🍅Free Kids Printable: Color & Garden Vegetables (ages 4-8)
Get your free printable Color & Garden coloring pages for ages 4-8 thanks to Dover. Just click on the blue numbers at the top to access each page. Right-click and select “Print” to print each page. There are five different coloring pages with text from the book.
📚Why I read to escape the stresses of the day…
Reading a book is my favorite way to unwind. My mind is taken to another place, another time, another story. I know ideally I could take a vacation from my normal routine and go somewhere exotic…but let’s be practical – that takes money and time that I don’t have. So it’s wonderful to have my instant escape in my books […]
🦋Free Printable Adult Coloring: Butterfly Gardens
Get your markers or colored pencils for these free Butterfly Gardens adult coloring pages from Dover. There are four pages you can print, just click on the numbers at the top right to scroll through them. Right-click on the image and “Save image as” to your desktop so you can print them.
👻Free Mystery eBook: The Guest is a Goner ($2.99 value)
Enjoy this free mystery eBook (normally $2.99) by Carly Winter only for a limited time. Click on the white button for your eBook preference. Read it from your phone, tablet or computer using free apps. Make sure the purchase price is still $0.00 because it could change at any time!
🐶Free Kids Printable: How to Care for Your Dog Coloring Pages (ages 3-8)
Get your free printable How to Care for Your Dog coloring pages for ages 3-8 thanks to Dover. Just click on the blue numbers at the top to access each page. Right-click and select “Print” to print each page. There are four different coloring pages with text […]
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🕯️Pomegranate Rosemary Butter Cake Recipe
I love holiday baking using bundt pans, so I used my Holiday Wreath pan to inspire me to create a fragrant Pomegranate Rosemary Butter Cake decorated with a red ribbon, green holly, and pinecones. I picked up Land O’ Lakes butter at Walmart to make the best-tasting butter cake I’ve ever made. It’s also the best-looking butter cake I’ve ever made. My kids were so impressed with my cake decorating that they thought I had purchased the cake already decorated. They’re used to my quick decorating method – a few shakes of powdered sugar. It works when you are short on time, but I’m glad I invested the time in decorating this cake because the results are something to celebrate. Next time I make this cake, I’ll refer to my photo to help the decorating process go a little faster! Pin my recipe for inspiration for your next bundt cake!
My mom taught me that choosing the brand and type of butter you use for baking is important because it has a big impact on the final taste. I usually use Land O’ Lakes Butter in my baking because I know I’ll achieve the best taste with it. I love that they use a “Flavor Protect Wrapper” that protects the butter from anything else in your fridge (i.e. you don’t want your butter absorbing onion or garlic flavors).
When baking a bundt cake it’s important to bake it long enough so that the cake batter is completely cooked in the middle of the cake. There’s nothing worse then a gooey cake middle! I baked my butter cake on the middle rack at 375 degrees for 50 minutes. You want the top of the cake to be golden brown and you can test if it’s done by sticking a toothpick into the thickest looking area of the cake. Let your cake cool before placing a serving platter on top of the cake – carefully flip both the serving platter and the bundt pan over and the cake should easily release from the bundt pan onto the serving platter.
Pomegranate Rosemary Butter Cake – Pin It or Print It
When decorating a bundt cake made from a decorative pan, it helps to look at the pan while you’re decorating. Sometimes details you may want to highlight will “disappear” on the cake after baking due to air pockets or an uneven release from the pan. You can easily bring them out using frosting – but you have to be able to see them first! I used fresh cranberries as the red holly berries and in the middle of the cake because they’re so pretty. The pinecones became the yummiest part of the decorations. That’s because I used chocolate fudge frosting as the base. Combine the chocolate flavor with a thin slivered almond crunch on top of a fragrant dense rosemary-infused cake and my tastebuds were doing a happy dance! I hope you love this cake as much as I do!
- 1¼ cups Land O' Lakes Unsalted Butter (softened to room temperature)
- 1½ cups sugar
- 4½ cups sifted unbleached all-purpose flour
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 3 eggs
- 3 tsp vanilla extract
- 1¼ cups milk
- ½ cup pomegranate juice
- ½ cup pomegranate arils
- 2 tsp crushed rosemary
- pinch of salt
- frosting for decorating (red for ribbon, green for holly, chocolate for pinecones)
- slivered almonds (for pinecones)
- fresh cranberries (for holly berries and center)
- fresh rosemary (as a garnish)
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees with a rack positioned in the middle of the oven.
- Prepare a 9-cup bundt cake pan by throughly coating inside with non-stick baking spray with flour.
- In a large bowl, combine sugar and softened butter with an electric mixer until creamy.
- In a separate small bowl, combine eggs and vanilla. Add to large bowl of sugar mixture and mix thoroughly.
- In a separate large bowl, combine sifted flour, baking powder, crushed rosemary, and a pinch of salt.
- In a measuring cup with a pour spout, combine the milk and pomegranate juice to make a milk mixture.
- Alternate adding a small amount of flour mixture them a small amount of milk mixture into the large bowl of sugar mixture and keep mixing with the electric mixer.
- Lastly gently fold in the pomegranate arils with a large spoon.
- Pour cake batter into bundt pan and level the batter out so every part of the pan is filled evenly.
- Bake for 50 minutes, Test with a toothpick for doneness and adjust baking time as needed for your oven.
- Cool cake in the bundt pan for at least 30 minutes (drape a tea towel over it), then place a serving platter on the top and flip the bundt pan over to carefully release the cake onto the serving platter.
- Let cool thoroughly before decorating with icing. Alternatively you can decorate by sprinkling with powdered sugar.
- Tip for creating Pinecones with Slivered Almonds: use chocolate frosting in dots for slivered almonds to stick to. Start at the bottom of the pinecone (closest to the serving platter) and work your way up to the top of the cake. The slivered almonds look best pointing downward. Even if the pinecone is shown facing upward in the bundt pan mold - reorient all pinecones so they face down (see photo).
If you’re baking for your family, or giving the gift of homemade goodies – visit the Land O’ Lakes Holiday Recipes for inspiration. You’re going to bake up something beautiful with Land O’ Lakes Butter!
This post is sponsored by Collective Bias® and I received compensation for it. My opinions are my own and they are not edited by Collective Bias®. Please visit my Disclosure Policy.
Recipe originally published on Nov 24, 2013
🛍️4 Tips for Avoiding the Holiday Shopping Frenzy
The deals are flying right now both online and in the stores, so this is a great time to remind you to avoid what I’m calling “shopping frenzy”. Don’t buy things just to buy them. Don’t buy things because others are buying them. Don’t buy things just to get a limited-supply “freebie” that you don’t even really want. And please don’t ruin your Thanksgiving holiday with your family to go shopping on Thanksgiving Day (aka the NEW Black Friday).
My mom and I were talking about the shopping she did on a previous “Black Friday” and she told me:
“I returned every single thing I purchased on that day, because I realized that they were all impulse purchases. I saw everyone else buying these great deals and felt I should too.“
But she didn’t need to buy these “deals”, and recognized she should return what she bought. But my mom is someone who plans ahead and I’m guessing she already had most of her gifts ready for the holidays. So for her shopping on that day of amazing deals was more for the fun of the experience and without a well-defined plan.
Here are my four tips to help you shop wisely this holiday season:
1. Have a Plan, Stick to the Plan
Make a list of gifts you want to get including a budget for each gift. When you get closer to making your shopping trip, then make a list of which stores you’ll go to and what you’ll look for at each store. Your plan should align with your budget. Overspending isn’t any fun because ultimately YOU have to pay that bill.
2. Don’t Shop Under Stress
That means don’t be tired, hungry, or stressed out while you shop. Because that could contribute to impulse buying that you may later regret. Crowded stores and waiting in long lines is about the most stressful situation I could imagine, so I avoid them. I only shop online on Thanksgiving and Black Friday to avoid the craziness in the stores.
3. Don’t Hesitate to Return
If you go shopping, and the next day realize you got two presents for someone who you only needed one for, then by all means return it! Doesn’t matter how good of a deal you got, if it isn’t an item you’ll use or that you have a specific recipient for then I say return it if you can. Some people keep a gift closet to stock with gifts for the upcoming year and that’s a great strategy. Just make sure that the gifts you’re stocking it with are good candidates for being given as gifts within the next year.
4. Spend Your Time How You Want To
Only you know what you want to do with your time, so spend it on what you want whether that be enjoying family, decorating your house, working on a home improvement project, or shopping. Just be sure you’re doing what you want to do and not following what everyone else is doing. Avoid the crowd mentality because it can be damaging to your budget.
What do you do to avoid the “shopping frenzy”? Leave a comment on this post!
My gift to you is a daily email filled with fun ways to save money!
reposted from November 2009
