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Twice Baked Potatoes with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Feta

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I’ve lamented over side dishes before.  About half the time, they are an after-thought for me.  I know we need something besides just chicken (or whatever) but rarely am I excited about whatever that may be.  It’s usually a salad, a vegetable, potatoes, rice, cous cous, blah. Nothing to just up and down over. James … Read more

White Chocolate Peppermint Fudge

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I am a huge lover of all things peppermint so during the holidays, I’m always looking for something minty to make or bake.  It’s the perfect time to overdose on mint, particularly mint paired with chocolate.   It’s rich, smooth, minty, sweet, and perfectly chocolaty from the white chocolate.   I highly suggest using a … Read more

Bacon Lover’s Mac & Cheese

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I’m not even sure where to start with this dish. Should I start with the bacon? Or the cheese? Or the combination of both? Yeah, let’s start there. This is just…so good. The cheese and bacon come together to create a truly delicious, decadent, grown-up macaroni & cheese…with mushrooms and spinach, to boot. While I … Read more

Sweet & Salty Chocolate Cake with Whipped Caramel-Chocolate Frosting

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Chocolate cake is 100% my biggest weakness.  I will always go for a piece of chocolate cake and while brownies might be my favorite dessert, chocolate cake is a very, very close second.  And chocolate cake that has chocolate-caramel whipped frosting, has a salty component and is layered?  Yeah, there’s no chance that anything is going to stand in the way of me eating a piece of that deliciousness. 

This recipe has been taunting me from my Baked cookbook since I received it for Christmas.  I definitely love caramel and I love anything that’s salt and sweet.  I kept waiting for the perfect excuse to make it and finally Valentine’s Day rolled around.  Perfect enough excuse for me!!  🙂 

This cake involves layers and steps and time but it’s so worth it in the end.  The original recipe calls for 3 8-inch round cake pans but one of my 8-inch pans disappeared in the move to this house so I used two round 9-inch pans and it worked beautifully.  It just meant more cake than frosting and that’s always good in my book. 

Sweet & Salty Chocolate Cake with Whipped Caramel-Chocolate Ganache Frosting 

For the cake: 
¾ cup cocoa powder 
⅔ cup sour cream 
2 ⅔ cups cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans 
2 tsp. baking powder 
1 tsp. baking soda 
½ tsp. salt
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pans 
½ cup vegetable shortening 
1 ½ cups granulated sugar 
1 cup brown sugar 
3 large eggs 
1 tbsp. pure vanilla 
~½ cup salted caramel (recipe below) 
Whipped Caramel-Chocolate Ganache Frosting (recipe below) 
Fleur de sel or sea salt, for garnish 

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans. Line each pan with a parchment paper round, butter parchment paper and flour; set aside. 
2. In a large bowl, whisk together cocoa, 1 ¼ cups hot water, and sour cream; set aside to cool, about 10 minutes. 
3. In another large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. 
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and shortening together until smooth and it appears to create strings inside the bowl, about 7 minutes. Add both sugars and continue beating until light and fluffy, about 7 minutes. 
5. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until well incorporated. Add vanilla, scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, and mix again for 30 seconds. Add flour mixture alternating with cocoa mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. 
6. Divide batter evenly among the prepared pans. Bake until cake is just firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 18 to 24 minutes. Let cool completely. 

For the salted caramel: 

1 cup sugar 
2 tbsp. light corn syrup 
½ cup heavy cream 
1 tsp. fleur de sel 
¼ cup sour cream 

1.  Combine ¼ cup water, sugar, and corn syrup in a medium saucepan; stir to combine. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cook until the mixture reaches 350°F on a candy thermometer, about 10 minutes. 
2.  Meanwhile, in another small saucepan, mix together cream and salt. Bring cream to a boil and cook until salt has dissolved, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside. 3.  When the caramel mixture has reached 350°F, remove from heat and allow to cool for 1 minute. Carefully add the hot cream to the caramel; stir to combine. Whisk in sour cream. Cool, and store in an airtight container, refrigerated, for up to 3 days. 

For the Whipped Caramel-Chocolate Ganache Frosting 

1 lb. dark chocolate, chopped 
1 cup granulated sugar 
2 tbsp. light corn syrup 
1 ½ cups heavy cream 
1 lb. (4 sticks) butter, cut into tablespoon-sized pieces, softened but still cool 
1 ½-2 cups powdered sugar, to thicken 

1.  Combine ¼ cup water, sugar, and corn syrup in a medium saucepan; stir to combine. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cook until the mixture reaches 350°F on a candy thermometer, about 10 minutes. 
2.  In another small saucepan add cream and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and set aside. 
3.  When the caramel mixture has reached 350°F, remove from heat and allow to rest for 1 minute. Add the hot cream to the caramel; stir to combine. Let cool 5 minutes. Place chocolate in the bowl of an electric mixer and pour caramel sauce over chocolate. Let sit 1 minute before stirring from the center until chocolate is melted. 
4.  Attach bowl to electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low until the bowl feels cool to the touch. Add butter and increase speed to medium-high until mixture is well combined, thickened, and slightly whipped, about 2-4 minutes. If mixture does not thicken, begin adding powdered sugar ½ cup at a time to thicken frosting to appropriate level. 

To assemble cake: 
1. Using a serrated knife, trim tops of cakes to make level. Place four pieces of parchment paper around perimeter of a serving plate and place the first layer on the cake plate. 
2. Using about ¼ cup of the caramel, spread a thin layer on the cake, allowing some of the caramel to soak into the cake. 
 3. Follow the caramel layer with a layer of about 1 cup of the ganache icing. Place the second layer on top and repeat process with another layer of caramel followed by a crumb coat of the ganache frosting. Chill for 15 minutes in the refrigerator and frosting with full layer of icing and garnish with a sprinkling of Fleur de sel or sea salt.

Potato Tomato Green Bean Salad

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This is one of those side dishes that I’m usually more excited to eat than the entrée. I look  for reasons to eat it and meals to serve it with. (Truth be told, I ate this for dinner all by myself when James was working late one night.)  And really, I posted this a long time ago, but I definitely didn’t do it justice back then.  It deserves a post of its own.

I first had this while visiting my college roommate’s mom.  We went to her house for the weekend and of course she prepared us a delicious feast because you know all college students are starving.   I’ve never forgotten how good this was and every time I eat it, I’m instantly transported back to the good old days.  Sleeping in, no classes on Friday’s, hanging out with friends all the time…ah, college.

I guess this could technically be classified as a potato salad, but whenever I think of potato salad, I think of mayo, mustard, and hard-boiled eggs.  This is so not that.  It’s potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, onions, and an oil & vinegar dressing.  It’s mouth watering and perfect for summer.  It comes together quickly and tastes great hot, at room temperature, or even chilled from the fridge.  Do make this.  And enjoy it.  🙂

**As with any type of salad, the amounts can be changed to suit your needs and are really just an approximation.**

Potato-Tomato-Green Bean Salad

  • 4-6 white or gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
  • 1/2 lb. fresh green beans, cut in half
  • 1/2 red onion, cut into 1/2-inch or smaller pieces
  • 2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
  • Kosher salt and black pepper
  • 2+ tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 tbsp. white vinegar, more or less to taste chopped parsley, to garnish

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Boil potatoes until fork tender.  During the last 5 minutes of cooking, add in green beans.  During the final minute of cooking, drop in the onions.  Drain well.

2. Combine potatoes, green beans, onion, and tomatoes.  Season with salt and pepper.  Dress will olive oil and vinegar, beginning with small amounts and tasting often.  Top with chopped parsley.  Serve hot, at room temperature, or cold.

Balsamic Marinated Skirt Steak

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This is one of my most favorite ways to prepare skirt steak. It always turns out great and is so yummy. It’s great for a weeknight and great for the grill pan!! While at work one day, I was thinking about dinner and I was pretty sure I had some skirt steak in the freezer. … Read more

French Breakfast Doughnuts

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Quick, full of cinnamon & sugar sweetness, and easy, these donuts really hit the spot.  Because they are not fried and are not a yeast doughnut, these take on a little bit more of a muffin-y texture once they cool.  Don’t get me wrong, though, they are still just as delicious. 😉

If you don’t have a doughnut pan, you can bake these in a muffin tin and have French Breakfast Muffins!

Oh, and never mind that they have “breakfast” in the title. I definitely ate these in the afternoon. Ha!

French Breakfast Doughnuts


Makes 6 doughnuts

For the doughnuts: 5 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 ¼ tsp. baking powder
  • ¼ tsp. salt
  • scant ½ tsp. nutmeg
  • ½ cup milk

For the topping: 4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1 heaping tbsp. ground cinnamon
  1. Preheat oven to 350° F and spray and doughnut pan generously with cooking spray, set aside.
  2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, combine the butter and sugar and mix until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add in egg and beat well, scraping down the sides as needed, about another minute.
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg.
  4. With the mixer on low, alternate adding the dry and wet ingredients, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Scrape down bowl and beat for about 10 seconds, just until mixed; do not overmix.
  5. Using a piping bag or a zipper top plastic bag with the corner cut off, pipe the batter into the prepared muffin tins. Bake for 13-17 minutes, until doughnuts are springy to the touch.
  6. Begin dipping doughnuts as soon as they come out of the oven. Working with one doughnut at a time, dip the top of the doughnut into the melted butter and then into the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Place on a wire rack set over a baking sheet to cool.

Lemon Cupcakes with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

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Sometimes a cupcake flavor pops into my head and I can’t do anything else until I bake and enjoy said cupcakes.  This is true with these beauties.  I had a bounty of lemons and an entire pound of strawberries on the verge of rottenness.  I needed to do something with them and do it fast. Thus, I embarked on one of the most delicious cupcakes journeys ever. (For me, at least.)

Fluffy, lemon cake paired with a strawberry-cream cheese frosting.  I mean…there really isn’t much else to say.  I loved every bite of these.  🙂

The only real note I have about these cupcakes is that the frosting was just a little runny.  I popped it in the fridge after I mixed it up and it worked perfectly well.  I added more powdered sugar to help stabilize it but it was getting to be pretty sweet and I didn’t want to overdo it.


Lemon Cupcakes with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

For the cupcakes:

  • 2¼ cups cake flour
  • 1 tbsp. baking powder
  • ½ tsp. baking soda
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • 1¼ cups whole milk or buttermilk
  • 4 large egg whites
  • 1½ cups granulated sugar
  • 2 tsp. grated lemon zest
  • 1 stick (8 tbsp.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • ½ tsp. pure lemon extract
  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside.
  2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl. Set aside.
  3. Place the sugar and lemon zest in the bowl of an electric mixer and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Add in the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light. Beat in the extract.
  4. Add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed. Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated. Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients. Finally, beat the batter on medium speed for 2 minutes.
  5. Divide the batter between prepared cupcake pans and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the cupcakes are well risen and spring back to the touch. A thin knife or other tester should come out clean.
  6. Transfer the cake pans to cooling racks and cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting:

  • ~½ lb. strawberries, hulled and sliced
  • ½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
  • Pinch of salt
  • 3 to 4 cups powdered sugar
  1. Puree the strawberries in a food processor until smooth. Strain over a fine mesh strainer into a medium bowl, removing as many seeds as possible. Set strawberry syrup aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Add in vanilla and salt and mix. Stir in the strawberry syrup and beat until combined. Begin adding powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, until mixture reaches desired consistency. If necessary, chill buttercream before frosting cupcakes.

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with {surprise!} Red Velvet Heart Centers

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Who doesn’t love a surprise inside of an already amazing cupcake? I used Annie’s vanilla bean cupcakes and her red velvet recipe, as well. I wanted more than 12 cupcakes, which is what the original recipe says that it will yield, so I went this route so that I ended up with 24 cupcakes.

Given that this was the first time I’ve done anything like this, with the cake in the center and all, I think it went pretty well. Not every cupcake had a perfect heart in the center – some feel to the side – but it was still a very fun and tasty surprise.

I halved the original recipe for the red velvet cake and baked it in an 8×8 pan. The cake was too thick to cut through with a cookie cutter so I sliced the cake in half horizontally so that I had two large squares and I cut out the hearts from that. You could probably bake the cake in a larger pan and it would work fine, just adjust how long the cake is baked for.

While the cake cooled (I put it in the fridge after a little while to cool a little faster) I mixed up the vanilla bean batter. Once the hearts were cut out and the batter was ready, I lined my muffin tins with paper liners. I tried a couple of methods but because the vanilla bean batter is pretty thick, the best method I found was to sit the heart in the empty muffin tin and pour the batter around the heart.

Make sure that all the hearts are sitting the same direction and you know which way they are facing so that when you cut into them you get a heart and not just a blob. I actually drew little arrows on my muffin tin with a Sharpie before baking. After removing them from a pan, make sure they all face forward as you frost them.

As far as the vanilla bean cupcakes, these are amazing. Flavorful, super moist, and so pretty with the vanilla bean flecks. And best of all, not dry at all – even after several days. Like I said, amazing.

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with {surprise!} Red Velvet Heart Centers

For the red velvet cake (half of the original):

  • 1 1/4 cups cake flour
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/2 tbsp. cocoa powder
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 large egg
  • 3/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 1 tbsp. liquid red food coloring
  • 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp. distilled white vinegar
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour an 8×8 cake pan. In a medium bowl, combine the cake flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder, and salt.
  2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla, and vinegar. Beat on a medium speed until mixed together. Slowly add in the dry ingredients and mix until smooth, 2 minutes.
  3. Pour the batter into prepared pan and bake for 22-27 minutes, until tester comes out clean. Let cool completely.
  4. Remove from pan when cool and using a sharp, serrated knife, slice the cake in half horizontally. Use a small heart cookie cutter to cut out hearts. Set aside.

For the vanilla bean cupcakes:

  • 3 cups cake flour
  • 1 tbsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
  • 16 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 5 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 1/4 cups buttermilk, at room temperature
  • 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line 24 muffin tins with paper liners; set aside.
  2. In a medium bowl, combine the cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk together and set aside.
  3. Place the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Scrape out the seeds of the vanilla pod and add the seeds to the butter. Beat the butter and vanilla bean seeds on medium-high for 3 minutes, until creamy. Scrape down bowl and beat for additional minute.
  4. Add the sugar to the butter mixture, 1/4 cup at a time, beating 1 minute after each addition. Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping the bowl as necessary.
  5. In a liquid measuring cup, whisk together the buttermilk and vanilla. With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients, alternating with the wet ingredients. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. Mix only until incorporated, do not overmix. Scrape down the bowl and mix for 15 seconds longer.
  6. Place a red velvet heart into a paper lined tin and while holding the heart in place, carefully pour the vanilla bean batter around the heart and over the top, covering the heart. Continue with all the hearts and the rest of the batter, until you fill all the muffin tins.
  7. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack.

For the vanilla bean buttercream:
(Good Thymes & Good Food original)

  • 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
  • 2 tbsp. heavy cream
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • liquid red food coloring
  1. In the bowl of an electric mixer with the whisk attachment in place, beat the butter until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Slowly add in the powdered sugar and mix well. Add in the salt, seeds from the vanilla bean, heavy cream, vanilla extract, and a few drops of food coloring (based on desired color – start with 2-3 drops).
  2. Turn mixer up to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.
  3. Frost cupcakes as desired.