Christmas break baking: cake pops, meringues, spritzers, peanut butter cookies and Trix bark

With the amount of sweets sitting in my grandma's fridge right now, I could feed a small Kansas town. It's a little ridiculous. So far I've taken cookies to two of her neighbors and introduced my dad's employees to cake pops. Before I talk more about that, some good news.


I won Hoosier Homemade's Holiday Cupcake Challenge! I'm super excited about it. It was a really good excuse for trying some great new cupcake flavors: eggnog, pecan pie, chocolate peppermint and champagne. Thanks to Kelly, who helped me come up with the flavors. I will definitely be making a few of these again.


I've been taking care of all my Christmas traditions lately. This Sunday, my friend Lauren and I went to see the KC Ballet's production of The Nutcracker. She used to dance in her company's production of it, and I have gone to see it every year since...well, I don't know how long. Probably since I was about 5. Mom and I used to go, and then more recently I dragged a boyfriend along, but going with Lauren was perfect, except for the bratty little kid sitting next to her. Sigh. This picture is an old tradition that we don't do anymore, but was still fun when we did. My mom worked at Plymouth Congregational Church for 17 years, and it was a beautiful old building. Every Christmas they had a day of decorating, and my dad and I were unstoppable, because we didn't need a ladder to reach the things that were high up! I'm not sure we could manage that nowadays.


I did a bit of baking last week before coming back to Salina for my psuedo-Christmas break. First, a Christmas present for my friend Tim, who I made Boston Creme Pie for after his birthday. The last time I was at Tim's, there were about four empty bowls on his table that had been filled with Trix at some point, so when I came across this recipe for Trix candy bark, I knew I had to make it for him. It's my understanding it's not going to last very long.


I took these cookies into work (and I absolutely had to go for the Sesame Street fabric...yes I'm a 5-year-old sometimes). They're plain old peanut butter with chocolate chips and peanut butter chips. Always a hit.


Now for the baking at Grandma's. Pretty sure I packed up about half of my kitchen, including my KitchenAid, for my trip back to Salina. First up were cake pops, and these are easily the best ones I've done thus far. Red, green and gold sparkles. Dad's employees loved them!


Then spritzer cookies with the cookie gun Aunt Betty gave me. The recipe makes a gazillion cookies, so I've had to hand some out. I don't think the neighbors mind :)


Then some peppermint meringues with a chocolate frosting filling. Needless to say, Grandma's fridge is full right now. And I came to find that today is national cupcake day. I'm going to have to make up for that later. More holiday baking to come!

Two pops + two cupcakes = three desserts

I'm in the middle of a three-day weekend, which was definitely needed. The good news is I can finally drive myself places, so that's nice. It's the weekend of seeing people I haven't seen in forever. I had lunch with my friend Anne yesterday, who has been busy with school for a while. Friends are in town from Colorado, who we haven't seen in months. And then my aunt comes through town on her way up to see my mom. It's nice to see everyone, because it's been sort of strange finishing school. I'm sure this is how everyone who stays in their college town feels. Everyone I spent a lot of time with has moved away, save a few who I'm very grateful are still around. I know it's just a part of growing up, and now it's time to make new friends and try hard to stay in touch with old ones. But it's still strange. So here's to keeping in touch with people. I definitely intend to.


I went for a second go at cake pops this week. They are easily one of the most fun desserts to eat. I mean, come on, who doesn't love cake+frosting+candy+sprinkles in a bite-sized dessert? I have an ultimate football season goal though. I want to take these Sesame Street Big Bird cake pops by Bakerella and edit them into Jayhawks for tailgating. Doable? I have no idea. But I'm going to try. First, though, I had to make manageable plain pops, so that was my goal this time. I'm getting better at dipping them, which definitely takes a technique. I made these smaller than my last ones, which were larger than bite-size and incredibly hard to manage. I'm definitely getting better. We'll see if I get to Jayhawk-level, though.


I took a little break from baking through the beginning of the week, mostly because I was pretty much sleeping any time I wasn't at work. But then I decided to make another cereal-style cupcake. This time? Honeycomb. I didn't eat it regularly as a kid, but I got it the other day at the store, and it's soooo tasty! I thought it would be great to try. I made a honey cupcake featured in Martha's Cupcake book (which I got spiral bound this week...best decision EVER). Then some cream cheese icing on top, flavored with a tiny bit of honey, and one honeycomb on top. The cakes were REALLY honey-y, so I'm glad I didn't use honey buttercream on top too. I brought them to work on election night, which is apparently a night full of treats. It was fun though, and strange to walk into a newsroom full of people. It will be interesting when it's not the primaries anymore and the real deal.


A couple nights ago Drew and I went to four different grocery stores to find ingredients for these cupcakes I saw on the Confessions of a Cookbook Queen blog: bomb pop cupcakes. How great an idea is that? Definitely perfect for these 100-degree days. Anyway, the recipe called for cherry and raspberry extracts, which were not easy to find. A trip to Target, Wal-Mart (they have a surprisingly large supply of extracts), Dillons and Hy-Vee later, I had my ingredients and was ready to go. I used my favorite lemon cupcake recipe, edited with a little lime juice and lime zest like the bomb pop recipe said to do. When they're done, the recipe said to pour a mix of raspberry Jello powder and boiling water over the top, so you end up with a sort of lemon-lime-raspberry cupcakes. Then, for the frosting, you do three different flavors, just like normal Bomb Pops. The blue was raspberry, the white was lime (flavored with lime juice) and the red was cherry. A popsicle stick on top and they're done!

I made these cupcakes for Matt and Sarah getting here from Colorado. They were good friends on the Kansan and we don't see them hardly ever. Today, Sarah and I are getting pedicures — it's my first one! I can't wait. And then, I go from being a super girly girl to not...as in, I'm covering the demolition derby. I cannot even articulate how excited I am about this! The demo derby is one of my favorite things to go to during the summer. You skip the whole racing cars part and just see the crashes. I'm going to put a new spin on the story, I hope. We'll see how it turns out!

Cinnamon Toast Crunch cupcakes: A new leg in the cereal cupcake marathon, plus some yummy cookies

I know it's been a while since I've written. But it's summer, right? I'm allowed to take time off. At least that's what I tell myself. Anyway, with the trip to Chicago and work, my schedule got all off last week. So I blog now! Just because I haven't written doesn't mean I haven't been baking though, of course. You knew that though.

My plan was to have a bunch of cupcakes in Chicago and talk about those places, but the trip got cut short unexpectedly, so instead I made my own desserts. I did have one cupcake at Sweet Mandy B's bakery in Lincoln Park. It was a creamsicle cupcake, and definitely tasty. It was pretty fun to eat it in the bakery, t00, which was painted all in pastel colors and very dollhouse-ish. It's not a bakery that focuses on cupcakes, so not that many were available. Not bad for an orange cupcake though.

When I got home, I decided to make a cookie recipe I've been itching to try for a while now. I'm a huge fan of sesame seeds (sesame seed bagels are the only way to go! unless there's asiago too). I found a recipe for sesame cookies from Atlantic Kitchen while browsing and thought they looked really tasty. They called for white and black sesame seeds, though, and I hadn't found black sesame seeds until a recent trip to Dean and Deluca. On a side note, if I were a millionaire, I'd probably buy everything in that store. A-MAZ-ing. Anyway, armed with two colors of sesame seeds, I made these cookies. It called for three kinds of sugar: white, brown and vanilla. I didn't have a vanilla bean handy to make the vanilla sugar and didn't feel like waiting, so vanilla extract it was. The only way I can describe the flavor is that it tastes like fall. People at work were a little reluctant to try them, but ended up liking them. They're nice and chewy inside but the sesame seeds gave some crunch. Definitely on my list of things to make again.

That day I also got a request for plain old chocolate chip cookies. I don't make plain things very often, so when I make them I always get the yummy surprise of how tasty chocolate chip cookie dough is. Mmmmm. I think my baking instincts have gotten better, because I took them out and they were perfect. Also a huge hit at work.

I made a couple other things too, but nothing super yummy that I haven't made before. But then I decided to make devil's food cupcakes for Kelly's birthday. She's a big Toy Story fan, so I made ones with her favorite dino on top. The cake has sour cream, which seems kind of weird, but it cuts the sweet just a touch and makes for a really tasty cupcake.

Then I created my own cupcakes. Kelly came over to help. My friend Taylor suggested I try more cereal cupcakes after making Fruity Pebbles ones, so these were Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I decided to make my favorite yellow cake recipe from Smitten Kitchen, as usual. I've had a hard time figuring out how much batter to put in cupcakes without them overflowing, because the cake rises a lot. This time I put two cookie scoops, and they turned out perfectly! Add some crushed cereal, a cinnamon icing and some cereal on top, and we have Cinnamon Toast Crunch cupcakes. Wait until right before eating them to put the garnish of the cereal, though, because they get soggy sitting there. These were a hit too :)

Cinnamon Toast Crunch cupcakes

For the cake (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

This is half of her recipe, because otherwise you end up with a gazillion cupcakes. Mine made about 20.

2 cups plus 1 tablespoon cake flour (not self-rising)
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup buttermilk, well-shaken
1 handful Cinnamon Toast Crunch, crushed into chunks

Preheat oven to 350°F. Put cupcake liners into tin.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl after each addition. At low speed, beat in buttermilk until just combined (mixture will look curdled). Add flour mixture in three batches, mixing until each addition is just incorporated. Fold in crushed cereal. Put into prepared tins (like I said, I did two cookie scoops, which is like half full).

Bake until golden brown, which is generally a little longer than 15 minutes. Just watch it.

For the frosting (Adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcake Book):
3 sticks butter, softened
4 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Ground cinnamon, to taste

Beat butter until light and creamy. Add powdered sugar about 1 cup at a time. After adding each batch, increase speed and beat heavily for about 10 seconds (this makes the frosting lighter). After all sugar is added, add vanilla and cinnamon to taste.

Frost cupcakes, top with cereal. Yum!

Also, last night my team won at trivia. It was fun! I've been going on Sunday nights when I don't work, but we haven't won yet. This time we did, and that means money. Woo hoo! My claim to fame: knowing that "Saludos Amigos" is the 1942 Disney film that's only 42 minutes long but still considered a featured animated film. If you know me well, it probably doesn't surprise you that I possess that knowledge :). And, on a final note, here's what Kansas looked like after a storm last week. Oh, Kansas summer.

To either end of the spectrum: Fruity Pebbles cupcakes and vegan cupcakes, plus cheesecake and bars

It's been a busy week baking-wise for me, and I did something I've absolutely never done before: baked something vegan! On request, of course. I like cooking with eggs and dairy most of the time.

I've pretty much just been working recently, with a couple days off thrown in there. I'm counteracting all my baking by ramping up my gym attendance. I just joined a new one and have started going after work at like 6:30 a.m. It's the perfect time to go, because hardly anyone is there and if I just went home, I'd still be awake anyway. Might as well tire myself out so I can go home and fall asleep right away, right?


This week only half of my baking has been cupcakes...which is a step down from last week. I started by making triple citrus bars, something that had been on my dessert list to try for a while. Plus, I got a new zester, so I had to put it to good use! The bars had an animal cracker crust, something I'd never made before. Definitely didn't follow directions the first time and it was waaaay too butter. Try two, though, was fine. I had a lot of try two's this week. Anyway, these had orange, lemon and lime zest in them, plus orange, lemon and lime juice. Not my favorite bar dessert ever, but still not bad.


Before I took the bars into work, I stopped by a friend's house. He has cancer, and he's younger than me. I went to kindergarten with him, and school through eighth grade. He was my first crush ever. He was a runner. He's since gotten married and has an adorable boy. He has always been one of the healthiest people I know. He's not someone I keep in touch with regularly, but a mutual friend said people were coming over to see him before he finished his chemo, and I wanted to show I was thinking of him. I guess this is all part of growing up though; dealing with these horrible things.


My friend Sarah from work had a birthday this week, and I told her I would make her cupcakes for the event. She requested vegan, which is a pretty foreign concept to me. But I'm an avid watcher of Cupcake Wars on Food Network (big surprise, right?) and the most recent winner when she asked had been a vegan baker. I remembered I'd seen one of her recipes while going through my baking blogs, so I decided to try it: creme-filled chocolate orange cupcakes. With no dairy. Eek! Ultimately, the recipe wasn't that different from a normal cupcake, baking the cake with oil instead of eggs. It did introduce me to an unfamiliar oil, though. Coconut. It is not my friend. The consistency is strange to me and it took a take two to get it right. But a nice chocolate cake baked up, so whatever. Then I made orange butter-less buttercream to fill it, dairy-less ganache to top it and candied orange peel for a garnish. It might have been the biggest mess I've ever made in the kitchen, but ultimately worth it. They turned out tasty! I think I'll use this girl's recipes if I ever get a vegan request again.


On one of my days off, Drew and I had some good friends from school come over and eat dinner. For that, I made pink lemonade cheesecake, another sweet that had been tempting me from my bookmarks. Drew helped, and he actually candied the lemon peel all by himself. I can officially add that to his list of kitchen skills. I thought it was pretty tasty, too. Good summer dessert.


Then today, I was watching the newer episode of Cupcake Wars and got inspired to bake again. I was planning to make belated birthday cupcakes for my friend Nick at work, and I thought it would be a perfect time to use my Flintstones cupcake toppers from Bake It Pretty. So I decided to make Fruity Pebbles cupcakes...ya know, because it's the Flintstones cereal? So I made my favorite yellow cake recipe, mixed in some Fruity Pebbles, frosted them and dipped them in more Fruity Pebbles. I thought they were so cute! And not as ridiculously sweet as you'd think, either. Not bad for no recipe!

So now I will need to branch out. I'm thinking Cap'n Crunch cupcakes maybe? More vegan? Or cake pops... I will have to work up more courage to try those!

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!