Cake-stacle course.

Anybody who knows who I am, knows that two of my major loves in this life are baking and babies. Seriously. I am the perfect candidate to be a grandmother (when I'm not instead acting as a 'dirty old man.') To get my baby fix, I babysit on the weekends for a good friend. This is Dash, and he is my favorite:

Once in a while, I'm given last minute notice about cupcakes we "just have to have!" for an event of some sort, and guidelines like "I said they'd be vegan!" And also sometimes (this time), I'm babysitting while the cupcakes need to be made. 

It was getting near the end of the day and I had tuckered the little man out, so he was reasonably fussy. My lady friend had come by and my roommate had come home, and Dash was feeling a little shy. Every time I put him down, the Hoover Dam began to swell from his eyes. So what did I do? I made vegan chocolate peanut butter cupcakes with one arm, baby in the other. (With some counter sitting during the necessary two handed maneuvers.)

Here is what the finished product looked like:

Needless to say, (if you can't feel the pride exuding from this message already) I was pretty satisfied with the outcome and felt something like a super grandma.

Hidden Treasures.

While wandering the internet, it is almost impossible to avoid inspiration, even when you're not trying to seek it out. One afternoon, stumbling through the inter web, I found a recipe for cupcakes filled with Raffaelo candy. The blog that it comes from is one that I've been taken by multiple times, and I had to try this one. As always, I tweaked it a bit. Here are the results:

These cupcakes were incredible and I received nothing less than rave reviews. A perfect combination of butter, almond, and coconut. Rich but not to sweet, decadent for certain.