DC Treats

Red velvet cupcake from Baked & Wired.  More than one person told me to avoid that bakery from the TLC show and go a few streets over for these.  Wise advice!

A few days later I had a chocolate cupcake with vanilla buttercream from CakeLove.  This one was from Tysons Corner, but they have locations all over the area.

I also enjoyed a cookie, some brownies, and candy from various institutions, but the other standout was an insane piece hunk of chocolate blackout cake from Serendipidty 3.  It took four days to eat.

 

I'm not kidding.

Siri-ously Good Camera

Yum. My new iPhone camera or this sweet treat?  Umm...both.  This lil' jewel is from a local place called Nothing Bundt Cakes.  Unfortunate name.  Delightful product.

A pesto/chicken panini from Bruegger's Bagels. 

Austin!

Let me just say that I had a great weekend in Austin.  My pals Melanie and Joe were wonderful hosts, and we had a brief but enormously fun tour around the Texan capital.  Our first stop was South Congress (locally called SoCo) at the store Uncommon Objects.



I don't know what it is about taxidermy that alternately fascinates and terrifies me, but this baboon definitely fit the bill. 

Along those lines: doll parts.

Now we come to what was arguably my favorite part of the trip.  Hey Cupcake! is a company of Airstream trailers that have been turned into mobile cupcakeries.  Yum.  I ate four.

Here we have a red velvet and "the standard," which is a yellow cake with chocolate frosting.  I also got another standard and a Michael Jackson.  That would be a chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting.

Parts & Labour was a recommendation from my pal Dawn.  It's a really neat shop where you can find things like Burt Reynolds pillows, complete with felt mustache, and hilarious postcards (see below).

One of our last hoorahs was a trip to The Oasis at Lake Travis.  It's a nice restaurant overlooking the lake, where we were able to snag a balcony table and eat some delicious TexMex as the sun set over the Lonestar State.

One night we also went to Esther's Follies, which is a wholly unique experience.  It's a show that combines music, magic, and political satire--almost like a scaled-down (funny) version of Saturday Night Live.  If you're ever in Austin, I recommend all of the above.  I think it makes a great destination for a long weekend, and we didn't even go to a concert, which is the heart of the city.  The mind reels at such prospects.

I am already planning a return trip next year.

Nums.

I just tried this snack, and it's insanely delicious.  It's kettle corn plus dark chocolate plus chocolate chips.  How bad could that be?

Laboring Over a Hot Stove

It was a delightfully restful Labor Day for moi.  I made these soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies (recipe by Martha), and I have to say that they rank among the best ever.  (Shhh...they're even better than these.)  From her cookbook, I found a variation on the recipe linked above.  Substitute half of one of the sticks of butter with a 1/2 cup of peanut butter.  It's the best combination of flavors.

Nums.  Of course the irony on this holiday is that they were really easy to make and even easier to enjoy.  Now, the ease of burning them off?  A different story. 

From Failure to Frosting

We had our August potluck today at work, and my contribution was these cupcakes with royal icing, Nigella-style.  They are one of the easiest recipes that I make on a semi-regular basis, and the icing could not be more simple or (honestly) more stunning.

If you have just a moment, take a peek at this video clip of Nigella.  My favorite, favorite thing is to hear her say in her British accent that the icing looks like white 'pay-tint' leather around 1:27-ish.  Then she says that they look ludicrously perfect, as though they had been bought at a toy shop.  I could watch her bake and cook all day, every day, I think.

Anywho, I hope you had a sweet Tuesday!



Trading Up

I may have mentioned before, but I love Trader Joe's.  Just love it.  I took today off and treated myself to a little TJ sweep.  Yum.

Here are some of my Trader Joe's all-stars. 

1. Chicken drumettes.  They're like frozen chicken nuggs but way tastier.

2. Dark chocolate peanut butter cups.  Smooth and creamy.  And antioxidant-y.

3. Organic peanut butter sandwich cookies.  Imagine Ritz Bitz but with flavor.

4. Gone Bananas! Frozen, chocolate-covered banana bites. 

5. Fudge and/or Caramel Sauce.  ...

Sorry.  I'm back.  :)  Trader Joe's is just so beyond.  Everything is so neatly packaged and extremely well priced.  Most of you know that I'm not a big veg-eater, but they have such a nice selection that it's almost tempting.  

If you're into fresh flowers and plants, they have you covered, too.  What are some of your favorites?

More Nummy/Specs Milestone

Well, well.  I'm a little behind, aren't I?  All I can say is that work has been bonkers.  I was on call the last week/weekend.  And it's like a prison sentence.  The weekend before that I made some peanut butter/chocolate chip cookies.  Again, I used the recipe from Smitten Kitchen (minus the rolling sugar).

Tah dah.  It also passed me by that my last post was # 200 on the ol' Specs Appeal.  Yay!

How have you been?  

Nummy.

By now you probably know that I have a sweet tooth.  Sweet teeth, actually.  Over the weekend I made this layer cake.

I used the Best Birthday Cake and Instant Fudge Frosting recipes from Smitten Kitchen, which is a stellar baking/cooking blog.  For the frosting, I did not use a food processor, as she recommends.  This is mostly because I do not own a food processor.  I whipped it and whipped it good, though.

I had taken a few other pictures, but the lighting situation is dire.  The cake was fairly scrumptious, though.  I took it to work on Monday to share with co-workers. 

Sidenote: I used what I call my cake cozy, which I found here. It's one of the best things I've bought over the last six months or so.  A steal at $13.95.  It does not budge and has a built-in slicer/server.  Genius.

Sights of the Season

I've been meaning to post these few pictures from the last month or so.  Here are: a pumpkin spice Bundt cake, homemade mashed potatoes, and mini-loaves of banana nut bread. 

Happy New Year, dear readers.

Swirly Goodness, Indeed

While I will always be loyal to my favorite guys, barring a catastrophic outbreak of lactose intolerance, I have a new discovery in Nashville.  It's Pinkberry.  And it's de-lish.

Yum is really all I can say.  I'd heard about Pinkberry from magazines and blogs (it seems that stars are usually seen cavorting about with those little containers), so I thought it was time to check out the new location on West End Avenue.  Oh, and in case you're wondering what it is, let me clarify.  It's fro-yo, yo!  (I didn't know for the longest time.  I wondered if it was snow cones or frozen berries or what.)

Ashley was down with that, so we hit it up on Saturday night.  They have several flavors of yogurt and a variety of fresh fruit and fully machine-made candy toppings.  I picked chocolate (duh) with chocolate crispy drizzle and a chunk of waffle cone.  Ashley got two mini swirls of pomegranate and mango.  We were both on cloud nueve.  Unless you like that super-tart, not very sweet flavor, steer clear of the original. 

Of course it's not health food by any means, but it's a fairly smart way to treat yourself.  Nonfat or low-fat yogurt.  Active cultures.  All that.  But also tasty.

Boo-lated

Ok.  I'm a tad late with this, but I wanted to share.

I made these whoopie pies to share with my pal Emily on Halloween, when I helped her pass out pounds and pounds of candies.  She lives on this crazy-cool street, and it was bonkers.  There were kids everywhere.  My favorite was a girl wearing a sweater vest, cool glasses, and scales down her back.  I asked what she was; she said a thesaurus.  Loved it.

I got this little word puzzle from a co-worker last year, and it's hung in my cubicle ever since.  Check out those directions.  Circle the correctly spelt halloween words.  And is RIP in this context really a word?  Again, love it.

I hope you had a fun Halloween and ate plenty of candy.

Just Some Sweet Treats...

...from a few days ago.  You see how well I'm doing.

Clockwise from top left: chocolate lava cake, salted caramel, pecan vanilla, and red velvet truffles

Yes, I ate them all in one sitting and about eight bites.  Don't judge.

Tommy Deen?

That's my new nickname at work, I guess. 

Last week for our monthly potluck, I whipped up Paula's recipe for banana pudding.  It's called Not Yo Mama's Banana Pudding, and it is stellar.  I take no credit whatsoever, though.  My pal Holly first turned me on to it a few years back.  Yum.

It's technically not baking, but I do make the rare exception for some of Paula's treats.  I wish she were my grandmother, although I would surely need a personal trainer and a sturdy supply of insulin if that were the case.

And I know what you're wondering.  Why, yes.  I do organize the potlucks at work.  Please hold your applause.  Hehe.  Have a great week, blog friends!

Sock It To Me!

I volunteered to make cupcakes for a friend at work.  His son recently turned 1, and they were doing this really snazzy sock monkey theme that his wife first saw on this blog.  That doesn't really play into the cupcake bit, but I thought it was cute.

So on Friday evening before the long weekend, I broke out my trusty cookbooks (Magnolia, Buttercup Bake Shop, Martha) and a recipe or two from this awesome blog called Smitten Kitchen.  I had already set out my butter and eggs before I left for work that morning, mind you.

I made three flavors of cake (yellow, devil's food, and red velvet) and three different frostings (vanilla buttercream, cream cheese, and chocolate buttercream). 

I had to drive the cupcakes a few towns over on Saturday, so I didn't frost them until I got to the party destination.  Multiple colors and flavors plus I-40 plus scorching hot heat did not paint a pretty travel picture. 

Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera along.  Here is a little peek at some of the finished yellow cupcakes.  (Some were destined for sock-monkey-mouth-red tinted frosting.)

Birthdays, Bananas, and Blue Bells

This weekend my cool pal Ann Marie came to town.  Guess what.  It was her birthday.  And we had a really fun time.  It started out with an Italian dinner out and the most delicious (non-Ben-&-Jerry's) ice cream ever.

Whoa.  Up.  It really does taste just like banana pudding and includes vanilla wafers.  Whew.  We showed that bucket a thing or two.  I know I just posted about sweet frozen goodness, but I can't help myself.

On Saturday we headed out to Franklin and stopped by one of the coolest stationery stores ever.  It's called Rock Paper Scissors.  I got to chat up my fellow paper fiend/blog friend Lauren.  (Check out her blog.  It's really stylish and fun.) 

I have another friend's birthday coming up, so I picked up a few stationery items for her.  Despite my best attempts to persuade her otherwise, she's not a blog reader, so the secret is safe here. 

Then Ann Marie and I headed down the street for some cupcakes from Ivey Cake.  She got The Crazy Ex (banana walnut with cream cheese icing), and I picked up a Gold Digger (chocolate with peanut butter icing).  Good call, Lauren! 

The rest of the weekend was a blur of laughing and music and a few more sweet treats.  Times like these make the sometimes irritating days at work completely worth it.  I hope that yours was equally nice.

Making Memories with a Spoon

Well, I guess this weekend officially kicked off summer, huh?  While I'm not wild (at all) about the oppressive heat that is sure to plague us fair-skinned, indoor types for the next 5 months or so, this product almost doesn't make me mind summer. 

The other day at Whole Foods I picked up a carton of Ciao Bella Belgian Chocolate gelato.  Oh.  Wow.  It is so good. 

It was the perfect accompaniment to a quiet Memorial Day with a stack of Redbox DVDs.  I feel like I was eating this every time I turned around, but the funny thing is that there's still plenty left.  I think it's so rich that it only seems like you're eating a lot. 

And isn't that only more more reason to celebrate?  Now I'm looking forward to trying their other flavors, including the sorbets.  Hold me back.

I hope you all had a great weekend.

(Image from freshtomarket.com)

A Big Finish

As hundreds of (shudder) runners were leaving Nashville on Saturday after running the Music City Marathon, I was rolling over in bed. Just kidding. I was awake, but then I made brownies.

I can't share the recipe. No, sir. No way. It's from my pal Holly, and it's top-secret. Don't even ask. I'll pretend like I didn't hear you.

Here are a couple shots of some of the ingredients, although I can't say exactly what kind or how much.

Oh. I forgot to take a picture of the finished product. Isn't that dumb? I was just too excited and had to have one right away. They're seriously, realistically stellar. And I feel like I can say that because it's through no skill of my own. Maybe next time I'll slow down long enough to take a quick pic before I savor that chocolate flavor.

Thanks, Hol. I miss yaz.

What Brown Did For Me

A few weeks ago I saw this awesome-looking book being terribly overpriced in Williams Sonoma. The pictures were enticing, but the amount on the sticker gave me that sinking feeling. But lo. The publisher's emblem on the spine? Delicious specs from Chronicle Books.

Are you familiar? You should be. It's a great publisher that sells all sorts of books and cool gift/stationery items to all sorts of stores and websites, but their own site is so much cheaper. Plus, if you sign up for their updates, you get seasonal sale notices. To wit, 30% off everything plus free shipping.

Yes, please. I'm so glad the first quarter is over. My order was delivered tonight.

A Little Sunday Sweet Tooth

As you probably figured out by now, I love to bake, and there's no better time than the weekend. This time I tried a new recipe--Grammy's Chocolate Cookies, which is a Martha Stewart original.

I mixed up the dough and then had to let it chill in the fridge for about an hour. Then I rolled it into balls and covered those in sugar. They baked up rather nicely, and I quite appreciate the taste. Have a great week, loyal readers!