faqs

Thank you all for asking questions via email, comments here on The BakerMama or via social media. I love hearing your questions and am happy to answer. Here are some of my most frequently asked questions:

Can I use one of your photos on my blog or in my article?

Absolutely, thanks for sharing! Just be sure to credit me and link back to the post you used the picture from. Please DO NOT republish the recipe in any form without my prior consent.

Can you give me the nutritional information for this recipe?

Unfortunately, I can’t. There are several free online nutrition calculators that you can use to easily plug the exact ingredients you use into and calculate the nutritional value. I would recommend: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/recipe/calculator

What do you do with all the food you make?

We eat most of it! We’re a family of 6 after all. I create recipes that we love and eat often. If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you’ll notice that I make my recipes over and over again, not just for posting on the blog. These are tried and true recipes I’m creating for us to enjoy and for you all to make for you and your family!

Now when I’m testing dessert recipes and I have a big cake or dozens of cookies on my hands, I’ll divide them up and share the yumminess with our friends and neighbors.

Do you really eat all those donuts you post about?

Is this a trick question? 😉 haha! Yes, of course I do. I’ve never met a donut I didn’t like. Okay, I lie on that fact. I’ve actually tried several donuts I haven’t liked and it just blows my mind how you could make and sell a bad donut. Ugh! So we’ve scoured Dallas and every city we’ve visited in the past several years to find the best of the best and those are the ones we eat and yes, we eat donuts often. Like a couple times a week usually. My favorite is a good ol’ glazed old fashioned. I love donuts. The end.

How are you so skinny after having 4 kids and being a food blogger who eats lots of sweets?

First of all, I can’t stand the word skinny. I prefer fit. Because that’s what I strive for and that’s how I feel. I believe in everything in moderation and I know my body so well at this point in my life that balancing my love for food while staying fit and feeling healthy is instinctive. I chase my 4 kids around daily. I exercise {more for my sanity than my shape} 4-5 days a week. I eat a salad or veggie-packed stir-fry almost every day. I love fruits and veggies. And I’ll never ever deprive myself of something that I want. I have pretty good self-control when it comes to eating as I know when I’m full and if I want more I can have more when I’m hungry again. I feel blessed to have this appreciation for good food and the energy/desire to stay active.

What kind of camera do you use?

Canon Rebel T4i

Do you work with brands for sponsored posts?

Yes! I am happy to promote brands and products that I love on The BakerMama. If you are a brand looking to build a great relationship with me, please email me at info@thebakermama.com.

I am very passionate about only partnering with brands that my family and I honestly use and love. Thank you for your interest in working with me! And thank you to my followers for supporting the brands that make several of my recipes possible.

Can I send you a product to review in a post or on social media?

I do not do free product reviews or accept free products in exchange for reviews on The BakerMama or any of my social media platforms. I would be happy to discuss a sponsored post which could include recipe development if I love the product and it’s a good fit for my followers. Please email me at info@thebakermama.com to discuss a partnership. I’d love to hear from you!

Can I advertise on your site?

All of my advertising is managed by AdThrive. Please contact them for all inquiries.

What are your favorite kitchen tools/appliances?

KitchenAid Mixer, Ninja blender, cookie scoops, pre-cut parchment paper baking sheets

What do you always have stocked for baking?

butter, sugar, brown sugar, flour, old-fashioned oats, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, honey, maple syrup, chocolate chips, chocolate chunks

How often do you go to the grocery store?

Daily. I kid you not. I’m not very good at meal planning for the week and I actually love grocery shopping, so I’ll usually do one big run to the store once a week to get the staples and then swing by when I need to pick-up certain things for recipe development or dinner.

Where do you live and where are you from?

We live in Dallas and love it! My husband and I both grew up in Oklahoma. We road trip back to Oklahoma often to see family and attend all the University of Oklahoma home football games. Boomer Sooner!

How do you do it all?

I just do it. Just like any other mom out there whether you have 1 kid or a dozen. You just do it. It’s busy, it’s exhausting, it’s loud, but my family is my world and I’m so passionate about this little blog of mine, that I choose to do it with all my heart and happiness. Life is hectic…but oh so wonderful!

What are your favorite Dallas restaurants?

I’m working on a post all about our favorite places to eat here in Dallas so stay tuned. But here are a few places I frequent often:

Afrah – middle eastern food, family-friendly, favorite weekend lunch spot

Crossroads Diner – great breakfast/brunch spot, family-friendly, amazing service, get the sticky bun!, we’re regulars

East Hampton Sandwich Co. – amazing sandwiches, all of them, my favorite is the fried chicken + jack, and their choc o’ chip whoopie pie is yummy yum!

Top Knot – modern Asian-American food in a casual trendy environment, one of our favorites for date night out, get the yucca chips with edamame hummus, the hot fried chicken bun, the chicken kimchi karaage, and the mezcal mule

CBD Provisions – modern Texas cuisine, one of our favorites places to go with a group of friends, everything is awesome, if your adventurous try the pig head carnitas

Lucia – quaint Italian restaurant with the most amazing handmade pastas, you have to have reservations a month in advance, great for a special occasion

Scardello – cheese & wine shop, one of our favorite places to start date night out or pick up cheese from our a cheese board at home, these people know their cheeses and they’ll let you try them before you buy them, they prepare beautiful cheese boards for you to enjoy there with a bottle of wine and it’s just such a great way to unwind after a long week

Jimmy’s Food Store – an authentic Italian market and deli with a wine room in the back, we love going here for a sandwich (the Italian Stallion is our fave!) and also to pick up ingredients for homemade pizza or pasta night

Ku Sushi – our favorite sushi spot, we order take-out from here almost weekly, here’s our go-to order: edamame, seaweed salad, tuna tower, salmon sushi, unagi sushi, seared tuna sushi, super white tuna sushi, valentine roll

Gabriel & Sofia’s – Tex Mex, great service, family-friendly, we love the brisket tacos!

Meso Maya – nicer Mexican, love their avocado margarita, pozole verde and carnitas tacos

Super Chix – fried chicken & custard… need I say more?! Seriously, this place is awesome! Love the chicken strips, salads, fries and of course, the custard. Just do it.

Village Baking Company – I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the pastries here are as good as, if not better than, anything we’ve eaten in France. One bite in and you can immediately tell that these pastries are made with the highest quality ingredients and baked to perfection. Love at first bite!

Top Pot Doughnuts – we can all thank Top Pot for my donut obsession. 😉 I’ve eaten donuts all my life, but Top Pot introduced me to gourmet donuts and there was no going back. Top Pot is the most convenient donut shop to us so we frequent It often. Their donuts are on the pricier side when compared to Daylight Donuts, but so worth it. We love their glazed old-fashioned, raised glazed, blueberry cake and apple fritter. You gotta get the apple fritter!

Glazed Donut Works – another great donut shop with handcrafted donuts in a variety of creative flavors. Certainly not your traditional donut shop. Glazed is open late at night from 9pm-2am to serve the late-night crowd in Deep Ellum but is also open most morning of the week to cure those breakfast donut cravings. Their selection of donuts changes often so it’s always fun to try something new.

Hypnotic Donuts – a locals favorite on the east side of Dallas with a great selection of both creative and classic donuts. My favorite is their Peace’ statio (a cake donut with a brown butter glaze and pistachios)

Emporium Pies – this place does pies and only pies and they do it darn well! Lines can be long on Friday and Saturday nights and they often run out of the most popular pies, but if you get there in time to choose your favorite slice, it’s an awesome & delicious experience. My favorites are the Cloud Nine and Smooth Operator.

Sweet Firefly – you have to drive to Richardson to experience this ice cream, but it’s so worth the trek. This is pretty much the only local ice cream scoop shop that makes their ice creams in house. They make you feel right at home when you walk through the doors and the ice creams are amazing! Our favorites are their coffee toffee crunch, peanut butter chocolate and mint chip.

Kate Weiser Chocolate – Wow! That’s exactly what I say every time I walk in this chocolate shop. Kate’s chocolate are little pieces of artwork that you can eat. And they’re amazing! It’s so fun to choose a custom box of chocolates to enjoy there with friends or take home and snuggle up on the couch with. A Dallas must-try!

Ascension – one of our favorite coffee spots in town! Not only do they make a lovely latte, their avocado toast is some of the best we’ve ever had. Love the atmosphere and service at both locations too.

How do you plan out all your food trips?

We do a lot of research before we go on a trip by using Yelp, magazine articles, other blogger’s recommendations and random TV shows highlighting that city’s best eats. I also love asking my followers on Instagram for recommendations because I always get some great ones that we hadn’t heard about. Once I’ve bookmarked all the places we want to try, along with noting what we just have to try at each place, I map it all out so that we can walk from one place to the next and make the best use of our time. It’s just what we do and we love it!

We have two rules that we try to follow (most of the time) when we do these food-filled tours. First, we have to walk everywhere we go, if possible. That way we’re working up a hunger from place to place and working off some of all the yumminess we’re consuming throughout the day. And it’s a great way to really see and feel the city. Second, we try to stick to a two-bite rule at each place. So for each thing we order, we each get two bites. If at first bite, we don’t like it (which is very rare because we do a ton of research to find the best of the best), we’ll not take a second bite and save up for something better. But most of the time, we’re tasting pretty awesome eats, so we’ll take our two bites and use all our willpower to stop ourselves from eating more, knowing we’ll be heading to other places and trying lots of other great eats throughout the day. There are definitely times when something is just so amazing that we’ll devour the whole thing and throw the two-bite rule to the curb. Or if we’ve made a reservation at a nice restaurant, we’ll usually treat it as a meal and eat most all of what we order.

And what do we do with all the food we don’t finish at each place on these trips? Well, depending on what it is, we’ll try to share with others around us (fun way to meet other foodies!), take anything that will stay fresh back with us to the hotel, or give it to someone on the street asking for food. I’ve started packing baggies in my suitcase to bring the best of the best back home with us so we can enjoy them in the days following our trip and share bites with the boys or friends that come over.

How did you and your husband, Brandon, meet?

We met in summer finance class at the University of Oklahoma. Very romantic! 😉 I sat on the front row and he sat right behind me. We would study together throughout the summer and the rest is history…

How do you plan your date night ins with 4 kids?

Date nights in are our favorite! We started doing them after the twins were born and they quickly became our preferred way to spend a Friday and/or Saturday night together. Instead of making reservations, paying a sitter, ordering ubers, etc., we plan out an awesome meal and drinks to enjoy here at home. Sometimes we get fancy with sous vide short ribs over a white bean puree and sometimes we keep it simpler with a big charcuterie board filled with our favorite meats, cheeses and accompaniments. We’ll drink a bottle of wine or make some fun cocktails and listen to our favorite cover band channels through Spotify (current faves are Boyce Avenue and Tyler Ward).

How do we do it? If we plan ahead, we’ll go to the store earlier in the day and get everything we need. If it’s more last minute, we’ll put the kids to bed and one of us will go to the store to get everything we need. Once the kids are sound asleep, we turn on the music, pour our drinks and take our time cooking and enjoying the food and each other. We like to make a few courses out of it or something like a charcuterie that we can slowly eat over a few hours. We live for date nights in!

How did you get into food blogging?

I started blogging on September 12, 2012. Here’s my very first post. I started out blogging exclusively for Gold Medal Flour. They were looking for an everyday baker to be their baking blogger and they selected me. I was honored and thrilled! The BakerMama lived on the Gold Medal Flour website until April 2014 when I branched off onto my own. I still have a great relationship with Gold Medal Flour and am so proud of the hundreds of delicious recipes I’ve created in partnership with them so far. I love being able to share all of my recipes now, whether they include flour or not, along with tasty travel recommendations and family life. Here’s to many many more years of blogging!

Where do you get inspiration for your recipes?

My mind is always thinking of the next thing I want to make. Most of my recipes are created thanks to my constant cravings, the kids’ requests, trying a variety of things at different restaurants & bakeries, browsing magazines, watching food TV shows, etc.

Which recipes on The BakerMama are your favorites?

All of them! Seriously, I wouldn’t share it if I didn’t love it and have confidence that you’ll love it too. But I do have recipes that I make more often than others:

Healthy 5-Ingredient Flourless Banana Bread
One-Bowl Fudge Brownies
Crispy Asian Brussels Sprouts
Sheet Pan Chicken & Black Bean Nachos
The Best Blender Guacamole
Flourless Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
French Toast Roll-Ups
Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread
Pizza Toast