Almond Joy Cupcakes

You need this cake in your life, and you need it right now! Bright and early in the week, I promise that you won’t regret it!

Here is my story for the week, my sweet baking friends—I got in this wildly unmotivated mood the past handful of days. I was feeling all sorts of exhaustion, from working to baking to wedding planning, when I finally had a second to sit down, I didn’t want to get up for maybe a month or two. It felt crazy, and even more out of this world saying it out loud!

Okay. Out loud aka typing…

We all have those moments, right? When you decide for a few minutes that you don’t know what you’re doing with your life, that maybe you should be going down a different path, that maybe eating a bowl of cookie dough isn’t the right answer but you’re okay with being wrong…right?!

Say yes! Anyone!

Well that was little Miss Katie these past days. I have started planning my training schedule for some upcoming races, and then I realized that there is 2 million wedding things to get done, and then it was like oh my gosh we are moving in a few months, but shoot, I need to focus on the wedding…and clearly I’m veering off course. So, as you can see, my mind has been everywhere, my urge for baking was more like another task—what?! You live for sugar, Katie—and I couldn’t seem to focus on one thing at a time.

In comes my future husband, aka the man with all of the answers, aka the reason for this amazing recipe, aka why I am a bit calmer than I was 2 days ago!

He tells my stubborn self to take a break, forget about everything for a while and come back to it—so we go to Target, because DUH, and then after we try on wedding bands…instantly more relaxed.

And I am back, refreshed and ready to get elbow deep in some dark chocolate, almonds and coconut—it’s just as incredible as it sounds.

So here we have it, the cake that seemed to save my life this weekend all because of the man who surely gives me life! Insanely rich chocolate cake that is stuffed with even more bittersweet chocolate chunks, almonds and coconut…plus coconut buttercream, it’s everything you will need to make this week magnificent, and more!

Whether you are feeling like Slumpy Katie from Sunday or World Conquering Katie from Tuesday, this cake will give you the power to do all of the things—which may be a laundry list or just a little self love!

cake ingredients

Butter—2 oz, or 4 TBL

Sugar—2 oz, or ¼ C

Brown Sugar—1 oz, or 2 ½ TBL

Egg—1

Milk—1.5 oz, or 3 TBL

Vanilla—½ tsp

Corn Syrup—0.5 oz, or 1 TBL

Flour—2 oz, or ¼ C + 1 TBL

Cocoa Powder—0.75 oz, or 2 ½ TBL

Baking Powder—½ tsp

Baking Soda—¼ tsp

Salt—½ tsp

Shredded Coconut—0.5 oz, or ¼ C

Bittersweet Chocolate, chopped—2 oz, or ½ C

process

Preheat your oven to 350˚ F.

In the bowl of your mixer, cream together the butter and sugars.

In another bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Combine the milk, egg, vanilla and corn syrup in another cup.

Once the butter is smooth, alternate between the wet and dry, slowly adding it into the mixer.

Make sure to always scrape down the sides of your bowl!

Once all of the ingredients are in the bowl, fold in the coconut and chopped chocolate.

Fill your cupcake tin with liners and put enough cake batter in each to fill them up about ½ way.

Bake in your preheated oven for 18-20 minutes until the top springs back slightly when touched.

Allow to cool completely before frosting!

*Note—this is a small batch of cupcakes, only makes 6, so this way I won’t eat them all myself! It is very simple to double or triple the batch for any type of party, gathering, etc.*

buttercream ingredients

Butter—6.5 oz, or 13 TBL

Confectioner’s Sugar—12 oz, or 3 C

Milk—2 oz, or 4 TBL

Almond Extract—2 tsp

Shredded Coconut—0.5 oz, or ¼ C

process

In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream the butter until smooth.

Sift the confectioner’s sugar and slowly add it to the creamed butter.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl, and then stream in the milk and almond extract.

Whip on high until smooth.

Add in the coconut.

I used a medium-sized star tip to pipe onto these cupcakes, but you may use either a spatula or a flat tip—whatever you think looks the best! Sprinkle on more coconut and chopped chocolate for garnish.

Bon Appétit!

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cake

Question—have you ever realized that you had all of these quirky habits as a child and then one day, as an adult, you’re like well what happened to them?! When did I become this semi-normal grownup?

WELL, my sweet baking friends, that happened to me the other day and I just couldn’t get it out of my head!

I woke up the other day simply craving a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. All I wanted the entire day was my simple PB&J&C. We will get back to the C shortly. Sadly, as a sort of adult, I don’t usually make myself a good old childhood sandwich—I’m constantly thinking about what the best nutrients for my body are, how I can fuel myself each day so I’m not falling asleep by noon or waking up with a stomach ache from too much ice cream.

Adulting is way too hard.

Back to my ever so important craving.

I used to come home most days after school as a child to either an empty house, or my stepdad working, aka Katie makes her own snack time. Now, Roberto will make fun of me until the end of my life for this—but here it is, out in the open for the world to see—the two top afterschool snacks I would make myself.

1. Either about half of a box of noodles with butter and cheese,

Or 2. A toasted peanut butter, jelly, and chocolate chip sandwich.

Carbs and I were, and still are, BFF’s. Just picture this though, warm, toasty bread, melty peanut butter and chocolate chips with cold jelly…I mean come on! It doesn’t get much better than that does it?!

Lately though, I have just been needing one of those sandwiches, which is where the inspiration for this cake came about! So, I give you an ever so rich peanut butter cake matched with even more moist and delightfully light strawberry cake, all sandwiched together with smooth dark chocolate buttercream.

It’s my childhood dream of a cake! …I will still take that sandwich though…

While maybe some days we aren’t feeling young enough to pack up this old favorite in a little baggy, cut into cute triangles with a side of sliced apples, this cake is my more adult version. I swear, put it out for your friends, kids, families, young, old—all will like it, my 25 year old self guarantees it!

peanut butter cake ingredients

Butter, room temperature—2 oz, or 4 TBL

Peanut Butter—3 oz, or ¼ C + 2 TBL

Sugar—8 oz, or 1 C

Eggs—2

Vanilla—2 tsp

Flour—12 oz, or 2 C

Baking Powder—2 ½ tsp

Salt—½ tsp

Milk—8 oz, or 1 C

process

Preheat your oven to 350˚ F.

In the bowl of your mixer, cream together the butter, peanut butter, and sugar.

Once smooth, add in the eggs, one at a time; and then the vanilla.

Scrape the bottom and sides of your bowl.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Alternating with the milk, slowly add this to your mixer while it is on low.

Once all of the ingredients have been added, scrape down one final time to make sure that all has been incorporated evenly.

Prepare an 8” cake pan by spraying with nonstick spray and then either lining the bottom with parchment paper or sprinkling a light coat of flour on it.

Pour the cake batter into your pan and bake for 40-45 minutes until the top springs back when touched.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before assembly!

strawberry cake ingredients

Butter, room temperature—4 oz, or ½ C

Sugar—8 oz, or 1 C

Eggs—2

Vanilla—2 tsp

Flour—12 oz, or 2 C

Baking Powder—2 ½ tsp

Salt—½ tsp

Milk—6 oz, or ¾ C

Strawberries, cut—5.5 oz, or ½ C

process

Preheat your oven to 350˚ F.

In the bowl of your mixer, cream together the butter and sugar.

Once smooth, add in the eggs, one at a time; and then the vanilla.

Scrape the bottom and sides of your bowl.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

In a separate cup, combine the milk and strawberries.

Whether you want to use an immersion blender or regular blender to combine the fruit and milk is up to you—this will make sure that the berries are added evenly by blending them!

*If you do not have a blender, very finely chopping the strawberries will work just as well!*

Alternating with the strawberry-milk, slowly add this to your mixer while it is on low.

Once all of the ingredients have been added, scrape down one final time to make sure that all has been incorporated evenly.

Prepare an 8” cake pan by spraying with nonstick spray and then either lining the bottom with parchment paper or sprinkling a light coat of flour on it.

Pour the cake batter into your pan and bake for 40 minutes until the top springs back when touched.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before assembly!

chocolate buttercream ingredients

Butter, room temperature—8 oz, or 1 C

Confectioner’s Sugar—15.5 oz, or 3 ½ C

Cocoa Powder—2.5 oz, or 1 ½ C + 2 TBL

Vanilla—2 tsp

Milk—2.5 oz, or 5 TBL

process

In the bowl of your mixer, cream the butter until very smooth and light.

Scrape down the sides of your bowl and the paddle.

Sift together the sugar and cocoa powder.

When the butter is ready, slowly add in your sifted ingredients.

Add in the vanilla and the milk.

Once everything has been added, scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle.

Turn the mixer on high for about 5-10 seconds, just to get a nicely whipped and smooth buttercream.

Now it is ready for assembly!

assembly

This cake can be assembled in oh so many ways, or just slather on a bunch of butterceam onto an entire cake and eat it that way—but I have decided to do checkerboard.

To do this it is simple.

First, cut off the tops of each of your cakes to make sure that they are even and flat.

Next, cut each cake in half—giving you 4 layers total (between both cakes).

To make the checkerboard, use a large circle cutter—or I used a 6” cake pan—to cut out the center of each cake.

Next, using a smaller cutter, cut the center out of the larger circle you just cut out.

Now you should have cut each layer into 3 sections.

To put back together, take a larger circle of one flavor, the middle sized circle of another flavor and then the smaller circle to match the outside flavor.

Example—large PB cake, medium strawberry cake, smallest PB cake.

Do this with each layer, although it is easiest to assemble when you are frosting each layer.

Next, coat the bottom layer with buttercream, spread evenly and put the next layer of checkerboard cake on top.

Do this until you have used all of the cake layers.

For the top and sides, I have left this cake a little messier than usual—because it is a peanut butter and jelly cake and we all make ours a little differently!

Once assembled how you would like, cut a nice large slice for yourself and enjoy.

Bon Appétit!

Irish Coconut Cake

What do you get when you add Baileys Irish Cream, chocolate and toasted coconut together?

Heaven!

I never thought that I could love a cake so much. Love may not even be a strong enough word to express the feelings I have towards this cake—it’s every sort of mood booster that one could need, even with this doesn’t-make-sense-of-a-week coming up.

My sweets loving friends, have you ever heard that “March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb” saying? Well, let me just tell you, March has been coming in like a lion on vacation or something, this entire next week will be in the 70’s. Yes. Basically beach weather and I am still deeply in my winter tan mode—you know, when you’ll burn at even the mention of warm sun. Do I believe that St. Patrick’s Day is in less than two weeks? Nope! That Easter is at the end of the month? Not even possible.

So here I am, trying to decide whether or not to keep our fleece sheets on the bed, whether iced coffee is the route to go these days, and what light spring jacket I should be wearing at the beginning of March! Seeing as those decisions are way to difficult for this season-confused girl, I put it all on pause, put on my cropped jeans and decided to make a season-confused cake!

I know you all knew something with Baileys Irish Cream was coming—I mean it is March and I love any excuse to put Baileys in anything! And then I was like, well, if I have the option to show my pasty, clear legs to the world this week in shorts, I better toast some coconut for this cake to add some more craziness to the month!

And here you have it—my very confused Irish Coconut Cake that has vanished in the yummiest of ways after only 3 days!

We start with a very simple, very moist, deliciously simple Baileys vanilla cake. I have recently discovered coconut butter (yes, please!), so I subbed some of the butter for that, which is optional of course. So, if you only take a few bites of this ridiculously good cake batter before baking, you will have a beautiful 8” cake all ready to be smothered in buttercream!

Between the layers, I used coconut milk in place of a simple syrup, also optional, to bring even more moistness to the cake as well as coconut flavor. Then bring on the Baileys Chocolate Buttercream and the snowstorm of toasted coconut and you have yourself THE cake of the month!

Luckily, I have friends and a fiancé who just as cake obsessed as I am and devoured 90% of the cake—I mean I am sweatin’ for the wedding…

Hah.

So, while we are all just slightly confused by the lack of snow in this beautiful month of March, why not make a cake that is just as unique in flavors, but, luckily enough, is absolutely delicious—and basically heaven!

cake ingredients

Flour—10 oz, or 2 C

Baking Powder—½ tsp

Baking Soda—½ tsp

Salt—½ tsp

Butter, room temperature—5 oz, or 10 TBL

Coconut Butter*—1 oz, or 2 TBL

Sugar—10 oz, or 1 ¼ C

Eggs—2

Yolks—2

Milk—4 oz, or ½ C

Baileys Irish Cream—2 oz, or ¼ C

process

Preheat your oven to 350˚ F.

In a large bowl, sift together your flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

In the bowl of your mixer, cream the butter, coconut butter and sugar until light and smooth.

*You do not have to use coconut butter, this is 100% optional. You may just replace with regular, unsalted butter*

Slowly add in your eggs and yolks, one at a time, and making sure to scrape after each addition.

When all of your eggs have been added, alternate adding the dry sifted ingredients and your wet ingredients, making sure to end with the Baileys/milk.

Mix until just combined.

Prepare an 8” cake pan by spraying with nonstick spray and then either lightly coating with flour or with parchment.

This recipe makes exactly 1-8” cake.

Bake in your preheated oven for 35-40 minutes—it is done when the cake springs back when you touch it.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before decorating.

buttercream ingredients

Butter, room temperature—4 oz, or 1 stick

Confectioner’s Sugar—7.5 oz, or 1 ½ C

Cocoa Powder—1.25 oz, or ½ C

Baileys Irish Cream—2.5 oz, or 1/3 C

Milk—1 oz, or 2 TBL

Coconut Milk—for brushing on the bottom layer

Toasted Coconut—1-2 C, optional for decorating

process

In the bowl of your mixer, cream your butter until smooth—about 5 minutes.

In another bowl, sift together your confectioner’s sugar and cocoa powder.

With the mixer on low, slowly add in your sifted ingredients to the butter.

Once all added, scrape the sides of the bowl.

Slowly stream in the Baileys Irish Cream, and then the milk, making sure to scrape the sides as needed.

Once all of your ingredients have been added, turn your mixer up to a medium speed and whip for about 10 seconds, just to make it nice and smooth, very easy to work with!

to decorate

Once your cake has cooled completely and you have removed it from the pan, trim the top of your cake, making it flat.

Now, cut your cake into to even layers.

With the first layer on your cake stand, or even a plate, brush on a nice, thin layer of the coconut milk—this will seal in any crumbs and keep this layer from drying out too much.

Coconut milk is completely optional as well. If you would prefer a simple syrup, Baileys, other alcohol, that is up to you!

Put on a good-sized dollop of your whipped buttercream and spread evenly over the bottom later.

Sprinkle with toasted coconut.

Place the second half of your cake on top.

Put the rest of your buttercream on top of the cake, spread evenly on the top and sides of your cake.

It helps to spread evenly on the top of your cake first, allowing some of the buttercream to fall over the sides, and then you can just use that to smooth out the sides of the cake with!

Now you may either leave like this, or make it extra amazing by covering the rest of your cake with the toasted coconut—all over the top and the sides.

To toast the coconut- preheat your oven to 300˚F, spread the coconut on a sheet pan and toast for about 8 minutes. Every couple of minutes, check on the coconut, re-spreading it around so that it browns evenly! You will know it is finished by the wonderful smell!

Cut whatever sized slice you would like and enjoy!

Bon Appétit!

Citrus Olive Oil Cake

Want to know what is so wonderful about winter?

The beautiful snow? Well, yes.

The big cable knit sweaters and skiing (or lodging)? Absolutely.

BUT! What I live for in the winter is the abundance of citrus that is all around during this chilly, windy and slippery season.

While I can’t just go to my backyard and pick a grapefruit off of my tree, I can go to the great market downtown where there is an abundance of quality citrus—from oranges to lemons, grapefruits to limes—I love this about the wintertime!

This past weekend I was inspired so much by the incredible weather in Charleston—Saturday was 70˚ and sunny, Roberto and I finally got to enjoy living downtown and took full advantage of how walkable this city can be! Sunday was almost as warm and rainy, my favorite! Something about the smell of “summer rain,” but in February, it was the perfect weekend.

And here comes my craving again for citrus, for summer, for light and simple! I had made an olive oil cake for a 4th of July get together that we had this past summer and clearly needed to have some in my life again. PLUS! Can I say winter citrus one more time?!

Yep. It happened.

And here we have it, the most moist, citrusy, lightly sweet cake. I used almond flour along with AP flour in this recipe, giving it just a slightly unique flavor—I can’t imagine this cake without it! If you want to use another nut flower, some coconut flour, that will add that little something fun to such a simple cake! What else is versatile? The citrus that is added. I used both oranges and grapefruits, two of my favorites, but any others can be subbed of course!

Finally, this is the perfect cake to make individualized! Roberto got me the cutest cocottes from Le Creuset and I don’t use them enough, so naturally I did for these wonderfully adorable cakes! So, whether you had a blizzard this weekend or were getting sunburned on your walk around town, we are in the deep winter months and there’s no better way to celebrate than with this Citrus Olive Oil Cake!

cake ingredients

Flour—9.8 oz, or 1 ¾ C

Almond Flour—2 oz, or ½ C

Baking Soda—½ tsp

Baking Powder—½ tsp

Salt—1 ¼ tsp

Sugar (I use coarse turbinado sugar)—12 oz, or 1 ½ C

Milk—7.5 oz, or 1 C

Olive Oil—12 oz, or 1 ½ C

Freshly Squeezed OJ—6 oz, or ¾ C

Eggs—3

Orange Zest—1 large

Grapefruit Zest—1 large

Orange, for baking—1 large

cake process

Preheat your oven to 350˚ F.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, almond flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Add in the turbinado sugar and whisk.

In a separate bowl, combine the milk, olive oil, OJ, and eggs.

Add the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk together.

Mix in the zest.

I used individual sized cocottes for this cake, but using a larger 8”cake pan will work as well!

Spray your desired pan with nonstick spray, and sprinkle a little but of almond flour on the bottom.

Slice your orange into ¼“ thick slices and put on the bottom of your pan(s).

Pour your batter into your desired baking dishes until they are about ¾ of the way full.

Place in your oven and bake until the top springs back when touched.

If you are using the smaller cocottes, baking time is 25-30 minutes; if you are using one large pan, baking time is about 1 hour.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Invert your cake and enjoy!

Bon Appétit!

Nutella Swirled Coffee Cake

Happy Weekend! Happy Valentine’s Day! Happy let’s-celebrate-with-a-coffee-cake-day!

Did I make that last one up? Maybe, but I am just beyond excited about this recipe down below.

You know those weekends when it’s so cold, all you want to do is snuggle up in your big bed that’s full of everything cozy—fleece sheets, down comforter, warmth? The high of 18˚ has you contemplating breaking your rule of no eating in bed? Yeah. It’s one of those weekends!

Luckily, it’s supposed to get back up in the 50’s by the end of next week, so I can daydream about that for the two days when I decide to run all of my errands in the freezing cold. But let’s forget for a moment about this snowless, cold winter we are having, and think about cake. For breakfast. In bed.

Aka Coffee Cake.

For some reason, every woman in my family is great at making coffee cakes—possibly because it’s acceptable to have cake early in the morning, so we take full advantage of that. Anytime we ever visit my aunt in Chicago, it’s lots and lots of coffee, lots and lots of coffee cake (that Roberto is obsessed with) and lots and lots of talking, just how I like it! My mom makes an out-of-this-world Honey Bun cake, where she takes away the crumb and adds a ridiculously sweet, yummy glaze. Now it’s my turn to join these fabulous ladies in a family tradition!

What’s my little secret to this ever so moist, ever so cinnamonny, and ever so crumby cake? The Nutella layer that is swirled in the middle of the cake.

Ohhhhh yes, Nutella, something you can never go wrong with!

So, this cake is basically like oh hey, I’m a dense, wonderful coffee cake, I’m full of yogurt and moistness, and surprise! I’m filled with a chocolatey, hazelnutty center.

You are welcome.

While I sit here on this beautiful and quiet morning, cozy in my apartment and 14˚F outside, I’ll try my best not to get any more crumbs in the bed or Nutella traces on my face…but you’ll understand the struggle in an hour once your cake is baked!

crumb ingredients

Flour—3.75 oz, or ¾ C

Brown Sugar—0.75 oz, or 1 ½ TBL

Cinnamon—1 tsp

Butter, melted—2 oz, or 4 TBL

Milk—0.5 oz, or 1 TBL

process

In the bowl of your mixer, combine the flour, brown sugar and cinnamon.

Mix.

With the mixer on low, slowly stream in the melted butter and then the milk.

Mix just until small pebble sized pieces have formed.

Reserve in a separate bowl until ready to use in your cake!

cake ingredients

Butter, room temperature—3 oz, or 6 TBL

Brown Sugar—4 oz, or ½ C

Eggs—1

Vanilla Extract—1 ½ tsp

Yogurt—5 oz, or ½ C

Milk—4 oz, or ½ C

Flour—7.5 oz, or 1 ¼ C

Baking Soda—¼ tsp

Baking Powder—½ tsp

Salt—½ tsp

Cinnamon—1 ½ tsp

Nutmeg—½ tsp

Nutella, optional—¼ C

process

Preheat your oven to 350˚ F.

In the bowl of your mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar.

Once smooth, add in your egg and vanilla until combined, making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary.

Sift together all of your dry ingredients—the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Alternate adding some of the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl, on low speed, with the yogurt and milk.

Once all of your dry ingredients, the yogurt and milk have been added, and the batter has just formed, turn off your mixer.

Prepare a small 6” cake pan by spraying with nonstick spray and then either lining the bottom with parchment paper or sprinkling a small amount of flour just to lightly coat the pan.

Put in half of your cake batter.

Now the optional part—adding a nice, thick coating of Nutella on top of the crumb makes for an incredible surprise! While this is optional, or using another nut butter can be just as tasty, the sweetness from the chocolate and nuttiness of the hazelnuts does wonders for this coffee cake!

Cover completely with half of the crumbs you made earlier.

Top with the rest of the cake batter and sprinkle with the remaining crumb.

Place in your over and bake for 45-50 minutes, the cake should be slightly golden brown.

Allow to cool just a little before taking out of the pan and eating!

Bon Appétit!