Apparently, there are people who want dessert to be dark chocolate-free?!

I can respect that preference, though let's be real, I'll never understand it.  But in the spirit of equal opportunity dessert making, this recipe is for you, lemon lovers and dark chocolate-phobes.

Full disclosure: I do not eat white chocolate, so I haven't tasted one of these.  However, I made them for a party, and they got rave reviews from all the white chocolate and lemon fans.  I probably just lost all credibility in your blog-reading eyes, but I needed to be honest {and ensure that if any of you ever bring me a dessert, there is no white chocolate in it}.


A big bonus of making these {besides their sparkly-cuteness and my total disinterest in eating them, so more room for cupcakes!} is how easy they are!  Basically if you can melt things in the microwave, then roll stuff into a ball shape, you're set.  It's even easier if you have a melon-baller.  And people are very impressed.



Perfect for picnics, or just filling up a pretty bowl on the table...

Well hey there, Tuesday.

You know what you need?  A cupcake.  {Isn't my friend Missy's handwriting super cute?  I always wished I had super cute girl handwriting, but instead I have my mother's cursive/print/too loopy for anyone else to comprehend writing.  Sigh. At least I know how to make cupcakes!  That makes up for the friends I can't get by being crafty}


And by the way, the answer to "what do you need?" is always "a cupcake."  Do you have a Gigi's cupcakes where you live?  Because OH.MY.GOSH.  I could bury myself in one of those and happily never be seen again.  JOY.  {I had one from their very first shop in Nashville when my awesome sorority bigbig brought me one.  Love at first drool.}  If I could eat one every day and not weigh 542 pounds, I would.  Because let's face it, the reason I work out at all is to counteract all the cupcakes and pasta I eat.


PLUS, these cupcakes are moist chocolate cake and CARAMEL buttercream frosting!  Remember the homemade caramel sauce I told you about on Friday?  We're putting it to good use today, people.  Confession: I don't even like caramel.  But this caramel buttercream is just bee-yond {is that from a movie?  Or did my weirdo brain invent it and try to convince me its from a movie?}  Ok, pretty much anything that has 2.5 sticks of butter in it is probably going to be a winner.  And a heart attack.  Excuse me while I go do some guilt-squats.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Caramel Buttercream Frosting
Makes 24 cupcakes and way more frosting than you need for 24 cupcakes, feel free to halve frosting.  Adapted from Cooking Classy and Brown Eyed Baker

For the cupcakes:
2/3 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup canola oil
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

For the frosting:
2 1/2 sticks butter, softened
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons heavy cream
3/4 cup caramel sauce

Preheat the oven to 350.  In a large heatproof bowl, combine cocoa and baking soda and stir in boiling water.  Stir until combined, then allow to sit for 5 minutes.  Meanwhile, in a stand mixer mixing on low, blend together butter, canola oil, sugar, vanilla, and salt until well combined.  Mix in eggs and egg yolks, mixing well after each addition.  Blend in cocoa mixture, then heavy cream.  Slowly and carefully mix in flour.  Divide batter among 2 12-count muffin tins and bake 18 minutes.  Allow to cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting, beat the butter with a whisk attachment on a stand or handheld mixer until butter is smooth.  Add powdered sugar and salt and beat for about 1 minute, until most of sugar is moistened.  Add vanilla, heavy cream, and caramel and beat mixture on high for about 4 minutes, until the whole thing is light and fluffy, scraping the bowl as needed.  Then frost the cupcakes!


I'm so glad I don't have pictures of when I tried to pipe these.  Amateur hour.

Oh where to begin?

How about with these?  Yep, that feels like a good place.  RED VELVET CAKE BALLS.  Y'all.  I was nowhere near the cake ball wagon, and now I'm riding on top, standing up waving something and yelling WOOOOOOO!


Be warned: you have to do some despicable stuff to a perfectly nice red velvet cake.  All in the name of goodness though.

While I'm warning you, I think you all deserve a heads up about this week.  It's dessert week!  Meaning, I made a wagon full of desserts this weekend, and this week we are going to re-live them.  Well, re-live for me, regular live for you.  I just want you to know that as much as I love salmon, brown rice, and greens, those are not happening here this week.  Sorrynotsorry.


Instead you get CHOCOLATE and more CHOCOLATE!  And some caramel and, weirdly enough {for me} white chocolate and lemon.  But we'll discuss those later.  Today, we have red velvet cake, torn up and mixed with cream cheese icing, unceremoniously balled up and dunked in chocolate.

You're going to love it.


Ha.  Those look terrible!  I would highly recommend using a cookie scoop or melon baller or something to make your cake balls lovely and round.  Otherwise, they'll end up all, um, oddly shaped. Like these.  Thankfully, they get sprinkled with white chocolate and no one even notices!


Check it out, check it out!  {Little bit of a sugar high over here}

Red Velvet Cake Balls
Makes 30-35, recipe adapted from Iowa Girl Eats, thank you m'am.

1 box red velvet cake mix, baked according to instructions
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 oz cream cheese
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
16 oz Baker's semi-sweet chocolate
4 oz white baking chocolate


Once red velvet cake is baked and cooled, tear it up with a fork (eek, sorry cake!).  Then in a stand mixer (or with a handheld electric mixer) cream together butter and cream cheese until they are thoroughly blended.  Add in vanilla and beat.  Then add in powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, beating until the whole mixture is combined.  Add in frosting to cake crumbles bit by bit until the cake/frosting mixture is moist (sorry, m-word) and the crumbles stick together.

Scoop out tablespoon sized balls of cake mixture.  Line up on a parchment lined baking sheet and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.  Then, melt the bakers chocolate (I recommend melting and using 4 squares at a time) by microwaving for 30 seconds, stir, and repeat.  Then dunk cake balls into the chocolate, roll around with a spoon, and place back onto the sheet.  When all the balls are chocolated {new word}, melt the white chocolate and sprinkle around on top of the cake balls with a spoon.  Refrigerate until you serve!


Final warning: husbands LOVE these.

Today's post is mostly a teaser...

I want to show you how to make caramel!  And then next week, I'll show you something extra special to do with that caramel :)

But first, this is what my kitchen has looked like alllll day.

In reality, this was one of its better moments.  Four to five new recipes came out of this kitchen today, so you know next week is going to be {sweetly} spectacular!

But caramel.  Before today I did not understand how caramel was made at all.  I had read up on it, but until you're standing in front of the stove watching sugar get crumbly and then melt, there's no way to understand it.  The good news?  This recipe only takes 10 minutes to make, and will blow you away.  Let me walk you through it visually.


Start by pouring one cup of sugar into a 2-3 quart saucepan over medium high heat.  Begin to stir.


As you stir, the sugar will begin to get crumbly.  This is normal!  Keep stirring.


Soon, the sugar will melt completely.  Stop stirring at this point.  Allow the sugar to continue to cook until it appears reddish-brown {sort of dark amber} and smells toasty.  If you have a candy thermometer, it should be 350 degrees.  When it reaches this deep brown color, add in 6 tablespoons of butter.  {Warning!  The turn from dark amber to burnt is quick, be sure to watch it carefully and not let it burn}


The butter will make it bubble like crazy.  Stir until the butter is completely melted.  Then remove the pot from heat and pour in 1/2 cup heavy cream and 1 teaspoon flaky salt.  {I never said this recipe was good for you.}


After it's all mixed, is should look something like the picture above!  Let it cool for 15 minutes, then store in a glass jar.  {Mason jars are just enchanting}


Treat yourself with caramel over ice cream, brownies, or come back next week and I'll show you how to make the most amazing caramel buttercream frosting EVER.

Hope your weekend is wonderful!

Homemade Caramel Sauce
Makes about 1 cup; recipe adapted from Brown Eyed Baker

1 cup sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon flaky salt

Pour sugar into a heavy bottomed saucepan over pretty high heat.  Stir sugar while it crumbles, and stop stirring when all the sugar is melted.  Allow it to cook until it's dark amber (reddish-brown) colored and smells toasty {or reads 350 on a candy thermometer}.  Add in butter and stir until all the butter is melted.  Remove from heat and mix in heavy cream and salt.  Let cool and store in a glass jar.


I feel so domestic.

People all over the world!  Join hands! Start a love train, LOVE TRAIN!

I'm a little excited over here.  Something amazing happened in my kitchen today.  It's called Mexican Chococado Pudding.  I know that title is confusing and worrisome to most of you, but stay with me.  Let's all raise our hands if you love: avocado {hand up!}, sugarless desserts {hand up! also skeptical look because what creepy seven syllable sweetener replaced the sugar...}, spicy-ness {Louisiana girl hand waving up in the wind!}, and CHOCOLATE {all appendages in the ayer, ayer!}.


As some of you know, I had to give up sugar a few weeks ago {19 days ago, but it's whatevs}.  It's for class and lasts three months, blah blah blah {how annoying is it when people go into vivid detail about what they can and cannot eat and how it's affecting every part of their body.  ew.}.  Basically, I have not eaten chocolate for 19 DAYS.  Swoon.  It's crazy ridiculous.  However, I gave up refined white sugar and crazy unnatural sweeteners {what up, dextose/phenylalanine/aspartame/splenda/equal/crazycraz they are in EVERYTHING}, but that list does not include: honey, agave, and dates.  All of those are natural.  As in came from a plant or bee or something.  {Please don't ask me to rationalize these rules, they just are.}

And this recipe lets me EAT CHOCOLATE without sugar!!  {Insert me dancing with a spoon}  But I needed more.  Have you ever had Mexican hot chocolate?  It's all smooth and chocolatey until it kicks you in the throat with cayenne?  I love that stuff.  So naturally, I added in some cinnamon and cayenne, which you can leave out if you're not into that spicy hot throat dance.


But wait.  I haven't explained the weirdo part of this.  The avocado.  Please don't leave just yet.  For the most part, you cannot taste avocado-ness, but if you have a serious avocado aversion, I'm sure you'll be just like Mr. S&S with mushrooms and claim that you can taste unfathomably tiny hints of them in everything.  So I'm not making any crazy promises to you, anti-avocadoers.  Except that you might starve in my house since I cover everything with avocado and lime.


Here come the outrageous claims for everyone else who is cool with avocado: it's gluten free! dairy free! sugar free! good for your heart! makes your hair grow long and shiny! gives you more friends! {ok, I made the last two up}.  But couldn't you see serving this to your girlfriends {maybe while calling Tierra all the synonyms of crazy while watching the Bachelor} and then smugly telling them how wonderful and healthy it is for you?


 And aren't we celebrating Chocoholics day, I mean Valentine's Day, later in the week?  Perfect.

Mexican Chococado Pudding
Serves 2, is easily multiplied (Inspired by How Sweet It Is and Forgiving Martha) 

1 ripe avocado, sliced open, seed removed
1/4 cup of cocoa powder
3 oz (just under 1/4 cup) agave nectar
1/4 cup almond milk (you can use regular, it just won't be dairy-free, duh)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 shakes cayenne powder (measurement-wise that is probably 1/32 a teaspoon.  be careful with it)

Scoop the insides out of the avocado.  Decide which type of blending equipment you want to use (blender, food processor, immersion blender, etc, all work) and combine all of the ingredients in the appropriate receptacle.  Blend away until smooth.  Eat immediately or place in an air-tight container in the fridge.