Betsy Eves, Author at JavaCupcake

Mint Chocolate Chip Cake

February 22, 2013 by Betsy Eves 10 Comments

I’m heading out of town this weekend to Garmish, Germany for a marriage retreat courtesy of the US Army. Three days and two nights at the Edelweiss Resort all on the Army’s dime. When they offer these kinds of weekends – you don’t tell the Army no. You say, THANK YOU and enjoy yourself!

Unfortunately, by going on this retreat I’ll be missing my dear friend Chasity’s birthday on Sunday. Sad, yes. BUT – being the awesome friend I am… I’m making her birthday cake before I head out of town! Her husband asked me last week if I’d make the cake for her and of course I jumped at the chance. Chasity’s favorite flavors are mint & chocolate chip. No lie about this too. We went to Poland together last weekend and stopped in Dresden and she ate two giant scoops of mint chocolate chip ice cream. She LOVES this stuff! (PS Sorry, Chasity for calling you out on the ice cream haha!)

I started with a basic two layer 8-in chocolate cake. You can use any recipe you like… for a quick cake, I like chocolate fudge box mix or you can use my favorite recipe for chocolate cake. Since most of the awesomeness of this cake comes from the frosting and the decorations… the cake part wasn’t my primary focus. I frosted the cake with buttercream – but kicked it up a million notches by adding mint and chocolate chunks to create the mint chocolate chip aspect of the cake. For garnish I made a mint chocolate bark that was super simple yet so darn yummy. Overall – this cake ruled!

Enjoy!

Mint Chocolate Chip Cake

Total Time: 6 hours

Yield: 1 2-layer 8-inch cake

Ingredients

Chocolate Cake

Click on this LINK for the RECIPE

Mint Chocolate Chip Buttercream

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup shortening
2lbs powdered sugar
1 Tbsp mint extract
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup heavy cream
Wilton Food Coloring Gel - Green
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

Chocolate Ganache

4oz semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp vanilla

Mint Chocolate Chip Bark

Click on this LINK for the RECIPE

Instructions

Chocolate Cake

Make 1/2 the recipe for the chocolate cake using the recipe in the link above.
Cover and freeze layers for several hours or overnight.

Mint Chocolate Chip Buttercream

Cream butter and shortening together until smooth.
Add the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition.
Mix in the mint, salt, and heavy cream. Scrape the sides of the bowl and beat on high for 4-5 minutes or until light and fluffy. If the mixture is too thick, add more heavy cream.
Add the food coloring and mix until the color is uniform.
Fold in the chocolate chunks.

Chocolate Ganache

Place chocolate chunks in a medium glass bowl.
In a small sauce pan, heat the milk, butter and vanilla until it boils.
Pour immediately over the chocolate and let stand for 2 minutes.
Using a metal spoon, stir slowly and gently until all the chocolate has melted making sure not to incorporate any air into the ganache.

Mint Chocolate Chip Bark

Follow the recipe found in the link above.

Assembly

Trim off the rounded edges of the top of both layers of cake.
Using an offset spatula, spread a 1/2 inch layer of buttercream over the first layer of cake. Make sure to spread it flat and evenly all the way across the edge of the cake.
Spread a thin crumb coat of buttercream around the outside of the cake. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Generously spread more buttercream around the outside of the cake until you have about a 1/2 inch layer of frosting. Smooth out the buttercream.
Prepare the ganache on the top of the cake in the center. Using an offset spatula, gently bring the ganache to the edge of the cake and let it pour over. Start by pouring a small amount of ganache, you can always add more if necessary.
Garnish with a stack of mint chocolate chip bark.

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Filed Under: cake, chocolate, chocolate cake, frosting and icing, mint frosting, peppermint and mint, recipes

Mint Chocolate Chip Bark

February 22, 2013 by Betsy Eves Leave a Comment

I made a cake recently and garnished it with homemade mint chocolate chip bark. It was so super simple and so super easy yet so super yummy that I thought it deserved it’s on post.

There are really only three things you need to make this bark – chocolate, mint extract and green food coloring gel. It takes about 10 minutes plus a little more for the chocolate to set up and BAM – you’ve got chocolate bark.

Not only could you use this to top a cake or cupcakes – but this would make a great teacher gift, topping for ice cream or in your coffee. Really the possibilities are endless!

Enjoy!

Mint Chocolate Chip Bark

Yield: 2-3 cups bark

Ingredients

1 cup Hershey's mint chocolate chips
1 cup white chocolate chips
Wilton Food Coloring Gel - Green
1 oz semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped
parchment paper

Instructions

Melt the semi-sweet chocolate using a double boiler.
Spread the chocolate in an 8x8 square on a piece of parchment paper. Place in freezer to set up - about 5 minutes.
While that is setting up, melt the white chocolate in a double boiler. Mix in a small amount of green gel.
Spread the white chocolate over the semi-sweet chocolate.
Sprinkle chocolate chip chunks over the white chocolate.
Put back in the freezer to harden - about 1 hour.
Chop into chunks.

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Filed Under: bark, dessert, recipes

Raspberry Dark Chocolate Cookies

February 20, 2013 by Betsy Eves 9 Comments

We don’t get many specialty items at the PX here in Germany. We’ve got the standard bags of candy and seasonal stuff, but when it comes to unique flavors and new items, we don’t tend to see it much. SO, when I spotted a bag Raspberry Dark Chocolate M&Ms I snatched them up immediately to bake into cookies! I mean, seriously… how could I not?

After opening the bag to sample one – I ended up sampling half the bag and was forced to go back to the store and buy another one. I think everyone else in Grafenwoehr had the same idea I did, cause there was only one bag left! ACK! Luckily though, I have plenty to make these cookies.

Raspberry Dark Chocolate Cookies by JavaCupcake 2

The base for these cookies is a dark chocolate cookie… which, by itself is pretty darn delicious. It’s fudgey, soft and almost like a brownie. But, you know me… I have to kick things up a notch! So along with the Raspberry M&Ms, I added some espresso powder and extra dark chocolate chunks to the batter to intensify the chocolate flavor. I think it worked.

If you come across these Raspberry Dark Chocolate M&Ms… snatch up a couple bags and make these cookies. They won’t disappoint you!

PS… You’ll need a big glass of milk with these! YUM!

Enjoy!

Raspberry Dark Chocolate Cookies

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Yield: 3 dozen cookies

Chewy, fudgey, brownie like cookies with chunks of dark chocolate and Raspberry Dark Chocolate M&Ms.

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
1 cup dark chocolate cocoa powder (I used Hershey's)
1 tsp espresso powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 8oz bag Raspberry Dark Chocolate M&Ms (plus more for garnish - optional)
1 cup dark chocolate chunks (plus more for garnish - optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla.
In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, salt and baking soda.
On low, incorporate the flour into the wet ingredients until it comes together. Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix until no more flour is visible.
Fold in the 8oz bag of M&Ms and the dark chocolate chunks.
Drop golf ball size rounds of dough onto your prepared cookie sheet.
Press 5-6 m&m's and chocolate chunks onto the top of each ball. This step is optional, but it makes for a really pretty cookie.
Bake cookies for 9-10 minutes. Do not over bake. Let cool on pan for 1-2 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Store in an air-tight container for up to 4 days.

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Filed Under: candy filled cookies, chocolate, chocolate cookies, cookies, dark chocolate, m&m cookies, M&Ms, raspberries, raspberry, recipes

Roast Beef Sliders

February 19, 2013 by Betsy Eves 3 Comments

I’m always looking for a new way to serve up a roast. A couple weeks ago, I showed you how we make Salsa Roast to use for burritos. Today, I’ll be giving you my Roast Beef Sliders recipe.

This is another super simple crock pot recipe that takes little time to prep, but it’s big on flavor! Plus – if you don’t have exactly the ingredients I used, you can improvise with whatever you have in your kitchen and it’ll be just as delish!

Typically, the rolls you would use for a slider are the soft dinner rolls. But, since we’re in Germany, we used a traditional brotchen. It’s a roll that’s hard and crusty on the outside and soft on the inside. Perfect to hold up against and sauce you may want to dip your slider in. But, you can use any roll you’d like.

Let’s talk cheese. I don’t really enjoy cheese on sliders or sandwiches. And truth be told- I really only like cheddar cheese once in a while. So – I’m not having cheese on my slider. My husband though – he loves cheese and he put muenster on his slider. You could use any cheese you wanted… heck, my daughter put American on hers. (Gross, btw.)

I didn’t use any kind of sauce or dressing on the sliders either, but a horseradish spread would be tasty. It’s really up to you!

Enjoy!

UPDATE:
The next night, we sliced the roast beef and put it on toasted onion rolls. The beef & left over onions had been stored overnight in an airtight container covered in the pan juices so it had a super delicious coating of flavor on it. The sliders super yummy the first night… but cold, sliced roast beef sandwiches for night two were equally, if not even more delicious!

Roast Beef Sliders

Yield: Serves 6-8 people

1-2 sliders

Ingredients

Roast Beef

3-4lb chuck roast
1 medium sweet onion, thinly sliced
2 cans beef broth
1 packet of Onion Gravy Mix
1 packet of Au Jus Mix
Pepper

Sauteed onions

2 medium onions, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper

Toppings

Cheese - like swiss, muenster, provolone or whatever you like!
Horseradish spread/sauce (optional)

Bread

Brotchen - round dinner rolls - crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside

Instructions

In your crock pot, combine the beef broth and gravy, au jus packets. Whisk until all the clumps are gone.
Season the roast generously with pepper. Rub the pepper into the roast.
Place the roast in the crock pot, cover with sliced onions, attach lid and cook on low for 8-9 hours.
Remove the roast to a cutting board. Cover with foil and allow to rest.
While the roast is resting, prepare the onions. Place 2 Tbsp olive oil in a hot pan. Add the sliced onions and cook on medium-high until they are caramelized, using a wooden spoon to move the onions around. They will be a golden brown with some dark edges when they're done. Salt/pepper to taste. Keep onions warm until ready to build sliders.
Slice the rolls in half and toast both sides on a baking sheet in your oven using the broiler.
Using a fork, pull apart the meat into small, stringy chunks. Put the meat chunks in a bowl and spoon the au jus from the crock pot over the meat to keep it moist.

Assembly

Open your toasted rolls and layer chunks of meat on the bottom piece. Drizzle a little extra au jus over the meat.
Top with sauteed onions and a slice with cheese.
Using the broiler in the oven, place the rolls on the top shelf for a few seconds to melt the cheese.
Add and sauce you have to the top bun and place on top of the melted cheese.
Serve with a small bowl of au jus for dipping.

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Filed Under: crock pot meals, crock pot meals, dinner, recipes, roast, sliders

Let’s have a Pancake Party!

February 12, 2013 by Betsy Eves 3 Comments

Happy National Pancake Day and to celebrate I had a Pancake Party! Three of my awesome friends and I got up bright and early and made some of the yummiest pancakes ever! It was so much fun and such a simple way to bring friends together.

We started the morning with giant cups of coffee and a big bowl of pancake batter. I had blueberries, strawberries, lemons, raspberry puree, cinnamon, sugar, cream cheese, pumpkin, powdered sugar and maple syrup to create our pancakes with. We decided on three different variations… Lemon Blueberry, Strawberry Overload, and Cinnamon Roll.

Lemon Blueberry – This is one of my all time favorite flavor combinations. It’s light, fresh and so good. Sweet, tart together is just sublime. The flavor of lemon in these pancakes is just the right amount and paired with the blueberry… it’s perfect!

Strawberry Overload – Strawberries in the pancake and on the pancake. It’s a strawberry lovers DREAM. The only thing that might make these better… strawberry whipped cream! hehe Maybe next time!

Cinnamon Roll – Let’s keep it real for a minute and get really honest. These pancakes… I felt guilty with every bite. It’s so good… yet sooo bad. Full of sugar, butter, cinnamon, cream cheese…. yeah, I felt like I was eating a Cinnabon. These pancakes were so incredible good… I can’t see how you’d not want to make them. Seriously.

Yum. Yum and Yum!

The greatest thing about these pancakes were that they were all made with the same buttermilk pancake batter and spiced up with different ingredients! You could do so many variations of pancakes with this batter… the possibilities are limitless!

So… go make some pancakes and enjoy National Pancake Day!

Buttermilk Pancakes

Prep Time: 6 minutes

Yield: Enough for 4-6 people

2-3 pancakes

Ingredients

2 eggs
2 cups buttermilk
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Instructions

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs. Add the melted butter, vanilla and buttermilk and whisk until smooth.
In another bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet and whisk until smooth, about 25 strokes.
Heat your skillet or griddle to medium heat. Pour 1-2 Tbsp vegetable oil on the skillet and spread with a paper towel to coat the surface.
Pour 1/4 cup of batter onto the griddle. Cook until bubbles form and pop uniformly across the top of the pancake. Flip over and cook until golden brown. NOTE: Don't be tempted to turn up the heat on your griddle. Cooking these pancakes low & slow will allow them rise and get fluffy! Slow and low makes these pancakes perfect!

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Blueberry Lemon Pancakes

Ingredients

Buttermilk Pancake Recipe (above)
1 lemon, zested & juiced
2 Tbsp sugar
1-2 cups fresh blueberries

Instructions

Prepare the buttermilk pancake batter.
In a small mixing bowl, press the lemon zest into the sugar using the back of your spatula.
Gently fold the zest and lemon juice into the batter.
Prepare the skillet the same as you would for the buttermilk pancakes.
Scoop 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake onto the skillet.
After about 30 seconds of cooking, press 6-8 blueberries into the pancake. Use a toothpick to cover the blueberries with a little bit of batter from the pancake... being careful not to disrupt the bottom of the pancake.
Once the bubbles have formed and popped on the top of the pancake, flip it over and continue cooking until golden brown.
Serve with more blueberries on top and fresh grated lemon zest.

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Strawberry Overload Pancakes

Yield: Enough for 4-6 people

2-3 pancakes

Ingredients

Buttermilk Pancake Batter (above)
2 cups fresh strawberries
1-2 Tbsp sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
powdered sugar

Instructions

Prepare the buttermilk pancake batter.
Slice half the strawberries into 1/8in slices and set aside
Dice the remaining strawberries into small chunks and place in a bowl. Add 1 Tbsp lemon juice and 1-2 Tbsp sugar (depending on how sweet you want them). Using a potato masher, smash the berries until they have broken down by half.
Prepare the skillet the same as you would for the buttermilk pancakes.
Scoop 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake onto the skillet.
After about 30 seconds of cooking, press 4-6 strawberry slices into the pancake. Use a toothpick to cover the strawberries with a little bit of batter from the pancake... being careful not to disrupt the bottom of the pancake.
Once the bubbles have formed and popped on the top of the pancake, flip it over and continue cooking until golden brown.
Serve covered with mashed strawberries, fresh grated lemon zest and a dusting of powdered sugar.

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Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Yield: Enough for 4-6 people

2-3 pancakes

Ingredients

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Buttermilk Pancake Batter (recipe above)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 Tbsp cinnamon

Cream Cheese Drizzle

2 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1 Tbsp cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
pinch of salt
cinnamon for garnish

Instructions

Prepare the buttermilk pancake batter.
In a medium mixing bowl, whip together the cream cheese and butter using a hand mixer. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla, salt and heavy cream and whip for 2 minutes until light, fluffy and smooth. Spoon into a squeeze bottle or piping bag with a small round tip. Set aside.
In a small bowl, combine the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon and mix until smooth. Spoon into a squeeze bottle or piping bag with a small round tip. Set aside.
Prepare the skillet the same as you would for the buttermilk pancakes.
Scoop 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake onto the skillet.
After about 30 seconds of cooking, squeeze a swirl of sugar into the top of the pancake creating the look of a cinnamon roll.
Once the bubbles have formed and popped on the top of the pancake, flip it over and continue cooking until golden brown.
Serve pancakes swirl side up. Drizzle the cream cheese over the top and dust with cinnamon.

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Filed Under: blueberry, breakfast, cinnamon, cinnamon rolls, lemon, pancakes, recipes, strawberry

PB&J Chocolate Birthday Cupcakes

February 10, 2013 by Betsy Eves 5 Comments

Today is my 35th 29th birthday and to celebrate I made cupcakes! Peanut Butter & Jelly Chocolate cupcakes to be exact!

But… before I get to the cupcakes, I have to tell you a story… a sad, sad story. You see, yesterday I had big lofty plans to make myself a super fancy birthday cake. It was going to be three layers of Valhrona chocolate cake filled with fresh raspberries and topped with a Disaronno buttercream. It was a fail.

I mean, the cake tasted really good. The raspberry filling was AMAZING. But when it came time to assemble the cake, it was just so moist that it fell apart as soon as I filled and stacked it. I was rushing. I didn’t want to chill the cake layers first. It was a disaster. Everyone who was following my struggle on my Facebook page suggested that I turn the cake into a trifle… but, by the time I had calmed down from being so mad… it was too late. The cake was in the trash. Bummer.

You know – it’s probably a good thing though that I had to start over, because if we’re being honest here… that cake isn’t what I really wanted. Huh? You might be saying to yourself? What? Yah… I know. I’m a little nutty. I wanted the same ole chocolate cake I’ve made a hundred times before. That dark chocolate cake that is so efffffffing delicious, I dream about it when I haven’t had it in a while. And yeah- that’s what I should have made yesterday.

So this morning… I did. I got up early and whipped up a dozen dark chocolate cupcakes using my most favorite cupcake recipe. I then filled those cupcakes with the raspberry filling I made for yesterdays cake and then topped it all off with my favorite peanut butter buttercream.

Since I’ve made all of these ingredients on my blog before… I’m not going to rewrite everything here… instead, I’ll just give you links and explain to you how I assembled them all.

FYI- those liners I’m using came from Sweets & Treats Boutique! They sent me a sampler pack and I can’t stop using them! I LOVE how they look with chocolate cupcakes and I love the variety in designs!

Oh – and that fork? Isn’t it TO DIE FOR? Goozeberry Hill custom made it for me!! I absolutely LOVE it! You can have your own custom made… just go HERE!

Enjoy!

PB&J Chocolate Birthday Cupcakes

Yield: 1 dozen cupcakes

Three of my favorite things in one great cupcake - Chocolate, Raspberry & Peanut Butter!

Ingredients

Chocolate Cake

Recipe & Instructions

Raspberry Filling

Recipe & Instructions **You'll only need half of this recipe

Peanut Butter Buttercream

Recipe & Instructions **You'll only need half of this recipe
Fresh raspberries & birthday sprinkles for garnish

Instructions

Make cupcakes as directed in recipe above.
Prepare the raspberry filling while the cupcakes are baking and allow to cool complete.
Core each cupcake using an apple corer.
Fill cupcakes with cooled raspberry filling.
Make buttercream as directed in recipe above.
Using a large star tip, pipe the frosting onto each cupcake.
Garnish with birthday sprinkles and a fresh raspberry on top.

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And cause he’s so darn cute… I had to share a picture of Matthew! He’s 11 months old and practicing for his 1st birthday by licking the peanut butter buttercream off the beater! I love this baby boy!

Filed Under: birthday, buttercream, buttercream, chocolate cupcakes, cupcake recipes, filled cupcakes, frosting and icing, jam and jelly cupcakes, peanut butter, peanut butter frosting, raspberries, raspberry, recipes

Red Velvet Valentine Brownie Bites

February 8, 2013 by Betsy Eves 1 Comment

Next week is one of the most popular holidays of the year… Valentine’s Day! And I wanted to create something super special to celebrate the day! Red Velvet Valentine Brownie Bites is what I made for you!

Two years ago for Valentine’s Day, I made chocolate cupcakes filled with cream and topped with a chocolate ganache and buttercream. Last year I made (I was about to have a baby and was nesting!) Dark Chocolate Raspberry Hug Cookies, Sweetheart Sugar Cookie Bars, Baked Sour Cream Donuts, and Frosted Sugar Cookies! This year needed to be different.

Red Velvet. Yes… but I’ve done Red Velvet cupcakes and brownies before, so I knew I had to mix things up a bit with this recipe. For the brownie, I adapted a recipe from How Sweet It Is and baked them in a larger pan so they’d be a bit thinner. I cut them into heart shapes, and piped white chocolate cream cheese frosting between two hearts to create a sandwich.

These are DEFINITELY a winner! The chocolate is subtle in the brownie but the white chocolate is explosive in the frosting… put the two together and you’ve got YUM!

Enjoy!

Red Velvet Valentine Brownie Bites by JavaCupcake.com

Red Velvet Valentine Brownie Bites

Total Time: 1 hour, 29 minutes

Yield: 24 brownie bites

Ingredients

Red Velvet Brownies

3 Tbsp dark chocolate cocoa powder
1 tsp Wilton Christmas Red food coloring Gel
2 tsp vanilla, divided
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2oz cream cheese, room temperature
2/3 cup white chocoalte chips, melted
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp milk
1/8 tsp salt

Instructions

Red Velvet Brownies

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Line a 9x13 cake pan with parchment paper that hangs over the edges and grease with butter or shortening. Flour lightly.
In a small bowl, combine cocoa powder, red food coloring, and 1 tsp vanilla to create a paste.
Using your stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
One at a time, add the eggs and vanilla and mix until incorporated.
Add the cocoa paste and mix until combined thoroughly. At this point, you can add more coloring if the batter is not red enough for your taste.
Add flour and salt and mixuntil just combined.
Spread batter evenly into prepared pan. Ensure batter is level and flat, especially on the sides. Since there is no leavening in this recipe, the brownies won't rise very much.
Bake 23-25 minutes.
Let brownies cool in the pan for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Use the parchment paper to lift the brownies from the pan.
Using a small heart shaped cookie cutter, cut brownies into heart shapes.

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Using your stand mixer, cream together the butter and cream cheese until smooth - about 2-3 minutes.
Add the melted white chocolate and mix until incorporated.
Add the powdered sugar, vanilla, milk and salt and mix on medium-low until smooth.
Beat 2-3 minutes on high until light and fluffy.

Assembly

Using a small star tip (like Wilton 1M), pipe frosting onto the top of one heart. Make sure to pipe to the edges of the heart.
Place another heart, face up, on top of the frosting and gently press down.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar to garnish.

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Broccoli and Chicken Mac & Cheese

February 3, 2013 by Betsy Eves 2 Comments

Broccoli & Chicken Mac n' Cheese by JavaCupcake.com

I’m always up for trying new dinner recipes. So when I’m browsing pins on Pinterest, I’m keeping an eye open for dinner ideas that are simple yet look super delicious. When I saw this recipe from Damn Delicious pinned, I KNEW in an instant that our family needed to try it for dinner.

Broccoli and Chicken Mac & Cheese. How could you go wrong with that? OH – and it’s a 30 minute meal? DONE! It’s on the menu!

The night I ended up making this, my husband ended up working late… so he didn’t get to eat it while it was still hot and fresh. BUT, my teenager and baby ate it and they both had seconds! The hubby did end up eating it for lunch the next two days and has been begging me to make it again so he can enjoy it hot!

I think next time, I’ll try and use sun dried tomatoes that aren’t in oil. I didn’t like the texture and flavor that the oil added to the cheese sauce… but my hubby liked it. I’m sure if I hadn’t seen the jar or oil the tomatoes had been sitting in I wouldn’t have even noticed. :)

If you wanted to make this healthier, I’d suggest using skim or non-fat milk and low fat cheese. And add more veggies too… this would be a very healthy meal!

ENJOY!

Broccoli & Chicken Mac n' Cheese by JavaCupcake.com

Broccoli & Chicken Mac & Cheese

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Yield: 5-6 servings

1 cup of mac & cheese

Chunks of chicken and broccoi with pasta shells covered in rich and creamy cheese sauce... in only 30 minutes!

Ingredients

1 small onion
1.25lbs boneless skinless chicken breast
salt/pepper
8oz large pasta shells
12oz bag frozen broccoli florettes
1 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup julienned sun dried tomatoes (from a jar, in oil)
8oz Colby & Monterrey jack shredded cheese

Instructions

In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook the pasta shells for 8-9 minutes. Add the broccoli and bring back to a boil. Cook an additional 3 minutes or until pasta is tender.
While the pasta is cooking, dice the onion then cut chicken into bite size pieces.
Pour 1-2 Tbsp of the oil from the jar of the sun dried tomatoes into a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Check on the noodles & broccoli.
Add the onions to the pan and cook for 3-4 minutes or until they start to lose their color. Add the chicken and cook until no longer pink. Season with salt and pepper.
Move the chicken to a bowl and cover with foil.
By this time, the noodles & broccoli should be cooked. Pour the noodles & broccoli into a strainer to drain the water off. Return them to the large pot.
Using the same pan that you cooked the chicken in, whisk the heavy cream and tomatoes together over medium. 1/4 cup at a time, add the cheese and whisk until melted and smooth. alt and Pepper to taste.
In the large pot with the noodles, add the chicken and onions and pour the cheese mixture over the top. Toss together until everything is evenly coated with cheese.
Serve and enjoy!

Notes

Store in an air tight container for up to a week in the fridge!

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Filed Under: 30 minutes or less, chicken, dinner, macaroni and cheese, pasta, recipes

M&M Love Cookies

February 1, 2013 by Betsy Eves Leave a Comment

I haven’t perfected the chocolate chip cookie yet. Every time I made them I just can’t seem to get the perfect consistency of crunchy edges and chewy centers. I’ve tried the recipe on the back of the Nestle package, I’ve tried Betty Crocker’s recipes, and I’ve tried countless recipes from dozens of bloggers! NONE were perfect.

Until now. Sally’s Baking Addiction. Seriously. THE BEST recipe for the PERFECT chocolate chip cookie base. You could use this recipe and add almost anything to it… and it’d be AMAZING.

Today, I added Valentine M&Ms. Chewy in the center, crunchy on the edges. FULL of chocolate. I’m certain that I will eat at least a dozen of these by the time the weekend is over.

Oh… and my baby boy who is almost 11 months old, well he had his VERY FIRST homemade chocolate chip cookie today! And guess what? He hate EVERY CRUMB! I think he liked it!
I hope you do too!

Enjoy!

M&M Love Cookies

Prep Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Cook Time: 9 minutes

Total Time: 3 hours, 15 minutes

Yield: 3 1/2 dozen cookies

The perfect cookie - crunchy on the edges and chewy in the center!

Ingredients

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour, measure after sifting
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 bag Valentine M&M chocolate candies

Instructions

Cream together the butter and sugars until fluffy and light in color. This takes about 3-4 minutes.
Add the egg and vanilla and mix until combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure everything has been incorporated.
With the mixer on low, add the flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt and mix until combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl again.
Add the M&M candies and fold in with a spatula.
Chill for several hours in the refrigerator or for 1-2 hours in the freezer.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 F degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Roll 1in balls of dough and place 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets.
Bake for 8-9 minutes.
While baking, keep dough in the freezer to stay cold.
Allow cookies to cool on pan for 3-5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Store in an airtight container for up to a week... if they last that long.

Notes

Allow cookie sheets to cool completely before adding more dough balls to bake.

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Filed Under: candy filled cookies, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate cookies, cookies, M&Ms, recipes

Salsa Roast Burritos

January 30, 2013 by Betsy Eves 2 Comments

Every Sunday, I sit down with my husband and we plan out the weeks meals and we’ve got a calendar for the fridge to help us keep track of it all. At the same time, we also make the grocery list to take to the market later that same day. As I was looking at this weeks menu, I noticed a particular number of super delicious meals on the menu and a thought occurred to me.

Would my readers be interested in more than just desserts?

So… I asked you. And 99% of you answered… YES! I post pictures of what I’m making for dinner anyways, why not take pictures and share the recipes too! So here my friends… is my first dinner post.

Salsa Roast. It’s one of our family favorites and the two best things about it… 1) It’s SO SIMPLE to make and 2) It lasts for TWO nights of dinner and maybe even a lunch or two for the husband! You can do so many things with this roast once it’s cooked… but our most favorite thing is to make burritos with it!

You only need two ingredients for this roast too. Chuck Roast and Pace Chunky Salsa. What you put in your burrito… well, that’s up to you! I like it basic… meat, cheese, salsa, tomatoes and lettuce. My hubby likes it with all those things plus sour cream and jalapenos.

And the BEST part about this recipe – it’s enough to feed my family of 4 for TWO nights plus lunch leftovers! Serve it with my fabulous refried beans and you’ve got an amazing meal!

Enjoy!

Salsa Roast Burritos

Yield: Serves 3-4 for two meals

2 burritos

Shredded beef, full of flavor - perfect for burritos or tacos!

Ingredients

Roast

2-3lb Chuck Roast
3-4 cups Pace Chunky Salsa (Medium)

Burritos

Tortillas
Various toppings:
-Mexican cheese
-shredded lettuce
-diced or sliced tomato
-sliced jalapenos
-refried beans
-guacamole
-salsa
-sour cream

Instructions

Turn your crock pot to high.
Place chuck roast in the crock pot and cover with 3-4 cups of the salsa. Make sure the top of the roast is completely covered in salsa.
Put the cover on the crockpot and cook for 2 hours on high.
Reduce to low and cook 4-5 more hours (or until you're ready to eat).
Remove roast and place on a cutting board. Using a fork, shred meat and place into a large bowl.
Ladle some of the juice from the crock pot onto the roast to keep it moist. How much you use is up to how juicy you want your meat.

Burritos

Warm your tortillas in the microwave until soft.
Place about a 1/4 cup of meat across the tortilla.
Add cheese, lettuce and any other desired topping.
Roll tortilla over toppings and eat!

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Creamy Lemon Shortbread Sandwich Cookies

January 28, 2013 by Betsy Eves 9 Comments

It’s Girl Scout cookie season here in Germany – yes, be jealous… we get cookies a month before you do in the USA! Anyhoo… my hubby has been complaining that the lemon cookies this year (Savannah Smiles) aren’t the traditional lemon cookie sandwiches he used to love as a kid. So today when I realized I had two lemons in my fridge that I forgot to use last week, I knew today would be the perfect opportunity to whip up some lemon cookies that would satisfy his craving!

Dave wanted a cream filling inside the sandwiches, but I wanted to fill them with a berry preserve and top with a lemon glaze. I said screw it… I’ll do both. You can find the recipe for the berry filled cookies here.

PS… These cookies are so easy to make… you have no excuse not to make them… ASAP!

Enjoy!

Creamy Lemon Shortbread Sandwich Cookies

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 12 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Yield: 12-15 sandwich cookies

Ingredients

Lemon Shortbread

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature and soft
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups sifted flour - measure after sifting

Lemon Cream Filling

2oz cream cheese, room temperature and soft
zest of 1 lemon
2 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
3/4 cup powdered sugar

Lemon Drizzle

1 heaping cup powdered sugar
2 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

Instructions

Lemon Shortbread

Preheat oven to 325 F degrees. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In the bowl of your mixer, press the lemon zest into the sugar. Your sugar will become thick and fragrant.
Add the butter to the sugar and cream until fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure all the butter is incorporated.
Mix in 1 Tbsp of the fresh squeezed lemon juice.
Add the flour and mix on low until a dough ball forms.
Place dough on a lightly floured counter and knead 2-3 times until smooth.
Roll dough out about 1/4-1/2 inch thick.
Using a 2 1/4in biscuit cutter (I used one from a Martha Stewart set), cut cookies and place onto prepared cookie sheet.
Bake on center rack in your oven for 12-13 minutes or just until the edges begin to brown. Remove immediately to a wire rack to cool completely.

Lemon Cream Filling

In a medium bowl, mix together the lemon zest and the cream cheese with a hand mixer.
Add the lemon juice and mix until incorporated.
Slowly add the powdered sugar and mix until no more lumps appear and the mixture is smooth.

Lemon Drizzle

In a small bowl, combine the lemon juice and sugar.
With a fork, stir until smooth and no lumps remain.

Assembly

Spread the lemon cream in a thick layer on the bottom side of one cookie almost to the edges.
Place another cookie on top of the cream filling (bottom side of the cookie face down on the filling) and press gently until the filling reaches the edges.
Drizzle lemon and sugar mixture over the top of each cookie.

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Filed Under: cookies, filled cookies, lemon, recipes, sandwich cookies, shortbread

Lemon Raspberry Shortbread Sandwich Cookies

January 28, 2013 by Betsy Eves 1 Comment

Lemon Raspberry Shortbread Sandwich Cookies. Yea. You read that correctly. These cookies are the perfect combination of lemon and raspberries. Sweet and tart. I’ve made lots of lemon and raspberry combos (Lemoncino Raspberry Cupcakes & Lemon Raspberry Tart Pie – just to name a few) in the past… but I think this one may be one of my favorites.

I took a basic shortbread cookie and filled it with the most delicious raspberry jam and then topped it with a simple lemon drizzle. Simple but so yum! The day I made these, I also took the same shortbread cookies and filled them with a creamy lemon filling. Those were super yum too! But I think these were my favorite.

I hope you try these cause they are super easy and super delish!

Enjoy!

Lemon Raspberry Shortbread Sandwich Cookies

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Yield: 12-15 sandwich cookies

Ingredients

Lemon Shortbread

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature and soft
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups sifted flour - measure after sifting

Raspberry Filling

Use your favorite raspberry jam. (I used a local homemade jam made by a cute little old German couple - best jam I've EVER had!)

Lemon Drizzle

1 heaping cup powdered sugar
2 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

Instructions

Lemon Shortbread

Preheat oven to 325 F degrees. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In the bowl of your mixer, press the lemon zest into the sugar. Your sugar will become thick and fragrant.
Add the butter to the sugar and cream until fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure all the butter is incorporated.
Mix in 1 Tbsp of the fresh squeezed lemon juice.
Add the flour and mix on low until a dough ball forms.
Place dough on a lightly floured counter and knead 2-3 times until smooth.
Roll dough out about 1/4-1/2 inch thick.
Using a 2 1/4in biscuit cutter (I used one from a Martha Stewart set), cut cookies and place onto prepared cookie sheet.
Bake on center rack in your oven for 12-13 minutes or just until the edges begin to brown. Remove immediately to a wire rack to cool completely.

Lemon Drizzle

In a small bowl, combine the lemon juice and sugar.
With a fork, stir until smooth and no lumps remain.

Assembly

Spread the raspberry jam in a thick layer on the bottom side of one cookie almost to the edges.
Place another cookie on top of the jam (bottom side of the cookie face down on the filling) and press gently until the filling reaches the edges.
Drizzle lemon and sugar mixture over the top of each cookie.

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Filed Under: cookies, filled cookies, fruity cookies, lemon, raspberries, recipes, shortbread

Dulce de Leche filled Mocha Cupcakes

January 25, 2013 by Betsy Eves Leave a Comment

Dulce de Leche filled Mocha Cupcakes by JavaCupcake.com

I’m super excited to be a part of a blog that I’ve been reading for 4+ years, Coffee Cup News! CCN has invited me to be an author, sharing my recipes for decadent and delicious coffee desserts and yummies!

For my first post, I’ve made the most amazing mocha cupcake and it’s filled with dulce de leche and topped with a mocha whipped cream. It’s just like having your favorite caramel mocha from Starbucks… but in a cupcake!

So if you love coffee, visit Coffee Cup News, tell them Betsy sent you and enjoy the coffee!

PS… the FULL RECIPE for this cupcake can be found HERE!

Filed Under: chocolate cupcakes, Coffee, cookie cupcakes, cupcake recipes, dulce de leche, filled cupcakes, frosting and icing, guest blogger, recipes, whipped cream frosting, whipping cream

Crock-Pot Dulce de Leche

January 23, 2013 by Betsy Eves 6 Comments

This week my friend Jason of Coffee Cup News asked if I’d be interested in submitting coffee related recipes to his blog every month or so! And well… since I love Jason’s blog (I’ve been a loyal following since the beginning) I jumped at the chance to contribute!

Jason wanted original content for his blog… which well uhm… .might be hard cause I use coffee a lot in my baking. I mean, every chocolate cupcake I make has coffee in it. I’ve even already made a cupcake with coffee in the cake AND the frosting… my Mocha Mocha Cupcakes. And really… what kind of a blogger would I be if I called myself ”JAVA” Cupcake and never used coffee! So… I’m on a quest to come up with a new coffee cupcake for my first post on Coffee Cup News.

When I first began brainstorming ideas, I thought about some of my favorite coffee drinks I like to get when I go to Starbucks. Let me be more specific…. when I go to Starbucks in the USA. European Starbucks offer completely different flavors and I just haven’t jumped on that bandwagon yet. Yeah – I’m a Seattle Starbucks Snob. lol One of my favorites at Starbucks is anything with caramel in it. Caramel Macchiato, Caramel Frappucino, Caramel Mocha… seriously, anything with caramel in it is YUM. And then that got me to thinking about how I could incorporate caramel into a cupcake, uniquely.

Dulce de leche! PERFECT! I’ve never made it before and I’ve read on so many other blogs how simple it is to make. So yes…. I’ll make dulce de leche and fill my cupcakes with it and then of course drizzle it on top!

And let me tell you… there is nothing simpler than making this sweet, caramely goodness. You need only three things and time. Simple. Easy. Delicious.

Enjoy!

Crock-Pot Dulce de Leche

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 5 hours

Ingredients

1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk
Crockpot
Foil or heat proof plate
Water

Instructions

Remove the paper from the can of milk.
Plate a piece of foil or a heat proof plate on the bottom of the crockpot to protect it from rust building up on the can during cooking.
Set the can of milk on the plate or foil and cover completely with water then attach crockpot lid.
Depending on how much time you have... you can cook the dulce de leche in one of two ways...
On HIGH: Cook for 4-6 hours. 5 hours seems to make a good consistency, but go 6 if you want it thicker.
On LOW: Cook 8 hours.
CAUTION: Make sure that the can remains covered AT ALL TIMES. Allowing the water to boil off could cause the can to explode.
Allow can to come to room temperature before opening.
Store in air tight container up to a week in the refrigerator.

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Filed Under: dulce de leche, recipes, snacks, syrup

Tagalong Peanut Butter Buttercream Sandwiches

January 18, 2013 by Betsy Eves 2 Comments

Yesterday I made the most delicious Triple Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes for my friend Margo. I had about 1/2 cup of peanut butter buttercream left after frosting all the cupcakes and a few Tagalong Girl Scout cookies left. So… I did what any reasonable person would do… I made a buttercream sandwich with Tagalongs!

Creamy smooth peanut butter buttercream sandwiched between two Tagalong cookies…. I mean seriously. SERIOUSLY. It’s so good… it’s BAD!

Tagalong Peanut Butter Buttercream Sandwiches

Total Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

Tagalong Girl Scout Cookies
Leftover Peanut Butter Buttercream - Recipe here

Instructions

Fill a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 1M tip with buttercream.
Squeeze buttercream onto the flat side of a Tagalong cookie in a circular motion until the cookie is covered generously.
Gently place a second cookie, flat side down, on top of the buttercream.
Eat and enjoy!

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Triple Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

January 17, 2013 by Betsy Eves 8 Comments

One of my very good friends, Margot, is having her baby shower tonight. Her baby was born several months early and we didn’t get a chance to celebrate her baby girl before she arrived… so tonight, we celebrate Evalyn and Margot! Margot loves my cupcakes… how do I know this? Well, she was Emily’s teacher and the recipient of several “thank you” cupcakes thoughout the year and ALL the other teachers at the school were very jealous! tee hee hee

Margot & Evalyn

Now… you might be surprised that I didn’t make these cupcakes 100% from scratch. I know… you’re used to seeing unique recipes for my creations that don’t include a box. But this week I have been super duper busy that I didn’t want to take the chance of a recipe not working out and not having the time to redo the cupcakes.

So, I used Duncan Hines Triple Chocolate Cake Mix. This isn’t your $0.99 box of cake mix. This cake mix produces a rich, dark chocolate cake that has ribbons of fudge and chunks of chocolate in it. Really… for a box… it’s AMAZING! And even more… paired with my favorite peanut butter buttercream it’s OUT OF THIS WORLD!

Have you had my peanut butter buttercream before? Uhm…. it’s light and fluffy with the perfect amount of peanut butter flavor. Not too sweet, not to strong… just perfect! I could eat this by the SPOONFUL!

Oh – and it’s Girl Scout Cookie Season and I just HAD to top these cupcakes with a Tagalong cookie!

Love those liners? I got them from Sweets & Treats Boutique! I LOVE THEM!

Enjoy!

Triple Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Cook Time: 18 minutes

Total Time: 3 hours

Yield: 2 dozen + 9 cupcakes

Ingredients

Triple Chocolate Cupcakes

2 boxes Duncan Hines Triple Chocolate Cake Mix
Oil
Eggs
Water

Peanut Butter Buttercream

3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter (I used Jiff)
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/3-1/2 cup heavy cream
1/8 tsp salt
Chocolate jimmies
Tagalong Girl Scout Cookies - quartered

Instructions

Triple Chocolate Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Line cupcake pan with liners.
Prepare the fudge filling and the batter as directed on the box.
Scoop the batter into the cupcake liners.
Dollop a scan tablespoon of fudge filling on top of the batter. Use a toothpick to swirl fudge into the batter. You want to make sure that the batter is covering the fudge filling.
Bake 18-20 minutes, rotating the pan after 12 minutes.
Cool in pan for at least 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Peanut Butter Buttercream

Cream together the peanut butter and butter.
Add the powdered sugar and mix on high until incorporated.
Add 1/3 cup of heavy cream and mix until smooth. Add more cream until you reach your desired consistency.
Scrape the sides of the bowl and beat on high for 4-5 minutes. The frosting will lighten in color and become smooth and fluffy.
Using a Wilton 1M tip, pipe frosting onto each cupcake.
Top with chocolate jimmies and a Tagalong cookie piece.

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Filed Under: buttercream, cake, cake from a box, chocolate, chocolate cake, dark chocolate, frosting and icing, peanut butter, peanut butter frosting, recipes

White Velvet Blueberry Cupcakes & My 4th Blogerversary!

January 15, 2013 by Betsy Eves 7 Comments

One of my goals of the New Year was to get off the couch and get a life. Ha! With that said… I may have over done myself just a little bit. My blogs 4th Anniversary came and went and I was so consumed with my new life and responsibilities, that it took me over a week to bake, frost, take pictures of and blog the cupcakes that I had planned to celebrate my Blogerversary! ACK!

Better late than never, right?

Now that I’ve finally had a moment to breathe and blog… let me tell you about these cupcakes. The original idea for these came from the liners. I took a trip to the IKEA in Regensburg to get a new coffee table for my living room. My little man has started moving around way too much for that little table we had, so a bigger one was in order! While we were there, I spotted these new liners for their one of a kind cupcake pans. If you haven’t seen them before they make a really tall, skinny cupcake and a big muffin top! I love them for special occasions and novelty cupcakes. Unfortunately, they don’t have much of a selection in the liner department. I used this pan a few years ago to make Red Velvet Cupcakes and now again with these blueberry cupcakes. The blue and purple in the liners are really what inspired the flavors of this cupcake!

My husband decided a white velvet cake would be best but I wanted to incorporate blueberry in some way. So, I came up with a white velvet cake filled with blueberry compote and then top it all off with blueberry frosting! YUM! They turned out super delish and the blueberry compote is TO DIE FOR!

But seriously… can you believe it’s been FOUR YEARS of blogging at JavaCupcake! It’s been an AMAZING journey so for that’s brought me so much joy! I can’t believe the connections it has made me both professionally and personally. THANK YOU to everyone who has been so committed to reading my blog and who has stuck by me for four years! My readers are really truly amazing!!

Here’s to another great year of blogging!!

Enjoy!

White Velvet Blueberry Cupcakes

Total Time: 3 hours

Yield: 18 cupcakes

Ingredients

White Velvet Cupcakes

3 egg whites
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
9 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature & cubed
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vinegar

Blueberry Compote

Use THIS RECIPE
Before the compote cools, put it through a strainer. You just want some of the juice to come through, you don't need to strain it all. The goal is have a thick, juicy compote for filling and syrup for the frosting. You only need to do this step if using the compote for this recipe.

Blueberry Frosting

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup shortening
1lb powdered sugar
3 Tbsp blueberry syrup from the compote
1 Tbsp heavy cream
1/8 tsp salt
Wilton food dye gel in purple (optional)
Purple and blue sugar sprinkles
Fresh blueberries for garnish

Instructions

White Velvet Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Line cupcake pan with liners.
In a small bowl, whisk together the egg whites, vanilla and 1/4 cup milk.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in the sugar.
Add the cubed butter and 1/2 cup milk and mix on medium speed for 1 minute.
Add the egg mixture in 4 parts and mix on medium-low after each addition until just incorporated.
Fold in the vinegar making sure to scrape the sides of the bowl. DO NOT OVER MIX. The batter should still have a few small clumps of butter in it.
Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full.
Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool in pan for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Core out the center of each cupcake and fill with blueberry compote.

Blueberry Frosting

Cream together the butter and shortening.
Beat in the powdered sugar until smooth.
Add the blueberry syrup, heavy cream and salt and mix until combined.
Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix frosting on high until light and fluffy.
OPTIONAL: Add a few drops of food coloring dye to enhance the purple of the frosting. Mix until incorporated.
Using a wide open star tip, frost cupcakes and top with sprinkles and a blueberry to garnish

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Filed Under: berry, blueberry, cupcake recipes, featured, filled cupcakes, frosting and icing, fruit frosting, fruity cupcakes, recipes, velvet, velvet cupcakes

Video Tutorial – How to Ice a Cake

January 11, 2013 by Betsy Eves 2 Comments

This video tutorial was so great… I just had to share it with you!

Filed Under: tutorials, video

Blueberry Compote

January 7, 2013 by Betsy Eves 2 Comments

I’ve made fillings for cupcakes before but never realized what I was making. HAHA I guess they’re called compote… which is technically a mixture of water and fruit in a sugar syrup. D’uh. That’s what I make. With that said, I thought I’d start blogging the compotes separately from the cupcakes or scones I’m using it for since it can be used in so many ways!

This blueberry compote would be excellent over ice cream, on pancakes or waffles or even mixed into yogurt! YUM! You can store it in the refrigerator for about a week so it’ll last for lots of breakfast and desserts! Since you can serve it either warm or cold, the possibilities are endless!

Enjoy!

Blueberry Compote

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Yield: Makes 3-4 cups compote

Ingredients

4 cups frozen blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 Tbsp corn starch
1 lemon, juiced and zested

Instructions

In a medium pot over medium heat, whisk together the water, lemon juice & zest, sugar and corn starch until all the clumps are out.
Add 1 cup of blueberries and cook for 6-7 minutes or until the mixture has slightly thickened and the blueberry skins have broken open. Stir frequently.
Add the remaining blueberries and cook an addition 5 minutes or until the blueberries have cooked through. Stir occasionally. You don't want the second half of the blueberries to break down as much as the first cup.
Cool to room temperature and refrigerate until use -OR- serve warm over pancakes, waffles, scones, etc.

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Chocolate Mint “Frango” Cupcakes

January 3, 2013 by Betsy Eves 6 Comments

During the holiday season, my parents would take me and my brother and sister to Frederick and Nelson to get our picture taken with Santa. While we were there, Mom and Dad would pick up a couple boxes of Frango chocolates, the mint ones. If we were good with Santa, we’d get to have a few of these super yummy chocolates on the drive home. Of course, we were always good and always got to get a chocolate treat!

Now, Frederick and Nelson has long closed and when I’m in Seattle, I take my kids to Nordstrom to see Santa. BUT… the chocolates can be found at Macy’s! My dad surprised me with two boxes of chocolates in a care package yesterday! I was so excited to see them!

Mint Chocolate Frango Cupcakes by JavaCupcake

These chocolates are bite size… perfect for popping one in your mouth when you want a hit of smooth, creamy mint chocolate goodness. Seriously, they are one of my favorites. I wondered though, could I melt down these chocolates and put them in a cupcake?

So this morning, I did just that! I took one of my most favorite recipes for chocolate cake and adapted it to include the Frango Mint Chocolates! YUM! Since I’ve done a chocolate mint cupcake before that was topped with a green mint buttercream, I wanted to do something different with these and top them with a chocolate frosting that had more of the Frangos melted and added to the butter and sugar. Soooooo good.

I’m sure if you can’t find any of these chocolates, you could just a good bar of your favorite mint chocolate. I’m pretty certain Lindt has a 4oz bar that would be perfect!

See those pretty green liners I’m using? I was given those by Shannon Harvey, owner of Sweets & Treats Boutique to test out! Sweets & Treats makes greaseproof liners that are supposed to stand up to the discoloration that often happens when baking cupcakes, especially chocolate and other dark colored cake. Shannon sent me 4 sleeves of liners in all kinds of patterns and colors. For these cupcakes, I chose the solid green liners to bring out the mint aspect of the cupcake. Since I was baking chocolate cupcakes, I wasn’t too sure how much color these liners would hold… but, I was happily surprised! They held their color really well and stuck to the cupcake nicely! Especially with this dark cake, I was happy that I could still see a lot of green in these liners! I would definitely use them again! Thanks Shannon for sending them to me!

Enjoy!

Chocolate Mint “Frango” Cupcakes

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 18 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours

Yield: 12-15 cupcakes

Rich chocolate mint cupcake made with Mint Chocolate Frangos!

Ingredients

Chocolate Mint "Frango" Cupcakes

4oz Frango Mint Chocolates (about 14 pieces), roughly chopped
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup brewed coffee
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp mint extract
1/4 cup dark chocolate cocoa powder
1/3 cup sour cream
1 egg
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Chocolate Mint Buttercream

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup shortening
1/3 heaping cup dark chocolate cocoa powder
1 lb powdered sugar
1 tsp mint extract
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/8 tsp salt
12-15 Frango Mint Chocolates
chocolate jimmies
green sugar crystals

Instructions

Chocolate Mint "Frango" Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Line cupcake pan with liners.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg, sour cream, and the vanilla & mint extracts.
Using a double boiler, melt together the Frango chopped chocolates and butter.
Once the chocolate is smooth, whisk in the cocoa powder and brewed coffee completely incorporated.
Slowly, add a few tablespoons of the hot chocolate mixture to the sour cream/egg and whisk until combined. This is going to temper the egg so it doesn't cook. Add the remaining chocolate and whisk until smooth.
Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in the chocolate. Mix with the whisk until just combined. Do not over mix.
Pour into cupcake liners 3/4 full.
Bake for 17-19 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Let cool in pan for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Chocolate Mint Buttercream

Cream together the salt and shortening.
Add the cocoa powder and powdered sugar and mix until incorporated.
Add the extracts and mix to combine. The mixture will be clumpy at this point.
Add enough cream until you reach the consistency of frosting you desire.
Beat on high for 4-5 minutes or until the frosting lightens in color and becomes light and fluffy.
Using a star tip, frost each cupcake. Top with chocolate jimmies, green sugar crystals and a Chocolate Mint Frango.

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Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake

December 31, 2012 by Betsy Eves 2 Comments

I’ve never made a cheesecake before. And, if I’m being honest here… I don’t really even like cheesecake. I know. I’m a CRAZY person for not liking cheesecake… but I just can’t get paste the cream cheese/sour flavor. Yuck!

For our New Years Eve party with the neighbors, I wanted to make something special… but one of my neighbors doesn’t like cake (I call him CRAZY for not liking cake!) but he loves Reese’s! So… how about a cheesecake! And to make it even better, I’ll make it a peanut butter chocolate cheesecake! YESSSSS!!

Since I’ve never made one before, I needed to find a recipe. Surprisingly enough, there weren’t many peanut butter chocolate cheesecake recipes to choose from on the web that looked 1)simple and 2)super delicious. I finally decided to start with a recipe from Bake or Break and change it up a little to add a some JavaCupcake flair!

The original recipe called for peanuts in the cheesecake, but I decided I wanted a traditionally smooth cheesecake, no chunks… so I left those out. It also called for a peanut butter crust, but since I wanted to add more chocolate to the cake, I used Peanut Butter Oreos in the crust instead of the Nutter Butters the recipe called for. And finally, for a little added flair on top, instead of a little swirl of chocolate and peanut butter on top, I created a super thick layer of deliciousness that is peanut butter and chocolate! YUM!

Overall, this was a rich, creamy super full of flavor cheesecake where I just savored every bite! I loved the crust and the layer of peanut butter and chocolate on top was perfect!

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 4 hours, 15 minutes

Total Time: 24 hours

Yield: 1 10in cheesecake

Ingredients

Cookie Crust

20 Peanut Butter Oreos
1/2 cup peanuts
1/2 cup butter, melted
parchment paper

Cheesecake Filling

32oz cream cheese (4 8oz packages), room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
3 Tbsp corn starch
8oz (1/2 cup) sour cream
5 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup cream peanut butter
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Swirl Topping

6oz white chocolate
3 Tbsp creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 Tbsp unsalted butter

Instructions

Cookie Crust

Spray 10in springform pan with cooking spray and line with parchment paper. (I didn't do the parchment paper part, but wish I would have!)
Place Oreo cookies and peanuts into a food processor. Process mixture until the texture is of a course meal.
Add the melted butter and process until combined.
Press mixture into bottom of the prepared pan.

Cheesecake Filling

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
Cream together the cream cheese, sugar, corn starch and sour cream. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure everything is combined.
Add the eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition.
Mix in the vanilla and peanut butter. Again, scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure everything is incorporated.
Add the melted chocolate and mix until smooth.
Pour on top of cookie crust and spread evenly.
Bake for 15 minutes then reduce the temperature to 200 F degrees and cook for 2 hours.
Run a knife around the edge of the cake to loosen it from the pan.
Turn off oven and leave cheesecake in the oven for 2 more hours.
Cover and refrigerate over night.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Swirl

In a double boiler, melt the peanut butter and white chocolate together until smooth. Remove from heat and set aside.
In another double boiler, melt the semi-sweet chocolate and butter until smooth. Remove from heat and set aside.
Take the cheesecake out of the refrigerator and remove the ring of the springform pan.
If you can, remove the cheesecake from the pan and place on the plate you're serving on. There is where the parchment paper comes in handy. I didn't use parchment, so I just left the cheesecake on the pan and put that on my serving platter.
Spread an even layer of the peanut butter mixture over the top of the cake, allowing it to drizzle down the sides.
Drizzle the melted chocolate back and forth over the peanut butter. Using a toothpick, drawl circles/swirls to bring the peanut butter and chocolate mixture together in a swirly pattern. Don't overswirl! Simple is better!
Chill several hours.

To serve:

Place a long, thin knife in a tall cup of hot water. Wipe off the water.
Cut into the cake and through the crust. Pull the knife straight out from the bottom of the cake, do not pull it up and out of the cake.
Clean off the knife and dip it in the hot water again.
Wipe off the excess water and repeat the cutting process again.
You can cut each slice ahead of time and place it back on the platter if you're serving the cheesecake at a party or cut each slice and serve on a plate one at a time.

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The Best of 2012

December 30, 2012 by Betsy Eves 1 Comment

WOW! I can’t believe it’s time to do another year in review post for my blog! I love doing these posts too! It’s so much fun to go back and remember all the fun I had creating and baking this year! This blog is like a baking diary of my life! Let’s start by taking a look back at 2010 and 2011…

Top 10 Cupcake Recipes of 2010
Top 10 Recipes of 2010 (non-cupcake)
Top 25 Cupcakes of 2011

And just cause I think it’s interesting, here are few stats from my blog:
Total #of posts in 2012: 125
Total New Recipes: 87
Cupcake Recipes: 23
Cookie Recipes: 22
Cake Recipes: 10

These numbers aren’t as high as 2011… but still impressive considering I had a baby and was pregnant twice! On to 2012!

2012 was a big year for me personally. I gave birth to my beautiful baby boy Matthew in March. My dad came to visit for 5 weeks in June and we traveled to Switzerland, Southern Germany and Italy. And then in November, I said goodbye to my daughter Cora who passed away before she was born due to Trisomy 18. We traveled all over Europe and through the ups and downs… it’s really been a great year!

In the kitchen, I experimented a lot with cakes this year! I’ve always been a self-proclaimed “I don’t make cakes” Baker… but this year, all that changed thanks to Amanda at i am baker for inspiring me with all her super simple and easy to follow tutorials! I’m no expert yet, but I’m getting better! I also baked a LOT of cookies… not intentionally, but I found myself baking more cookies, bars and cakes than cupcakes this year. It was a lot of fun branching out to other desserts!

Now… the recipes! Here are two roundups of the BEST of the BEST in 2012!

Enjoy!

Most Popular Recipes of 2012: – these posts could have been written at any time, but in 2012, they were the most popular!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread (this recipe is the most viewed on my blog EVER!)
Apple Cinnamon Cupcakes
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes
Cherry Limeade Cupcakes
Girl Scout Thin Mint Cupcakes
Samoa Cupcakes
Black Velvet Pumpkin Cupcakes Tutorial
Mocha Mocha Cupcakes
4 Holiday Cupcakes Tutorial
Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownie Bars
Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes
Oreo Cupcakes

My Favorite Recipes of 2012: - These are my personal favorites from the year! Not all cupcakes – but all delicious and memorable!

Favorite Recipes of 2012_edited-1

Filed Under: best of, best of 2012, top 10, year in review

Peanut Butter Blossoms

December 27, 2012 by Betsy Eves Leave a Comment

Before Christmas, I made peanut butter blossoms. This was a cookie that my Mom never made growing up and I was only introduced to it in middle school at my friends house. Her mom made these and I remember sneaking into the dining room where she would have all the cookies stored and I’d unwrap a plate and eat all the pb blossoms off it. hehehehe I just couldn’t help myself! I’m sure her Mom went a little crazy wondering where all these cookies went! Peanut Butter Blossoms by JavaCupcake.com

And now every Christmas, I make these cookies and at least half of what I make ends up in my belly instead of on the plates of goodies I’m sharing with my friends! These cookies are super easy to make and are a classic cookie that’s loved by everyone. This recipe comes directly from the Hershey’s website and I did nothing special to it… cause it’s perfect the way it is!

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 7 minutes

Yield: 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients

48 Hershey's Kisses chocolate candies
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup Peanut Butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Additional granulated sugar for rolling

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375°F and line cookie sheet with parchment paper. Remove wrappers from chocolates.
Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl until well blended.
Add 1/3 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy.
Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well.
Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.
Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar; place on prepared cookie sheet.
Bake 7-8 minutes or until lightly browned.
Immediately press a chocolate into center of each
cookie; cookie will crack around edges. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.

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Easy Chocolate Fudge – Two Ways!

December 20, 2012 by Betsy Eves Leave a Comment

You can’t make a plate full of Christmas cookies without including fudge! So today, I set out on a mission to find a simple yet delicious recipe for chocolate fudge. I’m not good with a candy thermometer, so I needed a recipe that didn’t call for one. Martha Stewart provided just that recipe for me this year.

I know… Martha Stewart hasn’t typically given me good recipes. Most I’ve tried turn out bland and I wonder what the heck their recipe testers were thinking. BUT… I figured I’d give this fudge a try. I mean really, how hard is it to mess up cream and chocolate?

I made this fudge two ways. The first I mixed in Peanut Butter M&Ms and the second I mixed in Heath toffee pieces and pretzel chunks. Both of these flavor combinations are sure to be a huge hit with my friends! PB & chocolate and salty & sweet. Can’t go wrong with those flavor combos!

Really, you could mix just about anything into this fudge… nuts, other chips (white, dark, butterscotch), any other candies, cookies, pretzels. They sky is the limit!

What are you going to mix into your fudge?

Easy Chocolate Fudge – Two Ways!

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 3 hours

Yield: 36 pieces of fudge per batch

Ingredients

2 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups pretzel pieces (chop them first, then measure)
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp Heath Bar toffee pieces
2 cups Peanut Butter M&Ms
NOTE: If you're making both types of fudge, you'll need to have double the ingredients. This makes one batch.

Instructions

Lightly spray 8x8 pan with cooking spray and line with parchment paper so that it hangs over the edges of the pan.
Combine butter, chocolate chips, condensed milk, vanilla extract and salt in a medium heat proof bowl. Set the bowl over a simmering water.
Stir occasionally until chocolate just melts and mixture is combined and warm but not hot, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and fold in 2 cups of pretzels and 1/2 cup toffee pieces.
Spread the fudge evenly into the prepared pan. Smooth out the top.
Press 1/2 cup pretzels and 2 Tbsp toffee into the top of the fudge.
Refrigerate several hours until firm. Cut into 36 squares.
Repeat process using the M&Ms instead of the pretzels/toffee.
Store in an airtight container up to 2 weeks.

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My Dad’s Christmas Applesauce Bread

December 19, 2012 by Betsy Eves 6 Comments

Every Christmas for as long as I can remember, my Mom made the Christmas breakfast casserole, my Grandma made the Chex Mix and my Dad made the applesauce bread. It was tradition. We just couldn’t have Christmas without those three things.

My Grandma handed out the Chex Mix in the beginning of December so we’d have it all month to munch on, my Dad started baking bread several weeks before Christmas and my Mom made the casserole on Christmas Eve so all she had to do was pop it in the oven while we were all opening presents Christmas morning.

Christmas morning as we were opening our stockings, my Dad would have sliced on a plate for us a loaf of his applesauce bread. Normally eating food in the fancy living room where the tree was, was forbidden… but this one day of the year we were allowed this special treat! YUM!

After all the presents were open, we headed to the dining room where my Mom served us Christmas Casserole, sliced peaches,warm cinnamon rolls, orange juice and coffee. After our bellies were full we’d retreat to the TV room and relax by the fireplace, play with all our new toys and nap. By about 3pm our tummies started rumbling again and it was time to snack on more bread and Chex Mix!

And now, I’m in Germany with my own family making this bread for them and my friends. It just wouldn’t be Christmas without it!

What meal time/baking traditions does your family have?

Enjoy!

My Dad’s Christmas Applesauce Bread

Yield: 2 loaves of bread

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour, sifted
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cups unsweetened applesauce
1 cup raisins
1 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Grease and flour a 9x5x3 loaf pan.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar.
Mix in the eggs one at a time. Mix in the vanilla.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt cocoa and cinnamon.
In three parts, add the flour. Between each addition, add half the applesauce. Mix only until no more flour is visible.
Fold in the chocolate chips and the raisins.
Separate batter into the prepared pans.
Bake 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center.
Cool in the pans 15 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Wrap in plastic wrap and freeze until you're ready to eat it or store it in a ziploc bag or air tight container for up to a week.

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Lemon Blackberry Shortbread Cookies

December 18, 2012 by Betsy Eves 1 Comment

Every holiday season I’m always on the lookout for a great new cookie to add to my recipe box. Last week, more than 500 cookie recipes were posted in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap including my recipe for Candy Cane Crinkle Blossoms.

Lemon Blackberry Shortbread Cookies by JavaCupcake

While browsing through all the fantastic cookies, I came across these beautiful raspberry almond thumbprint cookies by Saving Room for Dessert. Tricia’s recipe is so simple that I couldn’t resist trying them myself!

In my cabinet I have this beautiful jar of handmade Blackberry jam made by a local German couple. I have tried 5-6 different flavors of their jams and they are THE BEST I’ve ever tasted. I am definitely spoiled being able to have access to such quality, homemade foods here in Germany! So, I decided to use this jam for these cookies and flavor the dough with lemon instead of almond. Lemon and blackberry make an amazing combination, so I’m sure these cookies will be a hit!

PS…. If I were to make these again, I’d make them more like thumbprint cookies and make the hole for the jam bigger… more jam the merrier!

Enjoy!

Lemon Blackberry Shortbread Cookies

Prep Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Cook Time: 14 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours

Yield: 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp lemon extract
2 cups flour
Blackberry jam

Lemon Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar
3-4 Tbsp heavy cream
1 tsp lemon extract

Instructions

In a medium bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. I used a hand mixer, but you can use your stand mixer if that's easier for you.
Add the lemon extract and mix until combined.
With the mixer on low, blend in the flour. The dough will be clumpy.
In the bowl, knead the dough 8-10 times or until it's come together to form a ball.
Wrap dough ball in plastic and chill for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Shape 1 inch balls of dough and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.
Using the tip of a wooden spoon, press a hole into the center of each cookie at least 1/2 way down.
Fill each hole with blackberry jam. (I used a piping bag with the jam in it to squeeze into each hole.)
Bake for 13-14 minutes or until golden brown. Let cookies stand for 1 minute before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Once cool, mix the powdered sugar, cream and lemon extract. Drizzle over each cookie. (Again, I filled a piping bag filled with the glaze to drizzle over each cookie.)

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National Blogging Day of Remembrance

December 17, 2012 by Betsy Eves 2 Comments

Filed Under: life

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2012: Candy Cane Crinkle Blossoms

December 12, 2012 by Betsy Eves 12 Comments

For the second year, I’m participating in The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap! Last year I was paired with two other bloggers both stationed in Europe but this year I’ve got a fabulous new group of food bloggers to send to!

You must check out these ladies & their blogs! The things they come up with are AH-MAY-ZING!

Sara Croft @ Solid Gold Eats

I didn’t even realize it, but Sara has made a cookie similar to the ones I’ve made for the cookie swap! Check out her Chocolate and Peppermint Blossoms! She also has a ton of other great dinner and side dishes ideas. I think I need to bookmark her blog for next week’s meal planning!

Audra Fullerton @ The Baker Chick

Audra is a baker after my own heart. Seriously, everything she posts on her blog… I want to bake. Recently, she posted a recipe for a Cranberry Meringue Pie. I mean, WOAH. Cranberry pie!! I think I need to make this… ASAP!

TammyJo Eckhart @ The Chocolate Cult

A blog all about chocolate? Have I died and gone to heaven? I think so! TammyJo shares so many mouth watering ideas for ways to use chocolate that I never even dreamed of… including these Chocolate Waffles!

The cookies I made for this Cookie Swap are a spin on my favorite Christmas cookie, the Chocolate Crinkle. I took Betty Crocker’s recipe from my 1963 Cooky Book and added some peppermint then topped them with a Hershey’s Candy Cane Kiss chocolate! Perfect combination of chocolate and peppermint for the holidays!

I can’t wait to see what TammyJo, Sara and Audra come up with!

Enjoy!

Candy Cane Crinkle Blossoms

Ingredients

4oz unsweetened bakers chocolate, melted
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 tsp peppermint extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp espresso powder (optional)
1 cup powdered sugar
Candy Cane Hershey Kiss candies

Instructions

In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together the sugar, oil and melted chocolate.
One at a time, add the eggs. Mix well and scrape the sides of the bowl after each addition.
Mix in the vanilla and peppermint extracts.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and espresso powder.
Add the flour to the chocolate mixture and mix until smooth and combined.
Chill at least 8 hours or overnight.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Unwrap 5 dozen Candy Cane Kiss candies.
Roll teaspoon sized balls of dough in your hand. Toss them in powdered sugar until they are coated.
Arrange them on the cookie sheet 2 inches apart.
Bake 8-9 minutes.
Immediately press a Kiss into the center of each cookie. Allow cookie to cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes then carefully remove to a wire rack to cool completely before storing.

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Lisa’s Jumbo Chocolate Chip Cookies

December 10, 2012 by Betsy Eves 1 Comment

About a month ago my friend Toni, a fellow Army Wife, posted on Facebook about how she was making chocolate chip cookies. Being a lover of cookies, I was instantly jealous. I suck at making chocolate chip cookies. Ugh. So… I asked Toni if she’d be interested in sharing her cookies on my blog! So… here’s a little about Toni, her cookies and the recipe!

Enjoy!

****************************

My name is Toni, I have been married to my hero for 5 years now, we have two beautiful children and we couldn’t be more blessed!!

A bit about my past.. I grew up in a home where my mom and dad both enjoyed cooking. My dad loved to prepare seafood dishes and he made a lot of excellent smoked salmon. Up until

My Dad passed away when I was ten, my mom was always in the kitchen cooking up a storm, and she loved baking.

When I was 13 years old my mom (her name was Lisa!) passed suddenly from a heart attack. She was only 38 years old. My life was turned upside down to say the least… but by the grace of God, I made it with the help of family, friends, and most of all, my faith.

After I was married, I realized I needed to figure out this cooking thing. My mom was no longer around to teach me, so I had to learn on my own from a lot of trial and error. (and a lot of youtube searches!!!) After five years I’m finally getting the hang of things. I’m still very shy in the kitchen, especially around other women who’ve had more experience than me, but I’m slowly gaining my confidence and trying my hand at my own creations.

Not long ago, I found my moms favorite cookbook among some of mine. I decided to look through it and found a pretty simple chocolate chip cookie recipe. It looked good, but I thought some embellishments were definitely in order. So I went through my cupboards. I found chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and heath bars and whipped up my own versions!! With whatever variations you choose, it’s so easy and super yummy. Everyone likes a jumbo sized cookie!! It gives everyone a warm fuzzy happy feeling!!

It brings a smile to my face knowing that my moms favorite old cookbook helped me build a little confidence in my own kitchen long after her passing. It kind of feels like she’s still sort of here helping me on my way. Hope you all enjoy!

Lisa’s Jumbo Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup of unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup of granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
OR 6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips + 6 oz peanut butter chips
OR 6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips + 6 oz crushed heath bar bits
(I have made these all three ways and they turn out wonderful with each variation)

Instructions

Heat oven to 375 degrees.
In large bowl mix butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla extract.
In separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and salt.
Stir slowly into the sugar mixture until well mixed. (the dough will be pretty stiff).
Stir in the chocolate chips/peanut butter chips, nuts, candy pieces or whatever you choose to use!
Drop by 1/4 cupfuls about 3-in. apart onto un-greased cookie sheet. (I like to use stoneware).
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until edges are set and they're a light golden brown. (I find that 14 minutes seems to be the perfect bake time in my oven).

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Gingerbread Biscotti

December 7, 2012 by Betsy Eves Leave a Comment

Since the success of my first batch of biscotti (white chocolate dipped cranberry biscotti)… I have come to the conclusion that it is one of the simplest cookies to make.

Although my friends at Jen’s Just Desserts don’t agree with me. She thinks they are too time consuming. Which… I could possibly agree with if I were making enough for a cafe or restaurant… because you have to bake them twice. But let’s be honest here. The dough, it’s not that difficult to make. And baking twice? Ok… big deal. I’m a home baker. It’s not that big of an issue for me.

And if we’re really being honest here. These biscotti that I have made are really so impressive looking that I don’t mind the extra step of baking twice!

Of the two I’ve made so far… these gingerbread are my favorite to dip in my morning cup of coffee. Crisp and full of flavor… the gingerbread and my coffee mixed together is so perfect, I think I may be making biscotti every week to have as my mid morning snack with my coffee! YUM!

Enjoy!

Gingerbread Biscotti

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours

Yield: 12-15 biscotti

Ingredients

Biscotti

4 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 egg white
1/2 cup molasses
3 cups flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3-4 Tbsp heavy cream

Instructions

Biscotti

Preheat oven to 375 F degrees. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy.
One at a time, add the eggs until combined.
Add the molasses and mix until smooth.
In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and spices.
Add the flour mixture to the bowl with the wet ingredients and mix until combined. Dough will be sticky.
Form the dough into a long rectangle, approximately 10 inches long and about 4 inches wide. I used an offset spatula to help spread and shape the dough. (Really, shape it as wide and as long as you like. I wanted long cookies, so I made mine wider.)
Bake about 25 minutes or until top and bottom are golden brown. Remove, transfer to wire rack and allow to cool about 15 minutes. (If the bottom isn't too brown, you could leave it on the cookie sheet to cool. Remove it if it's already brown.)
Transfer to a cutting board and slice into 1/2" slices. Lay each slice on it's side and place back on the cookie sheet.
Bake for 10 more minutes or until golden.
Remove and cool completely on a wire rack.

Glaze

Whisk together the powdered sugar, cinnamon and heavy cream until smooth. Add enough cream until you have a consistency you can drizzle over the biscotti.
Once the biscotti has cooled, drizzle the glaze over the top. Allow glaze to set up before serving.

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White Chocolate Dipped Cranberry Biscotti

December 7, 2012 by Betsy Eves 5 Comments

There are two things you don’t know about me. 1) I’ve never had biscotti. 2) I’ve never made biscotti.

I know. I’m weird. I mean, for a girl who drinks so much coffee you’d think that I’d have biscotti all the time. Nope. I guess it’s probably because the only biscotti I’ve ever really seen is full of nuts. And well, I’m allergic to nuts.

This season though, I’ve been seeing all kinds of recipes pops up for biscotti that didn’t include nuts. Cinnamon sugar, gingerbread (in the picture above), chocolate peppermint and this one… White chocolate dipped cranberry biscotti.

The recipe I’m using is inspired by a recipe I found on What Gaby’s Cooking. She uses dried cranberries, but since I only had fresh berries, I used those.

Dipped in the white chocolate, this biscotti is a perfect treat to go with my coffee!

I also made Gingerbread Biscotti and have two more delicious flavors planned to make in the coming days!

Enjoy!

White Chocolate Dipped Cranberry Biscotti

Ingredients

Cranberries

250g fresh cranberries
1/4 cup cranberry juice
1/4 cup sugar

Biscotti

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp lemon zest
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 eggs
2/3 cup cranberry mixture
1/4 cup flour
Sugar in the Raw
1 cup white chocolate chips, melted for dipping

Instructions

Cranberries

In a medium pot over med-high heat, combine the cranberries, sugar and juice.
Heat until simmering. The berries will begin to pop and split. Stir occasionally.
Reduce to med-low heat and continue to cook until the berries have just begun to reduce. You want the berries to reduce by about a 1/3 with most of the berries still whole.
Remove from heat, strain out as much juice as you can and allow to cool.

Biscotti

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Line large cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Sift together the 2 cups flour, baking powder and salt.
In the bowl of your stand mixer, press the lemon zest into the sugar... releasing the oils of the lemon into the sugar. Press the zest until the sugar becomes fluffy and fragrant.
Add the butter and cream together for about 3-4 minutes.
Add the eggs one at a time and mix until just combined.
Add the flour mixture and mix on low until all the flour has been absorbed. Do not over mix.
Fold in the strained cranberries and additional 1/4 cup flour. Mixture will be VERY sticky... the additional 1/4 cup of flour should help with this.
Form the dough into a long rectangle, approximately 10 inches long and about 4 inches wide. I used an offset spatula to help spread and shape the dough. (Really, shape it as wide and as long as you like. I wanted long cookies, so I made mine wider.)
Sprinkle Sugar in the Raw over the top of the dough.
Bake about 35-40 minutes or until top and bottom are golden brown. Remove, transfer to wire rack and allow to cool about 15 minutes. (If the bottom isn't too brown, you could leave it on the cookie sheet to cool. Remove it if it's already brown.)
Transfer to a cutting board and slice into 1/2" slices. Lay each slice on it's side and place back on the cookie sheet.
Bake for 15-20 more minutes or until golden.
Remove and cool completely on a wire rack.
Melt the white chocolate and spread it on the bottom of each cookie using an offset spatula or knife. Set on wax paper to until hard.
Serve with coffee to your friends or give as gifts!

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Filed Under: biscotti, biscotti, cookies, cranberries, holiday, recipes, white chocolate

Frosted Peppermint Dark Chocolate Cake Donuts

December 3, 2012 by Betsy Eves 10 Comments

Living here in Germany, I don’t get the opportunity to eat very many cake donuts. Last week, the commissary bakery was selling a glazed chocolate cake donut that was pretty yummy. And now… I can’t get them off my mind.

So my cake donut obsession and my current peppermint obsession came together today to make my first peppermint recipe of the season! Baked glazed peppermint dark chocolate cake donuts! NOM!

The recipe is a simple one. Two bowls, one whisk and just a little bit of mixing are necessary to make a thick, fudge brownie type batter that will get piped into a donut pan and baked to puffy, cakey perfection.

Instead of a typical glaze, I wanted a thicker frosting. So, I made my vanilla buttercream and made it a little smoother than I would if I were frosting a cupcake by adding more heavy cream. After frosting each donut, I topped them with crushed peppermint candy canes! YUMMM!

Enjoy!

Frosted Peppermint Dark Chocolate Cake Donuts

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 13 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Yield: 10 full size donuts and 12 mini donuts

Ingredients

Donuts

2 cups flour
1/2 cup dark chocolate cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2 tsp peppermint extract
1 tsp vanilla extract

Frosting

4 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp peppermint extract
3-4 Tbsp heavy cream
Crushed peppermint candy canes or peppermint sprinkles for garnish

Instructions

Donuts

Preheat oven to 325 F degrees. Spray donut pans with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients... flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa. Make sure there are no sugar clumps remaining.
In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, eggs, melted butter and extracts.
Make a well in the flour mixture. Slowly pour in the wet ingredients and begin to whisk. Whisk until smooth, about 15 strokes.
Spoon batter into a piping bag (you can use a ziploc bag too). Squeeze batter into donut pan filling about 2/3 full.
Bake full size donuts for 12-14 minutes. Bake mini donuts for 9-11 minutes. The donuts will be done when you gently press down on them and they spring back.
Cool in pans for about 3-5 minutes then remove to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting

Beat together the sugar and butter until smooth. Mix in the vanilla extract.
Add the heavy cream slowly until you get your desired consistency. I like my frosting smooth, creamy and spreadable
Spread frosting onto each donut. Sprinkle crushed candy canes or sprinkles on top.

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Filed Under: bread and pretzels, chocolate, dark chocolate, doughnuts, doughnuts, peppermint, peppermint and mint, recipes

White Chocolate Cranberry Muffins

November 30, 2012 by Betsy Eves 1 Comment

I never knew before this year how much I loved cranberries. In years past, I equated them to that canned jellied cranberry sauce that got served with Thanksgiving dinner. Yuck. So, you can see how I thought that all cranberry would be equally as disgusting.

That was until I made cranberry sauce from scratch for Thanksgiving dinner this year. Oh Em Gee. SO GOOD. I just about fell out of my chair when I tasted it.

This passed weekend my husband and I stopped at two more Starbucks in Germany… Mannheim and Heidelberg. When in Heidelberg, I ordered their white chocolate cranberry muffin and was amazed at how delicious it was. The pairing of the white chocolate and cranberry went perfectly together and I decided right then that I needed to make them at home!

I started these muffins with a variation on my cranberry sauce. I didn’t make quite as much as I made when I used it for Thanksgiving and I didn’t cook it as long. Just enough to begin to break down the berries and extract the juices. I still wanted chunks of cranberry floating through my muffins… just not whole, bitter berries.

Enjoy!

White Chocolate Cranberry Muffins

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Cook Time: 16 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Yield: 24 muffins

Ingredients

Muffins

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 cup reduced cranberries (see recipe below)
1 cup white chocolate chips or chunks

Cranberries

250g (about 2 1/4 cups) fresh cranberries
2 Tbsp sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup (not pancake syrup - can substitute this with 2 Tbsp more sugar if you don't have it)
1/4 cup cranberry juice (or any other juice you have - apple, orange, lemon)

Instructions

Cranberries

In a large pan, combine the berries, sugar, syrup and juice and bring to a light boil over medium high heat.
Just as it begins to boil, reduce to simmering.
Cook about 10 minutes or until the cranberries have broken down with about half still in tact and a nice thick syrup made from the remaining berries. You will hear a popping sound, have no fear! That's just the berries popping open in the heat... like popcorn!
Cook until it becomes thick. Remove to cool while preparing the batter.

Muffins

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Line muffin pan with liners.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time and mix until just combined.
Mix in the vanilla.
In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg.
With the mixer on low, add the flour in three parts. Between each addition of flour, add half the buttermilk.
Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix just about 80% of the dry mixture has been combined.
Fold in the cranberry sauce and the white chocolate chips.
Fill muffin liners 2/3 full. Bake about 16 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool in pan 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

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Filed Under: cranberries, muffins, recipes, white chocolate

10 Things I Loved This Week – Peppermint Edition

November 30, 2012 by Betsy Eves 1 Comment

With Thanksgiving over (almost all my Turkey leftovers are gone too!), I find myself day dreaming about how many peppermint goodies I can make this year! So, here are a few of my favorite peppermint recipes I came across this week!

Enjoy!

PS…. Want more peppermint recipes? Check out my Peppermint Desserts Board on Pinterest!

I’ve been wanting to try my hand at biscotti, I think this Double Chocolate Peppermint biscotti would be the perfect place to start!

Chocolate chip cookies and candy canes? Yes please!

I’ve made chocolate and mint cupcakes in the past… but these Peppermint Bark Cupcakes from Your Cup of Cake look divine!

I love chewy brownies… and these Dark Chocolate Candy Cane Brownies from My Baking Addiction have made my list of favorite brownies!

Mmmmmm York Peppermint Patty Cupcakes. Om nom nom nom

Chocolate Crinkle cookies are my all time favorite Christmas cookie, but add peppermint! HOLY COW! Thanks, Bakers Royale!

Betty Crocker can do no wrong when it comes to cookies, especially these Easy Peppermint Candy Cookies!

Easy Peppermint Candy Cookies

Peppermint Candy Tarts… so cute! (See featured image photo above)

Family Fun Friday shares with us her twist on the sugar cookie with Peppermint Sugar Cookies!

And my new Christmas Eve tradition, Peppermint Marshmallow stir sticks for hot chocolate!

Filed Under: 10 Things I Loved This Week, peppermint

Fall Leaves Toffee Apple Pie

November 21, 2012 by Betsy Eves 3 Comments

Just like the pumpkin pie… apple pie is another family staple in my home at Thanksgiving. A few years back, I found a recipe that included toffee chips and chocolate and I fell in love. Since then, I’ve made dozens of other pies, but I keep coming back to this recipe. It’s simple amazing.

Since I’ll be bringing this pie to my neighbors house for Thanksgiving, I wanted to kick it up a notch and make it, not only taste, but look extra special. I was inspired by this pie on the Family Feedbag blog and decided I could make my pie look just as cute!

I love how the toffee topping under the crust makes the tree look like it’s brown and covered with bark!! Love it!

Enjoy!

Fall Leaves Toffee Apple Pie

Ingredients

Apple Pie Filling

6-7 Granny smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced thinly
1 lemon, zested and juiced
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 pre-made pie crusts
red, green, yellow and orange Wilton food coloring gel

Toffee Topping

1/2 cup flour
3 Tbsp sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, cold & cubed
1/3 cup Hershey's toffee & chocolate chips (you could use Heath bar if you can't find the bag of toffee/choc.)

Instructions

Toffee Apple Pie

Preheat oven to 450 F degrees.
Mix together the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and spices in a small bowl.
In a very large bowl bowl, toss apples with the zest and juice of the lemon.
Sprinkle the sugar mixture over the apples and fold together until all the apples are coated.
Line pie pan with one pre-made crust. Poke a few holes in the bottom and sides of the crust with a fork.
Mound the apple mixture into the pie pan and spread evenly. I used the back of my spatula to gently press the apples into the corners of the pan.
In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar and toffee/chocolate chips together.
Spread the cubed butter over the top of the apples. Sprinkle the toffee mixture evenly over the entire pie.
Place second pie crust with the tree cutout over the top of the apples. Trim the edges and crimp the sides together using your finger and thumb. Reserve the excess dough for the leaves. (see below)
Brush the entire crust with milk.
Place the prepared leaves around the tree.
Sprinkle the top of the pie with sugar.
Bake at 450 F degrees for 10 minutes then reduce to 350 F degrees and bake another 35-45 minutes or until center is bubbly.

Fall Leaves & Tree

Using a sharp paring knife, cut out the shape of a tree in the second pie crust.
After you place this crust on top of the pie and trim the edges, use these scraps to make the leaves.
Separate the dough into 4 equal parts and color them with red, yellow, green and orange food coloring gel. Roll out the dough and cut into leaves. You can even mix a few colors and create multi-colored leaves.
Use the sharp paring knife to score the leaves (veins).

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Filed Under: apple, holiday, pie, pies and tarts, recipes

Homemade Cranberry Sauce

November 21, 2012 by Betsy Eves 2 Comments

I’ve never been a fan of canned cranberries… I guess maybe because I’m a purist. If I can make it myself with fresh ingredients, I’ll do it! Thanksgiving cranberry sauce is no exception.

I know, I know… the canned, jellied stuff is a time honored tradition in many homes, but really… once you’ve made this sauce you’ll never go back to the canned stuff!

This sauce is very simple in the ingredients. If you don’t have cranberry with lime juice, you could use apple or orange juice. You could even use the zest of lemon or lime! Really, the possibilities are endless!

ENJOY!

Recipe inspired by: The Pioneer Woman

Homemade Cranberry Sauce

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Yield: Approx. 3 1/2 cups

Sweet, tart, fresh cranberry sauce perfect for Thanksgiving and turkey!

Ingredients

500g (about 17.5oz) of fresh cranberries
1 1/3 cup cranberry with lime juice
12oz maple syrup (not pancake syrup, the real stuff!)
1 large orange, zested and juiced
1/4 cup of fresh squeezed orange juice
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp corn starch

Instructions

Rinse the cranberries and remove any that are bruised or damaged.
In a large pot, combine the berries, cranberry juice, syrup, orange zest & juice, and the salt.
Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring gently.
Once it boils, reduce to medium and simmer until it thickens, about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the corn starch and gently stir in. NOTE: Do not over stir, you want the cranberries to break down on their own and some remain whole... over stirring will break the berries down into mush.
Allow to cool completely and store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

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Filed Under: appetizers, cranberries, recipes, seasonal, Thanksgiving

JavaCupcake’s Bakers Wish List

November 19, 2012 by Betsy Eves 5 Comments

I’ve been reading a lot of posts by some of my favorite bloggers where they have been sharing some of their favorite kitchen tools and gadgets and some new items on their must have wish list! I have a lot of great tools in my kitchen already… but I’m always look for new, fun, practical things to add to the collection!

Here’s my Bakers Wish List!

Personalized Cake/Dessert Stand: My friend Kari from Retro Bakery posted about this cake/dessert stand and I fell in LOVE! This is a MUST HAVE for any baker who likes to bring goodies to parties or who likes to display their yummies beautifully! And the best part about it… it’s PERSONALIZED!

Silicone Whisk: I have several metal whisks, but I am in dire need of a silicone one!! I love this one from Norpro!

Silpat – Nonstick baking mat: I use parchment paper ALL THE TIME. I need a collection of 4-5 of these to line my baking sheets with!

KitchenAid 7qt Professional Stand Mixer: I already own the pink Artisan mixer and I LOVE IT! But, in my dream kitchen I’d have the 7qt mixer and I’d be able to make triple and quadruple batches at a time!

Electronic kitchen scale: Since I began making cakes, I’ve wanted a kitchen scale. It’d make my life so much easier to measure out by weight the batter for each pan than by volume (cup).

Rubber Spatulas: I have a set from Pampered Chef…. but I’ve been disappointed with how much they’ve fallen apart. They crack easily and for the price I paid for them, I would have expected more durability. Sprinkle Bakes suggests these rubber spatulas. I think I need to invest in a set.

Bake Even Strips: Again, since I’ve started baking cakes, I’ve read that these help create a level cake… less to cut off after it bakes! A must have for my kitchen!

Decorating Storage: Right now, my decorating supplies are scattered across my baking supply cabinet. Everything you see below… I need!

Tip Organizer

Color Organizer

Rolling Tool Caddy

What’s on your Bakers Wish List?

Filed Under: Christmas, wish list

How Not to Make Pumpkin Spice Pudding Cupcakes

November 18, 2012 by Betsy Eves 9 Comments

This weekend, amongst the madness of just-paid Army wives and Thanksgiving shoppers at the Commissary, I spotted a box of Jell-O Pumpkin Spice Pudding! *SQEEEEEEEEL* I immediately tossed it into my basket and continued on my shopping.

Today… my husband is hungover. A bottle of Johnny Walker and half a bottle of Glenlivet between him and his buddy Jody… well, they’re both not happy soldiers today. Which means… I’m alone to bake whatever my little heart desires!

First, it was my second double batch of Holiday Chex Mix of the season… now it’s cupcakes… and after the cupcakes are done… the roast, taters and carrots go in the oven! Are you jealous yet? hehe It’s a fabulous day to be in my kitchen!

So… the cupcakes. I’ve said over and over how I’m not a “box mix” kinda baker. But I find myself lately having a box “on hand” in my kitchen and well… whip up a batch of one-bowl cupcakes using it! Eeeek. Now that I have a box of pudding mix… I thought maybe the two might go together! I thought a nice maple cream cheese frosting would go well with them too! YUM!

WRONG. Total disaster. The batter started out okay…. had promise. They baked, puffed up perfectly. See… don’t they look pretty?

WRONG… they sunk.

I thought… well maybe, I can salvage them with frosting. NOPE. Wrong again. I tasted the cupcakes and they were DISGUSTING! They tasted like pudding… but nothing like cake! No flavor and just GROSS! ACK!

Into the trash can they went.

I’ve learned my lesson. NO MORE BOXED CAKE MIX!

And as for the pudding… I’ll stick to eating it out of the bowl and not in my cupcakes.

Here’s a picture of the ingredients I used…. so that you won’t make the same mistakes I did.

Ingredients:
1 box cake mix
1 box pumpkin spice pudding
2 cups cold milk
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla (not pictured)
spices

SO… what did I do wrong? Any suggestions? How do you make your pudding cupcakes?

Filed Under: boxed cake mix, cake batter, cream cheese, disasters, pudding, pumpkin

10 Things I Loved This Week

November 16, 2012 by Betsy Eves 2 Comments

Like many of you already know… these last weeks have been pretty rough for me. But, I’ve found that getting back to what I love, baking and blogging, helps ease the pain of the loss of my daughter. With that said… here’s this weeks list of 10 things I loved!

I’ve wanted to make my own marshmallows for some time now… these peppermint marshmallows from Betty Crocker sound like a perfect place to start!

Easy Peppermint Marshmallows

I made someone else’s recipe for Chocolate Crinkle cookies this week…. EPIC FAILURE. I should have just used my tried and true recipe.

I am in love with cheese sticks… but never thought I could make them at home! These sticks from Gimme Some Oven make it possible! (See featured image at the top of this post.)

I made a few loaves this week of “Thank You Bread” or as some of my readers have named it “Cora’s Bread” … it’s pretty amazing, you should try it!

Chicken. That’s what you could call me when it comes to making pumpkin rolls. But seriously, how hard could they be? Especially when they look like this one from Confessions of a Closet Master Baker!

I’ve started collecting peppermint recipes… this peppermint cookie has made the list!

We all know that I love pumpkin and chocolate together… add sea salt! WOAH!

The Lemon Sugar blog is growing to be one of my favorites… and now with her latest cake creation featuring a mound of homemade marshmallows on top… I must make this!

Baked chicken teriyaki… super easy and so delicious!

I’ll be using this bunting on my pies this Thanksgiving! SO ADORBS!

Filed Under: 10 Things I Loved This Week

Thank You Bread & And a Story About Cora

November 12, 2012 by Betsy Eves 43 Comments

Although this post has a recipe at the end… it’s not the usual post you’ll see here on my blog. This is a very personal story of my life in November 2102. A story that has changed me forever…

The last three weeks have been the hardest weeks of my life. I’ve been through a lot of stuff as an adult, but nothing really can compare to the devastation I have faced.

Three weeks ago on a Thursday, I went in for what my German doctor called a “special ultrasound.” I was about 12 weeks pregnant and super excited to see my growing baby! Typically, this screening & ultrasound isn’t done until 16-20 weeks in the States, but here in Germany, the doctors like to do it sooner.

For 30 minutes, I laid on the table, watching my little nugget swim around in my belly. It had fingers and toes and was jumping around like crazy. I watched in awe as I saw this precious life, my baby, alive in front of me! I was so excited! But… sadly, that excitement was put to a stop when my doctor had asked me to wait in the lobby while he was called away for an emergency. As he left he told me we’d have to “discuss the situation and how to proceed.” My heart dropped. Shit. Something was wrong with my baby.

Those 15 minutes were probably the longest of my life up to then. I called my husband and began sobbing, worrying, speculating what in the world could be wrong with my baby. Finally, the doctor returned and began to explain what he saw in the ultrasound.

There are some things I really appreciate about having a German doctor. This day, I was grateful for his inability to know how to “sugar coat” things in English. He knew only enough English to tell me the facts and nothing more. The doctor explained to me that my baby had a layer of fluid built up under the skin, surrounding the entire body and that the intestines were growing into the umbilical cord. Both of these key indicators that the baby had a genetic disorder. Which disorder, he was unsure of but needed to have further testing done to give a proper diagnosis.

The Chorionic Villis Sampling was scheduled for Tuesday. Similar to an amniocentesis this sampling tests the genetic make up of the tissue around the baby, which is the same as the baby. It would tell us which genetic disorder the baby had.

I’ve had surgery before, I’ve broken bones, I’ve been in car accidents… but the pain this test caused me was like nothing I’d ever felt. The needle into my uterus felt like it was just prodding into my soul, ripping my heart out at the same time. This test was going to tell us the fate of our child… and I was scared and sad. So very sad.

The results of the test came in on Friday. The doctor confirmed what he suspected, our child had a genetic disorder called Trisomy 18. What this meant is that on the babies 18th chromosome, instead of two pairs of DNA, there were three. This disorder causes all kinds of physical disabilities including a shortened life span. Most don’t make it to birth and those that do die with in days.

Wow. This was a lot to take it. I mean, we’d researched the possibilities of what genetic disorder it could have been… but Trisomy 18 was just about the worst one possible. Our baby was going to die. Die sooner than any baby should die. How in the world was I going to deal with this?

Our first decision was an easy one. When the doctor asked how we wanted to proceed… either abortion or let the baby live as long as possible… we knew right away we wanted to give our baby a chance at life. However short or long that would be… she deserved a chance to live. So, we began planning what steps we’d need to take to get the best medical care possible for our child and a move back to the USA was starting to take place.

Doctors appointments were made for 5 hours away at Landstuhl Medical Center… the closest American doctor and actually the only place in Europe, Asia and Africa that had a genetic specialist, a visit to the Chaplain and we gathered the necessary paperwork for a move back home. The puzzle pieces were moving and things were looking hopeful that we’d get our baby the best care possible.

We were holding on to the hope that our baby would make it to birth. That we’d be able to hold her, touch her, tell her how much we loved her. Oh…. did I mention that the genetic test also told us she was a girl? So yes!! A girl! And we named her Cora Marie! Through all the sadness, my husband and I truly believed Cora would beat all the odds and she’d be in that small percentage of babies who make it to birth and we’d be able to meet her! It really was the only way we kept our sanity, day to day…. the only way we could remain happy.

And we held on to that hope until Thursday of this past week. Thursday, everything changed. I woke up early in the morning and found blood after going to the bathroom. I wanted to ignore it, but I couldn’t. I started to worry. I hoped that maybe it was just nothing… that’d it would go away. But… it didn’t. By early evening there was more blood… enough not to ignore. So, my husband took me to the Emergency Room.

We were seen by a doctor who actually helped deliver Matthew back in March. It was nice to see a familiar face. She did an ultrasound to see how things were with the baby. Immediately, I could tell something was wrong. Cora wasn’t moving, she laid there in my belly so still, no movement at all. And then, when the doctor moved the image to her chest area… there it was… no heartbeat. And I knew… she was gone. The doctor confirmed with a few more tests and measurements on the screen and then told us what we were seeing… no heartbeat and no bloodflow… our baby had died.

Wow… this was not what I wanted, expected or ever dreamed of happening. It had already been such a stressful and emotionally charged 2 weeks… I just thought I’d have more time before I had to deal with this part. I really just thought I’d have more time.

Now what? I asked the doctor. Another shock came… I had to deliver my baby. HUH? WHAT? Yes… she was too big for the doctors to remove with a D&C and too small for a C-section removal. I had to let my body deliver her naturally. I was to stay overnight, see if my body would start the process on my own and if not, they’d give me some medication to help things along.

The next morning, nothing had happened so the doctors gave me that medicine. It wasn’t until the second dose later that afternoon that I really felt things happening, changing, progressing. My uterus was contracting and I was in so much pain… none of the pain killers the doctors had me on all day were working anymore. We called the nurse in to let her know of the pain I was in and she said ok, left the room and wasn’t to be seen again.

As I was trying to get myself comfortable to help ease the pain, I got on my knees with my head on my pillow on my bed. This seemed to be the only position I could get any relief. And then… it happened. My water broke. With my first two kids, I had never experienced this sensation. It was like a balloon burst between my legs and water spilled out everywhere. I rushed to the bathroom to sit on the wheelchair toilet they had put in my room to collect fluids in situations just like this. The remaining fluid rushed out and my contractions began to ease. We called the nurse again, told her my water broke… and again she disappeared.

With no clue for what I should do next, I laid down on my bed and tried to rest. My husband stroked my forehead and I fell asleep. The first sleep I had gotten since I’d been at the hospital.

What happens next… it maybe be hard for you to read. It’s graphic and upsetting. So please, skip ahead as it may be difficult to get through.

As I lay in bed, trying to sleep, I am awakened by more fluid coming out of me. I head back to the bathroom wheelchair toilet and sit there. Still, no nurse or doctor had come to check on me or help me. By this point, it had been about 20 minutes since my water broke.

Without warning from my body, I feel something warm slip out of me. Not certain of what it was… I thought maybe a blood clot, I asked my husband to look. I sat forward and he looked behind me. His words still haunt me… It’s Cora, he said. My hand covered my open mouth and I sat there in shock. My baby was dangling from me. I had just delivered her in a toilet. I sent my husband outside to get a nurse, anyone to help… but no one came. For 10 more minutes, I sat there. What was I to do? My baby was hanging from me and all I could do was sit there. I held my husbands hand and we cried. Cried for my baby, cried for us. Cried.

Finally, the doctor arrived and he looks at me like… What? What’s going on? I tell him… THE BABY CAME OUT! She’s hanging there!!! He instructs me to get up and move to the bed. The nurse holds Cora between my legs and I waddle to the bed. I sit down, the doctor cuts the umbilical cord and lays my baby down on a feminine pad. (This didn’t bother me until later…. but really, a pad? He couldn’t find a blanket or towel or something?!!) They left the room and gave us some time with our daughter.

She was so tiny. Only 2 inches long. Her bones had not developed yet, but her body was forming. Head, body, arms, legs…. even little toes and fingers, knees too. She had eyes, nose and a mouth too. She was so tiny. She was beautiful.

I held Cora and I told her how much I loved her, how sorry I was that she didn’t get to live longer… but that she was going to join my Mom in Heaven. Grandma Nancy was waiting for her… I told Cora that Grandma was going to hold her, snuggle with her, sing to her and take care of her until we got to Heaven to be with her.

And that was it… 10 minutes with my daughter.

The nurses took me to the operating room and a D&C was performed to clean out my uterus and ensure everything was okay. An hour after that procedure, I was heading home.

The following day was the most emotional for me. I was pregnant, delivered a baby in a toilet and then came home… with no baby. I wanted her so badly. I wanted Cora in my life. I wanted to hold her. Love her. Raise her. I wanted for Matty to be a big brother to her. For Emily to teach her everything she knew about what it meant to be a girl, a teenager. But… I was never going to have any of that. She was gone. I was lost. I cried most of the day. I needed to release it all.

Last night, I had a dream… Cora came to me. She looked to be about two months old. Big eyes like Matty but they were brown like Emily’s and she had a head full of dark brown straight hair. She looked healthy, happy and she gave me a look… a look so deep into my soul and she told me… Mommy, I’m okay. I made it to Heaven and I’m with Grandma and everything is going to be okay. I love you Mommy.

And I instantly felt peace.

See, a few years ago when my Mom died… she came to me in a dream a few days after she died too. She told me something similar, that she had made it to Heaven and that everything was going to be okay. I also, felt at peace with her passing.

Today, three days after I said goodbye to Cora… I am at peace. I am still sad, I will always miss her. But I feel peace. I know she is in Heaven and I know that everything will be okay.

My husband and I also decided to get matching tattoos today to have something tangible to remember Cora by. I didn’t have anything with her name on it, no blanket she laid in, no clothes she wore… so I thought a tatoo was fitting. I got her name on my left wrist and Dave got the day she went to Heaven on his right wrist. That way, everytime we hold hands… Cora will be there.

And I feel I need to take a moment to thank my husband. Dave… there isn’t another person in this world that I would have wanted to experience all of this with. You are the love of my life and I am so thankful to have your love through all of this. This was the hardest thing I’ve ever done and having you with me made it somewhat more bearable. Thank you Dave for loving me. Thank you for loving Cora. Thank you for holding me as I cried. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

During that 24 hours at the hospital, I was lucky enough to have two amazing friends step up and help out. My friend Chrissy offered me emotional and moral support and my friend Chasity watched my kids for me. And as the Facebook messages, text messages and emails poured in from friends near and far… it was these two ladies who really held my life together for me as I felt as it was all falling apart.

Chasity, Chrissy – I will forever be thankful what you did for me those days. You held my family in your hands and you never let us fall. You loved us, cared for us… and I can’t say it enough how grateful I am to have you in my life. I love you!!!

So today, I baked some bread for them. I simply call this bread “Thank You Bread”. I’ve never made it before, but this recipe was derived from an applesauce bread my Dad makes every Christmas. I just kicked it up a notch!

If you have sometone you need to say Thank you to, consider this bread and think of Cora for me!

Thank You Bread

3 loaves

Ingredients

11 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
4 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
3 Tbsp dark chocolate cocoa powder
3 cups unsweetened applesauce
1 2/3 cup cinnamon chips (1 10oz bag)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup raisins

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 F degrees. Grease and flour 3 9x5x3 loaf pans. I also lined the bottoms with parchment paper.
Cream together the butter and sugars. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat on high for 4-5 minutes. Make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure everything is incorporated.
While that's beating, sift together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt, and cocoa.
Add the flour to the creamed mixture in three parts. Between each part, add half the applesauce.
Fold in the cinnamon chips, chocolate chips and raisins.
Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix 10 more strokes to ensure the batter is fully incorporated.
Divide the batter into the three pans evenly.
Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool in pans for 20 minutes then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

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http://javacupcake.com/2012/11/thank-you-bread-and-a-story-about-cora/

One day at a time… that’s how I’m getting through this. Great friends, an amazing husband… and one day at a time.

Filed Under: apple, applesauce, bread and pretzels, chocolate, cinnamon, life, recipes

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Although this post has a recipe at the end… it’s not the usual post you’ll see here on my blog. This is a very personal story of my life in November 2102. A story that has changed me forever…

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