Dark Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes!

With it being the time of year it is, there is one flavor I naturally gravitate towards--mint. Whether it be in a Ho-Ho Mocha from Caribou or Candy Cane Jo-Jo's from Trader Joes--I love it all! So of course, I had to try my hand at peppermint cupcakes. Oh yah, and of course they had to be chocolate too...So after some searching for the perfect recipe, I found this one. I made some modifications as I went, and used SMBC with peppermint extract as the frosting.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes

2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup cooled, strong coffee
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line cupcake tins with liners. In a large bowl stir the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt together. Make a well and pour in the eggs, coffee, buttermilk and oil. Mix until smooth. Fill liners about 2/3 full. Bake until top springs back, about 20-25 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove to cool completely.

Candy Cane White Chocolate Ganache

14 oz white chocolate (not almond bark--make sure there is cocoa butter in the ingredient list.)2/3 cup heavy cream
8 candy canes, crushed

*Make sure the candy canes are really crushed, or they won't be able to fit through your decorator tip when filling the cupcakes.

Place white chocolate in a medium bowl. Heat heavy cream until simmering, then pour over white chocolate. Let sit for 5 minutes, then stir until smooth. Allow to cool, then add the crushed candy canes.

Peppermint Swiss Meringue Buttercream

1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
3 sticks plus 2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 tsp peppermint extract

Follow the instructions here.

Once cupcakes are completely cool and filling is completely cool, use a medium sized round tip and fill the cupcakes with the ganache. Frost with Peppermint SMBC and decorate as you wish--I used red and white crystal sprinkles and crushed candy canes. Enjoy, and take a bite!

Pumpkin Cheesecakes for Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkins. Quite possibly the best thing about fall. Yep, pretty sure it is. Besides the fun of pumpkin patches and carving/decorating them, the puree is so fun to cook and bake with--it can go savory or sweet and tastes delicious no matter what! I made these individual pumpkin swirled cheesecakes for our pumpkin carving contest last weekend. The food was great, the time with family and friends was awesome and of course the carving was super fun!

my 2nd place carving--a haunted house, complete with a blinking light inside!

the recipe

makes 24 standard size cupcake cheesecakes

crust

1 cup crushed graham crackers (I used about 14 full graham crackers (20 squares) and used a mini food processor to get fine crumbs)

1/2 cup whole pecans chopped in mini food processor (or approximately 1/4 cup chopped pecans)

1/4 cup butter, melted

filling

2 (8oz) packages cream cheese (don't use fat free), softened

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 can (15 oz) pumpkin puree

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cloves

topping

3/4 cup sour cream

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla

cinnamon for garnish

Mix together the graham crackers and pecans (I just put it all in my mini food processor and chopped it all together.) Add the melted butter and mix. Place a heaping teaspoon in lined muffin tins. Press down to make an even layer on the bottom of the liner.

Mix the cream cheese and sugar together until smooth. Add eggs. Mix in the pumpkin puree and spices until just combined.

Scoop the filling into the cups on top of the crust. Bake at 325 degrees for 20-25 minutes until the sides are set, but the middle still wiggles a little (but isn't wet). Let set for 5-10 minutes, then remove from pan and allow to cool completely.

Combine the sour cream, sugar and vanilla. Place a dollop on top of each cheesecake and garnish with cinnamon.

Enjoy, and take a bite!

Chocolate + Caramel

Most of the time, my idea for a dessert or treat that I want to make starts out as something and ends up as something pretty different--probably having the same basic idea but not using what I intended to use or not the form I was thinking of...for example, these cho

colate sandwich cookies filled with homemade dulce de leche. I wanted to make something chocolately made with caramel bits. I got my something chocolately, but missed the boat on using these. Oh well, that just means more baking later :)

Chocolate Drops

4 squares unsweetened chocolate

3/4 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

Melt the unsweetened chocolate, either over a double boiler or in the microwave in 30 second increments. Set aside to cool. Meanwhile, beat the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until incorporated. Stir in the flour, making sure not to over mix.

Fold in the melted and cooled chocolate until just combined. Drop by heaping teaspoons onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Place cookies on cooling racks and allow to cool completely

Dulce de Leche

(recipe created/adapted from multiple recipes/tips I read online)

1 quart whole milk

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda dissolved in 1 tbsp water

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

In a large, heavy pot mix the milk and sugar. Place on medium high heat, stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved and mixture reaches a slight boil.

Remove from heat and add baking soda mixture. Beware that it will bubble up, just keep stirring. Once it goes back to the original volume, place back on burner on low to low/medium heat until it reaches a brisk simmer. Let it be for an hour-ish (aka no stirring needed), until it becomes golden brown.

Cook about 20-30 minutes until it is close to a spreadable consistency. (It will thicken up after it cools though, keep that in mind!) Once it is done cooking, place in a small bowl and refrigerate to speed the cooling.

Once the cookies and dulce de leche are ready, it's assembly time! Put about a teaspoon of dulce de leche on the bottom side of one cookie and top with another cookie.

Smush (yes, that's a technical term!) together until a little oozes out the side. Adjust the amount of dulce de leche you put in the middle if needed.

Enjoy, and take a bite!

Love: cupcakes and weddings

chocolate raspberry, vanilla, and pumpkin cupcakes

Alright, so I'm a little behind (like about a month) and I can't believe I completely forgot to post about a wedding I was honored to be a part of! It was my friends Samantha and Shane's wedding, and it was absolutely beautiful! It was a fall themed wedding, so a fall-flavored cupcake was a must! We finally decided on vanilla cupcakes, chocolate raspberry cupcakes, and pumpkin cupcakes with maple buttercream. Also, I made an 8inch red velvet cake as their cutting cake. Soooo after 5 batches of vanilla cupcakes, 5 batches of chocolate cupcakes, 1 batch of raspberry filling, 4 batches of pumpkin cupcakes, 15-ish (I lost count...) batches of swiss meringue buttercream, one red velvet cake, a few many hours, plus all the bridesmaid duties I successfully made and frosted over 350 cupcakes! Luckily, I had a pretty great assistant for some of the filling and frosting! Thanks Tracy :) I secretly think she just didn't want to help decorate the reception...haha...oh well, I'll take it!

The beautiful bride and me!

my wonderful assistant (and the maid of honor) Tracy and me

I'm sharing the pumpkin cupcake recipe, which would be a great treat during these crisp fall days, or as a nice change in pace for a Thanksgiving dessert. It is moist like a pumpkin cupcake should be, with a little extra spice, and finished perfectly with the smooth, creamy, and sweet maple buttercream. It was a bit of a challenge to make these cupcakes, as I realized a month before the wedding that there was a national pumpkin shortage. Hmmm...luckily I have a pretty awesome grandma, who scoured her town to find me some....and bought me about twice as many cans as asked for...so needless to say, I'm stocked for awhile! But no worries, I've heard that the shelves are once again stocked with pumpkin!

vanilla cupcakes decorated with sunflowers

red velvet cutting cake

cake table

Pumpkin Cupcakes (adapted from this recipe by David Leite)
Make 2 dozen


4 oz (1 stick) butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg (I use fresh ground)
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup pumpkin


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line pans with cupcake liners.
Beat the butter, brown sugar, and sugar on medium speed for 3-5 minutes until fluffy. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, salt and black pepper. Add the eggs, one at a time, to the mixer. Add the vanilla to the buttermilk and alternately add the flour mixture and milk mixture, starting and ending with the flour. Add the pumpkin and mix until just incorporated. Fill the cupcake liners about 3/4 full, they will not rise very much. Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.


Maple Swiss Meringue Buttercream
4 egg whites
1 cup sugar
3 sticks plus 2 Tbsp butter, softened
1/4 cup pure maple syrup (quality is key!)


See this post for instructions, adding the maple syrup instead of the vanilla.


Once cupcakes are cooled, frost with the buttercream and garnish with a sprinkle of cinnamon.


Enjoy, and take a bite!

Monster Cookie Bars

A while ago when I was talking to my grandma on the phone, she mentioned that she had made these Monster Cookie bars and that they were super easy and really good. I always trust my grandmas judgement :) So 0f course I was intrigued and told her I wanted the recipe. So along came the recipe and a giant jar of Skippy peanut butter--I guess she thought I would want to make a lot :) Well I finally got around to making them and packaged some up to send to a friend and took the rest to Kansas City last weekend for tailgating at the ISU game! I got them packaged up so quick that I forgot to take a picture of the finished product...oops! They were quite delicious though, I knew my grandma wouldn't lead me astray! Just like monster cookies--moist, chocolately, and chewy--but with a little less work!

Monster Cookie Bars

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter

3 eggs

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

4 1/2 cups old fashioned oats

1 cup M&M's

1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 12x17 inch jelly roll pan. Combine butter, sugar, brown sugar, and peanut butter and mix until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well between each addition. Mix in the baking soda and salt. Add the oats and mix well. Stir in the M&M's and chocolate chips by hand. Place dough in prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.

Enjoy, and take a bite!

You can't go wrong...

...with a good solid chocolate chip cookie recipe. And an award winning one at that! I recently entered these cookies in the Minnesota State Fair and won third place! I was excited to win with just one of my entries, after seeing the dedication some people put into the baking contests! Haha! I'm totally willing to share my recipe so everyone can enjoy...and if you're lucky enough I might even bake some and bring them to you, like I did for my friends in Ames the weekend before last :)

This recipe is definitely one of my favorites, adapted from an America's Test Kitchen recipe for Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip cookies. We used to make it all the time when I worked in the kitchen at Riverside Bible Camp. This cookie and a glass of milk is just about perfect!
I love having a variation of mix-ins (as you might recall from this post), so while I always stick with the basic chocolate chips, I've also made them with Heath toffee pieces too! (that's what the pictures of forming the cookies are from)

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes a bunch :) probably around 2 dozen if made bigger, 4 dozen if smaller

12 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 cups plus 2 tbsp flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2- 2 cups chocolate chips (or other chip)

Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Make sure and melt your butter right away so it has time to cool. Mix flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg and set aside. Beat the butter and sugars together on medium speed for 1-2 minutes. Add egg, egg yolk and vanilla until combined, about 30 seconds. Slowly add flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips.

To form cookies, first roll dough in a ball. Next pull the ball in half(as in picture below).

Then smash halves back together with pulled away sides facing upwards.

With this technique, you'll end up with "rugged" tops on the cookies. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Cool on cookie sheets for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Enjoy, and take a bite!

Snickerdoodle....Cupcakes!

Nothing is better than a warm, spicy snickerdoodle cookies....except maybe that in Cupcake form! I had to make treats for a winner of a fun contest at work and make treats for a sorority alumnae function. I found this recipe from Martha Stewart's website and tweaked it a little. I think adding the almond extract made the flavor a little more nutty. And, it was just the right amount of cinnamon to add a little something, and everybody seemed to love them!

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

makes 24(ish) cupcakes

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups cake flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp cinnamon

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened

1 3/4 cup sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

1 1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and prepare your muffin tins by using liners or spraying with cooking spray.

Sift first five ingredients together in a medium bowl. In your mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add 4 eggs, one at a time scraping down the bowl often. Add the extracts and mix until incorporated. Add the flour and milk alternately, beating well after each addition.

Fill liners 2/3 to 3/4 full. Bake for 18-20 minutes until golden brown.

After cooled, frost with desired frosting. I used SMBC with a hint of cinnamon added in.

Enjoy, and take a bite!

These cupcakes are the only pictures I got of this recipe--decorated for my sorority's alumnae function with our symbols--a kite and a pansy!