“Kitchen Sink” Scones: Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips, Coconut, and Eggnog Glaze

Banana bread is a tradition in my family, I suppose, insofar as it was a popular thing to do with bananas that had gotten a little bit too ripe. But an even more relevant family tradition for this post is that of efficiently using up the “last little bit” of things. My mom, the driving force behind this, has been known to do scandalous things like mixing the last half- bowl of boxes of Cheerios and Honey Bunches of Oats together in the same bowl, and other things that make young children gasp in horror.

I had a lot of last-little-bits of things from various recent baking projects, and I wanted to make scones, so this recipe was born. I had leftover mini chocolate chips from these adorable snowmen; coconut left from making these tasty, gluten-free cookies; and frosting left from several batches of these holiday cookies, which were a huge hit – I highly recommend them. And, of course, I had some bananas that needed some love.

The result could have been disjointed and too busy, flavor-wise, but it actually all came together very nicely. Sometimes baking with what you have on hand is the best route to an exciting new culinary discovery!

The Original:

Classic banana bread – simple, tasty comfort food.

The Re-Interpretation:

Banana bread scones with chocolate chips and coconut mixed in, and a lightly sweet, spiced glaze.

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas, mashed

2/3 cup soy milk (or your preferred dairy alternative)

2 cups flour

5 Tablespoons sugar

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

6 Tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

1/2 cup shredded coconut

Glaze:

I added some extra milk to the icing from this eggnog cookie recipe; you could use any glaze recipe you prefer.

Instructions:

1. Combine mashed bananas and soy milk in small bowl. Set aside.

Banana-milk mixture

 

2. Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Work in the pieces of butter. You can use a pastry cutter for this; I don’t have one, so I used my fingers. Keep mixing until mixture is crumbly but all the butter pieces are fairly small.

Butter, before

Butter, after

 

3. Add the banana mixture and mix until just combined.

4. Fold in chocolate chips and coconut.

Chocolate chips and coconut

Final dough product

 

 

5. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

6. On a lightly floured surface, knead dough a few times. Shape it into a circle about 1 inch thick. Cut the circle into 8 wedges.

It’s ok if they’re not totally, mathematically even

 

7. Space the wedges apart on a baking sheet. Bake at 425 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned.

Ready to bake!

Nice and toasty

 

8. Remove scones from oven and allow to cool slightly. Drizzle desired amount of glaze on top. Enjoy!

Yum!

 

 

Pumpkin Molasses Sugar Cookies

I know I’m playing into every stereotype of young women in my demographic here, but I love pumpkin. One of the best parts of the onset of Fall (or full-on winter, if you live in Minnesota…) is that it’s once again time for making all sorts of pumpkin-themed treats. And they don’t all have to be sweets, either; I’ve been recently enamored of this delicious garlic-rosemary pumpkin hummus which is a good alternative to your typical pumpkin bar or pie.

But, of course, pumpkin-related sweets are also delicious, and it’s fun to experiment with alternatives to the classics here too. While searching recently for creative ways to use up the extra pumpkin that didn’t go into my hummus, I discovered this lovely idea for adding pumpkin to a recipe that’s a classic in my family: molasses sugar cookies.

I’ve written about this recipe before, about my grandma’s discovery of it and its progression to becoming a family classic. My mom recently sent me the cookbook my grandma wrote, so I’ve been enjoying paging through it and rediscovering some favorites, including this one. Each recipe has a little anecdote to go with it; the molasses sugar cookie recipe says simply, “favorite of the track team, high school and college.” This recipe has proven to be a favorite in my world, too; it’s my go-to for potlucks when I don’t have a lot of time but want to impress people.

Grandma’s Cookbook

 

I used the recipe linked above for inspiration in adding pumpkin to the traditional cookie, but used my grandma’s molasses sugar cookie recipe as the base. The result was an extremely light, puffy, sweet cookie – friends agreed that it was more like pumpkin bread shaped like cookies than like an actual cookie. But they were delicious and disappeared quickly!

The original

Classic molasses sugar cookies  – chewy, with that rich molasses taste

The Reinterpretation

Pumpkin molasses sugar cookies – lighter, puffier, more pumpkin-y, still delicious

Ingredients:

3/4 cup shortening

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg, beaten

1/2 can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)

1/4 cup molasses

2 cups flour, sifted

1/2 tsp salt (optional)

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cloves (ground)

Instructions:

1. Cream together shortening and brown sugar until smooth.

 

2. Add egg, pumpkin, and molasses, beating well.

Wet ingredients

 

 

3. Mix together dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture.

Completed dough

 

4. Cover dough and chill for at least 1 hour, and up to overnight.

Ready for chilling

 

5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

6. Shape dough into balls and roll in extra sugar.

Always the best part

 

7. Place balls on cookie sheet and squish slightly with a fork. Bake 12-15 minutes, or until they no longer look wet in the center and are slightly browned around the edges.

Step one…

Step two…

Ready for baking

 

 

 

8. Remove from oven and allow to cool on wire racks. Enjoy!

Take the Crown Cake

Ok, I know I’m way behind the times. It’s been several weeks since the miracle happened and the whole world (well, maybe not quite) watched as the Kansas City Royals swept their way through the post-season into the World Series. But, as a native Kansas Citian who grew up during an era when it seemed like the Royals never won anything, the euphoria still hasn’t worn off. Even if they didn’t end up winning the final game, they played an inspiring and exciting series and I think I speak for all of KC when I say we couldn’t be more proud!

I baked this cake for a watch party my family and I hosted for Game 3 (at which we cheered on the boys in blue all the way from Pennsylvania!) Though I didn’t manage to get this post up in time for this year’s festivities, I hope it might provide some decorating inspiration for the awesome season the Royals are bound to have next year!

If you don’t follow baseball or aren’t familiar with the Royals, this cake is based on this team logo:

 

Instructions:

1. Bake your favorite cake, from any recipe or box mix. I used a spice cake mix for mine to fit the Fall season! Bake your cake in one 9×13 inch pan and one 8×8 square pan. Fill them to the same level so the two pieces will be the same height.

   

  

Also make up your favorite batch of frosting, as long as it’s white or cream-colored.

2. Once your cakes are baked and cooling, cover a cake board with Royal-blue tissue paper, covered by a layer of plastic wrap. This will be your base for putting your cake together.

Royal-blue cake board

3. Place your two parts of the cake onto the cake board, length-wise, so the square cake sits above the longer cake. Using a small biscuit-cutter, cut three circles out of the top of the square cake to create the crown.

Leftover cake pieces from making the crown

4. Add circles to the top of the crown. I used the round pieces I had cut out with the biscuit-cutter, but this was not the best technique. I would suggest possibly baking a few cupcakes with part of your cake batter, and then adding them to the top of the crown as the circles. Much less crumbly, and easier to frost!

All the parts put together!

5. Frost the whole thing! I was using a sugar-paper transfer image on the “body” of the cake, so I frosted the whole thing with white frosting. However, if you’re not using the image and want to stay truer to the original logo, you could turn part of your frosting blue and frost the 9×13 cake with blue, then write “KC” on it in white.

6. Decorate! I transferred on the sugar-paper image to the body of the cake, then used edible gold glitter on the crown part. I dyed my remaining frosting blue and piped some stars around the edges of the cake to add in some of the royal blue.

The finished product!

7. Enjoy! Preferably with friends and family, at a party, while watching the Royals make an astounding comeback in the 6th inning.

Party!

 

Go Royals!

 

 

 

 

 

Blueberry Rhubarb Cobbler Cupcakes

My grandmother, my father’s mother, kept a huge vegetable garden along the side of the house on the farm, with all the produce needed to feed a growing family of 13 – corn, green beans, tomatoes, potatoes. There was also always a bunch of rhubarb growing in this garden, which showed up on the dinner table in a myriad forms – in sauce form, like applesauce; baked into desserts; yeah…probably mostly those forms. Strawberry rhubarb pie is still one of my uncle’s favorite treats.

I have never personally had a lot of experience with rhubarb – we never grew it or encountered it much, and I’ve never been totally sure what to do with it. But when I walked past some adorable children at the farmer’s market recently selling neatly bundled stalks of rhubarb, I couldn’t pass it up. The next stand over had some beautiful-looking blueberries, and a plot was hatched.

I had never heard of any combination besides strawberry rhubarb, but some cursory internet research revealed that others have ventured into the realm of combining rhubarb with other berries, so I stocked up on rhubarb and blueberries and headed back to my kitchen.

My first thought was blueberry-rhubarb crumble, because the last thing I helped make with rhubarb was the most delicious crumble of my life. But it had been a while since I made any cupcakes (as evidenced by the sad, sad gap in blog posts) so I settled on a sort of upside-down cobbler, with the cobbler part on the bottom and the fruit filling on the top. I wasn’t sure how it would go, but it turned out to be surprisingly delightful!

So here you have it: blueberry-rhubarb (or bluebarb, if you will) cobbler cupcakes. I think my garden-savvy grandmother would approve. Enjoy!

The original

Strawberry rhubarb pie – two flaky crusts filled with a delicious, sweet but slightly tangy filling. The epitome of summer.

The Reinterpretation

Blueberry rhubarb cobbler cupcakes – blueberry-rhubarb filling atop slightly sweet, biscuity cobbler dough with a crunchy crisp topping.

Ingredients

Cobbler Dough

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3 Tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 Tablespoons chilled butter, cut into small pieces

1/2 cup sour cream

Fruit Filling

3 cups fresh blueberries

2 cups diced rhubarb

1/2 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

Crisp Topping

1/2 cup quick-cooking oats

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

4 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/4 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces

 

Instructions

1. Combine dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt) for cobbler dough in a large bowl.

Dry ingredients

2. Add butter; using your fingertips, combine until only small lumps remain.

Plopping in the butter is extremely satisfying

After mixing in the butter!

3. Mix in sour cream.

4. Knead until biscuit-like dough forms. Set aside.

Sticky, springy, delicious biscuit dough

5. In another large bowl, combine blueberries, rhubarb, sugar and flour for fruit filling. Allow to meld for several minutes while you prepare the crisp topping.

Yum.

6. In a small bowl, combine oats, brown sugar, flour, and pumpkin pie spice for crisp topping; once again using your fingertips, mix in the butter until crumbly.

Crumbly crisp topping

7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a cupcake tin (or two if you have them!) with cupcake liners.

8. Divide cobbler dough among cupcake wells, squishing it down to cover the bottom. (It should fill about 24 wells – it will expand a lot!)

Layer 1

9. Cover the cobbler dough with fruit filling, filling nearly to the top of the wells.

Layer 2

10. Sprinkle the crisp topping over the top of the fruit filling.

Layer 3!

11. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until the fruit is soft and juicy and the cobbler is beginning to brown around the edges.

Delicious cobblery goodness

12. Allow to cool on wire racks; devour, preferably on a porch with a cool drink while celebrating these last days of summer.

 

 

Colorful Easter Sugar Cookies

Well, this isn’t the most timely post…but technically it is Easter season for 43 more days, so you still have plenty of time to make some cute and tasty sugar cookies. (And really, do you need an excuse to do that?)

This is also something of a departure from the premise of this blog; rather than doing a reinterpretation of a traditional family recipe, I used my grandmother’s exact recipe. But her recipe is a slight spin on the traditional idea of cutout sugar cookies, so it’s still faithful to the spirit of the blog!

Here’s the thing: when you’re raising 10 children, 8 of whom are boys, it makes sense that you would find some shortcuts with your cooking. And the frosting part of sugar cookies takes a long time: between waiting for the cookies to cool, making the frosting, getting it on each individual cookie, and then adding sprinkles and other decorations, it’s by far the most time-consuming part of the process. My grandmother, in her wisdom, found a way to eliminate the frosting and still make cookies that are delicious and decorative.

The secret is putting food coloring in the cookie dough itself! Then, instead of adding color with different shades of frosting, your cookies are already different colors when they come out of the oven. And you can add sprinkles before you bake them! It’s a perfect decorating shortcut.

I did make one small change to my grandmother’s recipe; I added some sour cream because, well, I had some left over and was in the mood to experiment. It didn’t change things much besides perhaps making the cookies just a little bit moister!

The Original

Classic cutout sugar cookies with colorful frosting and sprinkles.

The Reinterpretation

Extra-fluffy cutout sugar cookies with colorful dough and sprinkles; no frosting!

Ingredients:

1 cup butter or margarine

1/4 cup sour cream

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 1/2 cups sifted enriched flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

1. Cream butter and sour cream together until smooth.

Butter and sour cream

2. Add sugar gradually, creaming until light and fluffy.

With sugar added: fluffy!

3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.

Adding the first egg

4. Stir in vanilla.

5. Sift together dry ingredients; add gradually to creamed mixture.

Finished dough. Dough will be very sticky!

6. Separate dough into parts (I divided mine into three). Add a few drops of food coloring of your choice to each section of dough.

7. Cover dough and chill thoroughly (at least 3 to 4 hours; can be chilled overnight).

Colorful cookie dough!

8. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

9. Roll dough, one section at a time, on floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness.

10. Cut with floured cookie cutters of your choice. (I only had a duck).

Duck!

11. Place cookies 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Add sprinkles, if desired.

The sprinkles stick surprisingly well

12. Bake at 400 degrees for 5 to 8 minutes or until the bottom is lightly browned.

13. Place on wire rack to cool.

Yum!

14. Enjoy!

 

 

“Surprise Plate” Cupcakes: Chocolate chip with marshmallow filling and cinnamon mascarpone frosting

Every once in a very great while, when my sister and I were little, my mom would bestow on us the mythical “surprise plate.” This usually occurred when we were watching cartoons (mostly Scooby Doo, if memory serves) and asked for a snack. This request usually elicited something more commonplace – apple slices or fruit snacks or those little crunchy breadstick things that you dipped in cheese. But sometimes, when we were least expecting it, we would get a Surprise Plate: a little round plastic plate with three different compartments. One would have chocolate chips in it, another mini-marshmallows, and the third would have sliced-up pieces of string cheese that we dipped in cinnamon and sugar with a toothpick. It’s really good, I promise.

Though not exactly a family recipe, this semi-traditional snack is such a nostalgic idea for me that I decided to try to transform it into a cupcake. How could I blend all of those disparate ingredients (whose separation into the compartments was kind of part of the point) into one cohesive treat? I set out to find the answer.

My first attempt was, frankly, a failure. I learned two things from the experience: don’t try to bake things with mini-marshmallows in them.

The marshmallows melt and leave sad little craters in your cupcakes

And whole milk is not an appropriate substitute for whipping cream in a frosting recipe.

Sad, flat, non-pipeable frosting

This is the main reason for my inexcusably long hiatus from this blog; I was fairly discouraged after Surprise Plate Cupcakes attempt #1. But eventually, I felt recovered enough to try version two, which luckily was much more successful!

To transform the surprise plate into a cupcake, I decided to make a vanilla cupcake with chocolate chips, fill it with marshmallow creme, and top it with this cinnamon mascarpone frosting. The mascarpone takes the place of the string cheese – it’s similar to cream cheese but lighter and more subtle in flavor. I think I might be obsessed with this frosting; it’s super light, almost like whipped cream but with the added richness of the cheese, and it pipes beautifully. I will probably be trying other flavors of it in the future.

The Original

Chocolate chips, mini marshmallows, and string cheese with cinnamon-sugar dip in a plastic plate watching Scooby Doo.

The Re-interpretation

A chocolate chip vanilla cupcake, filled with marshmallow creme, topped with cinnamon mascarpone frosting. (Note: I based the cupcake recipe on this vanilla cupcake recipe, with a few of my own tweaks.)

Ingredients:

1 cup granulated sugar

1 3/4 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup butter

2 eggs

1/3 cup vanilla yogurt

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup buttermilk

1 cup chocolate chips

1 jar marshmallow creme

Frosting

1 cup heavy cream

8 ounces mascarpone cheese

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In large mixing bowl, combine first five ingredients.

3. Add butter and mix until you achieve a crumb-like texture.

Crumb-like texture

4. In a separate bowl, mix eggs, yogurt, oil, and vanilla extract. Add to flour mixture and mix until just combined.

5. Add milk gradually until just combined. The batter will be very liquid.

Very liquidy batter

6. Fold in chocolate chips.

7. Prepare a cupcake tin with liners. Fill liners three-quarters full.

8. Bake for 14 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

9. Let cupcakes cool completely.

10. Prepare a piping bag with the long round tip used for filling cupcakes. Fill with marshmallow creme and pipe into each cupcake.

Piping bag

Full of marshmallowy goodness

11. Make the frosting:

• Beat heavy cream with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form.

• In a separate bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients until smooth.

 

• Fold whipped cream into mascarpone mixture.

12. Prepare another piping bag with a large star tip. Fill with frosting and frost cupcakes.

13. Enjoy!

 

 

“Mom ‘n’ Honey’s” Oatmeal-Raisin Muffins with Almond-flour Streusel

Several posts ago I mentioned the infamous “dad ‘n’ honey” cookies, which are the ubiquitous oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies to be found in the large cookie jar in my childhood home. They are extremely important to the baked-good catalogue of my life, and will almost certainly have their own post someday, at which point I will explain how they got their name. But, for this post, I am riffing on a different important cookie: the “mom ‘n’ honey” oatmeal raisin cookie.

I just made that name up, but it seems fitting. You see, my dad and my sister were always diehard fans of the chocolate chip, but my mom and I were more open-minded about substituting raisins. We theorize that it was because we knew those cookies would be less appealing to the other half of the family, and thus more safely our own. I’ve always thought about oatmeal raisin cookies as one of my mom’s particular favorites; they always make me think of her, which probably influences my own fondness for them.

Recently, I found myself craving a muffin, but I wanted one that would be extra-dense and hearty, and thought that perhaps a muffin based on an oatmeal cookie would fill that need. I used this recipe for inspiration, as well as some input from our traditional family cookie recipe and a few twists of my own! The result is quite thick and chewy; I’ve found that one muffin makes a quite satisfying breakfast! The sweet, crumbly almond-flour streusel on top may be my favorite part.

Christmas shout-out #1: Thanks to my friend Davide, who sent this adorable apron all the way from Italy to help with my baking adventures!

The Original

Chewy, sweet oatmeal-raisin cookies (probably from the recipe on the Quaker oatmeal canister).

The Re-interpretation

Oatmeal raisin cookies in muffin form, with a crunchy, nutty streusel topping. Makes 12 muffins.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup plain yogurt + 1/2 cup water (or 1 cup buttermilk, or 1 cup regular milk)

1 cup flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or nutmeg, cloves, whatever you have on hand)

1 cup old-fashioned oats

1/2 cup raisins

Streusel topping:

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons almond flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon butter, softened

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 425. Prepare a muffin tin.

2. In a large bowl, cream sugar and butter. Beat in egg and then yogurt mixture until smooth.

Combined wet ingredients

3. In small bowl, combine dry ingredients through pumpkin pie spice. Add to wet ingredients and stir well.

Batter with dry ingredients added

4. Mix in oats until well blended.

With oats!

5. Fold in raisins.

Yummmm raisins

6. Divide batter evenly among 12 muffin cups.

Christmas shout-out #2: Thanks to my parents for this handy-dandy scoop! It makes measuring batter out so much easier!

7. Combine sugar, almond flour, and cinnamon for topping in small bowl. (To make almond flour yourself, put about 1/4 cup roasted almonds in a food processor and pulse until fine).

Almonds in food processor

Almond flour! Magic!

8. Cut in butter with a fork until mixture is crumbly.

Crumbly streusel topping

9. Sprinkle tops of unbaked muffins with topping mixture.

I sprinkled quite liberally. You might not need this much.

10. Bake at 425 for 12-15 minutes, until tops are evenly browned. Cool on wire racks. Enjoy!

Yum!

Red-Hot Cinnamon Apple Cupcakes

When I was growing up, we had three apple trees in our backyard, right in a row along the back fence. Three trees may not sound like much, but they produced a LOT of apples for a family of four. We had to get pretty creative with our apple usage, and during peak harvest season we made every apple-based thing you can imagine. Applesauce, apple crisp, apple pie…we also just ate a lot of apples. Preferably with peanut butter.

But even with all of that, we had more apples than we knew what to do with, and we had to start seeking out new ideas. That was how we came across the recipe for German Apple Cake, which became an instant family favorite. It’s a unique cake – very apple-centric, which was good for our apple-using needs, with just enough batter to hold the apples together. The result is a cake with a pleasantly flaky, almost crunchy top and sweet, soft apple chunks baked in.

I think we first made it for a potluck where every family had to bring a dish that represented their cultural heritage. Though we’re of pretty diverse ancestry, the 3/8 German heritage was the majority, so German Apple Cake seemed like a good choice. And once we discovered it, we just kept making it! From family gatherings to Fall evenings at home, it was perfect for everything.

To put my own twist on it, I decided to try the cake in cupcake form, which turned out quite well! It was still perfectly moist, with the same flaky top. Though the original recipe calls for a cream cheese frosting, which is delicious (as cream cheese frostings tend to be), we sometimes made the cake and served it with just a dollop of whipped cream on top, which I found I liked even more! So I went with a whipped cream frosting for this recipe. And I decided to drizzle a red-hot cinnamon syrup on top to add a pop of flavor and color.

The Original

German Apple Cake: A cinnamon-y sheet cake with apple chunks baked in and classic cream cheese frosting.

The Reinterpretation

German Apple cupcakes with a light whipped cream frosting and a drizzle of red-hot cinnamon syrup. (Makes about 24 cupcakes)

Ingredients:

3 eggs

2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 cups chopped peeled tart apples (for me, this ended up being about 4 medium-sized apples. I originally misread the directions and bought 4 pounds of apples, which is definitely more than you need. The next post here may be apple-based as well…)

3/4 cup chopped pecans (optional)

For frosting:

1 pint heavy whipping cream

1/3-1/2 cup powdered sugar, to taste

1 box red-hot cinnamon candies

2/3 cup boiling water

1 1/3 cups granulated sugar

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease cupcake pan or fill with cupcake liners.

2. Peel and chop your apples, and nuts if using; set aside.

This is more apples than you need.

Cut apples into small-ish chunks, but not too small – you still want them to be the star of the cake!

3. In a large bowl, beat eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla until blended.

4. In a separate bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Add to egg mixture gradually, mixing well. (Batter will be quite thick and sticky).

Well-mixed batter

5. Fold in apples and nuts, if using.

6. Fill cupcake wells about 3/4 of the way to the top.

7. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until tops are evenly browned and spring back at touch.

Delicious flaky tops!

8. Cool cupcakes completely on wire rack.

9. While cupcakes are cooling, pour heavy whipping cream into a large bowl and beat on medium speed until cream begins to thicken. Add powdered sugar gradually, to taste. Place bowl in refrigerator to chill while you prepare the syrup.

Heavy whipping cream, ready to become whipped cream!

10. Pour about half of the red-hot candies into a small bowl and cover with 2/3 cup boiling water. Let stand for a few minutes to dissolve the coating from the candies. Strain the remainder of the candies out and pour liquid into a small saucepan.

You should get a nice vibrant red color!

11. Bring liquid to a boil. Add 1 1/3 cups sugar and stir constantly until completely dissolved. Boil for about 2 minutes, then remove from heat and set aside to thicken.

12. Prepare a piping bag with a large star tip and fill with whipped cream. Pipe the whipped cream onto the cooled cupcakes.

Preparing a piping bag

All frosted!

13. To add the syrup, I filled another piping bag and cut a very tiny hole in the bottom, then drizzled the syrup across the frosted cupcakes. I put some waxed paper under the wire tins for this part of the process.

14. Add the remaining candies for garnish!

Bonus!

I saw this idea for packaging cupcakes on Pinterest a while ago and have been wanting to try it out. Could be a good way to give people homemade treats as gifts for the holidays!

1. Place decorated cupcake into a clear plastic tumbler.

Like one of these.

2. Wrap in a piece of plastic wrap.

3. Tie a bow with a piece of ribbon.

Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sometimes, it’s best to just not mess with the classics!

 

Classic pumpkin pie

 

Hope everyone has had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving weekend!

 

Gluten-free Chocolate Cupcakes with Coconut Whipped Cream

This is a recipe that began with me looking into my cupboard and realizing that I had a whole bag of chickpea flour that I had inherited from a friend and had no idea what to do with. The recipe on the back of the bag was for meatballs, but I, being me, naturally wanted to know what I could bake with it. So I googled “baking with chickpea flour” and what should come up but this recipe for chocolate cupcakes from my favorite cupcake blogger? It seemed perfect.

Classic chocolate cake is certainly a traditional recipe in my family. My dad, though he is obviously not one of my grandmothers, is quite a skilled baker and regularly provided my nuclear family with desserts growing up. He kept our cookie jar full of Dad ‘n’ Honey cookies (oatmeal chocolate chip), could frequently be found making chocolate-peanut butter no-bake cookies on the stovetop, and once in a while just needed to satisfy a hankering for a chocolate cake. With a dollop of vanilla ice cream and a glass of milk, it was perfect.

These cupcakes fill the same need for an intense chocolate flavor, with the added bonus of helping me learn what I can do with chickpea flour, and being in the form of cupcakes which in my opinion automatically makes anything more delicious. I basically followed the Cupcake Project recipe for the cupcakes themselves. However, I wasn’t ready to commit to making the chocolate hummus frosting, so instead I made a basic whipped cream to complement the extremely light texture of the cupcakes. I dusted some coconut on top for decoration and an extra touch of flavor.

I can picture my dad making a face at the words “gluten free,” but I think that if I didn’t tell him these weren’t regular chocolate cupcakes, he would never know! I actually really like the chickpea flour, which has a sort of nuttiness that gives the chocolate flavor more depth.

The Original

Basic chocolate cake – usually from a mix – with storebought chocolate frosting.

The Reinterpretation

Gluten-free chocolate cupcakes, made with chickpea flour, with whipped cream and a dusting of shredded coconut.

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cups chickpea flour, sifted well

1 3/4 cups sugar

3/4 cups cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup olive oil

1 cup whole milk

1 cup boiling water

For frosting:

1 pint heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup powdered sugar (or to taste)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a cupcake tin – I would highly suggest using cupcake liners with these cupcakes, because they’re so light that it’s difficult to get them out of the pan without breaking them.

2.  Mix dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

3. Add eggs, vanilla, olive oil, and milk until just combined.

4. Mix in boiling water. The result will be a very liquidy batter.

Very liquidy

5. Fill cupcake liners halfway. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, or until top bounces back when lightly touched.

Batter-filled cupcake tin

Almost-finished cupcakes!

6. Remove from oven, allow to cool slightly, then remove from pan and cool on wire racks.

7.  While cupcakes cool, pour heavy whipping cream into large mixing bowl. Beat on medium speed until cream starts to thicken. Add powdered sugar gradually, to taste. Beat in vanilla. Continue beating until cream achieves desired whipped cream consistency.

8. When cupcakes are completely cool, frost with whipped cream – either spreading or with a pastry bag – and dust tops with shredded coconut. Enjoy!

The final product!

Close-up of the coconut