SMiLes by Meg

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

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.

Chocolate Chili Cupcakes

I am solidly back into procrastination cooking mode. As tends to happen when my work picks up, I convince myself to make increasingly elaborate recipes in an effort to justify not doing that work. This week, I did this both with my baking AND my regular cooking.

Coconut Cupcakes

Anyone following my Instagram (@smilesbymeg) knows that Easter dessert involved more than just a Carrot Cake Roll, but also some coconut cupcakes. Since it’s my parents’ anniversary – Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad! – and my mom always insists on celebrating with coconut cake, it seemed fitting to post this recipe now.

Black Bottom Cupcakes

I think I’m finally starting to settle into the rhythm of being a student again. At first, it was a bit of a shock switching back to the other side of the classroom. For two years, I’ve been able to spend my entire day on my feet, constantly having to be the most excited person about Biology in a room full of high schoolers who were significantly more concerned with my personal life than their grades. Now, I’m the one sitting for hours on end trying to absorb a new subject, and, though I am thoroughly enjoying the learning part, it

Mini Cannoli Bites

Usually, when I start a blog post, I’m fairly confident it will turn out OK. Occasionally, I’m certain it will be fine and then end up with entries like this or this. Then, there are days like today. Family dinner at five. Less than a week until I’m in England. Not sure how to balance the two. And somehow, against all odds, I manage to pull off something as impressive as this:

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Thursday morning, I woke up at 4am. Normally I don’t get up until 5 on a work day, but I was wired. You see, there was vague talk of a serious snow storm coming. But as far as I knew, we still had school. My head was near the window, and I peeked outside, but without my contacts I can’t actually see well enough to confirm or deny said snow storm. So I laid in bed for another half an hour before accepting the fact that I wasn’t going to fall back asleep. However, I was not yet willing to

Brownie Cupcakes

A day late, but I feel I have a good excuse – yesterday I ran the NYC marathon! So, even though I actually baked these last Friday for Halloween, you can understand that when I got back to my apartment yesterday evening, I crashed pretty hard. Like 7:30 and I was in bed hard. Thus the Monday post this week. Now, I know that Halloween is over and my cutely decorated cupcakes are no longer relevant in terms of decoration, but the base of these cupcakes in no way loses its relevance with the changing month. In fact, they are

Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes

At 12:36pm tomorrow, I will have completed my first year as a high school biology teacher.  This is crazy to me.  I started this blog the night before my first day of school in September, because what first year teacher doesn’t want to add additional commitments to an already overwhelming amount of work?  Every week, no matter how much lesson planning I felt I needed to do, I found time to bake something and write about it.

Vanilla Vanilla Cupcakes

Before I get into this post, I just want to say Happy Father’s Day to my amazing dad.  I had grand designs to use my post this week to share one of his secret recipes, but, realistically, I shouldn’t make an entire batch of pancakes just for myself.  So instead I hope he’s ok with a shout out.