The Best Cupcake Ever

I have a confession.  I call myself a "Sweetie" (rather than a foodie), and up until this week, I have never had a Crumbs cupcake.  I don't know how it never happened...it just didn't.

Until this week, that is!  I woke up and was having a bad morning.  It was day 3 of a mild, lingering headache, and one of the cats puked on my Ugg boot.  I was running late and dying for coffee and was basically a huge grump.  I was cutting through the back way of the Pru hoping to stop at Dunkin Donuts for a coffee, and on my way, saw this...

It was like I found Oz!  All of a sudden my grouchiness just melted away and I circled the booth grinning like a schoolgirl at 8:30 in the morning.  As I browsed the selection of massive cupcakes, I spotted my breakfast- Caramel Latte Cupcake.

I picked up three of these chocolate cake, espresso cream-filled, caramel and white chocolate-topped hunks of heaven and headed to the office.  My team and I started off what I coined as "Happy happy fat fat day" on the right foot (even though poor Steph could only eat the frosting, forgot to look for a gluten-free option!) with lots of sugar.  After a few bites in, I was in love...and after a few more bites when I found the espresso cream filling, I was obsessed.  This truly was the best cupcake I've EVER had, and I am psyched and scared that Crumbs is now just right across the street from my office.

What's your favorite Crumbs flavor?  I'll need a list for next time!

PS - how cute are these cake pops?  They're like cake push-up pops...Must grab one next time!

Caramel-filled Sugar Cookies

Caramel and sugar- the perfect addition to a regular ol' Tuesday.  Tonight my husband shares with you another treat that he baked!  Two batches in one week?  I really found the right man.

I was off at Tuesday Night Dinner with my college sorority sisters tonight, and came home to these chewy cookies, nice and warm out of the oven.  J looked at what we had in the cabinet and found a recipe to try on his own.  His creation is a delicious, perfectly- but not overly-sweet sugar cookie, with a caramel center. I had bought the caramels a few weeks back with the intent of making a caramel apple pie.  That never happened, so I'm glad he used them for some cookies tonight!

When I asked J if he made any tweaks to the recipe or if he followed it exactly, the answer was:

"Ummm......

.............. I probably put a little more butter... a little more sugar...."  (cue puppy dog eyes)

Those ingredients never killed anyone!  Besides those two liberties, I think he followed the recipe pretty closely, so you can check that out here on Barbara Bakes to try these out.

PS - for my faithful readers who remember my old Tuesday Night Dinner posts; here's an update on tonight!  Shannon was on dessert duty and brought some chocolate chip cookies and vanilla fro-yo.  Lindsay served them on the cutest owl plates ever, sent up to Boston from her mom who knew they were a must-have for our TND tradition.  This dessert tastes really, REALLY good with some Alamos Malbec from Argentina, in case you were wondering.  (I was on wine duty!)

TND Dessert - I even got a Kappa Green owl plate - thank you Barb! xoxo

Dulce de Leche Cake

Not so long ago, hubs and I tried a little place called Coffee, Tea and Me in Melrose.  It's a great little shop that sells coffee, pastries, tea, smoothies, sandwiches, etc.  Very cute, and the service was great.  Most importantly, they had this cake out...

Even though it's simply decorated, the caramel called my name and I had to get a slice.  I'm a sucker for caramel and cake, soooo, that was an easy one.

The cake was dense...very heavy (but good), the frosting was a balanced light and sweet caramel buttercream, and each layer of cake was separated with thick, gooey caramel.  The combination of all three elements made each bite absolutely de-lish.

This cake would be SO good around the holidays.  Something about the heavy cake and caramel reminded me of cold weather.  I'm going to file this idea away to try until the fall/early winter, but if you can't wait to try something similar, scoot on up to Coffee, Tea & Me in Melrose, or check out some recipes I found that look like they may be good!  I haven't tried these yet, so if you do, let me how how they are!

Spork or Foon
What a Dish!
Technicolor Kitchen