NY CRUMB CAKE

Dear classic NY crumb cake,

Where have you gone? Why have you chosen to leave me? Why are you no longer a staple in the local bakeries? Write back soon. Love, Melissa.

I am baffled as to why the classic NY crumb cake (a.k.a. "cawfee cake") has been eliminated in the bakery world. Why?  This deliciously moist sour cream cake with a cinnamon swirl and heavy-duty crumb topping just might be my number 1 guilty pleasure.

When I graduated college I went on this crazy crumb cake obsession.  I would bake a new crumb cake everyday for weeks at a time and critique each recipe appropriately.  While I was trying to come up with the perfect NY crumb cake recipe, my mother interfered and offered me her staple, secret crumb cake recipe.  Why had she taken so long to give it up? I was agonizing over the perfect crumb cake for years! I quickly baked her recipe and was finally at peace. 

The.Most.Amazing.Crumb.Cake. End scene.

Mind you, this was several years ago and as my baking skills grew to new levels, I neglected this fantastic crumb cake---until last night. Oh yes, my most glorified crumb cake had officially entered the building. It was even better than I had remembered with a touch of cinnamon flavor and ample amounts of crumb topping. Oh my dear readers, how I wish I could reveal such a recipe to you but I just can't.  Think about all the calories I'm sparing you :)

DOUBLE DARK MOCHA DROP COOKIES

I received my monthly King Arthur Flour catalogue yesterday; and while flipping through the pages of countless fun baking gadgets, I stumbled upon this recipe for double dark mocha drop cookies.  Sounded delicious enough and off to the kitchen I went! I've been baking cupcakes the last couple days and felt a truly good cookie recipe was long overdue.

According to the picture of these cookies in the catalogue, they spread when baked. However, my cookies, as you can see, did not. They maintained pretty much the exact shape as they were before baked.  I traced back my steps and didn't make any mistakes so perhaps my oven wasn't calibrated properly. However, when I bit into these chocolate round blobs, they tasted delicious.  This cookie has a real brownie like texture and the center is dense and fudgy from all the semi sweet and white chocolate chips.  These are a winner and I'll most definitely make them again--flattened or not ;)

Click here for recipe.

RED VELVET CUPCAKES

Can't you feel the love in these handsome red velvets? Moist, fluffy, super red, and bursting with vanilla buttercream icing. Simply delicious.

I topped each cuppie with a little candy heart and doled them out to my neighbors. Needless to say, everyone was quite appreciative! I can safely say that I spoiled everyone's dinner on the 5th floor. Sorry folks.

As always, enjoy :)

CHOCOLATE OREO CUPCAKES

It has been slightly over 2 months since I've posted last. If that's not an indication of how busy I am then I'm not quite sure what is. I'm back to my old stomping grounds after spending the winter living in Tennessee and have been so incredibly busy igniting my new bakery business.

My bakery is called Balaboosta's Bakery and the website is currently under construction at www.balaboostasbakery.com. Please check back soon for updates! In the meantime, a very dear friend of mine turned 30 this weekend and I showed up with an abundance of mini and regular sized chocolate Oreo cupcakes. The mini's were beyond adorable and literally tasted like bite sized bursts of vanilla cream with a not-to-overwhelming chocolaty flavor.

I would have preferred to border the cupcakes in all chocolate sprinkles but unfortunately I was out so I went with the colored which added some nice flair. Enjoy.