I will admit that I have always been one of those think outside of the box people. People have even accused me of not knowing where the box is some days. I see the world a little different at times, and I know I see food a little different.

My mother once said to me, “I add some cranberries to pumpkin bread and think I am being creative. But you take it to a whole other level”. And I must, because people do ask me all the time how I come up with my ideas. Um, I just do. It’s how my brain thinks. And it usually is thinking how to make something have more calories.

When Lynn left my house on Friday I had 24 mini cinnamon cupcake staring at me unfrosted. The original cupcakes, the one in the book, had a sour cream chocolate frosting. That sounded good but for some reason oatmeal raisin popped into my head. Now most people would have made oatmeal raisin cupcakes and made cinnamon frosting. I did the other way around. I didn’t want chunks of oatmeal in my frosting so I ran it through the old food processor to make it into oatmeal powder. Throw in some butter, powdered sugar, cinnamon and some chopped up raisins (mine were really big) and you’ve got some tasty, though all be it, unusual frosting. But then again, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The whole reason I picked these to bake in the first place was because I was given the choice (by Kestrel Growth Brands, Inc) a couple weeks back to try either Singing Dog Vanilla or Red Ape Cinnamon. It was a tough choice, but I went with the cinnamon since we are in full Fall baking mode around these parts.

First off I just love the name. It makes me happy, as does singing dog. Second, and more importantly, it has a really good, strong cinnamon flavor. It’s one of the strongest cinnamons I have tasted, which is great because a little goes a long way. It’s organic. It’s reddish because “only the pure inner cinnamon bark is ground and the extra outer bark that would normally dilute the final powder is disposed of”. Can’t wait to try using it in cinnamon buns! I only wish I could have gotten the vanilla as well. If it’s anything like the cinnamon, it’s probably really awesome.

Cinnamon Sour Cream Cupcakes with Oatmeal Raisin Buttercream Frosting

Cinnamon Sour Cream Cupcakes

4 oz unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 TBSP cake flour
1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon (I used Red Ape)
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
½ cup sour cream

Position rack to center of the oven and preheat to 350F.

Spray a mini muffin tin(holds 24 or 2 that hold 12) with baking spray.

In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, beat together, on medium-high speed, the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

In a small bowl, lightly beat the eggs and vanilla together. Add to butter mixture in two additions. Scraping down after each addition.

In a medium bowl add together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Add half this mixture to the mixer with the mixer on low speed. Add the sour cream. And then add the remaining flour mixture, blend until fully incorporated.

Using a small ice cream scoop, or a piping bag, fill the muffin tins ¾ of the way full. Bake for 15-18 minutes until golden brown and a cake tester inserted comes out clean.

Let cool for 5 minutes, then remove cupcakes and let cool on a wire rack. Frost when completely cool.

Adapted from Bite Sized Desserts by Carole Bloom

Oatmeal Raisin Buttercream Frosting

1 cup oatmeal, just not steel cut
4 oz unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
¾ cup raisins (cut raisins in half if too large or use dried currants)
milk to thin

Using a blender or food processor, pulverize the oatmeal until it becomes powder form.

Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until it is soft, about 1 minutes. Add the oatmeal and 1 cup of powdered sugar and beat on medium speed.

Add the remaining 2 cups, 1 cup at a time. Add vanilla and beat until fully incorporated. If frosting is too thick, thin out with milk to get your desired consistency.

Beat in raisins, making sure that they are evenly dispersed…as best you can.

Since these are mini, I found it best to use a piping bag (I used one of the large star tips) to get the frosting on the cupcakes.

Well that’s a lie. But it’s the lie I am telling myself. If you are not a food blogger than you are probably asking what don’t I want to go to anyway. BlogHer Food. This weekend, hundreds of food bloggers are in San Fransisco, and I, I am not.

But enough about those people, I had a  little food get together on my own…well, not on my own, with another food blogger. And not just any food blogger, the lovely Cookie Baker Lynn. We decided awhile back we would do a little baking together. One time at my house and one time at Lynn’s. Our version of baking from my home to yours…though no Dorie showed up. Though that would have been nice.

Lynn and I meet from time to time for lunch or tea, etc. The last time we did this, we stopped into a Dutch bakery. I tried these cookies called Jon Hail’s (which I will post later). We decided we would make those and whatever else we could come up with. I had just gotten a couple of cookbooks, one which was Baking Kids Love. I don’t have kids, but since I have the maturity of a 12 year old, this was right up my alley. We looked through the book and found a Nutella tart that screamed make me.

This is very easy to make. If I were to make it again, I would add some ground hazelnuts to the crust and maybe a splash of Frangelico as well. The original tart was a little plain so we decided to jazz it up a little bit and make it rocky road style. Throw in some marshmallows and some nuts and you are good to go. Very simple to make…which is good since you are suppose to make this with children.

So though I didn’t get to spend the day at Blogher, I did get to spend it with Lynn (who came bearing bread and cookies!)…and that is pretty darn awesome to me. To see somemore photos of the actual day, head here…you can see me in action…ha!

Two Hot Baker Chicks Nutella Rocky Road Tart

Crust:
1 ½ cup chocolate cookie crumbs (I used Trader Joe’s Chocolate Cat Cookies)
6 TBSP unsalted butter, melted

Filling:

¾ cup Nutella
4 oz semisweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup marshmallows
½ cup walnuts

For the Crust:

Spray a 14-x-4-inch rectangular tart pan with baking spray, or butter. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a small bowl, mix together cookie crumbs and melted butter. I just used a food processor since I had to make the crumbs. Mix until fully combined and you can press the crust with your hand and it stays in place.

Dump the crust into the tart pan. Using your hands, press the tart crust evenly up the sides and in the middle of the tart pan.

Using center rack, bake tart for 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on wire rack.

For the filling:

Place chocolate chips into a medium sized bowl. Set aside.

In a small saucepan, bring cream to a boil. Once it begins to boil, pour over chocolate chips. Let sit for 2 minutes. Then whisk until smooth.

Whisk in the Nutella until fully incorporated. It should look glossy and smooth.

To assemble the tart:

Take ½ the marshmallows and ½ walnuts and scatter them onto the bottom of the tart.

Pour Nutella filling into the tart, over top the marshmallows and nuts. Smooth out tart if needed. Top with remaining marshmallows and nuts.

Place in refrigerator for 20 minutes. Cut and serve. This is very rich, so makes about 10 servings.

Adapted from Baking Kids Love by Sur la Table and Cindy Mushet, Andrews McMell Publishing

So it’s football time (FYI, just October 1st starts the REAL sport of hockey ). A couple of years ago my friend E’s husband was looking for one last spot in his college football pool (psa: gambling is wrong, don’t do it ). She sent around an email asking if any of our husbands would want to do it. I said that mine did not, but that I would want to do it. She said sure. So off the season went.

Now I do know somethings about college football, but truth be told, if I am not sure about the teams, I pull a total chick move and base my pick on their mascot. Sometimes I do this even when I know the teams. Let’s take Seattle’s own Washington Huskies vs the Oregon Ducks. You are probably saying no brainer and would pick the Huskies. I pick the Ducks. If you are saying why surely a dog could take a duck. If you are asking why, you clearly have never been attacked by a duck. And I have. Duck wins.

So in using this fool proof system, I won that year. When I met up with them to claim my prize, they were in shock that a girl showed up. Apparently, they thought Peabody was a man, and E hadn’t bothered to tell them otherwise. Well, those sore losers gave me my prize money, but then also told me that they wouldn’t be having me back next year. Well, E must have had a come to Jesus talk with her husband as the next year miraculously I was invited back. I won that year too.

I’m doing well so far this year. I was the only one in the group this weekend to choose the Huskies over the Trojans. Duh, everyone knows a dog can total beat a condom. But really what is it about guys being beat by a girl? They are already starting in about the fact that I can’t possibly win 3 years in a row. Why not? Threepeat baby!

And though I participate in these pools, I don’t really care about the games. So when they are on, I am usually off looking for an excuse to do something else. Bake.

I chose to update a bread I made a while back that was pretty popular, a pumpkin spice bread with a maple cheesecake layer. This time I tried to make it even more decadent. Pumpkin Caramel Cheesecake Turtle Bread. Pumpkin bread with a layer of caramel cheesecake topped with chocolate glaze, caramel sauce, and pecans.
Yeah, I know, yum.
This is a pretty easy recipe to make. I choose to make mine in mini loaves so I can freeze them. If you go that route, I would not glaze them until after you unfreeze them. And speaking of glazing them, if you do go and put caramel sauce on them, you are going to want to eat it that day. Hey, they are mini loaves, that’s not that hard to do. Heck, that’s breakfast at my house.

Pumpkin Caramel Cheesecake Turtle Bread

Pumpkin Bread:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup pumpkin puree(plain, not the already made pumpkin pie kind)
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup canola oil
2 large eggs
¾ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup light brown sugar, loosely packed

Caramel Cheesecake Filling:
8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
¼ cup brown sugar, tightly packed
2 TBSP Lyle’s Golden Syrup
2 TBSP Caramel Sauce (store bought or homemade)
1 TBSP all-purpose flour
1 large egg

Topping:
Chocolate Glaze (recipe follows)
Caramel Sauce (store bought or homemade)
1 cup pecans, roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 325F.

Lightly grease and flour three mini loaf pans (3 ½ -x- 5 inch).

Using a stand mixer (or a medium bowl and electric beaters) with the paddle attachment, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, syrup and caramel sauce for about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add egg and beat for another minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl and add flour. Beat flour into mixture until fully incorporated. If using stand mixer, transfer cheesecake filling to a separate bowl. Set aside. If using the stand mixer, clean and dry the bowl to use again.

In another bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

Using a stand mixer (or a medium bowl and electric beaters) with the paddle attachment, place pumpkin puree, vegetable oil, eggs, vanilla, and sugars into the bowl and beat for about 1 minute.
Add flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture and mix just until combined. This is a quick bread so you don’t want to over mix.

Pour half of the pumpkin bread batter evenly into the three prepared loaf pans (I find it best to use an ice cream scoop. I like to use 2 scoops for the bottom). Spread the batter out evenly.

Spoon cheesecake mixture on top of pumpkin batter layer, a little less than 2/3 of a cup.

Scoop the remaining batter on top of the cheesecake layer, again about 2 ice cream scoops worth.

If you don’t want to bother with the layering you can just spoon some pumpkin batter, then cheesecake, then pumpkin batter again and use a knife to make swirls in the bread. Tastes just as good.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean.
Cool bread in pans for 10 minutes.
Remove bread from pans and place on a wire rack to cool completely.
Let breads cool completely before glazing.

Pour chocolate glaze over breads, about 1/3 cup each. Sprinkle pecans on top of the glaze. Followed by extra caramel sauce if desired (but really, why wouldn’t you want it ).

Chocolate Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
¼ cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
2-4 TBSP milk (depending on how thick you want your glaze)

In a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, cocoa powder and 2 TBSP of milk until smooth and glossy. If you want a thinner glaze add more milk, 1 TBSP at a time.

Now we all know I’m married, but if I were single (I’d probably be dating a goalie but that’s beside the point) I think the the new way to tell me if a guy was really into me would be his iPod.

Let me explain. See, I was sitting there looking at my iTunes thinking to myself that if anyone ever saw this, they would think I was crazy. I have got some serious eclectic stuff on there. Back in the day when I was a pubescent I really only listened to Punk and Alternative. Which, for the most part is still true. I would have never listened to however some of the stuff that is on there now.

Of course, back in the day I just listened to music to well, listen to music. Now, it seems to have more purpose. I have a cardio setting, 3 actually. Songs on there I would not just listen to…but it gets my butt moving, and that is the important thing right? There is background music mix for when people come over, and while I find Black Flag (Google them if you don’t know who they are)soothing, the average person does not. There is music I have on there for when my parents come so we can listen to music that I can tolerate and they enjoy, like Neil Diamond.

And then there is just the random crap. I have a lot of random crap. Sometimes it is because I have that song stuck in my head and can’t get it out. I find if I play it over and over again it eventually leaves my head. The worst example of this is the Brady Bunch “Time to Change”. Yes, that crap is on my iPod (can’t believe I just admitted that to blog world).

So what does this have to do with dating? I think that if a guy bothers to show you his iPod list…the whole list, that is a good sign that he trusts in your relationship enough to open up and bear his soul. Well, not his soul, but the weird stuff on his iPod. Like way down at the bottom of his playlist is Beyonce’s Single Ladies or something bad like that. Yes, my husband has seen my list. He has gotten stuck hearing some of it as well. But since his stuff is just as weird, he tends not to say much….I mean Blue Grass covering Metallica…what’s up with that?

So these cookies really have nothing to do with this post. Which is random, so in a way, it does. Hmmm. Very philosophical. I like Key Lime. I like Raspberry. I like Cookies. There you have the ingenious ideology behind these. This is a softer dough than some cut outs, since there is rice flour in them. So you want to make sure that you have a cool surface to work on, and work quickly. The marshmallow creme frosting is more for whoppie pies, but I thought it was a fun addition to these. These cookies are versatile as well. Instead of lime with raspberry filling you could do orange with cherry filling. Or lemon with blueberry filling. And so forth…you’ve got options is my point.

Well, I’m off to listen to Social Distortion, or the Carpenters (don’t judge), you just never know.

Key Lime Butter Buttons with Raspberry Jam Marshmallow Filling

Key Lime Buttons
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup rice flour
1 TBSP cornstarch
¼ tsp baking powder
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup powdered sugar
¼ cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
3TBSP key lime juice (fresh if you can get it)

In a medium bowl, sift together the flours, cornstarch, and baking powder. Set aside.

Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment (or a medium bowl and an electric mixer), cream together the butter and sugars on medium speed, until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Add egg, and key lime juice. Beat on medium speed until fully incorporated.

Turn mixer onto low speed and add about ½ of the flour mixture. Beat until combined. Then add remaining ½ of flour mixture. Again beating until fully combined.

Divide the dough into fourths. Form each fourth into a flat disc and wrap in plastic wrap, forming it into a rectangle as best you can. Stick in fridge and chill for at least 2 hours and up to over night.

Preheat oven to 350F. Place parchment paper down on three baking sheets, or you can use baking spray instead.

Remove from fridge. Do one fourth at a time, leaving the remaining discs in the fridge while you roll the dough out.

Roll dough out to about 1/8 of an inch thick. Using a 1-inch diameter cookie cutter, cut out circles in the dough. Place on prepared pan. Cut until all the dough is gone. Take out another disc from fridge and keep cutting out cookie buttons until there is no dough left.

Bake for 6-7 minutes. Remove from oven. Let sit on cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then remove and place on wire rack to finish cooling.

You get about 40-50 mini cookies. It was hard tell, I ate some of the dough while I was making these.

Raspberry Jam Marshmallow Filling

½ cup Marshmallow creme
1/3 cup powdered sugar
3 TBSP raspberry jam
¼ cup shortening (don’t use butter, it’s just not the same with these)

Using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment (or a medium bowl and an electric mixer), beat together the marshmallow creme, jam and shortening on medium high-speed.

Reduce speed to low and add powdered sugar. Increase speed as you see powdered sugar getting absorbed into the marshmallow mixture. You just down want to be showered with powdered sugar.
Beat until sugar is fully incorporated and you have a fluffy filling.

To Assemble the cookies: Try to match up cookie rounds as best you can. Take one cookie round and pipe (I find piping the easiest when they are this small) or spoon in the marshmallow filling. Place another cookie on top to sandwich it. Repeat until they are all gone.