Sweet potato cupcakes, cinnamon roll cupcakes and double chocolate cookies

Yes, it is still November. And yes, we haven't (quite) hit Thanksgiving yet. And yes, I put up my Christmas tree the other night. I know it seems too early, but I couldn't resist. After all, it was my last free time before getting busy with work and the Thanksgiving holiday, and I didn't know if I'd have time to put it up before work next week. That, and I just wanted to! I have a tradition with putting up the tree: unpack all the decorations, put the movie "White Christmas" on and watch my cat get into whatever mischief he can. This year, it was just getting into the box the Christmas tree was in and supervising my progress. Now my tree is up with all my childhood ornaments, and some new ones, with multicolored lights, multicolored garlands and sparkly snowflakes. Yes, my Christmas tree definitely fits my personality. 

Last weekend I had dinner with some girlfriends, and two of them requested cupcake flavors. First was Brianne, who is a big fan of cinnamon rolls, so I made her these cinnamon roll cupcakes. They're a weird combination of what you think of as a cinnamon roll, and a much cakier, lighter crumb. It's a cake batter mixed with a cinnamon syrup. I topped it with Martha's cream cheese frosting. 

The second request was from my friend Lauren, who wanted sweet potato cupcakes. I'm not a huge fan of sweet potato, to be honest, which was a good reason to give them all to her! She said they turned out sort of like a spice cake, and I used Martha's recipe. What really intrigued me was the frosting, which was marshmallow-flavored. I used a recipe from Annie's Eats and then toasted it with my kitchen torch. It turned out very pretty, I think (and I'm posting them to Hoosier Homemade's Cupcake Tuesday).

And finally, I made some cookies just for the heck of it Sunday. I saw this recipe on Bakerella's site: double chocolate cookies. The trick, though, is they have a little bit of peanut butter in them, which elevates them to another level. They're super tasty and very easy. I will make them again soon!