I feel like I’m always telling you guys I don’t like peanut butter..then I give you a recipe with peanut butter.

I don’t know what’s wrong with me.

Maybe I don’t actually hate peanut butter…but I think I do.

I don’t hate this fudge though. Maybe it’s the combination of peanut butter and sugar plus a layer of chocolate that makes me really fall in love with it. You’ll fall in love with it too, maybe you’ll even marry it!
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The holiday baking season will be here any minute and that means you are going to need brown sugar.

Whether you are making chocolate gingerbread bars or brown sugar fudge or even brown sugar cupcakes, you will be using a LOT of brown sugar in the coming month.

Lucky for you, when you run out you can just make your own instead of running to the store.

You only need two things: sugar and molasses.

Print Recipe
Homemade Brown Sugar

Makes a little over 1 cup

1 cup granulated sugar
1-2 tablespoons unsulphured molasses

Use 1 tablespoon molasses for light brown sugar and 2 tablespoons for dark brown sugar.

Combine both ingredients and mix together with a fork or electric mixer and blend until completely combined. The molasses may stick together but keep beating and it will break up and latch onto the sugar and you’ll have flavorful brown sugar in less than 5 minutes.

My camera didn’t feel like cooperating today. I didn’t get a single good picture.

I did get some delicious cupcakes though, that’s all that matters.

The cupcake resembles banana bread, a little lighter but still dense and flavorful. Top it with a generous helping of nutella buttercream to put it into a new realm of deliciousness. You could also go an extra step and swirl in some nutella, like my self-frosting nutella cupcakes.

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Banana Cupcakes
Adapted from Martha Stewart

Makes about 12 cupcakes

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 4 ripe bananas)
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners.

Sift and whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Make a well in the dry ingredients and mix in butter, mashed bananas, eggs, and vanilla. Stir to incorporate wet and dry ingredients being very careful not to overmix.

Fill each cupcake liner 2/3 full and bake for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.

Nutella Buttercream
Adapted from food.com

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup nutella, softened

Cream butter and 1 cup confectioners sugar together, add in half of milk, then add another cup of confectioners sugar, then add in the rest of the milk and vanilla extract. Add the final cup of confectioners sugar and the nutella and mix until well combined and the desired consistency.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers here in the US.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some pumpkin bread to bake.

This isn’t technically stuffing, it’s called “dressing” since it wasn’t cooked inside a turkey…but I’m going to call it stuffing because it’s easier.

It’s vegetarian too!

And looks like a cupcake!!! I baked it in a cupcake tin and then topped it with some mashed potatoes. It’s really perfect for Thanksgiving coming up or any dinner. It’s easy to eat, compact, and gets two of your side dishes together. You could garnish it with chives or (vegetarian) bacon or just leave it as is like I did. It’s super easy to make and is an easy way to impress your guests.
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Three things you’ll learn from this post:

1. I need to clean my stove (learned above).
2. I can’t flip a pancake.
3. How to make delicious chocolate pancakes.

Just click read more.
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These blondies are simple but taste amazing.

They come together quickly and bake up to be soft and chewy. You can add in chocolate chips or whatever you can think up (peanut butter chips? walnuts? let your imagination run wild), I added in some btuterscotch chips because…well, I love butterscotch and it goes great with the strong brown sugar flavor.
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I’m clearly ready for December and the holidays to roll in.

I have my themed liners out, my holiday recipes ready, and I have some vanilla bean cupcakes. Life is good.

I could use some snow though. Oh well. I have these cupcakes to console me. You could too, they are super simple but super tasty.
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The holidays are rolling in and I wanted to get a head start with this chocolate gingerbread bar recipe. Almost like a brownie, these cookie bars have a kick of holiday spices and molasses to give it a gingerbread feel.

Gingerbread is one of my favorite flavors. Gingerbread cookies, doughnuts, cupcakes, I’m in love. Especially those massive gingerbread men covered in icing…I can’t resist. I saw this recipe and bookmarked it with an empty butter box so I could make it the next day (that was the closest thing to me at the time…is that weird?)
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Not everyone has Pumpkin Pie Spice on hand and with Thanksgiving and other holidays quickly approaching, more and more recipes are asking for it.

Pumpkin Pie Spice is actually a mix of other ground spices: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves. These are all great spices for someone who bakes to have, so you may already have them and be able to mix up your own Pumpkin Pie Spice.

Print Recipe
Pumpkin Pie Spice
Idea from Martha Stewart’s Holiday Cookies Magazine

Makes 1 tablespoon

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Combine all spices and blend together well. Store in a small airtight container if not using it all at once.