Amazing Cupcakes

This morning I have been busy making two different batches of breakfast cookies.  I have been trying to perfect the recipe by trying many different variations in order to find that perfect combination for us.  So far our favorite fruit to add has been a combination of dried apricots, dried blueberry infused craisins, and craisins.  I have kept track of everything I have tried on the paper that I printed the recipe on.  It is getting quite marked up.  But I think it is about time to copy the recipe onto a more permanent recipe card before I lose it. 

Next up, I think I will perhaps try the dark chocolate cupcakes with salted vanilla caramel icing from the King Arthur Baking Banter blog.  When I saw the recipe I immediately printed it out and have moved it to the front of many other recipes to try that I have printed out from this particular blog.  In fact I have now added their blog over on my sidebar so that you can also easily access and enjoy all of the amazing things that they bake up every day.

Here is their picture of the cupcakes that they made.    Now you just have to admit that they look amazing.

Easy Apple Cake

I have really been enjoying my abundance of apples these past couple of weeks. It is so much fun to either throw a bunch of apples into my largest pot to make applesauce, whip up a pie, experiment with apple crisps, and make apple cakes. And I can do all of this at a whim. I simply look around my kitchen at the numerous boxes of apples, randomly choose which variety will be my lucky subject for the day, and I am off. One of my experiments this past week was an apple cake. I found the recipe on the King Arthur Flour blog; and since I have also been recently fascinated with baking in my cast iron skillet, I knew I just had to try it. It turned out great! The only modification that I made was instead of using the boiled cider that the recipe calls for, I substituted maple syrup. This substitution was made mainly because here in northern Idaho, I don't even think anyone sells boiled cider.

(Please note that this picture is from the King Arthur blog. The lighting in my kitchen isn't always the best for taking pictures; and their picture really does this cake justice - of which it highly deserves).

Chocolate Cake

There is something about chocolate cake that even a 1 year old can appreciate.