Sweets & Treats with Six Sisters' Stuff {Review}

Sweets & Treats with Six Sisters' Stuff

Paperback, 176 pages

Published September 29th 2015 by Shadow Mountain 

Source: I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

My Rating: 4.5 Stars

Description:

Six Sisters' Stuff is one of the most widely followed cooking and lifestyle blogs with 6.7 million page views per month and their most popular features are their fantastic dessert recipes. Whether quick-and-easy, imaginative show-stoppers, special occasion, holiday-themed or adorably cute and kid-friendly, this new Six Sisters' Stuff cookbook features 110 scrumptious homemade dessert recipes, covering every sweet tooth craving. Step-by-step instructions make it easy to create delicious and imaginative confections using pantry staples including: Mississippi Mud Brownies, Homemade Twix Bars, Nutella Cheesecake, Key Lime Cupcakes, Samoas Popcorn and includes a chapter on super-fast no-bake treats like Mini Peanut Butter Cup Trifles.  Sweets & Treats with Six Sisters' Stuff  also features imaginative ways to share and showcase your homemade confections including: Ways to Package Treats, Dessert Traditions, Desserts Kids Can Make, and Companion Dessert Craft Projects.

My Review:

For the last little while, I've been trying to eat healthier, but I just can't give up desserts. Whether I have them once a week or every day, my sweet tooth can't be curbed, so when a chance to review this book came up, I jumped on it! 

I've been following the Six Sisters' blog for a couple of years now and I love how their recipes are simple, yet satisfying. There are many comfort foods, as well as new recipes, and their desserts are some of my favorites.

In the mood for cupcakes? This book has got you covered. Bars or brownies? It's got both of them, too. I love how most of the basic dessert categories are covered with a good variety of recipes. From bars, to cookies, to cakes, to ice cream, to cheesecakes, to candies/treats and more, this book is sure to have something to fit your mood or the season. I also loved how tips to share and show your treats are included. 

I decided to try a few different recipes and was pleased with the results. In fact, my husband wants to ban me from making treats for awhile because they're all oh-so-good. I tried the Nutella Brownies and the recipe was easy to follow. They turned out great and we couldn't get enough! I also made the Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies and they were a hit. The pictures for each recipe are well done and I also enjoy how each recipe gives a serving amount and a prep time, cook time, and total time. My 9-year-old daughter helped me make the Mini Pumpkin Pies and had so much fun with them. They're the perfect serving size for a person. She asked if she could help me make more recipes in this book and went through and found a bunch that she wants to try. There are many, many more that we're all looking forward to making, including the Slow Cooker Nut Clusters, Old Fashioned Vanilla Ice Cream, and Snickers Cupcakes, to name a few. This is a great book with a lot of possibilities.

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 Interview:

I was fortunate enough to get an interview. Enjoy!

1. How do you come up with all of your recipes? I know a lot are family favorites, but don't you ever run out?

Our mom would cook dinner for us every single night growing up, so a lot of the recipes we share are recipes we grew up loving and eating together. She has a huge collection of really old cookbooks, so we get a lot of them out those. We also love remaking recipes we have at restaurants, and trying things we see on Pinterest, adding our own twist to it. We haven't had any problems running out yet, or even duplicating with the other sisters!

2. I've followed your blog for years and I know there are six sisters. Do all of you do the cooking and photographing? Are some better at it than others?

We all do our own cooking and photographing. There are a few sisters who seem to have more of a magic touch with the photography, but we have all taken food photography classes and have loved learning how to capture the food just perfectly. We all have our own styles of cooking, some sisters focus on desserts, we have one sister who likes to cook healthy meals and another sister who is an expert with the slow cooker. It all evens out and offers our readers a good variety.

3. Have any of you ever tried to make up a recipe on your own, without tweaking a recipe already written? If so, how did it turn out?

Like mentioned before, we love going to our favorite restaurants and remaking the recipes we love at home. It always takes a few tries to get it just right, and sometimes we just can't figure it out, but it's always fun to try! One of our favorites is our homemade Chili's Salsa copycat. That ended up tasting almost better than the restaurant version!

4. How did you go from having a blog to publishing cookbooks and making tv appearances? Were you approached or did you send out queries? 

This kind of just happened to us by coincidence. We had a few sisters attend a blogging conference a few years ago. During one of the dinners they ended up sitting by a man who worked for Deseret Book. They started talking and exchanged information and it just went on from there. We now have 4 cookbooks and are currently working on our 5th. We had a lot of local channels and radio shows reaching out to us to do some cooking demos after our first book, and we have just kind of done it ever since. We love sharing with others the things we are so passionate about.

5. I know you've also branched out into a fashion blog. Are there other areas any of you would like to branch out on?

Growing up with 6 girls in the family we had to learn how to find good deals when it came to fashion. We share our favorite deals at our favorite stores on our fashion site so that people who are living on realistic budgets like we are, can find affordable and stylish clothing. The nice thing about our site is that the title "Six Sisters' Stuff" doesn't really limit us, we can blog about just about anything and it will still fit under the category of "stuff." We love writing about traveling, have a few DIY posts, home decor, and crafting.

6. Do you ever have recipe fails or do they always turn out? If you do have a fail, do you ever attempt it again? If so, what's the highest number of attempts it's taken to get a recipe right?

Oh we certainly have our fair share of recipe fails! We have a sister group text message that we keep going throughout most of the day as we all work. It's full of funny pictures of bread not rising, cookies baking together, cheese sticks burning on the pan, and so much more. We always claim to not be professional, and our fails would definitely prove that! If we are determined to get the recipe right we usually try until we can get it perfected. You know if a recipe is on our site that it has been tried and tested, usually a few times, by at least one sister. It once took me 5 attempts at some pudding cookies until I could make them not turn out looking like hockey pucks. It's all party of the experience as a blogger though, and it sure does make for a good laugh!

About the Sisters:

The Six Sisters—Camille, Kristen, Elyse, Stephanie, Lauren, and Kendra—grew up in Utah, but a few of them have lived in other parts of the country since moving out of the house. Between them there are five nieces and three nephews, and all of the sisters love playing "aunt." The sisters started the blog in February 2011 to keep in touch while they were apart, but it has since gained popularity, garnering more than 9 million viewers per month and more than 307,000 followers on Pinterest. 

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