Remember like, a really long time ago when I said I would make a video about baking in these sweet little ceramic cupcake vessels? Well, the thing about lying is, if you mean it when you say it, it’s not really a lie! And anyway, I really will make a video. Just not now. Between Teno’s decision to get molars RIGHT when I’m trying to make a video and Tony’s total lack of interest in my cupcakesploitation flicks I don’t know when it’ll happen. But it will.

Until then I shall deny you this knowledge no longer. Here is what I know about baking cupcakes in ceramic:

Ok, first… it’s not a well-tested practice. At least not in these ceramics. I know you can buy boring bowls from Snottery Barn and Lame and Barrel (like that? I moonlight as a writer for Wacky Packages) but these are handmade, real deal art pieces. Nancy and Andy asked me to check them for bakeability, but the mad scientists they are, they want to check the pieces after a few weeks of my abuse for wear and tear. So while I’m a big advocate of baking in ceramics now that I’ve seen the lovely results, Circa Ceramics isn’t quite ready to mass produce cupcake bowls right now. I know some people have already e-mailed them wanting to buy Bake & Destroy cupcake cups, which is awesome, but I think they’re still trying these out. So until those are available, buy lots of their other pieces because they’re gorgeous.

My husband Tony, the bearded wonder, suggested preheating the cups along with the oven. Brilliant! I was worried they’d take too long to heat up and the batter would get weird on me, but preheating totally eliminated that problem.

So, preheat your cups on a jelly roll pan (or a cookie sheet, but I’m a clod so I need the lip for safety) to 350 degrees. Make your batter while they heat up and then when you’re good to go, spray them with whatever non-stick baking spray you like. (Like Pam for baking or whatever. Why does that stuff smell like cookies?) This way, if you want to pop the cupcakes out and serve them as cake balls you can, and it also makes clean up much easier, even if you leave the cakes in the cups.

Then you just bake however long you normally do- I baked this recipe for 20 minutes and they were just right. Remember they cool down in hot ceramic too, so just touch the tops and if they spring back, pull them out of the oven.

And that’s really it. I know it doesn’t seem video-worthy but I was going to go through the whole recipe and act like an asshole. That would have taken at least seven minutes.

There is actually a story behind the cannoli cupcakes beyond the fact that I like alliteration. Last year my grandma (the funniest person on Earth, by the way) asked me to bake for our family (the Petitti) reunion. Actually, she shoved a $100 bill in my hand and said, “Here, I’m hiring you to bake for the reunion. That’ll cover it, don’t you think?” Remembering my nonnie’s coffee cans of pizzelles I really wanted to make Italian-American cupcakes. We’re northern, so we don’t really make cannoli, but a cannoli cupcake sounded good to me. I posted on Cupcakes take the Cake’s forum on Flickr and got (surprise!) a totally bitchy response. Now, the ladies behind the blog have always been really sweet to me, but man, some of those broads on the forum? “Cannoli are NOT Italian. I would make a tiramisu cupcake instead.” Oh wow, tiramisu- how Italian of you! I never would have thought of tira-fuckin’-misu on my own! Here I was thinking fresh lemon cupcakes with pizzelle wedges on top, or mascarpone-filled cannoli cakes. What an asshole!

So anyway, I made something completely different and it didn’t matter anyway because the dessert table was like, 50 feet long and full of store-bought brownies that, of course, everyone devoured. But I kept that idea in my head, and here’s what I came up with. It’s very basic, with lots of room to change whatever you want to and really, it’s pretty easy. The cake is based on a Julie Hasson recipe, which I simplified a bit because I’m too lazy to go to the store for things I need sometimes. The filling is where you can go wild. I mixed mascarpone with orange zest- but you could use a sweetened cream cheese and chocolate chips, candied orange zest, lemon, ricotta and confectioner’s sugar- whatever. Then on top I did an Italian meringue buttercream and some green peanuts- the same thing you get from bakeries that are too cheap to spring for pistachios, which was my reason for using peanuts as well.

For the almond cupcakes you’ll need:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup almond meal*
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1/2 cup milk

*You can find this at nicer grocery stores, or you can just throw some raw, unsalted almonds in a food pro and grind them into dust. Don’t make butter, though, then you’ve gone too far.

Preheat your ceramics and oven as directed above (350 degrees). In a small bowl, mix the flour, almond meal, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, eggs and almond extract until smooth. Alternately add the flour mixture and milk to the sugar mixture, beating until smooth. Pour batter into ceramic cups, about 3/4 full, and bake for 20 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched. Cool on wire racks.

Like I said, I made a simple filling of mascarpone cheese and orange zest. Literally, I mixed the two together, cut holes in the cupcakes with a small knife, filled them up, plugged the hole with the reserved cake and then frosted them.

I used Warren Brown’s Italian meringue buttercream recipe and even though it was a pain in the ass and used a whole pound of butter it was pretty fucking awesome. I shook up some chopped peanuts with green food coloring and there you have it- cannoli cupcakes.

Tony is always my harshest critic, offering advice on what I could do to make cupcakes better next time, and he didn’t have anything to say about these except that they’re his favorite thing I’ve ever made. I made his son, remember.

So if and when Circa Ceramics decides to market their cupcake vessels you’ll be the first to know. Until then, in your face!