SMiLes by Meg

Category: Cupcakes

Individual Raspberry-Almond Cheesecakes

Now that I’m officially back in Boston, I can finally put some serious time into learning how to work in my new kitchen. I set it up months ago and then left to travel, so I’m still figuring out where I put what and which items I stupidly decided I didn’t need in the move (I’m looking at you, rubber spatulas that I still need to replace). Overall, I’m very pleased. In the past 5 days, I’ve made a sausage broccolini rice bake, chicken curry, cauliflower cake, and these little cheesecakes.  And it’s all come out wonderful, if I do …

Pop Tarts

I’ve been craving Pop Tarts since taking the ferry up to Alaska. They had them on the boat, but I couldn’t justify buying them, since we had plenty of snack food already. But it put the idea in my head, and every time I walk by them in the store I think about getting a box, before I remember I already have oatmeal at home. Finally, I decided the best way to be able to justify having Pop Tarts around would be to make them myself.

Individual Tiramisu

So I know I said I would be making sourdough starter, and I will, but it would be really mean of me not to pass along this recipe to you all first. On Friday night, which was our last night staying with Barb and Randy, Erik and I cooked dinner. Or, more accurately, Erik cooked dinner (Bucatini all’Amatriciana) and I put together an easy, but impressive looking, dessert. Because we were going to be serving a pasta dish, I wanted a lighter, but still Italian, dessert. And, surprisingly, I had never made just a regular tiramisu for the blog. 

Individual Flan

I’m writing this from my kitchen counter, taking a break from packing, but by the time I post it (a day early, I know) I’ll be in Washington State, catching a ferry to Alaska. I’ll spend the entire month of September there, hiking, kayaking, exploring, and, obviously, baking. With Erik moving to Anchorage for two years to clerk, and me not starting work for another couple months in Boston, I’m very excited to have the opportunity to get to know a state I’ve never visited. AND I’m very excited to take this ferry, which will bring us from Bellingham, Washington …

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

This week the humidity finally broke, meaning mornings and nights were once again bearable for baking. To take advantage, and because I had promised a friend I’d bring dessert to dinner on Friday (hi, Josh!), I decided to make something from my pre-blog life that I was actually astonished I hadn’t posted before: Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes. These cupcakes were a team dinner staple at the Baran household in high school (hi, Jen!), and I always had at least two. I made them once or twice in college, but college was pre-SMiLes by Meg, and I have no idea why …

Cheddar Scones

I just got back from New Haven, where, after spending last week celebrating my graduation from law school, I spent this weekend celebrating at my five year reunion from college. And next week I get to celebrate my birthday! So many reasons to make baked goods, so little time. If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time, you’ll know that my favorite cake of all time is Claire’s Lithuanian Coffee Cake with extra buttercream frosting, which is something you can order at Claire’s Cornercopia, a New Haven bakery. But since I’ve made that before, I decided to …

Amaretto Cupcakes

Barrister’s Ball (aka Law School Prom) feels like the beginning of the end of law school. We have one more week of classes, then exams, then we graduate, and I’ll never be a student again. Which is pretty crazy. I’ve made it almost 27 years into my life by being an almost perpetual student. So you’ll forgive me for getting sappy over the next couple of weeks.

Strawberry Shortcake

Happy Easter! After a wonderful day with family out in Duxbury, I’m still not quite ready to go back to school work, so blogging it is! This year’s Easter recipe evolved quite a bit from its original idea, and strangely went from more adventurous to more traditional, rather than vice versa. Every year, my mom and I think it will be a good idea to make some big and beautiful Easter dessert, and every year we all get too full on brunch to actually eat dessert, leaving full cakes untouched. This year, I wanted to be cognizant of that.

Gluten Free Peppermint Whoopie Pies

The last of the Christmas cookies: candy cane whoopie pies. If you read my blog often, you know that for family events with my mom’s siblings, I try to make something gluten free. Usually, this means flourless cake or haystacks or something of that sort, which on their own don’t have flour, but this year I decided to try to use an ingredient I see pop up a lot in gluten free recipes: xantham gum. This stuff is supposed to help mimic a recipe that would otherwise call for flour, so if you want to make something recognizable as a …

Magdalenas

I’m not really sure why the weather went from full Summer to deep Fall in the last couple of days, but it has definitely helped ease the transition into my last year of law school. Today, with the rainy coldness that is the outdoors, baking warm cupcakes indoors has been an ideal activity. It would have been a great day to make some sourdough bread, but that would have required much more foresight than I had this week.