Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Salted Caramel Mocha Brownie Cups from Inside BruCrew Life


"Chocolate brownies filled with caramel Hershey kisses and topped with salted caramel buttercream."

Does anything else need to be said? 

My guilty pleasure at Starbucks is a salted caramel hot chocolate. BUT sometimes I hate wasting calories on drinking my dessert. Problem solved.

Found this recipe for Salted Caramel Mocha Brownie Cups. Am I the only person who hasn't heard of caramel Hershey kisses? I can only imagine how wonderful they would taste inside of a brownie. I need to make these pronto. Thanks to Inside BruCrew Life for the recipe.

Monday, January 28, 2013

Review: Dolcissimo Bakeshop

In December I reported that Dolcissimo Bakeshop had returned to Orange County. I was so excited to find out it was only a few miles from my house! And then Daniel, the owner, invited me to come in and try out their treats. I couldn't have gotten there quicker!

Dolcissimo Bakeshop is located at the food court at Main Place Mall in Santa Ana, CA. I reviewed Dolcissimo when they were located in Costa Mesa over four years ago. I couldn't wait to go back and try out their expanded menu.


Good thing I have a large stomach and big sweet tooth because I went home with 6 cupcakes, 12 macarons, and 1 cheesecake in a jar. Today was my lucky day!

Let's start off with the cupcakes! Dolcissimo had a decent variety of cupcakes. There was about 10 flavors to choose from. I got Red Velvet (of course), Chocolate Fantasy, Strawberry Lemonade, Snickerdoodle, Diva, Chocolate Chimp. They have a revolving menu, so each day you can find different flavors.

Let me start with my favorites. Chocolate Fantasy was super chocolatey and oh-so delicious. I love that they used a milk chocolate frosting to keep it a bit lighter. Strawberry Lemonade had pieces of real strawberries in the frosting. And Snickerdoodle had a great cinnamon flavor in both cake and frosting.

Red Velvet did not wow me. The cake was gummy, and the cream cheese frosting was way too sweet and not tangy enough. The frosting on Chocolate Chimp was stiff and hard. That's probably from sitting out all day. Diva, a standard chocolate vanilla cupcake, was pretty standard.

Overall, the cupcakes were just ok. I like for a cupcake to stand out, to be memorable, to make me want to eat it again. These cupcakes lacked that quality.


Next up: the macarons. I got one of each flavor (12). The macarons had a good crunchiness on the outside and the fillings were excellent too, but there needed to be more filling! The proportion was a bit off. Besides that, these were delicious.


Last, but certainly not least: the cheesecake in a jar. There were four flavors to choose from and I went home with the caramel cheesecake. The night I opened the jar to taste it, I only planned on taking a bite. I was already full from all the cupcakes and macarons, but I wanted to taste this while fresh. Only one bite. Well, just two bites. And before I knew it, the entire thing was gone!

I am a big cheesecake fan and this one definitely lived up to my standards. Plenty of graham cracker crust at the bottom. The jar wasn't too deep that I couldn't get a scoop of the caramel, cheesecake, and crust together. These were so perfect that I have already been back twice to get more!


Dolcissimo has definitely upped their game since I last reviewed them four years ago. I am happy that another cupcake shop has opened in Orange County, but I was a bit disappointed by the cupcakes. They were ok, but not memorable. BUT I will visit them frequently for their macarons and cheesecakes in a jar.

Dolcissimo Bakeshop
2800 N. Main St.
Santa Ana, CA 92705
In the Main Place Mall

Friday, January 25, 2013

Sugar Cookie Cake from BFFF


I love any recipe that has lots of frosting. This Ombre Sugar Cookie Cake recipe highlighted on Best Friends for Frosting is the perfect vehicle for getting lots of frosting into my mouth. The recipe is from The Baked Equation, a bakery in Anthem, AZ. I love me a good sugar cookie with lots of frosting!

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Tinker Bell Cupcake Shirt


On Monday I told you about my crazy week at Walt Disney World. This past weekend I did the same thing, but at Disneyland. Luckily I live in Orange County, so I didn't have to travel with a 14-month old again.

Sunday was the Tinker Bell 1/2 marathon at Disneyland. I came across this photo and at second glance noticed these adorable Tinker Bell cupcake t-shirts. Where can I get one? 

Friday, January 18, 2013

Exhausted!

What a week! After traveling cross-country to Florida for work with my baby, working all day with very little sleep, and playing hard at Walt Disney World every night...I'm exhausted! Probably most of you can relate because lots of people do the same thing. But I'm certainly not used to it.


I'm so lucky to be a stay-at-home work-from-home mom. My company, Team Sparkle, travels around several times a year to sell product at running expos. Don't get me wrong, it's a lot of fun (especially when I get to dress up as Snow White), but it's tiring.


We survived our trip and got home just in time for the whole house to come down with the flu. It's hard being a sick mom with a sick husband and sick baby. I don't know how you all do it! But we are "enjoying" being at home all together. Have a great weekend!

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