Category Archives: Dessert

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

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I looked at the recipes we’ve posted this fall and noticed a distinct lack of pumpkin dishes.  Maybe that’s because I love sweet potato everything (including a sweet potato cake coming next week), but I thought it was time to have some pumpkin in my life.  People go crazy over pumpkin.  I made these pumpkin cupcakes last year and they were quickly devoured by my sister, roommates, and an accidental serving to my roommate’s dog.  Are dogs supposed to have pumpkin cupcakes? I guess he wasn’t about to miss out on a pumpkin cupcake, and you shouldn’t either.  The cream cheese frosting tastes like a cinnamon roll and is a perfect complement to the pumpkin cupcakes.

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Yellow Cupcakes with Chocolate Chai Frosting

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I love chai.  I don’t drink coffee, so my drink of choice is usually a hot chai.  I also love chocolate. However, I had not thought about combining the two until I took a tour of the Theo Chocolate factory when I was on vacation in Seattle a few weeks ago.  Yes, I got to take a tour of an actual chocolate factory! No, it was nothing like Willy Wonka, but we did get to eat A LOT of samples. Highly recommended.  Did you know chocolate is made from fermented, roasted, and ground seeds of a tree called the theobroma cacao (aka the chocolate tree)? Very similar to the process of making coffee beans. So interesting. And no, Theo is not sponsoring me to write this (I wish!). I just think they’re a cool company doing good things aside from making great chocolate. Now, back to these cupcakes.  After having the chocolate chai bar at Theo, I knew immediately I needed to put it on a cupcake.  When I think of chocolate icing for a cupcake, I automatically think yellow cake because yellow cake plus chocolate icing is the best.  Bold statement, I know.  Make these cupcakes with the chocolate chai icing and you won’t be sorry.  And then put the chocolate chai icing on as many desserts as possible.

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Supreme Sweet Potato Pie

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Sweet potato pie is like the overlooked middle child in the world of fall desserts.  It is not overly sweet and has the nutritional value from the sweet potatoes, yet pumpkin and apple pie get all the love.  Well, I haven’t forgotten about sweet potato pie and you shouldn’t either! I could probably eat one of these myself they’re so good.  Relax, I said could.  My mom made these all the time growing up with a recipe she learned from her mom, who learned the recipe from her mom (you following? That’s coming from my great-grandmother).  Of course, the grandmothers didn’t use a “recipe” per se because they did not use measurements.    Lucky for you, I recreated it with more specific instructions than “a scoop of sugar” and “a few dashes of cinnamon.”  Pick up some sweet potatoes and let’s get baking!

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Flourless Chocolate Cake

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This cake has been my favorite dessert and my baking specialty for the last fifteen years. Yep, you read that correctly. Fifteen years. Ever since it appeared as the “Dish of the Year” in Bon Appetit’s January 1999 issue, I’ve been hooked. This is not really a cake you can just whip up any time you feel like it (I mean, you can…but its a lot of work). It is totally worth the effort though. Seriously worth the effort.

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Molten Chocolate Lava Cake for Two

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Is chocolate a food group? Well, it should be. If I had to choose between chocolate and fruit desserts, I would choose chocolate. But then again I do like fruit dessert.  I’m really just a dessert person.  This is why I’m also a runner. I digress… This molten chocolate lava cake is dangerously easy to make.  I say “dangerously easy” because maybe one day you won’t feel like cooking dinner and you’ll just make this instead.  Not that I’ve done that. I’ve made this for dinner parties, date night, and lots of times in between.  Everyone is really impressed because of that whole lava thing, but they don’t even realize how easy it is to make.  Whip this up ASAP and you’ll thank me. 

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P.S. This recipe can easily be multiplied. Continue reading →

Royal Icing

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In honor of our sorority’s convention in Palm Springs this weekend, The Lawful Kitchen has been whipping up some awesome Alpha Chi Omega themed goodies!

These sugar cookies decorated with royal icing are a lot easier to make than you would think. I whip them out for just about every event (birthdays, NCAA football games, Halloween, xmas), and they can be infinitely customized.

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