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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…
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Hot Fudge Sundae Cupcakes
It was nearly a year ago that I started seriously playing in the kitchen. My daughter’s fifth birthday party was coming up and I wanted to do something special for her and our guests, but I really didn’t know where to begin. I’m sure it started with my Googling “little girl birthday treats” or something of that nature, but I’m glad I did because it led me to the wonderful world of food bloggers. It’s funny to me that it was just a year ago that…
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Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Chocolate. Strawberry. Swiss Meringue Buttercream. Heaven. Have you ever had Swiss Meringue Buttercream? It’s amazeballs. It’s silky, buttery and not too sweet. This particular frosting tastes like strawberry ice cream. I’m telling you, it’s fabulous. Swiss Meringue Buttercream (SMBC) starts with eggwhites and sugar heated on the stovetop, and then whipped into a stiff meringue before adding butter and flavoring. It has a reputation for being difficult and finicky, but really I’ve never had any trouble with it. Once you add the butter to the…
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Pudding Cookies
I honestly don’t know why I can’t leave well enough alone. I already have a great chocolate chip cookie recipe (click here) and my Mom makes magnificent chocolate Chip cookies. So why on earth do I continue to search for different recipes? I think it’s a sickness. These particular cookies caught my eye on Pinterest a while back. The idea of pudding in cookies was just too much – how could I pass up such a magical idea? I couldn’t. Well – I tried. For…
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Carrot Cake
I love a good carrot cake. My friend Kim who, up until a year ago I worked with every day, makes a really, really delicious carrot cake. She would bring it in upon request and for celebrations at work – and because hers was so good, I didn’t really have a reason to make it myself. But, then I left that job and Kim and I no longer work together. Sad face. That means I haven’t had carrot cake in over a year. Double sad face. Today, since…
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Cream Cheese Lemon Bars
I have been eyeing* this recipe on Pinterest for a couple of months now. I think it called to me because it reminds me of a bakery-type lemon bar, which I love. Well, I usually love them. I don’t like the ones that taste like egg yolk. Have you had those before? Ugh. They almost give lemon bars a bad name, but if you have a really good one, you’ll forever be in search of another really good one. Or maybe that’s just me… So,…
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Brownie Bites
Last week I was fortunate enough to be asked to participate in the studio launch party for Melissa Rieke Photography and Melissa & Beth at their fabulous new facility, RStudio. I provided a smattering of desserts for the event and have been eager to share the recipes with you all. The Whoopie Pies from my last post were one of the many items on the menu, and I’ll have another three or four coming soon. You’ll notice that the photos in these upcoming posts are courtesy…
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Whoopie Pies
I did a lot of baking this past week. I think I made eight different recipes in five days. In fact, right now I’m working on this blog post in an effort to ignore the mess I made in my kitchen. It’s not pretty. I even promised my family that I would host Sunday dinner this week to force myself to get it cleaned up…so far it’s not working. Sigh. Since I had so much baking to do, I had to make sure that some…
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Peach Cobbler
Well, I’m back! I’ve been “offline” for about 3 weeks now. My husband and I took a wonderful, relaxing and much-need vacation to Puerto Morelos, Mexico a couple of weeks ago. And while I missed my girls terribly, we still had a great time. For the first time in nearly six years, we got to enjoy just being a couple again. No dirty diapers, spilled apple juice or Dora the Explorer wake up calls. We ate, drank, laid by the pool, played in the waves…
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Mousse Caboose
My five year old is responsible for the name of this dessert. For some reason, she wouldn’t eat whipped cream OR pudding until about three months ago. (I know what you’re thinking…but yes, she IS my child.) The first time I made this for my family, I was careful to call it chocolate and vanilla mousse, because heaven forbid she believed it to be anything otherwise. She thought “mousse” was a funny name, so she quickly found a rhyming word and it became, forever, Mousse Caboose. When…
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Red Velvet Cheesecake Cupcakes
Last weekend, a friend of mine asked me to make cupcakes for her son’s 2nd birthday party. The party was a nautical theme, and she did a fantastic job with her dessert table! It was the perfect theme for a hot summer day, and what two-year-old wouldn’t want to dive into all of this yumminess? I loved her use of bold colors and patterns paired with the whimsical decorations that pulled it all together. Her kids are going to have such fun memories of their…
