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Pink Velvet Cupcakes
This is my second attempt at pink velvet cupcakes. The first was bad, so very bad. I don’t understand, because that particular recipe gets rave reviews everywhere, but to me it tasted like a blueberry muffin, sans blueberries. It was just kind of blah. They were like little, pink, blueberry-less muffins. Kind of sad little things. So after going back to the drawing board and searching for an ingredient list with more flavors, I settled on this one from a Taste of Home cookbook. I…
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Cookies ‘n Cream Cupcakes
This was another fun cupcake that I made for a surprise birthday party this week, which is actually somewhat fitting because these cookies have a surprise in the bottom of them, half of an Oreo cookie! I’ve made these once before and they were a big hit, so I’m really hoping they go over well at the party. But really, how could they not? These are a white cake with chunks of cookie baked in the batter, and topped with a cream cheese buttercream. The…
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Chocolate Chip Graham Cracker Bars
You can actually SEE how delicious these are. You can see the powdery sugar stuck to the gooey, chocolaty graham cracker cookie. You can SEE it, can’t you? And yup – they taste just as good as they look. Maybe better. I broke all of the July-in-Kansas rules today and turned my oven on. Yes, I turned my oven on even though it was exactly 900 degrees outside today. And with the heat-index, it felt like 950 degrees. But I just had to make these…
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Chocolate Buttercream Cake
I love chocolate cake. Good chocolate cake might be my very favorite thing, ever. So when I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it. The first thing I noticed was that there were a LOT of ingredients, far more than any chocolate cake recipe I’ve ever tried before. I would strongly suggest pre-measuring your ingredients so they’ll be ready to add as you go along, and take the time to buy or cut the parchment circles for your cake pans. You’ll thank…
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Pumpkin Nutella Swirl Cake
Hi everyone! I soooooooo miss you guys! My life is in perpetual “just-get-by” mode and right now I’m feeling lucky to get all four of us out the door in the morning fully clothed, fed and headed in the right direction so I’m calling that a win. Life is nutsos. That being said, I love my new job and I’m hoping that soon we can figure out our new normal around here. I think we’re getting better at it every day, so in a few…
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Homemade Hamburger Buns
Yes, I realize you can buy hamburger buns at the grocery store for, like, 79 cents. Yes, I realize that this takes far more effort and time than picking up a bag of easy, quick, cheap and adequately-tasty hamburger buns off the store shelves. But. These are worth it. Yes, store-bought hamburger buns are just fine. But why spend all of that time making the perfect burger just to eat it on a tiny, flimsy mass-produced bun? I promise that your effort will make your hamburgers taste even…
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Hot Chocolate Cake with Homemade Marshmallows
So, my daughter’s 7th birthday is next week. First of all, it’s really just not possible that she’s turning seven years old. Not possible. Second of all, this means that I have a big family party looming on the horizon. That means my house has to be cleaned. It also means I need to plan a menu, figure out decorations and – oh yeah – do all that cooking and baking without undoing all of the cleaning and planning.
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Caramel Bread Pudding with Creamy Caramel Sauce
By now you know that I am a serious planner and organizer. I plan all of my meals for the week before I head to the grocery store, including recipes that will show up here at Lemon Sugar. While I’m always eager to share my new ideas with all of you, sometimes it’s much harder to plan meals for my family. I’m always fighting the urge to stick to my tried-and-true rotation of 6-8 dinner options, mostly because they work for us and our schedule.…
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Mini Apple Crumb Sundaes
I’m not sure that ANYTHING screams summertime dessert more than apple pie. But even more, apple pie with ice cream? Not much better than that. And while I love a good pie, they can really be a major undertaking – from the crust to the filling to crossing your fingers that they set up like they’re supposed to – that’s a lot of dessert-stress that sometimes I just don’t want to deal with. I hosted my extended family gathering for the 4th of July this…
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Maraschino Cherry Cupcakes
Have I ever told you about my brother-in-law? His name is Jacob. He’s a few years younger than me, but I’ve known him since he was about nine years old. He used to field relentless phone calls from me back when I discovered I was hopelessly in love with his big brother, back in my middle-school years. Jacob left our small town in Kansas for college, and has never moved back. He lived in Minneapolis for awhile, then Seattle, and now lives in New York…
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Marshmallow Filled Chocolate Cupcakes with Nutella Cloud Frosting
Look at the frosting on these cupcakes. Look at it. See how smooth and creamy it looks? I’m here to tell you that it tastes about ten times smoother and creamier. Rosie over at Sweetapolita aptly named this frosting Nutella Cloud Frosting, and I’m not sure there has been a more fitting name in the history of the universe. If you were to eat a chocolate cloud, I’m pretty positive this is exactly what it would taste like. Maybe better. It’s been a while since…
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M&M Cupcakes
Sometimes, the hardest part of this blog is deciding what to write about. Lately, my life has become pretty routine – I follow the same schedule and do the same things, week after week. It’s hard to write about interesting things when you aren’t DOING interesting things. {Well, blog-worthy interesting things, that is!} I just mentioned that fact to my husband. He told me that I needed to start doing something interesting, then. I glared at him and told him that I was going to…
