Cupcake

Homemade Hostess Cupcakes

Homemade Hostess Cupcakes

Happy Valentine’s Day, everybody! Hope you all have someone nice to share it with, and if not, hopefully you have a ton of delicious chocolate treats on hand for immediate consumption. That’s the only reason anyone celebrates Valentine’s Day, right? An excuse to go on an all-out, gluttonous chocolate binge? Yes? Maybe it’s just me. Anyway, I’ve been thinking long and hard about what I wanted to make for my Valentine’s post. Something chocolate-y, obviously, but beyond that there were too many possibilities. Chocolate truffles? Maybe. Molten lava cake? Mmmmm. Chocolate covered strawberries? Decadent and healthy-ish, and possibly an aphrodisiac! But at the end of the day I settled on homemade Hostess cupcakes. There’s something about reproducing homemade versions of popular commercial brand foods...

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Maple Fudge Cupcakes

Maple Fudge Cupcakes

I’m in a great mood this weekend. Dan and I are happily settled into our new condo, the kitty is doing very well, we finally have furniture in our bedroom, and I passed the bar exam. How do I choose to celebrate these wonderful events? Nights of debauchery? Fine dining on the town? Nope! I celebrate by sleeping in until 9:30am and trying out a new Hannah Swensen cupcake recipe. In terms of taste and texture, these cupcakes taste more like brownies than cake. They’re dense, chewy, and intensely fudgy with a nice maple after taste. As for the frosting, I could probably eat it by the spoonful. Even Dan, who isn’t nearly as wild about chocolate as I am, ate 3 of these...

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Bridal Shower!

Bridal Shower!

My good friend Charlene is engaged, and this past weekend a few of us threw her a bridal shower in NYC. We were all in charge of different parts of the shower, and my friend Michelle and I were responsible for food/drinks. What does one serve at a bridal shower? Dainty things! Like chocolate covered strawberries, for example. And cupcakes. Michelle and I couldn’t find red food coloring, so these are “brown velvet” cupcakes. Really, they’re just plain ol’ chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Cucumber sandwiches. These weren’t as dainty as the ones I envisioned — we used peasant bread, and that stuff is huge and hearty. We improvised the filling a little bit, but it turned out to be very tasty. These...

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Godiva Chocolate Cupcakes with Mint Buttercream Frosting

Godiva Chocolate Cupcakes with Mint Buttercream Frosting

Happy St. Patty’s Day, everyone! Hope you’re all having fun getting fantastically sloshed.  I would be out and about with the rest of the city, but my Trusts & Estates professor decided to schedule a make-up class for 9 am tomorrow.  My body no longer bounces back from late nights as quickly as it used to, so instead I am quietly celebrating at home.  Baking.  Seriously guys, my life is out of control. Using liqueur in cake is basically the same as drinking, right?  Right.  I would have actually preferred to use Bailey’s Irish Cream to keep up the whole St. Patty’s Day theme, but I didn’t have any on hand. It was either Kahlua or Godiva, and I just didn’t think coffee would...

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Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

I’m constantly looking for reasons to bake, and friends’ birthdays are the best excuse to do it.  Yesterday was my good friend Smriti’s special day, and she put in a request for carrot cake cupcakes.  I love carrot cake and have a great recipe for it, so I was more than happy to oblige. Note to self: when grating carrots for carrot cake, don’t use baby carrots — it takes forever to grate 2 cups’ worth, and when you’re in a time crunch like I was, it’s easy to get scraped fingers/knuckles. No nuts. No raisins. These two things have no place in carrot cake, and you’ll never get me to admit otherwise!  The best kind of carrot cake is dense, moist, and is all about the...

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