The recipe comes from the Pioneer Woman… and it’s pretty simple, however very time consuming.  You need a good three hours to dedicate to making these bad boys.

A few notes about the recipe before I post it…

• First, it makes A LOT of dough.  I made the entire recipe this time, but if I ever make them again… I’m definitely only making half.  I got two round pans full of rolls out of 1/2 the dough… about 14 rolls.  PLENTY for me and Emily.
• These rolls are very sweet, they’d be great with a touch of brown sugar in the middle as well as maybe some raisins or nuts if you like them.
• Don’t skimp on the cinnamon either!! I was certain I was adding too much, but in reality, I needed more.  Don’t be afraid to pile it on!
• And finally, I didn’t have any maple flavoring for the icing, so I used vanilla… and to be honest, I wouldn’t skimp on that either.  My icing was good, but a little more vanilla would have been even BETTER!

Now on to the recipe!!

Pioneer Woman’s Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients

• 1 quart Whole Milk
• 1 cup Vegetable Oil
• 1 cup Sugar
• 2 packages Active Dry Yeast
• 8 cups (Plus 1 Cup Extra, Separated) All-purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon (heaping) Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon (scant) Baking Soda
• 1 Tablespoon (heaping) Salt
• Plenty Of Melted Butter
• 2 cups Sugar
• Generous Sprinkling Of Cinnamon

MAPLE FROSTING:

• 1 bag Powdered Sugar
• 2 teaspoons Maple Flavoring
• ½ cups Milk
• ¼ cups Melted Butter
• ¼ cups Brewed Coffee
• ⅛ teaspoons Salt

Preparation Instructions

Mix the milk, vegetable oil and sugar in a pan. “Scald” the mixture (heat until just before the boiling point). Turn off heat and leave to cool 45 minutes to 1 hour. When the mixture is lukewarm to warm, but NOT hot, sprinkle in both packages of Active Dry Yeast. Let this sit for a minute. Then add 8 cups of all-purpose flour. Stir mixture together. Cover and let rise for at least an hour.

After rising for at least an hour, add 1 more cup of flour, the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir mixture together. (At this point, you could cover the dough and put it in the fridge until you need it – overnight or even a day or two, if necessary. Just keep your eye on it and if it starts to overflow out of the pan, just punch it down).

When ready to prepare rolls: Sprinkle rolling surface generously with flour. Take half the dough and form a rough rectangle. Then roll the dough thin, maintaining a general rectangular shape. Drizzle 1/2 to 1 cup melted butter over the dough. Now sprinkle 1 cup of sugar over the butter followed by a generous sprinkling of cinnamon.

Now, starting at the opposite end, begin rolling the dough in a neat line toward you. Keep the roll relatively tight as you go. Next, pinch the seam of the roll to seal it.

Spread 1 tablespoon of melted butter in a seven inch round foil cake or pie pan. Then begin cutting the rolls approximately ¾ to 1 inch thick and laying them in the buttered pans.

Repeat this process with the other half of the dough. Let the rolls rise for 20 to 30 minutes, then bake at 400 degrees (see note below) until light golden brown, about 15 to 18 minutes.

For the frosting, mix together all ingredients listed and stir well until smooth. It should be thick but pourable. Taste and adjust as needed. Generously drizzle over the warm rolls. Go crazy and don’t skimp on the frosting.

Note: My rolls don’t work for me at 400 degrees anymore. I now bake them at 375 degrees.

Makes approx 3 dozen (36) cupcakes.

Cupcakes:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
Zest of one lemon

3 cups all-purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp salt

4 large eggs, room temperature

2 tsp vanilla
¾ cup milk
The juice of ½ a lemon

4 cups strawberries, roughly chopped + 1 cup sugar + 2 tbsp butter

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line cupcake pans with 30 liners.

In a medium sauce pan, melt the butter.  Add the strawberries and coat with melted butter.  Stir in sugar and cook on medium heat for 3-5 minutes until strawberries begin to reduce and a thick strawberry sauce is made.  Divide in half and then set aside to cool.

Prepare the sugar by working the lemon zest into sugar by pressing the back of a spatula down into sugar, thus releasing the oils from the zest into the sugar.  This process should take about five minutes, and the sugar will become very fragrant.

Cream the butter for 2-3 minutes using electric mixer and the paddle attachment.  Add the sugar to the butter mixture and continue creaming until fluffy.

While butter/sugar are creaming, in another bowl sift together flour, salt and baking powder and set aside. Sift at least twice to ensure all ingredients are combined.

Add eggs one at a time to butter and sugar, mixing thoroughly after each egg.

In a measuring cup that pours, mix together the milk, lemon juice and vanilla.

SLOWLY alternate adding the flour and milk mixture to the butter/sugar.  Begin and end with the flour and make sure to mix very well after each addition.

Scrape sides of the bowl and fold in ½ the strawberries.  Do not over mix.

Fill liners 1/2 full with batter.

Bake for 13 minutes and rotate pan 180 degrees in oven. Bake another 3-6 minutes.

Cool in pans for 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to completely cool.

Buttercream:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 lbs (approx 8 cups) powdered sugar
1/4 -1/2  cup milk
Zest of ½ a lemon
Juice of ½ a lemon
1 tbsp light corn syrup

Directions:
In an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the butter.

One cup at a time, add the powdered sugar.  Between each cup, add a splash of milk.   Mix until smooth & scrape down the sides after each addition

Before the last cup of sugar, add the zest and juice of the lemon.  Mix until smooth.

Add the corn syrup.

Add any remaining milk until you get the texture and consistency you want.

Mix on high for 4-5 minutes.

Remove ½ the buttercream and set aside.  Add 5-7 drops of yellow food coloring to the remaining frosting and mix until it’s the color you want.

To Assemble:
Strain the second half of the strawberries, reserving the juice for later.

Spoon a small dollop of strawberry on top of each cupcake.  (NOTE:  My cupcakes sunk in the middle because I DIDN’T use ROOM TEMPERATURE butter!!! Eeeek)

Put half yellow/half white frosting into a pastry bag with a star tip and frost the cupcakes.

Drizzle cupcakes with reserved strawberry juice.

Top with a fresh, clean strawberry.

Take pretty pictures of your cupcakes!

With my kids I am always trying to think up new cupcake decorating ideas. Sometimes these ideas get saved and forgotten about. That is what happened with these frog cupcakes I found well over a year ago on Allrecipes.com.

My recipe is a little different than theirs and in my opinion makes a cuter cupcake.
We start with the cupcake a basic vanilla cupcake.

Vanilla Cupcake
1 cup Butter
2 cups Sugar
6 eggs
4t vanilla
zest of one lemon (optional)
3 cups flour
3t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1/2 cup plus 2 TB milk

bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes.

Some note’s about the recipe…

First mix in ingredients in the order listed. You want to first cream the butter and sugar. When it looks like this:

you are done. You want it nice and fluffy.

Next mix in eggs one at a time then vanilla.

The lemon is optional and we like it

I love my mini grater, it is Tupperware.

Next add in your dry ingredients and lastly add your milk. On the milk most people can get by with only a 1/2 cup but I live in the desert. I add 2 extra tablespoons to combat the dryness here. In the end your batter should look like this:

It reminds me of thick vanilla pudding.

Fill cupcake liners 1/2 to 2/3 full and bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Once the cupcakes have cooled comes the fun part decorating.

I use a buttercream to frost-

Buttercream Frosting

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
4 cups confectioners sugar
2t vanilla
4TB milk

cream butter and shortening until fluffy. Slowly add confectioners sugar then vanilla and milk. You can add more or less milk to get the thickness you want. Once you add the milk whip on high speed, the longer you whip it the lighter and fluffier your frosting will be.

In my opinion a kitchen aide with the whip attachment is the best thing to use to make frosting.

Since we are making frogs tint your frosting with green gel food coloring. Frost your cupcakes and sprinkle with greed sugar.

Now it’s time to make the frogs. Gather your cast of characters-

Frosted and sugared cupcake, dark green sugar, large marshmallows (I prefer jet puff), Twizzlers pull and peel (cut in about 2-3 inch segments) and chocolate chips, frosting and water.

First cut marshmallows in half-

These will eventually become the eyes.

Next take water and place in a shallow bowl. Also place the green sugar in a bowl.

Next dip marshmallows in water.

Then dip in sugar

So they look like this-

Add frosting to the bottom and “glue” to the cupcake.

Once eyeballs are glued on peel apart Twizzlers into strands and add mouths.

The final touch is “gluing” chocolate chips with frosting to the center of eyeballs so they look like eyes.

Now you have your own cute little froggie cupcakes.

Enjoy!

Dark Chocolate Buttercream

6-7 oz dark chocolate (I used a mix of 60% and 70%, but anything above 60% would work great)
1 cup butter, room temperature
2lb powdered sugar (approx 8 cups)
3/4 whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup dark chocolate cocoa powder

1. In a small sauce pan on low, melt the chocolate and set aside.
2. In an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter.
3. One cup at a time, add the sugar.  In between each cup add a splash or two of the cream.  Mix until smooth after each addition and scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Before the last addition of sugar, add the cocoa powder.
4. Add the vanilla and mix.
5. With the mixer on medium-low, slowly pour cooled, melted chocolate into butter/sugar mixture and mix until incorporated.  Scrape down the sides again.
6. Add remaining cream until it is the consistency you desire.
7. On medium-high, mix buttercream for at least 4-5 minutes.
8. Enjoy!

Lemon Blueberry Poppy Seed Pound Cake

adapted from Joy the Baker

1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
The zest of one large lemon (about 1 tablespoon)
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
The juice of one large lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
4 eggs, room temperature
2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2  tablespoons poppy seeds
1 heaping cup frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Sift together flour and baking powder, set aside.

Cream butter and cream cheese in an electric mixer.

In the mean time, using a spatula work the lemon zest into the granulated sugar by pressing the sugar and the zest together.  This process should take about five minutes, and the sugar will become very fragrant.  Add the sugar to the butter mixture and continue creaming.

Add the lemon and vanilla extract.

Add eggs one at a time, beating for about one minute each.  Scrape down the bowl after each addition.

Slowly add the sifted flour and baking powder.  Don’t over mix in the electric mixer.  Bring the ingredients together with a spatula.

Fold in the poppy seeds and the blueberries with a spatula until just incorporated.

Pour into a greased and floured pan and bake for 70-85 minutes, or until tooth pick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Let cool in the pan for at least 30 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

Basic Vanilla Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons milk
1 tsp vanilla

Mix together the 2 tbsp of milk and vanilla.   Add that mixture to powdered sugar in a small bowl.

Mix with a spatula until smooth.

Add remaining milk (or more) until you get the consistency you want.

Drizzle over the top of the cooled pound cake.

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Courtney’s Trifle Cupcakes

Chocolate Dessert Cups:

12 oz semi-sweet chocolate

1 bag white chocolate

Muffin Cups

Muffin Pan

Pastry brush (silicon works well)

• Line muffin pan with muffin cups.
• Melt chocolates separately over a double boiler. Once the chocolate is melted brush the chocolate inside the cups making sure to get the sides and bottom.
• Freeze for about 20 minutes, then you can peel the liner off. Easy peasy I promise
• When all the cups are separated I like to put the chocolate cups in a fresh muffin cup and place in the refrigerator.

Now for the Trifle, or my take on a trifle

Cake

Bake a batch of chocolate cupcakes, cake, anything you don’t mind crumbling up! I made cupcakes so I’d have leftover to bring of those as well. I made chocolate, chocolate chip cupcakes

While the cupcakes are baking start the “mousse”. I hate real mousse, but some like it.. For me the taste is too strong, so I made a “faux mousse”

Mousse:

I used 2 packages of the smaller size chocolate pudding

2 cups Milk

2 cups heavy cream

• Whip until pudding consistency and refrigerate.

On to the whip cream

Wilton’s Stabilized Whip Cream:

Credit – Recipezaar

1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin

4 teaspoons cold water

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup powdered sugar

• In small pan add gelatin and cold water and let stand until thick.
• Once its thick place over low heat and stir constantly until the gelatin is dissolved, then removed from heat and allow cooling, but not getting thick.
• Meanwhile whip the cream and powdered sugar until a little thicker in texture.
• On low speed add the cooled gelatin, then whip at high speed until you see whip cream.

Assemble:

Take the unfilled dessert cups out of the refrigerator. Fill a pipping bag (any tip) and pipe mousse into the cups.

Take the cupcakes…

And chop ‘em up! I didn’t use the tops.

I wanted the softer texture of the cupcakes.

Take the pieces…

Lightly crumble them into the cups.

Cover with more mousse (I switched the tip)

Then do a little star with whip cream…

Hey, wait… what about all the leftover cupcakes and whip cream? I didn’t forget

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies

1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly spray cookie sheet with cooking spray.
2. In an electric mixer, combine sugar, egg, vanilla and baking powder.  Mix 2-3 minutes on medium-high.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
3. Add peanut butter and mix until combined.  Again, scrape down the sides of the bowl.
4. Mix in by hand the chocolate chips.
5. Scoop 1 ½ inch balls of dough onto the cookie sheet using an ice cream scooper.
6. Press down on dough a crisscross pattern with a fork.
7. Bake 8-10 minutes.  Do not over bake.
8. Let cool on cookie sheet for 3-4 minutes until transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

White Butter Cupcakes

Adapted from the Joy of Baking

3 ½ cups sifted cake flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups granulated white sugar, divided

½ cup HOT water

4 large eggs, separated

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 cup milk

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

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

2)      While eggs are still cold separate the eggs, placing the yolks in one bowl and the whites in another bowl.  Cover the two bowls with plastic wrap and allow the eggs to come to room temperature before using (about 30 minutes).

3)      In a mixing bowl sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.

4)      In bowl of electric mixer, beat the butter until soft (about 1-2 minutes).  Add 1 ½ cups of the sugar and beat until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes).  Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating after each addition.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined.

5)      With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour.

6)      Add the hot water and mix just until incorporated.

7)      In a clean bowl of your electric mixer, with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until foamy.  Add the cream of tartar and continue beating until soft peaks form.  Gradually add the remaining ½ cup of sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form.  With a rubber spatula gently fold a little of the whites into the batter to lighten it, and then fold in the remaining whites until combined.  Do not over mix the batter or it will deflate.

8)      Using an ice cream scoop, fill cupcake liners ½ full.

9)      Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 16-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

10)   Cool the cupcakes in their pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing and cooling completely on the wire rack.

.

Vanilla Buttercream

2 sticks (1 cup) room temperature unsalted butter

2lbs or 8 cups of sifted powdered sugar

2 tsp of pure vanilla

½ cup of milk

1)      In an electric mixer on medium-high, cream butter until smooth.

2)      Mix the vanilla and milk together in a measuring cup and set aside.

3)      Add sifted sugar 1 cup at a time, beating until smooth after each cup.

4)      Between each cup of sugar, add the milk/vanilla mixture, making sure to end with powdered sugar.

5)      Beat on high for 5 minutes or until light, fluffy and smooth.

6)      Frost cupcakes using Wilton #6B star tip and decorate anyway you want!!

The recipe and instructions comes from Betty Crocker… and let me tell you, this bunny is SO EASY to make!

1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® carrot cake mix

Water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on cake mix box

Tray or cardboard, covered with foil

1 container Betty Crocker® Whipped fluffy white frosting

1 cup shredded coconut

Construction paper

Jelly beans or small gumdrops

1 cup shredded coconut

Green food color

1. Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pans). Make and cool cake as directed on box for two 8-inch or 9-inch round pans.

2. Reserve 1 layer for another use or to make a second bunny. Cut 1 layer in half as shown in diagram. Put halves together with frosting to form body. Place cake upright on cut edge on tray.

3. Cut out a notch about one-third of the way up one end of body to form head (small end) as shown in diagram. Attach half of cutout piece from tail with toothpicks. Frost with remaining frosting, rounding body on sides. Sprinkle with 1 cup coconut. Cut ears from construction paper; press into notch on top. Use jelly beans for eyes and nose.

4. Shake 1 cup coconut and 3 drops food color in tightly covered jar until evenly tinted. Surround bunny with tinted coconut. Add additional jelly beans if desired. Store loosely covered.

High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): Follow High Altitude directions on cake mix box for two 8- or 9-inch round pans.

I made two bunnies… TWINS!

Ingredients:

• 1 large can (oz) condensed chicken broth
• 1 lb chicken breast
• 1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes with juice
• 1 medium chopped onion
• 3 medium celery stalks, sliced or chopped into bite size pieces
• 3 medium carrots, sliced or chopped into bite size pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon dried leaf basil
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
• dash garlic powder
• 1 heaping cup of whole wheat pasta shells (or any shape you like)
• 1 cup frozen peas
• salt & pepper to taste

Preparation:

1. In a pan, brown ½ the chopped onion.  Add salt/pepper to taste.
2. While that is browning, cube chicken into 1 in squares.
3. Add chicken to the onion and cook until there is no more pink in the chicken and it is lightly browned.
4. In a slow cooker, combine the chicken broth, water, cooked chicken, tomatoes, onion, celery, basil, parsley, and garlic powder.
5. Cover and cook on LOW for 5 to 7 hours, or until the vegetables are tender.
6. After the 5-7 hours, cook the pasta in boiling salted water as directed on the package.  Drain.
7. Add the pasta and frozen vegetables to the slow cooker. Cover and continue cooking on LOW for an additional 30 minutes.
8. Enjoy!

Because I Can Cadbury Creme Egg Cupcakes by Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

Devil’s Food Cake

9 TBSP unsweetened cocoa powder
1½ cups cake flour (not self-rising)
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder
4 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
½ cup water
½ cup whole milk

Adjust the oven rack to the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Butter (or use the baking spray) two regular size cupcake/muffin pans or two mini. I personally made 12 large cupcakes and 20 mini cupcakes.

Sift together the cocoa powder, cake flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a bowl.

In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, or by hand, beat together the butter and sugar about 5 minutes until smooth and creamy.

Add the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated. (If using a standing electric mixer, stop the mixer as necessary to scrape down the sides to be sure everything is getting mixed in.)

Mix together the water and milk. Stir half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, the add the water and milk. Finally stir in the other half of the dry ingredients.

Fill cupcake pans 2/3 of the way full with cake batter. For regular size bake 20-22 minutes. Mini bake 13-15 minutes.

Cake recipe  from David Lebovitz.com

Crème Egg Filling Buttercream Frosting

the centers of 20 Cadbury Crème Egg scooped out (save the chocolate shells for décor and filling)
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 to 8 cups powdered sugar
1 TBSP vanilla extract
milk to thin frosting

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl.  Beat until light and fluffy.  Add the creme from the eggs and beat until incorporated.

Add 4 cups of the sugar and vanilla extract.

On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes.

Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. If too thick, thin out with milk.
You can take half of the icing and color it yellow for effect. You will also probably have little bits of chocolate that stayed with the crème filling, no worries, it’s tasty.

Chocolate Shell Ganache

10 ounces of chopped up Cadbury Crème Egg Shell, if you don’t have enough to make 10 ounces, then add some milk chocolate chips to it
1 cup heavy cream

Put chocolate in a medium bowl.

Bring cream to a simmer in a saucepan and remove from heat. Pour over chocolate. Let sit 5 minutes.

Whisk in chocolate until smooth. Let set up at room temperature.

To assemble the cupcakes:

Take chocolate shell filling and place into a pastry bag fitted with a small tip.

Take tip and place into cupcake squeeze filling into cupcake using the cone method (or just poke into center and fill if making mini).

Frost cupcake and top with chocolate shell piece. If making the mini, they do make mini eggs. Cut those in half and use as décor.

Emme’s Banana Bread

1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup butter
2 large eggs

3-4 ripe bananas
1 tablespoon buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

¼ cup cinnamon/sugar mixture

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. Grease and flour a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.

3. In an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar.

4. Add eggs one at a time mixing well after each.

5. In a small bowl, peel the bananas and mush them with a fork until most chunks are gone.

6. Add the cinnamon, milk, vanilla and nutmeg and stir with the fork until combined.

7. In another bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

8. Add the banana mixture to the butter/sugar and mix until just combined and then scrape down the sides of the bowl.

9. Slowly, add the flour mixture in three parts to the batter, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Mix just until incorporated.

10. Pour batter into loaf pan and spread evenly with spatula.

11. Generously sprinkle cinnamon/sugar mixture on top of the batter.

12. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

13. Let cool in pan for 20 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

Sugar Cookie Flowers…um, Cupcakes

Wow, the title of this blog post was hard to come up with! hehe. I didn’t know whether to call them cookies or cupcakes because…well, see for yourself. =)

Here are the cupcakes…

Here are the decorated sugar cookies…

And these beauties are the finished product!

See what I mean? I promise the next post will have a less confusing title. hehe. Anyway, I thought these cookies/cupcakes would be a good way to celebrate Spring! It’s officially here! Although, I’d have to say that I’ve been quite confused about time-of-year since arriving in SoCal last week. The temperature has been around 80-85 degrees F this whole time! It makes me feel like we should really be celebrating summer! I have to keep reminding myself that it’s only March. =)

Anyway, more about these cookies/cupcakes…I saw them in Martha Stewart’s Cupcake book last month and knew that I had to make them. The cuteness was irresistible. I have a major weakness for aesthetically pleasing food.

And since the cupcake-shaped Sugar Cookie Pops I made last month turned out to be such a big hit, I knew these would be awesome!

I’m not going to go into a lot of detail on how to make these because I already featured them in the cupcake-shaped pops entry. You can reference it for tips and step by step photos.

Just make sure your flower cookie cutter isn’t too big. Something around 2-3 inches in diameter would be perfect. And get the 6 inch lollipop sticks.

Here are some additional helpful links that I mentioned in my previous post:

Click HERE for Our Best Bites’ Sugar Cookie Decorating Tutorial
Click HERE for Our Best Bites’ Sugar Cookie Pops Tutorial
Click HERE for Our Best Bites’ Basic Sugar Cookie Recipe

Decorating these was really fun! I picked out three colors: white, pink, and yellow. Perfect shades for spring!

I outlined them in white and used yellow for the centers.

Then I very carefully filled in the pink petals.

Allow the icing to dry. Let the cookies sit uncovered for about 24 hours.

(2) The Leafs

These were really easy to do. All you need is some gum paste, a small leaf-shaped cookie cutter, and green food coloring.

Color your gum paste and roll it out. If your gum paste it too sticky, you can use corn starch to dust the surface of your work area.

And there you have it! Easy peasy.

I like to stick the leafs on right away, before they have a chance to harden. When it’s soft, you can bend it slightly in the middle to mimic a real leaf. But I’m getting ahead of myself here…

(3) The Cupcakes

Use your favorite cupcake recipe. Chocolate cupcakes would be awesome too! In retrospect, chocolate probably would’ve been better, huh? hehe. Oh, well. Maybe next time. And use whatever frosting you like! What about cute liners? Maybe green polka-dotted ones! My point is: you can get super creative with these! Go wild!

For the frosting, I used Wilton’s grass tip. Here’s a good tutorial on how to pipe it. I thought it was going to be way hard, but it actually turned out to be quite intuitive! You’ll know what to do when the time comes. hehe. I didn’t like for the grass to be super uniformed. So instead of pulling straight up, I pulled every which way, to make it look more real. Because grass never just grows straight up, you know? It’s more like “artistically messy,” I’d say.

(3) Putting it all together

No explanation needed, really. Stick the cookies in the middle of the cupcakes, then add leafs. Some of them had one, some had two. I’m very unpredictable like that.

Ok, and here’s one more picture. Because I couldn’t resist. =)

Happy Spring and Happy Baking!

I had never worked with whole wheat flour before, so I needed to do a bit of research on how to use it.  I read a lot of articles online and talked to other bakers and felt confident that I could make these scones successfully!  You can find the “how-to’s” of using whole wheat flour in my “Tips & Tricks” post here!

I had my doubts during the baking process…. the dough was really sticky (a lot more than with the chocolate scones) and I thought maybe I had done something wrong.  Until…. they came out of the oven and smelled… and tasted SOOO GOOOD!

Whole Wheat Blueberry Scones

Loosely adapted from Evil Shenanigans Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Scones

Makes 8 Scones

2 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces and kept very cold
1- 1½ cups thawed, drained & patted dry frozen blueberries (you can use fresh as well)
1/3-1/2 cup cold buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg, well beaten
Sugar for topping

Here are some of the specialty ingredients I used.  King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour, Homemade Vanilla Extract, and local Remlinger Farms frozen blueberries.

1. Pre-heat the oven to 400 F and lightly spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray or line it with parchment paper. (Don’t use wax paper, it will burn!)

2. In a medium bowl, sift the wheat flour 3-4 times. This will help bring some air into the flour so your scones won’t be so dense.

3. Add the sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and combine using a whisk.

4. Add the cold butter and rub it in with your fingers until the butter is in small pieces, no larger than peas.

5. Strain and pat dry the thawed blueberries. Fold them into the dry mixture making sure they are coated well.

6. Starting with 1/3 cup cold buttermilk, pour in the milk and vanilla and gently combine with a wooden spoon until the liquid is absorbed. If the mixture is too dry and crumbly, add more buttermilk a tablespoon at a time just until the dough comes together. (The blueberries will add a lot of moisture, so be careful not to add too much milk.)

I love that the homemade vanilla has little bits of Tahitian vanilla in it!!
7. With your hands, gather the mixture into a ball in the bowl, making sure to incorporate all the dough. Mixture will be wet and sticky!

8. Turn out onto cutting board and GENTLY knead the dough three times by pressing the dough into a fat disk, folding the dough in half , turning it 1/4 turn and repeating. You can add a bit of flour to the cutting board to help with sticking. Do not over knead you don’t want to smash the berries!

9. Once kneaded pat and press into an 8″ circle and cut the disk into 8 wedges.

10. Using a spatula, transport the wedges onto the prepared baking sheet. Since the dough is wet and sticky, make sure your scones keep their shape by forming them with your fingers or spatula.

11. Brush with beaten egg and top each scone with as much sugar as you like.

12. Bake the scones for approximately 18 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.

13. Cool ten minutes on the pan before transferring to a wire rack.

Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Scones Yield 8 scones

2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces and kept very cold
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used a 60% cocoa dark chocolate bar that I cut into chunks and slivers)
1/2 cup cold buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla (I used 1 1/2 tsp of my homemade vanilla)
1 egg, well beaten
Sugar for topping

1. Heat the oven to 400 F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. (I didn’t have parchment paper so I used non-stick spray on a baking sheet.)
2. In a medium bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. Add the cold butter and rub it in with your fingers until the butter is in small pieces, no larger than peas. Add the chocolate chips and mix well.
4. Pour in the cold buttermilk and vanilla and mix until the liquid is absorbed. The dough will look very dry and shaggy.
5. Turn out onto a cutting board and knead the dough three times by pressing the dough into a fat disk, folding the dough in half , turning it 1/4 turn and repeating. Do not over knead.
6. Once kneaded press into an 8″ circle and cut the disk into 8 wedges. Places the wedges on the prepared baking sheet and brush with beaten egg. Top each scone with as much sugar as you like.
7. Bake the scones for 15-18 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown. Cool ten minutes on the pan before transferring to a wire rack.
8. Enjoy warm, or at room temperature.

Butter Cut-Out Cookies by Evil Shenanigans

Shamrock shaped butter cookies decorated for the holiday!

Luck of the Irish cupcakes by Hoosier Homemade

Five shades of green cupcakes! Such a smart idea!

Shamrock Cocoa Mint Cupcakes by I heart Cuppycakes

Cocoa mint cupcakes with cream cheese frosting… and those adorable clover cut outs on the cupcakes are genius!

Chocolate Mint Thumbprint Cookies by Megan’s Munchies

Mini brownie bites made into cookies with a cool mint center! Yummm-O!

St. Patrick’s Day Brownies by My Baking Addiction

Delicious chocolatey fudge brownies decorated green for the holiday!

St. Patrick’s Day Chocolate Cupcake filled with Mint Creme Cheese freatured on Party Cupcake Ideas

Chocolate cupcakes with creme cheese inside… never thought of that before!!! (No recipe with this one, sorry!)

Dark Chocolate Mint Brownies by Bakerella

A combo of green mint chips and dark chocolate chips make these brownies irresistible!

Shelly’s Top o’ the Morning Protein Shake by The World According to Eggface

High protein shake perfect for this green holiday!

Irish Cake Bombs by Bakers Royale

Irish Car Bombs reanimated into a sweet three layer cakeball affair. How many ways can you say—YUM?!

St. Patrick’s Day Cupcakes by A Cup full of Cake on Flickr

These are my favorite cupcakes this year!! I love love love the beer stein!!

Girl Scout Cookie Cupcakes

It’s my favorite cookie time of the year. And yes, there are cookie times of year. Don’t fight it. Acceptance is the key that unlocks the door to happiness.

At least that’s what my Chinese horoscope says. Right now Samoas are here. As are Thin Mints. And Tagalongs. And some weird new flavors that nobody wants. But I’ll forgive them their dried-cranberries-in-a-cookie misstep just this once.

I just can’t resist those cute little gals in uniform in front of the grocery store. I’m their best customer, and especially so this year because I decided to take on a baking project involving my all time fave—the aforementioned Samoas. Crunchy cookie covered in chocolate, caramel and toasted coconut? What could be better?

Making it into a cupcake, of course. You could do this with any of your favorite cookies, Girl Scout or non—see my suggestions at the end of this post. To match the flavors of the Samoa, I chose a basic vanilla cupcake and a frosting lightly flavored with coconut.

I now accept that I am ready to begin. So I will.

First we need to get some coconut milk reducing to make it more concentrated.

Pour a can into a saucepan, bring to a boil, and simmer over medium heat for about a half hour. Give it a stir once in a while. It will froth and get really big, but the liquid is really reducing in there.

Meanwhile, grab the basics: flour, cake flour, sugar, baking powder, salt.

4 eggs. Hippie eggs. I wrote a song about them earlier but I felt it would be inappropriate to share with you.

Unsalted butter. 2 sticks. Cubed.

One cup of whole milk. And I’m definitely not going to share my song about hippie milk with y’all.

Pure vanilla extract. Don’t ever buy imitation vanilla flavoring, pretty please. I will come over and throw it out your window.

And, most importantly? The cookies.

I used two boxes for 24 cupcakes. I accept that there are far too many calories in Samoas alone, let alone in a Samoa cupcake.

Somewhere Jillian Michaels is doing push-ups in her magical trainer castle and plotting what she’ll have in store for me tomorrow.

Stick ‘em in your food processor and pulse away.

Not even close.

Getting closer….

…perfect.

Toss ‘em in a shallow bowl and let’s get ready to make our cupcake batter.

Toss your dry ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Give it a quick spin on low to combine the powdery stuff.

Throw in your butter…

…and mix just until those little buttery chunks are coated with flour.

Crack your 4 hippie eggs into the milk and add one tablespoon of vanilla.

Mix well.

Add the milk/egg/vanilla mixture to the dry ingredients a third at a time, stopping before each addition to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

One…

two….

…three. It’s alright if it’s a little lumpy. Those little chunks of butter will serve to keep the cupcakes moist.

Now here’s my trick for filling cupcake liners. Grab a big freezer bag and anchor 3 inches of one of the bottom corners under something heavy. Your stand mixer works perfectly for this.

Pour in the batter (I usually hook one edge of the bag onto the little metal thingie that the mixer attachments hook onto. Yes, that is it’s proper name.).

Seal the bag, hold at the corner and cut off the tip. This is for those of us ghetto-fabulous chefs who don’t own pastry bags.

Fill your liners about 1/3 full…

…and then sprinkle on a light layer of the crumbled cookies.

Then squeeze more batter over the top so that the entire thing is about 3/4 full.

Throw into a preheated 325F oven for 17-20 minutes.

By now your coconut milk should be about a quarter of what it once was. It’s also creamy and thick—perfect! Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Ready to make frosting? Combine cream cheese, butter, vanilla, powdered sugar and reduced coconut milk in your mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.

Mix until light and creamy.

Once the cakes are done, set them on a rack to cool completely before frosting.

I’m fairly certain my cupcake army is plotting to take over my home.

Once they’re cool enough, frost with about 1 tablespoon of frosting each. We’re really using frosting in this case to serve as “glue” for the cookie crumbs—we don’t want to overdo it.

After frosting, give ‘em a light dunk in the cookie crumbles.

Perfect!

I found one stray cookie in the box, so he gets the seat of honor.

Uh oh. Maybe he’s commander of the army. I think I’ve just done myself in.

And, just because I feel like being sued for copyright infringement*, I stuck a purdy little Girl Scout logo on one of these beauties.

*Rainy Day Gal has no affiliation with the Girl Scouts. She admires and respects the organization and hopes that they will not sue her, but instead send her boxes and boxes of cookies.

Alright, let’s get down to it: how did they taste?

Pretty darn good. The cake was moist and a tad on the dense side, with a crunchy little layer of cookie halfway down.

The frosting added to the flavor of the cake, but didn’t overpower the taste of the cookies on top.

I simply loved the texture: crunch is always good.

These cakes are not for the faint of heart, however—they are incredibly rich. I would make two Girl Scouts share one.

A chaser of milk is definitely in order.

I now accept that this post has come to an end. But before you go here are some ideas I have for making cupcakes using other flavors of GS Cooks (that’s my new nickname for them. Go with it.):

• For Tagalongs: Ina Garten’s recipe for chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting
• For Thin Mints: Simply Recipe’s chocolate mint cupcakes
• For Dulce de Leche: Sugarlaw’s caramel cupcakes

I hope you’re enjoying Girl Scout cookie season as much as I am! Well, who am I kidding—I don’t think anyone enjoys Girl Scout cookie season as much as I do.

Have a totes fab wed, y’all.

-RDG

Samoa Cupcakes

• One batch Vanilla Vanilla Cupcake batter
• 2 boxes Samoas cookies, pulsed in a food processor until crumbly
• One batch Slightly Coconut Frosting (see below)

Preheat oven to 325F. Fill cupcake liners 1/3 full of batter. Sprinkle a light layer of cookie crumbs on top of batter. Pour the remaining batter on top until liners are about 3/4 full. Bake for 17-20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. Once cool, spread one tablespoon of frosting on top and then lightly press frosted side of cupcake into cookie crumbs. Makes 24 cupcakes.

Slightly Coconut Frosting

• 1 can coconut milk
• 4 oz cream cheese, softened
• 4 tbsp butter, softened
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Pour coconut milk into a saucepan, bring to a boil, and simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until reduced by 75%. Let cool. Combine 4 tablespoons of the reduced coconut milk and remaining ingredients and beat until light and creamy. Refrigerate any unused frosting.

Shelly is a Weight Loss Surgery guru and is full of great recipes, cooking ideas and tips to be successful post WLS!

Be sure to check out her blog and follow her on Twitter!

Shelly’s Mint Chocolate Chip Protein Ice Cream Cakelettes

1 cup Vanilla Soy Milk (or Regular Milk)
2 scoops Vanilla Protein Powder
2 Tablespoons Sugar Free Torani Peppermint Syrup
1/8 teaspoon Green Food Coloring
2 – 3 Sugar Free Andes or Peppermint Patties, chopped (30 cals a piece) or SF Chocolate, chunked.

Mix together milk, protein, syrup (or you could use 1/8 tsp Peppermint Extract but be careful a little goes a long way) and food coloring. I used this gadget to mix it up. It makes it airy and lump free. If you don’t have one just toss it in a blender on super high. You want it fluffy almost double in size. Pour into ice cream maker. Follow your machine’s instructions for freezing. 5 minutes before done add the chopped chocolate. You can eat it right away it is soft serve-ish (use it at this stage for Protein Ice Cream Cakelette making) if you want scoops put it in the freezer to set for an hour. After that hour it will be hard (like rock hard – this is do to the lack of fat content) just nuke it 25 seconds to bring it back to scoops.

To assemble the ice cream cakelettes:

Crush 2-3 Sugar Free Cookies (for each cakelette) with a teaspoon of SF Peppermint Torani Syrup. Press into silicone muffin pan.

Spoon protein ice cream onto cookie base.

Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for a few hours.

Pop ice cream cakelettes out and serve. I topped mine with a squirt of SF Land o Lakes whipped cream.

I used these cookies and SF Vanilla Torani Syrup for the base. You can of course use any SF Cookies and Protein Ice Cream combo.

Here are some other Eggface Protein Ice Cream flavors.

The cupcakes are a moist chocolate cupcake topped with a perfectly smooth mint buttercream all topped with green sugar crystals.  A perfect combination of chocolate and mint.  Yummm-o!

Here’s the recipe, click on the image to make it bigger!  The cupcake is my basic chocolate recipe and  the frosting a very easy to make mint buttercream.  I also recorded a video tutorial while I made the mint buttercream, it’s a bit wobbly, but it shows you how to make the perfect minty goodness!

]]> http://javacupcake.com/2010/02/chocolate-mint-cupcakes/feed/ 0 http://javacupcake.com/2010/02/chocolate-chip-cupcakes/ http://javacupcake.com/2010/02/chocolate-chip-cupcakes/#comments Fri, 19 Feb 2010 07:22:59 +0000 JavaCupcake http://javacupcake.com/?p=1195

I was in the mood for a simple cupcake since the last few I’ve made have been pretty elaborate. What’s more simple than a white cupcake with chocolate chips? YUM!

These are a yolk-less white cupcake with chocolate chips topped with a chocolate buttercream.  I had not made either of these recipes before and was honestly hoping for a great cupcake.  My daughter likes them…. but I’m not a huge fan.  They’re just “ok”.

I think I prefer a moister cupcake, this one was a little dry.  I might have to cook it a bit less also to help with the dryness.  I adjusted the recipe below to reflect a shorter cook time.

The buttercream recipe is also a departure from my standard all butter buttercream.  I wanted to see what the difference would be if I added shortening to a buttercream.  It definitely has a smoother consistency, but I’m not sure if I like the idea of eating Crisco. I think I’ll stick to my tried and true all butter buttercream.

Overall, these cupcakes weren’t a complete failure…. just not my best work.  I am glad I made them though… I learned more of what doesn’t work for me and what I DON’T like!

If you try these, let me know how they turned out for you!

Click on the image above for recipe.

These brownies are more like a blondie since they aren’t chocolate all the way through… although they are very chocolaty with the ganache on top.   They are very very very rich so you’ll definitely need a glass of milk for these!!! Below is the recipe from Smitten Kitchen.

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Brownies
Adapted from Butterwood Desserts, West Falls, New York via Gourmet, October 2007

Makes 32 brownies, more or less, depending on how you cut them

These “brownies” are more blondie than cakey, with an excellent peanut butter-chocolate contrasts and fantastic edges, for those of you into that sort of thing. Have a glass of milk handy.

For brownies
2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 large eggs plus 1 large yolk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (9 ounces)**
1/2 teaspoon salt, see note**

For ganache
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (9 ounces)**
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened

Make brownies: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F with rack in middle. Butter a 13- by 9- by 2-inch baking pan, then line bottom of pan with parchment paper and butter parchment.

Beat together butter and sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until mixture is light and fluffy, then add peanut butter and beat until incorporated. Beat in whole eggs, egg yolk, and vanilla. Reduce mixer sped to low, then mix in flour until just combined.

Mix in chocolate chips (1 1/2 cups) then spread batter in baking pan, smoothing top. (It will be thick, almost like cookie batter.)

Bake until brownies are deep golden, puffed on top and a wooden pick inserted in center come out with some crumbs adhering, 40 to 45 minutes.

Cool completely in pan on a rack, about 1 1/2 hours.

Make ganache: Put chocolate chips (1 1/2 cups) in a heatproof bowl.

Bring cream to a boil in a small saucepan, then pour over chocolate chips and let mixture stand for one minute.

Gently whisk in butter until it is incorporated, chocolate is melted, and a smooth mixture forms.

Spread ganache on cooled brownies and let stand until set, about 15 minutes.

Brownies keep in one layer in an airtight container three days, and we hope much longer if hidden waaay in the back of the freezer.

Click on the image below with the recipe to view and enlarge! Enjoy

I know that apples aren’t native to the Pacific Northwest, but we have a lot of apple orchards on both sides of our state and thought it would be a perfect base for a cupcake! With a suggestion from my sister, I decided to buy locally the apples and eggs because we all know how much the “tree-hugging” people from Seattle and the Northwest love their locally grown, organic foods!  So from this, the “Tree Hugger Apple” cupcake was born!

The base of the cupcake was inspired by this Appledoodle Cupcake I found while browsing the Iron Cupcake Earth website.  I changed a few things and made it my own by adding sliced apple to the top of the batter before baking, then filling the cupcake with more apple and drizzling the buttercream on top with caramel.

I got this awesome new camera, so I was able to document the process of making these cupcakes!

These are the goodies I used to make these cupcakes.  Wilton cupcake liners, pink sugar dust, and a Wilton #6B star tip.

First, preheat oven to 350F and fill two 12-hole cupcake trays with cupcake wrappers. In a 2 cup measuring cup, combine egg whites, vanilla and 1/4 cup milk and mix with a whisk.

In a large mixing bowl, combine cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and mix together to blend. Add the butter and remaining 3/4 cup milk. Mix on low speed until dry ingredients are moistened. Increase to medium speed (high if using a hand mixer) for 1.5 minutes. Add the egg, vanilla and milk mixture in three equal parts, beating for 20 seconds between additions.

So, in true JavaCupcake style… I totally made an oooooppsie.  The batter didn’t look as pretty as the above picture at first.

Fill each cupcake liner 1/2 – 2/3 full with batter.

Bake 15-17 minutes. After 10 minutes of baking, rotate pan 180 degrees to ensure even baking. Remove when air bubbles just being to pop on top and a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean.  Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then place on a cooling rack.

Let cool completely before filling and frosting. I chose to use my favorite raspberry jam to fill the cupcakes with.

To fill the cupcakes, I used this technique I found on BakingBites.com.

Using a Wilton #6B star tip, I frosted the cupcakes in a circular pattern.  I immediately dusted the top with the pink sugar dust.

After the buttercream had a few hours to set and slightly harden, I topped them with an upside down fresh raspberry.

And here they are… all finished and ready to deliver!

I met Tracy and her Grandmother at the restaurant and they were over the moon with these cupcakes! Grandma was a delight and it was such a pleasure to make these goodies for her birthday!

Really Bakerella, could you get any more heavenly this this?   S’mores Cupcakes… really?? Mmmmmmm. These cupcakes are just layered with ooey gooey, crunchy, marshmallowy, chocolately goodness!! Makes me want to run out and go camping and bring these little suckers with me just so I can have an excuse to eat a dozen of them!! Heaven!  Below is a post from Bakerella.com that I couldn’t resist sharing with you! You can find this recipe, more pictures and all of her other great creations on Bakerella’s website. After you check out all of her other delicious goodness, follow her on Twitter!

For this Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcake, I started with my recipe for super moist chocolate cupcakes and tweaked it just a little bit and they came out perfectly.  I have a feeling that this recipe might become a part of whatever my signature cupcake is.  I’ve got it pretty much perfected.

To top the cupcake, I wanted a peanut butter buttercream and this particular recipe came from Mermaid Sweets.  I did my thing, adapted it some and I think it came out pretty good… a bit sweeter than I had wanted, but it’s still pretty damn delicious!

Finally, I quartered mini Reese’s peanut butter cups to garnish the top.  They look like HEAVEN to me! But… seeing that it’s 2:30am, I should probably wait until tomorrow to try one.  Otherwise, I’ll be up ALL NIGHT.  hehe

Click on image for recipe!

Peppermint Bark Cupcake Brownies…or Brownie Cupcakes

I was inspired by my friend on Twitter (@JavaCupcake) to create a holiday cupcake, recipe and all. So I decided on a peppermint bark brownie cupcake, I think they look really really really good.

Here is the recipe I used:

1 2/3 cup soft unsalted organic butter
13 ounces of the best organic bittersweet chocolate (I find everything at Whole Foods and Trader Joes)
6 large organic eggs
1 Tablespoon Vanilla extract
1 2/3 cup organic sugar
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour (organic of course)
1 teaspoon salt

You can pretty much alter any of your favorite brownie recipes or chocolate cake recipes with organic ingredients to make cupcakes/brownies and you can also add nuts to this recipe if you’d like, I chose not to but if I did, I’d probably use 1 1/3 cup chopped walnuts.

Preheat your oven to 350.
Melt butter and chocolate together in a large heavy pan.
In a bowl: beat eggs with vanilla and sugar.
Measure the flour into another bowl and add the salt.
Once the chocolate mixture has melted, let it cool a little before beating in the eggs and vanilla and sugar. Than add nuts and flour or just flour if you aren’t using nuts.
Beat until smooth.
I use an ice cream scooper to get the same amount in each cupcake paper. I also make sure the cupcake paper is sprayed with a cooking spray before filling them with batter so the brownies come out easily, if you are using a cake mix, you do not need to spray the cupcake papers.
Bake for about 25 minutes.
Since these are brownies and not cake mix, take them out when it looks dense and gooey because they continue to bake while they cool, if you bake too long you’ll get a dry brownie.

This is how they should look:

Here is a photo journey of the cupcakes that turned out to be a big hit with my family!

The batter just before it hit the cups!

Oh yes, that is puree swirled on top of the cupcakes!

Just out of the oven…. mmmmmmm.
Topped with meringue buttercream and a blueberry!!

Blueberry perfection.

A couple of notes about the recipe…
I, personally, did not care for the meringue buttercream. This recipe, the frosting turns out very buttery in flavor. When my family tried the cupcake, they said it was very rich but when paired with the cupcake it was perfect. I think if I were to make this again, I would add more sugar and add less butter. Also, I think I’d make just my favorite buttercream recipe and add the blueberry puree for flavor. Another suggestion was that I put whole blueberries in the cupcake as well. Just some things to think about Enjoy!

I’m not sure if I browned the butter correctly… my daughter said it smelled like grilled cheese while I was making it. I may have burnt it just a bit. Next time, I’ll watch it closer… like the recipe said to. *Ooops* The batter was perfect for 12 muffins, full of blueberries… and the crumbly topping was a perfect addition to add some crunchy texture to the muffins.

They were so good, I ate two just as they came out of the oven. Shoved them in my mouth while dripping crumbs all over the sink. Totally worth the mess. This morning, I’ve got my cup of coffee and have devoured two more muffins… a bit slower this time though. Delish.

PS… the muffins taste nothing like grilled cheese either

The first batch got a little crispy on the bottom (darn my oven)… but the rest turned out beautifully! I’m taking these to my Art Class tomorrow for our end of the quarter potluck. I hope they enjoy!!

Click on image for recipe.

White Butter Cupcakes with Strawberry filling and Strawberry Buttercream

3 ½ cups sifted cake flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups granulated white sugar, divided

½ cup HOT water

4 large eggs, separated

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 cup milk

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

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

2)      While eggs are still cold separate the eggs, placing the yolks in one bowl and the whites in another bowl.  Cover the two bowls with plastic wrap and allow the eggs to come to room temperature before using (about 30 minutes).

3)      In a mixing bowl sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.

4)      In bowl of electric mixer, beat the butter until soft (about 1-2 minutes).  Add 1 ½ cups of the sugar and beat until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes).  Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating after each addition.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined.

5)      With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour.

6)      Add the hot water and mix just until incorporated.

7)      In a clean bowl of your electric mixer, with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until foamy.  Add the cream of tartar and continue beating until soft peaks form.  Gradually add the remaining ½ cup of sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form.  With a rubber spatula gently fold a little of the whites into the batter to lighten it, and then fold in the remaining whites until combined.  Do not over mix the batter or it will deflate.

8)      Using an ice cream scoop, fill cupcake liners ½ full.

9)      Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 16-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

10)   Cool the cupcakes in their pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing and cooling completely on the wire rack.

Strawberry Filling
2 (4) cups strawberries (can be frozen), stems removed
1/2 (1) cup water
1 (2) teaspoon vanilla
1/2 (1) cup sugar
2 (4) tablespoons cornstarch or 4 (8) tablespoons AP flour

1. Add the strawberries, water, and vanilla to a pot. Cook for 10 minutes over medium-high heat.
2. Sift together the sugar and cornstarch and then stir into the strawberry mixture. Cook until the mixture is thick and the strawberries have broken down, about 20 minutes.
3. To fill the cupcakes, use this method.

Strawberry Buttercream

2.5 sticks (1 ¼ cup) butter, room temperature

5 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Pinch of salt

2 heaping tablespoons of strawberry filling

1. Beat butter until creamy.
2. Adding  sugar one cup at a time, mixing until creamy between each cup.  With last cup of sugar, add the salt.
3. Add vanilla and mix.
4. Add strawberry filling one tablespoon at a time until incorporated.
5. Mix on high until light and fluffy. (About 4-5 minutes)

.

Click on recipe image above to see ingredients and step by step instructions!

My dad turned 68 this week!!! Happy Birthday Daddy!!! He requested white/vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream frosting… so what did I make?? CUPCAKES!! They were a HUGE hit and everyone at his party loved them!

(hehehe Yes the frosting kinda looks like poop. It sure didn’t taste like poop though!!! DELISH!)