It's a donut....but in muffin formmmmm.

Imagine yourself at the State Fair or some kind of festival. And you smell that familiar scent. That deep-fried, then rolled in cinnamon and sugar kinda scent? So then you follow your nose, pushing people out of the way and being a rude human being that you already are, until finally you reach your destination. The line is long but you don't care. Because the sign on the cart says, DONUT HOLES. Eventually the teenager behind the window asks what you want, but you're drooling and can't speak so you point to the stuff you want and hand them the money. Then they hand you the bag of freshly deep-fried......MUFFINS?!?!?!?

Ha ha! Got you! last Sunday I made Cinnamon Sugar Puff cupcakes.No offense Elinor K, but I found the name kinda boring for such a delicious cupcake. So I named them Donut Muffins. But I mispronounced it when I said it, and it came out as Donut Muggins. So now they are known as Donut Muggins. The batter is very sticky and holy! Chorus! Ha ha! Then after they bake you dip them in melted butter. And then cinnamon and sugar. YUM! Better than a donut if ask me!

Let's talk about Chocolate and Peanut Butter Heaven...

Have you ever heard of such a thing?? Well, probably not. Too bad. So sad. Boohoo. I have been there and back again. And from that trip to Peanut Butter and Chocolate Heaven it made me so that I will probably knock Reese's Peanut Butter cups off my list of favorite treats (BUT NOT REESE'S PIECES!!) and replace them with Peanut Butter cupcakes with Milk Chocolate glaze. A simple recipe. A yummy simple recipe.

Last week I had crammed in a small amount of time to quickly make the batter and then put it in the fridge. A last minute thing refrained me from baking them right away, but I easily popped them in the oven when I got home. On my Saturday of freedom it seemed like a relaxing and fun thing to do. Unfortunately, I was watching Rachel Ray. I love her cooking and such, but her voice sets me off the edge. My annoyance led me to watching Martha Stewart. Which also made me change the channel. If you came into my house one day, and found me in the kitchen, you would see me baking, but in the back-round was Days of Our Lives. Stupid soap opera me. Baking a delicious, bite-sized masterpiece while watching a soap opera. So now I proudly (not really) present a Cupcake Soap-Opera.


Stacey the Cupcake: Jake killed who? And you knew about it?

Veronica the tart: He didn't kill Jan, I did.

Stacey the Cupcake: NO!

(some dramatic music all the fades to black)

So ya..........that was incredibly stupid. Wow! I surprised myself. No, I didn't. I'm still stupid.

Mystery Cupcake

The strange thing about baking is that no matter how deranged a cupcake recipe may seem or even taste is that you won't care. Cupcakes are naturally right up there next to cakes. So they are more like the princes or princesses in the bakers world. Being little and cute they are more appealing to the eye than that of a cake.

As I stared at the baking section in the local bibelot deciding whether or not I had to buy the recycled mixing bowls, I eyed "Hello Cupcake!" a favorite of mine. But it turns out they had come out with a sequel. As I flipped through the pages looking at smartly creating cupcakes (going back to how a cupcake is more appealing to the eye My beloved grandma died sometime ago. She was probably the best grandma ever. That is saying a lot, since there are probably millions of grandmothers, but you know....or not. She spent everyday when our family would go up to the cabin baking and cooking. I remember pulling out a hedgehog cake recipe from an American Girl Doll recipe, and showing it to her. We made it and had a great time.

So as I bake I feel as if my grandma is there. As if she is standing there, making sure that I don't mess up or bake something wrong. The kitchen is like my second home. People are welcome, but sometimes they have to stay out. On a happier note and getting back to the beginning, everyone loves cupcakes.( I don't care if you don't, so too bad) So therefore, here is the deranged cupcake recipe that I made for Easter.

I made carrot, orange, and golden raisin cupcakes with a delicious orange cream cheese frosting. As crazy as it may seem, they were delicious! I have never liked walnuts in my entire life, but in these cupcakes (which called for 1/2 cup of walnuts) I didn't even care! I ate the whole thing, even though the recipe doesn't seem that great. Add some cinnamon and presto! my sister's picky fiance ate it too!! A great and moist cupcake. Pipe on some frosting and making swirls that make the cupcake look like a bunny tail. And my mother gave me the cupcake apron I had been staring at for weeks at Anthropologie. They had a matching one at Sur la Table but it was smaller and I wanted to send it to my very cute cousin. They also featured it in Sex and the City 2 trailer. The small and the big one. Which made me smile.

Cupcake number four

Lemon Angel Cupcakes. Amazing, yet not what I really expected them to be. Yes, I am not fully equipped with every little baking gadget out there, but that is a problem in the cupcake world. Elinor always talked about the main components of baking delicious cupcakes in chapter one. There are three different types of cupcakes pans out there. Mini, regular, and "Texas", or large. What does this have to do with the cupcakes? Everything.

For one thing the recipe makes nine LARGE cupcakes. And for a second thing, I, unfortunately have no possession of a large cupcake pan. So therefor I put the cupcakes in a regular sized pan, which cooked too long and got a bit tough. I also haven't mastered the whole curling a lemon rind. It nearly killed me. I ending up having to slice small pieces of rind, but one turned out to be curly because I twirled it onto a skewer. Then I got lazy. I'm not perfect and I made a mistake oops!