Saturday Morning Snapshot
Brunch with my BFF so I made cookies…
State of the Blog
As promised, there were more cupcakes on the blog this week, also broccoli. I can think of worse ways to celebrate the end of Baking Mischief’s third month.
We’re in March now, so that means it’s time for a new monthly series! Tune in Monday for that. Wednesday we have a copycat restaurant recipe that I’ve lightened up a bit, and Friday, we will have Girl Scout cupcake #2 (it’s a good one).
Recipes/posts released this week were:
Pound Cake Cupcakes AKA Cupcakes for Breakfast – Light, buttery pound cake topped with the berries of your choice and smothered in a lot more than a dollop of homemade whipped cream. A perfect excuse to eat cupcakes for breakfast.
Quick Panko and Parmesan Broccoli – An easy, cheesy broccoli side dish with crunchy panko and Parmesan. Healthy, quick, and perfect for busy weeknights.
Tagalong Cupcakes – Delicious pound cake covered in peanut butter buttercream and dipped in chocolate. A perfect cupcake version of the Girl Scout’s best cookie.
Pop-culture Corner
The Hannibal Cookbook is available for pre-order! This is great news for Fannibals and cannibals the world over.
Also in the Fullerverse, we got news on Wednesday that Ian McShane has been cast as Mr. Wednesday in the American Gods adaptation. Sometimes dream casting really does come true.
Have you watched the new Ghostbusters trailer? It is doing terrible, terrible things to my Kate McKinnon girl crush.
Sony Pictures via Tumblr
Uh, Chris H looks good too.
Finally, just in time for Easter, this chocolate Cumberbunny is the craziest Cumberbatch-related thing I’ve ever seen, and this is coming from someone who once sculpted a Smauglock out of marshmallow fondant.
Meal Planning
Saturday: Naan Pizza Sunday: Chicken Pot Pie Monday: Chicken Parmesan Tuesday: BBQ Chicken Salad Wednesday: Chipotle Chicken Sandwiches Thursday: Sausage and Rice Skillet Friday: Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
Tagalong Cupcakes are delicious pound cake covered in peanut butter buttercream and dipped in chocolate. A perfect cupcake version of the Girl Scouts’ best cookie.
It’s Girl Scout Cookie season! Were you a Girl Scout? I was a Girl Scout. This time of year always brings back fond memories of that period of my life: riding a bike without training wheels for the first time during a meeting, making SWAPS, watching troop leaders chase a flaming paper towel across a campground during a multi-troop camping trip…
I loved being a Girl Scout as a girl, so I thought it would be fun to create a series of Girl Scout-inspired cupcakes as an adult.
I had SUCH a blast coming up with these. I thought long and hard about how to interpret each aspect of the cookies. Some of them were literal, chocolate coating for chocolate coating, but for some I had to really think about what the cupcake equivalent would be.
For example, two of the cookies have a shortbread-like base and one of them is literal shortbread, so I figured buttery classic pound cake would be the best sub in for buttery classic shortbread.
We are starting today with my favorite cookie, Tagalongs. Why these aren’t everyone’s favorite will forever elude me (see more of my complaining when we get to Samoas), but what evs. More Tagalongs for me!
Tagalongs are a cookie base covered in sweet peanut butter and dipped in chocolate. So my Tagalong Cupcakes are the aforementioned pound cake base, with a layer of sweet peanut butter buttercream, and then dipped in chocolate.
And surprise, Tagalong Cupcakes are amazing. They actually taste quite a bit like Tagalongs, but fluffy and soft rather than crunchy. The peanut butter pairs shockingly well with the pound cake and obviously, peanut butter and chocolate is a no-fail combo.
Stay tuned for the next three Fridays as we make our way through the other three most popular Girl Scout Cookies, in order from least to most popular, ending with the cookie that accounts for the largest percentage of total Girl Scout cookie sales (you can probably guess which one that is).
And if all this talk of cookies has given you a hankering for some, you can use the cookie locator to find your nearest troop selling them! Support some young ladies so they can grow up and run a food blog that… makes cupcakes based off of Girl Scout Cookies.
Time is a flat circle.
More Girl Scout Cookie Cupcakes…
Do-si-do Cupcakes
Thin Mint Cupcakes
Samoa Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- ▢ 12 Pound Cake Cupcakes cooled*
Peanut Butter Buttercream
- ▢ 3 tablespoons ( 42 g) unsalted butter room temperature
- ▢ 1/2 cup ( 135 g) creamy peanut butter*
- ▢ 2/3 cup ( 80 ) powdered sugar
- ▢ 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ▢ 1-2 tablespoons heavy cream divided
Chocolate Coating
- ▢ 1 cup ( 6 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chopped (high-quality chips or baking chocolate are fine)
- ▢ 1 tablespoon and 1 1/2 teaspoons canola or vegetable oil
Instructions
Peanut Butter Buttercream
- Combine butter, peanut butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon of heavy cream in a medium bowl and whisk together. Add up to 1 more tablespoon of heavy cream if needed so you have a smooth and spreadable frosting.
- Spread a fairly thick layer of frosting over the cupcakes, stopping about a quarter inch from the edges. Run your knife or spatula over it once or twice to ensure that it is as smooth as possible.
Chocolate Coating
- Combine chocolate and oil in a small microwave-safe bowl just large enough for dipping. Microwave at medium power for 30 seconds and stir. Repeat until all lumps disappear. Stir vigorously until chocolate is smooth and glossy.
- Dip cupcakes in the chocolate and allow excess to run off before setting aside to dry. If your cupcakes baked up below the wrapper, you can spoon the chocolate on and tilt the cupcake until the entire surface is covered. The chocolate on the cupcakes will set within about 15 minutes in the refrigerator or an hour on the counter.
Notes
Nutritional Information Peanut Butter Buttercream Adapted From: Food.com Chocolate Coating Adapted From: Martha Stewart
Slow cooker baked potatoes piled high with broccoli and a glorious cheddar cheese sauce. Perfect for Meatless Mondays!
Welcome to our March blog series. After January salads and February soups, we’re tackling something I’m a little less comfortable with, Meatless Monday meals.
I love the idea of Meatless Monday. I think it can be hugely impactful on your health, your wallet, and the environment. But in practice, I’m pretty terrible at it.
The recipes you’ll see featured here this month are most of the vegetarian recipes (that aren’t some form of mac and cheese) that I would consider tried and true in my recipe file.
This is good for you, because it means they are all 100 percent meat-eater approved and delicious, but says something sad about me considering I was vegan for nearly a year in college (I lived on oreos and vegan hot dogs).
Our first recipe is a comfort classic with a convenience twist, Slow Cooker Baked Potatoes With Broccoli and Cheese Sauce. Baked potatoes are a great base for Meatless Mondays, because who doesn’t like potatoes? Unfortunately, their long cooking time can make them impractical for busy weeknights.
Guess what? Problem solved.
Did you know you can cook potatoes in a slow cooker!? Turns out, toss those things in the slow cooker in the morning, set to low, and by the time you are home in the evening, they are perfectly cooked and ready to eat.
That means that for this recipe, all you have to do before eating is boil some broccoli and make the quick and easy cheese sauce , and you have your Meatless Monday meal on the table in like 20 minutes.
And oh, that cheese sauce, once you taste it, you’ll be seeing it in your dreams. It’s creamy, tangy and loaded with sharp cheddar and cayenne.
Pile your potato high with broccoli and then smother that thing in this glorious cheese sauce and you’ll completely forget that this Monday meal is meatless!
More Easy Weeknight Meals
- Pesto Chicken Sandwich on Sourdough
- Chicken Shawarma With Yogurt Sauce
- Sharp Cheddar Broccoli and Ham Chowder
- Easy Weeknight Chicken Cacciatore
- Ham and Potato Soup
Ingredients
Special Tools or Equipment
- ▢ Slow Cooker
- ▢ Aluminium Foil
Baked Potatoes
- ▢ 4 medium baking potatoes scrubbed and dried
- ▢ Cooking spray or olive oil
- ▢ Salt
Topping
- ▢ 1 1/2 pounds broccoli florets cut into bite-sized pieces
Cheese Sauce
- ▢ 2 tablespoons butter
- ▢ 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ▢ 1 1/2 cups milk
- ▢ 1 1/2 cup ( 6 oz) sharp cheddar cheese shredded
- ▢ 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
- ▢ Salt and pepper
Instructions
Baked Potatoes
- Poke potatoes 5-6 times each with a fork.
- Lay a sheet of foil down on the counter. Place a potato in the center and spray with cooking spray or drizzle in olive oil, turning to coat. Sprinkle with salt and close foil. Repeat with other potatoes. Place all potatoes in the slow cooker and cook on low for 8-10 hours. They will be done in 8, but should be fine if cooked for up to 10 hours.
Broccoli
- Bring a medium pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add broccoli and cook until tender 3-5 minutes. Drain and cover to keep warm. Set aside.
Cheese Sauce
- In a medium pot, melt butter over medium heat. Whisk in flour and cook until flour is lightly golden, stirring constantly, about 1 minute.
- Slowly add in milk, whisking continuously so no lumps form. Continue to whisk and cook over medium heat until mixture is thick and bubbly, 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in cheese, cayenne, salt and pepper.
- Slice open the tops of the potatoes and pile with broccoli. Top with cheese sauce.
Notes
Nutritional Information Recipe Adapted From: ToriAvey.com
Make-ahead Instructions: Sauce should be prepared just before serving, but cheese can be shredded, broccoli cut, and potatoes cooked up to two days in advance. Recipe For Two Instructions: Recipe halves cleanly. 1/2 of 1 tablespoon is 1 1/2 teaspoons. Freezer Notes: I don’t recommend this dish for freezing. Potatoes and cheesy sauces don’t hold up fantastically in the freezer.
