ChOcOlAtE StRaWbErRy Cupcakes!!!!

Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes

I had a blast making these little guys - we were going on a spring picnic and I wanted something that was light and refreshing but also CHOCOLATE! Strawberries are so fresh right now that i knew i had to include them somehow in this recipe and adding them as a garnish was just enough as they pack a powerful flavor - I would recommend holding off on adding the strawberries until right before serving as they will not last for more than two days - fresh is always best in my mind!!! ENJOY! If you try these let me know i would love to hear your feedback!

Ingredients


1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup buttermilk

Frosting of your choice (see recipe below - Love this recipe so easy to make)

Directions

In a small bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture alternately with water and buttermilk, beating well after each addition.

Fill paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 375° for 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely. Frost cupcakes. Yield: 16 cupcakes
 
Frosting:
1 stick Butter unsalted
2/3 Cup Hershey's Cocoa
3 Cups Powdered Sugar
1/3 Cup Milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
 
Melt butter and stir in cocoa mixing until combined and even consistency. Alternate adding in the powdered sugar with the milk. Beat on medium speed (also mixing by hand is fine too) If you need more milk feel free to add or vice verse with the powdered sugar! Then add vanilla (i always add a little more than required to give it a boost). Then i load in a baking bag and pipe onto the cooled cupcakes then cut and slice the strawberries. I garnished these with white bakers chocolate and gave it a nice little bonus - the white shavings also give a little something extra. Then place the strawberries on top and SERVE! These are so yummy!

BlOnDiEs - Oh So GoOd!!!!!!!!!!

bRoWn SugAr bLoNdIeS...

Fabulous find - while I was shopping at Williams-Sonoma i fell in love with these little cuties. Thanks to the hard work over at baked NYC - these can be filling your kitchen with scrumptious smells...Of course it is pretty much cheating because it is a mix, and all the credit goes to Baked NYC, but oh my! if you want something to make in a pinch and ready in under thirty minutes then these are your new favorite treat! We were craving something sweet while out running errands on sunday and these little blondies did just the trick and looked really pretty once they were finished. You could make them in a number of different size pans or layer them with ice cream and fudge or caramel. They are a Williams-Sonoma exclusive but also come in three other varieties and i have a feeling the other three are just as good...i was lacking the creativity to put together something and didnt want the mess on sunday so here you go and YuMmO!

Ingredients:

1 box Brown Sugar Blondie Mix

2 Large eggs room temperature

14 tbls unsalted butter

Directions:

Melt the butter in a microwaveable bowl. Whisk together the two eggs in a large mixing bowl until combined. Add in butter and mix until combined. Add in the Brown Sugar mix and combine all ingredients together until a brownie like batter is formed. Spray a 9 x 13 pan with non stick baking spray. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and bake for 25 - 28 minutes until a fork inserted comes out clean. Allow brownies to cool on a baking rack before serving. Cut into squares and serve along side your favorite toppings or eat alone.

*Quick note - i added extra vanilla to these and I do believe that using unsalted butter makes a huge difference than sweet salted. If you read the reviews these are a bit greasy as there is a lot of butter in them, but once they come out let them set for a while and they will be good to go once cooled.

SNOW - White Chocolate Cupcakes - SuPeR!

The inspiration to make these cupcakes came to me as i was staring out the window and watching the snow fall in march here in Minneapolis, yes that was snow in MARCH! To be honest I was missing my home in Texas...Growing up I never understood the weather chart when they would say winter went from dec-feb? It was pretty much hot all the time in the south so moving here cleared that up - or confuses you since winter seems to be here longer than anyone can stand it!!!! Me and Trix were stuck inside as the white fluffy flakes fell from the sky, so we started our day of baking because ...well what else puts a smile on my face. EnJoY!!!!!!

Cupcakes Ingredients

1 1/4 cups cake flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

3 large egg whites

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 12 muffin tin cups with paper cupcake liners. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside. In a small bowl, stir the milk, and vanilla and almond extracts together.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and sugar until lightened in color about 3 minutes, the mixture will look sugary and form large clumps. On low speed, add the flour mixture in three additions and the milk mixture in two additions, beginning and ending wiht the flour mixture and mixing just until the flour is incorporated. Set aside.

In another large bowl beat the egg whites with clean beaters on medium speed until foamy, about 30 seconds. Beat on high speed until the egg whites look shiny and smooth and the beaters form lines in the egg whites. If you stop the mixer and lift the beaters, the egg whites should cling to them. Stir about one-third of the egg whites into the reserved butter. Use a rubber spatula to fold in the remaining egg whites just until blended.

Fill each paper liner with a 1/3 cup of batter, to about 1/4 inch below the top of the liner. Bake just until the top feels firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool the cupcakes on a wire rack.

Frosting

3 ounces white chocolate chopped

1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

6-8 ounces block of white chocolate for curls

powdered sugar for dusting

Directions for Frosting

Put the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl or the top of a double broiler and place it over but not touching a saucepan of barely simmering water or the bottom of the double broiler. Stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth and transfer to a large bowl. Add the butter, cream cheese, and vanilla to the chocolate and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until smooth, about 1 minutes. Add the powdered sugar, mixing until the frosting is smooth, about 1 minute. Use a small spatula to spread about 2 tablespoons of frosting on each cupcake, mounding it slightly in the center.

For the chocolate curls hold the white chocolate between your hand for a minute to warm it slightly. THen hold the chocolate in one hand and use a vegetable peeler to scrape curls from teh block, letting them fall in a single layer onto the baking sheet. Scrape the peeler away from you to 1 1/2 to 2 inch strokes along all sides until you have 2 cups of large curls; you will not use all of the chocolate. If the curls begin to break, the chocolate is too hard and you need to hold it between your hands to soften it again. Put the baking sheet in the freezer for about 30 minutes to firm the curls. Spoon the chilled curls on top of the frosted cupcakes and dust lightly with powdered sugar. YUM!

Strawberry Cupcakes - HeAvEn!!!

I was craving strawberries this weekend so i set out to make a new recipe with fresh strawberries. I was delighted at how these turned out and i actually put half the strawberries in the batter and left half without for those who wanted a vanilla cake only. The icing was even better the next day and the moisture from the strawberries kept the cake and icing super fresh and the strawberry was not overwhelming in the least bit. I did not use any coloring in this icing, but the pink naturally came out from the fresh juice in the strawberries. I will be making this again and changing it up.

Directions

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup cake flour (not self rising)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

8 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature

2 1/4 cups sugar

3 large eggs plus 1 large egg white

1 cup whole milk

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups finely chopped strawberries

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper liners. Wisk dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time and beat lightly after each addition, add vanilla. Reduce the mixer to low. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with wet ingredients and ending with dry. At this point you can add in strawberries to the batter or leave out completely, depending on your taste. The vanilla batter is fine with or even better with the strawberry pieces. Fill muffin cups to 2/3 full and bake cupcakes until lightly brown about 15 minutes to 20 minutes depending on oven. Remove and allow cool on wire racks.

Frosting

3 cups confectioners sugar

1 tsp butter

1 tbsp cream

1 cup chopped strawberries

1 tbsp vanilla

Cream butter and cream and add vanilla and half of sugar. Stir in the strawberries and the rest of the sugar. Beat together and spread on cooled cupcakes.

Valentines Day CoOkIeS!!!

Valetines is such a fun time of year to bake so in the joy of the season i found a new sugar cookie recipe and fell in love with this one! The almond gives this cookie such a nice light and tasty undertone that you want more! I brought them to my office as valentines to all the men and they were gone by lunch! EnJoy!!!!! (I substitued the shortening for butter as it is my preference over shortening...your call!)



INGREDIENTS:
7 cups all purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups shortening ( i use butter)
3 teaspoons almond extract
1 cup milk (use whole)
3 eggs

DIRECTIONS
preheat your oven to 375 degrees and in a large bowl mix the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. After those are all mixed together incorporate the shortening until well blended. About 4 minutes. Add the almond flavoring and milk into the dough at the same time. Add eggs and mix after each additon not beating too much. Once the dough has formed a ball, place on a floured surface. Using a floured rolling pin roll the dough out thick and cut out cookies and place on baking sheet. Bake at 375 degree for 10 minutes or until golden.

ICING

Ingredients
1 cup confectioners sugar
2 teaspoons milk
2 teaspoons light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
food coloring

Directions
in a small bowl stir together the confectioners sugar, and milk. Beat in corn syrup and almond extract until the icing is smooth. If your icing is too thick add more corn syrup. Add cood coloring and dip cookies. (i prefer to use a knife to ice my cookies, and dip them face down then smooth out with the knife, then sprinkle immediately.)

Football Season - AwEsOmE SuGaR CoOkIeS!!!

For the love of the vikings we decided to have friends over for the game to cheer on the vikes! I made old fashioned sugar cookies - the good kind that require the rolling pin, chilling the dough, and a lot of flour! The recipe is pretty simple and they always turn out delicious - i have used a few different types of icing for these cookies and it keeps people guessing each time...EnJoY!

Ingredients

1 cup butter, unsalted

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs lightly beaten

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Directions

In a bowl cream the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time mixing after each addition. Mix in vanilla. In a second bowl combine and mix well the flour, baking poweder, and salt. Stir flour into butter mixture one cup at a time. Chill the dough for 3 to 4 hours until firm. This will provide ease when forming into shapes. (for lack of time i put in the freezer not letting it freeze but get nice and chilled then continue). Once dough is ready, roll out on a floured surface and using shapes of your choice cut and place on a greased cookie sheet. Preheat oven to 350 while finishing cutting cookies. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Place on a rack to cool before icing.

InCrEdIbLe ReD vElVeT CaKe!

John is the biggest fan of Red Velvet Cake so I decided to give this a try and let me tell you it does not disappoint! I hope that you all give it a try and it is much better than any other red velvet cake i have ever had! Again tweak to however you would like and serve with a side of ice cream or maybe a glass of wine...EnJoy!

Red Velvet Cake

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 oz. red food coloring

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8 inch cake pans. Lightly stir eggs in a medium bowl with a wire whisk. Add remaining liquid ingredients and stir together with whisk until blended. Set aside. Place all the dry ingredients in your mixing bowl and stir together really good with another wire whisk. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix on medium-high for about a minute or until completely combined.
Pour into cake pans and then drop the pans on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles. Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
After about ten minutes, remove from pans and cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 cups confectioners’ sugar

Sift sugar and set aside. Beat cream cheese and butter on high until creamy. Add vanilla. Then, add the sugar in batches. Scrape down the sides in between each addition. Go crazy and frost away.