christmas bake-off part four:

So about those cupcakes.

There were far too many of them. They were given to co-workers, security guards, secretaries, home groupers, and homeless men, but contrary to the "Who has leftover cake?!" notion, well, I had leftover cake.

So our Christmas treat will be peppermint cake pops. I thought they were quite easy to make until I remembered that the cake and frosting had been finished several days prior and mixed into ball-able dough yesterday.

The resulting treat is satisfyingly cute and super rich, with a fun minty crunch of the candy cane at the end.

Find instructions here. I saw no need for the edible wax, used buttercream frosting, and homemade chocolate cake. If you're going through the trouble to make these, why not bake your own cake?

And there was enough chocolate left over to make a little Christmas eve treat for after our special meal--

Frozen chocolate covered bananas.

Merry Christmas to all!

christmas bake-off part two:

It all started with one little cupcake. Cute, right? Not scary at all.
A dark chocolate peppermint cupcake with vanilla buttercream and crumbled candy canes on top. Even used a nice recipe from the sadly defunct Gourmet as a tribute (with added peppermint extract).
But then, they started to multiply-- tiny, minty warriors.

All the while, I feel ashamed. Will I be overtaken by a monster of my own creation?

But I regained control and paired them off, two by two.

One hundred and twenty-six tiny cupcakes later, they became the perfect army of happy homemade Christmas joy.

a poem:

"so you want to buy my cupcakes."

so you want to buy my cupcakes
that i made a few weeks past
twenty bacon maple cupcakes
lazy baking just won’t last

made them for a party
then got kicked out of the bar
chef didn’t like my bacons
so they ate them by the car

now you want to buy my cupcakes
and how much do i charge?
sugar salt sprinkled bacon cupcakes
the fee? oh, it is large!

six dollars for the bacon
for best maple, maybe twelve
got eggs vanilla flour
could use them from my shelf

but you want to buy my cupcakes?
to sell them at your store?
free meat for life, and then we’ll deal
three steaks a day, or four!

(you know you missed my poems.)

dessert on wheels

Oh gosh, what can't they put in a van? First came ice cream trucks and roach coaches, then taco trucks, and now the current Korean BBQ craze, next, cupcakes?

Yes, Sprinkles Cupcakes got their own van.

I say, good for them.

Now I'm having an angry cupcake craving. The lemon ones were the best. No, the chocolate peanut butter. No wait, the special fall pumpkin ones. Gr.