Chocolate Malt Cupcakes

I'd be lying if I said I haven't been a bit absent lately..

It has been 70 or higher the past couple days, so can you blame me?!

Oh how I love the SUN!

And as I sit here and write this blog post I can smell the grills cookin' outside, hear kids playing and feel the breeze blowing in through the windows. Nothing could be better!

So what is the one thing I love most about summertime?

Green grass? No.

Birds chirping? Nope.

Sandals and cute little outfits? I like that, but I have something else in mind....

So what then you ask?

ICECREAM!

Icecream just is not that cool in winter time because you are already cold and trying to stay warm, so when the warm weather starts coming, I get the icecream itch!

I know I'm not alone. :)

I wanted to make a treat to bring to work so I decided on some chocolate malt cupcakes. I've seen these little guys floating around on many blogs out there and decided it was finally the perfect time to make them.

Look at those cuties!

Here is the recipe I used...which I got from

thatwinsomegirl.blogspot.com

Ingredients for the cupcakes:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose baking flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

1 1/2 cups malted milk powder (I used the chocolate)

1 cup vegetable oil

3 large eggs, room temp.

1 cup sour cream, room temp.

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Ingredients for the buttercream:

1 cup unsalted butter, room temp.

1 cup vegetable shortening, room temp.

1/2 cup malted milk powder

4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

5 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions for the cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners. (This will make 24)

2. Whisk together flour, cocoa, both sugars, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, whisk together milk and malted milk powder until powder is dissolved.

3. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat flour mixture, milk mixture and oil until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated. Add sour cream and vanilla, and beat just until combined.

4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each about halfway full. Bake for 18-20 minutes.

Perfection. Or so I like to tell myself. :)

Directions for buttercream:

1. In a large mixing bowl, whip butter and shortening for several minutes until very light and fluffy.

2. Sprinkle in malted milk powder and cocoa powder. Whip for 1 minute.

3. Slowly add in the powdered sugar. I did not use all 5 cups, you can stop when you feel the frosting is thick enough.

4. Frost cupcakes and top with a malted milk ball.

I looked for some cute straws to stick in the cupcakes but could not find any...next time!

The frosting was perfect for these cupcakes and I just thought they were adorable!

So if you are like me and got the icecream itch, go ahead and make yourself a batch of these chocolate malt cupcakes. They satisfied everyone who tried one!

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Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

Is anybody else getting into the St. Patty's Day mood? I have just been seeing so much green lately...could be that all the snow is finally melting and the grass is starting to show that has me in the green mood too...hmm...well anywho, I had some extra whiskey laying around and I figured it was finally time to make these Irish Car Bomb cupcakes that I have had the recipe laying around now for along time now. These would make great St. Patty's Day treats! I got this recipe over at Smitten Kitchen, which I am going to go back and visit for more great recipes!

There are 3 different parts to this cupcake...and they all include alcohol, awesome!
First, there is the chocolate cupcake which has Guinness in it...then there is the ganache filling which includes whiskey...and finally the frosting which has Bailey's mixed in...eat one of these and you will have a buzz goin on!

Here is what you will need:

For the cupcakes:

1 cup stout (such as Guinness)

1 cup unsalted butter

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

2/3 cup sour cream

For the ganache filling:

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

2/3 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons butter, room temperature

2 tablespoons Irish Whiskey (I used Jameson)

For the frosting:

4 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

4-6 tablespoons Bailey's Irish Cream (I used Rum Chata)

pinch of salt

Now here is what you do:

For the cupcakes:

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

2. Bring Stout and butter to simmer in heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

mmmmm!

3. Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl to blend.

4. Using an electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend.

5. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed.

6. Using a rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined.

7. Divide batter among cupcake liners filling them 2/3 to 3/4 the way full. Bake 17 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack.

They turned out beautiful, and the chocolate-stout really smelled very good, something that I have never experienced before!

Directions for the ganache:

1. Chop the chocolate and transfer to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate.

2. Let sit for 1 minute and then stir until smooth.

3. Add the butter and whiskey and stir until combined. Cool until thickened, but soft enough to pipe.

4. Cut a hole in center of cupcakes and pour ganache inside or pipe using bag.

I piped!

Directions for frosting:

1. Whip the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add salt.

2. Slowly add the powdered sugar beating until combined.

3. Slowly add the Bailey's (or whatever you use) until you reach your desired consistency.

Frost cupcakes before you eat all the frosting itself! Yikes!! :)

Check out that inside!

Chocolate whiskey...heaven!

The 4 amigos? Possibly the next big thing!

Oh, and I didn't tint the frosting green...a little too early to make those St. Pats cakes, and I just wanted a pretty white. Job well done I do believe!

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Bachelorette party cupcakes!

I was asked by my boss at work if I could make her daughter (who is the maid of honor in her friends wedding) some cupcakes for the bachelorette shower. I responded with a "Heck yes I can!"

A request I had was to have teal frosting on 1 of the cupcakes and have 2 different flavors. I busted out my book of cupcakes I made (pictures and recipes of every one I have made so far!) and let her pick. Red velvet and toffee were the 2 winners! Winner Winner Cupcake Dinner? I'm game! ha!

I just wanted to show you all how they turned out!

Sorry bout the carpeting up there, don't get rug burn...

The red velvets turned out amazing and the cupcake liners which I picked out myself ended up actually matching the brides invitations exact! How does that happen!? I guess it is because I am a genius....;)

Now on to my all time favorite the toffee cupcake, and the teal frosting turned out so pretty!

That last one was actually a leftover and I let the boyfriend try to decorate one. Not bad for his first time, and definately the right amount of frosting! :)

Hope you enjoyed the teal frosting as much as I did, I love making cupcakes pretty!

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Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes

I am going back on low carb (this is actually day 1 of it, blah.) and I wanted to really go out with a bang before I gave up my sweets. I dug into my collection of recipes that I have stored away and came up with Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes. I was not expecting this big of a bang! These cupcakes were purely A - to the WE - to the SOME! Loved them!

I have Confessions of A Cookbook Queen to thank for this recipe, so thank you, seriously, I now know that I cannot live without this recipe. :)

This recipe makes 24 cupcakes, but I didn't want that many (I know, but I really can't eat that many) so I cut the recipe in half. I also used these Texas Sized Cupcake Liners that I found at the grocery store so in the end, I came out with 6 huge cupcakes.

To make these cupcakes you will need:

1 box yellow cake mix

3 eggs

1 cup water

1 stick of butter, melted

&

1 cup brown sugar + 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, combined

To make the frosting you will need:

8 ounces of cream cheese, softened

1 stick butter

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups powdered sugar

(Double this is you want to pipe it on thick, I did!)

To make the glaze you will need:

1 stick butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions for cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line your cupcake tins with liners.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine cake mix, eggs, water and butter and beat on low speed until combined. Increase speed to high and beat for 1 minute.

3. Fill muffin tins about 1/4 way full.

Sprinkle a heaping teaspoon of cinnamon/brown sugar mixture over batter.

Cover with another spoonful of cake batter and then sprinkle another teaspoon of cinnamon/brown sugar mixture over the top of that. Phew!

4. Using a sharp knife, swirl the cinnamon/brown sugar mixture through the batter.

5. Bake for about 15 minutes. Cool on a cooling rack.

Look at those monsters! Are you drooling yet?

Ok, ok, frosting & glaze time!

Directions for frosting:

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla on medium-low speed until smooth. Add powdered sugar and beat on low until just combined.

2. Scrape the sides of bowl and increase speed to high and beat for 2 minutes.

(I added a little almond extract as well because I love that taste!)

Directions for the glaze:

1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt butter, brown sugar and cinnamon until combined and pourable but not boiling. Spoon over frosted cupcakes and immediately place in refrigerator to set.

Now for the frosting, I piped it on high and thick. I don't think a cinnamon roll could ever have too much frosting!

Now pour that glaze over the tops...

Now you have a seriously delicious mess on your hands :) Enjoy it!

Cinnamon rolls better watch out, cupcakes are taking over!

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Somoas!

Girl Scout cookies are, pardon my french, the bomb!!!
I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking this way. I could sit down and eat a whole box or 5 myself. Hey, just stating the obvious here.

Now these cookies were quite the process to make. Don't get me wrong though, I loved these so much that I would make them again in a heart beat!

There are a few more steps in making these cookies, but all steps are very easy. Lets get to it!

What you will need for the cookies:
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk

And this is what you will need for the topping:
3 cups shredded coconut (I used sweetened)
12 ounce bag of caramels
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons milk
8 ounces semisweet chocolate

Ready for the directions?
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Spread coconut evenly on a parchment lined baking sheet and toast for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes until coconut is golden. Cool on baking sheet, stirring occasionally. Set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt at a low speed, followed by milk and vanilla, adding in the milk as needed to make the dough come together without being sticky.

It will all come together!

Told ya! :)
4. Roll the dough (working in 2-3 batches) out between pieces of wax paper to about 1/4 inch thickness. Use cookies cutters to cut out cookies. I wanted some fun shapes as well as the circles so I used some flower cutters!

5. Place cutouts on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes, until bottoms are lightly browned and cookies are set. Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
6. Unwrap the caramels and place in a large microwavable safe bowl with the milk and salt. Microwave on high for 3-4 minutes, stirring a few times to help melt. When smooth, fold in toasted coconut.
7. Spread coconut topping on cooled cookies. Reheat caramel if it starts to get too firm. This was probably the hardest part as you had to be a bit rough to get that caramel to stick on the cookie, but gentle enough not to break the cookie. Stick with it, the end result is awesome!

8. While topping sets up, melt chocolate in a small bowl. Dip the base of each cookie into the chocolate and place on a clean piece of parchment paper.
9. With leftover chocolate, drizzle over tops of cookies. (I skipped this step as it was getting late and I needed to get some beauty rest..ok, I just needed to go to bed as I kept snacking on broken cookies and leftover caramel!)

I almost feel bad saying these taste better than the real girl scout cookies. I'm sure I still won't be able to say no when one of those cute little girlies walks up and asks me if I want to buy a box...I am such a sucker for sweets!

(Is that raspberry muffins I see on the plate with those girl scout cookies? Ok, maybe I made them on the same day, can't help it when I am on a roll!)

Go ahead, wow everyone with these cookies! I got great reviews on them, next time maybe I will try the peanut butter ones..

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Raspberry muffins

It's muffin time again!

I can never get sick of too many muffins. Is it even possible?

I had bought a bag of frozen raspberries in the plan to make some smoothies, then I just wasn't craving a smoothie anymore so I decided to make some muffins!

Muffins are the perfect breakfast food...next to a BK breakfast sandwich that is...

This is the second muffin I have made in a short time..maybe I am addicted. Do they have muffin counseling?

"Hi, my name is Jamie and I am addicted to muffins." ohh boy I just made myself smile there, could be the long shift at work I had today. Maybe it's time to go to bed.

Shall we get on to how to make these delicious things? I think so!

What you will need for the sreusel:

2/3 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

4 tablespoons butter, cold

What you will need for the muffins:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

3/4 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1 1/2 cups frozen raspberries

Directions for streusel:

1. In a small bowl, stir together all dry ingredients, then cut the butter into small pieces and add to flour mixture.

2. Rub in butter thoroughly until mixture is very fine and sandy.

3. Pick up the streusel mixture and squeeze it in your hand to form small clumps, repeating until streusel appears to have a much coarser texture.

Directions for muffins:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a standard muffin tin with 12 liners.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.

3. In a large bowl, stir together melted butter, sugar and egg until well combined. Stir in half the flour mixture, followed by the buttermilk, vanilla extract and almond extract. Stir in remaining flour mixture, just until combined.

4. Toss raspberries in 2 teaspoons of flour to keep them from bleeding. Fold in raspberries.

5. Divide muffin batter evenly into prepared baking cups.

(you are probably wondering why my batter is so pink, well I wanted it that way so I did not toss my raspberries in the flour. I wanted them to be pretty in pink!)

6. Divide streusel mixture over the muffins.

(I chose to do half with streusel and half topped with sanding sugar.)

7. Bake muffins for 20-23 minutes. Turn muffins out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

These raspberry muffins turned out so good! They tasted amazing and looked very pretty too!

Take a look for yourself!

These just gave me a reason to want to get up in the morning!

Streusel or no streusel? That is the question!

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Deep fried chicken and beer cheese dip!

Your probably thinking "Hold up Jamie, this is not a cupcake!" I know, I know but these recipes are just too good not to share. They are not just good, they are so easy to prepare as well. I'll start with the beer cheese dip. (Oh how I wish I had a bowl at this moment)

To make this dip you will need:

• 2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
• 1/3 cup beer or nonalcoholic beer
• 1 envelope ranch salad dressing mix
• 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
• Pretzels (or whatever you want to dip into this deliciousness!)

Are you ready to see how easy this is? Brace yourself...
In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, beer and dressing mix until smooth. Stir in cheddar cheese. Eat & serve. Refrigerate any leftovers...leftovers, ha!

I am serious, that's all it is! I prefer to dip pretzels just because I like the salty taste, but go ahead and try crackers, bread sticks, anything!

Now to the chicken. I have a deep fryer and realized the other night that it hasn't been used in awhile. Maybe that is because I am trying to do this whole healthy eating thing, yeah right, like that's going well by the looks of it huh!? We decided we wanted to make some crispy chicken sandwiches so I ended up going on Google and found a Triple Dipped Fried Chicken recipe. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it. The recipe can be found here @ All Recipes.com

After the second dip into the batter, I almost couldn't believe that it was going to fit IN my deep fryer.

It fit folks, and it was amazing!

To tell you the truth, it came out so crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside that I didn't even want a sandwich anymore, I wanted to eat it as it was! Not to mention the stinkin' things were so big after the triple dip that it would have been a bit hard to eat it on a bun!

I'll stop holding back and let you see these beauties!

I know the picture is not that pretty, but I take pretty pictures of treats, not meats. :)

If you are a crispy chicken lover as I am, I highly recommend this. Go ahead, give it a try I bet you can't stop after 1 bite!

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