Saturday, January 14, 2012

White Chocolate Cupcakes

I am a pretty big fan of chocolate, and out of all chocolates, white chocolate is the bomb! Baking Bites had a pretty easy and delicously awesome looking cupcake recipe so I really wanted to give it a shot. What's the worst that could happen, I fall more in love with white chocolate and milk chocolate gets jealous?

Here is what you will need for the cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
4 ounces good-quality white chocolate, chopped and melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup + 1 tablespoon milk
I used Ghirardelli white chocolate because that always seemed like the good chocolate to me!

What you will need for the frosting:
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 ounces white chocolate, melted
2 teaspoons vanilla
6 teaspoons milk
4-6 cups confectioners' sugar

Instructions
For the cupcakes:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line 18 cupcakes tins with paper liners.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
5. Add the melted white chocolate and vanilla. Mix well.
6. Alternately add the dry ingredients with the milk in 2-3 portions, mixing well after each addition.
7. Divide the batter evenly into the prepared pans and bake cupcakes for 20-22 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting:
1. In a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and cream cheese on medium speed until smooth.
2. Add the melted white chocolate, vanilla and milk.
Reduce speed to low and add the confectioners' sugar until you reach your desired consistancy.


These cupcake rose nicely and smelled great! Now time to decorate!
You may be able to tell that I went with a football theme...had to get pumped up for the Packers game this Sunday! I also made some mini cupcakes along with some regular ones. Hut hut!

Oh! Look, it's Jordy Nelson the puppy wanting to get in on some of them cupcakes! How can I blame him?!

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Posted by at 2:53 PM 4 comments

Snickers mousse cupcakes

Ok, I know it is not Valentine's Day yet, it's not even February yet, but I cannot help but want to make something pink, sweet, and a favorite for my boyfriend when every store you walk into has V-day stuff EVERYWHERE! It seemed like the day after Christmas stores went into candy heart/kisses/hugs/pink/red/you get my point overload. So I decided to do a little cupcake overload myself.

I popped on over to Kevin & Amanda and found this recipe for snickers cupcakes with a chocolate mousse filling. Yes please!

You know the drill:

For the cupcakes:
1 box devils food cake mix
1 small box jello chocolate fudge instant pudding mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk
1 cup sour cream

For the chocolate mousse filling:
2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 cups milk chocolate chips

For the chocolate buttercream frosting:
1 stick softened butter
2 1/2 to 3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

AND 1 bag of mini snickers for tops of cupcakes!

Directions for the cupcakes:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24 cupcake tins with liners.
2. In a stand mixer, place the cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, oil, milk and sour cream and beat for 2 minutes or until well combined.
Seriously, could this look any better!? The batter was soo good to eat, almost didn't have any left for the cupcakes!

3. Scoop the batter evenly into the cupcake liners.
I just couldn't get over how fudgey and chocolately this batter was. And trust me, do not over-fill these liners, cuz these suckers got big!

4. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove the cupcakes and place on cooling rack to let cool.


Directions for the chocolate mousse:
1. Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave and set aside to cool.
2. Whip the heavy cream with a stand mixer until it looks like whipped cream and stiff peaks form.
3. Fold in the melted chocolate chips into the whipped cream until well combined, then transfer to a piping bag.
Melted chocolate chips

+
whipped cream

=
MOUSSE!

Once cupcakes have cooled, pipe mousse filling into each one.


Directions for chocolate buttercream frosting:
1. Beat the butter, powdered sugar, cocoa and vanilla until well combined and a nice frosting consistency. (This did not work at all for me! I mean, it was a disaster. So what I did to fix this was I added some milk...a lot of milk, some more butter, and a lot more whipping. It all came together eventually.)

Now frost each cupcake and top with chopped snickers!


Before I show you my final cupake, here is a look at what they looked like fresh out of the oven...

And now here is what they looked like after I got done making the mousse, turned back around and was like what the!?

They started goin' doooowwwwnnnn...(it's because I used that darn boxed cake mix isn't it?) Nothing good ever comes from cheating. I didn't fret though, because then I figured the mousse would fluff these little guys right back up!




 And how can we forget to take a look at that mousse filling...I think it was probably the best part!
The snickers just top these cupcakes and put them over the edge...of course if someone doesn't like snickers...put anything you want on top. I added a little extra caramel sauce on the tops of mine because HELLO..caramel, yum!

If I had one word to describe these I would say "fluffy". Honestly they melt in your mouth. These would make a perfect Valentine's treat :)
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Posted by at 2:24 PM 8 comments

Sunday, January 8, 2012

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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Posted by at 10:17 PM 6 comments

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!
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Posted by at 9:44 PM 1 comments

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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Mix it up Monday!
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Sweet Treats Thursday!
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Frugal Friday!
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Posted by at 9:15 PM 4 comments

Sunday, January 1, 2012

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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Posted by at 9:07 PM 3 comments
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