German Chocolate Cupcakes and Lemon Cream Cupcakes

We had 2 Christmas parties in one weekend, so I whipped up 2 batches of different kinds of cupcakes, split them in half, and took a gorgeous box to each party! I wanted two flavors very different, so I picked German Chocolate Cupcakes and Lemon Cream Cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Both recipes are from Lizzy at Your Cup of Cake.

Pasta Puttanesca in my tummy!

Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman, isn't even Italian and this is quite the tasty, authentic tasting Italian dish. I was looking for something outside my comfort zone of tomato, garlic, basil, and a meat. I was skeptical about the anchovies due to their piss poor attitude, however I bravely gave them a chance and lived to feel good about it. Matt had 3 helpings. I think he liked it.

Mexican street tacos from a Boston chef: Authentic? You decide.

Thanks PEOPLE magazine and Chef Ken Oringer (who?) for this yummy Carne Asada Tacos recipe. He includes 2 delicious toppings that I've also shared with you below.

Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cupcakes dear Ethne, Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cupcakes to you!

Happy Birthday to my precious niece! Ethne turned 7 and her parents asked me to bake her birthday cake. Since we had to travel 3 hours and they weren't having the party until 2 days after we arrived, I knew a cake wouldn't last. And I can't properly do a cake without my kitchen and my gadgets. I made the cake version of this same recipe in May for Heather's birthday and it turned out fantastic. I also made these cupcakes earlier this summer for a family reunion in Sunriver, OR, however the problem there was the altitude made them all sink in the middle (but you can't tell in the picture below). I wanted to give them another go, and I had faith that at a normal elevation, these would be perfect.

Peach Crisp with Maple Cream Sauce

This is a terrible picture because I was too lazy to go get the camera, and used my phone instead. This is what I deserve for my efforts.

What first attracted me to this recipe was the Froberg's Farmers Market near my house. This is the season for ripe, sweet, juicy fresh peaches, and Froberg's has them in abundance! After several trips there to buy as many peaches as we could eat in a week, I knew I had to try something I had never liked before: a baked peach dessert. Canned peaches disgust me, but I had a feeling that fresh, ripe peaches would make a huge difference. I was right! The Maple Cream Sauce in this recipe is the stuff dreams are made of. Sweet, cream-filled, peachy dreams.

Jenson's 4th birthday party

Note to self--and everyone else in the world: Betty Crocker Sugar Cookies do not hold their shape, as evident below.

Thankfully I've had this experience before with sugar cookies, so I simultaneously made this recipe from scratch that turned out perfectly. For Jenson's birthday this year we rented a wet/dry combo water slide and moonbounce. I went with the water theme and made shark cookies(design ideas courteous of Bridget at Bake at 350), a shark cake, shark-shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, etc. The most time consuming part was the cookies. Here's my step-by-step process. I made the cookies as mentioned above, then I practiced drawing the shark on paper.

That didn't go so well but I forged ahead with making the royal icing and practicing my borders on saran wrap. Once I had drawn 2 pretty ugly sharks, I said, "what the hell, it's 10pm!" and went ahead and drew the borders on the rest of my circle cookies. Then I thinned my royal icing and flooded the borders like so:

I added gills, teeth and eyes, then I was done with my sharkies! I did the same thing with starfish, and since the sharks were chasing the starfish, presumably to chomp them into smithereens, I removed an arm of each starfish before I baked them.

Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Layer Cake (and Happy Birthday Heather!)

My cousin asked me to bake the cake for his brother's girlfriend at their Cinco de Mayo/Heather's Birthday Party. Because I love baking, I love eating, I love Cinco de Mayo, and I love Heather, I happily said yes! I immediately knew which cake I would make, and I chose this one based on appearance and taste. The effort required is extensive, but worth every bite.

Menu Planning

I feel like a Superstar right now. I got inspiration from this Menu Planner, and by "inspiration" I mean I flat-out copied everything she did. Hey--I picked my own color scheme so it's totally different!

Nom nom nom...

I had my doubts in this one with the lack of spices. I'm a spices girl, and the more the merrier when it comes to spices playing in my mouth. But this was astonishingly flavorful and you can consider me a Super Fan. Just make sure you don't skip the 20-minute simmer.