Buckeye Cupcakes
Adapted from the Food Network
Makes 2 dozen cupcakes

1 cup sugar
1 cup real mayonnaise*
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups cake flour
1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
24 mini peanut butter cups

Peanut Butter Buttercream
Adapted from How to Eat a Cupcake, via Bake & Destroy
Makes enough to frost 2 dozen cupcakes

4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup creamy peanut butter
3 to 4 tablespoons milk


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two standard muffin tins with cupcake papers. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the sugar and mayonnaise until blended. Add the vanilla and blend, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
3. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt and add it to the mayonnaise mixture in 3 batches alternating with the buttermilk, beating until smooth.
4. Divide batter between prepared cups, filling about 2/3 of the way full. Place an unwrapped mini peanut butter cup in the center of each cup of batter and press down gently, so the candy is mostly submerged. Bake for 18 minutes, or until the tops are firm and spring back when touched. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan and place on wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
5. Make the frosting: Beat together sugar, butter, and salt until creamy. Add peanut butter, beating well. Add milk, a teaspoon at a time, and beat until smooth and creamy, and reaches desired consistency. Frost cupcakes.

*Note: Yeah. Mayonnaise. I know it's weird, but trust me. These are the best chocolate cupcakes I've had so far. Super moist and delicious. Just make sure you get real mayonnaise, and not the "dressing" kind. I don't know why, but that's what everyone's told me, and when that many people tell me something, I listen.

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This is it. The big one. The one we wait for all year. It doesn’t matter if it’s not really that important once it actually gets here. It doesn’t matter that we’re already headed for more greatness, regardless of the outcome. This is the one we want to see more than just about any other. It’s Michigan week. For those of you who aren’t from around these parts, or for those that are and just don’t care (blasphemy, I say! Utter blasphemy! Yeah, I’m talking to you Boyfriend), this is the last week of the regular football season for The Ohio State University. The week traditionally reserved to play our rivals, the Wolverines, better known as the Team-Up-North. Yeah. We don’t say the name here. They're simply the "Team-Up-North". We’re that serious about our football. Because we’re Buckeyes. Our mascot? Not an animal or a warrior. It's a guy named Brutus with a nut for a head. A little silly, but go ahead and laugh at us. We dare you. We may be useless, poisonous nuts, but the key thing to remember? We’re nuts. As in completely and utterly insane.

From the Spring Game through the Bowl Game, and just about any other time throughout the year, you’ll find any number of us donning our colors, scarlet and gray, wearing those poisonous nuts as talismans around our necks, and calling out in search of others like us. It’s our own personal game of “Marco Polo”. With one yell, you can find another Buckeye—anytime, anywhere. Just one shout of “O-H!” no matter where you are—a sporting event, movie theater, grocery store, or even church—will result in an enthusiastic reply of a true Buckeye screaming “I-O!” in return. Seriously. It’s simple. But it works. Try it sometime. It doesn’t matter if you’re not even in Ohio. We’re everywhere. (One of The Girls, Dani, got an “O-H!” at Target the other day. In Texas. And our road trip to Memphis, Tennessee for the American Idol auditions a couple years ago? Surrounded by people from every part of the country, one person yelled out “O-H!” and from every corner of the arena people yelled “I-O!” back in return. Coolest. Thing. Ever.) We even teach our kids how to answer the call. 2 year olds are screaming "I-O!", and we're so proud when they do. (Especially around others. It's like a fun party trick.)

And TBDBITL? Not just a jumble of letters. It’s what we call our marching band—The Best Damn Band in the Land. And they’ve earned every part of that title. They’re not band nerds. They’re rock stars. Watch them do Script Ohio and tell me you don’t get chills. The one and only game I’ve had the honor of going to in my lifetime so far-- they did double Script Ohio, on both sides of the field. I’m not ashamed to admit, I got a bit weepy. Kids learn to play the tuba just for the honor of someday dotting the i. It’s that big of a deal. And just as special each and every time. If you get a chance to go to a game in the Shoe, head out a couple hours early and check out Skull Session before going to the stadium. You won’t be disappointed. Rock stars. I’m telling you.

The insanity only ramps up even further for the last week of the regular season—Michigan week. The most insane part? Thousands of OSU students jumped into Mirror Lake on campus at midnight last night—as they do the Thursday before the game every year. Whether it’s to wake the spirit of the legendary Woody Hayes, or just the beer and a whole lot of friends talking them into it, it’s a fabulously crazy tradition nonetheless. I mean, come on. Jumping into a tiny lake? In November. Totally insane. (And no. Sadly, I’ve never done it. It’s reserved for students only, and I didn’t go to OSU.) All week long, we’ll wear our colors proudly, don our buckeye necklaces, scream out our “O-H!” and hope for a rousing “I-O!” in return, rock out to the Fight song or "Hang on Sloopy" when every radio station in town plays it at 5 o'clock for the drive home, and raucously sing songs proclaiming just how much we care for the Team-Up-North. And on Saturday, we’ll march into that stadium and take home those Gold Pants we play for every year to add to our collection.

And while we’re kicking some Wolverine butt this weekend, I’ll be stuffing my face with Buckeye Cupcakes—chocolate cupcakes with a mini peanut butter cup tucked inside, topped with a Peanut Butter Buttercream, imitating the not-so-poisonous candy version (a sugary peanut butter ball dipped mostly in chocolate) of our beloved state nut and namesake, the Buckeye. Scatter some festive scarlet and gray sprinkles on top and you’ve got the perfect treat for your Beat Michigan Party.

We don’t give a damn for the whole state of Michigan,
‘Cause we’re from O-Hi-O!

GO BUCKS!!!


See more and get the recipe for "'Cause We're from O-Hi-O!"!

Magnolia’s Vanilla Cupcakes
From More From Magnolia by Allysa Torey
Makes about 2 dozen cupcakes

1 ½ cups self rising flour*
1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers.
3. In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, on medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated, but do not overbeat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
5. Cool cupcakes in the tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

*Note: If you do not have self-rising flour, add 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt for every cup of All-Purpose Flour substituted in the recipe. In the case of this recipe, you would use 1 ½ cups of all purpose flour, 2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder, and ¾ teaspoon of salt in place of the 1 ½ cups of self-rising flour.

Vanilla Bean Buttercream
From Love and Olive Oil
Makes enough for 2 dozen cupcakes

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, room temperature
6 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 vanilla bean (seeds only)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
food coloring (optional)

1. Cream butter in electric mixer for 1-2 minutes until fluffy. Slowly add 1 cup sugar and beat until smooth. Add remaining confectioners’ sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, and beat until well incorporated. Add vanilla seeds, extract, and food coloring, and mix at medium-high speed until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes). Add milk or sugar as necessary to achieve proper consistency. Pipe or spread onto cooled cupcakes.

Chocolate Buttercream
From More from Magnolia by Allysa Torey
Makes enough for 2 dozen cupcakes

1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons milk
9 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled to lukewarm
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ¼ cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

1. In a large bowl, on medium speed of an electric mixer, beat the butter until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the milk carefully and beat until smooth. Add the melted chocolate and beat well, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and beat for 3 minutes. Gradually add the sugar and beat on low speed until creamy and of desired consistency.

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Kelli’s cousin Stacey is having a baby! Due in late December, her baby shower was this past weekend. As soon as I heard she was pregnant, I wanted to bake cute baby stuff for her! I’d seen tons of cute ideas on the internet for adorable sugar cookies that I was dying for a reason to make! With Kelli as the party planner, we were ready for one awesome shower! With close to 50 invitations sent out for the event, we were going to need a whole lot of dessert. Sheet cake was the obvious choice, but who wants a plain, dried out, over sugary store bought sheet cake? Not me! Stacey’s sister Ashley wanted to make a cake in the shape of a monkey to go with the nursery theme, but all the designs we could find only served 8 to 10. That would be enough for the immediate family, so how about cupcakes for everyone else!

Stacey wanted “Funfetti” cupcakes, so I tried out the Vanilla cupcakes from More from Magnolia and threw in some awesome sprinkles I found at my new favorite store, The Happy Hostess House. They came out great, but only made 2 dozen, so I decided to try the chocolate cupcakes from Magnolia too to add some variety.

I should have just stuck with the chocolate cupcakes I have been making. Those have worked so well—baking up perfectly and tasting amazing every time! I don’t know what I did wrong with the Magnolia cupcakes, but every single one sunk in the center, with a few having humongous holes in the center. A bit of frosting could fix that right up, as long as they tasted okay, right? Right. Too bad they tasted horrible. They were almost hollow in the center, were impossible to pull away from the wrapper without falling apart, and the taste—not good. Kelli thought they were okay, but I thought they were terrible. I was not serving those to a whole party of people. So I served them to the trashcan instead, and went back to my tried and true recipe—the Chocolate Mayonnaise cake. Mixing and matching Vanilla Bean and Chocolate frostings, the cupcakes came out great!


I loved making the sugar cookies. With a onesie, a bib, a teddy bear, and a bottle, they came out so cute! I was a little scared of the monkey on the onesie and the bib, since I don’t have a ton of artistic talent, but I think they came out pretty cute anyway!


The cutest part of all was the monkey cake. Kelli found a really cute pattern on Parenting.com that we tried to follow. With a boxed cake mix, canned frosting, and some candy and doughnuts, it ended up being SO cute and super easy!


It was the perfect centerpiece to our dessert spread! Look how cute it all looked!


The party was so fun! I rocked the Celebrity baby game (I totally would’ve won if I had been able to play for prizes! Too bad Kelli had already quizzed me in the car...), and the Candy Bar Diaper Game was fun, even though it was absolutely disgusting (melted candy bars mashed up in a diaper? Yeah. Totally gross.) Now I can’t wait until Stacey has her baby!

(I just realized that I’ve never given you the recipe for my Chocolate Mayonnaise cupcakes! Don’t worry. It’ll be featured in my next post.)


See more and get the recipe for "Baby Shower Treats!"!

Apple Rum Cupcakes
From Nick Malgieri's Perfect Cakes
Makes 12 cupcakes

Apple Filling:
1 tart apple* (I used a Braeburn apple), peeled and cored
2 tablespoons dark rum (I used Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum)

Batter:
2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup sugar
3 large eggs
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk

Rum Glaze:
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 tablespoons dark rum**

*Note: You can use any apple that’s good for cooking—Granny Smith, Braeburn, Gala, Fuji, Jonagold, or Pink Lady.

**Note: This made a very strong rum glaze. Next time I’d probably mix 1 tablespoon of rum with a tablespoon of milk to dilute it a bit.

1. With a rack in the center of the oven, preheat to 350F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. Set aside.
2. Using a box grater, grate the apple over a medium bowl. Toss with 2 tablespoons rum and let stand while preparing the batter.
3. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth after each addition. Add vanilla. Add about half of the flour mixture, and beat until just combined.
5. Drain the apples in a fine mesh sieve set over a bowl. Add the milk to any liquid that drains into the bowl and add milk mixture to the batter. Add remaining flour mixture and beat until smooth.
6. Place one heaping tablespoon of batter into each of the muffin cups. The batter will probably be pretty thick, so with the back of a buttered spoon, spread the batter evenly to cover the bottom of the cup. Place ½ to 1 tablespoon of grated apple on top of batter, and top with another tablespoon of batter. Smooth tops.
7. Bake until tops are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 22 minutes. Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely on rack.
8. To make the glaze, stir together confectioner’s sugar and rum in a small saucepan, mixing well. Place over medium heat and stir until warm and fluid.
9. Drizzle the glaze over the top of the cupcakes in a decorative pattern. Rewarm glaze if necessary.

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Apples—another great flavor of fall. There’s nothing better the crunch of biting into a crispy fresh apple. Except maybe pulling that crispy fresh apple right from the tree with your very own hands. There’s just something about walking through the orchard on a cool fall day, finding just the perfect ripened globe on a branch sagging under the weight of its glorious treasure. Apple picking is something I look forward to every year. I love coming home with my bag of apples bursting at the seams from trying to cram as many as I could into it. Unfortunately this year, I only had enough time to search for the perfect pumpkin at Lynd’s Fruit Farm, so my apple picking has been limited to wandering the crisp, cool aisles of the grocery store in search of the perfect fruit.

With Iron Cupcake Earth back in full swing comes this month’s challenge of creating a cupcake using apples. Sounds incredibly easy, right? Well with my quirky food issues, not so much. I’m probably the pickiest eater on Earth, with my hatred of all things green, other vegetable related species, or creatures previously found living in water. But my pickiness is not limited simply to things that I avoid at all costs. There are things, like apples, that I love in one form, but can’t stand in others. I love apples. I really do. But they have to be whole apples (preferably sliced because biting into a whole apple hurts my teeth). I can’t stand any apple related products like apple sauce, apple juice, apple butter… And no drying the apple out either. Dried fruit is a no-no. And by no means will I even touch an apple (or any other fruit for that matter) that has been baked. I can’t stand the squishiness of it. I distinctly remember my first grade class making an apple dessert pizza once, and I spent the rest of the day in the nurse’s office trying not to throw up. 20 years that memory has haunted me! So no apple pie or apple cobbler for me either. So how in the world would I bake a cupcake with apple in it?

Using Nick Malgieri’s recipe for Apple Rum Cake from Perfect Cakes, I used a box grater to shred the apples instead of cutting them into chunks, thinking that if the apple was as small as possible, I wouldn't notice the squish. That seemed to actually do the trick; once the cupcakes were baked, the apple kind of melted into the batter, leaving very few strands behind. Next time though, I might mix the apple shreds right into the batter instead of piling them in the center of the cups since they’re just going to basically melt away. It’ll be one less step to mess with, and I’m all about making things easier.

The rum glaze was tasty, but a bit too strong for my liking. Next time I’ll definitely dilute the rum with some milk and not be so heavy handed on the drizzles. But all in all, it’s a tasty cupcake! I was honestly surprised that I liked something with baked apple in it, and even wanted to go back for another! They’ve got just a subtle apple flavor, and a light sweetness that makes them almost more of a muffin than a cupcake. And who wouldn’t want a little bit of rum to perk you up in the morning?

This is an entry in the Iron Cupcake Earth Challenge for the month of November. Voting will begin around the end of the month. If there's a link at the top of the site, voting is up, so please vote for me! Thanks! And check out the cool stuff I could win this year!

Our Generous IronCupcake:Earth Prize Providers:

* The Demy™ by Key Ingredient
* Hello, Cupcake by Karen Tack & Alan Richardson
* Bella Cupcake Couture
* Cupcake Stackers by Gourmac
* The Cake Mix Doctor Returns! by Anne Byrne
* Beautiful Baking Liners by Vestli House
* Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Bakery & Cupcakey Supply

See more and get the recipe for "Apple Rum Cupcakes"!

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Pecan Crust
Adapted from More from Magnolia by Allysa Torey
Makes one 10-inch cheesecake

Crust:
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
25-30 gingersnap cookies, or 1 ½ cups gingersnap cookie crumbs
½ cup chopped toasted pecans

Filling:
¾ pound (1 ½ 8-ounce packages) cream cheese, softened
¾ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar
5 large eggs, room temperature
1 ½ cups canned pumpkin puree
¾ cup heavy cream
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon

Note: To toast pecans, place on baking sheet in 350F oven for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned and fragrant.

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Butter the bottom and sides of a 10-inch springform pan. Set aside.
2. To make crust: Place 25-30 gingersnap cookies, broken into pieces, and toasted pecans in a food processor and pulse until they are fine crumbs. With the food processor running, pour melted butter in until mixture is moistened through. Press crumb mixture into the bottom of prepared pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
3. To make filling: In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat cream cheese on low speed until very smooth. Gradually add sugars. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping down sides of bowl after each addition. Add pumpkin puree and mix until just blended. Stir in heavy cream and cinnamon.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan and set pan on baking sheet. Bake until edges are set and center moves only slightly when pan is shaken, about 1 hour. With oven door slightly ajar, cool the cake in the oven for 1 more hour before removing. Cover and refrigerate for at least 12 hours, or overnight.
5. Remove cake from refrigerator 15 to 30 minutes before cutting and serving.

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November’s here, and with it comes the start of all the holiday baking! It’s a good thing I have all those goodies to look forward too, because I’m definitely not looking forward to the nasty weather that winter brings with it. Gone are the bright colors on the trees and the crisp hoodie weather I love so much. In just a matter of a few weeks the view outside my back window has gone from gorgeous to gloomy, I finally had to break down and put on an actual coat, turn the heat on in my house, and I was not happy the first morning I had to scrape frost from my windshield. I cringe every time the weatherman hints at freezing temperatures and the possibility of the first snow of the season. And I heard Christmas songs played in a store the other day. Oh no. Not yet. I’m not ready yet! Fall passed me by before I got to fully enjoy it! So I’m holding on for dear life to the flavors of fall. You might snow on me, but you’ll never take my pumpkin away!


If you haven’t noticed already, I’ve been on a bit of a pumpkin kick lately. And it’s all this cheesecake’s fault. I had it for the first time last year when Kiesha brought it into work, and ever since, I’ve been hooked on pumpkin. The pumpkin isn’t at all overwhelming. It’s a very subtle flavor mixed with the cream cheese. Just a bit of cinnamon for spice, and a gingersnap cookie crust, and you’ve got the perfect combination of flavors to compliment the pumpkin.

As with all baked cheesecakes, this one takes some forethought, planning, and a whole lot of time. And I always forget about that. I know you should leave your ingredients out to come to room temperature so they mix better and bake more evenly, but I always forget to do this step until right before I want to bake. This time—no exception. There went about 2 hours of possible baking time waiting for things to warm up. The other thing that I always manage to screw up? My cheesecake cracks—EVERY TIME. I have never made a cheesecake that came out perfectly. I know all the reasons that cause cheesecake to crack, and I try my hardest to avoid those mistakes, but I can’t figure out which one I’m doing wrong Every. Single. Time. This time was probably the worst crack ever. It looked like the Grand Canyon running through the center!! Someday I’ll get it right... Maybe. If I ever figure out what I’m doing wrong.

Regardless of the fact that it was horribly ugly, the cheesecake came out fantastic! It tasted soo good! I set aside about a third of it to save for me and Boyfriend and took the rest to work. The part that went to work was gone by the end of the night, and right now there’s about half of what I saved left, and Boyfriend hasn’t even gotten any yet! Oops.

This Pumpkin Cheesecake changed me. This is the one that turned me from a pumpkin hater to a pumpkin fiend. It turned my pumpkin-less world upside down. Without it I would never have the joys of Pumpkin Cookies, or Pumpkin Cupcakes, or Pumpkin Spiced Lattes. What was my life like before this cheesecake? I don’t even know. I don’t know how I’ve lived so long without it. Rich, creamy pumpkin sitting on top of a gingersnap and pecan crust—it’s absolutely heavenly. If one piece of cheesecake can change your mind about pumpkin, wouldn’t you want to try it?


See more and get the recipe for "Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Pecan Crust"!

Pumpkin Cupcakes
Adapted from Love and Olive Oil
Makes 12 cupcakes

1 cup canned pumpkin
1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil
1 cup granulated sugar
¼ cup soy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices.
3. In a large bowl, stir together pumpkin, oil, sugar, soy milk, and vanilla. Add flour mixture, gently whisking by hand until just combined. Don’t use an electric mixer or over mix the batter as it may become too gummy.
4. Fill liners with 1/4 cup batter (cups should be approximately 2/3 full). Bake for 22 to 24 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before frosting.

Cinnamon Rum Frosting
Makes enough to frost 12 cupcakes

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature*
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon dark rum (I used Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum)
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
a pinch of salt
milk, as needed to thin*

*Note: To make vegan cupcakes, substitute margarine or vegan butter and use soy milk to thin.

1. In a medium bowl, sift together confectioners’ sugar and cinnamon.
2. Using an electric or stand mixer, cream butter until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add rum and pinch of salt and mix until combined.
3. Add confectioners’ sugar mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well between additions. Continue to beat until light and fluffy. If frosting is too thick, add a bit of milk to thin it out (start with a teaspoon at a time). If too thin, add more sugar and continue to beat until it is the right consistency. Spoon into a piping bag or just slather it right onto the cupcakes.

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It’s been nearly a month since Cupcake Camp, and I realized I still hadn’t put up anything about my Pumpkin Spice and Cinnamon Rum Cupcakes! Talk about serious slacking. I’m kind of disappointed in myself for not getting this up sooner, because of the two cupcakes I made for Camp, these were by far my favorite. (I actually had time to taste them! And eat quite a few…) Although Cupcake Camp is long past, and Halloween has come and gone, pumpkin season is still in full swing, so I’m not too terribly late!

I debated between the Vegan category and the Harvest category for my second entry of Cupcake Camp. I had passed over the Vegan category the first time around, but with specific categories like Harvest and Halloween to bake in this time, I felt it would be my best chance at a not-so-restrictive flavor. I have been thinking about making the Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes from Love and Olive Oil since I was lucky enough to be one of the readers to score the recipe cards they gave out as wedding favors recently. (Look how pretty they are! And such a great idea!) It wasn’t until I was wandering up and down the aisles of Whole Foods picking up the ingredients that I realized just how much I didn’t already have in my pantry, and didn’t know if I would ever use again. And it was getting pretty pricey. *sigh* Maybe I could make them another time, but for now, I’d have to skip them and try something else. Planting myself in the dining area of the store with Boyfriend’s iPhone, I started searching the site for cupcakes that didn’t call for a cart full of ingredients I’d never used before, and might not use again.

It didn’t take long to come across the Pumpkin Chip Cupcakes with Cinnamon Rum Buttercream. Not only did they sound delicious, but the only ingredients I didn’t already have at home were soy milk and pumpkin! Soy milk I know I can use again, and I already needed pumpkin for my Pumpkin Cookie Throwdown! Perfect! Plus I could use them in either the Harvest or the Vegan category! In the end I decided to enter them in the Harvest, merely because I already had regular butter at home, rather than buying margarine or vegan butter to make the frosting. But by all means, use those in the frosting and make them completely vegan! They’re seriously easy to make—a one-bowl recipe! Gotta love those. I omitted the chocolate chips from the original recipe, but go ahead and put in a half cup of mini chips if you want! Just watch taking them out of the oven. They’re super moist, and I misjudged how low the rack was and decapitated two as I was pulling them out.

They seemed to go over well at Cupcake Camp—there were none left, so I take it as a good sign! And my coworkers liked the few extras I had left over—I got recipe requests and one girl said it was the best cupcake she’d ever had. Yay! While I don’t know if they were the best ever, they are amazingly good. Especially the frosting. It’s sooo good. And I still have quite a bit of rum left over… hmm. I see lots of Cinnamon Rum Frosting in the future. Hopefully you’ve stocked up on enough canned pumpkin for all your pie-making needs that you’ll have enough to spare for a batch of cupcakes, cause you’ll definitely want to make some of these. I know I will be again.


See more and get the recipe for "Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cinnamon Rum Frosting"!

Fudgy Brownies
Adapted from Everyday Food Holiday 2006
Makes 16 brownies

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for foil
12 ounces (1½ cups) milk chocolate, divided*
1 ¼ cups sugar
¾ teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
¾ cup plus 1½ teaspoons all purpose flour, divided

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil, leaving an overhand on two sides; butter bottom and sides of foil (not overhang). Set aside. In a small bowl, toss 4 ounces (1/2 cup) of chocolate with 1½ teaspoons flour until coated. Set aside.
2. Place butter and 8 ounces (1 cup) chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl set over (not in) a saucepan of simmering water; stir frequently until almost melted. Remove from heat; stir until completely melted. (Or melt chocolate and butter together in a microwave safe bowl, stirring after 1 minute, and reheating and stirring until chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth.)
3. Whisk in sugar and salt until smooth; whisk in eggs. Gently whisk in ¾ cup of flour just until smooth (do not overmix). Fold in reserved chocolate chips.
4. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 45 to 55 minutes. Cool completely in pan.
5. Using foil overhang, lift from pan; peel off foil and discard. Cut brownies into 16 squares (4 rows by 4 rows).

*Note: For a more dark chocolate taste, use semisweet chocolate instead of milk chocolate, or combine ½ cup of each for the batter and ¼ cup of each to fold in.

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Although not quite as fierce as the battle over the perfect chocolate chip cookie, brownie lovers have their own fight over the perfect texture of their favorite chocolatey treat. Some, like me, are fans of the fudgy, soft, almost underbaked bar, while others are fond of the more cakelike, thick treat. Some just go for the crunchy corner pieces first, leaving the softer middle behind. Some like nuts in their brownies, and others are completely opposed to the idea. Some like them topped with chocolate or frosting, others like the simplicity of an unadorned bite. But no matter what kind of brownie you enjoy, there’s one thing I think all brownie lovers can agree on—they’re delicious and utterly addicting. If given the chance, I could clean out an entire pan of brownies singlehandedly. But to be completely honest, I’ve never really made brownies from scratch. Other than the Mint Filled Brownie Cupcakes, there’s only been one other attempt at making brownies that didn’t come from a box in my lifetime. When one of The Girls, Dani, came back up to visit from Texas again this week, she put in her request for brownies, so it was time to learn how to make them on my own.

My first attempt, years ago, was a recipe from Everyday Food Magazine’s Holiday issue back in 2006. It’s chock full of nothing but cookie and bar recipes, and I still use it every year for my holiday baking (so be on the lookout for quite a few more recipes from this coming soon!). While the brownies came together easily and baked up great, the recipe calls for semisweet chocolate chips, which makes for a very dark chocolate treat. A bit too dark for me, so I wasn’t a fan of them. For years I’ve been meaning to try them with milk chocolate instead, but I’ve never gotten around to it. I was glad for the excuse to bake them for Dani to give it a shot.

The recipe is super simple, especially when you use the microwave to melt your chocolate and butter. It’s a one bowl deal that comes together in less than 10 minutes. The original recipe calls for nuts, but I’m one of those that are horribly opposed to nuts in my baked goods, so I substituted chocolate chips instead to give it a bit more of a chocolate fudgy flavor. Measure out a cup of the chips to melt, and toss the rest of the regular sized bag with some flour to keep them from sinking! Couldn’t be easier!

If you’re a fan of the underbaked fudgy kind of brownies, you’ll love these. They’re still gooey and squishy after 55 minutes of baking. If you like them a little more cakelike, cover with foil to keep the top from browning too much, and bake for 5-10 minutes more, or until the center comes out the way you like it. Slice them up, and serve with a big glass of milk! They’re delicious! I definitely suggest using milk chocolate instead of the semisweet the original recipe called for. But if you’re a dark chocolate fan, mix the milk chocolate with the semi sweet for a bit of a darker taste. Or toss the semisweet chips with the flour to add instead of milk chocolate, for little bites of dark chocolate flavor. However you mix them up and bake them, be sure to give them a try, because they’re fantastic! It’s a good thing I’m sharing them with The Girls, otherwise, the plate would be empty already.


See more and get the recipe for "Fudgy Brownies"!

October has been a baking filled month. I don’t think I’ve baked quite so much in such a short amount of time! It’s been so much that I haven’t had a chance to keep up with all the posts that go with them! So I’m going to take the lazy way out, and roll them all into one big post—October baking at a glance.

Technically the very first thing I made wasn’t even in October. It was the very end of September for Boyfriend’s birthday—Chocolate cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting. It was the first time I tried using mayonnaise in a cupcake, and I have to say, I’m sort of hooked. They’re moist and delicious! There’s just the pesky little voice in the back of my mind that tells me there’s 10g of fat in a single tablespoon of mayo… and I’m using a whole cup to make 24 cupcakes… If my math’s right, each cupcake has roughly close to 7g of fat from the mayo alone. But I’m trying desperately to ignore that…


Those cupcakes were for Boyfriend’s actual birthday. I made these for his birthday party, which was the first weekend in October. Vanilla Cupcakes with Cinnamon Rum Frosting. I was testing out the frosting before Cupcake Camp, and oh man is it good. But I just have to say, Martha lies. This recipe for the Vanilla Cupcakes from the Baking Handbook was supposed to make 2 dozen. I’ve never gotten under 3 dozen out of it. And I thought I was bad at math.

The Vanilla cupcake recipe calls for 8 egg whites, which left me wondering what to do with 8 egg yolks. I remember Cassie from How to Eat a Cupcake having the same problem a while back, and making Challah out of it. So I searched through my cookbooks, and sure enough, there in Martha's Baking Handbook was a recipe for Challah, using all 8 of the egg yolks. With my newfound confidence with bread, I gave it a shot. It probably would have worked out really great, if my mom hadn’t shown up in the middle of it and sat and talked for a couple hours. Sharing the chatty gene is not a good thing while baking, leaving me with not enough time before Boyfriend’s party to bake the bread, and also allowing it rise to a mammoth size while I wasn’t paying attention. I threw it in the fridge overnight and rebraided the next day, letting it rise one more time. It still came out monstrous looking, but it tasted pretty good!

That was also the day of the Pumpkin Cookie Throwdown. So many pumpkin cookies came from this challenge. Between the 3 test batches I made, and my official entry, there were close to 125 cookies. And those were just what I baked. Kaitlin and Aunt Kelley both made about 2-3 dozen each as well. I’d be okay not seeing another pumpkin cookie for awhile. And I’m sure my coworkers, who ate a good portion of my test cookies as well as the leftovers of each of the entries, would be okay too.

The 2nd weekend was Cupcake Camp! I had two entries to bake this weekend. I made Wild Blueberry and Gouda Cupcakes, based on a truffle from Pure Imagination Chocolatier in the North Market, where Camp as held. I also made Pumpkin Spice with Cinnamon Rum Frosting for the harvest category. And I ate so many more! There were so many glorious cupcakes featured! I can’t even remember what all I had, but I know they were all delicious! I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a Round 3! And I have to start thinking of ideas!

The third weekend I had two things to bake for. The first was my Grandma’s 90th birthday. Originally my mom was going to throw a big party for her, with close to 50 people. I was planning on making the cake—my very first tiered cake. I was really excited about it, because I’ve always wanted to try making tiers (and almost did for Boyfriend’s birthday, but chickened out). However, a week before the party, my grandma decided she didn’t want a big affair, so it would just be a few people going to a nice lunch. With no cake. I did end make cookies though. Using the idea from my decorated cookies at the fair, I did some pretty purple and white birthday cookies, and snagged some cupcakes from my other baking endeavor that weekend, because what’s a birthday without cake! Even if you are diabetic and shouldn’t be eating it.

The other thing I baked for that weekend was an event at work. With the release of the Where the Wild Things Are movie, we held a release party, with a story time reading of the book, and decorated cupcakes like “wild things”. This one was my creation! The kids were so cute, and made some really awesome looking wild things! I almost feel bad for sugaring up the kids with tons of Chocolate and Vanilla cupcakes, and a ton of candy to put on top and then sending them on their way! Almost. I’m just glad they’re not my kids. (Sorry to all the parents!)

October is the start of the new year for Iron Cupcake Earth, which I love being a part of! Each month we’re given an ingredient or a theme to create a fantastic cupcake out of. This month’s challenge is music, so I baked a cupcake based on the song “Walk Away” by Christina Aguilera—a Chocolate Stout and Irish Cream cupcake. Oh. My. God. These were so good. It’s a recipe from Timmura of Mara Bakes, who I met at the first cupcake camp. I literally ate about 10 of these in 2 days before I forced myself to take them to work to share. They’re that good. Definitely cupcakes you can’t “Walk Away” from.

The 4th weekend was our Halloween event at work. We invited little kids to come dressed in their costumes for a Halloween story time, go trick or treating throughout the store, and decorate Halloween themed cupcakes. I made Vanilla, Chocolate, and Pumpkin flavored cupcakes, with a wide selection of yummy Halloween candy to put on top! The little kids were so incredibly adorable in their little costumes. I loved the girl dressed as Little Bo Peep, with her little sister dressed up as a sheep. So cute!

The last week of October, one of The Girls, Dani, came to visit from Texas again. Instead of making cheesecake again, this time she requested brownies. Totally gooey and fudgy. Just how I like them. Mmm. Glad I took these to The Girls to share, because I would have eaten the entire plate.

It was an insanely busy baking month, but I had so much fun! And now I can’t wait for November and December and all the holiday baking I’ll be doing then!


See more and get the recipe for "October Baking at a Glance"!

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I absolutely love October. I love the cool weather, the bright colors, and the warm flavors of fall. As much as I don’t want the baseball season to end, I love the playoffs (even though the Red Sox didn’t get very far this year… *sniff*) and the World Series. I love watching and going to football games (even though the Browns game I went to was absolutely pathetic…), and hockey season is back! I love dressing up for Halloween and passing out candy for Trick or Treat. And it’s completely impossible for me not to watch “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” when it’s on TV. But what I love more than anything is bundling up in a hoodie and heading out to the local fruit farm to pick my very own pumpkin. There’s something so rewarding about stomping through a muddy pumpkin patch on the quest for the perfect pumpkin. I have to find the one that “speaks” to me. One that draws me in and says “Here I am! Take me home!” Boyfriend just looks for the biggest one he can find. This year, despite being really chilly, and the threat of rain, we made our way to Lynd’s Fruit Farm in Pataskala for tons of pumpkin fun.

The field to the right and the first field to the left were both almost picked bare. There were only a few rotting pumpkins, and those that were dumped in favor of a better pumpkin that remained.


A bit disappointed that we might have already missed out on the perfect pumpkin, I kept trudging away to the farthest field from the car, hoping that no one else had bothered to hike that far, and there might be plenty to choose from.


And boy were there ever! We hit the pumpkin jackpot! Rows after row of nothing but orange! Linus would love this pumpkin patch! “Each year the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere. He’s gotta pick this one! He’s got to! I don’t see how a pumpkin patch could be more sincere than this one. You could look around and there’s not a sign of hypocrisy. Nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see.”


I absolutely loved the short little squat ones. They were almost a reddish orange, some looking like enormous tomatoes rather than pumpkins. And some were even bright yellow! Eventually, I found the perfect one that I knew I just had to have.


Boyfriend found one too. Maybe not the biggest in the patch, but it was a pretty good one!


Such pretty pumpkins!


With our pumpkins picked, it was time to head to the market to see what other fun goodies we could find!


And it’s no wonder I liked the little squat pumpkins! They were calling out to my inner princess!


It was too bad we didn’t have time to go pick apples. The apple trees looked so amazing.


And it’s finally time for the Great Pumpkin to appear! In the words of Linus, “On Halloween night the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch and flies through the air to bring toys to all the good little children everywhere. Wouldn’t you like to sit with me in the pumpkin patch on Halloween night and wait for the Great Pumpkin?”



Happy Halloween! Hope you got more than a bag full of rocks!


See more and get the recipe for "It's the Great Pumpkin!"!