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 @

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Crazy Sweet Tuesday!

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Sweet Treats Thursday!

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Frugal Friday!

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

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Sweets for a Saturday!

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Sharing Sundays!

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

Homemade Monkey Bread

I wanted to make something...bread like, so I set myself on monkey bread! I have not had this stuff since, well, I can't even remember the last time I had it. I went and found a very simple and very delicious recipe. You must try!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup water, warm

2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

3-3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3 tbsp sugar

1 large egg

2 tbsp butter, melted

3/4 cup milk, warm

2 cups brown sugar

1 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground allspice

1/2 cup butter, melted

Directions:

1. Lightly grease a standard 10-in bundt pan with vegetable oil and set aside.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine warm water and yeast. Let stand for 2 minutes until yeast is slightly foamy.

3. Stir in 1 cup of the flour, along with the salt, sugar, vanilla, egg, 2 tbsp melted butter and warm milk. Mix well until dough is fairly smooth.

4. Put the dough hook attachment onto your mixer and gradually add in the remaining flour, mixing at medium speed until dough comes easily away from the sides of the bowl.

5. Knead for 3-4 minutes on medium speed. (My mixer started to jump a little!)

6. Remove dough hook and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let sit for 30 minutes.

There's my dough!

Now as 30 minutes has passed...

7. In a bowl, whisk together brown sugar and spices. Place melted butter in a nearby bowl and grab a fork!

8. Flatten dough out on a lightly floured surface and using a knife, cut off small pieces of dough to from 1/2 to 1 inch balls. (I just ripped off pieces of dough, no knife needed!)

9. Place dough ball, (I placed more than 1 at a time) into melted butter and roll around. Then dunk into brown sugar mixture and make sure ball is completely coated. Yummy!

10. Place all coated dough balls into prepared bundt pan.

It will look like this!

Now you will want to cover your bundt pan with plastic wrap and let sit for 60 minutes. The dough will double in size. I know, I know, the waiting stinks!

While dough is 'resting' preheat your oven to 350. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes.



Cannot get any better than that! Now comes the time to flip the pan upside down and turn bread out on a plate. (Eat a piece or 5 while they are warm and gooey!) ;)

And there you have it, Classic Monkey Bread.

Lemon Poppy-Seed!

It has taken awhile to get my second set of birthday cupcakes on here, but the time has come. I had a special request to make some lemon poppy-seed cupcakes and I think I found one of the best recipes out there. These were very good!

What you will need for the cupcakes:
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flouur
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp lemon extract (I used a little more)
zest of 1 large lemon (I used a little bit more of this also)
1 1/4 cups milk
1/4 cups poppy seeds

Now here is what you do:
1. Preheat oven to 350. Line 24 cupcake tins with liners and spray with cooking spray.
2. In a bowl, sift together flours, baking powder and salt.
3. In a bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Beat in the lemon extract and zest.
4. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the milk and beginning and ending with the flour. Beat until combined after each addition. Lastly, beat in those poppy seeds!
5. Fill cupcake liners three quarters full and bake for 30 to 35 minutes.
6. Let cool and frost!

For the frosting I improvised. I knew that I wanted something cream cheesey so I made a cream cheese buttercream frosting and added some lemon extract as well as some more zest. Turned out fabulous!

I garnished some with tiny lemon wedges...

And some with yellow crystal sprinkles...

And some with birthday sprinkles!

Don't they look good!?

Needless to say, my second set of birthday cupcakes went fast!



I partied @ The Shabby Nest!
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Sweet Treat Thursdays!

Cookies & Cream cupcakes!

It is my birthday in 2 days, ah I can just feel the year gone by :) I work in two different locations so I wanted to bring birthday treats to both places. My first treat i chose was cookies and cream cupcakes because 1. I love oreos and 2. i LOVE oreos!

I got this recipe from Beantown Baker and I must say, it was very delightful.

I didn't need 24 cupcakes, so I cut the recipe in half, but I will give you the full recipe. (Cuz I would have to say, make them all, but be careful cuz you might consume more than you'd like!)

For the cupcakes:
24 oreo halves, with cream filling attached
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
8 tbsp unsalted butter, room temp
1 2/3 cup sugar
3 large egg whites, room temp
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk
20 oreo cookies, coursely chopped.

Here are my oreos chopped, leave them somewhat big, its better when you take a bite :)

For the frosting:

8 oz cream cheese, room temp

2 tbsp unsalted butter, room temp

1 tbsp vanilla extract

4 cups confectioners' sugar

2 tbsp heavy cream

Now direction time...

Preheat oven to 350. Line the wells of two cupcake pans with 24 liners. Place and oreo half in the bottom of each liner, cream side up.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir together with a fork to blend and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar and beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Blend in the egg whites one at a time. Blend in vanilla.

With the mixer on low speed, beat in half of the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Add the milk and beat just until combined, them mix in the remaining dry ingredients. Gently fold in the chopped oreos.

Evenly divide the batter between the cupcake liners.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. Allow to cool in the pans for 5 to 10 minutes then transfer to wire rack to finish cooling.

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium-high speed until smooth. Blend in the vanilla. Beat in the confectioners' sugar until incorporated and smooth. Add the heavy cream to the bowl and beat on medium-low speed just until incorporated, then increase speed to medium-high and whip for 4 minutes until light and fluffy.

Frost your cupcakes and garnish with whatever you desire!

Here are my cupcakes cooling, look good dont they?

And here they are decorated! I put some finely crushed oreos in my frosting as well, I loved how it turned out. Then I topped them off with some birthday sprinkles and a mini oreo cookie :)





I linked up to http://shabbynest.blogspot.com/ !!!!
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Banana Split cupcakes!

So I wanted to try something...fun, and looking at all the recipes out there I came across some banana split cupcakes and I knew this was what I wanted to try next! They were a little work, but so totally worth it! I found many recipes for banana split cupcakes and mostly all of them were the same. I knew I wanted to get every taste of the banana split so I chose a recipe that had banana, strawberry, pineapple and chocolate! Here it is:

For the cupcakes
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract ( I use imitation)
2 ripe bananas mashed
3/4 cup sour cream

For the filling
1 lb strawberries, chopped up small
2 tbsp confectioners' sugar
12 oz crushed pineapple, drained

For the frosting
1 1/2 cups heavy cream, chilled
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions for the cupcakes
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Add eggs, vanilla and bananas to the butter and sugar mix. Mix well! Add the flour mixture alternately with sour cream; blend thoroughly but do not overmix. Pour into prepared pans. Bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in the pan on rack then remove and cool completely.

Getting ready for the insides!

Now while the cupcakes are cooling, you can prepare the strawberry filling (or you can do this while they are baking!)

Combine the strawberries and confectioners' sugar in a bowl. Mix them well while smashing lightly with a fork. Allow the berries to macerate at least 20 minutes.

Drain your pineapple. (I did not drain and the juice sank into the cupcakes which made them ...how do I say this...EXCELLENT!)

In the meantime you can start whipping up your frosting, literally.

First, add the heavy cream to your chilled bowl for your mixer. I stuck my bowl into my freezer for a couple minutes. With the whisk attachment and on medium speed, whip the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Add the powdered sugar and continue to whip until thoroughly combined and stiff peaks form. Be careful not to over-beat! Blend in the vanilla. After I was done making the frosting, I covered it and stuck it in the fridge.

Now it's time to stuff the cupcakes! First lets cut the center out!

Now, lets add some pineapple!

A little blurry, but it is in there, trust me :)

Now put some of that strawberry in there!

Ok, now we are to the fun part. Top these suckers with some of that whipped cream frosting! Make some ganache and pour over the top (my ganache did not set up on top like it was suppose to but ran over the sides, which was ok because it still looked ok)

Oh yeah, add some flare and a cherry on top!

I was looking in my fridge right after and noticed I had some caramel sauce in there, and I thought, Heck Yes!!!

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh yeah!

Tasted just like a banana split, no lie!

The banana cake, strawberry and pineapple filling and chocolate sauce all came together and made one heck of a yummy cupcake!

I wonder what this would taste like if I had put a dollop of ice cream with it ;)