A Princess Cake For My Prince Charming

Like most couples that are first dating, Mr. Mari and I asked each other a bajillion questions: What’s your favorite movie? Where did you grow up? What’s your favorite dessert? Well, when Mr. Mari responded to the last question with ‘Princess Cake’, I just stared at him. What? What the hell’s a Princess Cake? I knew he was a Disney fan but really? A Princess Cake? He obviously had to explain.

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Valentine's Day Strawberry-Flavored Mallomars

One of the products I thought about making towards the tail end of my business was a s’mores kit. Who doesn’t love reminiscing about huddling around a beach bonfire or a crackling campfire? Young or old, it’s a primal pleasure.

As Valentine’s Day approached, I planned on making s’mores for Mr. Mari but what I was craving was Mallomars: An all-in-one s’more. It’s a no-fuss, no-muss, no need to get out the blowtorch or broil it in a toaster oven marshmallow treat. I think what I love about Mallomars is its layer cake of textures. Your teeth snap through a thin chocolate-y crust, hit a spongy marshmallow filling and end up chomping through a good crunchy cookie base. Plus truth be told, I’d be the one making the s’mores not Mr. Mari. To make it more Valentine-y, I made these with a strawberry-flavored marshmallow filling. They're kinda like chocolate dipped strawberries but in cookie form - and Mr. Mari loves cookies.

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"Monogram" Stained Glass Ornament Cookies

Updated on Friday, January 4, 2013 at 12:15PM by Mari

I don't remember when I first saw a gingerbread house with color candied windows but I do remember being amazed. I didn't know you could do that! That house used yellow candies, probably to simulate the glow of candlelight. When putting together my family's holiday gift assortment, I knew I wanted to use this candy window trick - but on what? 

When I was a little kid, we'd make ornaments with our names on them using Elmer's Glue and glitter. Seriously, what kid doesn't love seeing their name on the tree? However, I wasn't handing out ornaments; I was baking. By combining the candy window and my childhood ornaments, I now knew what to make: Monogrammed Ornament Cookies. Now I just needed a few pounds of Jolly Rancher's.

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Monogram Coconut Macaroons

Every year for our holiday gifts, I pick an idea and make our family homemade food gifts: Mixed nuts, hot chocolate mixes, marshmallows, pastas, tomato sauces, jams, brownie mixes, bacon jam, scone mixes, dried fruit roll ups, salsas, deer jerky, etc. This year I'm staying sweet, in baked and in candy form. The first item in the "Monogrammed Holiday Assortment" pack is Monogram Coconut Macaroons. So to my family and friends that receive our gifts as well as read the next few weeks worth of posts, well, Merry Early Christmas!

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Apple Crisp

This is Rives the Younger's recipe. Lucky for me (and you), he was willing to share the gold. I used a mix of Gala and Granny Smith apples.

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Pumpkin Pie

This is another one of my Mom's recipes which I've co-opted and adapted. The little flower stars were made out of the extra pie dough edges and some cookie dough from my freezer.

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ted cookie drop: movember part III - mustache cookie lollies

This is the third and final installment to a three part series. To read the first post, click here.

The last cookie of the assortment was, of course, a mustache cookie lollipop. I totally get why people love the mustache as a wedding photog accessory. Whether it's an homage to the über manly and retro hot Magnum P.I. or avant-garde artiste, Salvador Dali, it's just silly fun...

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ted cookie drop: movember part ii - chocolate chip cookies

This is the second installment to a three part series. To read the first post, click here.

It's one thing to give people cookies - you can do pretty much whatever you want flavor-wise but when people are paying for cookies, you gotta make sure you offer some tried and true faves, like chocolate chip cookies. I've made chocolate chip cookies before but this one needed to be extra special. Since there was time to plan, I used two different style chips and let the batter rest for 48 hours before baking them off.

A couple years ago, there was an article in the New York Times wondering if the original Toll House recipe had been improved upon. Yes, was the thought. The secret seemed to be in letting the dough rest for at least 36 hours, serving them warm and making them large. I'm thinking mixing in two different chips would make a difference too...

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