Cookies 'n Cream Cupcakes

I just realized that I've posted a lot of 'sweets' lately. Sorry about that. This has been a busy month for me, which happened to involve a lot of baking. I would like to mention that my waistline has suffered tremendously this month so I am looking forward to trying out new grilled and lower fat savory recipes :) I mean, seriously, the other day I had a cupcake and honey mustard pretzels for lunch. Not good.

Ok, back to these new cupcakes. They are soooooooooo good. I made them as per requested by my oldest son for his birthday. He was actually the one that first saw this recipe on Tasty Kitchen a while back (my son wants to be a chef when he grows up so he loves looking at recipes-with pictures-just as much as I do). He insisted that I make them for his party. And now, I am insisting that YOU make these cupcakes soon. Oreos in vanilla cupcakes, 'nuff said.

Cookies 'n Cream Cupcakes --makes 24 cupcakes
(recipe adapted from Lauren's Latest on Tasty Kitchen)

For the cupcakes:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour *
1 1/2 cups crushed Oreos

For the frosting:**

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1 pound confectioners' sugar
5 T milk
1/2 cup finely ground Oreos
24 mini Oreos for garnish


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pans with 24 paper liners.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs, one at a time and then add the vanilla. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again until thoroughly combined.

Gradually add the flour and milk, alternately, until all the ingredients have been added. Scrape down the sides of the bowl again. Mix once more and then fold in the crushed Oreos.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the middle comes out clean (try not to over bake them so they stay moist!)

To make the frosting:

Cream together the butter and vanilla until smooth. Stir in the confectioners' sugar and then add the milk. Mix for 1-2 minutes until light and fluffy. Stir in the ground Oreos. Frost cupcakes and then enjoy!

* To make your own self-rising flour: for each cup of all-purpose flour, add 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt, mix well.

** If piping frosting onto the cupcakes, I recommend doubling the recipe.

Happy Birthday Billy



Billy, 1 year old







Billy, 1 year old, again

 


Billy, 3 years old (Emily, 1 year old)

  



Billy, 5 years old



Billy, turning 7 years old



Billy, 9 years old......



There's that smile I love :)



Today is my oldest son's birthday. Billy was born April 26, 2002..... 9 years ago. I seriously cannot believe that. Nine years? Wasn't he the wild, tantrum throwing, yet very cuddly and super sweet two year old, that used to call me honey, just yesterday??

Happy birthday, Billy.  I love you so very much and I hope you have a super fun birthday. And please, do me a favor.....stop growing up so fast!



Chocolate Chip Pound Cake

It was my husband's birthday recently so, just like every year, he asked me to make his favorite cake. I've been making this same cake for him since he and I were just dating. Actually, my mom was the first to make it for him, for his 19th birthday (which was soooo long ago, I might add...haha!). He loves it and I don't blame him because the cake is really good. It's definitely one of my all-time favorites.

Chocolate Chip Pound Cake

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup unsalted butter or margarine, room temperature

4 eggs

1 T vanilla

3/4 cup milk

2 cups mini chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Generously spray a 10 inch bundt cake pan with baking spray.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla and mix again.

Add half of the flour mixture, mix, and then add half of the milk and mix again. Repeat with the remaining flour, followed by the remaining milk, mixing well after each.

Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour the batter into the prepared bundt cake pan.

Bake for about 70-80 minutes, until golden brown on top and when a cake tester is inserted in the middle, comes out clean. Let cool for about a half hour in the pan and then invert cake onto a wire rack and let cool completely before serving. Enjoy!

Easter Egg Basket Cupcakes

These super easy and fun Easter Egg Basket Cupcakes are a great addition to your Easter menu, especially for the kids.

Bake your favorite vanilla or strawberry cupcakes, then frost them with your favorite white or vanilla frosting only around the edge. Fill the centers with sweetened flaked coconut colored with green food coloring (or whatever color you choose). Then add your "eggs" on top of the coconut using jellybeans, Cadbury mini eggs, M&M's, etc. 

To finish the "basket", cut a pipe cleaner in half and form it into a arch. Gently stick into the cupcake. Add a pretty bow to make it look extra cute. Enjoy!

From  our family to yours, we wish you a very happy and blessed Easter!

Easter Bunny Bows

Happy Easter!

For most of you that know me (well), you know that I am NOT a crafty person. In fact, I would categorize myself as one of the least crafty people in the entire world. God gave me the gift of knowing how to cook and bake and that is IT.

So, for this Easter, I really, really wanted to do something crafty and fun, even possibly find a new hobby (one that doesn't require chocolate chips and butter--my waist line is suffering!). And folks, I think I did!
I was searching the web for cool Easter craft ideas (found thousands of great ones, but all were WAY out of my league) until I stumbled upon homemade hair bows. I was instantly in love with the idea and as I searched further, I found out just how easy it is to make your own! One of the ONLY craft tools I know how to use, fairly well, is a hot glue gun. When I found the blog Ten Cow Chick and saw how easy it was to make bows using simple tools like a hot glue gun, I knew I could do it!

And so I did and now I am hooked. I just want to make bows all the time. It's so much fun. I fear though that all the new recipes I want to try are going to be put on the back burner (no pun intended) for a while.
So here is the first bows I made, themed for Easter:

Aren't they super cute? My daughter LOVED them. I gave some to my 2 year old niece, Kayla as part of her Easter gift.

They were seriously quick and easy to make so I decided to make these butterfly bows as well, which I happen to love even more:

 SO stinkin' cute! I made them in a few different colors. The blue one is for my daughter, it matches her Easter dress.

Don't be surprised if you start seeing frequent hair bow posts from now on! I do have a fun Easter cupcake recipe to share as well so stay tuned :)

Individual Cheesecakes

Every spring my church hosts a special "ladies tea". It's always so much fun. We use fine china, eat lots and lots of great food, fellowship with wonderful women and drink lots of tea, of course.

This is one of my favorite events to cook/bake for because it gives me the chance to be a little creative and fancy. This year I decided to make individual cheesecakes and they were sooo good. Everyone loved them and they looked super cute.

Individual Cheesecakes
(adapted from JoyofBaking.com)

Makes 12 individual cheesecakes

For the crust:

1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 T granulated sugar
4 T unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:

2 - 8oz packages of cream cheese, at room temperature (use full fat, not reduced or fat-free)

2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sour cream (full fat)

Garnish (optional):

Fresh berries, strawberry, blueberry or raspberry sauce, and/or melted dark chocolate drizzled over the top.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Line a muffin pan with two paper liners in each cup (to hold the weight of the cheesecake).

For the crust: In a small bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter. Mix well.

Spoon 1 Tablespoon of the mixture into the bottom of each muffin cup, pressing the crumbs firmly (I used my 1 T cookie scoop so each cup had the same amount).

Cover and refrigerate while you make the filling.

For the filling:  In the bowl of an electric mixer (or hand mixer), beat the cream cheese on low speed until smooth. Add the sugar and mix well. Scrap down the sides of the bowl and add the eggs, mixing well after each. Then add the vanilla and sour cream and mix well.

Remove the muffin cups from the fridge and carefully divide the cheesecake mixture among each cup (I used my ice cream scoop so they would all be the same size).

Bake for about 18-22 minutes or until firm, but the centers of the cakes still wobble a little. The cakes may not look completely cooked, but they are. Remove and let cool on a wire rack (don't take the cakes out of pan).

Cover the cakes with nonstick foil, still in the pan, and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight. I HIGHLY recommend refrigerating overnight.

Carefully remove the cheesecakes from the pan, still in the paper liners. Garnish if desired and then store in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Enjoy!

"Make-Ahead Meal"--Baked Kielbasa and Cheese Pasta with Broccoli

For the last recipe in my "Make-Ahead Meal" series, I decided to re-create one my family's favorite meals using kielbasa instead of ham. This was a HUGE hit with everyone and I, personally, liked this version a lot better then with the ham. This made A LOT. We had a lot leftover (which was still good the next day) so I would say that this would easily feed 8 people.

 

Baked Kielbasa and Cheese Pasta with Broccoli

1- 13.25 oz pkg whole wheat rotini pasta, cooked al-dente

1 1/2 lbs turkey kielbasa, cut lengthwise and then sliced into half-moon slices

1- 12 oz pkg frozen broccoli, cooked

6 T unsalted butter

1 small onion, diced

1/3 cup flour (plus more, if needed)

3 1/2 cups 1% milk
1/2 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp ground mustard (or more if you want)
Kosher salt and black pepper to taste
6 oz 2% milk reduced fat shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup grated reduced fat parmesan cheese (plus more for sprinkling)


Cook pasta to package directions just to "al-dente", drain. Cook broccoli until done, whatever method is preferred by you (microwave or stove top), drain.

Melt butter in a 3 quart saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook 4-5 minutes.
Reduce heat to medium, add flour, mix well and cook for 1 minute to create roux stirring constantly. Gradually add milk to roux to form a thickened sauce (add more flour if needed to desired thickness), also add the parsley, mustard and salt/pepper, to taste, to roux (I started with a 1/4 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper and then added more if I desired). Remove from heat. Add cheddar cheese and parmesan to roux and mix well until all melted.

Add pasta, kielbasa and broccoli back to pot used to boil pasta in. Add the cheese mixture and stir gently until well combined. Pour pasta mixture into a 9x13 pan, sprayed with cooking spray. Sprinkle with more parmesan cheese on top.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use, up to 2 days. (Or bake immediately--adjust cooking time to only 20 minutes though)

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove plastic wrap and replace with nonstick foil (or foil sprayed with cooking spray to prevent sticking--a major pet peeve of mine!). Bake covered for about 40 minutes or until hot and bubbling. Enjoy!