August 2011
7 posts
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Sweet Basil & Olive Oil Cupcakes
This summer, I started volunteering at a local food co-op. Every month, a member of the co-op hosts a potluck party, and this month’s shindig was scheduled for yesterday.
Well, it was scheduled; then Mother Nature decided to step in and throw a hurricane-tornado-apocalypse at the eastern seaboard. Needless to say, that -ish got cancelled.
But my Saturday night shift partner and I were...
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Banana Espresso Chocolate Chip Muffins
Earlier in the summer, I spent a week in Vermont attending a workshop at the Center for Cartoon Studies. (Yep, I went to comic book school.) I met many an awesome person there, one of whom I promised to become pen pals with and send baked goods to.
Today, I finally made good on that promise. I had asked my comic book friend what kind of baked goods he might like, and one of the items he...
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Pineapple-Mango-Papaya Bars
When I recently launched my baking blog, The Butter & Sugar Brigade, and consequently posted about it on Facebook, a friend of mine responded by saying, “Please make me everything on this website.” Of course, I’d be more than happy to oblige, I told him, but why not make something new to post and share with my loyal readers? So I told him, pick a flavor, and I’ll...
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Homemade Twinkies
(Photo courtesy of Joy the Baker)
So recently, I celebrated the birthday of a friend by packing up some specially-selected picnic items and watching a screening of Ghostbusters in Brooklyn Bridge Park. By specially-selected, I mean that all the food had some relation to the movie; and I went with the theme of Egon’s favorite junk food: Cheez-Its, Crunch bars, and, of course, the...
July 2010
4 posts
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Blondies
My friend Katie is getting married on Sunday, and a lovely little bachelorette party was thrown for her this past weekend. Katie is blonde, so of course, the logical dessert of choice to make for her? Blondies.
This recipe is from my America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book. A great go-to cookbook for classic confections, I haven’t had a single baking fail with any of its...
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Fresh Strawberry Scones
So I had bought a carton of fresh strawberries with the intention of making some kind of dessert with them for the Fourth of July, preferably strawberry shortcakes. But July 4th came and went, and the hustle and bustle that is going to picnics and setting off fireworks illegally in someone’s backyard prevented me from being home to make said shortcakes. So, I decided instead to make one...
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(Vegan) Mayan Spiced Chocolate Pudding
So, the other night, I decided it had been way too long since I made dinner from scratch. (Because no, grilling a veggie burger on the George Foreman does not count as dinner from scratch.) I flipped through some old issues of Vegetarian Times, realizing I had never actually made a recipe from the year-long subscription of stored up magazines I had—I’d only looked at the pictures...
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Blueberry Muffins
So, in keeping with the blueberry and strawberry theme of most Fourth of July baked goods, I made blueberry muffins yesterday morning. I turned to my trusty Martha Stewart Baking Handbook for this delish recipe, and I got positive reviews from my audience of taste testers.
1/2 c. unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan 2 c. all-purpose flour, plus more for pan 1 1/2 tsp....
June 2010
4 posts
5 tags
Cream Cheese Swirl Blondies
My friend John throws a kick-ass party at the start of every summer, and this year was no different. I’ve been craving blondies for awhile, so I turned to Martha Stewart for help, and came up with these tasty gems to bring along to the party.
This recipe for Cream Cheese Swirl Blondies is easy and a good use-what’s-in-your-pantry recipe (i.e. no bizarre ingredients; you most likely...
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May 2010
10 posts
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Stout Chocolate Cupcakes w/ Cream Cheese Frosting
I’m a high school English teacher, and I promised some of my senior students that I’d make them cupcakes before they moved on into the so-called “real world”. And when they heard I made beer-based cupcakes for the Super Bowl, they wanted beer-based cupcakes for their graduation. (Little do they realize the alcohol cooks out.) So, I tested out another Ming Thompson...
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Port Wine and Cherry Chocolate Cupcakes w/...
I’m in a book club and played host to last night’s meeting. My sugary contribution to the food spread? Port Wine and Cherry Chocolate Cupcakes with Mascarpone Frosting. I thought they sounded classy..and what’s more classy than a bunch of women sitting around, sipping wine, and discussing books? Well, a bunch of women sitting around, sipping wine, discussing books, and...
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Tiny Treats: Milk Chocolate Buttons
One my co-workers will be celebrating her graduation from graduate school on Monday, so we threw a little party for her at work yesterday. I volunteered to make the dessert, and whipped up Milk Chocolate Buttons, a recipe from Christabel Martin.
This is an unassuming recipe. Seemingly basic, with melted milk chocolate in the batter and a milk chocolate ganache to finish it off, these blew...
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BBQ Treats: Baked Brownies & Pink Lemonade Cake
So this past weekend we had a BBQ at our house, to celebrate everything from my recent engagement to my sister finishing law school to my grandmother’s 80th birthday, so of course, that meant it was time to break out the baked goods.
For my g-ma’s b-day cake, I decided to give these Pink Lemonade Cupcakes a try (although I prepared it as a GIANT cupcake!) This simple,...
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Key Lime Cupcakes
So if you live on the East Coast, you, too, are experiencing a wave of tropical weather. In honor of it, I decided to test out a Ming Thompson recipe and make her Graham Cupcakes with Key Lime Cream Cheese Frosting.
What a perfect way to spend a Sunday! I found this recipe unique, because the cupcakes themselves aren’t lime-flavored; the graham cracker takes center stage here—the...
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April 2010
4 posts
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West Coast Eats: Red's Donuts
So my trip to California this past weekend made me fall in love with the West Coast, for various reasons. One: everyone is so friggin’ nice. Two: the views of everything, from city to shoreline, are gorgeous. And three: DELICIOUS FOOD!
Here was one of my favorite stops, right in downtown Monterey:
Red’s Donuts is a cute little shop with a cute little shopkeeper (he was one of...
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Happy Dyngus Day!
It’s Easter Monday—or Dyngus Day, for all you Poles out there—a time to reflect on the fact that you ate WAY too much the past few days. Ahh, the holidays! If your family is like mine, any holiday is the greatest excuse to eat as much as possible in the shortest amount of time. Well, Easter is no exception. Here’s how I spent my Easter Sunday with the family…
I...
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Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes
It’s finally starting to look like spring outside, so my housemates and I are throwing a BBQ tonight. And of course, any get-together is the perfect reason to bust out a kick-ass dessert.
I turned to my trusty Martha Stewart Cupcakes Cookbook for this recipe for Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes.
I like this recipe for a few reasons: 1) You don’t need a water bath, like some cheesecake...
March 2010
9 posts
4 tags
White chocolate cupcakes
There was a potluck staff luncheon at work today, so I decided to try a recipe out of the latest cupcake cookbook I’ve received: Christabel Martin’s Cupcakes—A Fine Selection of Sweet Treats.
I wanted something simple because I didn’t have a lot of time to work with, so I went with White Chocolate Cupcakes, mainly because they didn’t call for a frosting. They...
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Macaron Day NYC 2010...and ice cream...and...
So I took a leisurely stroll into the city today. Little did I know it was Macaron Day 2010!
My fiance had never had a French macaron, so we had planned a trip to The Macaron Cafe anyway. Much to our surprise, however, we were presented with a free macaron to celebrate Macaron Day NYC. The slogan: “Macarons: the new cupcake.”
The Macaron Cafe was lovely. A cute little shop...
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St. Patrick's Day Double-header: Two Soda Bread...
So it’s St. Patrick’s Day. I’m not Irish, but I love a good Irish soda bread, when it’s done well. Sometimes it can be way too dry—which is still tasty, but, um, dry. However, I have two great recipes that aren’t dry in the least. They’re also not your traditional Irish soda breads, but they get the job done right.
The first is a recipe for Irish...
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Getaway Weekend w/ Red Velvet & Fondue
So this past weekend, my friends and I stole away to Pennsylvania to be all rustic-like at my friend Matt’s family cabin. No cable, no Internet, no microwave, no mix-master. (Okay, so it wasn’t that rustic; we did have a TV, complete with a DVD player on which we watched Rocky IV and a Nintendo 64 on which we played Mario Party 2. But no Internet, I swear.) Anyway, we stayed...
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Bar + Cupcakes = Love
So yesterday’s Cupcakegate 2k10 turned out to be a single table of cupcakes set up in a bar. (I was envisioning a whole festival with booths upon booths of cupcake goodness.) However, that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy myself, because the cupcakes were rather tasty, and the bar was amazing.
Union Hall (the bar) has the awesome vibe I like to refer to as “urban vintage...
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February 2010
12 posts
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Salted Caramel Cupcakes: Trial and Error
A few weeks ago, my friend Naz sent me an email that said (and I quote): “OMG. This needs to be attempted. Stat.” And attached was this recipe for Salted Caramel Cupcakes. They looked beautiful, sounded unique, and happened to fall into my category of favorite food in the world, so I added them to my to-do list. Thus, when my friend John’s birthday rolled around yesterday,...
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Raspberry-Chocolate French Macaroons
Recently, my sister Laura (follow her neato Tumblr HERE) was invited to a tapas party, so, she figured, what better to make for a “small plate” dinner party than the two-bite fancy French macaroon? (Perhaps she was inspired by my previous post…)
So, she did some Googling and found a delicious-sounding recipe on Epicurious for Raspberry-Chocolate French Macaroons. I was lucky...
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NYC Bakery Tour
What better way to spend a Sunday than eating lots of carbs and sugar throughout New York City?
We started at The Donut Pub, at first intrigued by the Oreo Muffins that were in the window. Upon entering, however, it was the Red Velvet Donut that caught our attention. And at a total cost of $3.10, buying both muffin and donut was the right choice.
The Donut Pub 203 West 14th Street New...
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Hey cupcake, happy Valentine's Day!
My valentine and I decided to treat ourselves to an overdose of sugar from our favorite bakery, Sugar + Sunshine, in Plainsboro, NJ.
Way better than the Sex and the City-endorsed Magnolia in NYC (S+S has more choices AND better cake and frosting), this cute hidden-gem of a bakery will someday make my wedding cake. They specialize in gourmet cupcakes, but not only did we splurge on a dozen, we...
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How I Spent My Snow Day: MINT BROWNIE COOKIES
If you’re from the northeast like I am, you are most likely holed up in your house, too, due to Snowpocalypse 2010. But rather than simply being lazy and wasting the day away*, I decided to make the most of it, and pull one of those use-whatever-you-have-in-the-house tricks that results in an awesome original recipe.
*This wouldn’t have been the case, anyway; I’m a high school...
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Super Bowl Special, Part II: The Fry Party
After everyone got WASTED on the beer cupcakes (see above) our Super Bowl party fare started getting out of hand: the deep fryer broke out, and all hell broke loose.
It started out normally, with mozzarella and Oreos being the only items to hit the grease. But then we expanded our horizons: a Snickers bar made it in there, a fortune cookie, some bananas. And then, the unthinkable happened. I...
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Super Bowl Special: BEER CUPCAKES!
This is the third year in a row that I’ve hosted a Super Bowl party. And this year, not only is it an excuse for me to wear a sparkly black and gold dress (go Saints!), I am using it as an opportunity to honor the most celebrated drink of all Super Bowl parties: beer.
Yes, Martha stepped up to the plate again (excuse the mixed sports metaphor) with her recipe for Stout Cupcakes. ...
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