Camp Cupcake: Cheating on Cupcakes

Yes, it has finally come to this.

Someday, I will map out this cupcake challenge like a relationship. And, to paraphrase Melissa Gray, who wrote All Cakes Considered, I would have to describe this phase in my relationship with cupcakes thusly:

Only baking cupcakes is like dating the same guy for two years, and you are not sure if you want to get more serious with him or marry him, and then George Clooney or Taye Diggs walks by.

I still love cupcakes.

I still plan to finish baking all of the cupcakes in the cookbook.

But I will be frank: I have made most of the fun recipes in this book. I have made at least one recipe a week for months, and I am getting a hankering for other things. I don't just mean I am getting a hankering to eat something besides a cupcake. I am getting a hankering to bake something besides a cupcake.

For this reason, I did not make any cupcakes this week. I turned my dissertation proposal into my committee, and I celebrated by baking cinnamon rolls. To be precise, I made a full batch of Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Roll Dough. If you are looking for a good cinnamon roll/sweet roll dough, look no further. This is perfection. It is light and moist, and surprisingly easy to make, even if you have never made anything with yeast in your life.

On Tuesday afternoon, I made the dough.

On Tuesday night, I used half the dough and made this:

And this:

On Wednesday night, I made these, Smitten Kitchen's ranch rugelach, using 1/4 of the batch:

On Thursday night, I made caramel apple sticky buns with the remaining 1/4, but I forgot to snap a picture. So, instead, here is a completely gratuitous picture of George Clooney, as a representation:

I rested on Friday night, after a week of clients, interviews, dissertation, and a few other unexpected things.

And then, on Saturday night, made a triple-batch of Bakerella's red-velvet sandwich cookies. Incidentally, this is a very easy, but completely crowd-pleasing recipe.

I realize that it might seem like I have gone off the deep end, or become a compulsive eater, but there is a method to my madness. It turns out there are a lot of people who help me out on a daily basis, and this was my way of letting them know how much I care about them.

Tomorrow, I'll be back to cupcakes.