Desserts

We cannot stress the number of outstanding reviews that we receive each and every time we bake these cookies. Most recently, Leslie made these cookies for two friends who celebrated their birthdays on the same day and both independently came back raving about the experience. In fact, one friend called them, “The best cookie that I’ve ever had!” This simple recipe from Baking Illustrated produces great results for us every time. We typically use all dark brown sugar, to lend a slight molasses taste to the dough, and always use high quality chocolate. The final key to these cookies is ensuring that they are not over-baked. It is so tempting to leave them in too long, but it is important to remember that they will continue cooking once they are removed from the oven. These are a classic for us and we will continue to bake them for many years.

The CakeLove cookbook that the recipe for these cupcakes comes from is one of our favorite (and most used) resources for baking. Whether we are looking for a basic recipe for chocolate cake or something a little more unusual (like pumpkin clove pound cake), this book never fails to offer a good and reliable recipe. These particular cupcakes use the basic yellow butter cake recipe in cupcake form and are topped off with a spectacular version of Italian Meringue Buttercream with raspberry puree added just before the incorporation of the butter. If you are a fan of relatively sweet frosting and cake, this recipe is likely not what you will be looking for in a cupcake. These treats are decidedly ?grown-up? in that sense because they lack that overt sugar punch that you may get from a boxed cake mix. If you do think the children in your life would enjoy these treats, we suggest omitting the brandy from the recipe or using the alcohol-free directions (which can be found in the book accompanying each recipe). Additionally, they crumb of the cake is a little more substantial in nature, so if you enjoy spongy cake, we suggest using one of the recipes that you will find in the later portion of the CakeLove cookbook.