Our first CUPPIE SOCIAL!

I was so very excited to include a "Cuppie Social" in our last FFNOW event! We had bakers contribute their favorite recipe and bake a dozen (or in some cases more) to share!

I ended up baking FIVE dozen cuppies to share at the event! It was fun, but a bit overwhelming, honestly. I pulled out a book that I have never consulted before, 125 best Cupcake recipes. I was pleasantly surprised. There are a lot of great recipes in there....125 to be exact. :)

Okay, so I baked the French Toast cuppies, Chocolate Mint cuppies, Chocolate Chip Cookie cuppies, Banana Nutmeg cuppies, and the Chocolate Peanut Butter cuppies. All of which were good....but the French Toast cuppies were FAB-U-LOUS! Really. If you like french toast or maple in general, those are for you!

Unfortunately, I was in such a hurry that I didn't get to take pictures of all the cuppies, which makes me sad. But I was able to get a picture of the Chocolate Mint cuppies before we went....and I had a couple left over that made it home with me, so you get pictures of those too!


Chocolate Mint with Chocolate Mint buttercream and a junior mint on top!


Chocolate Chip Cookie cuppie with Chocolate buttercream dollop in the center!


Banana Nutmeg cuppie with powdered sugar sprinkled on top - delightful!


French Toast cuppie - we split it open and doused it with some more maple syrup and sprinkled it with powdered sugar - just awesome!

Some of the other cuppies that were there:
Pineapple Upside Down cuppies
Pina Colada cuppies (which won the grand prize)
Jones soda cuppies
Strawberry Ice Cream Cone cuppies

I'll get the recipes up here for you all lovely people soon.

Enjoy!
-Erica

Caramel-Maple Popcorn (for the FBI)

Sweet. Salty. Crunchy. Clusters of Heaven.

Recently I came across this site that is in charge of the FBI (Food Blog Inspection). It sounded like a really fun thing to do....and so, I have made Caramel-Maple Popcorn for the FBI as my initiation.

I've never even made regular caramel popcorn before (though I really like it....especially the "Crunch N Munch" version....Mmmmmm), so I was excited to try this. My hubby is in love with maple syrup, really. Once I even spied him taking a little sip after drowning his pancakes in it. (Shhh - don't tell him I told you. That was supposed to be a private moment for him) He is at work right now, but he sure is going to be happy when he arrives home tonight.

This was a really easy treat to create....so don't hesitate to try it at home!

I started with some popped popcorn and mixed in pecan pieces:


Then I made the caramel-maple mixture and poured it right over the top:


Good thing I knew this stuff was super hot, otherwise, I'd have stuck my finger right in there and had a taste!

Then, you just mix it all around and spread it out on a pan (I used my new handy-dandy paella pan....LOVE IT!) and wait for it to cool.



Pure goodness! This stuff is awesome....and what is even more awesome, it took me all of 15 minutes from start to finish!

This month's inspection is of Culinary in the Desert Country.
The recipe I recreated was Maple Caramel Popcorn Crunch. I had a lot of fun and look forward to doing it again each month!

Enjoy!
-Erica