I just love cooking for people so when a dear friend of mine called and suggested that we do dinner, I was more than happy to have her and her boyfriend over to our apartment. This dear friend I should mention, happens to be lactose intolerant. I have found cooking without dairy to be pretty easy so the dinner part was a cinch. Where I was stuck was dessert. I just wasn’t sure how I was going to jump that hurdle. After reviewing my Pumpkin Cake recipe, I realized I could use that for a base and add a few more ingredients. After a quick call to my friend to verify that she could eat a couple of things, I headed straight for the kitchen and baked these super-moist, super chocolaty dairy free Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes.
Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger…cookies. Yep that’s right, in an apparent flashback to my 90’s childhood I’m embracing these peanutty candy bars once again. Only this time I’m not eating candy bar after candy bar while channeling Bart Simpson. Instead I’m chopping up Butterfingers and adding them to cookies while I channel Betty Crocker. Oh how the times have changed.
Chocolate and caramel is a winning combination under just about any circumstance. OK maybe not chocolate caramel hot dogs but it is good just about any other time. Take this dip for instance. Creamy caramels are melted with half and half, cinnamon and vanilla. Then melted dark chocolate is added to the mix and the whole dip is topped with chopped nuts. Trust me when I say it will satisfy any sweet tooth craving.
You may be wondering why this cake has a candle in it. While I will say hello to the latter half of my 20’s on Friday, that is not the reason. This cake has a candle in it because exactly one year ago today I posted my very first post on Life’s Ambrosia. I can’t believe that it has already been a year. And I could not think of a better way to celebrate this occasion than with a super moist pumpkin cake with delectable Amaretto cream cheese frosting.
Whenever I get a box of chocolates I bite my way through each one until I find the one with caramel in the middle. The sweet milk chocolate and the creamy, chewy caramel are like little bites of heaven. Recently, while eating a chocolate caramel, visions of cupcakes stuffed with these little treasures began dancing around in my head. So I gave it a try. These sinfully delicious cupcakes are the result.
The August 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers’ cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.
The July Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network
I realize that it is the middle of bikini season and many of us are trying to avoid temptations from evil sweets but I just could not resist sharing this recipe. To be nice, I won’t try to tempt you by going into detail about the semi-sweet chocolate chips and dark chocolate that I add to the cookies or the layer of fluffy Nutella cream sandwiched between two of said cookies. I’ll just tell you that these are some of the richest, most scrumptious chocolate cookies ever. I know what your thinking, but I’m not really evil, I promise.
