Possibly some of the best brownie cupcakes...ever!

It was a co-workers birthday last week and I wanted to make a real special cupcake for her. I knew that I wanted to do something that involved toffee and I finally came upon a recipe that I was instantly sold on.

I get e-mails from Hershey's about new recipes and decided to look through a couple of them. When I came across to "Chocolate Caramel Crumb" Cupcakes, would you think to just keep going? Absolutely not!

I am going to get straight to the point here, not only did I say this to myself but I heard it from a few more that "These are the best I/you have made so far". Are you ready for the recipe so you can get right on this!?

For the cupcakes:

• 1/2 cup Smucker's caramel ice cream topping
• 4 oz. cream cheese (half of 8-oz. package), softened
• 1 box (19.5 oz.) Pillsbury Chocolate Fudge Brownie Mix
• 1/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• 2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Mini Chips Semi-Sweet Chocolate
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons LAND O LAKES Butter, softened
• 1/2 cup Fisher Chef's Naturals Chopped Pecans
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup Crisco Pure Canola Oil
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 3 EGGLAND'S BEST eggs

I did not use the brands suggested, but I did use the Pillsbury brand brownie mix. I already felt like I was kind of cheating using the brownie box mix so I decided to go above and beyond and instead of using caramel ice cream topping, I made my own caramel! If you would like to see how I made the caramel, check back @ my caramel apple cupcake post! ;)

Also, I am not crazy for nuts, so I took out the chopped pecans and put in toffee bits! (There's the toffee I wanted!)

Now, for the directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Place paper baking cup in each of 18 regular-size muffin cups. In a small bowl, beat caramel topping and cream cheese with wire whisk until smooth; set aside. (I used my kitchen aid)
2. In a large bowl, stir together brownie mix, cocoa and chocolate chips. Remove 2/3 cup brownie mixture to another small bowl; stir in 1/4 cup brown sugar, butter and toffee until crumbly.
3. To remaining brownie mixture, add 1/3 cup brown sugar, oil, sour cream and eggs; stir 50 strokes with spoon. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Spoon about 1 tablespoon caramel mixture onto center of batter in each cup. Sprinkle crumb mixture evenly over tops. (Next time I make these, I am definately putting more than 1 tbsp of this mixture in the center, it was to die for!)
4.  Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted near edge comes out almost clean (center will be soft). Cool in pan 5 minutes; remove from pan to cooling rack. Cool 10 minutes.

Plop the caramel/cream cheese mixture right in the middle!

Crumb mixture on top.

All baked up! Don't they look amazing!

Now, as you see, the recipe above comes with no frosting..who wants a cupcake without frosting!?

I will say, the dollop of cream cheese mix in the middle does make these pretty good plain, but I knew that I still wanted frosting. I chose to put on top some cream cheese almond buttercream.

So gooey!

Ah, complete :)

I partied @

Sweets for a Saturday!

&

Frugal Friday!

&

Sweets for a Saturday!

&

Crazy Sweet Tuesday!

Apple Crisps!

Are you wondering why the title of this post says crisps? Yes, that's right, plural. I made two apple crisps! Just because the first one was so good, I had to make another, but mix it up a bit of course.

        (I made these recipes for the improv cooking challenge! Check it out on October 20th!)

The first one I made was just plain ol' apple crisp. Very easy to make, and sooo very good to eat!

Here is what you will need:

5 apples
1 cup rolled oats
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
6 tbsp butter
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp allspice
2 tbsp apple juice

Now this is what you do:

• Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly butter a 9 inch baking pan then dust it with flour.
• Peel, core and slice the apples. and arrange them in the pan like so

• In the bowl of an electric mixer, blend the oats, brown sugar, flour, butter, cinnamon, salt and allspice on low speed until it gets crumbly.
• Crumble the mixture evenly over the apples and sprinkle with the juice like so

• Bake for 35 minutes. Let cool

Perfection.

Now since for the improv cooking challenge you needed to use caramel as well, what I did was drizzled caramel on top of the apples before I put the crumb mixture on top. Um, delicious right!? I suppose I could have drizzled it on top as well...

Oh yeah, when I made my apple crisp, I added a little extra oats, brown sugar and butter just because my favorite part IS the crumb mixture on top :)

Now for my second crisp I made, basically the same thing just wanted to add some raspberries into the mix! Pretty good idea right?

What you will need:

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

5 large Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and thinly sliced

1 cup frozen raspberries, thawed

1/2 cup old-fashioned oats

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons butter, melted

What you do:

• Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease a 9x9 inch baking dish.
• In a large bowl, mix brown sugar and 1 tablespoon flour. Add sliced apples and raspberries; toss to coat. Spoon into baking dish.

(Need a closer look?)

• In a medium bowl, mix together oats, 1/2 cup flour, cinnamon and salt. Stir in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over apple mixture.

• Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 55 minutes, or until topping is lightly browned. Serve warm.

Once again, drizzle some caramel and after you cut yourself a slice, top with some vanilla ice cream or whip cream. Or hey, both?

soooo good!

 

I partied @

Frugal Friday!

Chocolate chocolate chocolate!

It's been awhile, but I haven't been slacking, I swear! Just haven't had time to make it on the computer, that's all.

What have I been up to? Making delicious cupcakes of course! It was currently the end of the fiscal year so I was making some "New Year" cupcakes for a potluck at work. When asked for suggestions from everyone I got "something chocolate" Well...I can do that!

I picked a chocolate cupcake with (really amazing) chocolate frosting. I got the recipe over at Annie's Eats. They were going to be "triple chocolate" but I am not a huge fan of ganache, don't get me wrong I don't hate it, just prefer something a little....fluffier? ha! So I was going to go with a raspberry center, but when it came time and I tried whipping something up it didn't turn out how I liked so I panicked...then my boyfriend had a great idea...cream cheese frosting! Uh, hello, shoulda thought of that myself!

The recipe that Annie's Eats gives is for 32+ cupcakes, and unless your feeding an army ya prolly are like me and don't need that many so I cut this recipe in half....

For the cupcakes:
¾ cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
¾ cup hot water
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1¼ tsp. coarse salt
1½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter
2¼ cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
4 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream, at room temperature

For the frosting:
14 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used bittersweet chocolate chips..easy way out!)
9 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
9 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
6 tbsp. unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. sour cream

To make the cupcakes:
Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  
In a small bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder and hot water until smooth.  
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
In a medium saucepan, combine the butter and the sugar over medium heat.  Heat, stirring occasionally to combine, until the butter is melted. Remove the mixture from the heat and transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.  Beat on medium-low speed, 4-5 minutes, until the mixture is cooled.  Mix in the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed and beating well after each addition.  Mix in the vanilla and then the cocoa mixture and beat until incorporated.  
With the mixer on low speed add in the dry ingredients in two batches, alternating with the sour cream, beating just until combined.
Divide the batter between the prepared cupcake liners, filling them about ¾ of the way full.  Bake 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, rotating the pans halfway through baking.  Allow the cupcakes to cool in the pan 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting:
Melt the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl set over a pot of simmering water. (I melted my chips in the microwave..oh! Extra easy)
Set aside to cool until just barely warm.  
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and butter on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.  
Gradually mix in the confectioners’ sugar, cocoa powder and salt.  
Beat in the melted and cooled chocolate and then the sour cream. Continue beating until the mixture is smooth and well blended.  Frost cupcakes immediately.

For the middle of my cupcakes I mixed a stick of butter, 8 oz cream cheese and about 2 cups confectioners' sugar together. It was not very thick which was how I wanted it so it was nice and smooth in the middle. I then added about a teaspoon and a half of almond extract...I love that flavor!



They turned out perfect! Love this recipe!

The frosting was so smooth and ....chocolatey!! It got great reviews :)

Some were plain, some had pearly sprinkles...

Happy Fiscal Year!



I partied @

Frugal Friday!
&
Sweets for a Saturday!

A trip down memory lane...

Two summers ago, back in July 2010, it was my boyfriend and I sitting on our couch doing absolutly nothing. He looks at me and goes "Lets go somewhere. Anywhere you want to go."

Hello! Anywhere!?

Yup, we got up the next day and left for my choice of destination, New York! Why New York you ask? Well, I figure I will never get another chance to pick where I would want to go in the United States and you see shows in New York and hear about it, well heck, I wanted to go!

Now at this time we were watching the Food Network and Travel Channel religiously. My favorite show: Cake Boss. His favorite show: Man vs. Food. We knew we had to hit up at least 1 place that Adam has been too as well as go to my good ol' Buddy's place ;)

And we were off! Our first stop was in Chicago. We wanted to try out the Skydeck which turned out to be a long wait but a wait that was well worth it! Allllll the way to the top there were some clear edges that you could step out on, can you say scary!?

After this we took off for our next destination, Primanti Bros in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.

If you have seen the episode of Man vs. Food where Adam goes here, or one of the many shows where they show the top 10 places to eat, you will know that Primanti Bros is famous for their sandwhiches that are topped with french fries, coleslaw and tomatoes. This is the only thing my boyrfriend absolutly wanted on this trip.

We made it!!! I am disappointed that I did not take a picture of the sandwhich he ordered, it was pretty awesome and he loved it!

Next stop, Hershey Pennsylvania to go to Hersheyland!!

I thought it was so cute how they had Hershey Kisses as their lights! We rode every rollercoaster at Hersheyland (except for 1, my fault, too chicken) and headed out to finally arive in New York!

Many days were spent on Times Square, eating, shopping and sightseeing.



I love pizza, am almost surprised that I haven't turned into one yet I eat it so much! I also love Mexican food so you better believe we had our share of mexican and pizza places while we were there. Besides, you have to try a couple different places to get the New York pizza feel right? No matter how many places we ate at, the very best place was called "Heartland Chophouse Brewery". I do not think I have had better food than what I had here, no lie. If you are ever in the area, try it you will not be disappointed!

Alright, alright, time for the main reason I chose to go here, Carlo's Bake Shop! When we drove by, we seen this line that went, well it was a long line I will put it that way. I almost just said lets not do it but I am so glad that my boyfriend talked me into waiting. The wait was a little over an hour, and once you finally got inside it was so packed you could barely look at anything! We went in with a plan: my boyfriend was off to get the sweets (I told him EVERYTHING I had to have) and I was off to get a T-shirt. You better believe that I was not leaving until I got a souvenier...one that I couldn't eat :)

And here's what we came out with! So excited!

2 red velvet cupcakes, 2 brownies, 2 white chocolate covered strawberries, 2 eclaires, 2 lobster tails (a must try on my part) and 1 t-shirt.

I was literally in heaven at this point.

Let me tell you, Buddy is an awesome baker.

I hope to someday be able to make treats that are this good!

My next hardest project might be trying to work on lobster tails. Anyone got any suggestions?

Well that is the end of my memory lane for one vacation...



Ready for Fall!

Goodbye 90 degree weather, hello my favorite weather!

I love love love when FALL weather starts rolling around, the breezy air, the sound of leaves crunching under your feet, pulling out those cute jackets that have been stuffed in your closet all summer, and most of all, caramel Apples!

Well, I wanted to try a new flavor cupcake and since the weather calls for it, I thought I needed something "fall flavor". Caramel apples were the first thing that popped into my head and the thought of making homemade caramel for the first time really got me excited! I found a recipe on Java Cupcake and got started!

(Oh yeah, I didn't want to make all 16 so I cut this recipe in half. Didn't want to have to eat them all :) )

What you will need

For the cupcakes:

3 medium granny smith apples
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup apple juice
1 teaspoon vanilla

For the caramel: *even though I cut the cupcake recipe in half, I made alllll the caramel :)

2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1-1/2 tablespoon light corn syrup
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoon unsalted butter, room temperature

For the frosting:

8oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted



To get started:

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Wash apples then cut in half and core them. (I cut mine in 3-4 pieces) Place on a baking sheet and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.

3. Bake for 35-40 minutes until soft. Remove the apples from the oven and let cool slightly.

They started oozing, I knew they were done!

4. Remove the peels and mush the apple with the back of a fork. Measure out 1 cup of apple mush and set aside to cool.

5. Combine flour, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt in a medium sized bowl and whisk to combine.

6. In an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, mix together the eggs, oil, and vanilla.  Add the cooled apple mush and mix just to combine.

7. Add the flour and apple juice in three parts, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix until just combined. 

8. Scoop into cupcake papers about 2/3 full.

9. Bake for 15 minutes, rotate pan 180 degrees, then bake 3-5 more minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

To make the caramel:

1. Measure sugar, water and corn syrup in a large pot and stir just to combine ingredients.
2. Turn to medium-high heat and without stirring, bring sugar mixture to a boil.  Boil 10-15 minutes until sugar turns an amber color.

3. Remove from heat and stir in the butter with a whisk.
4. Wait about 30 seconds and slowly stir in the heavy crème.
5. Scrape sides of pan and mix until thoroughly combined.  Pour into a heat safe glass bowl/measuring cup to cool.

CARAMEL! YUM!




















To make the frosting:
1. In an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and cream cheese.
2. Add vanilla. (I added some of the apple juice as well)
3. One cup at a time, add the powdered sugar mixing after each. Scrape down the bowl as needed.


As my apples were cooking in the oven, I decided to make some fall festive decorations. First I started by making some trees! I used peanut butter flavored candy melts and some almond bark to make trees and then used yellow, green and orange flower shaped sprinkles as the leaves...

That leaf you see up top? Well that is something I have been wanting to try for awhile now. I went outside, picked out the most perfect leaf (if there is such a thing) and painted it with some of the candy melts. I also made a chocolate worm to put on top of my cupcakes :)

Now lets assemble these things huh!? Cut out the middle of the cupcakes and fill with caramel. (I did half with caramel and half with the frosting) like so..

Replace the tops and with the ones that had caramel on the inside, I frosted the tops. I also pretty much attacked them with green sprinkles to make it look like a good ol' granny smith apple! For the ones with frosting inside, I topped with the caramel, trying to make it look like a caramel apple. I got a little to antsy and I think I should have let the caramel sit a bit longer so it wasn't so runny so these ones didn't turn out as well as I would have liked them to, but they were still yummy!

Enjoy my decorations!

That is one worm that I WOULD want in my apple :)

The leaf! So happy how it turned out and cant wait to make some more!

Trees turned out so good!

Couldn't have said it better myself.

And just in case this isn't close enough....

;)

Now go be festive and try out your own caramel apple cupcakes!

I partied @

Totally Tasty Tuesday's!

&

Crazy Sweet Tuesday!

&

Sweet Treats Thursday!

&

Frugal Friday!

&

http://www.crumbsandchaos.blogspot.com/!

&

Sweets for a Saturday!

&

Sharing Sundays!

&

Falling for Crafts Challenge #2!!!

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Obviously I have a sweet tooth, but one of my biggest weaknesses are cinnamon rolls. I had some flour and yeast that i had to use up but I was always a little nervous about making my own homemade cinnamon rolls, but I figured its now or never right!?

I was looking around on a few of my favorite blogs when I came across some good looking pictures of cinnamon rolls on Sweetapolita. I instantly knew that these were the ones that I wanted to try!

Lets get started, you will need:

For the dough:
1 package dry yeast
1 cup warm whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup margarine
1 tsp salt
2 large eggs
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup bread flour

For the filling:
1 cup light brown sugar
3 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/3 cup margarine

For the frosting:
4 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup margarine
1 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tsp vanilla flavor
1/8 tsp lemon flavor

Now here is what you do:

1. Dissolve the yeast in the wam milk. ( I did this in the bowl of my electric mixer. )
2. Add sugar, margarine, salt, eggs and flours. Mix well.
3. Knead the dough into a large ball. Put in bowl and cover. Let rise for about 1 hour.
4. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface. It should be approx 21 inches long by 16 inches wide and approx 1/4 inch thick.

Now we start the filling:
1. Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.
2. Spread the softened margarine over the surface of the dough.
3. Sprinkle the brown sugar mixture evenly over the surface, leaving about 1 inch untouched around edges. ( I just poured the mixture into the middle and spread it out with a fork. )

It should look like this...

Now you will want to gently roll it into a fairly tight roll. Try to keep that filling inside!



It should look like this!

Next, take a sharp knife and cut into 12 pieces.

Place on parchment lined cookie sheet about 2 inches apart and cover with a lint-free cloth. Let rise for another hour.

These are my cut rolls. I did not have a very sharp knife, but I got the job done..

Look at all that cinnamon sugar!!!



After they have risen for another hour, bake at 400 degrees F for about 10 minutes. They will get all nice and golden brown. Cool on cooling rack and gently place into airtight container when cool.

Now seriously, how good do these look? They were humungous and oh so good to look at!

Lets get these frosted shall we?!

To start the frosting, place cream cheese and margarine in bowl of electric mixer. Let sit for about a half hour so it gets to be at room temp.

Using the paddle attachment, mix for 6 minutes on speed "2".

Switch to the stainless steel whip and beat on speed "6" for 10 minutes.

Add 1 cup confectioners' sugar and beat for one minute.

Add the rest of the 3/4 cup sugar and beat for another minute.

Next, add the vanilla and lemon flavors and beat for another 1 minute on high speed.

All done!

Frost those suckers!

Ohh La La :)

These were so fun to make and so much fun to eat! If your looking for a cinnamon roll recipe, I highly recommend this one, it fully delivered a mouthful of happiness :)

I partied @

Sweet Treats Thursday!
&
Frugal Friday!
&
Sweets for a Saturday!
&
Sweet Treats Tuesday!