudgy chocolate with chocolate frosting and candy canes on top. For my cookie boxes this year, I wanted at least one sandwich cookie, so I thought

Homemade Oreos

This week, I baked for the first time in my new kitchen! Spoiler alert: it was awesome. Plenty of counter space. Pretty new toys to play with (read: stainless steel mixing bowls). And a whole new group of people to eat the end product! Plus, central air conditioning, which means turning on the oven was not the horrific experience it could have been in this insanely hot summer we’ve been having.

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

This week the humidity finally broke, meaning mornings and nights were once again bearable for baking. To take advantage, and because I had promised a friend I’d bring dessert to dinner on Friday (hi, Josh!), I decided to make something from my pre-blog life that I was actually astonished I hadn’t posted before: Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes. These cupcakes were a team dinner staple at the Baran household in high school (hi, Jen!), and I always had at least two. I made them once or twice in college, but college was pre-SMiLes by Meg, and I have no idea why