Pantry (No Eggs, No Milk) Cupcakes with Speculoos Cookie Butter Drizzle

The other day I wanted some cupcakes, but had no eggs or milk. Luckily I found this recipe for eggless chocolate cupcakes, which I think of as "pantry cupcakes" because you use items from your pantry, not your fridge.

I also wanted a frosting, and had a jar of this delicious stuff in my pantry...

Trader Joe's Speculoos Cookie Butter

 ...so I decided to just melt it and drizzle it.

They didn't turn out very pretty, but they sure are delicious. Next time maybe I will melt it a little less, or use a peanut butter frosting recipe such as this one but use the delicious cookie butter instead.

Definitely a delicious experiment at the very least!

Wednesday Hodgepodge, 8/8/12

1. In an effort to combat obesity, the mayor of NYC has plans to ban the sale of large sugary drinks (anything over 16 oz.), initially in restaurants, movie theatres, and street carts. Corner stores would also be affected if they are defined as food service establishments. You can read more here. Your thoughts?
I don't like the idea at all. People should be able to drink whatever they like. You can't ban everything just because it might hurt someone. 

2. Art festival, music festival, food festival…which would you most like to attend?

I think either a food festival or an art festival. I am not huge on music, but I like looking at art, and of course, eating is fun!

3. What are you irrational about?

Sometimes I can just get weird about things and I know it's irrational but I can't help it. I double check that I locked/closed doors, closed the reptiles' cages, closed the bathroom so the puppy can't raid the trash can, etc. Even if I know I already did. I have some OCD tendencies, haha...

 

4. Do you feel confident you’ll have a comfortable retirement?

I feel fairly confident about retirement. I work for the city so retirement money goes into the Arizona State Retirement System. Scotty has a 401k and we also have an IRA. I will have my 80 points to retire fairly early on from work (in my early or mid-50's) although I'm not sure if I actually will, haha.

 

 5. What’s been your favorite Olympic moment so far?

(Not ever, just in the 2012 Summer games.)

It would have to be the women's gymnastics team winning gold... that was a great moment.

 

6. What would you label as the messiest room in your house?

Hmm... if the garage counts as a room that's definitely it! It catches lots of random stuff and there are several boxes of magazines and game manuals we haven't gone through.

 

7. Do you follow your heart or your head?

I'm not sure actually, I always have a hard time with this question. I would say my head because I tend to go with what is logical and makes the most sense, but I am not immune to my emotions by any means.

 

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Happy early birthday Jennifer!