Chocolate Owl Cupcakes

BOO! I have come back from the dead. I can’t even remember how long it’s been since I blogged…but I figured I would make a comeback with an extra cute recipe. Seriously, cutest photo shoot ever.

Summer travels, laziness, football season, a new job, and multiple other things have been keeping me busy. But I will try to be good and post more than once every…5 months? Is that how long I’ve been gone/

I saw these cupcakes on Food Gawker and couldn’t resist. Soooo cute! And way easier than making meringue ghosts or some other adorable festive things that I saw. We were celebrating October and November birthdays at work, and in typical Maya fashion I went totally overboard and baked these cupcakes and a pumpkin roll. When I could have offered to bring a)nothing b) donuts c) juice d) anything easier and quicker than baking 2 goods from scratch on a school night. Yes I still say school night at age 29.

The great thing about these is that you can make them with any cupcake recipe- or even a boxed mix if that’s what you choose. The toppings that make up this cute owl are really all that matters. They are seriously so cute Andrew caught me talking to them….weirdo.

I used this recipe, but like I said it will work with any cupcakes; next time I’ll probably use a different one. These were yummy, but I like my cupcakes more moist….I know people hate that word but it’s really the only one that works!  The ganache though….I always err on the side of ganache. We will be dipping leftover Oreos and cookie dough balls in the ganache until we eat it all up. I do omit corn syrup from my ganaches…it scares me to own that.

Peach Blackberry Cobbler

So, peaches are crazy in season in TX right now. Only, at the farmers’ market you can only buy them in these ginormous baskets. So the only logical solution I could think of was to make a cobbler. There were also some delicious looking blackberries that made it into this dessert. I had originally planned on a strawberry cream pie my friend Katie gave me a recipe for, but I missed the strawberry season boat here. Sad.

The dough part of the cobbler might be my favorite. It’s not sweet, so it goes perfectly with the sweetness of the fruit. We made some homemade vanilla ice cream to eat with this and the only word to describe the combo was sinful. Mmmmm.

You can mix and match the amounts of fruit- basically just make sure you have 5 or 6 cups of fruit.

Lemon Sugar Cookies

My good friend Jodi had these cookies at her rehearsal dinner last summer. I immediately thought that Andrew would LOVE them, but for some reason have deliberated in making them until now!

Then Meyer lemons were on sale and I was trying to make as many possible things with lemon as I could. Thus, remembered these delicious cookies. To tell you the truth, I’m not a big lemon-in-dessert-person. One of the reasons I made these was because I thought I wouldn’t be tempted to eat them and break my veganism. Well, I was wrong. I sneakily ate the crumbs that had fallen off the cookie rack, and from that point could not stop shoving them in my mouth. They are the perfect combination of crisp and chewy, sweet and sour.  A nice large bag of cookie dough balls has been frozen to use the same way I used these. I can’t wait to make lemon sugar cookie dough milkshakes….mmm.

One tip- I tried to half this recipe the first time. Since I couldn’t half an egg very easily, I just picked the smallest one and used it. I also tried to make enormous cookies- 1 Tablespoon instead of 1 teaspoon. Also, the first time I used an electric mixer. The second time I just mixed it by hand, which I think helped them to be softer and not overmixed. They still were delicious, but really really ugly. The recipe comes from here.

Ingredients

• 2 3/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 sticks of butter, softened
• 1.5 cups sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• zest of one lemon
• 4 T lemon juice (about the juice of 1 small lemon)
• sugar for rolling cookies

Recipe

Prepare a cookie sheet and preheat your oven to 350°. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together with a wooden spoon until smooth and fluffy.  Beat in the egg, vanilla extract, lemon zest, and lemon juice. In 3 additions, gradually add in the dry ingredients.

Put about 1/2 cup of sugar in a bowl. Roll teaspoons full of dough into a ball, and then coat with sugar.  I would put 5 or 6 balls in the bowl of sugar and then shake it all up until they were coated, then gently mold them back into a better looking ball. Place 1.5 inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes until lightly browned.

Let the cookie sheet cool for 2 minutes on the cookie rack before taking the cookies off and letting them cool the rest of the way.