In a former life, this glass bottle did once hold a chocolaty and refreshing yoo-hoo. Now it has been re purposed for something far better (yes better than chocolate). Nope, those aren’t green beans. This bottle of filled with chilli peppers and inside is Hot Pepper Vinegar.

The Monday after Food Blog South, I headed with my agent, Mac, down to Mobile, AL, for a press conference he had with one of his other clients.  After the press conference we drove from Mobile back home to Charlotte. Like every road trip, you have top stop for gas. If you are like me and spend A LOT  of time in the car, you grow fond of stopping. I blame all the hours driving to college towns for tailgates, but I have developed a fondness for certain Truck Stops. Truck Stops are awesome! They are almost always open, have plenty of drinks and candy to eat while you drive, and can be a nice break from the road. I have developed my favorites on I-85 and I-77, but had never been on this part of I-65 before. Whether it was fate or coincidence, I will never know, but I couldn’t have been happier with Mac’s decision to stop and get gas in Greenville, AL. There we stopped at the coolest gas station I have ever been to. The Smokehouse. Part BBQ restaurant, part general store, and of course a place to get gas, I could have spent hours looking at all the treasures this place had inside. In the back of the store, past the wall of hanging autographed portraits of former Auburn and Alabama coaches, was a room lined with rows of canned goods. There was everything from home made hot sauce to pickled corn and carrots. After picking up a jar of Sweet Potato Butter, I came across an interesting array of vinegars. There were a dozen or so jars that in former lives had all contained something else. Now they contained a wide variety of hot pepper vinegar. If you have never had hot pepper vinegar, you are missing out. It is the perfect addition to anything that you need to add a little tang and spice. Most commonly seen with BBQ, it is also perfect for greens of all varieties, cornbread, and even fried chicken. The hotness and flavor will very depending on the bottle’s contents, so it is easy to make one that fits your taste buds.

Making the vinegar is quite easy. All you need are clean and sanitized glass containers, spices, chili peppers, and white distilled vinegar.

I don’t have an official recipe for you yet, more of guidelines of how you can experiment. You will need

- Clean glass containers with tops. I re purposed a soy sauce bottle, maple syrup bottle, and an empty bottle I had sitting around

- an assortment of chili peppers. Use whatever you like, for example Serranos, jalapenos or habaneros ( if you like it very hot)

- whole garlic cloves

- whole peppercorns

- white vinegar heated to just under boiling

How many peppers you will need and the amount of vinegar you be able to make depends on the size of your container. For my 3 containers, I used about 2 cups. To make your jars, add a teaspoon of peppercorns and a whole peeled garlic clove. Then add the combination of peppers you like. Cut the tops off of the peppers and stuff the jar full of them. If your jar’s opening is too small, you may have to cut the peppers into strips. Just remember, the more you cut the peppers, the more surface area you create for the vinegar to absorb the flavor. If you like your vinegar really hot, then include the pepper seeds. Otherwise cut the seeds out before putting the pepper in the jar.

Once your peppers and seasonings are in, its time to add the vinegar that has been brought to just under a boil. Using a funnel, carefully pour the vinegar into  the bottle. Pour slowly so the contents don’t overflow. Stop pouring just before the top. You want to leave a little bit of head space.

Now your vinegar is ready! Over the next couple days/weeks, the flavor will intensify. You can store it in your pantry or in the refrigerator. Here are the 3 that I made.

In a few weeks, I will tell you which I like best and show you some uses for the vinegar. Enjoy!

If you like eating great food, talking about food, meeting other people who like talking about food, taking pictures of the great food you are eating, oh and of course eating more food, then a food blogging conference is for you. If you like all of these activities and love Southern Food the Foodblog South is the conference for you.

Last year, was my first trip to Foodblog South. It was also my first experience at a food blogging conference as well as the inaugural Foodblog South. In year 1, I was slightly overwhelmed with the amount of food, and content learned while at a food conference. I also did a poor job in bringing enough cards with me.

This year I was more prepared.  I made sure that I had enough business cards, ate less, and worked out more to prepare for the food filled weekend.

In year 2 Foodblog South was even better than year 1. With a larger venue, more attendees, more food, and more speakers sharing an even wider range of topics, Jason and his team completely out did themselves. What they put together was a weekend that was absolutely amazing!

The only down side of the conference was that they didn’t have a multiplier machine where you could be in two places at once. I would have loved to be able to see every presentation, but I had to choose. Throughout the day, I learned about food trends, adding video to your blog, optimizing your blog layout and design, recipe writing, making money through your blog, and how to figure out what your brand is. At the end, there was an inspiring keynote delivered by Kat Kinsman of CNN Eatocracy.  I am still digesting all the information that I learned over the weekend. I would like to think all the speakers for sharing your knowledge! I really appreciate it.

I am sorry that I don’t have more food pictures to share with you, but the food didn’t last long enough for me to take a picture (also my camera made it but the memory cards were left on my desk, so that is why there are only instagrams in this post). With this being a southern food conference, there was no shortage of great food. High Road Craft Ice Cream out of Atlanta had several of their best flavors to try.

Goo Goo Clusters from Nashville were there. Jim and Nick’s not only hosted a great dinner for us on Friday night to kick off the conference,

but at the conference they were there with dozens of cheese biscuits for you to try.

After the conference, there was a a beer and cheese tasting after party at Good People Brewery.

I realize that me giving you a brief recap of what I saw and ate at Foodblog South is by no means the same as experiencing the event for yourself. I do highly recommend that you make the trip in Birmingham in 2013.I enjoyed all of the food and great presentations, but the chance to connect with bloggers from all over is what I enjoyed the most!

With the blogging/twitter/facebook social media world that we live in, it is easy for a blogger to form friendships with other bloggers that they have never met. My favorite part of the entire conference was talking and meeting other bloggers! It is amazing how much more you can get to know about a person when you aren’t speaking in 140 character intervals! Thanks again Foodblog South! I can’t wait until next year.

This weekend, I will be heading  down to Birmingham, AL, for Food Blog South. Here is a recap from  last year’s inaugural  Food Blog South With it being a new year and heading to a Food Blogging Conference, I decided it was finally time to order new Moo business cards.

On the left is my business card that I have had for probably 2 and a half years. When I started my photography business, it was before Taylor Takes a Taste was born, so about a year and a half ago I ordered Taylor Takes a Taste business cards. Handing out two cards at the same time to people is somewhat cumbersome, so with it being a new year, it was time for a new card.

I can’t remember who printed my original business cards, but the Taylor Takes a Taste cards were from Vista Print. Vista Print did a great job, but for my new cards I was looking for something a little more unique. In past encounters and talking with other photographers, the brand Moo kept coming up. With such rave reviews from others, it was time to take the Moo plunge.

I tweeted about my decision to try moo cards a few weeks ago and was told by others that I wouldn’t be disappointed. I definitely wasn’t. My Moo cards arrived in this nice hard carrying case. They come 50 to a case, and with ordering 100 to start off with, I now have two of these containers. One I keep in my car and the other stays in my camera bag. Between the two, I have my cards with me at all times. With Moo, you get great printing, a nice thick card stock, and the best part…….

the ability to have different designs on the back! First, here is what the front looks like. On the back, I can upload up to 50 different background images !

I only uploaded  8 different ones to start, but I love how they turned out! As a photographer, I love having the ability to instantly show someone what I do when I meet them. With this many options, I let people pick their favorite! I designed both the front and back of the cards myself, but it you need design help, Moo has templates to get you started. I am very happy with the results and would definitely recommend them to any one in a creative field looking for new business cards!

If you are in Birmingham this weekend for Food Blog South love to meet you! I will have my cards on hand,so fee free to pick your favorite food.

Last week was the two year anniversary of Taylor Takes a Taste. Its a little late, but here is a cupcake to celebrate! Notice anything different about the cupcake?

No, you are not seeing things. The flame on the cupcake is moving! What you see above you is something called a GIF. Gif stands for Graphics Interchange Format. While this type of file has been around since the 1980′s, I recently came across this amazing work by Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg called Cinemagraphs,  I was blown away at how they have pushed the limits of what GIFS can do and the creativity that they have used them in.

Until coming across Jamie and Kevin’s work, the most common uses I have seen for GIFs have been of sports hilights and memes traveling through reddit or on twitter. What Jamie and Kevin have done has inspired me to try some of my own! Now there are some limitations to what Gifs are capable of. I am looking at them more as parameters as opposed to limitations. The only real limitation is your creativity and ability to problem solve.

Lets look at a normal jpg that I would shoot of a cupcake

While this is a pretty shot, it could be more interesting. We all know that when a flame is lit on top of a candle it flickers around and doesn’t stay till. By turning the image into a GIF, I am able to show that movement. Here is a look at the GIF again.

Notice how the moving of the flickering candle adds movement and interest to the image. The animation is running on a loop, so it will continue to flicker back and forth without stopping. The possibilities of  this are truly endless! It is a great way to show movement with food that usually wouldn’t be there. Instead of having a motion frozen with a shutter speed, you can show that movement.

There are some limitations however.

1. to keep the filesize small and manageable for web viewing, the animation can’t be too long.

2. This is the biggest draw back. GIFs color memory can only support 256 colors. Notice how the colors between the normal jpg and the GIF are different. The GIF looks flatter and a little washed out. When making a GIFF, you need to keep in mind what color range you will have in the image.

With it being a new year, it is a great time to try new things! I have a lot more testing and playing around before I give you a guide of how to make your own GIF, but there will be one in the future.

Have you ever made a GIF before?

2 years ago today, I started Taylor Takes a Taste! Wow the last 2 years have flown by! Here is a recap from year one, and now for a recap of year 2.

Year 1 was amazing, I thought it wasn’t possible, but year 2 was even better! Here are some of my favorite posts from the last 12 months.

January

In January, this double chocolate pie , experiments with beer bread, and my first Food Blog Conference!

In February, I celebrated a lot of National Food Days, gave my first food photography tutorial, and was ready for spring!

In March, I made funnel cakes, deep fried cookie dough, and had a little March Madness tournament of my own.

In April, I continued to celebrate National Food Days, went to a soft shell crab festival and shot and shot a book promo !

In May, I went Strawberry picking with the Charlotte Food Bloggers, had a crawfish boil, and checked out the Charlotte Food Truck scene.

June brought a month filled with cream pies, food photography tutorials, and National Food Day celebrations!

In July, I celebrated the 4th, taught my first food photography class, and did more food photography tutorials!

In August, I counted down towards tailgating season and celebrated a few more national food days.

September, October, November, and December, brought with it 15 weeks of traveling, tailgating, and 2 food photography workshops.

For this season’s tailgating tour, I moved the tailgating posts to a new site Taylor Tailgates, so if you haven’t seen them all please check it out. In the fall, I traveled to another 15 games, putting my total at 29 tailgates in the last two seasons.What I am doing with all this tailgating content is something that I can’t quite reveal yet. Hopefully in the next week, I will be able to tell you about a project that I spent all of 2011 working on and will spend a good part of 2012 working on as well.

This year has been amazing! I have eaten a lot, traveled a lot, and taken thousands of great pictures. In the Spring of 2011, Julie and I started the Charlotte Food Bloggers group. We are working on redoing our website now, and have a whole lot planned for 2012! If you live in Charlotte and have a food blog, of are interested in recipe writing, food photography, WordPress, and talking about/eating great food we would love to have you join us! We have a whole lot of great things planned for 2012, so I will be sure to share with you what we are up to.

So what should you expect in 2012? Right now, I am lining up several food photography workshops that will take place late spring/early summer, if you want me to come to your city send me an email! I would love to see if we can work something out.

At the end of this month, I will be going to Food Blog South in Birmingham, AL. I had a blast last year, so I am very excited to see old friends and meet new ones! Let me know if you will be there, I would love to meet you!

As far as other posts you will see,  I have a few more food photography tutorials, I will be finishing the largest project I have ever undertaken ( will be revealed soon), and will encounter a whole lot of other things that I haven’t even imagined yet!

2011 was an even better year than 2010! I can’t wait to see what 2012 holds!

Taylor Takes a Taste is turning 2 next week! With that, I am trying to post a few things from 2011 that I haven’t gotten to yet. This restaurant stop is from my October tailgating trip to Gainesville, FL. Here is what I found at Satchel’s Pizza.

In October, I made my first trip to Gainesville, FL. I was there to check out the Florida Gator’s tailgating scene as they hosted the Alabama Crimson Tide. You can read more about what I found while tailgating here. Friday evening before the game, I took decided to check out a place I had heard an awful lot about. I have several friends that are UF Alums and upon hearing that I was making a trip to Gainesville, they insisted that I make a stop at Satchel’s. Let’s just say, I have some pretty smart friends.

The outside of the restaurant is an eclectic mix of windows, screens, colors, and mis matching chairs. The coolest part was the VW van turned table. Yes you can eat in it! From first glance I could tell Satchel’s was unique, then I received the menu.

You can tell a whole lot about a restaurant by what they have on their menu. Any menu that has both lightning bolts and the American flag on it is an automatic winner in my book. Looking beyond the obvious awesome color scheme, I noticed two great things. 1. They only accept cash. (some of the best meals I have ever eaten are at places that only take cash) and 2 They tell you that you may have to wait up to 50 minutes for your food. Some would be turned off by that , but I take it as a good thing. I will gladly wait for great food.

I decided to have the small (yes that is a small) Satch Salad and a Mama Slice of pizza.

The Satch Salad is a bowl filled to the brim with red and green leaf lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, apples, red onion, secret house vinaigrette, romano cheese, diced tomatoes, and then sprinkled with almonds, sunflower seeds, and walnuts. Prior to the trip, I had heard that after eating the salad you would be tempted to just order some dressing to drink. That rumor is now confirmed.

The Mama Pizza is a slice or a whole pie with 4 toppings of your choosing. After a long deliberation, I decided to have spicy sausage, spinach, sun dried tomato, and roasted red pepper. All that is loaded onto a slice with cheese and a delicious tomato sauce. With this mountain of toppings, a fork was needed to finish it all.

After eating I took a look at Lightnin’ Salvage Enterprises. This store/junk museum/ music venue is just as eclectic as Satchels. With great food and plenty to look at, Satchel’s Pizza is definitely worth the trip. Next time that I am in Gainesville, I will definitely be returning.

Have a great weekend and Monday, I will have a Taylor Takes a Taste 2nd Birthday and 2011 Year in review.

- Taylor

For those of you who don’t know, I AM A HUGE COLLEGE FOOTBALL FAN! Unfortunately, on Monday, I suffered another heart wrenching loss.

Last New Year’s Day, I spent the day cooking food and watching my Wisconsin Badgers lose by 2 points to TCU.

This year, my Badgers were once again Big Ten Champs and made the trip again to Pasadena. On the slate were the Oregon Ducks. While this game was played on January 2nd, I spent the day doing the same thing I did last season.

On the menu for this game were pimento cheese brats, Candied Bacon Muffins, Pineapple Teriyaki Pork Tenderloin and Toasted Cheddar and herb beer bread. Sorry no recipes in this post, these are for a special project that I will hopefully be able to share with you soon!

Despite the loss, I have a lot to  be thankful for. While most blogs do a year end review (mine will happen on Taylor Takes a Taste’s 2nd Birthday which is 1/16/12) I thought I would share with you a summary of my 2nd tailgating tour! This year, I posted all my tailgating adventures on Taylor Tailgates, so if you missed them here is a recap. I went to 15 different games this season all over the South (and back to Madison). Here is a quick visual recap of what I saw.

9/3 Atlanta for Georgia vs Boise St.

9/10 Oregon St. at Wisconsin

9/17 Auburn at Clemson

9/24 LSU at West Virginia

10/1 Alabama at Florida

10/8 Central Michigan at N.C State

10/15 Hampden-Sydney at Emory & Henry

10/22 Samford at Appalachian State

10/29 Miss St. at Kentucky

11/12 Auburn at UGA

11/19 UCF at ECU

11/26 Clemson at USC

12/3 App State Playoff and ACC Championship Game

12/10 SWAC Championship Game

Phew…. What a fall. Even though my Badgers weren’t able to pull out a win I would still call it a successful football season.

If you are interested in knowing more about what I saw while tailgating this fall, check out Taylor Tailgates

By the way, I didn’t go to Pasadena this year. The picture at the top was from a 2010 Cross Country Trip from Wisconsin to California

Welcome to my last post of 2011.  This is not a summary of everything that I did in 2011 (that will come January 16th on Taylor Takes a Taste’s second Birthday) but more a post that combines almost everything I am passionate about.

In deciding to start a food blog, one makes it pretty obvious to the world that they are passionate about food. So my love for food should be a no brainer. Another one of my passions is photography. Making pictures, learning about new techniques, and experimenting with different lighting setups are all things that happen in my apartment. In the past year, I have started to teach about food photography. I have taught a few classes and hosted my own set of workshops. These weekends and afternoons have been some of the most rewarding days of the past year. In 2011, I have discovered my passion for sharing what I have learned with others.

This being said, it only makes sense to share with you a tutorial I think you will find very useful. With New Year’s Day being tomorrow, it only makes sense to have a post with black eyed peas as the subject. (those of you who are just here for the food, scroll down for the second half of the post an explanation and recipe for Texas Caviar)

For good or bad, we live in a world where your food is first judged by its picture. Whether it be in a book, on a restaurant’s website or any other two dimensional object, your dish will be judged by its picture. If you can’t be there to smell and taste the dish, a picture is all you have to go off of. Because of this fact, anyone who deals with food and the internet has to become a semi professional food photographer.

As many of you have realized, that is not an easy task. Yes nice cameras and expensive lenses can produce amazing images in the hands of someone who knows how to use them, but LIGHTING is the MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT of your food photography. This same unfortunate world is a world where one’s food photography schedule doesn’t line up with natural light’s schedule.

What does this leave you with? Well you have to try your best and take pictures in your kitchen or other parts of your house using artificial light. Do pictures in your dining room turn out like this?

Or maybe you have found your kitchen works a little bit better? (my kitchen is too messy to take pictures of, Thankfully my girlfriend has an immaculate kitchen complete with pink tea kettle).

That is a little better, but still not what it could be.

A new year is all about setting new goals. I have a new goal for you. If you have found that your schedule only allows you to take pictures when there is no daylight available, make your goal to MAKE GREAT PICTURES WITH ARTIFICIAL LIGHT!

You may be saying, sure you can take great pictures with expensive lighting gear. Yes, this is true, but what if I told you that you could make a photo studio for around $15 ?

Yes, it is true. All you need is….

A 500 watt Halogen worklamp that you can get at Lowe’s or Home Depot. I got mine for $6 when I was tailgating in Birmingham. It might be a little more, but all you need is one that is at least 500 watts (the power is important, don’t get a florescent one, THEY AREN’T bright enough)

WARNINGS

Halogen lights get extremely hot. I mean it. DO NOT use these with animals or small children around. This little $5 light has no on or off switch, so you will need to plug it into a power strip that has a switch. Also, you must use it on a flat level surface. AGAIN, I can’t stress this enough. The light gets very hot so be very careful and let it cool down before moving and use caution. I am not trying to scare you. They are safe, just pay attention when using and do not leave them on when unattended.

The second item that you need is a diffusion panel. This consists of a PVC pipe square frame. Take 4 equal lengths of PVC pipe and connect them in a square shape using 4 elbow joints of the same diameter as the pipe. To do this, you will need to tape a diffusion material to the PVC pipe square. I used Paper Vellum. It is sold in large rolls and in sheets. Price will vary depending on where and what size you buy, I bought a 5 yard roll. Cut your vellum to the size of your frame and then tape it to the vellum to the frame. You want to pull the vellum so it is tight and makes a flat panel.  You could also use parchment paper. Really, any translucent material that you can make a flat panel out of will work. Different materials will have different effects on the light so play around and see what works best for you.

All you have to do is shine your light through your diffusion frame and use a piece of foam board as a fill card. You can use a box or anything else you like to prop up the panel and your foam board.

This set up works with backlighting, as well!

A Halogen worklight is a Tungsten light source, so you will need to change your camera white balance to Tungsten.

While this light and set up does have some drawbacks ( I won’t get into those here) and is by no means perfect, for those of you who want to have a great lighting set up for around $15 it is hard to beat!

If one of your goals for 2012 is to improve your food photography, I hope that this set up can help!

On a related your note, if you really want to improve or learn from the beginning about food photography, I want to help!

I have received a lot of emails and questions from people about the December workshops that I did in Charlotte, asking if I would do a workshop closer to where they live. Well, the answer is YES! I would love to meet you and spend a day exploring the world of food photography.

So let me announce….. (drum roll please)

I am working on the site now, I will let you know when it is ready, but here is the general concept.

If you would like me to come do a workshop in your town, shoot me an email taylor at taylortakesataste.com and let me know:

1) where you want the workshop to be

2) how many people do you know that would be interested in attending

3) what are you interested in learning (for example artificial lighting, taking pictures of food outside, flash photography and food, travel.. ) Or a little bit of everything!

In a week or two, I will have a page where you can see what cities I have had requests from (right now I am working on NYC area, Boston, and Raleigh, NC) If I can get enough people interested, then I will book a plane ticket or load up my car and come to your city for a weekend filled of food photography and fun! Ideally there would be a Saturday and Sunday workshop that would last the whole day and each day would have at most 8 people.

The workshops would take place anytime in April, May, June and July!

This is in its preliminary stages, but if you are interested send me a message and lets see what we can organize!

Here is to a great 2012 !

- Taylor

TEXAS CAVIAR

For those of you interested in the food, let us talk about Texas Caviar. No, there are no fish eggs here. Texas Caviar is a dish made of black-eyed peas!

I adapted my recipe from one in Saveur

Ingredients

2  15-oz. cans black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed

1⁄4 cup  chopped cilantro

1 diced jalapeno pepper

1 chopped red bell pepper

1/2 cup  thinly sliced red onion

1⁄4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1⁄4 cup red wine vinegar

1/4 tsp freshly cracked black pepper

juice of 1/2 lemon

Salt to taste

In a large bowl, combine the black-eyed peas, cilantro, jalapeno, red bell pepper, and onion. In a separate bowl, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, pepper, lemon juice and salt. Pour mixture into larger bowl and toss to cover evenly. Store in the refrigerator until serving.

2011 it was great. 2012 it will be even better!

Ending one year and welcoming in another is a tradition that we all can celebrate. On Saturday evening, the whole world will be saying goodbye to 2011 and welcoming in 2012. For those of you who choose to celebrate with a drink in hand, why not make it one of these New Year’s Champagne cocktails!

I am not sure where the tradition began, but ending one year and transitioning into the next isn’t complete without a glass of champagne (or some other type of sparkling wine) in hand. There is nothing wrong with a nice simple glass of champagne. If you are sipping on a nice Dom Perignon then just leave it at that. On the other hand, if your price range is more that of the Andre variety, there are a few simple and easy ways to improve your drinking experience.

To start how about  a sophisticated classic The   “Champagne Cocktail”

This simple recipe hails from 1935 and was created at New York City’s Metropolitan Hotel. To make this cocktail: Pour one glass of champagne. Add a lemon twist followed by a sugar cube that has been coated with Angostura bitters. Wait a few seconds for the bubbles to stop and enjoy! This cocktail if perfect for a more formal New Year’s Eve party.

On New Year’s Day, there is nothing like a hearty brunch and a Mimosa. Orange juice and champagne make a perfect pair to help tackle any lingering hangover from last year.

A mimosa is simple to make. Start with a champagne flute.

Add an orange twirl and  fill the flute halfway with champagne.

Fill the rest of the glass with fresh squeezed orange juice.

For a more potent concoction, you may add some Gran Marnier to the drink.

Looking for something a little different than a mimosa? Try the Poinsettia.

This cranberry champagne cocktail has a beautiful reddish pink color that will impress any New Year’s Day brunch guests you may have.

To make the Poinsettia.

Add a lime slice to a champagne flute. Fill the glass halfway with champagne.

Fill the remainder of the glass with cranberry juice and a splash of triple sec.

If you are more of a beer drinker, don’t worry,. I have a cocktail for you. May I interest you in a Black Velvet?

This cocktail is made with 1/2 stout beer ( I used a Double Chocolate Stout) and 1/2 champagne.

Like the beermosa, this may sound like a strange combination. I would be lying if I said I didn’t have my reservations, but the combination of light and bubbly champagne with a thick stout, is a delicious drink!

However you decide to celebrate your New Year, I am sure that having one of these champagne cocktails at midnight would be a welcomed addition.

If you are interested in how I shot these champagne pours, I will tell you about that in a future post.

Tomorrow, I will bring you a delicious New Years recipe and My New Year’s resolutions, the recap of 2011 will be on January 16th when Taylor Takes a Taste turns 2 years old!

Is it a cookie or is it a cupacake? Really, that is a trick question. It is both! Half cookie, half cupcake, and all delicious. Let me introduce you to the Mint Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcake.

Like a mad scientist splicing DNA, I have combined two delicious desserts into one amazing combination. From the top it may look like a cookie, but once you take a bite, you will taste both the cookie and cupcake! Making these cupcakes is pretty easy. You simply make your favorite cookie batter, and add it to your favorite cake batter before baking. I instagramed this before baking.

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes

Makes about 24 cupcakes

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

(Adapted from Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe)

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 fluid oz Peppermint Extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) chocolate chips
• a handful of red,green, and white sprinkles

In a large bowl combine the flour, baking soda and salt (this will be referred to as your dry ingredients). Sift together so all dry ingredients are incorporated evenly. In a separate bowl (or using a stand mixer) cream together the butter, sugars, vanilla and peppermint extract, until they are a light creamy color. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the dry goods in thirds, mixing after each addition. Stir in Chocolate Chips.

Cake Batter

Use your favorite boxed white cake mix, or your favorite white cake mix recipe. To this, add 1/4 cup of red, green, and white sprinkles.

To assemble your cookie cupcakes, fill greased muffin cups half way with cake batter. Place a tablespoon sized ball of cookie dough on top of each cake batter filled cup. (you can look at the instagramed picture to see what should look like) You DO NOT need to press the cookie dough into the cake mix.

Bake at 350 F for 12-15 minutes.

Enjoy!

These Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies are a welcomed treat as a gift, for college students looking to procrastinate during exams, or for a Holiday baked good swap!

Mine were for the latter. Yesterday, The Charlotte Food Bloggers had a Holiday Baked Good Swap. Here is a visual recap of what we swapped ate.  Yes, I did make my lovely holiday sweater.

If you live in Charlotte,NC, and blog about food or are interested in starting a food blog then I highly highly suggest joining the Charlotte Food Bloggers! We are currently redoing our website/branding/ and planning an amazing list of events and activities for 2012, so if you want to join shoot as a tweet @CLTfoodbloggers or an email charlottefoodbloggers@gmail.com and we would love to have you join in all the fun!