Sweet Tooth

Striped Cake Pops

2012-02-27T12:35:00.001-05:00

A few weeks ago I posted cake balls in the form of chocolate covered strawberries, but nothing can quite beat the cuteness of a cake ball on a stick - aka the cake pop. I made a batch of white cake pops with pink stripes for my blog banner a few years ago, but since I only made them for color-coordinating decoration purposes, I never wrote a post dedicated to them. Recently I've received a number of emails inquiring about the cake pops, so I re-created them for this post and brought them to a friend's bachelorette party which worked out perfectly since her wedding color is fuchsia too :).

Since I still haven't gotten around to investing in a large block of styrofoam to dry my pops, I've made these stand upside-down. But they still have a handle, and that's the best part of eating a cake pop! Although I'm no expert in making and dipping cake balls, I have picked up a few tips along the way that I thought I would share to help you get a nice and smooth coating:

Rather than freezing the un-dipped cake balls for a few minutes to firm them up, take the extra time to place them in the fridge for a half hour instead. I've found that if the cake balls are too cold and the candy coating is too hot, the chocolate will seize.
After you've melted your candy coating for the second interval of 30 seconds, mix vigorously for at least a minute to see if you can melt any solid pieces this way before popping it back into the microwave again. If you overheat the candy coating, it will become too thick to work with.
Add a dash of vegetable oil to your candy coating to help make it less viscous.
After you've dipped your cake pop, have a few toothpicks handy to help push away any excess that may pool at the bottom.

As far as adding stripes, there are a few options. I first dipped my cake balls in Wilton's pastel color burst candy melts and let them dry completely. Then you can either put the melted candy coating into a squeeze bottle to pipe stripes or use a toothpick to "draw" on lines. I started off with the squeeze bottle method but my tip kept getting clogged, so I later opted to draw lines with a toothpick dipped in candy. Since candy melts dry rather quickly, I would suggest just piping half of the cake ball at a time and adding the sprinkles as soon as possible. Finer grain sprinkles like sanding sugar are best for this type of decorating because you don't want the sprinkles weighing down the candy melts. And make sure to put a small plate or bowl underneath so you can reuse the sprinkles that fall!

Cake pops are a great dessert to make for a party - they travel well, are single-serving, and super fun! I chose to make lemon cake for these since that is Caitlin's favorite, and even decorated a few with C+V (her and her fiance's initials) and some hearts. The possibilities are endless with cake pops, and I think this stripe design is great for a blog header, bachelorette party, or just because!

Lemon Cake Pops

1 box cake mix (I used lemon)

1/4 cup canned vanilla frosting

2 bags Candy melts (I used Wilton's color burst pastel)

Colored sanding sugar

Lollipop sticks

- Bake cake according to package's instructions and allow to cool completely.

- Crumble baked cake with your fingers and mix in frosting until a malleable dough forms.

- Form dough into balls, place on a wax-paper lined cookie sheet, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

- Melt a bit of candy melts and dip ends of lollipop sticks in the candy before inserting into cake balls. Return cake balls to fridge for another 10-15 minutes.

- Melt the rest of the candy melts in a deep bowl. Submerge each cake pop in the melted candy and gently tap the stick on the side of the bowl to help shake off any excess coating. Invert cake pops onto a wax-paper lined surface and allow to dry completely.

- To make stripes, dip a toothpick in the melted candy and draw the stripes around the ball (I suggest drawing only 1 half-circle at a time since the candy melts dry quickly). Cover with sprinkles immediately and continue decorating as desired.

Let me know if you have any specific questions regarding cake pops and I'll do my best to help you out!

New York Style Coffee Crumb Cake

2012-02-16T13:18:00.000-05:00

I think streusel-topping should be its own food group. I love it on top of muffins, cakes, and even just on its own. This is not hard to believe since it's a combination of butter, sugar, and cinnamon with flour, but there's just something magical about these delicious coarse crumbs. So it should not come as a surprise that I LOVE coffee cake - the absurd amount of streusel piled on top suits me perfectly, and I was very excited, and a little nervous, to try baking it at home. I've made coffee cake muffins before, and even blueberry coffee cake, but I was ready to try the true classic this time around. Thankfully the result came out wonderfully and I was obsessed with the look and taste of the topping as well as the cake.

I really did love this recipe - both sides of my extended family hail from the Empire State, so I've had my fair share of NY-style coffee cakes and this one was right on par. My Grandma is famous in her small town for her coffee cake recipe, so it's safe to say my expectations for this cake were high. But I as pleasantly surprised with my results - the cake had a dense crumb but also seemed light and moist and had a great taste. When I first took my cake out of the oven, the crumbs were a little crunchy - I may have cooked the cake a little too long - but after the cake sat overnight, the crumbs softened up perfectly. I couldn't help myself from immediately eating any crumb that fell off after cutting, moving, and photographing these delightful cakes. I may or may not have purposefully treated them a little rough to free off some extra crumbs along the way :)

I often bake for group meetings, get-togethers, and parties, so I really prefer preparing single-serving baked goods that are easy to grab and share. This is the reason you see a lot of cupcakes, cookies, and muffins on my blog that feed a lot of people without the hassle of cutting and serving. Coffee cake would normally be considered a bit annoying to cut and serve during class (and also pretty messy with all the crumbs), but I avoided this by cutting up the cake ahead of time and placing each serving in a cupcake liner. So when I passed around the coffee cake, everyone simply grabbed a piece and used the liner as a mini plate!

New York Style Coffee Crumb Cake

Recipe adapted from Smells Like Home

For the crumb topping:

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp salt

8 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and still warm

1-3/4 cups cake flour

- In a medium bowl, whisk together sugars, cinnamon, salt, and butter to combine. Add flour and stir until mixture forms a thick, cohesive dough.

- Set aside to cool to room temperature (about 10-15 minutes).

For the cake:

1-1/4 cups cake flour (don't use AP here, it makes a difference!)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

6 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces (softened, but still cool)

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup buttermilk

Confectioner's sugar for dusting (I forgot this step, whoops!)

- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

- Line a 8x8" dish with parchment paper or aluminum foil (allowing excess to overhang the edges) and spray with nonstick cooking spray.

- In the bowl of an electric mixer on low speed, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer still on low, add butter one piece at a time until the mixture resembles moist crumb with no visible butter chunks remaining.

- Add egg, egg yolk, vanilla, and buttermilk and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

- Transfer batter to prepared pan and use a rubber spatula to smooth the top into an even layer.

- Break apart the crumb topping into large pea-sized chunks using your fingers and sprinkle evenly on the batter.

- Bake until crumbs are golden and cake tester comes out clean, about 35-40 minutes.

- Cool cake completely until cutting, at least 30 minutes. Dust with confectioner's sugar just before serving.

Words with Cookies

2012-02-08T22:42:00.001-05:00

Ryan and I have always loved playing Scrabble together, even before Words with Friends and Word Feud dominated our smart phones - so when I saw a Scrabble-themed Valentine's Day card a few years ago, I had to buy it. I've pulled inspiration from this card (yes he saved it, how cuuute) and from Bridget of Bake at 350 to make some lovey-dovey Scrabble-themed cookies for Valentine's Day this year. I've been wanting to make these cookies ever since I saw Bridget's post, but only just got around to it and I'm so glad I did - they're adorable and certainly embody the "play with your food" expression.

These cookies were so fun to make and play with, and best of all they were SO easy to put together. I had some leftover sugar cookie dough in the freezer, so I just let it thaw in the fridge, rolled it out into a big rectangle, and cut squares. Then I made white royal icing to flood the backgrounds and went back the next day to pipe in the letters and numbers. I love that these only required dying one small batch of icing! I used a red food marker to make the hearts, and I could have done all the letters with a black food marker if mine hadn't been out of ink. I used an Ateco #1 tip for the black lettering, but I wished I had a #0 or #00 especially for the teeny-tiny numbers. They're not perfect but they certainly get the point across :)

My cookies were a bit too big for our Scrabble board, so next time I might make sure they're smaller and prepare a full batch of the 100 Scrabble letters to play a whole game with cookies (here's a picture of all the letters you'd need). Or if you don't want to worry about fitting them to a specific board, play "Bananagrams" style and split the tiles among players to see how many words they can make free-style. Whoever wins gets to eat a cookie! And of course these cookies don't have to be Valentine's Day themed at all (I know there are a lot of V-Day haters out there), but 'tis the season and I was feeling the love .

Scrabble Cookies
Idea adapted from Bake at 350

1 batch of sugar cookie dough
1 batch of royal icing
Black food coloring or black food marker

- Prepare cookie dough according to the recipe and roll it out into a large rectangle on a floured surface.
- Measure how large you want your squares to be and cut even tiles with a sharp knife. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 9 minutes.
- Prepare the plain white royal icing and load 3/4 of the icing into a plastic squeeze bottle or piping bag to flood the backgrounds of the tiles. Reserve the rest of the icing in a small bowl covered with a damp paper towel.
- When the white backgrounds are completely dry, dye the remaining royal icing black and load it into a decorating bag with a very small round tip. (You could also skip this step and just use a black food marker!) Pipe the letters and numbers and allow the icing to dry for at least 12 hours before handling them.

Happy Valentine's Day! If you want some more inspiration, check out a recap of Valentine's Day recipes from last year and don't forget to my Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake Balls from last week too! Can you tell I kind of like this holiday??

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake Balls

2012-01-31T12:51:00.000-05:00

I'm so excited to share these cake balls with you - I made them a few weeks ago just for fun but they've been patiently sitting in my Sweet Tooth photo folder waiting for February to come along with all things red and chocolate. I had them in my fridge for a few days and every time I opened the door I would squeal with excitement - they are just so cute! And really, really tasty - red velvet cake balls double dipped in red and chocolate candy coating. A real chocolate covered strawberry is almost as good as it gets, but this brings the concept to a ridiculously delicious new level. Plus, a chocolate covered strawberry can border on being a healthier dessert choice, and we'll have none of that around here, especially around Valentine's Day!

I chose to use red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting for the cake balls because of the color, but as I was making these I was thinking how using strawberry cake with chocolate frosting would have been really true-to-form and the resulting color would probably be appropriate too. The cake balls were formed into triangle/strawberry shapes, dipped completely in red candy coating, allowed to dry, dipped again in chocolate, and then decorated with swirls of white chocolate. The "leaves" are made from green-dyed fondant and I just made the petal shapes by hand and pinched a little stem out of each. I decided to add some seeds with a black food marker and really loved the overall effect. I'm telling you, if you're looking for a dessert to wow your Valentine, I would start shopping for the ingredients right now - it takes some love to make these, but that makes the results even more special!

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake Balls

1 box red velvet cake mix

1/4 cup canned cream cheese frosting

1 bag red candy coating

1 bag chocolate candy coating

1/2 bag white chocolate candy coating

Green fondant (homemade recipe found here)

Black food marker

- Bake red velvet cake in a 9x13" pan according to package instructions. Let cool and crumble cake with your fingers completely into a large bowl.

- Mix in the frosting to the crumbs using a rubber spatula or your fingers.

- Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper and start forming triangular/strawberry shapes out of the cake ball mixture. You may need to wash your hands a few times in between if the cake mixture is sticking too much.

- Once all the strawberries are formed, place them in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up.

- While the cake balls are chilling, roll out the green fondant and make leaf shapes with stems.

- Melt the red candy coating in a deep, microwave-safe bowl or Pyrex measuring cup in 30 second intervals. Make sure not to overheat the candy - if there are still a few solid pieces of candy, just mix furiously until everything is melted rather than microwaving for another round. If the candy seems thick, add a tbsp of vegetable oil to make it more runny.

- Remove 3 or 4 cake balls out of the fridge at a time and begin submerging them completely in the melted red candy coating. I used a spoon to drop them in, then a fork to gently lift them and shake off the excess by tapping the handle of the fork on the edge of the bowl. Transfer dipped cake ball to another parchment paper-lined sheet and use a toothpick to scrape away any excess candy around the edges if possible. Make sure to attach the green leaves/stem while the red candy coating is still wet.

- Let the red candy coating dry completely, then melt the chocolate in a similar fashion.

- Dip the cake balls in chocolate about 3/4 of the way, and place back on the parchment paper-lined sheet to dry.

- Melt the white chocolate in a pastry bag and cut a small opening to drizzle on each strawberry.

- If you desire, go back with a black food marker and draw seeds on the red coating.

- Return cake balls to refrigerate until ready to serve.

Recipe yields about 30 strawberries, depending on the size you make them.

Also, I've entered my tooth cupcakes in competition for "Most Creative Cupcake", so if you loved my Tooth Cupcakes, please go on over everyday until Februrary 12th to vote here at Celebrations.com!

Blue Moon and Corona Cupcakes

2012-01-26T10:49:00.003-05:00

With citrus at its prime this month, these cupcakes are the perfect combination of the seasonal fruit and the upcoming seasonal event - the Super Bowl. Everyone around here is very excited for the game since Connecticut people tend to be either Patriots or Giants fans, but personally I'm excited because it means the end of football season is near! Maybe I can actually get Ryan to hang out with me on Sundays again :) So if your football enthusiasm is anything like mine, consider making these beer-infused cupcakes to celebrate instead. If I can't enjoy watching the game, at least I can enjoy the food that surrounds it!

I could have used some Budweiser and Coors Light for these cupcakes if I wanted to be truly Super Bowl-esque, but Corona Light and Blue Moon are my favorite so I went with selfishness instead. Plus I wanted to incorporate a complimentary fruity frosting, and since Corona is always served with a lime wedge and Blue Moon with an orange, they were the perfect lagers for the job! I used my favorite cream cheese frosting spiked with some lime and orange zest and juice and it was a great compliment to the boozy cupcakes. The beer flavor doesn't always survive the baking process very well, so I just poked some holes in the cupcake tops and brushed a little beer on each to increase the flavor. Worked out wonderfully in the end, thanks to Miss Make for the inspiration!

Since the beer, zest, and citrus juices are added to the cupcakes at different times throughout the batter-making process, I couldn't just split the cake batter and mix in Corona/ lime in half and Blue Moon/orange in the other half - it involved a little more work than that. I actually whipped up the two batters separately, so if you're looking to save some time just choose one flavor combination to work with. I was more partial to the Blue Moon and orange combo, but probably because I've always favored orange-flavored goodies. Plus I also love the stark blue and orange contrast and think it pops incredibly. If you wanted to omit the orange slice and add red sprinkles instead of orange, they'd be perfectly festive for your favored Super Bowl team!

Blue Moon and Corona Cupcakes

Recipe adapted from Miss Make

For the beer cupcakes:

3/4 cups butter, at room temperature

1-3/4 cup sugar

2-1/2 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 eggs, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp orange or lime zest

1 cup Blue Moon or Corona beer, plus more for brushing on tops

1/4 cup milk

Orange/lime wedges and sanding sugar for garnish

- Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line 24 muffin tins with cupcake liners.

- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.

- Add eggs, beating after each addition then add the vanilla and zest.

- Combine milk and beer and alternatively add this mixture and the flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture with the mixer on low speed, starting and ending with the flour.

- Fill the cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake for 18 minutes, or until cake tester comes out clean.

- When cupcakes are done, poke holes in the tops of the cupcakes with toothpicks and brush some beer on each while still warm.

For the citrus cream cheese frosting:

12 oz cream cheese, cold

6 tbsp butter, at room temperature

1 tbsp freshly squeezed orange/lime juice

1 tsp orange/lime zest

4 cups powdered sugar

- Cream together the cream cheese and butter in an electric mixer until smooth and creamy, about 2-3 minutes.

- Add the citrus juice and zest and gradually add the powdered sugar until well-combined. Beat until smooth for about 2 minutes.

- Load frosting in a piping bag fit with a large star tip and pipe cupcake tops once cooled.

Recipe yields 24 cupcakes.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

2012-01-18T08:26:00.000-05:00

There's no cute story to go along with these cookies - Ryan and I were just in the mood for cookies a few weekends ago and since I had some Reese's leftover from my Christmas stocking, I decided to incorporate them into a batch of chocolate cookies. Nothing beats a warm homemade cookie on a lazy winter Sunday afternoon, and when the combination of peanut butter and chocolate is involved, there really is no competition. This is another cookie recipe that doesn't involve chilling the dough (like these Cookies and Cream Cookies), so you can have these out of the oven in about 30 minutes depending on how quick you can throw together the ingredients.

These cookies are a true peanut butter-chocolate lovers dream - there is peanut butter in the dough as well as peanut butter cups mixed in and more pressed on top. I love the peanut butter cup chunks that are added on top so everyone knows at first glance that these cookies are chock-full of peanut butter cups. The cookie itself is moist and cake-like and full of amazing chocolate flavor. Don't skimp on the cocoa powder here - the higher quality the cocoa, the more delicious these cookies will taste. I buy Valrhona brand cocoa powder from Whole Foods whenever it goes on sale and highly recommend it! If you don't have access to this type of chocolate, either order online or I fall back on Hershey's Special Dark if need be with good results too.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Recipe adapted from Annie's Eats

1-1/2 cups + 2 tbsp all purpose flour

6 tbsp cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

6 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp milk

2 cups coarsely chopped peanut butter cups, divided

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.

- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.

- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the butter, peanut butter, and sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 inutes.

- Add the egg, vanilla extract, and milk and beat until well incorporated.

- With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients until just incorporated.

- Fold in 1-1/2 cups of the peanut butter cups with a rubber spatula.

- Use a medium ice cream scoop to drop rounds of dough onto the baking sheets, spacing 2-3 inches apart.

- Gently press a few pieces of the reserved peanut butter cups on top of each dough ball.

- Bake 12-14 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through.

- Let cookies cool on the baking sheets for about 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe yields about 24 medium-sized cookies.

Swedish Fish Jello Shots

2012-01-12T13:29:00.003-05:00

When I first heard that Pinnacle released a "Gummy" flavored vodka, I immediately wanted to create a boozy jello recipe with it. After a quick search, I also found this fish-shaped candy mold and waited for an occasion to come around that warranted such a cute and delicious treat. Two of my closest friends from dental school share a birthday, and since one of them is particularly fond of all Pinnacle vodka flavors, I jumped on the opportunity to make these for their joint birthday celebration.

After some online research, I learned that red Swedish Fish candies are primarily cherry flavored, but some people thought they had a fruit punch flavor too. So in order to emulate the flavors as close as possible, I used cherry-flavored Jello and some fruit punch Kool-Aid mix as well. Although the vodka on its own is not overwhelmingly delicious, when mixed into this jello concoction the flavors were all spot-on together. They were a big hit at the party and people definitely had fun with the fish shapes rather than your conventional shaped jello shot. But then again mini Dixie cups are so passé - these days it's all about lime rinds, mini cupcakes, and now animal shapes too!

Because I only ordered 2 fish molds (which made 22 fishies total) , I used the rest of the jello mix to fill my mini-cupcake silicone mold and stuck half a mini Swedish Fish candy in each one. This method forces you to buy a bag of Swedish Fish and find something to do with the extras, so I was totally in favor of doing this too. Overall this was a really fun way to use the new vodka flavor and the leftover vodka tied with a ribbon made a great gift for the birthday girl.

Swedish Fish Jello Shots

1 cup water

2 tsp Tropical Punch Kool Aid mix

2 envelopes (1/4 oz each) plain gelatin

1 box (3 oz) cherry Jell-O

1 cup Pinnacle Gummy Vodka

- Combine water and Kool Aid mix and place in a medium saucepan.

- Sprinkle the plain gelatin over the Kool Aid and allow it to soak for a minute or two.

- Heat mixture over low heat, stirring constantly until gelatin dissolves (about 5 minutes).

- Remove saucepan from heat and stir in cherry Jell-O and vodka and mix until dissolved.

- Very lightly grease your desired mold (I sprayed Pam on a paper towel and smeared it on inside of the molds) and pour jello mixture to the top of each well.

- Refrigerate until fully set, about 2 hours.

Happy Birthday Colleen and Pamela!

(So what if their birthdays were actually in November and I'm a few months late with this post...)

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Muffins

2012-01-05T14:34:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago I was in the mood to bake (shocker) and asked Ryan if he had any requests. He immediately and randomly came up with cinnamon chocolate chip muffins and sent me on a Google search to find a great recipe. It didn't take long for me to stumble upon this recipe - it's from Baking Bites but she originally found it from the book "The Best Recipe" put together by the people of Cook's Illustrated. When it's from Cook's Illustrated, you know it good, but when the recipe title comes along with the prefix "Bakery Style", you know it's great. And these muffins were definitely great - huge in size and flavor with beautifully browned tops and the perfect amount of chocolate and cinnamon chips.

These muffins are considered "bakery style" because of their huge domed tops and fluffy interiors. They are definitely bigger than any muffins I've made at home before and could hold their own in a glitzy bakery showcase. I love cinnamon muffins, and these are no exception - they are not too sweet so there's no confusing whether or not these are cupcakes or muffins, but I'm still not sure they'd make a well balanced breakfast. But unless you have some healthy New Years resolutions going on, indulging in one of these for a mid-day snack would be heaven. Even if you don't have a boyfriend demanding cinnamon chocolate chip muffins one day, you should probably make these muffins as soon as possible anyway!

I'm definitely going to be using this recipe again as a base with different add-ins and flavors. I would love to add a streusel topping, maybe some blueberries, and a little lemon zest next time. If you have any other great combinations in mind, let me know!

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Muffins

Recipe adapted from Baking Bites

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

10 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1-1/2 cups plain low fat yogurt

3/4 generous cups chocolate chips

1/4 cup cinnamon chips

- Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a 12 cup muffin tin with liners.

- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together.

- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla.

- Alternate adding yogurt and flour mixture, starting and ending with the flour.

- Fold in chocolate and cinnamon chips with a rubber spatula.

- Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, filling them to the top or slightly higher.

- Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean.

- Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe yields 12 muffins.

Nutella Filled Donuts

2011-12-27T14:31:00.000-05:00

For the past 2 years I've done my Jewish friends and family a disservice by not sharing any Hanukkah-themed treats around the holidays on my blog. Santa hats, Christmas trees, and snowmen have captured my attention instead, but I still love latkes and can rock a mean dreidel. So this year, since Hanukkah fell during my winter break, I made sure to honor the Jews in my life with some Nutella filled donuts. Hanukkah celebrates the story of oil burning for eight nights instead of one, so a lot of the food surrounding the festival of lights is fried in oil. So today, on the 7th night of Hanukkah, I bring you fluffy, light, delicious donuts tossed in sugar and filled with Nutella. L'chaim!

I really loved the way these donuts turned out - the dough was easy to work with and yielded the fluffiest donuts I've made yet. I could have just left them plain, but I've been wanting to make filled donuts for awhile now, so I simply filled a pastry bag with some Nutella and used a large Bismark tip to fill each donut. I could have filled them with some pastry cream dyed blue to be really festive, but I figured a chocolatey surprise would be more appetizing than a bright blue one. But then again I've made green, yellow, and purple cupcakes so I'm not one to talk...

As always, be careful when deep frying - I burnt my hand, my nose, and my cheek last winter break making chocolate donuts so I know from experience! But every since my burning incident, I've been very cautious and escaped this frying endeavor burn-free. Maybe it was caution, maybe it was a Hanukkah miracle, but all I know is I'm glad I won't be rocking a band-aid on my nose this New Year's Eve.

Happy Hanukkah!

Nutella Filled Donuts

Recipe adapted from Buns in My Oven

1 package (2-1/2 tsp) active dry yeast

2/3 cup milk, at room temperature

3-1/2 cups all purpose flour

1-1/3 cups sugar, divided

2 tsp salt

3 eggs

7 tbsp butter, at room temperature

Canola oil, for frying

Nutella, for filling

- In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the yeast and milk and allow the yeast to dissolve for 1 minute.

- Add the flour, 1/3 cup of the sugar, salt, and eggs and mix on low for about 4 minutes to develop the dough.

- Add the butter, one tablespoon at a time, and continue mixing for 5 to 6 minutes.

- Remove the dough and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 6-15 hours.

- When dough is chilled, lightly flour a baking sheet and your work surface. Roll out the dough into a 12" square about 1/2" thick. I used a 2" round biscuit cutter to cut out the donuts, but use whatever size you want. Arrange on the prepared baking sheet, cover in plastic wrap, and allow to rise in a warm spot for 2-3 hours or until doubled in height.

- When ready to fry, heat 3" of oil in a pot to 350 degrees. Line a plate with paper towels and put the remaining 1 cup of sugar in a small bowl.

- Add the donuts to the hot oil, being careful not to crowd the pan. Fry on each side for about 2-3 minutes, until golden brown.

- Remove donuts with a slotted spoon and transfer to the paper towel-lined plate to drain. When cool enough to handle, toss in sugar to coat and return donuts to tray to cool completely.

- Fill pastry bag fitted with a Bismarck or round tip with Nutella and squirt about 1/4-1/3 of a cup of Nutella in each donut. Best enjoyed immediately.

Recipe yields about 20 small donuts.

Mini Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes

2011-12-24T16:55:00.000-05:00

I assume everyone already has their Christmas menus all planned out, but I wanted to share these quick, delicious, mini cheesecakes with you today since they were all dressed up for the holidays for their photos. But really, these cookies and cream cheesecakes would make a great dessert any time of the year. They took very little effort to put together and were a big hit!

With a whole Oreo at the bottom of each cheesecake, it's hard to go wrong with these. Two pounds of cream cheese, some oreo pieces, and a few other things are mixed together to top them off before being baked. The cheesecake is creamy and tart and I loved the Oreo pieces adding some texture and great chocolate flavor. But then again I love everything with Oreos mixed in - Cookies and Cream Cookies, Cookies and Cream Ice Cream, Mint Oreo Ice Cream Cupcakes, and even homemade Oreos!

Mini Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes
Recipe adapted from Handle the Heat

42 Oreo cookies - 30 left whole, and 12 chopped coarsely
2 pounds cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature and lightly beaten
1 cup sour cream

- Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line 30 standard muffin tins with paper liners (preferably white so you can see the Oreo through them!). Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each liner.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese on medium-high speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and beat until combined. Add vanilla.
- Drizzle in eggs, a little at a time, beating and scraping down the sides as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt.
- Fold in the oreo pieces by hand. Divide batter evenly among cookie-lined cups, filling each almost to the top.
- Bake, rotating pan halfway through, about 22 minutes or until filling is set. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
- Refrigerate at least 4 hours, or up to overnight, and remove from tins just before serving.

Recipe yields 30 mini cheesecakes.

Have a Merry Christmas!!

"Melting" Snowman Gingerbread Cupcakes

2011-12-19T13:30:00.001-05:00

After one of the most tiring semesters yet, I am finally on winter break with two weeks off to do as little as possible. Last year I ran off to Puerto Rico for a few days, but this year I'm looking forward to laying low, catching up with friends and family, and sleeping A LOT. Of course I also get to be home when the sun is up which definitely makes baking, photographing, and blogging a whole lot easier too. Recently it's been a whirlwind of holiday baking for me, and these snowman gingerbread cupcakes are one of my favorite treats to exit my kitchen so far. They were a ton of fun to make and received rave reviews at our clinic holiday party last week.

Since I was so busy baking and wrapping up schoolwork, I took a few shortcuts with these cupcakes. The cupcake is a doctored cake mix that turned out deliciously and while I originally imagined cake balls for the snowman heads, I opted for store-bought donut holes dipped in white chocolate to save some time. The eyes and buttons are little chocolate candies I found at Whole Foods awhile back, the scarves are Twizzler Pull&Peels, the arms are mini pretzel rods, and the carrot noses are little bits of fondant dyed orange (but you could also use orange tic-tacs). I made my own cream cheese frosting with a bit of cinnamon added for the "melted" body, but a store-bought can of frosting would work just as well if you want another shortcut. I think hats would have put these over the top with cuteness, but I didn't think ahead enough to pull that off (I'm imaging mini Oreos with Rolos maybe...). You can be really creative with what you choose to use here, and I think it would be great to get the kids involved too!

"Melting" Snowman Gingerbread Cupcakes

For the cupcakes: Recipe adapted from Hello, Cupcake

1 box (18.25 oz) yellow cake mix

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup molasses

1/3 cup vegetable oil

4 large eggs

1-1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

- Combine the cake mix and all of the additional ingredients listed above (ignoring the ingredient list on the back of the cake mix box). Beat together for about 2 minutes.

- Fill paper liners 2/3 full and bake 15-20 minutes, or until cake tester comes out clean.

- Allow the cupcakes to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

For the cinnamon cream cheese frosting:

12 oz cream cheese, cold

6 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 tbsp vanilla extract

4 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). Add the vanilla extract.

- Slowly add the powdered sugar, then beat until well combined. Mix in cinnamon.

- Load frosting into a piping bag with a large round tip, and frost cooled cupcakes with "blobs" of frosting to resemble a melting puddle of snow.

For decoration and assembly:

24 glazed donut holes

Twizzler Pull&Peels

Small pretzel rods

Mini chocolate candies or chocolate chips

Orange tic-tacs or fondant

1 package white candy melts (available at craft stores)

- Melt white candy melts according to package's instructions in a deep, microwave-safe bowl. If the chocolate is too thick, add a little vegetable oil.

- Drop each donut hole into the melted chocolate, then spoon it out and tap the spoon on the side of the bowl to remove excess. Transfer immediately atop frosted cupcakes.

- Add chocolate pieces for eyes and buttons, pretzel rods for arms, tic-tac or fondant for a nose, and Twizzlers for a scarf. Add a hat too if you want!

Recipe yields 24 cupcakes.

Red Velvet Cheesecake Layer Cake

2011-12-12T10:37:00.001-05:00

This beautiful and delicious cake is serving double duty today - as a festive holiday cake for inspiration to all of you as well as a birthday cake for a wonderful, red velvet/cheesecake-loving Mom. She'll probably be mad that I hijacked her birthday cake to post something holiday-themed over here, but the cake was SO good, I don't think she'll complain too much. She said this might have even been my best cake yet! But that's not surprising considering this is a layer of creamy cheesecake sandwiched between two layers of moist red velvet cake - it was hard to go wrong.

Apparently this recipe concept is borrowed from a staple on the Cheesecake Factory's menu, the Ultimate Red Velvet Cake Cheesecake. "Ultimate" is definitely an accurate description for this concoction, and is probably applicable to everything else on their menu too. Normally I protest the Cheesecake Factory's non-human portion sizes and overindulgent choices, but when it comes to dessert I make some pardons, especially for birthdays. And since the restaurant never takes reservations, I was happy to deliver this cake to my mom hassle-free, without a wait, and homemade. Okay so maybe the cake involves a lot of steps and can be interpreted as a "hassle" by some, but I had a lot of fun making it and the components are not individually difficult, just a little bit of work to put it all together. Definitely worth it in the end!

As if the inside of the cake is not beautiful enough, I decided to try out a frosting rose technique made famous by Amanda of i am baker for the outside. I used a cream cheese frosting to compliment the cheesecake and red velvet flavors, but the consistency was a little soft for piping and didn't demarcate the roses as well as I would have liked. But overall the effect is there and you wouldn't believe how EASY it is to pipe roses like this. Please check out Amanda's tutorial so you can start impressing your friends and family with your piping skills pronto. I decorated this cake in under an hour during a lunch break last week, including clean up time, so it's definitely doable during the busy holiday season!

The red velvet cake was moist and flavorful - an improvement from a previous red velvet recipe I've used - and the cheesecake was slightly tart and perfectly creamy. I paired it with my newly discovered favorite cream cheese frosting and topped it with a row of red candy-coated chocolates. I chose to adapt this recipe for a 6" cake since I was only serving 5 people by adjusting the ingredients to be 2/3 of the 9" recipe - but I've lost my calculations somewhere and am kind of lazy to do the math again. Let me know if you really want the 6" recipe and I will go on a hunt!

Red Velvet Cheesecake Layer Cake

Recipe adapted from 17 and baking

For the cheesecake layer:

20 oz full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature

2/3 cup granulated sugar

Zest of half a lemon

1-1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice

1/4 tsp salt

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature

1 tbsp all purpose flour

- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and set a pot of water to boil.

- Grease a 9" springform pan and line the bottom with a round of parchment paper. Wrap the outside of the pain with tinfoil to keep water out, and set the pan into a larger pan (for the water bath).

- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat until smooth.

- Switch to a wooden spoon or spatula and mix in the lemon zest, lemon juice, and salt.

- Add eggs one at a time, making sure they are combined but not overmixed.

- Add the sour cream and stir in the flour until just combined.

- Pour the batter into the greased pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan, halfway up the cheesecake pan.

- Bake until the cheesecake is just set in the middle - about 40 minutes.

- Run a knife along the sides of the pan and let the cheesecake cool completely by placing plastic wrap onto the surface of the cheesecake and refrigerating overnight in the pan.

For the red velvet layer:

2-1/2 cups cake flour

1-1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tsp salt

2 eggs, at room temperature

1-1/2 cups vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp white distilled vinegar

Red food coloring, as desired (I used about 1 tsp of gel color)

- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 9" pans.

- Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder, and salt together in a medium bowl.

- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the eggs, oil, buttermilk, vanilla extract, and vinegar together until well combined.

- With the mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and beat until well combined. Add the food coloring until desired color is achieved.

- Divide the batter equally between the 2 pans. Bake 25-30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean, rotating the pans halfway.

- Cool the cakes in the pans for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edges and invert them onto cooling racks to cool completely.

For the cream cheese frosting*:

12 oz cream cheese, cold

6 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 tbsp vanilla extract

4 cups powdered sugar

- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together cream cheese and butter until light and creamy. - Add the vanilla extract.

- Slowly add the powdered sugar and beat until well combined, about 2-3 minutes.

For assembly:

- I made the cheesecake and red velvet cake one night and let them both sturdy-up in the fridge overnight. The next day, I whipped up the frosting and assembled the cake.

- First, layer the cakes on top of each other and apply a thin coat of frosting and return to the fridge for 30 minutes. This is your "crumb coat".

- If you're decorating the cake as I did, apply another layer of smooth frosting to the top of the cake and leave the sides alone.

- Load the rest of the frosting into a piping bag fit with a large open-star tip and follow Amanda's rose tutorial to decorate the sides.

- Return to the fridge until ready to serve.

*Note: I made a whole batch of this cream cheese frosting for my 6" cake, and didn't have much left over, so if you would like to recreate the roses, I would suggest doubling this frosting recipe for a 9" cake to make sure you have enough!

Happy Birthday Mom! Here are some pictures from her birthday celebration, including a low-light but delicious shot of the inside of the cake :)

Mini Cinnamon Cannolis

2011-12-02T11:40:00.009-05:00

Before I start churning out holiday recipes here on the blog, I wanted to share these adorable and super delicious mini cannolis. I ordered metal cannoli forms months ago with plans on making cannolis, but only recently got around to it for an Italian themed dinner party. Cannolis can involve a potentially finicky dough, frying in hot oil, buying expensive cheese, and a certain finesse with the technique - so you can understand why I put these off for some time. But my friends were aggressively demanding cannolis for this party, so I did my best to pull through. I ended up being very proud of the result and my Italian friend even said it was the best cannoli he'd ever eaten. And just look how cute they are too!

I chose to do mini cannolis because I was trying to feed 25 people and wanted to make sure everyone got a bite. Plus, everything tastes better mini, right!? And since I only had 4 cannoli forms, I was able to fit 2 mini cannolis on each form and fry more at once.. The dough came together just fine, but I basically wore my hands raw trying to roll it out super thin with a wooden roller. Using a pasta maker attachment for your mixer is the best way to thin out the dough, but since I don't have one I resorted to my muscles and took a day off the gym. Besides rolling out the dough, the rest of the process was fairly simple - cutting out circles, wrapping and sealing them around the forms, frying them, dipping them in chocolate, and filling them right before the party. So although I was intimidated by the thought of making cannolis from scratch, I was able to do it all in 2 weeknights without any major problems (or hot oil burns), and you can too!

I spent quite a while researching different recipes and techniques for cannolis, and came up with a combination of ideas that seemed the most appealing to me. I love mascarpone cheese, so I used a combination of ricotta and mascarpone for the filling, but you could use just ricotta if you want to be more traditional. I also upped the amount of cinnamon in the filling because I love it, and it ended up being one of my friends' favorite things about the cannolis. I apologize to any Italians that are offended by these modifications, but I promise they were very delicious! I was a little disappointed my cannoli shells didn't have any of those bubbles on the surface, but I don't think anyone noticed...

Mini Cinnamon Cannolis

Recipes adapted from RecipeGirl and Cafe Nilson

For the shells:

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tbsp granulated sugar

1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp white wine vinegar

1/2 cup Marsala wine

1 egg white

Vegetable oil for frying

For the filling:

3/4 cup whole milk ricotta cheese, drained overnight and squeezed dry

3/4 cup mascarpone cheese

1/4 cup confectioner's sugar

3/4 tsp cinnamon

Melted chocolate chips for dipped ends

- For the shells, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer. Stir in the oil, vinegar, and enough wine to make a soft dough. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and well blended, about 2 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball and cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge overnight.

- Cut the dough into 2 pieces and keep half of the dough covered while you work. On a floured counter, roll the dough super think - about 1/16 to 1/8" thick (an area of about 13"x18"). Cut out circles with a cutter or glass (depending on what size you want your cannolis) and distort the shape a little to make ovals.

- Oil the outside of the cannoli forms and wrap the ovals of dough around the forms, sealing the edges with the egg white.

- In a deep heavy saucepan, pour enough oil to reach a depth of 3". Heat the oil to 375 degrees and have a tray lined with paper towels ready to go.

- Carefully lower a few of the cannoli forms into the hot oil (do not crowd the pan). Fry the shells until golden, about 2 minutes ,turning them so they brown evenly.

- Lift the cannoli form with a set of tongs or a slotted spoon and allow excess oil to drip down before transferring to a the tray.

- Repeat with remaining dough and if you're reusing the cannoli forms, I ran them under cold water in a collinder so they were cool enough to handle again

- You can store the shells in an airtight container for a up to a few days before filling (you want to fill them right before you serve them so the shells don't get soggy!)

- Melt chocolate in a deep dish and dip ends of shells. Place on a parchment paper-lined tray until ready to fill.

- For the filling, cream together the ricotta, mascarpone, confectioners' sugar, and cinnamon in the bowl of an electric mixer. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

- Fit a pastry bag with a medium-sized star tip and fill cannoli forms as desired.

Recipe yields 25 mini canollis, or 12 full sized ones

Cream Cheese-Filled Pumpkin Muffins

2011-11-23T08:51:00.006-05:00

Thanksgiving is tomorrow (just in case you didn't know that already), so I have to share these AMAZING pumpkin muffins with you before peppermint and gingerbread take over again. You may notice that compared to the blogosphere as a whole, my blog is lacking in the pumpkin baked good department. People go crazy for pumpkin this time of year, but working with pumpkin puree really grosses me out, so I avoid baking pumpkin treats as much as possible. But last week 2 of my closest friends at school shared a birthday, and since they both love pumpkin treats and cream cheese, I conquered my fear of that orange mush and whipped up these muffins. I felt better about bringing 24 muffins into school at 8AM on a Monday morning rather than cupcakes since muffins are a healthy breakfast food, right!?!

It was great when the girls bit into the muffins to discover the cream cheese filling - they were totally not expecting it and it was a delicious surprise. The cream cheese filling adds an extra step to the normally extremely simple muffin baking process, but it's a great twist that is totally worth it. The muffins themselves were super moist, not too dense, and had amazing spice flavor that summed up fall in one bite. The addition of a cinnamon streusel on top put these over the top - I highly recommend this recipe, regardless of the season! But if you're all pumpkin'ed out for now, bookmark this recipe as a "must-bake" for next year :)

There's a lot to get done before tomorrow's meal, so I can't spend much more time typing, but I'll leave you with one more delicious photo and the recipe! Enjoy :)

Cream Cheese Filled Pumpkin Muffins

Recipe adapted from Annie's Eats

For the filling:

8 oz cream cheese

1 cup confectioners sugar

For the muffins:

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cloves

1 tbsp + 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

4 large eggs

2 cups granulated sugar

2 cups pumpkin puree

1-1/4 cups vegetable oil

For the streusel topping:

1/2 cup granulated sugar

5 tbsp flour

1-1/2 tsp cinnamon

4 tbsp cold butter, cut into small pieces

- First prepare the filling - beat the cream cheese and confectioner's sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer for1-2 minutes on medium speed.

- Transfer the mixture to a piece of plastic wrap and shape into a 1-1/2" wide log. Wrap again in tin foil and transfer for the freezer for at least 2 hours.

- To make the muffins, preheat oven to 350 degrees.

- Line muffin pans with 24 paper liners.

- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and baking soda.

- In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree, and oil. Mix until well blended on medium-low speed.

- With the mixer on low speed, gradually add the dry ingredients until just combined.

- To make the topping, whisk together the sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or 2 forks until the mixture is the consistency of coarse crumbs.

- To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well with 2 tbsp of batter (just enough to cover the bottom). Place a slice of the cream cheese mixture into each muffin well.

- Divide the remaining batter among the muffin cups to completely cover the cream cheese.

- Sprinkle the streusel evenly on top of each well of muffin batter.

- Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let muffins cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. (Don't dig in too quickly, the molten lava cream cheese can burn you!)

Recipe yields 24 large muffins.

Apple Pie Cookies

2011-11-15T14:11:00.008-05:00

This is another recipe that I saw online and immediately put on my "to bake" list. The fact that this recipe is also the brainchild of Deb at Smitten Kitchen made it that much more irresistible. So when my friend Amanda's birthday came around last week, I knew these would be a perfect (and portable) treat to bring to her NYC bday bash. She's a lover of all things apple-cinnamon (remember the ridiculous Inside-Out Apple Pie a la Mode from last year?) and I knew she would love these bite-sized pies. November is a good month to have a birthday if you love apple pie like she does, recipes for new takes on apple pie are everywhere these days! Here's a really delicious and fun one to add to the list...

You may remember from my post last month featuring my first homemade Caramel Apple Pie that I'm not a very big fan of warm fruit pies. So to me, these cookies have the perfect ratio of crust:apple ratio - one thin slice of apple and lots of crust - but I realize that's probably not true of most of you pie lovers. But either way, the flavors are still there and you'll die over the cuteness so much that you'll forget about the missing mounds of baked apples. Deb's pie dough recipe was great and I loved the idea of slicing an apple into thin rounds and cutting them slightly smaller than the dough circles to make a perfect apple pie "sandwich". They're not truly cookies, although the dough is slightly sweeter than your average pie dough, but I don't think anyone's keeping track.

I have to warn you that these cookies are a bit labor-intensive. You have to make the dough, chill it, slice and cut the apples, roll the dough out super thin, cut then dough slices, chill them, and then assemble the cookies. But on a night when I had little else to do, I found assembling the little pies very therapeutic and fun. I must say though, I could use a shiny kitchen stool for my baking nook to take some pressure off my feet during these intensive baking endeavors if anyone's holiday shopping for me already ;-) Stool or not, these cookies do take some time but I 100% suggest you make them this holiday season!

Apple Pie Cookies

Since I didn't stray from Deb's recipe and her instructions are FABULOUS, I would feel as if I were cheating you if I tried to paraphrase (I swear I'm not just being lazy). She does a great job in the recipe giving detailed set-up instructions so everything goes smoothly and easily, so I'm directing you over to her fabulous site for the how-to: Apple Pie Cookies via Smitten Kitchen. Her cookbook is coming out soon, and I bet every recipe will be as well-written and delicious as this one was!

Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

2011-11-08T11:46:00.000-05:00

This week we're focusing on overcoming challenges. First off, I've been without power for almost 10 days now following massive outages in CT from a freak October snow storm, and everything has been a bit more difficult than usual. No heat, no lights, no internet, no fridge with food, and most importantly, no DVR recordings for an entire week worth of shows! So I apologize for the lack of posting last week, but I ensure you I'm alive, somewhat chilly, and ready to share a recent baking endeavor that required some extra effort. One of my classmate's Mom is a big fan of my blog, and wanted to surprise her vegan-GF friend with a set of birthday cupcakes. She messaged me to see if I was up to the challenge, and since I had never baked gluten-free before, I gladly accepted. After some online research and an interesting trip to the baking aisle of Whole Foods, I was able to make some surprisingly delicious cupcakes and check GF-baking off my list.

I must admit I was intimidated by the list of ingredients, and I was pretty convinced there was no way they would be tasty. Maybe to someone who hasn't had a traditional cupcake in years, but personally I wasn't too excited to taste-test one. I've tackled vegan cupcakes already, but something about the words "xanthan gum" and "sorghum flour" made me nervous. The batter was kind of scary too - much gummier and stickier than the chocolate cupcake batter I'm used to. But 20 minutes later, my apartment smelled delicious and I had 12 beautifully-domed cupcakes. Once I finally tasted one, I jumped for joy knowing I had successfully made a challenging cupcake recipe for my first "customer". So if you're new to GF baking as I was, just follow the recipe instructions step by step, don't freak out, and try not to taste-test the batter until their fully cooked :) As for the frosting, I tried a new mocha vegan buttercream that piped beautifully and was the perfect compliment for the deep chocolate cupcakes. Topped with the pretty frosting and some shaved chocolate, your non-GF/vegan friends will never know the difference!

I actually made and photographed these cupcakes over a month ago, and this last picture makes the time lapse really clear. I chose to take these pictures outside on my patio when the lighting was nice around 5PM and our crazy morning glories were in full bloom. If you walked out to our patio tonight at 5PM, it'd be almost pitch black with a bare garden, strewn with patches of snow, and maybe a stray Corona Light that Ryan buried in the snow to keep cold when our fridge went out. Ahhh, the joys of living in the northeast!

Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes with Mocha Frosting

Recipe adapted from Gluten-Free Goddess

For the Chocolate Cupcakes:

3/4 cup sorghum flour

3/4 cup cornstarch

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup organic cane sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 cup warm coffee (not too hot)

1 tbsp Ener-G Egg Replacer mixed with 1/4 cup warm water

3 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp rice vinegar

- Preheat the over to 350 degrees and line a 12-cup cupcake pan with paper liners.

- Whisk together the flour, cornstarch, cocoa powder, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and xantham gum in a medium-sized bowl.

- In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the coffee, Ener-G Replacer, olive oil, vanilla extract, and rice vinegar.

- Add the dry ingredients to the wet and beat for 2-3 minutes until well-incorporated and smooth.

- Divide batter into cups and smooth the tops.

- Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until cake tester comes out clean.

- Cool the cupcakes in the pan for 5 minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the Vegan Mocha Frosting:

8 tbsp vegan margarine (I used Earth Balance)

2-4 oz cold coffee

1 tsp bourbon vanilla

1 tsp instant espresso

4 cups confectioners sugar

- Beat the margarine in the bowl of an electric mixer for 2-3 minutes, until light and fluffy.

- Add the coffee, vanilla, and and mix until combined.

- Slowly add the sugar and beat until smooth. If you want to further stiffen the frosting, add more confectioner's sugar until desired consistency is reached.

- Chill the frosting for about an hour to help stiffen it further.

- Load frosting into a piping bag fit with a large star tip and decorate as desired.

Enjoy, and let's all hope I get my power back ASAP!!

Vampire Caramel Apples

2011-10-28T16:34:00.001-04:00

I love Halloween, mostly because I LOVE candy, but this year I'm sitting out on the festivities because of a big exam on Monday. But I couldn't just ignore the holiday here on the blog - so I quickly made these Vampire Caramel Apples to offer some inspiration to all of you for the weekend. I pinned these vampire pumpkins a few weeks ago on Pinterest, and ever since I've been brainstorming how I could incorporate this idea into an edible treat. Since caramel apples are a quintessential autumn treat (and one of my faves), carving out mouths and sticking in some mini-marshmallow teeth made the most sense. Since you all know I have an intimate relationship with teeth, I love the final result and their cute but maybe slightly scary dentition.

This was my second time making homemade caramel apples, and I really liked the recipe for the caramel that I used this time around. Some tips I've picked up from other bloggers about dipping apples: 1) Make sure you scrub and dry your apples really well to remove any film left on the apples from the store that might prevent the caramel from sticking, 2) Place apples on a Silpat mat or greased wax-paper-lined pan after dipping so the caramel doesn't stick to the paper, 3) And a final tip that I forgot to follow - use a knife to remove any excess caramel that pools around the bottom shortly after dipping them for a cleaner look (do as I say, not as I do). This caramel was perfect for apples - not so sticky that you can't get it off your teeth and not so firm that it breaks your teeth biting into one, all good things in the eyes of this dental student.

And now for the moment you've all been waiting for - the winner of a brand new Blue Willow KitchenAid Mixer!! THANK YOU so much for everyone who entered (over 600 of you!), wished me a happy blogoversary, and shared their love for the blog. I've used a random number generator to choose the winning entry, drumroll please......

Tamra W!

Keep your eyes open for an email from me and enjoy your new mixer!!

As a consultation prize to the rest of you, here is a great recipe for homemade caramel apples:

Vampire Caramel Apples

Recipe adapted from Sugar Bean Bakers

6 washed and dried apples (preferably red so you can make some red "lips" show through)

6 popsicle or lollipop sticks

4 tbsp butter

1/2 cup light corn syrup

7 oz sweetened condensed milk (1/2 of can)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Handful mini marshmallows

- Prepare a Silpat-lined or greased wax paper-lined cookie sheet and insert sticks into each cleaned apple.

- Melt butter in a saucepan until it browns. Stir constantly to avoid bits of brown butter forming.

- Add corn syrup, condensed milk, and sugars and mix over medium heat. While stirring constantly with a heat-resistant spatula, bring the mixture to a boil and allow it to boil until a candy thermometer reaches 235-340 degrees (aka the soft ball stage).

- Once the caramel is at the soft ball stage, remove from heat, stir in vanilla, and allow caramel to sit for 5 minutes.

- Submerge apples in caramel and swirl upon removal to let excess caramel drip off. Invert onto prepared cookie sheet and use a knife to remove any excess caramel that pools on the bottoms.

- Let the apples set for about an hour and set any extra caramel aside.

- With a sharp knife, cut out a wedge of apple to make the "mouth". Use the edge of the knife to push back the caramel a little along the edge to make "lips".

- Use scissors to cut mini marshmallows in half for the central teeth and into triangles for the fangs.

- Use leftover caramel to help secure the marshmallow teeth to the mouth.

Happy Halloween!!

Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Sandwiches & a Giveaway!

2011-10-21T21:55:00.010-04:00

A lot of exciting things are going on over here today at Erica Sweet Tooth - a post celebrating my brother Scott's birthday for the 3rd year in a row, my 2nd blogoversary, and my very first giveaway!! When I started this blog back in October of 2009, some of my first posts revolved around the treats I made for Scotty's 17th birthday weekend - including the most ridiculous Peanut Butter Cup Layer Cake and an equally ridiculous Skittles Cake. Last year I tamed it down a little with some Mint Oreo Ice Cream Cupcakes, and this year I'm coming full circle with these Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Sandwiches.

Scott is a peanut butter fanatic, but even my Dad who usually shies away from peanut butter treats loved these ice cream sandwiches. The ice cream was definitely peanut buttery, but not overwhelmingly-so and the deep chocolate cookies helped balance out the flavor. The great thing about this recipe is that the cookies come together really easily and if you don't want to make your own ice cream, just let a store-bought carton soften and use that instead. I'm also obsessed with Not So Humble Pie's method for making the cookies and ice cream the same exact shape so they line up perfectly: by spreading and then freezing the ice cream in a 9x13" pan, you can use the same cookie cutter used for the cookies and cut out rounds of ice cream. Genius! And very pretty :)

Scott scarfed one down in no time, like any 19 year old ~~boy~~ man (gahhhh), and we had a great day together as a family enjoying the beautiful fall weather, eating delicious food, and of course watching a little Scooby Doo. Scott definitely loved all of his presents, and since Erica Sweet Tooth is turning 2 this month, I would like to give a present to one of you too. Publishing this blog brings me so much happiness even during my not so happy weeks, and having such a great audience of readers is what really makes this whole thing so special. Thank you for all of your comments, acceptance of my nerdy medical and dental tendencies, and non-stop encouragement to keep doing what I'm doing! I hope the winner of the beautiful Blue Willow Kitchen-Aid 5 Quart Artisan Mixer I'm giving away this week will use it to create inspiring and delicious treats and share it with the ones they love - either in person or virtually! (Scroll down to the bottom for info on how to enter!)

Happy 19th Birthday Scott!

Happy 2nd Blogoversary to me!

And good luck winning the mixer to all of you!

Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Sandwiches

Adapted from Recipe Girl and Not So Humble Pie

For the Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream:

1-1/4 cups smooth peanut butter

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1-1/4 cups whole milk

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1-1/2 cups chopped peanut butter cups (8-10 full-sized ones)

- Make sure your ice cream maker has been in the freezer overnight before starting.

- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together peanut butter and sugar until smooth. Add milk and mix on low until sugar is dissolved - about 2-3 minutes.

- Mix in the heavy cream and vanilla and beat until well combined.

- Pour the mixture into the ice cream maker and follow the manufacturers instructions for freezing, which usually takes between 20 and 25 minutes.

- When the ice cream is done, fold in the chopped peanut butter cups.

- To use this ice cream for sandwiches, line a 9x13" pan with plastic wrap and spread the ice cream evenly in the pan. Cover with another layer of plastic wrap and freeze for at least 12 hours.

*To make the sandwiches with store-bought ice cream, just let a carton of ice cream soften enough to spread evenly in a 9x13" pan.

For the Chocolate Cookies:

12 tbsp butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup dark cocoa powder

1 large egg

1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1-1/4 cup all purpose flour

Extra flour and cocoa for dusting

- In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

- Add the cocoa powder, reduce the speed to low, and let it mix while scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally.

- Add the vanilla and egg and beat on medium speed until well combined.

- With the mixer on low, add the flour and mix until well combined.

- Wrap the cookies in plastic wrap and chill the dough for at least 4 hours.

- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

- Make a mixture of 50/50 flour and cocoa and dust surface to prevent sticking (the cocoa powder will keep the cookies dark brown once baked).

- Roll out dough to about 1/8" thickness and cut out desired shapes. This cookie cutter will also be used to cutout shapes of ice cream from your 9x13" pan.

- Arrange cutouts on a parchment paper or silpat-lined cookie sheet (don't worry about crowding them; these don't spread very much) and bake for 10-12 minutes.

- Allow cookies to cool completely on wire racks before assembling the ice cream sandwiches.

For Ice Cream Sandwich Assembly:

- Remove pan of ice cream from freezer and allow to soften for 5-10 minutes.

- Using the same cookie cutter as used for the cookies, cut out rounds of ice cream and sandwich the ice cream between 2 cookies.

- Return sandwiches to freezer or enjoy immediately.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS

Here's how to enter to win this Blue Willow KitchenAid Mixer:

1) "Like" Sweet Tooth on facebook

2) Fill out the form below to enter and so I can contact you if you win! (don't worry, this information is only accessible to me and your email address will be kept confidential!)

3) For an extra entry, tweet about this post with a link back here and include @EricaSweetTooth

4) For another extra entry, tell your friends on facebook with a link back here and include @Sweet Tooth

SORRY! The giveaway is over, thanks to all who entered!! The winner will be announced later today :)

Peanut Butter Nutella Swirl Cookies

2011-10-13T11:40:00.000-04:00

Life is at full speed these days. Clinic or class 8-5, lots of extracurricular stuff going on, trying to make it to the gym a few days a week, and squeezing in baking whenever I can leaves me with little time to veg on the sofa watching TV. Sad, I know. But when I was asked to donate a batch of cookies for a bake sale Erin at The Spiffy Cookie was holding for her friend who lost his leg in an accident, I slowed down to think how lucky I am to be running around every day like a mad-woman and not thinking twice about cramming my schedule. And then the highest bidder for my cookies was a solider in Afghanistan looking to cheer up her fellow troops with some homemade cookies from the states. Needless to say my self pity-fest didn't last long and I'm just entirely grateful to have my legs, my freedom, and an endless to-do list that keeps me happy and busy. Speaking of happy - peanut butter and nutella in the same soft, delicious and easy-to-throw-together cookie? Done, done, and done.

Just like the Cookies and Cream Cookies I posted a few weeks ago, these cookies are great because they're easy to throw together. I originally made them for a weekday lunch meeting and I gladly offered to baked them up again for the auction because I knew I would have time to whip up a batch in no time. You don't need to chill the batter for longer than 15 minutes, you probably have most of the ingredients in your pantry right now, and the recipe instructions are straight-forward and quick. Waiting for the butter to come to room temperature is probably the hardest part. I love the specks of Nutella that are swirled in the cookies, and the criss-cross fork pattern is cute but also warns any PB-haters or allergics that these cookies are not for them (more for us!). They're a great cookie to add to your cookie reportoire and are definitely a crowd pleaser! I'm hoping the troops love them as much as my classmates did :)

I know it's a month early for thankfulness, but take a moment this weekend to slow down, bake a batch of cookies, and remember how lucky you are for everything good in your life. If for anything, feel lucky you now have this recipe!

Peanut Butter Nutella Swirl Cookies

Recipe adapted from Delightful Bitefuls

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup smooth peanut butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1-3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup Nutella

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together butter, peanut butter, and sugars until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.

- Add in the egg and vanilla and beat until well combined.

- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. With mixer on low, slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the butter mixture until just combined.

- Microwave Nutella for 20 seconds and then drizzle over the dough. Fold in Nutella with a spatula until well-distributed throughout the dough.

- Chill the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes and then roll small balls by hand.

- Place about an inch apart on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet and use a fork to press down the balls slightly.

- Bake until the edges are lightly browned, about 8-10 minutes.

- Allow cookies to cool on the pan for 2 minutes, and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

PS - Monday was my 2 year blogoversary and I totally missed it, so stay tuned for a fun post next week to celebrate!!

Birthday Cake Jello Shots

2011-10-06T22:03:00.013-04:00

About a month ago, my Chocolate Covered Strawberry Shot Glasses were featured on reddit.com, spiking the number of visits to my blog that day, and also gaining some very interesting comments. This one particularly stood out: "I love how this blog is mostly gorgeous baked goods - but every now and then she makes variations of shots - I'm picturing a young Martha Stewart who is periodically DRUNK OUT OF HER SKULL with fruit on her face". I'm here today to tell you that my skull is fully intact and while I do enjoy the indulgence of alcohol every now and then, I at least have the decency to clean my face :) But seriously, I do like to have fun incorporating alcohol into my desserts for special occasions with friends, especially for a birthday party! This time around it was my friend Alyssa's 24th and I didn't want to let her down after last year's Caramel Frappacino Cupcakes...

These adorable concoctions are jello shot "cupcakes" with bases made out of cake-flavored vodka, cream soda, gelatin, and cranberry juice topped with fresh whipped cream and pretty sprinkles. And yes, cake-flavored vodka does exist (Pinnacle makes it) and although it's a little sweet for my taste in a drink, it was the perfect choice for these treats. The great thing about this recipe is you can really play around with the kind of juices, sodas, or liquors used depending on the birthday girl or boy's tastes. (I'm thinking a combination involving chocolate milk and Kahlua would be divine the next time around.) Purple is Alyssa's favorite color so I even added a few drops of food coloring to really make them pop. They were a huge hit with my friends, and the perfect start to her birthday celebration!

This recipe really couldn't be easier - you mix together the ingredients, heat them up over the stove, and them pour the mixture into a silicone mold like this one. After a few hours in the fridge, they're ready to be topped with whipped cream and enjoyed! Here's a photo of Alyssa and I from her party - we're constantly mistaken for each other in school (especially with masks on) but here's proof that we are in fact 2 separate people. Happy Birthday Alyssa!!

Birthday Cake Jello Shots

Recipe adapted from Jelly Shot Test Kitchen

2/3 cup cream soda

2/3 cup cranberry juice cocktail

1 tbsp heavy cream

2 envelopes plain gelatin*

2/3 cup cake-flavored vodka

Few drops food coloring, if desired

Whipped cream - fresh or store-bought

Sprinkles for garnish

- Lightly spray the mold with non-stick spray and wipe excess off with a paper towel. Don't overdo it or the residue will affect the taste of the jello.

- Pour the soda, juice, and cream into a medium saucepan and sprinkle the gelatin on top. Allow the gelatin to soak for 2-3 minutes, then begin to heat on low, stirring constantly until gelatin is fully dissolved (about 5 minutes).

- Remove saucepan from heat and add vodka and food coloring.

- Pour into molds and chill for several hours, or until set.

- Remove from mold, top with whipped cream, and enjoy responsibly!

*The original recipe suggests 2-3 envelopes, depending on how long your jello shots will be left out (more gelatin for more time). I opted for 3 because we were traveling an hour to get to the party, but I found them to be a little too firm , so I suggest you stick with 2 and plan accordingly for the best results!

Recipe yields 30 small jello shots

Caramel Apple Pie

2011-09-30T08:08:00.005-04:00

I finally made a pie! I've always been intimidated by homemade pie, particularly by making the crust, and since I don't really like pie in the first place I've been putting off this endeavor for quite a while. Something about big chunks of warm fruit has never appealed to me, but I figured doused in a caramel sauce and ice cream I could enjoy it enough to put in the effort for all the other normal, pie-loving Americans in my family. So when Ryan's parents visited us in Connecticut a few weekends ago, I embraced the fall tradition of apple pie and served up this classic with a twist for our BBQ dessert. And just in case it turned out to be an amateur-tasting pie, I cut out pretty leaves from the dough to pretend like I'm a pro. Have I fooled you yet?

Turns out the pie came out really well and I had everyone surprised that it was my first attempt. Maybe pie crust isn't quite as intimidating as I always thought, or I just got lucky choosing the tried-and-true recipe of a fellow blogger. (Check out her rant on homemade pie dough - it will convert you!) Either way, I see a few more pies in my baking future, and I hope to bulk out that section of my recipe index so it's not so empty and sad. As far as this recipe goes, I would cut back on the liquid called for next time (I've made notes in the recipe below) but maybe it would have been less liquid-y if we had waited for the pie to set a few minutes out of the oven before digging in. I cut my apple pieces up small enough so I wasn't turned off by giant chunks of apple and the caramel sauce baked into the pie definitely won some points for "team pie" in my opinion. I served this pie with a caramel swirl ice cream (store-bought, gasp!) and it was the perfect ending to our lovely day together.

I realize there are a lot of steps that go into making a pie, but there's something very therapeutic and rewarding about putting together the components and pulling a fresh homemade pie from the oven. I felt more domestic than ever. Give it a try sometime, and if you can also pull off a batch of homemade vanilla ice cream, you'll probably win "friend/parent/sibling of the year" award, even from a non-pie-lover like me. Here's evidence of my happy pie-consumers:

Caramel Apple Pie

Recipe adapted from Domestic Fits

For the pie dough:

3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

3 tbsp sugar

10 tbsp butter, cut into cubes + 1/4 cup melted butter for top of pie

1/2 cup shortening

1/4 cup vodka (helps make the crust flaky!)

1/4 cup cold water

2 tbsp sugar for top of pie

For the apple filling:

5 cups granny smith apples, peeled, cored, and cut into thin slices

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1 tsp salt

3/4 cup sugar

2 tbsp flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

2 tbsp apple sauce

For the caramel filling*

1 cups brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup heavy cream

1-1/2 tbsp butter

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

- Add 2 cups of flour, salt, sand sugar to a food processor and pulse to combine.

- Add cubes of butter and shortening and pulse until combined, about 1-2 minutes.

- Add the remaining flour and process until it's all combined - but don't mess with it too much or the dough will become tougher.

- Move dough to a large bowl and add the water and vodka. Knead it gently until it's combined. The dough will be moist but you can add a bit of flour to help hold it together. Split it into 2 evenly-sized disks and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for at least 2 hours (can be made up to 3 days in advance).

- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

- In a large bowl combine the apples, lemon juice, and salt; toss to coat. Let stand at room temperature for about 30 minutes. Add the sugar, flour, cinnamon, apple sauce, and nutmeg and toss to coat.

- For the caramel sauce, add the brown sugar and cream to a pot over medium heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and allow the mixture boil, untouched, until it reaches 210 degrees. Remove from heat and add the butter and vanilla. Allow to cool to room temperature.

- Roll out one pie dough disk to fit your greased pie pan with a little bit of overhang. Pat the dough into the pan and pour the caramel on the bottom with the apple mixture on top.

- Roll out the remaining pie dough circle and either lay over the apples or cut out shapes to cover. Use melted butter to adhere the dough on top and brush the entire thing with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar.

- Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

*I've halved the amount of caramel sauce because I found it to be too much liquid, but if you're looking for a very caramel-y pie, go for the doubled amount. There's a chance I just cooked up the caramel incorrectly and ended up with the wrong product. Either way it was delicious but I only included half in my pie.

The delicious damage we did that day...

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

2011-09-23T13:06:00.000-04:00

I loooove carrot cake, which you probably didn't know since I haven't posted a carrot cake-related recipe on this blog other than carrot cake cookies awhile back. But the truth is I've made and loved carrot cake multiple times the past few years, but for whatever reason never got a batch of good photos. So when my classmates asked me to make something for a bake sale to benefit their dental mission trips to South America, I jumped on the opportunity to make carrot cake once again in individualized portions perfect for a bake sale. They came out great and finally get to share a carrot cake recipe with all of you!

I've always loved the look of coconut as a cupcake topping, but since coconut seems to be one of those love-or-hate foods, I wanted to appeal to a variety of customers and offered a toasted coconut and a plain version of the same cupcake. Both are smothered in my favorite cream cheese frosting yet - the tart bite of the cream cheese is definitely there, but the flavor is cut by a few tablespoons of butter so the cream cheese is not overwhelming. Plus it piped beautifully, which is great since some cream cheese frostings can be too soft to highlight the swirls. So which do you prefer, naked or toasted coconut?

And of course I have to talk a little about the actual carrot cake - I loved how this recipe turned out, the cupcakes were moist and full of great spices. I had fun playing with my food processor and got really excited to break out a new blade for shredding that I never used before. I opted to leave out about 1/4 of the carrot indicated in the original recipe since I prefer my carrot cake to be less blatantly "carrot". I even choose to chop up my shredded carrot more so the chunks are even smaller. This way you're not biting into pieces of carrot but just enjoying their sweet flavor distributed throughout the cupcake. And you won't find any walnuts, raisins, or pineapple in my carrot cake - but feel free to mix some in if that's your preference!

And now to vent. I know I talked about having all this extra free time in my last post, but I've noticed recently that the last thing I want to do with this free time is open my laptop at home. Days are so chaotic and full of new stresses and experiences that by the time I've gone to the gym, made dinner, and possibly baked, I'm ready for bed. So I apologize for my slow posting these past few weeks - I've had the pictures for this post ready to go all week, but have been lazy about adding the accompanying words. Depending on the week, blogging can feel like a chore, but the minute I get my first ounce of positive feedback on a post, I immediately love it all over again. So here goes, Carrot Cake Cupcakes that I hope you will enjoy as much as my friends and their customers did!

Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Recipe adapted from Sweet Pea's Kitchen

For the cupcakes:

2-1/2 cups all purpose flour

1-1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1-1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp grated nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp salt

12 oz carrots, peeled. (Or 1lb if you like more carrots in your cake!)

1-1/2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

4 large eggs

1-1/2 cups canola or vegetable oil

For the cream cheese frosting:

12 oz cream cheese, cold

6 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 tbsp vanilla extract

4 cups powdered sugar

Shredded coconut, if desired

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees, line muffin pan with liners.

- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt.

- In a food processor fitted with a shredding disk (I broke out mine for the first time, it's awesomeeeee) and shred the carrots. Transfer the carrots to the bowl with the dry ingredients and set aside.

- Rinse out the bowl of the food processor and fit with the metal blade.

- Process the sugars and eggs until frothy and combined, about 20 seconds. With the machine running, add the oil into the feed tube and continue to process until mixture is light in color and combined.

- Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl and stir in the carrots and dry ingredients until completely incorporated.

- Divide the batter among muffin cups and bake 20-24 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.

- Cool cupcakes in muffin pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

- For the frosting, cream together the cream cheese and butter in an electric mixer until smooth and creamy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the vanilla extract and gradually add the powdered sugar until well-combined. Beat until smooth for about 2 minutes.

- Load frosting into a piping bag fitted with a large star tip and decorate as desired.

- For the coconut topping, add coconut to a dry saucepan over medium heat and stir until coconut is fragrant and slightly browned. Keep an eye on it because it can burn quickly!

Recipe yields 24 cupcakes.

Cinnamon Chip Scones

2011-09-13T09:53:00.012-04:00

As a third year I've been spending more time in clinic and less time in class, so my nights have freed up and I don't have to spend quite as many hours at my desk after 5PM. As a result, Ryan and I have upgraded our cable package and I've also been spending some more time baking small batches of desserts "just because". (Don't worry, I also have more time to go to the gym too...) Scones are very easy to throw together, so I knew they'd be a perfect weeknight pairing for a few hours glued to the TV catching up on Game of Thrones. Nothing like a little incest, violence, and cinnamon scones on a Wednesday night!

Ryan has particularly benefited from the recent onset of weeknight baking endeavors, but it has been nice to have homemade treats on hand for other reasons too. A few weeks ago my friend had quite a traumatic day - a patient suffered a brain aneurysm in her chair, and there really was nothing any of us could say to cheer her up. She joked to me, "I'm gonna need some aneurysm cookies, Erica", but instead I brought in a few of these cinnamon chip scones that I had leftover from the night before. I can ensure you that these homemade scones will brighten the darkest of days and I love being able to make people happy with my hobby - either visually through my blog or viscerally through their stomachs :)

These scones exceeded my expectations - they had a great texture and exploded with cinnamon flavor, thanks to an entire bag of cinnamon chips. I thought there was a typo in the recipe, but I dumped in the whole bag, and I'm glad I did. And just in case 10 oz of chips didn't provide quite enough flavor, I also melted some caramels leftover from another recipe and drizzled away. These might not be as healthy as my last batch of blueberry scones, but at least I'm not recommending this batch for breakfast. Bottom line, they were delicious and I will definitely be messing around with this recipe to try more flavors! Any suggestions??

Cinnamon Chip Scones

Recipe adapted from Taste of Home

3-1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup + 2 tbsp sugar, divided

2-1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup cold butter, cubed

1 cup buttermilk

1, 10-oz package cinnamon chips

2 tbsp butter, melted

- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, 1/3 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

- Cut in the butter using a pastry cutter or 2 forks until coarse crumbs form.

- Stir in buttermilk until just moistened and fold in cinnamon chips.

- Turn dough onto a lightly-floured surface and knead gently until dough is no longer sticky.

- Divide dough in half and gently form each half into a 7" circle. Brush with butter and sprinkle with remaining sugar.

- Cut each circle into 6 wedges. Separate wedges and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.

- Bake for 10-13 minutes or until lightly browned

For the caramel drizzle, I simply melted a few handfuls of packaged caramels and drizzled them over the scones.

Recipe yields 12 scones

Tooth Cupcakes

2011-09-05T21:31:00.006-04:00

As dentists-in-training we mold teeth out of many materials - amalgam, resin, wax, acrylic - it really was only a matter of time before I made a few teeth out of cake, right?? As if my EKG cookies weren't nerdy enough, I'm taking it to a whole 'nother level with these molar cupcakes today. I'm sure only those of you involved in the field of dentistry can truly appreciate these, but for the rest of you, the anatomy is pretty accurate, and if anything, they're pretty cute too. I had SO much fun making them, probably because they are the perfect hybrid of my life right now - baking and dentistry. Now if only I had somehow made them sugar-free, then they'd really be the perfect hybrid!

This was my project last weekend when we were expecting to lose power from Hurricane Irene. I baked the cupcakes while we still had power and prepared the fondant so I'd have the whole day, electricity or not, to work on these beauties. We were lucky and never lost power, but I still got to have a blast putting these together, especially with some TV on in the background. I used homemade marshmallow fondant for these, which is tastier in my opinion than store-bought fondants, but I still didn't want a mound of fondant, tasty or not, as the cusps. So I made some cake ball mixture (crumbled up baked cake + a little frosting) to mold cusps on top of the cupcakes instead. This technique worked really well, and I can imagine this being used for many other forms besides teeth! (Because let's face it, I don't expect any of you to run off and start making teeth cupcakes after seeing this...)

After building up the teeth with the cake-ball mixture, I rolled my white fondant out thinly and cut out circles a bit larger than the cupcake's diameter. Then I simply draped the fondant circle over the teeth, gently applying pressure with my fingers and an offset spatula to adapt the fondant along the cusps and grooves, and used a sharp knife to trim the edges. There's a reason I only made the 4 molars - these took a lot of work! But the molars are probably the most interesting looking teeth anyway :) Here's the breakdown for my personal favorite tooth, the lower 1st molar:

Now that I'm in my third year of dental school, I'm finally treating patients and spending more and more time in clinic and less time in class. It's been a great transition so far and I'm definitely enjoying the patient interaction and application of the skills we've learned in the past 2 years on fake teeth. These cupcakes are kind of a celebration of the start of this next chapter in my education, and hopefully my crowns and fillings for patients will come out as pretty (but definitely less sugary) as these!

Tooth Cupcakes

For the cupcakes - whatever recipe you want!

For the cake ball mixture - baked cake crumbles + frosting

For the marshmallow fondant - recipe here

- The fondant needs to be made 24 hours in advance, so prepare fondant according to recipe's instructions and place in fridge until you're ready to make the cupcakes.

- Bake cupcakes and allow to cool completely. I baked 8 cupcakes total, decorated 4, and used the other 4 for the cake ball mixture.

- For the cake ball mixture for the cusps, crumble up remaining cupcakes and mix with a few tablespoons of frosting, until the consistency is malleable but not too wet.

- Apply a thin coat of frosting to the tops of the cupcakes and start forming cusps out of the cake ball mixture using an offset spatula.

- Refrigerate cupcakes 30 minutes to an hour to allow cake ball mixture to stabilize

- Roll out fondant to 1/4" thickness, using powdered sugar to prevent sticking.

- Cut out circles slightly larger than the diameter of the cupcakes and drape over cusps.

- Use a sharp knife to trim the edges and tuck the edges in with your fingers and an offset spatula.

**One sweet reader sent me this "Sweet Tooth" mug after loving these cupcakes. If you're a dentophile like me or know someone that is, check out her great site for some cute dental-themed gifts!

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