Cookie Dough Cupcakes & My First Homemade Frosting

Just an FYI- Sorry I haven't been around, I have been sick and on antibiotics for the past 2 weeks and finally feel like a person again, enough to bake. I barely even cooked dinner, we ate a LOT of take out this month. 


This recipe was found by my darling husband, KC @ howtoeatacupcake.net . It was one of the few requests he has ever made for me to bake so yesterday we baked. I finally feel like myself again, and it turned out GOOD!


Chocolate Cupcakes (from MarthaStewart.com)
Makes 12
Ingredients
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole milk

1 package pre-made cookie dough 

Directions 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a standard 12-cup muffin pan, or use paper liners. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
With an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition; add vanilla, and mix until combined. On low speed, beat in half the flour mixture, followed by milk; end with remaining flour mixture. Mix just until incorporated.


This made a really nice batter, one I am going to hold onto for future chocolate cupcake needs. 

Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter. Place a ball of frozen cookie dough on top of each cup (do not push it in). 

Don't over fill them, like me. I have this problem with over filling cupcakes...I just need to buy another cupcake pan I like and use the darn thing.


Bake until a toothpick inserted near the center of a cupcake (but not in the cookie dough) comes out clean, 22 to 24 minutes. Cool cupcakes in pan, 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

 They didn't turn out like the picture because of the over fill BUT they were a really cool idea and so I am just gonna have to *twist twist* make them again and fix it. :)

Now for the frosting. I have never made my own before. I have made glazes and creams but for some reason, never frosting. But for my hubby I made some.....and now I'm hooked.

Ingredients:

Makes 1 dozen cupcakes worth.
1 stick unslated butter, softened
4-6 cups Confec sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tspn vanilla

Directions:
Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of the sugar and then the milk and vanilla. On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar. 

It came together after 4 cups. And it was YUMMY! KC LOVED it.

So then it was time to play with piping the frosting. I have done it before so it was more what I wanted to do with it, and as you will see I did a few things just to try 'em out.

Kc even frosted a few pretty well for the first time ever frosting. So of course this was dessert last night and I had to take a picture of the inside too.....

Next time the cookie will be all throughout, I promise. And there will be a next time I assure you.

Oh and the leftover break-n-bake cookies...too easy to leave 'em just chocolate ship for me.....

They were yummy for a pre-made/doctored up cookie.

And now if i can only break the addiction to my Kindle and the ease with witch you can get ebooks, I'd be baking and blogging more.

Lemon Cutout Cupcakes

So this recipe was inspired by our friend, Sandy who said he likes Lemon & tart things. I went to one of my favorite sites for ideas and found this one.... Pink Lemon Cupcakes and changed it up to work for me. 


Ingredients:
2 sticks butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
2-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 Tablespoons lemon zest
2 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- You will need confectioner’s sugar for dusting, later in the assembly

Preheat to 325.


In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda and salt.


In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar til light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one by one, beating after each one. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk. Now mix in the lemon juice and lemon zest.

Fill the cupcake liners TO THE TOP.  I think I may have even overflowed mine a bit too much. The recipe said it would make 20 and  got 16. 

Bake for 20 minutes, test with a toothpick, and cool on a wire rack.

Now with the cupcakes cooled, take a serrated knife and gently cut off the fluffy tops, right at the paper. Using a small heart, or any tiny shaped cookie cutter, cut out the center of the tops.  Dust the tops with confectioner’s sugar. I used a few kinds  of cutters to see what worked for me, some came out good, some not so much. If i hadn't overflowed the cups I think they would have been a bit flatter and easier to cookie cutter....live and learn. 

See how tall they are? 

I did purple because I have a collection growing of gel food colors. There was a lot of leftover pieces that KC, husband and taste tester extraordinaire, happily wanted to sample. I decided to be silly and cut him some pac-mans...he is a geek at heart after all.

So all in all these were very tasty, very moist cupcakes. I would make them again for sure, the rela lemon juice and zest really made them. Try 'em if you like lemon!!! 

Still Alive.....Cue Portal Song Here.

Sorry that song has been in my head lately, ever since I added it to a random playlist on my ipod shuffle. Anyway, thats neither here nor there!

I have been busy as of late with some early summer cleaning and reconnecting with friends since we have much more time on our hands these days (Hubby only works 3 days a week and I am currently "between jobs"). So that basically means not much creative cooking or baking going on.

I do have some ideas in the works tho...some lemony ideas. More on that in the near future, I hope.

I also got some business cards and postcards printed up!!!! So I am looking fwd to spreading the word about my yummies.

So stick around, there's sure to be something tasty in the mix soon.

Disney Vinylmation Trading Event!!!

I am so thrilled to say that the meet we had been planning for a few months was today and it went GREAT!

We had a much better turn out than we expected. I really didn't know if anyone was going to come down but we had  11 of us altogether. We had a fun time trading our Vinylmations and chit chatting about Disney. It's always great to find other Disney Geeks like me.

Of course I baked, because who doesn't like baked goods?! :)

And of course I shouted out the blog. ;)

We all took out our little armies of Vinyls and traded away.

I for one had a great time with everyone. We def plan to do it again, and probably add some pin trading into the mix as well.

Thank you so much for coming out everyone and a special thanks to Keith (http://www.mametchi.com/), I hope we didn't embarrass you too much with all our praise of your art!

The group!

Chicken & Biscuits AND Oatmeal Crisps

So I have been backlogged with the stuff I have been baking and cooking for posting, so much so that I never took any pictures of the most recent things I made BUT they both turned out so good I want to share the recipes anyway!!!

Chicken & Biscuits


Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup whole-wheat flour, spooned and leveled

• 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• Coarse salt and ground pepper

• 1 large egg white

• 3 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons vegetable oil

• 1 cup low-fat (1 percent) milk

• 5 carrots, thinly sliced

• 5 celery stalks, thinly sliced

• 1 box (10 ounces) frozen pearl onions, thawed

• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

• 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together whole-wheat flour, 1/3 cup all-purpose flour, baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon salt; set aside.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together egg white, 3 tablespoons oil, and 1/4 cup milk; add to flour mixture, and stir until moistened. Drop four 1/4-cup scoops of dough onto a baking sheet, at least 2 inches apart. Bake until golden, 12 to 14 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in a 5-quart Dutch oven or large heavy pot, heat remaining 2 teaspoons oil over medium-high. Add carrots, celery, and onions; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until vegetables are tender, 7 to 10 minutes.
4. Sprinkle vegetables with remaining 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour; stir in remaining 3/4 cup milk, 1/2 cup water, and thyme. Simmer until liquid is thickened, stirring occasionally, 2 to 3 minutes. Add chicken; simmer until cooked through, 3 to 5 minutes. Serve chicken stew with biscuits.

Things I changed or added......

I sprinkled the chicken with poultry seasoning before cooking. 

I added a couple of spoons of already chopped garlic to the veggies.

I used a jar or small onions because the supermarket was out of frozen pearls.

I think this came our really good, very tasty and filling. We did eat 2 biscuits each tho so the next day we had the leftovers for lunch and I made more biscuits. 

I plan to make the biscuit recipe a staple- it was so easy and so easy to flavor up and change it. KC like the 2nd batch of biscuits better because I used all white flour (he isn't that into whole wheat) but they were both yummy. 

Dessert was Oatmeal Crisps

• 4 tablespoons softened unsalted butter

• 3 tablespoons sugar

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 2/3 cup rolled oats

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees; line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, mix butter, sugar, flour, vanilla extract, and salt until smooth; mix in rolled oats.
2. Drop firmly packed teaspoons of dough, 2 inches apart, onto baking sheets. Bake until golden, rotating sheets halfway through, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on sheet 1 minute;  transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

These were really good! Maybe a bit salty. I ended up adding too much sugar so I doubled the recipe right off the bat, and it barely made any, so it was a good mess up. 

I couldn't get over how simple this was and thats why I wanted to try it. That and the fact that it didn't have tons of sugar in it. I plan to enjoy them again this evening for dessert with a nice cappuccino. :) 

Fruity Coconut Coffee Cake & Pumpkin Pancakes

I have been less than enthused with the computer these days, and sitting down to do anything on it.  My 6 week engagement as a Census employee has ended and so I have more time on my hands, hopefully to bake better than I have been because all the mistakes and mess ups are killing me!

These are last weeks baking/cooking endeavors.

Fruity Coconut Coffee Cake


I searched this recipe out online because I threw away the copy I had once I was done because it was not my finest hour and in the end wasn't something I'd make again. It was tasty and we ate it for a week (with a small after modification) but it's not a keeper.

Cake:
	Crisco® Original No-Stick Cooking Spray
	2 cups Pillsbury BEST® All Purpose Flour
	1 teaspoon baking powder
	1/2 teaspoon baking soda
	1/4 teaspoon salt
	1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
	1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
	1-1/4 cups granulated sugar
	2 large eggs
	1/4 cup PET® Evaporated Milk
	1 teaspoon vanilla
	1 (12 ounce) jar Smucker's® Peach Preserves, Pineapple or Apricot Preserves (1 cup)
Topping:
	2/3 cup granulated sugar
	2/3 cup PET® Evaporated Milk
	1/4 cup butter or margarine
	1 large egg
	1-1/4 cups sweetened flaked coconut
	2/3 cup chopped pecans
	1 teaspoon vanilla extract Cake: PREHEAT oven to 350° F. Spray two 8-inch cake pans with the no-stick spray. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl; set aside. Combine cream cheese, butter and sugar in the mixer bowl. Attach mixer bowl and flat beater. Turn to Speed 4 beating until the mixture is light and flugffy. Stop and scrape the bowl. Turn to Stir Speed; add eggs one at a time. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add 1/4 cup evaporated milk and vanilla to bowl. Turn to Stir Speed; gradually add dry ingredients to bowl. Stop and scrape bowl. Turn to Speed 4 and blend just until moistened. Evenly divide and spread 1/2 of the batter into the two prepared cake pans. Evenly divide the preserves between the two pans. Evenly divide and spread the remaining batter over the preserves in the pans. Bake 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. **After reading this version of the recipe I would have liked it better than just spreading the preserves on top, as the version I had said to do. Live & Learn.  They baked up kinda weird because the preserves were on top not in the center. I should have realized this was not cool but it was a bit too late then. I also had one other major screw up...before putting the 2 cakes in the oven i turned around to pick something up and realized that i never added the evaporated milk! The batter seemed fine, but only time would tell on that one.  Topping: COMBINE sugar, 2/3 cup of evaporated milk, butter and egg in a 2 quart saucepan over medium heat. Stir until mixture thickens and begins to bubble. Remove from heat. Stir in coconut, pecans and vanilla. Spread over cakes, dividing mixture evenly. Broil 4 inches from the heat for 1-2 minutes or until golden brown. I also used the broiler on my oven for the first time. I kid you not! Our oven is small and crappy so I never bothered. When we opened it to try it out (Hubby helped) we found some old cookie sheets and a second muffin pan! Score!  So the final verdict: it was good. I ended up buying another jar or preserves and spooned a bit over top of each piece so we'd get the flavor that was intended and it helped a lot. The leftover evaporated milk made no difference at all, the cake was moist enough.  Edible for sure, but won't be made by me again. I think I may need to give up on coffee cakes in general as they seem to not like me much.  The same night I made these for dinner: Pumpkin Pancakes  I was planning on making a batch from scratch but decided I should use the Bisquick in the cabinet so..... Ingredients: 2 cups Bisquick 1/2 cup packed brwn sugar 1 egg 1 tspn cinnamon 1/2 tspn giner 1/4 tspn nutmeg 1/4 tspn salt 1 cup pumpkin 1 cup of milk *Extra milk to thin if needed.  Mix together until blended and cook up in a frying pan with cooking spray or butter.  I added a bit of extra milk in mine to thin it out some. They came out really yummy!  I used the rest of the yummy maple syrup leftover from my Maple Bacon Cupcakes from last month. Very tasty stuff! KC agreed they were really good. We had enough for us both to have dinner, he had them for lunch the next day and breakfast the day after that!!