Feeling Green

They're back! Well, they have been for a little over a month but still, it's Shamrock Shake season and it won't last for long.

My typical mindset was in place and I thought, "Hey, I can turn that into a cupcake." So, I did.

I was nervous to attempt to imitate the flavor of the shamrock shake which is probably near impossible and I've got some learning to do.

With a little liquid inspiration - Anti-Hero in a can! - I experimented with Creme de Menthe and white chocolate.

I'm not a huge fan of mint but I do like Shamrock Shakes and didn't want to get too crazy with the Creme de Menthe, so I used white chocolate to balance it out. It worked, but because of my fear of too much mint the cupcakes could have used a little more.

I made your normal buttercream frosting, had some green sprinkles left over from Christmas and topped them with red candies to look the part.

I was on a cookie kick earlier that week so I tried to make cookies out of them as well. The green color is a little weird and of course this time I put a little too much Creme de Menthe in the batter, so eventually I'll find a happy medium. It all depends on your tastebuds.

One tip, ease up on the liquids with the sugar cookie recipe if you're adding Creme de Menthe, otherwise it gets really soupy and hard to deal with.

Green food can be kind of weird but it's fun to make and perfect for St. Patty's Day!

Sláinte!

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Talk about Throw Back Thursday

I was sifting through some old Facebook photos from college and found a gem.

I went to an art school for a reason. I'm not one for math and science but I still had to take those classes. In order to get out of getting frustrated and going in to detail on science projects, I turned them into cake.

I give you the "Hurricake." Complete with headless gingerbread men.

If there's one thing that my "Natural Disasters" class taught me is that when in doubt, make food for a final project. It always goes over well. People (by people I mean professors) tend to forget that you don't know what you're talking about and are blinded by your baked goods.

We had to show the five stages of a hurricane so I went out and found gingerbread man cookies, sprinkles, tree sprinkles and I think at one point I even threw a Matchbox car in there for some drama.

I couldn't tell you now the in depth descriptions in each category of a hurricane, but maybe you can from the cake carnage I created?

Category 1:

Category 2: I'm assuming the roof of the gingerbread house came off while the gingerbread man was sleeping.

Category 3: Now his arm fell off.

Category 4: You've lost your head and now the house is flooding. 

Category 5: Let's jus stay I don't want to be in that house. 

I must give myself some credit for creativity, making the hurricane out of funfetti representing whatever a hurricane destroys and scoops up in it's path.  

And all the gingerbread man sprinkles to show death. Kind of sick once you look back on it. But hey, had to pass a class and I like cake! 

Mixing up Evil, circa 2007. Complete with Starbucks apron and espresso wall art, still in existence. Special thanks to my roommates for putting up with this. 

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Happy Valentine's Day!

Hallmark Holidays are good excuses to bake and Valentine's Day is no exception when it comes to themed sweets. I admit, I fall victim to the cliches but what can I say, they're tasty.

First what every cupcake tends to be in the month of February: Red Velvet.

I added chocolate chips to the batter for a surprise but the frosting is what I'm most proud of... I took the leftover red chocolate chips and chopped them up with some white chocolate chips to mix into the frosting.

And it's pretty epic... The white chocolate balances out the dark and the dark chocolate balances out the sweetness of the cream cheese in the frosting. And that combo balances out the richness of the cake. 

I'm not finished yet! I'm on a constant quest to jazz up sugar cookies and the Valentine's theme was easy to go with. Found some red food coloring, made some white icing with heart sprinkles and voila!

Whether you're a fan of Valentine's Day or not, it's always a good excuse for a cookie or a cupcake ;). I should also apologize to my neighbors if I freaked them out by leaving cupcakes and cookies outside their doors.. I had too many! 

And now I leave you with this.. 

Happy Valentine's Day!


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I bet I can turn that into a cookie...

I've been falling behind on the blogging lately, but definitely not on the baking. I've been in experimental mode and tried a new cookie last week.

It was just another day, I was sitting on the couch eating my oatmeal squares when my boyfriend and I started talking about Golden Grahams and that thought came into my head, "I bet I can turn that into a cookie..." And I did. Who doesn't love cereal and who doesn't love cookies? Boom.

It was pretty simple really. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go full-out graham cracker so I added some peanut butter. However, they could probably use a tune up. Peanut butter can be overpowering and it did overpower the cereal so next time I'll have to ease up or ditch the peanut butter completely. Gives me an excuse to make another batch ;).

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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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Trying to bake into Christmas

Definitely made up for lost time on this one.  In my attempt to get into the Christmas spirit I tackled two different kinds of cookies AND brownies. Here we go..

I use to think potato chip cookies were weird. They sound weird and are hard to imagine, but once I tried them I loved them and decided to tackle 'em. With a twist, of course.

I found a recipe that includes butterscotch chips, and I must say it's a pleasant surprise.

Again, potato chip cookies, it sounds weird but they're worth a shot.

Considering I have this brownie pan that I've been using for cookies and cake, it's about time to make brownies with it. In order to keep it out of the house I went for the peanut butter route. I like peanut butter, but in moderation so this made it easier to pass along to my boyfriend who's pretty much become my taste-tester and is a fan of anything peanut butter.

These are also made with chopped peanuts and semi-sweet chocolate chips. Still debating on making a nutella icing to pour on top.

Sidenote- these gave me an excuse to use one of my favorite kitchen gages - The Ninja!

Even though I'm not the biggest fan of peanut butter, the chocolate off-sets it all and they're still really good.

Now more cookies..The best cookies are actually just simple sugar cookies. Sugar cookies are real easy to make and can seem pretty bland, but you have to have some fun with them...

Say hello to the Global Warming Snowmen. This is what happens when it's 60 degrees on December 3rd in Chicago and explains why I still can't get into Christmas.