Celebration summer: cake pops, strawberry cupcakes and pineapple pie

I've been feeling very grown up lately. There's a lot of really positive things going on that have led to that, but at the same time, I've had some harsh reminders of how quickly life changes. The nice thing is that with the bad, always comes good. And one of my latest pieces is really friggin' exciting: I'm going to be a maid of honor again! I told you a couple weeks ago that one of my best friends, Tara, got engaged, she asked me to be her maid of honor. I could NOT be more excited! She and her fiancé love each other very much, and I can't wait to see them get married. Luckily, I've got some time to prepare for it!


Most of the desserts on this post were for some sort of celebration, like Tara's wedding. Except, of course, this one. This one I just made because I'm a sucker for recipes that get tweeted, especially by a celebrity. I loved Michelle Branch as a kid, and still do. I follow her on Twitter, and she tweeted about this pineapple brown sugar pie. I love pineapple. But I will admit, this pie worried me at first. It was pretty runny when I took it out to put the crumble on top. I will also admit: I cheated on the crust. I bought it. Sue me. Anyway, it tasted great. I'm making this again. Maybe for the Fourth.

Celebration #1: Birthday cupcakes for a family member of someone at work. I've always wanted to make these strawberry cupcakes with strawberry meringue frosting from Martha Stewart. Geri at work asked me to make strawberry pink cupcakes, so I did! There are two packs of strawberries in the whole batch. Very, very tasty.

And the final celebration: birthday cake pops. My friend Nick was one of the first people I ever did a birthday sweet for. Last year I made him Fruity Pebbles cupcakes. Since last year, he has discovered cake pops and fallen in love. He requested two flavors, chocolate and yellow cake. That results in about 100 cake pops, so I took half to my new newsroom. They went over well there. And when I delivered these to Nick last night, he ate about four right away. I'd say they went over well with him, too!

(Posting this on Cupcake Tuesday!)

Fruit + citrus: Lemon and lime curd cake, pineapple cookies and strawberry shortcake cookies

So on Sunday, my useless ability to remember ridiculous lyrics came in handy, if only for a second or two. I played trivia for the first time in a while. I'm fully aware my use is fairly limited to Disney trivia, and I occasionally come through on some random other things. For one category on Sunday, the host asked who was on the sideline during Don McLean's "American Pie." Anyone? Anyone? Well, despite being unable to memorize geography for my Politics of Africa class or memorize works of art for art history in college, I can remember song lyrics like nobody's business.


Actually, in fourth grade, we learned our 6, 7, 8 and 9 multiplication tables to songs, and I still sing them in my head when I'm thinking about it. Grandma is always astounded when I know words to songs, ranging from Katy Perry to songs from "Singin' in the Rain." I'm glad this talent is so useful...but on Sunday, it gave me the Jester. We didn't win, but whatever. At least I got that question!

I guess the theme of this post is fruit. Because everything I made had some sort of fruit in it (and the cookies I have in the oven now are the same). I must be pining for spring and summer foods. Anyway, I used to hate pineapple, but it's grown on me as I've gotten older. I made pineapple cookies ones during Christmas, and then recently I ran across this recipe. As I'm sure you've all figured out, I'm a sucker for all things nostalgic, and the recipe obviously was for the author of the blog. So I made them at Aunt Betty's, and they were amazing. Pineapple makes a cookie so moist and awesome! Especially with a glaze.


My dad's a big fan of strawberry shortcake, so when I saw a recipe for strawberry shortcake cookies, I had to make them too. While they were tasty, they fell apart easily. I think we should have baked them longer (which would have meant following the recipe). But they were gone quick at the newsroom, so I suppose people liked them! I need to make real strawberry shortcake sometime soon.


My last fruit attempt was the cake at the top, which sliced into this. Recently, a local bakery that is closing had a sale, and I made away like a bandit with some great stuff, including a rotating cake decorating stand. I naturally wanted to make a cake, and I wanted some citrus in it, so Aunt Betty and I made my favorite three-layer white cake. Then Aunt Betty actually found a recipe for microwavable curd, which was waaaay easy. We made that lemon one, then adapted it to lime. I have to admit, the cake slid around a bit when we put it together, hence the curd coming out the middle in the picture at top. But it turned out pretty I think! I'm also fairly certain I don't have the patience to decorate cakes often. But I'm more than happy to make curd regularly. Bring on summer!

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...

Two days of baking, seven Christmas treats

Ah the holidays. How....uncomfortable you can be.

I drove back to Salina yesterday to beat the weather....that still hasn't hit Salina. It's come to Lawrence though, so I suppose leaving early was actually a good idea. Coming back, though, I'm still not so sure about. For one, I had a completely full car, including seven varieties of baked goods (yup! I said seven), all my Christmas presents for family, two blankets and a pillow, clothes, and the ever-whiny cat. Couple that with rainy/foggy weather, and it's can be an interesting 2-hour drive.

The older I get, though, the more I realize I only like part of the holidays. I love the baking, decorating and gift purchasing. I hate the actual day. Last night I went out to a bar in Salina, and throughout the course of the night there were at least 100 people from my high school there. Some were people I hadn't seen in forever and was happy about, but others were people I sort of recognized but couldn't place their names. I also found out my ex-boyfriend got engaged, which is doubly weird. We dated for four years, and for a while thought we would get married. It could have been me getting that ring last night, although I'm glad it wasn't. There are so many people getting engaged right now that I feel like I should be; after all, Drew and I have been together for as long as my ex and his girlfriend have. But I know I'm not ready for that. Not for a while.

I had nothing to do a couple days ago, and decided to go on a baking extravaganza. Last Christmas I brought cookies home that Drew's mom had made, but I wanted to bring home my own this year. I started with chocolate chunk cookies that I found in the Food Network magazine. They were one of the most labor-intensive cookies I've ever made because the dough isn't very sticky. I had to form each individual cookie, because it was more chunk (chocolate, white chocolate, M&M and cashew) than cookie. They were yummy though.

The next day was my big baking day. First it was pizzelles again to take to my grandma. I had Drew put them on the iron, and I've found he has quite a talent for it. I think I know what his job will be from now on. :)

Then it was my mom's old no-bake butterscotch cookies (essentially these minus the peanuts). We used to make them when I was little. They're super easy and only four ingredients, but get really hard to stir. You melt butterscotch chips in a pan, then add peanut butter and later marshmallows. The marshmallows make it really tough to stir, and then you add chow mein noodles. They're soooo rich but so yummy.

Then came one of my favorite recipes: peanut butter brownies. This is easily one of my favorite recipes, one I found on another baking blog. They go pretty quick too once you set people on them. They're basically brownies with chocolate and peanut butter chips in them. You bake them in muffin tins, then let them fall and fill the void with peanut butter. Top them off with chocolate and peanut butter chips and you're set! I went for the more festive vibe and did Christmas M&Ms.

I made three things I never had before as well. As you can tell, I baked for like a solid five hours. First were pineapple cookies with pineapple glaze from my Golden Book of Cookies. They are super moist from the crushed pineapple in them. Then I made biscotti a la Bobby Flay. It has blue and yellow cornmeal and pistachios. It's supposed to have Sambuca, a licorice-flavored liqueur, but I didn't have any of that and wasn't about to buy it (yuck!) so did Triple Sec instead. Last, I made chocolate-dipped pretzels. Mmmm.

Now I just need to figure out who's going to eat all this food. I'm not sure I'll be here as long as was planned.