Beatty's Chocolate Cake by the Barefoot Contessa

Happy belated birthdays to my two big sisters and my mom! Since they all fall so close together, we decided to celebrate the three together.  This is by far my sister Tina's favorite cake recipe, and she requests it every year.  It is a moist chocolate cake, but by no means the most decadent or rich one I've ever tasted.  The coffee component adds a nice touch but isn't overpowering, and the frosting? Just check out the ingredients - how could that combination not be delicious?!  

The one complaint I received was "Sunny, why were you so stingy with the frosting?!!!" Mea culpa.  I'll glop it on next time.

This was a funny picture that happened accidentally when my little sister and I 

tried to eat the cupcake with a fork.  He's not really sad; just delicious.  

 

I made cupcakes instead of a 2 layer cake just for portability, but either would work!

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

It's October!  Which means it's practically fall.  Which means everything I eat must involve apples, pumpkin, or anything else red/orange/brown.  I made these little guys for an annual broccoli pot luck (Broktoberfest!!) and while it doesn't technically involve broccoli, I didn't have the heart to make a broccoli dessert.. because that's gross.

Cream cheese frosting is a no brainer for pumpkin desserts.... So good!  The cake is light and fluffy, with a very delicate crumb.  I love holiday spices, so I go a little heavy when adding them.

I ended up with a little more icing than I anticipated, so I ended up stuffing these cupcakes as well instead of just icing them.**

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
(makes ~24 cupcakes)

Peach and Blueberry Cobbler

As some of you may know, I'm unfortunately and annoyingly allergic to a variety of delicious fruits (apples, peaches, pears... :[).  T's mom and dad came to visit on Saturday, and brought a whole boatload of juicy, perfectly ripe peaches, and so I panicked that we would never be able to eat all of them before they went became overripe.

Naturally, my first defensive response was to bake an enormous cobbler.  I had some frozen blueberries in the freezer, so I threw those in as well.  The beauty of a cobbler is that it basically asks you to mix up all the fruit, pour it into a baking dish, and then make some sort of bready topping to, well, top it with.  No muss, no fuss with a pie crust or anything like that.

 

The biscuit topping is light and airy - it is NOT very crunchy, so if that's what you're looking for, then maybe stick with a peach crumble or crisp.  (OR, try streusel topping!) 

 

Peach and Blueberry Cobbler

Adapted from an adaptation of the Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

It's Kate's birthday!  She unfortunately is stuck in the ICU working all day and night, so I thought it would be nice to bring her a treat.  For the record, I do too know how to spell "happy", but an extra "P" cupcake was way too cumbersome to lug to the hospital.

I made this frosting to pair with a german mocha cupcake.  It's light, creamy, and doesn't require too many ingredients - I had pretty much everything at home already.  I had come across a lot of chocolate frostings that involved melting chocolate over double boilers and everything, but this seemed a lot more simple. 

These amounts ought to be enough to frost one batch, or 24 cupcakes, or a regular 9 x 13 sheet cake with room to spare.  I understand that some of us are, er, more frosting enthusiastic than others, but for most purposes, you should be good.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

:: 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened (not melted!!)

:: 3 cups confectioner's sugar

:: 1/2 cup cocoa powder

:: 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

:: 1/3 cup milk or cream

Cream butter with a mixer until smooth and creamy.  Add in all the other ingredients (careful, the cocoa and sugar WILL fly everywhere, using a spatula to roughly fold in the dry ingredients is probably a pretty good idea).

Wait until your cake/cupcake/whatever is completely cool before frosting!  I used a rose pipette tip for fun.

Blueberry Corn Muffins with Streusel Topping

The summer is fading fast, and with it disappear the carefree days of not applying for residency and not writing personal statements.  In celebration of my stress and procrastination tactics, I made muffins!  Blueberry muffins are my favorite, and this combines a little bit of the texture of a corn muffin too.  The lemon zest adds just a touch of lemon flavor, enough to brighten the batter, but not enough to be overtly lemon-y.  Frozen blueberries also work just fine, so this is a good year-round recipe.

I am a firm believer in streusel's ability to make anything taste better.  Could you do without the flourbuttersugarstreusel?  Technically, yes, but you would regret it.

Crack

This recipe is for a salty, sweet, crunchy snack made with chocolate, caramel, and saltine crackers.  Sorry to disappoint if this isn't the type of crack you were looking for (although instructions for making crack cocaine are also scary easy to find online, thank you google.)

The first time I had this, my big sister's friend had brought it to a dinner party.  As I've said before, I'm not big on sweets, but I was starting to get hangry and so began to snack on everything in sight.  I started with a small piece of crack.  Then I had another piece.  And then I started double fisting giant chunks of the stuff.  And now I guess I'm addicted to crack.  It's also made from crack(ers) and is also "cracked" into pieces at the end, so there's your triple entendre.

Just give in to the addiction.

Key Lime Pie with Meringue Topping

Desserts!  We need desserts!

I hope no one has already given up on me in the desserts category.  I'll admit it, I don't have much of a sweet tooth, but I guess that means for you dear reader, that when I do share a dessert recipe, it's pretty darn delicious.

 

So this isn't technically a "key lime" pie, since I didn't use key limes (which are smaller, tangier, and more bitter than normal limes), but "lime pie" sounds weird and confusing.  This is yet another recipe that I have stolen from Steph (thank you!).  You really must try it.