Andes Mint Cupcakes

Minty chocolate?  It's pretty much either a love or hate relationship.  Luckily, my taste buds fall into the love category, so I can munch on these cupcakes all day, every day.

Ingredients
Cake
4 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup water
Devil's food cake mix
Mint chocolate filling
2 tbs heavy cream
1/3 cup chocolate chips
1 1/4 tsp peppermint extract
Frosting
6 oz cream cheese (softened)
6 tbs butter (softened)
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar (more or less depending on the consistency you want)
1 tbs heavy cream
1 1/2 tsp peppermint extract
Green food coloring

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake pans with 24 liners.  Whisk together the sour cream, oil and vanilla, then beat the eggs in until smooth.  Alternate between adding the cake mix and the milk and water, mixing until smooth.  Pour into cupcake liners, then bake for about 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Filling:  melt the chocolate chips in a small pan with the heavy cream, then remove from heat and stir in the peppermint extract.  Fill a squeeze bottle with the filling, then squeeze a little bit into each cupcake.  (I didn't have a squeeze bottle, so I actually used a baby medicine syringe-thingy, but I think it's more likely people will have squeeze bottles on hand.)
Frosting:  Beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth, then gradually add the powdered sugar and peppermint extract until you reach the desired consistency.  Stir in the green food dye - only a couple of drops because it is a lot more potent than you think!
Top the cupcakes with the frosting, drizzle a little of the leftover filling over the frosting, then top with an Andes mint!

Guinness Chocolate Cake

I'm going to start this post off with a disclaimer that I HATE beer.  I cannot stand it.  However, I can tolerate my boyfriend, and he likes beer, so I made this cake for him.  Well, more specifically to make his roommates like me, but I digress.  This cake is moist and delicious (even to those of us who hate beer), because the Guinness flavor isn't overpowering at all, it just complements the chocolate well.

Ingredients
Cake
1 1/4 cups Guinness
1/4 cup cocoa
12 tbs butter (1 1/2 sticks)
1 3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
Fresh fruit (I used strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, but feel free to use whatever fruits you prefer)
Filling:
1 cup heavy cream
1 tbs confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate Ganache:
1 cup heavy cream
12 oz chopped chocolate

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Heat the Guinness, butter, and cocoa in a pan over medium heat until the butter melts.  Beat together the sugar, eggs, sour cream until combined, then add the Guinness mixture and beat until smooth.  Stir in the flour and baking soda until incorporated, then pour into a greased 8 inch cake pan and bake for 45 minutes (or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean).  The cake pan will be very full, but it's supposed to be.  After the cake cools, cut it in half so you will be able to put a layer of whipped cream and fruit between the top and bottom.

For the filling:  chill a bowl and your whisk (or hand mixer beaters) in the freezer for a few minutes.  Then, beat the whipped cream until soft peaks begin to form, then beat in the sugar and vanilla extract.  Do not over beat.

Put the whipped cream on the bottom half of the cake, top it with fruit, then put the top half of the cake on top (like a sandwich).

For the ganache:  bring the heavy cream to a boil over medium heat, then remove the pan from the heat and stir in the chocolate until smooth.  Let stand for approximately 10 minutes so it can thicken up a bit, then pour it over the top of the cake.

Decorate the top of the cake with the fruit of your choosing and voila!  A beautiful and delicious cake.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies - a staple of everyone's diet (or at any rate, they should be).  These chocolate chip cookies come out so ridiculously moist that I've made like six dozen in four days.  And eaten six dozen in four days.  However, since my boyfriend proposed last weekend, I can eat as many cookies as I want (and get as fat as I want) because I'm not going to die alone!  And on that happy note, the recipe...

Ingredients
2 eggs
1 package of vanilla pudding mix*
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups flour
1 package (11.5 oz, I think) milk chocolate chips**

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Beat together the eggs, pudding mix, butter, both the sugars, and the vanilla extract until creamy.  Add half the flour, beat together, then add the other half and beat it in as well.  Mix in the chocolate chips.  Drop by tablespoonful onto an ungreased cookie sheet, then bake for 9-10 minutes and NO LONGER.  They might not look done, but they are.  Makes 3 dozen cookies.

*Can substitute white chocolate pudding mix as well
*Can substitute white chocolate chips and add macadamia nuts - goes well with the white chocolate pudding mix

Miniature Cherry Cheesecakes

Who doesn't love cheesecake?  Creamy richness, and you can trick yourself into thinking you're eating enough protein that it's actually a healthy dessert (or maybe that's just me).  Anyway, below is a recipe for delicious little miniature cheesecakes, perfect for those of us with portion control (again, possibly just me).

Crust:

3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

3 tbs butter (melted)

1/2 tbs sugar

Creamy goodness:

12 oz cream cheese (softened)

1/2 cup sour cream

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

Topping:

Cherry pie filling

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees, and line a cupcake tin with 12 paper liners.  Mix together all the crust ingredients thoroughly, then press about a spoonful of crust into the bottom of each paper liner - if you have any extra crust, you can definitely use it and make thicker crusts, but in my opinion, the filling is the best part anyway.  Bake the crust for about 5 minutes, or until it starts to brown slightly.  In the meantime, beat together all of the ingredients for the filling until smooth, then spoon over the crusts.  You should be able to fill each cup until it's just about overflowing.  Bake the cheesecakes for about 20 minutes, or until the centers set (the tops might begin to crack while they cook, but that's normal and fine).  Let the cheesecakes cool - their centers will sink slightly during this time, which is perfect for the topping.  After they cool, spoon some cherry pie filling into the little "sinkhole" in the center, and voila!

Reese's Cake

I love peanut butter, probably more than any healthy person should, so when I saw a picture of a Reese's peanut butter cake online, I knew I had to recreate it.  Since I made a tiered cake, you'll need to double all of the ingredients to make the same one I did, but for a basic two layer cake, the ingredients below are what you need.  I made a basic chocolate cake, however, you can also add in one cup of chopped Reese's cups to the batter if you want a more peanut buttery feel throughout the cake.  You know, in case it being covered with peanut butter frosting doesn't do it for you.

Chocolate Cake
Ingredients:
     3 eggs
     3/4 cup butter (softened)
     2 cups flour
     3/4 cup cocoa powder
     1 tablespoon vanilla extract
     2 cups sugar
     1 1/2 cups buttermilk
     1 teaspoon baking powder
     1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease two 9 inch cake pans (or, if you're doing the tiered cake, two 8 inch pans and two 10 inch pans).  Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl and set aside.  Beat together eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract.  Alternate between adding the flour mixture and buttermilk gradually, starting and ending with the buttermilk.  (If you are adding in a cup of chopped Reese's cups, add them to the batter at this time and mix them in thoroughly.) Pour into the cake pans, then bake at 350 for about 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.


Frosting
Adapted from allrecipes.com
Ingredients:
1 cup, 2 tablespoons of butter, softened
2 cups Jif creamy peanut butter (NOT the chunky kind, unless you want your frosting to have chunks in it and not smooth properly)
5 tbs milk (more if needed to make it slightly thinner)
4 cups sifted confectioner's sugar

Beat together butter and Jif until well blended, then gradually add in the sugar.  When frosting gets thick, alternate between adding 1 tbs of milk and more confectioner's sugar until it's as thick as you want it.  Continue to beat for 2 - 3 minutes to make the frosting fluffier, so the peanut butter flavor isn't too dense.


Chocolate Ganache Recipe
Ingredients:
     1 cup heavy cream
     12 oz chopped chocolate
Bring heavy cream to a boil over medium high heat, then remove saucepan from heat and stir in the chocolate until smooth and glossy.  Allow to set for 5 to 10 minutes (or long enough to set slightly), before glazing over cake.


Assembly
Frost the top of the first cake layer, then place the second layer on top.  Frost the top and sides of both cakes, then pour ganache over the top.  I threw my cake in the refrigerator for about 5 minutes after that, so the ganache would drip down the sides, but cool before reaching the bottom of the cake.  I did a ring of unwrapped Reese's minis around the base of my cake, then chopped up small Reese's cups (but the ones you have to unwrap yourself), and decorated the top of my cake (and the visible top of my bottom tier) with them.

High Heel Cupcakes

I loved the idea of these cupcakes - they're especially cute for an engagement/wedding shower or bachelorette party (after all, what woman doesn't love shoes?)

NOTE: You can use any cake flavor/frosting you want, I just chose vanilla so the decorations would stand out more.

Vanilla Cupcake:
3 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup butter (softened)
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake trays with 18 liners.  Beat together butter and sugar at medium speed until smooth and fluffy, then add the vanilla and the eggs one at a time and beat after each addition.  Mix the baking powder and flour in a bowl, then gradually add to the mix, alternating with the buttermilk.  Fill each cupcake liner 3/4 of the way to the top (you want it to puff up over the top of the liner), and bake at 350 for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 325 and bake for 5 more minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Allow to cool before cutting into them (diagram below).

Vanilla Frosting:
(Adapted from Food Network)
1 cup butter (softened)
3 cups confectioners' sugar (powdered sugar)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 to 3 tbs heavy whipping cream

Mix together sugar and butter, gradually increasing the mixing speed until fluffy.  Beat in the vanilla extract, then gradually add in the whipping cream (1 tbs at a time) until you reach the desired consistency.  You may then divide up the frosting into bowls and dye them different colors if you would like.


Sole and heel:
18 graham crackers
9 Pirouette rolled wafers
1 bag white chocolate chips

Cut the graham crackers and wafers as shown in the diagram below.  (Cut the Pirouette wafers in half using an angled cut, and cut the graham crackers on the sides at an angle).  Melt half the white chocolate chips (I melted them in the microwave, but feel free to melt yours however you want).  I put them in the microwave for 30 seconds, stirred, then put them back in for 10 second intervals, stirring between each.  Paint the white chocolate onto the graham crackers (or dip the graham crackers into the white chocolate) to coat them, as this will be the heel of your shoe.  If needed melt the rest of the chocolate chips to finish covering your graham crackers.

Assembly:  
I chose to decorate my cupcakes with candies and frosting before assembling them (as that way I didn't have to worry about the frosting not being set to keep all of the pieces together), but feel free to decorate and assemble in whichever order you would prefer.  For assembly, frost the angled side of the Pirouette, the narrow side of the graham cracker, and the part of the cupcake where you cut a piece out.  Then, attach the graham cracker to the cupcake and the Pirouette to the graham cracker (diagram below).

You can use any number of candies or frosting techniques to decorate your "shoes," and you can also roll them in colored sugar after they're frosted to give them a glittery appearance. Have fun with it!

Banana Pudding Cupcakes

My boyfriend recently got the flu, and as you may or may not know, there's this thing called the BRAT (bananas, rice, apple sauce, toast) diet that you're supposed to follow when you're sick like that.  Anyway, I really like to bake, but also didn't want to make him more sick, so I decided to make some banana pudding cupcakes.  Pudding seems to be all the rage in baked goods these days, so I figured I'd hop on that bandwagon.  Below is the recipe to the cupcakes I whipped up.  They taste deliciously light, yet moist and satisfying, and I recommend them to anyone who likes their taste buds.

Banana Cupcake:
1 box yellow cake mix (ignore the ingredients it calls for)
3 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 cup buttermilk (or milk, but buttermilk makes it taste richer)
1 ripe banana (chopped into little bits)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line 1 1/2 cupcake pans (18 cupcakes).  Whisk together the cake mix, eggs, oil, and buttermilk until smooth.  Stir in banana until evenly mixed throughout the batter.  Spoon the batter into the paper liners, then bake for 22-25 minutes or until lightly browned on top and a toothpick comes out clean.

Custard Filling:
1 can sweetened condensed milk
8 oz (1 package) cream cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1 box vanilla (or banana) pudding mix

Beat together sweetened condensed milk and cream cheese until smooth (about 2 minutes), then add in the vanilla and pudding mix until smooth.  The longer you let it sit, the more it will firm up (which doesn't really matter since it's going inside the cupcake).

Whipped Topping:
1 cup of milk
1 box vanilla pudding
2 containers cool whip

Mix together the milk and pudding, then fold in the cool whip.  I used two containers, but you can use more or less depending on the consistency you want your frosting to have.

Assembly:
Cut a cone out of the top of your cupcake being careful not to cut all the way down through the base of the cupcake.  Spoon the custard filling in.  Top off with a dollop of whipped topping, then sprinkle cookie crumbs (I used Nilla Wafers) around the sides and place a cookie on top.