Misunderstood Cupcakes

I have always loved sharks. Talk to ANYBODY that knows me, and they'll tell you. I can remember it all starting when I was about 8 years old and saw Jaws for the first time.

I'm the type of girl that watches Jaws and roots for the shark. I mean, yeah, it was killing people, but I practically shed a tear when Roy Scheider shoots that oxygen tank at the end.

Sappy-ness aside, I had a LOT of fun with these cupcakes. I might have even had TOO much fun, if it's even possible.

For the cake, I used a Devil's Food Chocolate Cupcake recipe that I honestly forgot which website I got it from.

And for the frosting, I used a boxed Wilton's buttercream icing recipe that I bought at Michael's. Normally, I am against using store bought frostings, but I was making these on a time crunch and couldn't find a recipe I liked.

I picked up a bottle of Duff's cake graffiti to spray on the icing to make it look like water. The hardest part was working with the fondant. I used a store bought rolled fondant and some Wilton's black icing color. I kneaded in the color to get the gray throughout the fondant and then formed some shark fins.

This was just a blast.

I mean, look at how legit these look.

Oh, and for a special surprise, I put a dark chocolate Hershey kiss in 6 of the cupcakes after pulling them out of the oven.

Add in a few of my favorite people and brand new specials on Discovery Channel all about my favorite animal, and you've got an awesome night ahead.

Always remember, when you're in the ocean, you never know what may be lurking beneath you...

The Cookies/Men Analogy

I like my cookies like I like my men: tall, tasty, and with some substance. My frustration is that my cookies always turn out flat and short. How am I supposed to attract a tall man with short cookies?

Well, I finally found my solution! I've been researching ways to fix my cookies and found that the secret to tall and chewy cookies is bread flour and melted butter. So I took this cookie recipe and made a change or two and the result was AMAZING.

I found the recipe on a blog, citing the recipe to another site, JustBaking.net. I was unable to find the original source, but no worries, the recipe is still intact and delicious!!

I can't think of anybody that doesn't love a good chocolate chip cookie. I also cannot tell you how many different cookie recipes I've thought were my favorite. Who knows...maybe I'll find one better than this one day, but it doesn't seem likely.

Every bite is like a perfect piece of cookie heaven. You can really use any type of chocolate chip, chunk, or whatever you like in your cookies. I used 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chunks. I was VERY happy with my decision.

Lookie! Tall, gorgeous, perfect cookies! It makes my mouth water just looking at them! Now all's I need is a tall man, a glass of cold milk, and my favorite movie.

Happy Baking!!

Recipe:

• 2 cups bread flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips/chunks

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets, or line them with parchment paper or use a Silpat.

Sift the flour, salt and baking soda and set aside.

Mix the sugars and butter just until thoroughly mixed, then add egg, yolk and vanilla and mix until creamy. Add the sifted ingredients and mix until just blended.

Stir in the chocolate chips/chunks, then drop dough one scoop at a time on a cookie sheet (I used a small ice cream scoop, but you can really use any size, you'll just have to adjust the baking time), about 3 inches apart, and bake for 15-17 minutes, or until the edges turn a nice golden brown. Leave them on the cookie sheet to cool a bit when removed from the oven. Once they cool a few minutes, remove the cookies to a cooling rack to finish cooling.