i'd rather be baking

This time last year, I was spending many hours a week decorating cupcakes. I miss the frosting! I’ve had a hankering for cupcakes for awhile now, and at this point piping frosting is such a familiar task that it’s kind of therapeutic. So yesterday I put on my apron and made some cupcakes.

Foodbuzz recently provided me with some cake mix coupons and I finally put one of them to good use. Although I usually bake from scratch, a good cake mix is always handy and comes together so quickly. And this one looked so fancy — I was excited to try it!

They basically had me at caramel. I decided to add some fresh apple and cream cheese frosting because, well, it just seemed like a good idea. I stirred up the cupcakes, unloaded the dishwasher while they baked, and went for a quick run while they cooled. There’s nothing quite so fun as coming home from a run to fresh cupcakes. I’m just saying.

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Last week, I made dessert in my crockpot. I went there! I should mention that on that particular day, my daytime meals consisted of cereal, yogurt, and oatmeal…with some pumpkin bread thrown in for a snack. Sometimes you just need carbs. At least I had dessert covered.

I’ve never made dessert in a slow cooker before, but I kind of couldn’t resist. I mean…sugar, apples, cranberries and oats getting all snuggly warm for a few hours can do no wrong.

I’ve eaten way more of this than I care to talk about. It’s great over cereal, in case you’re wondering. I bought approximately 12 zillion local apples a few days ago and I’m pretty sure there’s going to be a crockpot crumble after-party.

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I’m in full-fledged apple obsession right now! This happens to me every year. We picked up five pounds of Honeycrisps at our favorite you-pick farm a couple of weekends ago…and then they went on sale at the grocery store. I’ve eaten so many apples in the last two weeks that I’ve lost count. And I don’t care!

I eat them out of hand, chopped up on top of my cereal, cooked into instant oatmeal, and sliced with a little peanut butter. And you’d better believe I’m baking with them! This weekend I made baked apple pie donuts and they totally tasted like apple pie. I wouldn’t kid about a thing like this.

We really love donuts, but we don’t love the greasy, slightly sick feeling we end up with after eating them. That doesn’t happen with baked donuts! I think I also enjoy them more knowing that I didn’t just eat an entire day’s worth of calories. And Ryan loves cake donuts, so baked donuts are just working for us right now. And I’m definitely putting apples in them.

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Well, here we go again. We’re moving! In two weeks we’ll be westward-bound again, this time to Portland, Oregon. While there is certainly a mountain of work to be done in the next two weeks, we are excited. So here I am, cleaning out my freezer and pantry bit by bit, which led to this wonderful fruit crumble.

Originally I wanted to make a strawberry rhubarb crumble, but then come Sunday morning I couldn’t find any rhubarb, and really didn’t have time to go hunting around for it at multiple stores. So I decided to use cranberries instead. I know it isn’t the same thing, but I had just over a cup leftover in my freezer, along with a good two cups of strawberries, and decided to call it good. I don’t know why systematically emptying out the freezer is so satisfying, but it really is.

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How was your weekend? Mine was so productive that I sort of feel like I dreamed it. A little more relax time would’ve been nice, but that isn’t really in the cards at the moment.

In the midst of a rather ridiculous streak of checking-things-off-the-list, I stopped for a few minutes to mix up these muffins. They are a lovely blend of whole wheat, carrots, apples, coconut, and peanuts (I know, weird). They’re hearty and delicious, and not too sweet for breakfast (not that there is such a thing).

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