Chocolate Cupcakes with Mint Frosting

Nom Nom Nom!

That's what comes to mind when I think of chocolate and mint together.
Those two are a match made in Heaven.

I've had a bag of Andes baking chips in my pantry for the last couple of weeks, and I don't think they were going to make it much longer in there.
My husband kept asking to eat them, and if I didn't move soon, they most likely would have disappeared.

So... I came up with these beauties this past weekend.

BTW, don't you just love the concept of the cupcake?
I know I do.
You can limit your sweet intake, and even share the love.

Alright, alright... here you go.

Chocolate Cupcakes:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 C. Butter, Softened
• 1 C. Suagr
• 1/2 C. Brown Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 2 Tsp. Vanilla
• 1 1/4 C. Flour
• 3/4 C. Cocoa Powder
• 1/2 Tsp. Baking Soda
• 3/4 Tsp. Baking Powder
• 1/2 C. Buttermilk
• 1/2 C. Water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars until fluffy.
Add eggs and vanilla, beat well.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder.
In a large measuring cup, mix together buttermilk and water.
Add dry ingredients and milk mixture alternatively to large mixing bowl, blending well each time.

Bake 15-20 minutes. 

Yields: 24 cupcakes

Mint Frosting:

Ingredients:

• 1 C. Andes Baking Chips
• 1/2 C. Butter, Softened
• 1 Tsp. Vanilla
• 2 C. Powdered Sugar
• 1/3 C. Heavy Cream or Half&Half

 Directions:

In a microwavable bowl, add Andes and bake in 15 sec intervals until melted. Set aside to cool.
Beat butter in a free standing mixing bowl until creamy.
Add vanilla, stir until combined.
Pour in melted chocolate, and beat until creamy.
Add powdered sugar, combine.
Leave beating on slow for 3-5 minutes.
Add heavy cream, beat until fluffy. 

Red Velvet Funnel Cake

This summer our family went to the Great Texas Balloon Race in Longview, Tx. 

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The balloons were beautiful! We got to watch them blow them up. Very interesting. Once they were completely blown up, they were enormous!! These guys were at a minimum of 6 stories.

They had concession stands just like any festival, which meant funnel cake... a must eat!!
The first night we went, it rained us out. We thought would get some the next night..... bug mistake.
The lines had 20+ people in them. I told the boys when we came home I would make them some. I happen to see on the sign that they had Red Velvet!!! What?! I have never heard such a thing.

I was now on a mission. When making normal funnel cakes, you pretty much want to use pancake batter. I already had a box of red velvet cake in the pantry but the tricky part would be getting it to thicken like pancake batter. It turned out to be easier than I expected.

Red Velvet Funnel Cake:

Ingredients:

• 1 box Duncan Hines Red Velvet Cake Mix
• 1 C. Flour
• 1 1/2 C. Buttermilk
• 2 Eggs

•  Criso (for frying)
• Powdered Sugar (topping)

Directions:

In a standing mixing bowl, mix together the flour and cake mix.
In a separate bowl, beat together the buttermilk and eggs.
Pour the liquid mixture into the flour and beat until there are no more lumps.

Warm up oil in pan on medium.
Using a funnel or cake icier drizzle into grease.
I made a circle first and then weaved the inside.
It won't take long to cook, so be careful not to burn it.  It will start to fluff a little and turn darker. Flip once, unless you used enough grease to submerge it.
Place on your plate and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Tah-dah. Enjoy!

Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies

I don't have any idea why I got butterscotch chips.
I've never really liked butterscotch.
Either I grabbed them by mistake or needed them for something and completely forgot what it was for. Needless to say I needed to use them.
Cookies it is. I know how empowering butterscotch can be, so I knew I wanted to make oatmeal ones. I was thinking of adding pecans at first, until I was talking to my grandma and she thought maybe walnuts would go good with them. I ran to the store and bought pecans and walnuts, tasted them both with the butterscotch chips and decided to go with walnuts.
When they came out of the oven, I really thought hmmmm..... these look interesting. If that's what I should say.
I had all 3 of my boys come to the kitchen and we all attempted one at once. I was really hoping I didn't just do all this and they aren't going to be nasty. 
With the first bite, I just wasn't sure. (I'm used to chocolate)
By the time I finished the cookie, it had grown on me. My middle child loved them so much he came back for 2 more before I told him no more until after dinner.

Let me just say though, this cookie is very different.
Pleasant but different.

Ingredients:

• 1 Butter flavored Crisco stick
• 3/4 C. Brown Sugar
• 1/4 C. Sugar
• 2 Tsp. Vanilla
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Tsp. Baking Soda
• 1 1/2 Tsp. Cinnamon
• 1/2 Tsp. Nutmeg
• 1 3/4 C. Flour
• 2 1/2 C. Oats
• 1 Pkg. Butterscotch chips
• 1 C. Chopped Walnuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375.

Cream together Crisco stick and sugars in a mixing bowl.

Add vanilla and eggs, beat until blended.

In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Add flour mixture to mixing bowl.

Add oatmeal, blend.

Add chips and nuts (if you using them).

Bake 8-10 minutes.

Makes about 52 cookies.


**** If you are not using nuts, you may want to cut the amount of butterscotch chips. The walnuts help keep the flavor from being too overwhelming.

Lemon Cheesecake Roll

I'm on another lemon kick, but this time I was also wanting a cheesecake. I didn't want a lemon cheesecake though.. so I kept thinking and thinking until I came up with the Lemon Cheesecake Roll.

The last time I made a rolled cake I was a junior in high school and got the recipe from my French teacher and it was named some kind of log.

Wish I still had that recipe... that would be interesting to try now that I am older, since it called for rum and being a kid you don't much care for anything with a strong taste like rum.

Anywho.

This was my little experiment and how it turned out:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Tsp. Vanilla                                                        1- 8 oz Cream Cheese, softened
• 4 Eggs                                                                      1/2 C. Cool Whip
• 3/4 C.  Sugar                                                            1/4 C. Sugar
• 2 Tbsp. Lemon Juice
• 1 Tsp. California Lemon Peel
• 1 Tsp. Baking Powder
• 3/4 C. Cake Flour
• Powdered Sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.
Using non-stick foil, cover a 9x13 cooking sheet.

In a standing mixer, add eggs, and beat until frothy.

Add sugar, vanilla, lemon juice, and zest, mix.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder.
Add to wet ingredients and blend until batter has no lumps. 

Pour into foiled pan.

Bake 10-15 minutes.


While cake is baking. Get a clean kitchen towel and sprinkle with 1/2 cup powdered sugar.
(I used a dark towel, so you could see how much I put on there and try to make it only the length of your cake)

Give your cake no more than 5 minutes to cool. Slowly remove from foil and lay on top of powdered sugar, I flip it once to cover both sides.

Slowly roll it up, like so::

Keep rolled like this for 1 hour.

In the meantime, you can start your cheesecake filling.

In a small-medium mixing bowl, whisk together cream cheese, cool whip, and sugar.
It should make a thick filling. Refrigerate until the hour is up on the cake.

Slowly and carefully unroll your towel. Get your filling and spread evenly across the entire cake.

 

Roll your cake back up.
Sprinkle a little more powdered sugar on top.

There you go!!


**** This being my first time, I think I will add a little more lemon next time. My husband said it was perfect the way it was... but it didn't hit the lemon spot entirely for me.

S'more Krispies

Rice Krispies.... oh are they dangerous!!!

You know what I mean, they are completely and highly addictive.
I also usually don't want to try them any other way because they are perfect just the way they are.

HOWEVER........

Occasionally, I get that wild hair and can't resist.
Sometimes they are a success and others, not so much.

One time on Pinterest, I saw these Lemon Rice Krispies and had to try them.

I love my lemon but I can actually say I hated those. Those made the never again list, unless by some miracle all the ingredients changes. Sad, I know.

Anyways, my boys love s'mores. I'm not the biggest fan but if you think about it, Rice Krispies are practically already s'mores, all they are missing are the chocolate.

I scammed my pantry and had everything I needed and here is what came of S'more Krispies.

Be Aware: They are just as addicting as the original Rice Krispies.

 Ingredients:

• 4 Tbsp. Butter
• 1/2 Tsp. Vanilla
• 4 2/3 C. Marshmallows
• 1 C. Crushed Graham Crackers
• 1/4-1/2 C. Chocolate Chips

 Directions:

 Grease an 8x11 glass dish.
Melt butter in pan, add vanilla, and stir until blended.
Once blended, add marshmallows. Stir constantly until completely melted.
Remove from hot burner.
Add graham crackers and  Rice Krispies, mix.
Let sit about 3 minutes, stirring once every minute.
(This gives it time to cool so that the chocolate chips don't completely melt.)
 Add your chips.

Pour into greased pan and mold.
             
             ***** When molding, it could get messy, Have a damp paper towel handy for easy clean up.



Enjoy!!

Independence Trifle

This is one of the easiest trifles to make.

No seriously, because this one is all for looks.

I have a recipe for a red velvet trifle that I really need to find, remake, and share.
So much homemade goodness in that one.

I was supposed to post this yesterday, so I'm not going to ramble today.

Ingredients:

• 1 Box red velvet
• 1 Box blue velvet
• 1 Large box (5.1 oz) of vanilla pudding
• 1 -8 oz Cream cheese, softened
• 2 C. Milk
• 1 1/2 - 2 C. Cool Whip

                                                    **** If you are lucky, around the 4th you can find a cake mix box with both red velvet and blue velvet.


Directions:

Prepare cake mix according to boxes in the 9 in round cake pans.


                                   Filling the pans only half way with batter.

***One important note. You will only make 1- 9in pan from each cake, I used the left over batter for cupcakes.


While the cake is cooling, you need to make your cream cheese pudding.

In a large mixing bowl, add the softened cream cheese and milk. Whisk together until smooth.
Empty your pudding package and whisk 3-5 minutes, the pudding should be come fluffy.
Yes, it is yellow, this is why we add the Cool Whip in the pudding instead of putting a layer on the cake. (It also gives it a sweeter taste)
 
Start by only adding 1 1/2 cups of Cool Whip and adding up to 2 (but no more), until it reaches your liking.

Now, it's time to layer.

Start by crumbling the blue cake on the bottom.
Adding half of your pudding.
Crumble the red cake on top of your pudding.
Followed by the last of the pudding.

You are welcome to put small dabs of Cool Whip on top for looks along with red, white, and blue sprinkles  if you would like to give your trifle some flair.

Ta-Dah!

Cover and chill until ready to serve.

Super fast and simple trifle that can be thrown together at the last minute.

Have a Happy 4th of July and enjoy your Independence Day! 

Cookie Cake

Summer is in full swing for our boys, and we started it off with swimming lessons.
All of the boys did really well and worked very hard.
I wanted to get them a treat to celebrate their good behavior and job well done.

(Yes, good behavior.. there were other kids there that were absolutely horrible. Pushing other kids in the water, screaming, crying, and not listening. I want them to know that I appreciate that they listen and can be taken into public without us having to say anything.)

Went off topic there, sorry. Anyway.

My first thought was just to go pick up a cookie cake from American Cookie. Everyone loves those but I really didn't want to pay the price for one, so, I decided to make one of my own.

Here's the recipe I came up with.

Ingredients:

• 1 c. Butter, softened
• 1 c. Brown Sugar
• 2 tsp. Vanilla
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Large Box Vanilla Pudding
• 2 c. Flour
• 1 tsp. Baking Soda
• 1 Bag of Hershey Dark Chocolate Chips

Instructions:

In a large mixing bowl, add together your butter and sugar.
Once creamed, add vanilla, pudding packet, and eggs (one at a time).
Cream as well.
Add baking soda, stir until blended in and then add flour.
Mix until creamy and then hand stir in chocolate chips.

Pour into a greased 9" round cake pan.
Cook at 350 for 40-50 minutes.

 ***** You may think your cookie is burning, be assured that it is not.

***** I frosted around the edge and sides just to make it look pretty. I may not next time, frosting made it a little too sweet for my liking.