Magnolia Bakery Cupcakes

Have you ever heard of or ever been the the Magnolia Bakery in NYC? I've never been but I've heard so much about it! I'm going to be in NYC on 12/5 so maybe I'll check it out then. They have several cookbooks out with tons of recipes for their well-known treats. Their cupcakes are always talked about and I've been wanting to make them for some time now.

A couple of weeks ago I purchased More From Magnolia: Recipes from the World Famous Bakery and Allysa Torey's Home Kitchen from Amazon.com! It was a great purchase and a great deal. I know it will be my go to baking book.

This past weekend my mother and I baked up a little something from the book. I made the vanilla cake cupcakes with vanilla butter cream icing and Mamie, my mom, made pumpkin bars with cream cheese icing. (I should have made Mame take a picture--what was I thinking).

The cupcakes were delicious- very moist!!! The icing was very rich and very creamy! I thought the recipe was really easy. No need for a boxed cake. Although I wasn't able to try the pumpkin bars with cream cheese icing, I heard they were really good!

I promise there will be more to come from this book.

Bill asked for it...and he got it!

Bill, my father, asked if the blog can be sorted by category. I added "labels" right under the blog archive. So if you're looking for a chicken recipe you can select the "chicken" label and all chicken recipes will come up! Hope this is helpful! Happy cooking/baking!
-Lynn

Veg-Head Three-Bean Chili

This recipe is one of Rachael Ray's 30-min meals. You maybe thinking..."It's not chili if there's no meat" but I promise you'll like this recipe. I usually make a turkey chili (another Rachael Ray recipe) but I thought I'd try this three-bean recipe out! I used some blue corn tortilla chips for some crunch and topped it off with cheese. I like things a bit more spicy so next time I make it I'll add some extra spice.

*You can find the recipe here

Comfort Food: Chicken & Dumplings

I've been craving chicken and dumplings for quite some time. I finally got around to making it tonight and I was very pleased with the flavor of this dish. It was very simple; a bit lengthy for a week night meal but well worth it. To save some time I used baby carrots and instead of using water I used chicken broth for some extra flavor.

*You can find the recipe here

Chocolate Cinnamon Muffins

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

2 large eggs

1 cup milk

6 tbsp melted cooled butter

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Stir together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, cinnamon, & salt into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar and chocolate chips.

Lightly beat the eggs in a large pitcher or bowl, then beat in the milk and butter. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the beaten liquid ingredients. Stir gently until just combined. Do not over mix.

Bake for 20 minutes