Categories
cake

cupcakes with graham cracker crust and coconut cream icing

cupcake 8

while there’s no shortage of cupcake blogs in the blogosphere (i hate that word), i thought i would throw my cupcake hat in the cupcake ring and share my favorite (and really, the only cupcake i make). i’ve combined the graham cracker crust of a pie with the fluffy goodness of a cake and topped with coconut buttercream frosting.

cupcake 1

cupcake 2

i’m not a big fan of dainty cupcakes. you know the ones i’m talking about – small, moist looking mouthfuls of cake with a dollop of frosting on top. sure, they’re beautiful and they may taste incredible, but eating them, i can’t help feeling a little ripped off. for me, a cupcake should be a full cake, just condensed to a size you can safely carry around with you. it should take more than two bites to finish. and when you’re done, you should want more, but fear that a second one might overload your pleasure receptors and possibly send you into diabetic shock. my friends, these are cupcakes of which you can eat only one a day for fear of your life.

cupcake 5

a word of advice: i would say that you should jump on baking these up immediately, but if you live in an area that is experiencing late spring/summer, you may have some issues frosting these bad boys. in washington dc, summer hits pretty quickly and unrelentingly, and my apartment hit about 92 F (AC in my building was broken) as i tried to assemble the cupcakes. it became a fairly tedious process of chilling the frosting, icing a few cupcakes and getting them into the fridge quickly. the frosting had to be chilled every five minutes or the temperature caused it to melt all over the place and make a huge delicious mess. with that out of the way, BAKE THESE IMMEDIATELY! after you taste them, i’ll leave it up to you whether you want to share with your friends or keep them your little abrosial secret.

cupcake 6

Categories
cake

chocolate chip coffee cake

coffee cake 4

what makes a coffee cake a coffee cake? well, either it’s got coffee in it (this one doesn’t, but looking back, it would be a great idea. however i do have an upcoming recipe that contains coffee – prepare yourselves, it’s amazing), or, it’s just a cake that you eat with coffee, probably with breakfast or brunch. it’s usually spiced with cinnamon (check) and got a sort of streusel (check).

coffee cake 1

except this one is chock full of chocolate chips (A LOT of chocolate chips). the cake itself come out super light and fluffy and it couldn’t be simpler to make. this is a great cake to slice up into bite sized pieces for a brunch, or you could do what i do – get a giant glass of milk, a few forks and dig right into the pan.

coffee cake 5