Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Peaches 'n Cream Cupcakes

Last night, my friend had a bunch of people over for wings. Taking any excuse to bake, I decided that what the party really needed was cupcakes, and lots of them. Having a bunch of peaches lying around the fruit drawer of our refrigerator, I thought it would be a good idea to incorporate those into the cupcakes in some way. And so I came up with these nummy little guys: cream cheese cake, peach mousse filling, peach glaze, and peach cream cheese frosting. Peaches (and more peaches) 'n cream. Delicious.


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Sunday, August 22, 2010

Pokémon Cupcakes

My friend had a birthday party yesterday, and rather than a gift, he asked for cupcakes (seeing as a. everyone knows I'll take any excuse to bake and b. he thinks "Kitchen" is a hilarious nickname for me). We'd been at another friend's house the night before, where the boys were playing Pokémon video games, which, you may be interested to know, I suck at. I thought it would be cute if the cupcakes I made for his birthday were Pokémon themed, so I baked a batch of devil's food cake cupcakes, iced them with cream cheese chocolate frosting, and set to work making teensy fondant Pokeballs for each one.


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Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Quadruple Chocolate Cookies

Some boys are very, very spoiled.

I've been working at a food pantry/soup kitchen/men's shelter all this summer with a group of other teens. It's been one of the best experiences of my life, and I've had a wonderful time working in the kitchen, bagging produce, and getting to know everyone there. I'm definitely going back next summer (before leaving for college...*gulp*) because I feel like I've done some genuinely good work, and I've met a lot of great people, both from the shelter itself and from the volunteer program. Now, some of those fellow volunteers demanded cookies this year after figuring out that I'm a little bit nuts about baking. Because I'm a horrible pushover, I agreed to make them some. And because I'm an even more horrible pushover, I agreed to make what they requested: quadruple chocolate cookies.


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Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Baroque Birthday Cake - I'm Seventeen!

It was my birthday recently, and besides going out to a wonderful restaurant with my family and a friend to celebrate (peach-mascarpone cannoli for dessert...I must attempt this at home), I made my own birthday cake. My mindset while planning and baking this was "It's my birthday. Now is the time to put everything that I love and shouldn't be eating in a cake." That's why this cake is now known in our family as the Baroque Cake - it's rich, complicated, over-the-top, and combines more flavors than are really necessary in a dessert. The only way a birthday cake should be done.


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Monday, August 2, 2010

Double Whammy: Rainbow Cupcakes and Macarons

You read it right. The blogosphere's two favorite food trends in one shamelessly cutesy and (squee!) rainbow post. I made these for an art show a wonderful classmate of mine put on to showcase student talent in our city. I blogged about it when it was canceled in January due to snowstorms, but this time everything went according to plan. I made cupcakes and macarons in rainbow colors, as that was the show's theme, and because they're two baked goods that always seem to be a hit.


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