A cookie sort of week: Monster cookie cupcakes, thumbprint cookies and chocolate malt cookie sandwiches

I'm jonesing for lake weather. To be able to go to camp, relax, read a book and go lounge on the boat. I think calling it "camp" is a Canadian thing, or something. It's definitely a small house on a small lake, but that's what Cathie called her old place up north, so I picked it up. I want to watch movies and hang out with the super friendly neighbors. My dad wants me to go tubing, but I think he'd specifically try to knock me off. Anyway, I can't wait for it to be time to go down there. I used to HATE going to the lake. But that was just going, with no boat to go out on it. And I've really started to appreciate the downtime it provides. Now if only it were May!

I didn't want to throw away the lemon and lime curd I had left over from last week's cake, so I decided to make thumbprint cookies. The first recipe I made was weirdly crumbly, and wouldn't even form balls to be formed into cookies. So I went to the old reliable, Martha. I used this recipe, with no hazelnuts. The cookies were the perfect complements to the super tart fillings.

Next, I was in the mood for cookies. Well, actually, I guess I was in the mood for cookies all week. This was a chocolate malt sandwich cookie from, you guessed it, Martha. Kelly chose them, and they were definitely tasty. SO RICH though. She took them to the Kansan, and I guess they were approved, because she said they were gone pretty quickly.


And, even though you can't tell immediately, this is totally a cookie. In cupcake form. I used to work at this coffe shop/bakery called Capers. Yes, I was a barista, and no, I don't like coffee. At all. But Capers did introduce me to the best cookie ever — the monster cookie. It's a peanut butter oatmeal cookie with chocolate chips and M&Ms. This Paula Deen recipe is the one I use when I make the cookies, minus the raisins (YUCK). So I felt like making them into a cupcake. These were peanut butter cupcakes (Martha again!) with chocolate chips and oats mixed in at the end. On top, at Kelly's suggestion, plain ol' vanilla swiss meringue buttercream, so not to conflict with the other flavors. And the crowning achievement: M&Ms. These are one of my more favorite cupcakes I've made lately. They will return! (Also, I posted these over at Hoosier Homemade's Cupcake Tuesday!)

In anticipation of family, friends and Shark Attacks

Have I talked before about how much I love Disney movies? And how I'm essentially a 5-year-old in a 23-year-old's body? Well, maybe not quite. But there's something charming and reassuring about Disney movies, especially after a hard day, or week, or whatever. I've been really down lately, for various reasons. I didn't bake for almost a week last week, which has to be a record. Luckily, I've had friends visit from far out of town lately, so that helped a bit. But I got home from work last night, and just felt like Disney. I put in Wall-E, one I haven't seen in a while. I forgot how charming this movie is. Wall-E hums along to "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" from "Hello, Dolly!" The song "La Vie en Rose" plays while he's cleaning up Earth — a song that is prominent in one of my all-time favorite movies, "Sabrina," with Audrey Hepburn (who is just classic and wonderful in every way too, and my love for her is illustrated by her movie posters in my room). Even "Don't Worry, Be Happy," plays in Wall-E's home. It's a little hard to be frustrated when such wonderful songs play during a cartoon movie about the demise of the world. Seriously. Now, I just have to make it a few more days of work, and it's off to some wonderful time with my grandma. I honestly cannot wait.


Well, anyway, last weekend, two of my very best friends from college came into town on the weekend of the KU-Colorado football game. I worked with Erin and Jodi my freshman and sophomore years at our college newspaper, and they were honestly two of the most fun people on staff. They were both older and graduated and moved states away, but they came back for the weekend (Erin is on my left and Jodi is on my right). It was so wonderful to have them back, especially for a game where we scored 35 points in the fourth quarter! That's some of the most entertaining I've seen in person for a while.


A tradition of ours was going to The Sandbar, my favorite local bar. The Sandbar's signature drink is something called a Shark Attack, a sort of blue tropical concoction that comes with a shark filled with grenadine that you pour into the glass and it looks like blood. Well, it's been an idea I've had for a while, but I decided to make shark attack cupcakes. I made a lemon cupcake recipe I like, mixing in a bit of curacao. I also tried to reduce down some, but let it go for too long. Know what happens when you cook it for too long? It turns hard, sort of candy-ish. And it burns when you touch it. Ask me how I know... Anyway, when they were done, I poked holes in the cupcakes with skewers and brushed more curacao over the top. Then, for the icing, I had to get some grenadine in, so I made swiss meringue buttercream and mixed greadine in (last time I made grenadine frosting it was for cherry limeade cupcakes with my normal buttercream, and it was WAY too heavy). Put a shark from Bake it Pretty on top, and it's done! My friends loved them, and so did the people at the bar, who I took them to. Debbi, who writes the blog for the bar, wrote about the cupcakes, twice! Makes me happy :)


Later that week, I needed some quality Aunt Betty time. While there, we made pecan pie cupcakes, my Daring Bakers submission for this month and buckeyes. Now, I'd never heard of buckeyes before they showed up in my blog roll from Smitten Kitchen. Being a peanut butter-lover, I HAD to try them. Apparently these are popular in Ohio, you know, the buckeyes being Ohio State's mascot and all. And a friend at work from Michigan knew what they were too. They were super easy and super tasty, although a bit rich. Not bad when you have just one (or five) though.


Then a few days ago I ran across this recipe for chocolate cookies with M&Ms. Sometimes, I just prefer a simple recipe like this. For these, my friend Liz was in town from Dallas (we didn't take any pictures, boo). It was great to see her, because I hadn't since we graduated. She and Kelly and I saw Morning Glory (a must-see for any journalism geek like myself), went shopping, and later we went out. Good times. Anyway, these cookies were great, and very brownie-like. We had to stop at the store to get M&Ms, and I asked if it was too early to use Christmas M&Ms. Some dude laughed at me...and I bought them anyway. So I'm guilty of early use of Christmas candy, whatever.

So, like I said, only a few days until my grandma's party. Actually, tomorrow is her actual birthday. And then I will have a movie marathon with family. I can't wait. It's been far too long.

Baking for my parents: Mountain Dew cupcakes, pudding cake + ice cream, raspberry lemonade cupcakes and blondies

Well, the Taurus has officially been retired as my car. I now have my grandma's old car, which is a year older than my former car, but has less than half the miles. Sounds great, right? Except for the whole thing that it's a manual...and like I said last week, I can't drive a manual. I took this car out, and I'm great with all parts of driving except for starting. Kind of an important part. I know I need to just go sit out in a parking lot and just practice. Guess that's what I will be doing next week. Any tips are appreciated :)


To get the car, I went to my dad's place on the city lake of Council Grove to spend some time with him, Cathie and Drew. I had a three-day weekend, and spending part of it away was the perfect thing to do. I was celebrating my dad's birthday, too, so of course I had to bring cupcakes! My dad is a Mountain Dew addict and he kind of imparted that on me. I've been wanting to try this Mountain Dew cupcake recipe for a while, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. It's funny, because there isn't really that much Mountain Dew in them. It's much more lemon and lime juice and zests of the two fruits. When you're finished eating them, though, it really does taste like Mountain Dew.

It was great to be at the lake, though. When my dad got this place, it had wood paneling, shag carpet, all kinds of '70s nastiness. My dad's the ultimate handyman, and so far he's put in wood floors, completely redone the living room, leveled the patio, leveled the back yard, put in all kinds of landscaping...well, he's done a lot. He's still going to build a deck, paint the house, maybe build more rooms. It's a perfect place to just chill. It was perfect weather, especially in the shade of their trees. I got some reading done, some relaxing done, some TV-season-watching done, and some time spent with doggies done. I actually read a young adult book, probably the first one since I read Harry Potter. It was the first in the Percy Jackson series; I wanted to read it after seeing the movie. Definitely a good YA book, especially for people like me who love mythology. Pretty sure I read the whole book in one night.


I also made a second dessert for the weekend — my dad's favorite dessert of all time. Pudding cake. It's from an old 1979 Betty Crocker cookbook and totally confuses me in its chemistry. You mix a cocoa cake in the base, then sprinkle cocoa and brown sugar on top and pour hot water over it. When it bakes, somehow the top part becomes the solid cake and the bottom becomes something like a cross between hot fudge and pudding. Combine that with some homemade vanilla custard (made from the book that came with the ice cream maker) and we had one tasty birthday dessert. Happy birthday Dad!


After the lake, we came home (in the car I can't quite drive) to go to a cookout with Mom at my aunt's house. Mom was on her way through town from Denver, and we wanted to do a cookout. I decided to create my own cupcakes from a mashup of multiple recipes I'd tried. The ultimate goal was raspberry lemonade cupcakes. First, I made this lemon cupcake recipe, which is a nice, strong cake. Then I made a syrup out of raspberry lemonade concentrate and poured it into the cupcakes like in these cherry limeade cupcakes. It's a great way to get more flavor in the cake. For the icing, I made a double batch of Martha Stewart's buttercream icing, the recipe for which I now have memorized (3 sticks butter, 4 cups powdered sugar and vanilla...real healthy!). Half of it I mixed in lemon juice, lemon zest, a little bit of lemon extract and some yellow coloring. The other half I mixed in more of the raspberry concentrate. Swirl together and top with a raspberry and a candied lemon peel (which Drew made again!) and we got some pretty neat looking cupcakes. My family loved them too. :) I'll post the whole recipe below.


I had to get one more baking day in before I leave for vacation, so last night I made a really quick and easy recipe: pretzel M&M blondies. Have you tried these new M&Ms? They're wonderful! And so is this recipe. It has a total of seven ingredients and takes no time to throw together. Apparently blondies aren't a common thing, but in case you didn't know, they're basically brownies without the chocolate. I promise, it's a good thing! These are definitely worth trying.

For the rest of the week I'm headed to Chicago (and hoping to hit up as many cupcake places as possible!). I'll take pictures for sure. I can't wait!


Raspberry lemonade cupcakes

For the cake (From My Baking Addiction):
makes 24 cupcakes

2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
4 large egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar
lemon zest from two lemons
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract

For the syrup (Adapted from Annie's Eats):
3/4 cup raspberry lemonade concentrate, thawed
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

Set oven to 350° F. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.

Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Add the butter and, working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light. Beat in the extracts, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed. Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated. Add the rest of the milk and eggs, beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.

Finally, give the batter a good 2-minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated. Place the batter into the cupcake tins. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until the cupcakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean. Cool on wire rack.

Mix syrup ingredients. Poke holes in cupcakes (I use a bamboo skewer). Use pastry brush to brush the syrup over cooled cupcakes, repeating until complete.

Frost accordingly. I would post a recipe for my frosting...but I just added flavoring until it tasted good!

Back to the basics: cookies

Okay, I admit it. I've been slacking a bit. For good reason though.

I was looking at my calendar and was really excited to see that I had nothing due next week. Super exciting, right? But moving on to the next week, it pretty much looks like the week from hell. My project runs (eek!), I have to send the Jayhawker (double eek!), I have a test in my lower level politics class and then a paper/presentation combo for my harder politics class. Um, crazy. I will be a hermit all week. On the good side of things, my project is nearing its edited completion. I just need to chop about 800 words off of it. Ha! I have a whole bunch of siders as well. Basically, it will be a behemoth. It will be super satisfying once it runs. I will totally post a link to it too.

It's really hard for me to believe that I graduate in five weeks. College has flown by, although right now it couldn't end fast enough. I'm really sick of homework and school when I'd rather be doing journalism stuff. I'm sure I'll miss school after I've been out of it for a while. Who knows, maybe I'll go back! Anyway, I'm excited for graduation weekend. My mom will be coming from Michigan and my dad and stepmom will be coming from Salina, with Grandma in tow! She turns 90 this year — can you believe it?! She used to live in Baldwin City right near Lawrence, but since we took her to Salina she hasn't been back to the area. So she hasn't seen me as a college student in Lawrence. I'm just happy she can come. I made my own graduation invitation because it was cheaper and prettier than those normal white ones. I'm glad I got that done before my big rush of stuff. Anyway, if I didn't send you one and you want to come to graduation, you're more than welcome :) I'm going to make KU cupcakes to celebrate, complete with red and blue polka-dotted cupcake papers and red and blue sprinkles I got from Bake It Pretty and then some KU pennant cupcake toppers. Red and blue frosting too, of course. If you have any flavor suggestions I'd love to hear them! I think I'll do some basic white and chocolate, and probably red velvet because it's my favorite, but maybe something else too. Hmmm.

Also, I got to see Mary this week! I haven't seen her in a couple months, and so we went to lunch at Free State with Kelly and Tara, then wandered around downtown, then visited the newsroom. Later was dinner at India Palace with Mark Dent (in town from Dallas!) and later she and Kelly watched Chuck while I attempted homework. I'm told I MUST watch the show. It's first on my list for post-graduation free time.

Speaking of free time, I've had very little, but I've still tried to bake a bit. Last weekend on Easter, Taylor, Liz, Sonya and I did a cookout. Chicken kabobs were yummy, as was the salad. I made basic chocolate chip M&M cookies, per Taylor's request. I don't often make simple cookies like that anymore, and I'd forgotten how tasty the dough and finished cookies are. And they were Easter M&Ms, so that counts as celebrating, right?

I made Rice Krispie eggs last week, and then found this great recipe on TasteSpotting (I really shouldn't check sites like this and foodgawker very often, because my recipe list piles up and I don't have time right now to make them all! Oh well). Anyway, it was a really yummy twist on Rice Krispie treats: Golden Graham treats. Basically the same thing but with chocolate drizzled on top and chocolate candies, for which I used Easter M&Ms again (they're kind of hard to resist, the M logo is made into a sheep or bunny or duck or chick!). It's basically a version of a s'more and super easy to make.

So then I took a bit of time to work on my project. I've kind of been scrambling to finish the draft completely, so on Wednesday, after skipping both classes, I just got up and wrote. It was the first time I was in my groove, which was really nice. For celebration's purposes, I went out to the Sandbar since I can't really go out on weekends right now and was tired of sitting at home. It was a nice night, with me, Liz, Sonya and Taylor again, but the male-to-female ratio was like 80-20. Kind of interesting. So when I got home from that at 12:30, it seemed like a good idea to make more cookies, this time Smitten Kitchen's peanut butter cookies again but with only Reeses Pieces stirred in. I think this is my favorite peanut butter cookie recipe, and the dough is super yummy. I took these to the newsroom, which is still the best way to get rid of food.

So we'll see how much I bake this week. Probably not a whole lot. I got my new Martha Stewart magazine in the mail yesterday (my Valentine's Day gift from Mom!), and it has this recipe in it that I really want to try: rhubarb upside-down cake. I'm a big fan of rhubarb. When you cook it with sugar it's like nature's Sweet Tart. And it's a super pretty color. I did some hunting, and I guess rhubarb isn't in season until May, so I guess I'll have to wait. Boo. Luckily, though, the Farmers' Market opened this morning, so when I get off from work on a Friday in May I'll just go over there and get it right at opening! It's actually quite convenient. There's no way I'd be up otherwise.

Well, it's off to work on that pile of responsibilities I have!

Red velvet and tractor generators

I find that the farther into the semester I get, the less I want to do. I kind of just want to sleep. Things I managed to do this weekend: margaritas at Salty with Mark, Allison and crew, a little bit of homework, bake cookies, go to a KU game, hang out with Mark and crew before they leave, bake a cake with my cousin's daughter, bake cheesecake, get a stomachache, get a fever. Sounds like a lot I suppose, now looking at it.

Drew, Billy and I went to Salty Iguana on Friday to meet Mark and everyone he was with, but we had to wait more than an hour because they got in a little wreck. Margaritas helped make up that extra time though. I went home to do reading for classes and made basic chocolate chip and M&M cookies. Classic.

The next day was lunch at Dempsey's with everyone and the KU game. I think the truffle fries might be one of my favorite foods when I eat out. Then was KU vs. Iowa State. We seem to only play to the level of the people we're playing, so the games always stay uncomfortably close. Fun time though. Then everyone just hung out. AC and Julie were in town from Kansas City to go to the game and see Mark, and Matthias, our friend in the Air Force, is in town for two weeks. We haven't seen him since he graduated two years ago. Good times.

Sunday morning, I went over to my aunt's house, where my cousin and her daughter were visiting. We made Joy of Cooking's red velvet cake (heart-shaped for Valentine's Day) with Martha Stewart's cream cheese frosting. A mixing of mediums, if you will. I guess I'm getting more into cakes. Probably time to get more cake decorating stuff. Anyway, it was REALLY red. And really tasty. My aunt started telling stories of being sneaky and sometimes obnoxious in college, like when the girls in the dorm room below her started bothering her.

We started talking about funny stories, which makes me think of one of my favorite family stories. My grandpa was a farm boy and went to camp one summer. For whatever reason (perhaps it's a sign of the times) he brought along a tractor generator. The kid in the bunk above him was a preacher's son, apparently an annoying kid. So before they went to bed, my grandpa and one of his friends stitched the kid's sheets with copper wire. After the kid went to sleep, they hooked up the wire to the generator and ZING! the kid was shocked. They heard his head hit the ceiling. Then he'd go back to sleep, and a little while later they'd shock him again. They did it all night until morning. The kid woke up, and started talking about this crazy dream he had. He'd thought he'd been struck by lightning. My grandpa was kind of ornery :). That's him in the picture, when he was in the Army Air Corps. Ornery and military.

Anyway, after Aunt Betty's came Valentine's Day stuff. Originally, I was planning to make three kinds of ravioli for a sampler kind of thing, but I just didn't have the energy. So we just did steak and scalloped potatoes, with little personal cheesecakes for dessert. Drew's mom got me these mini heart-shaped springform pans that had a recipe for cheesecake on the back. Then I made a pineapple sauce to go on top, a la Emeril Lagasse. I actually put the sauce through the food processor so it wasn't giant chunks of pineapple.

My next goal is rainbow cake, which Kelly sent me the link to. I can't wait! I wonder if it dyes your tongue a weird color...