Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

I love these cupcakes for two main reasons. One, they have Reese's peanut butter cups on them. Reese's are by far my favorite candy of all time. I ask for them every year in my Christmas stocking.  And I am currently making a Reese's cake for my friend's birthday tomorrow. I might have to make these cupcakes with the leftover candy. If there is any.

And two, I also love that The Curvy Carrot made the Reese's cups look like the cupcakes they're on. I have seen similar cupcakes on Pinterest, but I like these because the bigger cupcake kind of looks like a Reese's cup too with the black wrapper and chocolate cake. 

For the recipe and directions, head on over to The Curvy Carrot!



Beautiful, Elegant and Pricey French Cupcakes

 Very very very fancy cupcakes by pastry chef Claude Ducrozet, from Hotel Fouquet's Barriere (Paris).

From the PR sheet:

"Cupcakes -- as American as apple pie. But the pastry chef from Paris’ Hotel Fouquet’s Barrière, Claude
Ducrozet, is setting out to change that perception. In October, Claude Ducrozet introduces five flavors of
cupcakes (pictured above): strawberry-lemon, carrot with cream cheese, chocolate, pineapple-mango, and
raspberry pistachio. With French style and flair, each of these creations is a work of art and available from
morning to night – accompanied by coffee, tea, or a cocktail – at the hotel’s elegant Le Lucien Bar. And yes,
they taste as good as they look.
 

Price: 9 € each."

 

 

 

That's about $12 each (with current currency conversion)!

 

Hotel Fouquet’s Barrière 

46 avenue George V  

75008 Paris

33 (0)1 40 69 60 00

Facebook.

Dora the Explorer cupcakes and cake tower

These Dora the Explorer cupcakes and cake/cupcake tower are by Top the Cupcake in Perth, Australia, via Flickr.







I especially appreciate a behind the scenes look at the trials and tribulations of baking. From the post "Dora is so hot right now!":

It was a mammoth effort as those Dora characters were really hard to cut out! Not only were the Dora characters difficult to replicate, but my baking skills were really lacking that morning for some bizarre reason. Perhaps it was because I had no sleep as I was busy making those tricky Dora characters! Actually that is a lie – I had a hour’s power nap across my dining room chairs for an energy boost at 4AM. Anyway, there was something very wrong with my baking that morning. I burnt my vanilla cupcakes and could not get my buttercream frosting to work. My frosting was cluggy and had all these unnecessary lumps in them! To this day, I still do not know the reason behind this. I had sifted the icing twice and the butter was at room temperature. But nevertheless, there were lumps! Bah, it makes me furious just thinking about it.

Ritualistic Cupcakes

I am making up stories in my head about this image. Why is there a big smiley flag? Why are they on a concrete floor? Is this a gallery? What is happening here?! Also, why was I not invited?

Happy birthday.

Image courtesy creative commons licensing and uncleboatshoes.

Proof that cupcakes really are everywhere

As seen at Staples:

Louisiana Habanero Hot Sauce Recipe

This is an easy recipe for a versatile, hot and sweet, Louisiana Habanero Hot Sauce. It works great as a regular hot sauce but it is also great to use as a dipping sauce for egg rolls, samosas, acarajé, malu paan, or other appetizers. You can adjust the overall heat by adjusting the number of habaneros to you own personal taste.

Recommended Equipment:
food processor or blender

Ingredients:
7 habanero peppers, seeded and chopped
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup yellow mustard
1 15oz. can sliced peaches in heavy syrup
1 cup white vinegar
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tbsp fresh ground black pepper
2 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp ground cumin
1/2 tspn ground ginger
1/2 tspn ground coriander
1/2 tspn ground allspice

Preparation:

1. In a food processor or blender, add the peaches and heavy syrup. Pulse until the peaches are ground into a puree.
2. Add the habanero peppers, molasses, brown sugar, mustard, vinegar, kosher salt, paprika, cumin, ginger, coriander, and allspice to the food processor or blender.
3. Pulse mixture until it becomes a smooth liquid.
4. Pour the mixture into clean glass jars. Place caps on the jars and refrigerate at least one day before you use the sauce.

United States Louisiana [ print this recipe for Louisiana Habanero Hot Sauce ]

Minestrone Soup is a Once in a Lifetime Experience

I always feel a little apprehensive when I post a recipe like this minestrone soup. It’s the type of dish I never make the same way twice, and the fear is that someone will watch and assume that this is my “official” version.

You don’t need a recipe for minestrone, just like you don’t need a recipe for a great sandwich, or an epic salad. To make minestrone soup precisely same way every time, using a very specific list of ingredients and amounts, is to trample on the soul of this Italian classic.

Having said all that, what if you happen to make it so incredibly delicious one time that you want to experience the exact same shuddering soupgasm in the future? That seems like a perfectly sound reason for why you should write down the recipe…except cooking food doesn’t work that way.

Your perception of how a recipe tastes involves so many factors above and far beyond the list of ingredients. Remember that time you made that super awesome whatever, and it was so perfect, and then you made it again, exactly the same way, but somehow it just didn’t taste as great? This is why.

So, I hope you give this amazing minestrone recipe a try soon…but only once. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
3 oz pancetta

2 tbsp olive oil

1 diced onion

1 cup diced celery

4 minced garlic cloves

4 cups chicken broth

1 (28-oz) can plum tomatoes, crushed fine

2 cups water, plus more as needed

salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp dried Italian herb blend (mine was thyme, oregano, rosemary, basil)

red pepper flakes to taste

1 cup freshly shucked cranberry beans (aka shelling beans)
2 or 3 cups chopped cabbage

1 (15-oz) can garbanzo beans, drained

1 bunch swiss chard, chopped

2/3 cup raw ditalini pasta

extra virgin olive oil, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and fresh Italian parsley to garnish the top