Black and Tan Cupcake

I don't know what it was...maybe the baby that I'm brewing...but after months of not wanting much to do with anything sweet or chocolaty, or coffee like I finally got the craving for a cupcake...and the hubby quickly agreed. I gathered the things in my pantry, quickly realizing I wouldn't be able to make anything that included vanilla extract. I'm fresh out, and there's no way I'm going to the grocery store in this crazy rainy weather we are having. I doctored up a German Chocolate Cake mix with some extra cocoa powder and some coffee flavors, and then I began mixing the frosting. Truthfully, I thought this was going to be a frosting disaster...all good frosting contains vanilla extract right?  But to my surprise my improvisations resulted in this rich decadent goodness. So much goodness that I couldn't bear to part with the leftovers. You could decorate these cupcakes with pretty chocolate curls or caramel drizzle...but I kind liked out simple they were to make...and to frost. No piping bag, just the back of a tablespoon and a big bowl of frosting.

Black and Tan Cupcakes
1 box of German chocolate or other chocolate cake mix
1/2 c. vegetable oil (or the amount called for in the cake mix)
3 eggs
2 tbsp espresso liquor
1/3 c. chilled coffee or espresso
*Remaining amount of water called for on your cake mix.
6 oz cream cheese softened
1 stick of butter
2 tbsp espresso liquor
2 tbsp of caramel topping
1 pinch of sea salt
2-3 c. of confectioner's sugar

For the Cake:
Dump the box of cake mix in your mixer bowl along with the eggs and oil. Get out your measuring cup and measure out 2 tbsp. of espresso liquor and 1/3 c. of coffee. Fill that same cup with enough water to measure out what your box of cake mix calls for. I hope that makes sense...basically your substituting some of the water for coffee and espresso liquor...not adding to that amount. Also add 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder. Turn on your mixer and beat until smooth. Fill cupcake tins (or cake pans) with batter about 2/3 c. full and bake according to box directions.

For the Frosting:
Whip butter and cream cheese in the bowl of your mixer until it is smooth. Add espresso liquor, caramel, and salt. Beat until incorporated. On slow speed add confectioner's sugar, starting with 2 c. and adding additional sugar if it appears to be too thin. Frosting will have a thick creamy texture, it won't hold shape like a butter cream but should be able to be swirled with the back of a spoon on top of the cupcakes and hold some form.

The Long-Awaited Lego Bookshelf

So this has nothing to do with food...or homemade gifts...but it's a fun idea that I wanted to share.

Ever since we moved into our house, which was well over a year ago, I have been looking for creative Lego decor for our now eight year old son's bedroom. Amazingly...there isn't a whole lot out there to buy other than Lego themed storage containers. Anything else was atrociously expensive...well more than I'd spend on my own bedroom and definitely too expensive to put in the hands of an 8 year old boy. We settled for grey walls, red accents, plaid bedding, and a framed Lego Batman poster.  Kinda boring.

Then I got this idea...but I kept it to myself for awhile because my husband, who happens to be excellent at "home improvement" projects already had a very long honey-do list...and the mere mention of another project would probably have been like hooking a hangnail on a bed sheet.

Finally the opportunity to redo our son's bedroom came around...and I pounced with my project idea. Granted, it's not like he raced down to the hardware store immediately for the paint and supplies. I offered to do all the sanding and painting and much to my own surprise I did the majority of it on my own. I say this because if you know me...you're aware that patience is not my virtue.

So here's how it all went down....

This shelf was a plain birch veneer Wal-Mart bookshelf...probably not the best quality for sanding and painting...but we made it work.

1) We took off all the shelves and I sanded the finish off of the entire piece.

2) I dusted it off and wiped it down with a damp cloth to make sure it was squeaky clean.

3) I painted the shelf, using Behr Paint and Primer in One from The Home Depot. I used a Dove roller brush for a smooth finish and a paint brush to get in the nooks and crannies...I waited until it was dry and then gave it another coat.

4) Once the shelf was all painted my wonderful husband sanded the tops off of 3" PVC pipe caps with low grit sand paper. He attached the caps with liquid nail and generously painted the caps so tired pregnant me wouldn't have to do it.

5) ...the only troublesome spot on this project was the cheap cardboard backing for this bookshelf. The paint started peeling off of it, so at the advice of Home Depot we gave it 3 good coats of Varathane Spar Urethane (water based) to help seal it. Time will tell if it will peel with the wear and tear of an 8 year old boy. If that happens I'll probably just rip the whole back of the shelf off and leave it open against the wall.

No Bake Nutella Cheesecake

They warned me about Pinterest and I should have stayed away...but it's so addicting! This recipe caught my eye, or rather a delicious looking picture of this recipe caught my eye on Pinterest and I had to try it. Warning: It's about addicting as Pinterest itself! My pictures don't do this recipe justice...go to the blog My Baking Addiction to see something a bit more beautified :).

I piped melted white chocolate into the shape of hearts onto a
chilled cookie sheet to make these little hearts.

No Bake Nutella Cheesecake
*adapted from My Baking Addiction

Ingredients
12 Oreo cookies
3 Tbsp. butter or margarine, melted
1 (8 oz.) package of cream cheese, softened
2/3 c. Nutella
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tablespoons of hazelnut liqueur (Armaretto is also good)
8 oz. of whipping cream, whipped and chilled
Optional garnish of: chocolate shavings, extra whipped cream, chopped hazelnuts, or in my case 1/2 of a chopped hazelnut milk chocolate bar and white chocolate hearts in honor of Valentine's Day.

Place Oreos in a Ziploc bag and crush. Add melted butter and shake to combine. Divide crumb mixture between serving dishes (I used wine glasses) and press to the bottom to make a crust.

In your mixer combine cream cheese, Nutella, & vanilla extract. Beat until smooth. Gently fold in whipped cream until it is fully incorporated.

Pipe or spoon into serving dishes. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Garnish as desired.

It's so easy!

I Scream You Scream We All Scream for... Cookies?

 Looks can be deceiving. And oh so adorable. These little treats are sugar cookies made to look like ice cream. Today I was browsing around looking for Super Bowl recipe ideas when I found this recipe for ice cream scoop sugar cookies. Not very super-bowl oriented...I know, but I just couldn't resist rolling up my sleeves and making these. I experimented a bit with sizes and found that a 1/2 tablespoon rounded measuring spoon made a the perfect size scoop which fit perfectly atop miniature ice cream cones. These cute little creations would be perfect for an April Fool's treat or even a birthday party....or maybe just because you love your kids and you want to make them something fun.

Sugar Cookie Dough

6 c. white flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 c. margarine or butter
2 c. sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. salt
1 c. semi sweet chocolate chips
For Strawberry Ice Cream:
1 small box of strawberry flavored gelatin
freeze dried strawberries (optional)

For Chocolate Ice Cream:
3 tbsp. cocoa powder
2 tbsp. melted semi sweet chocolate


*Before you begin: You're probably going to want to use a stand mixer for this recipe...the dough is pretty thick and a hand mixer probably won't cut it.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in your mixer.
In a separate bowl mix flour, baking soda, and salt and slowly add to the wet mixture. It will seem very dry, but let it whip a few minutes and it should come together. If it's still unworkable you can add a very small splash of milk (think teaspoon size) because you'll want this dough to be on the dry side or the cookies won't set up the way they're supposed to.

Divide your dough into thirds. Place 1/3 of the dough into your mixer and add cocoa powder and melted chocolate. The melted chocolate should add enough moisture to help the cocoa powder blend into the dough. Once that is mixed set it aside, clean your mixing bowl and add another third of the  dough. Add the strawberry gelatin and freeze dried strawberries (if using) and run your mixer until your dough is completely pink and gelatin is fully incorporated.  The remaining third of dough will be your vanilla ice cream.

Scoop out dough, (see note below)  making sure to overfill your scoop a bit so as to make an edge that resembles a scoop of ice-cream. Plop your scoops onto a baking sheet about 2 inches apart and press on some sprinkles. Bake 12-14 minutes (you don't want to have browned ice cream) and cool.

Melt chocolate chips in a small bowl on medium heat in the microwave for about 20 seconds at a time, stirring in between to make sure it is melted. Dip the top of each cone in a bit of chocolate, and, using the back of a spoon smear some more chocolate onto the bottom of scoops to help them stick to your cones.

Once you've mastered the art of ice-cream scoop cookies why not experiment with other flavors...maybe chocolate or mint chip or peanut butter...the possibilities are endless! Have fun enjoying your sweet treats!
***For this recipe I used miniature ice cream cones and a round measuring 1/2 Tablespoon to make my scoops. You could also use a regular ice cream scoop if you planned on putting these on top of regular ice cream cones. I would suggest baking off 1 or 2 before you do a whole batch to see how large they will be after they've baked...that way you don't end up with ginormous scoops that don't fit on your cones.

Mango Chicken Chopped Salad

Last week The Hubby and I were blessed to be able to get away on a 4 day cruise to the Bahamas. It was part 10th anniversary celebration, part babymoon as we're expecting our 3rd child in July. It was wonderful to get away for awhile, but after 4 days of eating cruise food we were ready for some home-cooked detox. Today is Sunday, and in our family, tradition holds that instead of eating whatever mom cooks the boys get to enjoy a giant bowl of cereal for dinner (sometime's it's nice to have a little break from my short order cook duties.) So I figured it was the perfect time to try out this new recipe for Mango Chicken Chopped Salad. The original recipe had a few dislikes like cucumber so I made a few changes from the Coastal Living version (July 2011) and it was thoroughly enjoyed. Said my meat and potato loving husband: "You can make this twice a week." as he finished off the rest of the bowl. We both agreed that this salad is best if very lightly dressed and I'm eager to try it again next week but this time dressed with my recipe for Cilantro Lime Dressing.

Mango Chicken Chopped Salad
adapted from Coastal Living

Ingredients

for the chicken

4 chicken breasts

1/4 c tequila

blackened seasoning

1/4 c. lime juice

for the dressing:

1/4 c. mayonnaise

1/4 c. sour cream

2 tsp. lemon zest

2 tbsp. lemon juice

2 tsp. curry powder

1 tsp fresh grated ginger

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp. sugar

1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

for the salad:

4 c. chopped red leaf lettuce

2 mangos peeled, pitted, and chopped.

1 red bell pepper finely diced

1/2 c fresh cilantro chopped

1/4 c. chopped red onion

Place chicken in a shallow dish and sprinkle with blackened seasoning (like Zataran's brand) and salt on both sides. Drizzle with tequila and lime juice, tossing to coat. Marinate in refrigerator for at least 1/2 hour.

Grill chicken until cooked through. In the mean time you can chop the ingredients for the salad and whisk together all the ingredients for the dressing.

Let chicken cool and then chop into bite size pieces. Toss together with the mango,pepper, cilantro, lettuce, and onion. Toss with dressing, a little at a time until the desired flavor is reached. We opted for less dressing (about 4 tablespoons) because the ingredients alone are so flavorful.

Enjoy!

Molasses Sugar Cookies

 It's just not Christmas until we've made a batch or two of these delicious spiced cookies. They have a crunchy outside, chewy center, and the aroma of these cookies will fill your house with yummy! They are amazingly simple, keep well, make a wonderful addition to your kid's teacher gifts. That is, if you can hide enough of them from your family to give away. They're also a great cookie for kids to help make as they can help roll the dough into balls and dip them in the colored sugar.

Molasses Sugar Cookies
yield: 6 dozen

Ingredients:


A great gift for friends, neighbors, and teachers in these
cute bags I got from Hobby Lobby.

1 1/2 c. shortening
2 c. white sugar
1/2 c. molasses
2 eggs
4 c. flour
4 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cloves
1 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. salt
1 pinch of cardamom (optional)
Christmas colored sugars

Directions:

• Melt shortening in a saucepan and cool. 
• Add to mixer bowl and cream with sugar, eggs, and molasses.
• Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl and slowly add to wet mixture. Mix well.
• Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 3 hours or overnight.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Roll dough into walnut size balls and roll in colored sugar. Place 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes or until tops appear to crackle (see picture).
• Cool and store in an airtight container.

            

Nutritional Information

Molasses Sugar Cookies

Servings Per Recipe: 72
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 93

• Total Fat: 4.5g
• Cholesterol: 6mg
• Sodium: 105mg
• Total Carbs: 12.7g
• Dietary Fiber: 0.2g
• Protein: 0.9g

VIEW DETAILED NUTRITION

About: Nutrition Info

Peppermint Brownies

Decorating for Christmas got me in the mood to bake something special for dessert tonight. I got this crazy idea to whip up some peppermint flavored buttercream icing and spread it over a batch of brownies. Then I remembered the Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses that I had hiding in my cupboard. Voila! So simple and so fancy I think I might make these for Christmas.

Candy Cane Brownies
for the brownies:
1 box of your favorite brownie mix

for the frosting:
1/4 c. butter
2-21/2 c. powdered sugar
1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
3/4 tsp of peppermint extract
2-3 tbsp. of milk
15 unwrapped Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses

Directions:
Prepare brownies according to package directions. Cool completely.

In the meantime prepare the frosting. Cream butter in mixer until fluffy. Gradually add in powdered sugar, extracts, and milk and whip on medium speed until combined.

Spread frosting onto cooled brownies. Lightly chop the kisses and sprinkle over the top.  Enjoy!