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One Minute Chocolate Cake
I’m sorry. I know that it’s a new year, and I know that your resolution to eat healthier is already nagging at you, but I just couldn’t let this one pass. One minute chocolate cake? Yes. I made it, topped it and ate it all under five minutes. I’m not ashamed. Now, if I’m really being honest, this actually took a little longer than one minute to make. It took two and a half minutes. I used a small glass bowl, a small whisk and…
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Strawberries & Cream Cupcakes
If you’re like me, visiting the produce section of the grocery store in the middle of winter is a huge let-down. While I do love the changing of the seasons, living in the middle of the country really limits what we can easily purchase when it comes to fruits and vegetables- yes, you can buy strawberries in January, but they are usually smaller, less flavorful and always on the verge of spoiling by the time you get them home. Because we are always left scurrying…
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Eggnog Cupcakes
When I was growing up, we were fortunate to be able to ride the school bus to our house in the country, where my Mom was usually waiting for us with an after-school snack prepared. One of my favorite treats was homemade eggnog. Mom used to make it in the blender, using farm-fresh eggs, lots of sugar, and I’m sure it was made with either pure cream or half and half…not the healthiest snack but definitely one of my favorites. Now that I’m older, the…
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Chocolate Toffee Cupcakes
I’m back! I know, I haven’t really been gone all that long, but it sure feels like ages since I’ve blogged. November and December are just super busy months for me. I know most of it is self-induced – if I could somehow just let things be less than perfectly planned for once, if I could just go with the flow and ignore my messy kitchen or the piling laundry for an evening…if I could just go to bed before midnight – I’m sure I would…
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Cookies for Kids’ Cancer & A Giveaway!
For me, there is little worse than being sick over the holidays – especially baking holidays like Thanksgiving. I started feeling like I was coming down with something the day before Thanksgiving, and by the weekend I was completely down and out with Bronchitis. Needless to say, I didn’t do nearly the amount of baking I wanted to over the holiday – and I certainly didn’t eat as much as I wanted to – although I suppose maybe that’s a good thing. Now that I’m feeling…
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“Homemade” Honey
Ok, ok. This is the second blog post in a row that isn’t a real recipe. But I just had to share our newest kitchen creation – our very first honey harvest! Those of you that know me well have probably been subject to one of my beekeeping rants in the past year or so. From the swarms to the missing queens to the urgent need for more honey supers, I now know way more that I ever thought any one person should know about bees.…
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Maddie’s 6th Birthday Party
My oldest daughter turned six this past week. It’s been a big year for us – she’s started playing T-ball, she started Kindergarten, we’ve lost three teeth so far and we’ve gone from reading her bedtime stories to her reading us bedtime stories. She’s changed so much in the past few months – most noticeably she’s turned into quite the social butterfly. Her world now revolves around her friends – so much so that she invited everyone in her class to her birthday party. And…
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French Vanilla Cupcakes
How adorable are these? I made these for a baby shower and just loved the way they came out. My new jumbo cupcake pan has just opened up a whole new world of cupcakes for me and I have to say I am loving it. I love the look of the ribbon tied around the base of the cake – and it’s much easier to do on a jumbo cake than a standard cake. I found a coordinating pink sugar for garnish and think that these…
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Sour Cream Chocolate Cupcakes
For those of you who have followed this blog for any time at all, you know that I have a pretty snobby aversion to boxed cake mix and pretty much any and all convenience food. That’s not to say that I don’t still have my favorites (Rotel dip, Dean’s French Onion Dip, store-bought Hawaiian bread, etc.) but generally speaking I’m of the opinion that anything you can make from scratch is not only better for you, but it almost always tastes better. Way better. Once…
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S’mores Whoopie Pies
This, I realize, is not the prettiest dessert I’ve ever made. It’s kind of frumpy, even. But – oh my heavens, let me tell you – these are the best whoopie pies I’ve ever made. Ever. The cake was amazing. They were rich, soft, and had a deep dark chocolate flavor. The cream cheese buttercream was great on its own, but the addition of graham cracker crumbs took it up a notch. Pretty? No. But I didn’t even care because they were out of this world…
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Double Chocolate Cupcakes
This year, Halloween snuck up on me. One minute it was my birthday and mid-September, the next minute I realized I had less than a week to come up with costumes for the girls. I had the best intentions this year, too – I was going to make them both really cute tulle-ghost costumes, order white leotards and buy white tights – it was going to be adorable. Instead, I recycled a bumblebee costume for my youngest and bought my oldest a tacky, chintzy mermaid-princess…
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S’mores Cupcakes
This is first of two s’mores cupcake posts. I searched high and low for the perfect recipe and finally narrowed it down to two – but I just couldn’t decide which I liked better. So, what to do? Make both. Yep, I made two different s’mores cupcake recipes in three days. The winner? I still can’t decide so I’ll let you be the judge – I’ll post the other recipe soon. This recipe was probably the easiest of the two. It’s a dark chocolate cake on a graham-cracker “crust,” and…
