It’s been a little quiet around here the last month or two. While it’s been summer and so so hot in Nashville I decided it would be a good time to shed the rest of the baby weight. I’ve never gone on a diet or regularly visited a gym in my life so it’s been a challenge.

I’ve modeled this magical cake after the German Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte. I was doing research on Black Forest Cake and disappointingly the top recipes that came up (from the “biggest” blogs) were filled with cake mix, canned cherry pie filling and no Kirsch! Blasphemy!

I can’t believe that my maternity leave is almost over. I’m happy to be going back to my job but I’ll be sad not being with my little baby bear every day. We’ve been making the most of our time together though.

Since I didn’t get much of a chance to make many Christmas treats I decided to get a head start on Valentine’s Day. Target has a pretty good selection of red and pink goodies. I got these napkins, straws and plates for $1-$3 each.

I made this bread probably 6 months ago! I don’t know why it’s been sitting in my drafts for so long. There were just so many other posts and cakes to write about! Moving and baby also got in the way.

I made this coffee cake from the new Ovenly cookbook. Every time I went to NYC I never had the time to go to Brooklyn and this happens to be where some of the best bakeries are. After reading this cookbook I’m really bummed that I never made it to Ovenly. I only made a few trips to NYC when we lived in Connecticut and in all my intensive bakery research never came across Ovenly.