Waffle Mix: Preparing for Baby

The other day I made a muffin mix to help save time and make my life a bit easier after the baby arrives.  Shortly after that I was making waffles for dinner, I love breakfast for dinner, and as I was starting to mix the dry ingredients I thought, I should make a double batch of this.  I already have a homemade pancake mix I keep in my pantry and I swear by it.  Now whipping up a pancake mix or waffle mix from scratch for a meal doesn't take hours, and it's far from difficult, but why not take short cuts when possible.  I think we all have moments when it's time to cook breakfast (especially me because I can't seem to get the gumption to fix anything beyond cereal in the mornings) when even making pancakes from scratch seems daunting.  With the mix already made I dread it less and it literally takes me under 5 minutes to mix up the batter.  There's less of a mess because I only have to get out the milk and an egg, and anything that saves me some clean up I'm all about. 


I love homemade waffles.  Since I got my waffle iron and started making them from scratch I can't bring myself to buy them from the store. They just don't measure up, and we use it so much I'm wanting to upgrade to a waffle iron that makes four waffles at a time instead of the 2 mine makes.  I have to say, I think mine are pretty darn delicious and I've had others confirm it.  One batch usually makes about 15 waffles, give or take, so I don't have to mix up batter every time I want waffles but wouldn't it be nice to have half the work done for me already?  The answer, yes.


I didn't have enough flour to make a whole canister of mix like I would have like to, but I did have some quart size baggies.  Generally I hate using these for anything other than freezer stuff because I seem to run out of them too quickly and I hate buying them, but I decided this was worth it.  So I took 2 quart size baggies, mixed up the dry ingredients:

1 3/4c flour

2T Sugar

1T baking powder

1/4t ground cinnamon 

and put them in each baggie, labeling them with the wet ingredients needed to make the batter:

1 3/4c milk

1/2c oil or melted butter

2eggs

1t vanilla

I didn't add the directions for mixing because it's really just mixing the wet together and adding it to the dry.  When I get more flour I want to make a canister of waffle mix and if you have enough to do this then each time you make a batch you will need 2cups of the dry mix.

I love these little short cuts and having things already made up.  I feel like I'm getting more and more prepared for after the baby arrives, with ways to make things easier for me.  This would also be great to do if you know you're going to be having company staying with you.  Mix up a batch of dry ingredients and store it in your pantry so you can spend less time in the kitchen and more time visiting and spending time with your family. 

Red Velvet Cupcakes-Cupcakes for a Cure

The official beginning of the Relay for Life year started September 1st, and I had such good intentions to send cupcakes to work with my mom once a month starting then.  However, as always September through December is a crazy busy time of year with the holidays and Grant's birthday and I never ended up getting around to it. 
So I figured I only have 4 months from now until the end of the school year to raise money with cupcakes and I better get started.  Naturally with Valentine's Day this week I thought red velvet would be the perfect flavor, plus I have never made red velvet and have been wanting to for awhile now.

I used the red velvet recipe from the girls of Georgetown Cupcakes except I didn't use red food coloring, I used the Red Velvet Emulsion I also used for the Red Velvet cut out cookies.  Since the recipe was from Georgetown Cupcakes I thought I would be blown away with a really great flavor but I have to say I was a little disappointed.  There wasn't enough of a chocolate flavor to satisfy me.  The recipe calls for 2 1/2T cocoa and I have to say next time I will be using 1/4c to add more flavor.  Most of the recipes from Katherine and Sophie say they will make 12 cupcakes and I always somehow end up with 18, I thought this would be the same for their red velvet recipe so I only added 1 1/2T red velvet emulsion.  This recipe ended up making 24 cupcakes so I really should have added 2T of the emulsion and I plan to next time I make them.

All this being said, my husband said they tasted good and they were really moist right out of the oven.  They rose perfectly and other than wanting a little deeper red color and a little extra cocoa flavor they seemed perfect.

Red Velvet Heart Cookies

I have had it in my mind to make Red Velvet cookies for awhile now and I figured with Valentines day being this week it was the perfect time to give it a whirl.  I don't even really know when the idea came to me but I saw it first here.  She used Red Velvet Emulsion and one of the things that's kept me from making red velvet cupcakes and cookies is that I didn't want to have to buy large amounts of red food coloring.  Not to mention it's difficult to get a deep red color in frosting let alone in cookie and cake batter.  The emulsion seemed like the perfect solution and I immediately bought mine at Walmart.

While I originally saw this recipe for Red Velvet cut outs I didn't want to buy the dry buttermilk the recipe called for because I figured it would expire before I could use it all since I don't have any other recipes that call for it.  I searched around and came across this recipe and decided to give it a try with a couple changes.

I only made half a recipe since it was the first time I've made them and didn't know how they would taste and I didn't want a crap load of cookies sitting around for me to eat.  Here is the half recipe with the addition of the Red Velvet Emulsion and baking powder since the original recipe didn't call for any and I thought that was a little weird.  I also used margarine sticks instead of real butter because they are less expensive and it's what I use in all my other cookie recipes.

Red Velvet Heart Cookies

1 stick margarine at room temp

1c sugar

2T cocoa powder

1 egg

1 1/2t vanilla

1/4t salt

1 3/4c flour

1/4t baking powder

1/2t Red Velvet Emulsion

Cream butter, sugar, and salt.  Add egg, vanilla, and Red Velvet Emulsion.  Mix until combined.  Add flour, cocoa, and baking powder.  Beat until dough is forming a ball and coming away from the sides of the mixer bowl.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or over night.  Roll  and cut into shapes.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. 

Grant had so much fun helping mix the dough together and then putting sprinkles on the frosted cookies.

 I had intended to make homemade cream cheese frosting but didn't have enough cream cheese so instead I used a store bought can of frosting.  Grant doesn't like frosting on his cakes or cookies so I left half of them unfrosted.  They are tasty either way.

Honey Oat Cinnamon Muffins

I think I've mentioned it before but my little guy LOVES mini muffins.  he will literally sit and eat 9 of them for a snack if I let him.  He is picky about what they look like, just like his regular food.  I can't put blueberries, nuts, any kind of dried fruit, any chunky fruit for that matter, no streusel or cinnamon/sugar topping, or pretty  much anything he can see and pick out.  If he sees anything in the muffin it's an automatic, "that's yucky mama" and they are left for me to finish off.

So not just any muffin recipe will do and of course it has to have plenty of flavor so I'm always on the lookout for new recipes so he doesn't get bored and I don't get tired of making them every other day or so.

I found this recipe for Honey Oat Cinnamon Muffins while I was searching for something a little healthier.  I figure if he's eating them that quickly I need to start sneaking in some good stuff.  I was a little hesitant about what they would look like having oats in them, because I knew they would look a little different and that could mean Grant wouldn't even try them.  To my surprise he didn't take a second look and was just excited I was making him more muffins.  They turned out really moist and pretty tasty.  I think I will add a shake or 2 of cloves and maybe even 1/2t more cinnamon the next time I make them though, they needed just a little extra umph if you ask me, but that's just my opinion.

I changed a couple things about the recipe.  First I halved it because I don't like to make more than 1 pan of 24 mini muffins (I'm impatient and at times lazy so I want all my muffins to go in once to the oven so I can clean and be done), I actually got 23 mini muffins out of a half batch.  I also added a couple shakes of nutmeg and still used the full 1t vanilla that was in the original recipe.  I bake mine at 350 degrees instead of 375 degrees but this is only because my oven is really weird and once I start trying to put it above 350 it tends to just keep going up and before I know it my oven is at nearly 500 degrees and whatever I'm cooking/baking is burnt to a crisp.  Needless to say after this happening a couple times I quit baking anything above 350 and just adjust the time for the recipes.
For the mini muffins I made I baked them at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes and they were perfect.

Honey Oat Muffins 

(full recipe with my changes added in)

1 3/4c oats

1c flour

2 1/2t baking powder

1/2t baking soda

1/4t salt

1/2 c brown sugar lightly packed

2 eggs at room temp

3/4c buttermilk

1/4c veggie oil

2t vanilla

1t cinnamon

3T honey

4 shakes of nutmeg

In a large bowl whisk eggs and brown sugar until combined.  Add buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and honey.  Whisk until combined and lump free.  Stir in oats.

 In a separate bowl sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients.  Stir just until combined.

Fill muffin pan (make sure you spray it with non stick spray if you aren't using paper muffin cups), each about 2/3 full of batter.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes (this is for mini muffins, timing will be different if you are making regular size muffins).

Pioneer Woman's Cobbler

I'm back with another Pioneer Woman recipe review, or rave, however you want to look at it.  She has a recipe for Blackberry cobbler in her 1st cookbook.  I have made it many times using blueberries, both frozen and fresh with amazingly good results.  A couple weekends ago we had my Dad, his wife, and my sister over for an early Christmas dinner and I decided to make a peach version.  My husband has been begging me to make a peach for months, don't really have a good reason as to why it's taken me so long but oh well, better late than never.

I had frozen peaches I got off my mom's peach tree over the summer and thawed them in the fridge overnight.  I cut the pieces I thought were a little too big and did everything else exactly as the recipe says.

This has become my go-to dessert.  For Thanksgiving I was asked to bring a dessert and rolls to my Aunts house and being the procrastinator I am I waited until the morning of to make my dessert, cherry bars.  I of course screwed up the recipe because I was in a hurry and ended up burning the top (they were actually still pretty tasty and everyone at my mom's loved them despite their burned tops).  I decided I couldn't go empty handed and whipped up a blueberry version of this cobbler in no time.  As long as you keep some frozen fruit (blueberries, peaches, raspberries, or blackberries) in your freezer the other ingredients you will more than likely find in your pantry.

This is the only cobbler recipe I've ever made so I don't know how others taste or even what they look like but this recipe is literally just mixing up the ingredients in a bowl, dropping you fruit in, sprinkling sugar on top, and baking it.  Can't get a whole lot easier in my opinion.  Not to mention it's delish!  For the peach I used a 9x13 baking dish and it was rather thin so I would recommend a deep dish pie plate (which is what I normally use) or an 8x11 baking dish.  If you have neither of these sizes a 9x13 will work just don't leave it in the oven the full hour since it is quite a bit thinner than the one in the recipe.

Christmas Morning Mini Monkey Bread

  I'm sad Christmas is over but very much looking forward to the new year.  This year I finally got to make a special Christmas morning breakfast.  Every other year we have ended up eating whatever we can find in the cabinets.  I decided I wanted something simple and quick and of course yummy, so Monkey Bread it was.  I made a mini version, recipe here.

 

I've never made or ate the regular version most people make in a Bundt pan but I don't own one and had no desire to buy one and try to find room in my already full cabinets.  That's why I decided to do the mini version in cupcake tins instead.

 

It was delicious, and even the reheated leftovers were scrumptious.

 

Cookie Dough Christmas Gift

This Christmas was supposed to be the first Christmas we seriously cut back and focused on our only son instead of the 20 some parents, siblings, co-workers, friends, cousins, nieces, nephews, bosses, etc.  The list goes on and on.  I have been completely content with this decision since June (yes I was thinking about Christmas back in June, it's a sickness for which there is no cure), however my husband has struggled. 

I love him dearly and he is a person who would do anything for you.  When it comes to Christmas he just can't not gift, especially if he knows that person is gifting to him.  Well it's down to the wire in terms of Christmas shopping and our budget is maxed but he was feeling we should do something for my sister and our future brother-in-law as they have watched Grant for us when needed and helped us move, twice, and of course because we love them.  This would have been fine except for the timing and the money aspect, because I didn't plan for it therefore our budget was spent.  I started trying to think of something small, something with some meaning, and something that they would appreciate.  I couldn't think of any homemade crafty gift nor did I want to add another project to my already full list.  I thought of the stuff I bake, then had to nix that idea because they are currently living with my mom saving money to buy their first house before they get married this summer, and my mom bakes LOADS during the holidays.  So it would be kind of pointless to send  more baked goods that would inevitably go stale due to the sheer amount of cookies and such filling my mom's counters.

I happened to come across this post about neighbor gifts of raw cookie dough in a cute container with an adorable tag and thought, BINGO that's perfect. My sister's favorite are chocolate chip cookies.  Since she was little her afternoon snack every day was Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies and juice, and she loves homemade ones but between going to school full time and working 5 days a week she has zero time to bake.  Not to mention I don't think she truly enjoys baking the way my mom and I do.  My thinking was to find some cute containers, add a tag, and fill them with dough of each of their favorite cookies.  This way they could have homemade anytime they got the hankering and it would require almost zero work on either of their parts.  Easier and better than buying the Pillsbury refrigerated dough from Wally-world.

I thought I would be able to find some really cute Christmas themed containers but no such luck.  So instead I bought these:

I found them in the same section as the mason jars and canning equipment.  I immediately thought they would be a perfect substitute and of good quality for reusing later, and BONUS, I could make them festive using my good ol' Cricut and some vinyl I already had on hand.

Problem solved.  They were $2.27 for a package of 3, so a little more than $0.75 each, not bad if you ask me.

I created a couple tags in picmonkey (I am seriously falling in love with this website), with a cute saying and directions for baking them.  I saved them as images, copied them into a Microsoft works word document then printed it on white cardstock.

Finished product:

Cookie dough containers would also be a great gift for any mother with young children, as I know from experience baking cookies from scratch can be daunting when your little one desperately wants to "help" with every step and you have a to-do list a mile long.  It would be great to have some dough already in the freezer that only requires you to drop it on the cookie sheet.  Quick and easy cleanup for mom, delicious cookies for the kids.

I love the idea of giving these to many of our family members next year instead of baked cookies or a store bought gift.   Baking ingredients go on sale pretty inexpensively this time of year.  I bought Nestle chocolate chips for all of $0.55 a bag a couple weeks ago and my local Aldi grocery store has them year round for $1.29 a bag.  So for us and the amount of people we would like to gift to, this would be a seriously cost effective gift.  Not to mention I'm big on gifts that don't just take up cabinet/closet space, but are useful.

Here's a better view of the tags I created:

 

Cookie Dough Evening

Every year for the last 10 (and even before that with my mom) I have taken an entire day during he Christmas season and baked.  Mostly cookies but also quick breads, cupcakes, and candy.  I usually give these out to friends, family, and coworkers.  I always looked forward to my "baking day", that is until I had Grant.  Suddenly the idea of spending hours in my kitchen, more hours than before since I was interrupted by the needs of a child, no longer seemed like a fun tradition.  I pushed through for a couple years, making sure my husband didn't make plans for a specific Saturday, so I could at least have backup when needed. 

This year was a different story.  Now being pregnant and having a 3 year old, I had no desire, not one in my entire body, to spend a day baking from sun up to sun down.  Not to mention the fact that I didn't have a whole lot of people to give them out to since my mom also bakes and gives them to part of the people we know and I no longer have co-workers.  I decided I needed a new plan.  I still love baking and the idea of a Christmas season with no cookies and candy was unacceptable in my mind.

My solution for making this year easier and quicker for me was making and freezing the dough ahead of time.  I decided the best option for me was to take an evening or a couple and mix up all the cookie batters I planned on using, roll them into logs, and freeze them to bring out and bake whenever I wanted.  Genius right? 

So last night after Grant went to sleep I decided to get my butt in gear and at least make 1 batch of dough.  Turns out once I started I figured why stop?  I ended up making 3 batches of cookie dough, which is all the cookies I plan on making.  Since we are having my dad over for an early Christmas dinner, I went ahead and baked a handful of each kind before freezing the dough.

I usually stick to the same recipes I've made for years, I am after all a creature of routine and habit.  This year I wanted to try a different chocolate chip cookie recipe.  My mom's is more of a cakey cookie and I was in search of something a little crunchier.  I came across this Pioneer Woman recipe and decided to give it a whirl, after all she's never steered me wrong before.

Seeing this just makes me want to sit and eat cookie dough straight from the bowl.

 

The only thing I omitted from Ree's recipe was the flax seed.  I don't keep it in my pantry therefore I don't use it.

Golden brown to perfection!  When I first read the recipe and saw it called for instant coffee granules I was a little scared, I admit.  I love coffee but didn't think I wanted that flavor in my chocolate chip cookies.  However I decided to trust my friend Ree (oh how I wish she was actually my friend and would have me over for dinner, yum!) and add them to the batter.  I tasted the batter, because you can't have cookie batter without tasting it right? and I could taste the coffee.  I immediately thought, "crap! this is not what I wanted, what am I gonna do with all this cookie dough now?"  But I soldiered through and baked a few to at least let my husband and family try them, after all I figured I could pawn them off on someone if I didn't like the flavor.  When they baked up I tried one with the last hope that the flavor of coffee wasn't prevalent, and guess what?  No coffee flavor!

 

I was so excited.  It was just as Ree said, the coffee granules just give the cookies a little richer chocolate flavor and my oh my they are delish.  Crunchy and chocolatey and just what I was searching for in a new chocolate chip cookie recipe.  I had my husband try them just to be sure my taste buds weren't the only ones not tasting coffee. I didn't tell him why I wanted him to try them just that I tried a new recipe and wanted his opinion.  His comment was, "they taste like a chocolate chip cookie to me".  Translation, no coffee flavor!

 

When I found Pioneer Woman's chocolate chip cookie recipe I also came across this Brown Sugar Oatmeal cookie recipe.  Now, I'm not a huge fan of oatmeal cookies, but my mom and future brother-in-law love them.  My mom has complained in years past that she can't find a good recipe for them.  These looked divine, and I love me some brown sugar in anything so I figured I probably couldn't go wrong.

They come out looking almost, in my opinion, overcooked.  Trust me when I say they are not.  This is just the goodness of all that brown sugar.  It makes it crunchy, and gives it a really nice flavor that I think is lacking in a lot of oatmeal cookie recipes.  I plan on adding some raisins to the dough I already made and froze when I go to bake a large batch of them.

 

The last cookie I made was one I've been making for the last 4-5 years.  At some point I had a bag of Nestle chocolate chips, not sure why since no other cookie or candy I make calls for them.  On that bag there was this recipe:

 

White Chip Chocolate Cookies

2 1/4c flour

2/3c cocoa

1t baking soda

1/4t salt

1c butter

3/4c granulated sugar

2/3c packed brown sugar

1t vanilla

2 large eggs

2c white chocolate chips

 

Preheat oven to 350.  Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a bowl, mix.  In a separate bowl beat butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla until creamy.  Add eggs 1 at a time beating well after each addition.  Gradually beat in flour mixture.  Stir in chips.  Drop by tablespoonful on baking sheet.  Bake 9-11 minutes.

 

A gave them a try on a whim way back then and have been making them ever since.  They are one of the few cookies that only I make so I get to take them to my mom and sister and give them away.  Pretty much every other cookie I bake, my mom bakes as well so I couldn't ever take her mine, cuz she already had so many of her own.

 

Try your darndest after you mix it up not to taste the chocolatey goodness that is this batter.  I know it's hard, but try.

 

 

Yum!

 

These are 1 of my all time favorite cookies.  I love, love, love, white chocolate chips.  My only piece of advice is to watch while baking these because it's hard to tell if they are fully baked and you can burn them without realizing because they are already dark in color.  I have burned the bottoms of a few of my white chocolate chip cookies thinking they weren't done all the way and then it was too late.  It's a sad day when I have to throw out these favorites of mine.

 

Now for the freezing.  Some people freeze their cookie dough in already formed balls so all you have to do is take them from the freezer, place them on the baking pan, and bake.  I love this method however I only have a fridge freezer in our little apartment and spending hours freezing batch after batch of dough on 1 small cookie sheet doesn't sound like fun to me, or a the way I want to spend an entire day.

 

So instead here's how I do mine.  I take a long piece of plastic wrap and lay it out on the counter.  Spoon my dough on top of that.

 Roll it up in the plastic wrap and twist the ends.

 Place your roll on a piece of foil.

 

Roll the dough in the foil and twist the ends.

 

Write the kind of dough it is on the outside.  I do this with a regular ol' pen and it works just fine.

 

Now pop it in your freezer for when you get a hankering, yes I said hankering, for cookies.

 

 

When you are in the mood for some cookies just put it in the fridge for a couple hours or leave it on the counter to thaw, just don't leave it all day or overnight, there are raw eggs in there after all, and bake as you normally would.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

I love quick breads.  Mainly because I'm super impatient when it comes to waiting for bread to rise and all that.  I prefer to mix up a batter, pour it in a pan, bake, and eat all in under an hour.

I found this recipe here, I love Taste of Home and have tried tons of their recipes, most of which have turned out great.  When I found this one I wrote it down for future use and it's taken me over a month to actually bake it.   Of course now, after having made it and ate it, I'm wondering why on earth I haven't been making this every week since I found the recipe.

Grant loves helping in the kitchen.  I often have to remind myself to be patient and let him help with something no matter how small of a job it is.  I get in a hurry wanting to get things done and catch myself saying no then regretting it later when I think about how that must make him feel if I were to always say no, never letting him help me.  Heck, he might be the next Cake Boss for all I know, lol.

 

The recipe was really easy to follow and I have to say the only thing I would change is the amount of cinnamon sugar mixture I put on top.  There was quite a bit to sprinkle on top and some of it didn't melt into the batter and was still sitting on top after the bread was finished.  I ended up dumping it off.  The bread was still delicious regardless.

 

I doubled the glaze part of the recipe because I love me some glaze.  I could eat it with a spoon.  I don't think you can ever have enough.  Maybe next time I'll triple it.

Grant loved it too and asked for seconds.  We ate this as a dessert because I baked it in the evening but it's going to be perfect for breakfast in the mornings. 

 

I will definitely be making this over and over again.  I think it would even be great to give this bread away as gifts for the holidays in mini or half loaf pans.

 

Yes it is that good, you need to try it....Like right now...

Peanut and Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

I brought granola bars to the Relay for Life event this year and they would have been perfect except I forgot to get them out of the camper for everyone, so no one knew they were even there.  Oh well more for me I guess.

 

I used my favorite granola bar recipe I found here, and used mini 3/4 cup chocolate chips, 1/2 cup peanuts, and 1/4 cup coconut.  The coconut I threw in on a whim and they were delicious but I think I'll add more peanuts next time and just omit the coconut.  I think I could use this granola bar recipe and make various kinds every week and eat one every day and never get tired of them.  They are so yummy!

Chocolate Mint Cucakes

I love making cupcakes and last year I made a bunch to help raise money for the Relay For Life.  My intention was to make chocolate cupcakes with cherry frosting.  However, I made the cherry frosting twice and both times the butter seperated and it was NOT good and I had to dump it out, ugh!  So I had to nix the cherry frosting idea and decided to go with a Chocolate cupcake with mint frosting and Thin Mint cookie crumbles on top.

 

I'm not a huge mint fan, even though I love me some mint chocolate chip ice cream, but I have to say these cupcakes were pretty darn tasty.  I used Lorann's Creme De Menthe flavoring for the frosting.

 

Is it wierd that I love taking pictures of my cupcakes when they turn out pretty.

 

If only it was daytime when I took them so the lighting would be better.

 

 

I feel like a cupcake pro with the plastic containers we bought.  I know that sounds stupid but after using the cardboard cake boxes from Hobby Lobby all last year to transport cupcakes, having the plastic ones with the cupcakes seperated and everything, it was a dream.  Made it alot easier for my mom to take them to work too.

 

A Mini Cupcake Mess & Blueberry Simple Syrup Recipe

This was the scene on my counter the other day as I was trying so hard to make the perfect red, white, and blue mini cupcakes for the 4th of July.

I made a vanilla cupcake  and divided it into 3 bowls using food coloring to color 1 bowl red and 1 blue, leaving the 3rd white.  I put each of the batters into ziploc bags and cut the tip off of one corner so I could easily pipe the batter into the mini cupcake liners.  The only problem with this is I didn't at all pay attention to how much of each I was putting in and ended up over filling each of the liners.  Of course I didn't realize how much I over filled them until they were baking.  All 24 of them overflowed and stuck to the stupid pan and I had no choice but to scrape them out with a butter knife.

I did manage to fill them correctly the 2nd time around and decided to do red and blue cupcakes with white frosting.  I didn't want just a plain vanilla cupcake because that sounded too boring to me so I decided to make a blueberry simple syrup to drizzle over the top and give it a nice flavor.

If you haven't ever tried making a simple syrup for your cakes or cupcakes now is your chance.  It's so easy I couldn't believe it myself. 

Blueberry Simple Syrup
1/2c water
1/2c sugar
1/2c blueberries (or fruit of your choice)
place all in a medium sized pot and bring to a boil.  I couldn't remember what I had read online as far as how long it needed to boil but I let mine go for about 5 minutes until the water turned a pretty purple/blue and the pot looked like this:

Allow to cool down.  Now poke holes in your cake/cupcakes with a toothpick and use a spoon to drizzle the syrup over top.  Make sure to put plenty of syrup on because this is where all the flavor is.  I made the mistake of being a little shy with my simple syrup and regretted it after frosting all my cupcakes and tasting one only to find I couldn't taste the blueberry flavor at all.

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of my finished mini's because we lost electric in the middle of my frosting them and by the time the sun came up in the morning all the cupcakes were gone. 

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Wednesday was my mom's birthday and I made her caramel apple cupcakes and a Kitchenaid mixer cover (more on that another day since I have yet to take a photo of it).
The cupcakes were apple cinnamon, filled and frosted with caramel cream cheese frosting, and a caramel drizzle on top.

 I used the cake recipe and caramel recipe from here by the girls from DC Cupcakes with one change,  I added a couple dashes of nutmeg.  The cakes were a breeze to make but the caramel took FOREVER, or maybe it just seemed that way because I had a 19 month old sitting on my feet ramming my toes with the oven drawer.  The sauce turned out amazingly good but I highly recommend making it when the kiddos are sleeping or not home.  It also takes longer than 20 minutes to fully thicken.  I ended up using mine while it was still a little runny because I was tired of being in the kitchen and just wanted the cupcakes finished.  It still tastes just as good whether runny or thick.

The recipe for the frosting is the vanilla cream cheese frosting by the DC cupcake girls as well, but with 4T of the caramel sauce mixed in at the end.  I could have licked the bowl the frosting was so tasty.

Thin Mint Cupcake

I have not been doing any sewing recently and I have to confess I'm having some major withdrawal symptoms.  Most of my sewing supplies are in my mom's basement in unmarked boxes mixed in with about 50 other unmarked boxes stacked to the ceiling.  Finding my supplies would be like searching for that one missing sock that you swear the dryer ate.  Every time I get it in my mind I'm actually gonna find my sewing stuff, I stand in front of the piles and piles of boxes and just stare at them for a good 10 minutes before deciding I should just start rebuying the needed supplies.

Anyway...

What have I been doing with my time you ask?  Baking cupcakes!
My mom and I are signed up for our local Relay For Life in June.  My family has been deeply effected by cancer with 2 of my aunts and my mother having gone through treatment for breast cancer and my grandmother dying of lung cancer, so this is close to my heart.  We decided we wanted to try and raise money for our team and my mom came up with the idea of Cupcakes for a Cure.  Every Wednesday for the last 3 weeks she has taken cupcakes to her school where people donate money for my cupcakes.  I was so super excited to try out some of my recipes and I wanted to share my Thin Mint with every one.

Since it is Girl Scout cookie season and my favorite are Thin Mints.  I've been wanting to make a Thin Mint cupcake forever and it came out perfect!  I adapted this recipe using the WASC version I found at Cakecentral

Thin Mint Cupcakes
2c chocolate cake mix
1/2 c flour
1/2c sugar
1T cocoa powder
1/4t salt
2Tchocolate pudding mix
2 egg whites
1/2 c sour cream
2/3c coffee
1/4 c chocolate milk
1T oil
1t vanilla
1c crushed thin mint cookie crumbs
approximately 1/4t creme de menthe Lorann flavoring (the flavoring should be very light since a thin mint does not have a strong mint flavor.  Be sure to add this flavoring to taste)

wisk all dry ingredients together then add all other ingredients and mix with hand mixer.

Chocolate Mint Buttercream
1/2c soft butter
3T milk
2 cups sifted powdered sugar
1c melted semi sweet chocolate chips
approximately 1/4t creme de menthe Lorann flavoring (once again taste your frosting and add just enough flavoring to lightly flavor your frosting with mint)

cream the butter with a hand mixer until its fluffy. add 3T milk and mix. Add powdered sugar in small amounts and mix well.  Pour in melted chocolate chips and mix. Add flavoring to taste.

Yummy!!!

Yummy Banana Bread

I've tried a few different banana bread recipes but this one is by far my favorite.  It has a streusal topping that is so yummy I could scrape it off the top and eat it by itself.  I got the recipe out of the Better Homes and Garden red plaid cookbook.  I have an older copy and my mom's is newer and both the banana bread recipes were different, weird, considering they are the same book just newer versions.  Anyway here is the recipe:

2c flour

1 1/2 t baking pwdr

1/2 t soda

1/4 t cinnamen

1/8 t nutmeg

2 beaten eggs

1 1/2 c mashed bananas (about 5)

1c sugar

1/2c oil

1/4c chopped walnuts

grease the bottom and sides of a loaf pan.  Combine flour, baking pwdr, soda, cinnamen, nutmeg, and 1/4 t salt.  Make a well in center.

In a medium bowl mix eggs, bananas, sugar, and oil.  Add egg mix to flour mix and stir til moist, batter will be lumpy.

Fold in nuts

Top with streusal:  combine 1/4c brown sugar, 3T flour, cut in 2 T butter and stir in 1/3c walnuts.

Mint Chocolate Cookies

My husband was out of town for work and for whatever reason I had a serious need to bake something, specifically chocolate chip cookies.  Unfortunately I didn't have any chocolate chips the only kind of chips I had were dark chocolate with mint.  I found them about a month ago, they are nestle brand.  I wish I would have bought 5 bags because they were $1 with a 50 cent coupon attached, score!

Originally I was going to use a regular chocolate chip cookie recipe and just swap the chips out but then I remembered my white chip chocolate recipe and immediately thought it would be perfect, a chocolate cookie with chocolate and mint chips, delish!

Here is the recipe I used:

Mint Chocolate Cookies

2 1/4 c flour

2/3c cocoa

1tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1c butter

3/4c sugar

2/3c packed brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 large eggs

2c dark chocolate and mint chips

Bake at 350.  Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in bowl.  Beat butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla until creamy.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Gradually beat in flour mixture.  Stir in chips.  Drop on baking sheets.  Bake 9-11 minutes.

Graduation Cake

Here is the infamous graduation cake I confidently took the on the task of making without a single minutes worth of experience with fondant.

Of course with all the packing necessary the one thing I forgot was my camera so this pic is taken with my cell phone.  I think my sister has the ugliest school colors I've every seen, burgundy and golden yellow.  I made 2 9 inch cakes for the bottom layer and 2 6 inch cakes for the top.  Bottom cakes were chocolate cake with chocolate chip cookie dough filling and oh my goodness was it every delicious.  I don't like to brag on myself but I made one heck of a good chocolate cake.  The top cakes were suppose to be lemon cake with blueberry cream cheese filling.  I made these in cupcake form about a month ago.  Here's a lesson to anyone out there thinking of trying this, don't!  The filling works beautifully in cupcakes not in layered cakes.  I made two beautiful and delicious lemon cakes and was so excited about them, then proceeded to make my buttercream dam and add my filling thinking I was home free, wrong!  As I started filling my chocolate cake i turned around to see the top layer of the lemon cake sliding off and taking some of the bottom layer with it.  So I had to scrape the filling off and use my buttercream icing to fill and glue them together. 

I made homemade marshmellow fondant and it was super easy for anyone out there wanting to try it.  It takes about 10 minutes for one batch and cost less than $5.  I used Wilton food coloring in burgundy and golden yellow which worked perfectly.  Of course I had to make 5 batches to get enought for all the decorations and both the cakes.  Covering each cake with fondant is not as easy as cake boss makes it seem, there were obvious flaws in mine I had to cover with fondant decorations.

All in all I'm very happy the cake is done and everyone raved about how good it tasted which is the most important part.  I wasn't crazy about how the cake looked as a whole and I have sworn off doing anymore tiered cakes until I have taken some classes or something because it is serious work.  I now completely understand why custom cakes are so pricey.

Cakeing (is that a word?)

I am praticing with cake flavors to decide what the second layer of my sister's graduation cake should be.  I asked what she wanted and she decided on Chocolate with chocolate chip cookie dough filling and told me I could suprise her with the other flavor.  So of course that means I'm going to have to experiment with a bunch of flavors, which means I wont be fitting into my old jeans any time soon, haha.  I made a Nilla wafer cake last week with banana mousse filling and buttercream icing, it was delish.  I ended up giving it to my mother in law for her birthday.  My decorating wasn't spectacular but hey I'm just starting.

This week I made an orange dreamsicle cake with vanilla mousse and orange flavored buttercream.  I was concerned there might be an overwhelming orange flavor but nope, it was just enough to make it melt in your mouth and that was without any filling or frosting.

Here they are cooling:

Yum!

I got the recipe from cakecentral.com in this thread, and here is the link to all the recipes collected if you don't have time to read through all 376 pages of that thread, haha.  I think I learned more about baking cakes, making filling and icings, and coming up with flavor combinations from that thread than all my hours of watching cake boss and reading cookbooks combined.

My one warning for anyone who attempts to make one of the recipes is that it is a very large recipe.  I used my largest mixing bowl and it was almost full to the top with batter.  1 recipe for me made 2 9inch cakes and 11 cupcakes (of course there are only 10 cupcakes in the above picture because I had to taste test).

Here is my finished cake.  I didn't do any decorating because it was just for us and I really just wanted to try the flavor to see if it would be in the running for the graduation cake.

I love the way layered cakes look.  My husband isnt' a fan of orange flavored anything but he even ate this cake.  I'm over all very proud of myself, especially with this being only my second attempt at making cakes like this.

I'm even more excited that my cousin asked me to help her with a bridal shower this weekend.  She wants me to make lemon flavored cupcakes.  So I'm going to make 12 lemon cupcakes with lemon cream cheese icing and 12 lemon cupcakes with blueberry filling and cream cheese icing, yum doesn't that sound delish.  I've been wanting to try the lemon cake recipe so of course I said yes, and then proceeded to offer my services to make a cupcake stand, recipe box, recipe cards, and some decorations.  I love bridal and baby showers so I just couldn't help myself.

Homemade Croutons

I was walking through Walmart the other day doing my usual weekly grocery shopping and what do I find, loaves of french bread for $0.56, Score!  I was so excited, a bought a loaf without really knowing what I wanted to use it for, but who can pass up bread for $0.56. 
We are having a dinner for my in-laws next weekend to celebrate my mother-in-laws birthday.  We planned on having steak, baked potato, salad, and dessert.  So I thought why not make homemade croutons for the salads.  I had been wanting to try them for a while now but just never got around to it.  Here's how I made mine:

I used about half a loaf of the french bread
salt
pepper
italian seasoning (you could also use garlic if you wanted)
olive oil

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.  Cut your bread into approximately 1/2inch chunks a place in bowl.  Drizzle olive oil on top.  Use salt, pepper, and seasoning of your choice to taste.  I used a good amount of salt and pepper but was nervous about getting too much italian seasoning, after they were finished I wished I would have put more on.  So don't be scared, season liberally for good flavoring.  Mix all ingredients together until bread chunks are evenly covered.  Spread out onto a baking sheet, and bake for approximately 7-10 minutes.  Here's what you end up with:

Place in air tight container or a ziploc bag, and enjoy on salads or to snack on.

Buttercream Recipe

We were invited to 2 cookouts this weekend, one Saturday and one Sunday, and I was asked to bring the dessert for both of them.  Sunday was also my husband's birthday so I needed to make him his usual strawberry cheesecake.  For the cookout on Sunday I decided to make chocolate cupcakes with homemade buttercream icing and boy were they ever tasty. 

Buttercream Icing

1/2c shortening

1/2c real butter

4 c powdered sugar-sifted

1T vanilla

few drops of clear butter flavoring (or more depending on your taste)

3oz (6T) heavy whipping cream

cream shortening and butter til fluffy.  add powdered sugar about a cup at a time, mix until smooth and creamy.  add vanilla, mix.  add cream 2T at a time and mix well after each addition.  add butter flavor, mix well.  Add more powdered sugar if you need a more stiff icing.

You can google buttercream recipe and find a million different combos, I combined a few different ones I liked and came up with the recipe above. 

Enjoy!