Simple Girl

Do you know what Maple Bacon Cupcakes taste like?  Breakfast.  There's just no getting around the fact that when you put two cups of real Maple syrup into cupcake batter, it just brings you back to stacks of pancakes at the cabin. And do you know what stacks of pancakes at the cabin remind me of?  My grandpa.  When he was a young man, he worked as a lumberjack and the fuel of choice was stacks and stacks of pancakes.  And what goes with pancakes? Bacon. It's the perfect garnish for these breakfast-y tasting treats. I'm still baking my way through Martha Stewart's Cupcakes  book!  Despite my concern about putting a full two cups of maple syrup in the batter, I was not disappointed.  The cupcakes have a delicious, but not overpowering maple flavor.  Rather than Martha's Maple Buttercream (which involved egg yolks and candy thermometers), I made a maple cream cheese frosting because cream cheese frosting goes with everything and I'm in ...

I learned some new northern acronyms this week.  First, one local radio station announced the official OTO (Opened Toe Open).  While the announcer was happily optimistic, I had to disagree.  To me, the OTO needs to coincide with the LIO (Lake Ice Out) Date.  If there is still snow on the ground and ice on the lake,  open-toed shoes are really not a viable option.   At Easter, of course, this causes a bit of a dilemma.  So for my girls, it was definitely a call for SWS.  Socks with Sandals.  It was actually snowing as we left church on Sunday.  Come to think of it, I think one of my girls wore her UGGS! What went undisputed, however, were these carrot cupcakes.  Perfect for Easter dinner or anytime, this recipe is unpretentious.  No nuts. No raisins.  No pineapple.  Nothing but classic carrots, cinnamon, and of course, cream cheese frosting. Sometimes, you just can't beat a classic! Carrot Cupc...

Appropriately, this month's Martha Stewart Cupcake Club assignment is Stout Cupcakes -  A nod to the Irish! The secret ingredient, of course, is Guinness Beer! Two years ago, I bought a six-pack of Guinness for our St. Patrick's Day feast of Slow Cooker  Corned Beef and Cabbage .  Unfortunately, the rest of the lonely five bottles sat in the fridge for the next year and a half until we moved and some kind friends were willing to take them off our hands.  This year I vow to find more Guinness recipes! Here's the other surprise ingredient:  Orange!  I doubled the zest and added the juice which I thought added a bright note and balanced out the bitterness of the Guinness and the molasses. Now, normally I'm a throw-all-the-cupcake-ingredients-in-a-bowl-and-mix kinda gal, but this recipe is a good exception. It's not the beer - it's the molasses. Have you ever tried mixing  molasses into dry ingredients? It doesn't work ve...

You don't have to be a Vegan to enjoy these delicious chocolate cupcakes.  In fact, why even put the word vegan in the name? Let's just call them super moist and deliciously rich chocolate cupcakes.  With no eggs and hardly any saturated fat.  My grandma used to make a similar cake growing up.  She called it Crazy Cake because it didn't have any eggs and she just mixed all the ingredients together right in the 9 x 13" pan!  Who knew she was so ahead of her time? Vinegar steps in for the eggs to give the batter a lift (honestly, you won't taste a thing). I took a tip from my good friend Ina Garten who has proven that chocolate tastes chocolatier when you add a little coffee to it and substituted coffee for the water.  Really, I'm her friend.  She just doesn't know it yet. See how beautifully these little eggless cuppies rise? If you are really a Vegan, you can buy these Vegan Carob Chips which are completely dairy free.  I tr...