Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

A couple weeks ago the hubby and I took a couples cooking class at the Institute of Culinary Education.  We had a great time!  There were four different groups in charge of various meals.  Our group was in charge of making Ahi Burgers with Asian Slaw and Ginger Wasabi Aioli, Minnesota's Juicy Lucy, French Fries, and Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cupcakes.

Everything was absolutely delicious!  Bonus: we got to bring home all the recipes.

I love the cupcake recipe!  It is soft, spongy, and makes me just want to dive into a sea of chocolate.  The frosting was great too, but I found that some of the ratios were a bit off, so I've created my own using my favorite vanilla buttercream recipe as the base.

Pear Galette

Happy New Year!  Wishing you all a joyous and healthy new year...with some baking of course =)

There are so many desserts I want to make, but very little time to make that happen.  So, when the holidays come around, and I have time to bake, I know I can trust my family to be my guinea pigs =)

When it comes to family gatherings, we are simple folk.  My mom and aunt love danish rings from the local bakery, so I knew I wanted something tender and flaky.  I knew it also needed to have fruit: hello use for the pears in my fridge!  After racking my brain for a few days, I finally decided that a galette was the way to go.

For the crust, you can either buy frozen puff pastry at the supermarket, or you can make it from scratch.  You can use this puff pastry recipe if you'd like to make it from scratch.  For this recipe, the directions will be as if you are working with store bought puff pastry.  Sometimes, when life is busy, you just have to take a shortcut.