But why is the rum gone?

Happy Holidays all!  I got a little bored with Thanksgiving so I'm going to skip Thanksgiving part 3 (sorry!) and move on to bigger and better things aka Christmas!  But don't worry friends, my second family (i.e. Kayle's family) is Jewish and a challah post will be coming soon.  Also, just so I don't leave out my own heritage, Chinese New Year is right around the corner so expect a delicious Asian dessert that my momma taught me.

Ahh, but I get ahead of myself!  Let's talk about Christmas!  I love Christmas.  And I really love Christmas music - like really really love.  I've had my Spotify Christmas playlist on non-stop since Black Friday and I am still not bored of it.  I'm actually pretty sad it's not acceptable for me to listen to Christmas music year round.  Sometimes I just need a little holiday Josh Groban to make me happy, you know what I mean?  Is that really asking too much?  If you're my brother, it is.  He does NOT like Christmas music so I had to make sure I got my fix on the way to Mom and Dad's so as not to bother him with it during our week of confinement in Lincoln, NE.  And, to answer your question "What?  You're in Lincoln, NE?" - yes, yes I am.  It took three flights, two security checkpoints, and about thirteen hours of travel time, but I made it.  Don't ask why we're here.

Pumpkin Chunkin

Yet another month (plus) has gone by and yes, I took a big baking hiatus.  I mean like - I did not bake for an entire month!  I know - I'm sorry.  I really don't know what got into me...sometimes you just need just take a few weekends, drink a bit, and sleep in until 2 pm like you're back in college.  And that, my friends, is exactly what I did.

The only thing that broke me out of my doingabsolutelynothingwithmylifeisfun phase was the approach of one of my favorite holidays - Thanksgiving!  Why is Thanksgiving my favorite holiday you ask?  Well, turkey, for one thing.  No pressure for gift-giving is another.  But being with family and friends who all celebrate this one holiday cause we're Americans (read: Amuuuricans) tops the charts.  Oh - and you can seriously have as many Thanksgivings as you can fit in a one week period.  I'm serious (and thankful...see what I did there?)

With that being said, I've now gone zero-to-sixty and have so many recipes and pics to share!  I think the easiest way to go about this will be in chronological order, or at least that's my excuse for appeasing my OCD-self.  Three Thanksgivings...three posts - get excited.

Lady in red

Attention all...your party pants are required because I've officially made it to my 10th post!  Yay!  Okay, maybe not that big a deal, or any deal at all for that matter, but we do have many other things to celebrate.  Like birthdays!  And...a casino?  Erm - no matter!  I always love it when my baking can be used for multiple purposes and I tend to pull out my favorite recipes for these occasions.

I'm actually amazed that I've been able to hold out this long to bring out this tried and true favorite of mine.  It was one of the first cupcake recipes that I baked successfully and decorated, so go me!  It's also a cupcake flavor that is super popular, always requested, and should be required on the repertoire of every baker-wannabe (like myself).  Pants, party or of any other variety, however, are optional but suggested.

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?

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!

Call me, maybe?

What can you do with four extremely ripe bananas?  Well, for one thing, you can dance around with a banana held up to your ear singing Call Me, Maybe for a few rounds.  That will probably get pretty old for most people, unless you're a member of the Cornell class of 2007 and were at reunions this past weekend.  (To all who were worried about me...I survived but RIP voice.  GO BIG RED).  Fortunately, for those who are not as amused by Carly Rae, there are many other options!  You can put bananas into practically any type of not-so-healthy food to make yourself feel better about eating them: waffles, pancakes, bread, smoothies, ice cream sundaes, and of course, cupcakes.

Side note: Please tell me someone has seen the Despicable Me 2 trailer...it keeps running through my head as I'm writing this post.  If you haven't...enjoy.  You'll understand after you see it. 

This recipe is adapted from browneyedbaker.com.  It's a great banana bread-like cupcake that is a bit lighter and sweeter than its bread version.  I definitely want to try pairing the cupcake with pastry cream like she suggests.  Another must try is with peanut butter frosting...banana with peanut butter is hands down one of my favorite combinations.  For this batch, I was fairly short on time and wasn't able to get my act together early enough to go big.  Actually, it was out of sheer luck that I had powdered sugar in the pantry.  I ended up just making my favorite vanilla buttercream and they turned out great.

Strawberry Fields forever

To celebrate the beginning of a beautiful Boston summer (and an awesome sale at the grocery store) I thought strawberry cupcakes would be the perfect recipe to share as my first food-related post.  Unfortunately, it ended up raining ALL day so it was not as summer-y as I had planned...#NewEnglandproblems.

I can't tell you how long I've been searching for a strawberry cupcake recipe that isn't shortcake-like or artificially pink.  And friends, I have found it!  The cupcake itself has the perfect amount of sweetness that works with the natural sugar from the strawberries.  And there are actual strawberries IN the cake!  I found this recipe on one of my go-to sites, The Cupcake Project, where she pairs it with a champagne glaze.  This time around, I decided to go with a vanilla bean swiss merengue buttercream.  I've recently been on quite the swiss merengue kick - it's not too sweet and its so...so...fluffy!  It does require a bit more work than your typical American buttercream (butter, powered sugar, tada!), but it's delicious, requires no refrigeration, and you'll never want to go back.