EAT MY CUPCAKE.

Thanks to Pamela of Cookies with Boys for choosing the Sugar-Topped Molasses Spice Cookies on pages 76 and 77. What a great recipe for Fall and I was totally in the mood for cookies this week, too.

It was very easy to make; especially with my one-bowl whisking everything method. It worked and the results were fabulous . . . flavorful spiced beautiful cookies. I halved the recipe and decided to make 6 humongous cookies. The hubs ate two and I devoured one, so these were the remaining three.

I love the sugar-topped look, too. I think this maybe one of my favorite cookie recipes. A good break from my everyday chocolate chip cookies. Yay!

Please check out Pamela's blog for the recipe and I highly recommend you make these. Now I will check out your blogs and see what delicious treat you made for me! ;)

How fitting, the hubs and I are both craving chocolate and my New Orleans Saints are playing on Monday Night. Perfect timing. Time to make some chocolate cake. I made so many cupcakes last Halloween weekend, I was ready to just have a simple chocolate cake with plain ganache frosting. OK, maybe ganache WITH rum. You have to like that!

I modified the chocolate cake recipe to include:

And I added rum to the ganache.

I did not have chestnuts lying around, so I did not add onto the cake.

Verdict?

Simple, no frills, and delicious. It was moist, flavorful, and packed with chocolate and rum wow power. I liked it a lot, but then again, I think I like rum a lot.

Yes my Saints are 7-0 and I had chocolate cake. Life is good.

Thanks, Katya of Second Dinner for choosing Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake on pages 269-272.

 My friend, Natasha and I hosted a Halloween party last night and I baked some cupcakes for the party. The cupcakes were easy to decorate with the help of candy i.e. gummy worms and candy corn.

Chocolate cupcake with ganache and strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting were the flavors of the night. Since we hosted the party at a lounge, the cupcakes paired well with vodka shots. Ha! 

I am keeping this entry nice and short because of a massive hangover from the successful party. As some of you may know, hangovers and blogging isn't the best combo. ;)

I am looking forward to checking out everyone else's spook-tacular Halloween cupcakes . . . have a safe and great Halloween!

 I have not experimented with cherry and chocolate yet, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to do so when April of Short + Rose selected Cherry-Fudge Brownie Torte on pages 284-285.

Instead of the cherry-fudge brownie torte with the mousse layer, I decided to use cherry glaze instead. The fudge brownie and cherry together was "ok". To be honest, I preferred chocolate layers filled with whipped cream and cherries instead of this brownie texture.


I then used the leftover cherry glaze for the cherry-fudge cupcakes. I added semi-sweet chocolate chips into the batter with almond extract to enhance the cherry flavor. After 16 minutes in the oven, I cooled them off, and topped with extra glaze.

Verdict?

Simply delicious. Tasted like Black Forest cake in  a simpler form. It tasted better the next day. The work guinea pigs will surely enjoy these.

I stopped by the Asian supermarket on the way home and instead of regular orange sweet potatoes (aka yams), I found white sweet potatoes. I did not know white sweet potatoes even existed. Since I planned to puree and not buy canned, I bought a few.

Biscuits or cupcakes? I decided on cupcakes so I can bring them into work with leftovers.

I steamed the white sweet potatoes for 45 minutes before mashing them up with brown sugar and buttermilk. I added a cup of the puree into a basic cupcake batter of flour, baking soda, baking powder, eggs, oil, buttermilk, light brown sugar and pumpkin spices. I also added some pecans for extra texture and flavor.

I baked them for 15 minutes and cooled for another 5 before topping them with sugar and maple syrup.

Verdict?

Wow, excellent. I mean the white sweet potatoes are sweet and wonderful. It served well as cupcakes and  is  a great Fall flavor. If you ever find white sweet potatoes at your market, I strongly suggest you buy some! Thank you Erin of Prudence Pennywise for choosing Sweet Potato Biscuits on page 26. If you're in the mood for some awesome biscuits instead of cupcakes, please check out her website for the recipe!

Eek. I am having major computer problems at home and I was unable to post this entry early today. In fact, I am posting these at work (sssshhhh!).

So, in summary, I liked these cupcakes.  Very much. I made these right after my Vegas trip and they were perfect hangover cupcakes with the cream cheese frosting. My friend actually inhaled 4 of these. Yes, 4.




These were delicious, light, moist, and a great Fall cupcake. Let's thank dear Kim from What the Whisk for choosing Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes on page 236. Excellent recipe! Applause!

I am a day late. I was recovering from a wild weekend trip in Las Vegas. I haven't had that much fun in a long time.  However, the so-much-fun Vegas pictures landed me a spot in he doghouse. Oh well. Worth it though . .

My blogger good friend, Kayte of Grandma’s Kitchen Table, chose Allspice Crumb Muffins on pages 16-17 and I had to show her my love and respect by making her selection.

 As many of you know, I am a cupcake kind of gal, so I turned this recipe into cupcakes. I omitted the butter from the batter recipe and added oil instead. I checked my spice rack and unfortunately, there was no all-spice. I had to make do of cinnamon and nutmeg which smelled heavenly. In fact, the hubs commented, "Wow, honey, it smells really good in here" upon entering the kitchen (but I was still in the doghouse, boo).

I baked the cupcakes for 25 minutes (longer than my usual 20 minutes) and took them out to cool. I was very tempted to frost these, but decided the streusel was enough.

Verdict?

Glad I kept it as-is because it was very delicious. The buttery streusel topping was a keeper. The cupcakes were moist and cinnamon-fragrant. The hubs added whipped cream on his and he said they were the "bomb". Yoshi, our bulldog, was licking the hubs' half-eaten cupcake sitting on the low coffee table as he took a phone call. I didn't say a word. ;)

Thank you, Kayte for selecting this recipe. Please visit her blog for the muffins recipe!

The hubs claims that my Cookies and Cream cupcakes is his all-time favorite. Unfortunately I didn't make any extras for his indulgence. Oh well. I made these once before for a birthday party but my decorating skills were a bit rusty back then (wow, almost a year ago). ;)

I made them again today for a friend with better confidence. I have to say that these guys were photogenic in black and white.

Instead of the regular vanilla buttercream frosting, I actually made vanilla cream cheese with crumbled cookies (3 cookies). It tasted awesome. I noticed most cookies and cream cupcakes were generally decorated with a whole cookie on top. I inserted them as halves and not wholes for a cleaner look.

Hopefully, Elizabeth and Kady will enjoy them on Saturday . . . as I celebrate Connie's birthday in Vegas! 

Brett Favre is truly amazing. I know everyone has their opinion about his on and off retirement, but homeboy still has an incredible arm and is a true warrior. While watching Monday Night Football, I decided to make the split-level pudding.  Instead of a vanilla layer, I made a banana layer by adding banana extract. I love the fact that I was able to complete this recipe before halftime.

Verdict?

Hmm, the chocolate pudding did not need another layer. It was fine on its own. Same as the banana pudding. In fact, the banana pudding is better off with vanilla wafers, sliced bananas, and whipped cream. Mmmm, that sounds good, doesn't it?

Thank you, Garrett of Flavor of Vanilla for choosing Split Level Pudding on pages 384- 385. It was easy and fun, very Monday Night Football friendly.

I knew this recipe would be bad-ass. I mean bananas and pecans. How can you go wrong with that combo? I halved the recipe to make 12 standard cupcakes. I did not use an electrical mixer, instead I used my reliable hands and whisked the ingredients before popping them into the oven for 20 minutes. The kitchen smelled great . . yes, like Fall.

I decided to experiment with a different type of frosting for these cupcakes: mascarpone. With some  added caramel and powdered sugar, it complimented the banana-pecan cupcakes quite well. I also drizzled some pure maple syrup to sweeten the deal.

Verdict?

Wow, these were good. The hubs liked it and that is a good thing. He is now a certified cupcake tester.  I ate one and I thought it was wonderfully moist, flavorful, and fragrant. So far, so good.

We have completed three recipes so far. Next up for our October 15th challenge, we have Kim from What the Whisk who chose Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes on page 236. Awesome. I can't wait to make these either! Good job, everyone and looking forward to checking out your blogs! xoxo

I was cupcake inspired with this recipe. I baked chocolate cupcakes and added unsalted peanut butter in the middle. While cooling the cupcakes, I made the chocolate ganache frosting and added a tablespoon of Torani's Creme Caramel syrup.

I then dipped the chocolate cupcakes into the ganache for a beautiful frosting coat, topped with crunchy peanuts.

Verdict?

The hubs liked it and commented that it was not too overly sweet and I agreed after taking a bite. Goldilocks would have liked it this one: it was just right. Thanks to Carla of Chocolate Moosey who inspired me with her selection of the Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart on pages 355-357. For the tart recipe, please check out her blog.

Cottage cheese reminds me of Greek yogurt. I often use Greek yogurt for my weekend morning parfaits. I combined fresh berries, honey, sugar, vanilla extract, and granola. It was fantastic. So, instead of the pufflets, I used fillo shells and filled them with a cottage cheese mixture of:

With the light and flaky layers of the fillo shell and the smooth creamy cottage cheese filling, the combination was fab. I topped them with a blueberry for a good texture balance. It was not heavy and the hubs ate five before I took them away.

These are best served immediately. Thanks to Jacque of Daisy Lane Cakes who selected the Cottage Cheese Pufflets, on pages 148 and 149. Yay for cottage cheese (not the ones on my thighs) in a tasty dessert treat! :)

Wearing my tank top and shorts, I can't bear to think of Fall and yet it comes knocking on my door. Knock. Knock. Who's there. Zucchini-Spice Cupcakes. What? Already?! What better way to embrace Fall than to bake zucchini-spice muffins cupcakes. Thanks to our dearest Tracey from Tracey's Culinary Adventures for picking Zucchini-Spice Cupcakes on page 44.

I purchased some wonderful zucchini at a favorite stand in Boonville. Yes, there is an actual town called Boonville in Northern California and yes, it is one of my favorite desintation spots. Ha! I halved the recipe and there was already a problem. The batter was clumpy;  so I had to add another egg (2 eggs altogether for half a recipe) and 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil to smooth it out. I also made other modifications to the recipe:

Baked for 20 minutes and noticed they domed like muffins. I removed them from the pan to cool and they felt incredibly heavy and dense; also another muffin characteristic. After topping them with cream cheese frosting, I garnished them with some zucchini.

I took a bite. Hmmm, tastes like a muffin, too. It was good and hearty, but I honestly wouldn't call them cupcakes. Did anyone else have the same texture as mine?

The hubs took a bite and didn't like it enough to finish the muffin cupcake. We are both into the moist cake-light cupcakes and not so much into dense ones. So, hopefully the work guinea pigs like these because I won't be making these again. :(

It was 5PM and I was not going to make the pastry dough tonight. I was planning to watch True Blood's season finale and lust over Eric Northman, my favorite vampire instead. I had to be creative and think quickly since I did not want to disappoint my TWD fans.

I preheated the toaster oven at 350 degrees, buttered the foiled pan, flattened two slices of whole wheat bread, added the filling (with tons of cinnamon and butter), and turned on the timer. From start to finish, my apple turnovers took 15 minutes. And guess what? They tasted AWESOME. I was impressed. I should have made some vanilla ice cream for some a la mode action.

I am sure all of your by-the-book flaky apple turnovers were delicious . . . especially  with that buttery pastry dough. You guys are truly super stars. But my priority was Eric Northman and I hope you all understand. :) If any of you wonder who Eric Northman is, here is a teaser pleaser picture:

Julie of Someone’s in the Kitchen (one of my dear blogger friends) selected this week's challenge, Flaky Apple Turnovers, pages 316 and 317. Thanks for picking a wonderful recipe! Now back to True Blood.

I really do like dessert recipes that contain both coffee and chocolate lately. Even though Susan of She’s Becoming DoughMessTic selected Chocolate Souffle, page 406 which DID NOT include coffee, I added it anyway for an extra flavor dimension.

I tweaked a few things:

Mine did not rise like a true souffle, but I believe that it was due to my refusal to use the Kitchen Aid mixer (I was way too lazy to clean after a long weekend of camping) and I whipped everything by hand. Ironic, I know, since Dorie pointed out that today's technology SHOULD enable us to make perfect souffles. ;)

It tasted like a souffle, but too bad it did not look like one. Next time, I will use the mixer and hopefully they will make the French proud.