Have I succeeded in convincing you about the absolute must-have status of this cookbook yet? Are you ready to test your luck at potentially winning a copy of Krystina Castella’s Pops! Icy Treats for Everyone? If so, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post (one comment per person please). A winner will be selected via the nifty random number generator next Monday, July 7th at noon (sorry guys I’ve got a date this week with a beach and some SPF 45) and than I’ll promptly ship the cookbook to your home. Good luck!

Update: The contest is now closed and we have a winner!

Who could possibly pass up the chance to immerse themselves in a veritable sea of chocolate chip recipes? If you thought the Melting Moments looked heavenly just wait until thursday. In the meatime, I’m giving you the chance to win a copy of Elinor Klivans’s The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookbook published by Chronicle Books. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post (one comment per person please). A winner will be selected via the nifty random number generator this Friday (June 13th) at noon and than I’ll promptly ship the cookbook to your home. Friday the 13th totally doesn’t have to be a scary day now…Chips ahoy! Or…Good Luck!

Congratulations Christie! You’ll be receiving CakeLove in the mail shortly. Thank you to everyone for participating and be sure to stay tuned! There are more giveaways in the works.

If after reading Monday’s post you now desperately want your chance to dive right into the cake baking world of Warren Brown then you’re in luck!  I’m giving away a copy of CakeLove to one Erin Cooks reader.  All you have to do is leave a comment on this post (one comment per person please).  A winner will be selected via the nifty random number generator this Friday (May, 23rd) at noon and than I’ll promptly ship the cookbook to your home.  Get your aprons ready!

Over the past month I’ve made a few fun additions to my kitchen and in the spirit of Pee-Wee Herman please meet “Shelfy!  Unfortunately this shelf doesn’t chat with me and give sage advice but it does help immensely with the serious kitchen cabinet overload I’d been experiencing. Initially I thought I wanted a more traditional baker’s rack, but after searching around I couldn’t find one that didn’t seen horribly old fashioned.  Then CK and I went to Ikea, or as my friend Julia refers to it “Disneyland for Grown-ups.”  At Ikea I wrote down and crossed out literally six different shelving units until we got to the very end of the store and I saw this system: The Omar.  For once in my life I found exactly what I wanted and it was *gasp* the cheapest one.  So I ended up happy, the cupboards are a little less cluttered, and CK didn’t have to take out a personal loan to buy me a baker’s rack.

Last week I was determined to win Jenny Frazier’s cryptic typography based contest that she hosted at her blog All Eyes on Jenny.  So I put my Nancy Drew thinking cap on and broke out my mad “googling” skills.  The first day of the contest honestly left me clueless, but than Jenny started to reveal little clues and I finally figured out what the answer was.  Last night my pretty pretty prize was waiting for me when I got home and it was promptly hung on the wall in my kitchen, just high enough above my pink KitchenAid so that it doesn’t end up covered in cake batter.   Obviously all of the blogging in this household happens in the kitchen, even Chris sits at the dining room table to work.  So much for that spare room we made into an office…

My Diane Mott Davidson re-creation of the recipe for Double Shot Chocolate Cake just won 2nd place in the Bittersweet Baking contest! I’m very happy with the result. I don’t think I’ve ever tried so hard to make something both look and taste as perfect as possible. Since I’m the 2nd runner up, do you suppose I can still get that espresso machine if the winner fails to fulfill their Queen of Baking duties…or you know, takes some overly sexy cupcake images? I kid…I kid… Now I will anxiously await my “handsome reward.” Who wants to come over for fancy machine made coffee?