Cupcakes!

Okay - the cupcake fad has gotten a fierce hold on me. I want to work up to decorating fancy cakes but cupcakes are easier to start with. I've been using boxed mixes for the actual cake, but will soon delve into the cakes-from-scratch, once I think I'm ready for them.


I have been adding different fillings and frosting to the cupcakes for some great combos. Some take more work than others, but they're worth the work!


My first trial:

Chocolate Cupcakes with a Caramel filling and Vanilla Buttercream frosting.

I use Duncan Hines cake mixes - they tend to stay nice and moist (I know it's cheating!!). I pulled a small amount of the center of the cupcakes out (a corer works great!) then melted down some Kraft caramels with evaporated milk for the caramel sauce. I tried to pipe it into the cupcakes with a piping bag, but the sauce was way to hot and too runny. It went everywhere! Luckily, enough of it got into the cupcakes, although it sunk right in. (I'm still trying to work out the perfect balance between caramel and milk to make the caramel sauce not so thin...). I topped it with a simple vanilla buttercream frosting, recipe found here.

It was delicious! The second time I made these, I used one of these to fill the cupcakes and it worked so much better than the piping bag! I also added cocoa powder to the buttercream and I think it was even better that way. MMmmmm....

I think my next combo will be chocolate cake with a peanut butter frosting...

Back on the Wagon

Sorry. I have no excuse for not posting for soooo long. It's not that I haven't made any desserts, well, not only that, but life gets kinda crazy. So. I'm back on the wagon (for now) and will hopefully have a new dessert for each month.


This is my sister's favorite cake and it's ooohhh, so good! And easy, which is a must for me!

Andie's Mint Chocolate Cake

So, all you have to do is bake a chocolate cake in two rounds. I like to add Andie's mint chips into the batter for that extra chocolaty, minty kick.

Once the cake is cool, cut each round in two, making 4 rounds.

Make some whipped cream. Not the stuff from a can or from the freezer section of the grocery store. Real heavy whipping cream. Nothin else is as good...

Melt down about a package or so of Andie's mints. But be prepared to work fast once you do this so the mints don't harden up before you're done.

Layer the rounds like so: cake, whipping cream, cake, spoon on and spread around melted Andie's Mints, cake, whipping cream, cake, more melted Andie's mints. Place in the fridge so the mints can harden into their nice shell. (You'll want to put the extra whipping cream in the fridge as well.)

Once the Andie's mints have hardened, use the remaining whipping cream to "frost" the outside of the cake. (And, because it's me, I had to swirl white chocolate on top.) And viola! Yummiest chocolate mint cake ever.

**Tip for cutting through the mint shell: Use a hot knife - hold it under the piping hot faucet for a while, but be sure to dry it off before slicing.

Chocolate Torte

First off, I need to apologize to my hubby for not making him more treats! ;)

Secondly, this was pretty easy. I wasn't expecting that from the pic, but, although it created a lot of dishes, it was fairly simple.

37 Nilla Wafers

2 3.9oz packages Instant Chocolate Pudding

2 C and 2 T Milk

2 C Cool Whip

4 squares Baker's semi-sweet baking chocolate
1 8oz package cream cheese, room temp

1/4 C Sugar

To start, line a 9" round baking pan with plastic wrap. (This is great! It was easy to get the torte out of the pan and easy clean-up.) Stand 16 of the Nilla Wafers up along the side of the pan.

Mix the 2 packages of pudding with 2 C of Milk for 2 minutes. Melt 3 squares of baking chocolate and mix in with the pudding. Add 1 C Cool Whip. Mix well and pour into prepared pan.

In a separate bowl, mix the cream cheese, sugar and 2 T Milk. From past experience, use a mixer. Don't try to do this with a whisk or pastry blender or the back side of a spoon. I could never make it smooth! (And yes - I tried all those other tools, among others) Layer the cream cheese mixture on top of the chocolate mixture.

Place the remaining 21 Nilla Wafers on top of the cream cheese mixture. Refrigerate for 3 hours.

When you are ready to serve, tip torte over, on top of plate, remove pan and plastic wrap. Add cool whip, berries, and chocolate shavings on top.

Deluxe Caramel Apples

Sorry it's been so long! This post probably would have been handy around Halloween, but I made the apples on Halloween and have just gotten around to getting the pics uploaded. Anyway - apples are still in season, right?

Caramel apples are pretty simple. Just follow the directions on the package of caramels and you're set. (For 5 apples, melt the bag of caramels with 2 Tbls of water, dip apples, place on waxed paper and place in fridge to cool and harden.)

Okay - totally random thought, but it's always bugged me that fridge has a "d" in it while refrigerator does not.

Anyway, back to the apples. Well, I got the caramel on the apples and let them cool. Was that enough for me? Of course not. I melted down about a pound of chocolate and dipped the cooled apples in the chocolate, again setting them on waxed paper and letting the chocolate harden.

And, since I've got some weird wiring in my skull, I decided to melt some white chocolate to drizzle on top.

Then I thought that, since it was Halloween and all, I would make some spooky designs on a few. Thus the spider webs.

If you like nuts and that type of stuff, you can roll the still-wet chocolate apple in nuts, coconut, etc. Try dipping the whole apple in white chocolate and rolling it in a cinnamon and sugar mix or graham cracker crumbs (its tastes like an apple pie).

Oreo Truffles. Need I say more?

I got this recipe somewhere on line (can't remember where exactly...) and was suprised at how quick and easy it is. Oh, and delicious. Matt likes to call these "a little peice of Heaven". :)

So - Ingredients:

1 bag of Oreos (I used Double Stuff, cause that's what I like.)

1 brick of cream cheese, softened (Philadelphia is the only way to go...)

1 pound white baking chocolate (as always, I used the vanilla Almond Bark)

Ready for the easy directions?

1. Finely crush the oreos. I put the oreos into a large ziplock bag and used a malet, my hands, anything I could find, really. Dump them into a bowl.

2. Mix in the softened cream cheese. I used a pastry mixer thingy (no idea what they're really called) and it worked very well.

3. Roll the mixture into 1 inch balls.

4. Dip the balls in the melted chocolate. Set on wax paper and refrigerate for 1 hr.

This makes about 50 truffles...enough to last 3, maybe 4 days.

Now, here's my input:

The mixture was quite soft after being worked, so I put it in the fridge for a while before rolling it out into the balls. After that, they were still quite soft and there was no way I was going to be able to dip those without leaving half of it in the chocolate, so I put a dollop of chocolate down on the waxed paper, placed the balls on the dollops, then spooned the melted chocolate on top.

The dollops of chocolate and Matt helping me put the rolled mixture on top.

These are so not up to my "pretty" standards, but it was late and I was tired, so you get what you get. :)

Now, if I'd had time I would have rolled the balls out, then refigerated them for an hour or so til they were firm enough to dip. Next time, maybe.

Here's a variation you might want to try - use mint oreos and dip them in milk chocolate. Mmmmmmm.......

Good luck and enjoy!

No Small Trifle

This was my second attempt at a trifle. The first was good, but I forgot to take pics, so of course I had to make another. :)

I believe trifles can be made of anything that you like. Their very easy and fairly quick. You do have to make a cake first, but with a box, that's pretty simple. Especially if your hubby makes the cake for you. :)

This was a Chocolate Strawberry Trifle.

Make a Milk Chocolate cake (you can use any type of cake, really) and cut it into chunks. Put one layer of cake on the bottom of the dish. Pour on some chocolate syrup. This helps to moisten the cake. And who doesn't like chocolate syrup?

Spoon about half of a prepared box of instant vanilla pudding on top of the cake. If you like white chocolate, try a white chocolate pudding.

Place a layer of fruit on top of the pudding. Mmmm....

Repeat the layers one more time and top with whipped cream. you can also save some of the fruit for garnish on top. And if you're crazy like me, you can dip that fruit in chocolate.

The first attempt was made with mandarin oranges. Also tasty, but the strawberries were just perfect with the chocolate. Try this with your favorite fruits and let me know how it goes!

Old Fashioned Caramels

Years ago, all the women in my family each got a book for Christmas entitled "Sleigh Bells and Sugarplums" by Frances A Gillette & Daughters. It's a book that is full of old stories, poems and recipes. Although I've cracked it open many times, this is the first time I've ever tried one of the recipes and, after some adjustments, have decided it was a good choice.

I've loved homemade caramels for years now. The first I remember eating was made by Sandy Kestner and now I'm hooked. This batch will most likely be gone in the next day or two...

I made two batches of caramels - the first had a few issues. It turned out too hard for my liking and I thought I'd be smart by layering waxed paper in the bottom of the pan and buttering that. Didn't work so well. the paper was fused to the caramels. I'm just glad I did a second batch - it would have bugged me that I couldn't pull off a decent caramel. (More of my issues shining through!)

My disaster with the waxed paper

Here's the recipe with my adjustments in parentheses:

Sprinkle on bottom of buttered 9x13" pan:

1/2 cup chopped nuts (I don't like nuts so I left them out. I also used an 8x11" pan - the 9x13" was too big...)

Put in saucepan (be sure to use a large enough pan - the mixture bubbles up to 4 or 5 times it's original size):

2 cups sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

1 cup margarine - don't use butter - it can burn

1 cup half & half or evaporated milk (I used half & half)

Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. (Be patient and don't turn up the heat. This whole process takes about an hour, so be sure to give yourself plenty of time)

Then gradually stir in 1 cup more half & half or canned milk. Continue to stir as mixture thickens and cook to 250 degrees on candy thermometer. (This is where the chewiness and hardness comes in. 250 was too hot and made the caramels more like a soft toffee than a caramel, so with the second batch, I only brought it to 235, which is perfect - for me...nice and chewy)

This was at about 200 degrees...close to foaming out of the pan!

This was closer to 225 degrees - getting there!

Remove from heat and pour over nuts in pan (once again, no nuts for me - yuck!).

Once the caramel has cooled, cut into squares and wrap in waxed paper.

My batch, the one I could actually eat, yielded about 90 caramels. Plenty for a few days, right? I shared with co-workers and everyone gave them high marks, although you can't be too sure they weren't just being nice :)

This one is definitely going to be added to my Christmas goodies!