Happy 4th!

Hey guys! Today is the start of a lovely Independence Day weekend! The weather has been absolutely gorgeous! Barbeques, pool time, and lazy summer afternoons relaxing outdoors is what's on my mind. And of course, with barbeques comes dessert! ;-) We are going to one of our friends' houses today and they have a beautiful baby boy. He's been through quite a bit and he's only 6 months old! He's a trooper..! He's still nursing and like a lot of babies, his little tummy is not agreeing with certain foods. As a result, I needed to make a dessert that is egg- and nut-free. I thought long and hard and came up with these cookies - buttery little jewels that melt in your mouth. As if that wasn't enough, i sandwiched some of them with my homemade mango jam and the others with chocolate ganache. Mmmm...

Earlier this week, I had some nearly black bananas. I love when that happens - always makes baking something sort of a necessity. I mean, I don't want to have to throw away perfectly good bananas...! So I got adventurous and created a chocolate banana muffin with a peanut butter swirl. They were good and filling and we took them on our trip to Connecticut as a quick and easy travel food.

Upon our return, I started getting ready for the long weekend. I made some flag sugar cookies for another barbeque we are attending.

For the kids one morning, I came up with a spiced pear muffin. I left some bare and others, I frosted with some leftover coconut cream cheese icing I had made recently, that needed to be used up.  My hubbie loved these...

I also made red and blue velvet cupcakes dipped in chocolate ganache and frosted with a smooth and lovely swiss meringue buttercream. It's all about the red, white and blue this weekend! Here is a quick pic snapped from my Blackberry. I will be posting the nicer pics taken from my much better quality (not) camera by tomorrow morning.. So check back. The pics are much more impressive with the dual-layer velvet cake and all. Happy 4th of July!