A Fresh Blueberry Peach Cake

A few weeks ago, we went blueberry picking at a u-pick farm just up the coast from us. Somehow, we came home with several more baskets of berries than planned (and some homemade crumble from their farm stand).

In addition to eating the berries fresh, in smoothies and yogurt bowls, baking them into muffins, and a pie, I also decided to make this blueberry peach cake. The cake base is single layer, in the everyday style, not overly sweet, but still definitively a treat. It’s easy to make, reliably tender and moist, and richly flavored with butter, vanilla, and almond.

Along with the blueberries, I added some fresh peaches from my parent’s backyard trees – fleeting, but oh, so good – and the result is this sweet and simple, quintessential Summer cake. I hope you love it too.

Blackberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

Is there anything better than homemade ice cream in the middle of Summer? I suppose it’s possible, but this indulgent, blackberry swirled, cheesecake-inspired ice cream gives any other contender a run for their money.

Beaming with vibrant swirls of jammy, peak-season berries, and a creamy, vanilla-bean flecked custard base, this no-churn ice cream might just become your new favorite Summer treat.

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Chocolate Chip Easter Cookie Bars

Brown butter chocolate chip Easter cookie bars, to be exact. While I don’t often make cute, themed holiday desserts (as a mostly lazy baker), I do like incorporating seasonal candy into my favorite treats.

In this case, we’re adding milk-chocolate Cadbury mini eggs (and browned butter) to traditional chocolate chip cookie bars. It’s a decadent combination that complements the caramel and brown sugar notes of the cookie base, and the crunchy, malty-sweet candy eggs alongside dark chocolate chips.

The cookie bars come together quickly with easy pantry ingredients. You can mix up the mix-ins (peanut butter M&M eggs are also delicious here), or keep it classic. The results are buttery, gooey, cookie centers with barely crisp edges and lots of chocolate-y, candy goodness throughout. Happy baking!

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Soft and Fluffy Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

Are you over pumpkin yet? I’m… not. In the slightest.

So the pumpkin train unapologetically continues, with these fluffy overnight pumpkin cinnamon rolls, a recipe I’ve had in my mind ever since I shared these apple cider rolls a few years ago.

Quite a lot has changed since then in my personal life, but my basic cinnamon roll recipe – a winning combination of sweet and tender yeasted dough (in this case enriched with pumpkin puree), curled around a gooey, pumpkin butter filling, and packed with brown sugar and cinnamon and warming spice, remains a favorite.

AND, if you still have leftover pumpkin from making these chocolate muffins, homemade pumpkin cinnamon rolls are a great way to use it up!

Blackberry Buttermilk Cake

When we first moved to the Pacific Northwest, there was nothing more magical than the wild blackberries growing everywhere. Along the freeway, next to shopping centers, really any little patch of dirt they could find. I was thrilled when our first house had a thicket of them taking over a far corner of the backyard.

My husband, who’d spent countless hours hacking back thorny brambles as an adolescent chore saw them as much more weed than magic. He drew the line at us ever planting them on purpose.

But we did agree that the result of my constant wild berry picking delight was delicious. And untold tons of local (wild and farmers market) blackberries made their way into many desserts – like this simple blackberry buttermilk cake – over the five perfect Summers we lived there.

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A Classic Peach Crumble

With peak Summer produce season upon us, I’m currently in stone fruit heaven. Whenever we’re inundated with gorgeous fresh peaches, as we currently are now, I’m bound to be making peach pie or peach crumble as often as possible.

This past weekend it was this brown sugar peach crumble, with equal parts sweet, syrupy fruit filling and a buttery, spiced oatmeal cookie-like crumb topping. An unequivocally delicious dessert that is perfect for high-reward, lazy baking on these long, hot Summer days.

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A Fresh and Flavorful Summer Vegetable Pasta

If you are also growing zucchini and/or cherry tomatoes in your garden this Summer, we will all likely reach a point of complete-and-total overabundance, and begin looking for different ways to answer the question, “What to do with all these veggies…”

Of course, there are the classics – moist zucchini bread (chocolate, naturally), and the best, homemade roasted tomato sauce. Or, maybe creamy roasted tomato soup. But once you’ve crossed those off a few times, the tomato and zucchini can also join forces in this simple and flavorful Summer vegetable pasta.

Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

Is there any better way to incorporate more zucchini into your diet than mixing it into a super chocolate-y muffin topped with mini chocolate chips? I think not.

These decadent double chocolate zucchini muffins are packed with flavor and sport a moist and tender crumb with extra sweet little dome tops. They taste like dessert, but let’s just call them muffins so we can eat them for breakfast…

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A Sweet and Simple Blueberry Galette

It’s starting to feel like Summer here, and that means berry desserts! Oh, who am I kidding, I can find a reason all year long. But this is the time when they really sing.

Galettes are a favorite way to highlight peak-season fruit (that really doesn’t need much more than a small amount of sugar, a hint of vanilla, and maybe some citrus for brightness).

This blueberry galette features a sweet and syrupy vanilla blueberry filling that sinks into my go-to all-butter, homemade pie crust. The only thing missing as it emerges warm from the oven is a big scoop of vanilla ice cream. It’s sweet, berry perfection.

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