Oreo Cupcakes

I love cupcakes. They are the perfect desert! You get a whole amazing, moist, cake to yourself, but it’s still the perfect single serving. So Sunday Queenie and I baked Oreo cupcakes. She’d never made cupcakes before, so what better place to start than with the nations favourite cookie? We even ground our own flour with my grain  mill. She had a blast, and the cakes were wonderful!

I found this recipe on a site called Annie’s Eats

Oreo Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 24 Oreo halves, with cream filling attached
• 2¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. salt
• 8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 2/3 cup sugar
• 3 large egg whites, at room temperature
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk
• 20 Oreo cookies, coarsely chopped (I quarter them)
• 8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
• 6 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• 2 tbsp. heavy cream (I used milk)
• Oreo cookie crumbs
• 24 Oreo cookie halves

Directions:

For the Cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line the wells of two cupcake pans with 24 paper liners. Place an Oreo halve in the bottom of each liner, cream side up.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir together with a fork to blend and set aside.
3.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar and beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Blend in the egg whites one at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in the vanilla extract.
4. With the mixer on low speed, beat in half of the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Add the milk and beat just until combined, then mix in the remaining dry ingredients. Gently fold in the chopped Oreos with a rubber spatula until evenly incorporated, being careful not to over-mix.
5. Evenly divide the batter between the prepared cupcake liners. Bake for 18-20 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Frosting:

1. Combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Blend in the vanilla extract. Beat in the confectioners’ sugar until incorporated and smooth, 1-2 minutes. Add the heavy cream to the bowl and beat on medium-low speed just until incorporated, then increase the speed to medium-high and whip for 4 minutes until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
2. Frost the cooled cupcakes as desired. Sprinkle with Oreo crumbs and garnish with Oreo halves.

Strawberry Rhubarb Sugar Cookie Crisp

Strawberry rhubarb pie is one of my favourite things. I had it for the first time only a few years ago, and just fell in love. So the other day I saw rhubarb for sale at the grocery store, so I grabbed some! Last night I made a really yummy new twist on the pie I have had in the past. It’s a bunch  of fruit in a dish, topped with sugar cookie dough and baked. YUM!!!! Despite it’s almost all fruits, don’t be deceived, there is nothing healthy about this. Enjoy in moderation ^_^

I found this recipe on a site called Heather Christo Cooks

Strawberry Rhubarb Sugar Cookie Crisp

Ingredients:

For the fruit filling:

• 5 cups strawberries, hulled and sliced
• 3 cups rhubarb, diced
• ¼ cup sugar
• 2 Tbs flour

For the sugar cookie topping:

• 2 ½ cups flour
• 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• ¾ cup butter, cut into small pieces
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tsp sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
2. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, sugar and salt and pulse together. Add the butter and pulse to a fine crumb. Add the yolks and pulse until you have a smooth dough. Form into a disc and wrap in wax paper. Refrigerate while you prepare the fruit. (I was out of wax paper, so I just put the whole food processor bowl in the fridge. It worked fine)
3. When you have cut all of the fruit, combine it together in a 9×13” baking dish.
4. Toss the fruit with 2 Tbs flour and the ¼ cup sugar.
5. Pull the dough out of the fridge and using a little powdered sugar or flour, roll out the dough into a roughly 9×13” rectangle while still on the wax paper.
6. Use the wax paper to turn the dough out onto the top of the fruit.
7. Sprinkle the top of the dough with the sugar.
8. Bake the sugar cookie topped dish for 30 minutes, or until just golden around the edges.

Enjoy!

Original Nilla Banana Pudding

Banana pudding is one of my all time favourite desserts. Dad and I used to make it together when I was  a youngin’. So, I decided it was time to make some. And not with pudding or pie filling, but all from scratch. And the thing is, its’ not hard! So don’t skimp and use pre-made nonsense. Do it right and you will not regret it!

This recipe is just the one of the  side of the Nilla Wafers box, but it’s the best I’ve ever found.

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Original Nilla Banana Pudding

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup sugar, divided
• 1/3 cup flour
• dash salt
• 3 eggs, seperated
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 45 Nilla Wafers, divided
• 5 bananas, sliced

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350
2. Mix 1/2 cup sugar, flour and salt in the top of a double boiler. Blend in3 egg yolks and milk. Cook, uncovered, over boiling water 10-12 minutes, or until thickened, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla
3. Reserve 12 wafers for garnish (optional). Spread small amount of custard on bottom of 1-1/2 quart baking dish. Cover with layers of 1/3 each of the remaining wafers, bananas and remaining custard. Repeat 2times.
4. Beat egg whites on high spead of mixer until soft peaks form.Gradually beat in remaining sugar until stiff peaks form. Spread over custard,sealing well to edge ofdish
5. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until lightly browned (tip: DO NOT LEAVE YOUR OVEN! The egg whites will burn easily, and all will be lost. Lost, lost, lost. Or something like that). Cool slightly. Top with reserved wafers just before serving (again, optional)

Irish Carbomb Cupcakes

An “Irish Carbomb” is a drink that involves taking an Irish Stout beer, such as Guinness, and dropping a shot of Baileys into it, then chugging! I personally find these to be awful drinks, but for an unknown reason, husband seems to like them. So to celebrate his return from the ocean I made a dozen Irish Carbomb cupcakes. I had one (only 1 for diet/health reasons, but I still had to try it!) and they were actually very good. Not overwhelmingly dry and strong like drinking a Guinness, nor nasty creamy like Baileys. (I don’t drink milk, I don’t care for the texture, so I’m not a big fan  of Baileys. Good flavor tho).

This is one that I actually didn’t find on Pinterest! Well, not directly anyhow. Found a pinterest link to for another recipe which led me to this ladies amazing webpage called the Pixelated Crumb.  I encourage you to check it out. Wonderful site! Anyhow, here is the recipe (oh yes, I halved it to make 12 instead of 24 cupcakes…)

Irish Carbomb Cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the Chocolate Stout Cupcakes:

• 1 cup stout (such as Guinness)
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup sour cream

For the Whiskey Ganache Filling

• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons Irish whiskey (optional, tho I definitely recommend it)

For the Irish Cream Frosting

• 3 to 4 cups confections sugar
• 1 stick (1/2 cup or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup tablespoons Baileys

Directions:

Make the Cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line 24 cupcake cups with liners. Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to a simmer in a heavy, large saucepan over medium heat. Add the cocoa powder and whisk until the mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.
2. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend. Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add the stout-chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add the flour mixture and beat briefly on low speed. Using a rubber spatula, fold the batter until it’s completely combined. Divide the batter among the cupcake liners, filling them two-thirds to three-quarters of the way. Bake the cupcakes until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, rotating them once front to back if your oven bakes unevenly, about 16-18 minutes. Cool the cupcakes on a rack completely.

Make the Whiskey Ganache

1. Chop the chocolate and place in a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then whisk until smooth (if there are still pieces of unmelted chocolate after whisking for a couple of minutes, you can heat it over a double boiler, whisking constantly until it’s completely smooth). Add the butter and whiskey and stir until combined.

Fill the Cupcakes

1. Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped (you can put it in the fridge to speed up this process, but make sure to stir it every 10 minutes). Meanwhile, using your 1-inch round cookie cutter, an apple corer, or a small sharp knife, cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes. You want to go most of the way down the cupcake but not cut through the bottom — aim for 2/3 of the way. Put the ganache into a piping bag with a wide tip (or a plastic bag with a corner snipped off) and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top. Technically, you’re only supposed to fill the ganache to the top of the cupcake, but I allowed mine to peak, so it looked like a little hershey’s kiss on top. I figured a little extra whiskey ganache didn’t hurt.

Make the Irish Cream Frosting

1. Whip the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, for several minutes until very light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar, a few tablespoons at a time.
2. When the frosting looks thick enough to spread, drizzle in the Baileys and whip it until combined. If the frosting is too thin, beat in another spoonful or two of powdered sugar.
3. Lastly, ice and decorate the cupcakes. I used green sprinkles to make it festive for St. Patrick’s Day, but they’re also pretty on their own.

 

Notes:

So, my frosting didn’t turn out nearly as pretty as the picture on her website. Once I added the baileys and started to frost the cupcakes, it just looked a bit… odd. However, it still tasted absolutely amazing! So venture forth into culinary greatness!

Cast Iron Skillet Brownies

I eat pretty well. I am a vegetarian. I often eat raw or vegan.  So, as any woman would tell you, that means it’s okay to cheat every  now and again ^_^
I was craving something chocolaty and sweet last night, so I made skillet brownies. (yes, another Pinterest find.)

Also of note, I LOVE cooking in a cast iron skillet (I don’t let husband cook bacon it in, tho. No soap on cast iron, so no bacon!), but I had never though of baking a dessert in one! BRILLIANT!

Cast Iron Skillet Brownies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder  (I just used Hershey’s cocoa powder)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup heavy cream (I don’t use milk, and I was out of soy, so I didn’t use any)
• 8 ounces chocolate chips or coarsely chopped chocolate

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar and eggs. In another bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, and salt.
2. In a medium cast iron skillet, bring butter and cream to a simmer over medium heat (As I said, I didn’t have any milk, so I used double the amount of  butter and it worked well. More calories, but it worked!). Add chocolate; reduce to medium-low. Cook, stirring constantly, until chocolate has melted, about 1 minute. Remove from heat, and let cool 5 minutes.
3. Add chocolate mixture to sugar mixture, whisking until blended (reserve skillet). Fold in flour mixture. Pour batter into skillet.
4. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. (for a gooeyer brownie bake for about 35 minutes) Serve from skillet, warm or at room temperature.

This turned out wonderfully! Milk would have made it better, but it was still fantastic! I will never (nor should I) eat the whole thing  by myself, so I guess that means I need to have a bunch of friends over to “help me out”This would be amazing with some vanilla ice cream, or fruit. Having neither (yes yes, I need to go to the commissary. I know!) I poured a bit of Baileys Irish Cream over the

top, and it was scrumptious! So no matter what you do with it, it will be fantastic. Enjoy! Nom nom.

Chocolaty Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was craving something chocolaty, but didn’t want to buy pre-packaged cookies, so I made my own =]

Chocolaty Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup cocoa powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In large bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; stir into the butter mixture until well blended. Mix in the chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or just until set. Cool.

These are wonderful! You can also add walnuts if you like =]

Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie

This is one of my favourite holiday recipes. I make this every Thanksgiving and Christmas, and it’s always a hit. This year, it was a bit custardy, so the slices weren’t quite as pretty, but it was still amazing. I have yet to figure out why this time the filling was that way, but still, it was grand. If you serve it chilled, you don’t have that problem, by the way.

 

Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie

Ingredients:

• 2 frozen (9 inch) pie shell
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup butter
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup bourbon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped pecans

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees F).
2. In a small saucepan combine sugar, corn syrup, and butter or margarine. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until butter or margarine melts and sugar dissolves. Cool slightly.
3. In a large bowl combine eggs, bourbon, vanilla, and salt. Mix well. Slowly pour sugar mixture into egg mixture, whisking constantly. Stir in chocolate chips and pecans. Pour mixture into pie shell.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 55 minutes, or until set and golden. May be served warm or chilled.

 

Spooky Clinical Eyeball Vanilla Cupcakes!

Last night, my dear friend Stef and I made cupcakes for her co-workers.

Considering she works at an eye doctor’s office, we made a bunch of eyeball/retina cupcakes, along with some basic spooky Halloween cupcakes.

They were just basic Vanilla cupakes, but wow were they good!

Spooky Clinical Eyeball Vanilla Cupcakes!

Makes 24 Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup superfine sugar
• 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 12 cup muffin pan or line with paper baking cups.
2. In a large bowl, mix butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Stir in the eggs, one at a time, blending well after each one. Stir in the vanilla and flour just until mixed. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups, dividing evenly.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until the tops spring back when lightly pressed, 18 to 20 minutes. Cool in the pan set over a wire rack. When cool, arrange the cupcakes on a serving platter.
4. Frost them! (optional, but I totally suggest it)

Mocha Macadamia Cheesecake

Ah, the final touch to my meal. This was the first Cheesecake I’ve ever made (Stephan loves to make them, so I’ve never gotten the chance!) and it turned out amazingly!

It’s from the book

Asheville Cooks

and the recipe was from the restaurant
Hathaway’s Cafe and Market
Asheville, NC

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Mocha Macadamia Cheesecake

(Tip from miss Emily , Pasty Chef. Make sure all refrigerated ingredients are room temp. Otherwise the cool or cold ingredients won’t mix well together.)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups chocolate cookie crumbs (I took a whole package of store-brand oreo’s and put them in the food processor, cream filling and all, and ground them up into crumbs. Worked perfectly)
• 1 1/2 cups finely chopped macadamia nuts
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 stick butter, melted
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 lbs cream cheese (I used 1/3 fat cream cheese and you couldn’t tell!)
• 8 oz semi sweet chocolate, melted
• 2 Tbs. cocoa
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 cups sour cream

Directions:

Using a food processor, crush enough chocolate cookies to make 1/2 cups of fine crumbs. Mix in one cup of nuts (I did not do this… saved them all for the cheesecake part) and the cinnamon. Blend in the butter. Using the bottom of a spoon, press the crumb mixture onto the bottom and sides (I only put them on the bottom)  of a well buttered (or well Pam-ed) 9″ springform pan. Chill for one hour.

One hour later…

Preheat the oven to 350*. In a medium mixing bowl, beat te sugar and eggs until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the cream cheese and mix well.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler and add it, along with the cocoa and vanilla to the cream cheese mixture. Mix thoroughly. Beat in the sour cream, then add the copped nuts.

Pour the batter into the chilled crust and bake for 45 minutes. Do not be alarmed if the cake does not seem solid, it will achieve a firm,delicious consistency when chilled overnight (mine only got to chill for a few hours, and it worked. However it was  a much better consistency the next day)

Blueberry Zucchini Bread

I love zucchini bread! It’s so moist and sweet, and because it has a vegetable in it, you can tell yourself it’s healthy!

At my house where I grew up we had 10-12 blueberry bushes. We had so many blueberry’s by late summer that we didn’t know what to do with ourselves! (ok, yes we did. We ate them, we froze them, we baked with them… ) Browsing a recipe site  I came across a recipe similar to this. Blueberry Zucchini? An odd combination,to say the least. But because we had so many berries at our disposal, I gave it a shot. Oh wow! One of my better choices, if I do say so myself! Long story short, enjoy this bread!

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Blueberry Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups white sugar
• 2 cups shredded zucchini
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 pint fresh blueberries

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease 2 loaf pans (I put all my batter into  one pan, and it was  super gooey in the middle. So bake two loaves)
2. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar. Fold in the zucchini. Beat in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Gently fold in the blueberries. Transfer to the prepared mini-loaf pans.
3. Bake 50 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted in the center of a loaf comes out clean. Cool 20 minutes in pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.