My older sister has a 60 acre farm and orchard. I’ve been helping her with her Farmer’s Market booth once a week, and it’s fun for us to work together. In addition to enjoying the time with my sister, another big perk of the job is free produce! Gorgeous, hand picked, pesticide-free produce!! Last week this is what I came home with….
As I was driving home with my loot I started thinking about what I might make with the gorgeous produce. Of course desserts always rule in my mind, so I narrowed in on these beauties…
I settled on the idea of using the blackberries and peaches to make a yummy cobbler I searched my cookbooks for a recipe and found several very similar options. I had a few ideas of my own as well, so I made a few adjustments along the way. The base recipe I used came from Fix It and Enjoy It, by Phyllis Pellman Good.
Blackberry Cobbler
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 cup flour
1 cup milk (any fat content)
1 cup sugar (plus 2 Tablespoons later)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
2-3 cups fresh blackberries*
1/2 cup sliced almonds (1/4 cup in batter, 1/4 cup on top) optional, but delicious!
*I used blackberries and peaches, but next time I think I’ll just use blackberries.
~ Directions ~
1. Preheat oven to 350*F
2. Grease a baking dish (I used a deep dish pie pan, but you could also use a 9″ x 13″ baking dish)
3. Melt butter in a large bowl. Add the flour, milk, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, vanilla, salt and 1/4 cup almonds. Stir well. Pour into prepared baking dish.
4. Arrange fruit on top of batter. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup sliced almonds and 2 Tablespoons of sugar on top.
Bake 40-55 minutes or until lightly browned.
The finished cobbler has a homey, country appearance. It may not be the fanciest dessert ever made, but it sure is delicious!
Top with vanilla ice cream, and you’ve got a winning combo… warm cobbler, cold ice cream… yum!!
Excuse me while I go get a spoon….
A couple months ago I was contacted by a sweet lady (named Sierra) who was planning a luau themed first birthday party for her daughter, Mia. Originally, Sierra had wanted me to make cupcakes and cookies for the celebration, but as I checked the date, I realized I already had other obligations that week, and there was just no way I’d be able to make treats for her. I was however, able to make a few things for the party in advance. I made a custom banner (similar to the one I made for
my daughter’s candy party) that read “Mia’s Luau Birthday”, and I also made custom tags to be attached to cookies she would be able to purchase from a local bakery. I was also able to consult with Sierra a bit regarding desserts and flowers for the party. Sierra recently sent me photos from the party, and what a celebration it must have been! Sierra did such a beautiful job!
All the details-
Banner and cookie tags- made by me (Glory)
Table cloths- Anthropologie
Flowers- Hydrangeas and peonys arranged by the hostess (Sierra)
Cake- Made by Butterfly Cakes (Burlingame, California)
Cupcakes- Sibby’s Cupcakery (San Mateo, California)
Cookies- Sugar, Butter, Flower (Bay Area, California)
#1 shirt-
Isabellaboo Tutu-
Posh Little Tutu
Thanks so much Sierra for allowing me to share your beautiful party!
P.S.- As a general rule I only post my own work on this blog. I’m only sharing this pretty party because I had a part in it. Please do not send me links to parties you would like me to share on the blog. There are many other fabulous blogs that do a great job showcasing parties submitted by their readers.
If I have directly inspired you in some way I would love to see your work, and I may occasionally share those photos. Feel free to upload photos of work that was inspired by something you saw on Glorious Treats on the facebook page HERE.
I recently discovered a fun new company,
The Twinery. Guess what they sell… twine! But this is not just any twine… this is chic, colorful, eco-friendly bakers twine that is perfect for dressing up any package, bag or box! And not to mention all of the fun crafts that could be dressed up with this fun twine!
As soon as I discovered this company I wanted some! And then I wanted some to share!
The lovely people at
The Twinery thought you should have some too, and so they are ready to send out their popular sample pack (15 yards each of 8 different colors, that’s 120 yards of cuteness!) to not just one, but TWO of my readers!
And the fun doesn’t stop there!
Until July 23rd,
The Twinery will take 25% off of your order by simply using the code GLORIOUSTREATS at checkout.
For the giveaway…
Simply head on over to
The Twinery site and try and decide on your favorite color of twine (it’s almost impossible for me!!). Then come back here and leave me a comment telling me your favorite color(s) of twine in
their shop.
For a bonus entry, become a Facebook fan of
The Twinery AND
Glorious Treats. Then leave a comment letting me know you “LIKED” us both.
A maximum of two entries per person. And don’t forget to leave a way for me to contact you.
The giveaway ends next Friday, July 23rd at 10:00 pm Pacific time.
The winner will be posted Saturday, July 24th.
I recently helped a good friend plan a birthday party for her two sweet children, a boy and a girl, who share the same birthday month. The kids were turning 3 (Tim) and 1 (Annabelle), so they are young enough to “share” a party without thinking they missed out by not having their “own” party.
I spent a bit of time thinking up a party theme that would work for a boy/girl party and we settled on a theme of “Rainbows and Race Cars”. HERE is the original inspiration board I put together as I began gathering ideas. I used primary colors to pull the “Rainbows” and “Race Cars” ideas together, with added emphasis on red and purple.
It was a casual, home party designed with the children (and the young guests) in mind. The day included some colorful sweets, a yummy BBQ, lots of water balloons and a pinata.
Here is the colorful table of treats I prepared for the party…
For these cookies, it took me almost as long to make all the bags of icing colors as it did to decorate them! I used the “wet on wet” technique, by outlining and flooding the cookies in white and then adding the lines of color on the still wet icing.
HERE is my sugar cookie recipe and HERE is a simple decorating tutorial for royal icing cookies.
Simple vanilla cupcakes (recipe coming soon, very yummy, but I still may tweek it a bit) with my vanilla cream cheese frosting (recipe HERE).
I designed the cupcake toppers, water bottle labels, food labels and napkin wraps using Photoshop (please don’t quiz me too much on that, I’m really no expert on Photoshop and these took me hours and hours to work out!)
I do have a how-to on making custom water bottle labels HERE.
Party favors included rainbow ribbon hair bows for the girls (HERE is the how-to), and Hot Wheels race cars for the boys.
I was able to find a perfect rainbow pinata (from Party City), which of course the kids enjoyed thoroughly! And here is the sweet birthday girl modeling a mini version of the hair bows I made.
It was a colorful and sweet-filled day and I think the birthday boy and birthday girl both felt celebrated. And little Annabelle is a girl after my own heart… she knows how to enjoy a cupcake! =)
Hydrangea bushes are in full bloom all over my neighborhood right now. I love all varieties of hydrangeas, but my favorite is this traditional shaped, blue-purple color. I picked a few this weekend and brought them inside as inspiration for cupcakes. I’ve seen cupcakes that resembled hydrangea flowers before, but I’ve never given it a try. It was much easier than I’d imagined and I was very happy with the results!
Hydrangea Cupcakes
~ Directions ~
I made a batch of my favorite chocolate cupcakes and delicious vanilla cream cheese frosting. Then I colored half of the frosting blue, and half purple (mixing a few shades of blues and purples to get a good color match to the real hydrangeas). When making the frosting, use very little cream (less than 1 tablespoon), because the coloring will add some liquid, and you need the frosting to be pretty stiff to hold a nice shape.
If you’d like to match other hydrangeas, you could certainly use other color options, like light blue and medium blue, or two shades of pink. But I do think that frosting these with two colors (instead of just one) really added to the effect.
I filled my piping bag with the two colors of frosting, side by side. Once your bag is filled (1/2 to 2/3 full), you may want to just squeeze some frosting into a bowl, until you see both colors coming out.
Then, using a Wilton 2D tip (a large closed star tip), I piped large, loose star shapes around the edge of the cupcake, and then filled in the center. If the frosting starts getting too soft (no longer holds a nice shape), then put the whole bag of frosting in the fridge for 15-20 minutes to let the frosting to firm up a bit.
Now I want to plan a pretty tea party just so I can make these again!
