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Yeah. You’re welcome.

You all know how much I love Nutella, right? Well, I saw this idea on Pinterest (where else??) & decided to do it my way, or at least the way I imagined it being done in my head. I just used my basic muffin recipe as a base, then just swirled in some Nutella before I baked ‘em. Probably one of the easiest muffins ever. Not that muffins are typically difficult. I always say I never understand using a muffin mix when they take literally minutes to make from scratch. No joke. But especially these. There’s practically no mixing required. Just a little stirring. And some swirling.

Seriously. Before you buy another muffin mix, make some from scratch. You’ll see.

NUTELLA SWIRL MUFFINS

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ⅓ cup light-brown sugar
• ⅓ cup sugar
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ⅔ cup milk
• ½ cup butter — melted and cooled
• 2 eggs – beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• jar of Nutella (don’t worry, you’re not using the whole jar)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400° F. and grease up twelve muffin cups or put liners in them (I prefer liners because it’s less messy that way).
2. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugars, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, stir together milk, eggs, butter, and vanilla until blended. Make a well in center of dry ingredients; add milk mixture and stir just to combine. Don’t overmix!
3. Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling them almost to the top; top each muffin with 2 teaspoons Nutella. Using a sharp knife, swirl the Nutella into the batter. It doesn’t have to be perfect or go all the way to the bottom. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center of one muffin comes out clean.
4. Remove muffin tin to wire rack; cool 5 minutes and remove from tins to finish cooling.

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So that’s it. It’s a short & sweet post today ’cause this couldn’t really get any easier. Oh- I used some unprocessed unbleached paper liners from The Layer Cake Shop for these, in case you’re wondering.

Well it’s officially Easter Sunday, and I’m sure that you’re all busy making your dinners and baking your goodies, but just in case you’re lookin’ for some more inspiration, I thought I’d pop back in and show off my dip-dyed Easter eggs… plus something special I made with them.

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Easter bread! Sweet & delicious (& unique). I’ve been looking for the perfect recipe to make for years. This was a tradition around my house forever, we used to buy the one shaped like a bunny with the egg where the butt was, ha. But I kept forgetting to make it and then whenever I found a recipe I just wasn’t feeling it. And then I found this one! Big thanks to The Italian Dish for the perfect recipe. Here’s a couple of pre-baking photos, pardon my pans- usually I cover them in parchment to bake but I ran out & wasn’t aware until it was time to bake. And at 11 a.m. on Easter Sunday I was not about to run out and get any! By the way, I used the entire recipe but only made 6 breads.

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Enjoy your Easter, everyone who celebrates it. Or should I say… Buona Pasqua! And for the rest of you, I hope you have a nice relaxing Sunday with your family or friends, & you eat something delicious. Because that’s what it’s about for me. Being with the people I care about and enjoying my time. Not religion, or fables, or anything. Not being perfect or having the perfect table settings or impressing anyone. Not worrying. But just taking a day off to experience the true joys of life: food, family, and freakin’ naps! Zzzzzzz…

No, not actual potatoes. They’re candy! Little candies made from coconut & cream cheese & rolled in cinnamon. Nope, they are not cupcakes. But you know what? Screw it! I always make cupcakes! This year I’m makin’ me some pertaters! Ireland & potatoes go together like peanut butter & jelly.

The potato was introduced to Ireland as a garden crop of the gentry. By the late 17th century, it had become widespread as a supplementary rather than a principal food, as the main diet still revolved around butter, milk, and grain products. In the first two decades of the 18th century, however, it became a base food of the poor, especially in winter.^[23] The expansion of the economy between 1760 and 1815 saw the potato make inroads in the diet of the people and became a staple food all the year round for farmers.^[24] The large dependency on this single crop was one of the reasons why the emergence of Phytophthora infestans had such devastating effects in Ireland, and had far less effects in other European countries (which were also hit by the fungus).^[25]

The potato’s spread was essential to the development of the cottier system, delivering an extremely cheap workforce, but at the cost of lower living standards. For the labourer, it was essentially a potato wage that shaped the expanding agrarian economy.^[24]

In 1844, Irish newspapers carried reports concerning a disease which for two years had attacked the potato crops in America.^[30] According to James Donnelly, a likely source was the eastern United States, where in 1843 and 1844 blight largely destroyed the potato crops. He suggests that ships from Baltimore, Philadelphia or New York could have brought diseased potatoes to European ports.^[35] W.C. Paddock suggests that it was transported on potatoes being carried to feed passengers on clipper ships sailing from America to Ireland.^[31]

Once it was introduced, it spread rapidly. By late summer and early autumn of 1845, it had spread throughout the greater part of northern and central Europe. Belgium, Holland, northern France and southern England by mid-August had all been stricken.^[36]

In Ireland, the Great Famine was a period of mass starvation, disease and emigration between 1845 and 1852.^[1] It is also known, mostly outside Ireland, as the Irish Potato Famine.^[2] In the Irish language it is called an Gorta Mór (IPA: [ənˠ ˈɡɔɾˠtˠə ˈmˠoːɾˠ], meaning “the Great Hunger”)^{[fn 1]} or an Drochshaol ([ənˠ ˈdˠɾɔxˌhiːlˠ], meaning “the bad times”).

During the famine approximately 1 million people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland,^[3] causing the island’s population to fall by between 20% and 25%.^[4] The proximate cause of famine was a potato disease commonly known as potato blight.^[5] Although blight ravaged potato crops throughout Europe during the 1840s, the impact and human cost in Ireland – where one-third of the population was entirely dependent on the potato for food – was exacerbated by a host of political, social and economic factors which remain the subject of historical debate.^[6][7]

The famine was a watershed in the history of Ireland.^[8] Its effects permanently changed the island’s demographic, political and cultural landscape. For both the native Irish and those in the resulting diaspora, the famine entered folk memory^{[fn 2]} and became a rallying point for various nationalist movements as Ireland was then part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Modern historians regard it as a dividing line in the Irish historical narrative, referring to the preceding period of Irish history as “pre-Famine”.

The band Black 47 takes their name from the worst year of the famine, 1847. It was a very serious thing & there isn’t much to joke about. But the fact that Ireland bounced back (granted there were huge migrations to other countries as well) is a testament to their strength. Not to mention a reason to celebrate Ireland! It’s no surprise after reading that that potatoes & Ireland are so intertwined, though, is it?

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My grandma always used to order them from an Irish gift company every St. Patrick’s Day. These are the ones she used to order; they’re O’Ryan’s. They’re so delicious, and unexpected. I searched around for recipes & I found one I liked at bakedbree.com. Most of the recipes are similar if not the same, so you can’t really go wrong. Really you can just mix some cream cheese, butter, coconut, vanilla & confectioner’s sugar until it’s the right consistency and go from there without a recipe if you want. They’re just like little truffles.

IRISH POTATOES (COURTESY OF BAKEDBREE.COM)

Ingredients:

• ½ stick of butter softened
• ½ brick of cream cheese softened (4 oz.)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups confectioners sugar
• 2 ½ cups sweetened shredded coconut
• 2 tablespoons cinnamon

Directions:

1. Beat together butter and cream cheese. Slowly add the confectioners sugar.
2. Add the vanilla, then the coconut and mix until combined.
3. You may want to chill the coconut mixture a little before you roll them. I like to use a small ice cream scoop. These are really rich, so you want them to be small.
4. Roll the coconut mixture into a ball. Then roll the coconut mixture into the cinnamon and put on a parchment lined baking sheet. Keep the finished Irish Potatoes in the fridge.

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And there you have it. Totally easy, totally fun and really yummy. Great to make with kids, too. Since they have to be kept in the fridge, I decided to put them in a jar for storage. Glass keeps out odor & moisture better than plastic, anyway. Plus it doesn’t impart nasty old flavors from previous things that have been stored in it. So I used a flip-top jar to keep my potatoes nice & cold. I really suggest you get some glass jars for storage if you don’t already have them. Way better for you than plastic.

On that note, enjoy, and Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

“Only two things in this world are too serious to be jested on, potatoes and matrimony.”
(Irish saying)

Boo hoo. So sad. And treat number one? Well, treat one is much more fun than the trick… it’s cupcakes made from leftover Halloween candy! I didn’t get much more than 5 or 6 trick or treaters this year, so I had a lot of candy left.

The spread… pre-trick-or-treaters.. looked basically the same after

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Yes, it’s been done. Numerous times. In the form of brownies & cookies, too. But please, give me this much. I love this holiday & I have trouble letting go. I know it’s November now, & everyone is preparing for Thanksgiving already. But let me have my one last Halloween post, okay? Thank you. I’ll miss all my decorations, my Halloween tree & all my table settings. *sad face* No more ghosts & goblins for another year. But I’d like to thank the ladies from Georgetown Cupcakes- you may know them from the TLC TV show, DC Cupcakes- for the video that got me wanting to make these. It also used up some (notice how I said some) of that delicious leftover Halloween candy that I managed to not shove into my face while waiting for the doorbell to ring. You can find the recipe on their TLC page, but I listed it below as well. I ended up with some Reese’s, some Whoppers, Snickers, Butterfinger, Nestle Crunch and Hershey bar mini’s to play with, not to mention candy corn, so I made cupcakes with them. Oh, and some Dots, but I didn’t think they’d work well in cupcakes. Yes. Cupcakes stuffed with Halloween candy. I can’t really imagine anything more fattening & root-canal inducing, can you?

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Oh, but so cute. And so good. And since we got SNOW on Saturday, I think I deserve it. Snow. In October. That’s just not right, you know? It goes against all things I know & love about New York, like (usually) no snow until after Thanksgiving. For me to properly deal with snow in October, I need freshly made baked goods daily, tons of Netflix & copious amounts of liquor. Okay, okay, so it was like an inch or two of slushy snow. But that’s after a whole day of freezing rain & sleet! That sucks. Anyway back to these here cupcakes. Like I said I got this idea from a video posted by Katherine & Sophie of the now famous Georgetown Cupcakes. Oh, and let me just say I wouldn’t mind having a KitchenAid mixer or two that coordinated with every holiday, like these ladies’ black & orange ones. Let’s get on that, shall we? All donations gratefully accepted.…

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TRICK OR TREAT CUPCAKES (adapted very slightly from Georgetown Cupcakes)

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ cups of flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon baking powder, sifted
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons softened unsalted butter
• 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs at room temperature
• 2 ¼ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 ¼ cups whole milk at room temperature
• 12 different bite-sized mini candy bars, chopped into small pieces

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350° degrees F.
2. Line a cupcake pan with baking cups; depending on how big your cupcakes are, you can make between 12 and 18. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
3. Place the unsalted butter in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the sugar; beat on medium speed until well incorporated. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing slowly after each addition. Combine the vanilla extract and milk in a large liquid measuring cup.
4. Reduce the mixer speed to low, and add ⅓ of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, then gradually add ⅓ of the milk mixture, beating until well incorporated. Add another third of the flour mixture, followed by a third of the milk mixture. Stop to scrape down the bowl as needed. Add the remaining flour mixture, followed by the remaining milk mixture, and beat just until combined.
5. Spoon batter into baking cups, filling each about halfway. Add one type of chopped-up candy bar to each baking cup and press into the batter. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

Clockwise from top left: Baby Ruth, Butterfinger, Hershey, Reese’s, Kit Kat & Whopper cupcakes, post-baking

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Better view of my superawesometotallycool skeleton plate!

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I upped the baking powder by a half teaspoon because I felt that with the candies in them they needed an extra bit of oomph to rise nicely. The orange & black liners and the little sprinkles (or are they jimmies?) are by Wilton. I topped them with a thick swirl of vanilla-flavored orangey-colored buttercream, although a dark chocolate frosting would be sweet. But if you wanted to get all crazy fancy-pants, you could color the batter too. I like to keep it simple (yeah right). Oh, I should also state that I got 2 dozen cupcakes from this recipe. My pans must be from an alternate universe.

Hurray! Delicious, overly sweet, totally over-the-top tooth rotting goodness in a cupcake. Amazing. I love it. They really put me back in a 9-year old trick-or-treater mood. Which is hard to do given I’m now 30 years old & nobody gives me candy, not to mention the fact I didn’t even dress up this year. Poopsticks. Anyway… I ate them with a big ol’ mug of this:

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Yes, I ate them with green hot cocoa. What of it? I made some green hot cocoa, ate some trick or treat cupcakes & snuggled up under my leopard print blankie to watch The Bride of Frankenstein. Awesomesauce. The hot cocoa wasn’t really that spectacular; it tasted sorta how it looks. But worth a shot anyway… or I should say, the packaging was worth it. I’m a sucker for packaging. That’s probably why I fell for that tall, dark, handsome chunk of manhood I’ve got. Give me a death metal t-shirt wearing, guitar-playing, Wu-Tang-Clan-lyric-knowing, food loving, hysterically funny dude that’s taller than me (I’m 5’9″ & that’s not an easy task believe it or not) with a shaved head & even if I didn’t like him, I’d probably still go for it. Kidding, kidding. It’s the candy- the candy makes me crazy.

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So anyway, yes, Halloween is over for this year. Another 361 days or so until it rolls around again. But there’s plenty to keep us occupied until then, what with Thanksgiving looming & Christmas right around the corner (52 days!) we’ve got plenty to do, and cook, and bake…

But right now, I’m just gonna enjoy what remains of All Hallows Eve. Before I wrap this up, I want to make sure you crafty types check out my friends’ new site: All Crafts on Deck. Each Friday they giveaway a fat quarter & they’re gonna be featuring all sorts of awesome & amazing crafts & tutorials (I even wrote one up for them!). So go!

Indy does not understand Halloween, why he has to dress up & why he can’t have any chocolate.

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Yeah, pit bull mixes are really dangerous. He’s totally about to rip my face off in that picture…

It isn’t every year that Halloween falls on a Monday, which around here is Military Monday. To avoid being cheesy & disrespectful, I’m going to just be posting today not tomorrow, & I’m not going to include any soldier’s names this week. For only the second time in the over 2 years I’ve been doing it, I’ll be missing a week. Next week I’ll resume the usual MM posts, but this week just enjoy these adorable little monsters!

Yes, they’re edible. Inspired by Mike Wazowski from Monsters, Inc., they’re a twist on Bakerella‘s cake balls; made from Betty Crocker spice cake mixed with Betty Crocker whipped buttercream frosting rolled into little oblong creatures, then dipped into “Spooky Green” Wilton Candy Melts that weren’t completely smoothed out or melted. It was a thicker texture than I’d usually use so that it would better mimic the skin of a monster. The edible candy eyeballs are from Layer Cake Shop and really make them absolutely perfect. They really & truly look like slimy little monsters! I made a little army of them to help me ward off any evil spirits that may come along tomorrow. For the recipes & how-to’s of making cake pops/cake balls, Bakerella is the expert Queen, so you should hear it from her. However I do find it’s silly to waste a homemade, from-scratch cake if you’re just going to mash it up with frosting, so I always go the cake mix route (& I think Bakerella does too). If it’s your first time, allow yourself lots of practice, it can be trying, especially if you’re making pops. But you’ll get the hang of it soon enough! It took me a few tries to get ‘em right the first time I made them, but I did. And it’s so much fun to do with kids (at least, I can imagine it is- I only have 4-legged kids so I wouldn’t really know). And just so you know, they taste deelish. Not at all as slimy as they appear *wink*

Hm. It seems like the last three Halloween posts were all green-themed, weren’t they? Strange! I did do a black & orange one at some point, didn’t I? I think so. But even my nails are green this year…

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Anyway, here’s to a happy & safe Halloween for everyone. Don’t let the little dudes & dudettes go out alone after dark… there are some way scarier monsters out there than these guys. And if you’re an older kid- give the little ones a break, okay? They don’t need to be egged or covered in shaving cream or harassed. It takes the fun out of it for them, so just let them have their candy & you can go kick rocks. Or kick snowballs, depending on where you live.

And remember… not all ghosts are bad.

The Celts celebrated Halloween as Samhain, ‘All Hallowtide’ – the ‘Feast of the Dead’, when the dead revisited the mortal world.

The celebration marked the end of Summer and the start of the Winter months. During the eighth century the Catholic Church designated the first day of November as ‘All Saints Day (‘All Hallows’) – a day of commemoration for those Saints that did not have a specific day of remembrance. The night before was known as ‘All Hallows Eve’ which, over time, became known as Halloween.

-source: The Irish Jewelry Company

This year for Halloween, when it came to edibles, I was 100% inspired by Martha’s Halloween issue. Literally, 100%. I found the perfect cupcakes for Halloween, not to mention other treats & ideas that I just had to make (see picture on the right). Some of them you’ve already seen (like the pumpkin cupcakes, or the candy apples with witches’ attached!), but these are the pièce de résistance, if you will. Gorgeous green pistachio eye-of-newt & toe-of-frog cupcakes, complete with chocolate frogs! As soon as I saw them I just knew they’d be absolutely amazing, not to mention they’d look perfect on my table for Halloween. I told you I was completely inspired *ahem* by Queen Martha’s Halloween issue this year, didn’t I? I know I must have. Like I said, I haven’t had an original cupcaking thought in my pretty head all season, sadly. I’ve also been nursing a wicked painful back lately, which is actually most inopportune for a lot of reasons- but such is life when you get old like me you’ve got a chronic back problem, and on top of that I’ve been fighting (and losing) a battle with a hardcore cold. Bottom line is I needed some ideas. These cupcakes jumped out at me; regardless of what plans I had for Halloween these babies were going to be on the menu. Ghastly, ghostly, sickly green cupcakes accompanied by my lovely skull (with his friend The Rat & Mr. Tarantula), not to mention some extra (kinda cute) edible ‘croaking’ friends. I usually make cupcakes frosted high with tufts of perfectly piped buttercream… but not this time.

This time I wasn’t going to be frosting the little green-ish cakes, but glazing them in two different shades of green goo. Sounds yummy, right? Haha. At Halloween, anything is acceptable! And honestly, how could I possibly name them anything other than ‘Eye of Newt & Toe of Frog‘ cupcakes? I could not. I would be doing a disservice to my literary education as well as underestimating (or rather under-using) my quick wit.

So like any good witch would do, I took a break from drinking Egyptian Licorice tea, blowing my nose & rubbing Tylenol Precise on my back (sexy, I know), took out my magical mixer, Lola, and started to create some evil, er, delicious cupcakes. Lola may be pink, but she’s pretty diabolical. Together we whipped up some rather eerie yet delicious green-tinted pistachio cakes with green glaze & little frogs. The chocolate frogs are made from frog-shaped candy molds. I used chocolate Candy Melts (and Spooky Green colored melts to make the dots on them) and then brushed them with green pearl dust when they were cooled.

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The irony is, my dad’s birthday is the 29th of October, so every year I try to make a big batch of cupcakes & use half for his birthday, half for Halloween. Some years it doesn’t quite work out, and I end up making two batches anyway. But it just so happens that this year he requested pistachio cupcakes weeks before Halloween, and I never mentioned the fact I had planned on making these. So killing two birds with one stone made everyone a happy camper this year. And who wouldn’t love chocolate frogs!? Even Harry Potter likes chocolate frogs! They’re clearly magical.

What an amazing looking set of cupcakes these turned out to be! And moist. And tasty. Who doesn’t love pistachio? I admittedly amped up the ‘nut’ flavor with some almond extract myself (which I included in the recipe below), but if you’re a purist you can just use a full 2 teaspoons vanilla.

EYE OF NEWT & TOE OF FROG CUPCAKES (adapted very slightly from Martha Stewart’s Halloween magazine ‘pistachio cupcakes’, 2011)

Makes 36

Ingredients:

• 14 ounces unsalted shelled pistachios (about 1 ¾ cups)
• 1 ¼ cups (2 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 6 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 3 cups sugar
• 6 large eggs, room temperature
• ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 ½ teaspoons pure almond extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon coarse salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325°. Line 36 cups of standard muffin tins with paper liners. Coarsely chop ¾ cup pistachios, and reserve. In a food processor, grind remaining pistachios to a paste.
2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter, cream cheese, and pistachio paste until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Gradually add sugar; beat until smooth, scraping sides of bowl as needed. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until each is incorporated, and scraping sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla & almond extracts. Reduce speed to low. Add flour & salt, beating until just combined. Fold in chopped pistachios by hand.
3. Divide batter among lined cups, filling each almost ¾ full. Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until a toothpick inserted in the centers comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. (Cupcakes can be stored up to 1 day at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.)
4. Place on wire racks that are over rimmed cookie sheets. Drizzle lighter glaze (see below) over each, let set until no longer tacky, 30 to 60 minutes. Drizzle with darker glaze, allowing the lighter to show around the edges, let set before decorating with chocolate frogs. Serve & enjoy.

GHASTLY GREEN GLAZE

Ingredients:

• 6 cups confectioners’ sugar
• ⅔ cup milk
• Gel-paste food coloring in Moss Green, Brown, Juniper Green and Royal Blue (all Wilton)

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together confectioners’ sugar and milk until smooth & combined. Transfer half to another bowl.
2. For lighter green glaze (base color), add 4 drops Moss Green & 2 drops Brown food coloring to one bowl; stir to combine, adding more of each color until desired shade is reached.
3. For the darker glaze (top color), add 4 drops Juniper Green, 2 drops Royal Blue and 1 drop Brown to the second bowl; stir to combine. Adjust by adding more until desired shade is reached. Use immediately (above).

I bought my pistachios at Trader Joe’s because they’re the only place that sells unshelled pistachios (other than perhaps Whole Foods, but Trader Joe’s is closer to me). The frogs Martha uses are from Black Dinah Chocolatiers. I, however, made my own. Like I said above, I bought a frog candy mold (slightly bigger than the Black Dinah “froglets”) and used Candy Melts to create the frogs. Do as you wish in that department. I also used slightly different colors of Wilton gel-paste food coloring (just the greens) for the glazes. I couldn’t find Juniper Green & didn’t want to order it online, so I used two other Wilton greens I already had. It worked just fine.

And also I carved my jack-o-lantern! I screwed up a bit, it’s supposed to be Jack Skellington but I broke two carving saws doing it & so he’s not the best. I had further plans for it, but like I said, I broke the tools & it was around midnight, so here it is. Not perfect. I’m a perfectionist, though, so it’s disappointing. Boo (pun intended). But it came out pretty decent, either way, better than a lot I’ve seen. And I roasted the seeds with Kosher salt & olive oil. Mmm. That makes up for any mistakes, right?

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In case you aren’t aware, the phrase “eye of newt & toe of frog” is Shakespearean. It comes from the same text as “double, double, toil & trouble” and “something wicked this way comes”, also very popular terminology in modern vernacular… all of which just so happens to be from William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. I’m 100% certain most people who use these terms haven’t a clue what their origins are. However I do, and it’s one of my absolute favorite literary classics. Anyway, the line about newts & frogs is from the part where the Three Witches (or “Weird Sisters”) are concocting a spell in the final scene. For those of you who slept through high school English class, here’s the full excerpt:

1 WITCH. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew’d.
2 WITCH. Thrice and once, the hedge-pig whin’d.
3 WITCH. Harpier cries:—’tis time! ’tis time!
1 WITCH. Round about the caldron go;
In the poison’d entrails throw.—
Toad, that under cold stone,
Days and nights has thirty-one;
Swelter’d venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot!
ALL. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
2 WITCH. Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg, and owlet’s wing,—
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

ALL. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
3 WITCH. Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf;
Witches’ mummy; maw and gulf
Of the ravin’d salt-sea shark;
Root of hemlock digg’d i the dark;
Liver of blaspheming Jew;
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Sliver’d in the moon’s eclipse;
Nose of Turk, and Tartar’s lips;
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver’d by a drab,—
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger’s chaudron,
For the ingrediants of our caldron.
ALL. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
2 WITCH. Cool it with a baboon’s blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.

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Those of you familiar with Shakespeare will align the image of the skull with another of his works, Hamlet. I guess these cupcakes are just totally Shakespearean! And now you know the origin of “double, double, toil and trouble.” Go impress your friends.

that ends our Halloween fare for the year (almost- bwahahahaha). I can’t believe in just 4 short days it’ll be Halloween- where the hell did the time go!? Insane. There might just be one more trick… or treat… before this month ends..

I was also clearly beyond inspired by the Martha Stewart Halloween magazine this year, as evidenced by my post at the beginning of October, and this is another something I took directly from it. Caramel apples with witches & “broomsticks”! They made me think of both that movie & also the Wicked Witch of the West. How cool are they?!

First Martha’s…

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And then mine.

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I know. Crazy easy & very adorable. But more importantly- easy. It’s just a little more than a few days before Halloween and I know that there are still some people thinking about last minute ideas. Here’s one.

The other day, I told you about my sort of failed but happy accident caramel apple syrup that I messed up making (but ended up with something awesome anyway). That was a more complex recipe, though, by far. This time I promise- there is no way you could EVER mess this up. First of all, caramel apples are so easy a trained monkey could make them. Second, by just adding a little witch cut out from cardstock & a skewer, you make them into a snack worthy of being a centerpiece, instead of just a sticky, boring little old-fashioned treat. Perfect for kids at a Halloween party.

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WICKED CANDY APPLES

Ingredients:

• 6 small apples, stems removed
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup sugar
• ¼ cup dark corn syrup
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Directions:

1. Thoroughly wash & rinse all apples. Dry and insert sturdy wooden craft stick or skewer in each. Prepare an ice water bath in a fairly large bowl, and line a baking sheet with waxed paper or parchment.
2. Boil cream, sugar, corn syrup, and butter to a boil in a medium saucepan. Clip candy thermometer to the side of pan and continue to cook until mixture reaches 245 degrees, about 10 to 12 minutes. Immediately place pan in ice water bath to stop the cooking.
3. Dip the bottom of each apple in the caramel rotating it and using a spoon to coat apple halfway to three-quarters of the way up the sides. Transfer to baking sheet, and refrigerate until set, about 15 minutes (or overnight) before serving.
4. Print witches out on cardstock. Cut-out, and using a small hole punch, punch holes on either sides of hands. Slide sticks in and poke them into the top of apples, replacing skewers.

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The apples I used were little ones called Ginger Gold. I thought they were the perfect size, and I got a ½ peck of them for about 5 bucks. I only made 6 of them into caramel apples, the rest were baked & eaten up in other ways. When pecks or ½ pecks are on sale, if you can’t go & pick your own, take advantage of it. Apples are crazy versatile & you’ll definitely use them up. Ginger Gold’s in particular are excellent for just about any use: snacking (they’re very slow to brown when cut), pie making (they hold their shape when cooked/baked), etc. However they don’t store well… so refrigerate ‘em & use ‘em ASAP.

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Other apples that are good for this are Lady apples, or any small-sized apple, really.

I used wooden shish kebob sticks/skewers for mine. You can use whatever you like. Fancy twigs, etc. As far as the caramel goes, I’d personally stick with just caramel, or maybe with a swirl of chocolate. If you want to roll it in chopped walnuts or something that’s up to you- I’d just advise you not to go too crazy. Maybe it’s just me but those candy apples with 5 different kinds of chocolate/caramel/nuts never look appealing to me, just messy. But again, it’s a personal thing. And like I said last time I used a Martha idea, I can’t give you the actual witch template, like I said before it’s only available in the magazine & I don’t want to violate her copyrights. I mean, Martha’s been to prison; I don’t wanna fuck with her. But if you don’t want to buy the magazine, with a little creativity & internet saavy, you can do-it-yourself. The internet is chock full of awesome vintage Halloween clip-art.

So put on Hocus Pocus or Bedknobs & Broomsticks, maybe even watch Once Upon A Time this Sunday night & cast a spell of your own to make some witchy caramel apples.

Have you ever heard the Irish legend of “Carman”, the Celtic witch?

Carman is the Celtic goddess of evil magic. She is a destructive witch who roamed ireland with her three evil sons: Dub (“darkness” in Irish), Dother (“evil”) and Dain (“violence”), destroying anything or anyone in their path. Carman put a blight on Ireland’s crops and terrorized the Irish until the Tuatha De Danann, the “peoples of the goddess Danu,” used their magic to fight and defeat her, and drove her sons across the sea. Just another Irish folklore to worry about while “Trick or Treating” this Halloween.

-source: The Irish Jewelry Company

Back when my grandma passed away unexpectedly in July, we were inundated with beautiful cards & amazing e-mails & gorgeous flowers, etc. It was so wonderful to have people reach out that way. One of the things we received was a HUGE Harry & David gift basket sent by some high school friends of mine. I think my mother & I might have lived off of that basket for the first few days we had it. For dinner we’d have Moose Munch & butter toffee chocolates or strawberry licorice rope & yogurt pretzels. It was a heatwave, we were in a daze and we had absolutely no desire to eat let alone cook. But snack? Sure. A handful of popcorn & candy here & there got us through the days without crashing from low blood sugar.

Of course, there are always a few things left at the bottom of the basket. One of them was trail mix. Don’t get me wrong- there’s nothing wrong with trail mix. Especially not gourmet Honeybell Pecan Trail Mix. But let’s face it, when there are piles of delicious candy on top of it, what are you going to choose to eat first? Probably not the trail mix. Needless to say, in any gift basket, those are the things that are eaten first, but especially with us. We’re candy people. Chocolates always trump dried fruits around here.

So it was one really chilly night recently while I was watching History Detectives, when I saw the unopened baggie of trail mix & thought, “I bet that’d make a damn good muffin.”

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It contains: Honey Bell pecans (pecans coated in a mixture of butter, sugar and oil of Tangelo [Honey Bell] flavoring), dried cranberries, raisins, almonds, pumpkin seeds and roasted cashews. A great fall breakfast muffin, right?

Not only that but it would use up that trail mix that was sitting there all lonely. All I did was I altered my favorite chocolate chip muffin recipe to include trail mix & some oats. Of course, I added considerably more trail mix than I did chocolate chips, then sprinkling the tops of the unbaked muffins with oats.

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HONEYBELL PECAN TRAIL MIX MUFFINS

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ⅓ cup light-brown sugar
• ⅓ cup sugar
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ⅔ cup milk
• ½ cup butter — melted and cooled
• 2 eggs – beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 12 ounces trail mix (or less, depending on taste)
• few tablespoons steel cut oats

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400° F. and grease up twelve muffin cups or put liners in them (I prefer liners because it’s less messy that way).
2. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugars, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, stir together milk, eggs, butter, and vanilla until blended. Make a well in center of dry ingredients; add milk mixture and stir just to combine. Stir in trail mix. DON’T OVERMIX THE BATTER.
3. Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling them almost to the top; top each muffin with oats. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until a knife inserted in center of one muffin comes out clean.
4. Remove muffin tin to wire rack; cool 5 minutes and remove from tins to finish cooling.

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Now that school’s open again & everyone is busy, they’re fantastic to pack in a kid’s school lunch or to send them off with in the morning for a quick breakfast when you’re (or they’re) running late. Even as an after-school snack. You could add some peanut butter chips or white chocolate chips, maybe some yogurt covered raisins, or even regular chocolate chips to it, if the mixture doesn’t include them. Some shredded coconut or coconut flakes. Maybe substitute buttermilk for the regular milk? And of course, you can use any trail mix at all. Or even just a mix of whatever dried fruits/nuts you like. If you want to make them healthier, use whole wheat flour, substitute applesauce or coconut oil for the butter and use honey or agave nectar instead of sugar. Add some oat-bran, make a streusel topping- the possibilities are endless!

Eat one toasted with some fresh cream butter, homemade jam or marmalade, or just have it room temperature as a snack. I’m told they’re best warm out of the oven, though. However, since that little cold snap is over, & right now it’s about 100° degrees & humid as all get out in NY, I can’t imagine having the oven on to make more of these. This weekend, though, the baking is ON again. Get psyched.

Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Independence Day is commonly associated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, fairs, picnics, concerts, baseball games, family reunions, political speeches and ceremonies, and various other public and private events celebrating the history, government, and traditions of the United States. Independence Day is the national day of the United States.^[1][2][3]

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In typical “me” fashion, I make a big deal out of this. Flags galore. You might remember a few weeks back, when I posted about my “paint splatter” cupcakes (and you might remember just a few days ago how I used some as my Military Monday photo). I mentioned how easy it would be to make them perfect for the 4th of July… and it gave me an idea. I made a few in red, white & blue for Flag Day and then never posted them. Thankfully, I have a lot going on and forgot about the photos and I didn’t use them, because it’s way too hot to bake right now. Thank cupcakes the sides of my head are almost shaved and the rest is short… if I had long hair I’d kill myself. What do you long-haired girls do in this weather, honestly? It’s been so long since I had hair longer than chin length, and before that so long since I had even shoulder length hair that I can’t remember. It must suck.

I got off track there. But anyway, the bottom line is, you know what all that crap above means? It means I’m going to post those red, white & blue “paint splatter” cupcakes now and just pretend they’re brand new for the 4th of July! Shh. Don’t tell.

See? Brand new cupcakes (but not really). Ta-da! I must have been either inebriated or insane that night, because these pictures suck royally. I apologize!

You know you love my patriotic cupcake cookie jar & candle… the only good thing about Kohl’s, ever, thanks mom!

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It’s a great idea if you have to bake for a barbecue on the 4th and you can’t think of what to do, or don’t have a lot of time. All you need are cupcakes & red & blue Candy Melts. That’s it! And maybe a few mini-flags or toppers. You could also make the frosting red or blue and use the two other colors in Candy Melts; i.e. blue frosting with red & white splatters, etc. The possibilities are endless! I’m not going to go through the directions here, you can view them at the original post. I will say that they’d be way cuter in red, white & blue liners. Oh well.

Sidenote: Should I start taking bets on how often I’m going to hear that Katy Perry song this year?

So I wanted to write something about Independence Day, but I’ll save it for the 4th. I can’t believe it’s July already! Incredible. And crazy. Time flies. I’ve been so busy with my garden & summertime activities, I really have been losing track of time. It seems the only time I realize the date or day of the week is when I log into WordPress. Being outside in the sunshine is amazing, I’m soaking it in as much as possible because it always seems like before you know it it’s freakin’ snowing. I know, I know, I should shut my mouth. With global warming it might start to snow in August soon. I wonder how much of the Earth will be the way it is now for my children, or their children, and I come to the conclusion that the answer is probably not a whole hell of a lot. Will my children know seasons like I had as a kid? No, because we’re just barely dealing with two seasons as it is- summer & winter. Fall? What’s fall? It gets cold in November after being hot right through October, and it snows until April. Sad. Wow, nice going, I turned a happy/celebratory post into a goth-fest of misery in less than 5 paragraphs. Sorry to get all ‘Inconvenient Truth’ on you guys.

Anyway, on a lighter note, there’s less than 12 hours left to enter the Shabby Apple apron giveaway. Make sure you get in on that. And Happy 4th of July to all my fellow Americans… be safe! Don’t lose any appendages you may need in the future.

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I first saw this concept done by Retro Bakery in Las Vegas. I can’t say for sure what they use for their paint splatters, but they come out amazing (view some here & some here). I’ve wanted to do it for a while, but I was putting it off for a few reasons: 1) I wasn’t sure what they used as “paint”, 2) It seemed messy & I was always dreading the clean-up, and 3) Everytime I remembered it, something else was going on… too hot out, I had to bake something else, etc. But I finally had the right conditions & frame of mind to do it, and went for it. And let me tell you- the clean-up was nothing. So I decided, after Googling, that Retro Bakery probably used something with a similar texture to Candy Melts, and also that using Royal Icing wasn’t for me. Some people do seem to use that, and some even use thinned-out buttercream, but I definitely wanted to use the melts for my “paint.” It just seemed like that would make a better consistency “paint” than anything else, and also be more pleasant to eat. Royal Icing isn’t always nice when you’re not expecting the slight crunch, and who would expect that when eating a cupcake? So I used 4 colors of Wilton Candy Melts; blue, red, yellow and green. Typical “paint” colors, right?

Before…

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After!

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I decided I wanted to try it one night during a relative cool spell (68º degrees & breezy at 11 p.m. in New York in June! It’s a miracle! … but one that didn’t last very long, haha), and I think they came out spectacular. I also tried out a new vanilla cupcake recipe, one from Crumbs Bake Shop. I got the recipe online but it’s actually from this little boxed set. Not bad, I must say. Very moist and “bouncy” with a nice texture. However… I halved the following recipe and ended up with 18 cupcakes. Don’t ask. No idea. That always happens to me!

CRUMBS BAKE SHOP VANILLA CUPCAKES

Ingredients:

• 3 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 ½ cups granulated sugar
• 5 eggs
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 ½ teaspoons almond extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup buttermilk

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325ºF. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners.
2. In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then add the eggs, mixing well after each addition, followed by the vanilla and almond extracts.
3. Sift together the flour, baking powder and baking soda into a small bowl. Then, with the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, alternating with the buttermilk and ending with the flour.
4. Fill each cup ¾ full with batter. Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until the center of the cupcakes spring back when touched. Cool completely before frosting.

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HEAVY CREAM BUTTERCREAM

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup vegetable shortening
• 1 ½ – 2 pounds powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• ¼ cup heavy whipping cream (perhaps more)

Directions:

1. Place the butter and shortening in a stand mixer. Beat on medium speed until fluffy. Slowly add the first pound and a half of powdered sugar, a cup at a time until all is incorporated. Turn off the mixer and scrape the bottom of the bowl very well. Add the vanilla and mix again.
2. Slowly add half of the heavy cream while the mixer is on, and beat for one minute.
3. Add more cream or sugar as needed to achieve a frosting consistency that’s suitable to piping.

For the paint effect; bake the cupcakes and allow them to cool completely. Frost them as desired (I used a plain vanilla so the paint was more obvious, with this tip) and let the frosting “set” in a cool area for 10-15 minutes, or pop them in the fridge for a bit. Meanwhile, melt the Candy Melts according to the package and cover your work space with parchment paper. Set up your cupcakes on the paper and using a spoon and fork, “splatter” the melts on the cupcakes. You may need to “thin” the melts out a bit with some vegetable oil before you use it to splatter. Do a test run on the parchment, and if it’s too thick, add vegetable oil by the ¼ teaspoon, making sure to incorporate it thoroughly, until you reach the right consistency.

These are perfect for a kid’s party, or even for the 4th of July! Just use red & blue melts, and red & blue solid liners with a vanilla cake & vanilla frosting; you’ve got yourself a perfect “firework” cupcake. Or, how about an 80′s party? Use 80′s colors and alternate the frosting color with different color melts. You could adapt it for any holiday, really. But I think it’s really an idea that was just made for a little kid’s birthday party. I had no particular reason for making them, so I dubbed them “Jackson Pollock cupcakes.”

Oh- and if you don’t know who Jackson Pollock is, he was a painter, and here’s an example of his work called Convergence (click to see larger):

If you know me well, you know I love all holidays. I love Valentine’s Day because, well, it involves hearts, pink & red & of course lace in the theme. I firmly believe in the power of surrounding oneself with beautiful things, and I use any and every holiday as an excuse to do so. This one is no different. The ‘love’ part is pretty nifty too, you know, but I firmly believe that you should tell your loved ones you care about them all the time. Give your girlfriend or wife roses & flowers all year ’round, not just on the 14th of February! But still, it’s a cute idea & it could be worse; it could be a day where you go around punching people in the nose. But I actually wouldn’t mind that. Violence Day. Maybe it should be February 15th, so anyone without a date on the 14th can take out their aggression the next day. Hah. I never had such an issue, when I was single on Valentine’s Day, I still loved it. It’s about all love, not just romantic love. So get off your throne of misery & celebrate! I have TONS of stuff to show you today.

In addition to cupcakes, this year I made the infamous Bakerella cake pops; white cake inside, white and pink Wilton candy melt coating with sprinkles outside. They’re really fun to make- & a great excuse to destroy a cake made from a boxed mix! I’ll leave it to Bakerella to tell you how to make those. But I will tell you they were so much fun to make, and were simple considering they utilize a cake mix/pre-made frosting/candy melts. I had a table covered with silpats, waxed paper, bowls of melted candy melts & with bowls full of different sprinkles, etc, and played around like a kid. I made some in heart shapes and others just round. Tell me these aren’t adorable! And not bad for my first try, right?

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They didn’t last long before being painfully mutilated.

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I loved making these. Tons of fun. Messy, but fun! Also, time consuming. But worth it. I had to restrain myself from eating them as I made them. I went a little large with these, making them about 1.5″ x 2″, or around that. That meant they were heavier when coated, so I really had to watch them to make sure they didn’t collapse. I only had one mishap, and it was easily fixed by me just popping it in my mouth. What? She who bakes has the right to do such things. The balls were all varying sizes, some larger than others. I used a candy bag filled with white candy melts to drizzle over the tops of some of the pops when the first coat dried.  Then, when they were all dried and set, I packed them all up in lollipop bags and tied them with ribbons to give as little Valentine gifts (whatever ones Jay didn’t eat, I mean). So cute.

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I plan on making more of these delicious little things in the future, seeing as how I thought they were remarkably easy & fun to create. I also decided to make pink cupcakes this year for Valentine’s Day, because I hadn’t done it in awhile (well, not since 2008). So I made a pink cake (“white” cake tinted pink) with fat swirly pillows of  strawberry Kool-Aid buttercream with little marshmallow sprinkle hearts (I made ‘em by cutting large marshmallows into thirds, then cutting each slice in half, then making heart shapes with my hands & the scissors). I dipped the sticky sides in pink iridescent sugar and topped some of them, then for the rest used the pink sugar mixed with white sugar & heart toppers.

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For the white cake, theoretically you can use any of these recipes: Martha’s, a vintage Sunbeam recipe or Rose Levy Berenbaum’s, or even this white chocolate cupcake recipe. Then just add either a little red food coloring, or some pink until it’s the desired color. My cupcakes look a little orange/yellowish because I used a reddish orange food coloring since I couldn’t find my pink. Bleh. I found it later. Oh well.

So that’s about it for my V-Day confections. But in closing, here are some pictures of my mom’s Valentine tree. It’s her winter tree just done up with hearts, cupids, etc.

Before I get into this let me state for the record: macarons & whoopie pies are NOT the new cupcakes. Sorry, Bon Appétit. Cupcakes have been around for over 200 years, and they’ll be around for 200 more. How can you replace a portable, individual cake with two flat Amish cookies filled with frosting or a snooty, tempermental almond puff? Don’t get me wrong, I love whoopie pies, I love cookies, I love macarons… but I also love cupcakes. My blog name is Cupcake Rehab, for cupcakes’ sake. And this blog is way more than cupcakes- it’s meals, it’s breakfasts, it’s cookies, etc. I just happen to think the “cupcake trend” is over-hyped and over-thought. It’s not that big of a deal, guys. Why does there have to be a “new cupcake.” That’s like saying “pink is the new black” which is one of the things I hated about being in fashion.

So the reason why I mentioned them in the above paragraph is because in the latest Bon Appétit, they speak of how the one or the other; the whoopie pie or the macaron, is going to be “the new cupcake.” Uh, yeah *cough*bullshit*cough.* But the whoopie pies with mint filling & chocolate ganache did make my mouth water slightly. I love the chocolate/mint combo. And to be honest, whoopie pies seem so brainlessly easy, I had to make them. Also… one of my favorite Ella Fitzgerald songs is titled “Makin’ Whoopee” (see above), and it’s a perfect reason to play the song & use it as my blog post title. For Valentine’s Day, what better cookie to make!? Especially when you tint the filling pink instead of green.

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WHOOPIE PIES WITH CHOCOLATE GANACHE & MINT FILLING

Ingredients:

Cookies:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 ⅛ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ cup non-hydrogenated solid vegetable shortening or unsalted butter (1 stick), room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole milk

Mint filling:

• ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons non-hydrogenated solid vegetable shortening or unsalted butter (1 stick), room temperature
• ½ teaspoon peppermint extract
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups plus 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
• ¼ cup egg whites (from about 2 large eggs)
• 3 to 4 drops pink food coloring*

Chocolate Ganache:

• 3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
• ½ cup bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 375°F. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and baking soda into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat shortening, sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla in large bowl until well blended, about 2 minutes. Add flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with milk in 2 additions, beating until blended after each addition.
2. Drop dough by very rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets, spacing 3 inches apart. Bake 1 sheet at a time until cookies are slightly puffed and spread but are still soft, 8 to 10 minutes. Cool on sheets 10 minutes. Carefully transfer cookies to racks and cool completely. Repeat with remaining cookie dough. (DO AHEAD: Cookies can be made 1 day ahead. Store airtight in single layer at room temperature).
3. The mint filling: Using electric mixer, beat shortening, peppermint extract, and vanilla in large metal bowl until blended. Add powdered sugar, egg whites, and pinch of salt; beat until light and fluffy. Add food coloring drop by drop for desired shade of pink; beat until well blended. If mixture looks curdled, place bowl over low heat several seconds and beat until smooth. Repeat as necessary until smooth.
4. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper (for laying out & assembling the pies).
5. The ganache: Bring cream to simmer in heavy small saucepan. Remove from heat. Add chocolate; whisk until smooth. Cool until lukewarm but spreadable, about 15 minutes.
6. Spoon 1 teaspoon ganache onto bottom (flat side) of half of cookies. Place cookies, ganache side up, on prepared baking sheet.
7. Spoon mint filling into pastry bag fitted with medium star tip (or spoon filling into resealable plastic bag, squeezing filling into 1 corner of bag, then cut off ¼ inch of plastic bag corner to allow for piping). Starting at outer edge of bottom (flat side) of remaining cookies and working toward center, pipe mint filling in spiral. Place 1 mint-filled cookie, mint side down, atop each ganache-topped cookie, pressing slightly to adhere. (DO AHEAD: Can be made 2 hours ahead. Store airtight at room temperature).

* In Bon Appétit, they use green, but pink is way more appropriate for this holiday… although depending on when you’re making them, you can use whatever color you want! I only used a smidge of Wilton gel food coloring in Rose Pink. You could also just use a little bit of red to make pink.

They were pretty easy to make, they just required a lot of steps. Also, I’d use dark chocolate unsweetened cocoa next time, this time I used regular & they weren’t as dark as I’d have liked. I used shortening for the pies and a combo of shortening/butter for the filling. I like a more buttery taste in my icings/frostings, however the shortening worked perfectly in the pie itself. If you’re really talented, or you’ve got time to mess around, you could shape them into hearts (I say that because the batter isn’t all that easy to work with). Let me just say that these were so rich, so filling, so insanely chocolate-y & minty… unf. A perfect Valentine’s dessert. I ate one, and had confidence I could eat another. So I took a bite & literally my brain said “Uhm, no. Are you crazy? Have you seen The Biggest Loser?” & my stomach just shut down. That’s how rich they are.

The possibilities for them are endless, too. If you crushed up peppermint candies & put them in with the mint filling, it would be awesome. Or you could flavor the filling strawberry, either by using extract, some strawberry Jell-O or by using strawberry preserves mixed in with the filling. I’d use marshmallow Fluff for a filling too; it’d be great with these! Maybe a marshmallow filling with some crushed graham crackers or something? To make it like a giant s’more? They also have raspberry & strawberry flavored Fluff… just sayin’! I just slathered the filling on with an offset spatula, but piping it all pretty like with a fancy tip like they recommend would be nice. I’ll do that next time.

As a side note, this was a great inspiration to me. I was so happy to see other bloggers making these! It really put a fire up my ass to make them myself. I think I did a pretty good job, eh? For the other complete whoopie pie recipes, please click here: WHOOPIE PIES WITH GERMAN CHOCOLATE FILLING

And one more thing… as a punk rock fan, & a big fan of baked goods & sweets, I thought this was really funny:

Most people think of peppermint bark as a Christmas-y treat, however, I think it’s also a great way to use up all your leftover candy canes after Christmas. Although, to me & my family, Christmas lasts until tomorrow which is Little Christmas, so it’s still appropriate to make it with those. You’ll never catch us taking our tree down before tomorrow! If anything, it’s up another week or two. The outside decorations, that’s a bit different. They had to come down before we’re hit with another blizzard.

Peppermint bark is a chocolate confection. Generally it consists of peppermint candy pieces in white chocolate on top of dark chocolate, but peppermint bark can refer to any chocolate with peppermint candy pieces in it.

It is especially popular around the Christmas season. Companies known for selling it seasonally include Williams-Sonoma, Ghirardelli, and Dove. Though they do not label it as peppermint bark, Hershey’s also sells peppermint Hershey’s kisses.

Peppermint + chocolate = wonderful. Funny story; Jay never liked the mint/chocolate combo until eating these. He’ll probably still deny liking it, though. I saw him smile when he ate a piece on Christmas- he can’t fool me.

Needless to say, I did indeed make mine for Christmas, and I put it in Martha Stewart treat bags and used them as place settings for the table on Christmas Day. This way, everyone could take theirs home with them and enjoy it. Although like I said, I think it’s a sweet way to use up your candy canes when the holiday is over, and I think it’d be equally sweet for Valentine’s Day, perhaps using white chocolate colored pink? Or even better: use white chocolate & pink Candy Melts with dried cherries. Or try making it with all white chocolate and crushed starlight mints, then drizzling melted pink candy melts over the top? Or for St. Patrick’s Day; white chocolate with crushed spearmint starlight mints or crushed green candies. You can do it in any way you like, for any holiday, even with cherry or blueberry or fruit-flavored candy canes.

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My recipe is just a basic one, very simple. There are tons of them out there, and there are also commercially made pre-packaged ones that usually cost a pretty penny. Williams-Sonoma makes a fantastic one, but buying it really takes the fun out of it to me. This is a project kids would love- it takes no time at all, lots of smashing (the candy canes), very little cooking, no baking, and the end result is delicious.

PEPPERMINT BARK

Ingredients:

It’s that time, ladies & gents. That time of year when parents try to kill themselves in toy stores to get the “IT” toy of the year and kids are running around overloaded on sugar from Christmas parties, and there’s piles of snow on the ground and your back aches from shoveling it all. Ahh, Christmas. That being said, I really do enjoy this time of year. Specifically the delicious food and baked goods, the gifts and the shopping. Me not being a religious person, that’s how I roll. See? When you aren’t religious, you can be all about the gifts and no one says you’re going to hell or “missed the meaning of Christmas.” Oh no, wait. People tell me I’m going to hell anyway. Shit.

Rockefeller Center tree, photo by me, Dec. 2009

So pretty much everyone knows the Christian version of Christmas, but not a lot of people realize that it pre-dates Christianity, and that Christianity actually stole most of the elements of Christmas from pagan celebrations of the Winter Solstice, and it has been said that it was also inspired by the Roman holiday of Saturnalia. In actuality, according to actual time-lines, Jesus was probably born closer to March which was tax time in Israel, which is why Mary & Joseph were traveling during his birth. So if you believe in that sort of thing, Jesus’ birthday isn’t even in December. Basically Christians stole the pagan timeline so that they could celebrate without being persecuted, which means that there really isn’t any Christ in Christmas as it is celebrated in December.

The Christmas tree is often explained as a Christianisation of pagan tradition and ritual surrounding the Winter Solstice, which included the use of evergreen boughs, and an adaptation of pagan tree worship.^[32] The English language phrase “Christmas tree” is first recorded in 1835^[33] and represents an importation from the German language. The modern Christmas tree tradition is believed to have begun in Germany in the 18th century^[32] though many argue that Martin Luther began the tradition in the 16th century.^[34][35] From Germany the custom was introduced to Britain, first via Queen Charlotte, wife of George III, and then more successfully by Prince Albert during the reign of Queen Victoria. By 1841 the Christmas tree had become even more widespread throughout Britain.^[36] By the 1870s, people in the United States had adopted the custom of putting up a Christmas tree.^[37] Christmas trees may be decorated with lights and ornaments.

Since the 19th century, the poinsettia, a native plant from Mexico, has been associated with Christmas. Other popular holiday plants include holly, mistletoe, red amaryllis, and Christmas cactus. Along with a Christmas tree, the interior of a home may be decorated with these plants, along with garlands and evergreen foliage.

Anyway I’ll stop there to avoid getting bombarded with hate mail. I just wanted to clear that up, since I’ve been asked a lot “If you aren’t religious, why do you celebrate  Christmas?” And contrary to popular belief, I am not a Grinch. I love Christmas. I love Christmas music. I love decorating. I love the baking and cooking. I love Starbucks peppermint hot cocoa in the red cups. I love the shopping. I don’t even mind the crowds, really. I love everything about it. Except the snow. I extremely dislike snow… sucks to be me, I guess, seeing as how I live in New York. But I’d rather live in NY and have snow on Christmas then go swimming in a bikini & sunscreen on Christmas, so I’ll deal with it. Speaking of snow, did you notice it’s snowing on the blog? And there’s a new seasonal header, too. Spiffy.

I did one of these posts for Halloween and another for Thanksgiving, so I figured hey, why not do it for Christmas!? So here we are: my top 5 Favorite Christmas Cupcakes. Of course, these are ones I made, not my top 5 favorite all over the web. I did a post like that a few years back for Cupcakes Take The Cake, if you’re interested you can still see it here. So grab some hot cocoa, hot mulled cider or some Old Fezziwig’s Ale and let’s get crackin’!

Nigella, oh Nigella. I made these cupcakes spur of the moment, mainly because I liked how Nigella called the pan a “bun muffin pan” in the recipe… and I decided to do little poinsettias on them at the last second, and they turned out so amazing. Beautiful, really. Everyone loved these, and the flowers aren’t that hard to make. Find the recipe & more here: Poinsettia (& Nigella) cupcakes.

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These are so adorable. I just love the way they look, and the little snowman toppers with matching liners. These are just plain vanilla with vanilla buttercream, but the decorating makes them really special. A perfect example of the fact that a cupcake doesn’t have to be fancy flavored to make an impact. The great thing about these is they’re not just for Christmas, but the entire winter season. The candy coated sunflower seeds were a gift from Lyns, and you can find them here in blue, but they also have pink and yellow. The recipe can be found by clicking this link: Jack Frost cupcakes.

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These babies are some of my favorites not only because they look gorgeous, but because they tasted fantastic as well. A wonderful chocolatey cake with a rich chocolate buttercream, and a light, peppermint-y meringue “ornament” (or cookie) on top all combined to make an awesome Christmas cupcake. You can get all the info and recipes here: Even cupcakes deserve ornaments at Christmas.

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Another recipe/decorating combo that’s perfect not just for Christmas, but all winter long. Great for a winter birthday or a Winter Solstice celebration as well. These coconut cupcakes are Ina Garten’s recipe, but I left out her cream cheese frosting and made a coconut-flavored buttercream, and topped it with dyed coconut. This is one amazing cupcake recipe, trust me, despite the fact (and probably because of the fact) that the cake + the frosting combined calls for over a pound of butter. The recipes for both the frosting and cakes are at this link: “Let it Snow” coconut cupcakes.

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And last, but certainly not least, one of the most requested, most complimented and most loved cupcake recipes I’ve ever made: the french toast cupcake. Topped with a cream cheese frosting sprinkled with cinnamon sugar it’s a definite crowd pleaser. Get your mitts on the recipe here: Are french toast cupcakes technically a breakfast food?

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These are by no means the only Christmas recipes for cupcakes I have posted- no, no. They’re just my favorites. I have tons of others including super cute gingerbread cupcakes, delicious eggnog cupcakes, beautiful red velvet cupcakes, alcohol-laced hot buttered rum cupcakes, etc. Take a peek at the Christmas category to find that and more, including 7-layer magic cookie bars and biscotti di natale al cioccolato.

If you’re the kind of person who prefers to leave cookies for Santa instead of cupcakes, try looking in my “cookies” category- I have everything from chocolate cookies to oatmeal chocolate chip, including an amazing shortbread cookie recipe, and for the more adventurous, exotic spice cookies with cardamom, ginger and rose water. Typically I try and bake one Christmas-y cupcake a week the entire month of December, but this will have to do for the first week. Sorry guys. Take a trip down memory lane by clicking some of those links to get some inspiration and I’ll be back soon with something tasty and pretty for you to look at.

One more little thing… I’d like to think of myself as a not materialistic person. Sure, I love nice things- pretty clothes, expensive makeup, nice housewares, etc. Yes, I can be a bit selfish at times, all us humans can be/are by nature. But I also give to any and every charity I can, donate food to food banks, donate toys to toy drives, give to the Salvation Army every time I see the bell-ringers, donate my old clothing to the Lupus foundation, etc. I do my best to make this world a slightly better place, day by day, person by person. I am never mean or cruel to people unless warranted. Sarcastic, yes, all the time. But mean? Not usually. I consider myself to be a happy person. Someone who can find the bright side of many situations. Someone who no matter what is going wrong, can find either a positive angle or at least a drop of good in it. I can make myself happy with very little, and sometimes little things are what truly make me happiest anyway. But this is a season when it’s really easy to go crazy with “wants.” Yeah, I have a lot of wants. Everyone does. But whether or not I get them, I know I’ll be happy with myself for being a good person, and that I’ll be happy what I do have; family, friends, pets, and all the material objects I love and adore (my laptop, my Kitchen Aid mixer “Lola”… etc). If I never got another “thing” in my life, I could be happy because I’m aware that’s not what’s important. But let’s be honest: it sure as shit makes life (and Christmas) fun to have things, or be able to give things, or to have the comfort of knowing someone is looking out for you.

So this Christmas, amidst all your hustling and bustling and shopping, please make a donation to at least ONE charity. Any charity that speaks to you- cancer research, diabetes research, programs that feed the hungry, AIDS research, programs that help the homeless, religious programs, neglected or abused animal organizations- whatever. Pick  at least one, and donate even just $5.00 or $10.00 to them. Consider it a Christmas or Hanukkah gift. There are SO many out there less fortunate than you or I, let’s remember them and use this giving season to lend them a hand. And if you choose not to… when you’re sitting in front of your fire, drinking hot cocoa and opening lavish presents this year while listening to Bing Crosby on your iPod, remember those who are hungry, lonely, sick, and without all the comforts you have… and be grateful that life dealt you a better hand. Whatever religion or non-religion you are, that’s an important thing to keep in mind. I’ll get off my soapbox now.

Here are the pretty cupcakes (french toast with maple buttercream and crumbled bacon topping, in case you’re wondering; and if you want the recipes, they’re down at the bottom).

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And here are the donuts!

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GLAZED SPICE CAKE DONUTS

First get:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup milk
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoons shortening

Glaze

• 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons HOT water

Then do:

1. Preheat oven to 325 F. Lightly grease the donut pan.
2. In a large  bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt. Stir in milk, eggs, vanilla and shortening. Beat together until well blended.
3. Fill each donut cup approximately ¾ full. bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until donuts spring back when touched. Allow to cool slightly before removing from pan.
4. To make glaze, blend confectioners sugar and hot water in a small bowl. Dip donuts in the glaze when slightly cooled.

Again, like I said with the chocolate donuts, the best way of filling the donut pan is with a disposable pastry bag, or plastic sandwich bag. Just fill with batter and snip off the tip, then fill the pan. I recommend Crisco shortening, it tastes way better than other brands.

If you’re looking for a few last minute turkey day baking ideas, take a look at my “Best of” Thanksgiving post. Otherwise, here are the recipes for the cupcakes & buttercream.

FRENCH TOAST CUPCAKES

Get together:

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup unsalted butter, melted and then cooled
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp maple extract
• ½ cup milk

Then you:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line baking pan with paper liners.
2. Mix together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a small bowl.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together butter, sugar and eggs until smooth. Make sure the butter is cool or you’ll have scrambled eggs.
4. Whisk in maple extract and then alternate between whisking in flour mixture and milk. Make three additions of flour mix and two of milk. Beat until smooth.
5. Scoop batter into prepared pan and bake 20-25 minutes until golden brown and tops spring back when lightly touched.
6. Cool the cupcakes on a rack for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely.

The maple buttercream is just a basic confectioner’s sugar frosting flavored maple. I used maple extract, but you could probably just use maple syrup or maple syrup plus extract, that works too. For the topping, I fried up some bacon and then let it cool. Then I crumbled it/cut it into small pieces (getting rid of the fat) and just placed it on top of the frosting. It’s pretty much amazing; it tastes like breakfast in a cupcake. Don’t use bacon bits for this, please. That’s gross. If you’re gonna do it- go for it. No short cuts. I recommend an Applewood or maple bacon.

Happy White-People-Take-Advantage-of-American-Indians Day.