cinnamon mocha cupcakes

I make no secret of the fact that I am a fan of cupcakes. Well, really, baked goods in general. But I really, really like cupcakes. They appeal to my designer self, they appeal to my kid self, they're simply appealing in general for the multitude of options they offer.

I thank Denise for the reminder that cupcakes can be baked in ice cream cones (they're even callllllled cake cones) to take these from tasty to quite joyous.

The original recipe lies here but I've modified as per usual. I plan to ice these with peppermint buttercream icing, or a basic chocolate icing. They're pretty awesome without icing, too, if that's your thing.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar plus a couple of spillovers so it's not quite 2/3 but more than 1/2
  
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 14 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup baking cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon: Next time I may add even more
  
• 1/4 cup brewed espresso: I use one of these Bialetti stovetop espresso makers
  
• 3 tablespoons buttermilk

Directions

1. In a small mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, baking powder and cinnamon; add to creamed mixture alternately with coffee and buttermilk.
2. Put cake cones one each in a muffin tin to keep them steady, then fill them to just shy of the top. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

chocolate truffles with sea salt

I make no secret of the fact that I'm a huge fan of The Pioneer Woman (and especially her recipes). When we were discussing extra Christmas presents for family, I thought a great idea would be to try PW's Chocolate Truffles with Sea Salt recipe.

This really couldn't have been easier to make something pretty sophisticated. I'll warn you that we got a lot more truffle "cores" out of the 16oz of base chocolate, and that didn't match up to the amount of coating we got from the (12oz) bag of milk chocolate chips I chose.

We easily could have used 2 bags of chips, and probably less core chocolate, but I don't want to mess with the core recipe because of the other ingredients involved. Suffice to say, you'll get a lot of it if you go with a teaspoon of chocolate for the core; do be sure to buy an extra bag of the chips for the coating. I melted the chips in the double boiler method, too, instead of microwaving. I don't always trust my microwave :-)

To dust the tops, I bought goooooood sea salt: Fleur de Sel Tresor from a bulk bin at one of our local gourmet food shops....Nice and fluffy, NOT MORTONS. If you can't find any, even kosher salt would be better than regular ol' table salt.

Overall, the hands-on process was longer than 15 minutes (but not obnoxiously so), and SUPER easy.

To package, I bought tiny little "cupcake" papers (one per "cupcake"); we then put 4–6 chocolates in little gift boxes. Tie up with a bow, and voila! a lovely little hostess gift or bonus holiday treat.

Pear "Crisp"

I had pears about to go bad, so I quickly grabbed this recipe from Allrecipes to bake them up. I'm having a hard time not eating the entire thing Right. Now.

Ingredients

• 1 cup rolled oats: I used old fashioned (not quick cook)
  
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped crystallized ginger: I used 1TB
  
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon: I used slightly less
  
• 1/4 cup butter: I melted mine entirely
  
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons finely chopped crystallized ginger: I used 2TB
  
• 8 cups peeled and sliced pears: I chopped what I had, and added an apple that needed baking, and didn't sweat the small stuff of figuring out if it was 8c exactly.
  
• 1 pint vanilla ice cream: I skipped this for calories (and I didn't want to go get ice cream; I know, shocking ;-)
  

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 2 quart casserole dish or 9 inch square baking dish
   
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the oats, brown sugar, 1/2 cup flour, 1 Tablespoon crystallized ginger, and cinnamon. Stir in the (melted) butter until the mixture is crumbly with pea sized lumps. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, stir together the white sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and 2 Tablespoons of crystallized ginger. Add the sliced pears/apple, and toss to blend. Transfer to the prepared baking dish. Spread with the oat topping.
4. Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, then switch that to broil/high for 3 minutes, until pears are soft and topping is golden brown. Serve, lick bowl clean.