12 pounds later

I've been baking up a storm lately, and consequently have gained approximately 12 pounds. Urgh. Curse my love of baking and my only moderately fast metabolism.

Regardless!

I made a coconut cake at the request of a few of my coworkers. I used my grandmother's recipe, and considering she's both Georgia born and Georgia raised, her cooking and baking could put Paula Deen in a corner. It was a success, and completely devoured by the hungry nurses I work with.

A few days prior to my coconut cake undertaking, I made whoopie pies. They were also extremely well received (I fed them to my Bible study group to which one of the guys asked, "Hollie, have you ever died before?" I was bewildered by this question, until he then followed with, "Because I think I just died and went to heaven when I ate this deliciousness." Goofy kid.)

The one, lonely left over pie. I actually have a fantastic tip for some quick and easy whoopie pies....

I had a coupon for this "new" cake mix that includes filling in the box. I had originally intended to make creme-filled cupcakes until I realized that I don't have a regular sized muffin pan (how did that happen?!). Mini? Sure! Regular? Not a chance. So comes in the whoopie pie. Make the batter as indicated on the box, but spoon it out like a cookie onto a well greased sheet pan. Bake about 10-12 minutes at the temperature listed on the box and magically, you have fluffy, cakey, whoopie pie-like cookies. Once they're cooled, give them a good coating of filling and smush them into a cookie sandwich. Good times.

So my sister is in town this weekend, which has been awesome! It's her first trip to Rockport and I think we've broken her in pretty well. She even had a breakfast taco while here, just like any good Texan. We've stayed busy more so with church activities than anything, but it's also been a little chilly this weekend, so sunbathing wasn't really in the cards. She and I share a penchant for baking and so we tackled cake pops on Friday and cinnamon rolls on Saturday.

I can't be the only one gaining 12 pounds here. Just sharing the wealth.

We shared the cinnamon rolls with our ms/hs sunday school classes today and obviously, they were also well received. We made a batch of 60 and left the church with 6. One thing is for certain: if you bake it they will eat.