Yellow cupcakes with raspberry buttercream and cream cheese icing

I made cupcakes for my daughter's first birthday. It was important to me for her first bite of dessert to be not only homemade, but from scratch. I used Martha Stewart's, "Yellow Butter Cupcakes" recipe with a modification. I couldn't find cake flour so I used all all-purpose flour. The cupcakes, while being very good, weren't what I had in mind. They were somewhat dense and didn't resemble yellow cake. They were closer to white cake. Oh and I should have trusted my intuition when I read in her recipe to fill muffin cups. I know better then to go over 2/3 full...I ended up with less then 36 but that's okay.

I made two icings for these cupcakes and the combination of the two was DIVINE. First I made a raspberry buttercream and a basic cream cheese icing. The cupcakes were a hit and I had lots of fun decorating them. I did have to refrigerate them both to harden slightly before piping them. It was a little warm in the kitchen. I also had quite a bit of the raspberry buttercream leftover. After taking "frosting shots", I ended up throwing out about 1.5 cups. This cupcake was devoured by the birthday girl. Well worth the effort :)

Chocolate chip cheesecake dip

I made this for my daughter's first birthday party this weekend. Yes it's really been a year already! Hard to believe! If you're a cheesecake lover, you must try this recipe. It's incredibly easy and delicious. Her party was the perfect excuse to whip it up.

Chocolate chip cheesecake dip (frome recipezaar)
Makes 12 servings
Ingredients:
16 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup butter, softened
1.5 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1.5 cups semisweet mini chocolate chips

Directions:
Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Mix in sugars and vanilla.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Cover and store in refrigerator. Serve with graham crackers, vanilla wafers or graham cracker sticks.

Be mine

I took the suggestion of Brown Eyed Baker and made these moist, fluffy, chocolatey cupcakes. I didn't have any vanilla extract left over for the frosting, but that so didn't matter. They were heaven. And aren't the little white chocolate hearts cute? I just melted some bark and drizzled the shapes on waxed paper and let set. I delivered a plate to my nice new neighbors and we're devouring the rest.

Christmas gifts - Peppermint Oreo truffles

I had heard about these morsels called Oreo balls/truffles from my friend Melanie about a year ago and when racking my brain about what to make for coworkers this year, they popped into my head. Originally I was going to make peppermint bark popcorn, but instead decided to make 2 kinds of oreo truffles. I made plain with chocolate candy coating, drizzled with white almond bark (chocolate) and sprinkled with sea salt. I also made a peppermint version. It turned out absolutely devine. I think the peppermint might be my favorite. The all chocolate version is just soooo rich.Peppermint Oreo Truffles
Makes 3 dozen (depending on ball size)
Ingredients:
1 bag original Oreo cookies
1 8 0z. package of cream cheese, softened (you can nuke it in a bowl for about 30 seconds to achieve this)
4 peppermint candy canes
3/4 package of white almond bark
1/4 tsp peppermint extract

Directions:
Crush candy canes in food processor until small. Place a strainer over a bowl and sift out the dust/finer peppermint pieces. Wipe out food processor and dump oreos in. Process until there are no chunks. Add cream cheese and peppermint extract and process until a nice sticky dough forms.

It's up to you, but I find it a little easier at this point to refrigerate the dough for an hour before rolling out the balls. Roll them in your palms about the size of a quarter and place them back in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Melt almond bark either in the microwave or in a heat proof bowl over a pot of simmering water (double boiler method). Once it is melted all the way, stir in the finer dust of the crushed peppermint.

Working with a spoon and fork, lower an oreo ball into the melted chocolate and coat evenly. Shake off excess and place on waxed paper. Repeat with a few more and sprinkle with the coarser peppermint before the chocolate has set. Allow to set at room temperature or speed up the process in the fridge. Trim away any excess chocolate with a knife once chocolate has hardened. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container (because of the cream cheese).

Candy corn coma

Help me. I swear I only ate like 10. The thing is, that I wasn't even really impressed with the first couple I ate. But I couldn't stop putting them in my mouth. 10 candy corn later, I was so jacked up, I thought I was going to have a stroke.

Ever hear your own heartbeat in your ears?

Now? Now I'm crashing hard. No surprise there. #1 ingredient: sugar. #2: corn syrup.

Yikes.

Breaking news!

I've just eaten an entire full size snickers bar for the first time in probably 3-4 years.

It was just as good as I remembered and worth every bit of 280 calories.

So, do you have a rare indulgence?

For me, I'd say ice cream, but I indulge in that very regularly. So I guess it's the occasional candy bar.

"Get Induced" Chocolate Chip Scones

On the morning of Friday, March 13th, I decided to make a recipe for chocolate chip scones that my dear friend Vicky shared with me. This recipe is incredibly easy and sooooo chocolatey and satisfying. I did manage to snap some photos, but somehow those got lost in the shuffle of baby photos. While eating these scones for breakfast, I got the call from my OB/GYN office to come in to discuss some test results. The appointment resulted in them wanting me to be induced and so the epic 3 day saga of my labor began.

It all began with these scones. Enjoy. And big thanks to Vicky for the recipe.

"Get Induced" Chocolate Chip Scones
Makes 8 large scones
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar + 2tsp sugar
2.5 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
2/3 cup milk
1 large egg, separated
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in large bowl. Cut in butter until it's small crumbs. Add chocolate chips. Mix egg yolk and milk together then add to dry ingredients. Mix with fork.
Plop whatever size you want onto a baking sheet. Bake until slightly golden about 20 minutes.

Happy Valentine's day from chocolate heaven

After our scrumptious dinner at Magnolia Grill last night (more on that later), I opted for a chocolatey cake at Whole Foods instead of one of the desserts on the menu. I was not disappointed. This was a chocolate cake with layers of strawberry mousse, iced with chocolate ganache, and topped with a lovely chocolate heart and chocolate colored strawberry. This was really a large piece of cake, or what they call a mini-cake. It took hubby and I (okay mostly me) 2 days to eat, but it was absolute heaven and not overly sweet. Whole Foods knows how to do dessert, and despite being a little pricey for a mini-cake, it was a great deal compared to paying some 2 or 3 dollars more for something much smaller in a restaurant!

Photo of the Day - food shower

Our baby shower was Saturday. There was a ton of food (wonderfully arranged by my hubby's step mom). We had fruit trays, cheese trays, chicken salad croissants, veggie trays and of course, dessert trays (these were my favorite).

Snickerdoodles

Turns out my work closed for the day anyways so I was spared using a vacation day WOOHOO! I enjoyed baking and filling my house with the scent of cinnamon. I love snickerdoodles. I had my first one a few years ago and was shocked at what a difference that cinnamon and texture make to what is basically a sugar cookie. A melty, buttery inside a cinnamony, sugar crust. It's heaven.
I went exactly by this recipe over at all recipes.Mrs. Sigg's Snickerdoodles (reprinted from AllRecipes)
Makes 48 cookies
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400. Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. In a separate bowl, mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon.

Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.

Bake 8 minutes, until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets.

Chocolate marbled blondies

This was an easy Sunday morning venture! I was craving chocolate cake (go figure!) and I didn't have the components. This recipe was modifed from "The Great American Cookie Cookbook". Sometimes you just have to work with what you have. I would have liked these to have been sweeter and perhaps if I had been able to follow the original recipe, they would have been. The original recipe called for a cup of mini M & Ms. Make sure to swirl the chocolate into the blonde part well or you'll have gobs of dark, slightly bitter chocolate (like I did). Those gobs didn't taste so good.
Chocolate Marbled Blondies
Makes 16 blondies
Ingredients:
1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
2/3 cup chopped walnuts (choc. chips, m&m's or whatever you have on hand)
4 oz softened cream cheese
2 tb granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup unsweetened baking cocoa powder
1/4 cup dark chocolate (candy bar or the like, I used some Stam chocolate pieces I received for Xmas)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x9 pan.

Cream together the butter and brown sugar in a large bowl until fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking soda. Blend flour mixture into butter mixture. Stir in nuts. Dough will be stiff like cookie dough.

In a separate bowl, mix cream cheese, granulated sugar and egg yolk until smooth. Stir in cocoa powder and blend well. Place chocolate cheese mixture in nine equal portions on the bottom of the greased pan. Place the blondie dough around the chocolate dough in the pan. Swirl the two together with a fork.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes. Cool completely. Cut into squares.

Melt chocolate in microwave in 30 second intervals until smooth. Pour into ziploc bag and cut a small hole in the tip. Drizzle over blondies. Allow to cool and devour with a large glass of milk!

Strawberry cheesecake stuffed french toast

Back to the food blogging!

You know what the BEST thing about 9 months of not drinking is? No it's not that I'm always the designated driver...No hangovers! Upon waking up early, I took quick inventory of the kitchen new year's morning trying to figure out what to make for breakfast. This was what I came up with. I'm happy to have leftovers!Strawberry Cheesecake Stuffed French Toast
Makes 4 servings
Ingredients:
1/2 cup strawberry jam or preserves
3 oz. softened cream cheese (I nuked it for 15 seconds)
8 slices of bread (I used a light whole wheat)
4 eggs
1/2 tsp granulated sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk
dash of cinnamon
2 tsp. oil
Powdered sugar and whipped cream to finish!

Directions:
Spread cream cheese evenly on 4 slices of bread (one side only). Spread the remaining 4 naked slices of bread with strawberry jam. Pair one piece of each type together in sandwich fashion (think strawberry and cream cheese sandwich).

Heat 1 tsp. oil non-stick skillet over medium heat. In a shallow dish, beat together eggs, white sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and milk.

Dip 2 sandwich in the egg mixture and coat both sides. Place into heated skillet and cook 2 minutes. Flip and cook 2 minutes more. Remove and add more oil to pan. Repeat with remaining sandwiches.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and top with whipped cream. Though it sounds decadent, the damage wasn't too bad. My bread is 50 calories a slice and I figured one serving to work out to around 250 calories.

Oh I got a new lens for Christmas from the hubby and am getting used to it. It was great to be able to shoot without a flash!!!

Peppermint Bark (Recipe included)

Making peppermint bark was pretty easy as far as candy making goes. The hardest part was cutting/breaking it into pieces. I attempted to do this while it was cold and hard from the fridge and it was very difficult to get through. It also broke unevenly and the white separated from the dark. After about 1/4 of the way through, I decided to wait and allow to warm up a little and that made a big difference.

Peppermint Bark (from Use Real Butter)
Makes 2 pounds
Ingredients:
1 lb dark chocolate (I used 4 World Market Dark Chocolate Bars)
1 lb white chocolate (I used Nestle morsels)
10 peppermint candy canes

Directions:
Melt the dark chocolate. I did this by breaking it up into little pieces, putting into a micro-safe bowl and nuking for 30 seconds at a time and stirring after each interval.
Then, spread on foil on a cookie sheet and let set (in fridge).
Crush the canes in a food processor.
Sift fine (dust) pieces into one bowl, bigger pieces in another.
Melt the white chocolate and mix in the dusty canes with the melted white chocolate.
Carefully spread the white peppermint chocolate over the dark chocolate and then top with the bigger pieces of broken canes. Press down a little with a piece of waxed paper.
I chilled overnight in the fridge, but make sure to allow to come to room temp before cutting. The cutting process is the messiest part!It was really easy, yummy and makes a festive holiday gift. To purchase 2 pounds of peppermint bark would cost around $30-40. Total cost for this was $14!

I set each place setting at our dinner party with one of these sweet little packages and they were a hit. I neglected to photograph any of the cooking or prep for the event. I was too busy entertaining. Dinner was a success though!

Peppermint Bark

Just a quick photo play-by-play to wet your whistles. I have to run and start on the cheese plate and chicken. More details to come later. I can't believe how hard it was to find normal, red and white, peppermint candy canes. The peppermint bark turned out great!

Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti

I embarked on a baking extravaganza this weekend. I decided this year that rather then buy unusable or random gifts for my older relatives that already have everything they need, I'd bake stuff. Once I started, I found it hard to stop, so I made a batch of Oatmeal Raisin cookies, Scottish Shortbread, Reese's Peanut Butter & Chocolate cookies and Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti.

I made this biscotti last year with almonds instead of pistachios and I have to say I think I actually like the almond variation better. I've also determined that I don't really care for the taste of almond extract. I might try this again with orange instead. Either way this is an AWESOME biscotti recipe and because there is no butter in it, there's no worry about it getting rancid if you don't eat it for awhile. I also have changed the nut to fruit ratio to my liking.

Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti (from All Recipes)
Makes about 3 dozen
Ingredients:
1/4 cup light olive oil (I used half light and half extra virgin)
3/4 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup pistachio nuts (unsalted)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 300. In a large bowl, mix together oil and sugar until well blended. Mix in the extracts and eggs. Combine flour, salt, and baking powder in a separate bowl and gradually stir into the wet mixture. Mix in cranberries and nuts by hand.

Divide dough in half. Form two logs (12x2 inches) on a cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment paper. Dough is VERY sticky. I keep a bowl of water nearby and wet my hands with water to handle the dough. This dough log just looks nasty, doesn't it? That's because it needs some quality time in the oven.
Bake for 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until logs are light golden brown. Remove from oven, and set aside to cool for 10 minutes. Reduce oven heat to 275.

Cut logs on diagonal into 3/4 inch thick slices (my slices were a little too fat this time). Lay on sides on parchment covered cookie sheet. Bake approximately 8 to 10 minutes, or until dry. Cool completely before storing.

Scottish Shortbread

At the request of my husband, I ventured to make Scottish Shortbread this weekend. I found this recipe at allrecipes and really, it couldn't be ANY easier. I couldn't believe how much butter it called for, until of course, I ate a piece. Holy moly!
Scottish Shortbread (from AllRecipes)
Makes about 2 dozen
Ingredients:
2 cups (4 sticks) salted butter softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325. Cream together butter and brown sugar. I dropped these two in the kitchenaid and walked away for a couple of minutes. Too easy! Slowly add 3 1/2 cups flour. Mix well.

Sprinkle rolling surface with the remaining flour. Knead for 5 minutes, adding enough flour to make a soft dough. Roll to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut into 3x1 inch strips. Prick with fork and place on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 325 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes.

Berger cookies, I'm in HEAVEN

Two weeks ago, Heather had a giveaway on her blog for a box of Berger Cookies. I never win anything, but apparently the planets were aligned and took pity on me and my little chocolate-crazed baby. Last week she announced the winners and behold, I won a box.

We are unpacking this morning and getting settled in to our new workplace and my box of Berger Cookies arrives. I quickly opened one of the two containers and dispersed them to anyone who would take one. I took the last and was quickly on a sugar high. Think fudge meets soft cookie meets ultimate chocolate satisfaction. Thank you so much Heather and thank you Bergers for making a perfect cookie. I was shocked to turn over the package and discover that one of those decadent babies is only 140 calories! It's a perfect treat!

A whole lotta bakin' going on

This weekend I baked cranberry orange muffins (shhhh I cheated, from a Trader Joe's Cranberry Orange bread mix). Unlike a lot of muffin mixes, which are filled with imitation fruit bits, these muffins were filled with big juicy cranberries and they were delicious. I highly recommend this mix and will definitely be buying it again!Saturday I followed this up with a half batch of Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies. I followed the recipe on the bag of chips with the exception of nuts. I substituted 1/4 cup of heath toffee chips instead. I also removed from the oven while still soft and only lightly browned on the edges (a trick I learned from Melanie). This makes a yummy chewy cookie, despite seeming undercooked when first removed from the oven. I was so glad I only made a half batch (about 30 cookies) of these because three days later, my hubby and I have eaten them ALL. The kitchenaid mixer I received last Christmas from my brother made this sooooo easy. I can't wait to make my biscotti this year!!

Carrot Cake

This was my second cake ever made from scratch and it turned out good. Refrigeration didn't harm it in any way either. The texture was really crumbly, but still moist. If I had to do again, I'd probably leave out the coconut, reduce the amount of nuts and add raisins. I'm glad I only used half the nuts called for too. The flavor was great but it was a little difficult to cut and serve. The recipe I used was from Simply Recipes.

My hubby blew out all 30 candles in one puff and I've been eating healthy cake all weekend! Yum!!!

Baking question - Please help!

I'm making a carrot cake tonight for my hubby's 30th birthday. It has coconut, pineapple and fresh carrots. It will be iced with cream cheese icing (made with cream cheese, butter, etc.) So should I refrigerate it for the 24 hours before we eat it or leave it out (covered on a cake platter)?