Easter Underway - Hopping to it

Easter is upon us, and the long-awaited return of Spring dress weather is cooperating with my plans to not fit into jeans all weekend - miraculous!

I headed home early to serve as soux chef to the original hostess herself. My mom was way ahead of Pinterest in terms of creating holiday kitsch cupcakes and easy, and seasonal meals that serve the whole family. So, with Easter underway, we got real real fast. Getting to the grocery store in Naperville is slightly different than battling the crowds on Elston: 

And I went inside alone. Big mistake.

But eventually we got down to business. With the help of mom, we made a cake by my other mentor:

The pumpkin-carrot cake with a citrus glaze wasn't as easy as a Betty Crocker cake, but it baked perfectly and was a nice change from my normal chocolate and red velvet cupcake holiday contributions.

A note on this one: it definitely needs the glaze. Or more sugar. Or maybe I need to slow down my fast-track to diabetes. Either way, this cake is delicious, but not very sweet on its own, so when you've pounded a bunch of Peeps earlier in the day, it's going to need a little something extra.

I'll have more pics and tricks from the weekend (we're about to get started again), but happy Easter to you and yours, readers. I hope your weekends are full of fun, family and good champagne.