Last year for Mother’s Day, I made my mom a huge jar of chocolate and vanilla salted caramels. Rumor had it that while my mom loved them, and kept them in the fridge so she could savor one at a time when she wanted to enjoy one, my stepdad David LOVED them. LIke, my mom had to stash them away loved them.

So, when Father’s day rolled around, in a small gesture of my appreciation for all David has done for us this year, I made him his very own batch of salted caramels.

I used a different recipe this time (from epicurious) with slightly less cream and butter (I know, the pity!) which yielded a chewier and more firm caramel, perfect for chewing and savoring.

I wrapped each caramel in its very own waxed paper wrapper, making them (at least to me) seem kind of fancy.

There were so many of them. My fingers were cramping up from wrapping caramels in waxed paper. And sprinkling fleur de sel atop each one.

But David loved them. He promptly ate one and proclaimed them “Really good chewy caramels” but his mouth was full of caramel… so it sounded like “rullyghoodsheoycrmsls” But i got the sentiment.

And, Domo liked them too.

Camper quote of the day: “Mara! There’s a bee in your ponytail and I can see it making honey!”

I don’t get it either.

Every girl knows the color.

That slightly green, mostly blue, usually inscribed with a little black name and tied with a little white ribbon.

[source]

Ah yes, Tiffany & Company… the infamous color, home of breakfasts, bling, and truly untouchable luxuries. If you’ve ever received anything from Tiffany, you remember it. You probably remember where you were, what it was, who gave it to you, and most importantly, that it came in that iconic blue box.

When one of my very favorite children turned six years old this week (SERIOUSLY where did the time go?), I would’ve LOVED to be the person that gifted her a blue box. I mean, look at this smile, how can you say no to that?

Like many girly 6-year-olds, she loves all things sparkly and beautiful, and is obsessed with being a beautiful princess. But, since everything at Tiffany costs an arm and a leg, I went with the next best thing for this amazing girl:

Tiffany blue cupcakes.

Again, just like last weekend, I went with Sweetapolita’s dark chocolate cake (again, a total hit), and my favorite Italian meringue buttercream icing (Lizz and Skylar’s favorite).

I baked them in brilliant silver liners, piped perfect rosettes on top, and sprinkled little edible pearls all over as decoration. The color was achieved with a 4-1 ratio of Wilton gel coloring. 4 parts Sky Blue and 1 part Leaf Green.

I looked all over for my cupcake stand, knowing that Lizz would want to display them when I arrived at Skylar’s party. Lo and behold, Lizz HAD my cupcake stand from a Muffin Tin Monday post. And so, the cupcakes were properly displayed.

And later, they were devoured. I don’t know if there were any left over after the party ended, but I will say this one thing. I may not have been able to give Skylar her first Tiffany’s box, but her first Tiffany blue elicited a similar reaction as if I’d given her a diamond tiara. Eyes wide, a sharp intake of breath, she smiled and said “ok, those I promise I will eat MORE than just the frosting. They’re so pretty!”

Mission accomplished.

Imagine my delight when, on Friday, I parked my car on a side street near the nail salon I was visiting, looked out my window and saw a sign that said “Sweet Pea Cupcakes”!

I walked in with a huge smile on my face, and immediately wished I had my camera with me. So, darn, I’ll have to go back for a more in-depth post. But, I couldn’t hold back from buying four cupcakes for Adam and I to share on Friday night. It turns out that Sweet Pea Cakes was the cupcake shop my students have been bugging me to try for MONTHS, and in fact, their creations have been on Cute Food Saturday!

Could the cakes live up to the hype from my students?

Here’s a better look at each one:

Red velvet with cream cheese icing (and a fingerprint!)

Key lime with cream cheese icing (I think)

Carrot cake with cinnamon cream cheese icing

Chocolate with Peanut butter icing

The cake was a perfect texture, and I think the frosting was some of the best bakery frosting I’ve ever had. The peanut butter mousse frosting on the chocolate cupcake was something I’ll be attempting to imitate soon! I loved the tartness of the key lime cake and frosting, but my favorite was the carrot with the cinnamon cream cheese icing. I’m a sucker for good cream cheese icing, and while the stuff I’ve made before has been good, this stuff was GREAT. I also truly enjoyed the 1:1 frosting to cake ratio. I rarely frost my own cupcakes that high, so it was a nice treat.

Will I be visiting Sweet Pea again? HECK YES! One location is by my school, and one is on my way home… all too convenient! I wonder if they’re hiring…

Sweet Pea Cakes

Barrington, IL and Crystal Lake, IL

Every time I looked at a blog post today, it was about pancakes. It’s National Pancake Day (or Día Nacional de Panqueques, as I taught my students) and everywhere I looked there were stacks of pancakes of various varieties. Needless to say, pancakes were on the menu for tonight.

Or rather. Pancake.

Just one.

One of my favorite things to get when I go to Walker Brother’s is a German Pancake. My mom used to make them for us when we were younger, and I’ve tried my hand at making them numerous times.

Don’t know what a German Pancake is?

It’s like a soufflé and a pancake had a baby. They’re light and fluffy, take next to no time to put together, and there are dozens of recipes out there. Tonight’s is inspired by Smitten Kitchen’s recipe. I wanted a bit more of a substantial meal rather than lots of white flour, so I opted for these modifications:

• whole wheat bread flour instead of white
• halved the recipe for just me
• 1 whole egg and 2 whites instead of two whole eggs (for extra pouf!)
• teaspoon of real butter in the hot pan instead of in the batter

But, the best part of a German pancake besides eating it is the “deflate” that happens. Right before I took it out of the oven, it looked like this:

And, through the magic of stop-motion animation… watch my German pancake collapse:

**Have you voted for my Wonderful POMcakes today?**

A word of advice: when your husband/fiance/boyfriend/significant other offers to cook dinner for you on a weeknight, JUST SAY YES!

I came home today, and Adam had gone to the grocery store and purchased all the ingredients for a delicious dinner. Just what I needed after the long day I had!

We had a very balanced meal of:

meatloaf,

pan-roasted brussels sprouts (ok, I made these), and

sweet potato oven fries

All together now:

You know you’re a food blogger when your husband presents you with a beautifully-plated dinner, perfect for photos!

Since I hadn’t cooked dinner, I had energy to make a little treat for my coworkers tomorrow: chocolate chip whoopie pies!

I had every intent of making 9 whoopie pies, but alas, the last pan I put in didn’t want to behave, and managed to turn into what Adam said looked like a “molecular experiment on a cookie sheet”.

The final product though? Pretty and delicious!

No wait, these deserve a pedestal…

Chocolate Chip Whoopie Pies

Ingredients

• 2 sticks butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 1/2 cups cake flour
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 batch cream cheese icing

Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 350*F. Cream the butter and sugar together in the bowl of a stand mixer until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients together (except the chocolate chips). Add the eggs one at a time to the butter and sugar mixture, beating well after each addition. Then, add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter/sugar/egg mixture, then 1/2 of the milk. Continue alternating until all is incorporated. Then stir in the chocolate chips. Scoop with an ice cream scoop onto a cookie sheet, 2″ apart. Bake about 15 minutes or until the cake springs back to the touch. Allow to cool completely, then sandwich two cookies together with cream cheese icing, and decorate if desired.

I had to find a use for the rainbow sprinkles I purchased today. From a bulk bin. For $2.99 a pound. I didn’t buy a pound, but it was cool to be able to if I needed or wanted. Or if someone else needed or wanted.

So about that inappropriate post title… I had a dinner date, and then, I made whoopie… pies! Yeah, I’m that nerdy.

When I was a tween, I was extremely short. Like, nickname-inducing, age-questioning short. I was at least two heads shorter than many of my “tall” friends, and a head shorter than my friends that were considered “short.” When I graduated 8th grade, they lined us up by height. The taller kids got to be in the back row, and we were in decreasing order towards the front with the shortest kid being at the end. I was third to last.

And, when I say nicknames, they ran the gamut from “shorty” to “shrimp”, “shortstuff”, “tiny”, “baby”, and “short stack.” You know, like pancakes.

I can remember being called “short stack” a few times, and always thinking it was funny, because I looked nothing like pancakes. Nothing at all in fact! I was, however, pleased with the nickname. Really, who doesn’t like pancakes?

Some days call for nothing but pancakes. Alton Brown’s perfect fluffy pancakes at that. That man is a genius. I took a few shortcuts and halved the recipe, so mine is a bit more realistic for a 2-3 person dinner.

Alton Brown’s Fluffy Pancakes

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 Tb. kosher salt
• 1 Tb. sugar
• 2 eggs plus 1 egg white, lightly beaten
• 2 cups milk
• 2 Tb. melted butter
• fillings/toppings of choice

Directions

Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl, and in a separate bowl, mix the wet thoroughly. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and mix until just barely combined. Don’t worry about lumps. Heat a griddle or frying pan and lightly grease it (pour a little oil or melted butter on a paper towel and wipe it on the warm griddle). Scoop the batter on to the hot griddle and then sprinkle in your fruit or chip of choice. When bubbles “stay” on the surface of the pancakes, flip them and cook another few minutes. Remove to a baking sheet or plate. Store remaining pancakes in a low oven to keep warm, or refrigerate the leftovers.

But you won’t have leftovers.

They were the best pancakes I’ve ever had, made better by real maple syrup.

I really like syrup.

What’s that lurking around the corner? I know you can see it…

Why, hello Old Town Social bacon! Jared, your bacon is even better in maple syrup.

And what’s that hiding in the pancakes?

That would be Ghiradelli chocolate chips. Lots of them.

These were eaten on the couch, in front of the TV, while Adam and I tried to stay awake for long enough to not go to bed while it was still light out. Obviously, I hated every bite.

So while I may have been called “short stack” at one point in my life… I’ve now mastered it in my own kitchen!

And, you have no idea how difficult it was to actually get this post up. My camera ate my photos. I spent most of the evening finding a program to recover the photos… and I succeeded! THAT is how much I wanted you to see these.

Now, go make them. Maybe not right now, but how about for breakfast tomorrow? Or Sunday?

You won’t regret it.

Nor will you regret voting for my cupcakes on the POM Wonderful Cupcake Contest!

Also, you may notice a little thermometer over in the sidebar. I’ve registered myself for a 5k run/walk to benefit the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. I’m not planning on running, but rather walking with a team of my family and friends… and would love your help!

What happens when you take a bowl of ganache this big,

A couple of messy hands, some waxed paper, and a little creativity…and mush them together with a little patience?

Lucky coworkers. That’s what.

And what happens when I make a ganache out of lovely peanut butter chips, then dip balls of it into melted chocolate? Lucky me and Adam!

Peanut Butter Truffles

Ingredients

1 bag (10 oz) peanut butter chips

1 cup heavy cream

1 bag (12 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Decorations of choice

Directions

Heat the cream in a small pot until small bubbles form around the edge. Pour the peanut butter chips into a heat-proof bowl. When the cream is bubbling, pour it over the peanut butter chips and allow to sit about a minute. Whisk well until smooth, then refrigerate. When chilled, form the peanut butter ganache into balls and dip in melted semisweet chocolate. Refrigerate again. Take 50 photos, then find out all the photos are gone. Take 15 more, then eat.

Adam and I are off to a dinner at one of our favorite local places. The lights are too dim for photos, and we’re intending on just enjoying each others’ company before the craziness of the rest of the week kicks in.

Happy valentine’s day all! I HEART each and every one of you!

Many months ago, in what feels like another lifetime at this point, I got an email from my friend Mal. You may remember her as the person who started the A to Z Literacy Movement, and I talked about her throughout September when every one of your clicks was a donation to A to Z.

Anyway, this email from Mal said “Hey girl, I’m planning a benefit for A to Z in February, would you be able to make some goodies for it?” Of course I agreed.

Months passed, and then we got a flier in our mailboxes at school reminding us all about the benefit that was happening in a few weeks, and suddenly it dawned on me: I had to make a ton of cupcakes, and I had to make them SOON!

The consensus among coworkers going to the benefit was that whatever I made needed to be chocolate. And I knew the frosting I made had to be stable enough to stay out for hours at a time, so that recipe was a no-brainer. I knew the decoration needed to be classy, since the theme of the event was “On the Vine: Celebrating Books and Wine”.

You just want me to get to what exactly I made, don’t you. Alright, fine… behold:

Let’s start from the bottom, shall we? That’s a lovely Sutton Gourmet cupcake wrapper (who is sponsoring a giveaway very very soon!) filled with my version of the Hershey Chocolate Cake recipe, topped with “The Best Buttercream” from Pioneer Woman’s recipe site, topped with a ganache drizzle, topped with a raspberry.

Commence drooling.

I’ll be nice and give you the recipes. I actually found the Hershey’s cake for the first time on my friend Recipe Girl’s site, and of course couldn’t leave well enough alone. First of all, I had to make a quadruple recipe. QUADRUPLE! Do you have any idea how HUGE a quadruple recipe of cake batter is? I didn’t either. It’s really a good thing I made two double batches instead of one quadruple batch because my mixer would’ve overflowed.

The cake recipe is as follows, my changes are in parenthesis in the ingredients, and the process is what I did.. The instructions are for cupcakes.

Hershey’s Perfect Chocolate Cake

makes 2 9-inch cakes or 30-36 cupcakes

Ingredients

• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup Hershey’s cocoa (I used Ghiradelli’s unsweetened, because I’m cool like that)
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 c. vegetable oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350*F. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners.
2. Mix together the cocoa and boiling water, stir until smooth, and then allow to cool
3. Stir together dry ingredients (except cocoa) and then add the wet, saving the cocoa mixture for last.
4. The batter will be quite thin, but don’t worry! Mix until combined and then allow to sit a few minutes
5. Scoop into cupcake tins, filling no more than half full. The cupcakes rise a LOT.
6. Bake about 20-24 minutes until a tester comes out clean.
7. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

The glorious frosting on top is among my favorite recipes that doesn’t involve cooking sugar. It does take a bit of time due to the relatively odd process… I’ll just let you read the recipe. Keep in mind, I made a QUADRUPLE recipe of this too.

The Best Buttercream

from TastyKitchen

Ingredients

• 5 Tablespoons flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter (I used salted)
• 1 cup granulated sugar (not powdered sugar!)

Directions

1. In a small saucepan, whisk the flour into the milk and then heat over medium heat, stirring constantly. The mixture will get very thick (like brownie batter).
2. Stir in the vanilla and set the mixture aside to cool completely to room temperature.
3. While the mixture cools, cream together the butter and sugar until very light and fluffy. You want there to be NO sugar graininess left. It takes longer than you think it will.
4. Then, mix the cooled flour/milk/vanilla mixture into the butter/sugar mixture. Mix on high speed until very light and fluffy. The texture will be like whipped cream.
5. Set aside about 1 cup of the frosting to enjoy with a spoon.
6. Use the remaining frosting to ice your cupcakes or cake.

There’s one more recipe that goes into these lovelies: rich chocolate ganache. My original plan was to dip the tops of each cupcake into shiny ganache, then frost them on top of that. I then thought that I might be better off if I keep it simpler. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I had already made a vat of ganache (remember, QUADRUPLE recipes!) It’s by far the best ganache I’ve ever made though, thanks to a little help from my sister.

In order to keep the texture fudge-like and shiny, she suggested to use 1 part cream and 1 part chocolate by weight. So, 32 ounces of cream and 32 ounces of chocolate turned into this:

Which, when cooled to just a little warmer than room temperature, was the perfect texture to Jackson Pollack my cupcakes.

And the same photo, a bit more artistic:

Now I have a huge bowl of ganache in the fridge.

Darn.

Any suggestions on what to do with it?

The cupcakes were a hit at the benefit, and I got a little boost every time I saw someone eating one and smiling. I loved seeing people with their wine tasting glasses in one hand, and one of my cupcakes in the other, and sometimes, a bit of frosting on their lips.

I’m amazed I pulled off the 100 cupcakes without a hitch. Granted, 10 of them sank in the middle, and a few overflowed and stuck to the pans, so of the 120 that I made, 100 made it to the benefit. We left a little early, so I don’t know if they were all eaten last night, but more than two-thirds of them were gone!

And now I want one, and of course, I didn’t save any for myself. Oh well.

Since the cupcakes were for a benefit for a cause I love, I just want to take a minute to tell you all that you can read more about the cause and donate by visiting the A to Z Literacy Movement website.

P.S. In case you’re wondering what 100 cupcakes looks like:

It was the phone call students (and teachers) around the country live for. As I left school yesterday, the caller ID flashed with my district’s phone number, and the recording said “Due to severe winter weather conditions, all schools in our district will be closed on Wednesday, February 2.”

I believe the first word out of my mouth was “WOOT!!!!!!”

Then I thought “CRAP! I ran out of flour yesterday!”

So, on my way home, before the storm hit, I stopped at the grocery store for supplies. No, not light bulbs, batteries, and other standards. For me, it was flour, butter, milk, eggs, sugar, and cream cheese. I was on a mission.

As the storm blew in, I filmed a little bit of it:

I’m humbled and grateful for all of your kind words and condolences over the last week. It’s been, by far, the most difficult situation I’ve ever been through, and each comment and Facebook message would raise my spirits just a little bit. The healing has only just begun, and all of your support has been a big part of my getting back to my new normal.

In my barrage of “stress baking” that happened over my winter break, (which by the way, seems like it was months ago, not mere weeks. Time is so weird.) I made bunches of batches of random things. Knishes. Pretzels. Yet-to-be-blogged bagels. And macaroons.

I could never hope to replicate Gina’s amazing raw ‘roons… I leave those to her. Sometimes, small batches of them show up in my mailbox at random times and they just about make my week. I went with a much more “traditional” macaroon for my first attempt.

Coconut macaroons are a favorite treat of mine, and when Adam suggested I make them, I didn’t hesitate. The recipes I found all called for sweetened condensed milk, and I SWEAR I bought a can. But when I got home and unpacked my baking supplies, it was nowhere to be found. So I was forced to improvise… a specialty of mine. I’m just glad the recipe worked out as well as it did!

Oh yeah, I dipped them in chocolate too.

Caramelly Coconut Macaroons

Ingredients

• 2 14-oz bags sweetened shredded coconut
• 1/3 c. sour cream
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 c. white sugar
• 1 Tb plus 1 tsp vanilla, divided
• 2 Tb. flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt

• 1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 325*F. In a small bowl, mix the eggs, sugars, 1 tsp. vanilla, flour and baking powder together and mix until well-combined and fairly creamy. Put the coconut in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer. Add the sour cream and salt, and mix well. Pour the sugar and egg mixture over the coconut and mix well (when all the coconut is coated with the egg/sugar mixture.) Scoop onto a sprayed baking sheet in the desired size. The cookies will not spread. Bake 12-15 minutes until the tops are lightly browned and the bottoms are lightly caramelized. Allow to completely cool. Melt the chocolate (either microwave or double boiler) and dip the macaroons halfway into the chocolate. Allow the chocolate to harden, then store in an airtight container… if they make it that long.

I made another batch of these as a gift, and they were a hit… not that I’m giving up cupcakes, but I think these may be my new go-to treat to bring places! They’re easy and delicious, and fairly simple to make in larger or smaller batches.

I’ll be back to more regular posting in coming days… thank you all again, so much, for your comments and support… it truly means more to me than any of you could ever know. I

hope you all enjoyed the fantastic guest posts over the last few weeks, and a huge thank you goes out to all the amazing bloggers that stepped up to take care of my blog while I spent time with friends and family.

I love you all!