Valentine's Day and Huey

So I mayyyy have gone a little overboard last week with the baking; whipping out cupcakes, muffins, cookies and brownies but it was well worth it. I already shared the cupcakes and muffins, now let's get to the other goods.

I felt like I needed to add a little chocolate into the mix, and I'm not a fan of just plain chocolate so I had to mix it up.

I usually have butterscotch chips on hand and thought they'd be the perfect sweet touch to add to the rich chocolate and peanut butter chips in these brownies. They flew pretty quick at my boyfriend's apartment so it had to be a good combo.

This usually doesn't end well but I got into some late night baking Sunday. AKA I couldn't sleep and made a ton of cookies. Way too much... But they're cute AND delicious!

I took a sugar cookie and jazzed them up for Valentine's Day. And as my boyfriend told me, sugar cookies are underrated. I agree in that people look at a sugar cookie's bland complexion and think twice before indulging, so you gotta make them look good.

The good thing about Valentine's Day is there's always a ton of candy on sale and when I think of candy I think of what I can bake it with. I found heart-shaped chocolates that have a different filling in each one and baked them into the cookies. Anywhere from just fudge, peanut butter, caramel, crisps and even cookies and cream were in the candies and of course the heart shape made them festive and season-appropriate.

I also managed to find the right baking time so they weren't hard as a rock, it's actually pretty easy to burn a sugar cookie and making any cookie in this brownie pan can go horribly wrong and threaten to break teeth if you don't know how to bake them. Ten to twelve minutes usually does the trick, they may seem undercooked and too soft at first but when you give them time to cool they're the perfect consistency.

Before that I made the same exact ones with peanut butter. Just like too much chocolate, I'm not a fan of too much or just straight up peanut butter so the candies helped that balance out as well.

The topper to this Hallmark Holiday mood I've been in is now this classic has been stuck in my head and probably will be until the end of February. Thanks Huey!

And now I want to watch Back To The Future. Think I can make Delorean cupcakes? 

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Long time no bake!

Can't believe it's been so long since I pulled out the oven mits and got to work, but I'm back and it's been a very productive day.

First let's look back at the mini lemon loaves I made for Christmas. I knew I couldn't completely imitate the Starbucks ones but I did my best and they came out pretty darn good. Amazing what some pound cake, lemon juice and icing can do.

Instead of going with all white icing, I also made a lemon glaze. Didn't want the cake to be pure sugar so I just crosshatched some white icing so it wasn't overpoweringly sweet.

Now today, I may have broken my rule a little but it's worth it when it comes to Cinnamon Toast Crunch Muffins..

Yup, just like the cereal, only in amazing muffin form. They're not square but I got to use my killer new Wilton baking gear thanks to my wonderful boyfriend. The least I can do is make the guy some normal looking muffins, which could have been his plan all along but I'll take it!

Now, the kicker is a version of salted carmel cupcakes.

Pretty simple really, starting with just a normal pound cake recipe. While they're still warm, poke holes in them and drizzle carmel on top. Either home made or store bought carmel sauce works.

Now I wanted to make salted carmel somehow but I normally don't have sea salt on hand in the apartment and you can't pour normal salt on a cupcake. Well, you could, but that'd be kinda gross.

So I decided to chop up some pretzels and add them to the frosting.

Crazy how simple it is. It's really just butter, carmel, powdered sugar, pretzels and boom. Awesome frosting. Something I'm still pretty proud of considering I almost ditched the salted carmel idea because I didn't have sea salt. You never know what you'll find in your kitchen to turn into a cupcake.

But wait.. can't leave you hanging without a coffee suggestion. Casi Cielo is back. A medium-roast coffee from Guatemala that actually translates as "almost heaven," is the perfect sweet and smooth roast to go with salty sweet carmel.

Oh and guess what?! It's available for Keurig now too! This roast is the most elegant in the Starbucks family being paired well with gourmet desserts and better served straight. It's smooth body, dark cocoa notes was originally created exclusively for gourmet restaurants. Sounds strange but now, with cupcake in hand, bring gourmet into your kitchen!

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