Maraschino Cherry Cupcakes

I was really craving some chocolate covered cherries, is that weird? Anywho...I figured chocolate covered cherries on top of some cherry cupcakes..YES!

I have had these cherry chips in my cupboard now for awhile and well, I guess the feeling is like when your little and you get money and it "burns a hole in your pocket" (ok, I guess that is still what happens to me at this age) but I have been wanting to use them so bad and now was the chance!

Have you seen these before? I had only seen them once, that is why I was so excited to use them!

Here is the recipe I used.

For the cupcakes you will need:

1/2 cup butter, room temp

4 egg white, room temp

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup buttermilk

1/3 cup maraschino cherry juice

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

A big handful of cherry chips

For the frosting you will need:

1/2 cup butter, softened

4 cups confectioners' sugar

3 tablespoons maraschino cherry juice

1 tablespoon milk

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Directions for the cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24 muffin cups with liners.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. In a 2 cup glass measuring cup, combine buttermilk and cherry juice. Set aside.

(pretty!)

3. In a bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter on medium to high speed for30 seconds. Add sugar, vanilla and almond extract and beat until combined. Add egg whites, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk mixture to beaten mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined.

4. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full.

5. Sprinkle cherry chips into each muffin cup.

Now take a spoon/fork/whatever you got handy and push the chips into the batter a little, just so they don't all stay on the top.

6. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes. Cool cupcakes in muffin cups for 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes from muffin cups and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Directions for frosting:

1. In a bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter on medium speed until smooth. Gradually add 1 cup of confectioners' sugar, beating well.

2. Beat in maraschino cherry juice and almond extract.

3. Gradually beat in additional confectioners' sugar. If necessary, beat in additional juice or milk.

4. Frost cupcakes and top with a chocolate covered cherry.

Chocolate covered cherry you ask? YUP! While those cupcake are baking, bust out some of the maraschino cherries (with the stems) and some almond bark. Melt the chocolate and just dip the cherries and let dry on wax paper. That's it! They are so good and dress up the cupcakes nicely!

Frost, frost, frost!

(Like my new crackle nail polish? Just thought I'd throw that in there, because I love it!)

Now...

Eat, eat, eat!

You cannot tell me that those don't look good! Those cherry chips were a great find!

These would also be real sweet to make for a special someone on V-day ;)

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French toast cupcakes with bacon!

I LOVE BACON!

Whew!, I had to get that out there. Now that you all know my love for bacon I'll make it known that this is my 2nd cupcake I have made that has had bacon involved. (And no, it will most likely not be my last.)

The last bacon cupcake I made was a plain maple cupcake with maple cream cheese frosting, topped with bacon. I wanted to take it a little furthur this time, no fear!

So I looked and looked and came up with what looked to be a pretty good choice of a cupcake.

A French Toast Bacon Cupcake with Cinnamon Maple Cream Cheese Bacon Frosting.

Whoa.

Lets get to er huh!?

Here is what you will need:

For the cupcakes:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup cake flour

1 3.9 ounce box instant vanilla pudding mix

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon corn starch

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 stick unsalted butter, room temp

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 large egg whites, room temp

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup half-and-half, room temp

1/2 cup chopped, cooked bacon (5-6 strips)

For the frosting:

8 ounces cream cheese, room temp

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temp

2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

1/4 cup maple syrup

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3 strips chopped, cooked bacon

That's a lot of ingredients, but don't be scared, it makes such a delicious cupcake!

Now time to get down to the nitty gritty. You ready?

Directions for cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners.

2. Combine the flours, pudding mix, baking powder, corn starch, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a bowl and whisk.

3. In a bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars on low speed until combined, 6 to 8 minutes. Gradually mix in the vanilla and egg whites. Scrape down the sides of bowl and continue mixing until light and fluffy.

4. Add the flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the maple syrup and half-and-half, mixing after each addition and ending with flour. Mix until ingredients are just combined making sure not to overmix.

5. Fold in the bacon.

6. Pour batter into the prepared muffin tin, filling each cup about 3/4 full. Bake for approximately 40 minutes. Cool completely.

Directions for the frosting:

1. Beat the cream cheese and butter with a mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.

2. Add the confectioners' sugar, maple syrup and cinnamon; beat until combined.

3. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes and top with bacon!

I made these for a Christmas treat for my family and they absolutely loved them! (They were a bit skeptical at first, considering none of them have heard about bacon on a dessert before!)

The perfect cupcake for bacon lover's everywhere!

Enjoy!

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Poptarts!

After the holidays are all over, I had some pie crusts left over in the freezer and was wondering what I could do with them. I seen on a few blogs some homemade poptarts and I thought that would be an awesome way to use the rest of the crusts.

I am more of a fan of toaster strudels (don't tell poptarts I said that) but when I thought of having the flakey pie crust and the cherry pie filling with some icing on top, mmmm...well you get my drift..

There really isn't much to making these little guys. Really.

Step 1. Take out the pie crust and roll it out making a rectangle as best you can.

Step 2. Cut an even amount of smaller rectangles, trying to make them the same size.

Step 3. On half of the rectangles, place a dab of strawberry/raspberry/whatever your fav flavor preserves is. I used cherry pie filling since I had a can left over.

Step 4. Place a rectangle on top of the one with jelly and crimp all 4 edges. Place on a baking sheet and bake for about 7-8 minutes until golden brown.

All nice and golden :)

Alrighty, next step! Let these poptarts cool, I put mine on a cooling rack. Then we will want to make our icing.

For the icing, mix 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract and 2 tablespoons milk. Once the poptarts have cooled, drizzle or if your like me, pour over poptarts and sprinkle with sanding sugar. (I just used regular sprinkles!) Have fun!

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Hot Cocoa Cookies

A couple weeks ago (I know, weeks, I am so bad @ keeping up with blogging when it's the holidays) I had a work meeting and these work meetings are a great place to test out new recipes. Who can resist trying a dessert when it's placed right in front of them? ppff! I can't!

I usually bust out some new cupcake flavor that I have saved in my favorites but this time I wanted to try some...cookies! So while browsing on Pinterest (we are all guilty) I came across some hot cocoa cookies. They were screaming at me through the computer screen "make me, make me!" I swear!

So, I made them.

You can find the recipe I used here @ Pip & Ebby. I will give it to you as well and show you how yummy these turned out!

In a medium saucepan, melt together:
1 stick unsalted butter
12 oz. chopped semisweet chocolate (I used chocolate chips)
Stir frequently over medium heat until smooth. Let cool for 15 minutes.

In a medium bowl, whisk together:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Using an electric mixer, beat together:
1 1/4 cups light brown sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Beat on low speed until smooth, 2 minutes. Mix in the cooled chocolate mixture just until blended.

Add the flour mixture in 2 batches, mixing on low speed until just comined. Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a tablespoon, scoop the dough and roll between your palms to form 1-inch balls. (This part got very messy, beware!)

Arrange about 16 balls 2 inches apart on each cookie sheet, flattening slightly.

Bake until the tops of the cookies crack, about 12 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut 7.5 ounces of semisweet chocolate (bars) into 1-inch squares. Snip 8 marshmallows in half crosswise and stick 1 square of chocolate onto each of the cut sides.

Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and gently press a marshmallow half, chocolate side down, into each cookie.

Bake until the marshmallows are just softened, about 4 minutes. Transfer the pans to racks to cool for 5 minutes.

Grate 5 ounces of semisweet chocolate over the hot cookies. Using a spatula, transfer the cookies to the racks and let cool.

I used some leftover Andie's mints on some on my cookies instead of the chocolate..they were delicious also! You can see that some have a hint of green :)

 Whoa baby! Take a look at that cookie! I found that even the next day as there were a few left over, if you just pop them in the microwave for a few seconds, it's just like they are fresh out of the oven. Ooey, gooey & oh so delicious! A perfect treat for a cold winter night :)

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White trash snack mix with santa bugel hats!

White trash snack mix with santa bugel hats..whoa! That is a wickedly long name for something that is soo  soo soo easy (and fun) to make! I wanted to bring  a Christmas-y treat for everyone I work with and since I am almost positive that no one, and I mean NO ONE could ever not like white trash chex mix, I figured it was the perfect thing to make.

I was right :)

Perfect thing to make!

Now some of you may ask what white trash chex mix is...well you could really add whatever you like in the mix but here are the ingredients I use. Oh yeah, I don't measure either, I just put in what I think looks good and add more of the stuff that I like more.

Holiday colored M&M's

Craisins

Corn chex or rice chex cereal..or both!

Honey nut cheerios

Pretzels

&

White chocolate chips

Alright, so what you do is put all those ingredients together into a big bowl, melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave and pour all over everything in the bowl. It may even be easier to split it up into 2 bowls if you make lots like I do.

Now for the bugel santa hats, you will want to get some bugels and pick out all the nice looking ones that will really resemble a good santa hat :)

(I just want to interupt here and say that if you have not tried the caramel bugels, you have to! This is the first time I have tried them because I figured the caramel would taste the best with the chocolate and they are SO good and addicting!) moving on...

Then, you will want to get some red candy melts, melt them in the microwave and start dipping your "hats". I held onto the top of the bugel and dipped the rest of it into the chocolate, then laid it onto wax paper to dry.

Once that first layer is dry, re-dip the bottom of the "hat" into the red candy melt then immedietly dip into some white sprinkles. Once again, lay onto wax paper to fully dry. They will look something like so...

Alright, now once those all dry, take a mini marshmallow and stick one onto the top of each hat like this..

CUTE!

I just layered some of my white trash mix into little holiday goodie bags and randomly placed my santa hats inside and on top just so they would not get broken as I was mixing everything else up.

So cute/delicious/colorful/& hello, cheap!

Next holiday pick out that colored M&M's and make yourself some white trash chex mix!

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Gingerbread cupcakes

I LOVE gingerbread cookies. Love love love them! So why not make gingerbread cupcakes, duh!

I actually wanted to make a treat to take down to my Christmas that I spend at my grandma's house. I seen some cute gingerbread cupcakes on pinterest that I was dying to make, so I did it!

Here is the recipe that I used.

Ingredients for the cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups flour

2 tbsp ground ginger

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

3 sticks unsalted butter, room temp!

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 tbsp molasses

4 large eggs, room temp!

1 tsp vanilla extract

gingerbread men cookies for decoration!

Ingredients for cinnamon cream cheese frosting:

8 ounces cream cheese softened

3 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp cinnamon

Directions for cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour & spices. Set aside.

3. In a mixer, cream butter & sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

4. Beat in molasses, then eggs, one at a time. Beat in vanilla.

5. Add flour mixture and mix on low speed until just combined. Do not overmix!

6. Fill cupcake liners and bake for approximately 30 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.

Directions for frosting:

1. Combine cream cheese & powdered sugar until smooth.

2. Add cinnamon & vanilla. Beat until smooth. Easy peezy!

FROST!

Here they are fresh out of the oven. They smelled SO good!

I frosted the top with just a ring of frosting first, and then dipped it in graham cracker crumbs. Then i used the swirly tip (I know, I should be using proper terminology here but bear with me!) to top off the top of the cupcakes.

 Topped with a gingerbread man cookie!

p.s. The "Merry Christmas" sign in the back is a sign that I made my mom. I bought a silver tray for a buck @ a thrift store, painted it, then used a paint pen to paint the letters. :)

The gingerbread people did not want to be eaten!! :)

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The joy of Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!!

Oh wow, it is the day after Christmas and I just cannot believe it goes by that fast. I mean, I feel like I just put up my tree for crying out loud! Went around town today to see if I could find any good deals on Christmas stuff. It was pretty adventurous trying to fight the crowds..people are crazy I tell you. I am all prepared for wrapping paper next year...I wanted to have all my colors jive for next year and I really wanted to find some white and black paper, and guess what? I DID! Success!

So how was everyone else's Christmas? Was Santa good to everyone? I must have been very good this year because I am typing on my brand new Sony laptop. My other computer was getting very slow and I needed to have a mouse plugged in at all times and the battery would always die, so now I can blog in pure happiness.

I have also been crafting here and there (while baking!) Here is what I have been up to...

My cute Christmas bucket for outside decoration. Took me forever to find that bucket! Also, notice how the snowman says "Let It Snow", and there is no snow on the ground. No snow makes for a dull Christmas, but very easy driving!

Mod podged letters for my bathroom :)

& letters for my kitchen! I used an old cookbook for these, I love how it turned out.

Letters that I made for Christmas time.

Homemade hot chocolate mix. I made these for a couple younger cousins and my boyfriends little brothers & sisters. What kid wouldn't be happy to get cocoa!?

Hot chocolate stirrers. They didn't turn out as cute as I had hoped. Honestly, I thought these would be a lot easier to do! But the kiddos loved them! (Don't mind the shotglass holders...it was the only thing I could think of since I didn't have any foam!)

Oh don't mind him, that's just puppy being lazy, or I guess you could say a good boy, as I craft/bake away!

Sweater frame. Background is an old sweater, the deer are ornaments I got @ the dollar store. What a steal. The red will be painted cream once I remember to buy paint :)

My Christmas tree bulbs I made. I used mod podge and an old dictionary and LOTS of glitter, cuz I love glitter and you can never have too much!

Finally, the Christmas tree. Looks so pretty when all lights are off. Didn't have a star yet, was planning on making my own to match the bulbs. Hopefully by next year I will have it made ;)

So that's what was keeping me busy. I hope you enjoy my busy/crafty/glittery time consuming projects!

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