2. Today was my little sister’s 20th birthday. I’m getting old. And Mary, let’s celebrate your next birthday on the west coast. Deal?

3. Phones and birthdays aside, I’m feeling mighty blessed these days. The fact that I pulled off some legit gluten-free cupcakes this weekend didn’t hurt! I’ve eaten a lot of cupcakes and I’ll gladly sign my name to these bad boys. They are delicious. I did have some help from Bob here.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Cupcakes
Adapted from Joy the Baker Cookbook: 100 Simple and Comforting Recipes

I used my favorite cream cheese frosting here, because I am mildly obsessed with it. Use your favorite frosting! I think a chocolate ganache would be great as well.

Makes about 30 cupcakes*

1 1/4 cups hot prepared coffee
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 1/2 cups gluten free flour mix (I used Bob’s Red Mill and highly recommend it)
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup agave nectar
3 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 1/4 cups oil

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line muffin tins with paper liners and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine hot coffee, cocoa, and chocolate chips, and stir until completely combined. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, agave nectar, and eggs until thick and pale. Add the sour cream and oil, and carefully whisk until well incorporated. Gradually whisk the flour mixture into the egg mixture, mixing vigorously. Put some muscle into it! When the flour is completely incorporated, whisk in the coffee mixture.

Spoon batter into muffin tins, filling each muffin cup about 2/3 full. Bake about 20-25 minutes, until the tops spring back when touched and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes before transferring cupcakes directly to wire racks to cool completely. Decorate with frosting of your choice. Store cupcakes (in an airtight container) in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

*I actually made 24 cupcakes + 4 7-oz ramekins, but I’d imagine this translates to about 30 total cupcakes (give or take a couple).

This is probably not your mom’s pound cake. There’s Greek yogurt inside! Living on the edge, I know. Go with me here. It’s okay…I promise it still tastes like cake. You don’t have to tell everything you know.

This is a lovely cake with a sweet punch of citrus, perfect for summoning springtime. It’s also a lovely way to spend a rainy afternoon, and should probably be enjoyed with a bit of vanilla bean ice cream.

Triple Citrus Pound Cake
Adapted from Cooking Light

I started with a lemon pound cake…and couldn’t leave well enough alone.

Makes one tube cake

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter or stick margarine, softened
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons grapefruit zest (from one grapefruit)
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons orange juice
3/4 cup lemon-flavored Greek yogurt*
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
butter and flour for preparing pan

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 10″ tube pan and set aside.

In a medium bowl add grapefruit zest to sugar and rub between your fingers to combine. Set aside. In another medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Beat butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually add grapefruit sugar until well combined, followed by extracts. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, followed by orange juice.

Combine sour cream and yogurt in a small bowl. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with yogurt mixture, beating at low speed, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Spoon batter into prepared pan.

Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack. Combine lemon juice and powdered sugar. Drizzle glaze over top of cake.

*If you can’t find lemon-flavored Greek yogurt, plain Greek yogurt or sour cream will do, but increase the lemon extract to 2 teaspoons.

Ryan has been traveling on business for a couple of days and I wanted to make a little treat for his return home. He loves coffee cake and let’s be honest, I don’t exactly turn it down.

This coffee cake only has a few tablespoons of butter in it, thanks to the addition of yogurt for flavor and moisture. I used peach yogurt, but you could easily use strawberry or any other flavor you like! The peach flavor is subtle, but delicious.

Light Peach Crumb Coffee Cake
Adapted from The Best Light Recipe

Makes 12 servings

Scant 2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons unsalted butter or margarine, softened, plus 1 tablespoon melted and cooled
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla yogurt
3/4 cup (about 6 ounces) low-fat peach yogurt

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour an 8-inch square baking pan or pie plate, and set aside.

Whisk together the flour, 1/2 cup of the brown sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together in a medium bowl. Remove 1/4 cup of the flour mixture and mix it with the remaining 1/4 cup of brown sugar and the cinnamon in a small bowl; set aside.

Beat the softened butter and granulated sugar together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Reduce the mixer speed to low. Beat in one-third of the flour mixture until just incorporated, followed by the vanilla and one-third of the yogurt, scraping down the bowl as needed. Repeat the process twice more, alternating between the remaining flour mixture and yogurt until the ingredients are just incorporated. Do not overmix.

Scrape the cake batter into the prepared pan. Stir the 1 tablespoon melted butter into the reserved cinnamon mixture and toss gently with a fork until the butter is evenly distributed, creating some large pea-sized crumbs. Sprinkle the crumb mixture evenly over the batter.

Bake until the crumb topping is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with a few crumbs attached, 35 to 40 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking. Transfer the baking pan to a wire rack and let the cake cool completely before slicing and serving.

We don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day — it’s just a week before my birthday and Ryan’s birthday comes afterward  in quick succession. But I do love a little bit of pink silliness this time of year. And I know I’m a little early, but I couldn’t resist!

You could definitely start with a cake mix on this one if you’d like. I had enough ingredients on hand that it was easier to just start from scratch, but either way works. I would definitely plan on getting these out of your house as quickly as possible, unless you’re prepared to eat the whole batch! They are just so delicious.

Valentine Cakes
Adapted from Melissa’s Munches and King Arthur Flour

I had a hard time finding a relatively small heart-shaped cookie cutter, so I actually used part of a candy mold, pressing it into the top of the cake and cutting around it with a serrated knife. My hearts ended up being about 2 inches wide, so if you use a larger cutter, you’ll have less total cakes.

Makes about 16 2-inch cakes

For the cake:
2 cups sugar
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter or margarine, soft
1 1/4 cups milk, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 large eggs

For the filling and coating:
3 tablespoons unsalted butter or margarine
1/3 cup marshmallow creme
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
24 ounces vanilla candy melts
3 ounces white chocolate
pink gel food coloring*

To make the cake: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 9″x13″ pan with parchment paper, and lightly spray with cooking spray.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter and beat with an electric mixer at low speed, until the mixture looks sandy.

Combine the milk and vanilla and add, all at once. Mix at low speed for 30 seconds, then increase the speed to medium and beat for 30 seconds. Scrape the bottom and sides of the mixing bowl. With the mixer running at low speed, add 1 egg. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 30 seconds. Repeat this procedure with the second egg. Continue adding the eggs, scraping after each addition, until all 4 are added.After the last egg is added, scrape the bowl once more, then beat at medium-high speed for 30 more seconds.

Pour the batter into the pan and smooth with a spatula. Bake for 40 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown and just beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cake has cooled, press the heart cutter of your choice into the top of the cake and cut around it with a serrated knife. Turn the heart onto its side and slice it in half, so that you have two little heart layers. Repeat this process until all of your hearts are cut out. Set your hearts in the freezer while you prepare the filling — this will (temporarily) firm up the cake a little to make it easier to work with.

To make the filling: In the bowl of a mixer, beat 3 tablespoons butter, vanilla, and marshmallow until fully combined. Add powdered sugar and milk and beat on medium until filling is light and fluffy. Spread filling onto half of the hearts and then top with the remaining hearts. Set aside.

To make the coating: In a large bowl, microwave candy melts on 50% power for 30 seconds, then stir. Repeat until totally melted, then stir in a tiny bit of food coloring (I barely dipped the tines of a fork into the coloring and then stirred that into the candy melts). Use a fork or spoon to roll cakes in the melted candy, spooning more over the top until they’re completely covered. Transfer cakes to wax paper.

In a small bowl, microwave white chocolate until melted, stirring every 30 seconds. Drizzle over the top of cakes. Allow white chocolate and candy coating to set completely before serving.

*It’s important to use gel food coloring rather than the normal liquid variety, because any water in the candy melts will ruin their texture. If you’ve never used gel food coloring, you can find it in the cake decorating section of your local craft store (or even Walmart!).

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.

This cake mix is a lovely thing to have on hand! The apple bits and caramel included make it much taster than your average boxed mix, and adding fresh apple and homemade frosting makes these a treat fit for all of your holiday occasions (sprinkles help too).

Caramel Apple Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

There’s something about homemade frosting that just makes me happy! Usually I make this frosting with both butter and cream cheese, but I’m running low on butter this week so I stuck with cream cheese only. This is how we made it at the bakery, so I knew it would be tasty.

For the cupcakes:
1 Duncan Hines Apple Caramel cake mix
1 1/3 cups water, divided
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon oil, divided
1 egg
1/2 cup egg whites*
1 medium apple, peeled and diced (I used Jonagold)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 16-20 muffin cups with paper liners and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine small pouch of caramel mix with 1/3 cup water and 1 tablespoon oil, and stir until thickened slightly. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine cake mix, 1 cup water, 1/3 cup oil, egg, and egg whites, and stir until well combined. Fold in diced apple.

Spoon batter into muffin cups until they’re two-thirds full (you should have enough batter for 16-20 cupcakes; I ended up with 19). Drop a heaping teaspoonful of caramel onto each cupcake and swirl gently with a knife. Don’t worry about how it looks; the “swirling” is just to spread the caramel out a little.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until cupcakes are golden brown and spring back when touched. Let cool in the pan for about ten minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

*The box calls for 3 eggs but I substituted 1 egg + 1/2 cup egg whites, figuring the cupcakes would be rich enough with the caramel and frosting. You can go either way!

For the frosting:
8 oz cream cheese, softened**
4-6 cups powdered sugar
splash of vanilla extract

With an electric mixer (stand or hand), beat (the heck out of) cream cheese until it’s light and fluffy. Add a splash of vanilla and beat again until combined. Add 3 cups powdered sugar and beat until well combined. From this point, add remaining powdered sugar one cup at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl and judging the frosting’s thickness after each cup, until frosting reaches your desired consistency. I ended up using about 5 cups, but the amount you use will vary based on temperature, humidity, and what color nail polish you’re wearing.

Spread or pipe frosting onto cupcakes, add Christmas sprinkles if you so desire, and enjoy!

**You can use full-fat or reduced-fat cream cheese, but please, for the love of all that is holy, do not use fat-free! The texture is just not the same, not to mention the taste.

This coffee cake is perfect for both of us! I don’t mind a lack of sugar when there is a CINNAMON punch involved. I’m not talking about a hint of cinnamon, I’m talking about a PUNCH! It’s October, folks. Let’s get on board with cinnamon everything (including candles, obviously).

This is an excellent coffee cake to make when it’s dark and rainy out. It’s perfect for snacking on when your house is chilly and you’re walking around in sweats and Ugg boots. And it’s really perfect when you have a beach trip coming up and you’re trying not to eat eight zillion extra calories. It’s also good for midweek mopes. Let’s make some coffee cake!

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Applesauce Coffee Cake
Adapted from (never home) maker

1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup yogurt or sour cream (I used nonfat vanilla yogurt)
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup applesauce
1/2 cup cinnamon chips

For the topping:

1/2 cup rolled oats
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon brown sugar

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a square baking dish (9″ x 9″)  or pie plate and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.

In a smaller bowl, combine the yogurt, maple syrup, vegetable oil and applesauce. Then add the mixture to the dry ingredients. Combine with a spatula until everything is wet/together — but resist over-mixing. Fold in cinnamon chips.

Pour mix into your prepared pan.

Then combine all the topping ingredients in a small bowl using a fork. Spread mixture over your cake batter.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes — until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Transfer pan to a wire rack and cool completely.

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.

Baked Apple Pie Donuts
Barely adapted from MomAdvice

Makes about 8 donuts

1/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cups chopped apple (peeled), about 2 regular apples
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/3 cup cold butter or margarine, cut into small pieces
1 egg
1/4 cup milk

For sugar & cinnamon topping:
1/4 cup apple cider
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Whisk the flour, baking powder, sugars salt and and nutmeg in a bowl. Add the cold chopped butter, cut into tablespoons. Cut the butter with the flour mixture until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with a pastry blender or fork.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg. Mix in the milk and fold in the chopped apples. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture. Stir using a spatula or spoon making sure not to overmix. Place two spoonfuls of batter into a greased donut mold pan.

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until the donuts are just golden. Allow to cool for five minutes. Pour apple cider into a small bowl; mix cinnamon and sugar into another small bowl. Unmold each donut gently; carefully dip each into cider and then cinnamon-sugar. Shake off excess sugar and serve immediately.

These cupcakes are pushing for those last few days of bare feet and freckled shoulders! They’re totally wearing white after Labor Day and they’re looking good doing it. No big deal.

Strawberry coconut love starts with a cake mix and gets all dressed up for dinner. Take these little beauties to your friends and look like you know what you’re doing! But don’t over-mix them, or you’ll end up scraping burned cake off the bottom of your oven at 11 am on a Tuesday. Trust me. I know.

Strawberry Coconut Cupcakes
Inspired by Joy the Baker and adapted from Duncan Hines

These cupcakes are really tender and can be difficult to remove from the pan. One of my favorite bakery tricks is this: after the cupcakes have cooled in the pan, place the entire pan in your freezer for 30 minutes to an hour. If you have enough space in your freezer, do both pans at once! As soon as the cupcakes are a bit frozen (they don’t have to be rock solid, but it’s easier if they are), they’ll be much easier to remove from the pans. As soon as they thaw, you’ll never know the difference.

Makes 24 cupcakes

For the cupcakes:
1 box white cake mix (without pudding!)
1 (3 ounce) box strawberry gelatin
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup diced strawberries
1 tablespoon coconut extract
2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line two muffin tins with cupcake papers and spray lightly with cooking spray.

In a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer), combine cake mix, gelatin, flour, and baking soda and mix well. Add strawberries, extract, oil, eggs, and water, and mix on low speed until just moistened, about 30 seconds. Mix on medium for 2 minutes.

Spoon batter into pans, filling each cup 2/3 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Transfer pans to wire racks and cool completely.

For the frosting:
1 (8 ounce) brick cream cheese, softened
2 sticks butter or margarine, softened
1 (32 ounce) bag powdered sugar
pinch of salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

sweetened flaked coconut and sliced strawberries for topping

With an electric or stand mixer, beat together cream cheese and butter until completely smooth and blended. Add about half the sugar and beat until smooth. Add the rest of the sugar, salt, and vanilla, and beat until smooth. At this point it’s up to you — if you’d like a stiffer frosting, add a bit more sugar.

Frost cupcakes with your weapon of choice — I like to pipe frosting because it’s just easier for me, but you can definitely spread it with a butter knife on this one, because it’ll be covered in coconut. Pour coconut into a shallow bowl and, one at a time, turn each cupcake upside down and gently turn the top into the coconut. Top with a strawberry slice. Do this assembly-line style (frosting, coconut, strawberry) on each cupcake so that the coconut and strawberries will stick.

But I actually got to spend Father’s Day weekend with, you know, my family. It’s a brilliant concept, and required cake. So I went for it, and tried to use the offset spatula as little as possible. And then we went to the beach.

Dear Pacific Northwest, I love you. Love, Laura.

Pecan Spice Cake with Maple Frosting
Cooking Light

Makes 16 servings

This cake is crazy good – perfectly spiced with maple frosting that’s to die for. Seriously, I could’ve just eaten this frosting with a spoon. My cake didn’t rise very much, so if this happens to you, don’t be alarmed. It still tastes amazing.

For the cake:
2 cups + 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour, divided
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Dash of ground cloves
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup chopped pecans, toasted

For the frosting:
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon butter
Dash of salt
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons chopped pecans, toasted

Preheat oven to 350°F.

To prepare cake, coat 2 (8-inch) round metal cake pans with cooking spray. Line bottoms of pans with wax paper; coat with cooking spray. Dust each pan with 1 teaspoon flour. Combine remaining 2 cups flour, baking soda, and next 4 ingredients (through cloves), stirring well with a whisk.

Place 1 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup butter in a large mixing bowl; beat with a mixer at medium-high speed until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to butter mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture and beating just until combined. Fold in 1/3 cup pecans. Divide batter evenly between prepared pans.

Bake for 24 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 5 minutes on wire racks. Invert cake layers onto racks; cool completely. Discard wax paper.

To prepare frosting, place 1/2 cup brown sugar, heavy whipping cream, maple syrup, 1 tablespoon butter, and dash of salt in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a boil, stirring just until sugar dissolves. Cook 3 minutes, without stirring. Scrape brown sugar mixture into a bowl. Add powdered sugar; beat with a mixer at high speed 2 minutes or until slightly cooled and thick. Beat in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Place 1 cake layer on a plate. Spread about 3/4 cup frosting evenly over 1 layer; top with second layer. Spread remaining frosting over sides and top of cake; sprinkle with 2 tablespoons pecans. Let the cake stand until frosting sets.

Life is especially busy right now, but I’m so glad I made time for this cake! It’s rich, moist, and delicious, and comes together so quickly. This isn’t my first chocolate loaf cake and honestly they can’t be beat. You’d better believe this is the only kind of cake I’m going to bake on a weeknight.

Double Chocolate Loaf Cake
Adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod

Makes 1 9 x 5-inch loaf

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup yogurt (I used fat-free vanilla)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup coarsely chopped chocolate or chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350°F and position the rack in the center. Butter a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan, dust it with flour, and knock out the excess flour.

With a stand or hand mixer, combine the sugar, cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs until blended, then add the yogurt, oil, applesauce, and vanilla; whisk until combined. Turn the mixer to low and slowly stream the wet ingredients into the dry ones, mixing just until combined. Stir in the chocolate chunks by hand.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.