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Pumpkin season starts NOW! What? Orange you glad fall is coming? I, for one, am shocked I made it a whole week into August before busting out the canned pumpkin. This loaf is super simple to make, absolutely hits all the fall flavor notes, and best of all, it won’t make you plump-kin because it’s high protein, low calorie. Don’t even get me started on that drizzly cinnamon glaze…

Recipe and Instructions

Have a loafly breakfast or dessert with this easy, quick cinnamon roll protein loaf. Sorry, terrible puns are how I roll. I know bad jokes can get stale quite quickly, but thankfully this bread recipe doesn’t! I have been craving cinnamon rolls like crazy the past month, but I am too lazy to make a gluten free recipe from scratch and too afraid to eat a Cinnabon with gluten in it, so my middle ground: quick bread with a cinnamon sugar layer inside and cinnamon roll glaze on top. And because I’m extra, it’s also low in calories and high in protein.

Recipe and Instructions

It’s the most wonderful week of the year! I’m obsessed with Shark Week, and not just because it came to life the same year I did back in 1987 (please don’t do the math). I can empathize with sharks because I, too, suffer from resting bitch face and feel the need to eat my body weight in meat at every meal. I had such a blast making my Shark Week cake last year, I knew I wanted to take a bite out of another challenge and make some red velvet Shark Week cupcakes.

While I love how these turned out visually, the fishue here ended up being a gluten free red velvet recipe that turned out to be a flavorless disaster. Needless to say, I am still on the hunt for a red velvet recipe that is gluten free and tastes like actual cake. The recipe I tried ended up very tough, dry, and tasted only like a whisper of cake…I probably just perfected a new La Croix flavor. I’m not even sure I’d feed these to a bull shark, and they will literally eat anything. So no recipe in this blog, just a tutorial on how to make your own shark and shark fin cupcakes. Use whatever flavor or cake recipe you’d like! Hopefully yours will be edible and not just a really delightful reminder of your failure every time you open your fridge. I can’t bring myself to throw these away because they’re so cute. Yes, sharks can be cute. Have you seen an angel shark? ADORABLE.

So these cupcakes use the flip/smush/freeze technique I did with my bee cupcakes. I used a stiff cream cheese frosting for those, but I wanted to try using light butter this time to see if it was thick enough to work with this method. Happy to report, yes, you can cut the calories in half and still smush cupcakes to your heart’s content. For the lightened up cream cheese frosting, you need:

• 112 grams (1/2 cup) light butter, cold
• 224 grams (8 ounces) 1/3 the fat cream cheese at room temp
• 4 cups Lakanto powdered monkfruit (regular powdered sugar also works)
• 1 TBS vanilla extract
• 1-2 TBS milk if needed to thin frosting out a bit
• Grey, red, black, blue, and sky blue gel dyes
• Round tips (I used numbers 2 and 12)

Start by whipping the cream cheese and butter in a stand mixer for 2 minutes. Then add in the vanilla extract, half the powdered monkfruit, and mix well. Scrape the bowl and add in remaining monkfruit. If your frosting is too stiff, add in a tablespoon of milk at a time, until you get a smoother consistency. I did not need any milk since the light butter is more liquid-y than full fat butter.

Divide your frosting:

• Put a small amount of plain white in a piping bag with a #2 tip to make the teeth and waves
• Mix a small amount of frosting with black dye and put in a piping bag with a #2 tip for the eyes
• Mix a small amount of frosting with red dye and load into a bag with a #12 tip for the shark mouth
• Mix a medium amount of frosting with gray dye and load into a bag with a #12 tip for the shark fin and body (I dyed two different shades of gray frosting, but only ended up using one for both cupcakes)
• Split the remaining frosting in half, dying one half blue and the other half sky blue. Load each into bags with a #12 tip or snip a larger opening. This will be water and sky.

Put the cupcakes all face-down on a large cookie sheet. Then transfer this to your freezer to set for 30 minutes. Now, save the rest of this dark blue frosting to use for ocean water with the shark fin cupcakes. You can repeat this background-making process using the lighter blue for the remaining cupcakes to make the sky while your dark blue cupcakes freeze.

What? Too gross? OK, peeling the Parchment paper away from the frozen cupcake is more satisfying than peeling the protective film off of a new electronic. There, I’ve classed things up a bit for you. Once you’ve let those cupcakes freeze for a half an hour, the Parchment peels off easily to reveal a jawsdropping flat, smooth cupcake background.

With your dark blue background cupcakes, pipe an oblong/oval shape with a flat bottom and pointy top for the nose. Fill in with more frosting, use an angled spatula to smooth a bit, then take your old Parchment paper, flipped over to the clean side, and smush your cupcake back down gently. Repeat with however many shark face (oh ha ha!) cupcakes you want to make. Freeze these again another 30 minutes. I know, a lot of down time here–but think of it this way: pipe a bit, watch half a Shark Week episode, pipe a bit more, finish the episode, and voila! Back-to-back-to-back shark-related activities like the Discovery Channel (probably) intended.

What? Too gross again? A shark’s gotta eat! OK, I promise this is the last flip and freeze for the shark face cupcakes. Peel off the Parchment paper, grab your red frosting, and pipe a big ol’ shark mouth on top of the grey body. The ratio of head-to-mouth can be pretty close to 60-40 here. I’m fairly certain some sharks are 90% mouth (looking at you, basking shark), so bigger is better. Now, cut some clean sheets of Parchment to flip and freeze these on for another 30 minutes.

Needless to say, my shark here is less than great when it comes to the number of teeth he has, but he’s more than great when it comes to how charming he is. I feel like he’s popping up out of the water to tell me an terrible joke, and I’m here for it.

To pipe the teeth, I took my white frosting and drew little triangles all over his mouth. Then I took my black frosting and made two little dots for eyes. If they look like black, tiny, soulless little eyes staring off into the abyss…they’re perfect.

Repeat the teeth and eyes on your remaining shark face cupcakes and revel in your work…it’s kind of a big gill.

Once you’ve done the flip and freeze for your sky background on your shark fin cupcakes, rejoice, the flipping and freezing has come to an end. Take your gray frosting and draw a little triangle in the middle of each of these cupcakes. Smooth slightly with an angled spatula, but keeping some texture here really does look cool. I tried to flip and freeze one or two, but it turned the fin into a pyramid, and to my knowledge, there are not any shark-headed Egyptian gods, so this was not the vibe I was going for.

Now, take your dark blue and pipe on the bottom half of your cupcake, below your shark fin. Again, use an angled spatula to create texture for the waves. Take your white frosting and make wave caps at the top of the dark blue. I flipped my cupcakes on the side so I could pipe on the front and on the top of the blue waves. Then I took a toothpick and drew downward swipes to mix the white into the blue.

Absolutely love the look and texture on the water. I will use this technique again in the future, or when I’m feeling wistful and want to be reminded of the good old Shark Week days.

You can say I’m hooked on how these cupcakes look. While I can’t sink my teeth into them because they taste like tough cardboard flavored with vanilla extract, at least they’re visually appealing. While a great white shark can go weeks without eating, I can’t even go more than two days without dessert, so I’ll be back in the kitchen after this to make “safe” cupcakes from a gluten free mix. Maybe if I freeze these cupcakes for the 65th time, I can peel the tops off and place on the new cupcakes…because that cream cheese frosting is definitely worth taking a chunk out of…enjoy the greatest week of the year! ‘Til next time, my fellow sharks eaters!

Give this recipe a shot (or two), and I promise it’ll change your outlook on summer heat, and this is coming from someone who hates both summer and heat. But this pie is so unbelievably refreshing that it makes all that pesky heat just melt away, like any good margarita should. It’s sweet, sour, cool, and full of booze. I’ve yet to find a dessert that I can’t improve with an ounce or two of the good stuff. Just be sure to think carefully, and avoid making pour decisions. Use a really good tequila in this recipe since it’s no bake, and you will get tequila flavor shining through with every mouth-watering bite. This is now my favorite pie of all time, because anything that can help make me hate summer heat less is truly a miracle.

Recipe and Instructions

If I could eat cheesecake for every meal, I would. But typically, cheesecakes are absolutely the most time-consuming dessert to make, so I’d pretty much never leave my kitchen. Enter these mini pistachio cheesecakes that are an absolute sinch to throw together. I’ve know cupcakes that were more demanding than these little pillowy bites of pistachio bliss. Added benefit? Absolutely amazing macros. Eat as a post-workout reward with zero guilt. Because I am super into fitness. Fit’ness cheesecake in my mouth.

Recipe and Instructions (see various flavor substitutions below the recipe card)

You can adapt this recipe into many different flavors:
-Sub cheesecake or vanilla pudding mix and add an additional teaspoon of cake batter extract and a heaping handful of sprinkles to make cake batter protein cheesecakes
-Sub lemon Jell-o mix and replace vanilla extract with lemon extract for lemon protein cheesecakes
-Sub orange Jell-o mix and replace vanilla extract with orange extract for orange protein cheesecakes
-Sub chocolate pudding mix and add a few chocolate chips for a decadent protein cheesecake

Perhaps the thing I was saddest to give up when I had to go gluten free was a really good donut. Most donut joints only offer plain glazed gluten free donuts (still better than NO donut), but my heart belongs to a good cake donut with a chocolate glaze and sprinkles. I was SO happy to find Empowrd’s gluten free donut mix so I could make my own donuts at home. This recipe is deceptively easy–it took me about 15 minutes total to make/bake/glaze/sprinkle. These are soft, cakey, and topped with peanut butter chocolate glaze. What more could you need? …other than a second donut. Also, macro friendly at only 109 calories a donut. Check out my reel on Instagram for a step-by-step look at how these were made.

Recipe and Instructions

This no-bake butterscotch pie is low in calories but high in flavor! Made with protein shakes and sugar-free Jell-o, it’s also incredibly macro-friendly. You know, so have a slice or three to beat the heat. You can throw this together in under five minutes, but it will need a few hours to set. Perfect to take to your next backyard BBQ! View my Instagram reel to see how quickly this pie comes together.

Recipe and Instructions

Jump to recipe

My husband is not a dessert person, which is ironic, considering my main hobby includes churning out dessert at an alarming rate. However, bless him, he still tries every dessert I make because he knows how much it means to me. I usually do a pretty epic bake for his birthday cake (or cheesecake) every year, but we were traveling the weekend prior, so his dessert request was for an easy and quick batch of birthday cookies. I was happy to oblige, and since I hope his birthday rocks, I knew I needed to add whiskey.

I like to think of myself as a pretty smart cookie, so it was about time I figured out how to add booze into a cookie recipe. Sure, sugar cookies are great, but have you ever tried adding Skrewball peanut butter whiskey to them? I’m betting the answer is, “No, since I’m a normal human,” and I’m here to change that. You know, bake the world a butter place, one dessert at a time. The base sugar cookie recipe isn’t too terribly sweet so my husband would like them, but they are so soft and buttery (think Lofthouse cookie minus frosting with a hint of smooth peanut butter flavor from the Skrewball). The chocolate drizzle on half gives a nice little boost of sweetness without being over the top. But let’s talk about the Skrewball whiskey glaze on the other half. Was I licking the leftover drizzle out of the bowl when done? Yes. Was I maybe a little tipsy after? Also yes. Was I glad no one was there to witness this? Again, yes. But it was SO GOOD. It packs a little punch, but it absolutely makes the cookie in my opinion. It’s sweet, the whiskey is smooth and rich, and you end up with a perfect balance of sugar cookie to peanut butter flavor. The chocolate drizzle cookies are good, but the whiskey glaze cookies are divine. This recipe makes a whopping 48 cookies at only 70 calories a cookie (because a cookie in each hand is a balanced diet).

These are gluten free but you can definitely sub regular flour if your body doesn’t hate wheat (consider me very jealous). To make, you’ll need:

• 3/4 cup of butter at room temp
• 1 1/2 cups of Lakanto golden monkfruit sweetener
• 2 large eggs at room temp
• 3 TBS Skrewball peanut butter whiskey or other alcohol of choice (Kahlua or Baileys would be great)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 1/3 cups gluten free measure-for-measure flour or all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda

Mix the butter and golden sugar together for 3 minutes in your stand mixer on medium-high; it should be light yellow in color and a little fluffy. Then add in the eggs, Skrewball, and vanilla, blending well on medium. Scrape the bowl, then add the baking powder, baking soda, and 1/3 of the flour. Blend, scrape the bowl, add another 1/3 of the flour, mix, and add in the final bit of flour.

Turn out your dough onto a large sheet of plastic wrap. Roll your dough into a ball and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

I wanted to make my husband’s name and then a bunch of stars for the rest of the cookies, so I gathered up some cookie cutters. Any shape will work with these. I took half of my dough ball and rolled it flat with my rolling pin. You can flour your pin or use plastic wrap on top of the dough (my preferred method) to get these to about a 1/4″ thickness. You will be rolling a lot, so maybe do some shoulder stretching first. Then cut out with the shapes of your liking. You can reshape the leftover pieces into a new ball of dough and repeat until you’ve used everything up.

Preheat your oven to 350 and line several baking sheets with Parchment paper sprayed with cooking spray or use silicone baking mats. VERY IMPORTANT, don’t make a cookie mistake…once you’ve got your shapes cut out and placed on your baking sheet, put this in the freezer for 10-15 minutes. This will keep your cookies from spreading out, puffing up, and just generally ruin the shapes you worked hard to cut out. When your oven has finished preheating, place cookies into the oven and bake for 6-10 minutes, depending on your desired level of done-ness. I like a very soft, still slightly doughy cookie, so I baked for 6-8 minutes depending on how long each tray was in the freezer. If they had only been in the freezer for 10 minutes, I baked for 6 minutes; if they had been in the freezer for 15 minutes, I baked for 8 minutes. Just be careful not to overbake because that is quite literally how the cookie crumbles. The cookies should be a nice blonde color throughout. If the edges are turning golden or brown, when they cool they will be tiny little hockey pucks…taking out teeth with each chew.

I repeated the above process 4 times because I could fit 12 cookies on one large baking sheet at a time. So one sheet would chill in the freezer while the other baked, alternating out. I left my cookies to cool on the sheet for 5 minutes after baking before placing on a cooling rack to cool completely.

For the chocolate drizzle, I used green, blue, and lime chocolate melts. You could also just use melted chocolate chips. Or melted Reese’s peanut butter chips to make that Skrewball peanut butter whiskey flavor really shine. I also had an assortment of sprinkles on hand because nothing is finished if it hasn’t been topped with sprinkles. THERE HAS TO BE A SPARKLE! You can’t really put a candle in a birthday cookie, so light these babies up with glittery sanding sugar.

Will I be cleaning up nonpareils in my kitchen for the next 6-8 months? Potentially even until my husband’s next birthday? Yes. But worth it. I took my chocolate melts, melting each color in its own bowl following package directions. I put the melted chocolate into piping bags and cut a very small snip off the tip of each bag. Then I drizzled like a mad woman (my arms still hurt from rolling all that dough out) over half of my cookies, quickly topping with sprinkles while the chocolate was still wet. I highly recommend putting down a ton of Parchment paper to contain the mess. Now, don’t touch these for a good half hour so the chocolate can set. Prepare another layer of Parchment paper further down your counter and get ready for that WHISKEY GLAZE!

Hi, I truly hate whiskey, but Skrewball is the exception to the rule. My love of peanut butter outweighs my hatred of whiskey. It also helps that Skrewball doesn’t taste like my mouth is full of nail polish remover. It’s smooth, oaky, and peanutty. There’s no turpentine-y, “Will this burn a hole in my esophagus?” flavor given off by most whiskeys. So it makes an exceptionally delicious glaze. And you only need 1 cup of Lakanto powdered monkfruit mixed in a bowl with 2 tablespoons of Skrewball and 3 tablespoons of water to make a drizzly glaze. That’s it. So easy a toddler could do it. But maybe keep them away from the liquor. I know next to nothing about children other than they have a very low alcohol tolerance.

Once you’ve got your glaze thrown together, you can add some sanding sugar to small bowls and get your other sprinkles ready.

I took a star, placed it face down in the bowl of glaze, swirled around, flipped over, and tapped on the side of the bowl to get excess glaze off. Then I dusted with sanding sugar and sprinkles. Once you’ve glazed the remaining two dozen cookies, let these set and harden for 30 minutes. Plenty of time to lick that glaze bowl clean and get a little day drunk on when you do.

You can keep these in a Tupperware container and leave them on the kitchen counter. Placing in the fridge will make the glaze and melted chocolate get kinda weird, so leave these at room temp and devour accordingly. I play a dangerous game of, “Have I earned a cookie?” Every time I walk by these in the kitchen (spoiler alert: I have not, but I will eat one anyway).

As my mom told me, these boozy beauties are what Girl Scout cookies grow up to be. She isn’t wrong. These are adult Tagalongs, absolutely no doubt about it.

We have really been enjoying these little blissful boozy birthday bites. He may not be a sweets fan, but my husband has no problem knocking back a few Skrewball whiskey cookies, neat (seriously, leave them at room temp). The whiskey is by no means overwhelming in flavor; it gives a subtle hint of peanut butter with a deep richness in the chocolate drizzled cookies. Overall, these are very adult-tasting sugar cookies. Not too sweet, nice and soft, and mellow in whiskey flavor. The whiskey glaze obviously provides more of a bite since it contains more alcohol, but again, it isn’t offensively overpowering like most whiskeys. It’s smooth and sweet, much like the birthday boy himself. So here’s to another year around the sun to my wonderful husband. I will toast to that (with a cookie). Because without him, I’d crumble–we’re a batch made in heaven. ‘Til next time, my fellow eaters!

Recipe and Instructions

Keep your eyes on the pie…because this Butterfinger pie will not last more than 5 minutes in your fridge if left unattended. This is honestly one of my most frequently made recipes because it is not only super easy, but it is also super delicious. Creamy, peanut buttery, and so, so smooth. Like smoother than Morgan Freeman’s voice smooth. It isn’t overwhelmingly sweet, and it’s not terribly high in calories. If you want a no-bake option, you can even use a premade crust, but that will definitely change my macros listed below. Either way, in pie we crust. Sorry, let me get you to the actual recipe. I am occu-pied by all these terrible puns.

You can also choose to jazz this pie up a bit if you’d like. Top with more Cool Whip, using a 1M or 2D piping tip to create stars, swirls, rosettes, etc. You can also top with additional Butterfinger pieces, chocolate sauce, caramel, or even a peanut butter drizzle. The pie’s the limit, here. Just be sure to keep any leftovers (ha) in the fridge.

Jump to recipe

I do not have a sunny disposition (it’s more gloom-adjacent), but it’s summer and I’m trying to perk up instead of wilting in the heat. In order to avoid a funk, I wanted to create a good connotation to go along with the sun. You know, trick myself mentally into liking it and whatnot. Naturally, this meant a Pavlovian-response was going to be necessary. You know, see sun: want sweets (and not, “see sun: burst into flames”). There are few things in the world that make me happier than a good dessert, so in the name of science, I forged ahead. After all, what is brighter and more cheerful than a field full of sunflowers and more determined than the bumblebee?

These un-bee-liavably cute cupcakes are chocolate Disaronno cupcakes with cream cheese Disaronno frosting; if I can’t trick myself into liking summer, I’ll at least be somewhat tipsy for it. I was actually going to make Baileys cupcakes, but I didn’t know I was out of baking Baileys (this is most assuredly a thing), so a quick compromise was made, and this chocolate amaretto deliciousness came to bloom. The Disaronno really brings out the chocolate flavor, and you’re left with that smooth amaretto aftertaste with each bite: so moist, so chocolately, so amazing. I thought about liquefying my leftover frosting to drink it–because that Disaronno cream cheese is HEAVENLY. The “sun most definitely shone down, angels sang, whole nine yards” kinda good. Also, because I’m either a witch or a very determined fit person, these are super macro friendly. You know, so you don’t have to worry about becoming chub-bee. They’re only 141 calories per cupcake, 18 cupcakes total.

I was saving my last Whole Foods gluten free cake mix left from our move for something really, really good. I’ve tried about 95 different GF cake mixes, but this one will always reign supreme. So if you’re near a Whole Foods…hook a baker up. To make the cupcakes, you need:

• 1 box of gluten free chocolate cake mix, regular if you’re a fortunate soul that can eat gluten
• 3 egg whites (92 grams)
• 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce (111 grams)
• 1/2 cup of fat free or skim milk
• 1/4 cup plus 2 TBS Disaronno

You can also up the boozy ante and just use 3/4 cup of Disaronno, but since my Disaronno is drinking Disaronno and not baking Disaronno, I went with less. I need to be able to have an ounce over the rocks in a snifter from time to time to swirl around and feel like a James Bond villain. It’s a real mood booster.

Preheat your oven to 350 and line two trays with 18 cupcake liners. Dump all the ingredients into your stand mixer, mixing on low for 30 seconds before bumping to high for 30 more. Never overmix a gluten free recipe unless you enjoy chewing tire rubber. Use a cookie scoop to fill each liner at least halfway full. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out of the center of a cupcake clean.

Now, let your cupcakes rest in the pan on top of a cooling rack for about 10 minutes before you remove them. Let them cool completely on the same rack before frosting. I always stick mine in the fridge while I make my frosting, and by then, they’re ready for piping.

Totally forgot to strain yogurt overnight for this frosting, so here we are, using butter with all its delicious fat and calories.

• 1/2 cup of butter, softened to room temp (112 grams)
• 8 ounces of 1/3 the fat cream cheese, softened to room temp (225 grams)
• One 16 ounce bag of Lakanto powdered monkfruit or regular powdered sugar (456 grams)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1.5 ounces Disaronno (3 TBS)
• 1 TBS cocoa, reserved
• Gel dyes in brown and yellow

Mix the butter and cream cheese on medium high until fluffy and light in color, 3 minutes. Add in half of the powdered monkfruit, the vanlla, and 1 TBS of Disaronno. Mix well before adding the remaining monkfruit and 2 TBS of Disaronno. Set aside a small portion in a separate bowl. Add the cocoa powder to this and some brown gel dye. Dye the rest of the frosting in the mixer bowl yellow.

To make the sunflowers, you’re going to need a leaf tip of some kind (I used a Wilton 352) and a small open star tip (I used a Wilton 16). Put a hefty amount of yellow frosting into a piping bag with a coupler. Grab a cooled cupcake, and before you add the leaf tip, just pipe a circle of frosting around the outside edge with the coupler. This way your leaves have something to stick to.

I avoid leaf tips because they are very finicky. You need a moderate amount of pressure to pipe, and perfect timing to pull out and away when needed. Every single sunflower looked different because of this. I started with an outside layer of petals, pictured above.

I was frustrated but also was not going to let the leaf tip best me, a hobby baker of almost 10 years. This tiny tip would not be my downfall. I added a second layer of petals on the inside of the ring I created earlier, trying to alternate so my petals didn’t overlap the first layer. To finish, I grabbed my chocolate frosting, placed into a piping bag fitted with a #16 open star tip, and piped a few layers of stars in the center of the circle for the sunflower seeds.

I repeated on half of my cupcakes. Some ended up looking more like sadflowers, but here we are, still able to eat them even if they aren’t pretty. In your face, leaf tip. Happy to report the bee cupcakes are 900 times easier to decorate. At this point, I was determined–a force to bee reckoned with.

A few cheap tools from Amazon made the bee cupcakes possible:

• This silicone honeycomb mat
• These sugar bees
• Edible gold dust (yells, “I love goooolllllddddd,” a la Goldmember).
• You’ll also need some food-safe paint brushes

Place the silicone mat on a small cutting board or sturdy surface so it’s easy to move later. Take a paint brush, and paint the entire surface with the edible gold dust. Use the remaining yellow frosting to top each cupcake. I used a nice, thick amount, spread flat (seen above).

So the buzz on Instagram lately is something called the flip and freeze method to get perfectly flat cupcake tops. The problem is, no one ever actually explains how they do it. Are the cupcakes chilled first? How long are they frozen for? Why won’t you tell me your trade secrets??! I need more than 5 second reel with trending music to show me how to do this!

I followed my instincts, and as luck would hive it, nailed this method on the first try. Since I’m not trying to make money off my reels (shameless plug, follow katebakescakes87 on Instagram), let me give you the deets.

• Take a room temperature, frosted cupcake, and flip it frosting-side down on the honeycomb mat. I twisted mine down gently to imprint.
• You should have room to fit 3 cupcakes face-down.
• Now, take the cutting board with your mat and cupcakes on it, and put it into the freezer for 15 minutes.
• Remove from the freezer and gently peel each cupcake off the mat. The tops should have the comb imprint in gold. If you see any areas where there aren’t any gold dust, come in with a small paintbrush and brush on more gold dust while the cupcake is still frozen.
• Once they’ve softened a few minutes, add a bee on top!

Honestly, these turned out so much better than I had hoped. I am so ready to try this again with other mats, patterns, and just plain cupcakes.

The sunflower represents longevity…however, these are definitely not gonna last long in the fridge, and my hopes for summer are also the same. I might not have been able to trick myself into liking summer so much as I did remind myself why I love chocolate and booze combos together so much. If you’re on the fence, don’t be a wallflower–just try the recipe. You’ll see what I mean. Baileys, Kahlua, Disaronno, whiskey, rum: it doesn’t matter, the actual alcohol will bake out, but it leaves behind this rich flavor that enhances the chocolate and makes a super moist bake; these are rich but not at all dense, quite the opposite. I still can’t get over that amaretto cream cheese frosting: it’s slightly tangy, sweet, and finishes with a cherry aftertaste. You could say these cupcakes are the bees knees (not sorry, and I will not beehive). Consider me the Queen Bee of terrible puns and delicious boozy cupcakes. ‘Til next time, my fellow eaters!

Recipe and Instructions