Back in June I was issued a challenge by the TLC Cake Crew: make a video featuring your favorite summer dessert for a shot at interviewing Buddy Valastro. It was a competition after my own heart – a chance to act stupid, make dessert and talk to my favorite Jersey native (eat it, Snooki.) I threw on my Elvis shades and whipped up the Cake Shake, Rattle and Roll, a combination of cupcakes, milkshakes, vegan food, terrible puns and cowboy boots that was destined for greatness. A few months later I was crowned the champ, and set up on a conference call with America’s favorite baker, Buddy Valastro.

Being the couch potato that I am, I’ve been watching Buddy decorate cakes on TV for years. I always loved his “I don’t need this crap” attitude on Food Network’s Cake Challenge, his larger-than-life assistant Mauro, and his Kerry Vincent-defying skills with a piping bag. So when Cake Boss debuted on TLC you can bet Tony and I were instant fans. Plus, my first job in Chicago was at an Italian bakery called Letizia’s and all the yelling and hand-waving brought me back to those days of pressing out 225 caramel nut crostata in an hour while Fabio and Letizia yelled at each other over the sound of NPR on the radio.

I’ve never been to Carlo’s Bakery (all my trips to the East Coast were made during my 5 years of veganism so my snackventures were limited) but from my own experience shooting reality shows, it’s as real as it gets. Sure, they edit it down to the yelling and the dumping-buckets-of-junk-on-people, but as a hand-waiving, yelling Italian girl, I can tell you that the family interactions are real… and from my 15 minutes with Buddy, I got a sense that he’s a genuine guy as well.

So I hope you like the interview, I apologize for the sound – I was recording in my office in downtown Chicago and it’s noisy there. One of my Twitter followers called this “the battle of the accents.” Thanks again to TLC and to Buddy for setting this up – and if you need a dinner date in Chicago, I know my way around Taylor Street.

 Bake and Destroy interview: Buddy Valastro of Cake Boss: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Teno loves First Slice

You know what? I won’t lie. I’ve walked past First Slice‘s original spot on 4401 N. Ravenswood Avenue at least 100 times and never stopped in. When I’m in the neighborhood I’m either headed one direction to get my bangs trimmed or the other to get a malted milk cupcake at Angel Food Bakery. Me, the Dessert Mayor of Chicago, walking by a pie shop time and time again without so much as a second glance.

It was as if Chef Mary Ellen Diaz were speaking directly to me when she opened her newest not-for-profit bakeshop just a few blocks from my apartment at 4664 N. Manor Avenue. “Natalie! Eat our pie, learn our mission! Love us!”

Still, every time we take Teno to the park directly across the street Tony and I say, “I wonder what the deal is with that place. We should check it out.” And then by the time we wander over they’re closed, or Teno demands a Slurpee and we head off in the opposite direction.

This week end we changed all that. We spent the whole morning in the drop-dead gorgeous surroundings of the Lincoln Park Conservatory and as we drew closer to our stop on the Brown Line, Tony suddenly perked up. “Hey! That pie place! Let’s go get pie!”

We hopped off at Francisco and hung a left, straight into First Slice Pie Cafe, the cutest little pie shop this side of the… I don’t know where, I’m from Chicago. The bake case was positively stuffed with homemade pies – chocolate cream, apple, peanut butter, mixed berry, some wondrous creation called Polka Dot Pie featuring almond cream and dark chocolate drops… you name it and it was in the case.

Now, it’s a little-known fact that my first job was behind the counter of a Baker’s Square. I think defrosting those mass-produced cream pies and putting a fake egg wash on the fruit pies every day turned me off of pie for at least 15 years. I still remember watching the safety videos featuring massive machines pumping out whipped topping in the VICORP factory and thinking to myself, “French silk pie is dead in my eyes.” So seeing the imperfect crusts, the bubbly fillings, the hand-crumbled cookie crumbs atop the cookies and cream pie made my pulse race. This is some real-deal grandma pie and my mouth is in for a treat.

While Tony asked the counter staff what was in every sandwich and how many things were vegetarian (lots!) I ran around with my iPhone snapping pictures and taking note of all the vegan options for my pain-in-the-ass vegan friends. (I love you.) Two seconds after emitting an impressed “Hm!” about the reasonable prices I started reading about the mission behind First Slice.

First Slice is a not-for-profit, community-based kitchen where employees and volunteers work together to provide wholesome food to people living in poverty. The cafes help to fund the efforts, but the really interesting project is the First Slice shareholder program. Subscribers can sign up to receive three home cooked, local, organic meals a month. For every family subscription sold, First Slice is able to feed 20 hungry people per month. And thanks to this genius program, the needy actually receive the same healthy, nourishing meals as subscribers. It’s seriously so cool it makes me cry. I’m thrilled to also report that they take volunteers in their kitchen so you can expect BrutalSnack to be behind the scenes working off our sins in pie.

So good deeds aside, let’s talk about the pie. I had a slice of chocolate cream while Tony couldn’t say no to the peanut butter pie. Teno had a cookie bar because he is a total weirdo. I was very pleased to see my precious slice lovingly packaged in a triangle-shaped pie box. I hate when a triangular slice of pie gets packed in a too-big square box and then banged around on the way home. I’m a freak, I take pictures of everything I eat. I need it to be perfect. I also took note of the substantial savory menu – lots of sandwiches, soups, salads and homemade sides that will really hit the spot this Chicago winter.

My chocolate cream pie was rich and creamy – with deep, dark chocolate that wasn’t dumbed down like the French silk I grew up on. Tony’s peanut butter pie tasted just like raw peanut butter cookie dough without the impending doom of salmonella poisoning. I set down my fork, leaned back and patted my belly, “I wonder how their apple is,” I said out loud, picturing it with a scoop of ice cream melting on top. Twelve-to-fifteen different varieties are available each day and I intend to try each and everyone. In fact, I intend to volunteer to bake each one, then go to the cafe and eat it.

Over the past few years I have come to see baking as more than a hobby, and more than a gluttonous pastime. It’s my way of touching people and making their day better. Whether it’s a muffin for my co-workers, a table full of goodies at a non-profit bake sale or a slice of pie between friends. I can’t think of a better way to show love and compassion than to feed other people. That’s why First Slice has struck such a chord. I read an interview with the Lillstreet café location manager Ryan Cooper in which he said, “Rather than giving them [those in need] the leftovers of what others have tossed out, we’re giving them the first slice.” It’s a lesson for all of us, and a tasty slice of pie to boot.

With sprinkles, of course!

Yesterday it was so hot the thought of eating anything besides cold, fresh fruit made me want to lie on the bathroom floor and cry. I realize it’s August in the Midwest, and I am normally the first one to say, “Shut up you baby!” when people complain about the weather – but this has been record-breaking heat and we’re people who don’t even bust out our winter coats until the thermostat reads below 40. So a 91 degree Saturday is flippin’ hot. Plus, I’m nursing an awesome sunburn I picked up at Great America last week end so five seconds outdoors feels like an eternity on the surface of the sun to me right now.

After dragging Teno into the car and away from the 400 degree oven he calls a playground we ran into our favorite fruit stand, grabbed everything that looked good and headed home. We had to get an extra orange for Teno who has recently become obsessed with the Annoying Orange series on YouTube. Tony washed and chopped and I whisked together a dressing because I can’t leave well enough alone. We tossed the salad (heh) with 1/2 cup vanilla Greek yogurt mixed with 1/4 cup honey, 2 tsp lime zest and 1/4 cup lime juice and let it sit for about 15 minutes. The dressing reminded me of a donut glaze so Tony and I started crossing our fingers that it wouldn’t be so hot today so I could make that dream a reality.

Truth be told, I haven’t left the house all day so I have no idea if it’s hot or not, but it’s a frosty 72 degrees inside the Slater fortress so Teno and I whipped up some honey lime donuts at 9am this morning. Baked donuts like these are really just donut-shaped muffins, but a hearty dunk in glaze helps the illusion.

You’ll need:

• a donut pan
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp lime zest
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup + 3 Tbs milk
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 Tbs shortening (non-hydrogenated, preferably)

plus:

• 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
• 2-3 Tbs lime juice
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Then you:

Pre-heat your oven to 325 degrees and grease your donut pan. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, honey, baking powder, lime zest & salt. Stir in milk, eggs, vanilla and shortening. I used a whisk to get the shortening incorporated. Fill each donut cavity about 3/4 full, bake 8-10 minutes until donuts spring back when lightly touched. Cool slightly before removing from pan.

Once the donuts are cool, whisk together the glaze ingredients. Dip one side of each donut into glaze and then into sprinkles or colored sugar if desired. I completely covered a few and Tony said those were too sticky & tart so I recommend just glazing one side.

I met Sprinkles Cupcakes founder Candace Nelson nearly one year ago on the set of Cupcake Wars. (Read the tell-all here!) We were shooting a pilot for Food Network that eventually turned into the hit cupcake competition people are constantly suggesting I try out for. While you won’t find any try out videos from me, there are plenty of dispatches I recorded while the pilot was in the works. Like this one from when I first landed in LA or this one that makes me laugh because I bunch of people actually believed I had never heard of Burger King before. I made one more right before I went back home, but I was so bummed about being forced to wear long sleeves on the show it’s just too sad to post. So instead here’s this one I made in December right before the pilot aired.

Anyway, even though Candace is on credit card commercials, a regular guest and favorite of both Martha Stewart and Oprah, a Food Network TV star and let’s not forget, the woman who put cupcakes on the map, she also happens to be very sweet and down-to-Earth. We kept in touch after the show and I was thrilled to hear she became a permanent fixture. During filming she let me know that she was scouting locations in Chicago for her next shop so when I got my trademark modern dot invitation in the mail I knew exactly what was going on.

So why did the West Coast’s most famous cupcake shop come to Chicago? “The question isn’t so much why Chicago, but why did it take us so long to get to Chicago?” Candace says, “We have been looking for the right location in Chicago for four years and feel so lucky to have found a wonderful spot in the Gold Coast. I spent a lot of time here during my college years and I really love this town – the people, food, music, architecture and energy of this city are all fantastic.  There’s nothing like it!”

Lisa tries the red velvet everyone was freaking over.

When June 22nd rolled around, my best girl Lisa and I put on our fancy shoes and set out in the sweltering Chicago summer heat to welcome Sprinkles to Chicago. When our cab pulled up to the location we couldn’t say enough about what a perfect spot Candace chose. She’s right off the Mag Mile, where a steady stream of tourists from all over the world come to spend money 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you think about it, Chicago is a very affordable vacation destination for most of America. Smack in the middle of the country we’re the Midwest’s largest city – and the Mag Mile is the epitome of city sightseeing. While most of us natives avoid it like the ketchup on a hotdog, the allure of all the big department stores, the god-awful Hershey’s store, American Girl creepatorium, and dozens of couture fashion boutiques pulls in millions of tourists every year. Our own branch of the world’s first cupcake shop is the icing on the cake, pun intended. Being that my office is only one stop away from the Mag Mile on the Red Line I have figured out the least touristy times of day to sneak over for a cupcake or to run into Betsy Johnson to try on prom dresses for crazy people.

After checking our names off the guest list, Lisa and I rounded the corner to find a very crowded courtyard full of people in their fancy pants shoveling red velvets into their mouths like no one’s business. Not to get off topic here, but wtf is up with red velvet these days? It’s the Lady Gaga of cake – I kind of get it, but not really. It’s vanilla with a little cocoa, dyed red. It’s not magic… it’s food coloring. Anyway, there were cupcakes and champagne as far as the eye could see. I spotted Candace inside, so we stood in the long, long line and waited to talk to her.

A sample cupcake while you wait for your cupcake. I like this.

The line was so long, it turns out, because they were giving everyone boxes full of free cupcakes. The wait gave me a chance to snap lots of pictures, which you can see here, and for Lisa to get all New York on some guy with a ponytail who tried to cut us in line. I got myself a box containing a strawberry, double chocolate, carrot cake, chai latte, chocolate marshmallow and lemon and felt especially cool when, through a sea of people, Candace spotted me and shouted my name.

She said how nice it was to see my naked arms, which made me laugh, and we talked about the amazing location she landed and how this place was going to be banging at all times. When I pre-complained about having to wait in line for one of my friend’s famous cupcakes she said that crowds like this one tend to die down after the first few weeks – this remains to be seen as the line has been down the street ever since and we’re already into August.

After taking lots of pictures, making lunch plans and making sure she met my charming little trouble maker friend Lisa, I hugged Candace good bye and headed back into the crowd. It was a good 98 degrees out, so Lisa and I grabbed our parting gift bags and hopping into another cab. Back at my office, we opened the bags and squealed with delight as we discovered a gift card for additional cupcakes, a bag of Callebaut chocolate, and a bottle of Nielsen-Massey vanilla and directions to make Sprinkles chocolate buttercream. That Candace doesn’t play, y’all. Lisa said it was fancy champagne too – dang!

We couldn't wait - Lisa and I sat on the steps outside my office and ripped open our packages as soon as we could.

Tony is the toughest cupcake judge on Earth, so I plopped my winnings in front of him when I got home. Beads of nervous sweat rolled down my tuxedo dress. If he didn’t like what he tasted he would not be shy – and I get defensive of my friends so this could be trouble! The double chocolate was first – he liked it… but he didn’t seem convinced. Then he bit into the strawberry cupcake. “Mmmm,” he doesn’t say that often, this was a good sign, “Yeah that one’s good – have you tried this?” I tasted, and had to agree. Yes, that was a very fresh strawberry flavor indeed. I went for the chai, which had been calling my name all night. I was so proud to note that Candace didn’t take the weenie way out with this flavor. This was a spicy, real-deal chai cupcake. The rest was a blur, as I bit into things, shared them with Tony, squirreled others away for Teno. But I was definitely glad to know these cupcakes were a 1-minute train ride away from my office at all times.

The next day I emailed Candace to say thanks and to let her know how much Tony enjoyed the strawberry cupcakes. She wrote back, and included the recipe!

Sprinkles Strawberry Cupcakes (1 doz)

You will need:

• 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour, sifted
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp kosher salt
• 4 oz (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 2 large egg whites, at room temperature
• ¼ cup whole milk, at room temperature
• 1/3 cup pureed strawberries, measured in liquid measuring cup (use all-natural frozen strawberries that have been thawed and pureed until totally smooth)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Then you:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fill a 12 cup cupcake pan with cupcake liners. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside
Add vanilla and strawberry puree to milk and set aside. In standing mixer, cream butter on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Gradually add sugar and continue to beat until full incorporated and fluffy. Slowly add egg and egg whites and mix on medium speed until blended. With mixer on low speed, add half the flour mixture until just blended. Add milk mixture and mix just until blended. Add remaining flour mixture and mix just until blended.  Scrape down bowl to make sure entire mixture is smooth.. Divide batter between 12 cupcake cups and bake for approx 22 – 25 minutes or until tops are just dry to the touch . Cool cupcake pan on wire rack.  As they cool, cupcake domes will fall. Once cool, cupcakes can be turned out of pan and frosted.

Sprinkles Strawberry Frosting

You will need:

• 8 oz (2 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly cold and firm
• 1/16 tsp kosher salt
• 3 ½ cups confectioners sugar, sifted
• ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp pureed strawberries (use all-natural frozen strawberries that have been thawed and pureed until totally smooth)

Then you:

Beat butter and salt on medium high speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed and gradually add confectioner’s sugar.  Beat until incorporated. Add vanilla and strawberry puree and mix on medium low until blended and smooth.  Do not overmix, or the frosting will incorporate too much air.  The consistency should be dense and creamy, like ice-cream.

I wanted to put these in my shirt.

So there you go, if there’s not yet a Sprinkles in your neck of the woods you can make your own at home, sans modern dot. The strawberry and cherry were are actually my favorite because they look like boobies. Speaking of modern dots, Candace has offered one of my lucky readers three of her famous cupcake mixes – complete with modern dot decorations. To enter, check out the Sprinkles site and leave a comment on this post about which three flavors you’d like to win. Remember. I’ve turned cupcake mixes into cookies, so the possibilities are endless. (Sorry overseas folks, while you’re free to comment we’re not able to send cupcake mixes internationally.) I’ll pick a random winner on 8/15/10.

I’ll definitely be adding Sprinkles to my growing list of bakeries I recommend in Chicago. And if you stop by, bring me a carrot cake cupcake!

Congrats to Debbie & thanks to everyone who commented!

Last night Charlie, the Community Manager at Threadless, and I had a blast appearing on WTTW Chicago Tonight. OK, well most of the blast was had backstage planning out ways to walk away from the interview table to jam out on the piano they have on set for no apparent reason… but we had fun either way.

We were there, of course, to talk about the cake decorating contest Threadless sponsors each year – Threadcakes. There are two weeks left to enter your cake, inspired by a Threadless t-shirt design, and possibly win $500 cash and a bunch of other sweet prizes.

Here’s the video… try to figure out where we were almost going to tell a joke about making Blago a cake with a file in it.

Birthday dinner of epic proportions.

In a matter of days my vegan soul sister Melisser (The Urban Housewife) is moving to Vienna. Amazing, right? It’s silly, because she’s all the way in San Francisco now anyway, but I admit I’m a little sad knowing that soon she’ll be even further away from me. Of course, once her book The Vegan Girl’s Guide to Life: Cruelty-Free Crafts, Recipes, Beauty Secrets and More hits the shelves I know we’ll be reunited because that shit is going to sweep the nation. A world-wide book signing is just around the corner, and there’s a Barnes and Noble RIGHT by my house. And in true Melisser style, the girl recently launched a new project, Cruelty-free Face, just before splitting the country! She’s bonkers, but it gives me one more way to keep up with my favorite Animal Lib warrior.

I was up reading some of her old posts last night and thinking about how crazy it is that two food bloggers from different sides of the tracks (hi, San Francisco and Chicago might as well be different planets) bonded over a love of Trader Joe’s sandwich cookies and a guy named Morrissey. I’m very lucky to have made such an outgoing, compassionate and sass-mouthed friend over these past few years. And I would not have wanted to spend my 30th birthday watching footage of people being mauled by wild animals with anyone else. So here’s a recap of some of the stuff Melisser and I have done together, and some of my favorite Melisser moments.

2007:

• After several months of bullshitting, a finally get around to making Bake and Destroy t-shirts. A girl named Melisser, one of the first people to ever comment on my fledgling blog, buys the very first one.

2008:

• Melisser crashes at my house for what I believe is her first trip to Chicago. After getting over the initial shock of Teno’s 6am wake up calls and the massive amounts of fake meat in my freezer, she decides to time to bake. And together, we make the WORST VEGAN CINNAMON ROLLS EVER.
• A few days later, we took our waterproof eyeliner for a test drive and braved a monsoon to check out the Renegade Craft Fair.
• Meanwhile, Melisser formally announced that she was the owner of Sugar Beat Sweets

2009:

• In June of 2009, Melisser returned to Chicago with husband Ryan in tow. It was a world-wind tour involving weird space ice cream from i-Cream, disgusting vegan fast food from Veggie Bite and a box full of vegan donuts from Glazed. We even made a video!
• I received a third visit from Melisser in honor of my 30th birthday in December of last year. Of course she documented everything we ate on her blog – highlights include making vegan marshmallows, getting matching Cram Cream tattoos, and…
• Fritz Pastry! I was really excited to take Melisser for unexpected vegan delights at my friends Elaine & Nate’s brand-new pastry shop. We made a video and I later interviewed the couple.

2010:

• Melisser writes a book. After years of near-TV shows and almost-books (shared experiences that Melisser and I bonded over during all three of her visits) the stars aligned and Melisser authored a vegan how-to book. I’m so proud of this girl, I can’t even tell you.
• Melisser moves to Vienna. Any day now! At least she already knows where to eat.

I feel like I’m leaving so much out. Stuff we didn’t make videos about or take pictures of. Things like The Worst Thing Ever, and staying up til nearly 2 am covered in marshmallow fluff and spilling our guts about things so personal I can’t believe we actually talked about them. I stood in the doorway laughing as she hopped on one foot, putting on a third pair of tights under skinny jeans to lock out the Chicago winter. I sat on the toilet, eyes closed, as she glued eyelashes she went all the way to Japan for to my eyelids. Chatting over Google Talk at work. Our Morrissey ring tones for each other.

I just can’t say everything good there is to say about this girl. All I can do is let the world know I’m going to miss her, and let our boyfriend say the rest…

Every year for his entire lifetime, I have made Bishop Danger Remis’ birthday cupcakes. Being Teno’s best friend, he has a free pass for the weirdest and wildest little kid birthday cakes until they are too old for birthday parties. Last year his theme was municipal vehicles, for which I made piles of candy garbage topped with garbage trucks, frosting Chicago flags with candy rats and cookie dirt cakes topped with dump trucks.

This year when his mom told me the theme was RV Campers it took me all of five seconds to plan the cupcakes. Smores, Vegan Cowboy Coffee (cookies and cream cakes with espresso buttercream) and the most popular flavor of the day, Tropical Punch Kool-Aid.

Armed with candy rocks, mini beer can toppers and picnic plaid cupcake liners from Bake It Pretty, I modified Billy’s Vanilla Vanilla recipe to produce 15 bright-red, extremely fruity cupcakes.

The beauty of this recipe? You can throw in any kind of Kool-Aid you like and make something new. I topped mine with a vanilla buttercream, dyed green, and piped on top with my grass tip. Oh, and I made some RV Camper toppers which you can download here:

Airstream & RV Camper

To make the cupcakes you’ll need:

• 1 3/4 cups cake flour, not self-rising
• 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 small pouch of Kool-Aid
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Then you:

1. Preheat oven to 325°. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, Kool-Aid and salt; mix on low speed until combined. Add butter, mixing until just coated with flour.
2. 2. In a large glass measuring cup, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla. With mixer on medium speed, add wet ingredients in 3 parts, scraping down sides of bowl before each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.
3. Divide batter evenly among liners, filling about two-thirds full.
4. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 17 to 20 minutes.
5. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

And now, for a little song from Bishop’s daddy:

As you may or may not know, I am psyched to be on the judging panel for this year’s Threadcakes competition! If you’ve been eating fondand under a rock somewhere I’ll fill you in – it’s a cake decorating contest that melds the creative, crowd-sourced designs of Threadless t-shirts with the uber popular art of cake decorating.

If you’re in the Chicago area you can watch Threadless’ Charlie Festa and I yap it up about the competition on WTTW Chicago Tonight this Wednesday, July 21st sometime between 7 & 9pm. If you’re not in Chicago, no worries – I’ll post the clip right here the very next day.

NEWSFLASH: Chicago Tonight appearance pushed to next week due to Blago trial coverage. I’ll let you know the new date & time asap!

Speaking of the next day, Threadless is dropping four of the coolest designs yet on July 22nd and I was proud to model a few of them. It’s top secret awesomeness so I can’t tell you anything else about it – except that one of you will win ALL FOUR designs. And, since it’s kind of a big deal, I’ve decided to give everyone multiple ways to enter.

You’ll receive one entry for doing each of the following:

1. visit Threadcakes and tell me your favorite submission for the 2010 competition so far
2. visit Threadless and tell me which design you’d like to see turned into a cake
3. become a Facebook fan of Threadcakes
4. become a Facebook fan of Threadless
5. become a Facebook fan of Bake and Destroy
6. follow Threadcakes on Twitter
7. follow Threadless on Twitter
8. follow Bake and Destroy on Twitter

So that’s eight chances to win four completely awesome shirts from Threadless. You can enter as many or as few of these ways as you like – just please consolidate them all into one comment on this post. For example, my entry would look like this:

1. Zombie at Tiffany’s
2. It’s Always Midnight Somewhere
3. done
4. done
5. done
6. done
7. done
8. done

See? Eight ways to win. Just for you. Because we here at Bake and Destroy, Threadless and Threadcakes like you. We really do. I’m picking a winner on Friday, July 23 so get to it!

Thanks for playing everyone, I just notified the winner!

When Stefanie of Red Velvet Stefanie sent me her French toast cupcake mix Teno could not wait to make it. Every day he harassed me to make them – but the mix makes 24 and I’m pretty sure we never need two dozen cupcakes in our house. We compromised when I remembered a recipe I used to make when I was a kid – cake mix cookies.

Now, if you’re using store-bought cake mix you can take that recipe and tweak it to your heart’s content. German chocolate was always my favorite, but I’ve had success with banana cake mix, coconut and walnuts and lots of other combinations.

Since this is a gourmet cake mix, made with actual flour and sugar instead of whatever the balls cake mix is made of, we tweaked my family’s favorite recipe a bit.

We used:

• French toast cake mix
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup butter, melted and cooled
• 1 cup quick oats
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup milk

Basically, you mix everything together and bake it for about 12 minutes. Not too tough, but Teno and I made a video to show you how. After you watch, keep reading to find out how you can bake along with Stefanie when she competes on Food Network’s Cupcake Wars July 27th.

That was a family production, by the way. Tony was our camera man. And yes, Teno says bad words and I’m trying to make him stop so just don’t encourage him please.

So – ready to bake along with Stefanie? Awesome, because she’s going to send one of you her Cupcake Wars Surprise Pack! The pack includes mixes for the four recipes Stef used in competition – did she take home the $10,000? You’ll have to tune in to find out! Leave me a comment about the first thing you ever baked all by yourself and I’ll choose one random winner to bake along with Stef with their very own Cupcake Wars Pack. (I’ll pick a winner one week from today. Open to US addresses only, please!)

Thanks everyone! Congrats to our winner Samantha!

Depending on your powers of observation, you may or may not have noticed a little TLC Cake Crew badge on my blog recently. See? There it is.

Most of the time I steer clear of these online cake blog cliques A) Because I’m already in a food gang, and it’s called BrutalSnack, and B) They’re usually an elaborate ploy by some conglomerate to post advertising on my webpage thereby tapping into my “alternative” readership. While I’m sure TLC is thrilled to finally have an audience that listens to grindcore and watches Married With Children re-runs, I was actually very impressed with their “you don’t have to write about the Little Chocolatiers” policy – and especially with the group they put together. (Hello, Cakespy and Bake It Pretty?) Plus, they do awesome stuff like send me a Flip Cam and challenge me to make a summertime treat on camera!

So for this particular challenge, I took one of my most popular cupcakes – the Vegan Elvis Comeback Special – and turned it into a tall, frosty milkshake. My fellow Cake Crew bloggers and I are all making videos in hopes that they’ll be posted on TLC.com and chosen the winner by a team of judges who will award one of us with a 15 minute phone conversation with Buddy Valastro – yeah, the Cake Boss. I hope you realize the level of awesome that a phone call between Buddy and myself would be. I worked in an Italian bakery for years – I can yell about zabaione with the best of them! Judges are looking for creativity, appearance and online feedback – so please leave me all your feedback, comments, criticisms, and jokes about my Elvis-meets-the Honky Tonk Man-impression because it all helps my chances!

Bake and Destroy: Cake Shake, Rattle & Roll from Natalie Slater on Vimeo.

Because the ice cream requires several hours from start to finish, I made mine one day ahead.

For the dairy-free peanut butter ice cream you’ll need:

• 2 cups coconut (or any other non-dairy) milk
• 3/4 cup natural peanut butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (or DIY it with this recipe)
• 1 Tbs pure vanilla extract

Then you:

Stir the milk, peanut butter and sugar together over medium heat in a medium-sized sauce pan. Everything should melt together as you stir – bring it to a boil and stir briskly to make sure all the sugar melts. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Refrigerate for 2 hours, or until chilled. Follow the directions on your ice cream maker to freeze. I use the KitchenAid ice cream maker attachment so it takes about 20 minutes to churn. Stick that in the freezer to firm up.

For the cupcakes you’ll need:

• 1 mashed ripe banana
• 1 & 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup non-dairy milk
• 1 & 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1/4 cup finely chopped dark chocolate or vegan chocolate chips, chopped

Then you:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line your pan with paper liners. (You don’t have to make cupcakes – you can also bake this batter in an 8″ square pan or 9″ round.)
Smash the banana with a fork – it just needs to be smooshed, but it doesn’t have to be liquid.
Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar into a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the oil, milk, vanilla, almond and mashed banana. Stir or fold the wet ingredients into the dry, but don’t over mix or you’ll get tough cupcakes. Small lumps are fine. Finally, add the chocolate, folding gently. (You could also leave the chocolate out of the cake and add it to the shake at the end.)
Fill liners 2/3 full. Bake 20-22 minutes or until the tops spring back when lightly touched. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely on a wire rack.

Finally you:

Throw one cupcake in the blender along with 2-3 scoops of ice cream and a splash of non-dairy milk. I went with coconut throughout because it adds a nice sweet flavor. I topped mine with Soyatoo Vegan Whipped Cream, although Melisser tells me that the mix is better because you can add sugar to taste. Topped with a cherry and poured into my Cake Boss pint glass this was a dessert fit for The King.

Thank you, thank you very much.