S'more on a stick

Elliott's birthday was last weekend.  I wanted something yummy and quick to go with his cake, just as another food option.  I'm sure that this idea isn't new, but I was pretty impressed that I came up with it.  I made them two days in a row and then were crowd pleasers to say the least. 

So easy and yummy and mess free, this might be one of my more brilliant food inventions.

You'll need:
popsicle sticks
giant marshmallows
melting chocolate
crushed up graham crackers

Put the marshmallows on the stick. Dip in melted chocoate. Coat in graham crackers.

Eat.

Sweet Empanadas

A couple of weeks ago I made savory empanadas with beef and other yumminess.  Over the weekend I made sweet empanadas - cherry, blackberry, and cinnamon and sugar.

yum.

yum.

yum.

If you're interested, these are super easy.  The dough is the exact same cream cheese dough as for savory empanadas, just with about a teaspoon and a half of sugar added into the butter and cream cheese.

For the filling, I just used canned pie filling.  The cinnamon and sugar set were a bit different, though.  I coated a marshmallow in butter, then a sugar mixture and then folded them into the dough.  They exploded while baking, but were still really good.  Next time, I'll use small marshmallows, not giant roasting ones.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

First, there is a lot of sweet stuff on this blog. Second, I need to stop taking pictures with just my phone.

Noted.

Third, though - I had a little church party on Tuesday night and I wanted to make something yummy. The activity required that people bring pies. I don't like pie. I do however like cake.

I made these - they were delish.

For the cupcakes -
1 box chocolate cake mix, any brand you like. Follow the directions on the box except for the following:
add 1 cup sour cream
add 1 package instant chocolate pudding
use milk instead of water (or buttermilk if you have it)

Bake as directed

For the icing -
2 sticks butter - room temperature
1 cup peanut butter
a little bit of milk
a lot of powdered sugar, 4 cups or so.

cream the butter and peanut butter. Slowly add the powdered sugar until you get the icing consistency you'd like. If it gets to thick, add milk...or more milk.

Top with chopped up PB cups (store bought or home made) if you're so inclined.

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

When I was a little girl, my grandma would, on Easter and Christmas, make homemade peanut butter cups. I lived for the chocolate bunnies and trees and whatever else she would make. Seriously. Lived for them.

Now, I'm a fan of the store bought PB cups as well, and in my youth, was known to eat dozen upon dozen of the miniatures.

Nothing beats making your own though. Nothing is faster and tastier either.

What you'll need:
Peanut butter
Powdered sugar
Melting chocolate

In a mixing bowl, add equal parts peanut butter and powdered sugar. Mix thoroughly until incorporated. If the PB is still sticky to your touch, add a little bit more sugar. You don't want the PB stick at all.

Next, melt some chocolate.

While you're melting chocolate, get your molds, paper cups, whatever your going to use ready.

When the chocolate is melted, pour a little bit into the base of your container. next, add a hunk of PB sweetness then cover with chocolate.

Refrigerate to set.

Enjoy.

Rootbeer Cupcakes

(Image courtesy of confessions of a cookbook queen)

I fixed these cupcakes (mine did not look like this, I've lost all my pictures because I deleted the card) for a party and my oh my, they were divine. Particularly the icing. Oh my heavens, the icing.

The recipe is courtesy of one of my new favorite treat blogs, Confessions of a Cookbook Queen. The stuff she whips up is absolutely divine.  Yes, its as easy as the recipe says and yes the cupcakes will end up absolutely soft and fluffy with only a cake mix and some root beer.

Note 1:  I used an entire 12 oz bottle of root beer and maybe it's because I'm at a higher altitude, but I only got about 18 cupcakes, instead of 24.

Note 2:  I double the amount of root beer extract in the icing and added some to the cake batter as well.

INGREDIENTS

1 box white cake mix
1 cup of your favorite root beer
1 recipe butter cream
1 teaspoon root beer extract

Preheat oven to 350. Line 24 muffin tins with paper liners.

Mix together root beer and cake mix (yes, just those two ingredients). Pour into paper liners and fill 3/4 full. 

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Remove from oven and allow to completely cool.

In a separate bowl, mix the butter cream frosting and root beer flavoring. Frost cooled cupcakes.

Butter Cream
Butter, softened to room temperature
Powdered sugar
Vanilla
Milk

Put 2 sticks of butter, 2 tablespoons milk, and 1 teaspoon vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer.  Whip them all together.  Slowly add powdered sugar (4 cups) and root beer extract, a couple of cap fulls to the butter.  Add a little more milk if it's too thick, a little more powdered sugar if it's too thin.

Enjoy.

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

I made these for a family BBQ in July. They were yummy. I didn't think that the cake ended up sour enough, so I really went all out with the frosting.

This recipe is not mine, but i tweaked it. The recipe makes just barely 12 cupcakes.

Cupcakes
1 c. flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. vegetable oil
2 egg whites
1/2 c. pink lemonade concentrate, thawed
1/4 c. buttermilk
red or hot pink food coloring, couple drops

preheat oven to 350 and bake for 20-25 minutes

in a small bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt

in a large bowl whisk together sugar, oil, egg whites and pink lemonade. then, alternately whisk in flour mixture and buttermilk, ending with flour, whisking until smooth. add food coloring to make the batter pink.

Pink Lemonade Butter cream

3 c. + 3 tbsp powdered sugar
1 stick butter, room temp.
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 c. pink lemonade concentrate
red or pink food coloring

add butter, sugar, salt, and concentrate in a mixer and mix on low. add food coloring. taste. add more concentrate if not tart enough. More sugar if too thin.

Pipe or spread on cooled cupcakes.

Food Party Favors

My cousin is getting married in one month. On Saturday, my aunt threw a bridal shower for her soon to be daughter-in-law. I volunteered to help with a few things, one of which was the party favors.

The shower had a kitchen/grocery theme so I knew that the favor needed to be food oriented. When my original idea didn't quite pan out, while wandering around cost plus world market I found these great old fashioned sodas and was inspired to use them for the shower favor.



Not being too crafty or creative, I didn't think until later about making a cute label to cover the soda label or anything like that. I did whip up a festive sticker to put over the yummy chocolates that I attached with a ribbon. That was about as creative as I got.



The sodas however were a hit - and I seemed to manage to get a flavor to fit everyone's taste (black cherry, grape, orange, chocolate, cola, key lime, lemon lime and root beer).

It's always fun to do a project - especially one that involves a little bit of sugary goodness.

Baked Goods

My friend Erin asked me to help her out with a few treats for a bridal shower. She's trading me food for hand crafted items for my home. She is extraordinarily talented and I'm so excited.

The theme of her party was lemon and lime.  I was happy to oblige with Key Lime cupcakes, Tart Lemon cupcakes and cookie dough truffles in the theme colors.

The party went of without a hitch and I'm told the treats disappeared quickly.

I love baking, especially with a theme.

Mexican Fiesta!

Yesterday was Mother's Day.  We had a huge family party, thrown together last minute by my mom, for the celebration.

We decided on a Mexican fiesta to honor all our mothers.

The food was fantastic:
chips and 2 kinds of homemade salsa
sweet pork tacos
beef tacos
chicken with green chilies and corn tacos
chicken enchiladas
lime cilantro rice

There was more side stuff but I can't remember. 

And the dessert bar was almost a mile long.

What a foodie family I've got.

I contributed a few items to the pot-luck buffet, but the tastiest by far were my home-made crustos.  I don't know what you really call them, but the local taco joint calls them crustos.

deep fried tortillas drenched in cinnamon and sugar.

So good.  They disappeared pretty fast yesterday.  I guess I should have made more.

How to doctor a cake mix

I love to bake.  It's cathartic for me.

Many times I've baked a cake from scratch - and made a huge mess in the process.

I'm learning though that doctoring a store bought cake mix is faster, easier, and often just as tasty.

A few things you can do to make a cake from a box taste more like a cake from scratch.

1 - add a small package of instant pudding in a flavor that compliments the cake mix
2 - add one cup sour cream
3 - use buttermilk or milk instead of water

Not only is the batter absolutely fluffy, rich, and quite heavenly, but it bakes up well, too (but it does take a bit longer than the instructions on the box tell you so watch carefully.).

My first attempt at a doctored mix turned out fabulous.  I had a regular yellow cake mix, did all of the above and for my pudding added a white chocolate instant pudding.  I never actually got to eat one of the finished products but the batter was enough to satisfy my sweet tooth for the day.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles

I found this recipie on a blog (vanillaandlace.blogspot.com) and printed it out immediately, just waiting for the right even to try out such a seemingly decadent treat.

My sister's baby shower two weekends ago was the perfect time for such absolute heaven wrapped in chocolate.

Here is the recipie:
Chocolate chip cookie dough truffles
makes 3-4 dozen, depending on size. (I got 50 truffles out of the batch I made)

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup milk or soy milk
1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, or small chocolate chunks.

14 oz dark chocolate candy coating, (i didnt have any so i used chocolate chips)

Directions

Beat butter and sugars and in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add soymilk and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt and mix on low speed (or by hand) until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips.

Cover and chill dough for 1 hour.

When dough is firm enough to handle (it may help to lightly flour your hands), form dough into 1″ balls and arrange on a baking sheet lined with waxed paper. Place sheets in freezer and let chill for 30 minutes.

Melt chocolate candy coating in a double boiler or in microwave according to package directions. Using forks or a dipping tool, dip cookie balls into candy coating to cover. Tap fork on side of pan to remove any excess coating, and return to waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Chill until set. Store, chilled, in an airtight container for up to 1 week. Or freeze for frozen treats.