National Peanut Butter Day

Yesterday was National Peanut Butter day.. How about a Reese's Cupcake to celebrate?

My Elvis Cupcakes

My triad of Joy

(don't you love the way the wrapper ended up in a heart shape, it's a sign that I should eat more)

I love bananas, peanut butter, and chocolate. Who doesn't. I feel so very sad for people who are allergic to peanuts; not because of the peanuts but they can't have peanut butter. What a sad thing to not be allowed to have! My biggest treat is a grilled peanut butter banana sandwich. I have on a REAL occasion added chocolate but I have to be a super good girl for that one. I had some bananas that were too ugly to be eaten independently so this is what I came up with.

Elvis' Cupcake (if I had the chance to feed him, this would be it)

2 cups flour

3/4 cups sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sour cream

3 small ripe bananas, mashed

1 tsp vanilla extract

13 Hershey's Kisses

Peanut Butter Frosting (WARNING: this is super sweet!)

1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

3-4 Tbsp milk

Mix sour cream, bananas, and vanilla until combined. Combine all dry ingredients and add to wet ingredients mixing until just combined.

Spoon 1 Tbsp of batter into lined muffin tins or about 1/2 full.

Add the Kisses upside down into each cupcake

Top the kiss with additional batter until just covered.

Bake at 350 for 20-22 min.

Cool 10 min in pan before removing.

For the frosting mix all ingredients until spreading consistency. Add more milk if you need it to be thinner.

Frost the cupcakes and add chocolate chips if you want to take it up a notch.

The last kiss is for the cook of course!

Happy 8th Birthday Lexi!

Cookie Monster Cuppies!

These were Lexi's cupcakes for her 8th birthday celebration at school. These were super fun to make and were delicious too.

Coffee Break Quickie

Coffee Break Quickie

I will say that coffee has to be my favorite thing, well I have several favorites, but anyone who has spent more than, oh about, 20 minutes with me knows that Coffee, Diet Dr. Pepper, and Chocolate are my loves. I have battled with my weight for almost a decade and suffered through Steroid use which saved my life but sure did make it difficult to maintain any type of weight loss. I guess where I was going with this is that I have an enormous sweet tooth and can't indulge in all these wonderful goodies. So... I have a team ... my family ...  and then my nose. 

So, these babies were a good combo. The Coffee and Cinnamon really complimented each other and the baking soda and buttermilk gave a rich, light crumb. They smelled wonderful. The strudel topping was really the best part. Simple and tasty. I named them "Quickies" because they don't have icing and are portable, and of course, hello... Gotta have a play on words from time to time.

I didn't have much time to take pictures today... sorry... I wished I did. But here is my: 

February Iron Cupcake Challenge : Earth 

Coffee Break Quickie

2 C All Purpose Flour

1/2 C sugar

1 Tbsp instant Espresso Powder

1.5 Tbsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 C light brown sugar

1 C buttermilk

1 stick (8 Tbsp) butter, melted and cooled

1 Lg Egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400. Line 12 Regular tins with paper liners or spray with Pam.

In large bowl, combine first 6 ingredients. Stir in brown sugar, making sure you don't have any lumps. 

In seperate bowl, whisk buttermilk, melted butter, egg, and vanilla together until well combined. 

Pour liquid ingredients into dry ingredients and with a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don't mix too much; a few lumps are better than over mixing. Divide evenly among tins. 

Bake 20 min ( or until toothpicked center is clean ) When you have about 3-5 min left, top with cinnamon, sugar, and room temperature butter mixture. ( For this I just winged it and when it looked good I topped the cuppies)  Cool in tin 5 min and then transfer to rack to cool completely. 

Valentine Cuppie Earrings

Happy Valentine's Day (early)

Just wanted a pic of the adorable cupcake earrings I made for Valentine's Day. Lexi has requested holiday cupcake earrings or necklaces for her dance teacher and these were the ones I made this holiday. They are super cute and I didn't forget myself this time so this is a pic of mine. Pretty damn cute huh!

Girl Gourmet

Girl Gourmet

I don't know how many of you have seen this lovely contraption at the store but it is so cool. The Girl Gourmet Cupcake Maker is awesome. I don't know what goes into this mix that makes it so you just add water and then microwave for 30 sec and wa-la! RED VELVET CUPPIES! They taste ok but for girls who are aspiring to be cooks it rocks. Here is my baby making her brother a cupcake for dessert. She did an awesome job. And for those of you who have a touch of OCD too it cleans up easily.

6 More Long Weeks

Damn Shadows!

So I guess the big guy saw his shadow this morning... and I was doing my best to root him and summer on but we failed this year. Guess I will just bundle up for a little longer. Can't wait for spring this year. So here are the cuppies we made for today. Pretty darn cute huh. I didn't make the teeth as neat as I wanted but I couldn't find the supplies I wanted at the store and there was no way I was going to hit the Hell Superstore on Superbowl Sunday, so I just made do. I think they are pretty cute anyways. 

Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread Cupcakes

Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread Cupcakes

This week the recipe of choice was Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread picked by Sherry Trifle. The recipe can be found at her link here. 

I was excited to make this one because I have never made gingerbread cake from scratch. I have made it from a box and made gingerbread cookies with Elmer's Glue for ornaments but this was my first shot at the real deal. I was pleasantly surprised that this was a very easy recipe to make. I choose to make cupcakes because my family has pretty much stopped eating my desserts and Chris was finishing up a class and cupcakes are of course the easiest way to transport sweets. 

They smelled wonderfully delicious baking and kept the house smelling great for a couple of hours after taking them out of the oven. I omitted the fresh ginger because I didn't have it but I did use candied ginger and it worked out great. 

The pictures aren't what I wanted, sorry, things have been crazy busy around here so I didn't get the time I wanted. I will work on it for next week! Next week is world peace cookies. I have been wanting to bake cookies so this will be nice....plus I could use just some "local" peace if I could catch a break ha ha! 

Lemon Pound Cupcake with Peach Sabayon

Lemon Pound Cake with Peach Sabayon

My second submission for Iron Cupcake Wine Challenge is a Lemon Pound Cupcake with Peach Sabayon. I was first introduced to Sabayon at the MGM Grand Buffet in Vegas... and Oh My Gosh... I fell in love. I thought that would be a great base for this Challenge. The cupcake is from Cooking Light and has the typical dense pound cake consistency. My husband requested the Lemon flavor, which surprised me, and he ended up saying he didn't like it but I thought it tasted how a typical lemon pound cake does. The Sabayon I made with Splenda and was nervous it wouldn't turn out but it did and it is wonderful. I also made it with Peach Champagne for an extra layer of flavor. It was really good. Almost MGM quality. ha ha! 

Here are the wonderful prizes I am competing for this month.  

DOGBONE ART - here

LOTS OF SPRINKLES at etsy

CAKESPY at etsy

SWEET CUPPIN CAKES BAKERY AND CUPCAKERY SUPPLY here

and our corporate prize providers here:

HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS here

HELLO CUPCAKE here

JESSIE STEELE APRONS here

CUPCAKE COURIER here

TASTE OF HOME BOOKS here

UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM here

1-800-FLOWERS here

Voting begins Thursday Jan 29th at 8 pm at No One Puts Cupcake in a Corner. Please take time to vote before Feb 4th at 12pm. Check out the Iron Cupcake Earth site to join or enjoy. Thank you all for your votes.

Lemon Pound Cupcakes

12 cupcake liners

• 2  teaspoons  all-purpose flour
• 1  cup  all-purpose flour
• 1/4  teaspoon  baking powder
• 2/3  cup  sugar
• 1/3  cup  butter, softened
• 2  large egg whites
• 1  large egg
• 1  teaspoon  grated lemon rind
• 1  teaspoon  lemon extract
• 1/4  cup  vanilla low-fat yogurt

Preheat oven to 350°.

Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners.

Lightly spoon 1 cup flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine 1 cup flour and baking powder, stirring with a whisk; set aside.

Place sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until fluffy (about 2 minutes). Add egg whites and egg, beating well after each addition. Beat in rind and extract. Add flour mixture and 1/4 cup yogurt alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix well after each addition. Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake at 350° for 18 - 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 minutes on wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

Adapted from www.myrecipes.com

Peach Sabayon Sauce

6 egg yolks

• 1 cup Peach Champagne
• 1/3 cup sugar, plus more to taste ( I used Splenda)
• Drops of freshly squeezed lemon juice (optional)

Whipping the sabayon:
If you want to serve the sabayon warm, make it at the last minute. If you want to glaze the sabayon under the broiler, or make it ahead of time to serve chilled, have ready a large bowl (larger than the one in which you whip the sauce) partly filled with ice cubes.

Whisk to blend the yolks, Champagne, and sugar in the stainless-steel bowl. Rest the bowl in the saucepan over hot water. Whisk constantly for 4 to 5 minutes or more to cook the sauce, until it has the consistency of lightly whipped cream. Clear the bottom of the bowl constantly with the whisk so that the eggs do not scramble, and adjust the heat as needed. Taste the sauce — the sabayon should never get so hot that you can't stick your very clean finger in it — and whisk drops of lemon juice or more sugar if you want. When thick, foamy, and tripled in volume, remove from heat. It can be served hot as is, tepid, or cool.

Serving:
Spoon a portion of grilled peaches — 1/2 cup or more — into each goblet or glass, and top with 1/3 to 1/2 cup of warm or cool sabayon. Or put the sauce in the glass first, then the peaches.

Variation: 
Cool the sabayon to room temperature. Whip the cream and sugar until soft peaks form, and fold the cream into the sabayon with a rubber spatula.

Turn on the broiler. Spread the peaches in the baking dish in one layer (or in individual dishes). Spoon the sauce over the peaches so they are completely covered and set the dish under the broiler, 5 to 6 inches from the heat. With the door open — so you can watch carefully — broil for a minute or two, turning the dish as needed to glaze evenly, until the top of the sabayon is nicely browned and slightly crusted. Serve right away.

Adapted from www.epicurious.com

Chocolate Cabernet Delight

Chocolate Cabernet Delight

The secret ingredient for this months Iron Cupcake: Earth Challenge was wine. I must admit; I don't care for regular wine. I am one of those fruity girly drinks type. I like Bellini's but that is for my other submission.  

The first thing that came to mind for me was chocolate and red wine. I decided to not go too crazy and stuck with an old fashioned chocolate cupcake from good old Martha and dolled it up with the frosting and topping. I did a Cabernet infused buttercream and topped it with a dark chocolate brownie heart. 

I must say that everyone agreed the icing was amazing and even my son loved it. And the brownie of course gave it the little extra it needed. I made the brownies thin so they would be stiff enough to stand on the top of the cupcake without folding over. The cupcake received "OK" reviews but I didn't wow it up either. The other components were a hit.

I really liked photoing this one. It is fun to get into it and explore different techniques. I had my trusty photo assistant (whining) at my side but he did it for a cupcake bribe so when all was said and done he got to eat the big one. Payment enough! 

Here are the wonderful prizes I am competing for this month.  

DOGBONE ART - here

LOTS OF SPRINKLES at etsy

CAKESPY at etsy

SWEET CUPPIN CAKES BAKERY AND CUPCAKERY SUPPLY here

and our corporate prize providers here:

HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS here

HELLO CUPCAKE here

JESSIE STEELE APRONS here

CUPCAKE COURIER here

TASTE OF HOME BOOKS here

UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM here

1-800-FLOWERS here

Voting begins Thursday Jan 29th at 8 pm at No One Puts Cupcake in a Corner. Please take time to vote before Feb 4th at 12pm. Check out the Iron Cupcake Earth site to join or enjoy. Thank you all for your votes. 

Chocolate Cupcakes (12)

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

3 lg eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350. Line tin with 12 paper liners. 

In med bowl, sift together cocoa, flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. 

In mixer cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Add vanilla. Turn mixer to low and add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the sour cream. Begin and end with flour. 

Fill each cup 3/4 full.

Bake 20 min or until done. 

Cool 5 min in tin and then to rack to cool completely. 

Adapted from www.marthastewart.com

Cabernet Icing

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

3 to 4 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup Cabernet Sauvignon

Place butter in mixer, Add 2 cups powdered sugar, milk, and Cabernet. Beat on medium until smooth, about 3-5 min. Add additional cup of powdered sugar slowly and continue to mix until creamy. Keep adding sugar until icing is to the consistency you need. Add food coloring if desired. Keep remaining in fridge for couple of days.

Dark Chocolate Brownies

Betty Crocker Fudge Brownie Pack..follow directions on back of pouch. I used a 9 x 12 pan instead of the instructed 8 x 8 to get them thinner. Add additional dark chocolate chunks if desired. (ya, I cheated on this one but Betty makes an easy mean brownie!)