Every year thus far for Maya’s birthday I’ve made some kind of pumpkin cake or pumpkin muffin, since her birthday is in October. This year, I finally gave her a choice.
SO not like me haha. And then…she picked my favorite birthday dessert-CHERRY!
Ok, for me, I picked Betty Crocker Cherry Chip Cake with Cherry Frosting every year growing up. OMG, sugar BOMB!!! And truth be told…I LOVED IT!!!!
BUT…I’m determined for Maya to love healthier althernatives, and so far, it’s working! What she doesn’t know, she doesn’t know. And natually sweetened treats, are treats!
I’m sure that’s going to bite me in the ass, but…until then….
I mainly used Coconut Mama’s recipe, but just added diced up frozen organic cherries and then drizzled some dark chocolate on them to make sure the kids in Maya’s class were more apt to eat them!
Using cocunut flour can be challenging, so I love to see what the consistency looks like! In my opinion, it’s more cookie dough like than muffin, but it all works out in the end!
The original recipe called for only filling it to 3/4th full batter, but mine never raise that much, so…I filled them up!
And Maya drizzled dark chocolate on them once they came out of the oven…
YUM!
Ingredients (makes 12 muffins or 24 minis)
- 3/4 cup of coconut flour
- 1/2 Teaspoon of baking soda
- 1/4 Teaspoon of sea salt
- 6 organic eggs
- 1/2 Cup of coconut oil, melted
- 1/2 Cup of pure maple syrup
- 1 Teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 1 Cup frozen cherries diced
For the drizzle
- 1 Cup Dark Chocolate
- 1 teaspoon coconut oil
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a small bowl, mix all dry ingredients together and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, beat eggs and mix in melted coconut oil, honey, vanilla, and diced cherries.
- Add dry ingredients and mix well.
- Let sit for 3-5 minutes or until coconut flour has absorbed the liquid.
- Scoop batter into prepared muffin pan.
- Fill each muffin tin ¾ full of batter.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes.
- Let muffins cool.
- Microwave chocolate and coconut oil in 20 second increments until smooth.
- Drizzle over muffins and enjoy!
- Store in airtight container in refrigerator.
Enjoy!
DYING over the details on the back and sleeves!!
Oh, and if you’ve followed along…I’m a total sucker for an open back top! This bralette is the best for coverage, and on Amazon for CHEAP! Although, it’s really only good for those of us that don’t have “support issues”. 😉
Oh, and…yes, we are totally matching, and I LOVE IT!
What I use to set my focus on, because she never stands still like this!!
And… Three cheers for mother in laws that live in Oklahoma and send us amazing cowboy boots!!
Omg, that face!!
I was trying to set up for the boot shot ( you can see the focus stand in the background), and Maya kept sticking her head right in front of the lens haha. I Photo Shopped the stand out of the shot in the main post. 
Couldn’t leave the stuffies behind… 😉
The only way I could get her to let go of them, was to offer to swing her…
Love this next one! She normally jumps, but she just kept balancing on one foot and then pushing off into my arms. 🙂
And then the sun came out!
Clearly, I can’t resist a pop of red on either of us haha.
That pose…
When I’m smiling off to the side in images of just me…this is what’s really going on 🙂
She freaking LOVES this ride!! I think this might be the last year she can go on it, which is sooooo sad!
Although, the best part for her was having her big cousin there again!
OMG, dying over Houston and Charlie’s face hahaha.
And…Maya’s face here-HA! What you can’t quite see (except by my sister in laws swirling hair!!!) is that this little ride was spinning around SO FAST! I actually had to look away, because I was getting nauseous… Obviously, I didn’t volunteer to go on this one with her!
The family that rock climbs together…
My dad got this one of me 🙂 Not going to lie. I was shaking for a little while after this. I don’t recommend rock climbing in Frye boots haha 🙂
Gah. How cute would it be to have this every year! Charlie didn’t come with us last year, and I’m not sure she’ll chose this over a party again next year… 😦
I wanted to get a family picture in front of this, but the kids vanished…
The train was the only thing we didn’t do last year, so we wanted to make sure we got on. It was perfect timing too, because it started to rain right before we got on!
Are you kidding me?
Happy Birthday sweet girl!!
Because…someone was TUCKERED OUT!
I can’t even with this next pose. It’s so funny. She definitely went through a “NO PICTURE!!” phase for a while. She eventually would get over it and just play, thank goodness! Unless, of course it’s with my phone. She still is pretty adamant about me not taking pictures of her with my phone! I think she is so used to me having a big camera, that she doesn’t think as much about it. But with my phone, I’m all up in her face and usually asking.
And of course, she’s always jumping and twirling 🙂
After this one, she was like-
On me… (no time for similar links, sorry!!)
And….another picture of her taking a picture of us between my legs 🙂
She was running around by the tripod and ALMOST ran underneath it!! My face…haha.
It’s so funny. At the balloon counter, both the woman who was helping us and I double and triple checked that she really wanted black balloons. She was insistent, and I honestly love how they turned out!
Oh, and I also had a different outfit picked out for her, but she was adamant about this dress and boots. And I have to admit…that pop of pink? 
hahaha.
I kept my outfit pretty simple. A) because, honestly, I wasn’t even sure we were really going to attempt this shoot until about 45 minutes before we did it-ha! B) it was her day! C) you can’t go wrong with black, denim, and a leather jacket!
Where’s Maya?? 🙂
I could eat her up…
Runaway balloons!!
One of my favorite images I got from this night! Although, with this light..there were a few!
That light?! That laughter? Love…
It’s so funny. I kept asking her if she wanted to blow the dandelions. Again…it’s not our yard or our neighbor’s yard, so go at it, no?! 😉
The downside to this park, is that a lot of people bring their dogs here to run off leash in the attached baseball field. Maya cannot resist a dog, and always wants to run off and play with them. Takes a little while to get her back… So, there are about a kazillion self timed shots of me caller her back haha.
Yup, another one of these. I might do an entire blog post on them haha.
She’s got some serious dance moves 😉
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