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Leftover Halloween Candy Pookie

Leftover Halloween Candy Pookie

Who wants a pookie? You know…a pie and a cookie? I do, I do!
A few of you out there are still looking for ways to use up so-called “leftover” candy. I don’t really get that concept. It’s not chicken, people. It’s not gonna go bad that fast. Eat it and enjoy at your leisure.

But heck, if you really want to bake it into something, make a pookie! This lovely cookie dough is filled with all your Halloween candy favorites and baked into a pie shell. With Thanksgiving looming, we should be getting our pie thing going anyway. Let’s do a hybrid holiday treat!

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Candy Bar Chocolate Bundt Cake

Candy Bar Chocolate Bundt Cake

I’ve got your back this week with ideas for how to use your leftover Halloween candy. I mean, duh. Eat it. But if not…bake it!

Nothing will please a crowd faster than chocolate cake, and when you add a rich chocolate glaze and cover the cake with all kinds of candy bars, you’re basically asking people to come to your house and never leave. If that sounds okay to you, proceed!

After all, nothing will fill a house full of visitors faster than baked goods. I find that when there’s a candy assortment in the mix, you just have to get used to having privacy invaded on a regular basis.

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Chocolate Almond Bark

Chocolate Almond Bark

I’m all about making candy people sell for a lot of money at a much lower cost. It’s easy and very doable on short notice. That’s my favorite kind of treat!

For years, I’ve been a chocolate bark addict. It’s even deadlier when you fill it with almonds. Hey, you need your protein! This is practically a health food, y’all. I’m sure Gwyneth would approve. Not that I need her approval, or want it.

I used to be a huge Gwyneth Paltrow fan. She made this movie called Sliding Doors about a woman who lives through two different life scenarios, all starting when one version of her makes a train while the other version misses it. I friggin’ love that movie. If you haven’t seen it, add it to whatever list you keep on hand. It was made quite some time ago, back when Gwyneth was acting instead of telling real women that her life is much harder than theirs.

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Vegan Chocolate Cake

Vegan Chocolate Cake

I hate epic fails.

Yep, my caramel apples, so lovingly planned to go up today for the first day at school, tanked. See, I had this massive migraine yesterday and I tried (smarty that I am) to make caramel apples while lights were flashing in my field of vision and my head was pounding.

So, yeah. Caramel apples for another day! Something to look forward to, right?

In the meantime, there’s this cake. I love this cake. It’s vegan and gluten-free, but it’s so incredibly delicious. Sounds wrong, I know, but it’s true!

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Chocolate Almond Blossoms

Chocolate Almond Blossoms

Going back to teaching after a summer off is always quite a wake-up call. You see, we teachers get up early. In my case, crazy lady early. I like to fit my workout in first thing in the morning, so that means I’m up by 4:15 on most days. On the plus side, all I have to do after work is play and do homework with my kids, give them dinner, do baths, and put everyone to bed. And then grade lots of papers.

So yeah, it gets a little bit tiring. Especially after rising at the late hour of 6 A.M. during the warm summer months.

But hey, we always adjust! Human beings are super adaptable. In a week or so, I’ll be feeling no pain. Until then, sugar has to give me some extra energy. Hello, cookies!

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Copycat Georgetown Cupcakes (Chocolate Ganache)

Copycat Georgetown Cupcakes (Chocolate Ganache)

As you may know if you read my blog with any regularity, I reside in the incomparable DC/Metro area. I didn’t grow up here, but as soon as I moved to our nation’s capital, I knew it was home, at least for a while. My favorite thing to do is just roam around the city, sometimes for hours. Someday I’ll write more about that.

DC is known for many tourist attractions, like monuments and museums. But a few years back, our humble city also became famous for…cupcakes.

Yep, Georgetown Cupcake, the famous pink-infused cupcake chain, hasn’t slowed down since the day it opened! I wasn’t even aware of its existence until a colleague’s son was on the camera crew for TLC’s DC Cupcakes, a reality show about the store. Suddenly, pink boxes began coming into the office because the camera crew got extras left over at the end of the day. Believe me, I was grateful!
Anyway, since that time, I’ve been to Georgetown Cupcake many times, and it’s a happy and cheerful place. Even better, the owners share their recipes with everyone! This one is a favorite of mine, their chocolate ganache.

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Chocolate Coconut Macaroon Tart

Chocolate Coconut Macaroon Tart

It’s Passover Week on Just About Baked! I’m sharing my go-to Passover dessert recipes this week because, well, I’m on a mission. For years I ate substandard desserts because I thought there was nothing else out there. But a few years back, I did some research and then I did some baking. Well, a lot of baking. The recipes you’ll see this week are all crowd-pleasers and they’re also easy. What could be better?

Onward! A year ago, I was reading my Good Housekeeping magazine (which is kind of ironic because I’m not that good at housekeeping) when I saw this three-ingredient recipe, just in time for Passover. It looked so fancy and elegant, but it turned out to be the easiest thing in the world to make.

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Chocolate Pake

Chocolate Pake

Any Drop Dead Diva fans out there? Please? Pretty please?

Because if you’ve seen the show, you know what a pake is. No, that’s not a typo. I’m talking serious pake, kids. As in, a pie-cake hybrid. That’s right! In an episode of the show, a character accidentally invents the pake when two pages of a cookbook get stuck together without her realizing it. The result is rather marvelous. I mean, it’s a cake inside a pie crust. What could be better?

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Chocolate Crumb Babka

Chocolate Crumb Babka

It’s Friday, y’all! In my house, the weekend means babka for breakfast. Allow me to explain.

When I was a little girl, my grandmother used to send a big box of baked goods to us a few times a year. The box was full of her goodies: cookies and cakes, most of them traditional Eastern European specialties. Nestled in the box were always two babkas. For those of you who aren’t familiar, a babka is cake that is actually made from a yeast dough and then swirled with various fillings. The traditional filling is cinnamon sugar, but more modern babkas have chocolate as well

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