Crocking Cherry Chip Cake

It's another "Baking Monday" for me I suppose. . . it is Monday, right? With all of our bad weather (I know that is a relative term, but for us, the weather has been frightful) and the school cancellations, I am a bit confused on my days. I also decided since we were stuck at home, I would use my fabulous crock pot and make some lovely dinner. I have this amazing crock pot, we lovingly call it the "3-holer" because it is 3 smaller crock pots in one device. Anyway, I was looking on my favorite inspiration site, Pinterest, and found a fabulous new Chicken Chili recipe and then my old stand-by potato soup (I can't find the original link to it to give proper credit to its originator, but I will post a picture of my basic ingredients at the end).

Anyway, I was looking through Pinterest for a dessert to go in the crock pot. . . Logic told me I must put something in the final crock pot slot. . . upon my searching, I found this easy chocolate and fabulous dessert but I didn't have the ingredients. Since I was somewhat snowed in, and couldn't make it to the store, I took my cue from Rachael Ray who always says to look at a recipe for the "method." (I believe that the original person gave credit to Jello for the idea) I thought if it worked for chocolate pudding, chocolate cake and chocolate chips, surely, I can apply that method to what is in my pantry. I found a cherry chip cake mix, and some cherry chips, but I was struggling for the pudding. . . Cheesecake pudding mix, why not, it might be lovely! So I followed the directions on the page but I used my substitutions. You start by using a small box of instant pudding and 3 cups of milk (this is more than what you would use to make pudding). Whisk that up in the bottom of your crockpot. Then mix up your cake according to package directions. Poor the cake mix directly on top without stirring. Turn it on high and let cook. It will depend on the size of crockpot you put it in on the cook time. My crockpot was smaller and it took nearly 3 hours. (The original person posting said it took them about 2 hours) Then you put your "chips" (mine are cherry) on top, put the lid back on and turn the crock pot off. The heat will melt the chips nicely. I also didn't realize this is supposed to be a lava-type cake. I kept waiting for it to set up and it never did. . . Once I decided to test it, I realized the pudding didn't get mixed into the cake completely which makes for a liquidy goodness at the bottom. I am pretty certain that is how it's supposed to be. . . and if it isn't, it is quite a lovely mistake!

Now that this is a family approved recipe (all but my little guy, he's not a big dessert eater) I needed to blog about it. I realized the sky is the limit with the pudding, cake, and chip combos. Imagine putting on some mint chips on a chocolate cake, or using any number of different puddings. . . or maybe a banana pudding, and yellow cake and peanut butter chips (ok, so maybe that is just my own weird flavor combo). Anyway, I would love to know if you tried it and what flavors you used. I'm always looking for a new flavor combo.

Oh, and before I forget, here is the picture of the ingredients for my potato soup. Mix these ingredients and I put a little onion flake in it too. Cook it on low for several hours. Garnish with bacon, cheese, and green onions! Yummy!

Dessert Recipe Makeovers

With the weather potentially frightful weather later in the week, I had to get a few things done today. Write a blog post was not on my original agenda, but I thought hey, why not! While the weather was somewhat spring-like on this first day of December, I needed to get in a run. I wanted to spend the rest of my day baking. If I start a "baking day" with a run, I don't feel guilty at all about tasting my goodies!!!! This post is not my typical post. I am going to share three different "recipes" and my twist on them -- banana bread, peanut butter cookie yumminess (I really have no idea what they're called, they're just yumminess!!!) and another take on a butterfinger cupcake.

I have a go to banana bread recipe. It's pretty much the only one I use. I feel so much better about myself when I eat the whole loaf, er, uh, I mean when I have a slice :) because I use more whole wheat flour than white flour. I would love to take credit for its awesomeness, but I cannot. I found the original recipe here on the Betty Crocker website. I follow the recipe exactly. . . well, actually I never add the salt (I generally can't find it, but I normally don't add salt to my sweet things, even though I know the salt is supposed to bring out the flavor even more) and instead of nuts I add about a cup of mini-chocolate chips--depending on how many I have. (So I guess I don't really follow it exactly) I use the mini instead of the full sized because I like the bread's texture better when I do it that way. I don't know if it's actually the case, but it seems to give it a bit more moisture using the chocolate chips. I truly find the banana bread a little dull without that pop of flavor the chocolate brings. I also love to eat a slice warm with a little butter on it, but I find this recipe just as enjoyable really, really cold. The other incredible thing about this recipe is that it makes two full sized loaves.

I had to use the word "recipe" loosely earlier. My next tasty confection is what I lovingly refer to as peanut butter cookie yumminess. It takes 2 ingredients. Store bought peanut butter cookie dough and mini-Reese's peanut butter cups. Personally I think it works better if you use the mini-cupcake liners in your mini-muffin tin (I even spray my liners with Pam). If you are out of the liners, it will work but I think it's too difficult to get the cookie out without the liner even spraying it with Pam. Anyway, place the liner in the mini-muffin tin. Place a ball of peanut butter cookie dough in the lined muffin tin. Bake for about 10 minutes. While the cookies are still hot, place a mini-peanut butter cup into the center. Now let them cool before you eat them, uh, I mean, remove them from the muffin tin. You actually could remove the cookies first before you put in the peanut butter cup, but this blog is about how I do it and what works for me. Just because something works for me, doesn't mean it will work for everyone. Recipes are just guidelines anyway. :)

My last baking item for the day will be a take on a butterfinger cupcake recipe I tried earlier this year. You can find it's blog post here. It was very tasty, but I honestly thought the cake itself was a little too crumbly for my preferences. I thought I would see what I could do with a yellow cake mix and store bought chocolate icing. Duncan Hines really has a very flavorful "whipped" chocolate icing that is a good texture to make the cute little cupcake swirl. I actually used it for cupcakes for a friend's wedding. Anyway for a different take on the butterfingery cupcakes, I made my yellow cake mix just like the box said. Then I added about a cup of peanut butter and half a small package of butterscotch pudding mix. Adding a pudding mix really punches up the flavor of a boxed cake mix. With the cake mix I used, I got about 21 cupcakes. After baking and letting cool, I topped with the chocolate store bought icing.

With time later tonight, I might just make some pumpkin muffins. Another two ingredient "recipe." Any flavor of cake mix, I will be using one of the kids' favorites if I do it. . . cherry chip and 1 can of pumpkin. I bake in my mini muffin tin for 12-15 minutes. The fabulous thing about this recipe is the options are boundless. Play up the pumpkin flavor with a yellow and add cinnamon chips or pumpkin pie spice.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Balls

The other day, my friend Sara posted that she finally found a pumpkin cheesecake recipe that she enjoyed. As our church Thanksgiving dinner was approaching, I wanted to make something amazing. I decided I would try this Paula Deen Pumpkin Cheesecake recipe. I thought I would make it twice, once to try it out and make sure it was a good recipe and once for our Thanksgiving dinner at church. Let me tell you that the recipe was delicious! Well, I decided that I would repeat that for last night.

So I decided to make this pumpkin cheesecake on Saturday evening to give it time to chill and set up for Sunday evening. I made this at my mom's house and she was kind enough to bring it to church for me, she cut it for me and even brought be a little cool whip for the top. I, being a good girl, decided I would get my dessert and let others get in line for the food ;) I am so thankful that I picked my pumpkin cheesecake, because it tasted absolutely hideous! My face puckered up like it was the most bitter thing that had been placed in my mouth. I promptly pulled that off the dessert table and hid it from everyone else. Oh, my goodness this was bad! I forgot to put the sugar in the cheesecake. Funny thing is, this isn't the first time I forgot to put sugar in something pumpkin. When I was a teenager, I decided I would make pumpkin pie. My brother tasted one bite of it, discreetly made a funny face, and then continued to eat the entire slice. I didn't realize the problem until I took a bite. I left out all the sugar. We tried to rectify this by putting sugar in it later, but that's how I knew my brother really did love me. . . he ate my sugarless pie and acted like it was tasty! Anyway, I decided I would bring it home and see if I could salvage something out of this.

I put all of my cheesecake into a large bowl, graham cracker crust and all. I added powdered sugar, probably about 1 1/2 to 2 cups. I thought the powdered sugar would be better than granulated sugar (or plain sugar as we call it in our house). I was afraid the granulated sugar would be too grainy and not dissolve all the way. It might have been fine; that was just my thought process. I pretty much added powdered sugar--to taste. After this was all blended, I chilled it for a bit; it was pretty sticky. Once it firmed up a bit, I used my medium sized pampered chef scoop and made some "cheesecake balls" and placed them on parchment paper on a sheet pan. I placed them in the freezer to firm up some more. I left them there overnight, but probably an hour is all it needed.

After removing it from the freezer

Once I pulled them out of the freezer, I coated them in some white Wilton Candy Melts. I used my trick of putting about a tablespoon of Crisco in the candy melts to make them coat a little better. I also found some "pumpkin spice" candy melts at the store. I melted a little of that as a little decoration on top of them.

Covered in white candy melts

What I learned in all of this. . . sometimes mistakes are just absolutely horrible mistakes and you just have to throw it all away and start over. Sometimes mistakes can be fixed, and it turns in to something beautifully delicious!

Drizzled with "pumpkin spice" candy melts

******I need to add something here to my original post. Just because you don't royally mess up your cheesecake, doesn't mean you can't make cheesecake balls. Just the same with cake balls, just use your leftover cheesecake of whatever flavor, or use a store bought one or make one just to use as cheesecake balls. The consistency will be slightly different from a cake ball, but your end results will be AMAZE-BALLS!!!!! Use the method, you don't necessarily have to use the recipe, but the Paula Deen recipe that I have posted the link to is quite amazing.**********************

Homemade Butterfingers, Fake-Out

Our soccer got rained out, so I thought I would pull this one out of my personal archives and blog about this one. It's a favorite fall treat using up some of that fabulous candy corn. I first found this recipe through Plain Chicken (someone I follow on Facebook), and they got it from a Taste of Home blog. I am trying to give everyone the proper credit here because this so isn't my original recipe. I make it a lot during the fall and I give it away as much as I eat it. :)

They are not quite exactly Butterfingers in taste and texture, but they remind you so much of them, you can't believe it is only 3 ingredients.

Candy Corn (about 1 pound)
Peanut Butter (about 16 oz jar)
Chocolate Candy Coating, such as Almond Bark or Wilton Candy Melts

You pretty much use equal parts of candy corn and peanut butter, but honestly if it isn't exact, it really isn't a big deal. . . It's just downright tasty however you do it. Someone once suggested using a "honey roasted" Peanut Butter. . . Skippy had one at one time. . . I honestly didn't think it did anything to it, but you can definitely use what you want. I'm not certain about other types of butters (Almond butter, sunflower butter, etc) because we don't have peanut allergies at our house, so I have never had to try them. I am not certain how they would turn out on either taste or texture.

Here is what I do:

I get one large glass bowl and dump my candy corn in it. I microwave for 1 minute. . .then I stir as best as I can. I place it back in the microwave for another 30 seconds and stir again, at this stage it is still a little tough to do. I place it back in for an additional 30 seconds. Most often by this time it is pretty good to go. Each microwave is different, so you might just have to play around a bit with your times. Once that is melted completely, I stir in my peanut butter. Again, this takes a little effort, but it is definitely worth it. I will line my pan with foil or parchment paper. Depending on how thick I want to make them and how many I want to serve, depends on what pan I put it in. Most frequently, I put it in a 11 x 7 pan, I think I get 24 when I do that. Honestly, whatever you have will work fine. I let this set up for a while. You could probably finish these up in an hour, but I generally let this sit overnight and finish in the morning. (I personally like the texture a little better, but it is totally a personal preference. It works fine either way.) I cut this into little rectangle shapes. Then I melt my candy coating according to the package directions and I dip my little bars in the candy. I place them on waxed paper to let set up. And then you are ready to eat some yummy goodness!

I hope you are enjoying my little break from cupcake blogs! It's fun to do something a little different from time to time.

Cake Leftovers?! Make Cakeballs!

I am slowly trying to get back into the "blog-o-sphere."  When the kids take the summer off, I have to take the summer off. Now that school is back in full swing. . . as well as soccer. . . I get to play in the kitchen. I have been making a few more cakes lately. When I make a cake I will level it off or cut it into a shape. I really need to do something with all those leftovers that have been removed. On a white cake once, my mom used some of the leftovers for a strawberry shortcake. I decided that I needed to make some cake balls. I've made an entire cake before with the sole purpose being to make cake balls, why can't I just use my leftover cake.

To make cake balls you need very few ingredients.

• Cake--one you make at home from scratch, a mix, store bought, or leftover cake
• Icing--your choice of homemade or store bought
• Candy Coating--Wilton Candy melts or Almond Bark are excellent options

I take my cooled cake and throw it in my mixer. Then I add my icing and mix together. Once this is finished, I shape it into balls (or whatever shape you really want. .  I did a strawberry flavor and shaped them into that shape), and then I place them into the freezer. Once they have solidified a bit, I follow my package directions on the candy coating, and I dip my cake balls into the candy and place on wax paper to set up. These will refrigerate for a while. I have even had some friends freeze the finished product. If I don't have time to complete all of them, I keep my cake balls, frozen in a ziploc baggie, and I can pull them out to finish them whenever I want. Great for a quick fun dessert.

You can do this with white, chocolate, or other fabulously flavored cake, and combine it with an amazing icing. I made some Cookies and Cream Cake balls (Pictured below). Those came about because I didn't have enough white cake, and so I threw in some crushed Oreos (which was reminding me of the Oreo balls I love to make). I didn't add my full container of icing because of the filling in the Oreos, and I followed my same procedures

Cookies and Cream Cake Balls

The other ones I made, I used leftover chocolate cake (I had made a moose shaped cake) and I found this delicious chocolate caramel icing made by Hershey's that I combined with it.

Chocolate Caramel cake balls

Hopefully I can the the time to blog about some of my other fun foods. . . not just cupcakes! :)

Cake Pops

I think cakes pops are the neatest little thing and they are the hardest thing for me to make. . . at least they were. I was on Pinterest one day, and saw the greatest "how-to" blog on them here. I have done the cake balls before with great success, but I never could get these cake pops to work on their cute little sticks.When a friend asked if I could do something for a wedding shower she was hosting, I thought this might be the time to try it out with my new tips.

My most important step in doing the pops was to have the right equipment. I could have saved so much time and stress by having the right things to do my work. Wal-Mart has this great little "cake pop decorator stand" for $3.50. Let me tell you, that was the best money I ever spent. I tried to create my own stand, and that just didn't work out right. :)

My cake pop maker

I also had a cake pop maker. Mine is a little Bella brand cake pop maker. . . Those little electronics are normally what my kids get me for Mother's day, birthday or Christmas. The packaging said that it makes them in 3-5 minutes. . .  and it makes 12! When I first got it, I thought it only made 6. I used Wilton Candy melts, and those great little round Popsicle sticks. I also made it really simple by using cake mixes this time. I had a really handy little scoop from Pampered Chef (it is their smallest size) that was the perfect size for cake pops.

My first step was to make my cake mix. I plugged in my maker. Then I used Pam on my cake pop maker. . .  the tops and the bottoms. I used my smallest Pampered Chef scoop which filled the holes perfectly. Shut the lid and let it go for about 3 or 4 minutes. When I did the chocolate, it took closer to 5 minutes. You need to fill these quickly as it starts cooking immediately.

Step 1

I opened it up and had to let them cool for just a bit before I removed them with a skewer.

Step 2

Notice that they are not perfect. After you remove them and let them cool, you can trim them up. I just put them on a little plate and then went to my next round.

It didn't really matter if they were too perfect, because the candy covers it well.

After letting them cool, it was time to melt the candy. According to the blog I had been reading, it suggested to add shortening to the candy melts to thin down the mixture. I realized that might have been my huge problem all along. I think almond bark is great, but way too thick. Candy melts are wonderful because they come in great colors, but it is still just a bit too heavy. When I saw a picture of this person using shortening on the little candy wafers, I realized what one of my problems had been all along. My candy was too thick and heavy making everything fall off the sticks. This blog that I mentioned, also showed a great way to keep the cake pops on. My following pictures will attempt at doing a "how to" justice, but can I say again how much I loved that blog.

Step 1: Using your pop stick, make a hole.

Step 2: Using that same stick, dip it into your candy. This will act as a glue.

Step 3: Put the stick back in. It's like having a pre-drilled hole when you are putting something together.

After that, I let this candy set up a bit before I dipped it completely in the candy. This has to be done quickly, and your candy has to stay thin. If it gets too stiff on you just warm it back up for a bit. Do a quick coat and swirl and get it back out of there. Put it back in the cake pop stand and it sets up nicely. I put sprinkles on these. If you do that, please don't forget to do it before the candy hardens. The sprinkles won't stick if the candy isn't soft enough.

I have to say, once I got the right supplies, I found a rhythm and really enjoyed making this as a slight deviation from my usual cupcakes. I do believe I will continue to make these now that I have found some great steps to follow.

This little stand was perfect!

My attempt at a stand, not so much!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

I haven't written a blog in a while. It was a very busy April and now I am getting into May and haven't written about any cupcakes that I have most definitely made. We've had numerous soccer games (or rain outs anyway), my son's birthday party, I helped with the Holy Week lunches at church,by providing cupcakes, of course :) and I have subbed at the school a bunch!!! During the Holy Week lunches, I took a few requests from some special people on what kind of cupcakes they wanted. One very special lady asked for Red Velvet. I do not like red velvet cake. . . or at least what I have tasted as red velvet. I have tried the cake mix variety and a bite of other red velvet cakes and not been a fan. Because this lady is so special, I decided I would try to find a suitable recipe. Once I made this, several people thoroughly enjoyed it so I am very glad I adjusted this recipe to meet my cupcake fancy.

Powdered butter milk

One thing this recipe called for was buttermilk. I only use buttermilk sparingly, so I really don't like to buy it. My sister-in-law has in the past, used a "powdered buttermilk" and I thought I would give it a go for this recipe. This is an easy product to use. The container shows on the back how much powder and water to use. It states to put the powder in with your dry ingredients, and put the water in when it says to put in the buttermilk. If you buy buttermilk a lot or if you just "sour" your milk with a tablespoon of vinegar, this paragraph will be pointless for you. Just ignore it :) I am going to write my recipe below in the way that I did it. You can always check the above link to follow that recipe.


Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cocoa
1 cups buttermilk* (4TBSP buttermilk powder and 1 cup water, divided)
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
2 eggs
Red food coloring (I used a gel coloring)
1 teaspoon distilled vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla

A stiff cream cheese frosting to swirl on cupcakes (recipe listed below)



Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 and line muffin tin with cupcake liners.

Sift dry ingredients together: flour, sugar, baking soda and cocoa. *This is also when I added my 4 TBSP powdered buttermilk to the dry ingredients. In another bowl add the buttermilk (or in my case water), oil, eggs, vinegar, vanilla and food coloring. Mix the two together and put in prepared cupcake pans. I baked this for about 22 minutes and I believe I got about 18 out of this recipe.

It was a little "pink" before it was baked

On the outside, it was a little pink.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Mix these ingredients until smooth.
*1 stick of butter
*1 8 oz package cream cheese
*1 tsp vanilla
*8 cups powdered sugar (more if you need it stiffer to pipe, maybe a little less if you just want to spread it)
*2 TBSP milk (dependent on how thin or thick you want your icing)

Iced with a round tip, Red Velvet cupcakes.

These were well received by everyone. I actually liked the taste of this. It just goes to show a good recipe (and a cake not over done) can really change your perspective on something you might not like.

Sports Themed Cupcakes

Tennis, basketball, soccer, softball and baseball

Spring has always been one of my most favorite times of the year. It means beautiful flowers and new beginnings. . .and major sports!!!! I was a little bit of a ball player when I was younger, softball being my favorite, but I loved track too and then there was basketball. Spring meant baseball/softball was beginning--the smell of dirt, leather and sweat all remind me of Spring as much as a daffodil! I know I am so weird, but that's OK! I totally admit it. Anyway, in my house. . . Spring is a wonderful time of year. . . It is March Madness (NCAA basketball), Opening Day (MLB baseball), NBA finals (really, I am just glad it is over, but now that we have a team in Oklahoma, I like the NBA a little better), The Masters (golf), and now that I have children, soccer is in full swing (actually they play in both the fall and spring, but it all starts again now). Because I love sports so much, I thought I would make some sports themed cupcakes. And since the "near-perfect game" last night, I thought I need to pull this one out and write about it.

I have this really cool domed cupcake pan. I simply started out with a cake mix. If my goal is a designed cupcake, I generally start out with a cake mix, just to simplify my life a little. Anyway, what I did on this day was to start with a yellow cake mix. I filled my pans about 2/3-3/4 full as you can see above. There will be a little "rounding of the cupcakes" and you can just slice that off after the cupcakes have cooled. If you fill them with less batter all it will do is just make a smaller ball; it won't go to the top and flatten out. If you don't have a pan like this, you can always use a regular cupcake pan, or you can use oven safe mugs. Another option would be to make this in a 13x9 pan and use a biscuit cutter and cut out circles. They might not have the dome shape, but they would be a little more "round in shape" than just a cupcake.

As you can see here, mine were slightly rounded. I just ran a knife along the top and flattened it out.

When I use a shaped cupcake pan like this one (I also have some adorable silicone pans that have shapes, I think they are Wilton brand), I use Candy Melts instead of icing. You can also use Almond Bark, but I think Almond Bark is a little thicker and sets up harder and it isn't as easy to bite through. Candy Melts come in a variety of flavors and colors and set up in a nice thin coating over the cake. When using candy melts, just follow the packaging; those directions really are spot on. If you have never used them, just keep checking them in the microwave and stirring every 30 seconds or so until they are completely melted.

You have a couple of options when using a melted candy. You can just dip the cake into the candy like I have done here. If you have a really crumbly cake, that won't work as well because the crumbs will just get into your candy. If you do that, you will have to coat it twice and use two different bowls of melted candy. One will be your "crumb coat" and the other will be your coating that will show.

Dipping my cupcakes

After I dipped my cupcake, I pulled it out (you can see in my picture above that there is just a little space that I can hold on to. I also used my mini-spatula to help it along. I put my cupcake on a rack to let set. You can also freeze or refrigerate them to make it go faster, but it isn't necessary if you have the patience. I just don't have the freezer space, so I just left them on my countertop.

Letting them set up

After I dipped all of my cupcakes in a variety of colors--white for baseball and soccer, orange for basketball, yellow for softball and tennis--I put the finishing touches on them. I had to do this step twice because I didn't have my skinny tips for the icing. I just used the Wilton icing tubes. It is so hard to get the pure colors--the red and the black. I bought white too, since I wasn't making any other icing. After I replaced the tips that I let the garbage disposal eat, I pulled the icing off and tried to "re-work" the magic.

My cupcakes with the larger tips

The "re-worked" cupcakes.

Resurrection Cupcakes

My resurrection cupcake

I had a little green icing leftover one day, so I decided to try something out. I have previously mentioned that I was trying to figure out how to make a cupcake that reflected my faith, but didn't seem. . . I don't know weird. I mean really, I can't imagine eating a baby Jesus (at Christmas) and it just didn't seem right to put a cross on a cupcake (at least to me). To me, cupcakes just seem to scream CELEBRATION! So I began to think, what is it I "celebrate" at this Easter season. It is the resurrection. So I decided to make a cupcake depicting something so significant to the Christian faith. . . the empty tomb.

I started out with a cake mix. It was just a nice simple thing . . . I think it was cherry chip because I wanted to experiment with some cherry icing. Anyway. . .I knew I could do my empty tomb cupcake a few different ways. I could stack a mini cupcake on top of a regular sized cupcake. . . to give it a more domed shape. . . I could just pile it high with icing. . . or I could do it this third way.

I used my handy dandy "cupcake corer" tool and cut out a portion of the cupcake. I filled my hole with a little icing. I put a little black icing on the top of the small piece and then I placed it on its side. I don't have pictures of this. . . I honestly didn't think about it as I was doing it. This was such a spur of the moment idea that I really didn't think to have my camera handy during this process in order to blog about it.

I thought it looked like a one eyed monster here :()

After I put the black icing on it, I piped the green icing on with my "grassy" tip. I mentioned in a previous blog that you could use this tip or just a star tip and do an elongated star for grass.

My grassy tip

I thought it needed some type of a "stone" that was rolled away. I had some leftover "robin's eggs" from a previous project and used one as a stone.

I thought of just using a little white icing until I hit on the "robin's egg" idea

I thought I needed a path also. I used a little brown sugar and patted it down to make my path.

There really isn't much more to say. . . I normally say something like these were a cute and yummy cupcake. .  but I have a hard time thinking of it as "cute". It is very symbolic. . . and it tasted good. You can't really go wrong with a mix. :)

Easter Bunny Cupcakes

While the Easter Bunny isn't the most significant part of our Easter celebration, he is still cute little symbol at Springtime.While I still contemplate how to make a cupcake to reflect my faith, I had this sweet little bunny idea in my head. I honestly don't know if I saw it on Pinterest, or if it was just totally one of those things I envisioned.

I started out my cupcake with a cake mix. I wanted to doctor it up a bit, to put my own stamp on it.

My starting point--Picking a cake mix

To put my stamp on it, I chose to replace the eggs with banana. The ratio is supposed to be one banana per egg.

I mashed these with my hand mixer.

I left the oil the same as what was on the box, but I replaced the water with a strawberry-banana nectar.

This is the brand our store carries, but other brands exist.

After it was blended well, I placed them in my prepared cupcake pans (I have tried the others and I think the Reynolds Stay Brite baking cup is just the best). I normally do not get 24 cupcakes out of a mix. . . it is closer to 18. This time, I did get 21.

Now if this recipe looks familiar, I have blogged about it before here. I just used this one, because I had everything on hand and needed to use my bananas. Depending on what my goal is with the cupcake depends on if I use a cake mix or make it from scratch. If it is "cuteness" I am after, a lot of times I will start with a cake mix. It will just save a lot of steps since for that particular cupcake, I will be spending the majority of my time on the decorating.

I made my traditional buttercream which is 1 stick butter, 1/2 cup shortening, approx 4 cups of powdered sugar (I sift it first and it makes it so much better), 2 TBSP milk and 1 TSP vanilla. I tinted my icing green to give it the grassy effect. I probably could have made it a deeper green, but if too much of the coloring goes in, sometimes, it affects the taste of the icing.

My first step after making the icing was to place it in my "piping" bag with a #233 tip. When using a tip such as this one, you really need to make sure you have no lumps in your icing. This is another fabulous benefit of taking the 30 extra seconds to sift your powdered sugar. If you don't have this tip, you can also use the star tip and do the same type of thing.

See how it looks kind of stringy and grass-like

If you have ever made one of those cakes that are filled with the "stars" all over. . . you will know exactly what to do next. You take this tip and just dab all over, pulling out a little to give it the grassy effect. If you have never made one this way. . . that's ok. You can still do this too. You seriously just plop the icing all over the place. Because it is supposed to look grassy, you could even just make a big circle all over the cupcake. I am sure after one or two times of doing a cupcake, you would get the hang of it. If you mess up, you could always peel it off the cupcake and try again. You might practice on some waxed paper or parchment paper before you go to the cupcake.

You can tell that this is just squiggles. This tip is fabulous.

After that I thought it needed some cute little Easter Eggs.

My Easter Egg option.

I just placed these right on top of the cupcake. I only used 3 on each one, because I wanted to put the peep on top.

My "Easter Eggs"

This would actually make a really cute cupcake on its own, but I needed to add the peep. You can also take a little more of your icing and cover your "eggs" with them. . . to make them look a little more hidden.

Still a cute cupcake, even without the peep.

These were a cute yet simple cupcake. The batter for this cupcake is moist. I am sure they would keep, refrigerated, for a couple of days. They just normally don't stay around longer than 24 hours. With the added cuteness of the season, these were gone in an instant.

Butterfinger-y Cupcake

Butterfinger Cupcake

I make a pretty yummy dessert around Halloween time that is a "homemade version" of my most favorite candy bar. . . the Butterfinger! Now that I am in this cupcake mode,  I should try to make a cupcake that reminds me of that oh so fabulous candy bar. I was trying to figure out how to do it, when a friend told me she made a healthful Butterfinger shake and she used butterscotch pudding mix. I thought it was crazy, but I tried to make my own version, and lo and behold, it tasted just like a Butterfinger! I thought I will try to find a really great peanut butter cupcake recipe and add some butterscotch pudding mix to it. I found a fabulous starter recipe here. And bonus, it has a really good chocolate buttercream frosting recipe too!

As soon as they were cool enough, I frosted this yumminess. I will be totally honest, I am not one of those really good people who never taste a batter because of the raw eggs. I know, totally not OK, but I did it anyway :) When I tasted the batter, I thought the cupcake would be more "Reese's Peanut butter cup like". After it was baked and iced. I think it had a definite butterfinger taste. I made 18 out of this recipe, and I frosted 13 in this way. I didn't have enough to finish doing the little swirl, so for the remaining 5, I just slathered it on and then garnished it with crushed Butterfingers--I just barely had enough icing for this. I didn't even have enough left over to eat by itself later ;) This was a yummy cupcake. The cake itself was a little on the crumbly side, but it was oh so delicious! As soon as I got them done, I immediately shared this with the teachers at school. It was perfect timing. ..  most of them were finishing up lunch.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
2/3 cups sugar
3/4 cups butter, melted
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 4oz package butterscotch pudding mix

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 and prepare cupcake pan. I use liners. The Wilton Brand is OK, but I prefer the Reynolds brand.

Sift flour and baking powder together in a large bowl. Add in eggs and sugar and combine with an electric mixer. (It begins to look really lumpy, but don't worry, it will smooth out.) While mixing, add in the butter, then the vanilla.

You can use the non sugar-free option, this is just what I had available.

Mix in the peanut butter. . . stream in the milk. The last thing I added was my pudding mix. And I blended it together. I used my "handy dandy" Pampered Chef scoop, and I put 1 scoop in each, and I made 18. I baked these for about 20 minutes.

Frosting:
1/4 cup shortening (I use Butter Flavored Crisco)
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp Vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
2 TBSP milk

I put this together like I do all my buttercream recipes. I start by blending the butter. Then on this one I added the cocoa. I always do my milk and vanilla next. And my last ingredient is my powdered sugar. I do sift my powdered sugar, I think it makes a huge difference. I can always tweak my recipe a bit--add in more sugar or milk based on the consistency I want. This recipe would easily frost 12, but not quite all 18 since I like to pipe my frosting using a piping bag and a large tip (1M).

 Since I didn't quite have enough to pipe it on all the rest, I just "smeared" the frosting on top. I sprinkled crushed a Butterfinger candy bar on top to garnish.

Cupcakes with crushed Butterfingers on top.