Trying New Things

So I've been experimenting with some new flavors, you've already seen the Guinness cupcakes. A magazine came out that has tons of flavors I've been wanting to try, including a chocolate peanut butter cup! Yummy!
I have not got that far yet, but I did try:

Orange creamsicle cupcakes.

These were for Lenae's son's birthday. I think they got the thumbs up from almost everyone, except for me and The Kid, but we're cake freaks purists, we both like plain white cake with no frosting.

And I had some leftover chocolate batter from these cupcakes.
So I tried out dark chocolate and orange cupcakes. I just added a hoop more bittersweet chocolate chunks and orange juice and zest to the batter, and used leftover orange creamsicle frosting.
Of course, since I'm an evil enabler, I took them to the gym for my workout partners to taste test.

They cursed me, but they ate them!

Also on the "To Do" list are these delicious sounding Butterbeer cupcakes from AmyBites. Cream soda and caramel...sounds like awesome!

Hot-Cha-Cha!

Our PTSA did a Teacher Appreciation lunch this week with a spicy theme.

I'm not so much for cooking spicy foods these days (The Husband has a sensitive palate), eating spicy foods yes, cooking not so much.

I'm usually on desserts for these things, so I decided to try something new.

I hear that the chocolate/chili combo is supposed to be very nice.
So I did chocolate dipped chili peppers on regular chocolate cupcakes.

Here is The Kid's teacher after braving the first nibble.
I'm guessing it was a little hot, though she did admit that her tongue was a bit numb after the rest of her spicy lunch.

The consensus of those who braved the pepper was that it was a nice flavor combination.

Who knew?

Nothing Says Christmas Like....

CUPCAKES!!! Christmas cupcakes.

These were a last minute creation for a kid's Christmas party.

Easy, but fun! Pretty much the only Christmas themed items I made this year.

Ornaments.

And little trees!

Sweet!

There were little kids with green teeth talking to Santa all night long. It was awesome!

Friday the 13th!

So, all those pans in the last post?

Those turned into what I call the "Not What's On The Outside That Counts" Cake.

Here is why.

Man that's an ugly cake.

This cake was for my friend Judi. It was her birthday today, and it's Friday the 13th! How fun.

Here she is cutting it.

And this is why the inside is so special...

13 layers man! 13!!

I got this idea and recipe from Bakerella. I used the Smith Family recipe and split it among 13 pans instead of 12. And I also frosted it like Bakerella with the chocolate cream cheese buttercream frosting.

Next time I make this cake I think I'll let the frosting set up a little more than I did this time. It was still pretty warm and runny, so it did not stay between the layers as well as I would have liked.

Extra

The cakemakers quandry...

You always have to make more frosting than you think you will need. It is nigh impossible to match a color if you run out. I always have leftover frosting at the end of a job. Sometimes if I know I have another cake coming up I can save it, if the colors match. But usually, I just gets dumped.

Well, The Husband came up with an ingenious new method of disposal.



Not so much.

Dipping Olive Oil

I love food. I am an EATER! Love to eat just about everything.
A couple of weeks ago I was having dinner at a friend's house. She had out these dipping oils for bread. They were seriously nommy.

Of course she gets hers from Pampered Chef. And I'm just too cheap to go that route.

So I made my own.


And pardon me for saying it, but DAMN!! It's good!

Here are my ingredients. All things I already had at home.

Just mix together until you like the flavor. I diced the garlic up really fine, and crushed the pepper to release some of the kick. If you prefer a stronger tasting olive oil then use it, but I found it to be too overpowering for my taste.

I also made some with dried basil and oregano instead of the pepper. But I do prefer the pepper one.

Yummy! Good thing Olive Oil is good for you.