Chocolate Beet Cupcakes

Yum yum yum yum yum. I followed this recipe for "Chocolate Beet Cake with Beet Cream Cheese Frosting" from Joy the Baker. Her pictures just looked so good, and I'm always intrigued by baked goods that involve fruits and vegetables so it was added to my winter break creations list. I followed the recipe except for the fact that I switched it from a layer cake to cupcakes.

I was bracing for the cupcakes to be a little gross (the beets), but I actually think these are in the running for top cupcakes I have ever made, ever. The beets I was using were pretty juicy, and I think the extra liquid from shredding the beets made the cake extra moist. Also, I love the pink tinge the beets gave to the frosting - I like pink frosting but dislike strawberry and raspberry flavored sweets, so beets were a nice alternative.

Oh and aren't the wrappers so pretty! I got them from a little chocolate shop in Vermont, the brand is Bake Me A Cake by Meri Meri. They had all sorts of different vintagey and girley and cutesy cupcake tins, definitely worth checking out for future party planning.

As I write this, there are two cupcakes left and I am enjoying the last few bites of sweetness. Mmmmmm I love winter break baking.

Salted Caramel-Pretzel Thumbprints

Greetings bloggees! I know I've been away from blogging for awhile because these salted caramel pretzel thumbprint cookies are actually... christmas cookies! That's right, you heard me. My suite at school decided to have a christmas cookie baking day about a month ago. I realized that a lot of what people were planning on making was boxed baked goods, in true college fashion, but christmas cookies just aren't christmas cookies without being homemade! So I consulted my good friend E, who sent me links to lots of food network recipes, and I decided to make these.

I guess it's not such a bad thing I'm posting them now though. I mean, we all want to drag out the holiday spirit for as long as possible, right? Click here for the recipe so you can make these too! They were much easier to make than I was expecting, really delicious, and they're not even really christmas-y so you can make them all year round! I couldn't find caramel in the store like it calls for, so I just made my own with butter and brown sugar. Either way I don't think you can go wrong.

In addition to these cookies, we made red velvet cupcakes, a frozen oreo pie, and even mulled wine! (pictured below, sorry for the blur).

Banana Cherry Nutella Sandwich

I don't even think it's legal for me to post this on a blog that supposedly talks about "healthy and wholesome meals." But let's get real here. Everyone has their sweet tooth moments, and I think it's much better to put all that sweetness into one sandwich, eat it, and move on with your life, instead of spending an entire day taking a spoonful of this and a handful of this. So here is the creation I made when I just really wanted to eat chocolate all day long.

What You Need:

2 pieces of cinnamon raison bread

1 banana, sliced

bonne maman cherry préserves

nutella

some earth balance butta

How to Make It:

Lightly butter a pan. Place the two slices of bread on the pan, and let them get a bit toasty. When they start to brown, flip em over. While the second side is browning, smear nutella LIGHTLY to both halves. (I'm talkin like 1/2 tbs for each half. Any more and your thighs will be very angry with you later). Then add a sliced banana to one side, and cherry preserves to the other (you can use any other type of jam as well!) When the nutella gets a little melty and the bread is toasty enough, flip the two haves together, and eat! You'll know you've done it correctly if there is hazelnut goodness and cherry lumps oozing out of your sandwich and onto the plate. Oh, and if your sweet tooth craving is filled.

Mint-Filled Brownie Cupcakes

I saw these on Handle the Heat and could not resist. A lot of the time the recipes I read on there are long or complicated, but I was surprised by how simple this recipe is. Also, I already had all of the ingredients on hand except for the peppermint patties (that's what's inside), so once I bought a bag of those I was good to go!

Mine aren't quite as beautiful as Handle the Heat's, but they still look pretty darn good. Just look at that smushy mint cream oozing out the middle there. Mmmm, I've got nothing to complain about. There weren't too many complaints the about leftover half a bag of peppermint patties to munch on either.

Tortillas Two Ways: Sweet (bunuelos)

My mom used to make this for my brother and me as an after school snack. The name for these tortillas are bunuelos. Basically, it's a tortilla with melted butter, cinnamon, and sugar (and brown sugar if you really want to go crazy). When the whole thing is heated, the sugariness melts into the butter, and it's sweet without being over the top. You can eat it flat like a pizza, or as a wrap!

Passover Cookies

I wish I could say that the reason I haven't posted is because I've been eating only matzah and have no interesting recipes, but that would be so false a) because it's only been passover for about five days and b) because I'm not exactly keeping passover rules this year. I am, however, indulging in delicious, homemade passover cookies! Here is some eye candy of their yumminess.

Reese's Pecans

Ok, so I know this blog is about healthy food. BUT, I was given about a million reeses cups by my "secret sister" (that's the product of being in a sorority + valentine's day...). After my roommate and I indulged in at least half of them, we decided to use them in a more productive way... recipe time!

First I unwrapped a whole bunch of reeses cups, and melted them in the microwave. Then I took pecans, dipped them in the chocolately-peanut-buttery concoction, and put them in the refrigerator to harden.

In a few hours, they were ready to eat! Mmmmmmm.

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

What drew me to this recipe, other than the delicious pictures, was the ingredients. I usually get frustrated with vegan recipes because they require vegan-specific ingredients that I don't keep in my kitchen (like soy milk), but I love how the ingredients in this recipe are very common. It basically is like a regular cupcake recipe, minus the dairy.

The original recipe uses a raspberry glaze instead of frosting, but I made an almond-vanilla frosting instead (which is actually not vegan, so I guess that ruins the point of a vegan cupcakes...) To make it, I just mixed confectioners sugar, melted butter,  milk, a drop of vanilla extract, and a drop of almond extract (in the correct proportions, of course).

Click here for a link to the recipe. The cupcakes were chocolaty and delicious, as promised!