Raspberry Filled

I love these Raspberry filled cupcakes I made for a friends birthday! Each time I make filled cupcakes it gets easier for me. For these you just make a simple white cake, fill them with a raspberry preserve (you can use any flavor you fancy) and top them with an almond frosting.

Baklava

Baklava is one of my favorite treats. I mean I like cupcakes and cookies but I can pass those up but when this stuff is around I have NO will power. I mean none, zip, nada. I make it a few times a year for special occasions. I’ll let you in on a little secrete, its super easy once you get it down. It helps is you have another person around to put on the next layer of phyllo as you brush the butter on but if noone is around its totally doable by yourself.

Here is the recipe, try not to eat the whole tray by yourself!!

Baklava

INGREDIENTS
1 (16 ounce) package phyllo dough
1 pound chopped nuts
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup water
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup honey

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F(175 degrees C).

Butter the bottoms and sides of a 9x13 inch pan.

Chop nuts and toss with cinnamon. Set aside. Unroll phyllo dough. Cut whole stack in half to fit pan. Cover phyllo with a dampened cloth to keep from drying out as you work. Place two sheets of dough in pan, butter thoroughly. Repeat until you have 8 sheets layered. Sprinkle 2 - 3 tablespoons of nut mixture on top. Top with two sheets of dough, butter, nuts, layering as you go. The top layer should be about 6 - 8 sheets deep.

Using a sharp knife cut into diamond or square shapes all the way to the bottom of the pan. You may cut into 4 long rows the make diagonal cuts. Bake for about 50 minutes until baklava is golden and crisp.

Make sauce while baklava is baking. Boil sugar and water until sugar is melted. Add vanilla and honey. Simmer for about 20 minutes.

Remove baklava from oven and immediately spoon sauce over it. Let cool. Serve in cupcake papers.

For Sale

I make these yummy sugar cookies for an open house for my favorite Realtor (my dad). If you are looking to buy or sell a house let me know and I’ll hook you up ;)



For the recipe click here.

Halloween Bunco Cupcakes!

Happy Halloween Bunco Style!

My sister hired me out to make Halloween Bunco cupcakes for a friend of hers and I must say I impressed myself! With the help of my mom we dreamt up these little beauties. The finger is half a Twix candy bar wrapped in marshmallow fondant, and the dice is also made of marshmallow fondant. We had a lot of fun making these and I can’t wait for another excuse to make something like this.

Big shout out to my mom for her help on this one.
You are the Best!

Volleyball Sugar Cookies

Rams are ready
Rams are smooth
Rams will take control
And stomp all over you!

Go Rams!

Good Luck Emily, Kylie, Kelsi, Brooklyn, Sarah, Jadee, Kailee, Hannah, Carley, Caroline, Rhianna, Coach Jana, Coach Deanna and Coach Hollen

Pumpkin Bread

Fall… with open arms I greet you, I have missed you old friend.

Here is my grandmother’s recipe for pumpkin bread. I couldn’t resist making mini muffins. I hope you love them as much as I do.


Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients

4 eggs
2/3 C. water
1 C. oil
3 C. sugar
3 ½ C. flour
½ t. baking powder
2 t. baking soda
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. nutmeg
½ t. ground cloves
15 oz. canned pumpkin

Directions

Mix all ingredients. Pour into greased bread tins. Bake for 1 hour at 325. Makes about 3 loaves.

Yellow Cake

Yellow cake + chocolate frosting + Baby Leland = a good time.

We went to meet our new cousin Leland and brought along these. I must say I desperately need a new yellow cake recipe. Yellow cake always turns out so dry for me and I am not sure why. If you have a fool proof recipe will you send it my way?

Monday morning pick me up...

Just a little something to start the day :) You can’t go wrong with chocolate on a Monday morning!

Cream Filled

I just can’t get enough of these little buggers! I have to say that each time I make these I love them more and more. This time instead of topping with a chocolate glade I just used the cream filling as a frosting and it turned out wonderfully. Click here for the recipe.

Fondant Hibiscus Cupcakes

Ok, fondant isn’t my favorite thing in the world but it sure is fun to work with. You can do just about anything. Here is the recipe I use for marshmallow fondant, it usually takes all if not more of the powdered sugar it calls for and you really hove to work it out to get a good consistency.

Marshmallow Fondant Recipe

Ingredients

16 ounces white mini-marshmallows
2 to 5 tablespoons water
2 pounds powdered sugar
½ cup Crisco shortening to keep your hands from sticking to the fondant

Directions

1. Melt marshmallows and 4 tablespoons of water in a microwave or double boiler
2. Place 3/4 of the powdered sugar on the top of the melted marshmallow mix and fold in gently for 1 minute.
3. Grease your hands and countertop you will be kneading on generously.(Make sure to get in between your fingers.)
4. Dump the bowl of marshmallow/sugar mixture in the middle of greased counter.
5. Start kneading like you would bread dough.
6. Add the rest of the powdered sugar and continue to knead by hand for 8 minutes until it takes form of a firm smooth elastic ball so that it will stretch without tearing as you roll it out.
*if you feel that the fondant it to dry as you are rolling add a tsp of water at a time until you get the desired texture. It the fondant is to wet add powdered sugar a tablespoon at a time.

M&M Monster Cookie

Its that time again… cleaning out the pantry! These monster cookies got a little bit of everything in them, even corn flakes!
To make:
Follow your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. I really like Nestle Toll house. Add in all of your half empty bags from the pantry. This particular batch got a little of the following:
About ½ c. White chocolate
About ½ c. Butterscotch
About ½ c. Dark chocolate
About 1 c. Coconut
About 1½ c. M&Ms
About 1 c. Oatmeal
About 1 c. Cornflakes
About 1 c. Peanut butter

Chocolate Peanut Butter

Ok, let me start off by saying these are fantastic. If you have little willpower you should not keep reading because I will be posting the recipe. Once you’ve had a taste of these you’ll crave them. Dare I say even dream about them :)

Whoever first paired chocolate and peanut butter, I applaud you!

Peanut Butter Frosting

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
3 tablespoons milk, or as needed
2 cups confectioners' sugar
DIRECTIONS
1. Place the butter and peanut butter into a medium bowl, and beat with an electric mixer. Gradually mix in the sugar, and when it starts to get thick, incorporate milk one tablespoon at a time until all of the sugar is mixed in and the frosting is thick and spreadable. Beat for at least 3 minutes for it to get good and fluffy.

Oreo Fudge Bars

These are so scrumptious and rich! Have a big glass of ice cold milk close by if you attempt to make these! I know they are called Oreo Fudge Bars but I guess I didn’t think they were going to be so fudgey! I ended up chopping these in to bite size pieces because I think had I kept them in the original size I’d cut them it would have been to much to handle. The recipe is as follows.

Oreo Fudge Bars
adapted from thecrepesofwrath
1 18 oz. package of Oreo cookies
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1 cup white chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line a 9×13 pan with foil and lightly spray with Pam. Set aside 6 Oreo cookies for the topping.

2. In a small food processor grind the rest of the cookies. If you don’t have a food processor, just pound with a rolling pin until the cookies are crumbs. Add the salt
to the crumbs and stir to combine.

3. Melt the butter and gently stir together with the cookie crumb mixture. Press firmly into the bottom of the prepared pan. Coarsely chop the remaining cookies into chunks and set aside.

4. Over a double boiler or in the microwave (careful not to burn the chocolate - I usually melt the chips halfway and then stir them until they’ve melted completely), melt 3/4 cup semi-sweet and 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips together with the condensed milk and vanilla.

5. Stir the chocolate mixture frequently until smooth and spread evenly over the prepared cookie crust.

6. Sprinkle the mini (or regular) chocolate chips and the Oreo cookies chunks over the top of the filling. Press down gently into the chocolate topping. Bake for 20-22 minutes oven.

8. Chill in fridge until completely cold and set before cutting into bars or it will make a big mess

Almond Poppy Seed Cake Mix Muffins

Like I said I’ve been on a cake mix kick… These turned out pretty good, not quite like Costco but not to shabby.

Here is the recipe.

1 package white cake mix
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
1 tablespoon almond extract

Prepare cake mix as directed and add poppy seeds and almond extract.

Cake Mix Lemon Pudding Cake

I must confess… I have made this 2 times already! I know that I said that the oatmeal cake was my favorite cake at the moment, but I lied. This one definitely takes the cake! No joke my mouth waters thinking about it. The first time I made this I took it to our girls night and by the end of the evening we tossed the forks aside as we sat around the coffee table and picked at it until we were so full we had to call it a day. Yummy! Here is the recipe for you all to enjoy.

1 package lemon cake mix
1 (5.9 ounce) package instant lemon pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1/2 cup warm water

Lemon curd

Glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
Water (to be added 1 tablespoon at a time) until you reach the desired consistency. It should be slightly runny but not soupy.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs and water. pour batter into a well greased 12 cup bunt pan.

Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until top is springy to the touch and a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool cake thoroughly in pan at least an hour and a half before inverting onto a plate.

Once cake is cooled and on the serving plate pipe lemon curd around the top of the cake. Finish with a drizzle of glaze.

Cake Mix Muffins

I think that in a jam, cake mix is a wonderful thing. Here are a few recipes I’ve made recently using one of my favorite time saving ingredients!

Blueberry Cake Mix Muffins:

1 box white cake mix
2 cups fresh blueberries
1 Tablespoon almond extract

Prepare cake mix according to directions on the box. Add in almond extract and blueberries. Bake as directed in muffin tins.

Banana Cake Mix Muffins:

1 box yellow cake
3 mashed bananas
1 tablespoon baking soda

Prepare cake mix according to directions on the box. Add in baking soda and bananas. Bake at 350
*This also works well as a sheet cake or in a bunt pan.

Oatmeal Cake with Broiled Topping

This may be my favorite cake right now. My cousin’s mother in law, Donna, found this recipe in a news paper and brought it to a girl’s day we were having. Oh my gosh… it was divine. Donna had already left the party so I waited weeks to get the recipe from her. Now that it is in my possession, look out world! As this was the first time I made it I stuck to the recipe just as it is written. Yummy! Although I think this recipe is perfect as is, I am going to play around with it a bit. I will defiantly be making cupcakes with this in the near future, but I think I’ll have fun adding things as well. I hope you enjoy it was much as I did. Thanks Donna, I am forever grateful!

Oatmeal Cake with Broiled Topping

CAKE
1 cup old fashioned oats
½ cup butter softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 ½ cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Boil water. Pour 1 ¼ cups of boiling water over oats in a bowl. Cover and let stand 20 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 9x13” cake pan.
3. Cream butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla. Add in remaining ingredients and mix well.
4. Pour into pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.
5.

TOPPING
¼ cup butter softened
¼ cup heavy cream
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sweetened coconut
1 cup finely chopped pecans

1. Preheat broiler
2. Combine all ingredients and mix well. Spread evenly over warm cake. Place under broiler 2” from the top. Broil until lightly browned. 1-2 minutes.

Banana Coconut Loaf

First lat me say I love banana bread.
Next, coconut is quickly becoming one of my favorite things.
So when I came across this recipe on allrecipes.com I knew I had to try it!

It was so good! Now I know that not everyone loves coconut but if you do this is a must try recipe. You can see the original recipe by clicking here. I made subtle changes.

I think you could also make this into muffins or bread without any problems, just change up your pans.

INGREDIENTS

2 eggs
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup mashed bananas
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix together flour, coconut, baking powder, baking soda, and salt
2. Break eggs in a mixing bowl, and beat until light and frothy. Add sugar and melted butter. Beat well. Stir in mashed banana and almond extract. Add flour mixture, and stir just to combine. Spoon into greased bunt pan.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand for 10 minutes, and remove from pan. Cool.

Everything but the kitchen sink!

Ok really this cookie has a bit of everything and if I have left something out feel free to add it in!

I used a simple oatmeal cookie recipe as a base. I don’t have a favorite, just found one in my book and added everything I had in the pantry! These cookies had semi-sweet chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, peanut butter and butterscotch chips in them. This would also make a killer cookie bar!

I love to find a way to use up all those half bags that are taking up valuable space!

Carrot cupcake

What would Easter be without a little carrot cake?

For my secret recipe please click here

Eggs, carrots and bunnies…

… oh my! After much nagging I finally made Easter sugar cookies. These are for you Nora :)

Chocolate Easter Cupcakes

yummy...

sprinkles…

One 5 year old, blue frosting, lots of sprinkles… Priceless

Rainbow Cupcake!

Spring has sprung and my Sydney is 6! Can you believe it? I can’t.

In honor of both of these momentous occasions I bring you the Rainbow Cupcake. I have seen these floating around other cupcake blogs for about a year now and finally decided to take the plunge and try my hand at making them.

First let me say that they were more work than I had anticipated.

But it was well worth it so see the face of Syd as she bit into her birthday cupcake!

Sorry I didn’t get a chance to take any photos of the actual process (I had planned on it!) Basically you make white cake batter, divide it into as many bowls as you want colors. Mix in desired colors. Spoon a teaspoon of each color into cupcake papers. Be careful not to over fill.

Have fun with this, if you allow it, your creative side will have a blast!

Ikea's Pearl Sugar

Now that Ikea is so close to my house I visit it almost weekly! On my last visit I thought I’d take a lap of the grocery section right after you check out to see if there was anything fun. I stumbled across some pearl sugar so the compulsive buyer in me pulled out a five and walked up to the register.

I had high hopes, real high.

I am a little disappointed. My white pearl sugar turned the slightest shade of brown when I topped these cute cupcakes. It wasn’t a total let down, I choose to look at it as a learning experience. Next time I’ll avoid the chocolate.

I can’t believe I am going to say this but I am a little over chocolate for the moment!

Cream Filled take II

What can I say, I love me some cream filled cupcakes and so does everyone else! After my first attempt at these bad boys everyone was super impressed. I mean, I don’t like to toot my own horn but ‘toot-toot’. Well that’s not the truth, I love to :)

So here goes round two. Personally I think these are the best yet. I doubled the chocolate glaze. I also tried to take more photos of the actual process. Let me just say when you are covered in chocolate and everyone is coming in to taste test, photos are not so east to take.

You can get the recipes for the frosting and cupcakes here.

Enjoy!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

You’ll get a pinch
If you don’t wear green
So find something quick
And make sure it’s seen!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Hope you have a good one :)

The good, the bad and the ugly… Rocky Road cookie

I came across this recipe for Rocky Road cookies and I knew it was going to be love. I quickly set out to making a batch. I followed the recipe to a tee, something I don’t normally do. Rolled the dough, popped them in the oven and set the timer.

8 minutes later

Open the oven
Look thoroughly confused
Say aloud “What?!”

My cookies looked like… well to be honest they didn’t look good.
I was so disappointed. In just minutes I was going to meet the girls for game night and my cookies appeared less then appetizing. Oh well, there was no time to do anything about it now.

Although I thought the cookies turned out like crap, they were delicious. They were super moist and chewy.

*What went wrong? The marshmallows couldn’t take the direct heat of the pan. I’ll have to take more care while rolling the cookies to make sure that no marshmallow is exposed. Above is a photo of batch #1 ugly but good and batch #2 when I tucked the marshmallows in :)

There is an important lesson to be learned here. You can’t judge a cookie by its looks. Now hear me out on this one. They say you eat with our eyes before you eat with your mouth, and while there is truth in this statement, it is important to not let your eyes deceive you. Not just with baked goods, but with all things.

Here is the recipe. Enjoy!


Rocky Road Cookies

from Bucky’s Barbecue and Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup mini marshmallows
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt and set aside.
2. Beat together the melted butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the egg, then beat in the egg yolk. Beat in the vanilla.
3. Gradually add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture until just moistened. Mix in the nuts, chips, and marshmallows by hand.
4. Roll into balls or drop by spoonfuls onto a greased and/or lined baking sheet, and press down on the cookies with your palm a bit to flatten (not too much!).
5. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the edges look golden brown. Remember that they need to cool on the baking sheet, so even if they don’t look quite set, it’s okay because they continue to cook after you remove them from the oven. Allow to finish cooling on a rack or on a different surface. Makes about 15-20 cookies.

Toffee cupcakes

Sometimes I feel like I am just making the same thing over and over. Chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting. Don’t get me wrong I love chocolate on chocolate but sometimes a girl needs to mix things up a bit. I gotta be honest. I didn’t have a whole lot to work with so while looking through the pantry yet again I stumbled across a half bag of toffee chips. Perfect. Not only did these cupcakes look tasty, the crunchy topping added a little something…unexpected, in a good way of course : )

I think next time a make these I’ll fill the cupcake with this homemade caramel recipe.

Homemade Caramels

Preheat oven to 425° F.

Pour 1 can (14 oz.) CARNATION Sweetened Condensed Milk into 9-inch pie plate.
Cover with aluminum foil; place in shallow pan (pan should be larger than pie plate). Fill pan with hot water.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until thick and light caramel-colored.

Pour milk into small mixer bowl add 1 tsp. vanilla extract; beat until smooth.

Fleur-de-lis

Happy Fat Tuesday everyone!

Cream Filled Cupcakes

I usually bake once a week for work to keep the spirits up of my co-workers. This little number I made for our inventory day. Let me just tell you that I ended up working a 13 hour day (some people had a 16 hour day!) and the work week to follow was insane. Needless to say by the time I got around to photograph these cupcakes they were a good 5 days old! I had them on a plate in the kitchen with a note that said “Please don’t eat!” In my family if there was no note who cares how old it was my dad would have eaten it!

These were actually really simple. Here is the recipe I used. I adapted it from allrecipes.com

CREAM FILLED CUPCAKES

Make your favorite chocolate cake according to the cupcake directions.
Let cool completely before filling or the cream will melt.
CREAM FILLING
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup shortening
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 pinch salt
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Make filling:

In a large bowl, beat butter and shortening together until smooth. Blend in confectioners' sugar and pinch of salt. Gradually beat in 3 tablespoons milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy. Fill a zip lock bag with mixture and cup off the tip. Using the handle of a wooden spoon, make a hole in the top of the cupcake. Fill each cupcake being careful not to over fill. Cover with glaze.

CHOCOLATE GLAZE

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a double boiler over hot, but not boiling water, combine chocolate chips, butter and corn syrup. Stir until chips are melted and mixture is smooth, then add vanilla.
Spoon over cupcakes.