Cookie dough cupcakes, peanut butter chocolate cookies and cake pops

It seems like the farther I get away from college (and the more free time I have...there's a connection), the more I get into movies. Which is why Oscar season is exciting. I saw The Artist a couple days after the Best Picture nominees were announced, and I have to say, it's totally great. For a silent film, it uses sound masterfully. Another favorite so far is Midnight in Paris. To be honest, I've never seen a Woody Allen film before this, but I love historical fiction, and this was throwing a lot of great characters (both Ernest Hemingway and Salvador Dali are fantastic) into one story. I've gotta admit, though, there are a couple I have no desire to see. The Tree of Life? No thanks.

I've been really into basic cookies lately. Maybe because they're simple, quick and always a hit...I've been crazy busy lately but still want to bake, so they're a good solution. And these are my favorite peanut butter cookie recipe from Smitten Kitchen. A few hours in the office and they were all gone.

A few friends who will remain nameless (but who LOVE cake pops) requested these a couple weekends ago, and for the first time I enlisted my dad and stepmom's help making them. Thank goodness, too, because we made three different flavors, which means about 150 pops. So my dad helped roll them out and manned the sprinkle station. The red ones were red velvet, the orange were chocolate and the yellow were yellow cake. It was great making them with Dad and Cathie, because it was so hilarious watching them. They loved testing the mixtures and tasting the frosting.

And with another classic, I made these chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes from Annie's Eats. These were always a hit at the Journal-World but I'd never taken them into the Biz Journal. They take a few more steps than normal cupcakes, but it's worth it. They're chocolate chip cupcakes that are stuffed with an eggless cookie dough. What I think makes them, though, is the cookie dough-flavored icing. SO tasty.

Halloween 1: Halloween Oreo cheesecakes, plus funk cupcakes and beignets

Sometimes, I just start itching for travel. Okay, not sometimes, often. I admit it, I'm a travel addict. I love going places to visit friends, sample food, just do whatever. In the last year, because I've transitioned jobs, I haven't traveled as much as I did during college. But I have been to Chicago and New York City in 2011 so far. But this week, I add another city, one I haven't been to since my sophomore year of high school: Salt Lake City. Apparently, there's a chance of snow in the area this week. It was like 87 here yesterday. But one of my best friends, Keane, lives there, so we're going to hang out for a few days. I can't wait! Plus, I know the area is beautiful, I bet especially right now when we're still in autumn.

My first journalism internship was at the Lawrence Journal-World, where I would end up working. I worked up on the features desk, writing stories like this one about all the animals in downtown Lawrence businesses and about the kids who grew up with Harry Potter. Later I would be hired full-time down in the news section, but I've always loved my features desk I started with. One of my editors from back then, Christy, left the JW a couple weeks ago, and Trevan, another editor who works with her, asked me to make her cupcakes. It seemed only natural to make funk cupcakes, which Christy had suggested once before. These are a little more wild and brightly colored than the last ones, but still the same concept: red velvet cupcakes (crushed velvet), rainbow frosting and some interesting wrappers. (Posting these funk cupcakes on Hoosier Homemade's Cupcake Tuesday.)

Something I wanted to try when I made my 2011 baking goals (which I've fallen miserably behind on) was beignets. I've never been to New Orleans, but that's supposedly the place to have the best beignets. They're basically doughnuts, only smothered in powdered sugar. What could be wrong with that? Absolutely nothing. I'm glad I made them with Aunt Betty, because they definitely take two people. You put them in the oil and flip them continuously (and they puff up!) for just a couple minutes before you take them out and douse them in sugar. They were amazing. Now I just need to go taste the real thing in NOLA.

I'm hoping to do a bunch of Halloween treats during the month of October. Here's my first: Halloween Oreo cheesecakes. I've made the cheesecakes before, and these are just made with Halloween Oreos. Definitely worth a try. Also, with each Halloween baked good, I've got a photo to post of a childhood costume that I found while visiting Mom last time. So here goes: 

Pirate girl. I remember a lot of those pieces making appearances later on in dress-up games. So happy Halloween month!

24th birthday celebration

Sunday was my 24th birthday, but I celebrated it (for the most part) on Saturday. It was an incredibly long day, but filled with great time with family and my wonderful friends.

During the day, Dad, Cathie and I went to the homecoming game at KU, and Kelly joined us there. Both my mom and dad went to KU (and both returned for graduate degrees), and I went to preschool on campus and grew up in Lawrence. KU is pretty much in my blood. My dad played in the homecoming band this weekend and had a blast (he plays sousaphone). We played — and lost to —Texas Tech, but it was a great day for football!

They even had a couple people parachute into the stadium! Very cool.

After the game was a cookout at my friends Joe and Brianne's house, full of burgers and kebabs. I had to make myself a birthday cake, which might be cheating, but I knew what I wanted: red velvet cake. I used a new recipe from my new Bobby Flay cookbook for the cake, then a classic cream cheese frosting. It was awesome and totally decadent, and I got to share it with some of my favorite people in the whole world.

And on my actual birthday, yesterday, my great server at Yard House gave me this: peach apple cobbler with caramel ice cream. Well, technically, I ordered it, but she put in the candle and the birthday part. So nice!

Thank you to my family and wonderful friends who made this birthday great!

Butterbeer cupcakes, fruit pie and red velvet holiday cupcakes

In the last few weeks, I've been to the lake for the Fourth of July, packed up my entire house and moved. I took a couple days off of work, and with the help of my dad, stepmom, aunt and uncle, moved to a city about an hour from where I lived. My mom and her boyfriend stayed behind to clean my old house while the rest of us loaded stuff into what looked like far too small an apartment. In fact, it is not. There's lots of nice nooks and crannies for my stuff. It's not quite put together yet, but apparently this stuff takes time. And now my commute has been cut down from one hour to about five minutes! So yes, I've been absent from here for a bit, but I promise it was for a good reason!

So that means a couple of my desserts this week were for Fourth of July celebrating, like this fruit pie. I've never made it before, but Aunt Betty suggested it. It was a basic sugar cookie dough with a topping made with cream cheese, whipped cream and sugar. Pretty basic, but very tasty, and an excellent way to use fresh fruit from the summer.

For the Fourth, I wanted to make red velvet cupcakes, but lemme tell you, these were not easy cupcakes. The thing about camp is that it's relaxed, and you don't stay there full time, so you don't have all the ingredients needed for things. We have a neighbor, Eddie Mae, who cooks a lot, and thank goodness for her. I think I went to her house three separate times for these cupcakes. I needed a cupcake tin, and then buttermilk and corn starch (to make my own cake flour!), and then more vegetable oil. Luckily, after all that, they turned out quite well!

These I made as my first cupcakes in my new apartment! I'm still learning the oven, so it's going to take lots of practice. They're butterbeer cupcakes, in honor of Harry Potter. No, I haven't seen the new movie yet. I'm rereading the whole series so I can remember the story better first, and I'm on book three. So just give me some time :) These cupcakes were wonderful, and even the non-butterscotch lovers liked them! The cake was a mix of cream soda (mmmmmm!) with vanilla and butter flavoring, and a nice butterscotch icing and butterscotch ganache.

(Posting these cupcakes on Cupcake Tuesday!)

Back to elementary school: Dirt 'n' worms cupcakes, plus vanilla bean pound cake and purple velvet cupcakes

I'm sure I've talked before about how I love old movies. So many of them are wonderful stories without having to blow shit up, like so many new movies do. I especially love watching them with my Grandma, for which they're just normal and not old. Last weekend, I watched "It's a Wonderful Life" for the first time. Yes, I know it's past Christmas. And no, I don't care. I think that movie sealed the deal for me too — Jimmy Stewart could very well be my favorite actor. He's so down-home and lovable in every movie, whether he's talking to a 6-foot-tall imaginary rabbit or a reporter. Seriously, if you've never seen a movie with him in it, go get one. Now. I recommend "The Philadelphia Story" or "Harvey."

I'd been itching to make this vanilla bean pound cake for weeks, and had never gotten around to it. When I visited Grandma, I decided to make it there. It's always a little interesting finding what I need there, because she doesn't really cook any more. It never fails, though, that when she sits out in the kitchen with me, she brings up her mom's mile-high angel food cake. Mmmm. This pound cake was pretty good, especially the glaze with amaretto in it.

Remember being in elementary school and for special parties you'd get dirt 'n' worms? I wanted to make that into a cupcake. The anatomy of one of these is as follows: Oreo on the bottom + my favorite chocolate cupcake + instant chocolate pudding for filling + fudge frosting + Oreo crumbles (via food processor) + a couple gummy worms = dirt 'n' worms cupcakes. They definitely weren't lacking in chocolate, but they were incredibly messy to eat. Guess that's the point of being a kid, eh?

My web editor at work, Whitney, is putting together a bridal shower for her brother's fiance. She asked me to make cupcakes, and that's what I did! The bride's colors are black and purple (I will try to not think about what state school those go with). I got my favorite baking cups from Bake It Pretty and made purple velvet cupcakes. Pretty snazzy!

Hopeful for spring: lemon whipping cream pound cake, homemade Tagalongs and my belated St. Patrick's Day cupcakes

Sometimes, I can be ornery. I blame my dad, but mostly my grandparents for that. A few weeks ago, my dad and Cathie were in Washington, D.C. One of their many stops was to Arlington, where they found the grave of my grandpa's friend Shorty. That's Grandpa, in the middle of that picture. He was ridiculously ornery, but I think his friends were worse. Apparently one time, Shorty sent my grandpa a telegram that said "Help." This was during the war when Shorty was back in LA and my grandpa in Utah on a base. So what did my grandpa do? Loaded up one of their B-24s (think big fat bomber) and picked him up in Los Angeles. Didn't even shut down the airplane, he just ran to it while it was running and entered through the bomb bay. I can't even imagine what merited that sort of pickup, but I suppose I'll never know! I love hearing stories like that about my family. Not only does it show that my grandpa had a sense of humor, but he was fiercely loyal. I can admire that.


It's been a while since I've written a regular blog post. So I have a backup of stuff I've made. First, late I know, is my St. Patrick's Day cupcakes. I made green velvet cupcakes (simply edited with green food coloring) with a cream cheese icing. These were my first hi-hat cupcakes, even though I posted the baby shower ones first. The icing has to be chilly, and you dip them in candy melt. These were awesome. Best of all, they got glowing reviews from a coworker's son. He said they broke a record — the record for best cupcake ever. Previously held by the Thin Mint cupcakes. Adorable.


In anticipation of spring, I decided to make this lemon whipping cream pound cake at Aunt Betty's last week. When we were reading through the recipe, we realized there was no leavening. Now, I know a pound cake is generally heavy. But so heavy it doesn't rise at all? So we looked at comparable recipes and they said we needed baking powder. Well, we added some, and part of the cake fell anyway. Who the heck knows what happened. But, the nice thing about bundts is that they're baked upside-down. No mistakes to be seen here! With a nice, tart lemon glaze on top, this was a perfect hint of spring.


And everyone knows how awesome Girl Scout cookie season is. So I knew I had to make these homemade tagalongs when I saw them. They're a little difficult, in the sense that even when you get the cookie in the middle made, dipping them with peanut butter into the chocolate is hard. Peanut butter is sticky, in case everyone didn't know that :) And to be really tagalong-like, they need to be refrigerated so the chocolate doesn't stick to the parchment paper when they're done. What made these cookies extra special though? I got to give them to my cousin Jon on his birthday, which also happened to be the day he proposed to his wonderful girlfriend, Katie. Can't wait for her to be a part of the family! She's gonna fit right in.

Funk cupcakes, double chocolate cupcakes, buckeyes and a baking fail

Saturday was a day of basketball for me. The best kind — college basketball, in person. My friend Erin was in town from Colorado, and we went to the KU-Colorado game with some other friends. It was fun, as men's games always are. I always get chills when I see that pregame video, with the likes of Danny Manning, Wilt, Mario's shot. It's awesome. But the second game we went to was the women's basketball game, and I'd never been to one before. We sat with Malcolm, our Kansan news adviser. It was really fun, and we were only a couple rows up. One player scored 31 points. 31! And we were playing Mizzou. No matter what sport it is, I will always be happy when we beat Mizzou. Pretty sure I was raised to hate the Tigers, and I actually have to check myself from hating them too much. Whatever, it's a college rivalry. And I love it!


Well, it's kind of the opposite of that hatred, but for Valentine's Day, I made some really chocolate-y cupcakes. I'm not a chocolate person, really, but someone at work asked me to make cupcakes for his wife for the holiday and include lots of chocolate. So I made these. Nothing out of the norm, really: they're my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe and that fudge frosting I used for my Kansas Day cake. Super yummy.


My other cupcakes of the week were inspired by my friend Christy at work. She said I should make funk cupcakes, and these were born. They're red velvet (for crushed velvet, get it?!) with a cream cheese frosting. The frosting was originally based off George Clinton's hair...and if you don't know who that is, please go listen to "Give Up the Funk" right now. A little multi-colored edible glitter and we're good to go! I posted these over at Hoosier Homemade's Cupcake Tuesday. (Edit: I was asked how I got the frosting that way. I painted a piping bag with stripes of gel food coloring and put the icing in, and voila! rainbow-striped frosting.)


Then on Sunday I did another baking day at Aunt Betty's. We did buckeyes again. They're darn tasty. I took them to a city-wide trivia contest I did with Jonathan, Trevan and Nick. A few people came by to sample them...so I didn't have a whole lot to share. These are one treat, though, that I don't mind keeping to myself.


Last, and least, might be the worst dessert we've made. These are madeleines, a traditional French cake shaped like a sea shell. We got the recipe from a Martha Stewart cookbook, and they're rosewater madeleines. They look darn pretty, but they used SO much rosewater (two tablespoons PLUS two teaspoons) that when you tasted them, it was like gulping perfume. Or eating a bar of soap. YUCK. They sure looked nice though!

Chicago cupcake crawl

This weekend was my trip to Chicago with Kelly to visit Megan. It was a great time, and actually the weather wasn't that bad. Unfortunately, Kansas had prepared me for freezing temperatures, and even snow flurries wasn't going to stop us from going on Michigan Ave. Also, we did a cupcake crawl, visiting five different cupcake bakeries. Originally we planned for eight, but after a certain point, they're too darn far apart! Here is my trip in pictures.

First, we went to Sprinkles Bakery, which was made famous in California (and whose founder is a judge on Cupcake Wars!). We got a black and white, which was a chocolate cake with white frosting (left), a chai latte cupcake (back) and chocolate marshmallow, which is also the first picture up top. The cupcakes were excellent! The chai one was very fall-y. The marshmallow filling in the chocolate marshmallow was great too.


Next we visited More Cupcakes, which Megan gets to her office all the time. We got a "flight" of these mini cupcakes, which were all alcohol-based. From the bottom, they were margarita, pina colada, pomegranate mojito, lemon drop, gin and juice and white russian.


They were very creative and tasty, although you couldn't really taste the alcohol in them. I think the pomegranate mojito one was my favorite, because it had a little bit of pomegranate filling.


Kelly also got a chocolate hazelnut one here, with a hazelnut bark. I'm not a huge fan of chocolate, but it was pretty good, especially with its filling.


The next day we went to Swirlz Cupcakes. They had a very pretty spread, as you can see.


There we got vanilla with chocolate icing, red velvet and the surprise cupcake (top), which was a chocolate cupcake with a raspberry icing. Megan got the gluten-free version, which was surprisingly good. The icing on the vanilla cake was unbelievable. I liked my red velvet, but I like my cream cheese icing colder.


Next was Molly's Cupcakes, which wins the award for most interesting bakery we visited. Inside, there were swings for sitting at the counter. Yes, swings. The tables were awesomely bright colors, and the music was Taylor Swift and Ke$ha. Needless to say, we liked it.


The variety of flavors was amazing too. They had basic flavors, but we went for the interesting stuff. Starting at top left and going clockwise, we got the "Ron Bennington," chocolate peanut butter Butterfinger, which had completely ganache-based frosting and a peanut butter filling. Next was the cake batter cupcake, which had a cake batter filling as well (picture above). Then the "Cookie Monster," the cookie dough cupcake, with cookie dough filling. Then the peanut butter Nutella, with a light frosting and Nutella filling.


I think this bakery was my favorite of the trip. The atmosphere was so fun, and the choices in cupcakes were just crazy. And everything tasted wonderful.


Our last bakery was Sweet Mandy B's, Megan's favorite bakery close to her place in Lincoln Park. I went there last time I was in town, but they didn't have a whole lot of variety that time. This time, they had a crazy amount of sweets, going way beyond cupcakes.


They had chocolate-covered pretzels, cookies, all kinds of sweets and various cupcakes, obviously. Kelly got a snickerdoodle cupcake. I got the lemon and white with purple frosting. Megan got chocolate.


This was my favorite basic cupcake. The cake was moist, and the frosting was unbelievable. I can see why it's so popular.


We definitely ate our fair share of cupcakes, but with the amount of walking we did around the city, I think it was fair to eat that many :) Now here's the rest of the trip in pictures, starting with this one, which was our view when landing in Chi-town.

Kelly and I went to the Art Institute of Chicago. These were some of our favorite pieces, which played on words. The one on the right is named 4 1/2 oxen. So cool.


We visited Shedd Aquarium, one of my favorite places in the city. The hour+ wait, however, was not fun. Worth it though.


They have a pretty awesome variety of animals.


My favorites, of course, are the otters, which are hard to get a decent picture of because they're always moving!


And of course, we definitely hit up Michigan Avenue, a must for Chicago shopping. We went twice. All in all, this was a great trip with great friends. Definitely a nice break from life in a gorgeous city.