Sometimes you feel like a nut

First guest post (!)...sort of.  Since I'm actually supposed to be working on my final thesis report and presentation, my awesome roommate is letting me steal one of her baked goods for my post this week.  Lucky for me, it happens to be my FAVORITE CAKE EVER.  I mean, like, ever ever.  Whenever Kayle makes this almond cake I seriously go a bit nutso (get it? haha).  The entire apartment gets filled with this amazing almond smell that seriously makes me drool in a totally un-gross way.  Unfortunately, this particular cake was destined for one of her lab meetings which meant I was not allowed to have any...major sadface.  I probably looked so depressed about this that she ended up sneaking a piece back home for me the next day - yay!  Thanks Kay!!

Blueberries for Sal

A group of friends and I went up to Booth Bay, Maine this past weekend and I was volunteered to provide dessert options.  To be exact, the suggested food list went as follows:

"Coffee, bagels, OJ, eggs, bacon, bread, cheese, cold cuts, Pooncakes, more eggs, all the bacon."

No choice whatsoever!  But then again, these guys have practically made Pooncakes a food group so I really couldn't say no.  It just so happens the weekend before the trip, we had also made a failed beach attempt and instead ended up at Russell Farms in Ipswich, MA to do some fruit picking.  It was awesome - not only did we pick these amazing blueberries, red raspberries, and black raspberries, we also got to see pigs, geese, turkeys, and a mini-horse!  I also may have contracted West Nile Virus with the number of mosquito bites I got, but I'm still kicking so I'm optimistic.  Anyways, the point of that story was my double inspiration to make something with blueberries in it.  Picked blueberries, blueberries grow in Maine...get the association?

I scream for ice cream

I'm going to let you all in on a little secret: ice cream cake is one of the super impress-iest desserts you can make.  Everyone oohs and aahs and is amazed at your crazy-good abilities...and of course you totally take credit for all the hard work while inside you just smile smugly at the 5 minutes per layer you spent on the thing.  Okay - maybe 10 minutes.  Ice cream cake can be as easy or as difficult as you want to make it.  Crust?  Sure!  Bake a brownie or cake layer from a box!  And yes, although I morally oppose most box mixes I totally would totally allow it in this situation.  Oh, you want fancier?  Duh - bake it from scratch!  Ice cream?  Homemade or from a carton!  See what I mean?  There are also an endless amount of flavors and fillings you can choose from.  It's crazy!

Spread the love

Hey you guuuuuys!  I'm back!  My apologies for missing a post last week - some of my besties came into town to celebrate a good friend's wedding and with all the craziness, baking was just not going to happen.  But I'm back in the game now and as an apology to all my dedicated readers (ha ha) I've decided to make some cupcakes with one of my favorite ingredients ever.

Spreads are a wonderful invention.  What do I mean by "spreads" you ask?  Peanut butter.  Cookie butter (run to Trader Joe's if you've never tried it...seriously.  Run.)  And....drum roll please....Nutella!  Oh baby, Nutella.  Nutella is this wonderful hazelnutty slash chocolatey concoction and is so good there just so happens to be a World Nutella Day (February 5th for those who are curious).  You can stick it on just about anything but I chose a really good chocolate cupcake that isn't overly sweet.  Then I went about cramming as much Nutella as I could fit into a mini-cupcake.  It wasn't easy, but my friends, I believe I have succeeded!