Hardboiled eggs and jelly beans — it must be Easter! Sure, you can obsess over the Easter meal (which one of these gluten-free and Paleo-friendly brunch recipes to choose from?), but for our money, Easter sweets are where the party’s at. You can decorate elaborate Easter eggs, sure, even the galaxy variety, but what about channeling that creativity into decorating cookies. These 13 recipes will add a burst of colorful fun to your table, and they’re a lot tastier than a hollow milk chocolate bunny.
Frosted Chocolate Bird’s Nest Cookies
Easy Coconut Pastel Cookies
Hot Cross Cookies
Greek Easter Cookies
Gluten-Free Pastel Thumbprint Cookies
Easter Bunny Tail Sugar Cookies
Rainbow Mini Meringues
Funfetti Marshmallow Cereal Bars
Toasted Coconut Shortbread Cookies
Coconut Macaroon Nest Shortbread Cookies
Golden Egg Oreo Cookies
Easter Blossom Sugar Cookies
Speckled Egg Cookies
If you're a classic romance girl who craves a little spice — I'm looking at you, Bridgerton fans — then Christina Lauren's The Paradise Problemis everything you need. I thought I was hooked on romantasy books, but I think this book has coaxed me right back over to the more traditional romance side — and I mean who can really have too much of either type of romance anyway, right?
But before I dig into all things The Paradise Problem, it's important to be clear up one thing: Christina Lauren isn't just one author like I initially thought. The two women responsible for bringing the world 30 romance novels are absolute powerhouses who also happen to be best friends: Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings. I know — this news alone seems like it deserves it's own summer novel. Since they don't have plans to do that, we at least get to have their unified essence in the books they've written and in this lovely interview.
It goes without saying, but The Paradise Problem is the perfect way to celebrate Christina Lauren's successful romance empire. Of their newest title, Christina and Lauren feel great about it being in the world. "This one is really fun so it's like going out and just celebrating. We're not worried," Lauren says with a smile. Confidence; I love it!
Ahead, learn more about how they birthed Christina Lauren and created the characters you'll come to love in The Paradise Problem.
The Making of a Romance Novel Empire
Image via Brystan Studios
Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings
I know besties when I see them, and this writing duo has all the makings of two friends whose bond has been deepened by more than time. Still, curiosity get's the best of me when I mention what certainly feels like an empire to me before asking, "How did you two meet?" Their knowing smile says it all — they've clearly been locked in for a while, and they remember the exact moment things clicked for them.
"In 2009 we were both writing fanfiction and reading each other's stories online. Then Lo (Lauren) was putting on a panel at San Diego Comic Con on fanworks and she invited me to be on it. So, I came out and we met for the first time, and we got along really well," says Christina.
From there, they wrote a one shot — quick fanfiction story — together, and eventually decided it was worth taking a chance on writing an entire book. The fact that both Christina and Lauren have experience writing fanfiction not only helped them prepare for their pivot into authorship, but it also got them accustomed to the honesty of online book reviews.
As far as people not knowing that Christina Lauren is actually two people, that's basically the point. "We want it [our books] to feel like they're written by one voice. We spend a lot of time editing to make sure it doesn't sound feel like two very distinct, combative voices in there," Lauren says while excitedly adding, "I mean everyday we get DM's that are like, 'I didn't know there were two of you!'"
Peeling Back the Layers of The Paradise Problem
Warning: May contain some spoilers.
I have a deep appreciation for books that immediately call my imagination to the forefront and that's just one of the many things The Paradise Problem does as soon as you begin reading the first page. We're immediately introduced to Anna Green and "West" going their separate ways after choosing to amicably end their marriage. The kicker? See, they don't actually know each other.
How can two people essentially be strangers while they're married? Realistically, Anna and West's marriage was one of convenience. Each found themselves in a situation where their very survival relied on marriage, so they decided to become husband and wife solely on paper.
That seems pretty straightforward right? Wrong. Based on the first impressions of Anna and West, one has it together while the other is a hot mess. But, Christina Lauren is challenging us to rethink our approach to first impressions because they're not always everything. Once you start peeling back a person's layers, you can really start to understand their choices, reactions, family dynamics (and there are plenty of awkward encounters in this story on that front), and more.
Image via Jasmine Williams
Christina and Lauren knew what they wanted for these two characters in the end, but they had to figure out how to fully thread the needle for it to work — particularly when it came to West and his relationship to his family. They had his backstory, but they needed to figure out how to fully flesh out his world, parents and all. What they went with was jaw-dropping IMO, full of shady behavior, cocky attitudes, and beyond. But how does West's background and personality relate to Anna's?
"We always try to think about who's the perfect person for the characters — not who will complete them. Anna is very different. She does not come from a wealthy background, she's not super polished," says Lauren. But, there's more to her than meets the eye. She's a genuinely good person who has a loving heart that no amount of status can compete with once the layers are peeled back.
This is what begins winning West over, and the two soon begin to find there's some truth to the fictionalized relationship they have on display for West's family. Ultimately, The Paradise Problem begs readers to ask if opposites really do attract, confronting us — and our main characters — with this one scenario at a time.
Image via Jasmine Williams
In my humble opinion, The Paradise Problem feels like one of Christina Lauren's best books because it encompasses all the elements that fans of their work love. Christina says, "They love characters they either want to be or want to be friends with, heroes they want for their own, a lot of the settings..." She continues, saying, "The great thing about having a large catalogue of books is that there's something for everyone. Do you like funny books? We got you. Do you want super saucy books? We got you. Do you want something that's gonna rip your heart out? We got that too."
In case you have any doubts about that, check out all of the duo's books now and get your copy of The Paradise Problemtoday!
Be sure to watch our full interview with Christina and Lauren, officially known as Christina Lauren, on YouTube!
Lead image via Christina Lauren
Whipping up delicious, eye-pleasing, and creative cookie recipes is fun, but sometimes those cravings come on hard. When you’re jonesing for a sweet treat, you just want something as quickly as humanly possible! Luckily, these make-ahead cookie dough recipes have your future self covered. Since you can whip these up and stow 'em away in the freezer (to later bake or eat cold), make-ahead cookie dough recipes are the best dessert around. From chocolate chip cookies to more fruit-forward variations, these make-ahead cookie dough recipes will have you craving something sweet!
Peanut Butter M&M Cookies
This super yummy make-ahead cookie dough recipe combines the flavors of peanut butter with the chocolatey M&Ms we all know and love. If you only have unsalted butter on hand and the recipe calls for salted, just add 1/4 teaspoon salt to the recipe! (via Sally’s Baking Addiction)
Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies
This make-ahead cookie dough recipe kind of borders brownie territory, which we are 100% here for. You'll get a mouthful of chocolate, with a fun hint of chili powder and cayenne that get at the real Mexican-inspired flavors. (via The Real Food Dietitians)
Red Velvet Fudge Cookies
Chewy and gooey, and reminiscent of our fave cake flavor, these red velvet cookies can be frozen solid for up to 1 month. We could see them being even tastier with some white chocolate drizzle! (via Whole and Heavenly Oven)
Matcha Cookies
Baking with matcha is so fun! You can prep this make-ahead cookie dough recipe a few weeks out if you're planning a party or have a bake sale on the calendar. It'll take you only 15 minutes of prep for a truly tasty payoff. (via Takes Two Eggs)
Thumbprint Cookies
This cookie dough recipe is fairly basic, taking on the flavors of whatever jam you choose. We'd recommend raspberry and peach! (via Culinary Hill)
Soft Peanut Butter Cookies
The key to making freeze-able cookie dough is choosing a recipe that’s full of fatty ingredients. The fat will allow the dough to still taste fresh weeks down the line. Case in point is this delightful peanut butter cookie recipe! (via Rachel Schultz)
Kitchen Sink Cookies
Kitchen sink cookies are the best! You can basically throw whatever you want into the dough, but we prefer chocolate chips, potato chips, pretzel pieces, and nuts. This recipe leverages butterscotch, too, and finishes everything off with a pinch of flaky sea salt. Yummm. (via Completely Delicious)
Loaded Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Sure, this freezable cookie dough is made with oatmeal, but don’t you dare call these rich, buttery cookies a health food! They’re far too yummy for that. And they happen to call for an entire stick of butter, so you know they’re going to be decadent. (via Averie Cooks)
Lemon Butter Cookies
Lemon lovers everywhere will appreciate the sweet, lemony goodness of these buttery make-ahead cookies. They also happen to only call for a few select ingredients for baking with ease: lemon juice, lemon zest, butter, sugar, eggs and flour! (via Simply Whisked)
Butter Pecan Cookies
Not only is this recipe totally okay to make ahead of time, but the recipe actually requires it. This cookie dough needs to chill for at least three days, so why not whip it up to have on-hand any time you’re feeling the need for cookies? (via Sally’s Baking Addiction)
Healthy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Sometimes you're craving to go down the healthier route when it comes to cookie time, and these oatmeal + raisin-packed ones are the ultimate solution. This cookie dough recipe is make-ahead and freezer-friendly. When you're ready to bake them, let the dough thaw out at room temp for an hour, and you're ready to go! You can also freeze after baking, if you wish! (via Vanilla and Bean)
Disneyland’s Peanut Butter Cookies
This copycat recipe recreates the big, fluffy peanut butter cookies you can find on Main Street USA in Disneyland. Interspersed throughout the doughy, buttery cookies are peanut butter chips, which set them apart from your average peanut butter cookie. (via Six Sisters Stuff)
Butter Cookies
This butter cookie recipe is super soft and creamy, so it’s great for freezing ahead. Bonus: it’s also perfect for cutting into fun shapes, making it super appropriate for kids to make along. Don't forget to make some icing to decorate them! (via Life As Mama)
Perfect Sugar Cookies
These Lofthouse-like sugar cookies are sweet, soft, doughy and perfect for topping with frosting once they cool after baking. The freezable dough is just as good on it's own, if you catch our drift! (via Chef in Training)
Vanilla Bean Danish Butter Cookies
Vanilla bean is the star ingredient in these Danish cookies. Freeze the dough, let it thaw, and then use a piping bag to create pretty circle shapes before baking! (via Ashlee Marie)
Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies
Make this make-ahead cookie dough recipe a few days in advance, but leave the chocolate kisses for adding in at the end. Hershey’s kisses, peanut butter, brown sugar, butter and vanilla extract comprise the flavors of these classic cookies! (via The Semi Sweet Sisters)
Gooey Butter Cookies
These doughy cookies pull gently apart in the oven, creating a crinkle-like texture on top. But inside? It’s pure softness. Be sure to lightly coat the cookies with powdered sugar before baking to create the crinkle effect. (via How to Nest for Less)
Bakery-Style Chocolate Chip Cookies
Finally, these chocolate chip cookies are the perfect perennial favorite to store in the fridge before baking! We’ll also leave you with one final tip: when freezing cookie dough, it’s best to shape the cookies into individual portions and pop them in the fridge for about 30 minutes to harden. Then, stack them on top of each other, with sheets of parchment paper between each level. Put them into a freezer-safe bag, and chill. (via Tastes of Lizzie T)
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Lead image via Completely Delicious.
This post has been updated with additional reporting by Meredith Holser.
Rom-coms are SO back, and after the flop-turned-viral Anyone But You gave us Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney onscreen, audiences are begging to see them together again. Glen's latest Vanity Fair profile (ahead of this year's summer moviesHit Man andTwisters) confirms "ideas are being batted around" for an Anyone But You 2, which I need in theaters, like, yesterday. Here's everything you need to know about the potential sequel — and which Shakespeare adaptation the duo should tackle next.
Will there be a second movie for Anyone But You?
Image via Sony Pictures
Both Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney have teased a potential Anyone But You 2. "I'm just so thankful that everybody is loving [Anyone But You]...a little love, a little romance," Sydney told Jimmy Fallonthere's "a high nine chance" for a sequel, while Glen confirms to Variety that the duo is "definitely trying to find the next thing...We’re reading everything and just trying to see what makes sense, what we can turn into something that audiences are going to respond to.”
Which Shakespeare story will Anyone But You 2 adapt?
Image via Sony Entertainment
There's nothing like a Shakespeare adaptation, and Anyone But You is actually loosely inspired by William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing (similar to how 10 Things I Hate About You is inspired by The Taming of the Shrew!). I think they should totally continue this theme for all future sequels. Glen and Sydney would do phenomenal with the hilarity of A Midsummer Night's Dream — maybe instead of an enchanted forest, they take on a busy and colorful local fair, with Claudia and Halle of course. Think about all the possibilities! Nothing says confusion and chaos like fun houses, carnival food, and dead cell phone batteries.
How old is Bea in Anyone But You?
Image via Eddy Chen/Sony Pictures
Bea is a law student at the beginning of Anyone But You, meaning she's in her mid-20s. Considering Sydney Sweeney is 26, this is the perfect fit!
What do you want to see from Anyone But You 2? Check out our TikTok for more pop culture news, and read up on Our Dream Sydney Sweeney & Billie Eilish Sister Movie!
Lead image via Sony Pictures
When I sit down with Bridgerton's Claudia Jessie, Jessica Madsen, and Hannah Dodd over Zoom, it's immediately clear that they LOVE each other. The three women talk so quickly and overlap so much that it's easy to believe they play friends and sisters onscreen. And when I ask for their go-to confidence boosters, Claudia can barely explain why she's "just accepted that it's probably not gonna happen" before Jessica and Hannah jump in.
"Ultimately I could love myself, or I could just be like, 'Here I am,'" Claudia Jessie says. "Most of the time, none of us know what we're really doing anyway. So I think I'm just letting go of any attachment of trying to feel confident."
"You should be confident because everybody loves you," Hannah Dodd counters. "Everybody's obsessed with you! I think, if you surround yourself with the right people as well, like my friends give me confidence, the right people, like your team and you guys."
"'How are you so confident to be so different?' I say at one point to Eloise," Jessica Madsen says. "And when I read that in the script, it was just like [how] I feel about you, and I really mean it...I remember saying it and really feeling like that was 100 percent true from me to you, [Claudia]."
The love is totally reciprocated, and when I ask what the three women would write in their own Lady Whistledown column, Claudia hypes up Jessica's love of music.
"I love music. I love making playlists," Jessica says. "I went through a little stage where Spotify was my everything. I wanted to be a DJ."
"You'd look great as a DJ," Claudia adds. "I don't know your DJ'ing skills yet, but you'd look amazing behind the deck like that."
Hannah adds that they talk a lot about their dogs, and books. "I do love books," Claudia, who just finished Travis Baldree's Legends & Lattes, agrees. "I'm a big reader. Basically I like things that don't mean I have to leave the house. I could talk about the inside of my flat thoroughly. I could write about that, my four walls."
Image via Netflix
Bridgerton season 3 opens after Eloise's discovery that Lady Whistledown is actually her best friend Penelope Featherington. The middle Bridgerton child has had to keep it a secret all this time, and Claudia Jessie admits she's a good secret keeper, just for a different reason: "I'm good because I forget them immediately," she says.
"I'm like the grave," Jessica Madsen promises.
"I wouldn't say I'm a grave," Hannah Dodd adds. "I just have a group of people that I'm like, 'They don't count.' I will not tell anybody. But like, except for these...one or two very trustworthy people."
In the show, multiple characters' trust in one another is threatened — learning about Penelope's secret identity challenges Eloise's trust in Penelope, and Colin's remarks that he'd never court Pen threaten her trust in him. While we see these relationships evolve in unexpected ways, we also see new sides to characters we thought we knew. Namely, Cresside Cowper.
"Other than, obviously the really sad passing of the Bridgerton dad, Eloise comes from an incredibly sheltered, privileged, happy, nourishing environment where they can all be themselves," Claudia says. "So I think it is really important to see just how different it is [from the Cowper household], cause it also informs us a bit more about how difficult the situation is for Cressida and why she might be colder or a bit closed off."
"[She's] very lonely as well," Jessica adds. "She's got nobody. Not her mum, and definitely not her dad. It's opposite ends of the spectrum."
Image via Netflix
And while season 3 of Bridgerton is just about to debut, Jessica Madsen, Hannah Dodd, and Claudia Jessie already have dreams for Bridgerton season 4.
"I'd love for Eloise to get political, do you know what I mean?" Claudia says. "I'd love that because there's so much room for Eloise to go there."
"She could be the first Prime Minister!" Jessica chimes in.
"I don't know for Francesca," Hannah says. "I'm so excited to see what the writers come up with. I just hope she steps into herself a little bit more and kind of goes after things that make her happy, and knows that she's deserving of that. But I'm new here. So, like anything they give me, I'm gonna be happy with."
Brit + Co Rapid Fire With The Bridgerton Cast
Image via Netflix
Brit + Co: We've talked so much about books, what are you all reading?
Claudia Jessie: I just finished a book called Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree. And it literally says on the cover "Low stakes, high cozy vibes"...It was beautiful. Really comforting. It was like a big hug.
Hannah Dodd: I'm reading Yellowface at the moment, and I just finished Lessons in Chemistry. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo [was] good. And that really took me a while to find another book that filled that hole.
Jessica Madsen: I have Dopamine Nation...I love audio books. So I actually have Viola Davis reading to me every night her autobiography, which is amazing.
B+C: What music is on repeat for you at the moment?
CJ: I'm listening to a band called Say She She. They're like three sexy, beautiful girls doing like funk, disco pop. Beautiful, cool stuff. And they're really, really cool.
HD: I'm less cool and very generic. Beyonce's new album and Ariana Grande's new album, and I'm obsessed with Noah Kahan at the moment as well.
JM: I'm a mixed bag. I've got a lot of different stuff that I love. Yeah, I've, I've been listening to a lot of Fat Freddy's Drop cause they've got a great summer vibe. Two Feet I really enjoy...I like jazz. Disco.
Image via Netflix
B+C: Bridgerton is our next watch, what's the last thing you binge watched?
CJ:Barry, which I think is the best comedy that's ever been written, ever. I know I'm gonna re-watch it as well cause it's just unbelievable. The amount of respect they show that comedy is so beautiful.
HD: I haven't binged anything in a while, but I'm really excited to watch Ripley. And I think the last thing I binged was One Day as well, which left me heartbroken.
JM: I just binge watched — I say binge gently — Yellowstone, so I want to be a cowgirl now, really badly. I want to live in denim for the rest of my life, in cowboy boots, badly. And then I just I always put Schitt's Creek on. I've watched it 10 times now, which is embarrassing. I love it. We need laughter. We need fun.
B+C: What's on your summer 2024 bucket list?
JM: I would love to get on a beach. I wanna be on a beach for a bit and just feel the sand and the sea.
HD: I'd just like to get through this part of my life, which is quite exciting and new for me and I don't know. I wouldn't say no to a beach either.
CJ: Just a load of iced coffees. That's great when that season comes around, you can have iced coffee. That's like my favorite cause I kid myself into thinking it's not the same amount of caffeine as a hot coffee, so I'm like 'I can have three!' and then I'm rattling.
What are you most excited to see in Bridgerton season 3? Check out Bridgerton’s Nicola Coughlan & Luke Newton Got The Best Advice From Their Co-Stars for more!
Lead image via Netflix