Pumpkin Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream
These cupcakes were never really meant to be, but I’m so glad that they came into being! When I was home a couple weekends ago, I was helping my mom test some recipes she had lined up for a visit with family friends in December. We love food, our family friends love food, and so my mom wanted to be sure she had a few great meal ideas ready for their visit. One of those ideas was this phenomenal flourless chocolate cake that we’ve had at a local restaurant on numerous occasions. I got my hands on the recipe and we wanted to recreate it for them, but when I got home Friday there was no chocolate in the house. (more…)
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Mini Cheesecakes
Typically when I make a dessert, I have a reason. I’m making a recipe that caught my eye, or there’s something seasonal that I think would be perfect for an event or for this blog, or I have a request from someone, or for a dinner to bake for, or something. These cheesecakes, however, had no rhyme or reason. I was visiting my family a few weeks ago and I decided I wanted to make a cheesecake, and then I decided a chocolate cheesecake sounded good but boring, so I got peanut butter cups because they were on sale at the supermarket, and I made mini peanut butter chocolate cheesecakes! (more…)
Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes
I’m still playing catch-up on posts, but I’ve almost finished all the ones from my Grandma’s birthday weekend… which was going on 3 weeks ago now, but who’s counting?! For the actual party that we threw, my Mom and Dad and Aunt and I had taken on the great task of providing all the food. We had a very rough idea of how many guests we’d be expecting, but given that it was a much older crowd, and not really around a mealtime, we didn’t know how much everyone would eat. That being so, we settled on a hefty list of appetizers, and divided up the work so we all played a part in the preparations. (more…)
Chocolate Cherry Country Cake
Over the Fourth of July weekend when I went up to the Berkshires to visit Kevin’s family, and while I was there I decided I wanted to bake. Kevin’s Mom and I share a mutual love of Ina Garten, so I took out a stack of her cookbooks, and after some searching found the perfect cake. The recipe is for a Strawberry Summer Cake, with sour cream and citrus zests baked into the cake, and loads of fresh sliced strawberries piled on top of whipped cream clouds. Kevin suggested we make something with cherries and chocolate, so I omitted the zests, added a layer of chocolate ganache, and ended up with an absolutely beautiful, and surprisingly delicious summer cake. (more…)
Peanut Butter Banana Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream
These cupcakes were solution #2 to the leftover wedding chocolate buttercream, and they were a really fun creation. I happened to have several rotten bananas in my freezer (which my roommate had asked about, so I figured it was about time to get rid of them), and so tried to come up with a way to marry chocolate and banana. I got to thinking how much I love combining bananas with peanut butter in any way shape or form, and figured peanut butter would be the perfect third flavor to bring it all together. I scoured the internet for the perfect recipe, but in the end I pulled ideas from a few different sources, and the result was so much better than anticipated. (more…)
