This week was officially the first week of summer vacation - with the kids being home all week as well as summer solstice being Tuesday, 6/21. Rain most of the week kept us indoors, much to the kids' dismay.. I don't mind the rain though.... more quality baking time for me! :-)
I decided to take the two mangos sitting on my counter and make a jam with it before they got spoiled and I had to throw them away. My kids are HUGE fans of mango juice but for some reason stay away from the fruit! I'm thinking it's because of the stringy texture of mangos. Dunno what else it could be because mangos taste just like their nectar.... So they usually just sit on my counter until they go bad and then I feel terrible to throw them out. I remember having mango jam as a little kid on toast with butter. Yum. This recipe hit the spot.

I made a Nutella-inspired cake for one of my friends who just had a beautiful baby boy..! She shares my own passion for this incredible food item, so I was excited to make the cake. It was a Nutella cake with a Nutella ganache filling and Nutella frosting... It was delish but I wanted a little more Nutella flavor - next time I think i will add ground hazelnut flour to the cake itself and maybe a hazelnut praline to the ganache.

I had some extra batter, filling and frosting so I made the kids (who are big Nutella fans as well) some cupcakes as dessert for the week.

Last but not least, I made the kids some pancake muffins because I couldn't be bothered to stand over the stove flipping pancakes on Thursday morning. I was looking to try something different for breakfast and my son was looking to have pancakes. The result - pancake muffins. They were yummy, portable, poppable, dunkable - everything a kid could want. And it only took me a total of 12 minutes to bake it from start to finish.

I think my hubbie got it right on the money when we were talking the other day - "Lucky kids." :-)