Summer. The word means many things to many people.
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As a teacher, I think of sleeping in (rarely past 8, though), reading, and “unlimited” planning time for the school year to come. Side note: Guess who banged out 4 unit plans in 1.5 weeks?!?! #thiskid
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As a human, summer means getting a tan (or a burn, as is usually the case for me), eating a soft ice cream cone (twist!!!), and swimming in any body of water I can find. (I’m lookin’ at you, Long Lake, NY.)
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As a baker, summer means PIE, s’mores, and the fancy notion that, “Maybe I’ll do a bunch of blog posts and have them ready to go for when the chaos of school starts up again (all too soon).”
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I hate to disappoint, but… I don’t have a billion recipes queued up for the seasons to come. I DO, however, have a slew of lovely photos of what I’ve been baking lately, as well as a new-to-me-recipe that came out so much better than I expected.
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Pre-gaming summer with some homemade cookies a coworker and I made for our fellow teachers on the last day of school.
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A frozen peanut butter pie for a friend who just had baby boy #3. She said, “Jenny, I ate a piece of that pie and a piece of fruit for lunch every day that week.” #winningatlife
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Totally Instagrammable Strawberry Cobbler w/ Cream Cheese Biscuits [thanks for the winner, HalfBakedHarvest]
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I finally made banana bread and remembered to save half of a banana for the top. It split, I know, it was sad. But still! Better luck next time, I guess.
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Chocolate cake w/ peanut butter dulce de leche frosting [I sold this one!]
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For my family, summer=pie. This was the first of 3 pies I made in a week (I know, right?!?)! It’s a fresh strawberry pie.
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Cue pie #2: Strawberry Rhubarb w/ SUCCESSFUL lattice crust (personal victory!) [funny story: I was supposed to freeze this one so we could take it on vacation, but I didn’t learn of this until after the pie was baked, so we had TWO pies in our house for a family of FOUR people. It’s a good thing we like pie.
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Pie #3: Here’s the one that we took on vaca with us. It’s also strawberry rhubarb.
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Whatcha gonna do with that extra pie dough? Why, make PIE FRIES of course! Best dipped in strawberry jam. #myheart
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Cue cinnamon graham crackers, your basic vanilla-y cupcake recipe, and cream cheese frosting. Plus cinnamon. CINNAMON!
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Moving on to the subject of the day: the cinnamon graham cracker cupcakes. And a failed piping attempt. Make that like 5 failed attempts. 0 successes. Ha ha ha!
Frosting goals.
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Like I said, the piping leaves something to be desired, but you know, when you’re making it work with a few ziploc bags and kitchen shears, you make it work. I hope you make these cupcakes and come away intrigued and delighted by the flavor cinnamon graham crackers lend to the cupcake base and having taken too many finger dips into the frosting. Did I mention it calls for brown butter? BROWN BUTTER, FOLKS!!!
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