Valentines…just a little late

Had a busy week, but wanted to post some Valentines treats we made this week for teachers…and Dad!  We made Pioneer Woman’s chocolate cookies used for a dipping bar.  We made ours into heart shapes and dipped in milk chocolate and sprinkled with hearts.  They turned out really yummy.  My son helped for a bit, but he couldn’t stop licking his fingers so I made him move on to making his cards.

And, for dad, I made his favorite heart-shaped cake that I make every Valentine’s Day.  It’s an awesome mascarpone cake with a strawberry glaze.  The original recipe is for mini-cupcakes but I prefer making it into a cake.  My friend, Carrie, first introduced me to this cake years back. It is so delicious and so moist.  The original recipe is from Giada De Laurentiis on Food Network.  I’ve attached the link to the recipe, so you can enjoy it also!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/mascarpone-mini-cupcakes-with-strawberry-glaze-recipe/index.html

Happy Valentine’s Day all over again!

 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Chocolate chip cookie dough and a cupcake in one.  I like it.  A lot.  These have been around for a while but I’m just now getting around to making them.  I was busy on the fondant scene for a while and I am also cutting out my cupcake business for a while to pursue another exciting adventure.  So, I made these for fun…and for a great friend’s birthday!  I wouldn’t have made these for just anyone, because they were a labor of love.  However, she’s definitely deserving of chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes.  And, she’s half way to 70 years old too.  C’mon…that deserves a cupcake.  And a dang good one.  (I am also halfway to 70, and I definitely deserve a cupcake…or two…but only sometimes when I’m feeling really naughty.)

This cupcake is a brown sugar based cupcake with chocolate chips in it…tastes like a really soft chocolate chip cookie.  And, then you make an eggless cookie dough to pop in the middle before frosting it.  The frosting is TDF (“To Die For”, Mom). 🙂  Tastes like, you guessed it, cookie dough!  I won’t go into how much butter is in this recipe, because that would be SOOOOO BORING.  And, who wants to know that anyway??

But look at how purdy they are. I forgot to get a pic with the dough on the inside, because everyone was snarfing them down pretty quickly.  Oops.  I got this awesome recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything.  I am pretty sure she and I would be great friends, because I eat everything as well.  Yes!

Here’s the link to her recipe:  http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2011/02/chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-cupcakes.html

So yummy!  Happy birthday, Little A!

 

Crust, Crust, Give me Crust!

I made a winter cobbler from the latest issue of Southern Living for New Year’s Eve.  I love a good crust.  Berry pies, chocolate pies, cobblers, and don’t get me started on chicken pot pies.  Just give it to me.  I love it.  I don’t make them that often.  They are not in my runner’s diet.  And, are not always the easiest thing to make with two kids around.  Things get in the way.  But, this was a special occasion and I wanted to try a lattice crust.  Out of all the pies, cobblers, etc., that I have made, I had never done a lattice.  This recipe called for frozen blackberries which were hard to find.  I used a frozen mixed berry bag with blueberries, blackberries and raspberries.  I used a fresh pint of blackberries and some more frozen blueberries.  I think I will try my twist on the crust next time. I love my grandmother’s crust.  This one was good, but it was missing a bit of the flakiness I love in a crust.  I did really love the layer of baked crust in between the two berry layers.  That made it extra “crusty”.  🙂

Here’s a link to the recipe:

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/winter-blackberry-cobbler-50400000118330/

And, here’s a photo of the cobbler.  Sure makes a purty one!

 

Who needs the donut shop?!

I received an awesome gift from my friend for Christmas.  I received the mini donut maker by Babycakes.  I also received a regular sized donut pan by Wilton.  Can’t wait to try that one out too.  Over the Christmas break, we got out the donut maker and made several different kinds using the sour cream donut recipe that came with the maker.  They turned out light and fluffy and were done in 4 minutes!  The kids were so excited about these.  I made a chocolate glaze for some, shook some up in a bag of powdered sugar and then sprinkled a cinnamon sugar mixture on others.  They all turned out really yummy.  The kids had their fair share and probably had belly aches the rest of the day.  But, I think they’d say it was worth it.  🙂

Here are our finished products.  Grab the milk!

New Year…new goodies

It’s been a while since I’ve been on to post.  I feel like the past month is all a blur, like most people feel during the holidays.  And, today me and my youngest are pretty puny, so we are just hanging low.  Unfortunately, it’s a beautiful 70 degree in Dallas today and all our friends are outside and we are stuck inside.  We may head out back in a bit, so as not to infect anyone!  So, for now, I will post goodies.  They make me happy.

I will start with Santa’s cookies.  I’m behind the times in posting these, but oh well.  I got a new camera for Christmas…soooo very excited.  No more iPhone blog photos. Well, maybe no more.

I used a new sugar cookie recipe from I Am Baker, and they are by far my favorite sugar cookie that I’ve tried.  I think I’m finally getting down the icing part of these little guys too.  That is just not my baking forte.  She had a great tutorial on her website.  Love her blog.

Wish I had one of these right now.

Everyone’s favorite red monster…

I made some Elmo cupcakes for our sweet little two year old friend, Layla, who loves Elmo.  These were so fun to make.  And to make them for her, even better!  She knew right away who it was when she saw the cupcakes, so that was a win in my book.

I made chocolate cupcakes with red “fur” frosting using a grass pastry tip.  I made the red buttercream a day ahead of time, because getting a good red is really hard sometimes.  It was close a salmon color when I stuck it in the fridge but by the time I set it out the next day to get to room temperature, it started getting more red.  And, when I got it in the bag to frost, and it heated up from my hands, it was just right…and without the bitter taste in the frosting that deeper colors can give you.  For once, I was patient and didn’t overdo the color and it came out perfect!  I made Elmo’s eyes and mouth out of fondant and his orange nose was a Sixlet candy.  You could use a jelly bean, an M&M, whatever orange candy you can find.  I’m sure they’d all do great.  Of course, that is, if you ever want to make Elmo cupcakes.  🙂

Here is our friend, Elmo.  Happy 2nd Birthday, L!  We love ya!

 

Sweet Potato Biscuits

I LOVE sweet potatoes any way you make them.  I’m in charge of making a sweet potato bake for tomorrow with a walnut brown sugar topping.  Umm, umm good.  Not an every day dish obviously.  Even though my husband wants me to make it more often than once or twice a year.  It’s a dessert in itself really.  When I baked my sweet potatoes today, I had bought a couple too many, so I went ahead and baked them too…mainly because I had these biscuits on my brain.  My mom had sent me this recipe from a restaurant in Lafayette, LA, called Prejean’s.  She loves to eat there.  (That’s where I get the foodie gene by the way.)  My mom is an awesome cook. I can only hope to be as great as she is one day.  She just whips things up out of her head all the time.  I call her the Original Pioneer Woman!  She helps tend to their farm, does the farm paperwork, cooks lunch and supper, and in her spare time after she digs wells, puts up fence, and milks cows, she is also an artist.  (She doesn’t do all those things…only some.)  She’s known for a lot of things in the kitchen, but one thing she’s most famous for is her biscuits.  Yum, people.  I still can’t get my biscuits like hers.  I’m close, but not quite there.  Ok, enough talk about those biscuits, or else I’ll have to go make some…let’s move on to the sweet potater ones!

These sweet potato biscuits have a different texture than your average Southern biscuit.  They are very soft, like a roll mixed with a muffin.  Very different and very good.  And, with a syrupy glaze.  I kind of wished they would’ve gotten a little crunchier on the edges, just because I like biscuits that way, but that’s not what these guys are about.

So, here is the famous Prejean’s recipe that my mom sent me.  My husband and kids ate more than I could count on the couch a while ago, so they must have met approval.  I told them to simmer down because the Thanksgiving feast is tomorrow.  Duh!

Prejean’s Sweet Potato Biscuits:

*Just a note:  I halved the recipe and it made over a dozen biscuits.

2 pounds, plus 2 cups favorite biscuit mix flour, divided

2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup sugar

2 cup, mashed cooked sweet potatoes

1/3 cup vanilla extract

2/3 cup buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a metal bowl, combine biscuit mix, cinnamon and sugar.

In a separate bowl, combine potato, with vanilla and buttermilk until totally combined.

With a large spoon, add dry ingredients to potato mixture a bit at a time until totally combined; mixture should be sticky.

Turn dough out onto a biscuit mix dusted dry surface.

Dust surface of the dough and fold, kneading dough adding mix as needed to firm the dough up slightly, but do not over-knead the dough.  Knead just enough to be cut into biscuits and placed in a greased or oil-sprayed pan.  (I didn’t knead much and then rolled out softly to cut biscuits.)

Place the pan of biscuits into preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until brown and solid at center.

The Glaze:

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup honey

1/2 sugarcane syrup  ( I used molasses, and I only used about a tablespoon…again, b/c I halved the recipe.)

Combine all ingredients and heat in microwave for 45 seconds. Pour evenly over baked biscuits; serve hot.

Eat up, y’all!

Punkin bread

I made some Pumpkin Bread this week for my kiddos’ teachers at preschool to say thanks for all the lovin’ they give my children.  We are so blessed to have such great teachers for both of them.  They are amazing!

I make a lot of different pumpkin breads and this recipe uses the Amish Friendship Bread starter.  I’ve been growing my little buddy for about a month now since my friend, Laurie, at Canning Confessions, gave to me.  I’m having much fun with him.  Making a stash in the freezer and sharing with friends.  I’ve just noticed this week, he is really starting to shine and come into his own.  What a guy!

This pumpkin bread is yummy.  I got these cool new decorative baking tins from my friend, Amanda.  They are so cute and definitely give the foil tins a complex.  I packaged them up with saran wrap, twine and some freebie Thanksgiving cards I found on Pinterest.  That dang Pinterest.  I get nothing done with it around.  Sometimes, I have to just stop looking.  I feel depressed, worthless, non-creative, and definitely unfocused.  Then, I get sucked back in and go back for more ideas that I’ll never follow through with.

I did however, make some bread. I can do that and I do it pretty well.  So, I’ll be satisfied with that tonight.

My redheaded buddy is 5!

My little boy turned 5 this weekend and we had a grand time bouncing, sweating, dancing, sweating again and eating cupcakes. Oh, and, opening presents…his favorite part.  We have such special friends and they treated him so nicely! He didn’t even need Mom and Dad’s big present…which will be sent to Santa for delivery on Christmas morning, barring any issues that Elvis the Elf may bring up to Santa.  🙂

He wanted superhero cupcakes, so he got Spiderman cupcakes.  I initially wanted to do Superman (a flop) and Batman (another flop) cupcake toppers as well.  It  did not pan out like planned.  I had to take a deep breath, pray and just move on after my failed attempts at superhero cupcake greatness. My Spideys turned out pretty well…at least to Grey they did, and that’s what counts, right??  I was being too hard on myself and finally realized…he’s 5!  He doesn’t care.  He just wants to eat the frosting.  And, his little sister, well, she likes the fondant topping.  A little too much.  She likes to bounce a little too much too. Then eat pizza, then eat a whole Spidey topper and then vomit on her Toms and mom’s leg.  (She’ll be mad at me one day for posting this…bless her little heart.)

Here is a photo of the cupcakes, thanks to Aunt Mari, who is the only person who took a photo of them!  YAY!  My mind was on vomit I guess.

And here is my sweet little chunky boy.

And, here is my BIG boy!  Sniff. Sniff.  Mom and Dad (and sister) sure love you.  You are one funny, lovable kid.  And, you smile funny sometimes.

And, let’s throw sister in here…pre-sicky poo.  Poor kid.   Bless it!

Here were the superhero lollipop favors…Love these little guys!

Halloween cupcakes…scary and fun!

Zombies, candy corn and pumpkin cupcakes…all sorts of Halloween goodies on this fall holiday.  First off, I made some red velvet cupcakes with green, ghoulish buttercream for a sweet girl’s costume birthday party.  She had spooky, zombie cupcakes!  Red velvets are her favorite, so that’s what the birthday girl got.  Her mom helped put together the zombies…so funny!

Next up, Halloween cupcakes for a school party.  Chocolate cupcakes with orange colored buttercream with candy corn and Halloween sprinkles.  Simple and yummy.

And, finally, for the neighborhood Halloween party…probably my most favorite cupcake of all that I’ve ever made, a pumpkin cupcake with maple cream cheese frosting.  It really should have its own post.  And, should be in the spotlight at all times.  It is a truly delicious, pumpkin spice cupcake with an even dreamier frosting.  I hadn’t done the maple cream cheese frosting with it before, but it just sounded like a great fit to me.  Whoa.  I hadn’t made these since last year and I don’t need to wait as long next time.  They needed a cute little background, thus, I put them on my little pumpkin pedestal.  And, it just fit right in….especially with its cute little brown houndstooth liner.  Such a fashionista cupcake!

And, here’s my crazy-eyed kid enjoying a cupcake.  I just thought he needed to be in the post.  He really IS enjoying the cupcake.

Happy Trick-or-Treating y’all!  Hope you get lots of TREATS!