Fresh fruit and new coffee!

Last month I was on a mission. I had to prepare for a coffee tasting and wanted to make something that would compliment my coffee well. Luckily enough, Starbucks came out with Kati-Kati.

It means "In Between" in swahili and is the in between or balance of citrus and spice from Kenya and Ethiopia. If any of you old timers out there remember Gazebo Blend -

It's similar but wayyy better. Gazebo Blend use to be used for Iced Coffee before Tarazza came out and it was a very good acidic and citrusy coffee that only came out in the summer. I was bummed when it left but am super excited for Kati-Kati. It's very acidic, light and fresh and goes great with fresh fruit. More specifically it pairs well with lemon and strawberry. Did you see the lightbulb go off? 

I decided to make lemon cupcakes with fresh strawberry frosting. I hit some snags but it ended up being the perfect compliment to the new citrusy summery coffee. 

That snag came with the fresh strawberries. I diced 'em up and thought I'd toss 'em in the frosting while I had the mixer going. It was good until the juices from the Strawberries made the frosting soupy. I kind of panicked but just added another stick of butter and some more powdered sugar to get that consistency back. I'm thinking maybe next time just fold the strawberries into the frosting. 

Needless to say, I killed the tasting and killed a new recipe that will be used again. 

Don't have the energy to bake or can't take the extra heat? Chop up a fruit salad and it's just as good with a fresh french press. 

Also, try it iced! Just brew it at double strength, pour over ice and refrigerate. It's that easy and just as good iced. 

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Break me off a piece of that ...

I think that Kik-Kats are kind of underrated. They're not usually the first thing people think of when you say candy bar but I realized it's the perfect mix of chocolate and crunch and good consistency for a frosting. I've also had requests for red velvet cake and instead of the normal cheesecake frosting I mixed it up with some crumbled kit-kats. Simple, but delicious.

I've done red velvet before - for Valentine's Day, how cliche! - and I wanted to mix it up. I did before by adding chopped up white chocolate and chocolate chips to the frosting and white chocolate chips in the batter but anyone can make a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting. My creativity escaped and I've been thinking about what I can make with Kit-Kats and this was perfect. I LOOOVVEE Red Velvet and balancing it out with a buttery frosting with the milk chocolate from the Kit-Kats balanced it out pretty well. 

I've got quite the knack for turning candy into cupcakes. Any more ideas??

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Why don't you build me up, buttercup baby...

Now that the Foundations are in my head...

Here's a take on a couple of the best candies around; peanut butter cups and Reese's Pieces. I've always made chocolate chip cookies with Reese cups in the middle but now I've turned it into a cupcake. And I couldn't just put any old frosting on top, had to add some crunch and compliment it with it's hard shelled crunchy counterpart. 

I put them in a ziplock and crumpled them up a bit, not too much so they'd still be crunchy and added them to my normal butter, powdered sugar and vanilla frosting and it's pretty epic. But before all of that, we can't forget about the hidden treasure that is the peanut butter cup in the center of the cupcake. 

Too much? No such thing. Right out of the oven they were good and still gooey but even better after a night in the refrigerator. I've always put chocolate in the refrigerator - taking after my father who does the same - and the fridge helps hold everything together. 

And there you have it, death by peanut butter. The Reese's Pieces on top balance out the rich chocolate in the center while still keeping it in the same candy family and it's perfect for a late night sweet tooth.

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