Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

I made these for a going away party for one of my best friends last night.  Kind of a bitter-sweet night.  We had so much fun but it's never easy saying goodbye.

This is a Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake with a Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting (say that 5 times fast), topped with a Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch.  If I had had the time, I would have bought the new Reese's Minis and topped it with that.  But I didn't and I had Cap'n Crunch in my pantry!  Someone made the comment at the party that you know that if it has Cap'n Crunch on it, it's good.  I liked hearing that.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake:
1 Devil's Food Cake Mix
Ingredients on box
1/2 - 1 cup Peanut Butter, depending on how much you like.
I used 1/2 cup and thought it was perfect.  I wanted the chocolate to still be the main flavor.

Bake according to directions on box.

Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting:
1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter, room temperature
2 tsp. Vanilla
1/2 - 1 cup of creamy Peanut Butter (again, you decide how much you like)
4 cups Powdered Sugar
2 Tbsp Milk, if you need to make it a little thinner.  I actually like the consistency that it was.  Perfect for piping.

Carson's Kindergarten Graduation Cake/Cupcakes

There are always things that I wish I could have done better but I do love how this turned out.
However, the one thing I really wish would have worked was that I planned on having fondant stars on wires sticking out of the top of the cake.  But apparently the wires that I used weren't strong enough and of course I didn't put them in until last minute so I didn't have enough time to properly fix the problem so I ended up just putting the fondant stars on top of the cake to cover the holes that I had made with the wires.

I used my pudding cupcake recipe and my marshmallow fondant recipe

Me and the graduate, Carson.

My husband cut out the wood for me to make the cupcake stand.  He said he felt like he was on Cupcake Wars.  We would make a good team on that show.

Cake Balls and Pretzels

Happy Mother's Day!



Here's what I want to know:
1. Why are these SO addictive?
2. Why is it so impossible for me to make cake balls look decent? It seems like everyone else can do it. When I make them, they are delicious but not so attactive. These were the best of the group.

I think I need a face-to-face lesson from Bakerella herself.

Take The Cake

This is my 6 year old son, Carson who was in his school's Take The Cake decorating competition yesterday. He took 2nd place in the Kindergarten competition out of 7. He came up with the design mostly by himself. It was actually his dad who intervened to try and make it a little better. It's a Black Widow Spider.

They had one hour to decorate. He finished just under 4 minutes. We had 56 minutes left plus 30 minutes of judging so we went and grabbed dinner while we were waiting. We are so proud of him and it was so much fun!

The wedding of Q and U was also yesterday. The kids did such a good job and it was so cute.

The cake did not turn out great. It was ok, especially for a kindergarten class but I wasn't happy with it. It has been very hot here in AZ lately and the fondant was hard to work with. Oh well! I've decided that cupcakes are probably more my thing. It did taste great, though! 

Q & U Wedding Cake

You are going to get a kick out of this.  This is not a real wedding cake.  It's actually a practice wedding cake for the wedding of the letters Q and U for my son's kindergarten class in a couple of weeks.  After school the other day, his teacher and some of the parents were talking about the upcoming nuptials, and his teacher asked who would like to make a wedding cake.  Stupidly, I answered, "I Do!" (No pun intended.)  Have I ever made a wedding cake?  No.  Have I ever made anything that would remotely come close to one?  No.  But I thought it would be fun.  I decided that I wanted to practice first.  So I did.  

Mistake #1. I made the bottom layer out of Rice Krispie Treats, and it's not thick enough.  It's also a different color than the other two layers even though they're all covered in white frosting underneath the fondant.  

Mistake #2. I got impatient towards the end and messed up.  Most of that is either covered up by flowers or in the back.  

Mistake #3. I didn't level the cakes so the top is kind of lop-sided.  

Click here for the cake recipe.

Light Saber Cake & Yoda Soda

My son, Carson, wanted a Star Wars Birthday Party.  This is the easiest cake we could come up with.

The Cake: (try to ignore the seams in the fondant)

Make a regular 9 x 13 cake.  Cut into 3 strips and lay end to end.  Frost the "light" part of the light saber and cover with Marshmallow Fondant.  Then frost the handle with gray frosting (vanilla frosting with a little black food coloring) and pipe black frosting for details. 

This was a team effort with my husband.  He is awesome!

Yoda Soda is this... green Kool Aid.  And if you can't find green Kool Aid like I couldn't last night at Walmart, buy the invisible Kool Aid and add green food coloring.  It was really cool (and simple) and the kids loved it.

Chocolate and Caramel Rice Krispey Treats

 I got this awesome recipe from my sister, Suzie. 

  Rice Krispey Treats:

Ingredients:

3 Tbsp. Margarine or Butter

1 10 oz package of Marshmallows

6 Cups of Rice Krispies

Directions:  

Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat.  Add marshmallows and stir until almost completely melted.  If you let them cook for too long, your Rice Krispey Treats will be hard.  Remove from heat.  Fold in cereal until completely coated.  Spray a baking sheet with Pam and press mixture into the pan.

Caramel:

Ingredients:

1 Cup Butter - 2 Cubes

2 Cups Brown Sugar

1 Cup Corn Syurp

1 Can Sweetened Condensed Milk

1 tsp. Vanilla

Directions:

Add all ingredients in a sauce pan.  Bring to a rolling boil for about 4 minutes stirring almost constantly.  Remove from heat.  

You have to watch it very carefully so it doesn't burn.  I have an electric stove (that I despise) and I turned my back for 2 seconds and mine was well on its way to burning.  So be very careful!

This makes a lot of caramel so you can use about half for this and use the rest for Caramel Popcorn, Caramel Apples, whatever. Or just cut the recipe in half!

Additional Ingredients:

1 bag of White Chocolate Chips

1/2 Bag of Milk Chocolate Chips

Melt white chocolate chips in microwave for 30 second intervals stirring after each time.  Spread over Rice Krispey Treats.  Drizzle caramel over the white chocolate.  Melt half a bag of milk chocolate chips also in 30 second intervals and drizzle over the caramel.  Let set, cut, and serve!

Better Than Sex Cake

If you're offended by or just don't want call it by that name (like if you're making it for your in-laws), some people call it Better Than Anything Cake.



If you're trying to cut calories, this is not the cake for you!
However, if you decide to cheat this cake is definitely worth cheating with.

I'm not sure who came up with the recipe but it wasn't me. I wish it had been, it's so good.

1 box of Devil's Food Cake Mix and ingredients to make it
1 can of Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 jar of Caramel Ice Cream Topping
1 container of Cool Whip or 1/2 pint of Whipping Cream and sugar to make it
2 small or 1 big Heath Bar

Make the cake according to directions on the box. Let cool when finished.
Poke holes into the cake with the end of a wooden spoon. Pour the sweetened condensed milk all over the cake. Then do the same with the caramel. Spread the cream over the top. Crush up the candy bar and top the cake with it. Let chill in the fridge for at least a couple of hours.

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

I based this recipe off another recipe that my mom sent me and I changed it a little.
In my attempt at eating healthier but still having yummy food, I bought ground Flax Seed to add to my food. Trust me, I was not thrilled about the idea at first. But these are super good cookies and you can't taste the flax seed at all. Definitely worth the investment. And I don't feel as guilty eating them compared to some of my other recipes.
My kids love these. Next time I will for sure make a double batch and freeze a bunch so I can sneak one (or three) every now and then.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups All-purpose or wheat flour
1 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Nutmeg
1 tsp. Cinnamon
2 Tbsp. Ground Flax Seed
3/4 cup Applesauce
1 Egg
1 cup mashed ripe Bananas
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 1/2 cup Rolled Oats
1 cup Mini Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a large bowl, stir flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and flax together.
Add applesauce, egg, bananas, and vanilla. Mix.
Add oats and chocolate chips and mix again.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until edges are golden brown.

Jr. Mint Cupcakes

Sorry for the recipe overload today. I was having such a hard time last week and then I did all of this and needed to put them up.

I've already put this recipe on my blog but I made them again and they're pretty cute so I wanted to add the pictures.
Click here for the recipe.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Pretzels

I got this idea from my awesome sister, Suzie! My family's been helping me out a lot lately with ideas. Thanks guys!

So basically, you get a Reese's Bell or 1/2 of a Reese's Miniature cup and put it on a pretzel. Put it in the oven for a few minutes or the microwave for about 30 seconds. Super yummy. It tastes a lot like a Take 5.
You can also use rolos instead of or in addition to Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

Scotcheroos

Sweet Goodness.

I think this might be a Rice Krispey recipe, not sure. All I know is I've loved these ever since I was little.

Ingredients:
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Light Corn Syrup
1 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter
6 Cups Rice Krispies

Topping:
1 Cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1 Cup Butterscotch Chocolate Chips

Combine sugar and corn syrup in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Once it starts to bubble, remove from heat and add peanut butter. Once it's well mixed, fold in Rice Krispies. Pour mixture into a 9 x 13 cake pan.

Melt butterscotch chips and semi-sweet chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl for 30 seconds. Remove and stir. Repeat one to two more times. Once completely melted, pour over Rice Krispey mixture and spread evenly. Cut soon after or else they harden and it's really hard to cut after that.

Oh and as a little side note, make sure you lick the spoons. It's delicious and you don't have to worry about salmonella poisoning like with cookie dough so lick away!

Deep Dark Chocolate Moist Cake

Steve and I went on a date (yes, that's my husband) the other night to Red Lobster. They have the deal right now where you get 2 Entrees, 2 salads, and either a dessert or appetizer. Of course, we chose the dessert. It's called Chocoalte Wave and oh my gosh it was good. It was so moist and gooey and rich and delicious. So ever since I've been craving it. I found this recipe online. And although I don't think it comes close to the Chocolate Wave, it's still pretty good.

I got this recipe off of Recipe Zaar.

Ingredients
1 (515 g) box devil's food cake mix
1 1/4 cups water
1/3 cup canola oil
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons dark molasses

Directions:
Place the two layer size packaged devils food cake mix in a large mixer bowl, and sift out lumps.
Add all other ingredients into bowl, and beat well, until combined and thick.
Bake in greased cake pans at 350 degrees preheated oven.
Bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick or tester comes away clean.
Cool ten minutes, invert onto cooling rack.
Fill and frost with your favourite frosting.

I also cut each layer in half, so there were 4 layers of cake and did frosting inbetween each layer. And this time I was going to try and make my own frosting, but I didn't have some of the stuff on hand so I used canned. 2 Cans actually. I also used crushed up oreos on the side and a little on the top.
Why is it that when you see people put stuff on the sides of cakes does it look so easy? I saw a guy on Food Network last week putting coconut on the sides of his cake and he did the whole cake in about 20 seconds and it looked amazing. There were oreo crumbs all over my kitchen! If you have any good tips, I would love to hear.

Chocolate Souffles

I wanted to practice an elegant dessert for Valentine's Day just to make sure that when the day comes, I can actually pull it off. However, even though they were good, I think I have other things that I prefer. But I do like the fact that I actually made these and they turned out well. And I did find that you can get a set of 4 Ramekins at the World Market for $3! Great Bunko or Birthday gifts! They also come in navy blue and lime green. Really cute.

I got this recipe from Food Network. Enjoy!

Ingredients
7 ounces finely chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus for preparing the molds
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons warm water
1/2 cup sugar, plus 2 tablespoons
8 large egg whites, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Confectioners' sugar for garnish

Directions
Brush 6 (6-ounce) ramekins with soft butter, then coat with sugar. Put the prepared ramekins in the freezer. (This can be done a day ahead.)
Set an oven rack in lower third of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees F.
Put the chocolate and butter in a medium heatproof bowl. Bring a saucepan filled with an inch or so of water to a very slow simmer; set the bowl over, but not touching, the water. Stir the chocolate occasionally until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract. Set aside.
Combine the egg yolks and warm water in the bowl of a standing mixer or large bowl and beat until frothy. Gradually add 2 tablespoons sugar, and continue beating until ribbons form, about 5 minutes. Very lightly fold the yolks into the chocolate mixture. (Rinse the bowl well, if using for beating the egg whites.)
Remove prepared ramekins from freezer. Put the egg whites in the bowl of a standing mixer, or large non-reactive bowl, add the lemon juice. Beat on medium until frothy; then gradually add the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar and increase speed to high. Beat until the whites hold a stiff but not dry peak.
Working quickly, fold about a third of the egg whites into the chocolate to lighten; then fold in remaining whites until blended. Gently ladle or spoon the souffle mixture into the ramekins, and place on a baking sheet. (Level off the surface with a straight edge, scraping any excess mixture back into the bowl.)
Immediately bake until the souffle rises about 1 1/2 inches from the ramekins, and the tops are touched with brown, about 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven, dust with confectioners' sugar and serve immediately.

Landon's 3rd Birthday Cake

This cake is for our little Rock Star who turned 3 today. I will admit, definitely not my best work. But in my defense, it was 8:00 at night after a long day of partying. Is that spelled right? Looks weird.
Anyway.... again, not a homemade cake or frosting, but I'm kind of proud of my work so I thought I'd post it. I'll have another shot at this cake next week when we have a friend birthday party and I will be privelaged enough to make it again. At least I have a better idea of what I'm doing now. Oh, and if you know what guitars actually look like, please don't look too closely. Thanks!

This was after his bath or he would have still had his mohawk done. And no, it's not a real mohawk, it's a foax-hauk but his hair is just that light and thin so you can't really see it here.

T-Rex Cake

Carson's 5th Birthday Cake

Recipe:
1 Cake Mix (plus ingredients to make it)
3 Cans of frosting
Food Coloring
:)

I took the easy way out.
Ok, again, I had to post it just cuz I'm proud of my accomplishment.
Maybe I should have made part of it from scratch so I could be helpful.

Puppy Chow (AKA Muddy Buddies)

I'm not sure why we call this Puppy Chow, but we do and it is good!

1 Box Rice Chex (12.8 oz)
2 Cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1 Cup Peanut Butter
1 Cube Margarine (Room temp)
1/2 tsp. Vanilla
Powdered Sugar

In a pan, melt chocolate, peanut butter, and margarine that is room temperature together over medium heat. Constantly stir. Do not over cook. When melted, remove from heat and add vanilla. Mix with cereal until evenly coated. Place in Zip Lock bag and add powdered sugar. I do about 1/4 of the batch at a time. Be generous with your powdered sugar so all you see is white, but not too much.

Funny story, a few years ago I was making this and while melting the chocolate mixture, it turned into fudge. Which was actually really good. The next few times I made it, it did the same thing! The only thing that I did differently was that I used butter and it wasn't room temp. It may have been on too high a heat or cooked for too long, too. Anyway, I added some marshmallows and graham crackers to the "fudge" and it was really yummy.

Pudding Cupcakes

Pudding Cupcakes:
1 Box Devils Food Cake Mix
4 Eggs
1 Cup Veg. Oil
1/2 Cup Water
1 Small Box Instant Chocolate Pudding Mix
1 Cup Sour Cream

Topping:
1 Can of Chocoalte Frosting
Crushed Oreos
Marshmallow Fondant Recipe
 or
Your favorite frosting and crushed up candy bar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the cake mix, eggs, oil, water, pudding mix, and sour cream together. Scoop into paper lined muffin cups. Bake for 22-25 minutes. Let cool. Frost with chocolate frosting.
Crush Oreos and dip cupcakes in the crumbs.
Make Marshmallow Fondant Recipe. Roll out and cut out with cookie cutter. Place on cupcakes. You can also use gummy worms.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

One of our favorites!

1 Cup of Libby's Canned Pumpkin
3/4 Cup Sugar
1/4 Cup Vegetable Oil
1/4 Cup Applesauce
1 Egg
2 Cups Flour
2 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Cinnamon
2 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Milk
1 Cup Mini Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1 tsp. Vanilla

Dissolve baking soda in milk; set aside.
In large bowl add pumpkin, sugar, oil, and egg; stir. Add four, baking powder, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and baking soda mixture. Mix well. Stir in vanilla and chocolate chips.
Spoon onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 9-11 minutes.

Homemade Oreos

1 Box Devils Food Cake Mix
1 Cube Melted Margarine
2 Eggs
Favorite Frosting

Preheat Oven to 350. Combine cake mix, margarine, and eggs together and mix well. Roll into balls or scoop onto cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool and frost.
Store in air tight container to keep extra soft!