What happens when you cross a blondie with a snickerdoodle?

Something very, very delicious.

Chewy squares packed with brown sugar and cinnamon flavor with a fragrant dose of cinnamon sugar on top. This is the epitome of comfort food, warming winter flavors coming together in a dense blondie. I know spring is kind of here now but it’s still pretty cold in Philadelphia so these are great, or for those chilly rainy days, but honestly I’d still eat a tray of these in the sweltering heat of summer. I really think the greatness of these blondies transcend seasons and weather conditions and will always be fantastic.
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Last weekend was a friend’s birthday and as someone who bakes a lot that couldn’t really afford a nice gift, I offered to bake his birthday cake.

Now, when it comes to cakes, I’m really simple. I like to make them taste really good and look like cakes, I respect the talent of people who make sculpted cakes and over the top designs, but I enjoy simple and delicious.

His only request was that the cake have stripes, so they could match his shoes. Sadly, I couldn’t really figure out a not ugly way to incorporate stripes onto the frosting that would match the pattern of his shoes, especially since I’m not the world’s best cake decorator (maybe this is the reason I like simple cakes?)

However, as this unfortunately slightly out of focus photo shows, I incorporated stripes in the center. I didn’t tell him though, I let it be a surprise when he sliced into it and everybody was impressed by it.

This cake takes a bit of work but it is totally worth it for the wow factor. The basic steps are baking four cake layers (two of each color), freezing, cutting, assembling, binding, freezing again, and frosting. I don’t think I could explain it nearly as well Amanda over on I Am Baker, so click here for the full tutorial.

I used my go-to yellow cake recipe multiplied by four and baked into 8″ rounds and frosted with my classic supersweet buttercream doubled (by request, if it was my choice I would’ve gone with chocolate).

I don’t really have any additional tips on this cake to offer because Amanda covers it so well on her blog except to remind you that every step is important. Don’t skip over the simple syrup or the binding with a rag (or rope). Also, if the two cakes didn’t bake up to an even layer, it’s fine because you can fill in the grooves with frosting.

Enjoy!

These cupcakes came out of a crazy dream I had yesterday. I have some pretty crazy dreams sometimes and this was definitely out there, especially since grapefruit played such a huge part in it. I’ve never eaten a grapefruit before, I don’t even know if I’ve ever had something grapefruit flavored.

In this dream I had a grapefruit and I was preparing it to eat or bake with it or something. I was zesting it and thinking about what else I could do with it so I went online and remembered seeing a post about Grapefruit Scones over on Joy The Baker so I decided to check out her blog to see what to do with it and I came across a post about preparing grapefruit. Keep in mind this is all still in the dream and this post doesn’t exist on Joy’s blog. The post detailed about how you have to slice the grapefruit into a thin sliver and de-bone it. Yes, you have to remove the skeleton from the grapefruit. And I remember thinking to myself in the dream “wait, grapefruits have bones?” So I kept reading and it explained that grapefruit actually come from the ocean and are a type of fish, however the grapefruit fish aren’t killed, they wash up on shore already dead before they are scooped up by farmers and the post continued on to say that made it okay for vegetarians to eat. Being a vegetarian, I didn’t really see this logic, but my dream self pressed on. I had the grapefruit slivered and I could see through the pink flesh at a small skeleton like a hammerhead shark and the blog post told me I had to cut the side and then push the skeleton out. At this point I got really grossed out and woke up.
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There are some days when your to-do list is piled up too high and you are overwhelmed at the thought of even starting that list.

I give you permission to procrastinate and make pudding.
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I took a break from doing the dishes and write this blog post. It took every ounce of my will to pull myself away from those dishes, I just love washing them so much (yeah, right).

The lack of flour in these cupcakes means they are super rich and full of chocolate flavor. It also means they sink down a bit in the middle, but more on that later.

They are best the next day, in my opinion, because they aren’t falling apart and have had time to set a bit. These are best left unfrosted because of the richness, a dusting of powdered sugar is all they really need (well, they don’t even need that, so feel free to just eat them plain if that’s your thing).
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Apparently it isn’t a party in Brazil without the brigadeiros.

I wouldn’t know because I don’t have a drop of latino blood in my body, but I really like sweetened condensed milk combined with chocolate. These have a fudge-like texture, much softer than truffles, almost identical to my foolproof chocolate fudge.

I really like sweetened condensed milk in general. I have this bad habit of licking the lid of the can before I throw it out.

Is that weird? Whatever. You should try it, just be careful not to cut yourself on the edge of the can.
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I was not on the ball when I was making these brownies. There are some days I am on top of my game, taking pretty nice photographs and really working the food to my advantage, but this wasn’t one of those days. It was the day before I went on my sugar/dairy free week and I just wanted to dig in to my “final meal”.

The recipes comes from Kaitlin over at Whisk Kid, who is not only an amazing baker but also takes beautiful photos, so if you really want to see these brownies at their best, check out her blog!

Looking back at the photos I took, I really don’t know what I was thinking. Maybe I wasn’t intending on sharing the recipe? I thought about just cutting this post but I couldn’t. These brownies are really good, too good not to share, especially when you don’t have eggs around. I still love these brownies that I’ve made in the past, they are my absolute favorite, but I didn’t have any eggs around and I’ve been meaning to make these eggless ones for a while and they did not disappoint. They are dense, chewy, and chocolaty in all the ways a brownie should be. They can also be veganized by replacing the butter with earth balance!
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Over the weekend I went to the grocery store to pick up some baking supplies, including lemons, unfortunately all the lemons were rotting except for the bulk packs. I only need a couple lemons for my lemon cupcakes so it was either rotting lemons or a lot of lemons. I went with the big pack so I could make some fresh lemon curd as well and ended up using it on these biscuits.

I’ve made lemon curd before (to put in this cake) but I didn’t want to have a bunch of egg whites sitting around. Thankfully this recipe only uses two egg yolks and two full eggs, which is perfect since the lemon cupcakes used two egg whites).

These biscuits are the perfect curd vessel (does that sound gross or delicious? it tastes delicious so I’ll continue to call it a curd vessel). They are flaky and soft without being dry and they store well at room temperature in an airtight container. They are best served warm though, even if they are just heated up in the microwave
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What better way to welcome spring than with fresh lemon cupcakes? These are a dreamy combination of light as air, fragrant cake with fluffy, zesty cream cheese frosting. They have a bright lemon flavor without causing your lips to pucker from the tartness or being overwhelmed by sweetness. They are almost like a love letter to spring.

However, spring isn’t the reason I baked these delicious little cakes. Next month my good friend is throwing an Alex’s Lemonade Stand charity event to raise money to fund research into new treatments to fight childhood cancer. The event will be held on April 9 in Philadelphia and is going to have food, games, and various activities for children to participate in. More details on attending can be found on the facebook event page.

So where do these cupcakes come in?

I’m going to be donating 350 mini cupcakes in three flavors (vanilla, chocolate, and lemon) to the event and will be working the food booth distributing them on behalf of this blog using money I’ve made through advertising (that little foodbuzz ad on the side there)! I also wanted to come to you guys and ask for your assistance. I’m hoping to raise money to do a cash donation from my blog and its readers.

100% of the money raised on my blog from the donation button will go directly to the festival (which will then go to Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation). If you can donate anything, even one dollar, it helps.

I can’t thank you guys enough for donating if you’re able to, hopefully this amazing cupcake recipe I found will be a decent start to express my gratitude!
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It’s official! I went 7 days without any dairy or refined sugars! It was tough, especially on day three when I was holding a brownie in my hand saying to myself “are you really going to do this? are you really going to give up?” and finally putting it back in the pan and walking away.

Not my proudest moment.

I’m glad I did the week though, it was an interesting experiment in self control. While I didn’t see many physical changes from cutting it out, I do feel a bit renewed. I’m really eager to get back into the kitchen and make tons of sugar filled treats loaded up with milk and butter. I feel a new sense of motivation and inspiration as well, even though I’ve been cooking and baking I feel like I’m looking at it with fresh eyes.

I don’t think I could have done it without natural sweeteners like honey and agave, the excellent treats from Sweet Freedom Bakery, and this gooey, melty vegan mac & cheese

Oh, and a dozen honey blueberry muffins!
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