Fail: French Toast and Bacon Cupcakes (★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆)

French Toast is good. Bacon is good. French Toast with bacon is good. So why wouldn't a french toast and bacon cupcake be good? These were...well, let's just say...weird.

I still think the concept could be successful, but not the way I went about it.

These I made on a whim. My friend was having a little get together, so what a better way to be able to try a new recipe, AND get a good chunk of them out of my house ASAP.

A couple of things I did wrong:

1) Used a box mix. If it's not chocolate...don't do it!

2) I used veggie bacon. The things you will do when your bestie is a vegetarian. Not only did

they taste like crunchy salt sticks; they looked like dog treats. Do yourself a favor and tell

your veggie bff to pick off her bacon...or better yet, just don't put one on hers.

This was my inspiration: French Toast and Bacon Cupcakes

After my Black and White cupcake, I thought I had finally found a good white cake mix.

Nope. Still looking.

For the french toast flavor. Making use of my $$$$ vanilla bean paste.

We always have maple syrup on hand so I added that instead of maple extract.

There has to be better veggie bacon than this.

Cause even vegetarians don't want to eat doggy salt sticks.

The finished product.

Well, at least I can say they incited conversation even if they weren't the hit of the party. One day I'll try these again. I love breakfast foods, and I'm thoroughly convinced that with the proper ingredients they would make excellent cupcakes.

Simple Apple Tart (★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆)

I had been baking up a storm when I decided to try this apple tart. Wanted to stretch my culinary skills and attempt..."the crust." I don't know how I came across this recipe, but the tart was so beautiful (Can I say that about a baked good?) that I was compelled to make it.

I found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen. It's one of my favorite baking blogs...I can spend hours looking through all of their great ideas: Simplest Apple Tart

Delicious "tart" apples

Cutting them this delicately thin required concentrated effort.

I'm more of a "chunky" cutter by nature.

Make the dough and refrigerate at least 30min.

You can make this ahead of time if you'd like.

Probably the most frustrating part of the whole process. Getting the dough thin enough to not only cover the bottom of the dish, but over onto the sides of the tart as well. And don't get me started about "rippage." Far from impossible, but it took me a few tries.

Couldn't get them to lay out QUITE like the original blog, but

wait till the ending picture. It works out.

Dust it with sugar. Actually, this recipe calls for almost no sugar at all.

It was a truly "tart," tart. ...That was lame. And yet, in it stays.

You save the core and peels to boil in a water-sugar mixture for a glaze.

You brush it on top of the tart when it is fresh out of the oven.

Awaiting anxiously. I can't believe I actually wore an apron! I never do that.

Mess on my clothes? Who cares. Sugary snack for later.

Viola! The masterpiece.

The tart was really good. It could've used WAY more sugar though. Like a good cup more. I know some don't like super sweet desserts. So if sticky sweetness isn't your thing grab a cup of coffee, some whipped cream, or a scoop of vanilla cause this guy is pretty sour.

Candied Apples (★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆)

This past Halloween some friends of mine decided they wanted to put on a small carnival in their front yard for their neighbors. I thought that sounded like a blast so I offered my services...in whatever capacity they so desired. So in addition to manning the dart board, I was tasked with making candied apples.

I'm a baker, not a candy maker. To this day I have yet to make a good peanut brittle or toffee. Not only was this my first attempt at candied apples, this was my first experience with candied apples at all. I've always been partial to the chewy goodness of caramel on my apples, but try I did...and if I can do it - anyone can.

I found this website that has some pretty awesome details and instructions for making candied apples; it should calm the fears of even the most timid of confectioners. How to Make Perfect Candied Apples

I dipped some apple slices in the extra so my family could have some. I still prefer caramel apples, but these were pretty good. Definitely could rip a tooth out if you are not careful and don't wait for it to harden completely though.

Fyi, cleaning that plate was an utter joy.

Deep Dark Chocolate Cupcakes (★ ★ ★ ★ ☆)

What's more enjoyable than a good chocolate cupcake?

A dark chocolate one.

It doesn't get much better than that right?

Well, actually, it does. These DEEP dark chocolate beauties were THE best chocolate cupcakes...scratch that...chocolate "cake" period...that I've ever had.

One of my high school friends had been bugging me to teach him to bake. By now you have all figured out I'm not afraid to try things...and more often than I like, fail. So when I knew he was coming over I tried to stick to the basics. And what a good decision that was. My main goal was to make everything from scratch. Cake. Frosting. The whole kit and caboodle.

I found this recipe online and it was actually the almost black color of the cake that drew me to it. Little did I know what a great recipe I had stumbled upon. Hershey's Deep Dark Chocolate Cake

My favorite frosting (besides plain ol' whipped cream) is cream cheese. When I found this recipe for chocolate cream cheese frosting I got really excited! Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

The recipe was pretty good. I bought special cocoa powder just like it called for. I think it was all the way from Holland or something like that. Honestly, I couldn't tell the difference. Save yourself the $12.

I had to add a TON of cocoa powder in order for the frosting to taste like chocolate. The cream cheese flavor was just too powerful. I think this recipe would've been better suited for a vanilla cake...actually it would've been amazing. It wasn't bad on the chocolate, but just not the most ideal pairing.

I dropped off some of my extra cupcakes at my friends house and one of her roommates told me it was one of the first cupcakes she had thoroughly enjoyed in a long time.

Definitely my go-to chocolate cake recipe.

Decadent Peanut Butter Pie (★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆)

My Aunt pulled this recipe out of the Tuesday Ads and HAD to make it.

Now I'll admit it looked pretty good, and I'm a sucker for peanut butter, but she has a habit of being swayed by advertisement. Like that one late night she was house-sitting and my sister and I left her with the parting message, "don't buy anything on tv!" If she's reading this, we all know how that turned out. Living room. Workout DVD. Extremely weird facial exercises. All bad.

Thankfully, this is not one such story AND we actually improved upon the recipe: Decadent Peanut Butter Pie

Instead of "frozen whipped topping" ...which we all know is Cool Whip, but they won't say it cause they're not besties with Cool Whip... (Jif and Smuckers are super exclusive) we made our own whipped cream from scratch.

Trust me, it made all the difference.

Only problem is you have to be more religious about refrigerating it. Leave it out too long and it starts to melt.

We used the brands that were called for in the recipe and I would stick with Jif even though there are better peanut butters out there. This one's got a great consistency for recipes like this.

I would, HOWEVER, ditch that Smuckers stuff..gasp!

I just dissed Jif's BFF.
Oh, know I didn't!

There are better brands than this watery goop.

Peanut Butter gloriousness.